Wednesday, November 28, 2007

European Commission Offers Mobile App for Tracking Carbon Footprint

The European Commission launched a mobile application that allows consumers to track their carbon footprint. The "mobGAS" mobile phone application, which is available in 21 European languages, was developed at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. It allows users to see the implications of the choices they make every day, in terms of the three major greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Information about everyday activities -- cooking, transport, lighting, electronic appliances etc. - is put into the application,...

India's Idea Cellular Selects Ericsson for GSM and Managed Services

Idea Cellular, an Indian mobile operator currently serving some 20 million subscribers, selected Ericsson as the sole supplier of its GSM network in Mumbai, India.Under the four-year deal, Ericsson will supply radio access, microwave transmission, and core network equipment, including Ericsson's Mobile Softswitch Solution. Ericsson will also be responsible for network deployment and integration, as well as managed services including network and field...

Belgacom Bundles DSL and Mobile Internet

Belgacom launched a service package that combines mobile internet and ADSL or VDSL. The single-bill service offers Belgacom's broadband customers two options: 10 hours of mobile surfing on the Proximus 3G network for EUR 20.95 per month, or 2GB of mobile surfing for EUR 34.95 per month. Belgacom said its HSDPA mobile network offers downloads speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps and reaches 80% of the country's populated areas. http://www.belgacom....

Corning Notes First Customer for "ClearCurve" Rugged Drop FTTH Cable

Corning Cable Systems named Connexion Technologies as the first customer of its ClearCurve fiber. Connexion Technologies, which is deploying FTTH networks in markets across the U.S., is using ClearCurve Rugged Drop Cable in its multiple dwelling unit (MDU) deployments. This follows a field trial in West Palm Beach.ClearCurve Rugged Drop Cable is 4.8 mm in diameter and is designed for applications where other physical cable protection, such as microduct, is neither available nor desired. Corning said its ClearCurve design offers significant protection...

Avail Media to Resell Espial's IPTV Service Platform

Avail Media, a provider of content aggregation and IPTV transport services, agreed to resell Espial's Evo IPTV Service Platform to small and mid-sized operators in the North American market. The offering includes a large transport rights library of more than 220 channels from the major national programmers including ESPN, ABC, Disney, MTV Networks, Fox Networks, and others.The partners also intend to jointly develop and share revenues for a range of new and differentiating IPTV applications that will leverage the strengths of their respective technologies....

Qualcomm Adds 700 MHz Support for CDMA2000 and WCDMA

Qualcomm has added support for CDMA2000 and WCDMA (UMTS) wireless services in the 700 MHz band to its product roadmap. Qualcomm's RTR6570 transceiver delivers support for the 700 MHz band to CDMA2000 and WCDMA (UMTS) devices. The transceiver also supports all other frequency bands in the United States, including 850 MHz, 1700/2100 MHz, and 1900 MHz for CDMA2000. The RTR6570 is a CMOS transceiver that is scheduled to sample mid-2008, enabling commercial devices to be ready for the first 700 MHz service launches expected as early as the beginning...

Motorola's Ed Zander to Step Down as CEO

Motorola named Greg Brown, 47, as its new CEO, effective January 1, 2008, replacing Edward J. Zander, who will continue to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors until the company's annual meeting of stockholders in May 2008.Brown currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Motorola. Prior to his role as President and COO, Mr. Brown headed four different businesses at Motorola. He also led the $3.9 billion acquisition of Symbol Technologies, the second largest transaction in Motorola's history and an important strategic move...

Google Confirms Plans to Bid in FCC Spectrum Auction

Google confirmed its intention to participate in the FCC's upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) band, which begins on January 24, 2008. Google will bid for the spectrum on its own rather than seek partners."We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are," said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google. "Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely...

Comcast Hires Former AT&T & Lucent Exec

Comcast announced that James J. Finnegan has joined the company as Vice President, Intellectual Property Strategy. Previously, Finnegan spent 17 years at AT&T and Lucent as a leading contributor to their intellectual property business. Most recently he served as Vice President, Intellectual Property, for Qimonda AG in Munich, Germany. He has also served in various consulting roles to major communications and electronics firms. http://www.comcast....

Xtera Acquires Azea Networks, Extending its Subsea Optical Portfolio

Xtera Communications has acquired Azea Networks, a privately held company based in the UK and focused on delivering substantial capacity gains to existing undersea repeatered links, for an undisclosed sum.Xtera said the acquisition extends its subsea product portfolio from the unrepeatered market to include repeatered subsea applications. Xtera's unrepeatered product line provides extended reach for new deployments and enables existing unrepeatered links to be upgraded to significantly higher capacities. Azea's product line provides similar benefit...

Sandvine Launches Service Delivery Engine

Sandvine has added a Service Delivery Engine (SDE) to its deep packet inspection-based (DPI-based) Policy Traffic Switches, giving service providers a policy infrastructure to launch next gen services with network-wide quality of service (QoS) over multiple access technologies: cable, DSL, FTTH, 3G wireless and WiMAX. Through universal equipment signaling, the SDE allows policy enforcement network-wide, from the edge to the core. The SDE supports standards such as IMS, TISPAN and PCMM, providing end-to-end network resource management and control...

