Motorola Announces 2-slot AdvancedTCA Server

Motorola introduced a compact, 2-slot version of its Centellis AdvancedTCA platform. With integrated power and shelf management, and capable of reusing any of the AdvancedTCA payload from its larger peers, the Centellis 2000 is positioned for smaller scale deployments, such as rural and low-density subscriber locations, as well as self-contained applications such as security, media processing and telecom servers. Motorola is initially targeting the platform at the telecom industry. It also can address fixed military and government installations, depending on the application.





The Centellis 2000 features a front-to-rear cooling architecture and is designed to meet Network Equipment Building System (NEBS) requirements.

http://www.motorola.com/computing

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Cisco to Acquire Cognio for Wireless Spectrum Analysis

Cisco agreed to acquire Cognio, a start-up specializing in wireless spectrum analysis and management for wireless networks. Cognio's spectrum technology can be used for detecting, classifying, locating and mitigating sources of radio frequency (RF) interference.



Cisco said the acquisition provides it with complementary and differentiating technology, intellectual property and a core team to expand its leadership in unified wireless networking.



Cognio is based in Germantown, Maryland.



Cisco noted that the acquisition is its first for fiscal 2008 and its 122nd to date.

http://www.cognio.com

http://www.cisco.com

• Cognio is headed by Tom McPherson, who previously was the CEO of Hatteras Networks. Prior to that, he was the Founder and COO of Rapid City communications. Cognio technical team is led by Neil Diener, who previously held a series of director level positions at companies including Telogy/Motorola, Sun Microsystems, Xerox, and Ask Jeeves.

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MetaSwitch Gains Traction with Telephone Cooperatives

MetaSwitch announced that its core switching solution is gaining market traction with leading telephone cooperatives, including two of the top 5 largest telephone cooperatives in North America: Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC) and GVTC. Both carriers are comprised of members, each of whom has a vote in the services the cooperative offers and the equipment it deploys. Both HTC and GVTC began by installing the necessary facilities to deliver basic telephone service and have since grown to offer a variety of residential and business voice, data, wireless and online services, operating as both an incumbent in their traditional service areas and through expansion as a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) in new markets.



HTC delivers service over approximately 85,000 access lines in Horry and Georgetown counties, South Carolina.



As the largest telephone cooperative in Texas, GVTC's service area spans 2,000 square miles and eleven counties, and includes over 32,000 members with approximately 42,000 access lines.
http://www.metaswitch.com

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Verizon Business Gains Access to China Telecom's CN2 Network

Verizon Business can now provide its multinational customers with seamless connectivity to China Telecom's Next Convergence Network (CN2) network, which covers more than 200 cities and 600 routers within China. Verizon Business customers are among the first nondomestic customers to be granted access to the new China Telecom Next Convergence Network. CN2 has backbone core nodes located in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan and Xian.




Verizon Business said its has been working with China Telecom on MPLS VPN since 2004, enabling full interconnectivity between the Verizon Private IP global network and China Telecom's national MPLS network. Hundreds of multinational customers in China already use more than 600 connections on the combined China Telecom/Verizon Private IP networks.



Verizon Business noted that through its predecessor companies it has been operational in China since 1993, and today has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The company is also the only U.S.-based member of a consortium that is building the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the U.S. mainland and China. The new system is to be named Trans-Pacific Express (TPE). Initial parties of the consortium include -- in addition to China Telecom and China Netcom -- China Unicom, Korea Telecom and Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan). http://www.verizon.com

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Huawei Wins $150M Contract with Bharti Airtel Sri Lanka

Bharti Airtel awarded a managed networks deal valued at US$150 to Huawei Technologies for its Sri Lanka operations. The three-year deal includes telecom applications and software.



Bharti Airtel was recently awarded the license to provide 2G and 3G mobile services in Sri Lanka. Under the agreement, Huawei will deploy and manage Airtel's core network, Node-Bs and BTSs and comprehensive end-to-end 2G/3G network solutions.

http://www.huawei.com

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ECI Extends its Optical Portfolio with AccessWave CWDM

ECI Telecom introduced its AccessWave compact, optical networking platform targeting access and edge C/DWDM (Coarse/Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) applications.



The AccessWave is part of the company's BroadGate family of optical access solutions. Together, the XDM products and the BroadGate family now span from access to long-haul, all managed under a unified network management system - ECI's LightSoft network manager. LightSoft provides simplified management of the optical layer, enabling end-to-end, access to long-haul provisioning with one system.



ECI said the AccessWave supports all commonly required data, storage and circuit services, with capacity ranging from less than 2.5 Gbps up to multiple 10 Gbps. It offers unique aggregation and protection features that both reduce costs and enhance QoS.



