Toshiba Launches Enhanced Softphone

Toshiba America Information Systems launched its newly enhanced SoftIPT softphone.



Compatible with Toshiba's family of Strata CIX IP business communications systems, the new Toshiba SoftIPT 2.1 wirelessly extends the features and functionality of Toshiba desktop telephones to suitably equipped PDAs running Pocket PC 2003, Pocket PC Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0, SmartPhone Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0 as well as notebook computers, tablet PCs, and PCs running Windows 2000 or Windows XP and soon to be released for Windows Vista. The softphone enables users to access their desktop telephone features from virtually any location by connecting to the enterprise's Toshiba Strata CIX IP business communications system through 802.11 wireless networks or virtually anywhere there is Internet access. The new SoftIPT is fully compatible with Toshiba's new IP User Mobility feature and is a supported IP station that work in conjunction with Toshiba's Video Communication Solution (VCS).

http://www.telecom.toshiba.com

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Pakistan's Mobilink Chooses DragonWave for WiMAX Backhaul

Mobilink, a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Holding has selected DragonWave's Horizon Compact high capacity IP backhaul product to provide 270 wireless backhaul links for a new nationwide WiMAX Network in Pakistan. Initial rollout will begin in the cities of Islamabad,
Karachi and Lahore. Financial terms were not disclosed.



DragonWave's Horizon Compact product will be used to enable Mobilink to backhaul traffic from their nationwide WiMAX deployments with a native IP backhaul solution. DragonWave's solution is providing high capacity IP backhaul as a fiber replacement and an economical and efficient way to provide full coverage across the country. The new network will provide data and other applications like VoIP access to enterprise, government,
residential and municipalities.



DragonWave's Horizon product operates within both licensed and
unlicensed radio frequencies in the 11-to-38-GHz range. It also features ultra-low latency, wire-speed native Ethernet connectivity up to 800 Mbps full duplex.

http://www.dragonwaveinc.com

• In September 2007, Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (Mobilink), a leading mobile operator in Pakistan and a wholly owned subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Holding, awarded a contract to Alcatel-Lucent to participate in deploying Pakistan's first live network based on the Universal 802.16e-2005 WiMAX solution. The network will cover major cities in Pakistan, including Karachi, the nation's financial capital and the major business center.



• Based on the latest IEEE 802.16e-2005 standards (also called Rev-e), the new WiMAX network will be deployed in the 3.5 GHz spectrum enabling rapid implementation of broadband services available in fixed and nomadic environments. It will deliver high-speed internet access, enabling the delivery of advanced broadband multimedia services, such as video streaming, through a variety of end-user devices including laptops, desktop computers, modems and WiMAX terminals.

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RadiSys Posts Q3 Revenue of $84 Million

RadiSys announced revenues of $83.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 and a net loss of $2.5 million or $0.11 per share. Non-GAAP net income for the third quarter was $2.8 million or $0.11 per diluted share. Non-GAAP results in the third quarter excluded a loss of $0.22 per share, primarily attributable to the impact of acquisition-related expenses and stock-based compensation expense.



Commenting on the financial results for the quarter, Scott Grout, President and CEO stated, "I am pleased with our results in the third quarter. We grew revenues by 11% sequentially, and our non-GAAP earnings were up nicely from the prior quarter driven by higher revenues and an improved gross margin rate. We are also excited about our recent acquisition of the ATCA and cPCI assets of Intel's MCPD business. This acquisition further solidifies our leadership position in ATCA and communications platforms, broadens our base of customers and enhances our global operations and market penetration. The early stages of the integration are going well, and we currently project that this business will be cash flow positive in the fourth quarter."http://www.radisys.com

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Conexant Cuts Wireless In Restructuring

Conexant Systems reported quarterly revenues of $183.9 million, including a non-recurring royalty of approximately $4 million related to an existing license agreement. Core gross margins were 44.7 percent of revenues. Core operating expenses were $90.3 million. The core operating loss was $8.0 million, and the core net loss was $18.5 million, or $0.04 per share.



In addition, the company announced that it will terminate further investments in "stand-alone"" products for wireless networking but will continue to support DSL gateway solutions that incorporate wireless-networking capability. Conexant will eliminate approximately 140 positions worldwide. The company said it plans to maintain the staffing levels required to support existing wireless networking customers with current solutions. Conexant's remaining wireless employees will join the company's Broadband Access organization and support DSL gateways that incorporate wireless connectivity.



The company has also discontinued further investments in developing network processor solutions and packet switch products, and terminating its investment in HomePlug networking. In each case, the company will support current customers that are using existing products.



"In the fourth fiscal quarter, we made solid progress across multiple fronts," said Dan Artusi, Conexant president and chief executive officer. "We delivered on the performance expectations we established at the beginning of the quarter, we restructured our business and took action that will significantly reduce expenses, and we narrowed our business and product focus.



"Including the wireless networking actions announced today, we have reduced our worldwide workforce by approximately 20 percent over the past five weeks," Artusi said. "We will continue working to narrow our product-development focus in order to improve our engineering execution and our ability to deliver innovative, cost-effective solutions to customers on schedule. At this point, our most important company priority is to return to breakeven financial performance as quickly as possible."http://www.conexant.com

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TrendChip Offers New ADSL2+ Chipset

Taiwan's TrendChip Technologies announced a new ADSL2+ chipset composed of an ADSL2+ processor and an Analog Front End (AFE). The chipset is targeted at ADSL2+ Bridge, Router, and WiFi Gateway applications.



TrendChip said its design features a high performance ADSL2+ CPE processor with enhanced DMT structure and optimized cache architecture, which provides high processing power, enhanced Impulse Noise Protection (INP) capability for IPTV, advanced IP routing and bridging functionalities, QoS support, and high throughput performance. In addition, a new SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) flash boot up feature allows customers to adopt serial flash memory and helps lower the memory component cost. By adding a second UART interface, designers can connect to new peripherals like Bluetooth and DECT cordless chips to develop value-added applications.

http://www.trendchip.com.tw

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Sea Launch Prepares for Thuraya-3

Sea Launch has left its home port of Long Beach, California and is preparing for the launch of the Thuraya-3 satellite on November 13 from an equatorial launch site in Pacific.



Boeing designed and built the GEO-Mobile (GEM) spacecraft for Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company, which is based in the United Arab Emirates. Boeing also built, and Sea Launch successfully deployed into orbit, Thuraya-1 (October 20, 2000) and Thuraya-2 (June 10, 2003). The satellites are designed to provide a range of mobile voice and data services over large geographic regions.



Thuraya, the world's largest provider of handheld mobile satellite services, is preparing to operate commercially in Asia-Pacific markets as early as January 2008, when Thuraya-3 is expected to become operational. Thuraya's expansion towards East Asia will allow it to provide its proven and highly affordable voice, IP and rural telephony services to thousands of private, public and business customers in the densely populated Asian region.

http://www.boeing.com/special/sea-launch/http://www.thuraya.com/

• In January 2007, Sea Launch experience the total loss of the NSS-8 spacecraft, which exploded at launch from its Odyssey Platform in the equatorial Pacific. The Odyssey Launch Platform sustained limited damage. Commander ship was not damaged during the launch attempt, as it was positioned four miles from the Launch Platform at the time of lift-off.

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MySpace and Google Collaborate on OpenSocial APIs

MySpace and Google are joining forces to launch OpenSocial-- a set of common APIs for building social applications across the web. MySpace will provide critical user mass and platform guidance.



The companies said the OpenSocial standards will to evolve through contribution from the open source community and as new features are developed by various partners. Global members of the OpenSocial community include Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.

http://www.google.com

http://www.myspace.com

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Verizon FiOS TV Readies for 150 HD Channels

Verizon announced plans for a fivefold increase in the number of HD channels carried by its FiOS TV service. In the spring of 2008, Verizon will begin expanding its HD lineup as well as the sports and multicultural program offerings on FiOS TV. Verizon initially will double the current number of HD channels, on a market-by-market basis, to more than 60, including additional sports channels. Verizon expects to have more than 150 HD channels by year-end 2008 as it continues to add to its HD lineup and programmers launch new channels. The company also will add standard-definition sports, multicultural and other programming during the year.



In addition to the expanded HD channel lineup, Verizon said it will offer HD programming through its video-on-demand library, which already totals more than 10,000 titles. Before the end of 2007, Verizon expects to introduce a limited number of HD on-demand titles, which will increase to more than 1,000 HD titles in 2008.

http://www.verizon.com

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Verizon Shareholders to Vote on Executive Compensation

The Board of Directors of Verizon Communications adopted a policy that provides for an annual advisory vote related to executive compensation beginning in 2009. The company is also amending its executive severance policy to define more specifically the types of payments included in the calculation of severance payments. http://www.verizon.com

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Cisco Broadens its Activities, Investments and Sourcing in China

Cisco CEO John Chambers unveiled a multi-year investment initiative aimed at strengthening its business commitments and long-term corporate strategy in China. Highlights of Cisco's multi-year investment program include:

• A significant increase in local procurement. In the past five years, Cisco has purchased more than USD $7 billion worth of China-sourced components and services, a critical part of the company's virtual manufacturing supply chain. According to Cisco estimates, these procurement commitments provide employment to 50,000 people in manufacturing management roles and through contract manufacturing and supplier partners.



• The total value of Cisco's commitments in China since 2002 are estimated at more than USD $8.5 billion, and under the initiative announced today, could expand to approximately USD $16 billion during the next five years, including significant increases in materials procurement, and increases in education, Cisco Capital, research and development, direct and indirect investments and sales and service operations.



