Video Interview: BT -- Peter Russo Discusses 21CN, SIP, IMS, FMC and MPLS

Video Interview: BT -- Peter Russo Discusses 21CN, SIP, IMS, FMC and MPLS



Key Questions Covered:



Update on BT's 21CN Project -- What is the current status of 21CN as of Spring 2007? Is BT now actively decommissioning its TDM switches?



VoIP Traffic Peering -- How does 21CN impact how voice traffic is exchanged with other carriers?



The Role of Open Standards in 21CN -- The alphabet soup of standards supported by BT



SIP, ENUM and the IMS Architecture -- How will these technologies benefit BT and its customers?



FMC for Consumers and Enterprises -- What is BT Fusion?



BT and International Markets -- What strategy is behind BT's recent acquisitions?



The Move to MPLS -- What are the benefits of migrating to an MPLS network service? What are BT's strategic differentiators in enterprise services?



recorded March 2007

Read More

BT Tests "Motion-sensing" Consumer Devices

BT researchers in the Broadband Applications Research Centre at Adastral Park are testing motion-sensing technology for possible use in consumer devices, such as laptops.
The BT Balance adapter uses an accelerometer chip to enable the user to manipulate menus and applications simply by moving or tilting their machine.

http://www.btplc.com

Read More

BT Names Group Strategy and Operations Team

BT announced the appointment of the senior management team that will support Andy Green in his new role as CEO of Group Strategy and Operations:

• Al-Noor Ramji is appointed CEO of BT Design, with responsibility for the design and development of software-driven products and services. Al-Noor is currently CEO of BT Exact, the IT division of BT. Al-Noor retains his responsibility as BT Group CIO.



• Roel Louwhoff becomes CEO of BT Operate, responsible for deploying, testing and operating the new software services on BT's Global 21CN platform. Roel is currently President - Customer Service & Network Operations at Global Services, where he has overseen a major transformation of BT's worldwide customer-facing and network capabilities.



• Matt Bross, Group Chief Technology Officer, joins Andy Green's leadership team to drive innovation across the business. Matt is responsible for strategic innovation and vision across BT, and has been a leading force on BT's 21st Century Network transformation programme. Matt continues to head up BT's global research and venturing laboratories.



• Olivia Garfield becomes Group Strategy & Portfolio Director. Olivia is currently Managing Director Commercial & Brands for Global Services, having previously been responsible for managing customer services on BT Global Services UK corporate and government contracts, leading a team of more than 6,000 people.



• Dina Matta is appointed Group Transformation Director, moving from her role as Director of Strategy for BT Exact where she worked closely with Al-Noor to deliver the IT strategy.

http://www.btplc.com

Read More

Telcordia Names New CEO

Telcordia Technologies named Mark Greenquist as its new President and CEO, succeeding Daniel J. Carroll, who will retain his position on the Telcordia Board of Directors. Greenquist who previously served as both Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Telcordia will also remain a member of the Board. Previously, Greenquist served at both Symbol Technologies, Agere Systems, and General Motors in several international leadership positions throughout Europe and the United States.

http://www.telcordia.com

Read More

Zhone Debuts its FiberSLAM -- a Hybrid C/DWDM Multiplexer

Zhone Technologies unveiled its FiberSLAM -- a 1 RU hybrid access system that integrates Coarse/Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (C/DWDM) Gigabit-Ethernet (GbE) and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) capabilities.
The unit is designed for bringing fiber access to carrier Remote Terminal (RT) and cell tower installations.



FiberSLAM is based on Zhone's Single Line Multi-Service (SLMS) architecture and supports a migration from TDM (E1/T1 and DS3) to all-Ethernet (GbE) networks. Separate wavelengths may be used for dedicated channel delivery.



Flexible filter options allow the same chassis to be deployed in point to point, protected, and 1310 sideband applications through the addition of the field upgradeable module.

http://www.zhone.com

Read More

Cisco Enhances Catalyst 6500 with Programmable Intelligent Services Accelerator

Cisco announced a major enhancement to its flagship Catalyst 6500 Switching Platform with introduction of the Supervisor Engine 32 with Programmable Intelligent Services Accelerator (PISA) technology. The modular component provides the ability to analyze stateful and stateless application traffic flows for proactive security protection, compliance with corporate policies and management of network resource utilization.



PISA leverages deep packet inspection (DPI) technology to identify applications on the network and then allocate the necessary network resources to support each application based on business priorities. The new Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA also provides distributed protection against notable worms and viruses and day-zero attacks in the campus edge.



