Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Linksys Cordless Phone Integrated Yahoo Calling

Linksys introduced a dual-mode cordless phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. The phone offers the flexibility to make and take low-cost VoIP calls using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice as well as place and receive phone calls using their traditional landline/PSTN connection.



People subscribing to Yahoo! Phone Out can use the cordless phone to make an Internet-based call to any traditional or mobile phone at low rates.



Other features include:

  • Yahoo! Messenger Contact List display and search


  • Caller ID for both VoIP and PSTN calls


  • Yahoo! Messenger Status Message


  • Weather search (get 2 days of weather info on the display, based on the zip code entered in the phone)


  • Single base station supports up to six additional DECT based phones for PSTN calls


  • The estimated street price is $99.
http://www.linksys.com

BT Sees Sustained Momentum, Increases Dividend

BT reported revenue of 4,941 million pounds Sterling, up 4 per cent, and profit of 665 million pounds, up 12 per cent. New wave revenue was 1,736 million pounds, up 21 per cent, representing 35 per cent of total revenue compared with 30 per cent last year.



Some key operational metrics:

  • Broadband net additions for the quarter were 626,000 of which BT Retail's share was 25 per cent.


  • The company served 9.3 million broadband end users as of September 30, 2006 of which BT Retail now has 3 million customers.


  • Revenue has increased for eleven consecutive quarters


  • Networked IT services revenue grew by 10 per cent to 1,001 million pounds, broadband revenue increased by 39 per cent to 486 million pounds and mobility revenue increased by 4 per cent to 72 million pounds.


  • Consumer revenue in the second quarter was 6 per cent lower, primarily due to wholesale line rental (WLR) substitution. Growth in new wave revenue of 44 per cent continues to reduce our dependence on traditional revenue which has declined by 12 per cent with the strategic shift towards new wave products and services. New wave revenue now represents 17 per cent of the total consumer revenue.


21CN Update



BT's 21st Century Network programme is making process. The construction of 10 per cent of the UK's core communications infrastructure is in place and fully operational. Site planning and preparation has been completed in all core and metro nodes in South Wales, and at a further 100 sites across the country.



Nine new fibre rings, totalling 2,100 kilometres, have been installed in South Wales and 1,500 man years of IT systems development work has been carried out. All of this preparatory work is required to support the migration of the first end user customers to 21CN. This is scheduled to take place near Cardiff at the end of November.



Readiness testing of the network, systems, services and customer premises equipment (CPE) is well advanced. A test facility in Swansea, where other communications providers can test their services, was opened on October 25, 2006. Live voice calls have already been carried over the new 21CN network, built using 21CN hardware and software, in South Wales.

http://www.btplc.com

AMCC Posts Revenue of $76.4 Million, Up 10% Sequentially

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) posted revenue of $76.4 million compared to $69.7 million reported in the preceding quarter and $64.9 million reported in the same period last year.



The company is in the process of restating past results following the conclusion of its internal probe into past stock option grants.



"This was another excellent quarter for us. We delivered significant top line growth and we continue to execute according to our stated goals in every part of our business," said Kambiz Hooshmand, president and chief executive officer.

http://www.amcc.com

Deutsche Telekom Cites Quick Turn Around After Launching New Rates

Deutsche Telekom said its new calling rates are proving extremely popular in its home market and are credited as part on a turn around in its core business.



"In mid-September we launched the best reform of our calling plans ever. Since its introduction seven weeks ago we have netted around 1.8 million orders for the new 3x3 fixed-network calling plans. And in mobile communications, we managed to win 500,000 new contracts," said Kai-Uwe Ricke, Chairman of Deutsche Telekom's Board of Management.



By the beginning of November, around 1.8 million orders had been placed with T-Com for one of the new 3x3 rates. The company said that its figures for October showed that a positive trend in the DSL business recorded in the third quarter of 2006 is accelerating. The proportion of new DSL lines connected to T-Com's network that were marketed by T-Com topped 50 percent in the first month of the fourth quarter.



"This clearly reflects a turnaround. We have clearly gained new strength in competition," said Ricke.



Adjusted Group EBITDA is now on course to reach the full-year target of between EUR 19.2 and EUR 19.7 billion.



