Alcatel-Lucent to Market OKI's Mobile WiMAX Terminals

Alcatel-Lucent has agreed to market OKI's mobile WiMAX terminals worldwide. By joining the Open Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) Program, OKI will work with Alcatel-Lucent to share market data enabling both companies to better define, test and introduce features earlier, ensure faster availability of end-to-end solutions and widen the offering of terminals.


The two companies also agreed to collaborate on conducting interoperability tests to obtain WiMAX Forum Certification and focus on offering new devices, developing features and improving overall performance on a wide range of devices, including CF cards to mobile terminals such as PCs, PDAs and UMPCs, data cards like USB dongles, and devices with a WiFi interface.


OKI expects to begin shipping WiMAX compatible products in the second half of this year, in time to coincide with the commercial launch of mobile WiMAX service.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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NewStep Integrates its FMC with Oracle SDP

NewStep Networks has integrated its real-time communications session management capabilities with Oracle Communication and Mobility Server, a component of the Oracle Service Delivery Platform (SDP) and Oracle Fusion Middleware. TNewStep plans to leverage the Oracle SDP, starting with the Oracle Communication and Mobility Server, to deliver its services within deployment architectures for mobile and fixed networks, legacy and IP-based.


NewStep said collaborating with Oracle provides it with the opportunity to include its Converged Services Node (CSN) software in environments where the Oracle SDP is already deployed or being deployed.


NewStep's CSN 3.5 convergence solution integrates with enterprise applications and uses advanced presence capabilities to offer a range of converged communication services, including: single Number, simultaneous and sequential ringing; presence-based routing of calls; optimal call routing; one button transfer; dual mode cellular/WiFi (VCC) handoff; public hotspot roaming, etc.


Oracle Communication and Mobility Server is a carrier-grade application environment for the development, deployment and management of multimedia and real-time communications applications.
http://www.newstep.com

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Packeteer Appoints VP of Marketing

Packeteer named Roy Agostino to the position of vice president of marketing. Previously, Agostino was chief marketing officer at Integrien Corporation, a provider of integrity management solutions. Before Integrien, Agostino served as chief marketing officer at Elemental Security and has held key executive and marketing management positions with Information Builders and Crystal Decisions. Prior to that, Agostino spent 10 years at NIKE. http://www.packeteer.com

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Media Broadcast GmbH Selects Corrigent for Optical Transport

Media Broadcast has selected Corrigent Systems' CM-100 and CM-4000 Carrier Ethernet transport solutions as a main network infrastructure building block for network solutions deployed by Deutsche Telekom's wholesale business unit, and leased to a leading cable operator in Germany. Deployments in Lower Saxony and Bavaria begin this year, and rollout in further regions for the leading cable operator are expected to span over the next years as part of a 15-year agreement. First shipments of the CM-100 have commenced. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Corrigent's CM platforms offer a 10Gbps solution combining Ethernet transport, full support of legacy SONET/SDH capabilities, MPLS and RPR technologies, with end-to-end network management, to allow cost-effective and resilient delivery of video, voice and data multi-play services.http://www.corrigent.com

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Bell Canada Reports Growth in Wireless, Declines in Wireline

Bell Canada reported Q4 2007 operating revenues of $3,815 million, a 1.7% increase compared to Q4 of last year as revenue growth in wireless, video and data more than offset declines in local and access and long distance service revenues. For the full year, Bell's operating revenues grew by 1.4% to $14,743 million.


Bell's EBITDA grew by 5.4% compared to Q4 2006 to $1,333 million due to cost containment, ARPU growth and lower pension costs, leading to an improvement in Bell's EBITDA margin of 1.2 percentage points to 34.9% this quarter.


"This was another quarter of real progress capping off a productive year," said Michael Sabia, Chief Executive Officer of Bell Canada. "We had good earnings and free cash flow growth and with 5.4% EBITDA growth at Bell we had our best improvement since 2004 in operating profitability in the quarter and for the year as a whole."

Some highlights:

• The Bell Wireless segment had 510,000 gross activations this quarter, a 16.7% increase compared to the same period last year and its best ever result. Net activations for the quarter were 195,000, or 8.0% lower than last year due mainly to higher prepaid churn. Wireless network revenues increased by 6.6% and blended ARPU increased by $2 to $55. Wireless EBITDA increased by 5.4%.



• Customer winbacks contributed to a year-over-year improvement in residential line (NAS) losses for both the quarter and for the full year. For business NAS, the anticipated decision by a major wholesale customer to start to move its lines onto its own network contributed to a decrease of 80,000 NAS this quarter.



• Bell invested $765 million of capital this quarter and $2,420 million in 2007 with a continued focus on improving the customer experience and expanding the range of services available to customers through expenditures in areas such as Bell's high-speed Evolution, Data Optimized (EVDO) wireless network and Fibre-to-the-node (FTTN).



• At year end, Bell's high-speed EVDO Rev A network covered approximately 75% of the Canadian population and Bell had deployed 4,828 neighborhood nodes through its FTTN program.



• Bell Wireline operating revenues decreased by 0.7% to $2,727 million this quarter as gains in video and data revenues were offset by decreases in local and access, long distance and equipment and other revenues.



