Alcatel-Lucent and Neuf Cegetel to extend FTTH in Paris

Neuf Cegetel, the leading fixed alternative operator in France, has signed a new frame agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for the deployment of an FTTH network in Paris.


Specifically, Alcatel-Lucent's GPON solution will enable Neuf Cegetel to offer very high-speed access and services to more than 100,000 apartments. The project is part of an initiative led by the Paris social housing office OPAC (Office Public d'Aménagement et de Construction) to bridge the digital divide in the French capital. Financial terms were not disclosed.


As part of this frame agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will supply and provide project management for the deployment of its 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber to the User (ISAM FTTU), leveraging GPON technology to multiplex voice, video and data services onto a single fiber and supporting a 2.5 Gbps downstream capacity, the highest bandwidth offered to the mass-market today. The solution is complemented by a range of in-house Alcatel-Lucent optical network terminals (ONTs).


Alcatel-Lucent said this contract significantly increases its market strength in GPON, and confirms the company's readiness to engage in the mass deployment of GPON technology.


The company noted that it is engaged in over 80 FTTx projects worldwide, over 60 of which are with GPON.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• As of the end of Q1 2008, Neuf Cegetel had 3,294,000 broadband clients, an increase of 70,000 compared to the end of 2007; this includes +100,000 new customers for the Neuf brand and -30,000 customers for the other brands.

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Max Planck Institute's ATLAS Cluster Deploys Woven 10GigE Fabric

The ATLAS compute cluster at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover, Germany, achieved top ranking among the 285 Gigabit Ethernet clusters in the most recent TOP500 list of supercomputer sites. The ATLAS cluster leverages the Dynamic Congestion Avoidance feature in Woven Systems' 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) fabric to reach a performance level of 32.8 Teraflops, making it the fastest Ethernet cluster in the world.


The ATLAS cluster consists of 1342 compute nodes occupying 32 full racks. The use of Intel Xeon Quad-core processors gives the cluster over 5,000 CPU cores. Each server node has its own dedicated Gigabit Ethernet connection to a Woven TRX 100 Ethernet switch, which has four separate 10 GE uplinks to the EFX 1000 Ethernet Fabric Switch at the core of the Ethernet fabric. Because this configuration is not over-subscribed, it assures non-blocking throughput performance for both inter-processor communications and storage access.


Woven Systems said its Dynamic Congestion Avoidance capability constantly balances traffic loads intelligently and in real-time along available paths in the non-blocking 10 GE fabric, thus delivering efficiency across the cluster.
A cluster's computational efficiency is critical to its performance, and efficiency is determined by the network's ability to handle inter-processor communications. The efficiency is calculated using the Linpack benchmark from the ratio of the actual performance to the theoretical peak performance for all processors in the cluster. Of the 285 Gigabit Ethernet clusters on the Top 500 List, only six achieved a computational efficiency greater than 60 percent and of those, ATLAS was the most powerful. Of the remaining Gigabit Ethernet clusters, 76 had efficiencies of 50 percent or less; 97 had efficiencies of 51-55 percent and 106 had efficiencies of 56-60 percent.http://www.wovensystems.com

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Tata Communications Launches Cisco Telepresence Services

Tata Communications has begun offering private and public Cisco TelePresence rooms to businesses across the world. The Cisco-certified TelePresence network and managed services offers companies a reliable, highly secure facility. The Telepresence managed service includes a concierge service that takes care of reservations, scheduling, customer support, monitoring, management, reporting and billing capabilities, making it easy for customers to deploy and manage a highly effective collaboration tool.


Tata Communications said its global network and carrier relationships will allow it to grow Cisco TelePresence interconnections.
http://www.tatacommunications.comhttp://www.tatacommunications.com/telepresence

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UTStarcom to Sell Personal Communications Division to AIG Vantage Capital

UTStarcom agreed to sell its Personal Communications Division ("PCD") to a newly formed entity controlled by AIG Vantage Capital, a part of AIG Investments. The expected proceeds of approximately US$240 million will be based primarily on the net working capital levels, subject to certain adjustments. In addition to the cash consideration, UTStarcom could also receive up to US$50 million based on a three-year earn out provision.


UTStarcom's PCD business primarily distributes handsets and related accessories in North America. Subsequent to the transaction, the privately held company will be called Personal Communications Devices, LLC and will be led by PCD's current management team who will be part-owners of the company with AIG Vantage Capital and other investors.


The Handset business unit of UTStarcom will continue to design and provide devices to be sold in the Americas through Personal Communications Devices, LLC as part of a supply agreement. UTStarcom will also sell devices directly to carriers in other areas of the world.


UTStarcom said the divestiture of PCD is consistent with its strategic refocusing announced in late 2007. The company also recently announced a divestiture of its Mobile Solutions Business Unit. UTStarcom to focus on its core IP-based product offerings in rapidly growing economies around the world. http://www.utstar.com/

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Sumitomo Electric Introduces SFP 6G Series Transceivers

Sumitomo Electric Industries introduced its SFP 6G Series

of fiber optic transceivers for use in a wide range of network equipment applications. The SFP 6G Series is part of the SFP transceiver family, which is fully compliant with IEEE802.3ae, SONET/SDH, Fibre Channel and SFP Multi Source Agreement specifications.


The SFP 6G Series is manufactured in Suzhou, China. Commercial shipments began in April 2008.http://www.sei.co.jp/index.en.htmlhttp://www.excelight.com

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Motorola Invests in Apprion for Industrial Wireless Networks

Motorola Ventures has made a strategic investment in Apprion, a start-up located in the NASA AMES Research Park at Moffett Field, California. With this investment, Apprion has raised over $23.5 million.


Apprion delivers advanced wireless products, applications and services for industrial plants. Apprion's ION System enables industrial facilities to deploy and manage multiple wireless applications as one unified, integrated system.


Apprion's ION System consists of the Apprion IONosphere and IONizers. The IONosphere is an on-site controller that manages data services, workflow, security, monitoring and maintenance, and 3rd party application integration across wireless plant networks. Apprion's IONizer is an industrial-grade, multi-RF, wireless network appliance. IONizers are designed to integrate and secure previously standalone wireless-enabled applications, such as VoIP and condition monitoring.http://www.apprion.com

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AT&T Files for Statewide Video Franchise in Tennessee

AT&T announced plans to offer video services

in communities across Tennessee and to invest approximately $400 million during the next several years in fiber network upgrades, further broadband deployment and Internet-based technologies to bring new services, including IPTV, to Tennessee consumers. AT&T said its decision to enter the market is a direct consequence of House Bill 1421, which was passed by the Tennessee Legislature and signed into law in May by Gov. Bredesen.http://www.att.com

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Limelight Updates on Recent Court Rulings in Akamai Patent Trial

Limelight Networks issued an update on its legal proceeding with Akamai, noting that the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has denied Akamai's motion for a permanent injunction as premature. The Court also denied Akamai's motions for partial summary judgment on certain Limelight Networks' defenses. Additionally, the Court denied Limelight Networks' motions for a new trial, judgment as a matter of law, and obviousness.http://www.limelightnetworks.com/

• In February, the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts ruled in favor of Akamai in a patent infringement case against Limelight Networks. Both companies operate content delivery networks. The jury awarded Akamai $45,526,946 in damages, plus interest, for infringing U.S. Patent No. 6,108,703.

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Comcast Collects Consumer E-Waste in Denver

Comcast held an event

to help consumers responsibly recycle their unused TVs, computer monitors and other e-waste. The Comcast Colorado's 'Screen to Green' Recycling Rally was held June 28 in downtown Denver on the Auraria Campus. More than 70,000 pounds of e-waste including nearly 1,000 screens and computer monitors were collected at the event in just four hours. Guaranteed Recycling Xperts (GRX) and Waste Management collected the e-waste and prepared it to be responsibly recycled. On average, each participant recycled about two screens per vehicle.http://www.comcast.com

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Cox Launches Premium Online Back-Up and Security Services for SMBs

Cox Business is expanding its portfolio of services for Small to Medium sized Businesses (SMBs) in its Northern Virginia market. Premium Online Back-up and Premium Security Suite will be available for customers using Cox Business Internet service at no additional cost. These new services will help ensure that Cox customers' local network data is protected by providing anti-virus, anti-spyware, and a firewall for intrusion detection as well as safely storing this data at a secure off-site location.


Premium Online Back-up enables customers to establish a data back-up profile that includes the specific files to be backed-up and the frequency of back-up. Once the profile has been established and implemented, back-up is automatic and the customer can forget about it and focus on their business. Additionally, Premium Online Back-up provides customers with online file sharing and "Whalemail". Whalemail capability enables customers to provide others with secure access to centrally stored files via an e-mail link and provides administrative tools that enable the customer administrator to manage the storage space and run usage reports.


Premium Security Suite is a business class service with seven scanning engines that scan for local network data, providing first class protection with an industry leading detection rate. The service also has an online administrative tool that enables the customer administrator to manage and track the effectiveness of the Premium Security Suite for their company.http://www.coxbusiness.com

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Mobile Operators Launch BONDI Initiative to Promote Mobile Services

A group of leading mobile operators, including 3 Group, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telenor, Telefonica, Telecom Italia and Vodafone, are launching a new initiative to create a blueprint and roadmap for opening up mobile functionality to encourage the development of mobile applications without compromising customer security.


The new "BONDI" initiative aims to provide a consistent and secure web services interface that can be used by all web developers across multiple device platforms. The initiative, which is driven by the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP) group, seeks to harmonize the many related application development environments across the industry. BONDI will expose key handset features to web developers to help them develop more function-rich, user friendly and relevant applications. The new handset software will be engineered in such a way as to prevent fraudulent and malicious activity through unauthorized access to functions or sensitive personal information. The goal is to provide a consistent, highly desirable, secure interface from web applications to billions of devices in the future.


Why BONDI? OMTP says that, like the Australian beach of the same name, mobile customers desire the greatest surfing conditions while making the experience as safe as possible. "It's safe to surf"http://www.omtp.org/

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Orange Launches Global Vision Branding Campaign

Orange is launching a new global brand vision and advertising campaign built around the statement "together we can do more."



