Huawei Unveils its ALL IP 4G Platform

Huawei Technologies rolled out its New Generation WiMAX commercial solution at PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2007 in Beijing.



Huawei said its ALL IP- based New Generation WiMAX solution adopts HSPA/LTE/UMB co-platform infrastructure, and integrates the 4G technologies including HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat-reQuest), MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Out-put). The products include a gateway, distributed base station, transmission, network management system and terminal. The solution could be deployed alongside GSM, CDMA, IMS, NGN and DSL integrated network.



Also at PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2007, Huawei showcased its 100 Mbps Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in a demonstration of multiplexed HDTV services. The demonstration features transmission speeds of 100 Mbps.

http://www.huawei.com

Read More

RadiSys Adds Media Processing Blade, Boosting Media Server to 24K Ports

RadiSys introduced a new media processing blade for its Convedia CMS-9000 Media Server, delivering capacity and performance improvements for processing-intensive applications such as conferencing, video and low bitrate codec.

The Convedia CMS-9000 Media Server, which is already in customer production networks, was designed to accommodate modular capacity upgrades. The new MPC-IV card adds additional Digital Signal Processor (DSP) resources to the original Media Processing Card III (MPC-III) hardware design, providing up to 24,000 ports of media processing power on the CMS-9000 platform, representing a 30 percent capacity improvement compared to the media processing cards in RadiSys' first generation CMS-6000 Media Server systems. The new MPC-IV card continues to offer the improved CPU power of the original MPC-III design for CPU-bound applications like VoiceXML IVR processing, while adding the additional DSP resources for improved conference mixing, video, low bitrate codec and transcoding capacity.

http://www.radisys.com

Read More

Akamai Releases "HDWeb" Proof-of-Concept Portal

Akamai Technologies announced The HDWeb, a proof-of-concept portal designed to showcase the experience consumers can have with high definition content online. The Website, available at www.thehdweb.com, showcases content from a variety of industries including music, movies, professional sports, games and news.



Companies providing HD content for the initiative include Apple, BBC Motion Gallery, CBS, Gannett, MTV Networks, NBA and more. Akamai said the proof-of-concept portal will serve as a temporary Internet Programming Guide to HD video on the Web and provide access to a complete HD experience. These companies understand the value that HD content brings their brand and are ahead of the curve by offering HD programming online.

http://www.thehdweb.com

http://www.akamai.com

• In August 2007, Akamai Technologies began delivering HD quality video content for its customers via its distributed edge delivery network with servers in more than 750 cities worldwide. For the Internet, Akamai said it is making the HD web possible by continuing to refine the infrastructure required to bring the HDTV experience to online audiences.
  
  
  
  HDTV is defined as pixel resolution of 1080i, 1080p or 720p. A 2-hour feature-length movie would need to be encoded at a bit rate of at least 6-8 Mbps, which would result in the file being a size of 5-8 GB. This presents numerous technical challenges to deliver such a high-quality, large file.
  
  
  
  Akamai calculates that to deliver a file encoded at 6 Mbps to an audience of one Nielsen ratings point (1,102,000 households) would require 6.6 Terabits of sustained bandwidth. Another critical factor to enable high bit rate delivery of very large HD files is the proximity of the end-user to the server sending the file. As the distance from the server becomes greater, throughput dramatically decreases. Even a seemingly small distance can result in lost throughput due to lower throughput, higher packet loss, and increased latency. As an example, the only way to achieve 10 to 20 Mbps throughput for typical PC end-users is if the server is less than 20 milliseconds away.

Read More

"Connect Africa" Draws Promise of Large Investments from Leading Mobile Operators

At the Connect Africa summit, an ITU event being hosted by the government of Rwanda, leading global mobile operators announced plans to invest more than $50 billion in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years. The goal is to provide more than 90% of the population with mobile coverage by extending the reach of GSM mobile networks and enhancing the services with GPRS, EDGE and HSPA technologies.



According to the GSM Association, there are more than 150 million mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa today. However, a further 350 million people have mobile coverage and are not yet directly connected. As well as extending coverage, the mobile industry is focused on using its economies of scale to connect these people. As the number of users grows, so too will economic prosperity.



The GSMA estimates that an increase of 10 percentage points in mobile penetration can increase the annual growth rate of GDP by up to 1.2 percentage points.



Since sub-Saharan governments began liberalizing their telecommunication sectors at the turn of the millennium, the GSMA estimates that the mobile industry has invested $35 billion, providing more than 500 million people (67% of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa with mobile coverage.



MTN, Orange, Vodacom and Zain subsidiary Celtel are among the mobile operators planning to invest heavily in the expansion and enhancement of their networks.

http://www.gsmworld.com

http://www.connectafrica.gov.rw/

Read More

XO Completes 800 Gbps Core Network Capacity Upgrade

XO Communications completed an 800 Gbps capacity upgrade on major coast-to-coast routes of its nationwide fiber optic network.
The upgrade delivers an additional 80 10-Gbps channels on major coast-to-coast network routes. This additional network capacity augments a capacity expansion XO completed last year which delivered 400 Gbps of capacity across the XO network.



