Telstra Sees Mobile Data as Bright Spot

Telstra's sales revenue declined 2.2% or $558 million to $24,813 million (Australian) for its full 2009/10 financial year. EBITDA also declined by 0.9% or $101 million to $10,847 million. Net profit after tax declined by 4.7% to $3,883 million, however, free cash flow increased by $1.9 billion to $6.2 billion, exceeding the company's long-held target of $6 billion.


"2010 has been a challenging year, yet in the second half we started to see improving momentum in key products, and positive growth with business, government and enterprise customers as well as profit growth at Sensis," said Telstra CEO David Thodey.


Some highlights:

• For the year, Telstra had a CAPEX-to-sales ratio of 14%, with $3.5 billion invested in the year.



• Mobile services revenue grew 5.9%



• Mobile data grew 21.7%



• Wireless broadband revenue grew 34% (with more than 1.6 million subscribers),



• Fixed broadband ARPU continues to increase.



• Fixed telephony, however, continued to present a significant challenge, with PSTN declining by 8% over the year.



• In 2011, Telstra expects an increase in the customer base and flattish revenues, but because of our investments and changing product mix the company expects a high single digit percentage decline in EBITDA, and free cashflow of between $4.5 and $5.0 billion.



• Telstra also foresees CAPEX/sales around 14 percent for the medium-term, excluding possible spectrum acquisition costs.



• Full year sales at CSL New World in Hong Kong declined by 7% due to challenging market conditions.

http://www.telstra.com

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Cisco Posts Revenue of $10.8B, up 27% YoY, Cites Mixed Economic Signals

Cisco posted quarterly sales of $10.8 billion, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $1.9 billion or $0.33 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.5 billion or $0.43 per share. Net sales were up 27% year-over-year while net income rose 74% year over year. However, the figures were slightly below analyst expectations of $10.95 billion in sales and the company cited "mixed signals" for growth in the global economy.


"This was yet another very strong quarter with a number of record financial results for Cisco, closing the fiscal year in a tremendous position of strength--a compelling financial model, a well-tuned innovation engine and solid execution on our growth strategy," said John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco. "Whether the global economy continues to show mixed signals or not--the strength of our financial model and profit generation serves us well."


Some highlights for the quarter:

• Cisco said its supply chain has stabilized but that it continues to experience some component shortages.



• Geographically, Emerging Market Orders were up 35% YoY, European orders were up in the mid-20% YoY, while AsiaPac, U.S. and Canadian orders were each up 20% YoY.



• By product category, Advanced Technology revenue was up 27% YoY, Switching revenue was up 27% YoY, and Routing revenue was up 15% YoY. Significantly, revenue for the CRS routing system was up 20% YOY, ASR revenue was up 150% YoY, and Nexus data center revenue was up 325% YoY.



• Cisco said data center virtualization is an especially hot segment. Video and collaboration are also hot.



• During the quarter, Cisco hired about 2,000 employees of which 70% were in the U.S. In California, Cisco added about 600 employees in the quarter -- not counting acquisitions.



• Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $39.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2010, compared with $35.0 billion at the end of fiscal 2009, and compared with $39.1 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2010.

http://www.cisco.com

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Bharti Airtel to acquire Telecom Seychelles

Bharti Airtel will acquire 100 % of Telecom Seychelles Limited, the incumbent operator of Seychelles, for US$62 million. Seychelles is an island nation in the Indian Ocean with an estimated population of 84,000.


Telecom Seychelles began operations in 1998 by launching mobile services. Today, it offers 3G mobile and integrated wireline services across the island nation under the Airtel brand and has over 57% share of the mobile market. The operator also has a wireline core network supplied by Ericsson and it offers ISDN/DSL along with digital / IP PABX connectivity.


With this acquisition, Bharti Airtel will expand its African footprint to 16 countries and its overall presence to 19 countries.


Mr. Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) & Jt. MD, Bharti Airtel, said, "We are delighted at the addition of Seychelles to our Africa portfolio. Telecom Seychelles has world-class operations that include state-of-the-art 3G services. These operations will benefit further by leveraging the efficiencies of scale of our African operations."http://www.bharti.com

• In June 2010, India's Bharti Airtel completed its previously announced acquisition of Zain's mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa for an enterprise valuation of US$10.7 billion.
  
  The acquisition positions Airtel as one of the world's top five mobile operators with 180 million customers, operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. It's network footprint covers over 1.8 billion people. The company will have combined revenues of over US$12.4 billion and EBITDA of over US$ 4.7 billion, based on the last audited results.
  
  
  Bharti's acquisition of Zain's African mobile services operations covers 15 countries with a total customer base of over 42 million. The total population base covered is over 450 million with telecom penetration of approximately 32%. The countries in which Bharti has acquired the operations are - Burkina Faso, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Zain is the market leader in 10 of the 15 countries and second in 4 countries.

