07/27/08 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Chile's GTD Selects Alcatel-Lucent for GPON in Santiago

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Last Mille

Chile's Gtd Group will begin deploying a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) GPON network in in Santiago's prestigious Santa Mar�a de Manquehue district, with other neighborhoods of Chile's capital city following shortly after. Gtd Manquehue will deploy the Alcatel-Lucent 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-User (ISAM FTTU) and the Alcatel-Lucent 5520 Access Management System for element management. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"We selected GPON technology so we can offer our customers unlimited triple play and advanced business services backed with a richer quality of experience, which we think will better serve our residential and business customers and give us a competitive advantage in this market", said Alberto Dom�nguez, General Manager of Gtd Manquehue. "Alcatel-Lucent's worldwide leadership in broadband and their experienced local services teams will help Gtd Manquehue successfully deploy this new fiber infrastructure, the first of its kind in Chile ".http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/http://www.grupogtd.com

Celeno Raises $16 Million for WiFi Silicon

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Start-ups

Celeno Communications, a start-up based in Israel, raised $16 million in Series C funding for its semiconductors for multimedia WiFi home networking applications.

Celeno's high-performance, standards-based WiFi System on a Chip enables robust, whole-home multimedia and entertainment distribution over wireless home networks. Celeno said its unique technology boosts standard WiFi performance, achieving improvements of up to 10 times the range and as much as twice the throughput of 802.11n draft 2.0 solutions. Celeno's system-on-a-chip (SoC) leverages Beam Forming MIMO and "Channel Aware" technologies, enabling interference-free, HD-quality video throughout the entire home.

The funding was led by Cisco. Miven Venture Partners and the company's previous investors, Greylock Partners and Pitango Venture Capital, also participated in the oversubscribed round. Total investment in the three-year old company now exceeds $30 million.http://www.celeno.com

XO Holdings Secures $780 Million in Financing

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Financial

XO Holdings has raised $780 million through the issuance of two new series of preferred stock in order to retire senior debt, fund future growth initiatives and provide ongoing working capital for the business. XO Holdings is the parent company of XO Communications and Nextlink.

As a result of this fundraising, all the company's indebtedness for borrowed money, amounting to approximately $395 million under its Senior Secured Credit Facility as well as approximately $78 million under its $75 Million Senior Note issued in March 2008 (both figures inclusive of accumulated interest), has been retired in full. The remaining $307 million of proceeds, plus any proceeds from shares purchased by minority stockholders and reduced for transactional expenses, will be used to fund the company's long-term strategic growth plan which will accelerate revenue growth and improve operational efficiencies, as well as provide working capital for its businesses. http://www.xo.com

Alcatel-Lucent and Airvana to Develop CDMA IMS-Femtocell

Sunday, July 27, 2008 BroadbandWireless

Airvana and Alcatel-Lucent are collaborating on an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) femtocell for CDMA/EV-DO network operators. Femtocells are cellular access points that use a subscriber's existing broadband connection to provide enhanced voice, video and data services, especially in the home, using existing mobile devices.

Under a new development agreement, Airvana will enhance its femtocell offerings with new interfaces to enable smooth integration with Alcatel-Lucent's IMS core. This agreement builds on demonstrations of combined, femto-based, in-building solutions by Alcatel-Lucent and Airvana at the CTIA Wireless 2008 trade show and exhibition in Las Vegas earlier this year.

The combined solution -- which integrates IMS core network elements from Alcatel-Lucent with Airvana's HubBub femtocell access point -- can support seamless inter-working between the CDMA macro network and the IMS-supported femtocells, and will help minimize any impact on the existing network in terms of performance, complexity and the costs associated with managing the network.http://www.airvana.comhttp://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Atheros Posts 13th Consecutive Quarter of Revenue Growth

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Financial

Atheros Communications reported Q2 revenue of $121.5 million, compared with $114.5 million reported in the first quarter of 2008 and $100.8 million reported in the second quarter of 2007. GAAP net income was $10.1 million or $0.16 per diluted share. This compares with GAAP net income of $3.4 million or $0.06 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2008. GAAP net income in the second quarter of 2007 was $9.3 million or $0.16 per diluted share. Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $276.6 million at June 30, 2008, up $21.1 million from the prior quarter.

