Bookham Supplies Full-Band Tunable Pluggable Transceiver to Ciena

Bookham has begun shipping its TL8000 full-band tunable pluggable transceiver to Ciena.


Ciena plans to use this 10 Gbps module across its high-end switching and transmission systems including its CoreDirector Multiservice Switch, CoreStream Agility Optical Transport System and CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform for both core and metro network applications.


The LambdaFLEX TL8000 module utilizes fully Telcordia qualified Bookham components, including the Bookham tunable transmitter with indium phosphide Mach Zehnder (InP MZ) modulator and DSDBR wideband tunable laser. The TL8000 also includes the Bookham 10 Gbps Avalanche Photo Diode (APD) Receiver combined with cutting edge electronic dispersion compensation (EDC), which provides enhanced performance in low OSNR environments, and makes the product suitable for use across both long haul and metro links.http://www.bookham.com

Read More

Verizon Business Consolidates Global Billing for Customers

Verizon Business has begun providing a Global Billing Report for its multinational customers, proving a more convenient way to view, monitor and analyze their expenses. The report is available through the Verizon Enterprise Center (VEC), to view worldwide communications expenses online in both the original billed currency and another currency selected by the customer.
http://www.verizon.com

Read More

Verizon Inks Content Deal with NBC Universal

Verizon and NBC Universal have reached a content agreement that includes NBC Universal's coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on all three Verizon platforms - TV, broadband and wireless. The content ranges from schedules and medal standings to news, photos and highlights. Also, in addition to Verizon's current carriage of NBC HD and Universal HD, Verizon will launch an high-definition (HD) offering with the addition of four new HD networks: Bravo HD, CNBC+ HD, USA Network HD and SCI FI HD. FiOS TV customers will see these four HD channels launch during the next few months, region by region. http://www.verizon.com

Read More

GSM Tests Voice Calls based on the SIP-I Protocol

The GSM Association (GSMA), which represents the world's 750 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries, has completed trials of voice calls based on the SIP-I protocol between core networks supplied by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.


SIP-I, or the Session Initiation Protocol with encapsulated ISUP, is a protocol used to create, modify, and terminate communication sessions based on ISUP using SIP and IP networks. Services using SIP-I include voice, video telephony, fax and data. In this trial, SIP-I was used to control the transmission of voice calls from a conventional circuit-switched mobile network on to a IP-based backbone network and then back onto a conventional circuit-switched mobile network.


The SIP-I trials, which were hosted by TeliaSonera in their Finnish and Swedish laboratories, form part of the GSMA's IPX initiative to develop a private global Internet Protocol (IP) backbone designed specifically to provide guaranteed levels of quality of service and security to customers of mobile operators and other service providers.



The GSMA recommends that mobile operators adopt SIP-I, which is widely used by fixed network operators and transit networks, to control the transmission of packet-based voice between mobile networks. Using SIP-I will typically involve less transcoding and provide a higher-quality of service than other protocols, while making it easier for mobile operators to achieve end-to-end call control and upgrade their networks in future.


"SIP-I is the protocol of choice for mobile and fixed operators alike and is an important element of the GSMA's strategy to help mobile operators migrate their networks to IP," said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer of the GSMA. "With the help of Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and TeliaSonera, we have demonstrated that SIP-I can work well across networks supplied by different vendors."


The GSMA trials were the first to test the SIP-I interoperability of Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson mobile softswitches, which connect calls from one device to another. The GSMA plans to conduct further trials to advance the level of inter-operability of SIP-I.http://www.gsm.org

Read More

Nokia Siemens Networks Revenues Rise 18% to EUR 4.1 billion

Nokia reported Q2 net sales of EUR 13.2 billion, up 4% year on year and up 4 % sequentially (up 11% and 7% at constant currency). The company's diluted EPS came in at EUR 0.36, up 13% year on year, excluding special items. Nokia operating margin was 14.7%, up from 11.1% in Q2 2007 and flat sequentially, excluding special items.


