Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Russia's TransTeleCom Builds NGN with Huawei

Russia's TransTeleCom has deployed a next generation network (NGN) to carry national and international voice traffic using platforms from Huawei Technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed.



The country-wide Russian NGN network spans nine time zones from Europe to Asia, encompassing seven national toll call offices and four international toll call offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg and six other cities. The newly built NGN interoperates with the original network and retains all the services of the original network. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) technology integrated in Huawei's NGN solution also enables TransTeleCom to provide end-users with even more multimedia services.



Huawei's NGN solution separates the call control layer from the bearer layer. With the uniform platform for network management and service deployment, it enables centralized network management, as well as allowing TransTeleCom to quickly deploy new services. In addition, Huawei has provided TransTeleCom with an advanced disaster tolerance solution, to ensure secure and stable running of the network, such as a dual-homing Softswitch solution and a network management system that uses dual systems located in different places.
http://www.huawei.com


Fujitsu Named a Preferred Supplier to The Quilt Consortium

The Quilt research/education consortium, which includes 28 leading U.S.-based research and networking organizations, has named Fujitsu Network Communications a preferred supplier of optical transport solutions as part of their Vendor Affiliate Program.



The Fujitsu FLASHWAVE 4500 multiservice provisioning platform (MSPP), FLASHWAVE 7420 managed wavelength platform and FLASHWAVE 7500 reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) platforms are now available to members of The Quilt for deployment within their regional optical networks.

http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom

http://www.thequilt.net

Great Plains Network Includes ADVA

The Great Plains Network consortium, a group midwestern universities dedicated to supporting research and education through the use of advanced networking technology, will include ADVA Optical Networking as its first corporate member. ADVA will lend its expertise in reconfigurable optical network services, coarse and dense wavelength division multiplexing (C- and DWDM) and high-speed Ethernet services for applications including on-demand grid computing and supercomputing infrastructures.

http://www.advaoptical.com

BlackBerry Service Suffers Major Outage

Research In Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry service suffered a major outage across North America lasting from approximately 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday until about 7 a.m. EDT Wednesday. Email service was delayed or interrupted. According to various news sources, RIM experienced a major failure in one of its two network operations centers (NOC).


As of March 31, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was approximately 8 million.

http://www.rim.com

Global Crossing Supplies IP VPN for Newsquest

Global Crossing is providing an IP VPN capable of supporting data and voice services to Newsquest Media Group, the UK's second largest regional newspaper publisher. The network will be used to link Newsquest's 160 sites. Global Crossing also will consolidate 50 server locations into two data centers and provide new Internet access points for the data centers. The five-year, $20 million contract was signed last September.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

Motorola Posts Loss of $181 Million, Weaker Mobile Sales

Motorola reported sales of $9.4 billion for Q1 2007 and a net loss of $181 million, or $0.08 per share.



"As I said a few weeks ago, the performance in our Mobile Devices business in the first quarter is unacceptable and we are committed to restoring it to an appropriate level of profitability. However, I am pleased with the continued performance of our Networks and Enterprise and Connected Home Solutions businesses. Despite challenges, the company was profitable for the quarter, excluding the items highlighted above. We also continue to invest for the future, as evidenced by the completion of several strategic acquisitions during the quarter," said Ed Zander, chairman and CEO.



Some highlights:

  • Mobile Devices segment sales were $5.4 billion, down 15 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. Excluding highlighted items, the segment incurred an operating loss of $231 million, compared with operating earnings of $701 million in the year-ago quarter. Lower sales and earnings are attributable to lower overall unit volumes, particularly in the emerging markets and Europe. Motorola's share of the global handset market for the quarter is estimated to be 17.5%.



    During the quarter, Mobile Devices shipped 45.4 million handsets.



    Motorola said it is streamlining its mobile product portfolio, as evidenced by the discontinuation of six legacy products during the quarter. It will continue to carry out previously announced workforce reductions and introduce more devices based on Linux/Java.


  • Networks and Enterprise segment sales were $3.0 billion, up 20 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. Excluding highlighted items, operating earnings were $343 million, compared with operating earnings of $328 million in the year-ago quarter. Operating margin, excluding highlighted items, was 11.4 percent compared to 13.0 percent in the year-ago quarter.


