Rodopi Software, which supplies web-based billing and provisioning for converged broadband services, announced its Rodopi OSS solution now supports the latest version of BroadSoft's BroadWorks' VoIP application platform.
The companies have integrated their flagship products to provide hosted telephony solutions for wireline and wireless service providers. Rodopi OSS V5.5 seamlessly provisions and bills business and residential end-users, whose VoIP services are delivered over BroadWorks.
Orange Business Services announced worldwide availability of IPVPN Protected, a new managed security offer integrated in the Cisco Integrated Service Router and encompassing a firewall and intrusion prevention system.
Orange said its IPVPN Protected provides four key benefits:
Effective security: IPVPN Protected embeds effective security capabilities such as a bi-directional zone-based Firewall and an intrusion prevention system (IPS) to protect against internal and external threats,
Low costs: to address the volume associated to branch and remote sites, Orange is offering a pricing structure based simply on installation fees plus monthly recurring charges,
Integrated simplicity: the firewall and intrusion prevention options rely on the Cisco Integrated Service Router IOS functionalities and do not require deployment of additional equipment or need customer resources. This security is then integrated into Orange's managed network services including IP VPN, Internet Direct and Small Office Services and inherits the SLAs selected by the customer. The service reacts automatically in case of attack, working as long as the router is on. The security policy, or filtering rules, can be customized as specifically as needed to meet the customer unique needs for each site or can be defined globally,
Managed service: Orange Business Services manages IPVPN Protected, delivering, maintaining and supporting the firewall and intrusion prevention options. For the firewall, the customer defines its security policy through flexible and adaptable filtering rules that can be defined globally or per site. The intrusion prevention mechanism inspects the incoming and outgoing traffic and then blocks any traffic matching one of the loaded attack signatures such as a virus downloaded on a remote computer that is trying to enter the intranet.
Alcatel-Lucent introduced its new Business integrated Communication Solution (BiCS) for mid-sized enterprises with 100-500 employees. The solution bundles the following in a single server:
Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise IP telephony
Alcatel-Lucent OmniTouch Contact Center standard edition
Alcatel-Lucent My Instant Communicator Unified Communications
XML APIs for simplified third-party application integration
Firetide, a start-up based in Los Gatos, California, secured $14.4 million in Series D financing for its wireless mesh networking solutions. Firetide's wireless mesh infrastructure and access products have been deployed by scores of municipalities, law enforcement agencies, hospitality businesses, and industrial and commercial enterprises.
The funding round includes existing investors plus the addition of Coral Capital Management, the lead investor in the round. Firetide will utilize the funds to further its global business strategy and to respond to growing market demand for its real-time video surveillance and mobile infrastructure solutions.
Nortel announced a settlement on all issues with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in connection with the SEC's investigation of certain prior accounting practices at Nortel.
Nortel agreed to pay a civil penalty of US$35 million and consented to injunctions against it from violations of certain provisions of federal securities laws. Further, Nortel will provide to the SEC quarterly written reports detailing its progress in implementing its remediation plan and actions to address its outstanding material weakness in internal controls.
"We are pleased that we have reached final resolution in this matter. The settlement recognizes the extensive and proactive efforts made by Nortel's Board and senior management to identify and address the accounting and internal control issues and conduct that led to the investigation," said Nortel President and CEO Mike Zafirovski. "Through hard work, a dedication to excellence and an unwavering commitment to serving our customers, Nortel is recreating a great technology company which upholds the highest ethical standards and sound business practices. This is a new Nortel." http://www.nortel.com
Cisco unveiled a Mobile Government solution that provides local authorities with a suite of products and applications to help public safety and mobile workers through the use of collaborative wireless mobility technologies.
The Cisco Mobile Government solution includes the following new products, applications and partner contributions:
Mobile Networking: Enhancements to the Cisco 3200 Series Wireless and Mobile Routers, which include integrated video security, a 5 GHz card for radio interoperability, incorporation of Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express and high-speed roaming capabilities.
