Verizon Files Legal Challenge to Net Neutrality Rules

Verizon Communications filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit. seeking to block Net Neutrality rules that are expected to go into effect on November 20th. The FCC approved the Net Neutrality rules in December 2010, but they were only published in the Federal Register in late September. Verizon had already challenged the regulations in court but could not proceed with its appeal under the rules were officially published...

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WIND Awarded 800MHz and 2600MHz Spectrum in Italy

WIND Telecomunicazioni S.p.A., which is a division of VimpleCom, successfully bid for spectrum in the 800MHz and 2600MHz frequencies following the completion of the competitive spectrum auction initiated by the Italian government on August 29, 2011.Specifically, WIND has been awarded two blocks FDD (5+5 MHZ paired each) of spectrum in the 800MHz frequency range and four FDD (5+5 MHz paired) blocks in the 2,600MHz frequency range for a total consideration...

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Intel Labs Opens Center for Pervasive Computing at U of Washington

Intel has opened its latest Science and Technology Center to focus on pervasive computing. The new facility, which is hosted by the University of Washington, will bring together researchers from five other universities as well. will focus on developing applications that are organized into the following themes: low-power sensing and communication; understanding human state and activities; and personalization and adaptation. "The next generation of pervasive computing systems will continuously learn environments, objects, schedules and preferences...

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US DoD Certifies Terremark's Infrastructure-as-a-Service

Verizon's Terremark hosting division announced that its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution has been certified for compliance with Department of Defense (DoD) security requirements, as tested and verified by the DoD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process (DIACAP). Terremark works with URS Corporation's information technology business URS-Apptis.DIACAP certification verifies that the information systems the DoD utilizes for its critical applications are highly secure and reliable. http://www.verizon.com http://...

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SOFTBANK MOBILE selects Ericsson for Packet Core

SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. is implementing Ericsson's Evolved Packet Core (EPC) for its next generation mobile broadband network. Financial terms were not disclosed.Ericsson noted that its all-IP mobile core network solution also supports various types of access, including both fixed and mobile networks. For example, it supports the operator's existing HSPA, WCDMA and next-generation LTE access networks, as well other network technologies, such as Wi-Fi.SOFTBANK...

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SOFTBANK's Wireless City Planning Pick Alcatel-Lucent for Backhaul

Wireless City Planning, a new wholesale mobile network operator in Japan led by SOFTBANK, is preparing the launch of its AXGP Mobile Broadband network, which is based on technology developed in Japan that is highly compatible with TD-LTE. Alcatel-Lucent confirmed that it is supplying the IP networking technology to create high-capacity links between base stations throughout the operator's new network. Specifically, the network will use the Alcatel-Lucent...

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Colt Partners with Ciena on Enterprise Managed Services

Ciena announced a partnership with Colt focused on enterprise managed services. The two companies will enrich the performance, reliability and security of Colt's managed High Speed Services portfolio with sophisticated, integrated wire-speed encryption capabilities from Ciena's Packet-Optical Transport portfolio.Colt is deploying solutions from Ciena's 5000 Series throughout its regional managed metro networks to power its assured encryption data...

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LightSquared Signs YourTel America

LightSquared announced a wholesale agreement with YourTel America, which provides telecommunications services through 14 branded retail outlets, call centers and network operations in Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Washington. YourTel America is an approved Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) for unserved and underserved low-income customers. This allows the carrier to deliver voice services to low-income customers through Lifeline, the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) Universal Service Program for...

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Level 3 + Global Crossing Merger Gains FCC & DOJ Approvals

The U.S. Department of Justice has cleared Level 3's previously announced acquisition of Global Crossing. The FCC issued its own order approving the transaction, effective immediately. Level 3 expects to close the transaction as early as next week.http:/www.level3.com http://www.globalcrossing.comOn April 11, 2011, Level 3 Communications first announced its plans to acquire Global Crossing in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.0 billion. The combined company will operate fiber optic networks on three continents, connected...

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CableLabs Establishes PeerConnect Registry

CableLabs has established a "PeerConnect" registry to help cable operators facilitate end-to-end IP communications. The PeerConnect registry helps cable operators to automate their OSS-BSS service data provisioning for subscriber communication exchanges. It is not a traffic exchange hub, so no media traverses the system. The registry supports three primary service elements: Registration Services -- allowing cable operators to dynamically provision...

