Public Meetings Planned for Broadband Initiatives Under Obama Stimulus Bill

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Rural Development arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a public meeting on March 10, 2009 to discuss the Broadband Initiatives funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.


The meeting will be held at the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration in Washington, D.C.


The Broadband Initiatives funded in the Act are intended to accelerate broadband deployment in unserved, underserved, and rural areas and to strategic institutions that are likely to create jobs or provide significant public benefits.


The public meeting agenda and information about the new program will be available at NTIA's website.
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrantshttp://www.usda.gov/rurdev

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Open-Plug Announces Telephony Capabilities for Intel "Moorestown"

Open-Plug, a company that specializes in software development environments for portable devices, is working with Intel to integrate its ELIPS Linux Telephony Stack to the Moblin Linux software stack for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) based on Intel's next generation "Moorestown" platform. Open-Plug is now bringing its advanced cellular telephony and messaging features to this new class of MIDs. http://www.open-plug.com

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Verizon Business Receives Security Clearance in India

Verizon Business has received approval from the government of India's Department of Telecommunications to operate the company's two international gateways in Mumbai and Chennai, under its international long-distance license. The approval allows Verizon Business to offer its suite of private line services to multinational customers and to activate the company's wholly owned submarine cable capacity to India, providing direct connections to Verizon's global network, one of the largest such networks in the world.


Verizon Business noted that is has begun an aggressive infrastructure expansion in India. Since receiving its international and national long-distance licenses in India in January 2008, the company has deployed a Private IP/MPLS network in five major cities in India: Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi. Its latest MPLS node will be installed in Pune during the second half of 2009.
http://www.verizonbusiness.com

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Deutsche Telekom Narrows Loss in Q4, Sees Stable Performance

Overall, Deutsche Telekom exceeded its financial targets in the 2008 financial year. The net loss narrowed in Q4 2008 to EUR 730 million compared to EUR 750 million a year earlier as revenue rose 2% to EUR 16.11 billion.


"Our 2008 financial year is characterized by stable performance and sound financial figures," said Chairman of the Board of Management, René Obermann, at the annual press conference in Bonn. The development of earnings in the past years and the current financial figures were proof of the fact that Deutsche Telekom was in good shape, he emphasized.


Adjusted EBITDA increased 0.7 percent compared with 2007 to EUR 19.5 billion, thus exceeding the original guidance of around EUR 19.3 billion. The company said its balance sheet and debt ratios are testimony to the continued solid and sound state the company is in: net debt only increased by around EUR 1 billion year-on-year to EUR 38.2 billion, although Deutsche Telekom incurred a net expense of approximately EUR 4.4 billion for the 25 percent stake in the Greek company OTE and for the acquisition of the U.S. company SunCom in 2008.


Despite the challenging economic conditions, Deutsche Telekom currently is forecasting an adjusted EBITDA around the level achieved in 2008, that is around EUR 19.5 billion, excluding the impact of OTE. Free cash flow for 2009 is also expected to be stable at around EUR 7 billion.


Some highlights:

Mobile Communications

• Mobile Communications in Europe and the U.S. operating segments recorded revenue growth of 2.4 percent to EUR 35.6 billion in 2008. This includes net negative exchange rate effects of EUR 1.3 billion. Revenue growth of 7.1 percent in the fourth quarter outperformed the full year. Adjusted EBITDA growth of 6.2 percent to EUR 11.4 billion was significantly stronger for the full year 2008 than the increase in revenue. Exchange rate effects had an offsetting effect of approximately EUR 0.3 billion. In the fourth quarter, EBITDA increased by as much as 12.7 percent.
  
  
  
• In the past year, T-Mobile maintained its leadership in the German mobile communications market. The company gained more than 950,000 new contract customers in 2008, virtually the same high level as in the prior year. While revenue in this fiercely competitive market decreased 2.8 percent to EUR 7.8 billion in 2008, adjusted EBITDA rose 3.1 percent to EUR 3.0 billion during the same period. As a result, the EBITDA margin improved from 36.8 percent to 39.0 percent.
  
  
  
• T-Mobile USA continued to post double-digit growth rates. Revenue rose by 13.5 percent year-on-year to USD 21.9 billion, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 16.0 percent to USD 6.2 billion. The weak U.S. dollar resulted in lower revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth on a euro basis of 6.3 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively. The U.S. subsidiary's customer base grew by 4.1 million over the course of the year, of which almost three million were gained organically. 1.1 million customers were also added from SunCom which was consolidated in February 2008. As a result, T-Mobile USA had 32.8 million customers on December 31, 2008. 7.7 million of these use the MyFaves community service, which corresponds to a 54-percent increase in one year.
  
  
• Business in the United Kingdom was negatively affected by continued fierce competition. While revenue fell 2.2 percent to GBP 3.2 billion compared to 2007, adjusted EBITDA decreased by 12.7 percent to GBP 708 million. Measured in euros, the decline is significantly more apparent as a result of the continuing weak pound sterling, with revenue dropping 15.8 percent and EBITDA 24.9 percent. The negative trend in contract customer numbers was reversed over the course of the year following the introduction of new calling plans.
  
  
• The companies in Central and Eastern Europe remain important growth drivers, with revenue increasing by 10.0 percent to over EUR 6.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA growing by as much as 14.3 percent. With more than EUR 2.5 billion EBITDA, these countries once again made an important contribution to the Group's earnings. The majority of the national companies succeeded in increasing their profitability. For example, Polish company PTC improved its EBITDA margin from 32.9 percent in 2007 to 34.7 percent and at the same time increased its contract customer base by more than 15 percent to a total of 6.3 million.
  
  
• Data revenue excluding messaging continued to grow unabated. In Europe, this figure climbed 44.9 percent to EUR 1.4 billion in 2008. U.S. operations reported an increase of 19.3 percent to USD 1.5 billion for the full year, with growth accelerating to 24.4 percent in the fourth quarter. This positive trend is chiefly due to innovative devices such as the Apple iPhone 3G in Europe and the Android-based T-Mobile G1 that was launched in the United States and the United Kingdom in October and has been available in other countries, including Germany, since mid-February.

Broadband/Fixed Network

• Revenue decline in this operating segment could be slowed down to 5.1 percent in 2008, compared with 8 percent in the prior year, thanks to the excellent market performance of T-Home in Germany. The initial forecast had put the decline at between 4 and 6 percent. In the fourth quarter, the decrease totaled 3.9 percent. T-Home was even more successful in terms of cost discipline. The "Save for Service" program resulted in net cost reductions of around EUR 0.8 billion in 2008, allowing decline in EBITDA in Germany to be limited to 4.9 percent, slightly better than the originally expected decrease of 5 to 8 percent.



• The entire operating segment reported revenue in Germany and abroad of EUR 21.3 billion, 6 percent below the prior-year level. In the fourth quarter, revenue declined by 4.2 percent. Adjusted EBITDA in the Broadband/Fixed Network operating segment fell 4.4 percent to EUR 7.4 billion.



• T-Home expanded its leading market position in the German DSL market. The DSL net add market share has exceeded 40 percent for nine quarters running and actually reached the 50 percent mark in the fourth quarter of 2008 -- the highest net add market share since the complete packages were introduced. On an annual basis, the DSL net add market share was 45 percent, putting it in line with expectations.



• With a retail customer base of 10.6 million, T-Home further reinforced its clear lead in the German DSL market in the past financial year. Around 352,000 DSL net adds were recorded in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone. In addition, over half a million customers wanting to return to T-Home from competitors registered over the full year. This figure was, for the first time, significantly higher than the number of customers lost to competitors.



• In 2008, line losses totaled just under 2.5 million. This was at the lower end of the guidance of 2.5 to 3.0 million. This includes losses due to fierce competition and regulatory measures, as well as lines lost for technical reasons as a result of the migration of DSL resale customers to IP-based lines.



• As many as 480,000 customers have already ordered the Entertain triple play package, meaning that Deutsche Telekom met its expectations. Internet TV is also becoming increasingly popular in Eastern Europe.
  Deutsche Telekom's subsidiaries in Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Macedonia and Montenegro had added a total of more than 220,000 customers by the end of 2008.



• Revenue and profit from international business in the Broadband/Fixed Network operating segment declined overall, chiefly due to the deconsolidation of T-Online France and T-Online Spain in the previous year. Reported revenue decreased 12.2 percent to EUR 2.3 billion for the full year, a decrease of 5.1 percent in organic terms.

Business Customers

• On a like-for-like basis, i.e. taking into account the changes in the composition of the Group, revenue decreased only slightly by 1.2 percent considering the difficult economic environment. Adjusted EBITDA remained at the same level as 2007, while adjusted profit from operations (EBIT) increased more than fivefold year-on-year, from EUR 12 million to EUR 61 million.



• International business reported an increase in revenue of 7.4 percent. The adjusted number of new orders increased by 5.2 percent to EUR 12.3 billion. This was partly due to major deals with Shell, Deutsche Post and Royal & Sun Alliance, for example. The agreement with Linde, announced mid-February 2009, represents another milestone in T-Systems' international growth strategy.



• As the prior-year figures included Media & Broadcast and ActiveBilling, the reported figures show a decline in revenue of 8.2 percent to EUR 11 billion and in EBITDA of 20.0 percent to EUR 0.9 billion. By reducing costs by EUR 0.5 billion in 2008 under the "Save for Service" program, the Business Customer arm also made a valuable contribution to cost cutting.
  


• In 2008, T-Systems entered into a partnership in the systems integration area with the U.S. provider Cognizant. This collaboration is now starting to bear fruit. T-Systems has so far secured 16 joint deals with total revenue of EUR 70 million and new orders worth EUR 121 million. Both partners support Continental's tire divisions in Hanover, for example, and ensure stable operation of the research and development application landscape.

http://www.telekom.de

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India's BSNL Rolls Out 3G with Ericsson

BSNL, India's second largest telecom operator, has launched 3G services in 11 cities across the northern and eastern parts of the country.


