FLAG Telecom to invest $ 1.5 billion in New Undersea Cables

India's Reliance Communications unveiled plans to invest US$1.5 billion (nearly Rs. 7000 crore) to expand FLAG Telecom's global optic fiber network. Termed - FLAG Next Generation Network (NGN), the project involves laying 50,000 additional kms of undersea optic fiber cable reaching 6O countries. FLAG NGN will comprise of the following 4 systems: FLAG NGN System 1: Asia -- India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei, Honk Kong FLAG NGN System 2: Africa -- Kenya, Mozambique, Republic of South Africa, Tanzania, Madagascar,...

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Chile's Entel PCS Selects Ericsson

Entel PCS awarded a three-year contract to Ericsson to provide GSM/WCDMA/HSPA radio access and common core network equipment to expand and upgrade its existing mobile network across Chile. Ericsson will also provide professional services, including network design, deployment and systems integration. Deliveries will begin in the first quarter of 2008.http://www.ericsson....

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Ericsson Acquires Spanish IPTV Consultancy

Ericsson (has acquired HyC Group, a leading Spanish company in TV consultancy and systems integration with around 110 employees. The HyC employees will be part of the Ericsson's growing global services organization. The deal follows Ericsson's acquisition of Tandberg Television at the beginning of the year. http://www.ericsson....

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Israel's Partner Communications Selects Ericsson

Partner Communications, an Israeli mobile communications operator, has selected Ericsson for the replacement of third party 3G equipment existing in its network and the expansion thereof, and for the support and maintenance of the Ericsson elements in Partner's network. As a result, Ericsson shall become the sole vendor of Partner's 3G network. http://www.ericsson....

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Reliance Completes Acquisition of Yipes

India's Reliance Communications Ltd. received FCC approval for its acquisition of U.S.-based Yipes Holdings, and subsequently closed the deal. The U.S. $300 million acquisition of Yipes was first announced in July 2007. The transaction, closed on December 19, 2007, is a key milestone in Reliance Communications' plan to become a global data communications leader.Yipes, which is based in San Francisco, has a strategic network presence in the top 14...

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Vivendi Supports Merger of SFR and Neuf

Vivendi confirmed the planned merger between its subsidiary SFR and the Louis Dreyfus group relating to the potential sale of the latter's stake in Neuf Cegetel.SFR is the second-largest mobile phone operator in France. Neuf Cegetel is the second largest broadband operator in France.Commenting on the transaction, Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chairman of Vivendi's Management Board, stated: "This investment is a very attractive opportunity for Vivendi to strengthen its position and development in one of its main business sectors. The planned agreement would...

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Occam Wins Upgrade Project in Guam

GTA TeleGuam, Guam's largest telecommunications services provider, has selected Occam Networks to serve as the lead access equipment provider for a major upgrade of the telco's network. The first project includes upgrading 10,000 of GTA TeleGuam's 70,000 access lines. The company is pulling fiber directly to the home in some areas, to the curb in other areas, with other areas remaining with copper for the time being. GTA TeleGuam offers local, long distance and cellular phone service, as well as broadband services.GTA TeleGuam has purchased Occam's...

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NetCee Releases its Ultra Packet Processor

NetCee Systems, a start-up based in Fremont, California, announced the availability of its Ultra Packet Processor, a deep packet inspection (DPI) engine with broad applicability in protocol analysis and pattern recognition. NetCee said its Ultra Packet Processor can identify and process over one Trillion types of protocol at more than 50+ Gbps. The trillion number is derived by combining all the possible combinations of Protocols that can be identified from Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) to Layer 7 (Application Layer).http://www.netceesys....

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AT&T Supplies VPN for NYK Logistics

AT&T announced a contract to supply VPN services to NYK Logistics. The contract extends local and long distance voice services and a range of other communications services to 70 NYK locations worldwide. The new contract includes AT&T's Managed Internet Service (MIS) and specially designed Class of Service (CoS) capabilities. AT&T said its VPN solution will help NYK centrally manage global network applications. The solution also enables NYK to enhance security, to conduct network maintenance more efficiently and to establish network...

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DSL Forum Advances BroadbandSuite Release 3.0

The DSL Forum today announced the approval of its latest Technical Report, TR-135 Data Model for a TR-069 Enabled STB and the amendment of TR-069 -- which is set to expedite IPTV rollouts and change the way operators manage their IPTV offering.Closely following the release of BroadbandSuite Release 2.0, these new specifications are cornerstone to the pending Release 3.0, which will raise the bar to address triple-play augmented via VDSL2, GPON and...

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Giancarlo to Step Down from Cisco, Joins Silver Lake Partners

Cisco's Chief Development Officer, Charles Giancarlo, 50, has decided to step down in order to join Silver Lake Partners as a Managing Director. After joining Cisco through the acquisition of Kalpana in October 1994, Giancarlo started Cisco's business development organization, where he developed Cisco's M&A strategy. He initiated and then led Cisco's Small and Medium business activities including contributing to the development of Cisco's channel...

