Sunday, May 24, 2009

ZTE Gains US$10 Billion Credit Line from Export-Import Bank of China

The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) has granted a US$10 billion credit line to ZTE Corporation. Under the cooperation agreement, ZTE and China Exim Bank will join together to establish a financing platform to support ZTE and its holding subsidiaries in overseas market activities including export seller's credit, export buyer's credit, import credit, preferential foreign loans, transferred loans of foreign governments and trade financing, as well as other premium financial services. ZTE agrees to deal with China Exim Bank as a principal banker and handle loans and relevant businesses through China Exim Bank.
http://wwwen.zte.com.cn

ZTE Unveils First Symmetrical 10G EPON Prototype

Shenzhen-based ZTE Corporation unveiled a prototype symmetrical 10G EPON platform. Both upstream and downstream access rates reach 10Gbps, making it more efficient that the asymmetric 10G EPON previously shown. The IEEE 802.3av 10G EPON standard is expected to be formally published in September of this year.


ZTE has now developed a symmetrical 10G EPON board with a symmetrical 10 GEPON port that complies with the IEEE 802.3av standard. This port can support 1G EPON ONU, asymmetrical 10G EPON ONU, and symmetrical 10G EPONONU on the same ODN, providing the ideal solution for operators to smoothly evolve from EPON to 10G EPON. ZTE has also launched a symmetrical 10G EPON ONU product.


ZTE expects that 10G EPON will enter into large-scale commercial deployment within one to two years.
http://www.zte.com.cn

Portugal Telecom Selects Huawei for FTTH

Portugal Telecom has selected Huawei Technologies for the development of the its Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) network in Portugal. The carrier also has a customer base in Brazil and parts of Africa. Since 2007 Huawei, in collaboration with Portugal Telecom, has been developing laboratory tests and field trials with the objective of supplying new generation optical technology for the access network in Portugal. These tests are based on GPON. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.huawei.com

Ericsson's CEO addresses World Business Summit on Climate Change

"A large scale offsetting of CO2 emissions will require new ways of conducting business and new ways of living, and will also require large scale investments in Information and Communication technology (ICT).

This sector could offset societal CO2 emissions by as much as 15 percent by 2020," commented Ericsson's CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg. In support of the UN Global Compact Caring for Climate initiative, Ericsson's CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg addressed UN Secretary Ban-Ki Moon at an official meeting in Copenhagen. Ericsson believes this figure of 15% to be conservative. "We must move away from dealing with emissions after they have already occurred, and focus instead on moving ideas, not people, with broadband being society's new highways."


Mr. Svanberg also spoke at the first plenary session of the World Business Summit on Climate Change, addressing industry and government leaders.
http://www.ericsson.com

TeliaSonera Announces First Commercial 4G/LTE Site with Ericsson

Ericsson and TeliaSonera have unveiled the world's first commercial Long- Term Evolution (LTE) site in Stockholm. The site will be part of a commercial network scheduled to go live in 2010.


Ulf Ewaldsson, Vice President and Head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson, says: "The unveiling of this site shows that LTE is no longer the story of the future; it is the story of today. Ericsson, as a leader in LTE development, is proud to work with TeliaSonera to bring a commercial LTE network to life."


Erik Hallberg, Senior Vice President and Head of TeliaSonera Mobility Services in Sweden, says: "Being at the forefront of broadband evolution means our customers will be the first to benefit from this groundbreaking technology. This first LTE site is a key step towards further enhancing Sweden's fastest mobile broadband network."http://www.ericsson.com

Asia-Pacific Gateway Cable Network Promises 4 Tbps

China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), NTT Communications (Japan), KT (Korea), PLDT (Philippines), Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia) and VNPT (Vietnam) have signed a memorandum of understanding to co-develop the Asia-Pacific Gateway (APG) as an international undersea cable system within the Asia-Pacific region. Service is expected to begin in 2011.

The APG will span about 8,000km and have a minimum design capacity of four terabits per second. It will connect Japan, Korea, China Mainland, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand.