Enhanced Interoperability: New, maximized 4.9 GHz radio interoperability between the Cisco 3200 Series Wireless and Mobile Routers and the new Cisco 1520 Series wireless broadband platform to support public safety and response initiatives.
Collaborative Applications: In collaboration with 3I Infotech and APS for public safety applications, and Accela, MobileFrame and Syclo for mobile worker and inspection applications, Cisco is offering industry solutions that can be delivered across this mobile government network. Value-added applications include those for law enforcement investigations, hazardous materials tracking, emergency dispatch, fire and safety inspections, facility management, electronic traffic citations, building inspection, permitting, environmental code enforcement, and sewer repair and maintenance. Cisco said these applications have been optimized to run on the mobility platform of Cisco technology developer Intermec, which supplies rugged handheld mobile devices, and on Panasonic ToughBooks.
Danaher Corporation, which makes professional instrumentation products, agreed to acquire Tektronix for $38.00 per share. The aggregate purchase price is approximately $2.8 billion, including debt, transaction costs and net of cash acquired. This represents a premium of approximately 34% to Tektronix's closing price on October 12, 2007.
Tektronix, which has annual revenues of approximately $1.1 billion, is a leading supplier of test, measurement, and monitoring products for networking.
Tektronix would become part of Danaher's Electronic Test platform, joining Danaher's Fluke and Fluke Networks businesses, and nearly doubling the platform's revenues. The combined brands are some of the most highly recognized in each of their respective product segments.
UTStarcom announced a contract to supply its NetRing 10000i STM-64 optical transport solution to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), the incumbent and largest telecommunications operator in India. This contract represents the third deployment of UTStarcom solutions in BSNL's nationwide ADSL 2+ network as the operator has already deployed UTStarcom's iAN-8000 and Total Control 1000 multiservice access solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.utstar.com
NAVTEQ announced a multi-year extension of its agreement to provide real time and historic traffic information to Microsoft. NAVTEQ Traffic will remain Microsoft's preferred provider of traffic information for its web properties and the agreement extends Microsoft's right to use NAVTEQ's traffic data in online products and services, desktop and mobile applications and appliances.
Microsoft's MSN Direct service, Streets & Trips desktop applications, Windows Live Local, Microsoft Automotive and Live Search for Windows Mobile services currently use NAVTEQ Traffic data. This multi-year strategic extension of the Microsoft relationship provides for incorporation of NAVTEQ Traffic data in additional Microsoft products.
http://www.navteq.com
http://www.microsoft.com
Earlier this month, Nokia agreed to acquire NAVTEQ, positioning itself to play a leading role in mobile location-based services. Under the deal, Nokia will pay $78 in cash for each share of NAVTEQ including outstanding options for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $8.1 billion (EUR 5.7 billion), or approximately $7.7 billion (EUR 5.4 billion) net of NAVTEQ existing cash balance. Nokia said this represents a 34% premium over NAVTEQ's trading price a year ago.
Maven Networks launched its Internet TV Advertising Platform, which aims to increase video advertising inventory and revenue via new ad formats, an intelligent and dynamic video ad insertion engine, and video ad inventory management tools. Maven said its platform introduces a series of new, non-proprietary formats that take advantage of in-video interactivity through the use of transparent overlays and video telescoping, and are intelligently placed within video streams to create additional, previously unavailable ad inventory.
Maven also announced the formation of the Internet TV Advertising Forum, which aims to define next-generation online video advertising standards. Inaugural members of the Forum include Fox News Digital, Scripps Networks, Ogilvy, Digitas, TV Guide, 4Kids Entertainment, Microsoft Corp., DoubleClick and 24/7 Real Media. The industry collaborative was established to help solve the challenges and deficiencies associated with current online video advertising models."Ogilvy is working with Maven to help evolve the platform to create new formats in online video advertising that truly reach the right target at the right time with the right message -- it is the holy grail of advertising that marketers have been searching for," said Maria Mandel, Senior Partner and Executive Director of Digital Innovation, Ogilvy.
