France's SFR Picks NSN for 3G Upgrade

SFR has chosen Nokia Siemens Networks to build extra capacity in its existing 3G network. NSN will supply its LTE-ready Flexi Multiradio Base Station to support enhanced High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) services. The contract also covers a range of software, network planning and optimization services. The companies have already hosted a live demonstration of Dual-cell HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology, which provides up to 42 Mbps download speeds, twice the current peak rate. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Read More

Isocore Validates Alcatel-Lucent's Service Router

Isocore has tested and verified the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router (SR) as a Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) for Residential Service Delivery. Isocore tested the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR BNG functionality, including subscriber management, IPv6, video quality assurance and terabit forwarding capabilities necessary to deliver rich streaming video content that consumers demand from their broadband service providers.


Specifically, the test bed mirrored a deployable network comprised of two Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SRs configured as BNGs and another two 7750 SRs configured as a core node (supporting LTS) and an Internet gateway node (supporting LNS) respectively. This configuration is typical of a service provider offering both retail and wholesale Internet services. Using external linkIxia test solutions, 250,000 stateful subscriber hosts were emulated using a mixture of PPPoE and DHCP-based subscriber management protocols. A mixture of routed and bridged residential gateways were configured along with a mixture of IPv4 (with CG-NAT), IPv6 and dual stack (IPv4 and IPv6) address models. This configuration is typical of a service provider supporting customers at various stages of legacy and next generation technologies.


Hierarchical quality of service was used for all subscribers to simulate tiered service offerings. Application assurance was enabled on one BNG by emulating 125,000 IPTV STBs that collectively generated 4,000 requests per second for FCC and RET. The other BNG was configured with PerfectStream delivering 700 video channels by monitoring and selecting video packets between active and backup flows. Forced control plane switch-overs were trigger throughout the tests to demonstrate high availability and non-stop service delivery. This configuration is typical of a service provider delivering the highest quality of experience.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Read More

Nasuni Secures $15 Million for Cloud Storage Gateway

Nasuni, a start-up based in Natick, Mass., raised $15 million in Series B funding for its cloud gateway.


Nasuni offer a file server that leverages the unlimited capacity and reliability of the cloud. It runs as a virtual appliance and delivers primary storage, which Nasuni says is indistinguishable from local storage, from an array of leading cloud storage providers.


The new funding was led by Flybridge Capital Partners with participation from existing investors, North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners, who led the company's Series A funding in March 2009. Investment in Nasuni now totals $23 million for the two rounds.
http://www.nasuni.com

• Nasuni is headed by Andres Rodriguez, who previously was founder and CTO of Archivas, which developed an enterprise-class cloud storage system and was acquired by Hitachi Data Systems in 2006. Earlier, he was CTO of the New York Times, where he drove digital strategy at NYTimes and Boston.com.

Read More

Verizon Pumps up FiOS for Business to 150/35 Mbps

Verizon will begin offering FiOS Internet for Business with speeds up to 150/35 Mbps to small businesses in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Verizon's newest Internet speed provides three times the downstream speed previously available to FiOS customers.


FiOS Internet 150/35 Mbps service is available in parts of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia. The service is also available to some medium-sized businesses.
http://www.verizon.com

Read More

FCC Meeting Starts at 10:30 ET

The FCC's open meeting to vote on new rules for managing Internet traffic will start on Tuesday, December 21st at 10:30 am ET. The FCC is offer a live webcast of the meeting.http://reboot.fcc.gov/live/

Read More

HP Launches Cisco Trade-in Promotion

HP kicked off a trade-in promotion for qualifying U.S. customers interested in swapping Cisco networking equipment for new HP gear. HP estimates that nearly $9 billion in Cisco networking equipment is approaching end of life or service in 2011. Its new program enables clients to replace the Cisco gear with standards-based HP solutions. Various discounts and incentives are offered for Cisco Catalyst 2960/S Series, 3560/E Series/X Series, 3750/E Series/X Series, 4500 E Series, 4900 Series or 6500 Series, as well as Cisco Nexus 5000 Series or 7000 Series switches.
http://www.hp.com/go/networking

Read More

Earthlink to Acquire ONE Communications

EarthLink agreed to acquire One Communications for $370 million.


One Comm, which is based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a privately held, multi-regional integrated telecommunications solutions provider. The company serves approximately 113,000 small and mid-sized business customers in 17 states across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Upper Midwest, including the major metropolitan markets of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and the District of Columbia.


One Comm's network consists of 629 collocations, connected by more than 11,700 route miles of fiber.


EarthLink plans to integrate One Comm into its newly established EarthLink Business division, which currently consists of products and capabilities of its former New Edge Network, Deltacom and EarthLink Business Solutions divisions.


EarthLink said its recent mergers, including this one, will give it nationwide IP network with underlying fiber assets in 30 of the top 50 MSAs in the country. The combined fiber network will span approximately 28,000 route miles across 27 states, with 923 collocations, 55 IP and circuit-based switches and 68 metro fiber rings. With the addition of One Comm, EarthLink will have nearly 3,500 employees nationwide.
http://www.earthlink.com

• Earlier this month, EarthLink completed its previously announced acquisition of ITC^DeltaCom, a leading provider of integrated communications services to customers in the southeastern United States, in a transaction valued at approximately $524 million. Under the deal, ITC^DeltaCom (Deltacom) stockholders received $3.00 in cash per each share of Deltacom common stock in the transaction.
  
