AT&T Ramps up Mobile Commerce Platform with Digby

AT&T introduced a new "Digby Mobile Commerce" service to help retailers design, deploy and manage mobile commerce web sites and rich applications optimized for smartphones. The service, which is offered in conjunction with Austin, Texas-based Digby, will guide retail brands through the process of creating mobile websites that display rich product images and live catalogs.


AT&T already provides retail industry solutions across mobile channels, including AT&T Mobile Barcode Services, AT&T Global Messaging Suite, AT&T Digital Signage and ShopAlerts by AT&T.


"By adding Digby Mobile Commerce Solutions to our portfolio of Mobile Marketing Solutions, we're able to offer retailers a comprehensive set of services for promoting, merchandising, and selling product through a mobile channel," said Chris Hill, Vice President, Advanced Mobility Solutions, AT&T Business Solutions. "Digby mobile and in-store application development and mobile commerce features, combined with AT&T's retail industry consulting practice and mobile marketing solutions, give retail companies exactly what they need to engage potential customers who are on-the-go and in the store."http://www.att.com
http://www.digby.com

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ADTRAN Posts Record Q1 Revenue of $165 Million

ADTRAN reported record Q1 2011 revenue of $165 million for the quarter, up 30% compared to $127 million for the first quarter of 2010. Operating income increased 80% to $45.6 million for the quarter compared to $25.3 million for the first quarter of 2010. Net income increased 88% to $34.3 million for the quarter, compared to $18.2 million for the first quarter of 2010. Earnings per share, assuming dilution, increased 79% to $0.52 for the quarter, compared to $0.29 for the first quarter of 2010.

ADTRAN Chief Executive Officer Tom Stanton stated, "For the quarter our combined growth areas grew 51% over the previous year, allowing the company to achieve its fourth consecutive quarterly revenue record. Moreover, each of the individual segments within this category achieved new records. Broadband Access saw revenue growth of 42% over first quarter 2010, led by the continued success of our Total Access 5000 platform. Our Internetworking category grew 48%, fueled by channel expansion and growing acceptance of new applications. Optical Access grew an impressive 86%, driven by the increasing demand for mobile data. We are pleased with the long term prospects of the markets we serve and our company's position to deliver positive results."http://www.adtran.com

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GSA: Nearly 400 HSPA Systems in Operation

Commercial HSPA services have been launched on 398 networks, according to the GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association), 17% higher than a year ago. Some other newly released stats:

• More than two-thirds of HSPA networks (68%) are configured to support at least 7.2 Mbps peak downlink data speeds, compared to just over half of HSPA networks one year ago.



• 39% of operators have deployed HSUPA for fast data uploading performance, compared to 29% in April 2010.



• 90 commercial HSPA+ networks support a peak downlink data speed of 21 Mbps using 64QAM modulation, delivering a typical user experience up to 8 Mbps (depending on device capability)



• 10 commercial HSPA+ networks support 28 Mbps utilizing MIMO technology.



• 23 commercial HSPA+ networks support 42 Mbps, which is achieved by combining 64QAM and doubling the bandwidth (DC-HSPA+).

GSA also notes that 5 operators have committed to the next HSPA Evolution step of 84 Mbps, which can be realized using a combination of DC-HSPA+ (64QAM) and MIMO. 84 Mbps systems and devices are expected to be commercially introduced within the next 12 months.
http://www.gsacom.com

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NEC Selected for South-East Asia Japan Cable

The South-East Asia Japan Cable (SJC) consortium has commenced construction of a new undersea network that will link Brunei, China Mainland, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, and Singapore, with options to extend to Indonesia and Thailand.




NEC and TE Subcom were awarded the supply contract for the new international submarine cable system. First announced in December 2009, the cable was initially planned to be 8,300 km in length, linking 5 countries / territories. SJC's length is now 8,900 km which could extend up to 10,700 km, linking up to 8 countries / territories while supporting an initial design capacity of over 15 Tbps.


The SJC consortium is composed of Brunei International Gateway Sendirian Berhad (BIG), China Mobile, China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Telecom (Hong Kong) International Ltd. (CTHKI, an Affiliate of China Telecommunications Corporation), Donghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., Globe Telecom, Inc., Google SJC Bermuda Ltd. (a subsidiary of Google Inc.), KDDI Corporation, Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin), Telemedia Pacific Inc. (TPI), and TOT Public Co., Ltd. (TOT).


