EC Asks UK Regulator to Reconsider Mobile Termination Rates

The European Commission has asked Ofcom, the UK telecom watchdog, not to include inflated 3G auction costs in termination rates for mobile phone operators. In the Commission's view, Ofcom's proposed tariffs keep termination values higher than necessary due to 3G spectrum cost valuations which risk overestimating the costs. The Commission therefore asks the UK watchdog to reconsider the valuations. It said Ofcom's approach would be detrimental to fair competition in the UK's mobile market and lead to higher consumer prices for consumers.http://...

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Cisco Partners with Russia's Sitronics

Cisco announced a regional partnership with Sitronics JSC, a leading technology company in Russia & CIS, to offer advanced communication solutions in countries that are undergoing major economic and social transformation, including Russia, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE); and Middle East and Africa (MEA).Initially focused on migrating existing public switched telephone network (PSTN) infrastructure to an IP network platform, the modernization solution offered will be built around Sitronics' IP-NGN soft-switching and OSS portfolio, and Cisco's...

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T-Mobile USA Selects Ericsson and Nokia

Both Ericsson and Nokia announced major contracts to supply gear for T-Mobile USA's 3G network deployment. Neither company disclosed financial terms. Ericsson said it was selected for its turnkey network rollout and to serve as the prime radio provider for WCDMA 3G services in certain markets, including New York City which is scheduled to be operational in 2007.Nokia said it will supply its Flexi WCDMA Base Station optimized for T-Mobile's newly acquired AWS spectrum bands. T-Mobile will be the first U.S. operator to deploy the fully HSPA capable...

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Ericsson Appoints New Management Team

Ericsson appointed the following new group management team: Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chief Executive Officer and PresidentKarl-Henrik Sundström, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial OfficerKurt Jofs, Executive Vice President and General Manager, business unit NetworksBert Nordberg, Executive Vice President, group function Sales and MarketingBjörn Olsson, Executive Vice President and deputy General Manager, business unit NetworksHans Vestberg, Executive Vice President and General Manager, business unit Global ServicesJan Wäreby, Senior Vice President,...

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MIT Lincoln Lab and Naval Research Lab Deploy CIENA's 40G DWDM

MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) selected CIENA to upgrade the Boston South Network (BoSSNET) - an applications and network test bed for researching high bandwidth (10s of Gbps per wavelength), long reach (approx. 1,000 km) all-optical transmissions - using the company's standards-based, all-optical DWDM technology.Specifically, BoSSNET will be upgraded with Ciena's CoreStream Agility Optical Transport System, which is capable of routing wavelength services up to speeds of 40 Gbps for long-haul and ultra long-haul...

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Data Connection and MetaSwitch Post Near 24% Revenue Growth

Data Connection, and its MetaSwitch division, reported record annual revenue of $87 million and earnings of $13.7 million. The company's fastest-growing division, MetaSwitch, now generates 53% of revenue. Data Connection, which is a privately-held company headquartered in London, said the past fiscal year marked one of the highest annual growth rates since the company was founded in 1981. Some highlights:MetaSwitch, the next generation softswitch division, now boasts more than 300 deployments with incumbent and competitive service providers in...

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Tektronix Launches Performance Monitoring/Testing for IMS

Tektronix has enhanced the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) performance monitoring capabilities of its Unified Assurance suite with additional IMS technical capabilities and protocol support. Tektronix' network diagnostics portfolio includes IMS load test and a fully-configurable IMS functional test platform. Tektronix also supports Berlin-based Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS) and its Open IMS Playground Laboratory, the leading IMS open test lab in Europe, with its IMS diagnostics solutions.The Unified Assurance product...

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Terawave and K-micro Partner on GPON PHY

Terawave Communications and K-micro (Kawasaki Microelectronics) introduced a jointly developed physical layer ("PHY") ASIC built specifically for gigabit passive optical networking (GPON) optical line terminals (OLTs). The companies said their ASIC enables extremely low GPON physical layer overhead by providing fast phase locking to incoming bursts along with the associated hardware hooks to synchronize upstream traffic within a few bits at 1244 Mbps.K-micro has integrated its burst mode clock and data recovery (BM-CDR) technology into this new...

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AT&T Adds NBC Universal Content to U-verse

AT&T reached a deal to deliver NBC Universal linear, high-definition (HD) and on-demand programming as part of the AT&T U-verse TV channel lineup. The agreement covers the analog and digital signals of the NBC and Telemundo owned-and-operated broadcast stations, as well as NBCU's cable properties, including CNBC, CNBC World, MSNBC, Telemundo, mun2, Telemundo Puerto Rico, Bravo, the SCI FI Channel, Sleuth, ShopNBC, USA Network, Universal HD and the Olympics on Cable. The deal also includes VOD rights for Universal Pictures' movies.http...

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Verizon Wireless Launches LG's enV Phone

Verizon Wireless announced exclusive availability LG's new enV phone, featuring its V CAST and V CAST Music service, VZ Navigator, an integrated QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth capabilities, dual speakers and a 2.0 megapixel camera. The phone offers EV-DO (where available) and 1xRTT data connectivity.http://www.verizonwireless....

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EarthLink Announces Another Muni WiFi Project

The City of Alexandria, Virginia has selected EarthLink to build, own and operate a municipal wireless network. The approximately 16-square-mile Wi-Fi mesh network will provide affordable, high-speed Internet access for the residents of and visitors to the City of Alexandria.http://www.earthlink.netEarthLink has previously been awarded muni-Wi-Fi contracts in Philadelphia; Anaheim, California; Milpitas, California; and New Orlea...

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NeuStar Acquires Followap for Mobile IM Capabilities

NeuStar has acquired Followap, a UK-based provider of mobile instant messaging (IM) products in Europe and Asia, for approximately $139 million in cash. Followap delivers interoperability between operators and Internet portals in five different functional areas: instant messaging, presence, multimedia gateways, inter-carrier messaging hubs, and services for handset clients. Followap has a customer base of 17 mobile network operators (MNOs) that...

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