Packet Design's Route Explorer Adds IPv6 Support

Packet Design has added IPv6 support to Route Explorer, its network management system that gives enterprises and service providers visibility into routing operations on their IP networks. With the new IPv6 capability, Route Explorer, which works by passively "listening" to routing protocol exchanges and computing a real-time, network-wide layer-3 topology, will now be able to monitor and analyze IPv6 networks, as well as those running IPv4.


The company said its solution enables network engineers to quickly identify and resolve problems, perform effective network maintenance, and do accurate change planning on increasingly complex networks that incorporate both versions of the protocol.


Route Explorer's IPv6 support is initially available for BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) and IS-IS (Intermediate System to Intermediate System), two routing protocols used widely by service providers. Support for IPv6 on the OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) routing protocol will be added later this year, followed by Cisco's enterprise-oriented EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol) in 2010.


IPv6 support for the IS-IS and BGP protocols is available immediately as a $5,000 option with version 7.5 of the Route Explorer software.
http://www.packetdesign.com

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Tundra Receives Higher Acquisition Bid from IDT

Integrated Device Technology has bid to acquire Tundra Semiconductor for Cdn $6.25 per share in cash, representing an aggregate purchase price of approximately Cdn $120.8 million. The IDT Offer is not subject to any due diligence condition, and IDT has indicated that the purchase price payable under its offer will be funded from IDT's cash balance.


On March 19 Gennum Corporation make an offer to acquire Tundra. Under the agreement (which was amended on April 16), Gennum agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Tundra for consideration of, at the election of the holder, a cash price of Cdn $5.81 per share or 1.1679 common shares of Gennum or a combination thereof, subject to pro ration.


The Tundra Board of Directors has determined that the IDT Offer constitutes a "Superior Proposal" but is obliged to consider any counter proposal from Gennum.
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IDT said the strength of Tundra in serial switching and bridging using PCI Express, Rapid IO and VME, would reinforce its leadership in interconnect solutions for the communication, computing, and embedded segments.
http://www.tundra.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Signs US$1.7 Billion Deals with China Mobile, China Telecom

Alcatel-Lucent announced two framework agreements valued US$1.7 billion in total with China Mobile and China Telecom.


Under an agreement valued approximately US$1 billion with China Mobile Alcatel-Lucent will provide its GSM/EDGE solutions, TD-SCDMA wireless networking equipment, optical, microwave and IP transmission offerings, IP service routers, application platforms and related services.


In a comparable agreement with China Telecom, valued at approximately US$700 million, Alcatel-Lucent will supply its 3G CDMA/EV-DO networking equipment, application platforms, optical and IP transmission platforms, IP service routers and network maintenance services to support the rollout of the company's 3G wireless broadband network.


China Mobile and China Telecom were granted 3G licenses in January 2009, for TD-SCDMA and CDMA/EV-DO technologies, respectively. The agreements were secured through Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent's Chinese flagship company.


The contracts were signed today in Washington D.C. in the presence of Li Yue, Vice President of China Mobile, Wu Andi, Chief Financial Officer of China Telecom and Mary Chan, President, Alcatel-Lucent's 4G/LTE end-to-end solutions and Dave Geary, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Wireline networks activities.


At the end of 2008, a consortium led by Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell and Datang Mobile won the largest share in China Mobile's tender for the second phase of its TD-SCDMA mobile network trial.


Also in 2008, China Telecom selected Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell for a US$230 million upgrade of its CDMA mobile network.


In addition, China Unicom, a leading fixed and mobile service provider in China, recently selected Alcatel-Lucent to deploy 3G W-CDMA networks in 14 Chinese provinces.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/

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Oclaro (Bookham + Avanex) Makes Debut

Bookham and Avanex Corporation, both suppliers of optical networking components, completed their merger and officially launched a new company -- Oclaro. Oclaro, with headquarters in San Jose, California, will leverage proprietary core technologies and vertically integrated product development to provide innovative optical devices, modules and subsystems.
The company's stock will trade on the NASDAQ Global Market with the stock symbol "OCLR," beginning at the start of trading on April 28, 2009.


"The closing of this merger is a significant milestone in our quest to be a predominant force in the fiber optics industry," said Alain Couder, president and CEO, Oclaro. "By uniting the best components expertise of Bookham with the modules and subsystems best expertise of Avanex, Oclaro has the necessary products and technologies under one roof to become a market setter in the future of the fiber optic market."


