Ericsson Exits PC Modules for Mobile Broadband

Ericsson has decided to phase out its business of supplying PC modules for mobile broadband access. The company said that it began supplying PC modules in 2007 in order to spur the market for mobile broadband, but now that this segment is well established, it will focus its efforts on supplying carrier infrastructure while letting it ST-Ericsson joint venture focus on this aspect of mobile connectivity.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Sprint Extends Funding and WiMAX & LTE Partnership with Clearwire

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire reached agreements valued at up to $1.6 billion over the next four years in payments for WiMAX services, possible pre-payments for LTE services and potential equity investments. The agreements further align Clearwire's LTE network build as a complement to Sprint's Network Vision strategy.


Key points:

• Sprint will pay Clearwire a total of $926 million, approximately two-thirds of which will be paid in 2012, for unlimited 4G WiMAX retail services during 2012 and 2013,



• Long-term usage-based pricing is established for WiMAX services in 2014 and beyond.



• Sprint will have access to Clearwire's WiMAX network through at least 2015.



• Plans lay the foundation for the deployment of Clearwire's LTE Advanced-ready overlay network and outline the terms for Sprint to gain access to the additional LTE capacity.



• Clearwire's TDD-LTE rollout will capitalize on its deep spectrum resources.



• Sprint will pay Clearwire up to $350 million in a series of prepayments over a period of up to two years for LTE capacity if Clearwire achieves certain build-out targets and network specifications by June 2013.



• Long-term usage-based pricing for LTE services is established for 2012 and beyond.



• Clearwire and Sprint will collaborate on a network build plan and will jointly select LTE macro-cell sites to cover Sprint's high usage area “hotspots.�?



• Clearwire plans to seek additional funding before initiating the build-out of its LTE Advanced-ready network. Sprint may participate in an equity offering on a pro rata basis up to $347 million.



• Clearwire and Sprint will work collaboratively to support the ecosystem for TDD-LTE in Band Class 41 for devices, chipsets and standards.



• Sprint expects to launch devices including laptop cards and phones that will utilize Clearwire's TDD-LTE network in 2013.

“These agreements are a result of the technical MOU we outlined during our third quarter results call and extend our relationship with Clearwire,�? said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “It provides Sprint improved pricing, allows us to continue to provide WiMAX 4G services to our customers today and to new customers in the future and provides additional LTE capacity to help complement our Network Vision strategy and meet our customers' growing data demands.�?http://www.sprint.com
http://www.clearwire.com

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Windstream Emerges as Formidable National Telecom Player

Windstream completed its previously announced acquisition of PAETEC Holding Corp. for approximately $2.3 billion.


PAETEC is a competitive local exchange carrier and provides telecommunications services primarily to business customers in 46 states and the District of Columbia. The company operates seven data centers in the U.S. and owns approximately 36,700 route miles of fiber in portions of 39 states and the District of Columbia. It has approximately 5,000 employees, including about 875 in the Rochester, N.Y. area. The company was founded in 1998.


Windstream, headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., is an S&P 500 company with operations in 29 states and the District of Columbia and about $4 billion in annual revenues. Windstream provides IP-based voice and data services, MPLS networking, data center and managed hosting services and communication systems to businesses and government agencies. The company also delivers broadband, digital phone and high-definition TV services to residential customers primarily located in rural areas and operates a local and long-haul fiber network spanning approximately 60,000 route miles.


The new combined company will serve business customers in 46 states and the District of Columbia and maintain approximately 100,000 fiber route miles across the country. Windstream will offer data center services across the United States and have improved capability to serve multi-location business customers. It would have had $6.1 billion in total revenue and about $2.4 billion in adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, which excludes non-cash pension expense, restructuring charges and stock-based compensation expense, on a pro forma basis for the last 12 months ended March 31, 2011. Business and broadband revenues would have comprised approximately 70 percent of total revenue.
http://www.windstream.com

• In December 2010, PAETEC acquired privately-owned Cavalier Telephone for $460 million, making it one of the largest competitive local communication service providers in the United States. The acquisition includes Cavalier's wholly owned subsidiary, Intellifiber Networks, which operates a high capacity fiber network spanning approximately 16,600 route miles and representing over $2 billion of investment by companies Cavalier acquired over the last decade. The expansive 11,947 route-mile intercity network spans the Midwest and Eastern U.S., as well as 4,681 route miles throughout several existing PAETEC metro areas, allowing for broad connectivity options for customers. With this deal complete, PAETEC now has over 10,600 metro fiber-route miles, over 36,700 total fiber-route miles, and 1,178 collocations to support connectivity to enterprise businesses nationwide.



• In June 2010, Windstream acquired Iowa Telecommunications Services, Inc. in a transaction valued at approximately $1.2 billion. As of March 31, 2010, Iowa Telecom provided service to approximately 249,000 access lines, 96,000 high-speed Internet customers and 27,500 digital TV customers in Iowa and Minnesota.



• In July 2006, Alltel completed the spin off its wireline business, which was merged with VALOR Communications Group to create Windstream, a major wireline operator focused on the rural U.S. market.



• In 2007, Windstream acquired CT Communications (NASDAQ: CTCI) for $585 million, adding approximately 158,000 access lines and 29,000 broadband customers. CT Communications served residential and business customers located primarily in North Carolina.

Windstream is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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AT&T Blasts FCC's Staff Report -- "Logical Inconsistencies"

AT&T harshly criticized the recently released FCC report which found its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA would hurt competition. Two points in its stinging rebuke stand out.


First, AT&T notes that the FCC incorrectly assumes that it will expand its LTE network to rural areas of the country even if the merger fails. Likewise, the FCC assumes that Deutsche Telekom will continue to invest in the T-Mobile USA network and upgrade it to LTE if the merger fails. Neither of these conclusions is supported by facts, claims AT&T.


Secondly, on the issue of whether the merger would create jobs or not, AT&T notes that the FCC holds a much different opinion of its own broadband stimulus programs. The FCC's report concludes that the billions of dollars in additional capital investment promised by AT&T to bring LTE to rural America would create no new jobs and spur no new investment by others. However, FCC recently announced that its own $4.5 billion Connect America broadband fund will create “approximately 500,000 jobs and $50 billion in economic growth over the same period.�?


"This notion — that government spending on broadband deployment creates jobs and economic growth, but private investment does not—makes no sense," stated Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of External & Legislative Affairs.http://attpublicpolicy.com/wireless/att-response-to-fcc-staff-report/

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Huawei Opens Global Network Operation Center in Bangalore

Huawei inaugurated a new Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) in Bangalore. The facility will offer a wide range of managed services capabilities that will meet the current and future needs of Huawei's operator customers, enabling them to substantially improve their network quality, leverage network investment, and reduce operating costs.


Huawei also operates a Network Operation Center (NOC) located in New Delhi.
http://www.huawei.com

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Avago Posts Record Revenue of $623 Million, up 3% Sequentially

Avago Technologies reported record net revenue of $623 million, an increase of 3 percent compared with the previous quarter, and up 9 percent from the same quarter last year. Fourth quarter net income was $154 million, or $0.61 per diluted share, up from $144 million, or $0.57 per diluted share last quarter, and net income of $164 million, or $0.66 per diluted share in the same quarter last year. Gross margin was $304 million, or 48.8 percent of net revenue. This compares with gross margin of $297 million, or 49.3 percent of net revenue last quarter, and gross margin of $276 million, or 48.3 percent of net revenue in the same quarter last year.


“Despite a slowdown in our Industrial market, we delivered sequential revenue growth in the fourth quarter as we ramped with next generation smartphones,�? said Hock Tan, President and CEO of Avago Technologies Limited. “However, looking to the first quarter, we expect a seasonal slow-down in handsets while the supply chain contraction in our Industrial market continues.�?http://www.avagotech.com

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LightSquared Signs Smarter Car for Remote Vehicle Diagnostics

LightSquared announced a wholesale mobile data deal with Smarter Car, a start-up planning to offer a remote diagnostics tool for automobile dealerships. Smarter Car will sell devices and connectivity directly to automobile dealerships who will in turn offer these as options to customers when they purchase new cars. The Smarter Car device will attach to an On-Board Diagnostics (OBD)-specified port and, using LightSquared's 4G-LTE network, will allow drivers and dealerships to use smart phones, tablets or PCs to access and analyze a variety of data about the car. LightSquared's satellite will ensure nationwide coverage.
http://www.lightsquared.comhttp://smartercar.com/

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Charter Boosts Speeds, Keeps Pricing the Same

Charter, the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, is boosting its consumer download and uploads speeds across its DOCSIS 3.0 network while keeping the pricing the same.


The company is increasing Charter Internet Express download speeds from 12 Mbps to up to 15 Mbps, and increasing upload speeds from 1 Mbps to up to 3 Mbps. Charter Internet Plus download speeds are being increased from 18 Mbps to up to 30 Mbps, and upload speeds are being increased from 2 Mbps to up to 4 Mbps. Charter's fastest residential offering is increasing from 60 Mbps download to up to 100 Mbps download with 5 Mbps upload, and has been renamed Charter Internet Ultra100 to reflect the significant enhancement. Express and Plus speeds are also increasing in the remaining portions of Charter's service areas nationwide.
http://www.charter.com

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Controversy Builds for Carrier IQ Mobile Analytics

Carrier IQ, a privately held developer of mobile analytic software, faced increased criticism from mobile users and privacy advocates following published reports and analysis by Trevor Eckhart that Carrier IQ software is being used to secretly record and transmit highly detailed usage data.