XO also announced a new installation guarantee for wholesale customers that need faster provisioning of high-capacity network services. Specifically, XO is offering the XO "10 Gigs in 10 Days" Guarantee. This offers wholesale customers the ability to order 2.5 Gbps or 10 Gbps high capacity network transport services and have them provisioned in 10 business days across select major coast-to-coast routes on the XO network. Under guarantee, if XO Communications fails to install the service within business 10 days, the customer will be eligible for a one month service credit for each year of the customer's contract. The "XO 10 Gigs in 10 Days" Guarantee is being offered from November 1, 2007 until December 31, 2007 to wholesale customers that sign two- or three-year contract terms.

http://www.xo.com

Read More

Atheros Posts Q3 Sales of $101 Million, Up 34% YoY

Atheros Communications reported record Q3 revenue of $106.3 million, up five percent from the $100.8 million reported in the second quarter of 2007 and up 34 percent from the $79.6 million reported in the third quarter of 2006. Net income (GAAP) was $9.7 million or $0.16 per diluted share. This compares with GAAP net income of $9.3 million or $0.16 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2007.



"Our networking business was especially strong in the third quarter, as sales of our 11g and 11n solutions led to significant increases in revenue with both our retail and carrier customers," said Craig Barratt, president and CEO of Atheros.

http://www.atheros.com

Read More

Atheros Announces Low-Power Wi-Fi Solution for Mobile Devices

Atheros Communications announced a low-power chip for mobile WLAN devices that draws near-zero standby power and has nominal impact on battery life even in active mode, according to the company. The gains are achieved using a combination of advanced hardware and software power-saving protocols and techniques.



Atheros said that based on consistently repeated, actual power demonstration measurements, its new AR6002 chip consumes 70 percent less power than competitive solutions on the market in active mode while downloading content. This substantial power reduction results in longer battery life, enabling significantly more downloads and longer talk time between mobile device charges. For example, the AR6002 solution will take more than 100 hours to deplete a standard 3.7V, 800mAh phone battery in continual VoIP mode. In another application using the AR6002, 200 gigabytes of data can be downloaded before depleting the same battery.



In addition, Atheros said its AR6002 significantly extends battery life by drawing virtually zero power in standby, relieving users from having to switch the Wi-Fi function on and off. http://www.atheros.com

Read More

D2 and Ikanos Partner for VoIP-Enabled Quad Play Gateways

Ikanos Communications has partnered with D2 Technologies to develop a quadruple play residential gateway design that integrates Ikanos' Fusiv Vx180 VDSL2 gateway processor with D2's vPort VoIP software. The residential gateway supports voice, video, data and mobile wireless services. The residential gateway design also accelerates the rollout of new VDSL2 customer premises equipment (CPE) for the home office or small- to medium-size businesses, offering comprehensive quality of service (QoS) for VoIP and Internet protocol television (IPTV) applications.



The Fusiv Vx180 multi-mode VDSL2 gateway processor provides 2.7 GHz of processing power, VoIP, multimode DSL and security, and supports QoS and wire speed performance. With the Fusiv Vx180, space and power requirements are lower because it combines Ikanos' VDSL2 CPE PHY and its Fusiv network processor architecture onto a single chip. The gateway processor is optimized for IPTV and triple play with features such as dynamic rate repartitioning (DRR) and seamless rate adaptation (SRA), which are expected to be incorporated into future standards enhancements.



D2's vPort embedded VoIP software offers support for integrated circuit and system on a chip (IC/SoC) designs, including ARM- and MIPS-based architectures.

http://www.D2tech.com

http://www.ikanos.com

Read More

Verizon Adds 203K FiOS TV Customers, 229K FiOS Internet Customers in Q3

Verizon Communications reported Q3 revenue of $23.8 billion, up 5.8 percent; up 6.0 percent on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP). Operating income for Q3 was $4.2 billion, up 19.0 percent over last year. Some highlights for the quarter:

• Verizon Wireless added 1.8 million net retail customers and 1.6 million total net customers after reductions in wholesale customers. The company ended Q3 with 61.8 million retail (non-wholesale) customers and 63.7 million total customers.
  



• Retail churn was 1 percent. Churn among retail post-paid customers at 0.96 percent was substantially lower.



• Revenues totaled $11.3 billion, up 14.4 percent. Service revenues were $9.7 billion, up 15.1 percent, driven by customer growth and demand for data services.



• ARPU levels were the company's highest ever: $52.17 retail service ARPU, up 1.9 percent year over year; $10.59 retail data ARPU, up 42.9 percent.



• At the end of the quarter, more than half of the company's retail customers had broadband-capable devices.




Wireline



• Added a net of 202,000 new FiOS TV customers. The company has 717,000 FiOS TV customers in total, with approximately 600,000 added within the past 12 months. Including satellite TV customers served in partnership with DIRECTV (a net of 85,000 added this quarter), Verizon has more than 1.5 million video customers.