As part of its roll-out strategy, BSNL plans to launch 3G services using WCDMA/HSPA technology across more than 700 cities in the first phase. Ericsson is BSNL's strategic partner for 3G roll-out in over 400 of these cities. This roll-out is part of the contract announced by the companies September 7, 2007.


"The widespread roll-out of 3G network will also help in propelling telecom and broadband growth in India and will help us meet India's target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010," stated Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Wins 100 Mbps Fiber Access Project in Munich

M-net, a Munich-based regional network operator, has awarded a multi-million Euro contract to Alcatel-Lucent to deploy the first extensive fiber access network in Munich. In the future, additional Bavarian cities will be connected to M-net's high-speed access network that consists of a mixed fiber-to-the-building (FTTB)/fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) architecture. The network will support data rates of up to 100 Mbps and possibly higher in the future.


Alcatel-Lucent will begin installing in March 2009. Alcatel-Lucent's solution includes its GPON access platform - the Alcatel-Lucent 7342 ISAM FTTU - and is complemented by the Alcatel-Lucent 5520 AMS and Alcatel-Lucent 5529 OAD management products. For in-house usage, a range of Alcatel-Lucent optical network termination (ONT) units and residential gateways will be provided. For the FTTB piece, Alcatel-Lucent will rely on existing copper wiring in buildings, using so-called multi-dwelling unit ONTs to translate the optical signal into VDSL2.

According to the current expansion schedule, the Munich-based network is set to become the largest and most modern optical access network in Germany. Alcatel-Lucent noted that its FTTH and FTTB network architectures support an "Open Access" business model, allowing M-net to open up its high-speed access network to additional service providers.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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ITU TELECOM WORLD 2009 to Focus on Solutions for Economic Recovery

ITU TELECOM WORLD 2009, which will take place in Geneva, 5-9 October, will include a global leadership summit to address the role of ICTs in economic recovery from the worldwide crisis and stimulating future investment and growth.


ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said, "ITU TELECOM WORLD 2009 this October will be the right time to bring together all the key players in government and the ICT industry. We will be in a better position to assess the effects on industry and establish both how to resuscitate those sectors that need it as well as to focus on how ICTs can be a catalyst for recovery. The ICT sector has been the powerhouse of the global economy in terms of GDP. Investment in ICTs makes as much sense now as it did in building the physical infrastructure of roads and railways during the great depression of the 1930s."http://www.itu.int

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Obama Budget Adds Spectrum License Fee

A single line item in the new U.S. federal government budget proposes to raises $200 million in FY 2009, $300 million in FY 2010 and $425 million in FY 2011 for unspecified spectrum licensing conducted by the FCC. The budget does not mention which bands of spectrum are contemplated for licensing fees nor for which services. This item is posted on page 126 of the budget, which is online.


The FY 2010 Budget also includes $1.3 billion in USDA loans and grants for the Department of Agriculture to increase broadband capacity and improve telecommunication service as well as education and health opportunities in rural areas.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov

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Infonetics Mobile WiMAX Market up 5% in 4Q08

The overall WiMAX equipment and device market held steady in 4Q08 over 3Q08 at $275 million, as the 802.16e mobile WiMAX segment increased 5% to counter a slight dip in the 802.16d fixed WiMAX segment, according to a new report from Infonetics Research.


"The WiMAX market will be leaner in 2009, leading vendors to rationalize their strategies: Nortel has exited, Alcatel-Lucent has transitioned its mobility R&D to its LTE program, and others will have their commitment to WiMAX tested. As the year progresses, we will see more intense competition for the fewer new contracts, and a tight race for market leadership. Currently Alvarion, Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola lead the field, but there is evidence to suggest that both Huawei and Cisco are coming up on the outside lane," said Richard Webb, Directing Analyst at Infonetics.



Some highlights of the report:

• The overall WiMAX equipment and device market held steady in 4Q08 over 3Q08 at $275 million, as the 802.16e mobile WiMAX segment increased 5% to counter a slight dip in the 802.16d fixed WiMAX segment



• Year-over-year, worldwide sales of 802.16e mobile WiMAX equipment (ASN gateways, BTS, CPE) grew 188% in 2008



• Worldwide sales of 802.16e mobile WiMAX devices (Ultra Mobile PCs, phones, and external data cards) grew 121% in 2008, though the range of devices is still very limited



• While WiMAX infrastructure revenue is subdued by the current global economic climate, strong CPE sales will drive overall mobile WiMAX market growth in 2009, as more services launch and new subscribers adopt WiMAX services for the first time



• In 2008, the number of fixed and mobile WiMAX subscribers hit 3.9 million, up 120% from CY07



• Alcatel-Lucent took the lead in annual worldwide mobile WiMAX revenue share overall in 2008, pushing Motorola into 2nd place; Alvarion's strong second half of 2008 edged them past Samsung for 3rd position



• A fierce vendor market share battle is playing out in the mobile WiMAX market, with Alvarion consolidating its top spot on the overall WiMAX equipment revenue market share leaderboard in 4Q08



• Huawei and Cisco continue to gain ground on the market leaders with a steady succession of both publicly announced and undisclosed WiMAX customer wins.

http://www.infonetics.com

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Thailand's CAT Telecom Selects ZTE for National Optical Backbone

Thailand's CAT Telecom has selected ZTE to construct a large-scale national backbone optical network covering the entire territory of Thailand. Financial terms were not disclosed. The two organizations have collaborated in previous projects.


Under the agreement, ZTE will provide CAT Telecom with its DWDM ZXWM M900 backbone transmission platform that will deployed over a network spanning some 10,000 kilometers. ZTE will also supply multiple ROADM (Re-configurable Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer) equipment that will be installed in different sites in Thailand. The network will be equipped with DWDM long-distance and provincial trunk lines, and local MANs (Metropolitan Area Network) that will extensively carry IP services, including 1GE, 10GE and other access services.
http://www.zte.com.cn

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Occam Networks Posts Q4 Revenue of $31.7 million, up 26% Sequentially

Occam Networks reported Q4 2008 revenue of $31.7 million, up 26 percent from the prior quarter and up 49 percent from the same quarter a year ago. Sequential revenue growth was primarily due to increased volume in the company's copper business.


Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2008 was $13.1 million, or 41% of revenue, compared with $10.8 million, or 43% of revenue, for the prior quarter. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2008 was impacted primarily by an inventory provision for certain product components. Gross margin for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $9.2 million, or 43% of revenue.


Net income (GAAP) available to common stockholders for the fourth quarter of 2008 was $1.1 million, or $0.06 per basic and diluted share, compared with a net loss of $659,000, or a loss of $0.03 per basic share, for the third quarter and with a net loss of $4.6 million, or a loss of $0.23 per basic share, for the fourth quarter of 2007.


"During the year, our key goal was to position Occam for profitability by growing our overall customer base and launching sales of our GPON product, and these drove the successful execution of our business during the quarter," said Bob Howard-Anderson, president and CEO of Occam. "During the quarter we also experienced some slowdown in bookings and have seen additional order delays during the first quarter, as customers reacted to the economic environment."


As a result of the current environment, the company anticipates first quarter 2009 revenues to approximate those of first quarter 2008. In addition, due to the economic uncertainty, the company will not be providing financial expectations for 2009 at this time.
http://www.occamnetworks.com

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Sonus Networks Posts Q4 Revenue of $89.5 Million

Sonus Networks reported revenue for Q4 2008 of $89.5 million, compared to $62.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 and $97.1 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. The company's loss from continuing operations on a GAAP basis was $99.0 million, or $0.37 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to a loss from continuing operations of $19.0 million, or $0.07 per share, for the third quarter of 2008, and income from continuing operations of $14.7 million, or $0.05 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2007.

"We continue to make progress on aligning the business to our market opportunity," said Richard Nottenburg, president and chief executive officer of Sonus Networks. "We are focusing our investments on delivering products and services which enhance the value proposition we bring to customers, and we believe the actions we are taking will further strengthen our competitive position for the time when the economic recovery commences and we return to growth mode."

http://www.sonusnet.com

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Vonage Ends 2008 with 2.6 million Lines in Service

Vonage Holdings reported full year 2008 revenue of $900 million, up 9 percent from $828 million in 2007. Net loss excluding debt extinguishment costs narrowed to $34 million from $93 million excluding certain charges. GAAP net loss was $65 million or $0.41 per share in 2008.


Marc Lefar, Vonage Chief Executive Officer, said, "We improved our financial position throughout 2008, and for the first time in Vonage's history, delivered adjusted operating profit and positive cash from operations for a full year. Vonage also delivered record level pre-marketing operating income(1) reflecting increasing levels of cash generated by the existing customer base. This progress occurred despite the uncertainty and challenges of the current economy."


"While our financial performance was sound, we fell short in our ability to substantially grow our subscriber base. However, we are confident Vonage has significant opportunities to create future value for shareholders," Mr. Lefar said. "Not only is the business model solid, but the market opportunity for digital voice remains robust."


Some highlights:

• Revenue in 2008 increased 3 percent from the prior year to $222 million driven by an increase in average revenue per line (ARPU) and subscriber lines. Revenue declined 2 percent sequentially as a result of a decline in ARPU.



• ARPU was $28.33, up from $28.19 in the year-ago quarter and down from $28.75 sequentially. Telephony services ARPU was $27.28, down from $27.42 reported a year ago and $27.52 sequentially. The sequential decline in telephony services ARPU was the result of a decline in currency value of the Canadian dollar and British pound and an adjustment in international revenue which totaled $0.33. Excluding these impacts, telephony services ARPU increased $0.09 sequentially.



• The company lost 14,700 net subscriber lines, finishing the quarter with more than 2.6 million lines in service. Churn declined to 2.9% from 3.0% sequentially.

http://www.vonage.com

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JDSU Expands its CWDM/DWDM Line

JDSU released of new additions to its WaveReady product line of scalable optical transport solutions designed for access and metro optical networks. Added to the portfolio are a 10 Gbps tunable transponder with forward error correction (FEC), a power balancing system, and a 40-channel universal multiplexer/de-multiplexer.

