Infonetics: Recession Accelerates Wireline-to-Mobile Substitution.

The global recession clearly accelerated the pace of wireline-to-mobile substitution, according to a new Fixed and Mobile Subscribers market forecast report from Infonetics Research. Driven by strong growth in China, India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging economies, the number of worldwide mobile subscribers will reach 5.9 billion by 2013.


Some other highlights of the report:

• There were nearly 4 times more mobile subscribers than access line subscribers worldwide in 2008 (3.9 billion vs. 1 billion)



• The number of mobile subscribers grew 17.4% in 2008 over 2007, while access line subscribers declined 5.5%



• Access lines are disappearing fastest in North America and China, due to the move to fixed-to-mobile substitutions, the switch from copper to fiber lines, and the recession, during which many people ditch their landlines and keep only their mobile or smartphone



• The number of worldwide mobile subscribers will reach 5.9 billion by 2013



• The number of PON FTTH subscribers worldwide is expected to soar at a compound annual growth rate of 32% from 2008 to 2013.

http://www.infonetics.com

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Lantiq Begins Operations as Independent Company

Lantiq has begun operations as independent company. The new entity was created throught the sale of Infineon Technologies Wireline business unit to US- based investor Golden Gate Capital. The final purchase price will amount to approximately EUR 243 Million resulting from customary adjustments in the asset purchase agreement with Golden Gate Capital. Infineon is expected to record a book gain of more than Euro 100 Million as a result of this transaction in the first quarter of its fiscal year ending September 30, 2010.

Lantiq is a market leader in the broadband access market and has approximately 900 employees around the globe. It is among the world's Top 15 fabless semiconductor companies and fifth largest among the companies headquartered in Europe.
http://www.lantiq.com/

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Nortel Cites Recent Govt Wins in Asia-Pacific

Nortel said it has recently won significant public sector deals in several countries across the Asia Pacific region for its Unified Communications (UC), Ethernet Routing Switches, contact center deployments and virtual collaboration solutions. These contracts include:

• New Zealand Public Service Association, the nation's largest union with more than 57,000 registered members, will migrate to a unified communications network from Nortel, Microsoft and implementation partner Gen-i.



• Taiwan Post, the largest postal, banking and insurance services provider in Taiwan , is implementing a Nortel Metro Ethernet solution.



• Shanghai Metro Line 1 has deployed a Nortel Metro Ethernet solution to transmit information relating to wireless access systems, electronic monitoring, digital television and broadcasting, including comprehensive network monitoring and alerting tools. All operational and management information - voice, data and video - will be securely and accurately transmitted and monitored, ensuring seamless communications among train staff and access to the PIS (Passenger Information System) at all times.



• The Commonwealth Youth Games 2008, which were held in Pune , India from October 12 to 18, ran on a next-generation data network infrastructure set up by Nortel. The always-on, highly available network supporting 1,000 users, ran multimedia applications including real-time schedule updating, statistical analysis, resource coordination and media coverage helping ensure the Commonwealth Youth Games 2008 ran smoothly.



• Japan 's Kyushu University Hospital has a new medical information network based on Nortel's clinical-grade Healthcare Solutions portfolio.

http://www.nortel.com

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Alcatel-Lucent and Belgium's ONDD Offer Third Party Financing

Belgium's public export credit insurer (ONDD -- Office National Du Ducroire | Nationale Delcrederedienst) has agreed to provide insurance for third party financing for the purchase of Alcatel-Lucent equipment by service providers worldwide.


As a first result of this agreement, Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking has arranged an ONDD-backed loan facility in favour of Turk Telekom, to finance various contracts between Turk Telekom and Alcatel-Lucent for a global amount of EUR 46 million. In line with Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) regulations, part of the local services was also integrated in this financing.


The loan facility could be extended to support additional new contracts between Turk Telekom and Alcatel-Lucent. The buyer's credit will be applied to the full foreign portion, on a global level, of contracts concluded between Alcatel-Lucent Teletas (Turkey) and Turk Telekom for technologies sourced from different Alcatel-Lucent entities around the world.