U.S. Senator Al Franken, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, published an open letter requesting Carrier IQ to explain whether its software in fact logs users' location, numbers dialed, emails sent/received, text messages or any other keystrokes, and whether this data is transmitted without the user's express permission to the carrier or any other party.


Apple confirmed that while it has used Carrier IQ, the software is not included in iOS 5. Apple intends to remove it from iOS 4 completely with an upcoming software update. Apple also said that its usage was anonymous and did not include personal information.


AT&T and Sprint have both acknowledged using Carrier IQ but said that data collected is for network diagnostics and not for tracking people.


On its website, Carrier IQ claims its software is installed on approximately 141 million mobile handsets worldwide. The company has previously stated that its software is designed to help carriers improve their networks by identifying dropped calls and identify problems that hamper battery life.


In a statement, the company said its software "does not record, store or transmit the contents of SMS messages, email, photographs, audio or video. For example, we understand whether an SMS was sent accurately, but do not record or transmit the content of the SMS. We know which applications are draining your battery, but do not capture the screen."


In a press statement issued on November 16th, Carrier IQ stated:


"While we look at many aspects of a device's performance, we are counting and summarizing performance, not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools. The metrics and tools we derive are not designed to deliver such information, nor do we have any intention of developing such tools. The information gathered by Carrier IQ is done so for the exclusive use of that customer, and Carrier IQ does not sell personal subscriber information to 3rd parties. The information derived from devices is encrypted and secured within our customer's network or in our audited and customer-approved facilities."http://www.carrieriq.com

• In June 2010, Carrier IQ, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, raised $12 million in Series D funding for its mobile service intelligence solution. Carrier IQ's analytics platform provides real-time data to the mobile network operator directly from the source handsets of the subscribers. The platform aggregates, analyzes and delivers that data via web applications. The latest funding round was led by Bridgescale Partners, with participation from existing investors Intel Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Accel Partners, Charles River Ventures, Presidio Ventures and Nauta Capital.

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Lowell C. McAdam Elected Chairman of Verizon

Verizon Communications' Board of Directors elected Lowell C. McAdam as its new chairman, effective Jan. 1, 2012, replacing Ivan Seidenberg.


In addition, Melanie L. Healey, group president for North America at Procter & Gamble Co., was elected as a new member of Verizon's board, effective immediately. Verizon's board now has 12 members.
http://www.verizon.net

• In July 2011, Verizon named Lowell C. McAdam as president and chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, replacing Ivan G. Seidenberg, who will remain chairman to continue to facilitate the transition.
  
  
  In his current role, McAdam, 57, is responsible for all business operations at Verizon, including the strategic direction of the company's products and technologies. He has served on the board of Verizon since March 2011 and on the board of Verizon Wireless since 2003, chairing the Verizon Wireless board since September 2010.
  
  
  As president and CEO of Verizon Wireless until September 2010, McAdam led the premier wireless provider with the nation's largest, most reliable wireless voice and 3G broadband data network. Prior to assuming this position in 2007, McAdam served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Verizon Wireless from the company's inception in 2000, helping to build the industry's leading wireless company.

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Ericsson Exits PC Modules for Mobile Broadband

Ericsson has decided to phase out its business of supplying PC modules for mobile broadband access. The company said that it began supplying PC modules in 2007 in order to spur the market for mobile broadband, but now that this segment is well established, it will focus its efforts on supplying carrier infrastructure while letting it ST-Ericsson joint venture focus on this aspect of mobile connectivity.
http://www.ericsson.com

Read More

Sprint Extends Funding and WiMAX & LTE Partnership with Clearwire

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire reached agreements valued at up to $1.6 billion over the next four years in payments for WiMAX services, possible pre-payments for LTE services and potential equity investments. The agreements further align Clearwire's LTE network build as a complement to Sprint's Network Vision strategy.


Key points:

• Sprint will pay Clearwire a total of $926 million, approximately two-thirds of which will be paid in 2012, for unlimited 4G WiMAX retail services during 2012 and 2013,



• Long-term usage-based pricing is established for WiMAX services in 2014 and beyond.



• Sprint will have access to Clearwire's WiMAX network through at least 2015.



• Plans lay the foundation for the deployment of Clearwire's LTE Advanced-ready overlay network and outline the terms for Sprint to gain access to the additional LTE capacity.



• Clearwire's TDD-LTE rollout will capitalize on its deep spectrum resources.



• Sprint will pay Clearwire up to $350 million in a series of prepayments over a period of up to two years for LTE capacity if Clearwire achieves certain build-out targets and network specifications by June 2013.



• Long-term usage-based pricing for LTE services is established for 2012 and beyond.



• Clearwire and Sprint will collaborate on a network build plan and will jointly select LTE macro-cell sites to cover Sprint's high usage area “hotspots.�?



• Clearwire plans to seek additional funding before initiating the build-out of its LTE Advanced-ready network. Sprint may participate in an equity offering on a pro rata basis up to $347 million.



• Clearwire and Sprint will work collaboratively to support the ecosystem for TDD-LTE in Band Class 41 for devices, chipsets and standards.



• Sprint expects to launch devices including laptop cards and phones that will utilize Clearwire's TDD-LTE network in 2013.

“These agreements are a result of the technical MOU we outlined during our third quarter results call and extend our relationship with Clearwire,�? said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “It provides Sprint improved pricing, allows us to continue to provide WiMAX 4G services to our customers today and to new customers in the future and provides additional LTE capacity to help complement our Network Vision strategy and meet our customers' growing data demands.�?http://www.sprint.com
http://www.clearwire.com

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Windstream Emerges as Formidable National Telecom Player

Windstream completed its previously announced acquisition of PAETEC Holding Corp. for approximately $2.3 billion.


PAETEC is a competitive local exchange carrier and provides telecommunications services primarily to business customers in 46 states and the District of Columbia. The company operates seven data centers in the U.S. and owns approximately 36,700 route miles of fiber in portions of 39 states and the District of Columbia. It has approximately 5,000 employees, including about 875 in the Rochester, N.Y. area. The company was founded in 1998.


Windstream, headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., is an S&P 500 company with operations in 29 states and the District of Columbia and about $4 billion in annual revenues. Windstream provides IP-based voice and data services, MPLS networking, data center and managed hosting services and communication systems to businesses and government agencies. The company also delivers broadband, digital phone and high-definition TV services to residential customers primarily located in rural areas and operates a local and long-haul fiber network spanning approximately 60,000 route miles.


The new combined company will serve business customers in 46 states and the District of Columbia and maintain approximately 100,000 fiber route miles across the country. Windstream will offer data center services across the United States and have improved capability to serve multi-location business customers. It would have had $6.1 billion in total revenue and about $2.4 billion in adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, which excludes non-cash pension expense, restructuring charges and stock-based compensation expense, on a pro forma basis for the last 12 months ended March 31, 2011. Business and broadband revenues would have comprised approximately 70 percent of total revenue.
http://www.windstream.com

• In December 2010, PAETEC acquired privately-owned Cavalier Telephone for $460 million, making it one of the largest competitive local communication service providers in the United States. The acquisition includes Cavalier's wholly owned subsidiary, Intellifiber Networks, which operates a high capacity fiber network spanning approximately 16,600 route miles and representing over $2 billion of investment by companies Cavalier acquired over the last decade. The expansive 11,947 route-mile intercity network spans the Midwest and Eastern U.S., as well as 4,681 route miles throughout several existing PAETEC metro areas, allowing for broad connectivity options for customers. With this deal complete, PAETEC now has over 10,600 metro fiber-route miles, over 36,700 total fiber-route miles, and 1,178 collocations to support connectivity to enterprise businesses nationwide.



• In June 2010, Windstream acquired Iowa Telecommunications Services, Inc. in a transaction valued at approximately $1.2 billion. As of March 31, 2010, Iowa Telecom provided service to approximately 249,000 access lines, 96,000 high-speed Internet customers and 27,500 digital TV customers in Iowa and Minnesota.



• In July 2006, Alltel completed the spin off its wireline business, which was merged with VALOR Communications Group to create Windstream, a major wireline operator focused on the rural U.S. market.



• In 2007, Windstream acquired CT Communications (NASDAQ: CTCI) for $585 million, adding approximately 158,000 access lines and 29,000 broadband customers. CT Communications served residential and business customers located primarily in North Carolina.

Windstream is based in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Read More

AT&T Blasts FCC's Staff Report -- "Logical Inconsistencies"

AT&T harshly criticized the recently released FCC report which found its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA would hurt competition. Two points in its stinging rebuke stand out.


First, AT&T notes that the FCC incorrectly assumes that it will expand its LTE network to rural areas of the country even if the merger fails. Likewise, the FCC assumes that Deutsche Telekom will continue to invest in the T-Mobile USA network and upgrade it to LTE if the merger fails. Neither of these conclusions is supported by facts, claims AT&T.


Secondly, on the issue of whether the merger would create jobs or not, AT&T notes that the FCC holds a much different opinion of its own broadband stimulus programs. The FCC's report concludes that the billions of dollars in additional capital investment promised by AT&T to bring LTE to rural America would create no new jobs and spur no new investment by others. However, FCC recently announced that its own $4.5 billion Connect America broadband fund will create “approximately 500,000 jobs and $50 billion in economic growth over the same period.�?


"This notion — that government spending on broadband deployment creates jobs and economic growth, but private investment does not—makes no sense," stated Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of External & Legislative Affairs.http://attpublicpolicy.com/wireless/att-response-to-fcc-staff-report/

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Huawei Opens Global Network Operation Center in Bangalore

Huawei inaugurated a new Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) in Bangalore. The facility will offer a wide range of managed services capabilities that will meet the current and future needs of Huawei's operator customers, enabling them to substantially improve their network quality, leverage network investment, and reduce operating costs.


