Cisco Umi Puts Telepresence in Living Room -- $599 + $25/Month

Cisco introduced an HD 1080p telepresence system for the home.

Cisco ūmi, which includes an HD camera, a console and a remote, is a premium home telepresence system that aims for pristine video and audio quality over broadband connections. It connects to existing HD sets via HDMI and lets users set-up calls, record calls and send pre-recorded video messages.

The units feature dynamic resolution scaling based on available bandwidth (1080p, 720p, and 480p supported). Minimum upload speeds of 3.5 Mbps are required to maintain a 1080p session while a minimum or 1.5 Mbps uplink is needed for 720p calls. The in-home networking connection is either Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n ) or 10/100 Ethernet (RJ-45).

The Cisco umi carries a suggested retail price of $599 with a monthly fee of $24.99 for unlimited ūmi calls, video messaging and video storage.

Verizon confirmed that it will be among the first service providers to offer it to its FiOS customers starting early next year. Best Buy will sell the Cisco umi.
http://www.cisco.com

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Neutral Tandem's Ethernet Exchange Network Grows to 14

Following the completion of its merger with Tinet last week, Neutral Tandem has launched eight additional Ethernet Exchange Points of Presence (PoPs), bringing all 14 of its previously announced Ethernet Exchanges to market. Following the launch of the company's initial six Ethernet Exchanges in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los
Angeles and New York, the company has now completed, ahead of schedule, the deployment of eight additional markets including Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C.


"We are proud to be the first to offer Ethernet Exchange services in 14 locations," said Surendra Saboo, President and COO of Neutral Tandem. "The scalability and cost efficiency of an Ethernet Exchange is accentuated with Neutral Tandem's networked approach, where each exchange is interconnected with all of the other exchanges; thereby increasing the availability of service providers that can be connected
to each other."http://www.neutraltandem.com

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MetroPCS Picks Tekelec for Signaling Evolution to LTE

MetroPCS Communications has chosen Tekelec to provide SIGTRAN, SIP and Diameter session management as well as Number Portability and Performance Management solutions. The suite of solutions, including Tekelec's Diameter Signaling Router (DSR), will be deployed to support the company's 4G LTE roll out, which is the first commercial 4G LTE network in the US.


Tekelec said its Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) creates a Diameter signaling core that relieves LTE and IMS endpoints of routing, traffic management and load balancing tasks and provides a single interconnect point to other networks. In addition, MetroPCS will use Tekelec's performance management solution to gain visibility into network services and subscriber usage. MetroPCS will use the solution to monitor Quality of Service (QoS) for subscribers, as well as Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The solution provides key performance indicators (KPIs) in both pre-built and customer-defined reports, giving MetroPCS the flexibility to examine traffic, troubleshoot issues and analyze subscriber activity -- the foundation for measuring the quality of experience.
http://www.tekelec.com

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Russia's Vimpelcom Bids to Become Fifth Largest Global Operator

Russia's Vimpel-Communications has struck a deal with Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris to acquire Weather Investments S.p.A, which owns 51.7% of Orascom Telecom (Egypt) and 100% of Wind Telecomunicazioni (Italy).


Under the deal, Weather shareholders will contribute to VimpelCom their shares in Weather in exchange for a consideration consisting of 325,639,827 newly issued VimpelCom common shares, US$1.8 billion in cash and certain assets that will be demerged from Orascom Telecom and from Wind Italy. The Weather interests in these assets, which principally comprise Orascom Telecom's investments in Egypt and North Korea, will be transferred to the current Weather shareholders. Wind Hellas Telecommunications S.A. in Greece is entirely excluded from the transaction.


Vimpelcom said the acquisition will make it the world's fifth largest mobile telecommunications carrier by subscribers with pro forma net operating revenues of US$21.5 billion and pro forma EBITDA of US$9.5 billion for 2009. The combined company would have operations in 20 countries with a combined population of 850 million. Based on 2009 pro forma revenues, the existing operations in Russia will represent 35% and Wind Italy will represent 34% of the combined company.


Alexander Izosimov, Chief Executive Officer of VimpelCom, added: "Today's announcement marks a transformational transaction for VimpelCom. It offers our shareholders exposure to attractive growth markets in both Asia and Africa and the opportunity to diversify further our revenue base in terms of geography, currency and market characteristics.


Although its major operations are in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikstan, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam and Cambodia, VimpelCom is based in Amsterdam. Weather Investments provides services to 123 million subscribers in Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Pakistan, Tunisia and North Korea.
http://www.vimpelcom.com

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Sprint ID Offers Mobile Users Packages of Apps/Content

Sprint introduced a new concept that packages Android applications and premium online content to help improve the mobile experience of its smartphone users.


For consumers, Sprint ID is a way to rapidly customize certain Android devices with packages of apps, wallpaper, ringtones, etc. For businesses, Sprint ID offers the potential to rapidly customize employee smartphones with pre-selected business applications, forms and settings.