  
  EarthLink will now begin integrating its New Edge Networks and EarthLink Business Services operations with Deltacom and will market the combined services under the 'EarthLink Business' brand name.
  
  
  Deltacom operates a 16,400 mile fiber optic infrastructure in the Southeast – over 75% of which is owned or controlled under Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) agreements – including a 14-state SONET backbone with 35 metro fiber rings, 294 collocations and 20 voice and data switches. Deltacom currently serves over 32,000 small and mid-size businesses, multi-location enterprises, government agencies and wholesale customers in the southeast with services including MPLS and IP.

Read More

Australia's NBN Co. Releases its Action Plan

Australia's NBN Co. published detailed financial and operational plans, including its capital expenditure budgets, network architecture, a 30-year forecast of take-up rates, and financing as well return-on-investment assessments for the government's A$27.5 billion in the national broadband project.



The announcement and press conference also included a discussion on the open network architecture, Telstra's role and cost recovery in decommissioning the existing copper infrastructure, and pricing, which will include a basic service offering with a download speed of 12/1 Mbps at a uniform national wholesale access price of $24 a month.


NBN Co CEO Mike Quigley said the goal is to provide broadband throughout metropolitan, regional and rural Australia in a cost-effective way. "Building a genuinely national broadband network in a country such as Australia requires a central role for the Government, as no commercial enterprise would be likely to fund such an endeavour," Quigley said.


Significantly, NBN Co expects to generate an Internal Rate of Return of 7% per annum - in excess of the Government's cost of funds, or long-term bond rate. Commercial negotiations remain on-going with Telstra and other parties, but NBN Co. expects these to wrap up shortly and full construction work to underway next year.


Some key elements highlighted in the NBN Co. plan:

• NBN Co. will connect 93% of homes, schools and workplaces with optical fibre delivering broadband services with speeds of up to 1 Gbps.



• 4% of premises will be covered with a fixed wireless service capable of delivering 12 Mbps downlinks at the edges of each cell. It will be fixed wireless with no roaming.



• The 3% of rural Australian location outside of the fibre or wireless footprint will be covered by satellite with speeds up to 12 Mbps. Two Ka-band satellites will be launched by 2015. Arrangements are being made for an interim service.



• There will be a progressive disconnection of copper and HFC services and decommissioning and deactivation of Telstra's copper and HFC networks as the FTTP network is rolled out. NBN Co. will make use of existing Telstra exchange space as well as its existing ducts and conduits.



• The NBN will cover 13 million premises by 2021 and involve installing 181,000km of Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON) and 57,000km of transit fibre.



• Over the 9.5 year construction period, NBN Co plans to build or lease 120 Points of Interconnect and 980 Fibre Serving Areas.



• NBN Co will also pass all greenfields developments by the end of deployment, representing some 2 million premises in the fibre footprint.



• Deployment of the NBN is planned to take place concurrently across multiple Rollout Regions. NBN Co is already constructing five First Release Sites on the mainland, and has announced the locations of 19 further Second Release Sites.



• By the end of 2020, the network rollout will be complete.



• Total revenue to NBN Co for its wholesale service to the end of the construction period is forecast to be $20.8 billion.



• Annual revenue is forecast at $5.8 billion in FY2021 and $7.6 billion in FY2025.



• Total capital expenditure to the end of the construction period is forecast at $35.9 billion.



• Total operational expenditure net of revenue over the same period is $1.0 billion.



• The Australian federal government will initially contribute equity of $27.5 billion. This will be paid back with a return over the life of the project. Other funding will come from operational earnings and private debt.



• From FY2015 NBN Co will begin raising funds through capital markets.



• Together the equity and debt funding add to a total funding requirement of $40.9 billion including funding costs.

A 40-minute webcast with Mike Quigley is on the NBNCo website.
http://www.nbnco.com.au

Read More

AT&T to Acquire Qualcomm's 700 MHz FLO Spectrum

AT&T agreed to acquire Qualcomm's lower 700 MHz D and E Block (Channel 55 and 56) unpaired U.S. spectrum licenses for $1.925 billion. The sale follows Qualcomm's previously announced plan to restructure its FLO TV business. Qualcomm will now shut down its FLO TV business and network in March 2011.


The spectrum covers more than 300 million people total nationwide: 12 MHz of Lower 700 MHz D and E block spectrum covers more than 70 million people in five of the top 15 U.S. metropolitan areas — New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco; 6 MHz of Lower 700 MHz D block spectrum covers more than 230 million people across the rest of the U.S.


The deal requires FCC and Department of Justice approval, but the companies anticipate closing the sale during the second half of calendar 2011.


Qualcomm confirmed that it is integrating carrier aggregation technology into its chipset roadmap to enable supplemental downlink and intends to market the technology globally. The carrier aggregation technology, which is specified in 3GPP Release 10, enables unpaired spectrum bands to be used in conjunction with existing paired bands to obtain substantial improvements in downlink performance.
http://www.att.com
http://www.qualcomm.com

Read More