At its heart is the idea that today we live in a digital world where borders between people and places are being pushed away. This changes the way people connect within society, letting us share ideas and collaborate to achieve more than we could alone. Orange said it has responded to this change. Its mission is to bring people together.


The campaign will be rolled out in the UK on 5th July, followed by Switzerland, Poland, Romania, France, Slovakia, Spain, Africa and the Middle East in the following months. Orange worked with Publicis Groupe and Fallon as its agencies of record for the campaign.


"The Orange brand was originally developed for one technology in one market - mobile telephones in the U.K," says Caroline Mille, Senior Vice President, Brand and Communications. Orange. "Today, just 14 years later, the brand now spans a range of technologies (internet, T.V content) and reaches consumers in 26 countries, covering very different cultures. Thanks to its global enterprise services, Orange also has operations in most markets around the world. Since 2006 it has been the key brand of the France Telecom Group and now includes mobile, internet and TV services plus content associated with these three platforms. Despite this change, the brand has lost none of its strength, staying true to its original values which have become the values of the whole Group. The new brand vision allows us to truly communicate everything that Orange now stands for."


France Telecom has 170 million customers, of which are 120 million are under the Orange brand. The Orange brand was ranked 50th most valuable brand in Millward Brown's recent global brand survey, an increase of 17 places on the 2007 survey.http://www.orange.comhttp://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk

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Mushroom Introduces Virtual Leased Line based on Broadband Bonding

Mushroom Networks introduced a Virtual Leased Line (VLL) solution that utilizes its "Broadband Bonding" technology and the Internet to create high-speed dedicated point-to-point connections for enterprise networks.


Mushroom Networks' VLL is based on the company's flagship Truffle Broadband Bonding product line, which combines multiple broadband Internet connections of any type including DSL, cable, T1, fiber into a single virtual high-speed link. Utilizing VLL, a Truffle unit placed at the enterprise headquarters can be paired with another placed offsite creating a virtual dedicated point-to-point bonded link for any IP traffic including VPNs, file transfers, network storage, and IP based voice and video communications.


The company noted that because high bandwidth speeds can be achieved bi-directionally, its VLL solves the uplink bottleneck commonly associated with other dedicated services for connecting to the branch office or data center at a fraction of the cost. Mushroom's Ethernet-based devices install between the broadband modems and the local network at the user site without requiring any configuration changes to the existing network or coordination with the ISPs. This enables the enterprise to bond broadband lines from multiple providers or ISPs.


Mushroom Networks' broadband bonding product lines including support for 25,000 simultaneous IP connections and a built-in VoIP quality manager to improve voice quality by minimizing latency for both inbound and outbound voice traffic. Mushroom's lines also incorporate an internal router and stateful firewall capability that can be enabled by the user as needed along with support for standard Internet services such as port-forwarding, port binding, WAN interface binding, static IP, dynamic IP, PPPoE, DHCP, DMZ, UPnP, and Dynamic DNS.http://www.mushroomnetworks.com

• Mushroom Networks was founded in 2004 as a spin-off from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD).


• Mushroom Networks is headed by Dr. H. Cahit Akin (CEO and co-founder), who previously was a venture partner and then principal at ITU Ventures for 7 years, the venture capital arm of Brownstein Schnel Holdings.



• In May, Mushroom Networks introduced its "Porcini" broadband bonding network appliance for combining the bandwidth of up to four broadband Internet connections of any type including DSL, cable, T1 into a single virtual high-speed link. The Ethernet-based Porcini device, which targets small and medium-sized businesses, also features an additional USB port that enables a fifth cellular data modem connection to be added to the overall mix.
  
  
  Mushroom Networks' Porcini installs between the broadband modems and the local network at the user site without requiring any configuration changes to the existing network or coordination with the ISPs. This gives users the ability to mix and match various services from multiple providers delivering built-in network redundancy. If one or more of the bonded links fails or is degraded, Porcini transparently spreads the traffic across the remaining links in real-time without any interruptions resulting in maximal network uptime.
  
  
  Additionally, Porcini features a built-in VoIP quality manager that can improve voice quality by minimizing latency for voice traffic both in outbound and inbound directions. Porcini also includes an internal router and stateful firewall capability that can be enabled by the user as needed. Other Internet services such as port-forwarding, port binding, WAN interface binding, static IP, dynamic IP, PPPoE, DHCP, DMZ, UPnP, Dynamic DNS and QoS are all supported. Porcini is now shipping with a list price of $1,595.
  
  
  The Porcini is a slimmed version of the Mushroom Networks' TRUFFLE broadband bonding network appliance which was introduced earlier this year; The TRUFFLE BBNA combines multiple Internet access lines, each on a 10/100baseT Ethernet interface, into a single aggregated Internet access line for HTTP downlink traffic, again on a 10/100baseT Ethernet interface. The aggregation over the Internet access lines is done even for a single download session, providing the full aggregate speed. Additionally, session based intelligent load-balancing is provided for both downlink and uplink traffic as well as inbound load-balancing. The TRUFFLE BBNA6411 supports aggregation of up to 6 Internet access lines and 1 additional cellular data card. Each Internet access line may be through a DSL modem, cable modem, T1, satellite modem, fractional DS3, DS3, fiber, cellular or any other broadband connection.
  
  
  Mushroom Networks is also seeking value added resellers, IT sales representatives, and broadband service providers who would like to offer broadband bonding capabilities to their customers.

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ip.access Selects Tektronix for Femtocell Testing

ip.access Ltd. has selected Tektronix's G35 protocol analyzer to provide simulation of UMTS core networks to UMTS Femto- and Macro Radio Access Networks for the design and test of their femtocell access point elements.


ip.access offers a femtocell solution that provides consumers with enhanced mobile voice, video and data services for effective indoor communications.


Tektronix' G35 protocol analyzer provides a comprehensive platform for functional testing of a wide range of interfaces for all the latest mobile technologies.
http://www.tek.com/g35

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Codenomicon Appoints New CEO and Vice President of Marketing

Codenomicon, which specializes in security and quality testing software, announced the appointment of David Chartier as its new CEO. Chartier brings 20 years of technology industry experience that includes serving as chairman of Maxware, which was subsequently acquired by SAP in 2007. He has also held CEO positions for startup companies that include IntelliSearch and Computas, and has served as chairman of Active ISP. Chartier founded InfoStream and led the company through a successful IPO in 1999.


Codenomicon also announced the appointment of Andy Huckridge as vice president of marketing. Huckridge most recently served as director of NGN solutions for Spirent Communications, a Codenomicon customer. Andy is closely engaged with industry bodies and forums, including the MultiService Forum where he has served as chairperson of the Interoperability Working Group & NGN Certification Committee. Before Spirent, Huckridge was the director of product management for Centile and the director of marketing for 8X8, Inc.
http://www.codenomicon.com

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Hutchison 3G Austria Flattens it Network Architecture with NSN

Hutchison 3G Austria is moving to a flatter architecture in its packet core network by deploying direct tunnel functionality from Nokia Siemens Networks. The technology, which is software upgrade, allows data traffic to bypass the Serving Gateway Support Node (SGSN), which in traditional core setup is responsible for the signaling and user data at the same time. Thus the direct tunnel feature, by bypassing SGSN, reduces the load on its capacity and lowers transmission network costs. It allows operators to balance the use of network resources and prepare for LTE and the streamlined core networks of the future. In addition to the SGSN and the direct tunnel feature, Nokia Siemens Networks also is providing 3G Austria with the NetAct network management and service management solution for maximizing network performance as well as implementation services.


Nokia Siemens Networks said that by modernizing its packet core, Hutchison 3G Austria boosts its network performance to higher speeds and capacity to handle all its data traffic through a single node for the foreseeable future. Direct tunnel also offers a clear migration path to future mobile network technologies, like Long Term Evolution (LTE).


Nokia Siemens Networks also noted that it now has over 15 direct tunnel deployments since delivering its first commercial solution in 2007. http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Espial to Acquire Kasenna for IPTV Software

Espial, a specialist in IPTV middleware and applications, agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Kasenna in exchange for an aggregate of 4,722,224 Espial common shares, which before giving effect to the transaction represents 51.2% of the issued and outstanding shares of Espial and will represent approximately 33.6% of the issued and outstanding shares of Espial on an after-issue basis.


Kasenna offers a "PortalTV" suite that allows TV providers to deliver advanced features such as recording and pausing live TV, PVR - both Network-based and Local, StartOver TV, Customized EPG, On-Screen Caller ID, Pay-per-View, Video-on-Demand, Favorites, Reminders, Weather Services, Network Games, etc. Kasenna's platform leverages a centralized delivery architecture although, if necessary, it can adapt to a decentralized distribution and delivery architecture. Video servers are designed to operate as cache servers, library servers or hybrids. Storage system flexibility allows Kasenna servers to employ Direct-Attach Storage or Shared Storage subsystems (NAS or SAN). Kasenna is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and also has an engineering center in Bangalore, India.


Espial also supplies middleware that controls the overall viewing experience by managing IPTV applications, TV and video, along with subscriber interactions between the set-top box and the network. Espial applications include Electronic Program Guides, Video on Demand, Interactive Content Portals, Web browser, PPV, etc. Espial is based in Ottawa.

The companies cited a number of synergies for their merger, including,

• Increased number of Tier 1 video service provider customers, a footprint in over 100 customers worldwide with no overlap and a combined 2.4M+ IPTV licenses in deployment for one or more of our products.



• Broader channel relationships with equipment vendors and system integrators.



• Larger sales force, support and fulfillment capacity across EMEA, Asia & Americas.



• Broader product portfolio includes browsers, video servers, client & server middleware, and applications.



• Differentiated best-of-breed technology with a strong patent portfolio.