Separately, Oclaro reported quarterly revenues of $47.0 million, compared to $50.2 million in the prior quarter and $59.7 million in the same period last year. The figures represent the results of Bookham. Revenues include $1.9 million recognized upon collection of cash from shipments made to Nortel Networks and a related contract manufacturer. An aggregate of $5.4 million in revenue related to shipments to these customers (including the $1.9 million recognized in this quarter), had been deferred from recognition as revenues as payment was not deemed to be collectable at the time of shipment.


Gross margin for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 was 23 percent, compared to gross margin of 17 percent in the prior quarter. Net loss was $13.3 million, or a net loss of $0.13 per share.


"Despite the lower third quarter revenues that were driven by the economic downturn, we held our adjusted EBITDA close to break even," said Alain Couder, president and CEO of Oclaro, Inc. "We continued to execute throughout our business as we positioned ourselves towards achieving our goal of profitability. Moving forward, we expect the merger with Avanex Corporation, which closed today, to further accelerate our progress towards profitability. Under our new corporate name, "Oclaro," our combined companies are well positioned to leverage our complementary product portfolios, operational synergies and strong balance sheet to accelerate our progress to our long-term financial model."http://www.oclaro.com

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Qualcomm Posts Revenues $2.5 Billion

A day after announcing its settlement with Broadcom, Qualcomm reported quarterly revenue of $2.46 billion, compared to $2.61 billion in the prior year and $2.52 billion in the prior quarter.
While the quarterly revenues were at the high end of prior guidance, strong operating results were offset by costs related to a settlement and patent agreement with Broadcom. In addition, results for the quarter were adversely impacted by other-than-temporary impairments to marketable securities.


There was a net loss of $289 million, compared to net income of $766 million in the prior year and $341 million in the prior quarter. Diluted loss per share of $0.18, compared to diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.47 in the prior year and $0.20 in the prior quarter.


"Global demand for 3G-enabled products and services remains strong despite the current economic environment," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. "While the business environment remains uncertain and the continued distress in global financial markets resulted in additional impairments to our marketable securities, we believe the CDMA inventory channel has stabilized, and we are seeing some replenishment of products driven primarily by emerging markets. We continue to grow key research and development programs to further our technology leadership and drive future growth, while closely managing SG&A expenses. Demand for CDMA-based products and services remains healthy, and our calendar year 2009 device shipment estimate remains unchanged."http://www.qualcomm.com

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General Dynamics Taps Juniper for U.S. Army WIN-T Program

Juniper Networks is providing network routing hardware, software, technological expertise and engineering support to General Dynamics C4 Systems, the prime contractor developing the U.S. Army s Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program. WIN-T is the U.S. Army s fully mobile, tactical communications network system, designed to provide reliable, secure and seamless video, data, imagery and voice services that enable decisive, on-the-move (OTM) information sharing among deployed forces. Specifically, Juniper has been working with the General Dynamics WIN-T program team on integrating Juniper router technology into a solution that supports the WIN-T program s need for Increment 2 OTM communications between commanders, staff, and functional units via line-of-sight, satellite, air-to-ground, and ground-to-ground networks. Juniper's collaboration with General Dynamics has included the definition of interfaces between routers and radios necessary to support OTM functionality that will enable secure network access for defense personnel and their IP-related assets (live video, voice, data and other transmissions) in real time as they move from one operational theater to another. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.juniper.net

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Orange Business deploy Cisco TelePresence for Single Buoy Moorings

Orange Business Services will supply a Cisco TelePresence solution for Single Buoy Moorings, a multinational group of companies that provides systems and services to the oil and gas industry. An all-inclusive Cisco TelePresence implementation managed by Orange Business Services will help Single Buoy Moorings improve productivity by allowing employees to collaborate effectively on projects and capitalize on the talent it has across the organization irrespective of location. Orange Business Services is providing a fully-managed solution including project management, consultancy, deployment, network services, and operational management. Single Buoy Moorings' telepresence traffic will be carried on the Orange IP VPN, the world's largest Telepresence-enabled network, which holds Certified Cisco TelePresence Connection (CCTC) status, which is based on stringent performance requirements vital to a successful Telepresence experience. The deployment includes the Cisco TelePresence System 3000 in Houston (USA), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Monaco, and Schiedam (Netherlands).
http://www.orange.com
http://www.cisco.com

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NTT Com Expanding in Russia, Europe and India

NTT Communications (NTT Com) is establishing subsidiaries in St. Petersburg, Russia; Brussels, Belgium and Neemrana, India/ The Brussels branch will be set up by NTT Europe Limited, an NTT Com subsidiary that already manages branch offices in other European cities. NTT Com also operates a representative office in Moscow.