• A Memorandum of Understanding with China Development Bank to explore a joint investment program that would provide capital and expertise for innovative Chinese businesses. The initiative is intended to support high-growth Chinese companies over multiple sectors, with a focus on information technology, "green" innovators, and other key segments



• A commitment to expansion of the Cisco Networking Academies program in cooperation with China's Ministry of Education to add 300 additional academies in vocational colleges during the next three years, with a specific focus on China's central and western provinces. Currently, there are more than 200 Networking Academies in 70 cities throughout China, which have trained more than 90,000 students since inception. The new initiatives will add the capacity to train an additional 100,000 students by 2010. Cisco will also donate more than USD $6 million worth of networking equipment to assist in establishing labs in the new academies.



• A memorandum of understanding with Alibaba Group, China's largest business-to-business (B2B) on-line portal. Under the MOU, Cisco and Alibaba will explore ways to jointly offer collaboration and business management solutions to small and medium businesses (SMBs) in China. Under a previous agreement, Cisco will also invest USD $17.5 million in Alibaba.com Limited, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, as part of its planned initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming one of only eight cornerstone investors in the listing



• Establishment of incremental funding up to USD $400 million for Cisco Systems Capital China for providing financing facilities to Cisco customers in China during the next three to five years. Cisco Systems Capital China commenced captive financing operations in June 2006 and has funded USD $60 million in customer assets to date.



• The establishment of Cisco's first global "green" technology center to address the increasing need for sustainable development, energy efficiency, reduction of electronic waste, and emission reductions inside and outside of China. The center will also augment existing programs underway by Cisco China's R&D teams in the area of application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) power efficiency design and expand this into other product areas.



• Establishment of product and research teams to develop innovative networking equipment to address the SMB (small and medium business) market and emerging countries markets, leveraging local design and manufacturing resources.

Cisco first established operations in China in 1994 and now employs more than 2,300 staff in sales, customer support and service, research and development, BPO/IT outsourcing, Cisco Capital and manufacturing. The company has 12 offices in China, a major R&D facility in Shanghai, Scientific Atlanta R&D/manufacturing facilities, as well as several development centers supporting WebEx, which Cisco acquired in March 2007.

http://www.cisco.com

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Cisco to Acquire Securent for Security Auditing Software

Cisco agreed to acquire Securent, a start-up offering policy management software for enterprises, for approximately $100 million in cash and assumed options.



Securent, which is based in Mountain View, California with development offices in Hyderabad, offers an Entitlement Management Solution (EMS), an XACML standard-based solution that allows organizations to create, enforce, review, and audit fine-grained access policies across heterogeneous application and IT environments distributed throughout the enterprise, all with centralized management and visibility.



Cisco said Securent's software will enable its customers to protect and secure valuable application data regardless of vendor, platform, or operating system while still allowing ubiquitous access to the content workers and their collaborative communities need to be productive. By delivering policy from the network, Cisco will simplify entitlement decisions for all communications, collaboration and other third party applications.



"As enterprises shift to service-oriented architectures and adopt technologies such as Unified Communications and Web 2.0 based collaboration, there is a rising need for control over access to distributed enterprise resources," said Don Proctor, senior vice president, Cisco's Collaboration Software Group.

http://www.cisco.com

http://www.securent.com

• Securent was founded in 2004 and is backed by funding from Greylock Partners and ONSET Ventures. The company has 57 employees.



• Securent is headed by Rajiv Gupta, who previously was the Founder and CEO of Confluent Software, where he led efforts for the successful development and growth of its policy-based web-services management product, before Confluent was acquired by Oblix in 2004. Before founding Confluent, Gupta spent 11 years at Hewlett-Packard, most recently as the General Manager of the E-speak Division.



• Cisco's 2007 acquisitions include: Securent, Navini Networks, Latigent, Cognio, Reactivity, Broadware, Spanslogic, WebEx, NeoPath Networks, Five Across, and IronPort Systems.
  

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Taiwan's Chunghwa: 26% of Broadband Lines Exceed 8 Mbps, 350K IPTV Users

Chunghwa Telecom, the incumbent operator in Taiwan, was serving 4.22 million broadband subscribers (including ADSL and FTTB subscribers) at the end of September 2007, a 6.3% increase compared to the same period of last year. At the end of September 2007, the number of ADSL and FTTB subscriptions with service speed greater than 8 Mbps reached 1.12 million, representing 26.4% of total broadband subscribers. There were 81,000 net HiNet FTTB additions in Q3, bringing the total number of HiNet FTTB subscribers to 391k.

Also, Chunghwa had 358k MOD (IPTV) subscribers, with 24k new subscriptions added during the third quarter; a 74.1% increase year-over-year.



Some additional highlight's from the Q3 2007 financial report:

• Total revenue increased by 10.0% to NT$52.1 billion


• Internet and data revenue grew 5.6%; ADSL & FTTB increased by 4.1%


• Mobile revenue grew 1.4%; Mobile VAS revenue increased by 32.4%


• Net income totaled NT$11.9 billion, an increase of 6.8%



• Fixed-line declines have been decelerated over the past nine months, with total fixed-line revenue declining 2.6% to NT$45.9 billion, compared to the 6.4% decline in the first nine months of FY2006. International Long Distance revenue increased 4.4%, primarily driven by the significant revenue growth in international prepaid cards and the wholesale business. This was offset by the 3.9% Local revenue decrease and the 7.2% Domestic Long Distance revenue decrease, mainly due to mobile and VoIP substitution.



• Capital expenditures totaled NT$15.8 billon for the nine months ended September 30, 2007, of which 83% was for wire line equipment (including fixed- line and Internet and data) and 15% was for wireless equipment. Capital expenditures were down 14.6% from the NT$18.5 billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2006, mainly due to a NT$3.4 billion decrease in mobile spending.



• Chunghwa had 8.66 million mobile subscribers, with net additions of 75k during the third quarter. Chunghwa had 308k net additions to its 3G subscriber base during the third quarter, bringing total 3G subscribers to 1.99 million.

http://www.cht.com.tw

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Alcatel-Lucent Posts Q3 Revenue and Presents Restructuring Indicatives

Alcatel-Lucent reported Q3 revenue of Euro 4.35 Billion, up 2.3% sequentially and down 7.8 % year-over-year at constant EUR/USD exchange rate. Gross margin improved sequentially to 34.2%. The company also presented new restructuring initiatives.

"As you can see our results this quarter were essentially in line with the update we provided on September 13, and in a few areas a bit better; however they are still not at a level that we are satisfied with, commented CEO Pat Russo.

Alcatel-Lucent's Board of Directors expressed its support for a newly presented restructuring plan. Key points of the plan include:

• Streamlining the core carrier business, accelerated product cost improvement with increased portfolio focus on IP transformation of wireline and wireless networks.



• Enhancing growth by developing an offensive strategy on sectors offering a strong growth potential, namely: high value added services and applications for the carrier markets; solutions for the enterprise markets and Industry and Public Sector; streamlining the organization into a simplified model with a focused management committee with clear accountabilities and ownership to quickly execute the plans.



• Lowering the cost structure, especially in support functions and other savings arising from the realigned and streamlined Carrier business Group. The company expects that this plan will result in incremental savings of Euro 400 million in gross margin and comparable operating expenses by the end of year 2009. This implies an acceleration of our ongoing headcount targets into 2008 with incremental reductions of about 4,000 by 2009.

Some highlights for Q3 2007

• Revenue for the carrier business segment was Euro 3,142 million compared to Euro 3,706 million in the year-ago quarter, an 8% decrease at a constant Euro/USD exchange rate, or a 15% decrease at current rate. Adjusted operating income (loss) was Euro 22 million, a 0.7% operating margin.



• Revenue for the wireline business group was Euro 1,520 million compared to Euro 1,447 million in the year-ago quarter, an 8% increase at a constant Euro/USD exchange rate, or a 5% increase at current rate.



• Revenues were very strong in optical networking with good growth in terrestrial and a robust increase in submarine. Metro and long-haul WDM exhibited a very strong performance. North America, Europe and South and Asia-Pacific increased on a regional basis.



• Broadband access also demonstrated a solid quarter in DSL with 8.0 million lines delivered (24.9 million lines delivered year to date), up 19% year over year, with strong traction in North America.



• Revenue for the wireless business segment was Euro 1,276 million compared to Euro 1,674 million in the year-ago quarter, a 20% decrease at a constant Euro/USD exchange rate, or a 24% decrease at current rate.



• The wireless revenue decline was largely due to a comparison with very strong CDMA results in North America in the year-ago quarter, when significant initial revenues were booked for the deployment of CDMA2000 1x-EV-DO Rev A by major operators following the commercial availability of the enabling software. Sequentially, CDMA revenue slightly grew as CDMA gained outside North America, primarily in India, and Rev A deployments continued in North America and globally.



• Revenue in GSM declined from the year-ago quarter but continued to gain traction with its second consecutive strong sequential increase, notably with new product offerings (Twin TRX and ATCA BSC).



• Revenue for the convergence business group was Euro 346 million compared to Euro 585 million in the year-ago quarter, a 39% decrease at a constant Euro/USD exchange rate, or a 41% decrease at current rate.



• Classic core switching revenue continued to decline. In the multimedia and payment businesses, revenues were negatively impacted by the declining market in pre-paid payment solutions. Investments continued in order to evolve IPTV capabilities, including the acquisition of Tamblin, a London-based developer of applications and tools that enables interactive TV programming and advertising over IP.