"This agreement demonstrates ONDD's commitment to supporting Alcatel-Lucent export transactions worldwide, in recognition and support of the critical role Alcatel-Lucent's Belgian operations play as a centre of expertise in R&D, export and project management for the company. This is an important milestone in our ongoing long lasting relationship with Alcatel-Lucent," said Stefaan Van Boxstael, Deputy Head of Underwriting from ONDD. "This agreement with ONDD allows Alcatel-Lucent to provide financing to its customers for contracts with sourcing on a global level involving technologies in the fields of optics, access, mobile, IP and applications and creates new ways for Alcatel-Lucent to meet customer requirements for worldwide sourcing."http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Motorola and Aruba Settle WLAN Intellectual Property Dispute

Aruba Networks and Motorola -- together with its subsidiaries Symbol Technologies, Wireless Valley Communications, and AirDefense -- announced an agreement that settles all outstanding intellectual property disputes between the two companies. The disputes involved patents owned by both parties, and the settlement includes a cross-licensing agreement.
http://www.arubanetworks.com
http://www.motorola.com

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Ericsson Appoints Exec for Brand Strategy

Ericsson has appointed Cesare Avenia to a new position in the group management team where Avenia will be responsible for driving the implementation of Ericsson's new brand strategy. Cesare Avenia has most recently served as head of the company's South East Europe market unit.


"We will move from traditional telecom to IP, we see how we move from being a hardware to a software business and we will see an evolution and modernization of the networks rather than the past years vast rollouts of new networks", says in-coming President and CEO Hans Vestberg. "This requires us to change our ways of working as well as business and engagement models. Our ability to develop competence, behavior and position are key success factors and we are repositioning our brand to capture these new opportunities."
http://www.ericsson.com

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Optical Internetworking Forum Launches New 100G Project

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has launched a new technical project to define a Module Management Interface for 100G long-haul DWDM transmission.


The Management Data Input/Output Interface (MDIO) project, started in the Physical and Link Layer Working Group, will specify the logical architecture and frame structure, module control and host-module signaling theory, and MDIO register set. Work on the 100G Long Haul DWDM Transmission Module Multisource Agreement (MSA) began a year ago and the MDIO interface is an important component to completing the project, enabling multi-vendor interoperability.


The OIF has a number of projects in various states of progression addressing 100G for Long Haul DWDM transport networks. The OIF's Framework Document outlines the issues for the various projects and can be viewed at http://oiforum.com/public/documents/OIF-FD-100G-DWDM-01.0.pdf


"The OIF Framework Document brings many different pieces together for 100G Long Haul DWDM networks," says Karl Gass of Sandia National Labs and the OIF Physical and Link Layer Working Group Vice Chair. "As we identify the boundaries for each issue, we work to fill in that piece of the technological puzzle. The MDIO is another key piece of that puzzle."


In addition, the OIF announced the results of its recent election. Newly elected to the OIF board of directors are Ghani Abbas of Ericsson and Martha Fratt of AT&T. Fratt will serve as Secretary/Treasurer and both will serve one-year terms. Klaus-Holger Otto of Alcatel-Lucent is newly elected as Technical Committee Vice Chair and Jim Jones of Alcatel-Lucent is newly elected as Interoperability Working Group Chair.

The OIF membership reelected Jeff Hutchins of CoreOptics and Jim Jones of Alcatel-Lucent for two-year terms. Jim Jones will continue as Vice President of Marketing. Hans-Martin Foisel of Deutsche Telekom remains the OIF President while Stephen Shew now holds the position of Vice President.

Additionally, Lyndon Ong of Ciena was reelected Technical Committee Chair while Rod Smith of Tyco Electronics and Dave Brown of Alcatel-Lucent were reelected Market Awareness & Education Co-Chairs.


A "100G Ultra Long Haul DWDM Framework Document" is posted online.
http://www.oiforum.com/http://oiforum.com/public/documents/OIF-FD-100G-DWDM-01.0.pdf

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AT&T Adds 893,000 Wireless Subscribers Through Centennial Acquisition

AT&T completed its acquisition of Centennial Communications, adding approximately 893,000 wireless subscribers across the Midwest and Southeast United States and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.


AT&T said it will move quickly to rebrand Centennial as AT&T. By late January 2010, AT&T products and services will be available at more than 100 Centennial retail locations. Within the same timeframe, AT&T signage will be installed in all Centennial locations. Former Centennial wireless subscribers may keep their existing rate plans, but they will also have the opportunity to migrate to AT&T rate plans without activation or upgrade fees. Existing AT&T customer contracts will not change. In Puerto Rico, the Centennial brand will continue through mid-2010.

As previously announced, Centennial stockholders will receive $8.50 per share in cash. Including net debt, the transaction is valued at $2.7 billion.
http://www.att.com

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DOCOMO to Add Flat-rate Data Service

Starting next month, NTT DOCOMO will reduce the monthly maximum charge for packet communications with a PC or other device under its "Pake-hodai" double flat-rate data service to 5,985 yen, down from 13,650 yen (both figures include tax), at selected Internet access points. The revision is for users of DOCOMO phone-tethered external devices such as PCs and handheld gaming consoles at access speeds of up to 128 Kbps (uplinks of 64 Kbps). Other monthly maximum charges for Pake-hodai double will remain unchanged.
http://www.nttdocomo.com

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