U4EA Acquires J6 for Voice Signaling Gateways

U4EA Technologies, a provider of integrated access gateways for enterprises, has acquired J6 Technology, a supplier of next generation network signaling gateways. Financial terms were not disclosed.J6 Technology has expertise in voice signaling systems and protocol translation for enabling TDM to IP conversions and network connections.J6 Technology includes a complete set of PBX and ISDN protocols, including PRI, BRI, CAS, DPNSS, and QSIG, and uses...

Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) Sets 2008 Course

Based on the successful demonstration of On-Demand Ethernet Services conducted this summer at ECOC 2007, the Optical Internetworking Forum's technical leadership launched an E-NNI 2.0 Routing Project to address additional routing support for multilayer UNI and E-NNI signaling. The Forum said its course for 2008 will be guided by its 2007 Worldwide Interoperability Demonstration."The OIF is quickly incorporating what we learned during the three-month...

Verio Offers First IPv6-Enabled Managed Hosting in North America

Verio, a subsidiary of NTT Communications, will begin offering IPv6 connectivity for customers and solution provider partners using its Virtual Private Sever (VPS) and Managed Private Server (MPS) hosting services. The offering is described as the first managed, IPv6 commercial hosting service based in North America.NTT Communications already supports the Verio IPv6 initiative on the NTT Communications Global IPv6 backbone network, which is delivering...

Verscom Launch New Hosted VoIP Partitioning Service with NexTone

Verscom, a supplier of carrier solutions in EMEA, has deployed NexTone's IntelliConnect System to offer hosted VoIP partitioning with full redundancy. NexTone's IntelliConnect System includes NexTone's Session Border Controller (SBC), Multi-protocol Session Exchange (MSX), and Real-time Session Manager (RSM).Verscom has been a value-added partner for NexTone in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for the last two years and has supplied numerous NexTone networks to carriers in the region. In addition, Verscom runs more than 850 million minutes per...

Patent and Trademark Office Rules for TiVO over EchoStar

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued a decision in favor of TiVo in a reexamination of TiVo's Multimedia Timewarping System patent, U.S. patent number 6,233,389. TiVo hailed the ruling.In a statement, EchoStar expressed disappointment but said the decision, would not impact its pending appeal to the Federal Circuit court, where the company hopes the court will reverse a earlier district court ruling."http://www.tivo.com http://www.echostar....

Verizon Selects LTE for 4G Evolution

Verizon outlined plans to develop and deploy its fourth generation mobile broadband network using LTE -- Long Term Evolution -- the technology developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards organization. The selection of LTE provides Verizon and Vodafone -- joint owners of U.S.-based Verizon Wireless -- with a unique opportunity to adopt a common access platform with true global scale and compatibility with existing technologies...

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

NexTone Notes Customer Deployments in Balkans, Russia

IT TEL d.o.o., an alternative telecommunication operator for voice and data services in the Adriatic/Balkan region of Europe, has purchased NexTone's IntelliConnect System, including its Session Border Controller (SBC), Multi-protocol Session Exchange (MSX), and Real-time Session Manager (RSM). IT TEL will use the NexTone system to offer high-quality voice services on a national and international level for private users, corporate customers, carriers and operators. Specifically, IT TEL will be able to offer a broad range of voice and data services...

Paramount Joins BT Vision Download Store

Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment agreed to make around 150 of its films available from the BT Vision Download Store. BT Vision Download Store is an online video store available to all UK broadband customers, regardless of which internet service provider they use.http://www.downloadstore.bt....

Exalt Releases GHz Tri-band DS3 Wireless Backhaul System

Exalt Communications released its new EX-5i-DS3 high capacity wireless backhaul system, supporting all three 5 GHz sub-bands in one system.The 5i-DS3 all-indoor system carries low latency native TDM and native IP, and offers software expandability to add capacity on demand. Additional features include high-precision 1 MHz tuning across 600MHz of spectrum, and variable channel bandwidth to mitigate interference, high security SNMPv3 management, proprietary link security coding, and AES encryption functionality, Monitored Hot Standby, and "ExaltSync"...

GE Fanuc Offers AdvancedTCA IP Packet Processor Blade

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms introduced its AT2-5800 IP Packet Processor Advanced TCA Blade, featuring two high performance Cavium OCTEON Plus 16-core CN5860 multi-core Secure Communications Processors (SCPs) operating at up to 750MHz. The blade, which is designed to enable data and control plane services in the same form factor, will scale to dual 900MHz OCTEON Plus CN5860 processors when available from Cavium. A Rear Transition Module (RTM)...

Veraz Partners with Telarix on Next Generation Routing

Veraz Networks and Telarix, a provider of Interconnect Business Optimization (IBO) and settlement solutions, announced a joint solution to enable carriers to financially optimize routing on-the-fly as network conditions change. The solution combines Veraz's ControlSwitch softswitch and Telarix's iXRoute and iXTranslate next generation routing optimization technology. Veraz's ControlSwitch can interface with any network protocol enabling carriers to preserve legacy service infrastructure as they add new services and expand into new markets. Telarix's...

Vodafone Portugal Installs Acme Packet for IMS Network

Vodafone Portugal is leveraging Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) to provide secure, high-quality residential VoIP services throughout Portugal. Acme Packet's Net-Net SBCs, which are deployed as part of an Ericsson Core IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solution, protect Vodafone Portugal's IMS network as well as provide a solution for service assurance, service reach maximization and regulatory compliance.Acme Packet's Net-SAFE security architecture provides denial of service (DoS/DDoS) protection from malicious attacks and...