• Revenue for the enterprise business segment was Euro 380 million compared to Euro 362 million in the year-ago quarter, an 8% increase at a constant Euro/USD exchange rate, or a 5% increase at current rate. Adjusted operating income (loss) was Euro 29 million, a 7.6% operating margin. Revenues increased across all parts of the enterprise business, with a very strong performance in the Asia-Pacific region.



• Revenue for the services business segment was Euro 777 million compared to Euro 775 million in the year-ago quarter, a 3% increase at a constant Euro/USD exchange rate, or flat at current rate. Adjusted operating income (loss) was Euro 40 million, a 5.1% operating margin.



• Year-to-date the company has reduced headcount of 5,000 people before the impact of managed services and acquisitions (approximately 1,350 people). The company plans to achieve its synergy-related comparable pre-tax savings of Euro 600 million this year.



• For the fourth quarter 2007 the company expects a solid ramp up in revenue over the third quarter 2007. For the full year, given some of the recent uncertainty seen in the market, revenues are likely to be around flat at Euro/USD exchange rate which is at the low end of the range previously provided.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Announces Senior Management Change

Alcatel-Lucent has named Hubert de Pesquidoux as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), replacing Jean-Pascal Beaufret, who is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. Hubert de Pesquidoux currently leads the Enterprise Group of Alcatel-Lucent.



As part of its plan to improve profitability it has streamlined its regional structure, the company will create two regional structures, one for the Americas and one that includes Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Frederic Rose, who currently heads the Asia-Pacific Region, will assume additional responsibilities for the company's current Europe & North and Europe & South regions. Cindy Christy, will lead the Americas Region. Frederic Rose and Cindy Christy will continue to report directly to Patricia Russo. Olivier Picard, head of the Europe and South region will continue to oversee the Europe and South region, reporting to and serving as deputy to Frederic Rose. Christian Reinaudo, head of the Europe and North region, will be leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.



In addition, CEO Patricia Russo has established a seven-member management committee reporting directly to her to lead the overall operation of the company. The management committee will comprise seven business leaders: Cindy Christy, Americas Region; Etienne Fouques, who oversees Research, CTO, Strategy and Corporate Marketing; John Meyer, head of Services; Claire Pedini, head of Corporate Human Resources and Communications; Hubert de Pesquidoux, CFO; Michel Rahier, who leads the Carrier Business Group; and Frederic Rose, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Janet Davidson, Chief Compliance Officer and head of the Integration and IT, will serve as secretary for the committee.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Telindus Offers Unified Communication Solutions from ShoreTel

Telindus, the European specialist in ICT solutions and services, will sell ShoreTel products to deliver unified communications as a managed service. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Telindus operates in 14 countries in Western Europe, Sweden, Hungary, China and Thailand. Telindus' headquarters are in Belgium.
http://www.shoretel.com

• In January 2006, Telindus joined the Belgacom Group, becoming the IT Services division of the market's new business leader.

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Windstream to Bundles TiVo DVR & High-Speed Internet Access

Windstream will begin offering bundled internet and TiVo DVR services in 2008. Windstream has approximately 3.3 million access lines across 16 states.
http://www.tivo.com

http://www.windstream.com

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Huawei Collaborates with ITU on Emerging Market Initiatives

Huawei Technologies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to jointly promote telecom technologies in developing countries. Under the MOU, Huawei and ITU will work together to improve connectivity in rural and remote areas in emerging markets, as well as to close gaps in broadband backbone networks. As a first step, the two parties will use Huawei's existing training centers in India and Nigeria to provide telecommunications training for local talent. Huawei operates 22 training centers across the world, with 12 strategically located in developing countries including India, Nigeria and Egypt.

http://www.huawei.com

http://www.itu.int

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Allot Announces First Commercial Deployment its New Service Gateway

Allot Communications announced the first commercial deployment of the Allot Service Gateway, Omega Series (SG-Omega). The Service Gateway provides a platform for broadband providers to build secure, manageable and profitable intelligent networks, optimized to deliver Internet-based content and services.



The Service Gateway has recently been deployed at a major DSL Internet service provider in the Asia Pacific region. The Service Gateway is operating on 10 Gigabit Ethernet lines, intelligently managing high-volume IP flows on its core network. The Service Gateway is also undergoing evaluations at additional carriers. The name of the carrier was not disclosed.



The SG-Omega leverages Layer-7 DPI technology and supports throughput of over 20 Gigabits per second on a single platform. The platform can be configured with up to four 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces that support two 10-Gigabit Ethernet lines and can process up to 20 million concurrent IP flows. The Service Gateway is based on an AdvancedTCA chassis for deployment in service provider networks. Its resilient hardware and software architecture ensures platform stability and availability through hot-swappable blades, efficient N+1 redundancy within the chassis, and internal hardware and software bypass mechanisms that protect against failures.
http://www.allot.com

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Avaya Launches "Master Reseller" Channel Programs Focused on SMBs

Avaya launched two programs that broaden its support for sales channels. Specifically, the Avaya Master Reseller program is enabling select Avaya BusinessPartners to recruit and train independent sales agents who work under their direction to sell Avaya's small and mid-sized business portfolio. Many of the new agents are companies that specialize in data networking but want to offer their clients ready access to voice solutions as well.



To date, 10 Master Resellers are working with more than 300 independent sales agents across North America. Avaya supports the program with a special educational program for new agents and with dedicated account managers and distribution managers for each Master Reseller.

http://www.avaya.com

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Verizon Business Joins Internet2

Verizon Business has joined Internet2 as a corporate member.

The company plans to collaborate with the Internet2 community on projects involving advanced optical networking as well as in areas of next-generation content delivery and network security.

http://www.internet2.eduhttp://www.verizonbusiness.com

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EMBARQ Links Home and Wireless Phones

EMBARQ announced a new "Together Plan Plus" linking its residential and mobile phone services. Customers are able to control where they take the call, when to take the call and what phone to use with new calling feature capabilities. A call to a customer's home number could simultaneously ring their wireless phone or be directed to any alternate phone if there is no answer. Customers can transfer calls they've received on their home phone to any other wireless or landline phone they have pre-selected without interrupting the call. The call can then be either transferred back to the originally called number or to a third number, helping to reduce the number of wireless minutes customers use when they are at home.



EMBARQ Together Plan Plus works with the customer's existing EMBARQ home phone service and any wireless service. However, customers with EMBARQ Wireless service can also direct unanswered wireless phone calls to ring multiple devices.

http://www.embarq.com

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Polycom Expands VoIP Partnership Program

Polycom has expanded its VoIP Interoperability Partner (VIP) Program for manufacturers of SIP-based call control platforms with the addition of six newly certified members: Cedar Point Communications, LignUp, MetaSwitch, PanTerra Networks, Sutus, and Zultys. Polycom now recognizes a total of 25 leading VoIP platform providers as certified members who deliver solutions that seamlessly interoperate with the Polycom SoundPoint IP desktop and SoundStation IP conference phones. http//www.polycom.com/vip

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Sonus Adds Higher Performance DSP Modules to GSX9000

Sonus Networks unveiled new hardware Circuit Network Server (CNS) modules for its GSX9000 Open Services Switch.



The company said the GSX9000 platform can now scale to deliver up to three times the compression (or throughput) when using the new CNS modules with built in digital signal processors. The modules are NEBS-compliant and feature Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology from Texas Instruments. The new CNS modules include STM-1 interfaces and three times the number of E1 telephone network interfaces in the same footprint. In addition, the new CNS modules are designed to support a broad suite of wireless codecs.

http://www.sonusnet.com

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FCC Ends Cable Exclusivity for Consumers Residing in Multiple Dwelling Units

The FCC will ban the use of exclusivity clauses for the provision of video services to multiple dwelling units (MDUs) or other real estate developments. Nearly 30% of Americans live in MDUs and these numbers are growing. From 1995 to 2005, cable rates have risen 93%. In 1995, cable service cost $22.37 per month. Prices for expanded basic cable service have now almost doubled. The trend in pricing of cable services is of particular importance to consumers. Since 1996 the prices of every other communications service (such as long distance and wireless calling) have declined while cable rates have risen year after year after year.



The FCC said it is seeking to foster greater competition in the market for the delivery of multichannel video programming. These rules will increase choice and competition for consumers residing in MDUs and other real estate developments.



Specifically the Order finds that:

• exclusivity clauses that bar competitive entry harm competition and broadband deployment and can insulate the incumbent MVPD from any need to improve its service.



• exclusivity clauses are widespread in agreements between MVPDs and MDU owners.



• incumbent cable operators have increased the use of exclusivity clauses in their agreements with MDU owners with the entry of LECs into the video marketplace.



• the use of exclusivity clauses in contracts for the provision of video services to MDUs constitutes an unfair method of competition or an unfair act or practice under Section 628(b).

The Commission also adopted a Further Notice of the Proposed Rulemaking (Further Notice) that seeks comment on whether we should take action to address exclusivity clauses entered into by DBS providers, private cable operators, and other MVPDs who are not subject to Section 628. The Further Notice also seeks comment on whether the Commission should prohibit exclusive marketing and bulk billing arrangements.



In a statement, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said "All consumers, regardless of where they live, should enjoy the benefits competition in the video marketplace. Exclusive contracts between incumbent cable operators and owners of "multiple dwelling units" (MDUs) have been a significant barrier to competition. Today's order removes this barrier. Specifically, the item we adopt today finds that the use of exclusivity clauses in contracts for the provision of video services to MDUs constitutes an unfair method of competition or an unfair act or practice in violation of Section 628(b) of the Act. Thus, we prohibit the enforcement of existing exclusivity clauses and the execution of new ones by cable operators."http://www.fcc.gov

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FCC Expands Local Number Portability to VoIP

The FCC voted to expand local number portability (LNP) rules to VoIP services, giving consumers the right to keep the same, familiar phone number when switching to a new provider.



