Thursday, June 10, 2010

ITU Approves G.hn as Global Standard for Wired Home Networking

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) formally approved the G.hn standard for next-generation wired home networks. All three components of the new standard --- the Data Link Layer (G.9961), Physical Layer (G.9960) and coexistence protocol (G.9972) --- are now complete. The first products based on this standard are expected to reach the market later this year.


G.hn is expected to simplify the home networking market, which has until now been cluttered with many competing technologies and upgrade variations. A global standard, when implemented by service providers, could lead to better and cheaper home gateways and IPTV set-top boxes.
Consumer electronics manufacturers will be able to provide powerful devices for connecting all types of entertainment, home automation, and security products throughout the house. Smart Grid devices such as electricity meters, heating and air conditioning systems, electrical appliances, electrical vehicles, and lighting systems will also benefit from the reliability, security, and low-power consumption provided by the G.hn Recommendation.


"In an industry cluttered with a host of incompatible technologies, we congratulate the ITU-T for championing one standard that truly delivers anywire connectivity and next-generation performance," said Matt Theall, president of HomeGrid Forum and technology strategist at Intel Corporation. "G.hn is the only technology platform that supports every wire in the home. We believe that consumer electronics manufacturers, PC companies, and service providers--and every group that works within these markets--will benefit from the commercial availability of this technology as it rolls out later this year."http://

Eight Silicon Vendors Back G.hn

Eight silicon vendors have announced their support of the new ITU-T G.hn and G.hnem technologies for wired home networking and energy management. Kawasaki Microelectronics America and TangoTec are the newest members of HomeGrid Forum, joining leading semiconductor suppliers DS2, Ikanos, Intel, Lantiq, Sigma Designs, and Texas Instruments as backers of the recently approved standard.


"Silicon providers are lining up in support of G.hn because they see the advantage and opportunity made available through one truly global standard technology for multimedia networking in the home," said Matt Theall, president of HomeGrid Forum and technology strategist at Intel Corporation. "These silicon companies are working to deliver next-generation technology that will enable their customers to better service their markets with future-generation products that are efficient, simpler to deploy, and works over all three wires--coax, phone, and power lines."http://www.homegridforum.org

Ekinops Signs Resell Agreement with Japan's Marubeni

Marubeni Information Systems (MSYS), a solution provider of high value-added solutions and services, has agreed to sell, support, and maintain Ekinops' optical transmission equipment in the Japanese telecom service provider market.


Under the agreement, Ekinops and MSYS are working together to bring the Ekinops 360 metro, regional, and long haul DWDM platform to market in Japan.


The Ekinops 360 platform, with its T-Chip (Transport on a Chip) technology, transports a wide variety of traffic types, including SONET, video, Ethernet, and Fibre Channel. The Ekinops 360 Dynamic Multi-Reach Transport System provides DWDM and CWDM in a single solution that addresses metro, regional, and long haul applications. It offers features such as DynaMux, dynamic multiplexing functionality that allows multiplexing of any mix of protocols over a single wavelength and over any protocol on that wavelength; forward error correction, the innovative "DynaFEC", which eliminates errors in transmission and enables longer reach using software instead of expensive hardware; and WaveBonding, a low-cost, long-reach 40G technology.
http://www.ekinops.net

India's Hot BWA Auction Announces Winners

India's Ministry of Communications & Information Technology concluded its auction for broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum after 117 rounds over 16 days of online bidding. This new BWA auction is offering 2 blocks of 20MHz in the 2.3GHz band across the same 22 service areas. All the 44 blocks that were put up for auction across the 22 service areas in the country were sold, leaving no unsold lots.


The auction raised total government revenues of Rs 38,543.31 crore. Infotel won BWA spectrum for all 22 circles and has an obligation to pay Rs 12,847.77 crore. Other winners include Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Qualcomm and Tikona Digital Networks. BSNL/MTNL, which did not participate in auction because they were granted spectrum prior to the auction, will now be obliged to pay the auction price for their BWA holdings.


Full results are posted online.
http://www.dot.gov.in/

Cisco Quad Integrates Voice, Video and Social into one Workspace

Cisco introduced a "Quad" immersive platform for enterprise collaboration that integrates voice, video and social networking into one workspace.


With Cisco Quad, workers have the ability to search across all content within their organization, as well as locate people and expertise. Specifically, Quad integrates with content management systems such as Microsoft SharePoint and Documentum, as well as with voice and video business communications solutions including Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco WebEx conferencing, Cisco Unified Presence and Cisco Show and Share.


Cisco will also offer Mobile Quad applications optimized for the Apple iPad and iPhone.


Cisco Quad is currently in trials and is expected to be available on a limited basis, beginning in Cisco's first quarter of fiscal year 2011.