Net revenue in the first three quarters of 2006 rose to EUR 45.5 billion from EUR 44.1 billion in the previous year - an increase of 3.1 percent.



Some other key operational metrics:


Mobile



  • T-Mobile Deutschland had 236,000 net additions in Q3, of which 150,000 opted for a fixed-term contract, however revenue in the third quarter was down 4.1 percent year-on-year at EUR 2.1 billion.


  • At the end of the third quarter, T-Mobile had approximately 61 million mobile customers in Europe (excluding Germany) and the United States.

  • The US mobile communications business was the revenue driver in international business with gains of 18.2 percent in the first nine months of the year.

  • T-Mobile UK also posted revenue growth with an increase of 8.5 percent in the first three quarters of 2006.


  • Broadband



  • In Germany, around 9.4 million DSL lines provided by T-Com were in operation at the end of September 2006. This represents an increase of 439,000 DSL lines in the third quarter of 2006 and a rise of around 30 percent year-on-year. The Broadband/Fixed Network business area reported a substantial upturn in its DSL retail ratio, or the proportion of lines marketed by T-Com to the total number of broadband lines activated in the third quarter. This proportion improved from just under 4 percent in the prior quarter to almost 19 percent (81,000 net adds), reflecting the success of the double flat rate for telephony and Internet access, which was implemented following the merger of T-Online into Deutsche Telekom on June 6, and the successful marketing of the new 3x3 rates. The total number of DSL resale lines rose by 358,000 to 2.9 million in the third quarter.


  • Broadband/Fixed Network revenue in Germany declined 5.9 percent year-on-year to EUR 16.4 billion in the first nine months of 2006. This drop is due to lower call revenues and line losses, but also to a decline in revenues from interconnection services and lower prices for Internet access.


  • Outside of Germany, broadband lines increased by 172,000 in the third quarter of 2006. There were a total of 843,000 lines in Eastern Europe, 92,000 more than in the previous quarter. Almost 1.2 million broadband lines were in operation outside Germany at the end of September 2006, representing an increase of around 140 percent over the previous year.
http://www.telekom.de

T-Mobile USA Adds 802,000 Subscribers in Q3

T-Mobile USA added 802,000 net new customers, up from 613,000 net new customers added in the second quarter of 2006 and down from 1.06 million in the third quarter of 2005.



Postpay customer additions were strong making up 96% of third quarter customer growth, up from 83% in the second quarter of 2006.



Postpay customers comprised 85% of T-Mobile USA's total customer base at September 30, 2006. Close to 80% of new postpay customers opted for two-year contract terms in the third quarter.



"T-Mobile USA continues to be Deutsche Telekom's key growth driver. The additional investments we've made in the AWS auction were essential to continue the profitable growth of T-Mobile USA for years to come. Also, we're importing T-Mobile USA's service models into our European operations because of their outstanding customer service, as recognized by numerous awards," said René Obermann, CEO of T-Mobile International and member of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom AG.



ARPU was $52 in the third quarter of 2006, unchanged from the second quarter of 2006 and down from $53 in the third quarter of 2005. Postpay ARPU was $56 in the third quarter of 2006, up from $55 in the second quarter of 2006 and the third quarter of 2005. The sequential increase in postpay ARPU related primarily to continued data revenue growth. The fall in blended ARPU year on year is primarily due to the higher proportion of prepaid customers in the customer base in 2006.



Data services revenue (which excludes Wi-Fi revenues) from postpay and prepaid customers continued to grow, reaching a total of $421 million in the third quarter of 2006. Data revenues, which are a component of service revenues, represented 11.3% of blended ARPU, or $5.91 per customer, in the third quarter of 2006, compared to 10.9%, or $5.65, in the second quarter of 2006 and 8.3% or $4.39, in the third quarter of 2005.



CAPEX was $569 million in the third quarter of 2006, compared with $593 million in the second quarter of 2006 and $585 million in the third quarter of 2005. As part of its ongoing commitment to network coverage and quality, T-Mobile USA added approximately 800 new cell sites in the third quarter of 2006, bringing the total number of cell sites to almost 35,300.

http://www.t-mobile.com

TBS Selects Scientific Atlanta's MPEG-4 for IP Delivery

Turner Broadcasting System has chosen Scientific Atlanta's MPEG-4 D9034 Encoder to deliver MPEG-4 signals over IP for telecom companies. Scientific Atlanta's standard-definition MPEG-4 systems using its D9034 Encoders will be installed at Turner Broadcasting's Techwood campus and CNN Center in Atlanta to provide signals for CNN, CNN Headline News, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. Financial terms were not disclosed.



