NTT's IP Video QoE is Adopted as an ITU Standard

Technology originally developed by NTT Service Integration Laboratories to objectively estimate a user's Quality of Experience (QoE) in IP-based video delivery services has been adopted as an international standard (ITU-T Recommendation J.247). The technology enables the quality of video delivery services to be checked and monitored.


NTT said previously existing technology cannot assess the effects of diverse coding systems and bit rates as used in video delivery services nor can it assess degraded video caused by packet loss characteristic of IP networks.


In response to this problem, NTT Service Integration Laboratories modeled quality degradation considering human perceptual characteristics (degradation in experienced quality due to coding and packet loss) based on a huge quality database making maximum use of NTT subjective quality assessment facilities and know-how. Then, based on this model, it developed technology to estimate QoE through the analysis of video signals. This technology enables the objective video quality assessment from the similar viewpoints of customers.


NTT's assessment technology was proposed for standardization at ITU-T, and after a 5-year worldwide performance evaluation contest held by ITU-T, four systems (including the NTT algorithm) out of nine candidates from the same number of institutions were approved as formal Recommendation J.247 on August 13, 2008 and released on August 22, 2008.


http://www.ntt.co.jp

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Israel's Bezeq Selects Alcatel-Lucent for Metro Ethernet

Bezeq, Israel's largest telecommunications provider, has selected Alcatel-Lucent as the foundation for its new metro Ethernet network. Alcatel-Lucent's Ethernet & IP routing solution will help Bezeq deliver premium Ethernet L2 services, such as Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), and Ethernet-lines (E-lines) to its business customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its 7750 Service Router and 5620 Service Aware Manager as the base for Bezeq's new metro Ethernet network. Alcatel-Lucent's Ethernet & IP routing solution is unique in its ability to ensure reliable, non-stop service delivery with the quality of service (QoS) necessary to offer differentiated services to customers.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Procera Networks Secures $6 Million in Funding

Procera Networks has secured $6 million in private financing. The company said the funding will allow it to accelerate the hiring and training of Field Engineers and accelerate the purchase of inventory for its recently announced Tier-1 product family, the PacketLogic PL10000. http://www.proceranetworks.com

• In May 2008, Procera Networks introduced its PacketLogic PL10000, a high-performance DPI platform offering up to 80Gbps of throughput and purpose-built for deployments either at the core or edge of Tier-1 broadband networks. Procera, which also offers a range of smaller DPI platforms, is targeting a new type of "evolved DPI" capable of enhancing application awareness with service control capabilities.

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Reliance Globalcom Supplies Managed Ethernet for International Law Firm

Reliance Globalcom announced a contract to provide Managed WAN Ethernet and Managed Premium Internet services to the international law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP (Paul Hastings). The Ethernet service will link offices in Asia, Europe and the U.S.


Reliance Globalcom is deploying a fully managed Layer 2 Ethernet-based virtual private LAN service (VPLS) solution with any-to-any connectivity to Paul Hastings' 18 offices worldwide. The Ethernet-based services support the firm's increased deployment of collaborative web-based services, including video conferencing, VoIP, document management and messaging systems. With Reliance Globalcom's service delivery platform and strategic partnerships in multiple regions around the world, Paul Hastings benefits from enhanced service level agreement (SLA) continuity, improved network availability and stability, bandwidth on-demand and support of converged applications -- all of which support the firm's international growth.http://www.relianceglobalcom.com/services/managed-wan.php

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Centennial Wireless Installs Redback SmartEdge Routers

Centennial Wireless, a provider of mobile communications in the United States, will expand its existing Ericsson Mobile Packet Backbone Network solution through the introduction of Redback SmartEdge multi-service edge routers. The implementation of SmartEdge routers addresses Centennial's objective to deploy IP infrastructure capable of supporting a standards-based evolution towards all-IP. Centennial has 13 million Net Pops, 1.1 million wireless customers and 475,000 access line equivalents. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.redback.com

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Crossbeam Launches Check Point FireWall-1 GX

Crossbeam Systems has certified Check Point's FireWall-1 GX product via the iBeam ISV Certification Program to run on Crossbeam's X-Series Next Generation Security Platform. Check Point's FireWall-1 GX will enable GSM mobile operators using GPRS-(2.5G) and UMTS-(3G) enabled wireless networks to protect themselves against a host of threats via Crossbeam's carrier-class security platform -- from over-billing attacks and theft of services to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks -- which can destroy their credibility with customers.