In addition, Cisco is releasing a new WebEx Connect IM app that lets users access their contact lists and send instant messages via a browser-based IM client, making the solution accessible from any computer, with any operating system, without the need for a client download. There is also a business-class four-hour Flip MinoPRO camcorder.
http://www.cisco.com

Nielsen's Three Screen Report Shows Flat Internet Video Trend in Q1

While the overall amount of video that Americans watch continues to rise, the amount of time spent watching online video decreased slightly in Q1 2010 compared to Q4 2009, according to the latest edition of The Nielsen Company's Three Screen Report.


Q1 2010 data shows that 138 million people watching video on the Internet spent on average 3 hours, 10 minutes during the month doing so. As of 1Q10 the 20.3 million people who watch mobile video in the US spend on average 3 hrs, 37 minutes each month watching video on a mobile phone.


Nielsen noted that high-speed broadband Internet access, now in 63.5% of homes, has created a better user experience for watching online videos. They are also continuing to simultaneously use the Internet while watching TV, with the average time spent doing both activities up 9.8% to 3 hours and 41 minutes.


Nielsen's latest Three Screen Report is available for download.http://en-us.nielsen.com/

Cincinnati Bell Acquires CyrusOne Data Centers for $525 Million

Cincinnati Bell has acquired CyrusOne, one of the largest data center colocation operators in Texas, for approximately $525 million in cash. The deal was first announced in May.


The acquisition includes seven data centers in Houston, Dallas, and Austin with a total of 174,000 square feet of data center capacity. As a result, Cincinnati Bell's Technology Solutions segment will have a combined total of 620,000 square feet of data center capacity in 17 facilities, and, based on annualized first quarter 2010 results, combined operating income of approximately $56 million and adjusted earnings before interest, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (Adjusted EBITDA1) of approximately $93 million.


"The acquisition of CyrusOne is an important step in our long-term strategy of becoming the preferred global data center colocation provider to Fortune 1000 companies," said Jack Cassidy, president and chief executive officer of Cincinnati Bell. "With more than 600,000 square feet of high quality data center space and almost $100 million of Adjusted EBITDA, we believe the combined data center business of Cincinnati Bell and CyrusOne makes us one of the largest data center companies in the U.S. and strongly positions us to help large enterprise customers manage their global data center requirements with highly cost-efficient and flexible solutions."http://www.cincinnatibell.com/

O2 Upgrades London Network with NSN

O2 has undertaken an upgrade of its network across London in partnership with Nokia Siemens Networks.


NSN said that it monitored and analyzed the data and signaling behavior of different smart devices connected to the O2 mobile network in order to gauge the impact of these devices on different network elements. This insight, combined with traffic growth forecasts, was used to establish a capacity improvement project, upgrading only the network elements and modules identified as bottlenecks for current and future performance within O2's London network.


The upgrade included enhancing the signaling capacity of the network as well as modernizing the network with Nokia Siemens Networks' Flexi Multiradio Base Stations. The companies said this recent deployment of 3G six-sector sites was recognized by Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards 2010. The six-sector site deployment provides improved capacity resulting in the ability to carry significantly more voice and data calls in O2's network.
http://www.nsn.com
  • In February 2010, BT Wholesale was awarded a five year contract to consolidate O2's mobile and fixed core networks in the UK into one network running on top of BT's 21st Century Network (21CN) infrastructure. BT Wholesale already provides a range of services to O2 including core network management support for O2's mobile customers as well as a managed network service that is enabling O2 to serve the UK business market with fixed and broadband services. This new agreement will further ties between the companies. O2 is a division of Telefónica.


  • Telefónica O2 UK has 21.4 million mobile customers and over 600,000 fixed broadband customers as at 31 March 2010.

Nokia Siemens Networks Supplies DC-HSPA+ in Indonesia

PT Indosat Tbk, the second largest cellular operator in Indonesia, is upgrading its network in partnership with Nokia Siemens Networks. As part of the enhancement, Nokia Siemens Networks has provided its latest 3G network software to support up to 42 Mbps download speed. The vendor has deployed its SGSN to ensure effective traffic offload. In addition to this, the vendor has implemented Flexi Multiradio Base Station to facilitate a quicker migration to LTE.
http://www.nsn.com
  • In May 2010, Ericsson announced a contract with Indosat to modernize its network, including the deployment of Ericsson's HSPA Evolution technology, which is capable of reaching up to 42Mbps. Indosat is currently serving 39.1 million subscribers in Indonesia. As part of the agreement Ericsson will provide Indosat with its Radio Base Station (RBS) 6000, MSS Blade Cluster, and MINI-LINK TN. Network design, deployment, training and support services are also part of the agreement.