Calix Supplies its Multiservice Access Platform in Dominican Republic

TRICOM, a full-service carrier that serves more than 700,000 customers in the Dominican Republic, has selected the Calix C7 multiservice access platform (MSAP) to expand and extend its broadband services.TRICOM, which is the largest cable operator in the country, started the deployments in March of 2007. Along with the C7, the carrier also employs the Calix Management System (CMS) to simplify service provisioning. The carrier initially targeted its broadband DSL service at business customers but is now also deploying the C7 platform to serve residential...

Ironton Telephone Selects Occam for DSL Upgrade

Ironton Telephone Company, which serves over 18,000 subscribers in eastern and central Pennsylvania, selected Occam Networks' Broadband Loop Carrier (BLC) system to upgrade its DSL network. Specifically, Ironton has purchased Occam's BLC 6214 ADSL2plus Blades with Gigabit Ethernet and integrated splitters, and BLC 6440-01 Optical Packet Transport Blades. http://www.occamnetworks....

Verizon Business Tunes its eBonding for Large Enterprises

Verizon announced two eBonding enhancements that allow corporate and government customers to more easily link their systems directly to those of Verizon Business. Specifically, Verizon Business is offering a new eBonding Implementation Toolkit, which provides technical assistance, and a new eBonding Center, which monitors the status of automated transactions for a wide range of business processes between Verizon Business and its customers.Verizon...

TiVo and Nero Partner on Personal Computer PVR

Nero and TiVo announced a deal to extend TiVo's television user experience with Nero's next generation of PC software. Specifically, Nero will develop a software solution that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer. Capitalizing on the growing PC TV tuner market, it will answer the consumer demand for a PC-based DVR experience for use with the estimated 50.8 million PC TV tuners that will be sold worldwide by 2011, according to In-Stat...

Hearst-Argyle to become First Television Reseller of Google Advertising

Hearst-Argyle, operator of 29 TV stations across the U.S. and more than 30 Websites, will become the first television industry reseller of the Google AdWords advertising program. Under the deal, Hearst-Argyle will become an official reseller and will use its Web sales force to provide marketers in its 26 local markets access to Google AdWords. http://www.google....

AT&T and Nokia Siemens Networks Host IMS Research Competition

AT&T and Nokia Siemens Networks will an IMS Research Competition for undergraduate and post-graduate students at the Georgia Institute of Technology with the goal of building prototype next-generation mobile applications using an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform. The competition will begin in the Spring semester 2008.Student teams will compete in one of three categories: Innovation, Higher Education, and Contextual Usage -- all categories have been identified as key growth areas in the wireless communications industry. Students will have...

Hong Kong Broadband Network Launches GPON with Alcatel-Lucent

Hong Kong Broadband Network Launches GPON with Alcatel-LucentHong Kong Broadband Network Limited (HKBN), a wholly-owned subsidiary of City Telecom (HK), announced the deployment of the first GPON links in Hong Kong using gear from Alcatel-Lucent. The deployment uses the Alcatel-Lucent 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-Home (ISAM FTTU) solution. The contract also includes network maintenance. Financial terms were not disclosed.Alcatel-Lucent's...

Freescale and OpenCon Offer GPON Reference Design

Freescale and OpenCon announced a hardware/software reference design kit for highly integrated GPON customer premises equipment (CPE). The kit includes a turnkey software solution for optical network terminals (ONTs) based on field-proven OMCI management technology that ships with Freescale's MSC7120 GPON device. The OpenCon software solution also leverages the MSC7120's on-chip DSP to support SIP-based VoIP voice telephony services.http://www.freescale....

Verizon Business Enhances Customer Portal

Verizon Business unveiled a number of enhancements to its business online portal, the Verizon Business Customer Center (VBCC), including more capabilities for its Dashboard and a new document-management capability enable customers to better collaborate and more closely manage their relationship with the company.The VBCC Dashboard -- a customized network-monitoring tool that provides customers a comprehensive, at-a-glance view of their communications landscape -- now enables customers to track how well Verizon Business' IP services performed against...

XO and Sotto Wireless Launch FMC Trial in Seattle

XO Communications and Sotto Wireless will begin trials of a fixed mobile convergence (FMC) solution in Seattle. The XO-Sotto FMC solution, to be called the Unwired Office, combines XO Communications' nationwide IP networking capabilities with Sotto Wireless' all-in-one wireless and office phone communications service to offer a single device FMC solution for businesses. The companies said that unlike other FMC solutions that simply allow calls to ring on multiple fixed and mobile devices, the Unwired Office solution integrates customers' fixed...

Monday, November 26, 2007

Gigle Semi Raises $20 Million for Home Networking Chips

Gigle Semiconductor, a start-up based in Redwood City, California with operations in Barcelona and Edinburgh, raised $20 million in Series B funding for its "any wire" multimedia home networking solutions. Gigle Semiconductor is developing system-on-chip integrated circuits for multimedia home networking over any wire -- powerline, coax and/or phoneline. The company said the market for multimedia home networking has taken significant steps towards...

BigBand Selected by Five Chinese Cable Operators

BigBand Networks announced that five additional Chinese cable operators are deploying its Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR) to process and deliver digital television services. These customers include Tibet Cable, Taicang Cable in Jiangsu province near Shanghai, Jiayuguan Cable in Gansu province, Nanchang Cable in Jiangxi province and Luan Cable in Shanxi province. Financial terms were not disclosed.BigBand's BMR can be used to improve the bandwidth efficiency and optimize picture quality of digital TV services. http://www.bigbandnet....