Cisco said PISA can be tuned to provide visibility into more than 100 applications, including P2P, CRM, ERP, IP video, IM, etc). Network managers can then block or limit these applications based on their business objectives.



A Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA Technology and 8x1 Gigabit Ethernet Uplinks carries a list price of US$28,000. Availability is set for June. A Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Supervisor Engine 32 with PISA Technology and 2x10Gigabit Ethernet Uplinks will also be available.

http://www.cisco.com

Read More

LignUp Enhances its Communications Application Server

LignUp announced Release 4.0 of its LignUp Communications Application Server, which enables telephony Web services deployed within enterprise service-oriented architectures (SOA) and existing telecom infrastructures. LignUp 4.0 features 125 call control and media control functions exposed through LignUp Communications Web Services. The Web services are implemented by the J2EE-compliant1 LignUp Communications Integration Server, a new component of the LignUp Communications Application Server.



The standards-based (SIP, RTP, HTTP, SOAP, WSDL2) LignUp Communications Application Server allows developers to use their favorite programming languages and development environments to incorporate IP-based communications into Web applications, Web portals, business processes, mashups, blogs and wikis.



LignUp said its 4.0 enables the integration of communications into applications using LignUp Communications Web Services for fine-grained access to telephony, real-time media, interactive voice response (IVR), text-to-speech (TTS), voicemail, unified messaging and presence capabilities. LignUp 4.0-powered applications can be used to ring any phone -- IP phones, mobile devices or fixed land line handsets -- independent of the enterprise PBX, carrier switch or network to which they are attached. By extending the reach of voice-enabled applications and services to a broad community of consumer and business users, LignUp 4.0 is empowering enterprises, Web 2.0 companies, and service providers to realize the promise of communication-enabled business processes (CEBP) for greater personalization, productivity, collaboration and efficiency.

http://www.lignup.com

Read More

AudioCodes Posts Q1 Revenues of $37 Million

AudioCodes reported Q1 revenues of $36.5 million compared to $42.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2006 and $31.3 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2006. First quarter revenues decreased 14.2% compared to the quarter ended December 31, 2006 and increased 16.6% compared to the first quarter of 2006. GAAP net loss was $2.4 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2007.



"The first quarter results were lower than originally anticipated. Our first quarter results were impacted by weakness in our APAC and Israel sales and weaker than expected performance by our recent acquisitions and our Blades Business Line sales," stated Shabtai Adlersberg, President, Chairman and CEO of AudioCodes.

http://www.audiocodes.com

Read More

Taiwan's Chunghwa Reaches 285,111 Media-On-Demand Subscribers

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom reported Q1 revenue of NT$45.78 billion, up 1.7% year-over-year. Internet and data revenue rose 8.9% year-over-year to NT$12.18 ; mobile revenue increased 0.7% year-over-year to NT$18.07 billion; and net income totaled NT$11.15 billion, a year-over-year increase of 19.6%.



Some highlights:

• Chunghwa added 48,000 new HiNet subscribers over the quarter to bring the total number of Internet subscriptions to 4.35 million at the end of March 2007, an increase from 4.30 million at the end of December 2006.





• Data revenue was up 9.1% year-over-year, and can primarily be attributed to Chief Telecom, which was consolidated from 3Q 2006, an contributed NT$126 million in 1Q 2007. 1Q 2007 was the first quarter in which MOD service revenue was reported in the data revenue category of the income statement as a result of its regulation under the Telecommunications Act. Prior to 2007, MOD service revenue was reported under 'other revenue.'



• As of the end of March 2007, Chunghwa had 285,111 MOD (media on-demand IPTV) subscribers.



• As of March 31, 2007, Chunghwa had 8.56 million mobile subscribers, up 0.82% from December 31, 2006. Chunghwa added 340,000 3G subscribers during 1Q 2007, bringing the total number of 3G subscribers to 1.28 million. At the end of the quarter, 3G ARPU was 63% higher than that of 2G ARPU.



• As of the end of March 2007, the Company maintained its market leading fixed-line market position, with fixed-line subscribers totaling 13.08 million, down by 0.29% compared to 4Q 2006.

http://www.cht.com.tw

Read More

Atheros Posts Q1 Revenue of $96 Million

Atheros reported Q1 revenue of $95.5 million, up nine percent from the $87.8 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2006 and up 56 percent from the $61.1 million reported in the first quarter of 2006. Net income (GAAP) was $7.6 million or $0.13 per diluted share, compared with a GAAP net loss of $1.2 million or a loss of $0.02 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2006, which included $12.3 million in estimated acquisition related expenses.



