Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Zscaler Names Former Motorola Executive as CTO

Zscaler, a provider of cloud security solutions based in Sunnyvale, California, named Dr. Amit Sinha as Chief Technology Officer. In this role, he spearheads research and development initiatives of Zscaler's emerging technologies. Sinha served as Fellow and Chief Technologist of Motorola's Enterprise Networking and Communication business. He was the CTO of AirDefense, which was acquired by Motorola in 2008. Prior to AirDefense, he served as Co-Founder and Chief Technologist at Engim, a Wi-Fi semiconductor company. http://www.zscaler.com

Broadband Line Growth Strongest in Developing Economies

The number of fixed, broadband line subscriptions topped 508 million as of the end of Q3 2010, representing a growth of 6.7% over a year earlier, according to new figures prepared by Point Topic and announced today by the Broadband Forum. Over 14.3 million lines were added in the third quarter alone, representing 2.88% growth over the previous quarter. China and India both reported their second best ever quarters in Q3 for broadband line additions. Vigorous growth was generally concentrated in developing broadband markets, with India, Russia, Vietnam, Ukraine and the Philippines all growing by more than 20% in the last 12 months.



In Asia, more and more of the developing markets are starting to report significant growth in broadband, with China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and even continued growth in South Korea all pointing to increased dominance in the global market.


In Europe the biggest gains are in Eastern Europe, although the region as a whole has performed better in 2010 than in 2009 on a quarter by quarter basis with most of the big markets showing improvement. With these strong numbers coming from Eastern Europe, there is optimism that 2011 will continue a strong growth trend for the region as a whole.


In the Americas, we see renewed pickup, although it's too early to say if this is the start of a full blown recovery. In Canada especially there is little head room for further growth as household penetration nears 90%. In South America, Brazil and Mexico continuing to offer robust numbers while growth is slow in some of their South and Central American neighbors.


The Middle East and Africa region also shows steady growth rather than spectacular numbers. While growth is strong in Egypt, Turkey and South Africa, there are still impediments to adoption (mostly availability and cost) in much of Africa. Once these are overcome we should see mass adoption become a reality.


The total number of IPTV subscribers worldwide now stands at 41.9 million (41,892,171), representing a growth of 7.3% (2.846 million net adds in the quarter) in the three months to end September and 36.7% growth in the last 12 months (11.256 million net adds). With 46% market share, Europe continues as the leading IPTV region. But China is fast catching up to France, the current world leader in terms of IPTV subscribers, and at current growth rates China will overtake France sometime during 2011. With this growth, Asia is rapidly closing the gap.
http://www.broadband-forum.orghttp://www.point-topic.com

ADTRAN Adds Advanced Operational Environment Mgt

ADTRAN introduced an Advanced Operational Environment (AOE) management framework focused on service delivery and overall operational improvement. AOE is designed to integrate with existing OSS systems, reducing the need for disparate management tools and allowing customers to provide and diagnose services using the same familiar billing, provisioning, equipment and facilities systems they use today. ADTRAN said its Advanced Operational Environment is in trials at several carriers. http://www.adtran.com/AOE

Sprint 4G to Carry BlackBerry Playbook Tablet

Sprint will promote the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet along with its 4G network. The BlackBerry 4G PlayBook will be the first BlackBerry PlayBook model to include wide area wireless connectivity. In addition to Wi-Fi support, the BlackBerry 4G PlayBook features a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS. http://www.sprint.com/4G

CES Keynote: Verizon Sees LTE Accelerate Development Cycle

LTE is turning out to be a real game-changer for the networking industry because it speeds up the development cycle, said Verizon executives Ivan Seidenberg and Lowell McAdam in a keynote at CES in Las Vegas. The Verizon booth has over 60 companies demonstrating products and services that are coming to the company's network this year, and over 6,000 developers are enrolled in its program. Sharing the keynote spotlight were TimeWarner, Motorola Mobility and Google -- each of which sees opportunity for 4G-connected media tablets.