The FCC made clear that the obligation to provide local number portability extends to interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol providers and the telecommunications carriers that obtain numbers for them. The FCC said the action was, in part, a response to numerous complaints by consumers about their inability to port numbers to or from interconnected VoIP providers. The FCC also initiated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on additional VoIP numbering issues.



The FCC also clarified in its order that telephone companies may not obstruct or delay number porting by demanding excess information from the customer's new provider, and specifically concluded that LNP validation for a simple number port should be based on no more than four fields: (1) 10-digit telephone number; (2) customer account number; (3) 5-digit zip code; and (4) pass code, if applicable.

http://www.fcc.gov

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Norihiko Minato Appointed Head of AT&T Asia Pacific and Japan

Norihiko (Hiko) Minato has been appointed as the new head of the AT&T Asia Pacific and Japan region. Effective Nov. 1, 2007, the company's 12 Asia Pacific markets and Japan will be combined into one region under the new organization.



Hiko Minato, who was most recently the president of AT&T Japan, will relocate from Tokyo, Japan to Hong Kong and report to John Finnegan, senior vice president of AT&T Global Sales. By integrating the operations of Japan and Asia Pacific under Mr. Minato, Japanese MNCs will gain easier access to some of the key emerging markets in Asia Pacific, while at the same time companies throughout the Asia Pacific region will benefit from the comprehensive network solutions provided by AT&T when they want to enter to the Japanese market.

http://www.att.com

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Boingo Wireless Acquires Sprint's Wi-Fi in 7 U.S. Airports

Boingo Wireless has acquired seven airport Wi-Fi networks from Sprint and converting them to Boingo hotspots. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Sprint customers will retain Wi-Fi access in these seven airports and will gain access to 16 additional airports where Boingo provides Wi-Fi services directly. Additionally, the companies have entered into a roaming agreement that will provide Sprint customers access to Boingo's global hotspot network.

http://www.boingo.com

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Cavium Networks and Wind River Expand Networking Partnership

Cavium Networks and Wind River Systems are expanding their technology partnership. Wind River's VxWorks 6.6 SMP product will include out-of-the-box, optimized support for Cavium Networks' OCTEON processors in its initial worldwide release. The joint solution is targeted at SOHO, SME and enterprise networking, wireless infrastructure and service provider OEM equipment.

http://www.caviumnetworks.com

http://www.windriver.com

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ECI Announces Reorganization

ECI Telecom announced a reorganization focused on three key areas -- the creation of a Network Solutions Division, a Global Services Division, and expansion of the Global Sales and Marketing organization.



ECI said the changes will enable it to rapidly meet the needs of the market by accelerating growth in its transport and access businesses, expanding its service offering, while improving operational efficiencies.



The new Network Solutions Division (NSD) is the result of consolidating ECI's two business units -- the Broadband Access and the Transport Networking Divisions -- into one single unit. Eyal Shaked, currently Executive Vice President & General Manager of the Transport Networking Division, will lead the new division.



In addition, ECI is announcing the creation of the Global Services Division (GDS), which will centralize and expand the company's service portfolio, from delivery and installation to value-added advanced service offerings, such as managed services, turn-key projects and consulting services. This Division will continue to partner with carriers as they introduce new services and migrate to next-generation environments.



As part of this reorganization plan, ECI will reduce its total workforce by approximately six percent.

http://www.ecitele.com

• In September 2007, ECI Telecom was acquired by affiliates of the Swarth Group and certain funds that have appointed Ashmore Investment Management Limited as their investment manager, for a total value of approximately $1.24 billion.

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BigBand Posts Revenue of $38 Million, Restructuring Eliminates CMTS

BigBand Networks posted Q3 revenue of $38.5 million, a decrease of 10% from the third quarter of 2006. GAAP net loss for the third quarter of 2007 was $12.2 million, or $(0.21) per diluted share compared to GAAP net income of $1.6 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2006. GAAP gross margins for the third quarter of 2007 were 36% compared to 52% in the third quarter of 2006.



In addition, BigBand announced a restructuring plan designed to realign resources and significantly increase its efforts on video networking. As part of this plan, BigBand will reduce its workforce by 15% and retire its Cuda CMTS platform.



"Since our revised guidance announcement, we have re-evaluated our business, reviewed our market opportunities and conferred with our customers," commented Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, president and CEO of BigBand Networks. "We have decided to focus on our unique core competency -- video -- and no longer commit resources to the Cuda CMTS platform. In addition, we will reduce our workforce across the company to more closely align spending with near-term revenue opportunities. While our current operating challenges will take some time to work through, we expect to emerge from the next few quarters as a stronger, more focused company."http://www.bigbandnet.com

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SipStorm Chooses Level 3 to Enable FMC

SipStorm has selected Level 3's voice services to enable nationwide wholesale mobile phone service and fixed mobile convergence (FMC) services. SipStorm's converged communication service supports wireless and voice service providers who are implementing FMC services to both residential and business customers.



SipStorm includes the ability to send and receive local, long distance and international calls. By utilizing a single Level 3 VoIP phone number, a subscriber can send or receive phone calls to and from any mobile device, VoIP terminal adapters, or soft phones. The service can be used as a standalone pre- or post-paid mobile phone service -- or in conjunction with residential voice, data, and video -- enabling service providers to deliver triple or quadruple play services to their residential and small- to medium-sized business customers.



Level 3's local voice footprint allows SipStorm to offer its customers a broad and deep nationwide footprint by making local phone numbers available in areas where they previously could not offer service. In addition, Level 3's Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) hand-off capabilities enable their customers with flexible call control -- allowing SipStorm's customers to self-manage enhanced services such as voicemail and interactive voice response (IVR) services.

http://www.level3.com

http://www.sipstorm.com/

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Ditech Debuts Dynamic Transcoding

Ditech Networks announced a Dynamic Transcoding capability for its Packet Voice Processor (PVP) that supports a wide range of compressed and uncompressed codecs. The transcoding enables Service Providers to directly connect diverse codecs without compromising scalability, network performance or call quality. It can also reduce the required equipment session capacity for supporting VoIP service by up to 50 percent.



Specifically, Ditech's Dynamic Transcoding provides the ability to connect directly between 10 different industry standard codecs, resulting in thousands of potential combinations for interconnecting calls that traverse IP networks. In addition to voice codecs, the PVP also supports Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) and fax conversion for highly reliable IP transport.







Ditech said its Dynamic Transcoding can be combined with its Experience Intelligence (EXi) and Voice Quality Assurance (VQA) solutions. EXi non-intrusively monitors and measures voice quality during each call, and delivers an industry-standard voice quality score that reflects the subscriber call experience. VQA mitigates network- induced voice quality impairments and impairments from the caller's environment in real-time, on both ends of the call. The PVP platform simultaneously supports Dynamic Transcoding, VQA and EXi applications with a capacity of 16,128 concurrent calls per platform.

http://www.ditechnetworks.com

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Packeteer Resolves IRS Tax Dispute, Not Subject to $122 million

Packeteer resolved its previously reported dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Under the deal, the company's pre-existing federal net operating loss carryforwards ("NOLs") will offset essentially all increases in income with the following net impact: the company will not be subject to the $122 million and $49 million of regular tax liabilities and penalties, or related interest, previously asserted by the IRS with respect to 2003 and 2004; and the company expects that the total federal and state regular and alternative minimum income tax and interest payments required to be made by the company as a consequence of the agreement (including adjustments impacting 2005, which were not included in the original assessment), to be less than $500,000.

http://www.packeteer.com/

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AT&T Expands its Wholesale VoIP Connect Service

AT&T is expanding its wholesale Voice Over IP Connect Service (AVOICS), which provides U.S. service providers with IP-based connectivity to AT&T's global IP network for long distance call termination.



AVOICS provides unbranded and unbundled transport over the AT&T network, as well as termination of international and U.S. domestic traffic. Customers connect to the service via AT&T's Managed Internet Service (MIS)/Multiprotocol Label Switching-Private Network Transport (MPLS-PNT) service, which provides class-of-service voice quality, key security elements and advanced network reliability. AVOICS accepts U.S.-originated domestic outbound (1+) calls and international outbound (011+) calls by using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling.



AT&T said it has now expanded the scale and scope of its wholesale VoIP services, and is now offering AVOICS to customers that want the service with T1, T3 and OCX connectivity as well as meeting a market demand for a customer managed model.



The expansion of AVOICS specifically includes:

• Increased capacity in the VoIP network infrastructure to meet customer traffic demand



• Increased connectivity from T1 to T3 ... all the way to OC48



• Moving from an AT&T Managed Router Model to a Customer Managed Router Model to monitor the circuit



• Native and non-native IP traffic on the same circuit with unique IP signaling addresses

AT&T said it will continue to provide its Global Hubbing IP Access (GHIA) for operators that carry substantial volumes of international traffic. With GHIA, customers send their VoIP traffic to the AT&T network for VoIP termination. If no VoIP termination is available, a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) conversion is made to cost-effectively deliver calls over AT&T's network. AT&T also offers AT&T IP Toll-Free service to wholesale customers for use in their own large call centers, supporting their evolution to the contact center of the future.

http://www.att.com

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Verizon FiOS TV Enhances its Program Guide

Verizon introduced its new FiOS TV interactive media guide, which pulls together content from a variety of sources -- broadcast TV, Verizon's more than 12,000- title video-on-demand library and the subscriber's own DVR recordings -- into one media management system. Customers who have FiOS TV's Media Manager can also search, organize and enjoy their digital photos and music with the remote control. Verizon said that over the next year, subscribers will be able to manage additional content like games, podcasts and Internet video through the same guide. The company will also enable FiOS customers to use cell phones and the Internet to manage their home entertainment -- including scheduling recordings on their Home Media DVR.




http://www.verizon.com

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High Definition TV Reaches 14% Penetration in U.S. Households

Almost 14% of TV households in the U.S. are equipped with an HD television and HD tuner capable of receiving signals in HD (HD Capable), while 11.3% are equipped with an HD television and HD tuner and receive at least one HD network or station (HD Receivable), according to new research released by The Nielsen Company.