"We are pleased to report another very strong quarter, our 13th consecutive quarter of revenue growth," said Craig Barratt, president and CEO. "We experienced broad-based growth across our PC OEM, Networking and Consumer channels and continued growth of our Ethernet and Mobile WLAN product revenues. Revenue from our 11n products grew more than 50 percent sequentially, while our 11g products continued to be a significant contributor to our overall results," Dr. Barratt said.http://www.atheros.com

Motorola to Acquire AirDefense for Wireless LAN Security

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Wi-Fi

Motorola agreed to acquire privately held AirDefense, which specializes in WLAN security, for an undisclosed sum.

AirDefense, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, develops Wireless Intrusion Prevention Solutions (WIPS) and premium software applications. The solutions enable corporations to secure their networks against wireless security threats and comply with regulatory and industry standards. AirDefense capabilities include rogue wireless detection, policy enforcement and intrusion prevention, both inside and outside an organization's physical locations and wired networks. The company claims nearly 800 government agencies and blue chip customers.

"WIPS solutions have gained significant traction as Wireless LANs have become pervasive in industries from the federal government to financial services," said Sujai Hajela, vice president and general manager, Motorola Enterprise Wireless LAN division. "Industry compliance requirements such as Payment Card Industry Data Security (PCI DSS) and heightened security awareness have fueled the need for comprehensive compliance, enforcement, forensics and reporting, which is offered by AirDefense solutions. This transaction is a tremendous opportunity for Motorola to enhance its WLAN portfolio by utilizing AirDefense's relationships and further integrating WIPS security solutions into our WLAN infrastructure offering. Together, we are a leader in helping businesses truly realize the vision of a secure and reliable all-wireless enterprise."http://www.motorola.comhttp://www.airdefense.com

Reliance Globalcom Upgrades Metros with Juniper MX-Series

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Packet Systems

Reliance Globalcom is upgrading its metro networks in the U.S. with Juniper's MX-series Ethernet Services Routers and M120 Multiservice Edge Routers to support 10 GbE services. Specifically, Reliance Globalcom is deploying the Juniper Networks MX-series Ethernet Services Routers with its Managed Metro Ethernet service to seamlessly link multiple enterprise LANs within a single metro over Ethernet-based metropolitan fiber networks. The MX-series delivers up to 960 Gbps of switching and routing capacity to Reliance Globalcom's network. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The upgrade extends MPLS and Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) to the network edge, improving network performance and ensuring scalability to address forthcoming demands for additional capacity.

Reliance Globalcom has been using Juniper gear as a key part of its core network in all international PoPs. The new Juniper equipment will be integrated into the existing Juniper-based global Ethernet VPLS platform. The network is capable of scaling to support VoIP, high-definition video conferencing, backup and recovery, electronic trading and other multi-media business applications. The new network also ensures carrier-class service reliability, which is essential to enterprise and financial services customers.

1. About Reliance Globalcom

2. Synergy of recent
international acquisitions

3. Market presence and service
offering

4. Network architecture

5. Expansion strategy, $2 billion
network upgrade and key technology partners

6. Bandwidth pricing trends per
region

http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.relianceglobalcom.com

Verizon Sees Strength in Wireless, DSL Declines as FiOS Grows

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Service Providers

Verizon Communications reported total operating revenues of $24.1 billion in the second quarter 2008. This is a 3.7 percent increase compared with the second quarter 2007, or an increase of 4.9 percent when adjusted for the spin-off of the Wireline segment's non-strategic local exchange and related business assets in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont (non-GAAP). Total operating expenses increased 2.4 percent to $19.6 billion, comparing second quarter 2008 with second quarter 2007. Verizon reported 66 cents in diluted earnings per share (EPS) in the second quarter 2008, compared with 58 cents per share in the second quarter 2007.

