Aricent Offers Outsourced Development Expertise for the Wireless Industry

At the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona. Aricent will be showcasing its portfolio of wireless consulting, products and services for mobile operators, device manufacturers and network infrastructure manufacturers. At the heart of the wireless revolution today, Aricent is helping customers develop innovative new user experiences, productize new infrastructure, and evolve operational and business systems.


In particular, Aricent will be showcasing its wireless expertise in :

• Creating innovative user experiences -- Aricent will be demonstrating its Aricent CellTop user interface technology. Designed to give users smart features without a smartphone price tag, Aricent CellTop provides easy to access UI technology that brings the simplicity, customization and easy navigation commonly found on smartphones and high-end wireless devices to operator's mid-tier devices.



• Simplifying wireless infrastructure development -- Aricent offers technology experts, pre-packaged software and frameworks, state-of-art lab facilities and a comprehensive set of product lifecycle services.



• Monetizing wireless business and operational systems -- Aricent will be showcasing end-to-end OSS/BSS offerings including Product Lifecycle Management, Operations Support, Fulfillment, Assurance, and Billing.

http://www.aricent.com

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Ixia Ships World's First 100 GE Test System

Ixia introduced a 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) Development Accelerator System (DAS) for developers of high-speed Ethernet FPGAs and ASICs. Ixia's 40 and 100 GE test systems include a unique implementation of the 100 GE physical coding sublayer (PCS) layer with the underlying multilane distribution (MLD) architecture which is compliant with the draft 1.1 standard published in December 2008 by the IEEE 802.3ba task force.

Ixia said it is developing 40 and 100 GE test systems as pre-standard tools to provide network equipment and communications chip manufacturers the capabilities that they urgently need for layer-2/3 traffic generation and analysis. The company is continuing development of its IEEE 802.3ba compliant 40 GE and 100 GE test products, which will offer full layer 2-7 testing for both speeds in 2009.


Nortel is the first customer to use the 100 GE DAS to test its Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 100GE capabilities and to test the next stage of its 100G Adaptive Optical Engine development, transmitting 100 GE data over a single 100 G wavelength.
http://www.ixiacom.com

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Blue Coat Outlines its Application Delivery Networking Vision

Blue Coat Systems unveiled its vision for the Application Delivery Network, an application-aware infrastructure that provides the visibility, acceleration and security required to optimize and secure the delivery of business-enabling applications across the distributed enterprise.


The Application Delivery Network integrates visibility, acceleration and security technologies to provide the in-depth application intelligence required to securely and efficiently deliver business-critical applications. Specifically, the Blue Coat Application Delivery Network Infrastructure combines application monitoring, WAN optimization and Secure Web Gateway technologies to provide unmatched intelligence about the applications and Web content running across the distributed enterprise network.


Visibility: To provide centralized visibility into application traffic and Web content, Blue Coat PacketShaper appliances classify more than 600 internal, external, customized, real-time and encrypted applications and monitor more than 100 application attributes. With this application intelligence, PacketShaper appliances can apply bandwidth and quality of service controls based on corporate IT policies. Blue Coat ProxySG appliances identify users and assess and classify Web content, including malicious threats. With this visibility into Web content, ProxySG appliances can apply a variety of controls based on policy.


Acceleration: Utilizing application intelligence, Blue Coat ProxySG appliances accelerate centralized internal, external, encrypted, customized and video applications by applying protocol optimization, object and byte caching, compression and bandwidth management. ProxySG appliances substantially reduce bandwidth consumption on the WAN or across an enterprise Internet gateway, resulting in lower operational expenses.


Security: Blue Coat ProxySG appliances assess Web content and applications in conjunction with Blue Coat WebFilter software and Blue Coat ProxyAV appliances. Through its cloud-based WebPulse service, Blue Coat analyzes more than 150 million Web requests per day to build a comprehensive profile of Web content. This Web intelligence informs the Blue Coat layered defenses to prevent malicious threats from compromising application security or performance.


Blue Coat is offering professional consulting to help enterprises design, deploy and manage the Application Delivery Network.


Separately, Blue Coat announced a new version of Blue Coat IntelligenceCenter software and a new software release for its Blue Coat PacketShaper appliances to extend the application visibility and control inherent in its solutions for Application Delivery Networks (see separate release today from Blue Coat on Application Delivery Networks). The Blue Coat IntelligenceCenter application monitoring product now provides a real-time Application Performance Dashboard that shows enterprise application performance at any location for distributed users. .
http://www.bluecoat.com

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Mformation Delivers Advanced Device Management to Telefónica Spain

Telefónica Mobile Business in Spain is using Mformation's device management technology to provide advanced enterprise mobile management as a service to their business customers. Enterprises obtain advanced mobile device management

from Telefónica through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. The solution was rolled out to Spanish enterprises during 2008 and is now being used by many of Telefónica's enterprise customers.

