NCTA Protests FCC Inquiry into

The President of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), Kyle McSlarrow, sent a letter of protest to the FCC concerning an newly-opened inquiry into about the industry's digital migration and its impact on consumers. Earlier this month, the FCC Enforcement Bureau sent letters to 13 cable operators asking about the industry's digital migration and its impact on consumers. McSlarrow said that cable operators welcome the opportunity to describe the benefits of this evolution but that that this collection of data constitutes an abuse of the Commission's processes and violates the Paperwork Reduction Act. Furthermore, McSlarrow said the FCC inquiry appeared to be a "broad fishing expedition" rather than a means of addressing any specific complaints that the agency is investigating. The NCTA letter is posted online.http://www.ncta.com

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CableLabs Issues Modular Headend Architecture Specifications

CableLabs released a set of Modular Headend Architecture (MHA) specifications that define interfaces for narrowcast MPEG digital video services such as video-on-demand (VOD) and switched-digital-video (SDV). These build on the existing DOCSIS Modular CMTS specifications.


The MHA suite includes multiple specifications and an architecture overview technical report. The new specifications define MPEG video processing functionality for VOD and SDV Edge Quadrature Amplitude Modulators (EQAMs), as well as an interoperable resource management and video session setup protocol and an interoperable EQAM provisioning and configuration mechanism. With the addition of these new specifications, the MHA suite provides a common industry-wide approach for Universal EQAMs, as well as for Video EQAMs and M-CMTS EQAMs.


CableLabs said these new digital video specifications result from an effort involving headend equipment manufacturers and cable operators. The specifications provide a point of harmonization between the Time Warner Cable-led Interactive Services Architecture (ISA) and the Comcast-led Next Generation on Demand (NGOD) architecture, which are used throughout the industry.


"This is important because for the first time we have an interoperable set of specifications that will lead to integrated equipment from multiple suppliers for delivery of advanced video and data services," said Tony Werner, Comcast CTO. Added Mike LaJoie, Time Warner Cable CTO: "Once again our industry's suppliers have worked with us through CableLabs to achieve a common approach which benefits the whole industry and our suppliers."http://www.cablelabs.com

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OIF Adds Long Haul DWDM Transmission Module Project

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) is launching a 100G Long-Haul DWDM Transmission Module project that will define mechanical dimensions of an optical line interface module, as well as the electrical connector, maximum power consumption and communication interface. This project is part of the OIF's efforts to accelerate the availability of 100G networks.


"In an attempt to alleviate the problems of early adopters, the OIF is bringing together carriers, systems vendors and component suppliers to arrive at a consensus solution," said Karl Gass of Sandia National Laboratories and the Physical and Link Layer Working Group vice chair. "The 100G Electromechanical project will give suppliers a starting point for multi-source transponder designs. The OIF continues to identify projects that are required to address the 100G needs of the industry."


At its meeting last month's meeting. In addition, OIF members approved the completion of SFI-S, an implementation agreement that defines a scalable interface between SERDES and Framer devices from 40G to 100G and beyond. Specifically, the SFI-S IA is based on 4 - 20 data lines plus deskew channel, for aggregate data bandwidths in the range of 40 -- 160 Gbps data rate.


The SFI-S project is an extension of the prevalent OIF SFI-4 specification for electrical 10 Gbps interfaces used on all 300-pin transponders. SFI-S is targeted to support the 100G work being addressed by standards bodies like IEEE 802.3ba and ITU-T and forums like ATIS and the Ethernet Alliance.


In addition, the OIF announced that Torsten Wuth of Nokia Siemens Networks has been elected to serve a two-year term as the Physical & Link Layer User Group chair. In the board of directors election, the OIF membership reelected Hans-Martin Foisel of Deutsche Telekom, Steve Joiner of Finisar and Stephen Shew of Nortel Networks to two-year terms; Hans-Martin Foisel will continue to serve as president; Stephen Shew will continue as secretary/treasurer. Alessandro D'Alessandro of Telecom Italia and Jeff Hutchins of CoreOptics were also reelected to the board of directors for one-year terms. Monica Lazer of AT&T continues to serve as vice president and Jim Jones of Alcatel-Lucent continues to serve as vice president of marketing, both as part of two-year terms on the board.


The following members were reelected for one-year terms; Dave Brown of Alcatel-Lucent and Rod Smith of Tyco Electronics as Market Awareness & Education (MA&E) Committee co-chairs; Lyndon Ong of Ciena as Technical Committee Chair; and Chuck Sannipoli of IP Infusion as Technical Committee Vice Chair. Jonathan Sadler of Tellabs was reelected to a two-year term as Architecture and Signaling working group chair.http://www.oiforum.com

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Tellabs Intends to Resume Common Stock Repurchases

Tellabs announced plans to resume its common stock repurchases under an existing Board of Directors authorization, previously announced on Nov. 8, 2007. Over the next four quarters, the company may repurchase up to $100 million (about 7.1% of shares at Wednesday's closing price) under the previously announced repurchase program. The resumption follows Tellabs' significant curtailment of stock repurchases since the second quarter of 2008, as the company re-evaluated uses of cash.http://www.tellabs.com

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Verizon Business Adds Nortel for Managed Telepresence