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Cox Launches “Unbelievably Fair" Mobile Services in San Diego, Santa Barbara

Cox Communications completed its rollout of mobile services in southern California with the launch of "Unbelievably Fair�? mobile phone plans in San Diego and Santa Barbara, California. The service is distinguished by "MoneyBack Minutes" -- where customers can get refunds at the end of the month billing cycle for minutes not used.Cox Wireless launched in Orange County, California late last year. It is also available in Omaha, Neb., Oklahoma City...

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Colombia Solicits Proposals for National Fiber Optic Project

The government of Colombia attracted four proposal for its national fiber optic connectivity project, which aims to connect over 400 municipalities across the country, providing high-speed services to 90% of the population by 2014. The four companies submitting proposals are:Unión Temporal Fibra Óptica Colombiana Telmex Colombia S.A, Unión Temporal Conectividad para todos Unión Temporal Telefónica.http://www.mintic.gov.cohttp://www.mintic.gov.c...

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Nokia and Siemens Inject EUR 1 Billion into NSN

Nokia and Siemens are each putting EUR 500 million in new capital into their joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, will the aim of further strengthening the company's financial position and setting the stage for strategic flexibility, productivity and innovation in areas such as Mobile Broadband and related services.In addition, Jesper Ovesen, 54, has been appointed Executive Chairman of the Board of Nokia Siemens Networks, effective immediately,...

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Alcatel-Lucent Cites Progress with China Mobile on TD-LTE

Alcatel-Lucent noted progress with China Mobile's LTE network in Shanghai, where it supplied an en-to-end trial system consisting of base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core and Alcatel-Lucent's professional services expertise. The companies have now completed the first stage of testing on the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and China Mobile's TD-LTE trial network in the city. The trial network provides coverage to an area of Shanghai including the financial district of Lujiazui and the high-tech business park...

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Ikanos and SoftAtHome Announce Collaboration

SoftAtHome and Ikanos Communications are collaborating to bring a next-generation gateway platform to market. The companies said their partnership combines the latest capabilities of the SoftAtHome Operating Platform and Ikanos recently announced Fusiv Vx185/175 communications processors to create a solution ideally suited for the performance and quality of service demands of next-generation home media gateways in a multiscreen environment.The combined solution takes unique advantage of the SoftAtHome Operation Platform's streaming media management...

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FTTH Reaches 7.6 million North American homes

The number of homes in North America connected by FTTH has topped 7.6 million, up by 1.15 million in the past year, according to figures from market analysis firm RVA LLC, cited by the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council. FTTH is available to about 22 million homes up by about 10 percent in FTTH "homes passed" over the past year."While fiber to the home deployment in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean had barely scratched the surface in previous years,...

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Bharti Airtel Outsources 2G/3G Networks in Africa to NSN

Bharti Airtel signed an agreement with Nokia Siemens Networks to expand its 2G (GSM/EDGE) networks and deploy 3G networks in seven African countries: Madagascar, Malawi, Congo Brazzaville, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Financial terms were not disclosed.Specifically, Nokia Siemens Networks will manage end-to-end network operations, including planning, designing and implementing the 2G and 3G networks for Airtel. The vendor will provide its...

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NeoPhotonics Acquire Santur for Tunable Laser Arrays

NeoPhotonics, which manufacturers photonic integrated circuit based modules and subsystems, agreed to acquire privately held Santur Corporation for $39.2 million in cash. Santur is a leading supplier of high-performance tunable laser arrays for metro and long-haul DWDM systems and a leading developer of PIC-based products for 40Gbps and 100Gbps client side and coherent line side applications. Santur's technology includes established telecom designs...

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Qualcomm Atheros and Mindspeed Partner on Video-Over-Wi-Fi

Qualcomm Atheros and Mindspeed Technologies unveiled a joint embedded video-over-Wi-Fi solution and an integrated board using Qualcomm Atheros' new three-stream 802.11n chip and Mindspeed's Comcerto 1000 broadband packet processors. The embedded solution is aimed at next-generation media gateways and systems performing the media resource function processing (MRFP) for IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) networks. Key applications include video and voice content conversion in support of telephony, multimedia messaging services (MMS) and video ad insertion....