NTT Com said the market expansion of Southeast Asia and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region has raised the demand for high bandwidth global communication, including the Internet and enterprise network services. Such services require both high reliability and redundant routes to secure continuous communications and minimize the potential impact of cables being damaged by accidents such as undersea earthquakes.
http://www.ntt.com/index-e.html

NTT Com to Add Burstable Option for Ethernet Services

NTT Com is introducing an Ethernet burstable option that enables corporate users of its e-VLAN, Arcstar IP-VPN and Business OCN services in Japan to flexibly and economically configure their networks to handle sudden, temporary bursts of data traffic.


Network data traffic has risen dramatically due to the increasing use of e-mail, browsing, groupware applications, data management for control and security, and network-based computing applications such software as a service (SaaS). Moreover, traffic volume can vary widely within one day or longer, placing a heavy burden on network resources. For many companies, however, the cost of adding sufficient bandwidth to deal with these data bursts can be quite high.


NTT Com's "Burst Ether Access" is designed to provide a cost-effective option for sudden traffic spikes. Two menus will be available: "Burst 10" will provide committed bandwidth of 1 Mbps and the capacity to burst up to 10 Mbps, while "Burst 100" will provide committed 10 Mbps , burstable to 100 Mbps. The monthly charge will be from 84,000 yen (including tax) in the case of Burst 10 for customers using the e-VLAN "zone plan" (access within a defined geographic zone).
http://www.ntt.com/index-e.html

NTT Com to Acquire Terabit Class Pacific Crossing Undersea Cable

NTT Com, the international and long distance service arm of NTT Corporation, will acquire 100% of Pacific Crossing's outstanding common shares. The largest of PCL's shareholders are funds managed by Strategic Value Partners.


Pacific Crossing's PC-1 network is the second-largest trans-Pacific subsea cable system, spanning 21,000 km and connecting the U.S. and Japan. The system has landings at Harbour Pointe, Washington (near Seattle); Grover Beach, California (between San Francisco and Los Angeles); Ajigaura, Japan (near Tokyo); and Shima, Japan (near Osaka and Nagoya). The network offers extensive backhaul into major U.S. and Japanese cities.




Pacific Crossing recently added Gigabit Ethernet access support for its carrier and ISP customers. Pacific Crossing's new service allows customers to access the PC-1 network using a standard Gigabit Ethernet interface at the company's four Points-of- Presences in the U.S. and cable landing stations in both the U.S. and Japan. For customers in Japan, Pacific Crossing also has the ability to offer access directly to a customer's premise through a domestic partner network.


NTT Com said it will combine its premier network assets in Japan and globally with the PC-1 network to provide enhanced connectivity between the United States, Japan and Asia NTT Com also plans to retain the Pacific Crossing management team, led by CEO Mark Simpson.


The Blackstone Group L.P. acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Pacific Crossing on the transaction, and Latham & Watkins LLP served as Pacific Crossing's legal advisor. Houlihan Lokey acted as the financial advisor to NTT Com and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP served as NTT Com's legal advisor. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://ww.ntt.co.jphttp://www.pc1.com
  • In March 2008, Fujitsu and Pacific Crossing completed an upgrade project that more than doubles the capacity of the 21,000-kilometer PC-1 trans-Pacific fiber optic submarine cable network. The project, which began in September 2007, involved the installation of Fujitsu's FLASHWAVE S650 submarine wavelength divisional multiplexer equipment in Pacific Crossing's cable landing stations, and the upgrade of the overall capacity to 1.98Tbps, of which 1.01Tbps is available on the two Trans-Pacific segments. The six-month contract was completed without any disruption to existing network traffic.


  • In January 2007, Pacific Crossing raised $50 million in new financing to pay off its remaining debt and finance new projects. The company also announced the appointment of Robert Boss as CEO and Robert Annunziata as Chairman. Boss previously was president of Japan Telecom America. Annunziata has served in a numerous executive positions throughout the telecom industry, including as CEO of Global Crossing during most of 1999.


  • In January 2006, Pacific Crossing Ltd, Inc., a former subsidiary of Global Crossing and of the former Asia Global Crossing (now Asia Netcom), emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Over $650 million of existing debt was converted into equity and $25 million in secured debt.