Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Hibernia Trims Latencies on its Global Financial Network

Hibernia Atlantic has trimmed network latencies across key financial routes on its Global Financial Network (GFN). The improvements were achieved through faster technologies and shorter fiber routes.


The company said major GFN financial routes, such as from New Jersey to Toronto, are now marked by speeds as fast as 9.5 millisecond round trip delay. Hibernia Atlantic also further improved latency on routes in and around the New Jersey metro area to ultimately connect to long-haul networks reaching Chicago, Toronto, London and Frankfurt.
http://www.hiberniaatlantic.com

Charter Refinances $1.1 Billion

Charter Communications closed on the sale of $1.1 billion in aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes due 2019. The notes bear an interest rate of 7.00 percent per annum and were issued at a price of 99.246 percent of the aggregate principal amount. Charter said the funds would be used to repay outstanding term loan borrowings under its subsidiary's credit facility.
http://www.charter.com/

IBM and Samsung Team on Silicon Development

IBM and Samsung agreed to collaborate on basic research into new semiconductor materials, manufacturing processes and other technologies suitable for a broad range of applications -- from smart phone handsets to communications infrastructure. The companies are looking at new process technologies with potential for mobile communications and high-performance applications. The agreement also renews IBM and Samsung's joint process development agreement (JDA) to multiple nodes starting at 20nm.http://www.ibm.com http://www.samsung.com

GENBAND and PT Form Signaling Partnership

GENBAND and PT (formerly Performance Technologies) announced a multi-faceted development agreement under which PT will provide GENBAND with development, support and maintenance of signaling solutions as integral elements of GENBAND's premier switching portfolio. In addition, PT has acquired specific signaling assets from GENBAND that include the Universal Signaling Point (USP) and SP2000 products and related intellectual property rights.



"Both GENBAND and PT are leaders in IP-based technology, and we welcome them as a strategic partner," said John Slusser, President and CEO of PT. "GENBAND's purchase of Nortel's switching assets has preserved many years of respected research and development, which included significant advancements in signaling. Now we blend that with over thirty years of PT's innovation and expertise. This partnership positions both companies to offer the greatest possible signaling value and performance to our carrier customers."http://www.genband.com http://www.pt.com

Seventeen LTE Networks Now Launched

The number of LTE networks now in commercial operation has reached 17, according the official count of the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) on 12-January-2010. There have been 128 firm operator commitments to deploy commercial LTE systems in 52 countries, and a further 52 "pre-commitment" trials or pilots in an additional 18 countries. This pace of adoption is expected to be faster than with previous generations of mobile technology.



"LTE made excellent progress in 2010 to become the fastest developing mobile system technology ever. We expect that the introduction of LTE systems and user devices will significantly quicken in 2011."



Countries with at least one LTE network operator include Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden, USA, and Uzbekistan.



Some other key points:

  • At least 64 LTE networks are anticipated will be in commercial service by end 2012


  • There are currently 81 HSPA+ networks in commercial operation and 136 commitments


  • Most LTE commitments and deployments use the paired spectrum (FDD) mode.


  • The LTE TDD mode for unpaired spectrum is complementary and valuable in several markets, including China.


A free 19-page report covering LTE activities by country is available from the GSA.http://www.gsacom.com

Nigeria's Glo Moves Forward with LTE

Globacom announced the launch of Nigeria's first LTE service in Lagos. LTE modems and smartphones are expected to be available shortly in Lagos. Glo currently serves over 25 million mobile subscribers across Nigeria and owns network assets in other African markets including Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Gambia.



"For our subscribers, LTE offers the key benefits of performance and capacity," stated Mr. Mohamed Jameel, Group Chief Operating Officer of Globacom. "We have always been in the forefront of providing tools of business success for Nigerians." http://www.gloworld.com/latestnews1.asp

BT Picks 41 Towns for FTTC/FTTH Rollout

BT selected 41 towns across the UK for the next phase of its fibre broadband deployment. Customers in these towns will be able to access super-fast broadband speeds of up to 40 Mbps from Spring 2012. The network architecture uses fibre to street cabinets (FTTC) to achieve the 40 Mbps downlink rates, potentially rising to 60 Mbps. BT is also trialling fibre to the premises (FTTP) broadband services at download speeds of up to 100 Mbps.



The list of market towns join the 785 exchange locations across the country that BT has already revealed under its fibre roll-out plan to date. These locations serve around eight million premises in total, around half of BT's total fibre roll-out plan.



BT has previously disclosed a commitment of up to £2.5 billion to deliver fibre broadband to up to two thirds of UK homes and businesses, subject to an acceptable environment for investment.http://www.btplc.com

NetApp to Acquire Akorri for Data Center Optimization Tools

NetApp agreed to acquire Akorri Networks, a start-up focused on data center optimization, for an undisclosed sum.