• Strong balance sheet, financial and cost synergies that will be accretive to Espial shareholders in 2009.

http://www.espial.comhttp://www.kasenna.com

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Dilithium's ViVAS Flash Enables Web to 3G Mobile Calls

Dilithium has enhanced its ViVAS platform with new capabilities that enable carriers to deliver two-way video calling services between web browsers and 3G mobile devices.


Dilithium's ViVAS platform provides real-time streaming of video content to and from mobile wireless devices, broadband and SIP clients. With the ViVAS Flash add-on module, carriers can expand their services to offer subscribers branded video communications from either their PC or mobile device. The ViVAS Flash-powered video leverages Adobe Flash, so the clients only need to run a web browser.


A number of companies have already implemented Dilithium's ViVAS Flash solution to offer services including:

• Bi-directional web browser to 3G mobile video calls;


• Web-based video services, including conferencing and surveillance;


• Game changing new features on social networks such as ‘call me now' or video chat.

http://www.dilithiumnetworks.com

• In May, Dilithium, which specializes in high-quality transcoding and multimedia delivery over mobile and broadband networks, introduced a high capacity and scalable solution that automates the real-time adaptation and delivery of video content over multiple networks to any device. Dilithium's patented technologies perform real-time, on demand media conversion for multiple devices with minimal latency, avoiding the need for off-line transcoding. The new Dilithium Content Adapter (DCA), which builds on the company's existing 3G mobile video solutions, is designed for the delivery of interactive, 2-way multimedia content to wireless and broadband devices.
  
  
  Media delivery has typically required customized coding for each device and network type such as 2.5G, 3G, WiFi or WiMAX, which restricted real-time downloads and is resource intensive as it requires extensive human interaction and expensive capital investment in servers and storage. Dilithium's technologies enable on-demand transcoding, transrating and transsizing of multimedia content. This on-demand processing makes it easier for operators to manage content and allows for additional revenue streams such as targeted ad insertion.

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Skyhook Wireless Unveils Hybrid Positioning System 2.0

Skyyhook Wireless released the second generation of its hybrid positioning system, combining signals from Wi-Fi access points, GPS satellites and cell towers. The system is aimed at mass market handsets, especially those supporting location-based services (LBS).


Skyhook Wireless said its XPS 2.0 systems combines positioning algorithms with comprehensive environment survey data. XPS builds on top of the revolutionary Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) that is already deployed on tens of millions of mobile devices worldwide. The original version of XPS delivered "multi-mode" location switching between WPS and GPS readings based on availability and error estimates. XPS 2.0 combines raw Wi-Fi, GPS and cell tower readings to produce a single hybrid calculation.


In the most difficult indoor and urban environments, XPS can, for example, leverage signals from just two GPS satellites to improve Wi-Fi location accuracy by 35%+. In a typical deep urban setting Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) can only produce a location 70% of the time outdoors due to blocked signals, according to Skyhook. In these difficult urban environments, XPS utilizes weak GPS signals along with Wi-Fi to produce the most accurate location possible 100% of the time. Responsiveness is critical in consumer applications and XPS delivers a full GPS/Wi-Fi/cellular hybrid location in just 4 second from a complete cold start compared to 30-60 seconds with just A-GPS.


The addition of cell tower positioning increases availability so that users always get a location calculation regardless of environment. Additionally, XPS delivers 5 to 10 times better power conservation than A-GPS alone due to the unequaled acquisition time and accuracy in XPS.


XPS also introduces vertical location to the Skyhook system even in areas where GPS is not available. The new stationary detection techniques in XPS reduce jitter and improve the pedestrian user experience. Lastly, XPS can provide A-GPS techniques to offline equipment like Portable Navigation Devices (PNDs) dramatically shortening startup times.


As part of the XPS 2.0 launch, Skyhook Wireless is also introducing its first cellular positioning system leveraging Skyhook's fleet of field signal surveyors. Today the system covers major US and European cities expanding to full Skyhook global coverage by the end of 2008.http://www.skyhookwireless.com

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TerreStar Reaches a Technical Milestone, Faces Launch Delay

TerreStar, which plans to build, own and operate North America's first 4G integrated mobile satellite and terrestrial communications network, announced a technical milestone. Its satellite TerreStar --1 (TS-1) has successfully completed its Thermal Vacuum (TVAC) testing, and High Power and Passive Intermodulation (PIM) testing of the flight model S Band feed array for its 2 GHz mobile satellite service satellite. TS-1 is now in the final demonstration phase, followed by final assembly and performance testing.


TS-1, which is under construction by Space Systems/Loral, Inc (SS/L) in Palo Alto, California, is expected to be the largest and most powerful commercial satellite following its planned launch.


However, TerreStar noted that its TS-1 reflector, which was in an advanced state of completion, recently sustained damage during manufacturing at Harris Corporation, the reflector subcontractor. The resulting delay in delivery of the reflector will impact TS-1's flight schedule. TerreStar expects that launch of TS-1 may be postponed from fourth quarter 2008 to second quarter 2009.http://www.terrestarcorp.com

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DigitalBridge Deploys Mobile WiMAX Network

DigitalBridge Communications, a telecommunications service provider, has launched a commercial Mobile WiMAX service in Jackson Hole, Wyoming using WiMAX Forum Certified 802.16e equipment. Selling under the BridgeMAXX brand, the new mobility service plan offers 3 Mbps download for under $40 per month. Current BridgeMAXX fixed-service users can add the mobility feature for a bundled price of less than $30 per month.


The DBC BridgeMAXX network is powered by Alvarion's 802.16e BreezeMAX 2.5 GHz base station, which incorporates SentieM technologies in the end-to-end Mobile WiMAX 4Motion solution.


Alvarion noted that it was one of the first few base station vendors to receive the recent WiMAX Forum certification for meeting the global standard for wireless broadband mobility. The company said this makes Jackson the first community in the US to be able to experience Mobile WiMAX.

http://www.alvarion.comhttp://www.digitalbridgecommunications.com/

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Verizon Wireless Teams Up with Rhapsody -- Unlimited Music Subscription for $15/Month

Verizon Wireless is teaming up with Rhapsody, the digital music service from RealNetworks, to offer an unlimited mobile music subscription service for $15 a month. Combining Verizon Wireless' over-the-air mobile music service with Rhapsody's desktop solution, V CAST Music with Rhapsody delivers unlimited monthly access to music on up to three Rhapsody-compatible mobile phones and players and online on multiple PCs and Web browsers. In addition, customers who purchase music over-the-air are able to download the master copy of the songs or albums to their PCs free of digital rights management (DRM) software that restricts how and where music can be played.
http://www.verizonwireless.comhttp://www.rhapsody.com/

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Agito Raises $13 million for its RoamAnywhere Mobility Router

Agito Networks, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, raised approximately $13 million in second round funding for its "RoamAnywhere" Mobility Router. Agito's business mobile convergence platform uses RF-based, location-aware technologies to mobilize voice over 802.11 wireless LANs (VoWLAN) and data applications, while remaining agnostic to enterprise customers' choices of mobile carriers.


Agito supports leading IP-PBX and WLAN equipment vendors to fuse 802.11 wireless LANs, enterprise IP telephony, and the carrier cellular network. The company said its patent-pending technology ensures that in-building calls stay on the enterprise WLAN (using VoWLAN), to reduce cellular expenses and eliminate dropped or poor quality calls.


Castile Ventures led the investment round, with ITX International Holdings Inc. also participating, and original investor Battery Ventures increasing its investment as well. The company also announced today that it has named David Leonard, former vice president and general manager of the Cisco Wireless Networking Business Unit and Desktop Switching Business Unit, as the Executive Chairman of Agito's Board of Directors. While at Cisco, Mr. Leonard helped grow its wireless and Ethernet product lines to the number one industry ranking in their respective markets.
http://www.agitonetworks.com/

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Fujitsu Microelectronics America Names New CEO

Fujitsu Microelectronics America named Shinichi "James" Machida as its new president and chief executive officer. Machida will be leaving his position as president of Fujitsu Microelectronics Asia Pte. Ltd. (FMAL) in Singapore, and Fujitsu Microelectronics Pacific Asia Ltd. (FMP) in Hong Kong, to replace Kazuyuki Kawauchi, who will return to Fujitsu Microelectronics Limited (FML) in Japan in September.http://us.fujitsu.com/micro

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ntl:Telewest Business Selects Amdocs

ntl:Telewest Business, part of the Virgin Media Group, has selected Amdocs to provide software and services as part of a strategic transformation project. Amdocs software will replace legacy systems and integrate others across its business, to establish a single way of delivering services to its customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.


ntl:Telewest Business has a vast nationwide Next Generation Network that provides businesses, public sector organizations and service providers across the UK with a complete portfolio of advanced data, Internet and voice services. The network is already built out to more than 38,000 street cabinets across the UK.http://www.amdocs.com

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XAVi Selects Ikanos' Vx180 Gateway Processor

XAVi Technologies, a supplier of broadband residential gateways and customer premise equipment, has selected the Ikanos Fusiv Vx180 high-performance gateway processor for its VDSL2/ADSL2+ triple play residential gateways. The XAVi residential gateways will be sold globally, with a primary focus on the North American and European markets.


Ikanos Communications' Fusiv Vx180 is a low power single-chip multi-mode VDSL2/ADSL2+ gateway processor designed to enable service providers to launch next generation services. The Vx180 provides 2.7 GHz of processing power with integrated voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) processing while supporting best-in-class quality of service (QoS) for triple play experiences. The Vx180 features Ikanos' unique Accelerator Processor architecture, making it capable of achieving wirespeed packet processing performance across all LAN and WAN interfaces. Additionally it easily integrates with home networking technologies, such as MoCA, Home PNA, HomePlug and 802.11n.