• The WaveReady WRT-852, a compact C-Band or L-Band tunable transponder with Forward Error Correction (FEC) designed for reliable and cost effective transport of 10 Gbps services. The WRT-852 supports the transport of multiple services, including OTN, SONET/SDH, Ethernet, and Fibre Channel. The WRT-852 improves the transmission performance of 10 Gbps services with Forward Error Correction (FEC) and provides statistics on SONET/SDH and Ethernet traffic;



• The WaveReady WRS-05AD1C00B, providing per-channel power balancing capabilities for tunable, amplified networks; and



• The WaveReady 40-channel Universal Multiplexer, featuring high isolation and low insertion loss in a compact platform compatible with point-to-point or OADM deployments.

http://www.jdsu.com/waveready

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BroadSoft Enhances its BroadWorks Platform

BroadSoft introduced new product enhancements to its BroadWorks VoIP application platform that allow telecommunications service providers to simplify the deployment of hosted business communications solutions. New device management functionality that enables service providers to pre-configure end-user access devices.



BroadSoft said the ability to pre-configure devices solves one of the most complex and time-consuming phases of delivering VoIP services. Traditionally, providers need to either pre-provision devices before shipment, rely on standalone FTP servers to store files or provision each phone at the customer site, all of which take time and require experienced technicians.


Through BroadSoft Device Management, providers can quickly provision analog terminal adapters (ATAs), IP phones, integrated access devices (IADs) and IP PBX equipment -- any access device that uses XML/HTTP for profile management -- at the customer site. A simple login process is used to retrieve the appropriate user-specific files directly from BroadWorks. Providers manage and control all aspects of device configuration centrally in the network, reducing the time it takes to provision phones from hours to minutes and eliminating the need for a technician visit.


To further ease the deployment of Hosted VoIP solutions, BroadSoft and Polycom introduced a new phone-based login capability for Polycom IP phones. Leveraging BroadSoft's Xtended Services Platform, Polycom developed a "Quick Setup" key that is activated when the phone is powered up. This new key enables users to directly retrieve their phone's configuration files from the BroadWorks platform via a one-time secure phone login. With this capability, it is no longer necessary to individually match physical Polycom phones to users, saving time and expenses for service providers and providing flexibility to end users.
http://www.BroadSoft.com

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Deutsche Telekom Plans Tighter Mobile/Wireline Integration

Deutsche Telekom intends to adopt more of a regional focus with greater emphasis on integration between its wireline and wireless operations.


"The distinction between our fixed-line and mobile operations will be abolished. We intend to bundle product development, IT and technology across Europe in future," stressed Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann. "We have already proved with integrated mobile and fixed-network sales in Germany that we are capable of increasing our market share by working more closely together." At the same time, René Obermann made clear that this was not a staff reduction program. Agreement had been reached with the employee representatives on the key points for implementation on a cooperative basis."


The concept for this new Deutsche Telekom was presented by René Obermann to the company's Supervisory Board and the Board of Management.


Some of the aspects of this transformation include:

• The sales, marketing and customer service functions for German mobile and fixed-network business will be consolidated in one Board of Management department in future.



• Products and innovation, IT and technology will be managed at a pan-European level, procurement globally. This function is to be bundled in the new Board of Management department for Operations (COO).



• a Board department was created for South Eastern Europe. Guido Kerkhoff (41), previously Head of Group Accounting and Controlling, will immediately start setting up this new Board department as a member of the Board of Management.



• Timotheus Höttges (46) has been appointed as the company's new CFO with effect from March 1.



• Niek Jan van Damme (47) will take the lead at T-Home, Sales & Service, Mr. van Damme will take on responsibility for the sales, marketing and service activities of the fixed-network and mobile operations in Germany from mid-2009.

Deutsche Telekom said this new management structure is a continuation of a strategy that has proven successful to date. Deutsche Telekom has already had success with integrated mobile and fixed-network sales in Germany and Hungary. The coordination of product development, networks and IT systems has also been successfully implemented at T-Mobile International. In the future, other functions will also be managed on an integrated basis -- such as marketing, human resources and finance.
http://www.deutschetelekom.com/media

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Telstra on "Upward Glide Path" Exiting 2008, But Calling Volume Slows

Noting that it continues to outperform domestic and global peers in key products and segments, Telstra reported a strong first half result with free cash flow growing by 44% to $1.9 billion.


Telstra's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Sol Trujillo, said: "We are on an upward glide path to hit our key targets for 2010 and beyond for free cash flow, margins, returns and top line growth. Telstra is seeing world class growth in core businesses such as wireless services, broadband, IP business services, advertising and media services, despite Australia facing the most volatile and challenging economic conditions for decades. The growth more than offsets the 5.1% decline in PSTN revenue. The decline was skewed to the wholesale business with retail PSTN revenues falling only 1.8%."


However, the company said its fiscal 2009 results are being affected by reduced calling volumes, as people manage their usage down more than expected in the deteriorating macro environment. Telstra expects revenue growth in the range of 3-4% this year and EBITDA growth in the range of 5-6% (previously 6-7%) and EBIT growth in the range of 3-5% (previously 6-8%).


Other key financial results include:

• Sales revenue grew 3.2% to $12,644 million, while total revenue grew 2.7% to $12,710 million.



• Reported EBITDA rose 3.1% to $5,334 million. Reported EBIT fell 1.3% to $3,079 million, in line with expectations.



• Retail business units grew revenue 4.1% or 5.1% excluding handset sales.



• Mobile services revenue grew 12.4%, with 284,000 postpaid SIOs added. Total mobile ARPU grew almost 10% to $53. At the end of December, the wireless broadband SIO base reached 828k, which is close to 50% of the total market.



• Retail broadband revenue grew 31.3%, with fixed broadband SIO growth three times our nearest competitor.



• IP Access data revenue grew 28%.



• Foxtel revenues grew 13%.



• Sensis grew sales revenue 8.4%.



• Full time employment levels were reduced by 1,300, bringing the total reduction to more than 10,000 since 2005.



• Retail broadband revenue in the half was $1,204 million, up 31.3% year-on-year. The number of customers on high-speed broadband plans (20Mbps or more) more than doubled to 200,000 helping ARPU increase 6.1%.



• IP and data revenue growth accelerated to 10.7%, driven by a 28.2% increase in IP access revenue to $323 million.

http://www.telstra.com

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Sol Trujillo to Step Down as Telstra CEO on June 30

Sol Trujillo will step down as chief executive of Telstra effective 30-June-2009. Trujillo and the company's Board agreed that now was a suitable time for a transition to a new CEO. The company will now formally commence a wide-ranging search for a suitable successor.



Prior to joining Telstra in 2005, Trujillo was CEO of London-based Orange, the first American to lead a CAC-40 company; President and CEO of US West Dex Inc.; President and CEO of US West Communications; and CEO and Chairman of US West Inc.


"Telstra is outperforming domestic and global peers in virtually every category. We are well positioned to hit the key transformation targets we set in November 2005 and I have every confidence that Telstra will continue to deliver world-leading results for shareholders," Trujillo said.
http://www.telstra.com

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Cisco Names Rob Lloyd as EVP of Worldwide Operations

Cisco has named Robert Lloyd, 52 as its Executive Vice President (EVP) of Worldwide Operations, replacing
Richard Justice, who is stepping down from his day-to-day responsibilities due to health reasons. Justice will remain at Cisco as a part-time executive advisor to Chairman and CEO John Chambers.


In his new role, Lloyd will report directly to Chairman and CEO John Chambers, and will be responsible for oversight of Cisco's Worldwide Sales, Worldwide Channels, Internet Business Solutions Group and Strategic Alliances organizations. Corporate Development, also previously within Justice's organization, will now report directly to Chambers under the continued leadership of Senior Vice President (SVP) Ned Hooper. Lloyd has worked at Cisco for 14 years, most recently as SVP of U.S., Canada and Japan Operations.
http://www.cisco.com

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Telefónica Posts Continued Growth Driven by Mobiles in Latin America

Driven by mobile growth in Latin America (+12.9%), Telefónica posted full-year 2008 financial results that were ahead of market expectations. Despite the prevailing operating environment, Telefónica posted growth in all income areas: topline growth was 7.3% (prior guidance range: 6%-8%), OIBDA growth was 10.6% (prior guidance range: 7.5%-11%), while growth in operating profit exceeded guidance at 20.4% (prior guidance range: 13%-19%).


Telefónica's total accesses grew by 13.2% versus 2007 to around 259 million. This growth was driven by the increases in wireless (+16.6%), broadband (+20.9%) and pay TV (+29.7%) accesses. By region, the contribution by Telefónica Latinoamérica is especially noteworthy, with over 158 million accesses across the region at the end of December (up 18.0% on December 2007).


Some highlights:

• Telefónica earmarked 69% of free cash flow to shareholder remuneration both in dividend payments and share buybacks.



• CapEx in the full year amounted to 8,401 million euros, up 4.7% on 2007. This increase was mainly driven by investment in broadband, pay TV and expansion of the coverage and capacity of wireless networks in Latin America.



• By access type, the Telefónica Group's wireless accesses stood at approximately 196 million at the end of 2008, with 6.7 million net adds in the fourth quarter and around 24 million6 in the full year. The main countries contributors to net adds were Brazil (7.5 million), Mexico (2.8 million), Peru (2.5 million) and Germany (1.7 million).



• Retail internet broadband accesses stood at around 12.5 million, a year-on-year increase of 21%, driven by the growing penetration of voice, ADSL and pay-TV bundles. In fact, in Spain over 85% of retail broadband accesses are bundled as part of some kind of dual or triple service package while in Latin America 49% of retail broadband accesses are bundled as part of Duo or Trio packages. In the fourth quarter net adds amounted to 0.4 million accesses, with a total of 2.1 million accesses in the full year, of which 1.0 million originated in Latin America, 0.6 million in Spain and 0.5 million in Europe.