Sprint has teamed up with leading consumer brands to build the first packages. Partners include Amazon, Blackboard, Comcast, Disney, E!, Electronic Arts, eBay, ESPN, HSN, LatCel, MTV, Notre Dame, Oprah Winfrey Network, RadioShack, Weather Channel, Where and Yahoo!
http://www.sprint.com

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Verizon Debuts M2M Management Center

Verizon is launching Machine to Machine Management Center to help enterprise customers monitor wireless devices over the Verizon Wireless network.


Customers can access an integrated dashboard to manage network connections, self-service device management, and other key elements of machine to machine connectivity.


The new portal is a product of nPhase, LLC, the joint venture established last summer between Qualcomm Incorporated and Verizon Wireless.
http://www.verizon.com
http://www.nphase.com

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Kingston Now Shipping 32GB microSDHC Card for Mobiles

Kingston Digital will begin shipping its first 32GB microSDHC Class 4 card for use in smartphones. The card is capable of storing nearly 29,000 photos, over 6,000 songs and more than 2,000 minutes of video.
http://www.kingston.com

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Ericsson Engaged in LTE Trial with Rogers in Canada

Rogers Communications has launched an LTE technical trial in the Ottawa area with Ericsson Canada. The technical trial will initially use recently auctioned AWS spectrum. Rogers is also working with Industry Canada to secure a development license to use 700 MHz spectrum for the trial. http://www.rogers.com

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Motorola Launches Lawsuits Against Apple

Motorola Mobility filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple's iPhone, iPad, iTouch and certain Mac computers infringe 18 of its patents. Motorola said these patents include wireless communication technologies, such as WCDMA (3G), GPRS, 802.11 and antenna design, and key smartphone technologies including wireless email, proximity sensing, software application management, location-based services and multi-device synchronization.


"Motorola has innovated and patented throughout every cycle of the telecommunications industry evolution, from Motorola's invention of the cell phone to its development of premier smartphone products. We have extensively licensed our industry-leading intellectual property portfolio, consisting of tens of thousands of patents in the U.S. and worldwide. After Apple's late entry into the telecommunications market, we engaged in lengthy negotiations, but Apple has refused to take a license," stated Kirk Dailey, corporate vice president of intellectual property at Motorola Mobility.
http://www.motorola.com

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Verizon Wireless Confirms LTE in 38 US Cities This Year

Verizon Wireless confirmed that it is on track to launch commercial LTE service in 38 major metropolitan areas, covering more than 110 million Americans, by the end of 2010. The company is also on track to launch LTE service in 60 commercial airports across the country.




At a press conference at CTIA in San Francisco, Lowell McAdam, president and chief operating officer of Verizon, said the network launch would be "unprecedented" in that it will cover nearly one-third of the U.S. population from Day One. However, the company has been able to achieve this "cost effectively" -- without increasing its planned CAPEX budget for the year.


Initially, Verizon Wireless will offer USB modems. New LTE consumer products will be shown at CES in January, where the company plans to make some announcements with Google.


Verizon Wireless expects average data rates for LTE to be 5 to 12 Mbps on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink in real-world, loaded network environments. In its trial network, the company has been impressed by the network performance even at the edge of a cell.


LTE pricing plans have not yet been disclosed.


Initially, voice service will default back to the CDMA network, although the company said this will evolve over time.


In addition, Verizon Wireless has undertaken discussions with other network operators in Tier 2/3 cities and rural markets, offering to provide them spectrum and roaming agreements in exchange for their financial investment in building out their network. Verizon Wireless would also help acquiring equipment for these network builds at the negotiated prices it has established with its vendors.


Markets covered by the initial Verizon Wireless LTE launch include:



 

Akron, Ohio Athens, Georgia Atlanta, Georgia Baltimore, Maryland Boston, Massachusetts Charlotte, North Carolina Chicago, Illinois Cincinnati, Ohio Cleveland, Ohio Columbus, Ohio Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Dallas, Texas Denver, Colorado Fort Lauderdale, Florida Houston, Texas

Jacksonville, Florida Las Vegas, Nevada Los Angeles, California Miami, Florida Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota Nashville, Tennessee New Orleans, Louisiana New York, New York Oakland, California Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Orlando, Florida Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Phoenix, Arizona Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Rochester, New York San Antonio, Texas San Diego, California San Francisco, California San Jose, California Seattle/Tacoma, Washington St. Louis, Missouri Tampa, Florida Washington, D.C. West Lafayette, Indiana West Palm Beach, Florida

http://www.verizonwireless.com

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TELE2 Russia Picks Ceragon for Wireless Backhaul

Ceragon Networks announced a multi-year agreement for microwave systems with TELE2, Russia. With this agreement, Ceragon is helping TELE2 subsidiaries in Russia to build out multiple high-capacity, carrier-grade networks to backhaul voice and data traffic for mobile telephony and broadband internet access. Shipments relating to this agreement are already underway. With 17.3 million customers in 37 regions, TELE2 Russia is the fourth largest mobile operator in the country. http://www.ceragon.com

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Sprint Wholesale -- Bandwidth Capacity, Cable VoIP and Wireless MVNOs

An interview with Brian Vos, VP, Service Management, Sprint Wholesalehttp://www.convergedigest.com

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