Sunday, February 8, 2009

Cisco Prices $4 Billion of Senior Unsecured Notes

Cisco announced the pricing of two series of senior unsecured notes for an aggregate principal amount of $4 billion. The offering is expected to close on February 17, 2009. Of these notes, $2 billion will mature in February 2019 and will bear interest at an annual rate of 4.95%, and $2 billion will mature in February 2039 and will bear interest at an annual rate of 5.90%. The 4.95% notes due February 2019 and the 5.90% notes due February 2039 were priced to yield 4.979% and 5.916%, respectively.


Cisco intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes and to repay $500 million in aggregate principal amount of its floating rate notes due 2009.
http://www.cisco.com

Vodafone and Huawei Confirm Strategic Relationship

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street in London were present at a signing ceremony in which Vodafone formally recognized Huawei Technologies a key supplier of networking gear. One of the more recent agreements recognised was Vodafone Turkey' s decision to select Huawei to build its 3G network to deliver voice and fast speed data services to its customers. The project, which will run over the next five years, will cover major cities in Turkey, including Istanbul.


Huawei is a strategic partner for Vodafone, with a global procurement agreement to supply equipment, products and services across the Vodafone group of operating companies. The two companies have recently agreed a number of deals including:

  • The re-development of the mobile network of Ghana Telecom improving the quality of service provided to customers.


  • The supply of mobile network equipment for Vodafone Spain, Vodafone Greece, Vodafone Hungary and Vodafone Romania


  • Support in trials designed to assess the next generation of wireless broadband technology (LTE), helping Vodafone to fully assess the potential of this future technology
http://www.huawei.com
http://www.vodafone.com

Telefónica Latin America to Deploy Huawei's Service Delivery Platform

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodr�guez Zapatero attended a signing ceremony in Madrid where Telefónica agreed to deploy Huawei's new Service Delivery Platform (SDP) serving in all of its Latin American markets. The event occurred at the end of January. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Under the agreement, Huawei will provide Telefónica with a service-oriented architecture (SOA) based centralized SDP solution to serve whole Latin America, including 13 countries, integrating different network capabilities and business functionalities, providing a unified interface and service management.


Huawei's SDP platform, to be commercially launched during the first half of 2009, unifies the delivery of value-added services and eases the process of implementing new services such worldwide universal e-mail, mobile newspapers, 3G messaging solutions or advertising on mobile phones. The SDP opens the possibility of offering convergence services, for both fixed and mobile networks, as well as for residential and enterprise markets.
http://www.huawei.com

Wintegra Announces Next Generation Carrier Ethernet Processor

Wintegra introduced its next generation Carrier Ethernet Processor featuring performance over 5 times that of its previous processors and providing the foundation for next generation infrastructure products such as Metro Ethernet Access Devices, GPON OLT line cards, VDSL systems, and cell site aggregation.


The WinIP3 processors are the first products utilizing Wintegra's 65 nanometer WinPath3 architecture. WinIP3 processors are available with a broad range of Ethernet interfaces supporting 10/100 Megabit, 1 Gigabit, 2.5 Gigabit and 10 Gigabit networks.


Wintegra said its WinIP3 is the first processor of its kind to break the $50 price barrier in high performance configurations at up to 15 Million pps (Packets per Second). It supports a rich set of carrier-class features in classification, policing, forwarding and shaping on many thousands of flows. This family leverages the large installed base of Wintegra's datapath software suite, adding enhancements for MPLS and PBB (Provider Backbone Bridging), new protocols for the evolving Carrier Ethernet marketplace. Add to that other production ready data path protocols such as IPv4/IPv6 Routing, L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol), GRE (Generic Routing Encapsulation), Link Aggregation, Ethernet OAM, Synchronous Ethernet, and PWE3 (Pseudo Wire Emulation Edge to Edge). These are complemented by QoS support for Ethernet OAM, ATM OAM, BFD, VCCV, Packet Classification, Per-flow queuing, Hierarchical shaping, packet policing and re-marking, buffer management using WRED, and statistics and metering. Data path protocols are available at no charge to WinIP3 customers.


