UK Reaches One Million Unbundled Lines

There are now over one million unbundled lines in the UK. This represents a 420% increase in the number of unbundled lines since the creation of Openreach in January 2006.



On average, Openreach is currently fulfilling almost 30,000 LLU orders per week, with more than twenty operators providing unbundled services from more than 1,000 local exchanges across the UK.



"The UK has one of the most competitive broadband markets in the world. This progress has been underpinned by price reductions and the introduction of new product and systems capability to make it simpler for operators to migrate their end customers onto unbundled services," commented Steve Robertson, CEO, Openreach.

http://www.btplc.com

• In June 2005, BT and OFCOM -- the national regulator -- agreed to create openreach, a separate operating company, that ensures that all service providers have transparent and equal access to the local BT network. openreach is responsible for operating and maintaining the "first mile" infrastructure that connects homes and business to BT exchanges across the UK.

Read More

Cablevision Reports Continued Growth, Solid ARPU

Cablevision, which serves the competitive New York metro region, added more than 288,000 Revenue Generating Units (RGUs) in Q3, as its ARPU rose to $111.13. In Q2, ARPU was at $109.



Telecommunications Services net revenues, which includes "Optimum" branded consumer cable services and "Optimum Lightpath" branded, fiber-delivered commercial data and voice services, rose 18.1% to $1,075.8 million, operating income increased 18.5% to $168.5 million, compared to the prior year period.



Operational highlights include:

• Basic video customers up 9,756 or 0.3% from June 2006 and 101,736 or 3.4% from September 2005; tenth consecutive quarter of basic video subscriber gains.



• iO: Interactive Optimum digital video customers up 93,587 or 4.1% from June 2006 and 521,241 or 28.3% from September 2005.



• Optimum Online high-speed data customers up 72,438 or 3.8% from June 2006 and 363,446 or 22.7% from September 2005. Optimum Online as a percentage of video customers is 63% a



• Optimum Voice customers up 113,086 or 11.5% from June 2006 and 499,420 or 83.1% from September 2005.


Optimum Voice continues to be a principal driver for Cablevision's three product offers. More than half of new customers that sign up to subscribe to Optimum services buy all three: digital, video, voice and data.

• The company surpassed 500,000 high-definition, or HD, video subscribers in the third quarter.

http://www.cablevision.com

• For Q2 2006, Cablevision added 385,000 new RGUs -- the company's highest second quarter RGU gain ever. Basic video customers were up 35,328; digital video customers were up 143,499; Optimum Online high-speed data customers were up 84,819; and Optimum Voice customers were up 122,234.

Read More

Teknovus EPON Chipset Complies with China Telecom Specs

Teknovus' optical networking unit (ONU) chipset now complies with China Telecom's EPON specifications. The device, which is based on Teknovus' widely deployed TK3713, is a single-chip IPTV ready ONU. It incorporates China Telecom's specifications in the areas of security, DBA (Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation) and interoperability with other EPON chip vendors.



Four equipment vendors have announced deployment of Teknovus' EPON systems in China including Salira Systems, Ocean Broadband, Fiberhome and Suminet (a division of Sumitomo). They, along with Teknovus' unannounced partners, are enabling the traditional PTTs, such as China Telecom and China Netcom, cable operators, and mobile operators to support advanced broadband services including premium video such as IPTV, high-speed data, and VOIP, as well as legacy services covering cell site backhaul, leased line data and TDM voice.

http://www.teknovus.com

• In September 2006, Teknovus announced that its GEPON chipsets are currently being used in more than 20 Chinese provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan; representing three of China's four largest municipalities. Other significant deployments include the province of Shanxi and the city of Fuzhou in the province of Fujian. Carrier wins include Beijing Netcom, Beijing Telecom, Shanghai Telecom, Wuhan Telecom, Hangzhou Telecom, Fuzhou Telecom, Shanxi Taiyuan Netcom, Shanxi Mobile, Yunnan Telecom, Guizhou Telecom and Hubei Netcom.

Read More

ADVA's Q3 2006 revenues up 58% YoY

ADVA Optical Networking reported Q3 2006 revenues totaled EUR 53.1 million, up 58% when compared to EUR 33.7 million in Q3 2005 and up 29% when compared to EUR 41.2 million in Q2 2006, respectively. The figures include the operations of recently acquired Movaz Networks.



For Q3 2006, ADVA Optical Networking reported an actual net loss of EUR 4.3 million.



"With Q3 2006, ADVA Optical Networking concluded eleven consecutive quarters of growth in revenues since Q1 2004, reflecting the strong and sustainable underlying market growth and our excellence in steadily growing our business," Andreas G. Rutsch, ADVA Optical Networking's chief financial officer.



Currently ADVA Optical Networking expects its market for optical WDM and Ethernet access solutions for metro networks to grow by 20% to 25% per year in both 2006 and 2007, based on the expectation of ongoing strong demand for metro infrastructure deployments and enterprise solutions. Given the consolidation of Movaz from July 12, 2006, onwards, ADVA Optical Networking expects to achieve full year 2006 revenues between EUR 193 million and EUR 198 million and revenues ranging between EUR 62 million and EUR 67 million in Q4 2006.

http://www.advaoptical.com

Read More

Jiangsu Telecom Deploys Juniper E320 for IPTV

Jiangsu Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Telecom, has deployed E320 Broadband Service Routers to expand network edge capacity and meet subscriber demand for IPTV, video on demand and other advanced IP services. Financial terms were not disclosed.





