Cisco Introduces Media Experience Engine

Cisco introduced its Media Experience Engine (MXE) 3000, a media processing appliance that helps enterprises to simplify live and on-demand media sharing across PCs, mobile devices and other digital screens, by formatting video and rich media for viewing on any device.


The platform provides the ability to encode a single source of content so that it is playable on any device. It also delivers real-time post production and processing capabilities such as watermarking, voice and video editing, text and image overlays and noise reduction to create customized broadcast quality video experiences.


Cisco is positioning the Media Experience Engine as the first in a series of products for transforming enterprise networks into "medianets."


"The Internet and IP networks as we know them are changing," said Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco's Emerging Technologies group. "In the near future, 90 percent of consumer network traffic will be video and rich media, and new medianet technologies and devices will drive the evolution not only to new networks, but immersive new experiences made possible by combining video, rich media, voice and data on a single networked platform. As businesses look to reduce costs and increase productivity, medianet solutions will enable new methods of networked collaboration and virtualization, such as seamless language translations over Cisco TelePresence, which will eliminate communication barriers in the workplace."http://www.cisco.com

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AppTrigger Introduces Ignite Application Session Controller – ServiceExtender

AppTrigger continues to enhance its Ignite Application Session Controller (ASC) , which ensures "any to any" application connectivity between legacy and next generation networks,

as well as competing architectural agendas between vendors. AppTrigger's platform resides between the application layer and the control plane with the purpose of delivering call/session control, signaling, switching and media capabilities.


Newly released Version 10.0 of the platform introduced ServiceExtender capabilities, enabling service providers to extend existing revenue-producing voice services to NGN/IMS build outs while also enabling Next Gen applications the ability to leverage the large subscriber base within their legacy networks. AppTrigger said its new ASC ServiceExtender provides benefits for both "old to new" as well as "new to old" application extension. Specifically, the ASC ServiceExtender provides:

• Flexibility: Service Providers retain control of their applications versus a more vendor dependent model


• Simplicity: Easy to manage and adapt via toolkit versus complex, proprietary solutions


• Cost Savings: Greater savings in both CAPEX & OPEX as opposed to traditional stove piped solutions.

http://www.apptrigger.com

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ECI Telecom Extends Ethernet MPLS Capabilities to Access Transport

ECI Telecom has enhanced its BroadGate (BG) line of micro MultiService Provisioning Platforms (µMSPP) with MPLS capabilities.


ECI's BG-20 and BG-30 platforms are compact solutions for cellular,utilities, and access operators. It provides a full set of MPLS Layer 2 capabilities plus an entire range of Ethernet over SDH, Ethernet over PDH, PCM, PDH, and SDH services, allowing carriers to leverage their legacy SDH installed base while offering a mix of PCM and carrier class Ethernet services to their customers. Both the BG-20 and BG-30 supports full triple play services, IPTV, VoD, VoIP, and HSI for residential NGN applications. They can serve as an access aggregation platform and as an MSAG (Multi Service Aggregation Gateway) CLE platform. The BG offers enhanced video handling and P2MP multicast tree connectivity, which enables highly efficient bandwidth savings for broadcast TV/IPTV services, as well as star VPLS for IPTV and IGMP control messages.


ECI said the MPLS-enhanced BG platform complements its other MPLS-based and MEF-certified platforms, the XDM family of MSPPs and the 9000 family of Carrier Ethernet Switch Routers (CESR), delivering end-to-end, access to core, carrier-class Ethernet services. The entire product line is centrally managed by ECI's LightSoft unified network management solution.http://www.ecitele.com

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RightScale Raises $13 Million for Cloud Computing Management

RightScale, a start-up based in Santa Barbara, California., raised $13 million in its second round of venture capital funding for its cloud computing management.


RightScale enables companies to create Web solutions running on cloud computing providers such as Amazon EC2 that are scalable, reliable, easy to manage, and affordable. RightScale said it can help organizations to deploy mission critical applications in a matter of hours using "cloud-aware" server templates. The automated RightScale platform requires little knowledge of cloud architecture to deploy, manage and dynamically scale even complex, multi-cloud applications.


RightScale will use the proceeds to accelerate product and market development of its cloud computing management platform to meet growing demand, including support for new clouds and expansion into additional geographic markets.


The new funding was led by Index Ventures. Current investor Benchmark Capital, which led RightScale's first round of venture financing, also participated in this round. In addition, RightScale announced that Index Ventures partner Danny Rimer has joined the company's board of directors.http://www.RightScale.comRightScale is headed by Michael Crandell (CEO and founder), who has worked as CEO or EVP for 10 years in Internet-based, software-as-a-service companies, including eFax (Internet fax) and Celebros (e-commerce search). Its technical team included Thorsten von Eicken (CTO and founder), who previously was Chief Architect at Expertcity.com and Citrix Online, makers of GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and GoToAssist; and Rafael H. Saavedra (VP of Engineering and founder), who previously was Director of Software Development at Expertcity/Citrix Online where he was in charge of the Applications group.

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Alvarion Announces 11% job Cuts

Alvarion, a leading supplier of WiMAX and wireless broadband solutions, plans to reduce its global workforce by approximately 11%, from a base of about 1000 employees. In addition, Alvarion is implementing company-wide measures including management salary reductions. The combined initiatives are expected to generate annual cost of goods and operating expense savings of about $15 million.


"We have not experienced order cancellations or push-outs so far in Q4, but we see lengthening sales cycles, and we remain cautious about the potential effect of the economic climate on WiMAX-related spending decisions as we move through next year," said Tzvika Friedman, president and CEO of Alvarion.


Mr. Friedman continued. "Therefore, our operating plan for 2009 contains twin goals of continued revenue growth from strong, well-funded operators, and a lower breakeven point to help preserve our profitability and financial flexibility if business conditions worsen. Our plan calls for lowering our non-GAAP operating profit breakeven point (which excludes stock-based compensation expense and any one-time charges) to below $70 million in revenue per quarter, based on a lower gross margin level of about 45%. Equally important, our plan also maintains our capability to grow revenues as much as 15% over 2008 without increasing fixed expenses, assuming business conditions will support such growth. We believe this plan appropriately balances both short-term uncertainties and long-term prospects."http://www.alvarion.com

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Strix Systems Garners Strategic Investment

Strix Systems, which supplies high-performance wireless mesh networking, announced the inflow of strategic investments from global investors. Financial details were not disclosed. Strix Systems plans to increase the size of its U.S. and international sales, support organizations and increase its marketing and educational resources to spur the adoption of wireless mesh networks worldwide.


Strix Systems also announced a new engineering organization at a state-of-the-art R&D center in India, enhancing the company's global reach and support network. This new center will play a key role in accelerating the company's development of new wireless mesh networking products and services.


Recently the company announced a number of new products including Strix Hot Zone Systems (HSx), the Integrated Wireless Video System (IWVS) and the Mobile Wireless System (MWS) as well as key technology partnerships with Milestone Systems, Federal Signal, ICOP Digital, Panasonic, etc.


Strix Systems also announced significant installations worldwide for strategic public safety projects including border-to-border wireless mesh network coverage for Brookline, Massachusetts; public safety video surveillance for Pittsburg, California; video surveillance for homeland security at the Boston Marathon; as well as highway and railway projects including San Diego's North County District; and internet access deployments in six countries in Africa.http://www.strixsystems.com

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NetXen Tests SFP+ Direct Attach Copper Interoperability

NetXen has completed multi-vendor interoperability testing of Small Form Factor Pluggable (SFP+) direct attach copper products. Participants in the testing included industry-leading switch, cable and PHY vendors such as AMCC, Amphenol, Aristra Networks, Cisco, Molex, Quanta, Tyco and W.L. Gore.


The testing, conducted at NetXen's QA lab, used multiple SFP+ direct attach twinax copper cables of lengths varying from 1m to 10m connecting the NetXen NX3-20GCU adapter and switches. For establishing the testing baseline, the same adapter was used with optical SR modules to connect to the switches.