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Nokia Siemens Networks Tests LTE at 173 Mbps

Nokia Siemens Networks, in partnership with the Heinrich Hertz Institut (HHI), reported mobile data rates up to 173 Mbps in a multi-user field trial of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in an urban environment using the 2.6 GHz spectrum band. During the trial, an LTE base station was installed at the top of the Heinrich Hertz Institut building in the center of Berlin. Cars with LTE test terminals were driven up to 1km away from the base station...

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BT's CEO Received Honorary Knighthood

BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen has been made an honorary knight of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth. Verwaayen, a Dutch national, will receive his Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire from a cabinet minister early in the New Year. http://www.btplc....

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CableLabs Awards DOCSIS 3.0 Qualifications

CableLabs awarded the firs qualification status certifications for DOCSIS 3.0 products. Casa Systems received "silver" qualification while Arris and Cisco received "bronze" qualification for their cable modem termination systems (CMTS) headend gear. The headends were tested under a tiered program that was created as a way to encourage CMTS makers to submit gear for testing earlier than they otherwise might. CableLabs also offered suppliers numerous...

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VSNL Plans 1.28 Tbps TGN Eurasia Cable System

VSNL outlined its plans for the new TGN Eurasia Cable System linking Mumbai directly to Europe via Egypt. The new cable system is being built in partnership with SEACOM and Telecom Egypt (TE), and will provide VSNL with 1.28 Tbps of new capacity on this route during 2009. It will also support future options for additional connectivity in the Gulf region as well as multiple locations in Europe. "The plans to build the TGN Eurasia Cable System coupled with our recent announcement to build the TGN-Intra Asia Cable System is a major step towards VSNL's...

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Personeta Adds Voice Call Continuity

Personeta announced the general availability of a software module for voice call continuity (VCC) applications. The new "My VCC" module, which is part of the company's "Converged Life" converged communication suite for consumers, allows users to make and receive calls on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks using a dual-mode handset and supports handoffs between networks for calls in progress, without any service interruption or degradation. Following the 3GPP standard for VCC, My VCC uses SIP to communicate with dual-mode handsets and has been certified...

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Qwest Wins $8.3 Million Contract at DoE Headquarters

Qwest Communications was awarded an $8.3 million contract from Energy Enterprise Solutions (EES) to upgrade the voice network at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). EES is the principal Information Technology support services provider for DOE headquarters facilities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.Under the project, Qwest will transition the DoE's existing voice switch to a Nortel Communications Server 2100. The contract also includes a Qwest QWave network solution to be deployed between the two DOE headquarter locations in the area....

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Global Crossing Deploys Ekinops Metro DWDM in US

Global Crossing has selected the Ekinops 360 optical transport platform to support its metro networks in the U.S. Specifically, Global Crossing is using the Ekinops 360 platform in metro DWDM optical networks in most major U.S. cities to transport high-capacity traffic at speeds of up to 10 Gbps. The platform connects metropolitan network nodes to long-haul networks and enables Global Crossing to provide Ethernet, SONET, and Wavelength services. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.ekinops....

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3Com Posts Lower Quarterly Revenue, Higher Margins

3Com reported financial results for its fiscal 2008 second quarter, which ended November 30, 2007. Revenue in the quarter was $317.8 million compared to revenue of $333.0 million in the corresponding period in fiscal 2007, a 4.6 percent decrease. Net loss in the quarter was $35.6 million, or $0.09 per share, compared with a net loss of $3.5 million, or $0.01 per share, in the second quarter of fiscal year 2007. 3com said this net loss increase was primarily a result of purchase accounting related to the acquisition of Huawei's 49 percent ownership...

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Ericsson Names Business Unit Global Services

Ericsson has appointed Jan Frykhammar as head of its Business Unit Global Services, effective as of January 1, 2008. Jan Frykhammar is presently Vice President, Head of Sales and Business Control within Global Services. In his new position, he will be a member of the Group Management Team. http://www.ericsson....

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PAETEC and Alcatel-Lucent Team on VoIP Resiliency

PAETEC and Alcatel-Lucent announced the first deployment of a new Geographic Redundancy solution that increases the reliability of PAETEC's VoIP network. PAETEC said this deployment in its network, which already operated at "Five 9s" reliability, further minimizes the down time that may be caused by a catastrophic incident, such as a hurricane's direct hit on a central office. In such a situation, restoration could take minutes or hours in the most extreme of circumstances. Geographic redundancy means that call-control components of the central...