• Pay TV accesses stood at over 2.2 million at the end of 2008, up almost 30% on the prior year, driven by net adds of 109,500 in the fourth quarter and some 519,500 in the year. At the end of 2008, the company offered pay TV services in Spain, the Czech Republic, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Brazil and Venezuela.



• In absolute terms, Telefónica Latinoamérica accounted for 38.3% of total Group revenues in 2008 (+2.7 percentage points from 2007), with Telefónica España and Telefónica Europe accounting for 36.0% and 24.7%, respectively.



• At the end of 2008, Telefónica España managed 47.3 million accesses, a year-on-year increase of 2.0%, boosted by a 3.4% advance in mobile accesses (to over 23.6 million) and 13.7% growth in wireline retail broadband Internet accesses to over 5.2 million. Telefónica had an estimated 14% share of the Pay TV market in Spain at year-end, having added 22,943 customers in the fourth quarter and 101,407 in 2008, leading to a total of 612,494 customers (up 19.8% year-on-year). The Spanish wireless market totalled 53.1 million lines at the end of 2008, with an estimated penetration rate of 116% (an increase of more than five percentage points from December 2007).



• At the end of 2008 Telefónica Latinoamérica managed 158.3 million accesses in the region, 24 million more than in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 18.0%.



• Telefónica Latinoamérica had a total of 123.4 million mobile accesses (+22.7% compared with December 2007; +18.1% in organic terms18), with solid growth across all its operations. This increase is due both to the larger number of gross adds reported in the year (+17.8%; +14.2% in organic terms19), and the strong performance of churn, which remained stable compared with 2007. The largest increases in mobile accesses were reported in: Brazil, where Telefónica strengthened its position as market leader with almost 45 million mobile accesses (11.5 million more than in December 2007, with close to 4 million added following the acquisition of Telemig in April 2008); Mexico, where Telefónica continues to gain market share thanks to 22.3% year-on-year growth in its customer base to 15.3 million; Peru, where customer numbers increased by 31.6% year-on-year to over 10.6 million mobile accesses; and Colombia, where accesses grew by 19.0% to almost 10 million customers. The Company also performed well in markets with high penetration levels, such as Argentina, Chile and Venezuela where it continues to achieve significant year-on-year increases in its customer.

http://www.telefonica.es

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Belgium's VOO Deploys ADVA's Optical+Ethernet

VOO, the leading provider of cable television service to Belgium's
Brussels and Wallonia regions, is interconnecting distribution networks and centralizing transport platforms with the implementation of a new Optical+Ethernet solution from ADVA Optical Networking, supported by
system integrator Arcadiz Telecom.


VOO serves more than 1.2 million business and residential customers. Following the merger of multiple sub-regional
networks, VOO found itself rapidly integrating disparate networks spanning more than 2,000km


The ADVA FSP 3000 multi-haul platform forms the basis of a 10 Gbps optical backbone. The same platform was chosen to support the multiple 1 Gbps metro access rings that feed the service provider's backhaul network. In order to deliver transparent sub-Gbps connections, the ADVA FSP 150 forms the critical demarcation point for the services VOO
provides to its enterprise and carrier customers. The complete solution is managed by the ADVA Network Manager (NM), which enables carrier-class management functionality across all network elements, both optical and Ethernet.


Systems integrator Arcadiz Telecom, which designed the solution, partnered with ADVA Optical Networking for the deployment of the network and will provide ongoing maintenance and support of VOO's network moving
forward.
http://www.advaoptical.com
http://www.voo.be

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Holland's Ziggo Selects ADVA's FSP 3000 Platform

Ziggo, the Netherlands' top provider of cable television, digital television, Internet services and telephony, has deployed a new 10 Gbps C/DWDM (Coarse/Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) network from ADVA Optical Networking, supported by system integrator Arcadiz Telecom. The network is built on the ADVA FSP 3000, which provides Ziggo a scalable platform for delivering voice, video and Internet services to its almost 8 million customers. In addition, the network supports business Ethernet services.


ADVA's solution converges the disparate legacy networks of three former telecom operators, Casema, Essent Kabelcom and Multikabel, onto a standardized, integrated 10 Gbps backbone.
http://www.advaoptical.com/http://www.ziggo.nl

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Apparent Raises $12 Million for Network Path-based Mgt for Clouds

Apparent Networks, a start-up based in Wellesley Hills, Mass., raised an upsized $12 million in Series C funding for its performance management solution for cloud applications.


Apparent Networks provides a means for assessing, measuring and diagnosing complex networks, including LANs, WANs and service providers' clouds. The company's patented path-based solutions deliver end-to-end insight into the entire application path, including areas previously beyond the network manager's line of sight. Apparent Networks said it enables users to quickly and efficiently identify problems within their own networks, their carriers' clouds, and even their customers' environments.


The new funding was led by Egan-Managed Capital and supported by existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, JMI Equity and Business Development Bank of Canada.
http://www.apparentnetworks.com

• Apparent Networks is headed by Jack Sweeney (CEO), who previously was president and CEO of Network Intelligence Corp., which was acquired by EMC for $175 million in 2006. Post-acquisition, he served as Vice President of mergers and acquisitions for EMC. Earlier in his career, Jack was president and CEO of Stargus (acquired by C-Cor, Inc.), CEO of EPiCON (acquired by Nortel for $450 million), and CEO of Bell Atlantic Network Integration, which grew to $330 million in revenues under his leadership.
  

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Ocarina Raises $20 Million for Storage Optimization

Ocarina Networks, a start-up based in San Jose, California, closed a $20 million Series B round of financing for its online storage optimization technology.


Ocarina's leverages patented content-aware compression and object deduplication technologies to reduce the space taken by online file data by up to 90%. This is accomplished in three steps: extract, correlate and optimize. As a result, the company claims this can drastically reduce capital and operational expenses for businesses faced with soaring storage costs.


Ocarina has also joined forces with a majority of the industry's leading primary storage vendors to integrate or co-market its solutions. These Ocarina-enabled solutions seamlessly snap into existing storage systems and allow customers to store the same amount of data on significantly fewer disks, freeing up space for new files, and reducing capital expenditures without compromising capacity or performance.


The new funding was led by JAFCO Ventures with significant participation from Series A investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Highland Capital Partners. As part of this transaction, Joe Horowitz, a general partner of JAFCO Ventures, will join the Ocarina Board of Directors.
http://www.ocarinanetworks.com

• Ocarina is headed by Murli Thirumale (CEO), who previously was Group Vice President and GM of the Citrix Advanced Solutions Group, where he led the SSL-VPN division (acquired via Net6).

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Support Grows for ITU-T G.hn Standard

HomeGrid Forum, a non-profit trade group promoting United Nations' ITU-T G.hn standardization efforts, announced new agreements with the Consumer Electronics Powerline Communication Alliance (CEPCA), HomePNA Alliance, and Universal Powerline Association (UPA). These organizations include the world's top consumer electronics manufacturers, service providers, PC manufacturers, network equipment manufacturers, semiconductor, and software companies. The organizations agreed to promote G.hn and ensure co-existence between G.hn-based products and those using other current generation powerline, phoneline, and coax networking technologies.
http://www.HomeGridForum.org/

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Nokia Siemens Networks wins EUR 880 Million Contracts in China

China Mobile and China Unicom
have signed framework agreements with Nokia Siemens Networks valued at 7.6 billion RMB (approx. EUR 880 million). Specifically, the carriers agreed to purchase 2G and 3G mobile equipments and services from Nokia Siemens Networks during 2009.

Under the framework agreements Nokia Siemens Networks will roll out WCDMA networks for China Unicom in 11 provinces across China. In addition, it will provide China Mobile with TD-SCDMA and GSM networks. The framework agreements were key items on the agenda of the China-Europe Purchasing Delegation currently visiting Germany.


Commenting on the signing of the agreement was Zhang Zhiqiang, head of Greater China Region, Nokia Siemens Networks, "We have always played a key role in the development of China's telecom sector. With the country gearing up for the launch of 3G services, we are once again in a competitive position to leverage our experience across both WCDMA and TD-SCDMA technologies and roll-out services to support the plans of Chinese operators."http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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HP to Distribute Sun Solaris on HP ProLiant Servers

HP has agreed to distribute and provide software technical support for Sun's Solaris 10 Operating System on the HP ProLiant server and blade system platforms.

Under the terms of a new multi-year original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and support agreement, Sun becomes a strategic HP ProLiant OS distribution partner and Solaris is now elevated to the lineup of key operating environments for the HP ProLiant platform.


"The endorsement of Solaris on HP ProLiant dramatically expands the available market for Solaris on x86 servers, building on the largest installed-base of any commercial UNIX and Linux distribution," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems, Sun Microsystems.
http://sun.com
http://www.hp.com

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Alloptic Selects Xelerated's Wirespeed Network Processor

Alloptic has chosen Xelerated's X11 network processor unit (NPU) for deployment in its Edge10 EPON system. Based on Xelerated's wirespeed dataflow architecture, the X11 is a high-function, low-cost processor that enables Alloptic to extend its access network portfolio into the next generation of GEPON and 10GEPON systems for network operators and enterprises.
http://www.xelerated.com
http://www.alloptic.com

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Tata Communications Expands with London 2 Data Centre

Tata Communications announced it plans for London 2, a Tier-3 data centre, that will provide a state-of-the-art environment for supporting mission critical infrastructures, with advanced cooling, power, redundancy, and sustainability features to ensure that Tata Communications client's critical systems and applications are readily available while optimizing energy efficiency. The 21,400 square foot London 2 data centre will be ready for service during the second quarter of 2009. Located 25 miles from London, the highly secure data centre facility was built by Digital Realty Trust, the world's largest wholesale data centre provider, and contains two individually segregated, maintainable data halls that receive six megawatts of power from diversely routed supplies.