The new E320 routers join the service provider's existing installed base of Juniper Networks E-series routers.

http://www.juniper.net

Read More

Skype adds Click-to-call Capabilities

Skype is adding Click-to-call capabilities that let users make calls to ordinary phone numbers with just one click when surfing different websites, using SkypeOut.



The upcoming Skype 3.0 will also feature "Skypecasts" and Public Chats which allow users to join in multi-person community conversations and discussions. Public chats are open, ongoing text conversations based on instant messaging where users can meet new people and chat about anything they fancy.

http://www.skype.com

Read More

Optical Internetworking Forum Maps TFI, TDM Signals

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF)'s Physical and Link Layer Working Group has launched a new project to describe a mapping of the existing TDM-to-Framer Interface (TFI) series of interfaces and their aggregation layer TDM-Protocol (TDM-P). These are methods of transporting SONET/SDH and OTN TDM signals between devices. The CEI-P layer, a protocol layer for the Common Electrical Interface (CEI), was defined in early 2006 and allows the support of FEC on signals in a 64B/66B format.



"This project will tie together three of the OIF's existing specifications and deliver Forward Error Correction (FEC) protected links for Time Division Multiplex (TDM) backplanes," said Brian Holden, MA&E (Marketing Awareness & Education Committee) co-chair for the OIF.



The OIF also announced that its membership has voted to finalize the Implementation Agreement OIF-SFI5-02.0, a SERDES Framer Interface Level 5 Phase 2 (SFI-5.2): Implementation Agreement for 40 Gbps Interface for Physical Layer Devices. This Implementation Agreement describes an interface between SERDES and Framer devices within the Physical Layer (Serdes Framer Interface or SFI). SFI-5.2 is an interface, based on 4 data lines plus de-skew channel, for aggregate data bandwidths of OC-768, STM-256, OTN OTU3, as well as other applications at the 40 Gbps data rate.



The OIF also announced the following leadership team:



In the board of directors election, the OIF membership elected Chuck Sannipoli of IP Infusion and former president of the Network Processing Forum and re-elected Hans-Martin Foisel of Deutsche Telekom, Steve Joiner of Finisar, Stephen Shew of Nortel Networks and Vishnu Shukla of Verizon.



Joe Berthold of Ciena and Monica Lazer of AT&T continue in their elected positions as part of a two-year term on the board.



The board named Joe Berthold as president, Hans-Martin Foisel as vice president, Steve Joiner as vice president of marketing and Monica Lazer as treasurer/secretary.



In addition, Lyndon Ong of Ciena was elected vice chair of the OIF Technical Committee and Jonathan Sadler of Tellabs was re-elected as the Architecture and Signaling Working Group chair.

http://www.oiforum.com

Read More

Nextone Opens Community Portal

Nextone has opened an online community to enable its customers to accelerate their business by building new industry relationships.



NexTone said its 550+ service provider customers collectively carry more than 50 percent of the world's international VoIP traffic. In addition, more than 50 service providers in the Voice Peering Fabric (VPF) use NexTone to manage and route their VoIP traffic.



The NexTone Community Web portal is an offshoot of the annual NexTone user forum, which is being held next week in Palm Springs, California.

http://www.nextone.com

Read More

SIRIUS Reaches 5.1 Million Subscribers

SIRIUS ended the third quarter with 5,119,308 subscribers, 135% above third quarter 2005 ending subscribers of 2,173,920. During the third quarter of 2006, SIRIUS added 441,101 net subscribers, a 23% increase over third quarter 2005 net subscriber additions of 359,294. The company claims 61% share of the U.S. market.



Total revenue for the third quarter of 2006 increased to $167.1 million, up 150% from $66.8 million in the third quarter of 2005. There was a net loss of ($162.9) million, or ($0.12) per share.



ARPU was $11.17 in the third quarter of 2006 compared with $11.15 in the year-ago third quarter. ARPU for the third quarter of 2006 included a $0.49 contribution from net advertising revenue compared with a $0.26 contribution from net advertising revenue in the year- ago third quarter. Average monthly churn was 2.0% in the quarter.

http://www.sirius.com

Read More

Marvell Completes Acquisition of Intel's Communications Business

Marvell Technology Group completed the acquisition of Intel's cellular and applications processor business. Marvell made a cash payment of $600 million. Marvell also completed its previously announced senior term loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of $400 million which was used together with existing cash on hand to pay the purchase price.



Marvell's mission is to be a long-term, leading supplier in the cellphone and consumer electronics markets," said Dr. Sehat Sutardja, Marvell's chairman, president and CEO. "By adding cellular baseband and applications processors to our broad, diverse product portfolio we continue to expand the reach of Marvell technology into an increasing number of consumer devices and end markets."http://www.marvell.com

Read More

Global Crossing Sees its European IP Traffic Double in 2006

Global Crossing's IP traffic growth in Europe on track to more than double in 2006, fueled by the worldwide demand for high bandwidth connections to its IP network.