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Huawei Shows New ONT

At this week's Fiber To The Home (FTTH) Conference and Expo 2011 in Orlando, Huawei is showing its new Optical Network Terminal (ONT) and Intelligent Optical Distribution Network (iODN). The ONT design allows a single ONT type to be used for indoor, just-inside, and outdoor applications. It will simplify network operation and reduce deployment costs. The unit – with 2 POTS and 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports – can be deployed indoor for desk or wall mounting...

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ZTE Supplies Symmetrical Commercial 10G EPON Network

ZTE announced the deployment of the first symmetrical commercial 10 Gigabit Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) network with Qoncert, a technology provider based in Tampa Bay, Florida. The network features a 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GE) User Network Interface (UNI) that enables Qoncert to increase network access speeds for business customers. The network combines 10G EPON and MPLS for service flexibility. http://www.zte.com.cnhttp://www.qoncert....

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Amazon Silk Introduces "Silk" Cloud-Accelerated Web Browser

Amazon's new Kindle "Fire" tablet introduces "Silk" -- a radical new "split browser" that accelerates the power of the mobile device hardware by using the computing speed and power of the Amazon Web Services cloud (AWS). The Silk browser software resides both on Kindle Fire and on the massive server fleet that comprises the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). With each page request, Silk dynamically determines a division of labor between the...

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Motorola Releases XOOM 4G LTE Upgrade

Motorola Mobility is releasing a software upgrade enables of customers of its XOOM tablet to access the Verizon Wireless LTE network. http://www.motorola....

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MetroPCS Debuts LTE Android Smartphone from LG

MetroPCS Communications introduced the LTE-enabled LG Esteem smartphone featuring music and multimedia applications like Rhapsody Unlimited Music and MetroSTUDIO. The LG Esteem is powered by Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It offers a front-facing camera and 5MP rear camera with flash, 720p HD video recording, a 4.3�? WVGA screen, a micro-HDMI port and DLNA streaming capability to transmit HD content directly to home entertainment units, and face-to-face...

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Juniper Offers "Simply Connected" for Enterprise Switching, Security and WLAN

Juniper Networks introduced its "Simply Connected" portfolio of enterprise switching, security and wireless products designed to simplify the management of mobile and desktop devices. The portfolio brings together Juniper's existing EX Series Ethernet Switches with Virtual Chassis technology, its SRX Series security products, its Junos Pulse mobile security paradigm, and wireless LAN controllers and access points through its recent acquisition...

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ADTRAN Doubles Capacity of Total Access 5000 to 5,376 GPON Subs

ADTRAN has doubled the capacity of its flagship Total Access 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform enabling to support 5,376 GPON subscribers and 504 Active Ethernet subscribers per chassis. The higher density helps network operators to scale Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) service offerings.ADTRAN is also introducing a new family of universal ONTs which bring auto-sensing support for both Active Ethernet and GPON, simplifying deployments...

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Global Broadband Lines Top 558 Million

The total number of broadband subscriber lines topped 557.8 million at the end of June 2011, up by over 29 million lines since the start of this year, according to figures from Point Topic released by the Broadband Forum. The second quarter outperformed the same period last year, continuing the trend of stronger growth set in the first quarter's results announced in June."Globally broadband continues to grow strongly and all indications are that...

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Belgacom to Deploy VDSL2 Vectoring for 50 Mbps Services

Belgium's Belgacom will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's new VDSL2 Vectoring technology to boost performance over its national triple-play network to provide guaranteed speeds of 50 Mbps and above.Belgacom and Alcatel-Lucent have a long history of working together. Thirteen years ago, Belgacom was first to activate ADSL lines with Alcatel-Lucent. Eight years ago, the operator was first in Europe to invest in a nationwide fiber-rich network, representing...

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Picochip: London Needs 70,000 Small Cells

London will need 70,000 pico cell base stations to deliver the world class level of LTE service that users expect, according to Picochip, which develops silicon for small cell base stations. The company calculates that almost 12,000 outdoor metropolitan small cells will be needed across the city along with 1,772 covering London underground stations and walkways. The remaining picocells will be needed in indoor retail locations and other venues."For London to offer its residents high speed LTE mobile Internet in 2015, it needs 70,000 small cells...