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Ericsson Demos Open IPTV Set-top Box

Ericsson has demonstrated an IPTV set-top box based on specifications from the Open IPTV Forum (OIPF).


The showcase was created in response to Singapore's Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and Media Development Authority (MDA) plan to minimize IPTV fragmentation across operators and enhance growth of interactive applications through a standards-based common featured IPTV STB over the Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (NGNBN).


Ericsson said it believes the use of open standards for a common featured STB will encourage innovative application development and foster more creative marketing options in the pay TV arena. Higher levels of interoperability also provide marketing opportunities that are not typically available from closed proprietary solutions.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Supplies IP/MPLS to Washington Gas

Washington Gas, which is a utility company serving Washington, D.C., has selected Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS solution for its new communications backbone.


The new network will support mission-critical utility applications and data requirements throughout Washington Gas' service territory. For example, this new high-speed network will be able to monitor the company's 12,200 miles of pipeline, checking for any disruptions and alerting management immediately. The network also will enable Washington Gas to continue to evolve its internal data networks to ensure customers natural gas delivery when they need it, at the most economical price and highest reliability possible, while reducing its carbon footprint.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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SingTel Installs Huawei's Core Router Clustering System

SingTel has successfully deployed Huawei's NE5000E 1+2 router cluster system in its converged IP backbone.



Huawei's NE5000E 1+2 router cluster system provides scalability to 2.56 Tbps and features a a resilient matrix design and in-service hardware expansion capabilities. Huawei said its NE5000E router cluster system also breaks new ground in terms of energy-efficiency due to its distributed power supply, highly-efficient power system, and cyclic heat dissipation.


NE5000E cluster system supports single chassis mode and multiple chassis cluster modes, such as back-to-back, 1+4, 2+8. The future-oriented design ensures the cluster system to be expanded to 16+64 multi-chassis.
http://www.huawei.com
http://www.singtel.com

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Microsemi Doubles Reach for PoE Midspans to 200M

Microsemi introduced a single-port Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) extender that doubles the powering reach of its PoE midspans to 200 meters. PoE midspans enable both data and power to be delivered over a single standard RJ-45 cable, eliminating the need for external power supplies and their associated AC/DC power cabling for Ethernet-connected cameras, IP phones, WLAN access points, etc.


Microsemi is the first to deliver 25.5-watt, IEEE802.3at power levels over extended distances while supporting 10/100/1000 Mbps data rates. Even longer reach is possible by cascading multiple extenders.


Microsemi said its PowerDsine PD-PoE Extender does not require local power, and is simply connected to a midspan and powered via the PoE input. The extender joins Microsemi's growing family of midspan products that support up to 24-port implementations in both standard- and high-power applications with a variety of smart power management and remote maintenance capabilities.
http://www.microsemi.com

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Ericsson Milestone: 2 Million Base Stations Delivered to Date

In 2007, Ericsson delivered its one millionth radio base station, some 20 years since shipping its first base station. It has taken only three years to deliver the next million. The two millionth radio base station was an Ericsson RBS 6000 unit, delivered as part of a mobile broadband network expansion project.


Ericsson estimates that its base stations connect 1.5 billion people worldwide.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Google Inks Ad Sales Deal with DIRECTV

Google will become the sales representative for a broad selection of advertising inventory on several cable networks carried on DIRECTV. Under the deal, national satellite advertising inventory on Bloomberg, Fox Business, Centric, Fuel, G4, Current, Ovation, Fit, Sleuth, Chiller and TV Guide will be available through the Google TV Ads system.


DIRECTV currently has 18.7 million satellite TV subscribers.
http://www.google.com
http://www.directv.com

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NTT Com to Acquire Secode AB for Managed Security in No. Europe

NTT Communications will acquire Secode AB, a leading provider of managed-security and security-consulting services in Nordic countries, for an undisclosed sum.


Secode provides managed-security and security-consulting services across northern Europe. The company offers 24/7 services for intrusion detection and prevention, log management, vulnerability analysis, data-loss prevention, anti-virus and anti-spam, managed VPN/firewall and mobile security. In addition to its two SOCs, it operates support desks in local languages in Finland and the Netherlands. Secode also manages a specialized team for conducting tests and audits, as well as its staff of consultants who offer a wide range of professional security services. Secode has about 90 employees. Following the acquisition, Secode will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary led by Trygve Reinertsen, Secode's current CEO.