The BBC is adopting Adobe Flash Player software to power its free catch-up TV service -- BBC iPlayer, which will now be available as a streaming service across Macintosh and Linux, as well as Windows, by the end of the year. The BBC iPlayer on-demand streaming service will complement the download service currently available.
The strategic relationship will also allow the BBC to provide a single consistent user experience for the majority of streamed video and audio content on www.bbc.co.uk.
Starent Networks (Nasdaq:STAR), which supplies infrastructure solutions to mobile operators, has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a registration statement for the offering of shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. The number of shares of common stock to be sold in the proposed offering has not yet been determined, but Starent Networks currently expects that the offering will consist of an aggregate of 8,000,000 shares, of which approximately 4,000,000 shares are expected to be offered by Starent Networks and approximately 4,000,000 shares are expected to be offered by certain of its stockholders.
Starent Networks also currently expects to grant an option to the underwriters to purchase approximately up to an additional 1,200,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.
Broadcom announced a new single-chip HSPA (high-speed packet access) processor that integrates all of the key 3G cellular and mobile technologies on an extremely low power, single 65 nanometer CMOS die.
Broadcom said its new "3G Phone on a Chip" solution enables manufacturers to build next generation 3G HSUPA phones with breakthrough features, sleek form factors and very long battery life, all at a fraction of the cost of today's solutions.
Phones enabled by the new Broadcom HSUPA processor will support download speeds up to 7.2 Mbps, and upload speeds of up to 5.8 Mbps. HSUPA technology also holds the promise for much higher quality "live" video conferencing.
The new BCM21551 3G chip combines a high-speed HSUPA 3G baseband, a multi-band radio frequency (RF) transceiver, Bluetooth 2.1 with enhanced data rate (EDR) technology, an FM radio receiver and an FM radio transmitter (for car stereo music playback). The device also features advanced multimedia processing, up to five Megapixel camera support, and 30 frame per second video with "TV Out," as well as support for the HSUPA, HSDPA, WCDMA and EDGE cellular protocols. It can even be paired with other Broadcom devices, such as Wi-Fi and GPS, PMU, or the new VideoCore III mobile multimedia processor.
It is designed and manufactured on a single 65 nanometer silicon die. The BCM21551 3G baseband processor is available now to early access customers and is priced at $23.00 in large quantities.
Acme Packet has enhanced its "Net-Net" session border controllers (SBCs) for large enterprises and contact centers with new features that deliver new security, session control, quality assurance and regulatory compliance capabilities. The enhancements are aimed at further optimizing the delivery of IP interactive communications -- voice, video, and multimedia collaboration -- across enterprise and contact center IP network borders.
Specifically, the latest enhancements target four critical capabilities:
b>Intrusion Detection & Prevention (IDP) reporting -- Acme Packet's Net-Net SBC leverages its real-time Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capabilities to analyze and identify traffic anomalies in order to protect against malicious and non-malicious attacks resulting from signaling message floods, registration avalanches, malformed messages and malware attachments. Using its Dynamic Trust Management (DTM) and behavioral learning capabilities the Net-Net SBCs define which traffic is allowed and which is denied based on pre-defined business and network policies. For example, the system can differentiate between a flood attack and a registration restart avalanche, denying the flood attack and regulating the registration restarts.
Acme Packet said its new IDP reporting system provides a comprehensive detection, collection and reporting architecture that enhances the enterprise's ability to identify, analyze and mitigate potential threats. The IDP reporting system allows the administrator to define policies that specify the types and levels of alarms that trigger notification events, with other alarms falling below this threshold simply being logged. For example, in order to protect against denial of service attacks the administrator can define a threshold for the rate of SIP INVITE messages from a single source, with the system alerting the administrator when exceeded.