Crossbeam's iBeam ISV Certification Program is a testing environment that recreates the layered, core security architectures of large enterprise and service provider networks.

http://www.crossbeam.com/

• Crossbeam's X-Series line of security service switches feature up to 40 Gbps of unified threat management (UTM) security processing throughput in a single chassis. The hardware platform facilitates the consolidation, virtualization and simplification of security services delivery. Among its innovations, Crossbeam features “secure flow processing�?, which offers the ability to logically sequence flows from one virtualized instance of a security application to another. Secure flow processing enables security policy sequences to occur on a virtual plane, as if, for example, switches, load balancers, and patch cables were all physically installed between an intrusion prevention service and a firewall. This process is accomplished at wire speed, with active management of data flows and load balancing with “state�? maintained for firewalls and content gateways.

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Conviva Raises $20 Million for its Live Media Platform

Conviva, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, raised $20 million in Series B funding for its LIVE media platform.


Conviva said its C3 platform is built for live media from day one. This would enable content owners to create a new "virtual living room" audience experience and improve the economics of digital media on the Internet.


UV Partners led the funding round, with participation from Series A investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Foundation Capital. The funding brings Conviva's total amount raised to $29 million and will help the company expand its global platform, accelerate product development, and invest in business development with key customers.http://www.conviva.com

• Conviva is headed by Carlos Ramón, who previously was General Manager of Akamai Technologies' international business.

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Broadcom to Acquire AMD's Digital TV Business

Broadcom will acquire AMD's digital TV (DTV) business for approximately $192.8 million in cash. Broadcom said the deal enables it to immediately scale its DTV business, and, in conjunction with its existing products, to offer a complete product line that covers all segments of the DTV market ranging from low-end value and mid-range quality to high-end interactive platforms and panel processors.


In connection with the transaction, approximately 530 members of AMD's dedicated DTV team, in addition to certain employees directly supporting this team, located in six primary design centers around the world, will be invited to join Broadcom. AMD's DTV product line includes all Xilleon integrated DTV processors and complete turnkey reference designs, as well as NXT receiver ICs, the Theater 300 DTV processor, and a line of panel processors that perform advanced motion compensation, frame rate conversion and scaling.


"The acquisition of AMD's DTV business, which will become the core of Broadcom's DTV line of business, will enable us to significantly scale and accelerate the completion of our digital TV product portfolio while also expanding our tier one customer base and positions us to achieve leadership and long-term growth in this important market segment," said Daniel Marotta, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group. "We believe our combined DTV team will be in an excellent position to grow and thrive in this burgeoning market by bringing best-in-class people, technology, solutions and support to our customers."

Competitors in this space include Micronas, MStar, Trident, MediaTek, ST, NXP and Zoran.http://www.broadcom.comhttp://www.amd.com

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DISH Offers MPEG-4 for All Standard and HD Programming

DISH Network is now transmitting all standard and high definition programming in the MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding Standard.
New customers in 21 designated markets* in the eastern half of the U.S. who sign up for any DISH Network HD package will be the first in the nation to receive the industry's most advanced delivery system on all televisions connected to DISH Network service. This includes all SD and HD programming broadcast in MPEG-4 via DISH Network's MPEG-4 HD and HD DVR receivers.