The solution enables enterprises to:

• Diagnose device and service problems on employee devices in real time, over the air



• Set up, distribute, manage and update mobile applications and services to employee devices over the air



• Maintain an inventory of all deployed employee devices, including status and related configuration information



• Enforce, update and monitor corporate security and access policies implemented on employee mobile devices



• Secure employee mobile devices and the data stored on them or on removable storage media


• Create and enforce corporate and IT policies, from password policies to employee usage of corporate applications



• Tailor policies to fit organizational roles and responsibilities (e.g., administration)



• Provision and configure employee data devices remotely

http://www.mformation.com

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InnoPath's ActiveCare Matches Smartphones with Customer Care

InnoPath Software introduced its next-generation ActiveCare Mobile Device Management solution for providing customer support for smartphones and advanced feature phones. InnoPath's ActiveCare provides mobile operators with an "active" connection between the subscriber's phone and frontline care. The solution, which build's on InnoPath's MDM server and client products, is applicable to both featurephone and smartphones using the InnoPath Smart Client or native clients installed on the phone at the factory.


Key components include:

• The InnoPath Server, currently deployed at multiple Tier-1 operators, provides the scalability, reliability and extensibility critical for the next phase of MDM.


• The Smart Client, an OMA-DM standards-based client that can be loaded at the factory or pushed to handsets already in the field, provides the basis for end-to-end manageability. The Smart Client is both upgradable and extensible,
  
  supporting a rich set of management plug-ins.


• The ActiveCare Agent, a Smart Client enabler, builds on OMA-DM standards to accelerate MDM deployment with a"Standards+" solution that fills gaps in current, existing standards.


• The ActiveCare Portal, a simplified, easy-to-use, web-based front-end for the InnoPath Server, helps front-line care personnel quickly and effectively troubleshoot phone problems, shortening call times and facilitating first time problem
  
  resolution.

InnoPath's ActiveCare provides the mobile network operator with six key management components:

• Mobile Check: pulse the phone for hardware and software settings.



• Mobile Check and Correct: pull application settings from phone, compare them to expected baseline settings, and push corrections.



• Mobile Config: push application configurations to the phone, critical for GSM data service usability.



• Mobile Lock and Wipe: lock and/or wipe lost or stolen phones, critical for corporate security and preventing identity theft.



• Mobile Update: push updated firmware images or OS patches to the phone. InnoPath's proven FOTA technology means that, unlike full system images used in tethered update systems, update packages can be quickly and reliably pushed
  
  over-the-air to devices in the field.



• Mobile Device Control: configure hardware on the device, such as WiFi or Bluetooth.

Commercial deployment is underway with a number of Tier-1 operators worldwide.
http://www.innopath.com

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Skype 4.0 Debuts with Better Audio/Video Codecs

Skype 4.0 for Windows was officially release.

The new version improves a number of features, including call quality, full screen video conferencing and better IM controls. Skype said its new audio codec achieves wideband audio quality using 50% less bandwidth than previously required. Moreover, it introduces super wideband audio for clearer, richer and warmer sound to those using a compatible headset and a high quality broadband connection. A bandwidth manager interacts with the codec to adjust quickly to fluctuating bandwidth conditions to produce the most reliable sound.
http://www.skype.com/go/download

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Orange Business Service Expands in Latin America

Orange Business Services has increased the capacity of its next generation IP network in Latin America by two and a half times. The expanded network capacity has been implemented in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela. Additional upgrades are planned for Honduras and Panama in 2009. In addition, Orange is deploying new network equipment to offer new services, such as Multicast, Telepresence and Network Boost, a network-based application performance management solution.
http://www.orange.com

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Zeugma Debuts SmartMeter for the Broadband Edge

Zeugma Systems, a start-up based in Vancouver, Canada, has enhanced its Zeugma Services Node (ZSN) broadband edge aggregation device with new "SmartMeter" capabilities to help service providers define and enforce fair and flexible broadband policies.


Zeugma's hardware platform integrates routing, subscriber, and service management in a single platform powered by high-performance, multi-core packet processors. The new Smart Series applications run within the Zeugma Open Application Sandbox (OAS) to provide granular choices for defining basic and advanced broadband services.