Ikanos' Vx180 also supports features such as Ikanos' Rapid Rate Adaptation (RRA) and Seamless Rate Adaptation (SRA) technologies, thereby enabling the development of a high performance, integrated residential gateway platform for multi-play applications.http://www.ikanos.com

• Ikanos' Rapid Rate Adaptation (RRA) technology is designed to minimize noise-induced service interruptions over DSL connections. Noise over a broadband line due to sudden power surges or other sources can potentially cause dropped connections and interruptions of service. For IPTV viewers, even a momentary drop in the connection leads to retraining of the broadband line and a subsequent re-establishment of the IP connection -- a process than can take half of a minute. In the mean time, the TV program that is being watched and any VoIP sessions underway, are suddenly dropped. RRA minimizes such link drops by rapidly and dynamically adapting data rates to accommodate the additional noise without dropping the connection, thus improving service availability and the user experience.

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Harris Supplies Mobile TV Platform in Central America

Harris will supply its full mobile digital TV transmission platform to Albavision (Angel Gonzalez Group) for broadcast operations in Guatemala and Costa Rica -- Radio Television Guatemala and REPRETEL in Costa Rica. Albavision will be the first to roll out the new Harris mobile TV platform in Latin America, with plans to implement in other properties throughout the region in later stages. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The Harris mobile digital TV transmission platform, which is expected to be available in November 2008, is based on the new Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) mobile/handheld solution proposed by LG Electronics, Zenith and Harris Corporation and recently joined by Samsung. It is based primarily upon elements of the Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld (MPH) technology -- developed by Harris, LG Electronics and Zenith -- as well as Samsung's Advanced Vestigial Sideband (A-VSB) system.


Harris said the recent agreement among the developers of the MPH and A-VSB technologies clears the path for electronics manufacturers to begin designing mobile DTV devices, and for local DTV broadcasters to proceed with confidence to build out their new mobile DTV services.http://www.harris.com

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One Minute Video: What is a Softswitch?

One Minute Video presented by Martin Taylor -- What is a Softswitch?


Jargon Buster

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Wi-Fi Alliance Begins Certifying Devices for Voice Over Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi Alliance is launching a new certification program for voice-capable Wi-Fi devices in home and small office environments. The first wave of devices has passed certification. The Wi-Fi Alliance estimates that shipments of Wi-Fi/cellular converged phones will number between 250 and 350 million units in 2011.


The new Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Voice-Personal program extends beyond interoperability testing to test the performance of products and help ensure that they deliver good voice quality over the Wi-Fi link.


Voice over Wi-Fi is typically used within mixed voice and data environments, in which multiple data streams compete for the available network resources. Products that successfully achieve Voice-Personal certification prioritize voice communication over data, audio, or video traffic, and also have met strict performance levels for key metrics that ensure a quality experience in voice applications: packet loss, latency and jitter.


Products Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Voice-Personal have also passed tests for core interoperability (802.11a/b/g or 802.11n draft 2.0) and Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) for the strong security protections, as well as Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) for quality of service and WMM Power Save (access points only). Users should look for both access points and client devices that are Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Voice-Personal to ensure optimal voice quality when making calls over a Wi-Fi network.


The following are among some of the first devices to become Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Voice-Personal:

• Broadcom BCM94704AGR High Performance Dual-Band (2.4/5 GHz) Router Reference Design


• Cisco Systems Aironet 1250 Series Access Point (AIR-AP1252AG )


• Cisco Systems Aironet 1200 Series Access Point (AIR-AP1231G with AIR- RM21A)


• DSP Group Expeditor Reference Design (with XpandR 1.01 software)


• Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN


• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection


• Meru Networks AP200


• Redpine Signals Lite-Fi TGn SDIO

A list of all products Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Voice-Personal, as well as a free white paper which describes the program in detail, is available online.http://www.wi-fi.org/

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RadiSys Adds Speech Capabilities to Convedia Media Server

RadiSys' Convedia media server family now supports automatic speech recognition (ASR), or converting human speech to computer data, and text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities in multiple languages for IP contact center application developers and service providers. The solution integrates standards-based Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) .


With the introduction of ASR and TTS support, RadiSys said its media servers can now be used in conjunction with speech servers to deliver a more cost-effective and scalable deployment model. Previously, Convedia media servers could process Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) commands and VoiceXML scripts to apply media processing against Real Time Protocol (RTP) media streams in a VoIP or IMS architecture. With the new capabilities, an ASR or TTS request written in the VoiceXML script is forwarded using a standards-based Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) interface to an adjunct speech server. The net result is that speech servers now can focus exclusively on ASR and TTS processing, while all other media processing is done within the Convedia media server.
http://www.radisys.com

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BridgeWave Raises $10 Million for Mobile Backhaul Solutions

BridgeWave Communications, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $10 million in Series 4 funding for its gigabit wireless solutions. The funding round was co-led by Intel Capital and a new investor, Core Capital, with participation from prior round venture capital firms Cipio Partners, SDL Ventures, and Merifin Capital.


BridgeWave's Gigabit Ethernet wireless technology is aimed at future backhaul transport capacity. BridgeWave utilizes the upper millimeter-wave radio spectrum in the recently-allocated 60-90 GHz range, enabling the multi-gigabit per second wireless connectivity. The company also features proprietary "AdaptRate" technology and Forward Error Correction capabilities optimized for longer distances.


As a result of the financing, Pascal Luck, managing director at Core Capital will be joining the BridgeWave board of directors.http://www.bridgewave.com

• BridgeWave Communications is headed by Amir Makleff, who co-founded the company in 1999. Previously Amir served as COO and Senior VP of Engineering at Netro for three years. Previously to Netro, he was General Manager of Engineering and Marketing at Telco Systems and Nortel.

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NEC to acquire NetCracker for OSS

NEC agreed to acquire NetCracker Technology Corp., a US based software and solutions specializing in Operations Support Systems (OSS). Financial terms were not disclosed.


NetCracker's portfolio includes industry solutions focused on specific verticals (such as Triple Play) and pre-integrated product modules. The core modules include Service Inventory, Resource Inventory, Service Provisioning & Activation, Discovery & Reconciliation, Design & Planning, Customer Impact Analysis, Outside Plant, Order Management, Asset Management, and Telecom Cost Management. The company, which was founded in 1993, is headquartered outside Boston in Waltham, MA.


NEC said the acquisition adds a key element of software and services to its portfolio of mobile and fixed infrastructure products. The company anticipates that Operations Support Systems will represent a key element to new international growth that is expected to generate approximately 200 billion yen over the next 5 years.


"NEC and NetCracker share a vision of operations and business support systems being critical to communications service providers, enabling them to build a sustainable competitive advantage," said Andrew Feinberg, CEO of NetCracker. "NEC's scale and solution offering will help us extend our core application and services footprint and continue to broaden the solutions we offer to our global customers."http://www.NetCracker.comhttp://www.nec.com

• NetCracker Technology is headed by Andrew Feinberg, President and CEO. Prior to leading NetCracker, Andrew worked at Bain & Company Private Equity Group where he oversaw transactions in the telecommunications, software, and hardware industries.

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Virgin Mobile USA to Acquire Helio for Approximately $39 Million in Equity

Virgin Mobile USA agreed to acquire Helio, the joint venture MVNO between SK Telecom and EarthLink, for limited partnership units equivalent to 13 million shares of Virgin Mobile USA class A common stock, with a value of about $39 million. Both carrier's purchase wholesale capacity on Sprint's PCS network.


The deal will give Virgin approximately 170,000 Helio customers with approximately $80 ARPU. Virgin Mobile USA will also gain an established and highly advanced postpaid billing and customer care platform, marking its entrance into this segment of the market. Virgin also noted that the Helio also gives it a set of unique and differentiated data applications, greatly enhancing its offer across its customer base.http://virginmobileusa.mediaroom.comhttp://www.helio.com

• In January 2008, Helio, the U.S. joint venture between SK Telecom and EarthLink, activated its 200,000 mobile subscriber. Average revenue per user (ARPU) is over $85, well above the industry average.



• In September 2007, SK Telecom confirmed plans to invest up to an additional $270 million in Helio, the U.S.. EarthLink was renegotiating its stake in the venture.

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OKI Develops Audience Rating Information System for IPTV

Oki Electric Industry introduced an "Audience Rating Information System" for IPTV aimed at the Japanese market. The system collects viewership data to enable broadcasting companies to improve their services. The system is designed to enable service providers, with the authorization of users, to obtain information about when and which channel and programs the users watched. The system will collect the viewership data in the form of an "audience rating library" on the user's device, which will then be encrypted, sent to and registered in the database server at the IPTV distribution center. This information will then be printed out as viewership reports which service providers can offer to program producers.


OKI said it is proposing the technology to ASTAP, Asia's communication standard organization and FG-IPTV in the ITU.

http://www.itu.com

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AT&T Relocates its Corporate Headquarters to Dallas

AT&T will move its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas. Atlanta will continue to be the headquarters for AT&T's Mobility group. New Jersey will continue to be the headquarters for the company's Global Business Services group and AT&T Labs. St. Louis will continue as home to the company's Directory operations. The company's Telecom Operations group, which serves residential and regional business customers in 22 U.S. states, will remain in San Antonio.


AT&T said it is relocating its headquarters to Dallas in order to gain better access to its customers and operations throughout the world, and to the key technology partners, suppliers, innovation and human resources needed as it continues to grow, domestically and internationally. Network equipment companies that have major operations in Dallas, such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Nokia, Nortel, RIM and Samsung.


The move will begin in the coming weeks and is expected to be complete around year end. It is expected to involve about 700 of the company's nearly 6,000 San Antonio-based employees.


"We're a growing global company with customers and operations around the world," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. "Being headquartered in Dallas will benefit our long-term growth prospects and human resources needs, and our ability to operate more efficiently, better serve customers and expand the business in the future.http://www.att.com

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Huawei Show its 4th-Gen WiMAX Distributed BTS in Europe

At the WiMAX Forum Global Congress 2008 held earlier this month in Amsterdam, Huawei Technologies unveiled its fourth generation WiMAX distributed BTS base station.


