Alcatel-Lucent to Delist Shares from 3 Exchanges

Alcatel-Lucent has submitted applications for the delisting of its ordinary shares from Euronext Amsterdam, Euronext Brussels and Six Swiss Exchange. The company cited small trading volumes at these exchanges compared to the total trading volumes of Alcatel-Lucent shares globally. The company's shares will continue to trade on other major stock exchanges such as Euronext Paris, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the London Stock Exchange.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Dell Offes USB Digital TV Tuner for Inspiron Mini Family

Dell unveiled a USB digital TV tuner that allows individuals to watch broadcast TV on the Inspiron Mini.

Dell will offer region-specific versions, designed to receive local broadcast standards like ATSC in the U.S., DVB-T in Western Europe, ISDB-T 1-seg (a.k.a. One Seg) in Japan, and the emerging CMMB standard in China.. Dell expects the tuner to be available later this quarter, first in Europe, followed by North America and Asia-Pacific and China. Pricing starts at $50.


Dell teamed with Siano Mobile Silicon and Hauppauge Computer Works to design the USB Digital TV Tuner.
http://www.dell.com

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UK's Average Broadband Speed -- 3.6 Mbps

UK consumers receive an average broadband speed of 3.6 Mbps, according to Ofcom. That's less than the average maximum possible speed of 4.3 Mbps across the UK and significantly below advertised headline speeds. Over 60% of UK consumers currently subscribe to packages promising speeds of up to 8 Mbps.

Ofcom also noted that speeds are slowest between 5pm and 6pm on Sundays, when use of the Internet is at its highest. Consumers in London received the fastest average speeds, with those in the north east of England, Wales and Scotland receiving on average the slowest speeds.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk

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Total Number of Mobile Subscriber Stays Flat at 105 Million in Japan

During 2008, the total number of mobile subscribers in subscribers in Japan remained relatively flat at 105 million, according to Telecommunications Carriers Association figures. The breakdown by carrier is as follows:

• NTT DoCoMo -- 54,155,100


• KDDI (au) -- 30,550,200


• SOFTBANK MOBILE -- 19,999,800


• EMOBILE -- 1,120,100

http://www.tca.or.jp/english/database/2008/12/index.html

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Lenovo Rolls Outs Nortel's web.alive Virtual World Application

Lenovo is using Nortel's web.alive application in a new online virtual store for consumers. The Lenovo "eLounge" virtual store allows shoppers to create personalized avatars to walk around the 3D virtual store and browse through products while interacting with other shoppers and sales staff from around the globe.


Shoppers can also attend product demonstrations or tutorials given by the virtual store staff. People can build social/virtual shopping communities/groups and host online shopping get-togethers with their network of friends, family and associates -- a concept defined as assisted e-commerce or social shopping.
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http://www.lenovo.com/eloungehttp://www.nortel.com/webalive

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RMI Introduces Advanced Processor for Portable Media Applications

RMI Corporation unveiled its Alchemy Au1300 Processor Family for rich media consumer devices requiring high CPU performance and low power consumption. The latest offering builds on the company's Au1250 Processor and now supports integrated 3D acceleration, performance up to 800MHz, and video decode resolution up to 720p including H.264 main profile. The Au1300 Family also includes further enhancements to power management resulting in industry-leading full-chip power rates of less than 1/2 watt at speed. The Au1300 also delivers an enhanced Media Acceleration Engine, providing hardware Bit Stream Acceleration and entropy decode that were formerly performed by the CPU core. It also adds a high performance Graphics Processing Engine (GPE) from ARM.
http://www.RMICorp.com

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AT&T Offers Subsidy for Dell Netbook with Data Plan

Dell and AT&T Mobility are offering a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook for $99 when purchased with a 2-year AT&T LaptopConnect agreement. The regular price is $449 without the subsidy. The AT&T LaptopConnect data plan costs $60 per month.
http://www.dell.com
http://www.att.com

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Telstra Invites Consultation on Rural Presence Plan

Telstra opened its Regional and Rural Presence Plan for public consultation as required under its license. Telstra must maintain a local presence in regional, rural and remote Australia to the extent that this is broadly compatible with the licensee's overall commercial interests and is not unduly prescriptive and does not impose undue financial and administrative burdens on the licensee.
http://www.telstra.com

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Panasonic's Broadband-over-Powerline to be included in IEEE Standard

Panasonic announced the approval of its Wavelet OFDM technology as part of the baseline standard by IEEE Standards Association's P1901 Working Group (IEEE P1901), enabling it coexist with other BPL (broadband over powerline) technologies. This coexistence baseline technology was proposed by CEPCA (Consumer Electronics Powerline Communication Alliance), of which Panasonic is a founding member.


Panasonic said its Wavelet OFDM, which is used in HD-PLC (4) products, offers lower power consumption while enabling high-speed data transmission in both home networking and utility access applications using existing powerlines, thus eliminating any need for additional wiring.


The IEEE P1901 Working Group is charged with developing the draft standard for Broadband over Power Line Networks (Media Access Control and Physical Layer). In addition to in-home, access, and coexistence technologies, a transportation technology is also under consideration.
http://www.cepca.org/homehttp://www.panasonic.com/pressroom

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Verizon Wireless Completes Alltel Acquisition

Verizon Wireless completed its purchase of Alltel Corporation for approximately $5.9 billion. Immediately prior to the closing, the Alltel debt associated with the transaction, net of cash, was approximately $22.2 billion.


The acquisition expands Verizon Wireless' network coverage to approximately 290 million people, nearly the entire United States population, and increases the company's customers by 12.9 million, after conforming adjustments and before required divestitures, making it the largest wireless carrier in the country with more than 83.7 million total customers, based on third quarter 2008 reported results from both companies. Approximately 2.1 million of those total customers are in markets that will be divested by Verizon Wireless in the coming months.


Verizon Wireless said it plans to maintain Alltel's existing GSM networks in retained Alltel markets to continue serving the roaming needs of GSM carriers' customers. Verizon Wireless will re-brand Alltel operations in the retained markets in phases, beginning in the second quarter and continuing through the third quarter of 2009, as billing conversions are completed throughout the country.


Furthermore, Verizon Wireless has placed licenses and assets for the markets to be divested in a management trust. The trust will continue to operate the markets under their current brands until they are sold to one or more buyers. As a result, these markets will not be integrated into Verizon Wireless operations.
http://www.verizonwireless.com

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