Comcast and GE Complete NBC Deal

Comcast and General Electric (GE) completed their deal, creating the NBCUniversal joint venture. GE contributed NBC Universal's businesses, including its cable networks, filmed entertainment, televised entertainment, theme parks, and unconsolidated investments. Comcast contributed its cable networks, including E!, Versus and the Golf Channel, its regional sports networks, certain digital media properties, and made a payment to GE. The new company is 51 percent owned by Comcast, 49 percent owned by GE, and managed by Comcast. It maintains its headquarters in New York City.
http://www.comcast.com

• In approving the Comcast-NBCU mega-merger, the FCC and the Department of Justice imposed a number of conditions and commitments which generally will remain in effect for seven years. Among these, online video distributors (OVDs) are guaranteed the ability to obtain Comcast-NBCU programming. Comcast must also offer standalone broadband Internet access services at reasonable prices and of sufficient bandwidth so that customers can access online video services without the need to purchase a cable television subscription from Comcast.

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Vodafone Restores Cell Phone Service in Egypt

Vodafone restored voice services to our customers in Egypt on Saturday morning.


In a statement, the Vodafone corporate office said: "We would like to make it clear that the authorities in Egypt have the technical capability to close our network, and if they had done so it would have taken much longer to restore services to our customers. It has been clear to us that there were no legal or practical options open to Vodafone, or any of the mobile operators in Egypt, but to comply with the demands of the authorities.:http://www.vodafone.com

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Epitiro Launches LTE Test App for Android

Epitiro released a mobile handset application for testing LTE networks and analyzing IP performance.



The application is for Android handsets or tablets and can be used on dedicated test phones for quality of service testing; or to thousands of subscriber smartphones for nation-wide testing and analysis. The application enables the operator to measure specific performance metrics in various situations, such as in-building, in-motion (rail or car), city centres or virtually anywhere subscribers roam.



The application tests several network parameters including throughput, Jitter, packet loss and latency; as well as the quality of applications including web browsing, VoIP and video streaming. Radio parameters, including 3G/4G bearers and signal quality, are recorded.



Test data are presented in real-time on the ipQ Mobile Broadband Analysis platform, an on-line dashboard, where it is analyzed and plotted on geo-spatial maps - with GPS accuracy.



"Operators running LTE trials or limited deployments are interested to understand the network performance and consumer experience with LTE," said Jon Curley, CTO at Epitiro. "It removes the necessity to deploy expensive and cumbersome test equipment, instead measuring from the customer's device. Operators now have a scalable LTE test solution that can be easily deployed."http://www.epitiro.com/solutions/access-networks/3gpp-lte

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