Wintegra's next generation WinIP3 will be first available in Q3 of this year. Volume pricing begins at less than $50.
http://www.wintegra.com

Columbus Networks Deploys Juniper T1600 Core Routers

Columbus Networks, a leading wholesale service provider connecting the Americas with its undersea cables, has recently deployed Juniper Networks T1600 core routers. The routers are installed the heart of its various subsea networks including ARCOS, CFX-1, ECLink, which combined interconnect the United States and 20 countries in Pan-Caribbean Americas region. Columbus had previously deployed Juniper Networks M320 routers in the core with MX-series throughout the edge of the network. With the new T1600s, Columbus has increased the capacity of its core network by a factor of three to support increased bandwidth demand, while facilitating the introduction of innovative new services.

http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.columbus-networks.com

Packet Design Appoints AT&T Veteran Hossein Eslambolchi to Board

Packet Design, which specializes in route analytics solutions for managing large IP networks, has appointed Dr. Hossein Eslambolchi, former chief technology officer of AT&T, to its board of directors. Dr. Eslambolchi is currently chairman of 2020 Venture Partners, which provides technology and operations consulting to private equity and venture capital firms in the area of telecommunications IP software and infrastructure. In addition serving as AT&T's CTO from 2000 to 2005, he was president of the AT&T Global Networking Technology Services, president and CEO of AT&T Labs, and chief information officer during his 19 years with the company.
http://www.packetdesign.com

Dell'Oro: 802.11n Enterprise Wireless LAN Revenue to Grow Over Ten-Fold by 2013

Revenue for 802.11n enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) equipment is expected to grow over ten times the current revenue level and exceed $2.5 billion by 2013, according to a recently published report from Dell'Oro Group.

The report forecasts mass adoption of 802.11n among specific vertical industries such as education and healthcare, enabling the enterprise wireless LAN (WLAN) market to approach $4 billion by 2013. The report also indicates the enterprise WLAN market growth rate is expected to slow in 2009 before returning to a historical average of double-digit growth in 2010.


"While we believe the education and healthcare vertical industries will remain leading adopters of wireless LAN technologies, we believe traditional office environments represent a larger market potential," said Ben Kwan, Analyst of Wireless LAN research at Dell'Oro Group.
http://www.DellOro.com

TerreStar Advances its S-Band Application with European Commission

TerreStar Europe submitted a filing to the European Commission certifying that it had complied with the Critical Design Review milestone of the Pan-European 2GHz MSS S-band selection and spectrum authorization process.


TerreStar Europe plans to create a pan-European integrated satellite and complementary ground component network that is designed to provide high quality, cost-effective, seamless wireless applications and services to urban, rural and remote regions of Europe on a wholesale basis.
http://www.terrestarcorp.com

Juniper Networks Appoints William F. Meehan to Board

Juniper Networks announced the appointment of William F. Meehan III to its Board of Directors. Meehan is the Raccoon Partners Lecturer in Management at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and was a senior director of McKinsey and Company.
http://www.juniper.net

Verizon Business Continues Global Network Expansion

Verizon Business announced an expansion of its MPLS network with new and diverse nodes in South Asia, North Asia, Singapore, Japan, Mexico, the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Currently, Verizon Business supports Private IP services in more than 120 countries around the world, including China and India.


In 2008, Verizon's converged packet architecture (CPA) network reached 87 markets in 27 countries. The company will continue to add more CPA sites this year. CPA enables convergence of services onto a single packet access connection via a simple Ethernet interface. New CPA locations this year include: Japan (Tokyo and Osaka); Taiwan (Taipei); South Korea (Seoul); Hong Kong; Singapore; Australia (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra); and India (Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Hyderabad).


In 2008, Verizon Business sales of strategic enterprise services - such as security and IT solutions, and professional and managed Internet protocol (IP) services - increased 16 percent over 2007.


Verizon Business also noted its participation in more than 80 submarine cables in the world. The on-time completion in 2008 of the first phase of the 17,000-kilometer (10,500-mile) Trans-Pacific Express cable network from the U.S. to mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan paved the way for the second phase of the TPE cable, which is expected to land in Japan in early 2010. Verizon Business is the only U.S.-based company that is an original charter member of the Trans-Pacific Express Consortium. Verizon Business is also a lead member of the Europe India Gateway (EIG) Consortium, which is planning the first direct, high-bandwidth optical-fiber submarine cable system to be built connecting the United Kingdom, the Middle East and India. Verizon Business will be one of the terminal parties for the more than $700 million EIG cable. The company will provide a cable terminal facility in Marseille, France, for the 15,000-kilometer (9,000 mile) cable. This will give the EIG direct connectivity to the Verizon Business network in Europe, as well as provide significant redundancy in cable stations and routing. Verizon Business expects to have its terminal ready for the installation of EIG equipment in Q3 2009.


Verizon Business is continuing to expand its optical mesh architecture and has implemented seven-way mesh technology on its Atlantic and Pacific submarine cable routes. The company also will continue optical-mesh architecture expansion in the U.S. and Canada.


Additional major network projects scheduled for 2009 include:

  • Second phase of the India network expansion.


