Monday, May 24, 2010

AT&T Hit with Nationwide U-Verse Voice Outage

AT&T's suffered a widespread outage of its U-Verse residential voice service beginning on Tuesday morning. Most of the service was restored on Tuesday afternoon. AT&T has approximately 1.15 million U-verse voice customers. http://www.att....

Aricent's Broad Daylight Program Offers Design Expertise

Aricent introduced its Broad Daylight product development program created specifically for small and mid-sized telecommunications equipment manufacturers to hasten their entry into new telecom equipment markets such as LTE, Home Networking, Data Center Ethernet and Cloud Computing. Aricent's Broad DayLight offers technology consulting, product design, pre-packaged software frameworks and product development services for equipment manufacturers....

AT&T Uses Wi-Fi to Boost Smartphone Coverage in Times Square

AT&T has launched a Wi-Fi hotzone in New York City's Times Square to provide an additional mobile broadband option in an area with consistently high 3G traffic and mobile data use. The company said it is considering deploying Wi-Fi in similar high-traffic sites across the country.The AT&T hotspot is installed in the north central part of Times Square, near 7th Avenue between 45th and 47th Street, and can be accessed by AT&T smartphone, 3G LaptopConnect and broadband customers using any Wi-Fi enabled device at no additional charge."With...

Netflix Goes With Microsoft for PlayReady DRM

Netflix has selected Microsoft PlayReady technology and the Protected Interoperable File Format (PIFF) for use in new Netflix ready devices and applications. Netflix already uses the Microsoft technology for streaming on Windows-based PCs and Macs. The company expects the first Netflix ready devices beyond computers to incorporate Microsoft PlayReady as early as this summer.Microsoft PlayReady DRM can be applied to various forms of digital content, including videos, games and images, and a wide range of audio and video formats, including MPEG...

Motorola Supplies HD-STB for KDDI's "au Hikari"

KDDI has deployed Motorola's HD IPTV set-top (model VIP2060 ) for its "au Hikari" service, which supports 1 Gbps fiber broadband connections. The Motorola VIP2060 is am IPTV set-top with a built-in 500 GB HDD to support DVR functionality. Its standard quad tuner enables users to watch and record IPTV programs provided by KDDI as well as terrestrial and satellite (BS/110CS) broadcast services via a connected external antenna, with support for both...

Verizon Global Wholesale's VoIP minutes Grow 200%

Verizon Global Wholesale's VoIP minutes of use grew more than 200 percent in 2009, compared with the previous year. "Since we launched our VoIP portfolio 10 years ago, we've seen steady growth reflecting customer desire for reliable, cost-effective IP voice services," said Mike Millegan, president of Verizon Global Wholesale. "And, as this market grows, we continue to add new VoIP services while enhancing our existing portfolio."Verizon confirmed...

Sprint Expands its Carrier Ethernet Footprint

Sprint has expanded its U.S. Ethernet footprint to Central and Northern New Jersey, Stockton, Calif., and Baltimore, Md., and has deepened its coverage in 10 U.S. markets. The carrier now offers Ethernet access in 28 markets nationwide and 35 countries globally. Sprint expects to further enhance and expand coverage in an additional 16 U.S. markets later this year.Sprint's Ethernet access solution connects from the customer's premises to the Sprint...

IBM and Force10 Networks Extend Resale Agreement

Force10 Networks' ExaScale E-Series virtualized core switch/router will be integrated into IBM's iDataPlex servers and Intelligent Cluster. IBM will also provide support for the ExaScale switch/routers -- including implementation and technical support -- for enterprise customers worldwide. http://www.ibm.com http://www.force10networks....

ASSIA's Optimization Software Garners 80% of U.S. DSL Lines

ASSIA, which supplies software for Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) of DSL networks, noted that it has now established sales with U.S. service providers representing 80% of the nation's DSL footprint. ASSIA's U.S. customers collectively provide DSL service to 27 million subscribers. "We are extremely pleased with our customer traction over the past year," said Dr. John Cioffi, Chairman and CEO of ASSIA. "DSL service providers are increasingly recognizing the significant value that ASSIA can bring to their DSL networks. ASSIA is very active in...

Nokia Siemens Networks Publishes Wireless Access Energy Efficiency Rating

The measured power consumption of Nokia Siemens Networks' Flexi EDGE Base Station in a typical configuration, with three sectors and four carriers per sector, averages 978 watts in a basic mode of operation. With software energy saving features, high performance can be maintained but power consumption can be reduced to 833 watts. In some instances this can be further reduced to 562 watts with a reduced configuration of two, instead of four, carriers...

BT Enhances Onevoice with its Ribbit Softswitching Platform

BT is enhancing its Onevoice unified communications service by opening up its network and integrating capabilities of its Ribbit platform.Ribbit, a Silicon Valley-based start-up that BT acquired in 2008, operates a softswitching infrastructure that ties advanced voice services into web applications.The integration with BT Onevoice connects the worlds of the web and traditional corporate voice networks, providing corporate users with a single direct...

U.S. Congress Schedules Hearings on Update to Communications Act

U.S. Congressional leaders are calling for new legislation to update the nation's communications laws, particularly in wake the the recent court ruling that overturned the FCC's authority to regulate Comcast's network management practices. The initiative is supported by Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, the Chairman of the House Committee on Energy...