Nokia estimates that the number of mobile device shipped across the entire industry in Q2 reached 303 million units, up 15% year on year and up 3% sequentially. Nokia mobile device volumes reached 122 million units in the quarter, up 21% year on year and up 6% sequentially. Mobile device shipments are expected to rise in Q3. Nokia now expects industry mobile device volumes in 2008 to grow 10% or more from the approximately 1.14 billion units Nokia estimated for 2007. This is an update to Nokia's earlier estimation that industry mobile device volumes would grow approximately 10% in 2008.

Some highlights from the quarter:

• Devices & Services net sales totaled EUR 9.1 billion, down 1% year on year and down 2% sequentially (up 6% and 1% at constant currency). Devices & Services operating margin was 20.1%, up from 19.4% in Q2 2007 and down sequentially from 21.2%, excluding special items.




• Nokia Siemens Networks net sales were EUR 4.1 billion, up 18% year on year and up 20% sequentially (up 26% and 23% at constant currency). Nokia Siemens Networks operating margin was 3.8%, excluding special items, and 6.7%, excluding special items and purchase price accounting related items arising from the formation of Nokia Siemens Networks.
  
  
  Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks continue to expect the mobile infrastructure and fixed infrastructure and related services market to be flat in Euro terms in 2008, compared to 2007.



• Services and software net sales of EUR 119 million, up 42% sequentially.
  
  
• Nokia's second quarter 2008 reported operating profit decreased 38% to EUR 1.5 billion (including the EUR 460 million negative impact of special items), compared with EUR 2.4 billion in the second quarter 2007 (including the EUR 966 million net positive impact of special items).



• Nokia operating cash flow of EUR 1.5 billion.

http://www.nokia.com

Read More

Southeast Alaska Gets Undersea Fiber Cable

GCI, the largest telecommunications company in Alaska, has begun laying a new undersea fiber cable in south eastern Alaska. For residents in Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Angoon and Sitka this means high-speed connections for Internet, phone and video. These communities are currently served through microwave and satellite networks. The $33 million project will connect five more communities to the Alaska United West line that currently connects Alaska to the Lower 48. GCI expects the project to be complete by November.http://www.gci.com/

Read More

Juniper Marks 10th Anniversary of JUNOS Software

Juniper Networks marked the 10th anniversary of its JUNOS software. The company noted that it has consistently designed, developed and delivered new releases of JUNOS software on a time-tested quarterly release cycle to address the evolving high-performance networking requirements of more than 30,000 service provider, enterprise and public sector customers around the world. http://www.juniper.com

Read More

PMC-Sierra's Q2 Revenue Rises 12% Sequentially, 34% YoY

PMC-Sierra reported Q2 revenue of $139.8 million, an increase of 33.6% compared with the second quarter of 2007 and 11.8% higher than the $125.0 million in the first quarter of 2008. Net income in the second quarter of 2008 on a GAAP basis was $137.2 million (GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.61) compared with a GAAP net loss in the first quarter of 2008 of $22.7 million (GAAP basic and diluted loss per share of $0.10). Non-GAAP net income in the second quarter of 2008 was $29.7 million (non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.13) compared with non-GAAP net income of $23.5 million (non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.11) in the first quarter of 2008.


Non-GAAP net income in the second quarter of 2008 excludes $124.3 million related to an adjustment to the accrual for unrecognized tax benefits. During the second quarter, the company reached a settlement on several ongoing foreign tax matters related to prior years for amounts less than had been accrued as unrecognized tax benefits.


"In the second quarter, we experienced strong demand for our fiber to the home products in Asia as well as growth in our wireline infrastructure products," said Greg Lang, president and chief executive officer of PMC-Sierra. "We are very focused on product execution in the second half of the year to further penetrate the enterprise storage and communications markets."http://www.pmc-sierra.com

Read More

One Minute Video: What is Unified Communications?

One Minute Video presented by Tom Flanagan, Texas Instruments -- What is UC?


Jargon Buster

Read More