"Since starting research on the IEEE802.16 standard in 2000 we now have over 1,200 engineers engaged in WiMAX R&D in China, India, Russia, Sweden, and USA. Under our new WiMAX development concept, Huawei is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and potential growth for its customers," stated Mr. Zhao Ming, Vice President of Huawei Wireless Product line.http://www.wimaxforum.org/home/

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J:COM Deploys DOCSIS 3.0 with Cisco

Japan's Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) has begun deployment of the Cisco DPC3000 DOCSIS 3.0 Channel Bonded Cable Modem for use in its J:COM NET Ultra 160M Course broadband service, which offers download speeds of up to 160 Mbps.


The Cisco DPC3000, which has received CableLabs DOCSIS 3.0 certification, uses four bonded channels for both the downstream and upstream data, enabling downstream data rates in excess of 160 Mbps and upstream data rates up to 120 Mbps. It is designed to be backward-compatible for use as a single-channel cable modem with DOCSIS 2.0, 1.1 or 1.0 networks.


In addition to DOCSIS 3.0-compliant cable modems, the Cisco downstream channel-bonding solution features the Cisco uBR10012 cable modem termination systems (CMTS) and Cisco xDQA-24 edge quadrature amplitude modulators (QAMs).http://www.cisco.com

• In April 2008, Motorola announced that Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM), Japan's largest multiple system operator (MSO), had selected Motorola's channel bonding technology to deploy the company's first DOCSIS 3.0-based Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) and cable modems. Specifically, Motorola said the deployment uses its DOCSIS 3.0-based BSR 64000 CMTS/Edge Router and SURFboard SB6120 cable modems. Financial terms were not disclosed. Motorola said its solution is capable of delivering up to 160Mbps throughput to residential and commercial customers.

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Court of Appeals Upholds FCC Video Franchise Rules.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled unanimously to support the FCC's local franchising authority rules for new entrants in video services.


"Over the last ten years, cable rates have more than doubled. Consumers need greater choice and more competition to help address the soaring price of cable television. This ruling helps ensure that new competitors to cable are not subjected to unreasonable delays, build-out requirements and fees when trying to compete with the incumbent cable operators," stated FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.http://www.fcc.gov

• In December 2006, The FCC voted 3-to-2 to approve new rules that prohibit local franchising authorities from unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises for the provision of cable services. The vote was seen as a victory for A&T, Verizon and other telephone providers seeking to enter the market for video services.
  
  
  The majority of FCC commissioners concluded that the current franchising process required by local municipalities constitutes an unreasonable barrier to entry that impedes the achievement of the interrelated federal goals of enhanced cable competition and accelerated broadband deployment.
  
  
  The new rules prohibit towns or cities from engaging new market entrants in drawn-out local negotiations with no time limits; unreasonable build-out requirements; unreasonable requests for "in-kind" payments that attempt to subvert the five percent cap on franchise fees; and unreasonable demands with respect to public, educational and government access.

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Comcast Completes 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) Router Test with Cisco

Comcast has completed a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) technology test over its existing backbone infrastructure between Philadelphia and McLean, VA using the industry's first 100GE router interface developed for the Cisco CRS-1 routing system.


The Cisco CRS-1 100GE interface uses Comcast's existing optical infrastructure to enable transmission of 100GE over DWDM fiber optic networks. Cisco said the use of 100 Gigabit Ethernet router interfaces enables greater bandwidth per wavelength by a factor of 10 over the initial deployed capability. It also creates efficiencies by simplifying routing and operations through the use of statistically multiplexed 100GE links, in comparison to carrying the same amount of traffic split over more commonly used 10GE links.


Cisco also noted that the implementation tested by Comcast is consistent with the emerging IEEE 802.3ba 100GE standard and validates the use of 100GE and IPoDWDM technologies over Comcast's own production network, which was the first, and is currently the world's largest 40G IPoDWDM network.http://www.cisco.com

• In March 2008, Comcast conducted a test of Nortel's 100 Gbps line rate optical transmission solution at the 71st meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) conference, which was held in Philadelphia. The 100G solution ran over Comcast's existing fiber network. The test network was comprised of Comcast's existing Common Photonic Layer DWDM solution with 50GHz enhanced Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (eROADM) and photonic components, augmented with prototype 100G interfaces installed in Nortel's Optical Multiservice Edge 6500. The 100G cards utilize Nortel's 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine, with integrated dispersion compensation and dual-polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation, the same technology used in Nortel's present 40G solution. The 100G trial runs from Philadelphia to McLean (Virginia), traversing Comcast's metro and long-haul fibers. The companies said Comcast's network trial was the first time real traffic is run over a 100G wavelength on its existing network. The network also carried live 10G and 40G links. The trial ran in parallel over the same optical infrastructure that supports a combination of high definition or HD video, Internet and voice traffic on Comcast's 40G national backbone network.

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New Forum Established to Address Network Security -- ICASI

A new Industry Consortium for Advancement of Security on the Internet (ICASI) has been founded by Cisco, IBM, Intel, Juniper Networks and Microsoft, with the aim of enhancing global IT security by proactively driving excellence and innovation in security response.


ICASI's mission is to provide a forum for global companies committed to proactively addressing complex, multi-product security threats and to better protecting enterprises, governments and citizens, as well as the critical IT infrastructures that support them.


The founding companies said their action is necessitated by the increasing sophistication of Internet attacks and the integration of applications, now common in IT environments, that pose real challenges for IT vendors. Online attacks occur more frequently and in more rapid succession, while often spanning international boundaries.


ICASI does not seek to respond to every product security issue that emerges, but rather the consortium is designed to respond to and ideally reduce the potential customer impact of global, multi-vendor cyber threats. The organization is organized around four guiding principles.

• Customer security - Through ICASI's collaboration and leadership, IT vendors will be better able to identify and resolve multi-vendor security threats quickly, thereby helping to reduce the security threat impact and improve customer security.



• Agility and effectiveness - ICASI is committed to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of multi-vendor threat resolution and security response practices.



• Collaboration and trust - ICASI creates a unique environment where information, necessary to quickly solve security-related threats, can be shared, as appropriate.



• Leadership and innovation - ICASI includes leading IT companies from around the world and leverages their expertise to innovate security response excellence, which it shares with the industry.

http://www.icasi.org

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Comcast Expands Deployment of Juniper MX- and T-series Routers

Comcast has ordered additional Juniper Networks MX-series Ethernet Services Routers and T1600 core routers. Last year, Comcast began deploying the MX-series platforms to support business services offerings in major metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. Juniper said the new routers that Comcast is now purchasing are expected to be incorporated later this year into the company's metro regional network architecture, which carries traffic for all of its services. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.juniper.net

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Indonesia's Excelcomindo selects Alcatel-Lucent for IP/MPLS

PT Excelcomindo (XL), a major cellular provider in Indonesia, has chosen Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end solution to provide carrier Ethernet services in Jakarta's business district. Specifically, XL will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS portfolio, including its 7750 Service Router, 7450 Ethernet Service Switch and the 7250 Service Access Switch, all managed end-to-end by the 5620 Service Aware Manger. The contract also includes consultation, design project management, application/ software, installation and commissioning maintenance services. XL plans to offer differentiated services to its corporate customers, including IP/MPLS-based virtual leased line (VLL) and VPLS services as well as circuit emulation services.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Miyowa Raises $8 Million for IM/Presence Technologies

Miyowa, a start-up based in Paris, raised $8 million in second round venture funding for its work in instant messaging and presence enriched Mobile Web 2.0 technologies.


Founded in April 2003 by Pascal Lorne and Francois Colon, Miyowa develops rich media mobile applications for mobile operators and handset makers. These solutions allow for premium service offerings over carrier data plans and devices, without entering restrictive relationships with social networks and IM providers.


Miyowa has also developed a communications protocol through an extension of the IMPS standard. According to the company, the IMPS extension delivers increased responsiveness and reaction by mobile applications resulting in bandwidth reduction by 50 to 80 percent on the operators network, increased handset battery life by nearly two times, and support for mobile Web 2.0 features such as avatars, social networking and advertising. The new funding brings the company's total financing to date to $12.7 million. The funding round was participated in by Techfund, who funded Miyowa's first round of financing in September 2006, and Credit Agricole Private Equity, a new investor.


Miyowa is expanding its operations into the U.S. and Asia by opening offices in Cupertino, California and Singapore.http://www.miyowa.com/

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Friendster Announces Mobile Text Alerts

Friendster, the 7th largest website in the world and the #1 social network in Asia, is launching a mobile text alert service that lets users subscribe to receive text message alerts for friend requests, new messages, comments, bulletins and more. When such activity takes place within their network of friends on Friendster, they will receive an SMS text message on their mobile phone. Users will also be able to share and communicate on Friendster by sending a text message to Friendster to update content on their profile, such as shoutouts and bulletins, send messages, and reply to friend requests. Friendster claims 52 million users in Asia and overe 70 million users worldwide. The text alerts will be offered first in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.http://www.friendster.com/

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JDSU's PathTrak Identifies MPEG Impairments, Provides DOCSIS 3.0 Measurements

JDSU released a new PathTrak Video Monitoring (PVM) System and a new PathTrak RPM3000 System module aimed at ensuring high-quality delivery of video, VoIP and high-speed data services over cable networks.


The PVM System helps operators segment forward path video problems by proactively monitoring for RF and MPEG impairments. In addition, PVM software provides network engineers and technicians with web-based access to both live and historical RF and MPEG performance measurements throughout the network, speeding troubleshooting time.


The new PathTrak Return Path Monitoring System module, the RPM3000, expands visibility into upstream digital network performance and provides proactive DOCSIS 3.0 measurement and certification capabilities, including analysis of live spectrum, modulation error rate (MER) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).http://www.jdsu.com

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Chrysler to Offer W-Fi "Hot-spot" Capabilities in Some Vehicles

Chrysler plans to bundle various in-vehicle consumer electronics under one umbrella name - "uconnect." The function of the feature is directly in the name - uconnect phone, uconnect tunes, uconnect gps, uconnect studios and uconnect web.