NetXen said SFP+ copper twinax cables are hot-pluggable and have a smaller footprint and thickness than CX4 cables intended for datacom applications. The copper twinax interfaces offer the smallest, lowest-power option for 10 Gigabit Ethernet to enable increased density in enterprise applications. The electrical and mechanical interface specifications for SFP+ direct attach cables are under definition by the SFF Committee, a multi-source agreement group with broad industry participation. The cables are available from a variety of vendors.http://www.netxen.com

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SingTel Submits Bid for Next Gen Access Network

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has submitted its bid to the government of Singapore to design, build and operate the active infrastructure of Singapore's Next Generation National Broadband Network. According the RFP, if chosen SingTel would serve as the Operating Company (OpCo).


SingTel said that given its strong cashflow it does not expect to tap the financial market for additional funds should it be appointed as the OpCo.


"We fully support the Government's iN2015 blueprint to transform Singapore into one of the world's most connected cities with pervasive ultra-fast fibre-based broadband network access. We believe that our proposal will enable the flourishing of a vibrant community of retail service providers in Singapore and consumers can look forward to feature-rich applications and services at home and work -- at speeds of up to 1Gbps -- that will enrich their lives and allow them to be more productive. The way we live, work and play will not be the same going forward," stated Mr. Mark Chong Chin Kok, SingTel's Executive Vice President of Networks.http://www.singtel.com

• In September 2008, The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has selected the OpenNet consortium as its successful Network Company (NetCo). OpenNet will be contracted to provide passive fibre grid services for Singapore's Next Generation National Broadband Network (NGNBN). OpenNet will be making use of existing ducts and other underlying infrastructure, thereby minimizing disruption to the public and enabling the network to reach homes and buildings nationwide by 2012.
  
  
  The OpenNet consortium consists of Axia-Netmedia (30%), Singapore Telecommunications (30%), Singapore Press Holdings (25%) and SP Telecommunications Pte Ltd (15%).
  
  
  OpenNet expects to complete the agreement contracting process with the IDA as planned within the next seven months and expects that the Singapore-wide fiber grid will be completed by June 2012. This fiber grid will be made available on equal terms at very compelling prices to any parties qualified by the IDA.
  
  
  Art Price, Chairman and CEO, Axia NetMedia, said: "OpenNet's approach is future-proof with no compromises from either the technology or business structure perspectives for the passive segment of the network. I believe that Singapore will be the showcase for how compelling the no-conflict open access fibre-to-the-premise solution can be for end-users in metropolitan communities."
  
  
  A key component of the solution involves OpenNet acquiring access to existing infrastructure through usage fees that vary
  with the market adoption of OpenNet's services.
  
  
  This is the first part of IDA's competitive RFP process for a complete Next Generation National Broadband Network. The second part is the provision of active broadband services over the fiber grid.

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Ecma Publishes Standard for 60 GHz Short Range

Ecma International, which develops standards for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Consumer Electronics (CE), has published their 60 GHz standard for short range unlicensed communications. The standard provides high rate wireless personal area network (including point-to-point) transport for bulk data transfer and multimedia streaming.


The Ecma International General Assembly also approved the 60 GHz Standard for submission to JTC 1 fast-track procedure to arrive at an ISO/IEC Standard. Ecma continues to invite their partners, such as ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 06, WiMedia and ETSI, to provide advance comments under the Open-60GHz policy.


Preceding the publication, Ecma members, including GEDC, ETRI and Philips, demonstrated the Standard compliant prototypes showing multi-Gigabit per second file transfer and 1080i uncompressed HD video streaming.http://www.ecma-international.org

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AT&T Enhances Cisco TelePresence Capabilities

AT&T is now supporting multipoint, intercompany Telepresence connectivity using its Cisco TelePresence infrastructure. The enhanced service enables customers to host multipoint meetings with customers, suppliers and partners using the AT&T Business Exchange.




"The availability of the multipoint capability demonstrates the progress AT&T and Cisco are making together in the delivery and continued development of the AT&T Telepresence Solution," said Ronald E. Spears, president and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions. "The economic benefit to subscribers of the AT&T Telepresence Solution is now stronger than before -- more locations in a secure, reliable, high-quality meeting environment can further reduce travel costs, shorten cycle time and improve decision making."


The AT&T solution also features concierge service and a scheduling and administration portal, which complements common enterprise calendar applications, making it easy to schedule a multipoint intercompany call with just the push of a button.


The AT&T Telepresence Solution provides AT&T-owned Cisco TelePresence equipment, installation, full monitoring and management of the application, remote help desk service and on-site equipment maintenance and repair and works over AT&T Virtual Private Network transport. Three-screen and one-screen site options are available, based on the Cisco TelePresence System 3200, Cisco TelePresence System 3000, Cisco TelePresence System 1000 and Cisco TelePresence System 500 endpoints.http://www.cisco.comhttp://www.att.com

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Broadcom Develops Resolution Boost for Viewing Web-Content on Big TVs

Broadcom is developing a "super resolution" technology for digital televisions (DTVs) that allows low resolution videos from the Internet, as well as standard definition (SD) content, such as standard DVDs, to be converted to high resolution for optimal viewing on large screen high definition televisions. TV manufacturers could use the technology to significantly enhance the quality of low resolution Internet content..


Broadcom said the technical benefits associated with this technology include increased spatial resolution, additional fine detail, sharpened details with less blurriness and reduced artifacts such as jagged edges and flickering lines. The result is better quality Internet, online and SD video viewed on large screen TVs, thereby significantly improving the viewing experience.http://www.broadcom.com

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Fox Selects Motorola for Transition to all HD

Fox has selected Motorola to supply satellite transmission equipment, including compression systems, multiplexers, and radios to enable Fox to transition all its satellite program distribution to 100% High Definition (HD) delivery. The rollout will begin in Q1 2009. Financial terms were not disclosed.


As part of the migration, Fox will provide its affiliates with Motorola's DSR-6000 commercial digital satellite radio that include the capability to derive an SD version of the HD content transmitted by Fox. The Motorola radios will read the standardized Active Format Descriptor information carried with the HD content that specifies the appropriate image composition for 3x4 aspect ratio SD TV sets. The deployment also includes Motorola's Broadcast Network Control System and SE-3000 high quality HD encoders to distribute its programming via satellite. Their functionality includes statistical multiplexing -- to enable Fox to effectively combine individual HD streams into multiplexes operating with payloads as high as 73 Mb/s. The DSR-6000 radio will convert the appropriate HD stream to the properly formatted SD signal as well as passing the HD signal as ASI or IP. Both the DSR-6000 and the SE-3000 will employ DVB-S2 modulation, enabling the efficient and robust delivery of high quality content via satellite.


Motorola said the transition to all-HD distribution will enable Fox to significantly streamline its distribution infrastructure as it moves from the current mix of SD and HD environments and diverse, multi-vendor technology platforms to a common all HD Motorola architecture. The need for parallel SD storage and distribution will be eliminated since Motorola radios will support the real time conversion of the HD content to the SD format.

http://www.motorola.com

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TI Cuts Q4 Business Outlook

Texas Instruments lowered its expected ranges for revenue and earnings per share (EPS). The company currently expects its financial results to fall within the following ranges:

• Revenue: $2.30 - 2.50 billion, compared with the prior range of $2.83 - 3.07 billion



• EPS: $0.10 - 0.16, compared with the prior range of $0.30 - 0.36.

http://www.ti.com

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Broadcom Updates Q4 Forecast

Broadcom updated its financial guidance, saying it now expects Q4 2008 net revenue of $1,050 to $1,100 million including AMD Digital TV (DTV) acquisition. This compares with prior guidance of $1,170 to $1,235 million excluding the AMD DTV acquisition.


"Despite the recent impact of the slowing economy, Broadcom experienced a very strong fiscal year from a product, financial and customer perspective. Broadcom continues to be in a very strong financial position and is committed to protecting our operating cash flow in this current environment" said Scott A. McGregor, Broadcom's President and Chief Executive Officer.

http://www.broadcom.com

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Level 3 Cuts 450 Jobs, an 8% Reduction

Level 3 Communications announced a workforce reduction of approximately 450 employees in North America, approximately 8 percent of its total employee base. The reduction will take place before the end of December 2008 and will result in a restructuring charge of approximately $12 million to $15 million in the fourth quarter 2008. The reductions are being made across multiple levels in the organization and multiple locations in North America only.
http://www.Level3.com

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Ciena Demos Single Wavelength 100G Transmission

Ciena, in partnership with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), demonstrated 100 Gbps over a single wavelength during the Supercomputing Conference 2008 (SC08), which was held in late November.