Huawei also operates a Network Operation Center (NOC) located in New Delhi.
http://www.huawei.com

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Avago Posts Record Revenue of $623 Million, up 3% Sequentially

Avago Technologies reported record net revenue of $623 million, an increase of 3 percent compared with the previous quarter, and up 9 percent from the same quarter last year. Fourth quarter net income was $154 million, or $0.61 per diluted share, up from $144 million, or $0.57 per diluted share last quarter, and net income of $164 million, or $0.66 per diluted share in the same quarter last year. Gross margin was $304 million, or 48.8 percent of net revenue. This compares with gross margin of $297 million, or 49.3 percent of net revenue last quarter, and gross margin of $276 million, or 48.3 percent of net revenue in the same quarter last year.


“Despite a slowdown in our Industrial market, we delivered sequential revenue growth in the fourth quarter as we ramped with next generation smartphones,�? said Hock Tan, President and CEO of Avago Technologies Limited. “However, looking to the first quarter, we expect a seasonal slow-down in handsets while the supply chain contraction in our Industrial market continues.�?http://www.avagotech.com

Read More

LightSquared Signs Smarter Car for Remote Vehicle Diagnostics

LightSquared announced a wholesale mobile data deal with Smarter Car, a start-up planning to offer a remote diagnostics tool for automobile dealerships. Smarter Car will sell devices and connectivity directly to automobile dealerships who will in turn offer these as options to customers when they purchase new cars. The Smarter Car device will attach to an On-Board Diagnostics (OBD)-specified port and, using LightSquared's 4G-LTE network, will allow drivers and dealerships to use smart phones, tablets or PCs to access and analyze a variety of data about the car. LightSquared's satellite will ensure nationwide coverage.
http://www.lightsquared.comhttp://smartercar.com/

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Charter Boosts Speeds, Keeps Pricing the Same

Charter, the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States, is boosting its consumer download and uploads speeds across its DOCSIS 3.0 network while keeping the pricing the same.


The company is increasing Charter Internet Express download speeds from 12 Mbps to up to 15 Mbps, and increasing upload speeds from 1 Mbps to up to 3 Mbps. Charter Internet Plus download speeds are being increased from 18 Mbps to up to 30 Mbps, and upload speeds are being increased from 2 Mbps to up to 4 Mbps. Charter's fastest residential offering is increasing from 60 Mbps download to up to 100 Mbps download with 5 Mbps upload, and has been renamed Charter Internet Ultra100 to reflect the significant enhancement. Express and Plus speeds are also increasing in the remaining portions of Charter's service areas nationwide.
http://www.charter.com

Read More

Controversy Builds for Carrier IQ Mobile Analytics

Carrier IQ, a privately held developer of mobile analytic software, faced increased criticism from mobile users and privacy advocates following published reports and analysis by Trevor Eckhart that Carrier IQ software is being used to secretly record and transmit highly detailed usage data.


U.S. Senator Al Franken, Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, published an open letter requesting Carrier IQ to explain whether its software in fact logs users' location, numbers dialed, emails sent/received, text messages or any other keystrokes, and whether this data is transmitted without the user's express permission to the carrier or any other party.


Apple confirmed that while it has used Carrier IQ, the software is not included in iOS 5. Apple intends to remove it from iOS 4 completely with an upcoming software update. Apple also said that its usage was anonymous and did not include personal information.


AT&T and Sprint have both acknowledged using Carrier IQ but said that data collected is for network diagnostics and not for tracking people.


On its website, Carrier IQ claims its software is installed on approximately 141 million mobile handsets worldwide. The company has previously stated that its software is designed to help carriers improve their networks by identifying dropped calls and identify problems that hamper battery life.


In a statement, the company said its software "does not record, store or transmit the contents of SMS messages, email, photographs, audio or video. For example, we understand whether an SMS was sent accurately, but do not record or transmit the content of the SMS. We know which applications are draining your battery, but do not capture the screen."


In a press statement issued on November 16th, Carrier IQ stated:


"While we look at many aspects of a device's performance, we are counting and summarizing performance, not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools. The metrics and tools we derive are not designed to deliver such information, nor do we have any intention of developing such tools. The information gathered by Carrier IQ is done so for the exclusive use of that customer, and Carrier IQ does not sell personal subscriber information to 3rd parties. The information derived from devices is encrypted and secured within our customer's network or in our audited and customer-approved facilities."http://www.carrieriq.com

• In June 2010, Carrier IQ, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, raised $12 million in Series D funding for its mobile service intelligence solution. Carrier IQ's analytics platform provides real-time data to the mobile network operator directly from the source handsets of the subscribers. The platform aggregates, analyzes and delivers that data via web applications. The latest funding round was led by Bridgescale Partners, with participation from existing investors Intel Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Accel Partners, Charles River Ventures, Presidio Ventures and Nauta Capital.

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Lowell C. McAdam Elected Chairman of Verizon

Verizon Communications' Board of Directors elected Lowell C. McAdam as its new chairman, effective Jan. 1, 2012, replacing Ivan Seidenberg.


In addition, Melanie L. Healey, group president for North America at Procter & Gamble Co., was elected as a new member of Verizon's board, effective immediately. Verizon's board now has 12 members.
http://www.verizon.net

• In July 2011, Verizon named Lowell C. McAdam as president and chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, replacing Ivan G. Seidenberg, who will remain chairman to continue to facilitate the transition.
  
  
  In his current role, McAdam, 57, is responsible for all business operations at Verizon, including the strategic direction of the company's products and technologies. He has served on the board of Verizon since March 2011 and on the board of Verizon Wireless since 2003, chairing the Verizon Wireless board since September 2010.
  
  
  As president and CEO of Verizon Wireless until September 2010, McAdam led the premier wireless provider with the nation's largest, most reliable wireless voice and 3G broadband data network. Prior to assuming this position in 2007, McAdam served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Verizon Wireless from the company's inception in 2000, helping to build the industry's leading wireless company.

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Ciena Secures 100G Contract with BT

Ciena announced a contract to supply coherent 100G solutions to BT, including its 6500 and 4200 platforms. BT will leverage Ciena's multi-layer, multi-domain management suite – OneControl – for seamless management. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The initial roll-out, which is scheduled to begin by end of calendar 2011, will include a single photonic layer covering BT's extensive network throughout the UK. The intelligent infrastructure will be based on Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors that support 10G and 40G/100G wavelengths working side by side. The 6500 platform will also offer integrated OTN switching with advanced control plane functionality.

Ciena noted that has been a strategic supplier to BT since 2003. Ciena serves as the foundation for much of BT's existing infrastructure, spanning high-capacity transport and advanced optical switching domains with more than 7,000 network elements deployed across Europe. http://www.ciena.com

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Nikkei: LTE-enabled iPhones & iPad Expected in 2012

Docomo expects LTE-enabled iPads to hit the market by mid-2012 followed by a next gen LTE iPhone in the fall, according to Nikkei Business News. The article cites a visit by Apple officials.http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/topics/20111130/224702/?rt=nocnt

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ADTRAN's Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway Gains MEF Certification

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has certified ADTRAN's NetVanta 850 Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway compliant to MEF9 and MEF14. The NetVanta 850 Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway is optimized for infrastructure backhaul and can be used for extending 100 Mbps Ethernet services for either cell site or DSLAM backhaul.
http://www.adtran.com

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Australia's NBN Co Publishes Wholesale Broadband Agreement

Australia's NBN Co released the final executable version of its Wholesale Broadband Agreement contract for service providers planning to leverage is new infrastructure. The term sheet sets out the commercial arrangements and obligations between NBN Co and its customers - locking in existing prices, confirming information about the products NBN Co is supplying and detailing service level agreements as well as providing a process for the further development of the contract.


"The Wholesale Broadband Agreement strikes a fair balance between our customers' need for certainty and the flexibility we need, including to accommodate any further regulatory requirements," said Jim Hassell, NBN Co Head of Product Development and Industry Engagement. "Moreover it provides the certainty telephone and internet service providers require to offer competitive broadband plans to the millions of homes and businesses that will connect to the NBN. Several broadband companies are already offering competitive packages in our trial sites based on NBN Co's wholesale pricing."http://www.nbnco.com.au

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Saudi Telecom Sees 500% Traffic Increase During Hajj

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) leveraged Nokia Siemens Networks' HSPA+ technology to handle the upsurge in mobile traffic during the holy Hajj pilgrimage this year.


Nokia Siemens Networks, which is STC's preferred mobile equipment and services supplier, said there was an average increase of 500%, and a peak increase of 760%, in STC's 3G traffic during the pilgrimage last month. Network performance remained high despite this huge increase in traffic and capacity load.


Nokia Siemens Networks is the sole GSM and 3G radio supplier for STC's network in Mecca, Medina, and other pilgrim areas, and has been providing Hajj service support for over a decade.
http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Australia's NBN Co Publishes Wholesale Broadband Agreement

Australia's NBN Co released the final executable version of its Wholesale Broadband Agreement contract for service providers planning to leverage is new infrastructure. The term sheet sets out the commercial arrangements and obligations between NBN Co and its customers - locking in existing prices, confirming information about the products NBN Co is supplying and detailing service level agreements as well as providing a process for the further development of the contract.