• uconnect phone -- uses Bluetooth to provide voice-controlled wireless communication between the occupants' compatible mobile phones and the vehicle's onboard receiver. Ahands-free system automatically downloads up to 1,000 phone book entries from supported phones. The system also recognizes three languages, and is capable of learning. Voice commands can manage onboard phone book entries, select radio stations and access voice mail. Voice memos can be recorded using the microphone that's integrated within the rearview mirror. Three memos of up to thirty seconds each can be stored in the system. An iPod interface will be offered on certain cars.



• uconnect tunes - a 30GB hard drive is provided for ripping up to 6,700 songs from CD or USB memory devices in compressed format (either MP3, AAC or WMA file formats). Movies can be displayed on the screen for entertaining passengers when the vehicle is in Park.



• uconnect gps -- combines the features of uconnect phone and uconnect tunes with navigation and real-time traffic. The system includes an integrated voice recognition system and touch screen for easy operation. The voice recognition system also recognizes more than 100,000 words and can input addresses, which allows the customer to enter destinations while the vehicle is in motion.



• uconnect studios -- offers SIRIUS Backseat TV, featuring three channels of family TV programming, and optional SIRIUS Satellite Radio, with more than 130 channels of the best music, entertainment and information across the U.S.



• uconnect web -- the system will provide high-speed data transfer and flexibility, combining WiFi and cellular connectivity. The system transforms the vehicle into a "hot spot" to deliver the Internet directly to the vehicle, for instant access to Web sites, e-mail, personalized music, online gaming, photo albums, etc.

http://www.chrysler.com

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ARRIS & Cisco Collaborate on Multi Wavelength Standardization

ARRIS and Cisco unveiled a joint proposal for the technical criteria supporting multi-wavelength optical networks.


The companies said their joint proposal would help enable expanded optical transport capacity for existing HFC networks or within Greenfield deployments.



"This collaboration demonstrates the industry coming together to work toward a common goal of standardization. By identifying the limitations and common solutions for multi-wavelength transmission, we are improving cost efficiencies and paving the way for interoperability," said Mark Palazzo, vice president, general manager, Cisco Access Networks. "With so many parts involved, standardization helps us achieve commonality, fueling the continued growth and evolution of the industry."

http://www.cisco.comhttp://www.arrisi.com/

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Microsoft to Acquire MobiComp for Mobile Personal Data Protection

Microsoft agreed to acquire MobiComp, a Portuguese software company that helped pioneer technologies allowing the backup and restoration of mobile data and mobile posting of social content to Web sites such as Facebook. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Microsoft said the acquisition would extend its vision to provide compelling experiences that span work and play across mobile phones, the Web and PCs. Terms of the planned acquisition are not being disclosed.


MobiComp's mobile services include MobileKeeper Backup & Restore, MobileKeeper Sharing & Communities, and Active mTicker. These services help mobile operators and people around the world back up personal content stored on a phone, publish updates to online communities, and get entertainment and news content delivered to phones. Its customer list includes 11 mobile operators worldwide.


Microsoft noted that fifty handset makers build on the Windows Mobile platform, and 160 mobile operators in 55 countries carry Windows Mobile phones. The services of Windows Live, including one of the largest free instant messaging services and blogging services, run on every major mobile operating system worldwide.http://www.microsoft.comhttp://www.mobicomp.com

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Cox Doubles Internet Speeds for Northern Virginia Customers

Cox Communications is doubling the download speed of its most popular residential Internet service (Preferred) in Northern Virginia and increasing the speed of its Premier service by thirty-three percent. Cox's Preferred service tier now offers 10 Mbps/2 Mbps performance, while its Premier tier offers 20 Mbps/3 Mbps.



Customers will also experience faster uploads thanks to the addition of PowerBoost for uploads to the Preferred and Premier packages. With PowerBoost, Preferred customers can experience speeds up to 12.5 Mbps down/2.5 Mbps up and Premier customers can go up to 25 Mbps down/3.5 Mbps up.http://www.cox.com

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ST-NXP Wireless Joint Venture Moves Ahead

NXP -- the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips -- and STMicroelectronics announced the management team that will run their new joint venture. The new company, which will be named ST-NXP Wireless, combines the mobile and wireless businesses of STMicroelectronics and NXP, which together generated $3 billion USD in revenue in 2007. The new company will begin operations in a strong position to meet customer needs in 2G, 2.5G, 3G, multimedia, connectivity and all future wireless technologies. ST-NXP Wireless is expected to enter the market in number three position once full closure of the joint venture takes place, as scheduled, in the third quarter of 2008.


The management team of ST-NXP Wireless will be headed by Alain Dutheil, presently chief operating officer (COO) of STMicroelectronics,. As CEO of ST-NXP Wireless, he will focus exclusively on the new joint venture.


The joint-venture will combine key design, sales and marketing, and back-end manufacturing assets from both parent companies into a streamlined organization that will rely on its parent companies and foundries for wafer fabrication services. ST-NXP Wireless will be headquartered in Switzerland.http://www.st.comhttp://www.nxp.com/

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Time Warner Telecom Changes Name to tw telecom

Time Warner Telecom will officially change its name to tw telecom effective July 1, 2008.


"tw telecom is familiar; it is stable; it is consistent; it is clear, concise and focused -- it is who we are," said Larissa Herda, tw telecom Chairman, CEO and President.


As Time Warner Telecom, the company reported 2007 revenue of $1.084 billion and modified EBITDA of $339 million. The company reported $282.6 million in first quarter revenue while employing 2,883, as of Mar. 31, 2008.http://www.twtelecom.com

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Telstra Calls for Regulatory Change in Australia

Telstra is calling for a new regulatory framework to underpin the rollout of a new open access, high-speed national broadband network (NBN). Specifically, Telstra believes new legislation is needed to lock in an agreement on the terms of core wholesale access to the NBN to provide certainty for investors and wholesale customers and attract the multi-billion dollar investment required.


"If this network is going to be built, the builder needs up-front certainty that its investment will not be undermined or given away by regulatory changes once a decision to invest is made," said Kate McKenzie, Group Managing Director of Telstra Wholesale.


Telstra's legislative recommendations include:

• Maintaining the integrity of the network, which means the Government should not try to slice up the network and give different elements to different providers and the Government should not force the network operator to accommodate old and new technologies, which are not compatible;



• Given the critical importance of telecommunications to public safety and national security, bidders must be able to demonstrate how their plan will provide for emergency services, particularly during the migration phase;



• Unnecessary regulation aimed at legacy networks should be removed;



• Land access arrangements need to be streamlined to facilitate the deployment of more than 50,000 nodes; and



• Important consumer protection and social policy objectives must be properly identified and funded.

http://www.telstra.com

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NTT to Implement 30 GB Upload Cap for Fiber Access Users

NTT Communications (NTT Com) will begin restricting network access by individual customers who upload more than 30 gigabytes (GB) of data per day. NTT Com said it will introduce the new bandwidth cap on August 1 "to help ensure stable, trouble-free access to the Internet for all customers." The company noted that although it continues to expand its OCN optical network to accommodate increasing data traffic, a small number of individual users have been monopolizing substantial network resources by uploading massive amounts of data, which can slow the speed of the network and lower communication quality for other users.


NTT Com will begin to implement the policy by first notifying any individual that exceeds the 30 GB daily limit. The user will be asked to observe the limit. If they do not, OCN will suspend their access to the network and possibly terminate their service contract.


Downlink traffic, such as browsing, receiving e-mails and data downloading, will not be subject to the 30GB limitation.http://www.ntt.com

• In May, NTT reported that the number of FLET'S Hikari optical access subscriptions reached 8.78 million as of March 31, 2008, up from 3.2 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, the number of ADSL subscribers fell to 4.6 million from 5.3 million a year earlier. Likewise, the number of conventional telephone lines fell to 39.2 million from 43.3 million last year.

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BSkyB Signs Wholesale Voice Agreement with BT

BT will provide BSkyB with a wholesale voice service to support call services to its 1.1 million Sky Talk customers. The 3-year deal will support the further expansion of Sky Talk, the UK's fastest growing residential telephony service. Over the next few months, Sky Talk customers and their calls will be migrated to the BT Wholesale platform.http://www.btplc.comhttp://www.sky.com

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Riverbed and OPNET Partner

OPNET Technologiesis working with Riverbed Technology on advanced capabilities for real-time monitoring and troubleshooting of wide area network (WAN) applications accelerated by Riverbed's Steelhead appliances. Specifically, OPNET's ACE solutions for application performance management will provide enhanced visibility into applications accelerated by Riverbed. The combination of OPNET's intelligent analytics and reporting with Riverbed WDS will allow customers to maximize bandwidth allocation, plan server/storage deployments and ensure SLAs are met.


The two companies also said they are engaging in joint sales and marketing efforts.http://www.riverbed.comhttp://www.opnet.com

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Euro Disney Upgrades 15,000 phone lines to VoIP

Euro Disney Associés, which operates the Disneyland Resort Paris, has selected Orange Business Services to replace its entire PABX infrastructure, which represents a total of 15,000 phone lines. This will involve the financing, integration, operation and maintenance of the infrastructure by a dedicated team over a 6-year period. Orange has been one of Euro Disney Associés S.C.A.'s twelve strategic partners since 1992.http://www.orange-business.com

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Motorola Expands its Fiber Access Portfolio

At this week's SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia, Motorola is expanding its Motorola's hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) platform with new "Fiber Deep" capabilities New capabilities enable cable operators (MSOs) to convert amplifiers to optical nodes for direct migration to fiber. This approach allows operators to reduce the outage time and installation costs that impact video, voice and data service delivery during a typical fiber migration. The portfolio also takes a high-density approach by doubling the receiver density at the fiber optic headend, saving valuable space for the operators as they add equipment to segment node serving areas.


To compliment Motorola's enhanced coarse wave division multiplexing (E-CWDM) solution, a 1GHz dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) narrowcast transmitter adds significant wavelength capability to segment the optical node serving areas over existing fiber resources.


Motorola's Broadband Access Network new product portfolio includes:

• MBN100 1 GHz MiniBridger Optical Node, BLN100 1 GHz Optical Node -- allow existing Motorola MB and BLE amplifiers to be easily converted to optical nodes.