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GainSpan Secures $20 Million for Wi-Fi Sensor Networks

GainSpan, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, raised $20 million in series B funding for its Wi-Fi sensor network technology.Incubated in Intel's New Business Initiatives (NBI) Group in 2004, GainSpan Corporation was founded in September 2006. The company said its Wi-Fi semiconductor and software solutions provide years of battery life for sensors and other connected devices. GainSpan claims its approach enables Wi-Fi devices to run up to...

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India's BSNL Launches Multiplay over ADSL 2+ with UTStarcom

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) has launched its multiplay broadband Internet services in India using an ADSL 2+ network supplied by UTStarcom. In March, UTStarcom was awarded a contract from BSNL for the deployment of 1.3 million lines of UTStarcom's iAN-8000 multiservice access node (MSAN) solution in approximately 900 cities throughout India. UTStarcom said it has served as the turnkey provider for this deployment, with full responsibility for...

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EMCORE to acquire Intel's Optical Division for $85 Million

EMCORE agreed to acquire the telecom--related portion of Intel's Optical Platform Division for $85 million. The telecom assets to be acquired include intellectual property, assets and technology relating to tunable lasers, tunable transponders, 300--pin transponders and integrable tunable laser assemblies. The companies expect the deal to close in Q1 2008.EMCORE offers compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber...

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Nokia Siemens Networks and RadioFrame Team on 3G Femtocells

Nokia Siemens Networks and RadioFrame Networks have signed a contract for cooperation on 3G Femto Home Access. The solution is targeted at 3G operators who wish to extend their coverage and service offerings.The collaboration matches Nokia Siemens Networks' Femto Gateway and RadioFrame Networks' OmniRadio customer premises equipment (CPE). RadioFrame Networks will deliver the Femto CPE directly to operators, while Nokia Siemens Networks will deliver the Femto Gateway as well as required services.Launched in July 2007, the Femto Home Access Solution...

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U4EA Introduces Fusion 1000 Series Signaling Gateways

U4EA Technologies introduced its Fusion 1000 Series Signaling Gateways designed to support legacy ISDN and CAS signaling as well as the next generation suite of IP signaling protocols. U4EA said is still a large base of subscribers using legacy CAS and ISDN signaling protocols that need to access next generation networks that use the new suite of IP protocols. Its Fusion 1000 Signaling Gateways support the full range of protocol conversion including:Legacy...

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BelAir Raises $17.5 Million for Metro Wireless Mesh

BelAir Networks, a start-up based in Kanata, Ontario, announced $17.5 million in financing for its mobile wireless broadband mesh network solutions. BelAir Networks said it now has more than 300 deployments worldwide, in leading cities such as New York, Minneapolis, the City of London and Toronto, and high-profile venues including Dolphin Stadium and Lincoln Center. BelAir's portfolio supports Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 4.9 GHz Public Safety and cellular backhaul,...

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GENI Solicits Proposals for NSF-Funded Network Research Facility

GENI, the Global Environment for Network Innovations, has begun soliciting proposals from the research community.GENI is envisioned as a national facility for experiments on a wide variety of advanced research in communications, networking, distributed systems, cyber-security, and networked services and applications. It is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and managed by BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Mass. "The core challenge for GENI is how to engineer this sophisticated research facility in a way that maximizes the value and potential...

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Sprint Nextel Names Dan Hesse as President and CEO

Sprint Nextel named Daniel R. Hesse, as its new president and CEO, , effective immediately. He previously was chairman, president and CEO of Embarq, which was previously Sprint's Local Telecommunications Division.Hesse had been chairman and CEO since Embarq's inception in 2006. Prior to the formation of Embarq, he served as CEO of Sprint's Local Telecommunications Division for one year before the spin-off that created Embarq. Hesse previously has...

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Vivendi's SFR Considers Acquisition of Neuf Cegetel

Neuf Cegetel confirmed ongoing acquisition discussions between its two main shareholders, SFR and the Louis Dreyfus group, and requested the suspension of trading on its shares, pending further developments on these discussions.SFR, the second-largest mobile phone operator in France, is a subsidiary of French media and telecommunications group Vivendi SA. Neuf Cegetel is the second largest broadband operator in France. http://www.groupeneufcegetel.frhttp://www.sfr...

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I.T.U. Develops IPTV Standards

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced a set of global standards for IPTV.The new standards, which were developed by the Focus Group on IPTV (FG IPTV) in ITU's Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), include high-level architecture and frameworks needed by service providers in order to rollout IPTV services. Twenty-one documents covering IPTV requirements, architecture, quality of service (QoS), security, digital rights...

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FCC Adopts Rules To Promote Video Programming Diversity

The FCC adopted rules aimed at promoting video programming diversity by ensuring new video programmers can enter and compete in the video market. Specifically, the FCC is setting the number of subscribers a cable operator may serve at 30 percent nationwide. The FCC is also seeking comment on vertical ownership limits and cable and broadcast attribution rules. Under the 1992 Cable Act, the FCC was directed to conduct proceedings to establish reasonable...