As Tata Communications third data centre opened in the UK, London 2 brings the company's total data centre footprint in the region to over 50,000 square feet. The company owns and operates data centres on three continents totaling nearly one million square feet of space.


Tata Communications said it has seen a dramatic growth in the number of UK companies looking to outsource their hosted IT operations as they look to rationalize costs and free up capital. Increasingly, the lack of power in the City of London has seen many firms seek to move operations outside the M25 and into a managed service environment to lower their cost of ownership, improve performance and reduce downtime of their IT investment.
http://www.tatacommunications.com

• On February 12, Tata Communications' announced plans to invest USD $180 million in development of data centre and associated services in Singapore.



• Tata Communications' Global Network encompasses one of the largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network, with connectivity to more than 200 countries across 300 Pops, and more than 1 million square feet of data centre and colocation facilities.

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BT Global Services Delivers "Laptop Protection" Powered by Alcatel-Lucent

BT Global Services will begin offering laptop data protection service based on Alcatel-Lucent's laptop security technology.



Alcatel-Lucent's technology ensures that if a laptop is reported lost or stolen, all data held on the device can be immediately and automatically destroyed, even if the computer is turned off. It also enables organizations to take remote control of any laptop in order to apply security patches or track its location.


"Laptop Protection from BT MobileXpress" is available now in the UK, and is targeted for launch in Spring 2009 in Benelux, France and Germany, with further launches planned.
http://www.bt.com/aboutbt

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Dominican Republic's Codetel Launches IPTV service with Alcatel-Lucent

Compania Dominicana de Telefonos (Codetel), the leading telecommunications operator in the Dominican Republic, launched a nationwide IPTV offering, providing subscribers across the country with TV programming, video on demand and other multimedia content services. Enhanced features include picture in picture, karaoke entertainment and digital video recording.


The new IPTV service is supported by Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end IPTV solution, including the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia software platform. The service complements Codetel's existing voice and broadband Internet access service, enabling the operator to offer one of the first complete "triple play" packages in the Caribbean. To complete the solution, Alcatel-Lucent is providing professional services such as network integration, project management, network design and optimization and maintenance.


Alcatel-Lucent noted that is middleware solutions support more than 2 million IPTV subscribers, representing more than 13 percent of all IPTV subscribers worldwide. The company is involved in more than 55 triple play service delivery architecture (TPSDA) deployments and more than 60 IPTV transformation and integration projects.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Motorola Supplies Real Time Video Surveillance in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi police force has awarded a contract to Motorola to provide an end to end wireless mobile video surveillance solution for the force's vehicles and personnel. The contract will see Motorola supplying the latest from its
MOTOA4 mission critical portfolio and delivering innovative and reliable wireless solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The new service will enable control room operators to interact with the video system that delivers real time streaming of video from police vehicles and personnel; in contrast to previous solutions that used recorded video. Not only will the service allow live streaming of video, it will also provide local recording of high resolution video.


Motorola said a core aspect of the new contract is the provision of the MotoLocator service, the primary purpose of which is to provide location-based video surveillance from police in the field back to the control room. The service, which also shows all the force vehicles on a map, will enable control room operators and management to have real-time knowledge of what is happening in the field and allow them to respond on that basis.
http://www.motorola.com

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Canada's Shaw Pick Motorola for DOCSIS 3.0-enabled services

Shaw Communications has committed to deploy a DOCSIS 3.0-qualified cable modem termination system (CMTS) containing Motorola BSR 64000 TX32 Decoupled Downstream Modules, and DOCSIS 3.0-certified SURFboard cable modems. Shaw is a long standing Motorola customer. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The TX32 downstream module slides directly into one of the 16-slots of the Motorola BSR 64000 chassis, ultimately offering a five-fold increase in bandwidth capacity while reducing the cost per downstream channel. The Motorola TX32 supports 32 QAM channels in a single slot within the Motorola BSR 64000 CMTS/edge router. The solution enables cable operators to deliver significantly increased bandwidth for whole-home media services to new DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 3.0 cable modems, such as Motorola's SURFboard SB6120 cable and SBV6220 digital voice modems, while preserving operator investment in legacy DOCSIS/EuroDOCSIS 1.x and 2.0 cable modems.
http://www.motorola.com

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Nortel Announces Additional 3,200 Job Cuts

Nortel intends to reduce its workforce by an additional net 3,200 positions worldwide. The company expects to carry out these reductions over the next several months, in accordance with local country legal requirements. These new reductions are incremental to the 1,800 remaining reductions from previously announced plans that require completion.


As previously announced, Nortel confirmed that it is working with several parties, including its creditors, to define the best plan forward to present to the bankruptcy courts. The company hopes to emerge from the creditor protection process as a more focused and competitive company.


In addition, Nortel's Board of Directors has approved management's recommendation to not pay any bonuses under the Nortel Annual Incentive Plan (AIP) for 2008. In addition, Nortel is seeking Canadian court approval to terminate its equity based compensation plans, including all outstanding equity under the plans (including stock options, restricted stock units and performance stock units), whether vested or unvested, and no further equity will be awarded in 2009. http://www.nortel.com/restructuring

• Nortel announced its bankruptcy filing on 14-January-2009.

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Juniper Outlines Next Gen Silicon and Data Center Visions

Juniper Networks is uniquely focused as a "pure play" in high-performance networking said company CEO Kevin Johnson, speaking at Juniper's Analyst Day conference in San Mateo, California. While the downturn has impacted the company's near-term sales visibility, Johnson said Juniper remains focused on its the long-term margins and the value proposition of high-performance networking, a segment it believes must rebound to handle the challenges of billions of interconnected devices on a global scale. By 2012, the company foresees a global market of 5 billion overall Internet connections, including 1.5 billion broadband lines, 120 million FTTH lines and 700 million smartphones.


Johnson said Juniper will continue a partnership strategy with other technology players rather than pursue big acquisitions.


Assuming challenging economic conditions will continue in the near term, Juniper has implemented a number of measures to trim its operational expenses. These cost reduction actions include realigning the employee bonus plan; implementing a 5% pay cut for VPs and above; mandatory PTO shutdowns; releasing contractors; eliminating merit pay increases; implementing a headcount freeze excluding R&D; reducing employee mobility; freezing all non-essential travel; and canceling travel for internal meetings. Kevin Johnson has also taken a 10% cut in base salary. Earlier this quarter, Juniper realigned its organization and approximately 100 employees were let go.


However, Juniper expects its R&D investments will increase in 2009 vs. 2008 to capitalize on the high performance networking vision.


On the technology front, Pradeep Sindhu, Juniper's CTO and founder, said high-performance networking can be distinguished by five factors: scalability, speed, reliability, security and simplicity. Juniper's Junos operating system is the crown jewel for mastering each of these technical challenges. Sindhu noted that there has been a 4X increase in network system capacity every two years since Juniper was founded. This boost has been enabled by Juniper's custom silicon, which outperforms merchant silicon. To keep this trend going, Sindhu unveiled plans for Juniper's next generation network instruction set processor (NISP). Calling this a fundamental advance in networking silicon, Sindhu said key features of the NISP will include:

• based on 65nm technology versus current 90nm


• 4 chips in the set


• 1.2 billion transistors


• 604 Gbps of internal throughput


• can be used for fabric engines, core engines, edge engines and services engines

Rollout schedules were not discussed.


Juniper also disclosed "The Stratus Project", a multi-year company initiative to build a next-gen fabric for cloud computing data centers. Stratus is a type of flat, single-layer cloud. Using this model, Juniper intends to create a new data center network architecture capable of scaling to tens of thousands of 10GigE ports while offering an order of magnitude reduction in latency. Security would be virtualized in the cloud and the entire infrastructure would be managed by a single, large Junos switch. Sindhu noted that legacy Ethernet, Infiniband and Fibre Channel all have shortcomings as an ideal data center networking protocol, so the company is pursuing a breakthrough replacement. Juniper's Stratus Project will leverage its next generation silicon technology, however, for competitive reasons, said the company is not yet ready to disclose product names, milestones, pricing or availability. Stratus will build on Juniper's L4-7 expertise while relying on key partners for storage and computing.


The Stratus Project is being developed by a new Data Center Business Group, which will be led by Dr. David Yen, Executive Vice President. The company said its Stratus research has resulted in more than 30 patent applications filed to date.


On the marketing front, Juniper is revamping its branding, launching a new company website, and launching a new advertising campaign with the theme "Demand More from Your Network." The company's previous "Toons" advertising has been retired.
http://www.juniper.net

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Juniper Adds 24-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch

Juniper Networks is expanding its EX Ethernet switching product portfolio with a new EX2500 line of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switches targeted at high-density 10GbE deployments. The EX2500 line of 10GbE Ethernet switches offer twenty-four 10 GbE SFP+ ports that deliver wire-speed performance and 700 nanosecond latency. The EX2500 line of Ethernet switches will be offered as fixed-configuration Ethernet platforms. Key features include:

• Wire-rate Performance: The EX2500 Series will support 480 Gigabit per second (Gbps) throughput (full duplex) in a 1 rack-unit (RU) footprint. All ports are non-blocking with deterministic latency of less than 700 nanoseconds.



• Deployment Flexibility: The EX2500 Series will support both back-to-front and front-to-back cooling, which will deliver deployment flexibility and consistency with server designs for hot- and cold-aisle layouts. The result will be that network ports can always have the best proximity, front or rear-facing, to allow closer proximity to server ports and thus, keep cable lengths short and easily managed, and performance optimized.



• High Availability: The EX2500 Series will offer both power and fan redundancy as standard features. The EX2500 Series will come with dual, load-sharing power supplies, as well as redundant, variable-speed fans to protect from single power supply or fan failure.



• Energy Efficiency: The EX2500 Series will improve availability and cooling efficiency via redundant variable speed fans. The variable speed fans will automatically adjust speed under variant conditions to reduce power consumption.