The Indian branch will be located in the first Japanese-exclusive industrial park in India, Neemrana Industrial Area, which was built by the state government of Rajasthan with cooperation from the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). NTT Com expects to support Japanese enterprises that are setting up operations in the surrounding region.
http://www.ntt.com

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Etisalat and Nokia Collaborate on Mobile Apps

Etisalat and Nokia announced a joint collaboration to provide advanced mobile Internet based services based on the Ovi platform in the Middle East. These services include maps, navigation and games on Nokia devices.


In the first phase of the collaboration, Etisalat's UAE mobile customers will gain access to Ovi Maps and N-Gage Games on their Nokia devices through a payment mechanism linked to their Etisalat account. The payment will be directed to their account automatically, if chosen accordingly, while customers will also have the existing option of paying through their credit cards.


The United Arab Emirates will be the first country in the Middle East and Africa to roll out this service during Q2, 2009, while the cooperation will be extended to other Etisalat operations in the Middle East and Africa in due course.


Etisalat operates in 18 countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, servicing over 74m customers. It also has Points of Presence (PoP) in New York, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris and Singapore providing a truly global reach. In addition to being the UAE's telecom provider, Etisalat has now expanded to manage and operate telecom companies in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger, Togo, Republic of Central Africa, Ivory Coast, Nigeria , Indonesia, Iran and Afghanistan.
http://www.etisalat.aehttp://www.nokia.com

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ZigBee Alliance Sees SmartGrid Integration with IP Networks

The ZigBee Alliance plans to Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards into its specification portfolio of low-power wireless networking in order to accelerate the growth of Smart Grid applications. ZigBee Smart Energy products will enhance their application capabilities with native IP support, allowing seamless integration of Internet connectivity into each product.


The ZigBee Alliance said that through cooperative efforts with the IETF, its members will create additional innovative solutions for wireless sensor and control networks as part of the new specification.


Internet connectivity is currently provided by existing ZigBee specifications; however, the addition of native IP support will offer tighter integration from wireless devices all the way to large scale utility IT networks.


The resulting specification will further broaden ZigBee's suite of low-power wireless network solutions to meet the diversified needs of companies in the home, automation, healthcare, commercial building automation, telecommunications and consumer markets.


ZigBee Smart Energy enables wireless communication between utilities, energy service providers and common household devices such as smart thermostats and appliances. It improves energy efficiency by allowing consumers to choose interoperable products from different manufacturers giving them the means to manage their energy consumption more precisely using automation and near real-time information. It also helps utility companies implement new advanced metering and demand response programs to drive greater energy management and efficiency, while responding to changing government requirements.


The ZigBee Alliance estimates that there are 30 million ZigBee equipped smart meters currently in various stages of deployment in North America.
http://www.ZigBee.org

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Texas Instruments Endorses ZigBee + IP for SmartGrid

Texas Instruments announced its strong endorsement of the ZigBee Alliance's plan to integrate Internet Protocol (IP) and open standards. The plan to incorporate IETF standards will allow continued growth of smart grid applications beyond the smart meter.


"The ZigBee Alliance decision to expand its leading wireless networking standard to incorporate IP standards will solidify and accelerate developments and innovation of rapidly growing smart grid applications," said Laurent Giai-Miniet, general manager of TI's Low-Power RF business. "TI is a leading supplier in this market segment and will continue to invest in solutions for smart energy. TI is also the only supplier that can deliver solutions for ZigBee in all market segments with ZigBee PRO, RF4CE, Smart Energy profile and IP."http://www.ti.com

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Verizon Sees Continued Growth in Wireless Despite Economy

Despite the general economic climate, Verizon Communications' reported strong sales for its wireless services along with continued growth for its FiOS and strategic business initiatives. Verizon's total operating revenues grew 11.6 percent to $26.6 billion, compared with the first quarter 2008, as the company added revenues from its acquisition of Alltel Corporation in early January 2009. On a pro forma basis (determined by consolidating the operating results of Verizon and the former Alltel as though the acquisition had occurred on Jan. 1, 2008), revenue growth was 3.3 percent. EPS came it at 58 cents in the first quarter 2009, up 1.8 percent from 57 cents per share in the first quarter 2008. On an adjusted basis (non-GAAP), first-quarter 2009 earnings were 63 cents per share, up 3.3 percent from first-quarter 2008 earnings of 61 cents per share.