The Access Wave is environmentally hardened, making it suitable for outside plant installations, in copper, fiber or cable access optical networks.

http://www.ecitele.com

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Broadcom Demos B-Directional 10 GigE using PCI Express 2.0

Broadcom demonstrated 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) bi-directional line rate network performance utilizing only four lanes (x4) of PCI Express 2.0 (PCIe 2.0), thereby greatly reducing system resource requirements for 10 Gbps Ethernet controllers.



The demonstration features the Broadcom BCM57710 converged network interface controller (C-NIC) in conjunction with the advanced PCIe 2.0 host bus interface on an Intel next-generation server platform. Using only four lanes of the PCI Express interface, Broadcom delivers bi-directional line rate performance to the host server that provides a performance gain two times greater than that achieved with products utilizing the previous generation of PCI Express technology.



The BCM57710 can support up to eight lanes of PCIe 2.0 or PCIe 1.1 and enables either 5 Gbps or 2.5 Gbps data rate per lane. Equivalent functionality previously required eight lanes of PCIe 1.1 bus connectivity that doubled the amount of signaling overhead in previous generation server systems.

http://www.broadcom.com

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Ooma Launches a Premium Consumer VoIP Service

ooma, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, launched a new consumer VoIP service featuring designer-look CPE, unlimited US calling and premium features, including the ooma "Instant Second Line" and the ooma "Broadband Answering Machine" with no additional monthly fees.



Direct sales of ooma systems are being offered at introductory pricing of $399 for each ooma Hub device and $39.95 for each ooma Scout device. The company plans to raise the price to $599 in 2008, once the introductory period is over. There are no monthly fees. The company's philosophy is that the market should move from service-oriented to device-oriented. Once you purchase their device, you own the ooma dialtone.



The ooma Hub device attaches to your high-speed Internet connection and a regular telephone or digital phone station. The Scout device extends the system to anywhere in the house with a standard phone jack.

http://www.ooma.com

• ooma has secured $27 million in venture funding from, among others, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, The Founder's Fund, Worldview Partners, Draper-Richards and WI Harper in a series A and B round.

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Samsung Invests in Picochip for Multi-core DSPs

picoChip, a start-up based in Bath, England, announced that Samsung made a strategic investment in the company as part of the $27 million investment D-round announced in July. The funding round, which was led Highland Capital Partners, brought the total company funding to $70.5 million.



Samsung manufactures 3G base transceiver stations and basestation controllers, as well as basestations for WiMAX. picoChip has developed a high performance multi-core DSP, and is a supplier of femtocell, picocell and macrocell reference designs for WiMAX and HSPA. http://www.picochip.com

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ECI Now Supporting One Million IPTV Users Worldwide

ECI Telecom's flagship Hi-FOCuS MSAN platform now supports over one million IPTV subscribers worldwide, including deployments in Europe, Israel and Taiwan. The company expects the IPTV market to grow from 7.9 million subscribers globally at the end of 2006 to 70 million at the end of 2012, according to research from TelecomView. http://www.ecitele.com

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Sprint Offers CDMA Femtocell Base Station in First Two Markets

Sprint began offering a consumer femtocell base station in its first two markets as a means of enhancing in-home wireless coverage. The Sprint AIRAVE, which is supplied by Samsung, works with any Sprint CDMA phone and a broadband Internet connection. When in range, calls are carried over the broadband network rather than the CDMA network.



Sprint is offering unlimited wireless incoming and outgoing calls and nationwide long distance over the femtocell for $15 per month for individuals and $30 per month for families, in addition to the customer's regular wireless voice plan.



Calls can be automatically transferred back to the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network when they leave the 5,000-foot radius range of the femtocell. A special tone indicates when the user has entered or left the femtocell radius. Three phones can use the base station simultaneously.



The service is initially available in select areas of Denver and Indianapolis. The AIRAVE is being sold at Sprint stores for $49.99. Sprint plans to make the AIRAVE available later this year to customers in the remainder of Denver and Indianapolis, along with Nashville, and to customers nationwide in 2008.

http://www.sprint.com

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Microsoft and Show GPS-aware Mobile Search

Sprint and Microsoft introduced a fully integrated GPS location-aware mobile search service for the U.S. The service enables Sprint customers to:

• Search the entire Web, local listings and maps, and Sprint's mobile content catalog using the same familiar search box powered by Live Search, on the Sprint mobile Web home page.
  
  
• Use Sprint's built-in GPS capabilities to automatically find local businesses and listings nearby quickly and easily without needing to
  manually enter location information. Sprint said the GPS-enabled functionality would require the use to give permission before the phone would be allowed to identify their location.

Voice search with visual results by Live Search for mobile using Tellme technologies will also be available on select Sprint phones as a separate download. Users will be able to simply say the business listing and then see the search results on the screen.