Unlike previous 100G tests that combined two 40G optical signals or inversely multiplexed ten 10G optical signals, Ciena said this demonstration offered the first true, single wavelength transmission of a 100G data stream, through 80 km of fiber. Ciena electrically combined ten 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) signals from switches in the Caltech exhibit area onto a single wavelength for transmission over Ciena's CN 4200 RS FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform, then returned the separated 10 GbE signals back to Caltech's booth. The transmission featured an actual line rate of 112 Gbps and a true 100 Gbps OTN-framed payload using enhanced forward error correction (EFEC). And, by interoperating with leading switching technologies and using FDT, a production-ready TCP application developed by Caltech, more than one petabyte (one million gigabytes) of data, roughly equivalent to that of 125,000 full-length DVDs, was transferred during a 12-hour period.


The full C-band tunable transceiver in Ciena's CN 4200 RS used dual polarization RZ-DQPSK modulation, allowing for deployment alongside 10G and 40G channels on existing DWDM systems, and enabling scalability up to 8 Tbps
capacity on an optical fiber with existing Ciena DWDM systems. The transceiver's hardware technology employs a flexible architecture that is capable of adapting to any standard 10G client rate utilizing standard XFP optical modules, while the firmware allows for rapid adaptation to emerging OTN standards.


Ciena also noted that in real-word applications, where there are bidirectional links involved (one 100G wavelength in each direction), the maximum capacity for data flowing in both directions is 200G. In this context of a bi-directional model, the
demonstration achieved a net payload average of 191 Gbps during the 12-hour period, as sourced and measured by the Caltech TCP application.


According to Professor Harvey Newman of Caltech, head of the high energy physics team and chair of the U.S. Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Users Organization's Executive Committee, "The collaborative efforts of Ciena and our Caltech-led high energy physics team represent a critical milestone in the industry's roadmap for transitioning from 10G to 100G links, particularly across existing transoceanic fiber spans. Faster link transmission of this kind allows, for example, Caltech and researchers from CERN to instantly share critical data associated with the LHC project by increasing the capacity and efficiency of the U.S. Large Hadron Collider Network (USLHCNet). In particular, we hope developments such as these will afford physicists and students throughout the world the opportunity to participate directly in the LHC program, and potentially make important scientific discoveries."

http://www.ciena.com

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OIF Releases Tunable Laser and Transmitter Assembly Agreements

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) released a new Integrable Tunable Laser Assembly Multi-Source Agreement (ITLA-MSA, version 01.2) with added features and improved performance. The new version realizes performance and cost improvements by optimizing the command set which enables the use of smaller, lower power microprocessors and leads the way in future size reduction of the ITLA. New features have also been added to support applications requiring non-traffic interrupting off-grid tuning as well as those requiring sub-tones for channel identification. Additionally, a project within the OIF Software Working Group has been created to work on interface testing to help ensure consistent software interface implementations across multiple ITLA vendors.


In addition, the ITLA platform has been leveraged into the next generation tunable laser agreement, the Integrable Tunable Transmitter Assembly (ITTA), which is a tunable laser integrated with a modulator encompassed by an electronics board containing the necessary laser and modulator control electronics. The ITTA uses an enhanced version of the ITLA's command interface that has been extended to include software control of the integrated modulator. The ITTA comes in two form-factors: One that is similar in size to the ITLA and a reduced size version compatible for use within a 300pinSFF transponder.


The OIF said the ITLA and ITTA multi-source agreements are the latest in a series of four tunable laser projects. The first project resulted in the Tunable Laser Implementation Agreement, OIF-TL-01.1 and involved a large number of contributors from a wide variety of consumers and suppliers of tunable lasers. It addressed the communication protocol, electrical interface and mechanical form factor interoperability for tunable continuous wavelength (CW) lasers. The second project, an MSA for the Tunable Laser IA, generated a more comprehensive specification of the optical, electrical, mechanical, and communication protocols.http://www.oiforum.com

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Level 3 Hires Former Leucadia Exec as COO

Level 3 Communications named Jeff K. Storey as president and chief operating officer. He will report to James Q. Crowe, CEO. Storey, 48, was most recently with Leucadia National Corporation, where he served as president of Leucadia Telecommunications Group. Prior to that position, Storey spent five years with WilTel Communications and its predecessor entities and was president and chief executive officer of WilTel Communications from 2002 until its sale to Level 3 in December 2005. http://www.level3.com

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KT Selects TANDBERG Television IPTV Head-end

KT has selected a TANDBERG Television IPTV head end to support the continued growth of its Mega TV IPTV service in Korea. Specifically, KT will use TANDBERG Television's EN8090 HD MPEG-4 AVC and EN8030 SD MPEG-4 AVC encoders to expand its linear broadcast TV services. Financial terms were not disclosed.


KT's Mega TV has over 700,000 subscribers and provides interactive and pay per view services, including movies on-demand.


Korea Telecom already uses a wide range of TANDBERG Television head end and C&D (Contribution & Distribution) equipment for the Mega TV IPTV service. This head end expansion contract follows a competitive tender.


TANDBERG Television is part of Ericsson.http://www.ericsson.comhttp://www.tandbergtv.com

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Nexans Partners with Sumitomo Electric for FTTH in Europe

Nexans and Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (SEI) have agreed to collaborate in optical fiber cable business for terrestrial telecommunications in Europe. The agreement concerns more specifically the deployment of FTTH networks and more generally FTTx applications.


Under the deal, SEI has entered into a joint venture agreement with Nexans to acquire 40% of the share capital of Opticable, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nexans, based in Belgium, and fully dedicated to the design and manufacture of optical fiber cables for telecom terrestrial application. The transaction is subject to the approval of antitrust authorities and is expected to close by early 2009.


The companies said the synergies of Nexans' cable manufacturing facilities and its Sales & Network Engineering competences, combined with SEI's optical fiber production capacity and FTTH communications technology will bring added value to the European FTTH market.


SEI is a major manufacturer of electric cables, optical fibers and components, and within the TOP 5 of the world fibre producers, recognized as a leader in the FTTH related technology.http://www.nexans.com/http://www.sei.co.jp

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Intel Develops Silicon-based "Avalanche" Photonics

Researchers at Intel have developed a silicon-based Avalanche Photodetector (APD) that could be used to provide high-capacity optical communications between processor cores. The APD is a light sensor that achieves superior sensitivity by detecting light and amplifying weak signals as light is directed onto silicon.


Intel used silicon and CMOS processing to achieve a "gain-bandwidth product" of 340 GHz -- the best result ever measured for this key APD performance metric, according to the company. Intel said this opens the door to lower the cost of optical links running at data rates of 40 Gbps or higher and proves, for the first time, that a silicon photonics device can exceed the performance of a device made with traditional, more expensive optical materials such as indium phosphide.


"These fundamental scientific advances made by our silicon photonics team give me confidence that for decades to come, we will have the communications and I/O bandwidths to match the continued increases in computing performance provided by Moore's law," stated Justin Rattner, Intel Senior Fellow, Vice President, Director, Corporate Technology Group and Intel Chief Technology Officer.


Intel's research results were published in Nature Photonics.http://www.intel.com

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Telstra Delivers HSPA Evolution at up to 21 Mbps with Ericsson

Ericsson and Telstra announced an industry first: the successful activation of HSPA Evolution functionality capable of peak network speeds up to 21 Mbps into the Telstra Next G commercial network and the world's first data call on the newly-enabled network. The commercial deployment makes use of the enhanced, standardized improvements called HSPA Evolution.




Mike Wright, Executive Director Telstra Wireless made the first data call on the Next G network in Brisbane, Queensland at 16:00 AEST on 5 December 2008. Trials of the 21Mbps mobile broadband service on the Next G network will begin this month with a full commercial launch to follow early next year.http://www.ericsson.comhttp://www.telstra.com

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Obama to Include Broadband Effort in Economy Recovery Plan

Saying it is "unacceptable" that the United States ranks 15th in broadband penetration, President-elect Barack Obama said he would lead an effort to ensure that every child has the ability to get online. In his weekly address (posted on YouTube and Yahoo), Obama said that in addition to connecting libraries and schools to the Internet, he would ensure that hospitals are also fully online and using electronic medical records.http://change.gov/newsroom/entry/the_key_parts_of_the_jobs_plan/

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Ofcom Proposes New Wholesale Prices for Openreach

Ofcom, the telecoms regulator for the UK, published a new range of proposed prices that Openreach can charge communication providers for access to its main wholesale telecoms services. The proposed prices cover both full unbundling, where a communications provider takes over the line to provide broadband and telephone services; and shared unbundling, where a communications provider shares the line with BT for the provision of broadband only.