  • Connected Home Solutions segment sales were $1.0 billion, up 42 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. Excluding highlighted items, operating earnings were $113 million, compared with operating earnings of $47 million in the year-ago quarter. Operating margin, excluding highlighted items, was 10.9 percent compared to 6.4 percent in the year-ago quarter.


Motorola said its Q2 outlook for sales is essentially flat with first quarter 2007. The outlook for earnings per share in the second quarter is in the range of $.02 to $.03. This outlook excludes any reorganization of business charges associated with the company's operating expense reduction initiatives, as well as any other items of the variety highlighted by the company in its quarterly earnings releases.

http://www.motorola.com

Nokia Expands its Recycling Program for Mobile Phones

Nokia is offering free postage-paid envelopes enabling consumers in the United States to mail any mobile phone, mobile phone battery or mobile phone accessory to the company for recycling.
http://www.nokiausa.com/recycle

XO to Deploy Hatteras Networks' Mid-Band Ethernet

XO Communications selected Hatteras Networks' HN4000 and HN400 platforms as the exclusive Mid-Band Ethernet (MBE) solution to be used in its network. XO is currently deploying the Hatteras platform to expand the reach of its Ethernet Services footprint in 60 metropolitan markets, enabling businesses at copper-fed locations to take advantage of Ethernet services previously only available at buildings connected by fiber. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.hatterasnetworks.com

http://www.xo.com

BT to provide Global Managed Services to Ciba

Ciba Specialty Chemicals (Ciba) selected BT to provide a broad package of managed ICT-services to its offices worldwide. BT will supply a global IP telephony solution running across a BT managed LAN and WAN service, a global IT security solution and a flat-rate voice service. Headquartered in Switzerland, Ciba Specialty Chemicals is active in more than 120 countries. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.bt.com

http://www.cibasc.com

Verizon Business Extends VoIP Portfolio to Australia

Verizon Business has expanded availability of its portfolio to the Australian market, launching Verizon IP Integrated Access and Verizon Hosted IP Centrex to customers in six Australian cities.



IP Integrated Access consolidates voice and data traffic over a single IP network whilst keeping the traditional PBX (private branch exchange) in place. Hosted IP Centrex is a robust, scalable and feature-rich VoIP service delivered from a hosted platform. The services are supported by SLAs.



Verizon Business said its global footprint and extensive voice network coverage enable it to offer one of the most extensive VoIP portfolios available.



Verizon VoIP is now available in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney in Australia, as well as in the U.K., Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Africa, Canada and the United States. Local language (Dutch, French, German and British English in addition to U.S. English) customer Web interfaces and local ringtones are now available in these countries, providing a fully localized IP telephony end-user experience.



Site-to-site VoIP capabilities are also available in an additional 11 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland).



The company plans to expand to six additional Australian cities (Geelong, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Penrith, Townsville and Wollongong) in mid 2007, followed by the Australian rollout of Verizon Managed IP PBX and Verizon IP Trunking. In addition, Verizon Hosted IP Centrex is also planned for Hong Kong later in 2007.
http://www.verizonbusiness.com


AT&T Reaches 18,000 IPTV Subscribers

AT&T has signed up 18,000 subscribers to date for its U-verse IPTV and Internet service. AT&T's average installation rate has ramped to approximately 2,000 installations a week -- five times greater than its average rate in January.



AT&T also confirmed plans to launch U-verse in the Los Angeles area in the coming weeks. Additional launches are planned for later this year and next.



AT&T satellite TV offering is growing even faster. Following a strong fourth-quarter 2006 in which AT&T added 111,000 bundled satellite television users, the company added a record number of users in the first quarter of 2007. Including U-verse and satellite customers, AT&T added more than 180,000 video users in the most recent quarter, which is more than the four largest reporting cable companies combined added for the full year in 2006.



AT&T offers satellite service across its 22-state local service area through relationships with satellite broadcast providers. Satellite customers in AT&T's traditional 13-state local service area include subscribers to AT&T Homezone service, which integrates AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet and AT&T | DISH Network satellite services.

http://www.att.com

Carl Icahn Lobbies Motorola Shareholders for Place on Board

Activist investor Carl Icahn issued a public letter to shareholders in Motorola seeking a place on the company's Board of Directors. Icahn said that if elected, he will be unafraid to demand management accountability, especially in regards to Motorola's Mobile Devices division, which he blames for the steep decline in the value of the company's stock over the past few months.

http://www.motorola.comhttp;//www.sec.gov