NETGEAR Delivers Dual-Band 802.11n Wireless Access Point for SMBs

NETGEAR introduced its ProSafe 802.11n Dual Band Wireless Access Point (WNDAP330), a dual-band wireless solution for SMBs that provides the ability to support existing legacy 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11a devices.


The NETGEAR ProSafe 802.11n Dual Band Wireless Access Point (WNDAP330), which delivers up to 10 times the coverage and 15 times the speed of 802.11g-based networks, supports devices based upon the 5GHz 802.11a and 802.11n (draft 2.0 specification), or 2.4GHz 802.11b/g and 802.11n (draft 2.0 specification) technologies. The SNMP-manageable WNDAP330 incorporates 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) support and offers support for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint bridging with Wireless Distribution System (WDS). The feature set includes WPA, WPA2, rogue AP detection, and 802.1x with RADIUS support.


The list price is $475.
http://www.netgear.com

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Hanaro Reaches 900,000 IPTV Subscribers

South Korea's hanarotelecom posted revenues of KRW 493 billion for the first quarter of 2008, a 9.3% increase year-on-year and a 0.9% increase quarter-on-quarter. Hanaro posted operating income of KRW 10.0 billion, net loss of KRW 6.7 billion and EBITDA of KRW 129.3 billion for the first quarter of 2008.


As for hanaTV, Hanaro posted quarterly revenue of KRW 21.3 billion and recently reached 900,000 subscribers on a cumulative basis, strengthening the position as a leading player in IPTV. Furthermore, the company said it acquired 1.83 million subscribers for its 100 Mbps broadband services as of the end of March 2008, accounting for over 50% of its total subscribers.http://www.hanaro.com

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EMBARQ Deploys Ciena's CN 4200 FlexSelect

Embarq has selected Ciena's CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform for deployment throughout its network. The solution will support the aggregation and transport of a variety of residential and business services. Financial terms were not disclosed.


EMBARQ is installing the Ciena CN 4200 platform across its service territories. Currently, more than 100 nodes have been deployed.
http://www.ciena.com

• In January 2008, Ciena announced new G10 and G10X Ethernet Service Modules that deliver Layer 2 Ethernet aggregation, switching and transport capabilities on to the company's CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform family. Targeted applications for the CN 4200 with new Layer 2 Ethernet aggregation and switching capabilities include Metro Ethernet Forum-based Carrier Ethernet services, broadband aggregation for triple play and IPTV services and 3G wireless backhaul.
  
  
  Ciena's CN 4200 is a WDM transport platform that offers on-demand programmability and support for any service. The CN 4200 platform allows network operators to groom, switch, and transpond a diverse range of client services, such as OC-3/12/48 and STM-1/4/16, GbE, Fibre Channel, FICON, and ESCON into higher-speed 2.7 Gbps (OTU-1), 10.7 Gbps (OTU-2), and 43 Gbps (OTU-3) transport streams. In addition, an "RS" chassis can function as a multi-degree Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (ROADM).
  

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NTT DOCOMO to Merge with Regional Subsidiaries

NTT DOCOMO announced an agreement to merge its eight wholly owned subsidiaries into a single operating company. The simplified corporate structure is expected to yield better customer service and faster decision making.http://www.nttdocomo.com

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IP-PRIME Adds NFL Network to its IPTV Outsourced Service

IP-PRIME, which offers a turnkey IPTV solution for telecom carriers and cable operators, has added the NFL Network to its sports programming lineup. The agreement adds NFL Network's 24-hour suite of football programming to telecom carriers using SES AMERICOM's IP-PRIME IPTV service.http://www.ip-prime.tv

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Mformation Extends Mobile Device Mgt to WiMAX Networks

Mformation Technologies, which supplies mobile device management (MDM) software to mobile operators worldwide, has extended its product portfolio for new WiMAX-capable devices. The goal is to remotely activate, configure, diagnose, update, secure and manage WiMAX-capable devices through all phases of their life cycle.


Mformation's MDM technology is currently being used to support over 100 million devices on some the leading mobile networks worldwide.


Mformation said the user requirements for device management will be much the same regardless of whether they are connected to an all-IP WiMAX network or a cellular network (including CDMA, CDMA 2000, GSM, GPRS, UMTS, WCDMA, HSPA). Regardless of what network their subscribers are using at any given point in time, service providers still need to configure services, remotely activate users, get a real-time view of devices, distribute and update applications and firmware, secure devices and data, and monitor service availability and performance.

Specific enhancements to the MFORMATION SERVICE MANAGER platform to support WiMAX and the seamless management of devices across next-generation networks include:

• Enablement of device-server interaction over all IP-based networks, supporting functionality such as IP address lookup, IP push notification and secured IP device bootstrapping


• Consistent management of devices across next-generation networks--from activation/deactivation to security features such as lock and wipe


• The ability to pull a real-time image of the device over both WiMAX and the wide area network, underpinned by the OMA DM protocol


• Application and firmware management over both WiMAX and the wide area network, underpinned by the OMA DM protocol.

The technology leverages via all-IP versions of the OMA DM protocol. Device addressing is based on MAC address.