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Hughes Accepts Handover of Spaceway 3 Satellite from Boeing

Hughes Network Systems announced the successful on-orbit handover of the Spaceway 3 commercial communications satellite from Boeing. Hughes will utilize the Boeing-built satellite to provide HughesNet broadband satellite services throughout North America.The Ka-band SPACEWAY 3 satellite is the world's first commercial satellite featuring an on-board traffic switching and routing capability. This ability to switch and route IP packets on board, enabling...

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Turin to Acquire Carrier Access for $93 Million

Turin Networks agreed to acquire Carrier Access Corporation for approximately $92.7 million in cash. The Carrier Access product portfolio includes solutions that span the wireless backhaul network from the cell-site to the network edge, as well as converged access technologies that enable service providers and enterprise customers to deliver carrier-quality IP voice and data services. The company has facilities in Boulder, Colorado and Shanghai, China. It claims a base of over 100 customers which includes major Tier 1 wireless and wireline carriers,...

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ECI Adds ASON Capabilities to its Multi-Service Provisioning Platform

ECI Telecom has added Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) capabilities to its XDM Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) family of products.Advanced control plane architecture offers new protection schemes to assure service continuation. The ITU ASON architecture, along with the GMPLS common signaling and routing protocol, enables the introduction of an extra layer of virtual management plane for differentiated service support based...

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Mexico's Iusacell Deploys Starent Platform

Iusacell, a mobile operator in Mexico, is using Starent Networks' ST16 Multimedia Core Platform to deliver multimedia applications, such as streaming video, over its CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev A network.Starent's ST16 delivers throughput, call transaction rates and packet processing, along with subscriber and network intelligence. For the Iusacell deployment, Starent Networks will provide the Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN) and Home Agent (HA) network...

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Germany's NeckarCom Launches VoIP over WiMAX with Motorola

NeckarCom Telekommunikation GmbH has launched its commercial VoIP service following the successful implementation earlier this year of a WiMAX network in the Ulm region of Germany by Motorola. NeckarCom has integrate all of its current standard voice services across the WiMAX network and is offering a new combined voice and data solution. NeckarCom's integrated voice and data service was the first 802.16e WiMAX-based offering in Germany and is based...

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Qualcomm Acquires SoftMax for Noise Reduction

Qualcomm has acquired San Diego-based SoftMax Inc., a developer of noise reduction technology for mobile devices, for an undisclosed sum. SoftMax offers voice algorithms for signal separation, echo cancellation and signal processing. The technology, which is currently in wireless devices on the market, can separate a speaker's voice from various background noises. The result is a dramatic improvement in voice quality, providing significant differentiation...

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AT&T U-verse TV Expands HD Channel Lineup

AT&T announced the addition of eight HD channels to its U-verse TV channel lineup, bringing the HD lineup to more than 40 HD channels in most markets. HD service is available for $10 a month with any U-verse TV programming package. All U-verse TV packages include HD-ready equipment, and most include an HD-capable DVR. http://www.att....

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Atheros Debuts Single-Chip 802.11n for Home Gateways

Atheros Communications introduced two single-chip 802.11n solutions designed for the carrier gateway market. The new dual-band, 2.4GHz/5GHz, AR9220 and single-band, 2.4GHz AR9223 PCI designs are part of the Atheros XSPAN family of draft 802.11n solutions. Routers based on these new XSPAN PCI solutions will deliver 10 times the throughput and nearly twice the range of legacy 802.11g and 802.11a/g networks.The AR9220 dual-band, 2x2 MIMO, PCI design...

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McAfee Renews VPN Contract with AT&T

McAfee awarded a multimillion dollar, three-year contract to AT&T to provide long distance voice, enhanced toll-free and Virtual Private Network (VPN) services for McAfee's 30 domestic and global sites. The deal builds renews and expands a long-standing relationship between the two companies that spans more than four years. http://www.att....

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Sprint Readies IPv6 MPLS Trial

Sprint announced that it is ready to deploy IPv6 and is nearing initial beta testing of IPv6 MPLS VPNs on its Peerless IP (PIP) network, which provides a platform that is physically and logically isolated from the public Internet. Customer trials are expected to begin in January 2008, with general availability in the second quarter of 2008.IPv6 will greatly expand IP addressing space, thereby accommodating the rapidly growing number of Internet devices...

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One Minute Video: What is VPLS?

One Minute Video presented by Ananth Nagarajan, Juniper Networks -- What is VPLS?Jargon Bus...

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Silicon Clocks Appoints VP of Engineering

Silicon Clocks, a start-up based in Fremont, California, has appointed Dr. Bahram Ghaderi as VP Engineering. He previously held several positions during the past 12 years at Exar Corporation, including: GM Network and Transmission and most recently as VP Engineering/Product Development, where he was responsible for the development of mixed-signal product families for T/E and SONET physical layer, jitter attenuation, clocking, and UARTs. Silicon Clocks specializes in integrated timing products utilizing MEMS and IC technologies. Applications include...