"In this challenging economic environment, we remain focused on delivering value to customers and on returning cash to our shareowners, with an attractive dividend. Verizon is in a unique position. We are tapping into new market opportunities in wireless, broadband, video and global enterprise, and we already have the assets and capabilities to sustain our cash flows and grow total shareholder returns," stated Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg.


Some highlights from Q1:

Wireless

• Wireless retail (non-wholesale) gross customer additions (excluding customers acquired in the Alltel acquisition) were strong, up 32.5 percent over the prior year. On a pro forma basis, retail gross
  customer additions were up 4.3 percent.



• Verizon Wireless had 86.6 million customers at the end of the quarter, an increase of 28.8 percent year over year. This includes 13.2 million net total customer additions, after conforming adjustments,
  from the Alltel acquisition.



• Verizon Wireless is the largest wireless company in the U.S. in terms of total customers and revenues.



• Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million net retail customers (excluding customers acquired in the Alltel acquisition) for a total of 84.1 million retail customers.



• Verizon Wireless had industry-leading retail post-paid churn of 1.14 percent; total churn was an industry-leading 1.47 percent.



• Revenues totaled $15.1 billion, up 29.6 percent year over year and up 9.0 percent on a pro forma basis. Service revenues were $13.1 billion, up 28.9 percent year over year and up 10.5 percent on a pro forma basis, with continued growing demand for data services.



• Data revenue was $3.6 billion in the first quarter 2009, up 56.2 percent,
  or 36.8 percent on a pro forma basis, from the first quarter 2008. Service ARPU decreased 0.3 percent from the similar period a year ago, to $50.74. Total data
  ARPU grew by 20.8 percent to $14.16. On a pro forma basis, service ARPU increased 1.1 percent, and total data ARPU increased 25.2 percent.



• During the quarter, Verizon Wireless customers sent or received an average of 1.4 billion text messages each day, totaling more than 127 billion text messages in the first quarter. Customers also sent nearly 2.1 billion picture/video messages and completed 48.6 million music and video downloads during the quarter.

Wireline

• Wireline's total first-quarter operating revenues were $11.6 billion, a decline of 3.8 percent compared with the first quarter 2008. A 0.7 percent increase in mass market revenues was offset by declines in global enterprise, global wholesale and other services. Wireline total operating expenses were $10.9 billion, a decline of 1.0 percent compared with the first quarter 2008.



• Verizon added 299,000 net new FiOS TV customers. The company had 2.2 million FiOS TV customers, an increase of 83.8 percent compared with the first quarter 2008.



• FiOS TV sales penetration (sales as a percentage of potential customers) increased to 22.9 percent, compared with 18.7 percent in the first quarter 2008. FiOS TV service was available for sale to 9.7 million premises by end of the quarter.



• Verizon added a record 298,000 net new FiOS Internet customers. The company had nearly 2.8 million FiOS Internet customers, an increase of 55.5 percent compared with the first quarter 2008.



• FiOS Internet sales penetration increased to 26.8 percent, compared with 23.0 percent in the first quarter 2008. FiOS Internet was available for sale to 10.4 million premises by the end of the quarter.



• Broadband and video revenues from consumer customers in wireline mass markets totaled $1.3 billion in the first quarter 2009 -- representing year-over-year quarterly growth of 36.3 percent.



• Revenue growth from broadband and video services drove consumer ARPU to $69.97 in the first quarter 2009, a 13.7 percent increase compared with the first quarter 2008.



• Sales of strategic business services -- such as IP, managed services, Ethernet and security solutions -- generated $1.5 billion in revenue in the quarter, up 7.5 percent from the first quarter 2008.



• There were 8.9 million total broadband connections in the first quarter, a net increase of 252,000 over the fourth quarter 2008 and 7.8 percent year over year. This includes a decrease of 46,000 DSL-based Verizon High Speed Internet connections, which was more than offset by the increase in FiOS Internet customers.

http://www.verizon.com

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