Mformation is commercially deploying MFORMATION SERVICE MANAGER for WiMAX to a number of customers, to provide seamless all-IP device management and remote activation capabilities.http://www.mformation.com/

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Ericsson Beats Estimates in Q1, Professional Services Grows 8%

Ericsson posted Q1 2008 net sales of SEK 44.2 billion, up 5% over last year, and net income of SEK 2.6 billion, down 55% year over year. The company reported steady demand for mobile infrastructure, especially in high-growth markets, sayings sales are picking up in the US while Western Europe remains slow. The proportion of new network builds in high-growth markets, especially in India, is increasing. A weaker USD put pressure on margins.


"The rollout of mobile broadband continues throughout the world. HSPA will be the dominant standard for many years and is now an effective alternative to fixed broadband. Mobile broadband will play a significant role in bridging the digital divide. Furthermore, it is encouraging that LTE, the evolution of HSPA, is supported by the largest operators around the world. We are investing significantly in this technology to secure leadership also in this area," said Carl-Henric Svanberg, Ericsson's CEO.


Some highlights by the company's divisions:

• Networks -- Sales in Networks grew by 2% year-over-year despite a negative impact from the USD decline. The sales increase was driven by increased sales of GSM in high-growth markets, especially in China and India. The demand for GSM remains healthy and the business activity is increasing, particularly in India and China. 3G rollouts are ongoing throughout the world, including major rollouts in Russia and Latin America. The largest proportion of R&D investments in Networks is spent on WCDMA and an increasing part on LTE. Several major operators have announced plans to upgrade their networks to 14.4 Mbps and Ericsson will introduce 21 Mbps during the second half of the year. Redback has significantly increased its sales outside the US through leveraging Ericsson's global sales organization. Since the acquisition, Ericsson has signed agreements for the delivery of Redback-based solutions with more than 100 carriers in over 65 countries.



• Professional Services -- Sales in Professional Services grew by 8% year-over-year with a growth in constant currencies of 10%. As expected, managed services sales decreased sequentially with the reduced scope of the 3 UK contract announced in the fourth quarter 2007 but increased 20% year-over-year.



• Multimedia
--Sales growth amounted to 16% year-over-year, largely driven by acquisitions. The business activity has been high in the quarter with important reference contracts in IPTV as well as increased traction in Tandberg Television.


Sales and operating income for mobile platforms were negatively affected by approximately SEK 0.3 b. in the quarter following Sony Ericsson's lower sales in the first quarter.

http://www.ericsson.com

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BLADE Unveils Data Center Switch Priced at Under $500 per 10Gig E Port

BLADE Network Technologies is unveiling a "top-of-rack" data center-class switch featuring network virtualization capabilities and priced at under $500 per 10 Gigabit Ethernet port.
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BLADE's RackSwitch G8100, a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 24 lossless, low-latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GE) ports, is designed for emerging high-volume 10 GE application environments, high-performance clusters that require latency of 300 nanoseconds or less and/or as a 10 GE aggregation switch. BLADE's RackSwitch G8000, a 1U top-of-rack switch equipped with 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports for uplinks and/or stacking, is designed for rack-level server connectivity, Web 2.0 cloud clusters and/or as a Gigabit aggregation switch.


BLADE said its RackSwitch provides energy-efficient operations with server-rack compatible front-to-back airflow, lower power consumption than conventional switches and streamlined cabling. BLADE will also demonstrate how RackSwitch and BLADE's embedded blade server switches support the "loss-less" I/O required to carry Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) storage traffic across Ethernet networks based on the emerging standards for Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE).


In addition, BLADE's SmartConnect software enables multiple RackSwitches and/or BLADE's existing embedded blade server switches to operate as one large virtual switch. BLADE's Server Mobility capability allows server blades to be added, removed or replaced without the need of any address re-assignment -- reducing the coordination normally required between server and network administrators.


The RackSwitch G8000 is priced starting at $5,495. RackSwitch G8100 is priced starting at $11,950 ¬-- under $500 per 10 Gigabit Ethernet port.http://www.bladenetwork.net

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AT&T and Starbucks Begin Nationwide Wi-Fi Rollout

AT&T has started the rollout of its Wi-Fi service in Starbucks cafes across the U.S. As of May 1, qualifying AT&T high speed Internet and Wi-Fi customers will have complimentary Wi-Fi access at more than 7,000 Starbucks locations nationwide as they become available. AT&T customers can connect to the Internet from Wi-Fi enabled company-operated Starbucks locations nationwide by selecting "ATTWiFi" after powering up their computers.


T-Mobile had previously been the Wi-Fi provider for Starbucks.

http://www.att.comhttp://www.starbucks.com

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White House Blackberrys Stolen

Fox News reported a national security incident involving the possible theft or misplacement of six or seven Blackberrys belonging to White House staffers. The devices reportedly were stolen or mistakenly taken during the summit meeting held between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. last week. The Blackberrys apparently had been left on a table outside of one of the meeting rooms so as not be a distraction for the participants. The Secret Service later recovered the devices.http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Apr25/0,4670,MexicoUSBlackBerryScandal,00.html

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