The EX2500 Series is expected to be available in 2Q 2009. The list price for the EX2500 Series starts at US$18,000.


Juniper's EX Series switching family now includes the EX2500, EX3200, EX4200 and new EX8200 lines.




http://www.juniper.net/switch

• In November 2008, Juniper Networks introduced a data center switching solution that leverages its EX series Ethernet switches, high-densities of 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports, JUNOS operating software and "virtualized chassis" technology. Essentially, the new data switching solution aims to remove an entire tier of aggregation switches and supporting security platforms typically seen in today's mid-to-large sized corporate data centers. Juniper achieves this by allowing up to ten 48-port EX 4200 switches to be logically aggregated into a single virtual switch. This saves interconnect and uplink ports, as well as eliminates the need to deploy the typical panoply of security appliances. A single SRX-series platform can now serve this role. Juniper estimates its data center architecture can significantly reduce network complexity and total cost of ownership by up to 52 percent in capital expenditures, up to 44 percent in power, up to 44 percent in cooling and up to 55 percent in rack space. In addition, by deploying Juniper MX-series edge routers, IP/MPLS Layer 3 VPNs can be mapped via the EX switches directly to individual servers in the data center. Mirroring and back-up applications can also be mapped via VPNs to secondary data centers.

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Ikanos VDSL2 Chipsets Selected by Alloptic for GigE PON Terminals

Alloptic has selected Ikanos Communications' VDSL2 central office (CO) and customer premises equipment (CPE) chipsets for integration into the Xgen7500 gigabit Ethernet passive optical network terminal (ONT). The Ikanos chipsets enable the Xgen7500 to deliver 24 ports of up to 100 Mbps voice, data and video services over traditional copper wiring.


Ikanos' multimode FxTM100100-5 VDSL2 CO and FxTM100100S-5 VDSL2 CPE chipsets are optimized for IPTV and triple play offerings -- offer service providers a seamless migration path on which they can maximize their existing investments in broadband infrastructure.


"The Ikanos chipsets allow us to provide an incredibly cost-effective solution for high-speed access from a temperature-hardened ONT in brownfield situations. These locations include residential neighborhoods, business parks and multi-dwelling units of all kinds -- apartments, office buildings, dormitories -- where replacing existing copper wiring with fiber optics is expensive and often impractical," said Shane Eleniak, vice president of marketing and business development for Alloptic.
http://www.ikanos.com
http://www.alloptic.com

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VISTO to Acquire Good Technology From Motorola

VISTO, which offers a mobile push and synchronization platform for service providers, will acquire Motorola's Good Technology division. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close by the end of February.


Good Technology specializes in offering wireless messaging, mobile VPN data access, device management and handheld security for enterprise customers worldwide. The addition of Good's service offerings in the U.S. Europe and Asia will enable VISTO to provide its government and enterprise customers with a broader range of secure mobile offerings.


"This transaction marks another important milestone in VISTO's emergence as a worldwide leader for mobile access to applications and content, especially messaging and collaboration data. Good's robust enterprise and government solution will complement VISTO's strong operator presence in business and consumer markets," said Brian A. Bogosian, CEO of VISTO. "As a result of this transaction, VISTO will now provide customers in over 100 countries an open, robust and secure mobile experience for enterprise customers, on over 400 different mobile devices."


Visto is based in Redwood Shores, California, and has offices in Seattle, Toronto, London, Milan, Paris, Madrid, Dusseldorf, and Tianjin, China. The Company is backed by Oak Investment Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Altitude Capital Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, DFJ ePlanet Ventures, DFJ Growth Fund, Rustic Canyon Ventures, GKM Newport, Stanford Accelerator and Blueprint Ventures.
http://www.visto.com
http://www.motorola.com

• In November 2006. Motorola acquired Good Technology, a supplier of enterprise mobile computing software and service, for an undisclosed sum. At the time, Good's mobile messaging client was supported on the newly launched Motorola Q handheld, among other devices. Good Technology's software and service offerings enable wireless messaging, data access and handheld security. Good Mobile Messaging and Good Mobile Intranet solutions extend enterprise applications - including Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Domino, intranets and certain web-enabled corporate applications - to mobile employees by using end-to-end AES encrypted, FIPS 140-2 certified security, and cradle-free, real-time two-way wireless synchronization.

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Motorola Reinforces Commitment to TD-LTE

Motorola re-confirmed its pursuit of Time Division Duplex Long-Term Evolution (TD-LTE) commercialization, saying it has agreed to collaborate with operators on TD-LTE trials to be conducted during 2009.


As one of the leaders in LTE RAN contributions, Motorola supports both TD-LTE and Frequency Division Duplex LTE (FDD-LTE). Motorola is planning an LTE ecosystem to support the early deployments from Q4 2009 to mid-2010.


Motorola noted that it is a member of the LTE/System Architecture Evolution (SAE) Trial Initiative (LSTI). This industry group is driving the acceleration of commercial and inter-operable next-generation LTE mobile broadband systems through the collaborative efforts of leading telecommunications companies worldwide. The LSTI helps support Motorola's dedication and technology advancements that will deliver the media mobility experiences that consumers expect.


Motorola's LTE solution is comprised of its OFDM broadband platform and a selection of radio options that include MIMO and smart antennas. The portfolio includes frame based-mounted radios, remote radio heads and tower top radios to support a wide variety of LTE deployment scenarios across a wide variety of spectrum bands to meet the needs of the global market.


http://www.motorola.com

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Motorola Hits 1 Million TETRA Terminals Milestone

Motorola announced the shipment of its one millionth TETRA terminal. The customer receiving this milestone terminal is the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF).


Motorola will supply TETRA portable devices, including MTH800 terminals, MTM800 Enhanced mobiles and CM5000 TETRA Gateway repeaters for use on JAF's TETRA network, providing increased security across Jordan.


Motorola shipped its first TETRA terminal in the late 1990s.
http://www.motorola.com

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Global Crossing Pursues Multiple-Partner Content Delivery Network Services

Global Crossing plans to enter the market for content delivery network (CDN) services by forming relationships with several vendors. The company's entry into the CDN market would enable the company to offer customers industry-leading solutions for the delivery of rich media content and enterprise applications.


Global Crossing said its strategy to partner with multiple CDN partners promises to improve customer satisfaction by allowing its customers to select the right CDN solution for the appropriate business requirement. Businesses often employ multiple CDNs to take advantage of best-in-class services for specific requirements.


"We're combining the advantages of our industry-leading Global IP backbone with market-leading CDN services to simplify content delivery through an end-to-end solution," said Dave Carey, Global Crossing's chief marketing officer. "This strategy will enhance the significant cost and performance benefits of our IP data offerings and build upon our commitment to provide a full suite of services that allow multi-national corporations to focus on their core businesses."http://www.globalcrossing.com

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Marvell Introduces SheevaPlug for Mini Home Server

Marvell announced its Plug Computing initiative to make high-performance, always on, always connected, and environmentally friendly computing. A Plug Computer is defined as something that is small enough to plug directly into a wall socket and is designed to draw so little power that it can be left on all of the time. Unlike other embedded devices in the home, it contains a gigahertz class processor to offer PC class performance. Such a device could be used as a home server or network controller.


The SheevaPlug development platform uses a Marvell Kirkwood processor based on an embedded 1.2GHz Sheeva CPU equipped with 512 Mbytes of FLASH and 512 Mbytes of DRAM. Connection to the home network is via Gigabit Ethernet. Peripherals such as direct attached storage can be connected using a USB 2.0 port. Multiple standard Linux 2.6 kernel distributions are supported on the SheevaPlug development platform enabling rapid application development. The enclosure is designed to plug directly into a standard wall socket and is designed to draw less than one tenth of the power of a typical PC being used as a home server.


"There is no doubt that home networks need to become more intelligent and easier to use by offering value added services for the consumer," said Dr. Simon Milner, Vice President and General Manager of the Enterprise Business Unit, Consumer and Communications Business Group at Marvell Semiconductor. "We have created an open computing platform for developers in a consumer and eco-friendly form factor. Marvell's goal is to accelerate the development and availability of innovative software and services in the home."


Early adopters of plug computing began to launch Marvell based products at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009. These include: Axentra, Cloud Engines, CTERA Networks, and Eyecon Technologies.


The SheevaPlug development kit is available now for $99.
http://www.marvell.com/

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VUDU Expands its Rental Model by Selling Movies in HD

VUDU has begun to sell high definition movies via download to own on its 1080p Internet Movie Player. Until now consumers have been restricted to renting HD movies from on- demand services, including VUDU's library of over 1,400 HD movies. VUDU has unveiled a collection of over 50 HD movies from top independent studios that are available for both rental and download to own. High definition titles purchased from VUDU can be stored on the consumer's VUDU box or in the VUDU Vault, a free online storage option for movies and TV shows that enables consumers to free up disk space while still retaining access to all their purchased titles. Movies are priced between $13.99 and $23.99.


VUDU's library of more than 14,000 movies and TV episodes, including more than 1,400 HD films, is updated weekly with new releases and library titles.
http://www.vudu.com

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ZTE Announces EV-DO Rev B VoIP Call on CDMA2000 System

ZTE announced a technological milestone -- achieving the world's first EV-DO Revision B (Rev.B) VoIP Call on its CDMA2000 system, marking the first time in the industry that a CDMA vendor achieved a 9.3 Mbps download rate and 5.4 Mbps upload rate. Specifically, ZTE completed the first stage of achieving EV-DO Rev.B and adopted 3-carrier bundling technology, with each carrier having a bandwidth of 1.25 MHz. Compared with mature commercial EV-DO Rev.A, ZTE said its implementation of EV-DO Rev.B upgrades EV-DO Rev.A's software with no additional hardware equipment required. Both ZTE's EV-DO Rev.A and Rev.B adopt the same baseband chipset.