The following proposed ranges are for annual rental charges for the first year of 2009/10:

• A fully unbundled line: £85.00 to £91.00 (from £81.69 today);



• Shared unbundled line: £15.60 to £16.20 (from £15.60 today);



• Residential wholesale line rental: £100.68 and £104.40 (from £100.68 today);



• Business wholesale line rental: £106.00 and £110.00 (from £110 today); and



• Other related charges adjusting in line with underlying cost increases.

Ofcom has also proposed charges for unbundled lines for 2010/11.http://www.ofcom.org.uk

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UK Establishes Code of Practice for Broadband ISPs

Ofcom, the telecoms regulator in the UK, published a new Code of Practice through which internet service providers (ISPs) will give customers a true picture of likely broadband speeds at the point of sale. Under the Code, ISPs are required to:

• provide consumers at the point of sale with an accurate estimate of the maximum speed that their line can support;



• explain clearly and simply how technical factors may slow down speeds and giving help and advice to consumers to improve the situation at home;



• offer an alternative package (if there is one) without any penalties, if the actual speed is a lot lower than the original estimate; and



• explain fair usage policies clearly and alert consumers when they have been breached.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk

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Alcatel-Lucent Highlights R&D Innovations

Alcatel-Lucent hosted an "Innovation Days" event at its headquarters in Paris to showcase over 35 technologies being developed at Bell Labs and throughout its business groups.


Among the exhibits, Alcatel-Lucent demonstrated a pre-commercial LTE FDD (frequency division duplex) system with the throughputs and latencies of the first LTE release (Release 8). The test system is being used to validate real-time, seamless inter-cell mobility scenarios. In the demonstrated scenario, the LTE system was attached to an IMS core network emulator, demonstrating how users will be served simultaneously over the air with multiple applications. The demonstration shows how LTE has the bandwidth to support more than 6 simultaneous High definition streams in addition to handling VoIP calls at the same time.


Other R&D exhibits included:

• Active Antenna Arrays - a power-scalable, small-footprint RF solution that scales well for beam-steering and MIMO applications. Bulky and expensive RF chains are miniaturized, cheaply produced, and integrated into the back of each antenna element in a cellular base station antenna array. Metalized plastic components are used in novel light-weight, compact designs that can be assembled on printed circuit boards using standard surface-mount technology.



• Advanced Base Station Transceivers - addresses the need for a transceiver applicable for future wireless telecommunication



• Beyond the Base Station Router - small cells (e.g. picocell, femtocells) for future broadband mobile networks



• Contact Me My Way - a new communication model that enriches the Web 2.0 experience and blends communications in an Internet world and enabling users to manage their communication resources for optimized reachability.



• Crosstalk Cancellation - technology that breathes new life into copper wires. This innovation effectively increases capacity on copper lines by taking advantage of advanced mathematical algorithms and networking techniques that are based on signal processing principles related to those used in noise cancellation and reduces crosstalk between the operators central office and the customers premise.



• Digital Stethoscope- a new technology that combines a stethoscope with a telephone to create a powerful diagnostic tool. The digital stethoscope allows patients to receive expert care even if they are far away from the experts located in a big city hospital.



• Encrypted Traffic Identification - identifies masked application protocols that cannot be classified by existing recognition methods using port information or deep packet inspection (DPI) in IP-based networks.



• Enhanced IPTV Services - technology for instant channel changes without errors. The demonstration shows an exciting fast channel change solution that enables a user to change from one multicast stream (channel) to another without perceiving any delay.



• Geographic Messaging Services Platform - The Alcatel-Lucent 5130 Geographic Messaging Services Platform (GMSP) is an application focused on creating location-driven push messaging as a new medium for marketing and consumer communication.



• HBSR Femtocell - Integrating Femto into the home - where the mobile phone becomes part of the home network - extends and enhances the end user experience. It allows end users to "push" music, pictures, movies stored on their mobile device to their home TV, radio, NAS or PC and to control their multimedia equipment in their home.



• Home Automation - mass deployment of "home service managers" distributes ‘intelligence' into home networks and support specialized applications for security, surveillance, home care, smoke alarm, energy awareness and more. Learn more about this research.



• Home Networking and QoS - addressed the ever increasing complexity of home networks due to the addition of devices, L1/L2 technologies, cabling options, etc.



• Meeting Room Assistant - facilitates easier and natural human interactions and brings real-life connections into social networking.



• Mixed Reality - a new tool where service providers can blend the real and virtual worlds as a creative customer engagement platform to explore and understand customer expectations and preferences.



• Network MIMO - new research shows how mobile service providers can deliver higher data rates by maximizing spectrum usage and improving quality of service (QoS) through synchronized signaling between base stations.



• Nonstop Laptop Guardian - helps enterprises manage and secure mobile laptops and the data they contain 24x7, regardless of the power state of the laptop.



• 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100 GbE) - advanced serial 100 Gbps transmission technology for next generation optical transport networks.



• Personal Content Manager (PeCMan) - a collaborative Web 2.0 environment where people and groups can easily share, aggregate and organize their online and off-line content.



• People & Projects - an open collaboration social network platform based on semantic tagging. Contrary to existing social networks, People & Projects (P&P) offers "crowdsourcing" technology, thanks to a Wiki-like code editor, that allows contributors to make changes to page code, preview the changes, and see the changes go live immediately after saving them.



• Personalization & Ad Targeting- enables service providers to deliver added-value personalized services such as targeted advertising by automatically learning users' dynamic profiles.



• Photonic Integrated Circuits (PIC) -demonstration includes 10x10G Photonic Integrated Circuits and the integrated 100G coherent Photonic Integrated Circuits as well as future scalability to 10x40G and 10x100G.



• SIP Firewall (Self-learning SIP Anomaly Detection Algorithm and Architecture) - how to secure SIP level integrity for all SIP based business, in particular NGN and IMS deployments.



• Smart Metering -allows operators to educate and financially incent consumers to be more aware of their energy usage.



• Smart Surgery Suite & Collaboration System - the Bell Labs system concept is to provide a multitude of high quality video links and audio links for the surgery in order to provide communication needed for the surgery without unneeded distractions.



• Thermal Management - novel cooling technologies enabling a reduced carbon foot print while enhancing product functionality.



• 3D IPTV - Auto-stereoscopic 3D displays will be one of the technologies which will initiate a new era for digital television. This te



• tikitag - a web 2.0 application that allows consumers to connect everyday objects with web based information sources and applications.



• Talking Beyond Hearing - a novel communication technology based on soundless production of human speech. A 'silent speech interface' will enable cellular phone users to communicate anytime and anywhere without bothering nearby individuals through audio emissions.



• Unlimited Mobile TV with DVB-SH - a mobile television broadcasting solution based on the open DVB-SH standard that combines both mobile terrestrial and satellite broadcast delivery systems while complementing existing 3G/UMTS networks.



• Video MicroProjector- an ultra-compact optical projector that will serve consumer demands for a high-quality viewing experience from mobile devices. It uses state-of-the-art laser light sources to achieve high brightness, low power consumption, and compactness to fit inside a cell phone.



• Wireless Network Guardian-it monitors the behavior of every device, server, and application as it relates to the real-time capacity utilization of every element in the wireless network. When excessive behaviors occur (which could be anomalously high bandwidth, or high signaling, or high radio frequency (RF) airtime usage with little data transmission), or when IP-induced network faults occur, WNG will identify the root cause and help identify actions to remedy the situation.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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PureWave Raises $12 Million for 4G Basestations

PureWave Networks, a start-up based in Mountain View, California. secured $12 million in Series B funding for its development of 4G wireless base stations.


PureWave said its goal is to transform the economics of WiMAX and LTE, through a combination of advanced technology, an innovative product offering and the most cost-effective products. The company is developing small form-factor WiMAX base stations, which combine the power, performance and sophisticated features of a traditional macro base station, with the small footprint and competitive pricing of pico base stations. The products will leverage advanced beamforming technology that optimizes spectral efficiency, data throughput and range. The small form-factor WiMAX base stations are designed for all outdoor installation, are tower, pole or wall mountable and require no indoor shelter.


