FCC Seeks Comments on National Broadband Clearinghouse

The FCC is seeking public comment on whether it should develop a national "Broadband Clearinghouse" of best practices across the industry. The aim of the broadband clearinghouse would be to "reduce information barriers for municipalities, agencies, businesses, and non-profits that want insights into more effectively utilizing broadband infrastructure, or into broadband deployment or adoption projects". Specifically, the FCC asks:


Should the federal government, through either the Federal Communications Commission, or through another governmental entity, initiate or create a national broadband
clearinghouse of best practices? If the federal government should not create such a clearinghouse, should a non-governmental entity create one?


Comments are due by November 16, 2009.
http://www.fcc.gov

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DOCOMO, NEC, Panasonic Mobile and Fujitsu Develop LTE Chipset

NTT DOCOMO, NEC Corporation, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Fujitsu are jointly developing an LTE-PF mobile-terminal chipset for super-fast downlinks above 100 Mbps and uplinks above 50 Mbps. The four companies have completed the first engineering sample and are now evaluating its main functions. The sample will be exhibited at the NTT Group stand at ITU Telecom World 2009 in Geneva this week.


LTE-PF is a core system comprising software for baseband processing and other basic functions in mobile communication devices. The platform's technology is expected to be licensed in mobile phone markets worldwide, where its adoption as a common platform will free manufacturers of mobile phones and chipsets from having to develop proprietary technologies for basic functions. The companies said their LTE-PF design will be capable of seamless hand-over between LTE and 3G (W-CDMA and GSM).
http://www.nttdocomo.com

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Telstra Activates its 100th ADSL2+ exchange in Tasmania

Telstra has upgraded its 100th telephone exchange in Tasmania to ADSL2+, extending the ADSL2+ coverage footprint to 88 percent of Tasmanian homes and businesses. The network offers downlink speeds of up to 20 Mbps depending on the customer's distance from the nearest exchange.
http://www.telstra.com

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Kyocera Develops Crystal Etalon Filter for WDM

Kyocera has developed a new Crystal Etalon Filter technology that prevents dense wavelengths of light from interfering with each other by sensing deviations between multiple wavelengths. The new product, which was created by Kyocera Kinseki, is able to assign arbitrary figures as a wavelength temperature coefficient ranging from 5.4 to 15.7pm/˚C. The company says this enables more flexibility in designing tunable laser modules, while contributing to higher precision, and better wavelength stability and reliability. http://www.kyocera.com

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IPtronics Develops Components for Intel's Light Peak

IPtronics confirmed that it has begun sampling a key component for Intel's Light Peak optical fiber cable technology.


Light Peak consists of a controller chip and an optical module that would be included in platforms supporting this technology. The optical module performs the conversion from electricity to light and vice versa, using miniature lasers and photo detectors. IPtronics supplies the driver and receiver silicon that goes into the optical module.


IPtronics said its silicon has been developed in close collaboration with Intel as well as optical module manufacturers to enable a fully functional solution for the end users within 2010. Sampling is underway to industry partners. The product is based on leading edge BiCMOS process technology from STMicroelectronics.
http://www.iptronics.com

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Avago's Develops Optical Engine for Intel's 10 Gbps Light Peak Cable

Avago Technologies developed the embedded optical engine technology for Intel's newly announced Light Peak optical fiber cable technology.


Light Peak is a new high-speed optical interconnect technology designed to run multiple existing I/O protocols on a single cable to connect electronic devices together. Light Peak is designed to deliver 10 Gbps with the potential ability to scale to 100 Gbps over the next decade. At 10Gbps, a full-length Blu-Ray movie can be transferred in less than 30 seconds.


"With an extra thin profile of 2mm and power consumption of 135 mW per 10G channel, this Avago embedded optical engine will fit in small confined spaces, which is an essential requirement for electronic computing and consumer electronic devices," said Philip Gadd, vice president and general manager, Fiber Optic Products Division, Avago Technologies.
http://www.avagotech.com

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Nortel to Auction its GSM/GSM-R Business

Nortel is planning an open auction to sell substantially all of its global GSM/GSM-R business. In connection with this proposed sale, the company also expects to transfer specified patents predominantly used in the GSM business and grant non-exclusive licenses of other relevant patents. Qualified bidders are required to submit their offers by 05-November-2009. Competing qualified bids are then expected to proceed to an "open auction", which, under the proposed bidding procedures, is scheduled for 09-November-2009. Any final sale agreement would be subject to approval by the U.S. and Canadian courts.


Nortel has worked with more than 100 operators in over 65 countries. Nortel supplies GSM access and core network solutions and recently introduced its Smart Power Management (SPM) software, a feature which, when, combined with other enhancements made to Nortel's GSM technology, make Nortel GSM portfolio up to 50% more energy efficient than it was five years ago. Also based on GSM technology is GSM-R (GSM for Railways) which provides a secure communications system for railways operators. Nortel claims to be the leading GSM-R provider.
http://www.nortel.com

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NEC Debuts its ATCA-based Evolved Packet Core for LTE

NEC Corporation unveiled an ATCA-based Evolved Packet Core (EPC) system for controlling user sessions across LTE base stations.


The platform incorporates Mobility Management Entity (MME) and Serving-GW)/PDN-GW functionality into 5U AdvancedTCA, chassis that fits a standard 19-inch rack. MME manages the location and paging process of LTE systems. Serving-GW processes users' voice and data packets for 2G/3G and LTE systems, while the PDN-GW functionality manages the interface between EPC and external networks (Internet and IMS etc.).


NEC said its compact EPC system is capable of simultaneously accommodating nearly 300,000 subscribers while controlling more than 1,000 LTE base stations. The system can support LTE trials and small scale LTE commercial services. When the number of subscribers increases, large scale network expansion can easily be implemented by adding more blades.


"We have seen caution surrounding LTE in today's market, but NEC is fully committed to providing cost effective LTE solutions that cause minimal disruption," said Dr Shahram Niri, Director of Global LTE/SAE Strategy & Solutions, NEC Europe. "Our new EPC aims to provide a flexible platform that offers operators a smooth, simple and seamless evolution from their existing networks at the lowest total cost of ownership possible. NEC was the first end to end solution vendor offering EPC in Japan and is contributing to the early momentum of LTE by providing radio access, core and terminal elements of LTE networks. As a consequence we have learned many valuable lessons that allow us to meet operators' needs. NEC's new EPC enables a variety of options, such as centralized or distributed deployment, as well as different degrees of EPC node integration (MME, S-GW and P-GW) from a compact all in one package," he added.
http://www.nec.com

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BT Openreach to Test FTTP at Brownfield Sites

BT's Openreach local access network division will begin testing FTTP in "brownfield" sites for the first time in January 2010. Two locations - Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park, London - have been selected for the trial, which will see speeds of up to 100 Mbps delivered to up to 20,000 homes and businesses in each area by March 2010. The trial products will be available to all UK communications providers on an open, wholesale basis.


Openreach is already using FTTP in certain "greenfield" housing projects. The company believes FTTC will continue to be the most widely deployed technology in its broadband rollout.
http://www.btplc.com

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