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

The Wi-Fi Alliance is launching a new certification program for voice-capable Wi-Fi devices in home and small office environments. The first wave of devices has passed certification. The Wi-Fi Alliance estimates that shipments of Wi-Fi/cellular converged phones will number between 250 and 350 million units in 2011. The new Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Voice-Personal program extends beyond interoperability testing to test the performance of products and help...

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RadiSys Adds Speech Capabilities to Convedia Media Server

RadiSys' Convedia media server family now supports automatic speech recognition (ASR), or converting human speech to computer data, and text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities in multiple languages for IP contact center application developers and service providers. The solution integrates standards-based Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) .With the introduction of ASR and TTS support, RadiSys said its media servers can now be used in conjunction with speech servers to deliver a more cost-effective and scalable deployment model. Previously, Convedia...

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BridgeWave Raises $10 Million for Mobile Backhaul Solutions

BridgeWave Communications, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $10 million in Series 4 funding for its gigabit wireless solutions. The funding round was co-led by Intel Capital and a new investor, Core Capital, with participation from prior round venture capital firms Cipio Partners, SDL Ventures, and Merifin Capital.BridgeWave's Gigabit Ethernet wireless technology is aimed at future backhaul transport capacity. BridgeWave utilizes the upper millimeter-wave radio spectrum in the recently-allocated 60-90 GHz range, enabling the...

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NEC to acquire NetCracker for OSS

NEC agreed to acquire NetCracker Technology Corp., a US based software and solutions specializing in Operations Support Systems (OSS). Financial terms were not disclosed. NetCracker's portfolio includes industry solutions focused on specific verticals (such as Triple Play) and pre-integrated product modules. The core modules include Service Inventory, Resource Inventory, Service Provisioning & Activation, Discovery & Reconciliation, Design...

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

Virgin Mobile USA agreed to acquire Helio, the joint venture MVNO between SK Telecom and EarthLink, for limited partnership units equivalent to 13 million shares of Virgin Mobile USA class A common stock, with a value of about $39 million. Both carrier's purchase wholesale capacity on Sprint's PCS network.The deal will give Virgin approximately 170,000 Helio customers with approximately $80 ARPU. Virgin Mobile USA will also gain an established...

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OKI Develops Audience Rating Information System for IPTV

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

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AT&T Relocates its Corporate Headquarters to Dallas

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

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

At the WiMAX Forum Global Congress 2008 held earlier this month in Amsterdam, Huawei Technologies unveiled its fourth generation WiMAX distributed BTS base station."Since starting research on the IEEE802.16 standard in 2000 we now have over 1,200 engineers engaged in WiMAX R&D in China, India, Russia, Sweden, and USA. Under our new WiMAX development concept, Huawei is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and potential growth for its customers," stated Mr. Zhao Ming, Vice...

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J:COM Deploys DOCSIS 3.0 with Cisco

Japan's Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) has begun deployment of the Cisco DPC3000 DOCSIS 3.0 Channel Bonded Cable Modem for use in its J:COM NET Ultra 160M Course broadband service, which offers download speeds of up to 160 Mbps. The Cisco DPC3000, which has received CableLabs DOCSIS 3.0 certification, uses four bonded channels for both the downstream and upstream data, enabling downstream data rates in excess of 160 Mbps and upstream data rates up to 120 Mbps. It is designed to be backward-compatible for use as a single-channel cable modem...

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Court of Appeals Upholds FCC Video Franchise Rules.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled unanimously to support the FCC's local franchising authority rules for new entrants in video services. "Over the last ten years, cable rates have more than doubled. Consumers need greater choice and more competition to help address the soaring price of cable television. This ruling helps ensure that new competitors to cable are not subjected to unreasonable delays, build-out requirements and...

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