DISH said this milestone continues a series of industry firsts, including the latest expansion in high definition services, the launch of TurboHD -- the only 100 percent HD service -- the availability of movies in Blu-Ray Disc quality 1080p resolution, and the commitment to offer up to 150 national HD channels by the end of the year.http://www.dishnetwork.com

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China Netcom Reaches 23.4 Million Broadband Users

China Netcom reported 1H08 revenue of RMB 41,125 million, which included upfront connection fees of RMB 505 million. Excluding upfront connection fees, revenue was RMB 40,620 million, representing a decrease of 0.15% over the same period of last year (unless otherwise specified, all reported data hereafter exclude the effect of upfront connection fees). Net profit was RMB 5,877 million, up 11.9% year on year because of the change in corporate tax rate and gain on non-cash transactions. If the impact of non-cash transactions was excluded, the net profit would be RMB5,420 million, up 3.2% year on year.


Some highlights from the report:

• During the first half of the year, China Netcom integrated its resources for broadband services, ICT (information and communication technology), value-added service and advertising and media services in its push for transformation into a "broadband communications and multimedia services provider". The revenue generated from these businesses grew by 26.2% and accounted for 40.6% of total revenues, up 8.5 percentage points over the same period of last year.
  
  
• In the first half of 2008, China Netcom reported a decline in total capital expenditure of 10.7% year-on-year to RMB 7,527 million. In particular, investment in the businesses of fixed-line and PHS only accounted for 4.4% of the total, down 13.2 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
  
  
• As of June 30, 2008, broadband subscribers increased to 23,355,000. This represented a net growth of 3,587,000 when compared to the end of 2007.



• China Netcom'S share of the broadband market in its service areas was 90.4%, up 1.5 percentage points year-on-year.



• Revenue from broadband services was RMB 8,859 million, a year-on-year increase of 38.8%. Broadband services accounted for 21.8% of total revenues, up 6.1 percentage points over the same period of last year. ARPU was RMB 68.5. Revenue generated from broadband content and applications was RMB 1,270 million, up 69.1 % over the same period of last year, accounting for RMB 9.8 of broadband ARPU.



• In the first half of 2008, ICT revenue grew by 28.5% year-on-year to RMB 1,882 million, and accounted for 4.6% of total revenue.


During the first half of 2008, China Netcom's traditional fixed-line service faced major challenges. The company is losing local access subscribers, leading to a decline in revenue from the traditional business. As of June 30, 2008, it had 108,510,000 local access subscribers, 2,310,000 less than at the end of 2007. Of this number, fixed-line subscribers declined by 1,499,000while PHS subscribers declined by 811,000.


• To combat the continuous decline in subscribers of its fixed-line business and PHS, China Netcom's strategy for 2008 is to use high-quality and bundled services, reformed pricing mechanisms, and improved customer experience to promote customer loyalty and thus arrest the decline in subscribers. In May, 2008, the company launched a family gateway, which offers information services to "Family 1+" customers, combining simultaneous access to the internet through various PCs, wireless internet access, family video monitoring and IPTV services.



• By the end of the first half of 2008, there were 9,971,000 "Family 1+" subscribers. Penetration rate among broadband subscribers for the "Family 1+" service was 36%.

Looking forward, Chairman Zuo Xunsheng said, "In the second half of 2008, we will increase investment in our innovative businesses, and step up effort to develop the innovative businesses, including the broadband services. We will continue the transformation of the "Family 1+" service in order to meet the demand of the household subscribers for high-quality multimedia services during informatization and to enhance the value of the fixed-line network. Meanwhile, we believe that the Company's merger with China Unicom will support and strengthen execution of these strategies. The merger will enable the new company to give full play to the competitive advantages of both predecessor companies, and bring the synergy of the mobile and fixed-line networks into play. The new company is also expected to have access to a 3G license. These will enable the new company to have an edge and to be better positioned in the domestic telecommunications market. The merger will increase shareholder value of both companies."http://www.cnc.cn

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