Verizon Business has selected Nortel to help deliver a new managed telepresence service over IP. Nortel managed telepresence services include set-up and management of high-definition (HD) video conferencing and collaboration, including such concierge-like amenities as web-based reservations and pre-configured, pre-connected conferences. In addition, Nortel offers video bridging and gateway services, allowing enterprises to take full advantage of video systems from multiple equipment providers by enabling them to interoperate. Nortel noted that it also provides proactive testing, 24/7 network performance monitoring, recording, on-demand playback and metrics reporting are also part of Nortel's managed telepresence services portfolio. http://www.nortel.com

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BT Posts Quarterly Revenue of GBP 5,303 million, Announces Job Cuts

BT reported revenue of £5,303 million for its second fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2008, up by 4% over the previous year based on continued growth in managed solutions and broadband and convergence revenue. However, the company experienced weakness in BT Global Services primarily due to slower than anticipated delivery of efficiency savings, the continued decline in higher margin UK business and the negative effects of currency movements. Overall, EBITDA came in at £1,429 million, down 1%.


"Three out of our four business units, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach are delivering on or ahead of target. But profits in BT Global Services are simply not good enough and we are taking decisive action to put matters right. We have appointed Hanif Lalani as the new CEO of BT Global Services and he will continue to grow the business while reducing the cost base," said Ian Livingston, BT's CEO.


Some key points of the quarterly report.:

• BT plans to cut its work force by about 10,000 positions. The work force currently includes 110,000 direct employees and 50,000 indirect employees (contractors, off-shore workers, etc).



• Managed solutions revenue, including MPLS and networked IT services, increased by 23 per cent to £1,523 million, and broadband and convergence revenue increased by 2 per cent to £649 million. This was partially offset by an 8 per cent decline in revenue from calls and lines to £1,601 million, together with a 4 per cent decline in revenue from transit, conveyance, interconnect circuits, WLR, global carrier and other wholesale products to £822 million.



• BT had 13.3 million wholesale broadband connections (DSL and LLU) at September 30, 2008, including 5.1 million local loop unbundled lines. There were 258,000 net additional broadband connections in the quarter. BT's retail share of those net additions was 27 percent. In the maturing broadband market, BT remains the UK's number one retail broadband provider with a customer base of 4.6 million. BT's retail market share of the DSL and LLU installed base was 34 percent at September 30, 2008.



• BT's next generation Ethernet platform now has 110 nodes complete and the company is on target for 600 by April 2009.



• ADSL2 service at up to 24 Mbps should be available to 40% of UK by April 2009. The company is taking orders from 8 resellers.



• BT's MPLS network now has 1,282 PoPs in over 170 countries. The company is installing 5,200 new MPLS connections per month - up 68%.



• As an example of its cost-saving strategy, BT cited its 7 year contract with Alcatel-Lucent to manage non-UK
  legacy networks. This deal is expected to yield savings of c.£100m over the contract term.

http://www.btplc.com

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NSN Supplies Security Solution for China Mobile Jiangsu

China Mobile (Jiangsu Mobile) is implementing a security solution from Nokia Siemens Networks to protect itself against the potential risks brought by its increased use of IP networks and data services. Nokia Siemens Networks said it has worked closely with Jiangsu Mobile to deliver a tailor-made solution which combines project management, network structure design, system integration and operation and maintenance. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks also provided Jiangsu Mobile with a security evaluation tool based on international standards, which will help the operator measure the effectiveness of its security system, and evaluate the return on its security investment.
http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Appoints New Leadership Team

Alcatel-Lucent announced a new leadership team to coincide with its new business model, which is comprised of three Regions, Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and APAC.

• Robert Vrij, President Americas.


• Adolfo Hernandez, President Europe, Middle East and Africa (to join on December 1st).


• Etienne Fouques, President APAC.

Three newly created organizations will be headed by:

• Kenneth Frank, President Solutions and Marketing.


• Janet Davidson, President Quality and Customer Care.


• Michel Rahier, President Operations.

In order to reflect the company's focus on open innovation led by Bell Labs, state-of-the-art product and software innovation as well as its continued momentum in Services and Enterprise markets, four Groups are formed. The groups will be headed by:

• Philippe Keryer, President Carrier Product Group.


• Andy Williams, President Services Group.


• Paul Segre, President Applications Software Group. Paul will additionally continue to be President and CEO of Genesys.


• Tom Burns, President Enterprise Product Group.

All the above-mentioned leaders will be part of the company's management committee together with Claire Pedini, Human Resources, Hubert de Pesquidoux, Chief Financial Officer and Jeong Kim, President Bell Labs.


The new leaders will take office effective January 1st, 2009.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• In September 2008, Alcatel-Lucent's Board of Directors appointed Philippe Camus as the company's non-executive Chairman as of October 1st, 2008. Ben Verwaayen is appointed as the company's chief executive officer. Ben will also join the company's Board of Directors. Philippe Camus has previously served as the Co-CEO at European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) and managed a large, global business in the high-tech industry. He is Co-Managing Partner of Lagardère, an international media group, and a partner of Evercore Partners, a New York based investment and advisory firm.



• Ben Verwaayen served as CEO of BT from February 2002 to June 1, 2008. He was formerly vice-chairman of the management board of Lucent Technologies in the US, which he joined in September 1997. Prior to that, he worked with KPN in the Netherlands for nine years as president and managing director of its telecom subsidiary, PTT telecom. Before that, Ben worked for ITT, a predecessor of Alcatel. Ben Verwaayen's office will be in the company's headquarters in Paris.

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