ONEMAX Deploys Veraz's IMS Core in Mobile WiMAX Net

ONEMAX officially launched its WiMAX 802.16e network in the Dominican Republic on October 24, 2007, offering Internet, multimedia and VoIP services over mobile broadband. The deployment uses Veraz Networks' IMS over WiMAX solution, which includes the Veraz User Services Core (USC), ControlSwitch and I-Gate 4000 series of media gateways to deliver services in a multi-vendor environment.Veraz said its ControlSwitch enables ONEMAX to integrate with third-party components including application servers, end user devices, session border controllers and...

CopperGate Adds CTO

CopperGate Communications, which provides silicon for home networking over existing wiring, announced that Rami Verbin has joined the company as its Chief Technical Officer. He joins CopperGate from Tracespan Communications, a leading manufacturer of broadband monitoring solutions, where he served as VP responsible for all R&D activity in the company. Prior to that, Verbin held various research, development, program management and strategic marketing positions at Orckit Communications, Tioga Technologies, a pioneer in DSL IC development acquired...

Narus Announces NarusInsight Secure Suite 7

Narus announced version 7 of its "NarusInsight" Secure Suite (NSS), a carrier-class anomaly detection and traffic intelligence system designed for the world's largest IP networks. Narus said its latest release (NSS 7) significantly improves the ability of carrier service providers to quickly and accurately identify emerging network attacks, while reducing the amount of time and resources spent analyzing alerts and security events. The new version also adds advanced mitigation options including seamless integration with Cisco Guard DDoS mitigation...

Quantenna Raises $13 Million for Wireless Chipsets

Quantenna Communications, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, has closed series B funding of over $12.7 million for its development of advanced wireless chipsets. The company said it is working on fundamental breakthroughs and innovation in wireless networking, including "radically improved MIMO." The company's management team is led by Dr. Behrooz Rezvani who previously founded Ikanos Communications and served as CTO through its IPO in 2005....

Marvell Announces Record Q3 Revenue of $758 Million, Job Cutbacks

Marvell reported net revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 of $758.2 million, an increase of 46% over net revenue of $520.4 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2007 and a 15% sequential increase from net revenue of $656.7 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Net loss (GAAP) was $6.4 million, or $0.01 per share (diluted), for the third quarter of fiscal 2008, compared with net income under GAAP of $6.0 million, or $0.01 per share (diluted), for the third quarter of fiscal 2007. Marvell also announced a plan to reduce operating...

Verizon Wireless to Allow "Any Apps, Any Device" on its CDMA Network

Verizon Wireless announced that it will allow customers the option to use "any application and any device" on its nationwide wireless network by the end of 2008. Verizon Wireless will publish a basic set of technical standards and then certify devices able to access its network, but the device manufacturer and/or application provider would be responsible for supporting it. Customers will have the option of buying their own CDMA device and activating...

Enigma Semi Raises $5.6 Million for Packet Switch Fabrics

Enigma Semiconductor, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California with R&D in Denmark, raised $5.6 million in an extension to its series B financing. The company plans to introduce new packet-based switch fabrics during the first half of 2008.Enigma Semiconductor also named Douglas Goodyear as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. Goodyear comes to Enigma Semiconductor having led public and private hi-tech companies, serving as CEO...

Centillium Targets Greener Broadband with Low-Power Chipsets

Centillium Communications has launched an initiative to facilitate greener broadband by developing its next-generation communications systems-on-chip (SoC) with smaller form factors and significantly reduced power consumption. The announcement formalizes Centillium's commitment to significant power reductions across the next generation of its SoC products. Centillium's next generation of low-power DSL, VoIP and Optical chipsets, in design now for release throughout 2008, will benefit from a much steeper power reduction strategy due to optimizations...

NBC Universal to Sell TiVo's Interactive Advertising

TiVo and NBC Universal (NBCU) have entered into a multi-year strategic partnership to leverage the NBCU brands with the advertising, promotional and audience research capabilities enabled by TiVo DVRs. As part of the agreement, NBC Universal's 14 television networks and 10 NBC owned-and-operated TV stations will be able to sell TiVo Interactive Tags in combination with other NBC products and will subscribe to TiVo's Stop||Watch second-by-second commercial...

Vodafone Turkey Deploys Tektronix' Unified Assurance

Vodafone Turkey, the second largest mobile phone operator in Turkey, has deployed Tektronix's GeoProbe network assurance platform and Advanced Performance Monitoring (APM) product. Tektronix' monitoring system enables Vodafone Turkey to detect bottlenecks, abnormal situations and performance degradation within its GPRS and GSM network in real time. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.tektronix....

JDSU Prevails in Class Action Lawsuit

A jury has ruled in favor of JDSU on all claims in a securities class action lawsuit filed by Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds. JDSU noted that while the jury's decision in this case is a significant positive milestone, it continues to defend itself in the securities class action and related litigation. http://www.jdsu....

BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to Launch "Kangaroo" Web-TV Service

BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 in the UK will launch a commercial on-demand content service in 2008 with the working title of 'Kangaroo'.The service will bring together over ten thousand hours of the UK broadcasters' current and archive programming. The three-way joint venture will be owned equally and will work independently as an aggregator of both joint venture partners and third party content and will encourage other quality content providers to join the service to further enhance the viewer experience.The BBC said the service will launch...