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Telstra Goes Live with 2G/3G/4G Combined Core

Telstra is the first carrier worldwide to operate a combined core network for its 2G, 3G and 4G traffic. The triple-access Evolved Packet Core is now in commercial service, enabling seamless handover of 2G, 3G and 4G traffic.Ericsson supplied the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) that enables the mobile broadband traffic carried in Telstra GSM, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE access networks to be seamlessly handled by the same core network nodes.Mike Wright, Telstra's...

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Nokia Siemens Uses Radio Network Controller Cloning To Speed Upgrades

Nokia Siemens Networks introduced a first-of-its-kind Network Cloning service for faster radio network controller upgrades, promising network performance upgrades that can now occur in days instead of months using the conventional manual configuration process.A traditional RNC upgrade requires multiple parameter changes as each of the hundreds of base stations connected to the controller need to be manually migrated to the new RNC. The manual upgrade not only takes months to complete, but can also cause interruptions in the mobile service. In addition,...

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NSN Previews 8 pipes" Remote Radio Head for TD-LTE

Nokia Siemens Networks announced an "8 pipes" remote radio head that provides more flexibility than alternative "path"-based approaches, allowing for the flexible allocation of sectors, carriers and transmit and receive channels by a base station. The company said its 8 pipes TD-LTE remote radio head significantly increases coverage and capacity and offers up to four times the cost savings as compared to the existing remote radio heads. The new...

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Telstra Launches LTE

Telstra officially launched its 4G LTE service in capital city CBDs and more than 30 regional and metropolitan centres. Telstra also announced that it would launch 4G services in more than 50 additional locations by year's end.Typical download speeds range from 2Mbps to 40Mbps – up to ten times faster than 3G speeds currently claimed by other Australian telecommunications companies. Typical upload speeds range from 1Mbps to 10Mbps – three times faster...

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Tellabs Packs Content Aware Routing in SmartCore 9200 Series

Tellabs introduced a new family of content-aware SmartCore 9200 edge routers featuring a massive 1 terabit per slot capacity for up to 11.2 Tbps per chassis. The new platforms, which build on the Tellabs 8800 MSR series as a carrier-class edge routing platform for IP/MPLS and Ethernet, leverage a "SmartCard" architecture where the service intelligence is placed on each interface card, providing fine grained visibility and DPI-based traffic management...

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Broadcom Debuts Central Office VDSL2 Chipset with G.Vector

Broadcom introduced a Central Office (CO) VDSL2 SoC that integrates vectoring technology for increasing broadband reach and performance by removing crosstalk interference. Broadcom's new BCM65300 VDSL2 G.vector Central Office SoC, which represents the company's third generation of standards compliant VDSL2 technology, uses G.vector (ITU-T G.993.5) technology to reduce the interference from subscriber lines located in the same cable binder. It provides vectored services with integrated ATM and PTM channel bonding capability. The new chip also...

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IP Infusion's ZebOS 7.9 Adds Data Center, Mobile Backhaul & Carrier Ethernet Features

IP Infusion released the latest version of its ZebOS software for network equipment manufacturers, adding a host of capabilities for data center networking, mobile backhaul and Carrier Ethernet. Some of the top enhancements to ZebOS 7.9 include:Data Center Networking – ZebOS 7.9 implements the data center bridging extensions to accelerate the transition from Fibre Channel to FCoE in Storage Area Networks (SANs). New capabilities include Priority-based...

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Positron Access Combines MIMO-on-DMT with VDSL2 Vectoring for 800 Mbps

Positron Access announced a performance benchmark of 800 Mbps for its Ethernet over copper over "real life service distances.""FlexStream 800 combines our revolutionary MIMO-on-DMT technology with VDSL2 vectoring to deliver Ethernet over copper at rates that have not yet been practically achieved,�? explains Hossam Salib, VP of Product Management and Marketing for Positron Access. “We now offer a true multi-service, symmetric/asymmetric bonded copper solution that provides bandwidths ranging from 100 Mbps to 800 Mbps at reaches from 1,000 to 65,000...

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Mu Dynamics Expands its Blitz Application Testing

Mu Dynamic has integrated its "Blitz" cloud-based, application testing service into multiple platforms –- including Heroku, AppHarbor, Acquia and CloudFlare -- to make it easier for developers to test the performance of their application. The integration with these major Platform as a Service (PaaS), Content Management System (CMS) and web security and performance offerings means that the application developer can perform the network load testing...

