BT Openreach Announces FTTC Test Sites

Openreach -- BT's local access network division -- announced two sites for operational pilots of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) to begin in summer 2009. Two exchanges, one in Muswell Hill, London and one in Whitchurch, South Glamorgan, will be used to conduct FTTC pilots involving up to 15,000 customer premises for each area. End user customers in these areas will experience headline speeds of up to 40 Mbps.The pilots will follow a planned technical trial in the Foxhall exchange area of Kesgrave, Suffolk in early 2009, and the successful launch...

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NextWave Wireless Raises $100 Million in New Capital

NextWave Wireless raised $100 million in new financing through the issuance of senior-subordinated secured second-lien notes ("Notes") to Avenue Capital Management II, L.P. and SOLA."This financing will provide the runway we need to execute our strategic plan in an orderly and efficient manner. It will allow us to seek to maximize the value of our assets, including our spectrum, as we implement a global restructuring of our business," said Allen Salmasi, chief executive officer and president of NextWave Wireless.Separately, NextWave Wireless received...

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October 13th -- 25 Year Anniversary of the First Commercial Cellular Phone Call

On October 13, 1983 the first commercial cellular call was placed to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell in Germany from the president of Ameritech Mobile Communications at a ceremony held outside of Soldier Field in Chicago, IL. This transatlantic conversation launched the nation's first citywide commercial cellular system. The call was placed using the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, which weighed nearly two pounds, was 13 inches long, and had only 30...

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Qwest and CWA Reach Tentative Agreement

Qwest Communications and the Communications Workers of America reached a new tentative agreement for a 4-year contract covering about 20,000 of Qwest's 35,000 employees.Results of a ratification vote over the new agreement by Qwest CWA members are expected by Oct. 31. In total, Qwest employs about 35,000 workers.The pact follows the announcement on Sept. 30 that CWA-represented Qwest workers had voted down a tentative agreement reached during normal bargaining by both parties Aug. 17.http://www.qwest....

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NDS Provides Conditional Access Protection for Singapore's Mobile TV Trial

NDS is providing the core conditional access (CA) security infrastructure for the world's first commercial trial of the new OMA BCAST SCP standard, an emerging key standard for mobile TV content protection in Singapore.Mobile telecommunications providers M1, SingTel and StarHub are working with MediaCorp, the country's leading media company, to run the three-month trial. Alcatel-Lucent's Mobile Interactive TV solution powers the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld) platform for the trial. The trial includes mobile devices from Samsung and...

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Teliasonera International Carrier Launches Media Distribution Service

TeliaSonera International Carrier launched a new media distribution service over its global IP network aimed at content holders and broadcasters. The new TeliaSonera International Carrier Media Distribution Service will offer a complete end-to-end service for upload, storage and distribution of video content to the end user over the TeliaSonera International Carrier IP backbone. The service will also handle all aspects of content management, business models, DRM, security, reporting, statistics and end-user interfaces.The company said the new service...

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Verizon Business Achieves Multinational Certification From Cisco

Verizon Business has achieved Multinational Certification from Cisco for Europe, making it one of only a select group of companies to achieve the pan-European Cisco certification. The certification requires expertise in four key specializations: unified communications, routing and switching, security, and wireless LAN. In addition, Verizon Business has integrated Cisco Lifecycle Services into its offerings.http://www.verizonbusiness....

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Deutsche Telekom to Establish New Data Privacy Standards

Deutsche Telekom affirmed its intention to significantly improve data privacy in the interest of its customers by increasing transparency and optimizing data privacy standards. A new Data Privacy Board department will be established to send out a clear signal in terms of the significance of data protection in today's information society. To this end, data privacy, legal affairs and compliance are to be combined and significantly reinforced as one area of responsibility. In addition, Deutsche Telekom is launching major initiatives to increase...

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KPN Broadcast Services Expands Net Insight Deployment

KPN Broadcast Services is expanding its existing national multi-service media network to also provide TV feeds from the top 18 football stadiums in Holland. The network is based on Net Insight's Nimbra platform and has been operational since the beginning of 2006, providing services like video, data and audio connectivity between all major TV-studios in the Netherlands, all TV feeds for the digital terrestrial TV and mobile TV services.The order from KPN Broadcast was placed through Net Insight's Dutch partner Alphatron Broadcast Electronics and...

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Bell Canada and TELUS Select NSN for Next Gen Wireless Network

TELUS has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to provide equipment for its next generation wireless network. Separately, Bell Canada also confirmed the selection of NSN for this project.Initially based on High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, the network will transition to fourth generation technology based on the emerging, global long-term evolution (LTE) standard. A full national launch is expected by early 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed."After a comprehensive review, TELUS has selected NSN to provide their Converged Core including...

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Nielsen Online Forms Joint Venture with Beijing Zhongqian

Nielsen Online and Beijing Zhongqian Wangrun Information Technology Co., Ltd., the operator of ChinaRank, have formed a joint venture for Internet measurement and analysis services in China.The new venture, CR-Nielsen, has been officially licensed to operate in China and is the first company to support the delivery of standardized Internet measurement services in China. China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the state network information center of China, estimated that there are 253 million Internet users in China (June 2008). CR-Nielsen...

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SureWest to Sell Wireless Towers to Global Tower Partners

SureWest Communications reached an agreement to sell its more than 50 owned wireless communications towers to Global Tower Partners, which owns or master leases more than 8,900 sites, including more than 3,000 owned towers throughout the United States.The purchase price is based on tower cash flow and is payable with respect to commenced tenant leases. SureWest said it expects that the final aggregate purchase price will be in the range of $9.5 to...

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Bell Canada and TELUS Collaborate on 3G/4G Strategy

Bell Canada and TELUS agreed to collaborate on their next generation wireless networking strategies, including plans to make a significant investment in 3G upgrades while confirming a common approach to migrate to the evolving 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. Bell said it is seeking to reduce cost and time to market by adopting a network overlay strategy that leverages its existing national network-sharing agreement with TELUS. That agreement...

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SiRF & Qualcomm Sign Mutual Patent Non-Assertion Agreement

SiRF Technology, a leading provider of GPS-powered location platforms, and Qualcomm signed a mutual Patent Non-Assertion Agreement covering each party's patent portfolio."As an innovation driven company, we respect Qualcomm's vast intellectual property portfolio," said Kanwar Chadha, founder of SiRF Technology. "We believe that this agreement between leading innovators of AGPS enabled location technology http://www.sirf....

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