In future, EV-DO Rev.B can bundle up to a maximum of 15 carriers, with a download (forward) rate of 73.5 Mbps and an upload (reverse) rate of 27 Mbps. Among the unique features of EV-DO Rev.B include allocating flexible bandwidth and offering better QoS, hence enhancing user experience.


The announcement was made at the recently concluded 3GPP2 Standards Conference 2009 held in Shanghai, China from February 16-24, which was jointly organized by ZTE and China Telecom.


ZTE plans to commercialize its EV-DO Rev.B system in Q3 2009, reaffirming its leading position in EV-DO technology development.


There are now more than 105 million EV-DO users worldwide. To date, ZTE has established 70 EV-DO networks in more than 60 countries, including China, the United States, Czech, Poland, India and Indonesia.
http://www.zte.com.cn

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Verizon Business Completes Examination of Internet Data Centers

Verizon Business has completed its annual SAS 70 Type II examination for the company's five IP Application Hosting Centers (Smart Centers) in Germany, Japan, the U.S. and the U.K., and its 15 Premium Internet Data Centers in North America. All the facilities are used to deliver IT services to large-enterprise and government customers. Specifically, Ernst & Young LLP performed the yearly examinations, reviewing control objectives and controls at the company's managed and Internet colocation data centers. Specific areas of examination, which is conducted in compliance with the standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, included access to facilities, logical access to systems, network services operations and environmental safeguards. Control processes and procedures were examined for all of the company's Managed Hosting centers, as well as 15 Premium Internet Data Centers in major cities across North America, including Atlanta, Houston and San Jose, Calif.
http://www.verizonbusiness.com

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Microsoft Research Show Cloud Computing, Data Center Innovations

Two data center technologies are among the research projects on display at this the Microsoft Research TechFest 2009 this week:

• Closed-Loop Control Systems for the Datacenter, a project aimed at improving the energy efficiency of datacenters by selectively putting idle servers into a low-power state while maintaining service response times



• Low-Power Processors for the Datacenter, an experiment to build a server from low-power processors and evaluate how well it runs some of the tasks typically performed in a datacenter, such as processing a large number of independent requests or running databases for a Web site.

Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, also announced a new research organization called Cloud Computing Futures aimed at reducing datacenter costs by fourfold or greater, while accelerating deployment and increasing adaptability and resilience to failures. "Our cloud computing research begins with a key concept: the datacenter is a computer, and it must be designed and programmed as an integrated system," Rashid said. The group, led by Dan Reed, director of scalable and multicore systems, will target lowering hardware costs and power consumption, as well as reducing the environmental impact of operations, particularly in carbon emissions.
http://www.microsoft.com/techfest

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euNetworks Selects Infinera for 15-City Network

euNetworks has deployed an Infinera Digital Optical Network in a fiber-rich network connecting 15 major cities throughout the heart of Western Europe.

Xantaro Deutschland GmbH, an internationally focused service integrator, carried out planning and implementation of the optical network for euNetworks. Working closely together, Infinera and Xantaro deployed the initial phase of the pan-European network, reaching 14 cities, in just six weeks. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Infinera said rapid deployment of the network was enabled by the expertise of the Infinera and Xantaro engineering teams, backed up by the design of the PIC-based Infinera system which eliminates more than 80 percent of intrabay fiber connections. Infinera's GMPLS-powered IQ network operating system automatically recognizes elements in the network and performs tests on connectivity between network nodes, enabling networks to be configured more easily and quickly than with traditional DWDM systems.
http://www.infinera.com

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Accenture and Cisco Expand Strategic Alliance

Accenture and Cisco have expanded their strategic alliance to form a virtual group to help large enterprises embed collaboration and data center virtualization capabilities into their key business processes. The Accenture & Cisco Business Group will design, build and run solutions that integrate unified communication and collaboration tools into multiple applications across companies' IT infrastructures. The group will provide the strategy, architecture design and implementation services to integrate technologies such as unified communications, Cisco WebEx collaboration, and Cisco TelePresence - into the companies' core business processes and technology platforms

http://www.cisco.com

• Cisco and Accenture first formed an alliance in January 2004.

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Exar to Acquire HiFN to Address Deduplication and Secure Backhaul Apps

Exar will acquire Hifn, a supplier of high-performance network, storage and security processors, in a stock swap deal valued at approximately $59 million.


Hifn (NASDAQ: HIFN), which is based in Los Gatos, California, supplies a line of Applied Services Processors (ASPs) to network OEMs. Exar (Nasdaq: EXAR), which is based in Milpitas, California, said the acquisition brings valuable intellectual property related to Ethernet, embedded processors, network security, compression, deduplication, RAID, packet processing architecture and SoC design methodology.


"We believe we can achieve our strategic and financial objectives more quickly with the Hifn acquisition," said Pete Rodriguez, Exar's president and chief executive officer. "The two companies have developed complementary technologies and share a common vision to deliver connectivity and storage solutions that are not only fast, but also efficient and secure. We are delighted to welcome the Hifn team to Exar," stated Mr. Rodriguez. "Our combined focus will enable us to realize expanded revenue and market share, aggressively pursue emerging markets, as well as increase overall gross margin."


"As a developer of analog and mixed-signal semiconductor technology, Exar has focused on creating solutions for high speed connectivity and managing data between computers, over networks and across broadband telecom systems," said Paul Pickering, Exar senior vice president of marketing. "For more than a decade, Hifn has been a pioneer in creating advanced technologies that secure and compress data flowing over networks and residing on storage systems. Hifn's semiconductor and software solutions work hand in hand with various high speed connections to ensure optimized performance. We expect to advance our strategic relationship with shared top tier customers including Cisco Systems, Huawei Technologies, HP and Alcatel-Lucent."http://www.exar.com
http://www.hifn.com

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BT and Corvil Offer Low Latency to Global Capital Markets

BT has joined forces with Corvil, a specialist in electronic trading latency management systems, to provide financial institutions with a network latency management solution.


As a part of the agreement, BT will leverage CorvilNet, a leading latency management system developed by Corvil that monitors, analyzes and optimizes electronic trading infrastructures against ultra-low latency objectives encompassing market data feeds and order execution traffic. In addition to CorvilNet, BT will provide a dedicated team of business consultants and IT specialists from its 10,000 strong Global Professional Services division that will analyze the reports, identify the hotspots and make recommendations to optimize a customer's infrastructure.


In addition to expanding its efforts in network latency management, BT also remains committed to its existing low latency connectivity portfolio, which includes Radianz Ultra Access and Radianz Proximity Solution. Radianz Ultra Access enables sub-millisecond connectivity between brokers and execution and market data venues in New York and Chicago and soon London. Radianz Proximity Solution locates trading engines near execution venues to reduce market data and trading latency.
http://www.corvil.com
http://www.bt.com/aboutbt

• In July 2008, Corvil, a start-up based in Dublin, Ireland, secured $12 million in a new round of funding for its work in latency management systems aimed at the financial community. Corvil will use the new financing to expand its capabilities to meet the demands of global investment banks, hedge funds, ECNs, exchanges, and network service providers seeking the lowest possible latency for high performance trading. In the new funding round, Vesbridge Partners joined existing investors ACT Ventures and APAX Partners.



• In October 2007 Corvil announced that the London Stock Exchange had deployed the CorvilNet solution to help achieve low-latency in LSE's access network and record performance levels for its new trading system, called TradElect. In November, 2007 Corvil announced that Deutsche Borse Systems deployed CorvilNet to ensure the success of Deutsche Borse Group's Eurex market data service to significantly enhance support of algorithmic trading. In June, 2008 Corvil announced that Credit Suisse has selected CorvilNet for a global network deployment. Corvil teamed with BT to deliver a solution for latency management and optimization of the Credit Suisse network.

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China's Communication Standards Association Adds 2.5G EPON

China's Communications Standards Association (CCSA) has added 2.5G EPON as a standard specification for fiber-based broadband access networks. CCSA's adoption of 2.5G EPON enables service providers to offer more bandwidth per subscriber for MTU (Multiple Tenant Units), including residential and business subscribers.


Teknovus, which supplies GEPON chips) hailed the news, noting that China is poised to surpass Japan with the largest number of fiber subscribers by year-end. China ended 2008 with more than 8 million FTTx subscribers and is expected to reach more than 20 million fiber subscribers by year-end 2009. EPON is the dominant fiber architecture accounting for more than 95% of the existing and planned deployments.


Teknovus said its 2.5G EPON chips, known as Turbo-EPON, are fully compliant with CCSA's specifications.
http://www.teknovus.com

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Dell'Oro: VDSL Port Shipments Are Silver Lining for the Declining DSL Market

DSL port shipments on infrastructure equipment fell more than 10 percent in 2008, according to a newly published report by Dell'Oro Group. Within total ports, ADSL port shipments fell almost 20 percent while VDSL port shipments grew 40 percent. The report also predicts this trend will continue in 2009 with a larger rate of decline in shipments for ADSL and a higher growth rate for those of VDSL.


The report shows Alcatel-Lucent, the leader in the VDSL segment in 2008, benefited from being the primary supplier of VDSL equipment for AT&T's U-verse TV service, currently, one of the largest TV over broadband projects of its kind. In the second position was ZyXEL with most of its VDSL shipping to Taiwan and Japan.


"The market for ADSL infrastructure equipment has matured largely due to subscriber additions peaking in 2006," said Tam Dell'Oro, President of Dell'Oro Group. "Despite the weak economy that has resulted in cautious spending by service providers, we still expect higher growth for the VDSL segment in 2009, albeit lower than previous expectations. Some service providers including AT&T are upgrading networks with high bandwidth VDSL to enable new revenue streams such as TV over broadband," Dell'Oro added.
http://www.delloro.com

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FiberLight Deploys Fujitsu FLASHWAVE 9500 in Texas

FiberLight, which provides metro optical transport services including Ethernet, Wavelengths, IP, SONET and Dark Fiber within major U.S. cities, has begun a statewide deployment of Fujitsu's FLASHWAVE 9500 Packet Optical Networking Platforms (Packet ONPs) across Texas. The network will bring premium managed communications services -- including Ethernet, SONET and wavelength connectivity options -- to enterprise, government, content providers, and other service provider customers throughout its 1,500+ route miles.


