Public Input Sought on U.S. Broadband Stimulus Spending

A series of public meetings kicked off in Washington to discuss the $7.2 billion allocated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for broadband initiatives. The next public meetings will be held from March 16-24 to discuss how NTIA and the Rural Utility Service should design and implement these programs. Some meetings will be webcast. The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and...

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Occam Networks Announces 3 More GPON Deployments

Ballard Telephone (LaCenter, Kentucky), Peoples Rural Telephone (McKee, Kentucky) and Nex-Tech (Hays, Kansas) have purchased and deployed Occam Networks' GPON solutions. Some details on the deployments:Ballard Telephone has deployed Occam's Broadband Loop Carrier (BLC) 6322 GPON Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and ON 2442 GPON Triple Play Gateway Optical Network Terminals (ONTs). Ballard is deploying FTTH as part of a strategy to offer subscribers traditional and entertainment services including IP video on demand. Ballard has also purchased Occam's...

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ADVA's Q4 Revenues Exceed Guidance

ADVA Optical Networking reported Q4 2008 revenue of EUR 56.8 million after EUR 53.8 million in Q4 2007 and EUR 54.1 million in Q3 2008. This is above guidance of between EUR 50 million and EUR 55 million for Q4 2008. IFRS pro forma operating income, excluding stock-based compensation and amortization & impairment of goodwill & acquisition-related intangible assets, amounted to EUR 0.1 million in Q4 2008 or 0.1% of revenues, in line with guidance of between -3% and +2% of revenues. The IFRS operating loss in Q4 2008 was EUR 0.5 million,...

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Vitesse Announces 10G-EPON Chipset

Vitesse Semiconductor announced a complete physical media dependent (PMD) chipset for 10 Gbps Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (10G-EPON). Vitesse expects bandwidth intensive applications in FTTH networks will drive the need for 10G-EPON in the network.Vitesse leveraged its 1G-EPON devices to create the new 10G-EPON chipset. It pairs four integrated circuits (ICs) to address both the transmit and the receive paths within the network. For the transmit...

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Infineon Outsources Supply Chain Management to Tata Consultancy

Infineon Technologies AG has contracted with Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to operate and maintain solutions within the Infineon's Supply Chain Management (SCM) landscape. http://www.tcs....

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Flextronics Reduces its Global Manufacturing Capacity

Flextronics announced plans to reduce its global manufacturing capacity and infrastructure as a result of the current macroeconomic conditions and decline in demand from its OEM customers. Flextronics said the current global economic crisis and related decline in demand for its customers' products across all of the industries served has caused its OEM customers to reduce their manufacturing and supply chain outsourcing, ultimately impacting the company's capacity utilization levels. Flextronics expects to recognize between $220 million and $250...

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Verizon Business Wins DoD Contract Valued at Up to $2.5 Billion

Verizon Business announced a contract valued at up to $2.5 billion over ten years to provide network and data services at U.S. Department of Defense installations around the world.Under the Defense Information System Network Transmission Services - Pacific II (DTS-P II) contract, Verizon Business will provide telecommunications services at military installations and other government sites located in the Asia-Pacific region, Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and South America, the Middle East and the United States. The contract term is 10 years,...

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Ikanos VDSL2 Chipsets Deployed in Belgacom FTTN Network

Belgacom, Belgium's leading telecom service provider, is using central office (CO) and customer premises equipment (CPE) based on Ikanos' chipsets as an integral part of its VDSL2 network infrastructure. Specifically, Belgacom has deployed Ikanos-based IP DSLAMs from Alcatel-Lucent and residential gateways from Sagem Communications as part of its fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) infrastructure that reaches homes across the country.Belgacom has built a fiber...

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Sonus Networks Announces another 60 Layoffs

Sonus Networks announced additional plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 60 people, or 6% of employees worldwide. The company expects to incur restructuring charges for severance and related costs of approximately $1.3 million to $1.6 million on a pre-tax basis in the first quarter of fiscal 2009 in connection with this action and anticipates annual compensation-related cash savings of approximately $5.8 million to $6.3 million as a result of this restructuring initiative.This action brings the total expected restructuring charges for...

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Telstra Upgrades Melbourne HFC Network with DOCSIS 3.0

Telstra will upgrade its hybrid fibre coaxial cable (HFC) network in Melbourne with DOCSIS 3.0 technology, enabling end user downlink speeds of up to 100 Mbps, more than triple the current speed on the network.Work will start immediately with the installation of DOCSIS 3.0 software and related infrastructure in the Melbourne cable network. Telstra will invest about A$300 million in the cable upgrade this calendar year.This upgrade will increase the peak download speeds in Melbourne homes to 100Mbps, with further upgrades potentially to speeds of...

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European Parliament Reaches Agreement to Lower Data Roaming Charges

The European Parliament, through a vote in its Industry Committee, agreed to the European Commission's proposals to reduce, as of 1 July, consumer roaming charges for sending text messages and downloading data in the EU. In September 2008, the Commission proposed setting a limit of EUR 0.11 per roamed SMS in the EU (excluding VAT) At present, SMS roaming charges in the EU are on average EUR 0.28 per roamed SMS and can go up to over EUR 0.80 in some...

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AT&T, CWA Reach Tentative Agreement on Mobility Contract

Last week, AT&T and the Communications Workers of America reached a tentative agreement on a collective bargaining agreement for about 20,000 wireless employees covered by the Mobility Orange contract.http://www.att.com/mobilityora...

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AT&T Confirms 2009 CAPEX of $17-18 Billion

Saying that the demand for connectivity remains strong despite the economic climate, AT&T confirmed plans to invest $17 billion to $18 billion in 2009, in line with its 2007 capital expenditures of $17.7 billion and expected to exceed the planned investment of any other U.S. telecom company.Approximately two-thirds of AT&T's 2009 investment will extend and enhance the company's wireless and wired broadband networks to provide more coverage,...

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