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NSN Shows Three TD-LTE devices

Also at PT Expo Comm in Beijing, Nokia Siemens Networks is introducing three TD-LTE devices that support broadband access at up to 102 Mbps downlink and 51 Mbps uplink. The devices include a plug-and-play USB dongle, an indoor wireless router, and a wireless router that can be mounted outdoors. http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks....

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Nokia Siemens Networks Demos HSPA+ at 336 Mbps

At this week's PT Expo Comm in Beijing, Nokia Siemens Networks is demonstrating a multi-band, multi-carrier HSPA+ data call with peak throughput of 336 Mbps. The demo uses the company's commercial Flexi Multiradio Base Station and Multicontroller platform alongside MDM8220 test terminals from Qualcomm. It combines a total of eight HSPA carriers (multi-carrier), each carrying 42 Mbps with MIMO and 64 QAM modulation. This configuration can be allocated...

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Freescale Sees Q3 Sales Decline

Freescale Semiconductor updated its financial guidance saying it now expects Q3 net sales to decline 6% to 8% sequentially. This compares to the initial guidance of flat to down 3% sequentially. The sales decline is attributable primarily to weakness in the company's industrial and networking businesses;Gross margins to show modest sequential improvement despite the sequential decline in sales. http://www.freescale....

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Russian Social Networking Site Buys Wavelengths from Global Crossing

VK, a leading Russian social networking site, has purchased several 10 Gbps IP Transit ports in Helsinki and Stockholm from Global Crossing. In addition, Global Crossing is providing 10 Gbps Wavelength Services among VK's sites across Europe and in the U.S. http://www.globalcrossing....

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AirTouch Plans MVNO Launch on Lightsquared

AirTouch Communications. which makes mobile, cordless and landline accessories, plans to offer its own branded wireless connectivity service over Lightsquared's wholesale LTE network."We're proud to add AirTouch to our increasingly diverse partner portfolio," said Sanjiv Ahuja, chairman and chief executive officer of LightSquared. "In addition to cellular voice and data products, AirTouch can now add a new source of revenue by delivering a bundled wireless offering to their customers. This represents the true spirit of LightSquared's wholesale-only...

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Broadcom Introduces NFC Chips in 40nm

Broadcom introduced its family of NFC chips implemented in 40nm silicon and designed for consumer electronics. Broadcom said it is committed to making NFC as ubiquitous as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are today. The new BCM2079x family slashes power consumption by more than 90 percent, uses 40 percent fewer components and has a 40 percent smaller board area than existing solutions. The NFC controllers are platform agnostic with support for multiple secure...

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TI Targets sub-1GHz 6LoWPAN for Low Cost, IPv6 Wireless Sensors

Texas Instruments introduced a new sub-1 GHz 6LoWPAN solution aimed at providing a gateway for remote, low-cost wireless sensors to connect to the Internet and a wireless extension of wired IPv6 infrastructures. The target is large-scale mesh networks for use in Smart Grid, security, home and building automation, street lighting and other wireless sensor networks. TI said the use of sub-1GHz spectrum offers longer wireless range at lower power levels...

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Lantiq and Altair Plans LTE Home Gateways

Lantiq and Altair Semiconductor announced a partnership for the development of LTE-ready home gateways.The collaboration matches Altair's LTE chipset with the Lantiq XWAY GRX family of network processors for a range of products from simple LTE bridge modems up to multiservice LTE gateways, optimized for different regional market requirements in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The Altair FourGee-3100/6200 is a 3GPP LTE chipset that offers both TDD and FDD capabilities and has been extensively tested for interoperability with all leading infrastructure...

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KT Deploys Alcatel-Lucent's 7750 Service Routers

KT is deploying Alcatel-Lucent's IP routing technology to deliver a better faster, higher-quality Internet, video and voice services to its residential customers in the Seoul and GangWon regions. The deployment uses Alcatel-Lucent's 7750 Service Routers to support VoIP, IPTV, high-speed Internet services and other applications. http://www.alcatel-lucent....