Saudi Arabia's Mobily Selects Huawei

Mobily, a mobile operator in Saudi Arabia, selected Huawei Technologies to construct its nationwide IP bearer network for voice and data services. Financial terms were not disclosed.Specifically, Mobily will deploy Huawei's core routers NetEngine 5000E ("NE5000E") and NetEngine 40E ("NE40E"), and network management systems iManager N2000 DMS and NSM, in its national network to support Mobily's NGN/3G service. http://www.huawei.com http://www.mobily.com.saEtihad...

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Cable Industry Agrees on Switched Digital Spec for One-Way Digital Cable Ready Devices

CableLabs, along with TiVo, Motorola, Scientific-Atlanta, BigBand Networks and C-COR, announced a solution that extends the functionality of certain Unidirectional Digital Cable Ready Products (UDCPs) that use CableCARDs to access switched digital services previously unavailable to such devices. CableLabs recently developed specifications for a new external interface that enables UDCPs equipped with a USB connector and necessary firmware to access switched digital cable channels, benefiting both cable operators and consumers. A new adapter using...

Airvana Introduces Femto Network Gateway for FMC

Airvana announced general availability of its Universal Access Gateway (UAG) for mobile operators seeking to use the Internet as an extension of the radio access network. Fixed mobile convergence (FMC) enables users to access services using a dual-mode mobile/Wi-Fi handset together with a Wi-Fi access point, or with a dual-mode mobile/Wi-Fi laptop together with a Wi-Fi service, or with an existing 2G/3G handset together with a femtocell. In all cases, the traffic can be sent over the Internet in a secure tunnel to the Airvana UAG, which authenticates...

Alcatel-Lucent Inks Contracts with China Mobile, China Unicom

In a signing ceremony attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Alcatel-Lucent formally signed a package of frame agreements with a combined value of up to EUR 750 million with China Mobile and China Unicom. Part of these agreements was previously announced. Under the terms of a EUR 600 million agreement with China Mobile, Alcatel-Lucent is providing end-to-end mobile solutions supporting China Mobile's extensive...

Xilinx and Brilliant Develop Carrier-Class FPGA-Based Network Timing

Xilinx and Brilliant Telecommunications, a developer of timing solutions, announced the industry's first carrier-class FPGA-based network timing solution for next generation wired and wireless networks. The jointly developed, embedded programmable timing solution is implemented using a Xilinx Virtex or Spartan FPGA and delivered in the form of two Intellectual Property (IP) cores, NGNTime and FemtoTime. The cores are fully interoperable with the industry standard Network Timing Protocol (NTP). It also provides a migration path for Version 2 of...

NETGEAR Offers Dual WAN Gigabit SSL VPN Firewall

NETGEAR announced the availability of its ProSafe Dual WAN Gigabit SSL VPN Firewall featuring simultaneous support for up to 25 IPsec and 10 SSL VPN tunnels. The ability to support both SSL and IPsec VPN tunnels enables the ProSafe Dual WAN Gigabit SSL VPN Firewall to provide both clientless remote access through a secure Web browser interface and legacy support for client-based remote access. Additionally, IPSec VPN tunnels enable secure site-to-site VPN tunnels to connect branch office locations seamlessly.The ProSafe Dual WAN Gigabit SSL VPN...

On2 and Texas Instruments Collaborate on Optimized Codec Performance

On2 Technologies and Texas Instruments will collaborate on technology to implement On2's TrueMotion VP6 and VP7 video compression formats on TI's OMAP Platform and DaVinci technology for mobile handsets and digital video applications.Under their agreement, the two companies will share technology and development resources allowing TI to optimize VP6 and VP7 codec performance for different applications with TI's development partners and community. "On2's video compression is setting the trend for a lot of applications in mobile handsets, web video,...

Polycom Opens Development Center in Hyderabad

Polycom opened a new, state-of-the-art product and solutions development center in Hyderabad, India. The facility will house development programs for the company's portfolio of voice communications solutions for mobile, desktop and conferencing applications. In addition to the Hyderabad development center, Polycom in 2007 has completed office expansions at Delhi (Noida NCR) and Mumbai, and opened new offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The Noida facility will showcase the industry's only immersive telepresence solution, the Polycom RPX (Real Presence...

Neotel South Africa Selects ECI Telecom's XDM Platform

Neotel, the first national infrastructure-based competitor in the fixed-line telecommunications sector in South Africa, has selected ECI Telecom's XDM and BroadGate (BG) line of products to support its network rollout in the country. Neotel's next-generation transport network will support both enterprise and residential customers with voice, data and internet services. Financial terms were not disclosed.ECI said it will provide a full access-to-core...

Cricket Selects Starent's Multimedia Core Platform

Cricket Communications has selected Starent's ST16 multimedia core platform solution to provide multimedia services to subscribers. The deployment will enable Cricket to enhance its current offering of mobile applications such as text messaging, picture messaging and games, and to prepare for the next-generation of multimedia applications. Financial terms were not disclosed.Starent's platform provides detailed inspection of each subscriber session, shaping and managing the session based on subscriber, application or business policies. The platforms...

