Ericsson Supplies Pre-Paid "Visible Balance" for Egypt's Mobinil

Ericsson is supplying a converged charging and billing solution for Mobinil's mobile subscribers in Egypt.


Most mobile users in Egypt subscribe to a pre-paid service. A big barrier to these mobile users spending more is that they can't see their current balance. With this solution, Mobinil will be able to provide more benefits to its customers as it ensures full control and flexibility over the different offers provided to them. It also improves the company's marketing capabilities, via customer segmentation, and the fast time to market the different promotional campaigns introduced to the market. The new system instantly calculates any type of transaction and offers both the consumer and operator access to the current balance.
http://www.ericsson.com

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GoAhead Adopts Open Source Business Model, Acquires Emerson's Avantellis

GoAhead Software, which specializes in high availability middleware for network equipment and defense applications, is shifting its business model and technology strategy from its proprietary SAFfire product to an open source software model.


GoAhead, which claims the market share leader in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) high availability software, cited several reasons for its strategic shift to open source:

• The maturity and stability of the OpenSAF software distribution, especially the upcoming 4.0 release



• The continued support of the OpenSAF Foundation by key industry players such as Ericsson, Emerson, HP, Wind River and Huawei



• The inclusion of OpenSAF in commercial deployments by industry leaders such as Ericsson

In conjunction with the move to open source, GoAhead is formally announcing that it is joining the OpenSAF foundation. GoAhead will be contributing key components of its SAFfire middleware to OpenSAF and company President Asif Naseem will be joining the OpenSAF foundation as a board member.

GoAhead also announced its acquisition of Avantellis from Emerson Network Power. The deal includes all Avantellis staff and key intellectual property, which centers on test cases, verification tools, documentation and management processes. Financial terms were not disclosed. Emerson Network Power will also become a global GoAhead reseller.


"The adoption of open source by industry leaders combined with the rapid maturing of OpenSAF technology makes the timing of this decision ideal for our company," said Asif Naseem, President and COO of GoAhead Software. "We look forward to contributing our breadth of experience in high availability software to this vibrant community. GoAhead's acquisition of Emerson Network Power's Avantellis team, representing many of the original developers of OpenSAF, creates an un-matched level of capability at GoAhead and enables us to continue our tradition of world-class expertise in delivering standards-based software solutions."http://www.goahead.com
http://www.EmersonNetworkPower.com/EmbeddedComputing

• Last month, GoAhead Software announced the acquisition of the embeddedMIND business of S3. The deal includes all IP and staff associated with embeddedMIND business. Financial terms were not disclosed. embeddedMIND, which is based in Poland, develops configuration management software for network equipment manufacturers.

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Fujitsu Ships LTE Base Stations to NTT DOCOMO

Fujitsu began shipping LTE mobile base station systems to NTT DOCOMO, which plans to launch LTE services in December 2010.


Fujitsu was selected by NTT DOCOMO in October 2006 as a vendor to develop and manufacture the company's LTE wireless mobile base stations. Since then, the two companies have been jointly developing and evaluating the systems.


Fujitsu said LTE, also called Super 3G, should reach transmission rates of up to 150 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream, in addition to featuring low latency. The new LTE base stations incorporate numerous advanced Fujitsu technologies, such as highly efficient amplifier technology, to make them lightweight, energy-efficient, and high-performance.
http://www.fujitsu.com

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Ineoquest Offers End-to-End QoS Solution for Microsoft Mediaroom

IneoQuest Technologies introduced an end-to-end QoS solution for users of Microsoft Mediaroom. This allows network operators to identify the root causes of problems with subscriber-level granularity.


The solution integrates the IQDialogue Mediaroom Platform Manager at the level of the subscriber STB, coupled with IneoQuest's existing family of products for monitoring, analyzing, troubleshooting and reporting performance of Microsoft Mediaroom deployments. From a centralized network management location, IQDialogue Mediaroom Platform Manager performs automated analysis of devices on the network through an intelligent scheduler system. Based upon configurable and user definable categories alarm notifications can be issued so problems can be promptly addressed and trending reports provided to facilitate network planning.
http://www.IneoQuest.comhttp://

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Vonage Receives Second Virtual Phone Number Patent

Vonage was awarded a U.S. patent (No. 7,680,262 that allows consumers to communicate to distant locations without incurring long distance or international calling charges. This is Vonage's second patent related to the use of virtual phone numbers. Vonage's first patent directed to the use of virtual phone numbers -- No. 7,386,111 -- was granted on June 10, 2008.