By September 2006, IP interconnected VoIP traffic in Europe traversing Global Crossing's global IP backbone had increased by more than six million minutes per month from the previous year. Worldwide, Global Crossing's VoIP platform currently carries more than 2.5 billion minutes per month - which is more than 80 percent of all its voice traffic.



As a result, Global Crossing is expanding its infrastructure and IP services to more countries, including an upgrade to its Session Border Controller (SBC) pairs in Amsterdam. Since October 2005, Global Crossing has seen 500 percent growth in customer connectivity to the Amsterdam SBC, necessitating the additional capacity. The company has also expanded the number of IP VPN service PoPs by more than 40 percent, including new deployments in Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.



Global Crossing also is expanding its network in the UK and Frankfurt via the recent acquisition of Fibernet.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

Read More

Luxtera Lands DARPA Grant for High Bandwidth CMOS Photonics Transceiver

Luxtera was awarded a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant for its work in CMOS photonics. Phase 1 of the Electronic and Photonic Integrated Circuits (EPIC) project resulted in the world's first 40Gbps DWDM single CMOS chip transceiver.



Phase II of the project will culminate in an even more highly integrated 40Gbps transceiver offering improved performance, smaller size and lower power than demonstrated in Phase I -- bringing key additional circuitry onto the single monolithic CMOS chip. The transceiver will also be designed so that it can seamlessly scale to a 100Gbps transceiver, which is the focus of the future, Phase III effort.



Luxtera's breakthrough CMOS Photonics technology integrates high-performance photonics and mainstream electronics on a single die, which along with integrated lasers brings fiber connectivity directly to the chip. Luxtera is currently sampling prototypes.

http://www.luxtera.com

• The vision of the Electronic and Photonic Integrated Circuits (EPIC) project is to demonstrate high performance nanophotonic devices in Si fabricated in a CMOS-compatible process, and thus put photonics on its own "Moore's Law" towards the ultimate limit of wavelength-scale devices. This would enable integration of complex electronics and photonics circuits on a single Si chip, eliminating the multiple materials platforms currently used to accomplish such functionality, and provide a seamless interface between photonics and electronics.



• Luxtera is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.

Read More

F5 Networks Completes Review of Stock Option Grants

F5 Networks completed its internal review of past stock option grants and found that the recorded grant dates for certain stock options granted during fiscal years 1999 through 2004 should not be relied upon as the measurement date for accounting purposes. The accounting treatment used for the vesting of certain stock options was incorrect.



Based on its analysis, F5 will be required to record an additional non-cash, stock-based compensation expense of approximately $22.9 million, in the aggregate, for fiscal years 1999 through 2006. The company said it has spent approximately $7.0 million in legal and accounting fees related to this inquiry.



F5 also announced that for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006, its revenue was $111.7 million, up 12 percent from $100.1 million in the prior quarter and 39 percent from $80.6 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005. Fourth quarter net income was $17.8 million ($0.43 per diluted share) compared to net income of $17.0 million ($0.41 per diluted share) in the prior quarter.

http://www.f5.com

Read More

Cisco Reports Sales of $8.2 billion, Record Net Income

Cisco reported first quarter net sales of $8.2 billion, net income (GAAP) of $1.6 billion or $0.26 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $1.9 billion or $0.31 per share. Scientific-Atlanta contributed net sales of $584 million during the first quarter of fiscal 2007, up be 21% YoY.



"We are in the midst of a market inflection that is changing the landscape of networking, and we believe the network is becoming the platform for the next generation of IT, revolutionizing the way people connect, communicate and collaborate. We laid the cornerstones for our strategy to capture this shift several years ago and believe we are now uniquely positioned for continued growth and increased share of our customers' total IT spend," said John Chambers, Cisco president and CEO.



Some operational highlights:

• Net sales were up 25% and net income was up 28% compared to the same period last year. Cisco's standalone growth (without Scientific Atlanta) for the current quarter (Q2) is expected to be in the 14-15% range YoY.



• Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $19.5 billion at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2007, compared with $17.8 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006.



• Routing revenue grew year over year by 13%, switching revenue grew year over year by 15%, and advanced technologies' revenue grew year over year by approximately 23% on a Cisco standalone basis.



• The Scientific Atlanta year over year growth rate was in the low 20s. Of particular interest was the shipment of 1.3 million digital set-top boxes, an 18% increase in units shipped versus Q1 of last fiscal year.



• Service Provider orders were up 23% YoY.



• Enterprise sales represent 45% of the company's business.



• Gross margin was 68.1%, compared to 65.3% in the preceding quarter.



• Since 2002, Cisco has repurchased $36.9 billion in its own shares.



• The U.S. and Canada account for 53% of orders, while Europe accounts for 20%, Emerging Markets accounts for 10%, Asia Pacific accounts for 12% and Japan accounts for 5%.

http://www.cisco.com

Read More