Freescale Sharpens its Focus -- Considers Sales of Cellular Chipset Business

Freescale Semiconductor will sharpen its strategic focus on automotive and networking markets, where it is a leading supplier of automotive microcontrollers, communication processors and radio frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs) technology. It will also increase its efforts and investments in the industrial and consumer markets that utilize Freescale's microcontrollers, microprocessors, application-specific processors, analog, power and sensor ICs.Freescale also said it will explore strategic options for its cellular handset chipset products...

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Verizon Hosts Forum on Network Specifications

Verizon is preparing to host its 14th Annual Forum on Network Hardware Specifications, Standards and Testing this week in Orlando, Florida. This year, new "topologies," or network design parameters, will be among the central topics of discussion. New network designs must reflect the growing use of fiber optics and other systems in delivering nontraditional services like video and multimedia content over transformed networks."Verizon is focused on the energy efficiency, service quality, reliability and environmental impact of the networks we build...

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Deutsche Telekom Cites Concern over Data Theft

Deutsche Telekom acknowledged an incident involving the theft of 17 million mobile telephone numbers. The incident of data theft dates back to 2006 and has the attention of the public prosecutors' office. According to the magazine Der Spiegel, a storage device with 17 million mobile telephone data records is in the hands of unknown parties. The data relate to both prepay and postpay customers. Apart from names, addresses and cell phone numbers,...

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BT launches Etherflow Ethernet Business Service

BT officially launched "Etherflow" -- an Ethernet-based business connectivity service offering scaleable bandwidth and purchasable a month at a time. The service runs over BT's 21st Century Network (21CN).At launch, Etherflow offers speeds from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps to customers within reach of 106 core and access nodes that cover all the major business centres across the UK. By March 2009, the range of speeds will have been extended to range from 2...

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Alcatel-Lucent Develops More Efficient Distribution Models for Utilities

Alcatel-Lucent is working with a number of major energy suppliers on delivering smart grids -- networks that provide enhanced visibility of energy flows, more granular control of energy, pro-active real-time monitoring and enabling rapid and accurate reaction to disruption of supply when it occurs. At the Next Generation Utilities conference, which took place last week in Evian, France, Alcatel-Lucent said networking technology could help energy utilities better manage the supply and demand of energy.Francois Loubry, Vice President of Energy in...

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TI Introduces RF range extender for 2.4-GHz Low-power Networks

Texas Instruments introduced a radio frequency (RF) range extender for 2.4-GHz wireless applications, such as ZigBee networks, wireless sensor networks and industrial, consumer and audio equipment. The CC2590 extends range up to eight times the line-of-sight by integrating a power amplifier for improved typical output power of +12 dBm and a low-noise amplifier for improved receiver sensitivity of +6 dB. In addition to a power amplifier and low-noise amplifier, the CC2590 integrates switches, RF-matching, inductors and balun. Suggested resale pricing...

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ITALTEL Launches New Suite of Service Enablers

At last week's Broadband Forum in Brussels, Italtel introduced new Service Enablers that allow mash up of information and data retrieved from different networks for creation of brand new services or enhancement of emerging services based on presence and group management functionalities. The new Service Enablers Suite, which includes the Italtel Presence Server, Italtel Group and List Management Service Enabler, and the Italtel Aggregation Proxy,...

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TIA Urges FCC to Ensure New Rules Allow Advanced Cordless Phones to Operate

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has called upon the FCC to amend frequency rules so that advanced cordless phones can continue to operate in the AWS H Block after the FCC adopts rules for this spectrum.The TIA argues that a change in Part 15 frequency limits is required so that cordless phones may continue to operate if the FCC changes H Block rules as it currently proposes. Cordless phones and other Unlicensed Personal Communications Services (UPCS) devices currently operate in a designated band (the UPCS band) with regulatory...

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U.S. Bailout Bill Extends R&D Credits

The financial bailout bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Bush last week (H.R. 1424 - Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008) includes retroactive extension of a two-year extension of the R&D Credit through the end of 2009. The package included an increase in the Alternative Simplified Credit from 12% to 14% beginning in 2009.The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) hailed the inclusion of this provision, which had been sought by many companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry."We...

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