Thursday, April 26, 2007

Arcadian Networks Raises More Funding for its 700MHz Network

Arcadian Networks, a privately held wireless telecommunications carrier, raised an additional $30 million of financing from lead investor Goldman Sachs for its IP-based, wireless broadband field automation services for the energy sector in rural America. Arcadian's deployment of a r700 MHz network has already begun in Minnesota with Great River Energy, a not-for-profit generation and transmission cooperative providing wholesale electric service to 28 distribution co-ops that serve more than 600,000 members or about 1.7 million people.



Arcadian Networks said its business model is focused on the imperative for US electric, gas, oil, and coal energy producers to augment, update, and replace legacy communication systems with state of-the-art broadband, IP-based wireless communications systems and services to enable 'smart' initiatives (smart grid, smart field, etc.).



Arcadian also expects demand for secure, licensed, unencumbered radio spectrum will continue to grow as the nation's critical infrastructure industries (electric, oil, gas & water utilities ) and first responders (police, fire and emergency medical professionals) seek to improve productivity, resilience, and response capabilities.



Through its 700 MHz-based network, the company offers utilities such as electric, oil and gas, and water with a turnkey flexible high-speed broadband network allowing real-time monitoring and control of operations and management applications.



With this closing, Arcadian Networks has raised a total of $90 million in financing over the past twelve months.



http://www.arcadiannetworks.com

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC Selected for Asia America Gateway

Alcatel-Lucent and NEC were selected to jointly build a terabit-class submarine cable network between Southeast Asia and the U.S. The contract was valued at about US$500 million. The project is scheduled to be completed by late 2008.



The Asia America Gateway (AAG) will span over 20,000 km linking Malaysia to the US via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the West coast of the US.



The turnkey contract was signed with a consortium formed by 10 parties including the Government of Brunei, AT&T (USA), Bharti (India), CAT (Thailand), PLDT (Philippines), PT Telkom (Indonesia), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia), Telstra (Australia), StarHub (Singapore) and VNPT (Vietnam).



The cable system design allows for future expansion to Australia, India, Africa, and Europe. http://www.nec.com

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

AT&T Opens New Office in Shenzhen, China

AT&T opened a new office in Shenzhen, China, seeking to strengthen sales support and customer care services to the increasing number of multinational enterprise customers in the southern region of China. The new office will join AT&T's three other offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in mainland China.



AT&T has been providing communications services to China for more than 20 years. With the network interconnections agreements with China Telecom and China Netcom, AT&T has national coverage in more than 135 cities, serving more than 300 multinational customers in China.



In addition, AT&T is the first foreign telecom company to establish a Sino-foreign telecom services joint venture in China. UNISITI is a joint venture between AT&T, Shanghai Telecom (STC) and Shanghai Information Investments (SII). The three companies signed the official joint venture agreement on December 5, 2000 and UNISITI received permission to operate from March 2001. AT&T distributes its Enhanced Virtual Private network Services, VPN Tunneling Services and Remote Access Services via UNISITI.

http://www.att.com

Whitacre to Leave AT&T with $158 Million Pension, Stephenson Takes Control

Edward E. Whitacre Jr. will retire as AT&T's CEO and chairman of the board effective June 3. Randall L. Stephenson, AT&T's chief operating officer, will succeed Whitacre as chairman and CEO.



Whitacre, 65, has been Chairman and CEO since 1990, when the company was Southwestern Bell, then the smallest of the so-called "Baby Bells." During his tenure, Whitacre led the company through a series of dramatic acquisitions and re-shaping the telecommunications landscape in the process.



Whitacre retires with a pension and deferred compensation worth around $158 million, along with additional perks, according to various media reports.



"I have had the extraordinary privilege to lead this company for 17 years, and I leave with complete confidence in the future of our great company," said Whitacre. "Randall Stephenson is an exceptional leader. He has a deep understanding of this business and a clear sense of where it should go."



Randall Stephenson currently serves as chief operating officer for AT&T for all wireless and wireline operations at AT&T. He was named chief operating officer for SBC Communications Inc. in April 2004, and continued as COO following SBC's acquisition of AT&T Corp. in November 2005. Stephenson began his career with Southwestern Bell Telephone in 1982 in the information technology organization in Oklahoma. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and a Master of Accountancy degree from the University of Oklahoma.

http://www.att.com