  • Expansion of the ultra-long-haul (ULH) network in the U.S. and Europe.


  • Deployment of ROADM (reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer) technology used to remotely configure wavelengths on the network, allowing for faster provisioning and trouble isolation.


  • Implementation of packet-optical transport platform (P-OTP) network design.


  • Deployment of 40 gigabits per second technology on additional selected network routes for the private IP and public IP networks.


  • Continued testing of 100Gbps capabilities in an effort to move the industry toward production-quality 100Gbps in 2010.


  • Expansion of new data centers in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, and additional capacity at numerous other data centers.
http://www.verizonbusiness.com

ARCHOS Internet Media Tablet to Use Android Telephony Stack

ARCHOS is preparing to launch a new ultra-thin Internet Media Tablet (IMT) with premium smartphone capabilities based on Google's Android telephony stack and the ARCHOS' multimedia framework. ARCHOS will use Texas Instruments' OMAP 3 silicon for the new product.




Android provides the IMT with all the functionalities of a premium smartphone and access to its fast-developing applications environment. Other key features of the Internet Media Tablet include a 5" screen and full-width page viewing, Adobe Flash and Flash Video support, TV recording and High Definition (HD) playback, up to 500 GB of storage, up to 7 hours of video playback on a single battery charge, 7.2 Mbps HSUPA data connectivity.


"ARCHOS was proud to announce the introduction of its ARCHOS 5 HSDPA IMT last year with SFR. We are continuing to advance our efforts in the IMT space with the introduction of this new product," said Henri Crohas, CEO and ARCHOS founder. "Support for an Android-based device represents a historical opportunity for ARCHOS to combine all the best of our IMTs with a phone in a single device delivering high quality video and a full web experience in true mobility."http://www.archos.com
http://www.ti.com

EXFO Acquires PicoSolve for 40/100G Oscilloscopes

EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering has acquired PicoSolve, Inc., a private test and measurement company offering optical sampling oscilloscopes for 40G and 100G R&D, manufacturing and deployment applications. Financial terms were not disclosed.


PicoSolve, founded in 2004 by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, provides ultra-high-speed optical sampling oscilloscopes to network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) involved in the design and production of next-generation optical networks. Network service providers (NSPs) will also require such high-end test equipment for their deployment initiatives.


PicoSolve currently has the only bit rate-independent test solution that can measure such phase- and amplitude-modulated signals with a measurement bandwidth of more than 500 GHz, yielding a sub-picosecond temporal resolution. PicoSolve also brings to EXFO a rich intellectual property portfolio with patents that will be leveraged over time.

http://www.EXFO.com

RAD Data and Ipanema Partner on Application-Aware Services

RAD Data Communications, which supplies intelligent access devices, and Ipanema Technologies, which specializes in application traffic management systems for WANs, have announced plans to co-develop a joint system for enhancing added value services in Layer 3 and Layer 2 VPNs while laying the foundation for future business services.


This cooperative solution will be based on RAD's intelligent customer premises equipment and Ipanema's Autonomic Networking System (incorporating advanced application-awareness capabilities). The companies said their joint product offering will pave the way for service providers to extend existing WAN optimization services to more IP VPN enterprise sites, as well as assure end-to-end application performance guarantees over increasingly popular Ethernet VPNs.
http://www.rad.com
http://www.ipanematech.com

Bookham Marks 300 Million Field Hours for its Pump Laser Chip

Bookham's flagship high performance generation eight (G08) optical chip

, which provides signal amplification in telecommunications networks, has achieved a combined total of 300 million field hours. The G08 chip is manufactured in the company's Zurich facility, and underpins the industry leading 750mW pump laser module and the OceanBright submarine pump. The ultra high power 750mW pump laser module has been shipping in volume since March 2007.


Bookham noted that its all the products across its pump portfolio have generated 20 billion field hours to date.
http://www.bookham.com

ZTE Launches WiMAX 16e Remote Radio Unit

ZTE introduced what it calls the industry's smallest WiMAX 16e RRU (Remote Radio Unit) product. The product leverages BF4*8 Multi-Antenna technology, which effectively improves signal quality from a single base station, allowing extensive network coverage and enhanced network performance.


Compared with traditional devices using MIMO technology, ZTE said its RRU R9110 further minimizes the number of base stations from 35%-50%, helping telecom operators reduce network construction and maintenance costs.