• Verizon added a net of 285,000 new broadband connections (DSL and FiOS Internet connections combined). Broadband connections totaled 8.0 million, an increase of 21.3 percent compared with the third quarter 2006. The company added a net of 229,000 FiOS Internet connections this quarter, for a total of 1.3 million.



• ARPU in legacy Verizon wireline markets (which excludes former MCI consumer markets) increased 10.8 percent to $58.79, compared with last year's third quarter. This increase was due to strong demand for broadband and TV services.



• Wireline operating income margin rose to 9.4 percent, compared with 8.8 percent in last year's third quarter.



• As of the end of Q3, the FiOS network passed 8.5 million premises. Third-quarter EPS dilution from FiOS deployment and customer-acquisition costs was 9 cents. FiOS Internet was available for sale to 6.5 million premises in parts of 16 states by the end of the quarter. Penetration for the service averaged 20.0 percent across all markets. FiOS TV was available for sale to 4.7 million premises by the end of the quarter. Penetration for the service averaged 15.2 percent across all markets.


Verizon Business


• Revenues of $5.3 billion, or growth of 2.2 percent compared with last year's third quarter on an adjusted basis (non-GAAP). This is Verizon Business' fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year, pro-forma revenue growth (non-GAAP, calculated as if Verizon and MCI had merged on Jan. 1, 2005).
  

"Our third-quarter results show that we have hit our stride as a leading wireless, broadband and enterprise company," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg. "In recent years, we have transformed our business model and revenue base. Our results throughout 2007, and especially in the third quarter, show that our strategy has been successful. We expect to build on these results in the fourth quarter and beyond."http://www.verizon.com

Read More

Avanex Signs Supply Deal With Alcatel-Lucent, Pirelli Takes Stake

Alcatel-Lucent has extended its supply agreement with Avanex for an additional three years. In addition, the Pirelli Group has purchased the 12.4 percent stake in Avanex previously held by Alcatel-Lucent. Pirelli also signed a supply agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for related components. Avanex solutions enable or enhance optical wavelength multiplexing, dispersion compensation, switching and routing, transmission, amplification, and include network-managed subsystems.
http://www.avanex.com

Read More

NDS Cites Rapid Growth in Conditional Access

NDS, a majority-owned subsidiary of News Corp., reported quarterly revenue of $205 million, up from $164 million in the same period last year. Net income was $46 million, compared to $35 million a year earlier.



Some key metrics:

• Smart card deliveries (in millions) reached 7.4 million, compared to 6.7 million a year ago



• The number of authorized cards reached 78.6 million, compared to 66.6 million a year ago



• Cumulative deployments of Middleware Clients reached 69.9 million, with 8.1 million additions in the quarter



• Bharti Airtel, India's largest cellular operator, has selected NDS's VideoGuard conditional access, MediaHighway middleware, and a customized electronic program guide (EPG) for the company's new direct- to-home satellite platform.



• NDS VideoGuard conditional access technology has been selected by Tianjin Broadcast & TV Network Co. Ltd., based in China, to protect its new digital cable service.



• NDS announced an agreement with Vision TV, Ukraine's first licensed DTH satellite pay-TV provider, to provide Vision TV with NDS's VideoGuard conditional access and MediaHighway middleware, as well as an EPG.



• China's Anhui Radio and Television Network Company selected NDS VideoGuard for the launch of digital cable TV services for its subscribers in Anhui.



• NDS announced an agreement to provide Serbia Broadband, the largest cable operator in Serbia, with an end-to-end system to secure and enable its national cable television platform. NDS already provides its VideoGuard Express system to Serbia Broadband's direct-to-home satellite television service, which incorporates NDS' conditional access, MediaHighway middleware and electronic program guide (EPG).
  
• NDS announced the acquisition of CastUp, Inc. ("CastUp"), a leader in solutions for the management and distribution of video over the Internet. CastUp, a profitable and fast growing company, will provide NDS with substantial know-how and experience in online video delivery.



• NDS has partnered with VBox and Cyberlink to deliver the first fully converged TV and PC platform to Israel's "yes". In addition, NDS announced that "yes" has chosen to implement NDS VideoGuard PC to secure and enhance the functionality of its new web-based video content portal.

http://www.nds.com

Read More

ShoreTel Reports 57 % YoY Revenue Growth, Signs AT&T as a Channel Partner

ShoreTel reported quarterly revenue of $32 million, an increase of 57% over the same quarter last year. GAAP net income was $2.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, compared to $1.0 million, or $.03 per diluted share, reported in the same period last year. Gross margin for the quarter improved to 64% from 61% last year.



ShoreTel also announced that it has expanded its relationship with AT&T by signing a master reseller agreement under which AT&T will resell ShoreTel's Pure IP unified communications systems and implementation services. AT&T is one of the world's largest resellers of enterprise telephony. http://www.shoretel.com

Read More