At the end of Q2, Verizon's total debt was $43.1 billion, compared with $35.8 billion at the end of the first quarter 2008. In the second quarter, the company made final payments of approximately $8.5 billion for licenses won in the Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz spectrum auction and purchased $4.8 billion of Alltel Corp. debt in connection with the pending acquisition of Alltel.

Some highlights for the quarter:

Wireless

Verizon Wireless reported 1.5 million total net customer additions, essentially all were retail post-paid. Retail gross customer additions were up 3.2 percent over the prior year.

Total churn was down year over year at 1.12 percent, a record low for the company. Among the company's retail post-paid customers, churn was even lower at 0.83 percent, also a record low.

Wireless continued its double-digit revenue growth, with total revenues of $12.1 billion, up 11.8 percent year over year. Service revenues were $10.5 billion, up 11.6 percent year over year, driven by customer growth and demand for data services. ARPU levels (average monthly revenue per customer) increased year over year for the ninth consecutive quarter. Total service ARPU of $51.53 was up 0.9 percent year over year driven by total data ARPU, which was up 31.3 percent.

Verizon Wireless' data revenues grew 45.3 percent over the prior year, contributing nearly $2.6 billion. The company had 49.6 million retail data customers in June (approximately three-quarters of its retail customer base), a 25.6 percent increase over the prior year.

Wireline

Verizon Wireline expanded penetration of FiOS services. Sales penetration rates (percentage of potential customers who buy the service) increased for both FiOS Internet (available for sale to nearly 8.4 million premises) and FiOS TV (available for sale to 7.0 million premises).

Verizon's FTTP network, which delivers FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services, passed 11.0 million and 9.6 million premises, respectively, throughout the company's entire service territory by the end of the quarter.

FiOS Internet penetration averaged 23.5 percent across all markets, up from 18.7 percent in last year's second quarter. FiOS TV penetration averaged 19.7 percent across all markets, up from 13.3 percent.

Verizon added 176,000 net new FiOS TV customers, for a total of nearly 1.4 million FiOS TV customers as of the end of the quarter.

Verizon added 187,000 net new FiOS Internet customers. The company had nearly 2 million FiOS Internet customers at the end of the quarter, nearly doubling the number of FiOS Internet customers since the end of second quarter 2007. Verizon added its 2 millionth FiOS Internet customer earlier this month.

Total broadband connections were 8.3 million, a net increase of 54,000 over the first quarter 2008. This includes a decrease of 133,000 DSL-based Verizon High Speed Internet connections, which was more than offset by the increase in FiOS Internet customers. The 8.3 million is an 11.5 percent year-over year increase, excluding broadband connections in 2007 in the three New England states that have since been spun off.

Wireline data revenues -- which now represent 41.8 percent of total wireline revenues -- were $5.1 billion, an increase of 16.1 percent compared with the second quarter 2007. This includes revenues from consumer broadband services, wholesale data transport and Verizon Business data services.

Broadband and video revenues from consumer customers totaled more than $1.0 billion in the second quarter, representing year-over-year growth of 52.9 percent.

Growing revenue from broadband and video services drove consumer ARPU in legacy Verizon wireline markets (which excludes consumer markets served by the former MCI) to $63.76, a 10.4 percent increase compared with last year's second quarter. The ARPU among FiOS customers was more than $130 per month.

Verizon Business had total revenues of $5.3 billion, or growth of 0.9 percent compared with last year's second quarter.

Sales of strategic services -- such as IP, managed services, Ethernet and optical ring services -- continued to drive growth at Verizon Business. These services generated $1.5 billion in revenue, up 18.7 percent from second quarter 2007.

Wireline total operating revenues were $12.1 billion, a 1.8 percent decrease compared with the second quarter 2007. Wireline total operating expenses decreased 1.7 percent over the same period.