The SJC system is expected to be ready for service in 2H-2013.
http://www.nec.co.jp

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Cisco Drops its Flip Camcorder Business, Cuts 550 Jobs

Cisco will shut down its Flip consumer camcorder business and eliminate 550 jobs in the process. The move will result in restructuring charges to the company's GAAP financial results, with an aggregate pre-tax impact not expected to exceed $300 million during the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2011. Cisco said it is taking the step to refocus its Home Networking business for greater profitability and connection to the company's core networking infrastructure products.


Additional restructuring steps include:

• Integrate Cisco umi into the company's Business TelePresence product line and operate through an enterprise and service provider go-to-market model, consistent with existing business TelePresence efforts.



• Assess core video technology integration of Cisco's Eos media solutions business or other market opportunities for this business.

"We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy," said John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO. "As we move forward, our consumer efforts will focus on how we help our enterprise and service provider customers optimize and expand their offerings for consumers, and help ensure the network's ability to deliver on those offerings."http://www.cisco.com

• In March 2009, Cisco agreed to pay $590 million in stock in exchange for all shares of Pure Digital Technologies, a San Francisco-based company behind the Flip Video consumer camcorder. At the time, Cisco said its strategy behind the acquisition was to build in the media-enabled home and "to capture the consumer market transition to visual networking."

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IEEE Ratifies 40G Ethernet Optical Standard

The 40Gb/s Ethernet Single-mode fiber optical interface standard, IEEE 802.3bg-2011, has been ratified by the IEEE. The new standard enables 40 Gb/s serial Ethernet interfaces to be deployed on single-mode fiber. It is an amendment to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard. The new standardized interface, called 40GBASE-FR, supports transmission up to 2km over single-mode fiber and can enable equipment to be configurable to interoperate with installed base of equipment conforming to existing telecom and ITU standards such as OC-768, OTU3, STM-256 or 40G Packet-over-SONET (POS).



The new standard builds upon last year's release of the IEEE 802.3ba-2010, IEEE's 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s Ethernet standard.



The IEEE said this new 40GBASE-FR interface was a specific need identified by the telecom carrier network operators as a key factor in their ability to seamlessly transition from installed equipment to new equipment supporting 40 Gb/s Ethernet.



"The telecom carrier community is very keen to adopt Ethernet technologies but also needs to leverage its significant installed base of OTN, SONET, SDH or POS equipment. Once the need was determined, the IEEE was able to quickly gather forces and develop a standard to meet the technical requirements as well as the schedule needs of the user community," said Mark Nowell, Chair, IEEE 802.3bg Task Force, Senior Director Engineering, SP Routing Technology Group, Cisco. "The excellent cooperation between the IEEE and ITU standards bodies and members enabled us to develop and complete this IEEE Ethernet specification in record time for an optical interface. Completing in only 16 months from the original Call for Interest and 12 months from the project approval enables the industry to quickly respond to the growing need for Ethernet adoption in the carrier networks."http://www.ieee.org/http://standards.ieee.org

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Germany's Carrier K-net Selects Orckit-Corrigent's Packet Transport

K-net Telekommunikation Gmbh, a regional carrier based in southwest Germany, has deployed Orckit-Corrigent's MPLS based CM-4000 PTN switches and CM-View network management system, and 3M Services' support, to upgrade its transport networking infrastructure for the delivery of enterprise VPN and Carrier-of-Carrier applications.



Orckit-Corrigent's CM-4000 is a series of Packet Transport Network switches that offer a flexible mix of Ethernet and TDM services to facilitate the migration toward unified packet network. These switches are based on MPLS and MPLS-TP technologies and are designed to scale up the delivery of residential, business and mobile backhauling services in next-generation telecom networks.



Orckit-Corrigent has racked up four wins with European carriers over the past four months: EnviaTEL, VSE NET and Cegecom. Each of these carriers have also selected Orckit-Corrigent's PTN solutions and 3M Services' solutions to expand their networking infrastructure.