The FLASHWAVE 9500 Packet ONP provides the modular integration of Ethernet, ROADM, and SONET transport technologies into a single addressable optical networking class element. The platform's pluggable ROADM option and patent-pending universal switch fabric allow both circuit-based and packet-based traffic to be transported in its native format to create a universal optical infrastructure. Integrated Connection-oriented Ethernet transport technology delivers private-line quality packet aggregation and connectivity services with the proven operational robustness of optical networking, including transport-class software and database management, management interface functionality, and precision fault sectionalization.


Management of FiberLight's high-availability, mission-critical network will be provided by Fujitsu in their two fully-redundant network operations centers (NOCs) located in Sunnyvale, Calif. and Richardson, Texas. FiberLight also purchased Advance Hardware Replacement, which will guarantee that spare cards for the FLASHWAVE 9500 Packet Optical Networking Platform system can be onsite anywhere in Texas within hours. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom

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Lockheed Martin Joins Juniper's Open IP Program

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company has joined the Juniper Networks' Open IP Solution Development Program (OSDP). As a member of the OSDP, Juniper Networks provides Lockheed Martin with access to the Partner Solution Development Platform (PSDP), which enables customers and partners to develop specialized applications on its JUNOS software.
http://www.juniper.net

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Spirent and IneoQuest Join Forces on Video Quality Test Suite

Spirent Communications and IneoQuest Technologies announced an exclusive global partnership to offer an end-to-end video quality test suite for network equipment manufactures (NEMs). The partnership combines Spirent's network testing suite with IneoQuest's bulk, live video test and analysis solutions, thereby covering the Triple Play ecosystem, including encoders, multiplexers, routers, switches and set-top boxes.


The companies said their technology will specifically help NEMs to effectively address IP network scalability and reliability issues related to video delivery.


"Our customers depend on Spirent to help ensure that the multi-play networks and multi-technology platforms of tomorrow deliver the QoE which service providers demand today," said William Burns, CEO of Spirent Communications plc. "This technology partnership with IneoQuest builds on the Spirent tradition of product innovation and service excellence as it enables us to offer equipment manufacturers the only end-to-end solution that brings realistic video quality testing into the lab."




http://www.ineoquest.com
http://www.spirent.com

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Spirent Partners with Endace for High Speed Ethernet Probes

Endace, which specializes in high speed packet capture networking technology, announced a technology partnership with Spirent Communications to develop the next generation of high speed service assurance probes for service providers. The companies said that while the need for Ethernet services has grown quickly, the management of these multi-vendor IP networks has become more complex. Hence the need for next generation Ethernet Assurance probes.
http://www.spirentfederal.com

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Covad Deploys Nationwide 10 Gbps MPLS Backbone

Covad Communications has completed a nationwide MPLS deployment and network capacity upgrades that will enable its partners to deliver advanced video, voice and data services. The upgrades include metro optical rings with up to OC-192 (10 Gbps) capacity and will allow Covad and its wholesale partners to meet the demanding needs of small businesses and distributed enterprises.


"Businesses are increasingly using broadband to deploy IP-based services to reduce costs and to increase productivity," said William Ferriauolo, senior vice president and general manager of Covad Wholesale. "Covad's new MPLS infrastructure will allow our partners to deliver revenue-generating, value-added services on a national broadband network that is competitive with what the very largest carriers can offer."http://www.covad.com

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AT&T to Invest $1 Billion in Global Network in 2009

AT&T will invest approximately $1 billion in 2009 to continue building out its global network. AT&T said its investment is focused on the network infrastructure, services and support for companies requiring "anytime, anywhere" access to the systems, suppliers, customers and employees needed to successfully run their businesses.


Specifically, AT&T said it is capitalizing on the ongoing shift in network traffic from voice to data and video-- and more importantly to IP-based data and video-- as customers migrate from legacy data networks to MPLS-based Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and managed applications.


"With today's announcement, AT&T is making good on its commitment to provide companies with the network-driven capabilities and applications they need to successfully compete in a difficult economic environment," said Ron Spears, President and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions.


Key points of the 2009 investment plan:


Network-Based Services and Applications:

• Enhancements and additions to AT&T's virtual private network portfolio, wide area network (WAN), telepresence, unified communications, hosting, applications performance, and digital media solutions, all of which helped to drive double-digit IP data growth as reported in AT&T's recent fourth quarter earnings.



• AT&T Telepresence service availability in China in collaboration with local service providers, to extend AT&T's ability to connect different companies using the service.



• Managed IP telephony & LAN services in China, India, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Mexico.



• In the hosting and utility computing space, AT&T is increasing data center hosting capacity in Atlanta, Annapolis,
  the New York/New Jersey metro area, Hong Kong, Tokyo and the United Kingdom; scaling the AT&T Synaptic Hosting platform in Singapore, Amsterdam and three sites within the United States; increasing the level of automation for delivering AT&T Synaptic Hosting services; expanding application services in the super IDCs by enabling more
  on-net managed applications, such as Oracle and SAP; and supporting more virtualized customer applications by expanding
  managed hosting services onto the client premises.



• Extending the AT&T Intelligent Content Distribution Service reach into Mexico, and enhancing service in high growth areas such as Brazil, India and China. Plans also call for expansion of capacity in existing service countries and jurisdictions in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. This expansion will cover services such as Flash, Windows Media Format, Move Networks and Silverlight that support large file downloads and video formats. AT&T is also expanding its SSL security capabilities.

Mobility Services and Applications:

• Accelerated deployment of mobile conferencing solutions, portal capabilities and business mobility applications for companies of all sizes in vertical industries like finance, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, education and government. AT&T is continuing its investment in platforms to support mobility application deployment including: location based services; the AT&T Mobile Enterprise Applications platform; the Enterprise On Demand (EOD) service delivery platform which lets customers self manage large wireless data deployments of specialized vertical devices; and the External Access Gateway, which is a platform that lets third parties use the AT&T network for network transactions such as network location based services queries.




• Global management of multiple mobile operator contracts to support the wireless needs of multinational companies (i.e. order processing, invoicing).



• Device protection and control and other security capabilities to ensure that companies can safely access applications and work tasks anytime, from any enabled device.



• Fixed-mobile convergence capabilities, building on AT&T's Mobile
  Extension service announced earlier this year.

IBM Network Integration:


AT&T is working on continued integration of IBM's global network operations which were acquired through the 2007 expanded agreement between the companies. Through its agreement with IBM, AT&T last year added on-the-ground support and networking expertise in 48 countries worldwide, and closed more than a dozen new contracts.


Continued Global Network Rollout in 2009

• Deploying new subsea fiber optic cable capacity to Alaska, Australia, Asia Pac, India, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and on trans-Atlantic routes to Europe. Today, AT&T has ownership interests in 83 subsea cable systems, covering 488,000 route miles. In total AT&T's network has over 888,000 route miles of fiber.
  
  
• VPN services will be extended in an additional 18 countries, giving VPN access in a total of 149 countries worldwide.
  
  
• VPN Ethernet access will be available in 38 countries increase from 34 today.



• VPN DSL access will be available in 44 countries increased from 38 today.



• VPLS access will be available in 31 countries increased from 15 today. AT&T's OPT-E-WAN Ethernet Virtual Private LAN is the only certified, fully unified global carrier Ethernet service based on a seamless MPLS/VPLS infrastructure available with coverage in the US and worldwide.



• IPv6 deployment - to meet the global requirements of governments and companies, AT&T is deploying a multi-year plan to deliver a full complement of IPv6 networking services that will also preserve customers' existing IPv4 investment
.


• Continued rollout of new network capabilities, including AT&T Wavelength Private Line and enhanced AT&T Ultravailable Network Services;



• AT&T plans to continue to grow global backbone capacity by introducing new and faster 10 Gbps edge equipment; increasing backbone bandwidth; and adding more Cisco CRS1 routers on key routes.



• Expanding network- and premises-based firewall capabilities, as
  well as the AT&T Internet Protect suite of capabilities including My Internet Protect, Private Intranet Protect, and DDoS Defense to the Asia-Pacific region.

http://www.att.com

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Nielsen: TV, Internet and Mobile Usage in U.S. Keeps Increasing

the average American watches more than 151 hours of TV per month, an all-time high, according to Nielsen's latest "A2M2 Three Screen Report". Meanwhile, Americans who watch video over the Internet consume another 3 hours of online video per month and those who use mobile video watch nearly 4 hours per month on mobile phones and other devices.


Some highlights of the report:

• Digital video recorded (DVR) and other time shifted television is watched at double the pace as video online at 7 hours, 11 minutes per month. Yet in a potential indicator of how audiences could time shift in the future, young adults (age 18-24) watch video on the Internet and on a DVR at the same rate -- about 5 hours per month.



• Except for the teenage years, viewing of traditional television increases with age; the use of video on the Internet peaks among young adults while viewing mobile video is highest in the teen years.



• Men continue to watch video on mobile phones more than women, and women continue to watch video on the Internet and television more than men.



• The work day continues to be the prime time for Internet video. Weekdays outpace weekends for online video viewing with 65% of online video viewers streaming content between 9am - 5pm Monday through Friday, versus 51% of online video viewers logging on between 6am - 8pm on weekends.



• 31 percent of Internet activity occurs when consumers are also watching television.



• Nielsen 4Q08 data shows that mobile video has grown, up to 11 million Americans, an increase of 9% versus the previous quarter. Much of this growth can be attributed to increased mobile content and the rise of the mobile web as a viewing option. In addition, the average monthly time spent viewing mobile video among reported mobile video users increased 2%, from 3:37 to 3:42 between 3Q 2008 and 4Q 2008.

http://www.nielsen.com

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