"The Wholesale Broadband Agreement strikes a fair balance between our customers' need for certainty and the flexibility we need, including to accommodate any further regulatory requirements," said Jim Hassell, NBN Co Head of Product Development and Industry Engagement. "Moreover it provides the certainty telephone and internet service providers require to offer competitive broadband plans to the millions of homes and businesses that will connect to the NBN. Several broadband companies are already offering competitive packages in our trial sites based on NBN Co's wholesale pricing."http://www.nbnco.com.au

Read More

Saudi Telecom Sees 500% Traffic Increase During Hajj

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) leveraged Nokia Siemens Networks' HSPA+ technology to handle the upsurge in mobile traffic during the holy Hajj pilgrimage this year.


Nokia Siemens Networks, which is STC's preferred mobile equipment and services supplier, said there was an average increase of 500%, and a peak increase of 760%, in STC's 3G traffic during the pilgrimage last month. Network performance remained high despite this huge increase in traffic and capacity load.


Nokia Siemens Networks is the sole GSM and 3G radio supplier for STC's network in Mecca, Medina, and other pilgrim areas, and has been providing Hajj service support for over a decade.
http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Read More

Nikkei: LTE-enabled iPhones & iPad Expected in 2012

Docomo expects LTE-enabled iPads to hit the market by mid-2012 followed by a next gen LTE iPhone in the fall, according to Nikkei Business News. The article cites a visit by Apple officials.http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/topics/20111130/224702/?rt=nocnt

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ADTRAN's Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway Gains MEF Certification

The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) has certified ADTRAN's NetVanta 850 Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway compliant to MEF9 and MEF14. The NetVanta 850 Carrier Ethernet Access Gateway is optimized for infrastructure backhaul and can be used for extending 100 Mbps Ethernet services for either cell site or DSLAM backhaul.
http://www.adtran.com

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TI Scales its Keystone Processors for Cloud RANs

Texas Instruments is scaling its KeyStone multicore processor architecture for cloud RANs, which promise immense pools of processing capacity for use by clusters or power-efficient base stations.


KeyStone is Texas Instruments' multicore infrastructure architecture for base stations. The new KeyStone enhancements for C-RAN include expanding Multicore Navigator's Queue Manager to provide over 16K queues and one million descriptors. In addition, TI's Hyperlink chip-to-chip interface is expanded to 100Gbps with dual-port operation and its integral wire-rate Ethernet switch is upgraded to 10Gbps per port.


The company said these enhancements allow a larger pool of TI's KeyStone-based System-on-Chips (SoC) to interconnect and function as a single SoC, a critical capability for C-RAN base stations requiring large scale processing from baseband IQ through Ethernet IP.


"By leveraging the scalability of the KeyStone architecture, we have provided enhancements that represent a quantum leap in multicore processing performance," said Tom Flanagan, director of technical strategy, wireless base station infrastructure, TI. "With KeyStone, we can now create device pools with unheard of levels of capacity -- nearly 800 cores pooled to appear as a single multicore device. That's the power of KeyStone, a true multicore platform and differentiator, when it comes to choosing a silicon partner for C-RAN applications." http://www.ti.com

• In June 2011, Texas Instruments has extended its base station silicon architecture with two new chips designed for small cell applications. With this introduction, TI's base station portfolio now scales from enterprise femto cells, to neighborhood pico cells, to high capacity metro cells -- all leveraging the same "Keystone" multicore architecture and common software libraries. These scalable SoCs encompass a mix of processing elements including radio accelerators, network and security coprocessors, combined fixed-and floating-point digital signal processors (DSPs) and an ARM RISC processor, providing the ideal foundation for layers 1, 2 and 3 and transport processing for high performance small cell base stations.

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ADTRAN Puts Agile Optical Capabilities on Blade for Total Access 5000

ADTRAN continues to expand and enhance the capabilities of its Total Access 5000 platform with a new mini-ROADM on a blade. These new ONE capabilities provide agile photonics and enhanced service delivery from a single platform for residential, business and mobile backhaul services delivery.


The new OTN Switchponder is a multi-service unit that integrates an OTN switch with DWDM transponder on a single card. It provides remotely configurable any-service to any-port operation. It delivers OTN mapping, switching, aggregation and transport capabilities, allowing operators to transport simultaneously SONET/SDH, Ethernet or other services such as Fibre Channel.


ADTRAN lists the following packet optical benefits:

• Expedited service delivery and transport network installation and upgrade through simplified remote provisioning and performance monitoring tools, rather than truck rolls;
  
  
• Reduced network complexity, space and power needs when compared to alternative ROADM architectures that typically require a multi-blade implementation and a separate service delivery platform. ADTRAN's mini-ROADM delivers system-on-a-blade including Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS), EDFA amplifiers, optical monitoring and auto power balancing;



• Increased access, aggregation and transport service capacity on demand up to 44 10G DWDM channels with total capacity of 440G, scalable to 88 channels (880G); and



• Improved network flexibility and simplified mixed-service delivery with integrated OTN networking which enables service providers to extend OTN aggregation and scalability to the network edge.

"It has been our strategy from the outset to provide the market with a merged multi-service access, aggregation and packet optical transport solution that enables higher network efficiency, lower costs and faster time-to-revenue," said Mano Nachum, packet optical networking product line manager, ADTRAN's Carrier Networks Division. http://www.adtran.com

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TE Connectivity Introduces Cabling for Indoor PONs

TE Connectivity (TE) introduced a new plug-and-play cabling solution for in-door Passive Optical Network (PON) architectures.


The pre-connectorized Optical LAN Solution (OLS) capitalizes takes a single strand of single mode fiber from the data center all the way to an individual desk or user area over distances of up to 12 miles. GPON's data-encryption capabilities enable a secure information transport system for fiber-to-the-desk (FTTD) solutions.


“Our pre-connectorized, reduced-bend-radius Rapid Fiber cable spool allows for precise on-site payouts of up to 500 feet and eliminates the need for additional components such as splice cases, patch panels, and mounting hardware. The benefit is a super-efficient, more reliable and lower cost GPON solution for our customers," said Craig Kegerise, product manager for the OLS. http://www.te.com/olsvideo

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Cablevision Suffers DDoS Attack

Cablevision Systems, which serves the NY metro area, experienced a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on its Optimum Online network beginning at approximately 6pm on Tuesday night. The company said it resolved the issue shortly after midnight, when all service returned to normal. Cablevision continues to investigate the attack. http://www.cablevision.com

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HP and Alcatel-Lucent Develop Data Center Network Connect

HP and Alcatel-Lucent are developing a Data Center Network Connect (DCNC) architecture that brings together data center technology with high-performance communications networks.


The new DCNC, which builds on an alliance between HP and Alcatel-Lucent, aims to equip enterprises and service providers with the specific tools they need to deliver converged systems of IT and telecom infrastructures for greater flexibility. It combines HP's data center portfolio with Alcatel-Lucent's optical transport solutions for service providers and its high-performance service routing and switching portfolio, which are key elements of the Alcatel-Lucent High Leverage Network (HLN) architecture.

HP has already used Alcatel-Lucent's 1830 PSS (Photonic Service Switch) to create high-capacity optical links to interconnect HP's commercial data centers. The first two projects in Germany and Switzerland were successful, and future deployments in other HP commercial data centers are planned.

In addition, DCNC will leverage the strength of Alcatel-Lucent's recently announced CloudBand solution which accesses the power of the distributed network infrastructure to offer large enterprises and governments access to the cloud with the quality of service their activities require.


"Alcatel-Lucent and HP's solution is based on technology engineered to satisfy telecommunications service providers that expect their networks to perform with exceptional reliability and meet their needs far into the future," said Philippe Keryer, president, Networks Group, Alcatel-Lucent. "Large enterprises can confidently invest in these solutions knowing that they will receive the full benefit of their investment for years to come." http://www.hp.com http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• In November 2011, Alcatel-Lucent unveiled its "CloudBand" architecture for delivering "virtual telco" functionality and enterprise services from cloud-enabled data centers rather than dedicated telecom platforms. CloudBand, which will be the foundation for a new class of ‘carrier cloud’ services such as IMS or video applications, leverages generic compute resources deployed in regional data centers throughout a carrier's footprint. The goal is to make the carrier infrastructure more agile, elastic, resilient and application-aware.
  
  
  CloudBand is comprised of two distinct elements: the CloudBand Management System – which delivers orchestration and optimization of services between the communications network and the cloud; and the CloudBand Node, which provides the computing, storage and networking hardware and associated software to host a wide range of cloud services. CloudBand provides the interaction between the network and the cloud computing resources, which could also be located in a public cloud in addition to a carrier's regional data center. Advanced algorithms developed by Bell Labs orchestrate the network, computing and data storage elements distributed throughout the network. Market trials are expected to begin in January.
  
  
  Alcatel-Lucent describes the eventual migration of telco functionality into the cloud as a journey. Only a few telco applications will be cloud-ready initially, but the company is working to cloud-enable many others. Work is underway on IMS applications. The company has also discussed cloud-enablement of RAN functionality as part of its LightRadio architecture.

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AT&T and China Telecom Build Alliance

AT&T and China Telecom announced a strategic agreement to deliver advanced global solutions to multinational companies (MNCs) by interconnecting their respective MPLS networks, expanding IP-VPN reach and capabilities, and simplifying joint contracting and billing.


Key points include:

• The deal will expand AT&T's existing IP-VPN service in China to allow broader national reach, greater technology choice, enhanced performance and reduced total cost of ownership, as MNCs continue to expand their business in China. The companies also intend to explore jointly deploying an expanded suite of VPN-based services, as well as advanced services like telepresence, managed hosting, cloud-based services, network integration services, and enterprise mobility solutions.



• The deal will connect the China Telecom and AT&T MPLS-based IP networks in the United States, to provide the same world class global experiences for Chinese multinationals as they grow outside China;



• The companies will explore the possibility of providing mutual support in other regions of the world;



• The deal covers bilateral Wi-Fi roaming as an additional access capability.