The device supports dual carrier discontinuous spectrum.
http://www.zte.com.cn

Acme Packet Delivers SBC Functionality for the Verizon Hub

Verizon Wireless is using Acme Packet's Net-Net session border controllers (SBCs) to deliver secure and seamless network services for the Verizon Hub and its users. Specifically, Acme Packet's session border controllers provide Verizon Wireless with a secure border using a hosted NAT traversal capability. The Net-Net SBCs also help maintain a secure environment and help connect to other service providers, including e911 providers, enabling Verizon Hub customers to have full access to emergency services from their home.


http://www.acmepacket.com

Verizon Hub Connects to Verizon Wireless' Navigator GPS App

Verizon Wireless' recently introduced Hub can now synchronize locations with the company's VZ Navigator service. VZ Navigator provides customers with visual and audible directions to thousands of destinations.

Networks In Motion powers the VZ Navigator service and makes the integration between the Verizon Hub and VZ Navigator possible through its "Web-to-App API" technology.


The Verizon Hub is available in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores across the country for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year agreement; additional cordless handsets, which can be placed throughout the home, are available for $79.99 each.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/hub

Bytemobile Teams with F5 to Scale T-Mobile's 3G Network Capacity

Bytemobile and F5 Networks have teamed up to provide a network capacity scalability solution for T-Mobile International, which serves approximately 95 million subscribers across its European operating companies.




Specifically, Bytemobile has integrated the F5 VIPRION on-demand Application Delivery Controller with its Unison Mobile Internet Platform installed in the core data path of the network to provide increased network scalability, availability and performance. Bytemobile solutions on the Unison platform are deployed at T-Mobile operating companies in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Bytemobile has selected the F5 VIPRION system to meet the scalability and availability requirements of the Unison platform at these T-Mobile sites.


Bytemobile said it selected F5 for its specialized ability to deliver high availability and high throughput for complex applications in very large-scale networks with traffic flowing through multiple data centers.
http://www.f5.com
http://www.bytemobile.com

Texas Instruments Expands its LTE Solution with 1.2 GHz DSP

Texas Instruments has extended its LTE (Long Term Evolution) wireless portfolio with the introduction of a three core digital signal processor running at 3.6GHz coupled with a software library. Sampling begins this quarter.


The TCI6487, which is designed for LTE base stations, contains three DSP cores, each running at 1.2 GHz. Each core has its own dedicated 1 Mbyte of L2 with 32k of L1 data and program cache minimizing off-chip memory access and enabling efficient software architectures. Each DSP core contains one RSA unit that can accelerate the decoding of LTE CQI information -- a savings of up to 1 GHz per sector for 20 MHz LTE systems.


TI said the new LTE solution enables OEMs to extend their current basestation platforms to include new features and more complex algorithms without designing a new board. In addition, the optimized software library for LTE leverages specialized accelerators and instructions to further improve efficiency.


"A key driver for LTE deployment is the consumer's insatiable demand for data-intensive applications running on mobile internet devices or smartphones, including interactive remote games, streaming video and location-based applications, which require significantly more bandwidth and no tolerance for latency. To meet these challenging network requirements while keeping an eye on costs, basestation OEMs and carriers need a powerful, scaleable solution similar to the one TI is providing," said Kathy Brown, general manager of TI's wireless basestation infrastructure group.


In addition to LTE software libraries, TI provides optimized libraries for WiMAX and WCDMA to further enable multi-standard developments. These libraries enable higher channel density as well as lower power per channel. Developed and tested within TI's carrier-class environment, the inclusion of this software allows basestation OEMs to better focus on their system level solutions.
http://www.ti.com/morelte

Senate Stimulus Bill Expected to Have $7 Billion for Broadband, plus Tax Credits

The economic stimulus bill being considered by the U.S. Senate is now expected to allocate $7 billion in grants for broadband deployments in rural and underserved areas along with various tax credits for other broadband projects. Specifically, the Broadband Tax Credit creates a tiered investment tax credit for broadband infrastructure. The proposal provides a 10 percent credit for current generation broadband in underserved and rural areas, and a 20 percent credit for current generation broadband in unserved areas. The proposal also provides a 20 percent credit for next generation broadband investment. This provision is estimated to cost $110 million over ten years.

http://www.senate.gov

Amazon Kindle's Whispernet Leverages Sprint's EVDO Network

Amazon.com unveiled its Kindle 2 reading device featuring a slimmer design, longer battery life, faster page turns, over seven times more storage, sharper images, and a new read-to-me feature. Kindle 2 offers a high-resolution 6-inch electronic paper display that aims to minimize the eyestrain caused by reading electronic displays. More than 230,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store. The device costs $359.


As with the previous generation, the new Kindle download's content via Amazon's Whispernet, which runs over Sprint's nationwide 3G EVDO network. No subscription fee or access fee is charged to browse the online store or to download content. Amazon covers all connectivity costs.
http://www.amazon.com