SingTel Offers Mobile LIVECam Home Surveillance Device

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) launched its Mobile LIVECam, a home surveillance device that ties into the carrier's 3G service.



The Mobile LIVECam is a 0.3 megapixel camera comes equipped with a SIM card and users simply place it at their selected location. They can then dial in to the camera's assigned number from wherever they are using their 3G mobile phone in order to view the images. The device allows the user to remotely pan, tilt and zoom (up to 3X) using the numeric keypad on their phone. Image brightness, volume, on-the-fly recording and even image inverting are also supported.



It comes with a built-in microphone and 512 megapixels memory card for video recording. The camera is battery-operated, allowing it to be truly portable. It requires no configuration or installation and is equipped with infra-red video capture to improve images in dark spaces and at night.



Mobile LIVECam operates on the 3G network, and is a standalone service available to all residential customers with an existing SingTel Mobile 3G account.



To sign up, customers either pay a one-time equipment fee of S$353.10 (US$240). Service subscription is S$8.56 (US$5.80) per month.

http://www.singtel.com/mobilelivecam

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Telstra Wholesale launches Carrier Grade Ethernet

Telstra Wholesale recently launched a new Carrier Grade Ethernet service that offers a resilient, scalable network with a broad range of bandwidth choices. Telstra Wholesale has already sold Carrier Grade Ethernet to one local ISP and they have been able to link metropolitan services and international IP traffic gateways via one platform.



The Carrier Grade Ethernet service offers wholesale customers three resilience options.



Wholesale Carrier Grade Ethernet is a national inter-capital network between the metropolitan areas of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth.

http://www.telstra.com

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PAETEC to Acquire Allworx for Phone System

PAETEC Holding Corp. agreed to acquire Allworx, a privately held company, in a $25 million all-cash acquisition.



Allworx develops, designs, markets, and sells a complete phone and network system. Its portfolio includes integrated PBX/Key telephone and network systems and VoIP telephones with a series of advanced communications software options, such as conference calling and call queuing. Based in East Rochester, N.Y., Allworx primarily uses Value Added Resellers, or VARs, as its sales channel.



PAETEC said the acquisition will enhance its offerings to small and medium-sized business customers.



PAETEC offers a comprehensive suite of voice, data, and IP services, as well as enterprise communications management software, network security solutions, CPE, and managed services. http://www.paetec.com

http://www.allworxcorp.com

• In September 2007, PAETEC agreed to acquire McLeodUSA in a deal valued at $557 million. The merger will create a leading CLEC with approximately 3.4 million access line equivalents in service, and a local presence in 47 of the top 50 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The combined company will operate 77 traditional voice switching facilities and 39 IP softswitches. McLeodUSA has operations in 20 states, while PAETEC operates in 23 plus the District of Columbia.

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IBM and BroadSoft Exceed 100 Clients

IBM and BroadSoft now have over 100 telecom service providers using the IBM BladeCenter with the BroadWorks VoIP platform. The companies began offering their combined solution 18 months ago.



The IBM BladeCenter HT, introduced earlier this year, extends the BladeCenter family to meet stringent NEBS3/ETSI requirements for telecommunications carrier grade deployments. http://www.broadsoft.com

http://www.ibm.com

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FCC Grants AT&T's Forbearance Petition for Broadband Services

The FCC granted a forbearance petition from AT&T under which the carrier sought a regulatory relief of its broadband infrastructure and fiber capabilities. This relief provides AT&T with more flexibility with regard to its existing packet-switched broadband telecommunications services and its existing optical transmission services. The regulatory relief is similar to that granted to Verizon in March 2006.



Under Title II of the Telecom Act, dominant carriers are subject to price cap or rate-of-return regulation, and must file tariffs for many of their interstate telecommunications services -- on either seven or fifteen days' notice -- and usually with supporting data. In addition, applications to discontinue, reduce, or impair service are subject to a 60-day waiting period for dominant carriers, as opposed to a 31-day period for nondominant carriers. Finally, dominant carriers must follow more stringent procedures under section 214 of the Act for certain types of transfers of control for which nondominant carriers are accorded presumptive streamlined treatment.



In this ruling, the FCC granted AT&T forbearance from the application of dominant carrier tariff filing, cost support, discontinuance, and domestic transfer of control and certain Computer Inquiry requirements to broadband services with regard to (1) its existing non-TDM-based, packet-switched services capable of transmitting 200 kbps or greater in each direction; and (2) its existing non-TDM-based, optical transmission services. These services include Frame Relay Services, ATM Services, LAN Services, Ethernet-Based Services, Video Transmission Services, Optical Network Services, and Wave-Based Services. This grant is restricted to services that AT&T currently offers and lists in its petitions, and excludes all TDM-based, DS1 and DS3 services.

http://www.fcc.govhttp://www.att.com

• In March 2006, the FCC granted Verizon's petition for regulatory relief of its broadband infrastructure and fiber capabilities. In December 2004, Verizon requested that the FCC forbear from applying common carrier regulations and the Computer Inquiry requirements to its high capacity broadband services.
  
  
  
  In Verizon's case, as a matter or proceeding, the FCC failed to deny the petition by the required deadline and thereby the petition was granted.
  
  
  
  The decision exempts Verizon from having to provide competitors with access to certain broadband facilities and from having to file proposed price increases for certain broadband services with regulators. It does not apply to traditional special access services (DS1 and DS3 services) and excludes TDM-based optical networking.

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House Judiciary Committee Supports Continued Moratorium on Internet Taxes

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted to support the Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2007 out of committee, which would extend the moratorium on Internet taxation established in the 1998 Internet Tax Freedom Act until 2011. The full House and Senate must now take up the bill. The current net tax ban expires at the end of the month. http://www.house.gov

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BEA Systems Rejects Oracle Bid at $17/Share

Oracle proposed to acquire BEA Systems for $17.00 per share in cash, representing a 25% premium over the previous day's closing price of $13.62 and values the company at $6.7 billion. Oracle said the proposed merger with BEA would accelerate the development of a world-class suite of middleware for business applications.



BEA Systems' Board of Directors reviewed the bid and rejected it, saying the proposal significantly under-values BEA Systems.

http://www.oracle.com

http://www.beasys.com

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Fujitsu and Navini Demo Beamformed Mobile WiMAX

Navini Networks and Fujitsu Microelectronics America (FMA) demonstrated multi-vendor interoperability of "Smart WiMAX" technology -- the conjunction of smart beamforming with Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO) on a Mobile WiMAX (802.16e) network.



The companies estimate Smart WiMAX systems will provide a doubling of system capacity, while offering up to twice the coverage of simple WiMAX networks in a fully mobile setting.



The demonstration, the first in the industry between two different vendors, took place in Navini's test facility in Richardson, Texas, using Navini's Ripwave MX8 base station running Mobile WiMAX software and a CPE reference design prototype based on the Fujitsu MB86K21 802.16e-2005 Mobile WiMAX chip. Smart WiMAX beamformed connectivity was achieved using "dedicated pilots," a mandatory feature for all Wave 2 Mobile Station subscriber devices required for certification under published WiMAX Forum profiles.



Navini's combination of standards-based beamforming with MIMO is called Smart WiMAX. Navini is working with partners such as Fujitsu to extend the capabilities of Smart WiMAX to include beamformed MIMO, which can double received data rates and improve the reliability of a mobile signal. http://www.navini.com

http://us.fujitsu.com/micro/WiMAX

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