Los Angeles has the highest penetration of HD Capable homes (20.4%) and New York has the highest penetration of HD Receivable homes (17.5%). http://www.nielsenmedia.com/

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CounterPath Licenses Unified Communications Solution to Verizon Business

CounterPath, which develops softphone and SIP applications, has licensed its software to Verizon Business to enable voice, messaging and presence management in its Integrated Communications Package. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Verizon Business' Integrated Communications Package - currently available to U.S.-based Hosted IP Centrex customers - is a unified communications service which enables employees to control incoming and outgoing calls, access voicemail, manage their online presence, send text messages, and synchronize contacts and calendars.



Specifically, Verizon Business will use the CounterPath C++ SDK (Software Development Kit) to help power the soft phone components of the Integrated Communications Package. The CounterPath SDK runs beneath the surface of the Integrated Communications Package desktop client allowing Verizon Business customers to direct their incoming calls to a traditional phone, computer, mobile phone, PDA or voicemail. http://www.counterpath.com

http://www.verizon.com

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Alcatel-Lucent and IBM Expand Unified Communications Solution

Alcatel-Lucent introduced an integrated audio conferencing solution for IBM Lotus Sametime customers. The "OmniTouch My Teamwork for IBM Lotus Sametime" provides click-to-conference capability from Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Notes and audio conference scheduling and management from Lotus Sametime Web conferencing. Additional features include PSTN quality dial-in "meet-me" conferencing, audio conference scheduling, conference call control, active talker indication, and call recording. All features are embedded within the Lotus Sametime unified communications and collaboration client.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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U.S. Internet Tax Ban Extended Through 2014

The U.S. Congress has approved legislation that would bar states and local municipalities from imposing Internet specific taxes through 2014. The bill now heads to the President for signature. The current ban was set to expire on November 1st.

http://www.house.gov

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Huawei Unveils its ALL IP 4G Platform

Huawei Technologies rolled out its New Generation WiMAX commercial solution at PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2007 in Beijing.



Huawei said its ALL IP- based New Generation WiMAX solution adopts HSPA/LTE/UMB co-platform infrastructure, and integrates the 4G technologies including HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat-reQuest), MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Out-put). The products include a gateway, distributed base station, transmission, network management system and terminal. The solution could be deployed alongside GSM, CDMA, IMS, NGN and DSL integrated network.



Also at PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2007, Huawei showcased its 100 Mbps Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in a demonstration of multiplexed HDTV services. The demonstration features transmission speeds of 100 Mbps.

http://www.huawei.com

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RadiSys Adds Media Processing Blade, Boosting Media Server to 24K Ports

RadiSys introduced a new media processing blade for its Convedia CMS-9000 Media Server, delivering capacity and performance improvements for processing-intensive applications such as conferencing, video and low bitrate codec.

The Convedia CMS-9000 Media Server, which is already in customer production networks, was designed to accommodate modular capacity upgrades. The new MPC-IV card adds additional Digital Signal Processor (DSP) resources to the original Media Processing Card III (MPC-III) hardware design, providing up to 24,000 ports of media processing power on the CMS-9000 platform, representing a 30 percent capacity improvement compared to the media processing cards in RadiSys' first generation CMS-6000 Media Server systems. The new MPC-IV card continues to offer the improved CPU power of the original MPC-III design for CPU-bound applications like VoiceXML IVR processing, while adding the additional DSP resources for improved conference mixing, video, low bitrate codec and transcoding capacity.

http://www.radisys.com

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Akamai Releases "HDWeb" Proof-of-Concept Portal

Akamai Technologies announced The HDWeb, a proof-of-concept portal designed to showcase the experience consumers can have with high definition content online. The Website, available at www.thehdweb.com, showcases content from a variety of industries including music, movies, professional sports, games and news.



Companies providing HD content for the initiative include Apple, BBC Motion Gallery, CBS, Gannett, MTV Networks, NBA and more. Akamai said the proof-of-concept portal will serve as a temporary Internet Programming Guide to HD video on the Web and provide access to a complete HD experience. These companies understand the value that HD content brings their brand and are ahead of the curve by offering HD programming online.

http://www.thehdweb.com

http://www.akamai.com

• In August 2007, Akamai Technologies began delivering HD quality video content for its customers via its distributed edge delivery network with servers in more than 750 cities worldwide. For the Internet, Akamai said it is making the HD web possible by continuing to refine the infrastructure required to bring the HDTV experience to online audiences.
  
  
  
  HDTV is defined as pixel resolution of 1080i, 1080p or 720p. A 2-hour feature-length movie would need to be encoded at a bit rate of at least 6-8 Mbps, which would result in the file being a size of 5-8 GB. This presents numerous technical challenges to deliver such a high-quality, large file.
  
  
  
  Akamai calculates that to deliver a file encoded at 6 Mbps to an audience of one Nielsen ratings point (1,102,000 households) would require 6.6 Terabits of sustained bandwidth. Another critical factor to enable high bit rate delivery of very large HD files is the proximity of the end-user to the server sending the file. As the distance from the server becomes greater, throughput dramatically decreases. Even a seemingly small distance can result in lost throughput due to lower throughput, higher packet loss, and increased latency. As an example, the only way to achieve 10 to 20 Mbps throughput for typical PC end-users is if the server is less than 20 milliseconds away.

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"Connect Africa" Draws Promise of Large Investments from Leading Mobile Operators

At the Connect Africa summit, an ITU event being hosted by the government of Rwanda, leading global mobile operators announced plans to invest more than $50 billion in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years. The goal is to provide more than 90% of the population with mobile coverage by extending the reach of GSM mobile networks and enhancing the services with GPRS, EDGE and HSPA technologies.



According to the GSM Association, there are more than 150 million mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa today. However, a further 350 million people have mobile coverage and are not yet directly connected. As well as extending coverage, the mobile industry is focused on using its economies of scale to connect these people. As the number of users grows, so too will economic prosperity.



The GSMA estimates that an increase of 10 percentage points in mobile penetration can increase the annual growth rate of GDP by up to 1.2 percentage points.



Since sub-Saharan governments began liberalizing their telecommunication sectors at the turn of the millennium, the GSMA estimates that the mobile industry has invested $35 billion, providing more than 500 million people (67% of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa with mobile coverage.



MTN, Orange, Vodacom and Zain subsidiary Celtel are among the mobile operators planning to invest heavily in the expansion and enhancement of their networks.

http://www.gsmworld.com

http://www.connectafrica.gov.rw/

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XO Completes 800 Gbps Core Network Capacity Upgrade

XO Communications completed an 800 Gbps capacity upgrade on major coast-to-coast routes of its nationwide fiber optic network.
The upgrade delivers an additional 80 10-Gbps channels on major coast-to-coast network routes. This additional network capacity augments a capacity expansion XO completed last year which delivered 400 Gbps of capacity across the XO network.



XO also announced a new installation guarantee for wholesale customers that need faster provisioning of high-capacity network services. Specifically, XO is offering the XO "10 Gigs in 10 Days" Guarantee. This offers wholesale customers the ability to order 2.5 Gbps or 10 Gbps high capacity network transport services and have them provisioned in 10 business days across select major coast-to-coast routes on the XO network. Under guarantee, if XO Communications fails to install the service within business 10 days, the customer will be eligible for a one month service credit for each year of the customer's contract. The "XO 10 Gigs in 10 Days" Guarantee is being offered from November 1, 2007 until December 31, 2007 to wholesale customers that sign two- or three-year contract terms.

http://www.xo.com

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Atheros Posts Q3 Sales of $101 Million, Up 34% YoY

Atheros Communications reported record Q3 revenue of $106.3 million, up five percent from the $100.8 million reported in the second quarter of 2007 and up 34 percent from the $79.6 million reported in the third quarter of 2006. Net income (GAAP) was $9.7 million or $0.16 per diluted share. This compares with GAAP net income of $9.3 million or $0.16 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2007.



"Our networking business was especially strong in the third quarter, as sales of our 11g and 11n solutions led to significant increases in revenue with both our retail and carrier customers," said Craig Barratt, president and CEO of Atheros.

http://www.atheros.com

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Atheros Announces Low-Power Wi-Fi Solution for Mobile Devices

Atheros Communications announced a low-power chip for mobile WLAN devices that draws near-zero standby power and has nominal impact on battery life even in active mode, according to the company. The gains are achieved using a combination of advanced hardware and software power-saving protocols and techniques.



Atheros said that based on consistently repeated, actual power demonstration measurements, its new AR6002 chip consumes 70 percent less power than competitive solutions on the market in active mode while downloading content. This substantial power reduction results in longer battery life, enabling significantly more downloads and longer talk time between mobile device charges. For example, the AR6002 solution will take more than 100 hours to deplete a standard 3.7V, 800mAh phone battery in continual VoIP mode. In another application using the AR6002, 200 gigabytes of data can be downloaded before depleting the same battery.