• MBV3 1GHz MiniBridger Amplifier -- equipped with three active RF outputs and backward compatible to all existing MiniBridger housings.



• The SG4-ITU-TX DWDM Transmitter -- adds up to 40 wavelength return capability to Motorola's SG4000 scalable optical node platform.



• SG4 DOCSIS Transponder -- provides standards based status monitoring and Ethernet capability to the SG4000 platform.



• The GX2-RX200BX4 High Density Receiver -- doubles the receiver density for Motorola's widely deployed GX2 fiber optic headend platform.



• The GX2-DM1000B10 1 GHz DWDM Narrowcast Transmitter -- provides up to 40 wavelengths for additional VOD, Internet and telephony services.

http://www.motorola.com

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Ericsson Extends IT Outsourcing Contracts with HP, IBM

Ericsson has signed a five-year IT outsourcing contract with HP including infrastructure services, application hosting platform, helpdesk, desktop support and output services for Ericsson. The new contract is an extension of a contract signed in 2003 and which ends in fall 2008.


Carl-Magnus Månsson, CIO and Head of Group IT at Ericsson, says: "We gain significant benefits by outsourcing our IT operations. It helps lower overall IT spending, reduces total cost of ownership and makes our IS/IT structure more efficient. It also ensures we are flexible and able to adapt to changing IT demands. Our supplier has demonstrated it is the best-in-class provider and we are pleased to enter this long-term partnership."


Separately, Ericsson signed a five-year IT outsourcing contract with IBM including application maintenance and development for Ericsson.
The new contract is also an extension of a contract signed in 2003. The responsibility for Ericsson's internal, global, corporate voice and data network is not included in the outsourcing contract. This will be managed by Ericsson's business unit Global Services, who will also handle delivery of some business-critical applications and infrastructure services from its own Global Service Delivery Center.http://www.ericsson.com

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Ericsson Extends IT Outsourcing Contract with HP

Ericsson has signed a five-year IT outsourcing contract with HP including infrastructure services, application hosting platform, helpdesk, desktop support and output services for Ericsson. The new contract is an extension of a contract signed in 2003 and which ends in fall 2008.


Carl-Magnus Månsson, CIO and Head of Group IT at Ericsson, says: "We gain significant benefits by outsourcing our IT operations. It helps lower overall IT spending, reduces total cost of ownership and makes our IS/IT structure more efficient. It also ensures we are flexible and able to adapt to changing IT demands. Our supplier has demonstrated it is the best-in-class provider and we are pleased to enter this long-term partnership."
http://www.ericsson.com

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U.S. Defense Information System Agency Selects Alcatel-Lucent's WiMAX

The U.S. Defense Information System Agency (DISA) has chosen Alcatel-Lucent's WiMAX platform for a project that aims to demonstrate potential war fighting applications and the usefulness of a hybrid communications architecture. The project will combine emerging standards-based, COTS (commercial off-the-shelf), satellite communications and wireless technology to extend global, wideband communications and services in a mobile tactical environment.


The system will be supplied by LGS, a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent dedicated to serving the U.S. government community. Through LGS, Alcatel-Lucent will provide a turnkey WiMAX radio access network that includes a WiMAX base station, WiMAX Access Controller, and WiMAX Operation and Maintenance Center that will support the latest WiMAX standard, 802.16e-2005 (Rev-e). Financial terms were not disclosed.


The next phase of the project will include live demonstrations in the field and over-the-air transmission verification of further interoperability testing to validate the equipment capabilities and any unforeseen limitations.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/

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Isocore validates Alcatel-Lucent IP/MPLS Mobile Backhaul

Isocore Internetworking Lab has validated the scalability and resilience of Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS portfolio for mobile backhaul.


The independent performance verification conducted by Isocore was commissioned by Alcatel-Lucent to confirm the scalability and resilience of its end-to-end IP/MPLS RAN aggregation and backhaul solutions within the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Evolution Transport Architecture (META). Multiple iterations of each test were conducted with special emphasis being placed on resilience mechanisms.


Alcatel-Lucent said the tests confirmed that voice calls can be maintained by the Alcatel-Lucent MBH solution even in catastrophic node failure scenarios because the recovery mechanisms and features were able to successfully preserve the integrity of calls.


Isocore's evaluation focused on the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router and Alcatel-Lucent 7705 Service Aggregation Router as Systems Under Test (SUT) for CDMA/EVDO and GSM/UMTS/HSPA backhaul as well as for transport of Circuit Emulated Services (CES) and timing distribution over IP/MPLS. These tests certify that IP / MPLS solutions to the cell site fully support today's 2G and 3G technologies and that the solution satisfies and exceeds the requirements for resilient voice services, network timing, and high availability mobile backhaul transport. The tests also verify the readiness of the IP/MPLS mobile backhaul solution to support tomorrow's 4G, LTE, and enhanced packet core solutions as they move to complete end to end IP.http://www.alcatel-lucent.comhttp://www.isocore.com/

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Nokia Siemens Networks Supplies Data Management Solution for T-Mobile Austria

T-Mobile Austria has deployed a single, consolidated database platform from Nokia Siemens Networks to power personalized services, such as "MyFaves" social networking, to its customers. The recently-implemented Nokia Siemens Networks subscriber data management solution enables T-mobile Austria to introduce new services and applications much faster than before, for instance by delivering targeted advertising and information services or community services like "MyFaves".


Nokia Siemens Networks said its implementation replaced a number of separate databases used for different applications and services. The single, shared platform provides real-time access to all subscriber data -- a complete view of each customer profile. This allows T-Mobile to provide profiled voice, data or multimedia services to its subscribers, based on their needs or preferences. The Nokia Siemens Networks solution based on the open, real-time One-NDS (Network Directory Server) platform also means greater reliability, availability and security of all services.http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Nokia Siemens Networks signs 2G Expansion Contract for Iraq

Asiacell Communication, a GSM network operator in Iraq, awarded a multi-million frame-contract to Nokia Siemens Networks to expand its 2G network. Nokia Siemens Networks will also extend the local support needed to run Asiacell's operations in Iraq. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Nokia Siemens Networks will provide its Flexi Base Station, which will enable Asiacell to minimize network deployment and operational costs. In addition Asiacell's staff will receive competence development services to meet rapid network expansion and the advent of new technologies.http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Ceragon Receives $5 Million Follow-on Order from Mexico

Ceragon Networks was awarded a $5 million follow-on equipment order from one of the leading mobile operators in Mexico. Ceragon said its equipment will be used as part of a large-scale infrastructure expansion that includes capacity upgrades for an existing 2.5G network as well as preparation to support advanced 3G services in the near future. Specifically, Ceragon's FibeAir solutions will be used to deliver high capacity mobile backhauling in a 2xSTM-1 configuration. The advanced microwave systems are capable of operating in the 6 to 38 GHz frequency bands. http://www.ceragon.com

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Loopt Available on Verizon Wireless for $3.99/Month

Loopt's location-based service is now available to Verizon Wireless customers for $3.99 per month. Loopt allows friends who opt in to be located by other friends to show where the friends are located and what they are doing via detailed, interactive maps on their mobile phones.http://www.verizonwireless.comhttp://www.loopt.com

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AT&T Teams with for Wi-Fi in 600 U.S. Hotels

AT&T was awarded a three-year, $9 million contract by Accor North America (NA) and its Motel 6 brand to provide Managed Internet Service (MIS) and firewall and router implementation services. The new services enable hotel guests to have Wi-Fi connectivity at a low price.
http://www.att.com

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China Telecom Americas Selects Cisco IP NGN

China Telecom Americas will base its network on the Cisco IP NGN architecture and has become a Cisco Powered Program member with service designations in MPLS-based IP virtual private network (VPN) and Carrier Ethernet. Financial terms were not disclosed.


China Telecom Americas currently operates multiple super points of presence (PoPs) that aggregate traffic across North America. China Telecom America's backbone expansion includes three new Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing Systems. These join existing Cisco XR 12000 Series Routers for the network core infrastructure, which ties into the Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP) for TDM service aggregation. The Cisco 15454 MSPP is used in the role of international TDM gateway platform supporting SONET for traffic bound for CTA's U.S. markets and supporting SDH for traffic bound for CTA's China and other international markets.


China Telecom Americas offers services in the United States and Canada, and is expanding into South America. The services are designed to expand the MPLS-based IP VPN access reach via ChinaNet and CN2, a next-generation carrier network.
http://www.cisco.com

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Shenick and Ciena Optimize Full Two-Way Active Measurement Protocol Testing

Ciena is using Shenick Network Systems' diversifEye platform to test full two-way active measurement protocol (TWAMP) compliance for its customers.


The TWAMP protocol defines a flexible method for measuring round-trip IP performance among any two devices in a network that supports the standard, such as measuring time delay on a call. Full/complete TWAMP testing enables carriers to go one step further and TWAMP test each node in the network for ultimate end user quality of service (QoS).


Shenick said its full TWAMP testing solution enables Ciena's engineers to perform a network "health check" by measuring the complete IP performance of underlying transport, right down to an individual flow basis, through cooperation between network elements that have already been deployed.http://www.shenick.com

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Orange Business Services Receives License in India

Orange Business Services, the enterprise communications arm of France Telecom, has received a license from India's Department of Telecommunications to provide national and international long distance telecommunications services across the country. The company will be immediately rolling out services through its joint venture company ‘Equant Network Services India Private Limited'. Services will include IP VPNs, MPLS, network- related managed services and adaptive network solutions for enterprises.www.orange-business.com

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AT&T Announces Content Delivery Network (CDN)

AT&T debuted a suite of content delivery and digital media solutions to help companies package, deliver and distribute video and rich multimedia Web content across their networks to the three screens that are core to AT&T's multimedia strategy -- the computer, the television and mobile computing devices such as the iPhone and the BlackBerry. The rollout includes content distribution and management, broadcast video and digital signage services.