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Peermeta Names Jim Ricotta as CEO

Peermeta, a start-up based in Acton, Mass., announced the appointment of Jim Ricotta as President and CEO. Ricotta previously was Vice President and General Manager of IBM's Appliance business unit, which developed middleware appliances for Web 2.0 / SOA applications. He joined IBM through IBM's $100M acquisition of DataPower Technology, where he was President and CEO. Prior to DataPower, Ricotta was Vice President and General Manager at Cisco...

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Mintera Hires Pirelli Exec to Lead EMEA Sales

Mintera named Piero Matrona as Vice President, Sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to support new customers of its MI 4000XM Adaptive-DPSK 40 Gbps DWDM module. Most recently, Matrona was in charge of worldwide sales for Pirelli Broadband Solutions for both Optical Components and Systems. Prior to this, Matrona was in charge of Marketing and Sales for Vivato, a developer of metropolitan WiFi systems and also Terawave Communications in the BPON/GPON arena. Matrona was also VP Brand Management for Nortel's Ultra-Long Haul Optical Transport...

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ARRIS Completes C-COR Acquisition

ARRIS completed its acquisition of C-COR. The deal combines two leading suppliers of networking equipment for cable operators. The companies said their combination:Creates a leading broadband solutions company with combined sales of over $1.2 billion over the past twelve monthsEnhances ARRIS financial profile with improved marginsExpands the ARRIS product portfolio and addressable marketDiversifies revenue across core customer relationships and...

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Wi-Fi Alliance Names New Executive Director

The Wi-Fi Alliance named Edgar Figueroa as its new Executive Director. For the past several years, Mr. Figueroa has led the operations for the Alliance's certification program, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, which has grown to include a global network of labs and more than 4,000 certified products. http://www.wi-fi.o...

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Alcatel-Lucent, 3 Italia and RAI Test DVB-SH

Alcatel-Lucent, 3 Italia (a mobile operator owned by Hutchison Whampoa) and Italian public broadcaster RAI are launching a trial of Mobile TV trial in Italy. The network will be based on the DVB-SH (Digital Video Broadcasting -- Satellite services to Handhelds) standard.The trial, based on Alcatel-Lucent's Unlimited Mobile TV solution, uses for the first time in the world a multi-layer DVB-SH terrestrial network blending low-power transmitters from a mobile operator and medium-power transmitters from a broadcaster.The trial will take place in...

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Korea's Hanaro Telecom selects Alcatel-Lucent's GPON FTTH

Hanaro Telecom selected Alcatel-Lucent to supply its Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) solution. Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will deploy the 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-Home (ISAM FTTU) solution which leverages GPON to deliver any mix of voice, video or data. Alcatel-Lucent is partnering with Sandeul Networks, which will provide installation and integration. Financial terms were not disclosed.Alcatel-Lucent...

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Alcatel-Lucent Chosen for China's e-government Backbone

Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent's flagship Chinese company, has been chosen as the sole supplier of China's largest high-speed e-government backbone network. The project, which is part of an initiative network transformation led by the Information Industry Office of the State Council of China, in cooperation with China Netcom and China Telecom, will help enhance information access and availability between government bodies throughout the nation. The new high-speed network will support voice, data, and multimedia services with QoS and a high...

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Telenor Srbija chooses Nokia Siemens Networks for 3G

Telenor Srbija awarded a contract to Nokia Siemens Networks to build a nationwide 3G radio network across Serbia. Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks will build a WCDMA network across Serbia within four years and it will provide Telenor with a broad range of supplementary services. The deliveries have already begun and the first parts of the new network will start operation in the first quarter of 2008. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks....

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Pulse~LINK's UWB Delivers 890 Mbps Peak Application Throughput

Pulse~LINK's recently released CWave UWB chipset achieved a 1.35 Gbps over-the-air signaling rate and delivered 890 Mbps application layer throughput at short distances in independent testing conducted by octoScope. The results were published in EE Times and Wireless Net DesignLine.Pulse~LINK said its CWave throughput held at around 500 Mbps at up to 8 feet of wireless range and 115 Mbps at up to 40 feet, significantly higher than competing vendors....

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BT Selects Ciena's CN 3000 Ethernet Access for 21CN

BT has selected Ciena's CN 3000 Ethernet Access Series as one of its preferred Network Termination Equipment (NTE) platforms for its 21st Century Network (21CN). Ciena is supplying the CN 3000 Series through an OEM agreement with ANDA Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.The CN 3000 Series encompasses a range of copper and fiber-based NTE platforms and complementary NTE aggregators fully compliant with Metro Ethernet Forum specifications....