The Scientific Atlanta system has the capability to mix both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 signals in one transport stream. This allows programmers to provide both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 content from the same transponder, using the same conditional access and network management system for simplified operations and a unified authorization procedure for individual customers.

http://www.scientificatlanta.com

Cablevision Upgrades Conn. Municipal Network with Metro Ethernet

The Town of Greenwich, Connecticut, recently upgraded its entire metropolitan area network (MAN) infrastructure to Optimum Lightpath's Metro Ethernet service from an ATM network that was also built and managed for the last five years by Optimum Lightpath. The network connects the town's 16 municipal government facilities, 4 libraries and the Board of Education's 11 elementary schools and 3 middle schools, as well as Greenwich High School. Each of the network's 36 locations has a minimum of 1 Gbps Metro Ethernet.



Optimum Lightpath is the business broadband service provider of Cablevision Systems.

http://www.optimumlightpath.comhttp://www.metroethernetnow.com
  • In January 2006, Atrica announced that Cablevision's Optimum Lightpath group is using its Carrier Ethernet Systems in the New York metro area.

South Korea's 3rd Largest MSO Deploys ARRIS' Wideband for 100 Mbps Downlinks

Hyundai Communications and Network (HCN), South Korea's third- largest cable system operator serving over 1.1 million video customers, is now delivering full duplex data speeds in excess of 100 Mbps to its customers using the ARRIS FlexPath wideband data solution.

The deployment features the ARRIS Cadant C4(R) CMTS and the ARRIS Touchstone WBM650B wideband modems. This marks the second ARRIS FlexPath wideband high-speed data service deployment in Korea.

The ARRIS FlexPath solution uses DOCSIS 3.0-based channel bonding techniques to deliver end-user data speeds of up to 140 Mbps in the downstream and up to 120 Mbps in the upstream. It does this by bonding up to four 256-QAM DOCSIS channels using packet-based bonding. ARRIS said its FlexPath software can be installed in a CMTS with a simple software upgrade and all legacy DOCSIS modems - 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 -- can coexist on the same downstream channels as the FlexPath modems.

http://www.arrisi.com
  • In September, ARRIS announced that Korea's KCTV JEJU Broadcasting completed field testing of its wideband data solution. The deployment delivers data speeds in excess of 100 Mbps to KCTV JEJU Broadcasting customers using the ARRIS FlexPath wideband data solution contained in the ARRIS Cadant C4 CMTS and the ARRIS Touchstone WBM650B wideband modems.

Broadcom Enters Applications Processor Market

Broadcom made its entry into the applications processor market with a system-on-a-chip that combines the Broadcom VideoCore multimedia processor and an ARM11 applications processor.
The device is aimed at mobile phones and other portable devices with video and camera capabilities at price points affordable to mainstream consumers.



Key features of the new BCM2820 applications processor include support for an 8 mega-pixel digital camera, MPEG-4/H.264 VGA video decoding at 30 frames per second, video encoding at 30 frames per second, and NTSC/PAL TV output via composite, component and S-video connections.



It integrates standard interfaces with tightly coupled software drivers and stacks to support a wide range of wireless interfaces, including Broadcom's 3G EDGE, WEDGE and HEDGE cellular baseband processors, 802.11x wireless LAN processors and Bluetooth solutions.



The new application processor chip is based on Broadcom's VideoCore video-processing engine. The programmability of VideoCore technology enables developers to program or re-program different applications in software, rather than requiring new chip designs for each new mobile product. What differentiates the new device from previous Broadcom products is the integration of an ARM11 embedded microprocessor core that serves as the host processor for advanced mobile device applications such as email, web browsing, file management and graphical user interfaces. Broadcom's embedded ARM core runs at up to 300MHz, but when coupled with up to 6 billion instructions per second of multimedia processing in the VideoCore processor, it typically needs to run at only less than 200MHz. In fact the BCM2820 runs as low as 10MHz during full H.264 video playback, for better power consumption performance.

http://www.broadcom.com/videocore