Two new venture funds -- ATA Ventures and Leapfrog Ventures - have joined Pure Wave's existing investors, which include Allegis Capital and Benhamou Global Ventures, in successfully completing the funding round.http://www.pwnets.com

• Pure Wave is headed by Gideon Ben-Efraim , who has served as a Chairman of the company from September 2006 and as CEO since January 2007. Prior to joining PureWave Networks, Gideon was CEO and founder of Go Networks from inception in 2003 until its merger with Nextwave Wireless, Inc. (WAVE) in December 2006. Gideon also served as Netro's founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman for 9 years since the inception in November 1994 and led the IPO of the company in 1999.



• Pure Wave's technical team is led by Dan Picker (CTO), who previously spent nearly 12 years at Nokia, where he was globally responsible for all software and hardware platform development for their CDMA phones. He was also co-responsible for the design and development of Nokia's highly regarded CDMA Integration Test Platform, a flexible multi-base station network emulator, four generations of which have been globally deployed.

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KPN International Deploys 40G with Huawei

KPN International has completed phase one of the upgrade to 40 Gbps across its European fiber network with the activation of a Paris - London - Amsterdam link. Other key European destinations scheduled for completion this quarter. KPN International has achieved these new service and performance levels by deploying Optical Transport Network (OTN) technologies from Huawei Technologies. KPN International is also leveraging the 208 km Ulysses sea cable between the Netherlands and the UK.http://www.huawei.com

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NSN Completes Downlink Dual Carrier Call -- 592 Kbps

Nokia Siemens Networks completed the world's first Downlink Dual Carrier EDGE end-to-end call with mobile devices. Downlink Dual Carrier is a software-based solution, that can double data speeds to 592 kbps on existing EDGE-capable GSM networks, providing a user experience that is akin to 3G.




Nokia Siemens Networks' Dual Carrier EDGE solution, which will be available as a software upgrade is the first step in evolving EDGE. Dual Carrier is based on the 3GPP release 7 standard.


Nokia Siemens Networks said it already has additional plans to introduce in its networks the next substantial step, the so called EGPRS 2B, to further double the end user experience in up- and downlink performance. This will result in downlink speeds of up to 1.2 Mbps and will double uplink speed to up to 473 kbps, thus quadrupling of the capabilities of current EDGE networks.


The company noted that its GSM/EDGE BSS is operational in more than 280 operator networks in 127 countries offering services to more than 1.5 billion subscribers.http://www.nsn.com

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Nokia and RIM Renew Patent License Agreement

Nokia and Research In Motion (RIM) have renewed their multi year patent license agreement. The agreement covers the worldwide use of standards essential patents for GSM, WCDMA and CDMA2000 technologies. The financial terms of the agreement consist of an up-front payment and on-going royalties payable to Nokia.
http://www.nokia.com

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Tata Teleservices Offers Managed PBX based on Nortel

Tata Teleservices has launched Managed PBX services for small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India in collaboration with Nortel and LG-Nortel. The service provides a single interface solution for all SMB communications requirements, including digital ISDN connectivity, voicemail services, interactive voice response and Mobile Extension Services. The managed PBX service pricing is based on the number of connections and users




Tata Teleservices Limited, the first operator in India to launch CDMA services, is rapidly scaling up its world-class Next Generation network on IP switches and MPLS network for offering world-class managed services to enterprise customers. The TTSL service is built on the LG-Nortel ARIA range of PBX solutions. The ARIA range blends IP/ISDN telephony with traditional TDM technology.http://www.tataindicom.com/http://www.nortel.com

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Meraki Releases Solar-Powered WiFi mesh

San Francisco-based Meraki has begun shipping a self-powered WiFi mesh device for extending coverage in outdoor areas such as business districts, resorts, rural areas, parks, golf courses, etc.

Meraki Solar is completely energy independent. Each unit is powered by its own solar panel and solar-charged lithium iron phosphate battery. Battery charging is monitored and managed via Meraki's web-based management Dashboard, the same management tool included with all Meraki devices. The units can be mounted on roofs, walls, poles and anywhere that receives sun exposure.


Meraki Solar is priced from $848-$1,497 depending on size of solar panel required.http://www.meraki.com/solar

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Verizon Declares Quarterly Dividend

Verizon Communications declared a quarterly dividend of 46 cents per outstanding share, unchanged from the previous quarter. The dividend is payable on Feb. 2, 2009, to Verizon Communications shareowners of record at the close of business on Jan. 9, 2009.


In September 2008, Verizon's Board had increased the dividend 7 percent to its current level, beginning with dividends paid last month. Through the first three quarters of 2008, the company paid dividends totaling nearly $3.7 billion. Verizon has approximately 2.4 million shareowners and approximately 2.8 billion shares of common stock outstanding.http://www.verizon.com

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Arianespace to Launch ViaSat-1 Ka-beam Satellite

Arianespace was selected to launch ViaSat-1, a high-capacity Ka-band spot beam satellite, during the first half of 2011 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. ViaSat-1 will deliver broadband Internet media services to consumers and businesses over North America. It will have a capacity estimated at 100 Gbps, which is expected to be (at launch) the highest capacity satellite in the world. The satellite is being built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California.

http://www.arianespace.com

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Microsoft Hires Yahoo Exec, Dr. Qi Lu, to Run Online Services

Microsoft has hired Dr. Qi Lu to serve as president of its Online Services Group, overseeing Microsoft's efforts in search and online advertising and all the company's online information and communications services. Dr. Lu will report to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer.


Lu most recently served as executive vice president of Engineering for the Search and Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo!, where he was responsible for development efforts around Yahoo!'s Web search and monetization platforms. Dr. Lu left Yahoo! in August 2008 after 10 years of service.http://www.microsoft.com

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Nokia Again Trims Forecast

Citing weakening consumer spending worldwide, Nokia again trimmed its forecasts for 2009. A previous warning had been issued on 14-November-2008. While noting the extremely limited visibility, Nokia expects 2009 industry mobile device volumes to decline 5% or more from 2008 levels. Nokia said the mobile device market slowdown has continued more rapidly than previously expected due to a global consumer pull-back in spending, currency volatility, and decreased availability of credit.


The company held its annual Nokia Capital Markets Day and issued guidance for all its major sectors. Some highlights:

• Nokia now estimates that fourth quarter 2008 industry mobile device volumes will be lower than the previous estimate of approximately 330 million units, which would result in full year 2008 industry mobile device volumes below the earlier estimate of 1.24 billion units.



• Nokia believes there is insufficient visibility in the marketplace to confirm its prior estimate for its fourth quarter 2008 mobile device market share, which was expected to be at the same level or slightly up from an estimated 38% in the third quarter 2008.



• Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks continue to expect the mobile infrastructure, fixed infrastructure and related services market to be flat in euro terms in 2008, compared to 2007.



• Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks continued cost synergy target for Nokia Siemens Networks is to achieve substantially all of the EUR 2.0 billion of targeted annual cost synergies by the end of 2008.



• Nokia expects that the mobile device market will continue to be negatively impacted by the effects of a slowdown in consumer spending. Nokia also expects that operator and retail distribution channels will go through a period of destocking, resulting in lower sales volumes by manufacturers (sell-in) than purchase volumes by consumers (sell-through) for the industry in the first half of 2009.



• Nokia expects the four billion mobile subscriptions mark to be reached in the first quarter 2009.



• Nokia targets an increase in its market share in mobile devices in 2009 compared to 2008, including increased share in smartphones.



• Nokia has adjusted its Internet services market focus to the areas of music, maps, media, messaging and gaming. Nokia estimates these targeted portions of the Internet services market will be approximately EUR 40 billion in 2011. In December 2007, Nokia estimated that the total Internet services market would be approximately EUR 100 billion in 2010.



• Nokia targets Services & Software net sales of EUR 2 billion or more in 2011.



• Nokia targets its Services & Software business to have 300 million unique services users by 2012.



• Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks preliminary estimate is that the mobile infrastructure, fixed infrastructure and related services market will decline 5% or more in euro terms in 2009, from 2008 levels.



• Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks target for Nokia Siemens Networks market share to remain constant in 2009, compared to 2008.

A 344 page presentation, along with hours of archived video from the Nokia Capital Markets Day, is posted on the company's Investor Relations webpage.http://www.nokia.com

• On 14-November-2008, Nokia issued financial guidance for its fourth quarter 2008 and full year 2009, saying that the global economic slowdown, combined with unprecedented currency volatility, has resulted in a sharp pull back in global consumer spending including for mobile devices. Nokia said the mobile device market has also been negatively impacted by the more limited availability of credit, which has limited the purchasing ability of some of its trade customers.
  
  
  As a result, Nokia now expects that the industry mobile device volumes will be lower in the fourth quarter 2008 than previously anticipated at approximately 330 million mobile devices. This is sequentially up from the estimated 310 million in the third quarter of 2008. This would result in a current estimate of industry mobile volume of 1.24 billion in 2008, instead of the earlier estimated 1.26 billion units, up from 1.14 billion units Nokia estimated for 2007. Nokia said it continues to expect its mobile device market share in the fourth quarter 2008 to be at the same level or slightly up, sequentially.

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AT&T Announces 12,000 Job Cuts

Citing economic pressures, a changing business mix and the need for a more streamlined organizational structure, AT&T announced a planned reduction of approximately 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of the company's total workforce. The job cuts will occur in December and throughout 2009. The company will take a charge of approximately $600 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to pay severance to affected employees.


AT&T will also cut its 2009 capital expenditures from 2008 levels. Capital plans for 2009 are being finalized now and specific guidance will be provided when the company releases its fourth quarter results in late January.


AT&T noted that it continues to add jobs in other parts of the business -- such as wireless, video and broadband -- to meet customer demand.http://www.att.com

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Nortel Supplies 40G for Mediacom, SURF, TELUS

Nortel announced a series of wins for its high-capacity optical transmission platforms.


Mediacom Communications is deploying a Nortel 40G Optical Solution in a new network that will link Chicago, Illinois, Des Moines, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska. Mediacom was able to reduce the number of amplifier sites required along the 470 mile (755km) route from Chicago to Omaha thereby simplifying and reducing the overall cost of the network expansion. The Mediacom solution consists of the Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 equipped with 40G optics and the Common Photonic Layer line system. Nortel is also providing engineering, installation, test, and turn-up services for Mediacom.

SURF Telecoms, a Western Power Distribution Group based in Wales, US, is using a Nortel optical solution to unleash additional capacity on its regional optical network. SURF delivers managed services including dark optical fibre, carrier wholesale bandwidth and leased lines. The enhanced optical network from Nortel will address the growing demand for high-capacity services in the southwest of the UK. The express network upgrade, due to come into service this month, extends the efficiency of existing WDM networks and operations by aggregating more traffic onto 10G before regional transport. The SURF Telecoms express network is built with the Nortel Optical Multiservice Edge (OME) 6500 optical convergence platform and Common Photonic Layer (CPL) line system with ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer), key products that enable the migration to a more agile, adaptive, all optical network.



TELUS has also confirmed plans to deploy Nortel's 40G solution. Further details were not disclosed.http://www.nortel.com

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UCLA Imaging Lab Deploys Juniper in Data Center

UCLA's Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) has deployed Juniper's MX960 Ethernet services router in its network core, doubling its network performance and reducing complexity. LONI has the largest neuro-imaging database in the world with more than 25,000 unique scans and at nearly a petabyte in size. Hundreds of researchers work with datasets ranging from 20MB to several hundred gigabytes. As usage of their high-performance computing (HPC) cluster grew, the network infrastructure was straining under the demands.


LONI has also selected the Juniper EX-series Ethernet switches and Secure Access SSL VPN appliances. The EX 4200 series Ethernet switches with Virtual Chassis are deployed as top-of-rack switches in the HPC cluster. Virtual Chassis technology allows up to 10 EX 4200 series switches to be interconnected to operate and be managed as a single, logical system.http://www.juniper.net

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Sunrise Debuts 40G/43G Network Test System

Sunrise Telecom introduced a 40G/43G test system designed to verify the performance of high-bandwidth synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH), optical transport networks (OTN) and SONET networks.


Sunrise said that unlike single purpose 40G testers, its STT platform allows users to test a wide range of Ethernet up to 10GbE, SONET/SDH, xWDM and ROADM technologies in a single platform. An optional 10/10.7G drop feature gives technicians the ability to drop test signals to lower rate instruments and perform complementary tests. This feature is especially valuable in lab settings where technicians often need to map lower rate signals coming from a network element, simulator, or analyzer to 40/43G links.


"As super-high-bandwidth links, like OTU3, STM-256 or OC-768 carry more user traffic, a single failure could have a catastrophic impact on a large subscriber base and create a major crisis for service or transport providers. Communications providers need powerful and comprehensive testing procedures and tools to appropriately provision these mission critical circuits," said Bahaa Moukadam, Sunrise Telecom's vice president of marketing. http://www.sunrisetelecom.com/.

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Japan's KDDI Selects Hitachi + Nortel for LTE Core

KDDI, Japan's second largest cellular operator, will deploy a next-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network using a core networking solution from Hitachi in collaboration with Nortel. The tender award of KDDI's LTE core network includes the deployment of a new Evolved Packet Core (EPC) from Hitachi, featuring Nortel's new ATCA-based Access Gateway as a Mobility Management Entity (MME), as well as an evolution to KDDI's existing operation, management and provisioning system to ensure a seamless upgrade path to the new network. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The new LTE network from Hitachi and Nortel will provide an overlay to the existing CDMA mobile network, enabling instant access to the bandwidth-intense multimedia content and applications.


Nortel said the network will significantly improve user experience through greatly reduced download times for music and video services as well as providing anywhere, anytime access to bandwidth-hungry applications such as video, real-time mobile games and online services.
http://www.nortel.com

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NTT DOCOMO Deploys Voice-activated Services with HP Media Server

NTT DOCOMO has deployed the HP OpenCall Media Platform, which is designed to enhance the quality of voice-activated services. The server supports NTT DOCOMO offerings such as voice mail services, customized ringback tone services and interactive voice response services. The HP OpenCall Media Platform is designed to support many of NTT DOCOMO's multimedia services.


The HP media server is Integrated within a core network node. It consolidates a variety of services onto a single platform. With its 20,000 audio ports, the HP OpenCall Media Platform handles existing demand -- and can be scaled up to meet future needs.


As a software-based IP media server, the HP OpenCall Media Platform leverages VoiceXML and Session Initiation Protocol. As a result, NTT DOCOMO is able to significantly reduce the complexity of developing new applications -- and reduce the time needed to bring new services to market.


HP noted that is OpenCall Media Platform is deployed by more than 150 operators in 52 countries.http://www.hp.com/go/opencall/ocmp

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Multiven Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Cisco

Multiven, a supplier of premium multivendor IP network services based in Redwood City, California, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Cisco Systems in an effort to open up the network maintenance services marketplace for Cisco equipment..


Multiven's complaint alleges that Cisco harmed Multiven and consumers by bundling and tying bug fixes/patches and updates for its operating system software to its maintenance services ("SMARTnet"). Multiven further alleges that Cisco engages in other illegal exclusionary and anticompetitive acts designed to maintain a monopoly in the network maintenance services market for Cisco networking equipment.http://www.multiven.com/

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Huawei Supplies 40G Network for China Unicom

China Unicom has selected Huawei Technologies to supply its 40 Gbps WDM transmission platform. The network will cover five major cities in north China. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.huawei.com

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Telecom New Zealand Selects Alcatel-Lucent for IP/MPLS Mobile Backhaul

Telecom New Zealand has selected Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS-based mobile backhaul solution. The deployment will enable Telecom to accommodate its growing W-CDMA and High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) traffic needs and to cost effectively scale its mobile services across a unified network infrastructure. Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS solution is being rolled out across Telecom nationwide and supports its strategic transition to all-IP network. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Alcatel-Lucent said its solution features pseudowire technology, which adapts various traffic and media types from the W-CDMA base stations into IP/MPLS. Telecom's mobile backhaul network will also leverage the existing IP/MPLS aggregation network already provided by Alcatel-Lucent for residential and business services.


