GSA: 15 Mobile Networks now with HD Voice

HD Voice is making gradual in roads into mobile networks worldwide. Fifteen operators are now supporting HD voice, although this figure is expected to increase with the growing availability of HD Voice enabled chipsets and handsets.


Orange has been the leading carrier with HD Voice and has now launched service in Moldova, France, Armenia, UK, Spain and Luxembourg. Other carriers include Tata Docomo (India) SFR (France), Mobistar (Belgium), Vipnet (Croatia), Mobinil (Egypt), Megafon (Russia), CSL (Hong Kong), Wind Mobile (Canada) and TIM (Italia).


There are currently 25 mobile phones on the market that are compatible with HD Voice from Alcatel, HTC, LG, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.


W-AMR speech technology is standardized in 3GPP Release 5. The new speech-compression algorithm doubles voice bandwidth (50--7000 Hz) compared to the current narrowband speech codec (300--3400 Hz) without extra radio or transmission requirements. According to 3GPP, 12.65 kbit/s or higher coding bit-rates provide high-quality wideband audio (lower bit-rates of 8.85 and 6.6 kbit/s are for temporary use during adverse radio conditions or periods of cell congestion). In subjective tests it was shown that the HD Voice wideband codec produces better results than the best narrow-band codec (12.2 kbit/s).


A newly published report is available on the GSA website.
http://www.gsacom.com

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Corning Looks to New Wave of Fiber Builds

Corning is forecasting a new wave of fiber infrastructure spending worldwide as FTTH rollouts get underway, new data centers are commissioned and optical networks take a larger role in wireless backhaul applications.


"The telecommunications market is moving into a renewed investment cycle driven by growing wireless, fiber-to-the-home, and data center (enterprise) market opportunities," said Clark S. Kinlin, president and chief executive officer, Corning Cable Systems, in an investor conference in New York.


Corning expects the optical wireless component of the market to have a compound growth rate of 20% or better through 2014, with bandwidth demand growing at 40% over the next few years, Fiber-to-the-home installations should grow at a compound rate of 18% for several years.
http://www.corning.com

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CENX Appoints New CEO

CENX, which operates Carrier Ethernet exchanges, announced the appointment of Herb Hribar as its CEO. Herb has previously served as President of Ameritech Wireless, President of Ameritech Europe, General Manager of Sprint International for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, President and COO of Verio, COO of Eircom, COO of Cablecom (Switzerland) and COO of Kabel Deutschland.
http://www.cenx.com

• In July 2010, CENX announced the appointment of Sanford (Sandy) Brown as its Chief Executive Officer. Sandy came to CENX from AT&T, where he was responsible for multi-billion dollar lines of business, including the successful development and deployment of AT&T's Carrier Ethernet services.

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Toshiba Ships Near Field Communication (NFC) Module

Toshiba will start delivery of commercial User Identity Module (UIM) cards supporting near field communication (NFC) to KDDI Corporation. The newly developed UIM card equipped with CDMA2000 and GSM. It supports the European Telecommunications Standards Institute-Smart Card Platform (ETSI SCP), GSMA and GlobalPlatform (GP) standards. Toshiba's module is also compatible with GSMA's Pay-Buy-Mobile programme and meets the security level required for international payment applications.


Toshiba said it is now ready to mass produce UIM cards for the global market and is starting to promote UIM cards to MNO worldwide, including operators in Europe, the United States and Asia.
http://www.toshiba.com

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Cisco to Acquire Inlet for Media Processing

Cisco announced plans to acquire Inlet Technologies, a provider of Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) digital media processing platforms that is based in Raleigh, N.C. Cisco will pay approximately $95 million in cash and retention-based incentives in exchange for all shares of Inlet.


Inlet offer a set of encoding solutions that scale from mobile to web to high-definition. The line includes an IP input live streaming appliance, a high-density streaming solution and automated ad insertion for real-time streaming to desktop and iOS devices. During 2010, Inlet added several major broadcasters to its roster, including the BBC, ABC (Australia), Wealth TV and NBC Universal's Winter Olympics coverage.


Cisco intends to integrate Inlet Technologies into its Service Provider Video Technology Group.


"Service and content providers have a tremendous opportunity to deliver exciting video experiences as media consumption increases across mobile, desktop, and smart devices," said Enrique Rodriguez, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group. "Cisco's Videoscape platform will play a key role in reinventing the TV experience, and the acquisition of Inlet will enable our customers to leverage the network as a platform to deliver innovative video experiences to consumers on any device."