In addition, Atheros said its AR6002 significantly extends battery life by drawing virtually zero power in standby, relieving users from having to switch the Wi-Fi function on and off. http://www.atheros.com

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D2 and Ikanos Partner for VoIP-Enabled Quad Play Gateways

Ikanos Communications has partnered with D2 Technologies to develop a quadruple play residential gateway design that integrates Ikanos' Fusiv Vx180 VDSL2 gateway processor with D2's vPort VoIP software. The residential gateway supports voice, video, data and mobile wireless services. The residential gateway design also accelerates the rollout of new VDSL2 customer premises equipment (CPE) for the home office or small- to medium-size businesses, offering comprehensive quality of service (QoS) for VoIP and Internet protocol television (IPTV) applications.



The Fusiv Vx180 multi-mode VDSL2 gateway processor provides 2.7 GHz of processing power, VoIP, multimode DSL and security, and supports QoS and wire speed performance. With the Fusiv Vx180, space and power requirements are lower because it combines Ikanos' VDSL2 CPE PHY and its Fusiv network processor architecture onto a single chip. The gateway processor is optimized for IPTV and triple play with features such as dynamic rate repartitioning (DRR) and seamless rate adaptation (SRA), which are expected to be incorporated into future standards enhancements.



D2's vPort embedded VoIP software offers support for integrated circuit and system on a chip (IC/SoC) designs, including ARM- and MIPS-based architectures.

http://www.D2tech.com

http://www.ikanos.com

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Verizon Adds 203K FiOS TV Customers, 229K FiOS Internet Customers in Q3

Verizon Communications reported Q3 revenue of $23.8 billion, up 5.8 percent; up 6.0 percent on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP). Operating income for Q3 was $4.2 billion, up 19.0 percent over last year. Some highlights for the quarter:

• Verizon Wireless added 1.8 million net retail customers and 1.6 million total net customers after reductions in wholesale customers. The company ended Q3 with 61.8 million retail (non-wholesale) customers and 63.7 million total customers.
  



• Retail churn was 1 percent. Churn among retail post-paid customers at 0.96 percent was substantially lower.



• Revenues totaled $11.3 billion, up 14.4 percent. Service revenues were $9.7 billion, up 15.1 percent, driven by customer growth and demand for data services.



• ARPU levels were the company's highest ever: $52.17 retail service ARPU, up 1.9 percent year over year; $10.59 retail data ARPU, up 42.9 percent.



• At the end of the quarter, more than half of the company's retail customers had broadband-capable devices.




Wireline



• Added a net of 202,000 new FiOS TV customers. The company has 717,000 FiOS TV customers in total, with approximately 600,000 added within the past 12 months. Including satellite TV customers served in partnership with DIRECTV (a net of 85,000 added this quarter), Verizon has more than 1.5 million video customers.



• Verizon added a net of 285,000 new broadband connections (DSL and FiOS Internet connections combined). Broadband connections totaled 8.0 million, an increase of 21.3 percent compared with the third quarter 2006. The company added a net of 229,000 FiOS Internet connections this quarter, for a total of 1.3 million.



• ARPU in legacy Verizon wireline markets (which excludes former MCI consumer markets) increased 10.8 percent to $58.79, compared with last year's third quarter. This increase was due to strong demand for broadband and TV services.



• Wireline operating income margin rose to 9.4 percent, compared with 8.8 percent in last year's third quarter.



• As of the end of Q3, the FiOS network passed 8.5 million premises. Third-quarter EPS dilution from FiOS deployment and customer-acquisition costs was 9 cents. FiOS Internet was available for sale to 6.5 million premises in parts of 16 states by the end of the quarter. Penetration for the service averaged 20.0 percent across all markets. FiOS TV was available for sale to 4.7 million premises by the end of the quarter. Penetration for the service averaged 15.2 percent across all markets.


Verizon Business


• Revenues of $5.3 billion, or growth of 2.2 percent compared with last year's third quarter on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP). This is Verizon Business' fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year, pro-forma revenue growth (non-GAAP, calculated as if Verizon and MCI had merged on Jan. 1, 2005).
  

"Our third-quarter results show that we have hit our stride as a leading wireless, broadband and enterprise company," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg. "In recent years, we have transformed our business model and revenue base. Our results throughout 2007, and especially in the third quarter, show that our strategy has been successful. We expect to build on these results in the fourth quarter and beyond."http://www.verizon.com

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Avanex Signs Supply Deal With Alcatel-Lucent, Pirelli Takes Stake

Alcatel-Lucent has extended its supply agreement with Avanex for an additional three years. In addition, the Pirelli Group has purchased the 12.4 percent stake in Avanex previously held by Alcatel-Lucent. Pirelli also signed a supply agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for related components. Avanex solutions enable or enhance optical wavelength multiplexing, dispersion compensation, switching and routing, transmission, amplification, and include network-managed subsystems.
http://www.avanex.com

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NDS Cites Rapid Growth in Conditional Access

NDS, a majority-owned subsidiary of News Corp., reported quarterly revenue of $205 million, up from $164 million in the same period last year. Net income was $46 million, compared to $35 million a year earlier.



Some key metrics:

• Smart card deliveries (in millions) reached 7.4 million, compared to 6.7 million a year ago



• The number of authorized cards reached 78.6 million, compared to 66.6 million a year ago



• Cumulative deployments of Middleware Clients reached 69.9 million, with 8.1 million additions in the quarter



• Bharti Airtel, India's largest cellular operator, has selected NDS's VideoGuard conditional access, MediaHighway middleware, and a customized electronic program guide (EPG) for the company's new direct- to-home satellite platform.



• NDS VideoGuard conditional access technology has been selected by Tianjin Broadcast & TV Network Co. Ltd., based in China, to protect its new digital cable service.



• NDS announced an agreement with Vision TV, Ukraine's first licensed DTH satellite pay-TV provider, to provide Vision TV with NDS's VideoGuard conditional access and MediaHighway middleware, as well as an EPG.



• China's Anhui Radio and Television Network Company selected NDS VideoGuard for the launch of digital cable TV services for its subscribers in Anhui.



• NDS announced an agreement to provide Serbia Broadband, the largest cable operator in Serbia, with an end-to-end system to secure and enable its national cable television platform. NDS already provides its VideoGuard Express system to Serbia Broadband's direct-to-home satellite television service, which incorporates NDS' conditional access, MediaHighway middleware and electronic program guide (EPG).
  
• NDS announced the acquisition of CastUp, Inc. ("CastUp"), a leader in solutions for the management and distribution of video over the Internet. CastUp, a profitable and fast growing company, will provide NDS with substantial know-how and experience in online video delivery.



• NDS has partnered with VBox and Cyberlink to deliver the first fully converged TV and PC platform to Israel's "yes". In addition, NDS announced that "yes" has chosen to implement NDS VideoGuard PC to secure and enhance the functionality of its new web-based video content portal.

http://www.nds.com

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ShoreTel Reports 57 % YoY Revenue Growth, Signs AT&T as a Channel Partner

ShoreTel reported quarterly revenue of $32 million, an increase of 57% over the same quarter last year. GAAP net income was $2.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, compared to $1.0 million, or $.03 per diluted share, reported in the same period last year. Gross margin for the quarter improved to 64% from 61% last year.



ShoreTel also announced that it has expanded its relationship with AT&T by signing a master reseller agreement under which AT&T will resell ShoreTel's Pure IP unified communications systems and implementation services. AT&T is one of the world's largest resellers of enterprise telephony. http://www.shoretel.com

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SanDisk Sues 25 Firms

SanDisk filed three patent infringement actions against 25 companies that manufacture, sell and import USB flash drives, CompactFlash cards, multimedia cards, MP3/media players and/or other removable flash storage products. The company said the legal action demonstrates its commitment to enforcing its patents. http://www.sandisk.com

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Sandisk Launches 8GB MicroSDHC and M2 Card

SanDisk announced the availability of its 8GB microSDHC and M2 flash memory cards to retail outlets worldwide. The device targets next gen mobile devices integrating phones, music players, digital cameras and video player/recorders.



In addition to the microSDHC and M2 card, SanDisk also offers a range of both embedded and removable storage solutions for mobile handset manufacturers and mobile network operators. These include iNAND and mDOC embedded flash drives; microSD, miniSD removable flash cards; and SIM and MegaSIM cards.



SanDisk's 8GB microSDHC an M2 cards are have retail prices of $139.99 and $149.99 respectively.

http://www.sandisk.com

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N.E.T. to Acquire Quintum for VoIP Gateways

Network Equipment Technologies agreed to acquire privately-held Quintum Technologies, a supplier of enterprise VoIP access switching and gateways, for $41 million, comprised of $20.5 million in cash and $20.5 million in NET stock. NET will also assume approximately $2.0 million in debt currently on Quintum's balance sheet, and has committed to issue to Quintum employees a number of stock options having an approximate Black Scholes valuation of at least $3 million.



Quintum's "Tenor" line VoIP access switching and gateway products are deployed in enterprise and service provider networks. Quintum offers solutions ranging from 2 to 48 analog VoIP ports, from 1 to 32 T1, E1, PRI spans and 2, 4 or 8 BRI/ST ports, as well as Session Border Controllers and a Remote Management Session Server for management of remote Tenors, even those behind NAT firewalls. The products are distributed in more than 50 countries through independent resellers.