"K-net's decision once again highlights the market acceptance of Orckit-Corrigent's innovative solutions," said Mr. Manfred Brandt, Managing Director of 3M Services. "We are pleased that our partnership with Orckit-Corrigent allows us to increase our local customer base and we look forward to working together to supply K-Net with the greatest combination of technology and customer care."http://www.orckit.com http://www.k-net-gmbh.de

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AT&T Employs Cotendo for Content Acceleration Service

AT&T is leveraging Cotendo's newly announced "Cloudlet" capabilities in its AT&T Content Acceleration suite for the faster delivery of dynamic content, such as social media and shopping cart data.



Specifically, AT&T is teaming with Cotendo to add their Search Engine Optimization and Cloudlet offerings to the AT&T Content Acceleration suite. This will push the business logic of dynamically generated web pages into the content acceleration cloud.



AccuWeather, which provides up to the minute weather reporting, is using the Cloudlet module of the AT&T Content Acceleration service to improve response times without buying and maintaining additional servers. Previously, users with GPS-enabled smartphones were tying up AccuWeather's whole network with very specific requests for weather data. AT&T said that with the addition of the Cloudlet module, requests for updated weather information can now be made within a larger local geographic area, eliminating the need to travel back to headquarters for the latest forecast. As a result, update requests to headquarters have declined by 75 percent, and AccuWeather is now providing near real-time response important to its users.



The Cloudlet module can make decisions on features such as geography, devices, and request routing. By teaming with Cotendo, AT&T is deploying this new Content Acceleration feature which enables new classes of capabilities, and applications to be delivered globally and controlled in real-time.



AT&T Content Acceleration also includes a monitoring service that offers detailed reporting and alerts for most major search engines. This technology helps business to access detailed information on potential troubles, and address them before they occur. The Search Engine Analytics module from Cotendo delivers crucial web site information, so issues that could impact a site's search engine visibility and rankings, and by extension its traffic and profitability can be pinpointed and corrected. Using this module allows the web sites to function with fewer glitches and faster content. Businesses using the AT&T Content Acceleration Search Engine Analytics module experience more clicks and higher conversion rate. As a result, customers have better experiences, which can increase loyalty to the site.



"The ability to deliver localized information that our customers need while not flooding our entire infrastructure was paramount to providing consumers with real-time access to weather-related news and updates," said Jon Porter, engineer and member of AccuWeather enterprise architecture team. "With the Cloudlet module of AT&T Content Acceleration service, our transaction times have improved, without forcing our company to buy and maintain more servers."



"Businesses are seeing an increasing need to deliver richer and more dynamic content to web customers," said Sam Farraj, Assistant Vice President of AT&T Digital Media Solutions. "Simultaneously, their customers are showing little or no tolerance for waiting to see that content delivered. By delivering content quickly and more targeted via the AT&T network, AT&T Content Acceleration is the perfect bridge between a company and its customers," he said.










Presented by Ido Safruti, Cotendohttp://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Portfolio/content-delivery/http://www.cotendo.com

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ADVA Releases New Carrier Ethernet Edge Gateway

ADVA Optical Networking released its new Carrier Ethernet FSP 150EG-X edge gateway for mobile backhaul and Ethernet services. The FSP 150EG-X is a high-capacity, non-blocking edge gateway that provides a central aggregation solution, acts as a timing gateway for synchronization services and includes the termination of pseudowire services. ADVA is positioning the platform for service providers who need to scale their Carrier Ethernet backhaul offering to address larger applications, while providing a manageable, cost-effective platform that is optimized to deliver intelligent services.



The new product incorporates the company's "Etherjack" technology, which delivers advanced OAM functionality for a large number of monitored services. The platform also integrates the company's "Syncjack" gateway technology for timing distribution and delivery of SLA-based synchronization services for mobile backhaul applications.



The product can be deployed in combination with the company's FSP 150CC demarcation products for end-to-end Ethernet service management across the entire access and backhaul network. The complete solution is supported by the FSP Service Manager for seamless end-to-end provisioning and service-based network operations.



"Service providers need to deliver Ethernet services that meet or exceed the reliability and security of SONET/SDH," said Christoph Glingener, the company's Chief Technology Officer. "With our FSP 150EG-X, we have introduced a platform providing highest service availability, scalability and simplicity for open access, mobile backhaul and business Ethernet applications."http://www.advaoptical.com

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