The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be complete in the first half of calendar year 2011.
http://www.cisco.com
http://www.inlethd.com

• Intlet Technologies is headed by Don Bossi, who previously served as President and CEO of Aegis Lightwave, a leading supplier of optical and broadband network monitoring solutions.

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OpNext Post Sales of $97 Million, 40G + Sales are Up

OpNext reported quarterly revenue of $97.1 million, up 12.4% compared to $86.4 million in the quarter ended September 30, 2010. Net loss was $10.2 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, or $0.11 per fully diluted share, compared to a net loss of $14.4 million, or $0.16 per fully diluted share, for the quarter ended September 30, 2010.


Revenue from sales of 10Gbps and below products increased $5.3 million, or 9.3%, to $61.8 million, compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2010, primarily as a result of increased sales of SFP+ and X2 modules.


Revenue from sales of 40Gbps and above products increased $5.2 million, or 23.5%, to $27.4 million, compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2010, primarily as a result of an increase in module sales.


Revenue from sales of industrial and commercial products increased $0.2 million, or 2.7%, to $7.9 million, compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2010.


Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco Systems, Inc. each represented 10% or more of total revenues in the quarter ended December 31, 2010. Combined, sales to these two customers represented 33% of total revenues compared to 34% in the quarter ended September 30, 2010. http://www.opnext.com

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France Telecom-Orange Affirms FTTH Rollout Plans

France Telecom-Orange affirmed its decision to deploy fiber-optic networks in 3,600 French community by 2015. In total, the Group will offer FTTH network coverage for 10 million French households by 2015 and 15 million (60%) by 2020.

The Group has already deployed FTTH fiber networks in around fifteen of France's biggest cities and the surrounding suburbs. The deployment program for the main towns beyond very dense areas has also been announced according to a calendar that is in line with regulations.

For regions that are not explicitly mentioned in the plan submitted to French authorities, the Group will intermediary solutions (Fiber-to-the-Curb, satellite, etc.) that offer a step-change towards Very High-Speed Broadband. In particular, France Telecom-Orange will participate in the development of Public Initiative Networks (Réseaux d'initiative publique) as is the case in Laval (Mayenne, north-west France). The Group plays an active role in the government's Very High-Speed Broadband pilot program and is already involved in four of these projects.

France Telecom-Orange plans to invest 2 billion EUR in this program over the period 2010-2015. The company will also look for co-investors and will cooperate with other network operators in offering access solutions.

"I am very pleased to be able to reaffirm and even reinforce our ambitions regarding very high-speed broadband networks as part of a drive to provide the entire French population with access to high-quality digital services," said Stéphane Richard, Chief Executive Officer of France Telecom-Orange. "This commitment clearly illustrates the new dynamic that Orange has embarked upon since the launch of our Conquests 2015 project. To achieve this ambition, we have mobilized our staff and our expertise as a network operator with a view to consolidating our market position in France and making the most of the growth potential that this network can offer for the year's to come. This will be done within a spirit of openness with regards to our environment and to other operators."http://

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Cox Tests Fuel Cells in California

Cox Communications, in partnership with UTC Power, a United Technologies Corp., completed a fuel cell project in Orange County, California. The facility joins two fuel cells in San Diego. Combined, the three installations produce enough clean energy to annually power 1,200 average-sized homes by generating a total of 1.6 megawatts.




Located at Cox Communications' Rancho Santa Margarita facility, the 800kW Orange County installation provides nearly 60 percent of the building's electricity requirement. This is Cox Communications' second alternative energy project in the area, which joins a 100kW photovoltaic (PV) rooftop solar array. Combined, Cox's two alternative energy installations in Rancho Santa Margarita offset the annual amount of pollution produced by more than 850 cars.



In San Diego, a 400 kilowatt (kW) installation was completed at Cox Communications' facility on Federal Boulevard that provides nearly 60 percent of the facility's electrical load requirement. A second 400kW installation for a separate building at the facility provides 100 percent of that building's electricity requirement. The fuel cells build upon Cox Communications' environmental stewardship in the area. In 2010, Cox San Diego was identified as a 2010 Waste Reduction Award Winner by Cal Recycles, was previously named the City of San Diego's Recycler of the Year and presents its annual Cox Conserves Heroes award program.

http://www.cox.com http://www.CoxConserves.com

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