"Q1 was another strong quarter for Atheros and one in which we experienced strong demand for both our WLAN and Ethernet products," said Craig Barratt, president and CEO of Atheros. "We reported our eighth consecutive quarter of record revenue and the highest pro forma net income in our company's history.

http://www.atheros.com

Read More

Verizon Adds 141,000 FiOS TV, 177,000 FiOS Internet Customers in Q1

Verizon reports $22.6 billion in revenues, up 6.4 percent from 1Q 2006, and 54 cents in diluted EPS before discontinued operations and special items (non-GAAP), up 17.4 percent from 46 cents per share in 1Q 2006. Some highlights for the quarter:

Verizon Wireless

• Verizon Wireless added 1.6 million retail net customer additions (including acquisitions and adjustments) most of which were post-paid customers. The company now has 58.5 million retail customers. The company added 1.7 million total net customers. Total customers (which include retail and wholesale) number 60.7 million.



• Retail churn was 1.08 percent.



• Retail service ARPU (average monthly revenue per customer) was $50.73, up 2.8 percent year-over-year, delivering the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.

Verizon -- Wireline

• Data revenues across all market segments increased 12.2 percent, to $4.2 billion, compared with the first quarter 2006. On pro-forma basis (non-GAAP), data revenue growth was 9.5 percent compared with the first quarter 2006.



• Data growth reflected increasing revenues from consumer broadband - such as DSL and Verizon's all-digital, fiber-optic FiOS services - as well as from wholesale data transport and sales of Verizon Business data services.



• Verizon added 416,000 net new broadband connections. This is the sixth consecutive quarter that Verizon has added more than 400,000 net broadband connections, a measure that combines the number of DSL and FiOS Internet connections.



• Wireline broadband connections totaled 7.4 million, a 30.1 percent
  increase compared with the first quarter 2006. This total includes
  864,000 FiOS Internet connections, an increase of 177,000 in the first
  quarter 2007.



• Verizon Telecom added a net of 141,000 new FiOS TV customers in the first quarter 2007. Verizon served 348,000 FiOS TV customers as of the end of the quarter. The company averaged approximately 2,200 FiOS TV net customer additions per business day in the first quarter 2007, about 750 more net additions per business day than the fourth-quarter 2006 average.



• Verizon now serves 618,000 satellite TV customers in partnership with DIRECTV, for a total approaching 1 million video customers nationwide.



• Revenues for Verizon Telecom's consumer market decreased by 3.5 percent, to $4.2 billion, comparing first quarter 2007 with first quarter 2006. However, in legacy Verizon markets, consumer revenues reversed recent year-over-year declines. (Legacy Verizon consumer markets exclude former MCI consumer markets - where Verizon's strategic focus has led to expected declines.) With an increasing shift to broadband and video sales, FiOS sales contributed to revenue growth in legacy Verizon markets of 1.6 percent, to $3.8 billion, comparing first quarter 2007 with first quarter 2006.

Verizon Business

• Verizon Business reported first-quarter 2007 revenues of $5.2 billion, or growth of 2.3 percent compared with the first quarter 2006 on a pro-forma adjusted basis (non-GAAP, including MCI revenues from Jan. 1, 2006). This is the second consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year revenue growth.



• Overall revenue growth at Verizon Business was driven by the continued momentum of strong sales of key strategic services, such as IP and managed services. In the first quarter 2007, strategic services generated $1.2 billion in revenue, up 22.8 percent from the first quarter 2006 on a pro-forma basis. This resulted in year-over-year growth of more than $200 million in revenues from strategic services, and it exceeded declines in revenues from core services, such as traditional voice and data services. Sales of strategic services were also up sequentially, increasing 2.0 percent from the fourth quarter 2006.

CAPEX

• Capital expenditures were in line with the company's previously announced plans. Expenditures totaled $4.2 billion in the first quarter 2007, compared with $4.0 billion in the first quarter 2006.

http://www.verizon.com

Read More

QUALCOMM and 4G Systems Announce Licensing Agreement

QUALCOMM and 4G Systems GmbH, which is a QUALCOMM WCDMA and TD-SCDMA modem card and router licensee, have entered into an OFDM/OFDMA license agreement. Under the terms of the royalty-bearing agreement, QUALCOMM has licensed 4G Systems to develop, manufacture and sell OFDM/OFDMA modem card and router products for high-speed broadband wireless access, as well as external modems and products for machine-to-machine communications and telematics. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.qualcomm.com

http://www.4g-systems.com

Read More

Narad Changes Name to PhyFlex Networks

Narad Networks, a supplier of FTTx solutions for HFC cable systems, changed its name to PhyFlex Networks. The FTTxSWITCH product, the first of the PhyFlex FTTx family of products, is now in various stages of adoption with eight operators in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Korea. Additionally, the company today announced that the FTTxSWITCH is the first outdoor switch to be certified by the Metro Ethernet Forum as a Carrier Ethernet access network platform with both MEF 9 and MEF 14 certification over both fiber and coax.