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NewStep Enhances its Enterprise FMC Capabilities

NewStep Networks unveiled the latest version of its convergence platform, CSN 3.5, with features aimed at enterprises looking to mobilize their business applications as part of an overall unified communications strategy.CSN 3.5 adds advanced presence capabilities and integration with enterprise applications, including Microsoft's Office Communication Server 2007. These include:A broadened range of IP PBX support including the Nortel CS1K, and additional...

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Firewire Now Reaches 3.2 Gigabits per Second Speed -- 4X

The 1394 Trade Association announced a new specification to quadruple the speed of FireWire to reach 3.2 gigabits per second. The new electrical specification, known as S3200, builds upon the IEEE 1394b standard, preserving FireWire backwards compatibility and using the same cables and connectors already deployed for FireWire 800 products. The 1394 arbitration, data, and service protocols were not modified for S3200. The specification is expected...

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Peter Kiewit Institute Supercomputer Employs Force10

The Peter Kiewit Institute's (PKI) Holland Computing Center at the University of Nebraska has deployed Force10 Networks' TeraScale E-Series family of switch/routers and S50 access switches in its newest supercomputer, which ranks 43 on the Top500.org list of the world's fastest supercomputers. The Force10 TeraScale E-Series is supporting 52 Ten Gigabit and 900 Gigabit Ethernet ports to form the reliable foundation researchers at the Center require to optimize the performance of the supercomputer.Force10 said the high Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet...

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Zeugma Systems Raises US$22.5 Million

Zeugma Systems, a start-up based in Vancouver, announced US$22.5 million Series B financing. for its technology developments for next generation high speed broadband network. Product plans have not been announced.The new financing was led by new investor Vertex Venture Capital, and included returning investors Granite Ventures, Ventures West, Yaletown Venture Partners, GrowthWorks Capital Ltd. and BDC Venture Capital, as well as new investors GTD...

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Dutch Government Selects Mitel for 52,000 Lines over 4 Years

The government of the Netherlands has selected Mitel for a large-scale IP deployment as part of the OverheidsTelecom 2006 (OT2006) program, under which telecom services are tendered in one master agreement by ministries and other government authorities and subdivided into clusters. The OT2006 cluster covered by this contract will, amongst others, see eight ministries, seven provincial authorities, 30 municipalities and 51 administrative bodies and advisory boards totalling more than 52,000 lines move to a Mitel platform over the next four years....

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Atheros Acquires u-Nav Microelectronics for GPS Silicon

Atheros Communications agreed to acquire the assets and certain liabilities of u-Nav Microelectronics, a privately held fabless semiconductor company specializing in global positioning system (GPS) chipsets and software that enable mobile location-based products and services. Financial terms were not disclosed.u-Nav's silicon is designed for embedded GPS applications for the wireless handset, personal navigation device, personal computing, consumer...

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Zayo to Acquire Citynet's Wholesale Division

Zayo Group, a regional provider of bandwidth and telecom services, agreed to acquire Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Citynet Fiber Network (CFN), the wholesale division of communications provider, Citynet. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.The CFN network has 8,500 route miles of fiber covering 57 Tier I-III markets in 10 states. The company's on-net buildings encompass many major carrier locations like local exchange carrier central offices, carrier...

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Tiscali TV Combines IP and Digital Terrestrial TV

TISCALI TV has made its commercial debut in Italy. The service combines IP and DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) television programming. It is initially available in the Cagliari, Milan and Rome areas and will be free until 31-March-2008. Tiscali plans to gradually expanded across Italy over the coming year.Tiscali also announced a video programming deal with Sky Italia, the Italian digital pay TV service. Tiscali TV users will be able to...

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European Commission Approves Amsterdam's Municipal Fiber Network

The European Commission has approved the investment by the municipality of Amsterdam and other shareholders to be build an FTTH network. After a year of investigation and deliberation, the Commission concluded that the municipality participates in the project on the same terms as would a market investor. Therefore the Commission has concluded that no state aid is involved.Under EU state aid rules, investments by public authorities in companies carrying out economic activities can be considered free of aid, if they are made on terms that a private...

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Motorola Ships 50 millionth SURFboard modem

Motorola announced a company milestone -- the shipment of its 50 millionth SURFboard modem. In the coming months, the SURFboard cable modems (model SB5101) and wireless cable modem gateways (model SBG900) will feature a 50 millionth celebratory icon on products sold in leading North America electronic stores. http://www.motorola....

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Singapore Outlines Vision for Open Access Broadband 2015

The government of Singapore outlined its vision for an open access Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) offering pervasive ultra-high speed connectivity by 2015. The plan calls for a minimum speed of 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink per end-user connection and scalability to 1 Gbps and above. Singapore is also calling for a separation between network layer operations (the Layer 1 physical network), the bandwidth...