Alcatel-Lucent's pseudowire solution includes the 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR) which is deployed in cellular base station sites to consolidate and aggregate traffic. The Alcatel-Lucent 7705 SAR allows service providers to scale traffic and simultaneously flatten their cost-curves for leased bandwidth, therefore improving their competitiveness. The 7705 SAR inherits its software architecture from the widely deployed IP/MPLS Service Router product line, retaining and building on its qualities but at a price and form factor appropriate to the cell site and hubs.


In addition to the Alcatel-Lucent 7705 SAR, TNZ has already deployed a Carrier Ethernet network based on Alcatel-Lucent's 7450 Ethernet Services Switch and an IP/MPLS infrastructure for residential services based on the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router - all managed end-to-end by the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service Aware Manager.http://www.alcatel-lucent.comhttp://www.telecom.co.nz

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Pirelli Broadband to Offer Airvana's Femtocells

Pirelli Broadband Solutions, the broadband access company within the Pirelli Group, will resell Airvana's HubBub UMTS femtocell as part of its portfolio for fixed-mobile convergence.


Airvana and Pirelli both cooperate in Nokia Siemens Networks' 3G Femto Home Access Solution, an ecosystem that uses a standards-ready open architecture for femto-to-core network interaction. Adherence to these important industry standard initiatives, plus the TR-069 standard for device management, will make it easier to incorporate Pirelli's HubBub-powered broadband access devices into existing operator networks.


Over the past three years Pirelli has become one of the leading suppliers of CPEs for quad-play service providers in Europe, with a portfolio comprising IPTV Set Top Boxes and home and office access gateways for xDSL and FTTx networks.http://www.airvana.comhttp://www.pirellibroadband.com

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MobiTV Surpasses Five Million Subscribers

MobiTV has surpassed the five million subscriber mark. The mobile TV service is now available on more than 350 handsets across 20 carrier networks including AT&T, Sprint and Alltel in the U.S.

"With the addition of over a million new subscribers in less than five months, MobiTV is widening its lead in the mobile media delivery industry," said Charlie Nooney, chairman and CEO, MobiTV.http://www.mobitv.com

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AT&T and ChaCha Announce Strategic Relationship

AT&T announced a strategic relationship with ChaCha, a provider of text messaging mobile search services. As part of the agreement, ChaCha will use a co-branded greeting and promote AT&T when consumers call 1-800 number.

AT&T and ChaCha also will work together to further enhance ChaCha's free mobile-answers service and explore opportunities in both text and voice ad-based services. ChaCha will continue to provide free answers to any question -- anytime, anywhere -- to and from any activated wireless phone. Questions can cover any topic, from science to culture to sports and more.http://www.att.comhttp://www.chacha.com

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Washington Post: New Coalition Lobbies for Broadband in Obama Stimulus Plan

A new industry coalition that includes heavy-hitters such as AT&T, Google, the Telecommunications Industry Associations, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and others, is pushing to include nationwide broadband access as part of the economic stimulus plan being developed by the incoming Obama administration, according to The Washington Post. Potential ideas being discussed include tax breaks, low-interest loans, subsidies and public-private partnerships aimed at broadband access.http://www.washingtonpost.com

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Nortel Selects Verizon IP Trunking Service

Nortel has selected Verizon IP Trunking service with Burstable Enterprise Shared Trunks (BEST), which will enable Nortel to consolidate its U.S. corporate voice infrastructure. Under a new three-year agreement, Nortel will evolve its traditional voice system to Verizon IP Trunking VoIP service, which is based on SIP. In addition, Verizon Business will manage Nortel's existing Verizon Private IP network, enabling Nortel to benefit from expanded managed network service capabilities and industry-leading service level agreements. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The BEST feature, which Verizon Business introduced earlier this year, is an on-demand networking capability that enables customers to use idle trunk capacity from one or more locations to dynamically accommodate increases in traffic at other locations, providing more design flexibility and reducing the total number of trunks required across the enterprise. Two key Verizon IP Trunking features that enable the Nortel solution include DID (direct inward dial) transport to a Nortel central access point, and E911 support.


The centralized SIP-based trunking solution that Nortel is implementing marries two key elements: Nortel's Communications Server (CS) 2100, which is a carrier-grade, centralized call server, and Verizon IP Trunking with BEST. http://www.nortel.com

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Verizon Pitches FiOS TV to Philadelphia

Verizon made a pitch to the Philadelphia City Council Committee on Public Property and Public Works to install its all-fiber-optic network and bring real TV choice to more than 600,000 households throughout the city. The company is seeking franchise agreement from the city.


Key points of Verizon's proposal:

• Verizon plans to bring fiber optics directly to every Philadelphian's home. More than 600,000 households will have access to FiOS TV, including households in multiple dwelling units.



• The full deployment of Verizon's FTTP network throughout the entire city will occur within seven years of the franchise ordinance's effective date.



• The network will deliver an all-digital FiOS TV lineup, including VOD.



• Payment of franchise fees equivalent to 5 per cent of gross revenues on cable TV service.



• Payment to the city of $2 million for a technology and education fund.



• Payment of $9.2 million in grants to support the city's public, education and government access channels.



• Up to 15 all-digital public, educational and governmental access channels for use by the city or its Public Access Corporation over the life of the agreement.



• An extensive and appropriate set of customer service provisions.

http://www.verizon.com

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Alcatel-Lucent's Motive Offers Management of WiMAX Devices

Alcatel-Lucent's Motive group, which provides management software for broadband and mobile data services, introduced a solution that manages fixed, nomadic, mobile and embedded WiMAX devices.


Motive's solution complies with both TR-069 and OMA-DM standards-based protocols, which should help network operators to automate and manage key digital life processes such as service provisioning, problem diagnosis and resolution, and on-going maintenance across a myriad of WiMAX devices.


TR-069 is a DSL Forum technical specification entitled CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP). It defines an application layer protocol for remote management of end-user devices. OMA-DM is a device management (DM) protocol specified by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), a standards body which develops open standards for the mobile phone industry.


Motive has demonstrated the interoperability of its WiMAX Service Management Solution on a ZyXEL MIMO MAX-206M2 residential gateway. Testing between Motive's and ZyXEL's solutions was conducted via the MotiveSmart Verification Program, an initiative that uses standards-based verification testing, such as TR-069 and OMA-DM, to confirm the interoperability of CPE and mobile devices with Motive's products and solutions.
http://www.motive.comhttp://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Marvell Posts Q3 Revenue of $791 Million, up 4% Year-on-Year

Marvell Technology Group posted net revenue for its third quarter of fiscal 2009 of $791.0 million, an increase of 4 percent over $758.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008, ended October 27, 2007, and a 6 percent sequential decrease from $842.6 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2009, ended August 2, 2008.


GAAP net income was $70.9 million, or $0.11 per share (diluted), for the third quarter of fiscal 2009, compared with a GAAP net loss of $6.4 million, or a loss of $0.01 per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2008. In the second quarter of fiscal 2009 GAAP net income was $71.4 million, or $0.11 per share (diluted).


"The results for our third quarter were in-line with our revised expectations, however we continue to experience limited visibility into the near-term demand for our products," said Dr. Sehat Sutardja, Marvell Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We are taking the appropriate steps to better align our operating expenses to reflect the challenging business environment we face. Our results in our third quarter demonstrate initial progress toward these goals."http://www.marvell.com

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Nokia Closes Acquisition of Symbian

Nokia completed its previously announced acquisition of acquire Symbian Limited. Symbian is the software company that develops and licenses Symbian OS, the market-leading open operating system for mobile devices.


The closing of the offer is a fundamental step in the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, announced on June 24, 2008 by Nokia, together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Motorola, NTT DOCOMO, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, ST-NXP Wireless, Texas Instruments and Vodafone. More information about the planned foundation can be found at www.symbianfoundation.org.http://www.nokia.com

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Nokia Unveils N97 Mobile Computer

Nokia unveiled its Nokia N97 mobile computer -- its new flagship mobile device -- along with new Ovi services, including Maps on Ovi and Mail on Ovi.



The Nokia N97 packs a 3.5" touch display, full QWERTY keyboard, integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass for enabling location-based services. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their 'status' and share their 'social location' as well as related pictures or videos. The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card. The Nokia N97 also has a 5-Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.


The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.