• The companies will simplify intercompany business processes and put in place tools to help both companies operate more efficiently.

"Our customers have told us that enhanced communication services between China and the rest of the world is a key factor for improving their competiveness and global expansion," said Roman Pacewicz, AT&T Business Solutions senior vice president of marketing and global strategy. "Developing this strategic framework agreement will allow customers with operations in China to take advantage of the same type of business transformational services they have in other parts of the globe." http://www.att.com

• AT&T and China Telecom have been long time joint venture partners in Shanghai Symphony Telecommunications Co., Ltd.



• In November, América Móvil and AT&T announced a strategic accord to explore ways of delivering enhanced communication services to multinational companies throughout Latin America. The memorandum of understanding calls for the two companies to develop means of expanding and enhancing the coverage of their respective IP networks, to deliver the most sophisticated services and solutions to multinational companies in and from emerging markets. AT&T would be able to deepen its existing reach in Latin America using America Movil networks in 15 countries throughout the region. America Movil would benefit from being able to use AT&T's global network infrastructure to provide global IP-based services to its customers in the United States and the rest of the world.

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AAPT Upgrades Backbone with Ciena

AAPT, one of Australia's three largest telecommunications carriers, selected Ciena to upgrade its nationwide network with next-generation Carrier Ethernet service delivery capabilities. AAPT's new infrastructure will be scalable to terabit-level capacities, providing reliable Ethernet private line and wide area LAN services to retail service providers. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.ciena.com

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Verizon FiOS Offers Live Streaming of University of Texas Sports

Verizon will begin streaming a livesimulcast of the Longhorn Network – the 24/7 channel devoted to athletic programming and related activities at the University of Texas – and is making it available to Verizon FiOS TV customers across the country.


Verizon said it continues to build out its FiOS TV Online video content. FiOS also offers a broad collection of programming on TV, with more than 540 all-digital channels including more than 130 HD channels and 30,000 monthly video-on-demand titles. http://www.verizon.com

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Belgium Completes 4G Auctions

The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunication (BIPT) concluded its auction of 4G spectrum.


Four bidders have acquired a 4G licence in the 2.6 GHz band: Belgacom SA, BUCD BVBA, KPN group Belgium SA and Mobistar SA. Only one bidder (Craig Wireless Belgium) was unsuccessful in securing any spectrum.


The auction offered 6 frequency blocks in the 2,500-2,570 MHz and 2,620-2,690 MHz frequency bands
(FDD spectrum), as well as the 2,575-2,620 MHz frequency block (TDD spectrum). In total, 155 MHz were successfully auctioned for a total profit of EUR 77,790,000.


http://www.ibpt.be

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AT&T Notes Record Retail Activity Post Thanksgiving

Noting increased demand for smartphones and tablets, AT&T reported a record increase in year-over-year customer traffic to att.com and double digit increase in retail store traffic. Wireless shopping traffic at www.att.com was up 32 percent from Black Friday through the post-Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday, compared to the same time last year. New online wireless orders were up 15 percent compared with post-Thanksgiving weekend 2010.
http://www.att.com

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PCI Express 4.0 Promises 16GT/s, Twice the Throughput of PCIe 3.0

The next generation of the widely adopted PCI Express (PCIe) industry-standard input/output (I/O) technology, PCIe 4.0, will offer a bit rate of 16 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) -- twice the throughput of today's PCIe 3.0.


as the bit rate for the next generation of PCIe architecture, PCIe 4.0. This decision comes after the PCI-SIG completed a feasibility study on scaling the PCIe interconnect bandwidth to meet the demands of a variety of computing markets.


PCI-SIG, the organization responsible for developing the standard, said its analysis of I/O requirements determined that 16 GT/s on copper is technically feasible at approximately PCIe 3.0 power levels. The data also confirms that a 16GT/s interconnect can be manufactured in mainstream silicon process technology and can be deployed with existing low-cost materials and infrastructure, while maintaining compatibility with previous generations of PCIe architecture. In addition, the PCI-SIG will investigate advancements in active and idle power optimizations, key issues facing the industry.


"The PCI Express architecture has become the de facto I/O technology within the industry, in large part due to PCI-SIG's dedication to I/O innovation and the insight of those who defined earlier versions in such an extensible manner," said Nathan Brookwood, research fellow at Insight 64. "Like its predecessors, the PCIe 4.0 architecture is well positioned to preserve the industry's investments in earlier generations of PCI Express specifications while extending the technology in a manner that enables new applications and usage models."http://www.pcisig.com

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FCC Releases Staff Report Critical of AT&T + T-Mobile USA Deal

The FCC allowed AT&T to withdraw without prejudice its application filed in conjunction with plans to acquire T-Mobile USA. Several parties, including Dish, had petition FCC to vote on the existing application.


The FCC also released staff analysis and findings concerning the proposed merger. The key conclusion by FCC staff is that AT&T and T-Mobile USA failed to prove that potential consumer benefits for the merger outweighed the harm to competition, and thus the merger would not be in the public interest. Confidential data from the carriers has been deleted from the public release of this report.
http://www.fcc.gov

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Verizon FiOS Offers Live Streaming of University of Texas Sports

Verizon will begin streaming a livesimulcast of the Longhorn Network – the 24/7 channel devoted to athletic programming and related activities at the University of Texas – and is making it available to Verizon FiOS TV customers across the country.


Verizon said it continues to build out its FiOS TV Online video content. FiOS also offers a broad collection of programming on TV, with more than 540 all-digital channels including more than 130 HD channels and 30,000 monthly video-on-demand titles. http://www.verizon.com

Read More

Belgium Completes 4G Auctions

The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunication (BIPT) concluded its auction of 4G spectrum.


Four bidders have acquired a 4G licence in the 2.6 GHz band: Belgacom SA, BUCD BVBA, KPN group Belgium SA and Mobistar SA. Only one bidder (Craig Wireless Belgium) was unsuccessful in securing any spectrum.


The auction offered 6 frequency blocks in the 2,500-2,570 MHz and 2,620-2,690 MHz frequency bands
(FDD spectrum), as well as the 2,575-2,620 MHz frequency block (TDD spectrum). In total, 155 MHz were successfully auctioned for a total profit of EUR 77,790,000.


http://www.ibpt.be

Read More

AT&T Notes Record Retail Activity Post Thanksgiving

Noting increased demand for smartphones and tablets, AT&T reported a record increase in year-over-year customer traffic to att.com and double digit increase in retail store traffic. Wireless shopping traffic at www.att.com was up 32 percent from Black Friday through the post-Thanksgiving weekend and Cyber Monday, compared to the same time last year. New online wireless orders were up 15 percent compared with post-Thanksgiving weekend 2010.
http://www.att.com

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PCI Express 4.0 Promises 16GT/s, Twice the Throughput of PCIe 3.0

The next generation of the widely adopted PCI Express (PCIe) industry-standard input/output (I/O) technology, PCIe 4.0, will offer a bit rate of 16 gigatransfers per second (GT/s) -- twice the throughput of today's PCIe 3.0.


as the bit rate for the next generation of PCIe architecture, PCIe 4.0. This decision comes after the PCI-SIG completed a feasibility study on scaling the PCIe interconnect bandwidth to meet the demands of a variety of computing markets.


PCI-SIG, the organization responsible for developing the standard, said its analysis of I/O requirements determined that 16 GT/s on copper is technically feasible at approximately PCIe 3.0 power levels. The data also confirms that a 16GT/s interconnect can be manufactured in mainstream silicon process technology and can be deployed with existing low-cost materials and infrastructure, while maintaining compatibility with previous generations of PCIe architecture. In addition, the PCI-SIG will investigate advancements in active and idle power optimizations, key issues facing the industry.


"The PCI Express architecture has become the de facto I/O technology within the industry, in large part due to PCI-SIG's dedication to I/O innovation and the insight of those who defined earlier versions in such an extensible manner," said Nathan Brookwood, research fellow at Insight 64. "Like its predecessors, the PCIe 4.0 architecture is well positioned to preserve the industry's investments in earlier generations of PCI Express specifications while extending the technology in a manner that enables new applications and usage models."http://www.pcisig.com

Read More

FCC Releases Staff Report Critical of AT&T + T-Mobile USA Deal

The FCC allowed AT&T to withdraw without prejudice its application filed in conjunction with plans to acquire T-Mobile USA. Several parties, including Dish, had petition FCC to vote on the existing application.


The FCC also released staff analysis and findings concerning the proposed merger. The key conclusion by FCC staff is that AT&T and T-Mobile USA failed to prove that potential consumer benefits for the merger outweighed the harm to competition, and thus the merger would not be in the public interest. Confidential data from the carriers has been deleted from the public release of this report.
http://www.fcc.gov

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NSN Sells Off WiMAX Business to NewNet

Nokia Siemens Networks is selling its WiMAX business to NewNet Communication Technologies, LLC, a Skyview Capital, LLC portfolio company, for an undisclosed sum. This business unit was originally part of the Motorola Solutions' assets that Nokia Siemens Networks acquired earlier this year. The deal includes he complete WiMAX product portfolio, the related employees and assets, as well as active customer and supplier contracts. Approximately 300 Nokia Siemens Networks employees would transfer to NewNet. Many of these employees are based in suburban Chicago, USA and Hangzhou, China. The companies expect to close before December 31, 2011.


NewNet is a supplier of signaling and messaging solutions for wireless, IP, and wireline networks.