Siemens Unveils WiMAX Gateways and Modems

Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices (SHC) unveiled two WiMAX modems and two WiMAX gateways based on 802.16-2005 and compliant to Wave 2 certification, including MIMO (Multiple Input / Multiple Output) A and B and beamforming. All models offer throughput of up to 20 Mbps. They combine two integrated high gain antennas which support MIMO (Matrix A and B) and adaptive beamforming to boost signal strength between the base station and WiMAX...

Friday, November 23, 2007

Algérie Télécom Selects Ericsson's Softswitch

Algérie Télécom has selected Ericsson as sole supplier and systems integrator for its upgrade to an all-IP network. Under the agreement, Ericsson will supply its Telephony Softswitch solution to migrate the operator's national transit layer to a next-generation network architecture. Ericsson will also be responsible for network deployment, support, and training services. Deployment and systems integration will start in November, with the migration set to be completed by mid-2008. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.ericsson....

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Uganda Telecom Deploys UMTS/HSPA from Alcatel-Lucent

Uganda Telecom has deployed a UMTS/HSPA network from Alcatel-Lucent in time for this month's Summit of Head of States of the Commonwealth. As announced earlier this year, Uganda Telecom Ltd chose Alcatel-Lucent for the extension of its GSM/EDGE mobile network and for the deployment of the first third-generation UMTS/HSPA network in Uganda, one of the first such deployments in the East Africa region. Under this contract, Alcatel-Lucent has provided...

European Operators Take Skeptical View of Proposed EU Telecom Reforms

At the 5th annual conference of the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO) last week in Brussels, the CEOs of leading EU telecoms operators held a debate on the recent European Commission proposals for a review of the EU telecoms rules. The CEOs agreed that EU policy makers would do better by focusing on how to encourage private investment in high-speed broadband access networks rather than focusing mainly on how to achieve...

Alvarion to Supply Mobile WiMAX Gear in Nigeria

Monarch Communications, a privately owned company and WiMAX license holder in several different states in Nigeria, has selected Alvarion's "4Motion" 802.16e Mobile WiMAX solution. Rollout is planned to begin in Lagos and later in Abuja and Port Harcourt. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.alvarion....

Celtel Nigeria Selects Motorola for $70 Million GSM/EDGE Expansion

Celtel Nigeria awarded a US$70 million contract to Motorola to expand and enhance its GSM coverage in the southern part of the country. The deployment features the latest Motorola Reach GSM solutions, including EDGE capability for mobile data, and will provide comprehensive network expansion planning, integration, support and optimization services to Celtel as it extends network coverage.http://www.motorola....

Danaher Completes Acquisition of Tektronix

Danaher completed its previously announced acquisition of Tektronix. The deal was first announced in October.Tektronix, which has annual revenues of approximately $1.1 billion, is a leading supplier of test, measurement, and monitoring products for networking.Tektronix now becomes part of Danaher's Electronic Test platform, joining Danaher's Fluke and Fluke Networks businesses, and nearly doubling the platform's revenues. http://www.danaher.com...

Belgium's De Persgroep Selects Cisco Data Center Network Architecture

De Persgroep, a leading media group in Belgium, is using Cisco data center virtualization technology in its data center. The deployment comprises both network switching equipment and the Application Control Engine (ACE) switch, which virtualizes the data center application infrastructure. De Persgroep is deploying the Cisco Data Center Network Architecture to connect two data centers with more than 300 servers in Brussels to seven additional sites across Belgium and Holland. The solution includes Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches, Cisco Catalyst...

France Telecom Secures Fixed-Mobile-Internet License in Niger

A consortium controlled by France Telecom was awarded a new global fixed-mobile-internet license in Niger for EUR 48 million. France Telecom has joined forces with Mr. Mohamed Rissa, a business leader from Niger , specialized in the Internet and telecommunications services sector, and Mr. Moctar Thiam, a long-standing investor in Orange Mali. Niger has a growing population of around 13 million people and a mobile penetration rate of under 5%.France Telecom noted that it is already present in 12 African countries including five in West Africa. ...

Monday, November 19, 2007

RawFlow Launches P2P CDN

RawFlow, a start-up based in London, launched its new managed live streaming service, iCDN, based on P2P technology. RawFlow said its iCDN is designed to cope with conditions specific to live streaming such as peak traffic volumes and network congestion.http://www.rawflow....

Lockheed Martin Supplies Advanced Extremely High Frequency Military System

Lockheed Martin announced a milestone in the development of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications system with the delivery of the core propulsion module for the second satellite in the program constellation. The AEHF system will provide global, highly secure, protected, survivable communications for all warfighters serving under the U.S. Department of Defense.Lockheed Martin's said each AEHF satellite will provide greater total capacity than the entire Milstar constellation and offer channel data rates higher than...

Zarlink Trims Financial Guidance

Citing a broader than expected softening of the telecommunication market, Zarlink Semiconductor trimmed financial guidance for its Fiscal 2008 third quarter ending December 28th, 2007. On October 24, 2007 Zarlink had projected third quarter revenues of between US$55 million and US$58 million and a net loss of US$0.08 and US$0.10 per share. The Company now expects Fiscal 2008 third quarter revenue will be between US$48 million and US$51 million and net loss will be US$0.13 to US$0.15 per share in the third quarter. Zarlink said it had anticipated...