Founded in 1998, Quintum is headquartered in Eatontown, NJ with additional offices in Schaumberg, IL; Hong Kong, Taipei and Shanghai, and currently has more than 75 employees.

http://www.net.com

http://www.quintum.com

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Occam Completes Terawave Acquisition, Adds GPON Products

Occam Networks completed its previously-announced acquisition of Terawave Communications for $3.2 million in cash. Among the assets of Terawave acquired by Occam are the following:

• FSAN ITU G.984 GPON interoperable technology,
  
• Technology focused on GPON physical interfaces,
  
• Products and technology directed towards Metro Ethernet, and
  
• Technology license agreements with Ikanos Communications and Mindspeed Technologies.

http://www.occamnetworks.com

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Avaya Completes Privatization

Silver Lake and TPG Capital have completed their acquisition of Avaya in a transaction valued at approximately $8.3 billion. Under the deal, Avaya stockholders are entitled to receive $17.50 in cash, without interest and less any applicable withholding taxes, for each share of common stock they owned immediately prior to the effective time of the merger. Avaya common stock ceased trading on the NYSE before the commencement of trading on October 26, 2007 and will be delisted from the NYSE.

http://www.avaya.com

• Earlier this month, in its last filing as a public company, Avaya said its Q4 2007 revenues increased 4.8 percent to $1.429 billion compared to $1.364 billion in the same period last year. Net income was $35 million and earnings per share of 8 cents for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2007 on a GAAP basis.



• In October 2000, Avaya was spun off from Lucent Technologies and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AV.



• Avaya is headed by Louis J. D'Ambrosio, who previously was SVP and President, Global Sales and Marketing at Avaya. Before that, D'Ambrosio spent 16 years at IBM in senior leadership roles across IBM Global Services, Software, and Sales and Marketing.



• Silver Lake's investment portfolio includes, or has included, Ameritrade, Avago, Business Objects, Flextronics, Gartner, Instinet, IPC Systems, MCI, NASDAQ, Network General, NXP, Sabre Holdings, Seagate Technology, Serena Software, SunGard Data Systems, Thomson and UGS.

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Rogers Tests 7.2 Mbps Wireless Data in Canada

Rogers has begun field trials of 7.2 Mbps wireless data service in Brampton and Montreal using 3.5 generation wireless HSPA/UMTS technology (High Speed Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) technology.



The announcement follows Roger's expansion of its HSPA network to 25 Canadian markets earlier this month.



Rogers plans to spend approximately $500 million over the past two years upgrading its network.

http://www.rogers.com

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China's ZTE Reports Fast Growth

ZTE, the Chinese manufacturer of telecom infrastructure products, said its Q3 revenue climbed 53.07 percent to RMB 8.216 billion as compared to the same period last year, and its net profit rose 116.46% to RMB 143 million as compared to the same period last year.



ZTE said its domestic telecommunications market enjoyed stable growth during the nine months ended 30 September 2007. Growth in investments was underpinned by expenditure mainly in three areas, namely TD-SCDMA network building, core network revamping and upgrading by carriers of IT systems, while investments in mobile telecommunication network equipment further increased as a percentage of total investments in the telecommunications sector. The company announced closer cooperation with major domestic carriers such as China Mobile and China Unicom.



ZTE said the international market for telecommunications equipment also sustained stable growth thanks to technological innovations and market demands that had provided increasing driving force. Rapid changes in new technologies and fast growth in emerging markets in Asia and Africa became key factors for growth as well as the focus of competition for the telecommunications industry.

http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/

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Telecom New Zealand Promises ADSL2+ Rollout, Plans Separation

Telecom New Zealand submitted plans to the national regulator for the operational separation of its retail, wholesale and network businesses functions. At the same time, the carrier announced plans for a nationwide rollout of ADSL2+ and fiber-to-the-node technology over the next four years. Telecom New Zealand plans to invest about



Telecom Draft Separation Plan is online.

http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/52553/telecom-draft-undertakings.pdf

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NTT DoCoMo Revenue Declines 2.4% in 1H07, Reorganization Announced

For the six month period ended 30-Sept.-2007, NTT DoCoMo reported revenue of 2.325 billion Yen, down 2.4% from the same period last year, and operating income of 408.5 million Yen, down 21% compared to the previous year.



During the first half of the year, NTT DoCoMo introduced a number of discount plans. The company also cited an accounting change in the way it recognizes revenue under 2-year subscription deals for the drop in revenue.



NTT DoCoMo was serving 52.94 million subscribers (FOMA + mova) as of 30-Sept-2007, an increase of 320,000 since March. The number of FOMA users(3G) reached 40.04 million, up 4.5 million since March, and now representing in excess of 75% of the subscriber base. The number of handsets (FOMA + mova) sold in the period was 12.8 million units.



NTT DoCoMO currently has about 39,000 outdoor base stations, up by 3,300 since March. The number of facilities with indoor base stations is 12,100, up by 1,700 since March.



Separately, NTT DoCoMo announced plans to reorganize its group structure by integrating its eight wholly-owned regional subsidiaries into one nationwide entity. The eight regional subsidiaries were set up in 1993, at a time when the mobile telephony sector was experiencing phenomenal growth, for the purpose of rapidly developing and deploying local networks.

http://www.ntt.co.jp

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Nokia Siemens Networks to Acquire Atrica for Carrier Ethernet

Nokia Siemens Networks will acquire Atrica, a supplier of Carrier Ethernet solutions for Metropolitan Area Networks, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will allow Nokia Siemens Networks to offer end-to-end Carrier Ethernet Transport solutions that reduce the cost and complexity of data-optimized transport networks - from access to the core network.



Atrica's product suite consists of its A-8100 Carrier Ethernet Core Switch, its A-4100 Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Switch and its A-2100 Carrier Ethernet Edge Switch, as well as the Atrica Service Platform for Ethernet Networks (ASPEN), an integrated service provisioning and management system. Earlier this year, Atrica introduced its A-1180 Multi-port Carrier Ethernet Demarcation Device, which enables end-to-end service delivery across third-party networks - as well as Atrica-based networks - with QoS control for each individual service.



Atrica has over 40 customers including Orange Business Services, KVH and Optimum LightPath.



Atrica is a privately-held company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California and R&D in Israel. Atrica has approximately 180 employees.



Atrica is the first company to be acquired by Nokia Siemens Networks.


About ATRICAhttp://www.atrica.com

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

• Atrica was founded in February 2000 and has raised over $170 million. The company has been funded by industry notables, including 3Com, Vesbridge Partners, GunnAllen Venture Partners, Innovacom (the venture capital subsidiary of France Telecom), JK&B, Investor Growth, AT&T Corporation, Intel Capital, Bezeq, Saturn Venture Partners, and Telia.

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Hibernia Offers 40 Gbps Wavelengths from Boston to Halifax

Hibernia Atlantic has begun offering native 40 Gbps capacity over a subsea span between Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Hibernia Atlantic has deployed Huawei Technologies' optical transmission gear to enable this service. Specifically, Huawei supplied a 192-channel, 40G system; increasing the capacity from 1.9 Tbps to 7.68 Tbps using 40G technology.

Huawei accomplished this upgrade with its internally developed, 40G integrated solution, which includes its patented DRZ/ODB technologies. Huawei's 40G transponder also features automatic electrical dispersion compensation, eliminating the need for DCM modules.
In addition, Anritsu supplied its network performance tester for the deployment test, as well as its 40G SDH/SONET analyzer.



http://www.huawei.com

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Huawei Deploys IP Base Stations for China Mobile

Huawei Technologies has deployed what is described as the world's first IP-based base station system (IP BSS) commercial network for China Mobile. The installation uses Huawei's next generation base station controller, the BSC6000.



The IP BSS commercial network uses IP to transmit voice and data services avoiding the cost of TDM transmission, while meeting the requirements of increased data transmissions.



Huawei estimates that by adopting IP transmission, an operator's transmission costs can be reduced by 40% while relying on exiting E1 transmission resources.

http://www.huawei.com

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Comcast Adds 450K Cable Modem Users, 662K VoIP in Q3

Comcast's cable segment revenue increased 11% to $7.4 billion for the third quarter of 2007 as compared to $6.7 billion in the third quarter of 2006. The company attributed the growth to consumer demand for its Comcast Triple Play offering.



Some highlights for Q3:

• Revenue generating units (RGUs) increased 1.4 million, a decrease from the 1.5 million additions reported in the third quarter of 2006. The company ended Q3 with 55.8 million RGUs, a 13% increase from the 49.4 million reported one year ago.



• Comcast added 489,000 digital cable customers compared to 559,000 digital cable customers added in the same quarter of 2006. This gives Comcast 14.7 million digital customers or 61% of basic cable subscribers compared to 50% one year ago. The digital cable customer additions in the third quarter of 2007 include 113,000 full digital cable and 376,000 digital starter subscribers.



• 5.8 million or 40% of digital cable subscribers take advanced services such as digital video recorders (DVR) and high-definition television (HDTV) compared to 4.0 million or 33% one year ago.



• added 450,000 high-speed Internet subscribers. Penetration is now at 27%. Comcast ended the quarter with 12.9 million high-speed Internet subscribers.



• added 662,000 Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) customers during the quarter. Penetration has reached 9%. The service is now being marketed to 40 million homes representing 83% of Comcast's footprint. Phone revenue increased 86% to $472 million in the third quarter of 2007 from $253 million in 2006.


CAPEX increased 19% to $1.5 billion in the third quarter of 2007 compared to $1.3 billion in the same period a year ago.

http://www.comcast.com

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Global Crossing Expands VoIP Network in USA, Mexico

Global Crossing announced the extension of its VoIP Local Service to 16 major metropolitan cities in Mexico and nearly 400 additional cities in the United States. The addition of Mexico brings to 21 the total number of countries worldwide where the service is offered. In the U.S., the company expanded availability of VoIP Local Service to nearly 400 additional cities, including Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and Tucson, bringing that total to more than 1,400 nationwide.