"We believe that our current WiMAX customers would receive the highest quality products, services and sales support from NewNet,�? said Marc Rouanne, head of Network Systems, Nokia Siemens Networks. “This transaction would also provide an excellent opportunity for our WiMAX employees. We have great confidence in NewNet's plans to become a major WiMAX infrastructure provider." http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

• NewNet, which is based in Shelton, CT, is headed by Ronald E. Pyles, who previously was President of Continuous Computing Corporation, a developer of hardware and software building blocks used by leading telecommunications equipment manufacturers.



• Earlier this month, Nokia Siemens Networks reached an agreement to sell its microwave transport business, including its associated operational support systems (OSS) and related support functions, to DragonWave in a transaction potentially worth up to EUR 110 million. The deal provides DragonWave with an existing microwave transport business serving many top carriers worldwide, a more extensive product portfolio, an on-going agreement under which its will become the preferred, strategic supplier to Nokia Siemens Networks of packet microwave and related products, and joint R&D work with NSN. The division has sales several times larger than DragonWave, its client base is much larger, and it has more employees (360), mainly based in Milan, Italy and Shanghai, China.

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Verizon to Stream FiOS TV Channels to Xbox 360 Console

Verizon is ready to deliver 26 live, FiOS TV channels over Microsoft's Xbox 360 Entertainment System. The offer is available to customers who are Xbox LIVE Gold members and who subscribe to both FiOS TV and Internet service. To access the channels, customers will have to download the Verizon FiOS TV app on their console.


New customers who sign up online for FiOS TV service can take advantage of a special offer that includes triple-play service with FiOS TV, FiOS 35/35 Mbps Internet service and Verizon voice service, starting at $89.99 a month. In addition, the offer includes a 12-month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership and the "Xbox Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary" game. The discounted offer is available through Jan. 21.


Notably, these customers will be able to integrate their TV experience with voice and gesture commands through Kinect for Xbox 360.

http://www.verizon.com http://www.microsoft.com

• In October, Microsoft unveiled its Xbox 360 online entertainment service boasting content and support from nearly 40 leading TV partners, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K., Telefónica in Spain; Rogers On Demand in Canada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and MediaSet in Italy. Content providers already on the Xbox include AT&T, Netflix and Hulu Plus in the U.S., TELUS in Canada, BSkyB in the U.K., Canal+ in France, Vodafone Portugal, VimpelCom in Russia, and FOXTEL in Australia.
  
  
  Xbox 360 aims for seamless, living room entertainment integrating gaming, music, live TV and video-on-demand using a common interface and controlled by remotes, voice or Microsoft's exclusive Kinect technology.
  
  
  Xbox LIVE currently has 35 million members worldwide who spend 2.1 billion hours a month on the service. Microsoft said the service has seen three times the growth in video consumption last year.

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Cavium Sets Performance Benchmark with OCTEON

Cavium announced a performance benchmark for its flagship 32 Core OCTEON II MIPS64 CN6880 processor -- a score of over 150,000 on the industry standard Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC) benchmark in a single chip.


The CoreMark benchmark isolates the CPU's core performance from memory and I/O effects and is able to measure meaningful information about a processor's core performance and includes tests of basic pipeline structure, read/write operations, integer operations, control operations including multiply-accumulate (MAC) and single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) instructions, list processing, string search, matrix array multiplication and state-machine processing. Tests are based on information not available at compile time and provides for a more realistic real-world performance metric for embedded processors than some older benchmarks.


Cavium said its record CoreMark Score of 153,477 is unmatched by any other general purpose communication processor chip with an integrated high performance I/O subsystem capable of delivering over 40 Gbps feature-rich, networking application throughput. http://www.cavium.com

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Mu Dynamics Teams with Atlassia for App Performance

Mu Dynamics' "Blitz" cloud-based application testing service has been integrated with the Atlassian development tool, Bamboo, a Continuous Integration (CI) server. Bamboo app developers to quickly identify the performance of their applications in real-time during the entire development and deployment process.

The companies said that by being incorporated into the Atlassian Bamboo CI server, Blitz now enables Bamboo developers to load and performance test their applications as a part of the continuous development and deployment process. Tests can be run the moment changes are checked in, ensuring those changes don't degrade performance. By tracking Application Performance Index (Apdex) scores as part of the build process, developers can also quickly detect and remediate application performance issues in the staging process – an industry first. http://blitz.iohttp://www.mudynamics.com

• In September, Mu Dynamic announced the integration of 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 without leaving the workflow of their environment.

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Cisco Forecasts Cloud Computing Traffic to Grow 12-Fold by 2015

Global cloud computing traffic will grow 12-fold from 130 exabytes to reach a total of 1.6 zettabytes annually by 2015, according to a new Global Cloud Index published by Cisco. This represents a 66 percent compound annual growth rate, and makes cloud the fastest growing component of data center traffic, which itself is forecast to grow 4-fold at a 33 percent CAGR to reach 4.8 zettabytes annually by 2015. Cisco calculates that cloud traffic today represents about 11% of data center traffic.


Cisco generated its Global Cloud Index using various primary and secondary sources, including more than 30 terabytes of data generated each month over the past year from a variety of data centers around the globe, measurements of more than 45 million broadband-speed tests and third-party market forecasts. The company notes that the vast majority of the data center traffic is not caused by end users but by the data centers and clouds themselves undertaking activities that are largely non-transparent to end users – like backup and replication.


Some items of note:

• Of the data center traffic in 2015, 76 percent stays within the data center itself, through such activities as storage and authentication across virtual machines.



• 17 percent is data-center traffic being delivered to end users.



• 7 percent is generated between data centers through activities such as backup and replication.



• Peak end-user activity more than 2.5 times average in 2015.



• In 2010, 21 percent of workloads were processed in a cloud-based data center with 79 percent being handled in a traditional data center.
  2014 is the first year where the balance of workloads shifts toward the cloud for the first time – 51 percent of total workloads will be in a cloud environment versus 49 percent in the traditional IT space.



• Overall, the data center workload from 2010 – 2015 is growing 2.7-fold; however, the cloud workload from 2010 – 2015 is growing more than 7-fold over the forecast period.

More is onlinehttp://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1175/networking_solutions_sub_solution.html

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Mindspeed Milestone: Five Millionth Multi-Core Packet Processor for CPE

Mindspeed Technologies announced company milestone: five million Comcerto multi-core system-on-chip (SoC) embedded packet processors for customer premises equipment (CPE) have been shipped to date. The processors are used in residential gateways and broadband home routers (BHRs).


Mindspeed recently extended its Comcerto 1000 family to enable a new category of CPE service offload platform (SOP) hardware that can be used with existing BHRs in the connected home. "SOP Boxes" will make it easier and more cost-effective for service providers to partner with best-of-breed home automation, utility monitoring, security, healthcare and networked appliance vendors to deliver cloud-based applications that can be provisioned and securely managed using their current hardware and software infrastructure. http://www.mindspeed.com

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Microsoft Updates Cloud Services in Office 365 and SkyDrive

Microsoft released the first major service update for Office 365, its cloud productivity service for businesses. The company said it is making inroads with multinational firms, who are choosing Office 365 to enable their employees and customers to work together in the cloud.


The release includes more than 30 updates to Office 365 to enhance collaboration and communication, and for SkyDrive, adding simple app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management and easier uploads with HTML5 based largely on customer feedback. Key new features and enhancements include the following:

• Support for Lync for Mac. Mac users can now use instant messaging, presence and videoconferencing through Office 365.



• New SharePoint Business Connectivity Services, which allow people to connect to information in their company's critical line-of-business applications, such as customer relationship management or SAP software.



• Support for Windows Phone 7.5. Starting today, people can access and update documents in SharePoint Online from anywhere using their Windows Phone.



• SkyDrive gets simpler app-centric sharing for Office, powerful file management and easier uploads with HTML5.

“We are seeing really positive momentum for Office 365. Customers are adopting Office 365 eight times faster than our previous service, and the solution is on track to become one of our fastest-growing offers in Microsoft history,�? said Kurt DelBene, president of the Office Division at Microsoft. "We are also seeing great traction with small businesses, with more than 90 percent of our early Office 365 customers coming from small businesses." http://www.microsoft.com

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Skorpios Attracts $2 Million from Deutsche Telekom

Skorpios Technologies, a start-up based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, announced a follow-on investment to its Series B round of $19 million. The additional $2 million provided by T-Venture, Deutsche Telekom's venture capital company, brings total investment in the round to $21 million.


Skorpios Technologies has developed an advanced Composite Semiconductor on Insulator Technology promising lower cost, reduced size, and decreased power dissipation compared to traditional technology approaches. The technology allows the generation, detection and modulation of light to be monolithically integrated with high-speed electronic circuits in a standard CMOS-compatible process known as Composite-Semiconductor on Insulator (C-SOI).


"The integration of today's separated building blocks into a single chip provides various important effects for our network, such as capex and opex savings at the aggregation layer and core, but also the economic enabling of new technologies that are essential to our strategy," said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Director of Technology, Telekom Deutschland GmbH. "We are happy to support Skorpios in the realization of this disruptive approach with the investment from T-Venture." http://www.skorpiosinc.com

• Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and other leaders in the communications ecosystem participated in the Skorpios Series B funding round. Also participating were founding investors Cottonwood Technology Fund and Sun Mountain Capital.

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Twitter Acquires Whisper Systems -- Security for Android

Twitter has acquired Whisper Systems, a start-up specializing in security for Android. Financial terms were not disclosed. Whisper is based in the San Francisco area.