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Beceem's Chipsets Pass Qualification for Sprint's Mobile WiMAX

Beceem Communications' chipsets completed initial interoperability testing for Sprint's mobile WiMAX requirements. Beceem said the milestone shows the commercial readiness of WiMAX equipment and chipsets in preparation for the timely launch of Sprint's Xohm Mobile Broadband Service, which is expected to begin during the 2nd quarter of 2008. http://www.beceem....

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Yipes and KPN Team on Global Ethernet

Yipes Enterprise Services and KPN International are collaborating on global Ethernet network-to-network interfaces (E-NNIs). The bi-directional E-NNIs provide KPN customers end-to-end Ethernet services between Europe and the U.S. while enabling Yipes' customers to access the KPN network in Europe.With this new agreement, Yipes now has 10 bi-directional E-NNI agreements with providers around the world. Global E-NNIs support Yipes' Ethernet services expansion strategy, which will be further enhanced by the pending acquisition of Yipes by Reliance...

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BroadLight Appoints Raanan Gewirtzman as its New CEO

BroadLight, which supplies GPON semiconductors and software, has appointed Raanan Gewirtzman as its new CEO, replacing Andrew Vought, who has resigned after four years for personal reasons. Raanan joined the company in 2003 and has been responsible for BroadLight's product development and operations. http://www.broadlight....

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Harris Selects RMI's XLR for Data Plane Processing in Warfighter

Harris Chas selected RMI's XLR Processor as the foundation for its data plane processing function being developed for the Warfighter Information Network -- Tactical (WIN-T) Program. The development project awarded to RMI consists of custom board development for data plane processing along with associated software that leverages RMI's XLR500 Series processor's architecture, performance and scalability.RMI said its XLR was chosen for the project because it met the application's performance goals within a very constrained power and thermal environment,...

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France Telecom Affiliates to Deploy NetCracker

France Telecom group has certified and selected NetCracker as the Next Generation Inventory (NGI) Group Core Component (GCC) standard for its strategic NExT program. The NetCracker solution is expected to be deployed into France Telecom affiliates worldwide. Financial terms were not disclosed.NetCracker's technology helps service providers to deliver and manage convergent and content-rich offerings. NetCracker's portfolio includes solutions focused...

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SEC Opens Investigation into Westell

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has opened a private investigation into trading of Westell's securities. Westell, which is headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, a supplier of broadband access products and conferencing solutions for carriers, service providers and enterprises. http://www.westell....

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Hong Kong's Wharf T&T Selects Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS

Wharf T&T, a leading Telecom & IT service provider in Hong Kong, will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS solution to expand its metro Ethernet network as part of its IP network transformation project. Wharf T&T first adopted Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS solution in 2005 to offer Virtual Private Network (VPN) services to business customers.Alcatel-Lucent will provide Wharf T&T with a state-of-art IP/MPLS solution based on its 7750 Service...

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Alcatel-Lucent 7342 ISAM FTTU Gains RUS Acceptance

The Alcatel-Lucent 7342 ISAM FTTU (Fiber to the User) solution has been granted both "Rural Development Acceptance" and "Buy American" status by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development agency for deployment under the Rural Development Broadband Loan and Loan Guarantee Program.USDA acceptance means that communities of up to 20,000 inhabitants can now install Alcatel-Lucent's 7342 ISAM FTTU solution using funding obtained under the USDA Rural Development funding programs. Alcatel-Lucent's 7342 ISAM FTTU solution will be listed in...

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Bell Labs Collaborates with French National Research Institute (INRIA)

Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs and INRIA, France's Institut National de Recherche en Informatique, have signed a Joint Research agreement that commits the two organizations to partner in developing advanced technologies for the next generation Internet.Bell Labs and INRIA have committed researchers and resources to jointly research and develop critical technologies to realize the challenge of "self organizing networks". This joint research will cover four critical areas - semantic networking, high manageability, self-optimizing mobile cellular networks,...

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ITU Promotes Communications in Fight Against Global Warming

At the ongoing UN Conference on Climate Change in Bali, Indonesia, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is presenting the case thatICT can play a vital role in combating climate change. They can be usedfor remote monitoring of climate change and gathering importantscientific data - for instance, using telemetry or remote sensing bysatellite. Furthermore, smart technologies can usher in a whole newgeneration of energy-efficient products,...

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Blockbuster to Stream Film with Silverlight/Limelight

Blockbuster will stream its studio-backed feature film online later this month using Limelight Networks' content delivery network and Microsoft Silverlight technology. The film, "JACKASS 2.5", will be distributed directly online by Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment, MTV New Media group from MTV Networks and BLOCKBUSTER for free between December 19th and December 31st, 2007 to U.S. viewers. http://www.limelightnetworks.c...

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Nortel Enhances its PBT-Enabled Carrier Ethernet Solution

Nortel announced a number of enhancements to its Carrier Ethernet portfolio, including capabilities for using PBT solution to carry "triple-play" services for residential customers.PBT, or Provider Backbone Transport, creates known paths for data traffic through an Ethernet network. It acts as a guide to channel information through the network, using pre-determined paths to carry traffic and keeping those paths open.The Metro Ethernet Routing Switch 8600, Nortel's delivery vehicle for PBT technology, is being improved to provide greater flexibility...