The enhanced Sprint mobile search experience powered by Live Search is immediately available at no additional cost to Sprint data subscribers on most data-enabled Sprint phones. On select Sprint phones, voice search will be available to customers as a free download. Standard data charges apply.

http://www.sprint.com

http://www.microsoft.com

• Sprint and Microsoft initially announced their strategic alliance in November 2006, when the companies launched combined mobile content and local listings search capabilities and committed to delivering GPS-enabled search.

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iPhone to Debut in UK on Nov 9 with O2

Apple picked O2 as its exclusive carrier partner in the UK for its iPhone. The unit will be priced at £269 under an 18-month contract when it debus on 09-Nov-07.

http://www.apple.com

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AT&T U-verse Adds Interactive Features

AT&T has enhanced its U-verse IPTV service with a suite of new features -- currently available for all local U-verse TV customers at no extra charge -- to differentiate the service from cable, including:

• AT&T U-bar, which brings Internet-like content to the television screen in the form of local weather, stock, sports, and traffic information. Customers who also subscribe to AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet U-verse enabled have the option to customize the U-bar from their AT&T Yahoo! broadband account to display weather at a specified location, their personal stock portfolio, and scores for their favorite sports teams.



• YELLOWPAGES.COM TV, an intuitive new way to search for local businesses and other information via U-verse TV.



• AT&T Yahoo! Games, available over the television screen, including Sudoku, Solitaire, JT's Blocks, Mah-jongg Tiles, and Chess.

AT&T also announced that its U-verse TV and Internet services are now available to more than 325,000 homes in the North Texas area, marking a significant expansion since AT&T U-verse launched locally in March 2007.

Dallas-Fort Worth customers are the first to receive the new suite.

http://www.att.com

• AT&T recently reached the milestone of more than 100,000 U-verse customers.

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Telanetix Acquires AccessLine for Hosted VoIP

Telanetix completed its $34.9 million acquisition of AccessLine Communications, a provider of hosted VoIP services.



AccessLine provides hosted VoIP services for the business market nationwide and has over 100,000 VoIP users nationwide. AccessLine's gross revenues for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 and the six-month period ended June 30, 2007 were $24.3 million and $12.5 million, respectively. Telanetix expects the AccessLine business will contribute monthly revenues of approximately $2 million per month through 2007 and expects the combined entity will approach EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter of 2007.

http://www.telanetix.com

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Tellabs Supplies Metro Ethernet in Ecuador

Grupo TVCable, the leading cable operator in Ecuador with presence in 12 cities, has selected Tellabs to create and deploy its new Metro Ethernet network. The Tellabs 8600 managed edge system and the Tellabs 8000 network manager, part of the Tellabs "AssuredEthernet" solution, enable CableNet to guarantee quality of service for its customers. The Tellabs solution increases network bandwidth and enables CableNet to offer a variety of technologies, such as DSL and WiMAX. Financial terms were not disclosed.htp://www.tellabs.com

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WiMedia Alliance Announces Second Round of Registered PHYs

The WiMedia Alliance today announced the registration of six additional Physical Layer chipsets (PHYs), bringing the total number of approved chipsets to 13. These chipsets have been verified as compliant with the WiMedia PHY specification, and approved for use with the Alliance's Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Common Radio Platform.



WiMedia PHY registration is the first of two parts comprising the Alliance's certification program. At a recent registration event, WiMedia members Alereon, Realtek Semiconductor, Tzero Technologies and Wisair successfully tested chipsets against the WiMedia specification, resulting in official PHY registration for their products.



The six new PHYs announced today join the PHYs registered by Alereon Inc., Realtek Semiconductor, Staccato Communications, Tzero Technologies, WiQuest Communications and Wisair in November 2006.



The WiMedia Alliance also noted that support for WiMedia UWB continues to grow, with WiMedia membership surpassing 300 in mid-2007.

http://www.wisair.com

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USB 3.0 Targets 10X Speed Improvement

A new USB 3.0 Promoter Group, backed by Intel, HP, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments, announced plans to create a superspeed personal USB interconnect that can deliver over 10 times the speed of today's connection. The companies said the boost becomes necessary as digital media file sizes increase up to and beyond 25 Gigabytes.



USB (Universal Serial Bus) 3.0 will create a backward-compatible standard with the same ease-of-use and plug and play capabilities of previous USB technologies. Targeting over 10x performance increase, the technology will draw from the same architecture of wired USB. In addition, the USB 3.0 specification will be optimized for low power and improved protocol efficiency. USB 3.0 ports and cabling will be designed to enable backward compatibility as well as future-proofing for optical capabilities.



A completed USB 3.0 specification is expected by the first half of 2008. USB 3.0 implementations will initially be in the form of discrete silicon.
http://www.usb.org

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