Nokia Siemens Networks and Ubiquisys Team on 3G Femto Cells

Nokia Siemens Networks has signed a collaboration agreement with Ubiquisys to provide mobile network operators with femtocell solutions that offer greatly improved 3G network coverage and quality of mobile services at home. Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks and Ubiquisys will cooperate in the marketing and sales of the joint solution to mobile operators worldwide.


The Ubiquisys ZoneGate femtocell supports industry standard interfaces and conforms to Nokia Siemens Networks' Femto Gateway's open architecture. The plug-and-play 3G access point uses a mobile subscriber's broadband connection to transport voice and data calls to the 3G core network.


"The femtocell market is moving at an astonishing speed and 2008 will undoubtedly prove to be ‘make-up-your-mind' time for many operators. We are currently involved in 10 trials and expect several to expand into larger deployments later this year," said Chris Gilbert, CEO of Ubiquisys.http://www.ubiquisys.comhttp://www.nsn.com

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Telecom Egypt Selects Alcatel-Lucent for New Submarine Cable

Telecom Egypt awarded a US$125 million contract to Alcatel-Lucent to deploy a new submarine cable network linking Sidi Kerir in Egypt to Marseille in France. Named TE North, the 3,100km cable system will enable Telecom Egypt to expand international connectivity, providing diversity from existing cable routes. Additionally, the TE North submarine cable system will help Telecom Egypt enhance its network capacity to operate as a wholesale carrier to other operators and expand its service offering to businesses and consumers.


TE North is designed for an ultimate capacity of 128 x 10 Gbps on eight fiber pairs, making it one of the largest cable systems in the region.http://www.alcatel-lucent.comhttp://telecomegypt.com.eg

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Sea-We-Me4 and FLAG Failure Disrupts 620 Gbps of Traffic

The damage to the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (Sea-We-Me4) and the FLAG Europe-Asia undersea cables, which both went out of service on Wednesday morning (30-January-2008), is due to a fiber cut in the Mediterranean Sea approximately 19km from the Egyptian coast, according to media reports. The cables are about 400 meters near that location, leading to speculation that the outage was caused by a ship's anchor dragging along the sea floor. An estimated time-to-repair has yet been given by the network operators.


TeleGeography, which tracks undersea cable issues, estimates that 620 Gbps of Internet capacity along the main route connecting Europe to the Middle East and India was disrupted by the cut. This represents 75% of the traffic along the route. With the two main cables out of service, the alternate route is via Southeast Asia and then across the Pacific, North America and Atlantic.


http://www.seamewe4.com/

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Infinera Reports Q4 2007 Revenue of $76.1 Million

Infinera reported Q4 2007 GAAP revenues of $76.1 million compared to $62.2 million in the third quarter of 2007 and $43.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. There was a GAAP net loss of $3.9 million, or $0.04 per share. GAAP gross margins were 36% in Q4 2007 compared to 34% in the third quarter of 2007 and 6% in the fourth quarter of 2006.


"Infinera's strong performance in the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2007 reflects solid execution against our business strategy, increased customer momentum in favor of our unique approach to optical networks, and continued growth in world-wide bandwidth demand," said Jagdeep Singh, president and chief executive officer of Infinera.http://www.infinera.com

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Nokia Siemens Networks and Ubiquisys Team on 3G Femto Cells

Nokia Siemens Networks has signed a collaboration agreement with Ubiquisys to provide mobile network operators with femtocell solutions that offer greatly improved 3G network coverage and quality of mobile services at home. Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks and Ubiquisys will cooperate in the marketing and sales of the joint solution to mobile operators worldwide.


The Ubiquisys ZoneGate femtocell supports industry standard interfaces and conforms to Nokia Siemens Networks' Femto Gateway's open architecture. The plug-and-play 3G access point uses a mobile subscriber's broadband connection to transport voice and data calls to the 3G core network.


"The femtocell market is moving at an astonishing speed and 2008 will undoubtedly prove to be ‘make-up-your-mind' time for many operators. We are currently involved in 10 trials and expect several to expand into larger deployments later this year," said Chris Gilbert, CEO of Ubiquisys.http://www.ubiquisys.comhttp://www.nsn.com

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TiVo Wins Appeals Ruling in Lawsuit Against EchoStar

The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit unanimously ruled in favor of TiVo in the patent infringement case against EchoStar. The full award of damages, which was stayed pending appeal, was ordered to be reinstated.

http://www.echostar.com

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Garmin nüvifone Integrates GPS + Google

Garmin International made its entrance into the mobile phone market by unveiling the nüvifone, a slim, touchscreen device that combines a premium 3G phone, mobile web-browser, and GPS personal navigator.


When powered on, the 3.5-inch touchscreen display reveals three primary icons -- "Call," "Search," and "View Map".
Calls are initiated by tapping the "Call" button and selecting a name from the contact list or by using the on-screen keypad. When the nüvifone is docked onto a vehicle mount, it automatically turns on the GPS, activates the navigation menu, and enables hands-free calling.