Zayo Bandwidth Launches Onvoy Voice Services Unit

Following its recent acquisition of Minneapolis-based telecommunications provider Onvoy, Zayo Bandwidth, a regional provider of high bandwidth announced the formation of a new business unit called Onvoy Voice Services and has appointed former Onvoy chief operating officer, Fritz Hendricks, president of the business. Onvoy Voice Services was formed to provide dedicated service to local exchange carriers (LEC) and other communications providers. The company currently provides switched access, long distance, SS7, directory assistance and operator...

MTS Ukraine Deploys Alcatel-Lucent's CDMA/EV-DO Rev A

MTS Ukraine launched its commercial wireless broadband network using third-generation (3G) CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) equipment supplied by Alcatel-Lucent. The new network covers major Ukrainian cities.Alcatel-Lucent supplied its CDMA Modular Cell 4.0 Compact base stations for the 450 MHz spectrum band, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Radio Network Controllers (RNC), a base station operation controller and a network element management system as well as packet core network equipment. Alcatel-Lucent also provided network design, planning, deployment,...

Orange Signs WiFi Deal With The Cloud

Orange announced a WiFi roaming agreement with The Cloud, giving Orange customers access to The Cloud's network of thousands of WiFi hotspots across the UK. Orange already has WiFi agreements in place with BT OpenZone, France Telecom and WeRoam. In the UK this latest agreement extends Orange's WiFi access to more than 10,000 hotspots. http://www.orange.co.uk/wifihttp://www.thecloud....

Verizon Offers 20 Mbps Symmetrical FiOS for $65/Month

Verizon began offering its symmetrical FiOS Internet service for consumers in Tampa Bay, Florida, featuring upstream and downstream connection speeds of up to 20 Mbps. The new symmetrical FiOS Internet service is available for $64.99 a month with an annual service plan.The company has also quadrupled the upstream connection speed of its fastest FiOS Internet service with no increase in price. This new service features a downstream connection speed of up to 50 Mbps and a new upstream connection speed of up to 20 Mbps. http://www.verizon....

Telefonica Selects Nominum Foundation Caching Name Server

Telefónica Deutschland has selected Nominum's Foundation Caching Name Server (CNS) to support its VoIP services in the German communications market. DNS traffic grew considerably when Telefonica Deutschland expanded its services from broadband data to VoIP. The existing DNS infrastructure needed to be adjusted and modernized in order to be prepared for continuous future growth. Telefonica Deutschland opted for Nominum CNS instead of adding more servers to boost network availability and performance, which would have increased administrative overhead...

Malaysia Readies Mobile Number Portability Clearinghouse with Telcordia, UC

Telcordia, in partnership with Unified Communications, a provider of carrier-grade telecommunications solutions, are supplying a Mobile Number Portability Clearinghouse in Malaysia. The deployment will occur in the first half of 2008.Telcordia has now supplied its number portability solution in nine countries, processing millions of transactions annually for more than 180 service providers who serve fixed and mobile subscribers. http://www.telcordia....

Bharti Airtel Selects Mformation for Device Management

India's Bharti Airtel selected Mformation's mobile device management (MDM) platform for enabling new data services and managing the mobile devices of its more than 48 million mobile subscribers.Specifically, Bharti Airtel will use MFORMATION SERVICE MANAGER to configure, diagnose, update and manage advanced mobile devices through every phase of their lifecycle. Mformation's platform will be critical to the launch of new mobile data services and applications...

New Edge Networks Builds MPLS Net for Integrated Power Services

New Edge Networks, the business communications unit of EarthLink, completed installation of a managed private network for Integrated Power Services, a national industrial electric motor repair and consulting firm.New Edge Networks said it installed, tested and activated within 60 days a 12-site fully managed, private network based on MPLS. Integrated Powers Services uses its MPLS network to provide its service centers in 10 states throughout the country real-time access to ordering information, time management and financial systems. http://www...

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Fujitsu Introduces 10G Ethernet LAN-PHY mapper for WDM

Fujitsu Microelectronics Europe (FME) introduced a 10G Ethernet LAN-PHY mapper targeting Ethernet mapping and transport applications. The device enables transport of multiple service types (both synchronous and asynchronous) including 10GE LAN-PHY or WAN-PHY, SDH/SONET STM-64/OC-192 or OTN OTU-2 signals. Fujitsu said its 10G Ethernet LAN-PHY device provides maximum flexibility to manage Ethernet LAN/WAN transport over metro and core networks and complements its family of products for 10G SDH/SONET and Ethernet applications as well as 40G SDH/SONET/OTN...

Nokia Siemens Networks Targets Energy Efficiency -- 70% Savings in Base Stations

Nokia Siemens Networks unveiled the first phase of its environmentally sustainable business solutions by announcing plans to significantly improve the energy efficiency of its wireless networks, particularly the base stations and base station sites.The four main elements of the solution are: minimizing the number of base station sites; minimizing the need for air conditioning to cool the sites; using the latest base station technology; and, deploying...

Nokia Siemens Networks to Supply Energy-efficient Base Stations for China Mobile

Nokia Siemens Networks has signed a contract for the delivery of its energy-efficient Flexi GSM Base Stations to China Mobile Group Beijing Ltd. (CMBJ). NSN said the Flexi GSM Base Station being used by CMBJ is the smallest and most energy efficient on the market. The company is also focused on minimizing the number of base stations sites in total; minimizing the need for air conditioning to cool the sites and deploying software features that optimize the use of radio access for wireless communications.China Mobile Group Beijing will serve as the...