Akorri's BalancePoint software uses cross-domain analysis and advanced analytics to help manage, optimize, and plan performance and utilization across data center infrastructure. The software helps identify performance bottlenecks and improve storage capacity planning.



NetApp said Akorri's technology helps extends its own "NetApp OnCommand" with performance capacity analytics to provide customers greater visibility across the entire IT stack.http://www.netapp.comhtttp://www.akorri.com

  • Akorri is headed by Allan Wallack, who previously served as CEO and President of Spring Tide Networks, an IP services company purchased by Lucent Technologies. Akorri was founded by Rich Corley, who previously was the founder and Executive Vice President at Pirus Networks, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2002. Previously, Rich was Director of Advanced Technology at Nortel.


  • Akorri was founded in 2005 and is based in Littleton, Massachusetts.

DragonWave Posts Revenue of $27M

DragonWave reported revenue of US$27.0 million for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2011, compared with $27.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2011 and $51.6 in the third quarter of fiscal year 2010. Net loss in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011 was $0.05 million, which equated to $0.00 per diluted share, compared with net income of $1.2 million or $0.03 per diluted share in the second quarter of this fiscal year and $11.6 million or $0.34 in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year.



Revenue from customers within North America was $22.8 million, compared with $20.3 million in the second quarter and $48.7 million in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. Revenue from customers outside North America was $4.2 million, compared with $6.9 million in the second quarter of this fiscal year and $2.9 million in the third quarter of the prior fiscal year. DragonWave had two customers who each contributed more than 10% of revenue in the third quarter.



"We made progress this quarter in our global diversification strategy, particularly with the acquisition of Axerra Networks and the announcement of our joint venture in India," said DragonWave President and CEO Peter Allen. http://www.dragonwaveinc.com

WiMAX Operators Draft Global Roaming Agreements

Sixteen WiMAX operators from across the globe met this week to draft roaming agreements between their networks. The meeting occurred at the first WiMAX Forum Global Operator Summit, which was hosted in Taipei.



"The WiMAX Forum Global Operator Summit was created to specifically address overcoming both business and consumer perceptions that data roaming is expensive, and to explore ways to help operators grow revenue," said Ron Resnick, president and chairman of the WiMAX Forum. "WiMAX has an established ecosystem with nearly 600 deployments around the world. The opportunity for operators to offer their customers roaming is there, and it is an excellent way for operators to add another viable revenue stream and earn returns on their 4G network investments." http://www.WiMAXForum.org

TeliaSonera Picks Huawei for GSM/HSPA+/LTE in Southern Norway

TeliaSonera has selected Huawei to expand and upgrade its GSM/HSPA+/LTE network throughout southern Norway, including an expansion of the existing 4G/LTE network in Oslo, Bergen and Stavanger. TeliaSonera will implement Huawei's SingleRAN@Broad solution, which supports theoretical top downlink speeds of 150 Mbps. In addition, the 42 Mbps HSPA+ network will be deployed and prepared for 84 Mbps HSPA+. The project will start immediately and be finalized by the end of 2012. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Huawei noted its SingleRAN@Broad solution enables TeliaSonera to converge 2G, 3G and 4G/LTE into a single network, simplifying structure, reducing costs and human resource requirements, realizing exceptional improvements in O&M efficiency. A new feature within Huawei's SingleRAN@Broad solution is the 5-band and 3-mode technology supporting 5 frequency bands and 3 standards in one cabinet.



"We are building a new world class mobile network in Norway with 2G, 3G and 4G access to offer our customers an enormous coverage and speed improvement. We have selected Huawei to deliver the southern part of the Norwegian network based on their high quality technology and competitive total solution," said Claes Nycander, CTO and SVP of Mobility Services at TeliaSonera.
http://www.huawei.com

  • Earlier this week, Ericsson confirmed that it had been selected by TeliaSonera for a network upgrade project in northern Norway. Under a 3-year contract, Ericsson will help modernize and expand the northern part of TeliaSonera's Norwegian network and roll-out 4G/LTE in the same region. Ericsson will, as part of the modernization process, replace the existing 2G and 3G radio base stations with its multi-standard RBS 6000. The contract also includes Ericsson's microwave technology MINI-LINK.


  • On 14-December-2009, TeliaSonera became the first network operator to launch commercial LTE service with a network debut in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway. With this launch, Ericsson was the exclusive supplier for the common 4G/LTE core network and the radio networks was to be supplied by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks. Huawei was picked to supply some equipment in Oslo.