The phone includes preloaded maps of North America, Eastern and Western Europe, or both.


The nüvifone is Garmin's first device to include Google local search capability, allowing users to search for locations like "coffee shops" and Google will sort the results based on the user's current location and relevance. Information provided by Google includes a web-based rating so that users can select the most appropriate destination and route directly to it. In addition, the nüvifone includes a web browser incorporating touchscreen operation. The nüvifone also includes personal messaging functions, including email, text, and instant messaging.


The phone offers a "Where am I?" feature that lets users touch the screen at any time to display the exact latitude and longitude coordinates, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations.


Garmin will also offer mobile entertainment applications. A built-in camera allows individuals to take a picture that will automatically be tagged with the exact latitude and longitude reference of where the image was taken. The user may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the image to a recipient who can navigate directly to the location. The nüvifone also provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available through Google's Panoramio picture sharing site.


Other multimedia functions of the nüvifone include a built-in video camera, MP3 and MPEG4/AAC.


Garmin anticipates that the nüvifone will be available in Q3 2008. Pricing details have not been announced.http://www.garmin.com/nuvifone

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EMBARQ Signs on as Reseller of HughesNet Broadband Satellite

EMBARQ has signed an agreement to be a reseller of HughesNet broadband satellite Internet access service from Hughes Network Systems. EMBARQ business customers in certain rural areas of the United States will have high-speed Internet access comparable to the services available in other EMBARQ markets.


HughesNet service is available in a variety of packages with download speeds ranging from 700 Kbps to 2Mbps and a price range of $59.99 per month to $179.99 per month.http://www.embarq.com/http://www.hughes.com/

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Motorola Seeks Exit from Mobile Device Business

Motorola is exploring strategic alternatives for its Mobile Devices business. Motorola said its alternatives may include the separation of Mobile Devices from its other businesses in order to permit each business to grow and better serve its customers.


"We are exploring ways in which our Mobile Devices Business can accelerate its recovery and retain and attract talent while enabling our shareholders to realize the value of this great franchise" said Greg Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer.http://www.motorola.com

• In January, Motorola reported Q4 2007 sales of $9.65 billion and net earnings of $0.04 per share, which include $0.05 per share from continuing operations and a net loss of $0.01 per share from discontinued operations. The company said its Mobile Devices business remains challenged, with sales declining 38 percent versus prior-year quarter, while its Home & Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions business continued to deliver strong results.
  
  
  "We are focused on aggressively rationalizing the company's cost structure and working to get Mobile Devices back on track," said Greg Brown, chief executive officer of Motorola. "The recovery in Mobile Devices will take longer than expected and there is a lot more work to be done. Our primary focus is on improving profitability and enhancing our product portfolio in this business. At the same time, we are very pleased with the continued strong performance of our Home and Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions businesses."
  
  
  Mobile Devices segment sales were $4.8 billion, down 38 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. The operating loss was $388 million, compared with operating earnings of $341 million in the year-ago quarter. For the full year 2007, sales were $19.0 billion, a 33 percent decrease compared to 2006, and the segment incurred an operating loss of $1.2 billion, compared to operating earnings of $2.7 billion in 2006. During the quarter, the company shipped 40.9 million handsets.
  
  
  Home and Networks Mobility segment sales were $2.7 billion, up 11 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. Operating earnings decreased to $192 million, compared with operating earnings of $223 million in the year-ago quarter. For the full year 2007, sales were $10.0 billion, a 9 percent increase compared to 2006, and the segment generated operating earnings of $709 million, compared to $787 million in 2006.
  
  
  Enterprise Mobility Solutions segment sales were $2.1 billion, up 35 percent compared with the year-ago quarter, driven by sales from the Symbol business acquired in early 2007. Operating earnings increased to $451 million, compared with operating earnings of $323 million in the year-ago quarter. For the full year 2007, sales were $7.7 billion, a 43 percent increase compared to 2006, and the segment generated operating earnings of $1.2 billion, compared to $958 million in 2006.

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New Mexico's ENMR•Plateau Upgrades with Occam

ENMR•Plateau Telecommunications, the largest telephone cooperative in New Mexico, has purchased Occam's Broadband Loop Carrier (BLC) 6000 system as the centerpiece of its voice and DSL services upgrade project at all 25 ENMR•Plateau exchanges over the next 3 years.


ENMR•Plateau manages 13,000 lines across 25,000 square miles of New Mexico's eastern high plains. The upgrade features the deployment of more than 200 Occam blades to replace the system's existing local loop and DSLAM solutions with both POTS-only and POTS/ADLS2+ combination blades. The Occam blades purchased by ENMR•Plateau include the BLC 6152, 6252, 6440, 6312, 6660, 6246 and EMS.


ENMR•Plateau has also purchased Occam's new GPON offering to supplement copper services in one of the Cooperative's exchanges. The telco will implement the SIP-enabled VoIP served by a Metaswitch softswitch and high-speed DSL to its members.http://www.occamnetworks.comhttp://www.enmr.com

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