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T-Mobile Czech Upgrades to 100 Gbps with Alcatel-Lucent

T-Mobile Czech Republic has upgraded portions of its fiber backbone to 100 Gbps. The new infrastructure, which links Prague to major cities, is intended for use by corporate clients, and will serve as the backbone for T-Mobile's 3G network, supporting T-Mobile's broadband vision of providing “The Fastest Network�? to its customers.The network uses the Alcatel-Lucent 1626 Light Manager enhanced with 100G next-generation coherent technology along with the Alcatel-Lucent 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS). http://www.alcatel-lucent....

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Broadcom Samples Next Gen Carrier Ethernet Aggregation Silicon

Broadcom introduced its next generation StrataXGS switching silicon for next-generation, high-density Carrier Ethernet aggregation platforms, including packet transport-oriented (PTN) and IP-oriented (IP-RAN) aggregation networks. Two new devices are sampling now and expected to enter volume production next year: the StrataXGS BCM56640 series for modular platforms and the StrataXGS BCM56540 series for fixed carrier Ethernet platforms. Both devices...

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LightSquared CEO Pleads Case in Open Letter to Americans

LightSquared's CEO, Sanjiv Ahuja, published the following letter in major U.S. newspapers."To Americans everywhere, Today, with limited competition in the U.S. wireless market, there are still vast areas of our country without access to broadband. Other areas are plagued by dropped calls and weak signals. America's wireless infrastructure is at a critical crossroad as weak signals, dead-zones, and over-subscribed networks risk stalling American innovation and failing to meet consumer needs now and in the future. Within the next 24 months, demand...

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Texas Instruments Completes Acquisition of National Semiconductor

Texas Instruments completed its previously announced acquisition of National Semiconductor. Both companies are leaders in analog semiconductors.More than 5,000 National employees will immediately become part of TI. The two companies will begin the work to integrate National as a unit of TI's Analog business, which will have a combined portfolio of nearly 45,000 analog products, strong customer design tools, and a sales force that is 10 times larger...

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ATLANTIC BIRD 7 Satellite to Serve Middle East

Eutelsat Communications' ATLANTIC BIRD 7 satellite was successfully launched into orbit by a Zenit-3SL rocket operated by Sea Launch AG from the ocean-based Odyssey Launch Platform in international waters of the Pacific Ocean.ATLANTIC BIRD 7, which will be located at 7 degrees West, will deliver Arabic and international channels into almost 30 million satellite homes across North Africa and the Middle East. ATLANTIC BIRD 7 will assume broadcasting...

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XO Appoints Laura W. Thomas Interim CEO

XO Communications announced the appointment of Laura W. Thomas as interim CEO. She currently serves as XO's Chief Financial Officer and will retain these responsibilities as she takes up the leadership role. Before joining XO in 2009, Laura held executive positions in finance with Concert Communications and MCI. She earned her MBA in Finance from George Washington University and also holds a BA from Radford University. http://www.xo....

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LightSquared to Use Convergys for Billing and Rating

LightSquared will implement Convergys' Rating and Billing Manager to deliver transaction volumes and flexible handling of complex account hierarchies for its upcoming, wholesale LTE service.The Convergys Rating and Billing Manager, part of a suite of Smart Revenue Solutions, is a charging, rating, and balance management system that supports emerging services, such as those to be offered by LightSquared. http://www.convergys....

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Germany's E-Plus Ex Alcatel-Lucent for Upgrade

Germany's E-Plus has selected Alcatel-Lucent for a significant expansion of broadband coverage throughout the country to increase the availability of high-bandwidth services like video and music downloads on smartphones. Alcatel-Lucent will continue to have overall responsibility for network operations, field maintenance, and build-out of services.This renewed agreement builds on the long-standing Managed Services relationship between the two companies. http://www.alcatel-lucent....

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France's SFR Shows LTE in Marseille with NSN

SFR, France's second-largest telecom operator, held a live demonstration for the press in Marseille using Nokia Siemens Networks' Single RAN radio access equipment and Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The companies showcased very high-speed mobile internet access with near instant response times. http://www.nsn....

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Cavium Trims Q3 Outlook

Cavium Networks now expects its Q3 financial results to be below the company's previous outlook. The company now expects revenue for the third quarter of 2011 to be approximately 4% to 6% lower than second quarter 2011 revenue of $71.6 million, based on information currently available. on-GAAP gross margins and non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be consistent with previous guidance.“Customer revenues have been weaker than expected this quarter, in the enterprise market as well as recognized software services revenue. Sales into the enterprise...