The company said its new name emphasizes the inherent flexibility of PhyFlex's new switched Ethernet platform, which distributes switched Ethernet over fiber, Ethernet and coaxial cable, and a new focus on operators' needs to increase network bandwidth with a network that can quickly adapt, evolve and expand to meet increasing end user demand for expanded bandwidth as well as a developing competitive market.



PhyFlex's new product, the FTTxSWITCH, supports Gigabit Ethernet over each of six fiber/Ethernet ports and 100Mbps Ethernet over each of four coaxial cable ports. The FTTxSWITCH can be deployed in FTTN, FTTC and FTTP configurations. The FTTxSWITCH also supports wireless access points and standard Ethernet cabling.

http://www.phyflex.com

Read More

CBS Television Stations Adopt Microsoft Silverlight

CBS Television Stations plan to launch a community-generated content initiative for its network of local Web sites that uses the new Microsoft Silverlight cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for media on the Web.



The new local initiative will allow users of the CBS-owned stations' sites to view, upload, share, rate, comment, sort and search video, images, audio and text submissions. A key component of the application is its full integration into the existing content publishing workflow of the CBS Television Stations' digital media groups. It allows the community-generated content to be managed alongside the station's professional content in a single workflow.



The CBS project will be built on the recently announced Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in for Windows and Mac-based Web browsers and Microsoft Expression Media Encoder, a new tool for client and server-based encoding and publishing of Silverlight-based content.



CBS Television Stations and Microsoft said the Silverlight-powered beta version of its community-generated content initiative will launch in select markets later this year.

http://www.cbslocal.com/http://www.microsoft.com

Read More

Atheros Launches its First Ethernet Switching Chip

Atheros Communications introduced its first Ethernet switch chip and a low-cost, 6-port 10/100 Fast Ethernet switch. The AR8216 supports can be used in wired and wireless networking equipment, including mainstream 802.11n and 802.11g wireless router and gateway platforms.



With its new low-cost Fast Ethernet switch solution, Atheros now provides networking customers with all of the major silicon required for complete wire-to-wireless router designs.



The device consists of five 10/100 Ethernet PHY ports, one MII port for CPU connectivity and six independent Media Access Controllers (MACs). It is implemented in a 10mm x 10mm, 80-pin, low-profile quad flat package. It also supports an advanced QoS architecture that prioritizes switch traffic for different classes of applications, such as voice traffic for IP phones, video traffic for multimedia and data traffic for e-mail. The device also supports ingress policing and egress rate limiting, as well as IPv4 IGMP and IPv6 MLD snooping to significantly improve the performance of streaming media and other bandwidth-intensive IP multicast applications.

http://www.atheros.com/pt/ethernet_index.htm

Read More

Microsoft Prevails over AT&T in Patent Case

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Microsoft in patent case versus. AT&T. The court ruled that Microsoft does not royalty payments for software sales overseas where AT&T does not hold patents for the voice-processing technology in question.



"Today's Supreme Court decision is important for the entire information technology industry, adding clarity and balance to our patent system. This decision promotes a global patent system that works. The ruling ensures that U.S. courts, like courts elsewhere, can respect the patent laws of other countries, helping promote cooperation among patent systems worldwide."http://www.att.com

Read More

Microsoft Outlines Silverlight Initiatives

Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, and Scott Guthrie, general manager of the Developer Division, outlined the vision and road map for Microsoft Silverlight, a core component of Microsoft's overall strategy for the Web.



Microsoft's Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET-based media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs). A beta of Silverlight has now been available for download. Final availability of Microsoft Silverlight 1.0 is scheduled for summer 2007.



Silverlight uses Windows Media Video (WMV), its implementation of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) VC-1 video standard, and promises scalability from full-screen high-definition (HD) to mobile devices.


Silverlight will support dynamic languages, including Python and Ruby.



Notably, Microsoft is also planning to launch a Silverlight Streaming service to help developers and designers to deliver and scale rich media as part of their Silverlight applications.

http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight

• Microsoft cited a number of early supporters for Silverlight, including Akamai Technologies, Brightcove, Eyeblaster, Limelight Networks, Major League Baseball and Netflix.

Read More