Nokia also previewed Maps on Ovi, a free service that allows people to pre-plan their journey at home on their PC and synchronize with their mobile.


Other Nokia services include Mail on Ovi an Nokia Messaging. With Mail on Ovi, users will be able to create and access email online portal as well as on their mobile device. Nokia Messaging, on the other hand, will give consumers access to their existing email and instant messaging accounts from Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail and Google Talk, and AOL Mail as well as email solutions from thousands of ISPs around the world on the majority of Nokia devices. Nokia has shipped about 200 million devices that immediately enable the launch of its messaging solutions, including Mail on Ovi, Nokia Messaging and corporate mobile email (Microsoft Exchange Activesync and Lotus Traveler).http://www.nokia.com

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Axis Adds HDTV Network Camera

Axis Communications introduced an HDTV network camera in compliance with the SMPTE standard in resolution, color representation and frame rate. The AXIS Q1755 Network Camera, which is designed for securing areas such as airports, passport controls and casinos, delivers HDTV 1080i or 720 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio and supports both H.264 and Motion JPEG in full frame rate. It offers day & night functionality and progressive output, along with 10x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom paired with auto focus deliver the desired field of view in perfect focus.


For optional storage of video and further flexibility, the camera has a built-in slot for an SD/SDHC memory card, making it possible to store days of recording without external equipment. Power over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3af) supplies power to the cameras via the network, eliminating the need for power cables and reducing installation costs.


The AXIS Q1755 includes video intelligence such as enhanced video motion detection, audio detection and detection of camera tampering such as blocking or spray-painting. In addition, the AXIS Q1755 incorporates the new Gatekeeper functionality, which automatically zooms in when there is activity in the scene and then zooms out after a preset time interval. Security capabilities include HTTPS encryption, IEEE 802.1X authentication, IPv4/IPv6 and Quality of Service.http://www.axis.com

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Dell Launches Data Center Optimization Services

Dell is launching a consultation service to help enterprises adopt best practices in data center design, layout and configuration. Specifically, Dell Data Center Optimization Services aims to help customers find their "Hidden Data Center" -- unused capacity in their existing facilities that can be leveraged to avoid the significant capital expenditures required for building a new data center.


Dell's service will address the energy, capacity and cooling issues facing customers with practical, expert advice on how to bring efficiency to the current data center environment. Dell provides customers with specific actions designed to simplify and save in the data center. The service also includes a program to help refit and optimize an existing facility, or design a new data center to meet an organization's growing needs.


A majority of data centers were built during the dot-com boom and are reaching their 10-year lifespan, so it's no surprise that many companies are hitting a wall when it comes to data center capacity," said Dr. Albert Esser, vice president of Power and Infrastructure Solutions at Dellhttp://www.dell.com

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Hitachi GST and Intel Develop Solid-State Drives for Fibre Channel

Intel and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) plan to jointly develop and deliver Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Fibre Channel (FC) enterprise-class solid-state drives (SSDs) for servers, workstations and storage systems. The new SSDs will be branded and exclusively sold and supported by Hitachi GST and use Intel NAND flash memory and SSD technology.


The companies said their new generation of solid-state drive technology complements existing enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDDs) and is intended for use in storage applications that require extremely high Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) performance and power efficiency.
http://www.intel.com

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Deutsche Telekom's CFO Steps Down

Dr. Karl-Gerhard Eick will step down from his position as Chief Financial Officer at Deutsche Telekom in order to join another company. His position was not due to expire until 2012. http://www.telekom.de

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Etisalat Acquires Stake in FT's SoftAtHome Venture.

UAE-based Etisalat will acquire a 16.6% stake of SoftAtHome, a joint venture launched by Thomson, Sagem and France Telecom to develop software solutions for triple-play services in the Digital Home.


In addition, Etisalat will adopt SoftAtHome solutions for its future broadband deployments. Both groups will collaborate on the roll out of multiple-play solutions from the technical and marketing points of view.http://www.orange.comhttp://www.etisalat.com

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Fox signs on-demand movies deal with BT Vision

Twentieth Century Fox has signed an agreement giving BT video-on-demand rights to a range of new and classic movie titles for BT's digital TV service, BT Vision. Content will be available on a pay-per-view basis without the need for an up-front or mandatory subscription.http://www.btplc.com

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SingTel-Chunghwa JV Picks Mitsubishi for ST-2 Satellite

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) announced that the contract to build the ST-2 satellite has been awarded to Mitsubishi Electric Corporation at a cost of approximately S$200 million. SingTel and Chunghwa Telecom will co-own ST-2 through a joint venture. The satellite is targeted to be delivered in 2010 and will replace the ST-1 satellite, which will retire in 2011. SingTel and Chunghwa Telecom own approximately 62% and 38% share in the joint venture respectively.


The ST-2 satellite will deliver fixed and mobile satellite services, including IP-based solutions, such as SingTel's Office-At-Sea suite of maritime applications. It will offer significantly greater capacity as well as wider coverage than ST-1 to also include emerging markets such as the Middle East.http://www.singtel.com

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Level 3 Wins Content Delivery Deal with NHL

The National Hockey League (NHL) has expanded its network services commitment with Level 3 to include content storage, caching and downloading, and high-definition (HD) video streaming. These services complement the existing high-speed IP and video broadcast services already provided by Level 3. The services enable the NHL to offer live and on-demand access to hockey games, highlight reels and other online video content. Online video will be available in HD, optimized for video quality and download speed, to provide a premium end-user experience.http://www.level3.comhttp://www.nhl.com/

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Alcatel-Lucent to announce Strategic Plan on Dec 12

Alcatel-Lucent has scheduled a press and industry analyst event for December 12 to unveil its new strategic plan. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• In November, Alcatel-Lucent announced a new leadership team to coincide with its new business model.



• In September, Alcatel-Lucent appointed Philippe Camus as the company's non-executive Chairman and Ben Verwaayen as its new chief executive officer.

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Alcatel-Lucent Wins US$230M CDMA Deal with China Telecom

China Telecom awarded a US$230 million contract to Alcatel Shanghai Bell to increase the capacity and coverage of its mobile voice and data network throughout the country. Specifically, Alcatel Shanghai Bell will provide its end-to-end CDMA wireless networking solutions for China Telecom in 56 cities of 9 provinces in China. The deployment is currently underway and the expanded network will begin providing commercial services by the end of 2008. Alcatel Shanghai Bell also will provide IP service routers and applications platforms and services for the deployment.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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R.I.P. -- Ted Rogers, Founder of Rogers Communications

Rogers Communications announced the death of its founder, Edward Samuel "Ted" Rogers, a visionary communications industry pioneer and an icon in Canadian business. He was 75 and suffered from congestive heart failure.


Rogers is a diversified Canadian communications and media company that operates the country's only national GSM/HSPA based network. Rogers is also one of Canada's largest providers of cable television services as well as high-speed Internet access and telephony services. Its media group is engaged in radio and television broadcasting, televised shopping, magazines and trade publications, and sports entertainment.http://www.rogers.com

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Sierra Wireless to Acquire Wavecom -- 3G + M2M

Sierra Wireless agreed to acquire Wavecom, a leading provider of embedded wireless technology for M2M (machine-to-machine) communication, for approximately EUR 218 million. The offer represents a premium of 21% over the offer for Wavecom shares announced by Gemalto on October 6, 2008 and a 108% premium over the share price on October 3, 2008, the last trading day prior to Gemalto's announcement of its offer. For the OCEANEs, the price represents a premium of 2% to their redemption value.


The companies said their merger positions them to benefit from the anticipated growth in wireless data for the mobile computing and M2M markets - which are expected to grow to over 200 million units by 2012. The combined company would offer a broad wireless data product portfolio, including PC adapters, 2G, 3G and multi-mode embedded modules, M2M terminals, software and solutions. The companies have long-term relationships with mobile network operators and market- leading OEM customers in key markets around the world.


Wavecom will operate as a Sierra Wireless business unit based in Paris, and the two companies will leverage synergies in product development, sales channels and complementary resources to accelerate profitable growth and product leadership in M2M embedded modules, M2M terminals, and M2M software, solutions and services. Furthermore, the addition of Wavecom's significant presence and capabilities in Europe will provide strong support to Sierra Wireless' mobile computing business in the region.http://www.sierrawireless.comhttp://www.wavecom.com

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