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FCC Paper Considers Deployable Aerial Communications

The FCC published a staff whitepaper discussing deployable aerial communications architecture (DACA) to provide communications when the terrestrial communications infrastructure is severely damaged or unavailable. The paper looks at the deployment options for aerial broadband and cellular communications systems in the first 12-18 hours following a catastrophic event. Options could include small, unmanned aerial vehicles, weather balloon technologies, high altitude long distance unmanned vehicles, and quick mounted antennas on wheels. http://w...

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Xelerated's 100 Gbps NPU Aims to Upgrade Carrier Ethernet Market

Xelerated has begun volume production of its HX family of 100G network processors (NPU) for packet-OTN, mobile backhaul/PTN and Carrier Ethernet Switch-Routers. The company said it now racked up 20 system design wins for the HX family of NPUs, the first will go into production later this year. The HX chip delivers wirespeed processing and advanced traffic management with deep packet buffering and can be used for pizza box and line card slot capacities...

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IEEE Targets High-Density 100 Gbps Backplanes

The IEEE has approved work on a new amendment to the 802.3 Ethernet standard aimed at specifying 100 Gbps operation over backplanes and short-reach copper cables. The project is essential for the development of systems with higher densities of 100 Gbps ports. The work undertaken by the IEEE P802.3bj Task Force will define four-lane, 25 Gbps electrical signaling architectures that will support 100 Gbps Ethernet operation across backplanes up to one...

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AT&T Still Confident in T-Mobile Deal

AT&T remains confident that its T-Mobile acquisition will come to a successful resolution, said Randall Stephenson, AT&T's CEO, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XX Conference. Despite the DOJ lawsuit, Stephenson said the deal continues to gain support from the high tech community, labor unions, and numerous politicians because of the advantages it offers -- more services from the combined spectrum, $8 billion in additional network investment, and the repatriation of overseas call center jobs. The trial date of February 13 has...

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Oracle Acquires GoAhead for Service Availability Management Software

Oracle agreed to acquire GoAhead, a supplier of privately-held Service Availability and management software, for an undisclosed sum.GoAhead's packaged service availability software is deployed by leading Network Equipment Providers (NEPs), such as Ericsson, Motorola and Alcatel Lucent to ensure the highest level of up-time for carrier services -- seven 9s of reliability. The middleware leverages the OpenSAF open source high availability software...

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Facebook's Open Graph Protocol Aims for New Ways to Connect

Facebook is working to "define a new language for how people connect", said Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the company's fourth annual F8 developer's conference in San Francisco. Facebook now has over 800 million users. On a single day last week, over 500 million users signed into Facebook.Facebook is adding the following new capabilities:Timeline -- a visual chronology of major event's in a person's life. This is meant to be long term archive that...

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France Awards LTE Licenses to Four Operators

ARCEP, the office telecoms regulator in France, awarded licences to four operators to use the 2.6 GHz frequency band. The result of the auction is as follows: Bouygues Telecom will be allocated a duplex frequency block of 15 MHz, for which the company bid the sum of €228,011,012. Free Mobile will be allocated a duplex frequency block of 20 MHz, for which the company bid the sum of €271,000,000. Orange France will be allocated a duplex frequency block of 20 MHz, for which the company bid the sum of €287,118,501. Société Française du Radiotéléphone...

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Alcatel-Lucent Pushes Broadband Faster with VDSL2 Vectoring

Alcatel-Lucent is pushing broadband over copper further and faster with VDSL2 Vectoring technology. The company is first to market with a VDSL2 vectoring solution capable of delivering 100 Mbps over existing copper loop lengths of 400 meters. Alcatel-Lucent is equally committed to FTTx and VDSL2, said Stefaan Vanhastel, Fixed Access Product Marketing manager at the company. While fiber access is seen as the end game for wireline access, the...

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Zarlink Finally Accepts Acquisition Bid from Microsemi

After having previously declined multiple unsolicited acquisition bids from Microsemi, the Board of Directors at Zarlink Semiconductor agreed to a new offer. Microsemi will increase the price offered for all of the issued and outstanding common shares and 6% unsecured, subordinated convertible debentures maturing September 30, 2012 of Zarlink by 19% to CAD$3.98 in cash per Share and CAD$1,624.49 in cash per CAD$1,000 principal amount of Debentures plus accrued and unpaid interest to the date Debentures are taken up. The total transaction value...