Global Crossing VoIP Local Service is an inbound local service that provides nationwide Direct Inward Dialing/Direct Dial Inward functionality through a single IP interconnection. The service lets customers originate traffic on the public switched telephone network in different countries. Traffic is then converted to VoIP on Global Crossing's network and delivered to the customer's IP network. VoIP Local Service also can eliminate traditional time division multiplexing, private line and foreign exchange service fees by providing a single IP connection to serve multiple markets. The service is delivered over Global Crossing's global, fully meshed MPLS-based network.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

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Internet2 and Level 3 to Offer Advanced Networking Awards

Level 3 Communications will sponsor a new "Wave of the Future" category as part of the Internet2 Driving Exemplary Applications (IDEA) Awards program.



Open to existing or proposed applications, the Internet2 IDEA awards are designed to showcase projects that apply the latest in advanced networking capabilities to enable transformational progress in research, to enhance teaching and learning, and to potentially increase the impact of next-generation networks around the world.



Through sponsorship provided by Level 3, the winning submission in the "Wave of the Future" category will receive a dedicated, point-to-point optical circuit of up to 10 Gbps on the new Internet2 network infrastructure between two connector sites for a one year period. The circuit will be provided specifically to support and enable the award-winning project.

http://www.internet2.edu/http://www.level3.com

• Earlier this month, the Internet2 initiative completed the rollout of its new nationwide network infrastructure, which boasts an initial capacity of 100 Gbps nationwide and bandwidth-on-demand capabilities. Beginning in January 2008, the DCN will enable researchers to provision up to 10 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth on demand. The new infrastructure also enables long-term dedicated point-to-point optical circuits up to 10 Gbps on separate wavelengths as part of the organization's WaveCo service.



• Level 3 is deploying Infinera's Digital Optical Networking equipment across the dedicated high capacity backbone to enable dynamic optical circuit provisioning for the Internet2 community. Internet2 has also partnered with Ciena Corporation to deploy their CoreDirector Multiservice Switch for switching and sub-wavelength grooming services which allows members to customize their connections from 10 Gbps down to 51 Mbps to meet their institutional networking needs. Internet2 will deploy its current Juniper T640 routers to provide advanced IP capabilities.

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Vonage and Verizon Resolve Patent Dispute

Vonage and Verizon announced a settlement in their patent dispute. The terms of the resolution depend on how the Court of Appeals decides Vonage's pending petition for rehearing regarding two of the Verizon patents (the '574 and '711). If Vonage wins rehearing on either the '574 or '711 patent or if the injunction is vacated as to the '574 or '711 patent, Vonage will pay Verizon $80 million. If Vonage does not win rehearing on either the '574 or '711 patent, or if the stay is lifted reinstating the injunction, Vonage will pay Verizon $117.5 million.

http://www.vonage.com

http://www.verizon.com

• Earlier this month, Vonage settled its pending patent dispute with Sprint and entered into a licensing arrangement valued at $80 million. The fee includes $35 million for past use of license, $40 million for a fully paid future license, and $5 million in prepayment for services.

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Foundry Reports Q3 Sales of $160M, Growing Service Provider Sales

Foundry Networks reported Q3 revenue of $159.5 million, compared to $118.8 million in the third quarter of 2006, and compared to $143.2 million in the second quarter of 2007, an increase of 34.2% and 11.3% respectively. Net income was $27.6 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, compared to net income of $12.2 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2006, and net income of $15.6 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2007.



The company said North American commercial revenue represented 52.5% of total revenue while sales to Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) represented 12.2% of total revenue. Both geographies were down slightly from the prior quarter due to normal summer seasonality. Sales to Japan represented 5.4% of total revenue, a decrease from 5.7% of total revenue in the second quarter of 2007 but a slight increase in terms of absolute dollars. Sales to the U.S. Federal Government were seasonally strong, representing 22% of total revenue, an increase of over 100% from the second quarter of 2007.



Within the service provider market, Foundry Networks began shipping and recognizing revenue during the third quarter from its 32-slot routers, the XMR 32000 and MLX-32. The delivery of this new platform helped the overall router revenue grow to 17% of total revenue, a 40% increase from the second quarter of 2007. Overall, service provider revenue grew to approximately 25% of total revenue in the quarter.

http://www.foundrynetworks.com/

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Ikanos Posts Q3 Revenue of $27.3 million

Ikanos Communications reported Q3 revenue of $27.3 million compared with revenue of $25.7 million for the second quarter of 2007 and revenue of $36.7 million for the third quarter of 2006. GAAP net loss for the third quarter of 2007 was $13.0 million, or $0.45 per share, on 28.7 million weighted average shares and includes a charge of $3.5 million related primarily to the write-off of design tools and severance expenses. This compares with a net loss of $7.2 million, or $0.25 per share, on 28.4 million weighted average shares in the second quarter of fiscal 2007 and with a net loss of $3.6 million, or $0.13 per share, on 27.4 million weighted average shares in the third quarter of 2006.



"Solid demand from European and Japanese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) resulted in a significant sequential increase in access port shipments," said Michael A. Ricci, Ikanos' president and CEO. "To accelerate our timeline towards profitable growth, we have reduced our expense structure going forward through an executive restructuring and outsourcing physical backend design. By taking these actions, we can focus on more efficiently delivering leading-edge broadband solutions to our customers worldwide."
http://www.ikanos.com

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DSL Forum Advances its Specification Work

The DSL Forum today unveiled its BroadbandSuite Release Plan, representing a major new phase of its work to advance broadband services.



The DSL Forum has developed approximately 150 Technical Reports (TRs) over the past 14 years that address issues that range from interoperability to remote management of the digital home. The goal of the Forum's new Release Plan is to clearly identify which TRs are associated with specific milestones of broadband development. The Release Plan also provides for the first time, a defined roadmap of Forum work in the pipeline--spelling out exactly what is the next stage of development.



BroadbandSuite Release 1.0: This initial set of specifications provided for Internet access via ADSL or SHDSL over a QoS-enabled ATM architecture. It supports VoIP transport & VoDSL.

BroadbandSuite Release 2.0 is a solution set of the DSL Forum's most recent work, defining the platform that effectively supports more complex applications such as IPTV streaming. It specifies triple-play access via ADSL2plus over a QoS-enabled Ethernet architecture. Full support for multicast.






BroadbandSuite Release 3.0 is tentatively scheduled for completion and release third quarter 2008. It will define triple-play access via VDSL2 & GPON over a QoS-enabled Ethernet architecture. Full support for multicast to enable IPTV streaming, data model and integrated remote management of Set-Top Box, performance monitoring & diagnostics, and more.

http://www.dslforum.org

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Qualcomm's Gobi Enables Notebook Connectivity to 3G, 2G, GPS

Qualcomm introduced its "Gobi" solution for providing notebook computers with access to CDMA2000 EV-DO and UMTS HSPA networks.
The embedded Gobi solution includes Qualcomm's MDM1000 chipset, associated software and API, and a reference design for a software-defined configurable data module supporting both EV-DO Rev. A and HSPA with full backward compatibility, as well as GPS functionality.



Commercial release is expected in Q2 2008.

http://www.3gchipsets.com/gobi

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Sweden's Com Hem Deploys IMS Network

Com Hem, which provides TV, broadband and telephony services to around 40 percent of all Swedish homes, has activated a commercial IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform in its network. Com Hem's IMS solution, including the IMS Core and SURPASS hiQ 8000 voice platform, has been provided and integrated by Nokia Siemens Networks. Com Hem is using IMS initially to provide VoIP. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

http://www.comhem.se

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Level 3 Delivers Multiple 10G Wavelengths to Highwinds

Level 3 Communications' Content Markets Group is supplying High Speed Internet Access and multiple 10 Gbps wavelength to provide the underlying network backbone services that power Highwinds' RollingThunder network. The Level 3 facilities are being used to link Highwinds' data centers in ten cities throughout the United States and in Europe. This business relationship also enables Highwinds to expand its network capabilities and market reach by tapping into Level 3's internationally deployed network for global content distribution. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Highwinds' RollingThunder network is capable of distributing Internet- based content to users throughout the world. The company operates strategically placed data centers, which house server and storage technology used to manage content, in Amsterdam, Ashburn, Va., Atlanta, Chicago, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Phoenix. Currently, 12 data centers in 10 cities are connected through 10 Gbps wavelengths provided by Level 3.

http://www.level3.com

http://www.highwinds.com

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Sonus Unveils IMX 2.0 Application Platform

Sonus Networks unveiled its IMX 2.0 Multimedia Applications Platform, combining the support for voice-based services delivered in the original platform with a streamlined feature and application environment for advanced multimedia and data-intensive services.



The IMX platform is part of Sonus' IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture aimed at helping network operators manage their advanced next- generation networks. The new version enables network operators to embrace a Web-based model for application development; specifically, the ability to develop new applications quickly, rollout to a test audience, and scale as consumer demand validates the application.
http://www.sonusnet.com

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Cisco WebEx and Oracle Launch Collaborative CRM Solution

Cisco's WebEx group began offering Oracle's Siebel CRM On Demand Service, which is a customer relationship management (CRM) application service. The new offering is part of the WebEx Connect application ecosystem. Key capabilities of the service include:

• Sales management tools that allow users to engage prospects at key points in the sales process



• Sales dashboards that consolidate critical information and streamline activities for a 360-degree view of every opportunity



• Integrated reporting to improve sales productivity by automatically tracking WebEx meetings and prospecting activity



• Forecasting, reporting and pipeline visualization tools to analyze sales data



• Real-time process management to optimize sales methodologies with testing and analytical feedback.

http://www.webex.com

http://www.oracle.com

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