Whisper integrates with the underlying Android OS to protect everything on the phone. The company's initial beta promises full disk encryption, network security tools, encrypted backup, selective permissions, etc.
http://www.whispersys.com
http://www.twitter.com

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ST-Ericsson Appoints New CEO

ST-Ericsson has appointed Didier Lamouche as its new president and CEO, replacing Gilles Delfassy, who is credited with moving the company's portfolio from a focus on feature phones to smartphones and tablets.


Lamouche, chief operating officer of STMicroelectronics, has served on the board of ST-Ericsson since April 2011 and brings more than twenty-five years of IT and semiconductor industry experience to the role.


“I am very pleased with this appointment,�? said Hans Vestberg, Chairman of ST-Ericsson, on behalf of the whole board of directors. “Didier Lamouche's background and extensive industry experience will bring important additions to ST-Ericsson during this crucial phase in the company's evolution. On behalf of ST-Ericsson's board, I thank Gilles for his strong contribution to ST-Ericsson.�?http://www.stericsson.com

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LightSquared Signs EATEL -- First ILEC Customer

EATEL, a privately-owned communications company based in Gonzales, Louisiana, has signed a wholesale agreement with that will allow EATEL to offer its subscribers high-speed wireless data and voice services using LightSquared's nationwide 4G-LTE network.


EATEL is the first Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) to sign on to LightSquared's network. The deal will enable EATEL's customer base in local communities of Louisiana to benefit from LightSquared's wireless broadband service.


"EATEL is exactly the type of company that LightSquared is building its wholesale network to serve," said Sanjiv Ahuja, chairman and chief executive officer of LightSquared. "We believe EATEL and the many other ILECs around the country provide critical and valuable communications services to their communities, and their customers deserve the benefits including ubiquitous connectivity and lower prices enabled by partnering with LightSquared."http://www.lightsquared.com

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Twitter Acquires Whisper Systems -- Security for Android

Twitter has acquired Whisper Systems, a start-up specializing in security for Android. Financial terms were not disclosed. Whisper is based in the San Francisco area.


Whisper integrates with the underlying Android OS to protect everything on the phone. The company's initial beta promises full disk encryption, network security tools, encrypted backup, selective permissions, etc.
http://www.whispersys.com
http://www.twitter.com

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ST-Ericsson Appoints New CEO

ST-Ericsson has appointed Didier Lamouche as its new president and CEO, replacing Gilles Delfassy, who is credited with moving the company's portfolio from a focus on feature phones to smartphones and tablets.


Lamouche, chief operating officer of STMicroelectronics, has served on the board of ST-Ericsson since April 2011 and brings more than twenty-five years of IT and semiconductor industry experience to the role.


“I am very pleased with this appointment,�? said Hans Vestberg, Chairman of ST-Ericsson, on behalf of the whole board of directors. “Didier Lamouche's background and extensive industry experience will bring important additions to ST-Ericsson during this crucial phase in the company's evolution. On behalf of ST-Ericsson's board, I thank Gilles for his strong contribution to ST-Ericsson.�?http://www.stericsson.com

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LightSquared Signs EATEL -- First ILEC Customer

EATEL, a privately-owned communications company based in Gonzales, Louisiana, has signed a wholesale agreement with that will allow EATEL to offer its subscribers high-speed wireless data and voice services using LightSquared's nationwide 4G-LTE network.


EATEL is the first Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) to sign on to LightSquared's network. The deal will enable EATEL's customer base in local communities of Louisiana to benefit from LightSquared's wireless broadband service.


"EATEL is exactly the type of company that LightSquared is building its wholesale network to serve," said Sanjiv Ahuja, chairman and chief executive officer of LightSquared. "We believe EATEL and the many other ILECs around the country provide critical and valuable communications services to their communities, and their customers deserve the benefits including ubiquitous connectivity and lower prices enabled by partnering with LightSquared."http://www.lightsquared.com

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Ruckus Wireless Offers Predictive Capacity Mgt to Improve RF Channel Selection

Ruckus Wireless is introducing a statistical adaptive channel selection technique to automatically determine the best radio operating frequency (RF channel) in noise Wi-Fi environments. The new "ChannelFly" feature leverages the same Ruckus-patented adaptive antenna approach, BeamFlex, that constantly learns and selects the best signal path for any given Wi-Fi transmission. ChannelFly applies similar principles to yield the highest client throughput.


ChannelFly is based on a predictive model that uses actual channel activity to learn what channels will yield the most capacity to provide the highest client speeds. The technology is delivered as a software upgrade for existing Ruckus ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi APs.


"Historical approaches to Wi-Fi channel selection use spectrum analysis or packet sniffing techniques to basically guess the impact of interference on Wi-Fi capacity,�? said Bill Kish, co-founder and chief technology officer at Ruckus Wireless. “But with Wi-Fi, what an AP hears doesn't necessarily determine capacity. We skip those needless and disruptive steps and just measure the wireless capacity directly." http://www.ruckuswireless.com

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Amdocs Delivers Pre-Configured "Data Experience Solution" for 3G/LTE

Amdocs introduced a pre-integrated policy and charging solution to help operators rapidly deploy new data services. The Amdocs Data Experience Solution is a unified hardware and software system that pre-integrates a policy control and charging engine with product catalog and subscriber management functions.


Leveraging network and policy control assets of Bridgewater Systems, which Amdocs acquired earlier this year, the Amdocs Data Experience Solution features single, synchronized service definition and creation through the Amdocs Enterprise Product Catalog. This provides rapid configuration and extension of pre-configured market offers. It uses standards-based interfaces and features multi-vendor interoperability for ease of deployment into 3G and LTE network environments. Productized APIs (application programming interfaces) enable a single point of integration into provisioning, notification, billing and self-care environments.


Amdocs notes that the underlying product technology of this solution has been production-proven in leading service provider networks serving more than 100 million mobile subscribers.


Pre-configured market offers in the Amdocs Data Experience Solution include:

Tiered Services: Innovative data plans based on a combination of time, volume and application that provide new monetization capabilities (for example, targeted social networking or business data plans).


Shared Wallet: A common data quota that can be shared across a family or enterprise with unused quota diverted across plan members and devices in real time.


Up-sell Capabilities: Temporary add-on services that can be automatically offered and provisioned, such as data roaming or bandwidth boost, to increase ARPU.


Bill Shock Prevention: A personal usage limit with advance notifications that can be easily set by customers for increased transparency and data experience satisfaction.


Data Pass: Temporary data access that can be offered and provisioned quickly, such as a 24-hour roaming data pass.


Pay - Per-Use: Convenient access to data services that are paid for as they are consumed (as opposed to a monthly plan).


In addition, Amdocs provides network control and subscriber management capabilities pre-integrated and configured, including:


LTE Data: Support for next generation 4G services that feature guaranteed quality of service for a superior data experience.


WiFi Offload: Transparent offloading from 3G to WiFi which allows service providers to better manage network congestion. http://www.amdocs.com

• In August 2011, Amdocs completed its previously announced acquisition of Bridgewater Systems for CAD$8.20 per share in cash, for about CAD$211 million, or CAD$139 million net of Bridgewater's cash, in aggregate.
  
  
  Bridgewater Systems developed pre-integrated solutions for mobile and converged operators. Its portfolio includes Service Controller (AAA), Policy Controller (PCRF) and Home Subscriber Server (HSS), anchored by a common identity and device management system. Amdocs offers business and operational support systems, service delivery platforms, and professional services for network operators. The company generated approximately $3.0 billion in revenue in fiscal 2010, Amdocs has over 19,000 employees and serves customers in more than 60 countries worldwide.

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Ericsson to Provide Managed Services for Majority of Bharti Airtel

BhartiAirte has awarded an expanded contract to Ericsson to provide multi-vendor, multi-technology managed services for a majority of BhartiAirtel's network across India . Under this new agreement, Ericsson will operate, maintain and provide services across 70 percent of BhartiAirtel's network in India. The contract covers 15 telecom circles for 5 years.


With India emerging as the third largest internet market and a multi-fold growth in data traffic on the back of a rising number of smartphones, wireless networks need to be ready for the data revolution that has only just begun. This unique multi-technology Managed Services partnership with Ericsson will help us focus on creating a compelling service proposition for our customers, as we look to ramp up our market access for next generation services on 3G and 4G," stated Sanjay Kapoor, CEO-India and South Asia, BhartiAirtel.


The 15 telecom Circles under the scope of the partnership include, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, UP(W), UP(E), Rajasthan, North Eastern states, Assam, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai and Kerala. http://www.ericsson.com

• As of Septermber 2011, Bharti Airtel counted 178 million mobile subscribers in India and Bangladesh. The company serves an additional 48 million mobile users in Africa.

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TELUS to Offer Juniper's Junos Pulse Mobile Security

TELUS has selected Juniper Networks' Junos Pulse Mobile Security Suite for serving enterprises and small businesses.


The Junos Pulse Mobile Security Suite helps businesses address the "Bring Your Own Device" phenomenon while maintaining data and network security. It supports Apple iPhones and iPads, Google Android, RIM Blackberry and broad range of other mobile devices. Enterprise IT departments will benefit from key capabilities including remote configuration, provisioning and enforcement of access and security policies, on-device security enforcement, application inventory and management, advanced heuristic-based antimalware, device and data loss and theft protection (via remote device locate, track, wipe and lock).


"With threats to mobile devices and enterprises at an all-time high -- and hackers turning their attention from the desktop or laptop to the smartphone and tablet -- our customers are looking for an easy to deploy, mobile security offering, and Juniper's mobile security suite fits that bill perfectly. In addition to mobile security, loss and theft protection, and back-up features, our customers are demanding technology services that support, manage and secure a wide range of mobile devices to access their corporate networks," said Yogen Appalraju, vice-president, TELUS Security Solutions. http://www.juniper.net

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AT&T Partners with Accenture on Medical Imaging Solution

AT&T is working with on a new medical imaging solution for U.S. hospitals that will make it easier for radiologists to electronically share, review and store medical images, such as X-rays and CT or MRI scans.