• Long distance revenues declined by 6.3% to $296 million this quarter due to ongoing NAS erosion and substitution related impacts. This quarter's rate of revenue decline is a significant improvement over the 12.0% decline experienced in Q4 2006. This was the eighth consecutive quarter of improved rates of long distance revenue erosion.



• Data revenues increased 1.6% to $976 million this quarter due to growth in Internet revenues and higher IP Broadband revenues partly offset by the further erosion of legacy data services.



• High-speed Internet subscribers grew by 6.8% compared to last year with 29,000 net activations in the quarter.



• Video revenues increased by 17.8% to $351 million this quarter due largely to an ARPU increase of $9 to $64.



• Total Bell Wireless operating revenues grew 8.4% to $1,101 million due to a larger subscriber base, higher ARPU and stronger equipment sales. Wireless network revenues increased by 6.6% to $973 million.



• Blended Wireless ARPU increased by $2 to $55 reflecting a $1 increase in postpaid ARPU to $67 and a $3 increase in prepaid ARPU to $18.



• Total gross activations were 510,000 this quarter, a 16.7% increase from last year.



• Blended churn of 1.7% was 0.4 percentage points higher than Q4 of 2006 reflecting an increase in postpaid churn of 0.3 percentage points to 1.4% due to the competitive intensity of the marketplace. Prepaid churn of 2.7% increased by 0.9 percentage points from the unusually low level of 1.8% experienced in Q4 2006.



• Total net activations were 195,000 this quarter, or 8.0% lower than last year. Postpaid net additions grew by 18.5% to 77,000 but were more than offset by a 19.7% decline in prepaid net additions caused by higher churn.



• The Bell Wireless client base reached 6,216,000, up 4.4% from the previous year.

http://www.bce.ca

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Extreme Networks Completes JITC Testing

Extreme Networks' Ethernet switching products have completed and passed the Department of Defense's (DOD) Joint Interoperability Test Command VoIP Assurance testing for Assured Services Voice Application Local Area Network (ASVALAN) and these products are now certified to be interoperable to operate in DOD VoIP networks.


The JITC certification, validating functionality of attributes such as jitter, delay and packet loss, is required for all products that support voice, data or video communications connecting to the Defense Switched Network. Extreme Networks products, including the BlackDiamond 10K, BlackDiamond 12K, BlackDiamond 8800 and Summit X450 switches have passed the rigorous evaluation covering the performance, features and availability needed for government networks.http://www.extremenetworks.com/

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NETGEAR Shows Femtocell Residential Gateway

NETGEAR announced the availability of its first Femtocell Voice Gateway (DVG834GH) -- a single-box solution that includes a residential gateway with integrated ADSL2+ modem, router, 10/100 wired LAN switch, 802.11g wireless access point, VoIP, SPI double firewall, and 3G UTMS femtocell technology with HSDPA from Ubiquisys Ltd.


The NETGEAR Femtocell Voice Gateway (DVG834GH)plugs into an ADSL line and enables consumers to share their broadband connection to the Internet with all of their mobile devices and networked computers, both wired and wirelessly.


Evaluation units are available now for operator testing, with commercial availability expected during the first half of 2008.


NETGEAR has integrated the Ubiquisys ZoneGate module into the Femtocell Voice Gateway, which is a plug-and-play 3G access point that uses a mobile subscriber's broadband connection to transport voice and data calls to the core network using a range of standards-based interfaces. The unit has a double firewall (NAT + SPI) while the VPN pass-through allows safe connections to business networks from a home or office. The unit also supports TR-069 Remote Management and can also support the future addition of such advanced features as IGMP Multimedia Support.http://www.netgear.comhttp://www.ubiquisys.com/

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Ericsson's U500 Mobile Platform Targets Consumer Markets

Ericsson announced its U500 mobile platform aimed at a new wave of consumer mobile services. Designed for mass market mobile devices, the U500 is capable of features such as high quality camcorder (MPEG4, H.264 D1@30fps), 12 Mpix camera, WVGA displays, advanced 3D gaming and 3D user interface, CD quality audio performance and high resolution mobile TV ((MBMS phase 2, DVB-H, Unicast).


Connectivity options include WLAN 802.11, wireless USB(UWB) and high speed USB. The U500 supports quad-band WCDMA radio, 7.2/5.76Mbps HSPA broadband capabilities, a security solution as well as highly optimized power consumption.


The Ericsson U500 mobile platform derives its processing power from three ARM11 CPUs and hardware accelerators, with state-of-the-art platform architecture through the integration of the digital baseband and an advanced multimedia companion chip into a single-die processor.


The advanced graphics capabilities available in the U500 are enabled through the implementation of ARM Mali200 GPU, a programmable, OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics processor producing fast, high quality graphics with the low power consumption required for a handheld device.