Verizon's CTO, Tony Malone, is very pleased with the recent launch of the LTE network. There have been few bumps in the rollout and the network performance is exceeding expectations, including the targeted 5-12 Mbs downlink rates , 30ms of latency, and edge-of-the cell performance of 1-3 Mbps. Customers are confirming this too. Malone credited Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, the principal suppliers, for the smooth deployment in the first 38 markets. During 2011, the rollout will expand to dozens of new market, and 36 months from the now, the nation will be covered with LTE.


Building on a partnership announced last year, Verizon Wireless confirmed that the Skype mobile application will be bundled and supported on its LTE devices, enabling video and audio calling to Skype users worldwide. The device integration will include Skype presence indicators inside the smartphone contact list. The Skype mobile applications will "always-on" in the background of these devices.


Verizon Wireless showcased a portfolio of new LTE devices that are coming in the first half of 2011 (some are expected by March):


LG - will be offering the "Revolution" LTE smartphone.


HTC - the company's first LTE-enabled smartphones is called "ThunderBolt". It integrates Skype's video calling over LTE. It also offers a hotspot capability for sharing connecting with 8 other Wi-Fi devices. Qualcomm is a partner on the ThunderBolt.


Electronic Arts -- the company is developing mobile games that are better over the LTE network. An example is RockBand, which lets 4 friends to play in a virtual band from anywhere on the network.


Samsung -- the company is introducing LTE-enabled mobile hotspots, smartphones, and the 7-inch Galaxy tablet.


Novatel Wireless - MiFi mobile hotspots and USB modems


Motorola -- earlier this week, the company joint introduced the Droid Bionic 4G smartphones and the Xoom tablet, which will also be LTE enabled.


In addition, Verizon Wireless said its rural initiative is drawing considerable interest from regional spectrum holders. Two more rural partners were signed this week.


Some Q&A's from the press conference --


On battery life for LTE -- Silicon suppliers have worked hard on power optimization techniques and these are being implemented in LTE devices.


On Roaming and 3G fallback -- LTE devices for the Verizon Wireless network will be able to roam internationally and will be able to fall back on 3GPP networks.


On pricing models for 4G -- No pricing was announced for the LTE devices being shown, and no new LTE services were announced. The company has already announced LTE plans for USB wireless modems.


Are the Verizon LTE devices spectrum locked? Could they be used on other carrier networks?-- The SIM card will dictate access to the network.


Are VZ's regulatory Open Access requirements for the 700MHz being met? Yes.


Will simultaneous voice/data be supported? -- Some devices will support this. The capability could be on some devices but not all.


Will there be data caps on the smartphones? -- Pricing structures will be similar to what is available now. VZ will look at new pricing models. Caps may make sense at some point in time.


Will in-building penetration be better than competitors? -- VZ's 700 MHz spectrum has a 3x or 4x distance propagation advantage over 2.5 GHz mobile services.


Are all of the devices being shown from HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung all based on Android? -- Yes.


On Net Neutrality over LTE -- VZ has been very specific about the openness of the network. VZ thins that for innovation to happen, an unfettered development environment is the best and that the free market system works best.


On Tethering for LTE smartphones -- Some of the LTE devices being shown offer mobile hotspot capability, but the company has no comment on tethering at the moment.
http://www.verizon.com

Skype to Acquire Qik for Video Sharing

Skype agreed to acquire Qik, a provider of mobile video software and services, for an undisclosed sum.



Qik's app enables mobile phone users to share live or recorded video clips. The Qik service is available on over 200 mobile phones across the Android, iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, and comes pre-loaded on a wide variety of mobile handsets through partnerships with leading handset manufacturers and carriers.



Qik was founded in 2006 and has 60 employees in Redwood City, California and Moscow, Russia.



Skype said that through the acquisition it can leverage the engineering expertise that is behind Qik's Smart Streaming technology, which optimizes video transmission over wireless networks.http://www.skype.com http://www.qik.com

Cavium and ARM to Develop Next Gen Multi-Core SoCs

Cavium Networks' next-generation chips will be powered by ARM's Cortex-A family of processor cores.