France's Neo Telecoms Deploys Juniper's MX960 Ethernet Services Routers

Paris-based Neo Telecoms, which operates a 100 Gbps European fiber network, has deployed Juniper Networks MX960 Ethernet Services Routers. Neo Telecoms' IP transit network interconnects its regional data centers in major cities across Europe and is a critical component of its hosting, IP and MPLS-based connectivity services. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.neotelecoms....

picoChip Delivers Single-Chip WiMAX Wave 2 and IO-MIMO Femtocell

picoChip announced its PC6532 Wave 2 femtocell, the next version of its WiMAX base station reference design. The single-chip (PHY + MAC) reference design supports WiMAX Wave 2 and full IO-MIMO in both downlink and uplink.Wave 2 is the latest version of the WiMAX standard, adding increased support for mobility, while MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) increases data-rate and reliability by simultaneously sending and receiving data via multiple antennas.picoChip said its WiMAX architecture is scaleable from femtocell access points to sophisticated...

Plato Networks Appoints CEO, Former Head of Exar

Plato Networks, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California that is developing physical layer solutions based on a unique approach in signaling technology, has appointed Dr. Roubik Gregorian as its President and Chief Executive Officer. Gregorian previously served as President and CEO of Exar Corp., where he was instrumental in transitioning the company into a major supplier of wire-line and optical products for the communications market. Roubik...

Charter Selects BigBand's Switched Digital Video

Charter Communications has selected BigBand Networks' switched digital video (SDV) solution to expand digital TV services in its Los Angeles-area system, including Malibu, Burbank and Glendale. The equipment is being used to expand HDTV and other programming options. Charter is the fifth operator to initiate commercial deployments of BigBand's SDV solution. The five largest cable operators in the U.S. have now selected BigBand's SDV. Financial terms were not disclosed.Charter is deploying BigBand's switched digital video management server to...

RMI Names Former Qualcomm Executive as President and CEO

Raza Microelectronics (RMI) named Behrooz Abdi as President and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding S. Atiq Raza, RMI's founding CEO, who will remain Chairman of the Board of Directors.Prior to his appointment at RMI, Mr. Abdi held the position of Senior Vice President and General Manager of Qualcomm's CDMA Technologies (QCT). During his tenure, QCT became the driving force behind the transition to 65nm and 45nm technologies, successfully acquired...

BT Conferencing Selects Sonus

BT Conferencing has selected Sonus Networks to develop customer conferencing solutions. The companies said deployment of the Sonus platform within BT Conferencing's global infrastructure will allow for existing customer reservationless solutions to be expanded and scaled to meet demand, whilst retaining their existing call access numbers. The first deployment, which includes the Sonus GSX 9000 Open Services Switch and the PSX Call Routing Server, will be in Boston.http://www.sonusnet.com http://www.bt.com/conferenc...

AT&T to Acquire Ingenio for Pay Per Call Search and Directory

AT&T agreed to acquire privately held Ingenio, a start-up based in San Francisco specializing in "Pay Per Call" search technology, for an undisclosed sum. Ingenio's Pay Per Call service is an advertising platform. The platform uses proprietary technology to provision unique published phone numbers to track calls to businesses generated by those ads, and advertisers' fees are based on the volume of these leads.AT&T plans to integrate Ingenio's...

Verizon Completes 100 Gbps Field Trial using FiOS Feed

Verizon completed a field test of 100 Gbps optical transmission technology on a live, in-service 312-mile (504 kilometer) network route in Florida between Tampa and Miami.Verizon said the test, which utilized a live video feed from its national FiOS TV network as the "payload," was successfully completed on a Verizon Business ultra long-haul optical system carrying other live traffic at 10 Gbps. The test demonstrated that by deploying advanced electronics, an existing network system can easily and quickly be upgraded to 100 Gbps.The test used Alcatel-Lucent's...

Ixia's Chairman of the Board Retires

Jean-Claude Asscher will retire as Ixia's Chairman of the Board of Directors and as a Director, positions he has held since 1997. The Board of Directors has elected Errol Ginsberg, a founder and CEO of Ixia, to succeed Mr. Asscher as Chairman of the Board, effective January 1, 2008. http://www.ixiacom....

Aruba Selects Cavium's OCTEON Processors

Aruba Networks has selected Cavium Networks' OCTEON MIPS64 Processor family for use in its enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) products. The Cavium processors, with one to sixteen cnMIPS cores on a single chip, integrate processor peripherals, next-generation networking interfaces, a memory controller, advanced hardware acceleration for packet processing, QoS, TCP, multi-core scaling, pattern matching, compression/decompression, storage, and security. Additionally the OCTEON processor family provides throughput and general purpose programmability for...

Telstra Deploys Alcatel-Lucent's ISAM for "Next IP" Network

Telstra has deployed close to 900,000 DSL ports in its "Next IP" network using Alcatel-Lucent's IP DSLAM (ISAM) platform, which provides speeds of up to 24 Mbps. Alcatel-Lucent is one of Telstra's strategic suppliers and the end-to-end network integrator for the first phase of their wireline transformation project. http://www.alcatel-lucent....

Amazon's WhisperNet Leverages Sprint EVDO on Per-Transaction Basis

Amazon.com's new "Kindle" portable reader will use Sprint Nextel's EVDO network for downloading electronic books and magazines from the company's online bookstore. Kindle users do not need to subscribe to a data plan. Amazon said the access fee is built into the price of the e-books it sells. http://www.amazon....