Ericsson said the U500 will be commercially available in the first half of 2009.http://www.ericsson.com

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Fujitsu Launches "BroadOne" Mobile WiMAX Base Station

Fujitsu Network Communications introduced its "BroadOne" WX series of mobile WiMAX base stations designed for rapid installation and high-power output and global spectrum requirements. Fujitsu said its new base stations are designed to consume low levels of power while being small and light enough to be carried by a single technician during installation. This allows mobile WiMAX service providers to build and operate their wireless broadband infrastructure at a lower cost.


Fujitsu plans to provide three base station models designed for the 2.5 GHz and 2.3 GHz frequency bands.


The first model is the BroadOne WX300 outdoor macrocell base station which is configured as a single, lightweight unit and is designed for wide-area transmission over a radius of almost two miles. The unit's high-output amplifier uses a gallium-nitride (GaN) High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) device that was developed based on Fujitsu's ultra-high-speed transistor technology. This device is coupled with Fujitsu digital pre-distortion technology, which is currently used in 3G systems, to create two high-output power transceivers packaged in a single unit. Fujitsu said its use of advanced amplifier technology allows the base station to weigh approximately 40 pounds, enabling tower, pole or building top installation by a single person. The unit accepts AC or -48 VDC power input with either optical or copper Ethernet network connectivity.


The second model, a compact outdoor microcell base station, is designed for transmission over a nearly 1,000 foot radius to fill in areas with a lower concentration of users and remote areas with poor coverage.


The third model is an indoor, ultra-compact picocell base station. All base stations will support Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology operating in both Matrix A and B to improve system performance. With these models, Fujitsu will provide mobile broadband solutions for all types of environments and needs.


Fujitsu Network Life Cycle Services are available to help network operators with RF engineering, site acquisition and site preparation. When network operators are ready to build their network, Fujitsu offers a full line of deployment services, which include installation and test/turn-up services, as well as backhaul and back-office connectivity provisioning. Carriers can also opt to have Fujitsu monitor and maintain their wireless network with Network Operations Center (NOC) services and provide network statistics so operators can have full visibility to the inner workings of their network. Full maintenance and support is also available 24x7, with rapid deployment of on-site technical assistance personnel and spares management as needed.http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/telecom/categ/wirelesstransport

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Juniper Names Michele Goins as Chief Information Officer

Juniper Networks announced the appointment of Michele Goins to the position of chief information officer (CIO). Ms. Goins joins Juniper from Hewlett-Packard, where she served in a number of executive positions during her 25 year tenure. Most recently, she was vice president and CIO for Hewlett-Packard's Imaging and Printing Group (IPG).http://www.juniper.net

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Cisco Posts Revenue of $9.8 Billion, Cautious Outlook

Cisco reported quarterly net sales of $9.8 billion, net income (GAAP) of $2.1 billion or $0.33 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.4 billion or $0.38 per share for its second fiscal quarter ended 26-Jan-2008. This compares with $8.4 billion in net sales a year earlier, an increase of 16.5%. However, citing a slow-down of sales in January and uncertainty in overall economy, Cisco issued a more cautious outlook for the upcoming quarter.




"Cisco delivered another solid quarter with strong revenue and order growth driven by a broad base of geographies, products, services and customer markets. Cisco's ability to understand market transitions, whether technology or business model-based, continues to be a key contributing factor to our long-term success." said John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco.

In a conference call, Cisco said that orders slowed in December and January, when the company missed its own internal forecasts. However, Chambers said he did not expect the slowdown to deteriorate further and remains personally optimistic that any downturn would last only a few months.


As for financial guidance, Cisco said it expects 10% revenue growth in Q3 with 65% gross margins. Due to the uncertain business environment at the moment, the company said it could not provide Q4 guidance at this time.


Some highlights from the quarter:

• Growth in Routing revenue (18% y/y) outpaced growth in Switching revenue (11% y/y).



• Sales in Emerging Markets were particularly strong.



• Unified Communications (including WebEx) revenue was up 60% y/y



• Storage revenue was up 30% y/y



• Wireless revenue was up 10% y/y



• Networked home revenue was down 5% y/y



• Security revenue was up 12% y/y
  
  
• U.S. Service Provider revenues were up 13% y/y



• Asia Pacific order growth was 23% y/y



• European order growth was up 8% y/y



• Cisco's headcount at the end of the quarter was 64,087,up from 54,563 a year earlier

http://www.cisco.com

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AT&T Expands 3G Rollout to Additional 80 Cities

AT&T will expand the deployment of its 3G service to more than 80 additional cities in the U.S. during 2008. This will make the AT&T 3G service available in nearly 350 U.S. markets by the end of 2008, including all of the top 100 U.S. cities. The 3G initiative will include the roll out of more than 1,500 additional cell sites nationwide.


Other plans for the new year include completion of the nation's first High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)-enabled network by the middle of the year. The AT&T 3G network now delivers typical downlink speeds ranging between 600 and 1,400 Kbps, as well as faster uplink speeds, ranging from 500 and 800 Kbps. The faster uplink speeds allow AT&T's HSUPA-enabled laptop users to more quickly send large files and take full advantage of the latest interactive Internet and business applications.


AT&T said the deployment of HSUPA this year is the next step in its network evolution. A further evolution toward HSPA+ and LTE technologies is expected in the years to come.http://www.att.com

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