Virtual phone numbers allow people outside a Vonage customer's local calling area to call for the price of a local call. http://www.vonage.com

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ColorChip Introduces 40 Gbps Transceiver with 10km Range

ColorChip, a start-up based in Caesarea, Israel, introduced a QSFP 40G pluggable LR transceiver supporting distances of up to 10km. An alternative to CFP transceivers, ColorChip's unique SystemOnGlass (SOG) technology integrates 4 transmitters, 4 receivers and an optical MUX/DeMUX into a small form factor package that delivers a 40 Gbps data link. The optical connectivity is based on two SMF LC connectors, one for Tx and one for Rx. The Tx and Rx each consist of 4 10GB/s CWDM channels, whose wavelengths are in the 1300nm range.
http://www.color-chip.com/http://

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Motorola Adds TD-LTE 4Tx/8Rx Radio Head

Motorola has added a TD-LTE-Advanced capable 4Tx/8Rx radio head with multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) to its 4G - WBR 700 Series LTE eNodeB portfolio, which is the company's fourth generation orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) solution and its second generation LTE platform. The WBR 700 Series features Motorola's proprietary Intelligent OFDM Scheduler for improved sector throughput. This eNodeB portfolio supports TD-LTE as well as FDD-LTE solutions in a wide variety of frequencies from 700MHz to 2.6GHz and offers an unprecedented mix of capacity, compact size and energy efficiency.


The new TD-LTE solution - while similar in size to a standard 2Tx/2Rx LTE eNodeB - enables advanced MIMO schemes including multi user (MU) MIMO and beam-forming. The product will be available for 2.3GHz and other TD-LTE bands such as 2.6GHz.


Motorola said its energy-efficient WBR 700 TD-LTE 4Tx/8Rx radio head reduces power consumption by up to 30 percent using advanced linearization techniques, helping to lower operational expenses.


Motorola also noted that interest in TD-LTE continues to grow because of several key factors:

• the low cost of TDD spectrum that is particularly attractive to emerging and developing markets



• operators' continuing need for more capacity and spectrum



• and the ability of TD-LTE to hand-off to FDD-LTE networks. This means operators can use TD-LTE networks to augment their FDD-LTE network for more capacity or other applications such as video broadcasting, while operators choosing to use TD-LTE as their "main" network can still offer their subscribers the ability to roam to other operators' FDD-LTE networks in different countries.

http://www.motorola.com

• Motorola was selected last year by China Mobile Communications Corporation (CMCC) to be the primary TD-LTE solution supplier providing indoor coverage for all major pavilions at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai China.



• Motorola's on-going advancements in TD-LTE include its recently announced first over- the-air TD-LTE data session on the TD-LTE network in Shanghai and the successful completion of the TD-LTE key functionalities tests initiated by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

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EchoStar XIV Successfully Launched from Kazakhstan

The new EchoStar XIV satellite was launched on an International Launch Services Proton/Breeze M vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Saturday, March 20. After a nine-hour, 10-minute mission, the satellite, which was built by Space Systems/Loral, was released into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The satellite will ultimately reside at 119 degrees West longitude at an altitude of 22,000 miles.


This brings DISH Network's satellite constellation to 15. DISH Network, which currently broadcasts more than 160 HD channels as well as HD locals in 152 markets, said it will use the new capacity to further expand its HD offerings.
http://www.echostar.com

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Ciena Completes Its Acquisition of Nortel's Metro Ethernet Division

Ciena completed its acquisition of substantially all of the optical networking and Carrier Ethernet assets of Nortel's+ Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) business. The $773.8 million (USD) aggregate purchase price for the acquisition consists entirely of cash. Philippe Morin, previously president of Nortel MEN, has been appointed Ciena's Senior Vice President, Global Products Group.


"The acquisition of these assets accelerates Ciena's overall strategy and gives us stronger operating leverage to continue investing in innovation that will allow us to deliver on our vision for next-generation networks," said Gary Smith, Ciena's president and CEO. "With broader geographic reach, deeper customer relationships and a stronger portfolio of solutions, we're confident that this acquisition positions Ciena for faster growth."http://www.ciena.com

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European Commission Sets Rules for Mobile Phones on Ships

The European Commission has adopted new rules to make it easier for passengers and crew on ships in the EU's territorial waters to make mobile phone calls or send and receive text messages when they are out of range of land-based mobile phone networks. Previously, there were twenty seven different sets of national legislation on mobile phone coverage on-board cruise liners, cargo ships and ferries in European territorial waters.


The new rules ensure the availability of 900 MHz and/or 1800 MHz GSM radio frequencies for on-board communication services while protecting land-based networks from interference.


The EC also adopted a Recommendation that EU countries liberalize their authorization regimes in a way that any on-board services operator authorized in one country can provide services in the territorial waters of other EU countries without the need for further licenses.
http://www.europa.eu

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