AT&T has struck strategic agreements with ExtendMedia, Qumu and Stratacache, which are software companies that specialize in formatting and packaging content that is suitable for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications, such as streaming video, live and on-demand webcasting, e-learning and virtual trade shows, as well as the delivery of advertising over emerging media networks. The goal is to offer a turnkey solution to encode, deliver, manage and support video and multimedia files. Businesses will also be able to combine these services with AT&T's security capabilities, hosting, applications and professional services to address their most pressing needs with complete and reliable solutions.


Furthermore, AT&T plans to complete deployment of nearly $70 million in network infrastructure and development investment by year-end to support its digital media capabilities across the U.S., Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.


AT&T is creating a new unit to accelerate the company's activities in the content space, and it named Cathy Martine, executive vice president-Content Distribution, to lead AT&T's enterprise digital media efforts.


Available today, AT&T Digital Media Solutions features the following capabilities:

• AT&T Intelligent Content Distribution Service -- A network-based Content Delivery Network (CDN) service that replicates information across the Internet, such as Web page content, large files for download, live video and video-on-demand. At the heart of the service is the ability of the AT&T global network to deliver content closer to the end-user by determining the optimal distribution path based on factors such as server load capacity and user proximity. Because the content is sent from the nearest and best caching node, CDN customers are able to distribute files to end-users more efficiently.



• Content Ecosystem -- AT&T is creating an ecosystem of software providers that it is working to simplify indexing, tagging and encoding services that are required to format content for delivery.



• AT&T Digital Signage -- An end-to-end managed service that enables businesses to distribute their own customized video and other multimedia content to both employees and customers. The AT&T service is scalable and typically delivered on High Definition LCD monitors displayed in high-traffic areas, such as retail outlets,
  employee lunch rooms, airport terminals, hotel lobbies and office reception areas.



• Broadcast Video -- A host of full-motion video transport services that deliver high-quality video images and stereo-quality audio over a fiber-optic network.

http://www.att.com

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LSI Introduces First 12 Gbps Tarari Content Processing Board

LSI introduced its Tarari 8400 series of PCI Express "plug-and-play" content processor boards designed to meet the high-performance needs of network security and telecom OEMs. The company said the new Tarari 8400 offers scalable performance up to 12 Gbps at half the price per Gbps and one-fourth the power of current solutions. LSI's Tarari can automatically detect and load balance up to four of the boards, providing up to 48 Gbps total throughput.


The LSI Tarari content processor family can be used for providing security, quality of service, content-based billing and bandwidth management functions. These solutions support common industry interfaces and a common application programming interface. The Tarari 8400 series consists of four boards offering performance levels of 3 Gbps, 6 Gbps, 9 Gbps and 12 Gbps and supporting PCIe 8 lane interfaces from a wide range of multi-core processors including Intel Xeon, AMD Opteron, Cavium Octeon Plus or RMI XLS. Samples are expected to be available in September.http://www.lsi.com

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Global IP Solutions to List on the Oslo Stock Exchange

Global IP Solutions (GIPS), which provides a processing solution for improving the quality of IP communications, will list its shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The first day of trading will be no later than August 1, 2008.


The company also announced that Emerick Woods has been appointed CEO. Woods was previously President and CEO of Aligo and held similar positions at Trapezo and Coherity, Vicinity and TuneUp.com.


The company is now headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Stockholm, Boston and Hong Kong. More information at /
http://www.gipscorp.com

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Sipera Enhances Security on SIP Trunks

Sipera Systems has upgraded its IPCS security appliances to advance security for SIP trunking and better integrate with SIP trunk provider services. The Sipera VIPER Engine, the core security engine for Sipera IPCS appliances, has likewise been upgraded to more quickly address the latest vulnerabilities and threats, adding the capability to download security signatures automatically, and enhanced anomaly detection capabilities against zero day attacks. And, for enterprises adopting Avaya teleworker and mobile solutions, enhanced IPCS functionality allows them to simply and securely deploy mobile workspaces.


For enterprises utilizing SIP trunks to connect to their service providers, Sipera said it now offers additional Session Border Control (SBC) functionality. The upgraded Sipera IPCS appliances have been integrated with Tier-1 SIP trunk providers, and offer QoS reporting, enabling network administrators to monitor latency, jitter and packet delay for critical UC applications, and identify bandwidth spikes that might indicate an attack or other anomalies.


The new Sipera IPCS functionality to simplify the deployment of Avaya teleworker and mobile solutions includes:

• Certificate provisioning proxy for improved access control;



• HTTP/TFTP proxy for web services and configuration, and LDAP proxy for directory services, for faster and easier deployment of remote phones;



• TLS/SRTP proxy for encryption, further ensuring communications privacy; and



• Network, device, user, domain, and time of day granular policy enforcement.

http://www.sipera.com

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TI Introduces Modular Open Voice Engine (MOVE) Software for DSPs

Texas Instruments (TI) introduced its Modular Open Voice Engine (MOVE) software, a flexible voice solution ported to run on TI's TMS320C64x+ digital signal processor (DSP) core. MOVE is aimed at helping equipment manufacturers to meet the next-generation processing requirements for a broad range of IP-enabled devices. Equipment manufacturers looking to add value to their VoIP-enabled platforms can use TI's MOVE software as the core to build and customize applications including addition of unique codecs, proprietary acoustic echo cancellation (AEC), or customized video and multimedia components.


"TI's MOVE software architecture makes the dream of enabling voice on every IP device a reality by equipping customers with a solution that allows them to customize their own software on top of what TI already provides," said Fred Zimmerman, director of CPE voice solutions for TI's communications infrastructure and voice business. "By porting our robust, field-proven voice to run on the C64x+ DSP, TI is enabling equipment manufacturers to significantly increase the functionality of their application offerings with less investment and risk, and to build a roadmap for the future of voice-enabled IP devices."


TI has shipped over 750 million VoIP ports to date for the IP phone, customer premise equipment (CPE) gateway and high-density infrastructure markets.http://www.ti.com

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BT Offers One Source for Cisco TelePresence

BT announced the launch of its fully-managed immersive video solution for Cisco TelePresence. BT One Source combines Cisco's HD technology with BT Conferencing's management services to provide customers with an outsourced service. Key features of BT One Source for Cisco TelePresence include:

• Design and provisioning: which includes hardware procurement, room readiness and network path assessments


• Detailed room configuration design and set up


• Global Project Management


• Optional IP overlay network


• Proactive device and network monitoring


• 24x7 Help Desk support


• Hosting services for CTMS switch, TelePresence Manager and Cisco Communications Manager


• Automated Call scheduling and launching tools


• Support for TelePresence interoperability with traditional video conferencing devices


• Producer assisted TelePresence calls

BT One Source for Cisco TelePresence is currently available in the US and will be commercially available in Europe and Asia-Pacific shortly.http://www.bt.com

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Cox Deploys Infinera's Gear in Northern Virginia Metro Network

Cox Communications has deployed an Infinera Digital Optical Network for its Northern Virginia metropolitan network. Cox's Northern Virginia metro network is linked to the company's 12,000 mile long-haul Infinera Digital Optical Network that extends from coast to coast.


Infinera's Bandwidth Virtualization architecture enables a variety of data rates and protocols, from 155 Mbps up to 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps, and Ethernet and SONET, to be delivered over the same optical infrastructure with little or no optical re-engineering. Infinera said its GMPLS-powered service intelligence enables services and network resources to be configured in software. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.infinera.com

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Cisco Outlines Green Initiative -- Aims for 25% Carbon Reduction by 2012

John Chambers, Cisco's Chairman and CEO, set a goal of reducing the company's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its worldwide operations by 25 percent over the next four years, reaching its goal in absolute terms by 2012. A major component of the initiative will be to leverage network-based IT to reduce energy use in its facilities and increase it use of telepresence and other collaborative technologies to reduce employee travel. Cisco said it is currently piloting a software solution to model the impact of various factors on carbon footprint, waste reduction targets and other goals. This tool takes into account the rising cost of energy and forecast how it will affect operations and expenditures, as well as to model how certain practices can reduce energy use.


In calendar year 2007, Cisco's gross GHG footprint measured 832,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents, according to the company. With the new target, Cisco aims to reduce its GHG emissions to a maximum net footprint of 543,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents by 2012.


In its labs and data centers, which account for a significant percentage of Cisco's energy use, the company will deploy a variety of techniques. These include taking detailed measurements of energy flows, utilizing more efficient lab equipment, using the "virtual network" to store data, adding smart power-distribution units that automatically shut down machines not in use, and upgrading building mechanical and electrical systems.


The company will increase its use Cisco TelePresence and the Cisco WebEx suite of tools to reduce the need for business travel, which accounts for 27 percent of Cisco's GHG footprint. As part of its commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative, Cisco has already decreased emissions from air travel by at least 10 percent per employee. Finally, Cisco will deploy its Cisco Connected Workspace solution in additional locations.


In 2008, Cisco is expected to acquire approximately 460 million kWh of renewable energy worldwide.http://www.cisco.com

• Earlier this month, Verizon introduced its own series of Telecommunications Equipment Energy Efficiency Ratings for new telecommunications-related equipment with the aim of cutting its carbon footprint. The standards will be applied to certain broadband, video, data-center, network and customer-premises equipment purchased after Jan. 1, 2009. The target provided to the manufacturers of such equipment is 20 percent greater efficiency than today's gear.



• Also this month, BT announced a goal to cut its carbon emissions intensity by 80 percent across the globe by 2020 , setting one of the most aggressive corporate carbon reduction targets worldwide. The company also published a new model for measuring and tracking carbon emissions – backed by the Carbon Disclosure Project. This represents an important step in measuring carbon emissions in a consistent way across the globe. BT said it intends to meet the 80 percent reduction target through a continued combination of energy efficiency, on-site renewable generation (aiming for 25 per cent of its UK electricity to come from dedicated wind turbines by 2016) and purchased low-carbon electricity. Furthermore, BT estimated that it has already reduced emissions in the UK by nearly 60 percent between 1996 and 2008.

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