Anti-virus, worm and SPIT protection -- Acme Packet warns that SIP-based interactive communications can also be susceptible to proliferating viruses and worms because of header attachments. For example, a voice call sent with a rich media caller ID vCard attachment with the SIP header can act as a Trojan horse that propagates destructive malware throughout a network, adversely affecting all applications. Acme Packet provides a set of tools to protect users, devices and infrastructure against viruses and worms. To deliver this level of protection the Net-Net SBCs combines its DPI capabilities with SIP Header Manipulation Rules (HMR). These policy-driven rules define what is allowed and not allowed, enabling enterprises and contact centers to automate the protection process against many types of viruses and worms. For example a rule can be created that removes all header attachments, alleviating a major form of virus and worm propagation.
Spam for Internet Telephony (SPIT) is a potential problem once many different VoIP networks are interconnected that could result in a SPAM-like plague of unsolicited calls and voicemails. To identify and prevent SPIT, Acme Packet SBCs combine behavioral learning with policy-driven session admission control rules. For example, the Net-Net SBC can identify and block automated calling platforms by analyzing anomalies in the call origination rate from a single source.
SIP session control -- SIP REFER & LDAP interface support Active support for the SIP REFER method enables contact centers to transfer customer calls within a virtual contact center without involving external IP phone or media gateways, enhancing call reliability and reducing latency. Acme Packet has added an LDAP interface that enables enterprises to leverage existing employee databases for user authentication and authorization. This interface eliminates the need to replicate or synchronize data across multiple data stores or perform duplicate data entry.
Call replication for call recording -- Many enterprise and contact center deployments require the ability to dynamically select calls for recording. This may be for regulatory compliance purposes or based on business procedures that require selective or 100% call recording for quality assurance. Acme Packet's SBCs can perform call replication, reducing the number of devices that enterprises and contact centers have to manage, thereby eliminating costs and decreasing complexity.
Separately, Acme Packet announced two major enterprise deployments.
Echopass, which provices hosted contact center services, is deploying Acme Packet Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) to interconnect its U.S. data centers to its enterprise customers. The Echopass EchoSystem is an end-to-end managed service integration platform that leverages Echopass' on-demand contact center services and call routing infrastructure with hosted CRM, legacy voice/data network technologies and integrates with other advanced enterprise-class applications all managed by Echopass.
Thing5 L.L.C., a leading provider of voice and data messaging services to the hospitality industry, is using Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) for SIP trunking to multiple service providers for PSTN origination and termination. Thing5's managed network services support the voice communications of all La Quinta and Extended Stay hotels, supporting over one thousand hotel properties. Acme Packet's SBCs receive in-bound calls over SIP trunks from several service providers and route them to more than one thousand hotel locations. For outbound calls from the Extended Stay and La Quinta hotels to the PSTN, the Net-Net SBCs load balance calls to different service providers. Acme Packet's Net-SAFE security architecture provides denial of service (DoS) attack protection, topology hiding and access control, helping to ensure Thing5's network availability. The Net-Net SBCs also provide hosted NAT traversal for IP phones used by hotel mobile and remote workers.
secured $14.4 million in Series D financing for its wireless mesh networking solutions. Firetide's wireless mesh infrastructure and access products have been deployed by scores of municipalities, law enforcement agencies, hospitality businesses, and industrial and commercial enterprises. 
which aims to increase video advertising inventory and revenue via new ad formats, an intelligent and dynamic video ad insertion engine, and video ad inventory management tools. Maven said its platform introduces a series of new, non-proprietary formats that take advantage of in-video interactivity through the use of transparent overlays and video telescoping, and are intelligently placed within video streams to create additional, previously unavailable ad inventory.
The enhancements are aimed at further optimizing the delivery of IP interactive communications -- voice, video, and multimedia collaboration -- across enterprise and contact center IP network borders.