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Valley Telephone Picks ADTRAN for FTTP

Valley Telephone Cooperative, which serves south Texas and is the recipient of the single largest Broadband Stimulus award in the state, has selected ADTRAN's broadband portfolio for its Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) rollout. This project will allow VTCI to extend high-bandwidth triple-play and Ethernet services throughout its coverage area, doubling its addressable market for Active Ethernet-based services to over 9,000 new subscribers in the region. http://www.adtran....

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Mellanox Expects $104.1 million in New Share Offering

Mellanox Technologies expects to raise approximately $104.1 million in a public offering of 3,450,000 newly issued ordinary shares. The underwriters exercised their option to purchase an additional 450,000 over the 3 million shares previously expected in the offering. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Barclays Capital Inc. are acting as the book-running managers for the offering. Stifel Nicolaus Weisel is acting as co-manager for the offering. http://www.mellanox....

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Taiwan Approves Cross Straight Telecom Cable

Taiwan's National Communications Commission (NCC) has given the go-ahead for an undersea cable system directing connecting with mainland China. The project will link Taiwan's Kinmen island with the city of Xiamen, in China's Fujian Province. It is funded by three Taiwanese operators (Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Telecom and Far EasTone Telecommunications) and three mainland operators (China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom).http://www.ncc.gov...

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Verizon: LTE is a Game Changer

Verizon is very well positioned for handling the macroeconomic downturn because of its FiOS growth and its early lead with LTE said Lowell McAdam, President and CEO of Verizon, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XX Conference. Some notes from McAdam's talk:LTE is one of the true game changing technologies for the industry that really makes you sit up and say "wow". Verizon has seen a strong market acceptance for its LTE launch. The many new application possibilities coming through its LTE Innovation centers indicate that LTE will change...

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China Telecom Picks Alcatel-Lucent for 3G Upgrade Projects

China Telecom has selected Alcatel-Lucent to expand and upgrade its 3G CDMA network with its CDMA/EV-DO Radio Access Network portfolio. This includes Alcatel-Lucent's multi-carrier, high-capacity and LTE-ready 9916 BTS and separate 9234 Remote Radio heads, as well as the performance-increasing Multi-Carrier EV-DO Modem (EVM). Alcatel-Lucent will also deploy its CDMA Mobile Packet Core network solution including the 9290 Mobility Manager and 9281 Packet Switch.In addition to the increase in capacity, under the agreement Alcatel-Lucent will lower...

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Broadband Forum Release Fiber Access Specifications

The Broadband Forum released its BroadbandSuite 5.0, which brings together all its work for fiber access networks. Specifically, BroadbandSuite 5.0 encompasses a number of architecture, management and market requirement specifications addressing PON that include:TR-142 Framework for TR-069-enabled PON devices (EPON)TR-155 G-PON ONU Requirements for CPETR-156 Using G-PON Access in the Context of TR-101TR-167 G-PON-fed TR-101 Ethernet Access NodeTR-200 Using EPON in the context of TR-101Two specifications that are in final approval, which define...

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Sprint: Lack of iPhone has been Biggest Factor in Churn

The iPhone is the number one factor for churn on the Sprint network, said Dan Hesse, Sprint's CEO, speaking at the Goldman Sachs 20th Annual Communicopia Conference. Hesse did not confirm whether Sprint will begin selling the iPhone next month, but did say the company overall brand and customer metrics continue to improve despite the lack of the iPhone to date, and that financial guidance to date has not taken into account the iPhone in its portfolio. Some notes:Sprint will be unveiling its network vision on October 7th. Hesse said this network...

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Sequans Targeted by Shareholder Lawsuit

Sequans Communications was named in a class action lawsuit filed by Holzer Holzer & Fistel, LLC. The lawsuit alleges that Sequans knew but failed to disclose that it was facing declining revenues from its WiMax products. The lawsuit further alleges, among other things, that Sequans materially overstated its position with regard to 4G LTE products. http://www.holzerlaw....

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Court Sets Date of Feb 13, 2012 for AT&T+T-Mobile Lawsuit

The U.S. District Court, District of Columbia has set a date of February 13, 2012 to hear lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice to block AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA. http://www.usdoj....

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