NTT Com said the acquisition will help it to capitalize on the growing needs for managed-security services among multinational companies, who are increasingly outsourcing security management to professionals due to the difficulties of nurturing qualified engineers and ensuring 24/7 readiness against constantly evolving security threats.In addition, it will fold Secode's security operation centers (SOCs) in Sweden and Norway into its existing group of SOCs in Japan, Germany, Singapore and the U.S., the latter three of which were added in October 2009 when NTT Com acquired a majority stake in Integralis AG in Germany.
http://www.ntt.co.jphttp://www.secode.com/

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Talari Networks Secures $10 Million for WAN Virtualization

Talari Networks, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, raised $10 million in a second round of institutional funding for its enterprise WAN virtualization technology.


Talari Networks' Adaptive Private Networking (APN) technology combines network bandwidth from the public Internet with RAID-like methods. It combines diverse sources of bandwidth and end-to-end algorithms to apply dynamic, real-time, per-packet traffic engineering. By continually measuring loss, latency and jitter, APN adapts to variations in network conditions virtually instantly to ensure reliable, predictable application performance using all of the available bandwidth. The company claims its Mercury line of Adaptive Private Networking appliances delivers a network with 30 to 100 times the bits per dollar, ongoing WAN costs reduced by 40% to 90%, and greater reliability than existing corporate WANs.


The new funding was led by Silver Creek Ventures with existing backers Menlo Ventures and private investors also participating.
http://www.talari.com

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Motorola Says iDEN Continues to Grow Internationally

Motorola's proprietary integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) technology, which combines traditional mobile telephony with push-to-talk (PTT) for the enterprise market, has reached 10 million subscribers outside the United States. Motorola said iDEN technology is currently in operation with more than 30 network operators in 23 countries worldwide for the delivery of communications services.


"Motorola continues to develop and support our iDEN technology as a feature rich high quality solution for our customers," says Gene Delaney, executive vice president, Product & Business Operations, Motorola Solutions. "Furthermore, iDEN's wide variety of communications services enables operators to serve many market segments with a single economical network solution."http://www.motorola.com

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Synopsys Adds TDD Support to LTE Model Library

Synopsys has added Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode in its LTE Model Library for physical layer system simulation. This enables developers of semiconductors for LTE network equipment and devices to quickly and reliably extend their designs to support this important version of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) LTE standard. Synopsys already supported Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) for LTE.

Synopsys' LTE library includes models of the transmitter and the physical channel as defined in the 3GPP standard as well as functional models of ideal receivers that can serve as references, providing an end-to-end simulation chain for both uplink and downlink transmission and reception. By leveraging both FDD and TDD mode models from the LTE Model Library, designers can focus on the development of highly-optimized, multi-mode modems for the entire LTE standard.
http://www.synopsys.com/

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NETGEAR Provides Wireless for the Panasonic VIERA TVs

Panasonic has selected NETGEAR as the only third-party brand to support its VIERA line of TVs, commencing with its NETGEAR N600 Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter (WNDA3100). The adapter features NETGEAR's Push 'N' Connect technology which allows consumers to connect their Panasonic VIERA TV and wireless router with the push of a button and wirelessly stream Internet content to the TV with the VIERA Cast IPTV technology. VIERA Cast, which requires no additional equipment or set up, allows consumers to enjoy online content through an easy-to-use web interface that's built into the TV.
http://www.netgear.com/wifitv

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Some Industry Reaction to Google-Verizon Net Neutrality Agreement

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps: "Some will claim this announcement moves the discussion forward. That's one of its many problems. It is time to move a decision forward--a decision to reassert FCC authority over broadband telecommunications, to guarantee an open Internet now and forever, and to put the interests of consumers in front of the interests of giant corporations."


Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA): "We believe this is a step in the right direction towards consensus and a possible solution to the uncertainty created by the Comcast decision. The Verizon and Google announcement rightly addressed important issues such as the need for network management, recognizing that a managed network is necessary to ensure reliable broadband service."


Level 3's John M. Ryan, assistant chief legal officer and head of Regulatory Affairs: "While there is much to praise in the Verizon-Google statement, there are also areas that require more attention. Allowing last-mile access network owners to create a "paid priority" data service raises a number of concerns, especially since most consumers have a choice of only two wired broadband Internet suppliers, and since contention for limited capacity seems inevitable because consumers' demand for broadband is greater than the existing networks' capacity.

Consumer Watchdog's John M. Simpson: "There are two fundamental flaws First, it sets up a two-tiered structure. There would be a so-called 'Public Internet,' but then the ISPs would be allowed to offer new premium services outside that basic service. How long to you think anything of interest would be available on the 'Public Internet'? "Second, no neutrality principles would apply to the wireless world. Everyone agrees mobile is clearly the Internet's future. Allowing data discrimination in the broadband wireless world completely undermines the future of the Internet."http://www.fcc.govhttp://www.tiaonline.com

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