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T-Mobile International Selects Huawei for Packet Switched Core

T-Mobile International has selected Huawei Technologies to provide Packet Switched Core Networks (PS-CN) across five European countries: Germany, the UK, Austria, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Huawei said the contract represents an important milestone for the company in Europe.The contract requires Huawei to replace existing networks with its next-generation PS-CN equipment. Early in July 2006, Huawei was selected to provide IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network infrastructure and applications for the Magyar Telekom, a subsidiary of Deutsche...

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Huawei Submarine Networks Will Target Subsea Telecom Cables

Huawei Technologies and Global Marine Systems, which operates a fleet of cable laying ships and submarines, have committed to launching Huawei Submarine Networks Ltd.Huawei Submarine will deliver end-to-end submarine network equipment, and related services on a global scale. "Huawei Submarine Networks is a major focus for both companies and introduces a competitive new entrant into the submarine telecommunication market." Mr. Gabriel Ruhan, CEO of...

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Amdocs Completes First Phase of Openreach's Business Transformation Project

Amdocs Consulting has concluded the initial stages of designing business processes to support Openreach's Business Transformation Project. Openreach is the separately governed operating entity within BT Group that manages the local access network. Amdocs Consulting said it is working with Openreach to meet regulatory requirements to transform its issue resolution processes.Amdocs has been working with BT for more than ten years and has put a number of systems into production, including customer management, service management and billing solutions....

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JDSU Adds Mini DWDM Channel Checker

JDSU introduced its OCC-56 Smart Optical Channel Checker, a selective power meter for DWDM applications that provides the market with a low-cost alternative to optical spectrum analyzers (OSAs). It is available in C-band or L-band models and specifically designed for DWDM system installation and upgrades, channel routing verification in ROADM networks and troubleshooting DWDM systems.Additional performance features for the OCC-56 include support for 50 GHz, 100 GHz or 200 GHz channel spacing (according to ITU-T). It weighs approximately 500 grams....

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East African Consortium Selects Alcatel-Lucent for Submarine Cable

The East Africa Marine System Ltd (TEAMS) consortium awarded a contract valued at US$79 million to Alcatel-Lucent to deploy a 4,900 km submarine cable network connecting the port city of Mombasa in Kenya with the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The cable will be upgradeable to 640 Gbps.Network installation is scheduled by the end of the first quarter 2009. The Alcatel-Lucent managed solution will be based on its 1620 Light Manager next-generation DWDM submarine platform, and will also include cable and submarine repeaters. As...

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Towerstream to Bid in FCC 700 MHz Spectrum Auction

Towerstream, a leading fixed wireless Internet provider currently operating in eight major metropolitan areas, has filed with the FCC to participate in the upcoming auction for spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) band."The 700 MHz auction offers tremendous opportunity for Towerstream, as WiMAX is a natural fit for the spectrum - not only because it is application agnostic, but also because of the coverage and penetration it offers," said Jeff Thompson,...

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Tellabs 7100 Optical Transport Gains Military Certification

The Tellabs 7100 Optical Transport System (OTS) received certification from the United States Information Systems Engineering Command's (ISEC) Technology Integration Center (TIC). The Tellabs 7100 OTS offers reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) and Ethernet switching on a single platform.The ISEC TIC performs design, engineering, integration, development, containment, installation, testing, and acceptance of information systems for the U.S. Army.http://www.tellabs....

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Comcast Appoints VP of Regulatory Affairs

Comcast appointed Kathryn A. Zachem as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, and Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Comcast Cable. She will oversee all of the company's regulatory efforts, and will be based in Comcast's Washington, DC office, reporting to David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive Vice President. Zachem joins Comcast from the law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP where she was a partner and practiced communications law for 23 years. During that time, she represented clients from nearly every segment of the communications sector...

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AT&T Forecasts Heavy Traffic Growth, Updates Financial Outlook

At its analyst conference in New York, AT&T executives predicted heavy traffic growth on its IP backbone over the next three years as it ramps up its IPTV service, increases broadband speeds, rolls out HSUPA wireless data services and accelerates its push into enterprise application services. The company also updated its 2008 and multiyear outlook.Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO, said that AT&T will enter 2008 with solid operational...

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Comstar and Intel Develop Mobile WiMAX in Russia

"COMSTAR -- United TeleSystems" signed an agreement with Intel to develop and launch a mobile WiMAX network in the Moscow region by the end of 2008, using the IEEE 802.16e standard (2.5-2.7 GHz range). The network will cover the whole city. Intel will provide the client technical devices with embedded WiMAX solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.comstar-uts.com http://www.intel....

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