Cavium's ECONA processor family has been based on ARM processor technology since its inception, first utilizing the ARM9 and then progressing to the ARM11 as market requirements have evolved. The companies said the transition to ARM's Cortex-A series will maintain and further develop Cavium ECONA processors' power/performance profile. The ARM processors are capable of gigahertz-class performance, while demonstrating low-power leadership. The ECONA family is targeted for applications that includes FTTH home gateway, network attached storage, small and medium business routers, service provider networking, enterprise wireless access points, multi-media tablets, and multi-function printers.



"Multi-core Cortex-A series processors will provide customers with a dramatic increase in performance over SMB networking solutions available today," explained Ian Drew, Chief Marketing Officer at ARM. "ARM pioneered licensable multi-core processor IP in 2005 with the ARM11 Core, and Cavium Networks' adoption of the Cortex-A series further is a strong indication of the success of the scalable, multi-core ARM architecture in the networking space."



Also based on ARM technology is Cavium Networks' family of PureVu video processors, which provide a full HD (1080p60) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution for interactive and recording video applications.http://www.caviumnetworks.com http://www.arm.com

VZ Delivers LTE for Cisco Cius Business Tablet, Router

Beginning this Spring. Verizon Wireless will offer an LTE version of the Cisco Cius mobile collaboration business tablet, which was unveiled last year. The companies also announced an LTE WAN interface card for the Cisco second-generation Integrated Services Router (ISR G2), which will enable Verizon Wireless' 3G and 4G enterprise and small and medium-sized business customers with branch office connectivity.



The new Cisco 4G LTE Enhanced High-Speed WAN Interface Card (EHWIC) integrates with the Cisco ISR G2. In addition, Verizon Wireless is adding the Dynamic Mobile Network Routing (DMNR) capability to its 4G LTE offers. DMNR is based on Network Mobility (NEMO) support in the Cisco IOS.



"Enterprises have come to know they can rely on Cisco and Verizon Wireless to put the business communication and collaboration tools they need in their hands. Together we're taking the next step with the combination of the Cisco Cius mobile collaboration tablet and Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network. Collaboration delivered over 4G LTE will be a whole new level of access for enterprise users," said Janet Schijns, vice president, Business Solutions Group at Verizon Wireless.



"The 4G LTE Interface card on the Cisco ISR G2 platform is a game changer for our customers, including Verizon Wireless, who are now able to deploy a rich set of productivity-enhancing solutions across its 4G LTE network," said Praveen Akkiraju, senior vice president and general manager, Service Routing Technology Group, Cisco. "Our collaboration with Verizon Wireless enables enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses to create innovative services such as next-generation video-enabled ATMs and 'Shop-in-a-Box' retail solutions."http://www.verizonwireless.com http://www.cisco.com/go/cius

Calix Wins Clearwave Project in Illinois

Clearwave Communications (has selected the Calix Unified Access portfolio to bring advanced broadband services to 23 counties in southern Illinois. The Clearwave Broadband Stimulus award consists of over $45 million in overall funds, including a $31.5 million federal grant, an $11.3 million grant from the State of Illinois, a $400 thousand grant from the Counties of Southern Illinois, and $2.1 million in private investment.



The Clearwave project will leverage 10GE, point-to-point gigabit Ethernet (GE), and GPON technology to bring advanced fiber services to more than 232 anchor institutions, and facilitate broadband services to approximately 300,000 households and 55,000 businesses.
http://www.calix.com http://www.clearwave.com

RADWIN Offers Point-to-Point Systems for Licensed 3.5 GHz

RADWIN introduced a new range of Point-to-Point and Multiple Point-to-Point systems that operate in the licensed 3.4-3.7 GHz spectrum. RADWIN 2000 3.5 GHz solutions deliver up to 100 Mbps and up to 16 E1s/T1s for long ranges (up to 120 Km/75 miles). The solutions comply with FCC, IC and ETSI regulations.



In addition, RADWIN received FCC approval for its RADWIN 2000 solution to operate in the 3.65 GHz spectrum. The 3.65 GHz spectrum is reserved in North America as a non-exclusive license band for broadband expansion in rural and underserved areas.http://www.radwin.com