The Accenture Medical Imaging Solution, enabled by AT&T, enables hospitals to centrally manage medical images and collaborate efficiently with other institutions, physicians and radiologists.


Roughly 73 percent of healthcare organizations plan to shift imaging data storage to the cloud, in some capacity, while 32 percent actively use some form of cloud solutions today, according to an Accenture study.


"Accenture's systems integration experience coupled with AT&T's cloud-based technologies means hospitals can have virtually real-time access to medical images while reducing healthcare costs," said Randall Porter, assistant vice president, AT&T ForHealth.
http://www.att.com http://www.accenture.com

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MIT Develops Optical Diode

Researchers at MIT reported progress in developing an optical diode with potential applications in optical circuits on silicon chips. The innovation leverages a form of a material called garnet, which has a different index of refraction. A thin film of the material is deposited on a chip so that light passes only freely only in one direction and is diverted back into a loop if is coming from the other direction. The discovery is seen as a big step for optical circuits. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/optical-computing-diode-1123.html

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Canada's Allstream Deploys 100G with Ciena

Canadian-based Allstream has deployed Ciena's 100G coherent optical technology in its national network. The upgrade uses Ciena's 6500 Packet-Optical Platform equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors. Allstream is an existing customer. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.ciena.com http://www.allstream.com/

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SingTel Joins GSMA's Mobile Energy Efficiency Initiative

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is joining the GSMA's Mobile Energy Efficiency (MEE) Benchmarking initiative. The result from the benchmarking will help to identify areas to raise power consumption efficiency. These include reviewing the design of radio access network architecture through techniques like free air cooling and insulation paint for base station shelter to improve the energy efficiency and accelerate adoption of renewable green energy solutions in these areas.


SingTel said participation in this initiative will extend to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Optus, and regional mobile associates, including Airtel (India and Africa), Advanced Info Service (Thailand), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd (Bangladesh), Telkomsel (Indonesia) and Warid (Pakistan).
http://www.singtel.com

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BT Wins EUR 50 Million Contract for Global Data Network

BT announced a contract with Spain's FCC, an engineering and construction firm, for the delivery of a global data network and fixed communications services for a period of five years. The network will extend to more than 50 countries on four continents. The contract includes wide and local area networking services, fixed voice services, video conferencing and remote access for more than 12,000 users located in approximately 850 sites.


FCC's core activities are the management of environmental services and water, construction of large infrastructures, cement production, urban facilities and renewable energy generationhttp://www.btplc.com
http://www.fcc.es

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Anite Enhances LTE Multi-RAT Testing

Anite has added support for LTE Multi-RAT (Multiple Radio Access Technology) testing to its Development Toolset (DT) solution. This offers the possibility to perform complex LTE Multi-RAT Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) scenarios, which provides voice support on LTE networks in the early stages of LTE deployment as well as Packet Switched Handover (PSHO), which offers the ability to perform sustained data transfer across LTE and legacy networks.


Anite said LTE Multi-RAT testing, prior to hardware and RF integration, ensures that vendors eliminate risk in their development programmes, as LTE device features are verified to work correctly at the very start of the development cycle. Device and chipset manufacturers can use the platform to validate their LTE Multi-RAT implementation in a proven test environment at a very early stage on host as well as on a more traditional target test platform. http://www.anite.com

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Everything Everywhere Raises £875 million -- Financing Still Flows

Everything Everywhere, the joint venture that operates the networks for T-Mobile (UK) and Orange (UK), announced new bank financing facilities of £875 million, comprising a term loan and a multicurrency revolving credit facility with maturities of between 3 and 5 years.
img border="0" src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11402824/CND//everythingeverywhere.gif" align="right">

The facilities will be used to refinance part of the £1.25 billion shareholder loan provided equally on Everything Everywhere's formation by its parent companies, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. The refinancing does not change the ownership of Everything Everywhere, with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom each continuing to own 50% of the business. The new facility is provided by a group of banks comprising The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays Capital, HSBC Bank, J.P. Morgan, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bankhttp://everythingeverywhere.com/

• In July 2011, Everything Everywhere appointed Olaf Swantee as CEO effective as of 1-Sept-2011, replacing Tom Alexander. who resigned for personal reasons and to pursue other interests.

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SingTel Joins GSMA's Mobile Energy Efficiency Initiative

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) is joining the GSMA's Mobile Energy Efficiency (MEE) Benchmarking initiative. The result from the benchmarking will help to identify areas to raise power consumption efficiency. These include reviewing the design of radio access network architecture through techniques like free air cooling and insulation paint for base station shelter to improve the energy efficiency and accelerate adoption of renewable green energy solutions in these areas.


SingTel said participation in this initiative will extend to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Optus, and regional mobile associates, including Airtel (India and Africa), Advanced Info Service (Thailand), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Ltd (Bangladesh), Telkomsel (Indonesia) and Warid (Pakistan).
http://www.singtel.com

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BT Wins EUR 50 Million Contract for Global Data Network

BT announced a contract with Spain's FCC, an engineering and construction firm, for the delivery of a global data network and fixed communications services for a period of five years. The network will extend to more than 50 countries on four continents. The contract includes wide and local area networking services, fixed voice services, video conferencing and remote access for more than 12,000 users located in approximately 850 sites.


FCC's core activities are the management of environmental services and water, construction of large infrastructures, cement production, urban facilities and renewable energy generationhttp://www.btplc.com
http://www.fcc.es

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Anite Enhances LTE Multi-RAT Testing

Anite has added support for LTE Multi-RAT (Multiple Radio Access Technology) testing to its Development Toolset (DT) solution. This offers the possibility to perform complex LTE Multi-RAT Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB) scenarios, which provides voice support on LTE networks in the early stages of LTE deployment as well as Packet Switched Handover (PSHO), which offers the ability to perform sustained data transfer across LTE and legacy networks.


Anite said LTE Multi-RAT testing, prior to hardware and RF integration, ensures that vendors eliminate risk in their development programmes, as LTE device features are verified to work correctly at the very start of the development cycle. Device and chipset manufacturers can use the platform to validate their LTE Multi-RAT implementation in a proven test environment at a very early stage on host as well as on a more traditional target test platform. http://www.anite.com

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Everything Everywhere Raises £875 million -- Financing Still Flows

Everything Everywhere, the joint venture that operates the networks for T-Mobile (UK) and Orange (UK), announced new bank financing facilities of £875 million, comprising a term loan and a multicurrency revolving credit facility with maturities of between 3 and 5 years.
img border="0" src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11402824/CND//everythingeverywhere.gif" align="right">

The facilities will be used to refinance part of the £1.25 billion shareholder loan provided equally on Everything Everywhere's formation by its parent companies, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. The refinancing does not change the ownership of Everything Everywhere, with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom each continuing to own 50% of the business. The new facility is provided by a group of banks comprising The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays Capital, HSBC Bank, J.P. Morgan, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bankhttp://everythingeverywhere.com/

• In July 2011, Everything Everywhere appointed Olaf Swantee as CEO effective as of 1-Sept-2011, replacing Tom Alexander. who resigned for personal reasons and to pursue other interests.

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3S Photonics Acquires Manlight for Optical Amplifiers

3S PHOTONICS, formerly Alcatel Optronics then Avanex France, has acquired Manlight S.A.S. for an undisclosed sum.


3S PHOTONICS, which is based in Nozay, France, designs, develops, manufactures and sells active components powered by in-house III-V optoelectronic chips as well as passive components using Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG). The company also provides foundry services using its related epitaxial and wafer processing expertise.


Manlight is a supplier of optical fiber amplifiers and lasers for telecommunication transport networks, broadband access networks, defense,
and industrial markets. Based in Lannion, France, Manlight was founded in 2006 through the acquisition of Highwave Optical Technologies assets. The company has 30 employees. http://www.3sphotonics.com

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NTT Tests Plug-and-Play 40G & 100G Coherent Optics Developed in House

NTT announced the successful field testing of plug-and-play coherent optical transmission technology operating at 40G and 100G over exiting fiber. The coherent technology, which was developed in-house by NTT, enables 100 and 40 Gbps ignals to be configured easily and automatically in 50 ms or less.


NTT said its newly developed digital coherent technology transmits an optical signal with lightwave characteristics (optical phase and polarization) corresponding to ones and zeros of the digital signal. It implements high-speed configuration for the ultra-high-speed signal by applying a new DSP function to the digital coherent technology. A DSP in the optical transmitter first introduces a known digital signal into the transmitted optical signal to measure waveform distortion beforehand, and this is transmitted as a digital coherent optical signal using lightwave characteristics. The receiver then receives optical signal, having been distorted by the unique transmission characteristics of the optical fiber, and it is digitized in real time, as-is, by the receiver DSP, making it available for high-speed digital signal processing. Specifically, the receiver DSP measures the waveform distortion added to the received optical signal directly and accurately by extracting the known signal from it, and later removes this measured waveform distortion from the received signal. The new technology measures the waveform distortion quickly and reduces configuration time to allow high-speed removal of the distortion.


For the trial, 11 wavelengths with 100 or 40 Gbps signals per wavelength were transmitted under over 1,000 different artificially-created transmission conditions, in field tests spanning 580 km. The results confirmed extremely stable automatic configuration in all cases.


http://www.ntt.co.jp

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