SmartMeter delivers more granular usage tracking and more dynamic bandwidth management through a combination of deep session inspection (DSI), policy, traffic quantification, and bandwidth shaping.


Zeugma said SmartMeter now enables usage policies to be defined in the following ways:

• Time of day. SmartMeter allows service providers to tailor usage packages that are time-of-day specific. With this capability, service providers can provide incentives for consumers to move traffic from heavily congested peak usage hours to lightly congested off hours, thereby improving network efficiency without the need for capacity upgrades.



• Traffic type. The requirement for both basic and advanced service policies means service providers need ways to treat certain traffic differently. An example would be the exclusion of all communications-oriented traffic--VOIP, IM, and possibly email--from the monthly usage cap of a basic service package. Since these services tend to be light consumers of bandwidth, such a usage package would improve customer satisfaction at little or no cost to the operator.



• Special handling of video traffic. For consumers opting for video services such as IPTV, video on demand (VOD), and premium internet video, service providers also need a mechanism to enforce appropriate bandwidth parameters to ensure a quality video experience. Since these services encourage the consumption of bandwidth it is arguably necessary that the network exclude fee-based video traffic from the usage cap.



• Customizable behavior. In order to improve customer satisfaction and reduce the likelihood of unusually high usage bills, service providers can, for example, reduce peak downstream bandwidth once a usage limit has been reached rather than apply overage charges. It is even possible to forecast usage and begin to take corrective action before the usage limit is reached.

http://www.zeugmasystems.com

• Zeugma Systems is led by Andrew Harries, co-founder, President and CEO and who previously co-founded Sierra Wireless Inc.; Siegfried Luft, founder, CTO and formerly a senior development executive at Redback Networks; Jeff Dillabough, VP Engineering, formerly at PMC-Sierra; Tom Meehan, VP product management, previously at Redback Networks; Wayne Shackelford, SVP Worldwide Sales, who formerly led sales at several startups and at Newbridge Networks USA; and Kevin Walsh, VP of Marketing, who previously was VP of Corporate Marketing at Calix.



• The name Zeugma refers to an ancient city located in the Gaziantep Province of Turkey that was named for the bridge of boats, or zeugma, which crossed the Euphrates there. During the Roman Empire, the city held strategic importance due to its location on the Silk Road.

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Juniper Supplies WAN Acceleration for Korea's Donghee

Donghee Industrial, one of Korea's leading automobile parts manufacturers, has boosted the capacity and performance of its wide area network (WAN) with the Juniper Networks WXC 500 application acceleration platform by six-fold. The WXC platform replaces Donghee's legacy WAN optimization solution and is accelerating the company's data sharing with its Eastern European affiliates, which has resulted in dramatically increased organizational efficiency and productivity. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.juniper.net

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Wavesat Raises C$11.7 million for its Multi-Protocol 4G Silicon

Wavesat raised $11.7 million (CAD) for its broadband wireless semiconductor solutions. Wavesat's Odyssey 4G multi-protocol architecture supports multiple broadband wireless technologies such as WiMAX Wave2 and XG-PHS while offering a migration path to LTE. In recent months, Wavesat announced that Compal, a leading ODM for handheld devices, selected the Odyssey for mobile WiMAX USB dongles. Also, Willcom, a large wireless network operator in Japan, has chosen Wavesat to help develop XG-PHS services and equipment in that country.


The new funding was led by existing investors led by BDR Capital, BDC Capital and Multiple Capital participated in the round.
http://www.wavesat.com

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Zarlink Surpasses 50 million voice lines shipped to ARRIS

Zarlink Semiconductor has shipped over 50 million voice lines to ARRIS for use in its Touchstone Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adaptor (E-MTA) cable modems.

"We congratulate ARRIS for this milestone of 20 million modems shipped. Their success is an indication of the continuing expansion of cable networks, and the increasing market opportunity for Zarlink's carrier-grade voice solutions."http://www.zarlink.com

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Dell'Oro Group Forecasts Steepest Ethernet Switch Market Decline Since 2001

The Ethernet Switch market is forecasted to decline almost 10 percent in 2009, the sharpest decline since 2001, according to a recent report by Dell'Oro Group. This recent decline will likely result from the slowing or contracting of the three pillars that drove the market to record levels in 2008, namely, emerging markets, wiring closet upgrades, and datacenter consolidation.


The report indicates that macroeconomic conditions will lead to a more modest year-over-year decline in 10/100 Mbps switches compared to the prior forecast, and a decrease in the adoption of 1000 Mbps. The report also indicates that significant new product introductions should help propel 10 Gigabit Ethernet growth as those products begin to ramp in 2009.


"Global macroeconomic conditions have worsened rapidly and many companies have gone from a position of expansion to one of caution and contraction," said Alan Weckel, Director of Dell'Oro Group. "We believe that over the short term, customers have shifted their purchasing patterns from a focus on getting more features and functionality for the same price or a small price premium, to one where they now focus on getting the same features and functionality at a lower cost," stated Weckel.
http://www.delloro.com

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ECI Telecom Selected to Manage Transmission Network in the Philippines

Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART), the largest wireless services provider in the Philippines, has awarded ECI Telecom a two-year managed services contract for its nationwide transmission network. Under the agreement, ECI will provide SMART with multi-vendor network management services for the operator's transmission Network Operations Center (NOC), including 24/7 network surveillance, fault management and maintenance.


The agreement follows a decade-long relationship between the two companies for the delivery of network equipment solutions, supporting SMART's nationwide transmission backbone, and is a strong proof-point of ECI's 1Net framework.


"This is an important project for ECI as the company continues to solidify its position as a full-fledged Managed Services provider. We offer SMART and all of our customers a path to optimize their operational capabilities, enabling them to deliver on time and on budget, while maintaining the highest service level," commented Rafi Maor, CEO and President of ECI Telecom.
http://www.ecitele.com
http://smart.com.ph/

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Silver Spring Networks Wins Smart Grid Contract with Pepco

Silver Spring Networks (SSN) has been selected by Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI) to provide advanced networking products and services to build a Smart Grid network that will serve its 1.9 million customers in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington D.C. Under the multi-year agreement, Silver Spring Networks will provide network infrastructure, devices, software and a variety of services in support of PHI's efforts. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Initial deployments will occur in the Delmarva Power & Light service territory in Delaware, with full deployment to all PHI customers anticipated by 2013, pending regulatory approvals.


Silver Spring Networks supplies open, secure, proven networking platform supporting a variety of Smart Grid solutions, including advanced metering, distribution monitoring and control and home automation.
http://www.silverspringnetworks.com

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Ericsson and STMicroelectronics Joint Venture Gets Underway

Ericsson and STMicroelectronics complete deal to create world leader in semiconductors and platforms for mobile applications. The JV begins as a major supplier to four of the industry's top five handset manufacturers, who together represent about 80 percent of global handset shipments, as well as to other exciting industry leaders.


Ericsson contributed USD 1.1 billion net to the joint venture, out of which USD 0.7 billion was paid to ST. Prior to the closing of the transaction, ST exercised its option to buyout NXP's 20 percent ownership stake of ST-NXP Wireless.


The new company employs about 8,000 people - roughly 3,000 from Ericsson and approximately 5,000 from ST - the new global leader in wireless technologies is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
http://www.ericsson.com
http://www.st.com

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Vodafone Reaches 289 Million Users

Vodafone Group's revenue increased by 14.3% for the quarter ended 31-December-2009, including favourable exchange rate movements of 12.8 percentage points and a2.5 percentage point benefit from merger and acquisition activity, primarily in India.


On an organic basis, revenue and service revenue declined by 1.0% and 0.3%, respectively, with Europe's decline partially offset by Asia Pacific & Middle East and Africa & Central Europe. Pro forma service revenue growth was 1.4% including India and assuming constant exchange rates.


Vodafone said that although current economic environment is challenging, pro forma growth remains positive albeit slower than the previous quarter reflecting the benefit of the Group's breadth of customer base and geographic diversity.

Some highlights for the quarter:

• Revenue of £10,470 million, up 14.3%



• Pro forma service revenue growth including India of 1.4%



• Group data revenue of £786 million, up 25.3% on an organic basis



• Proportionate mobile customer base of 289.0 million at 31 December 2008, up 9.5 million in the quarter



• Europe: Service revenue up 15.0%, driven by strong foreign exchange



• Organic service revenue down 1.4%; trends broadly similar to second quarter in a weaker market environment



• Solid results in Germany and Italy and stabilized results in the UK offset continuing weakness in Spain



• Africa & Central Europe: Service revenue up 6.1%



• Continued good growth in Vodacom offset by Turkey



• Asia Pacific & Middle East: Service revenue up 27.9%



• Record customer growth in India; service revenue growth of 29.6% at constant exchange rates



• Verizon Wireless: Service revenue up 12.2%; data revenue up 49.4%, both in local currency



• Alltel acquisition completed on 9 January 2009



• Early progress on all objectives, including £1 billion cost saving

http://www.vodafone.com

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