Deutsche Telekom Launches LTE in Cologne

Deutsche Telekom activated commercial LTE service in Cologne, marking the first LTE market in a German city.


The deployment comprises 100 base stations and approximately 120 miles of fiber optic cable to the base stations. The Cologne footprint covers an area of approximately 150 square kilometers.


The first LTE device is the Speed ​​Stick, which supports both LTE and the EDGE/GPRS- and HSPA / UMTS technology and thus can be used nationwide in the Telekom mobile network.


For the launch phase of LTE in Cologne, Telekom is offering a data plan promising downlinks from 42.2 to 100 Mbps with a monthly price of EUR 62.98 net for the first three months.


LTE rollouts in other German cities is anticipated for the autumn.
http://www.telekom.com

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Intercity Zakelijk Picks NSN for Mobile Core

Intercity Zakelijk, a Dutch mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) for business customers in the Netherlands, has awarded Nokia Siemens Networks a long-term contract to design, implement and support its complete mobile core network. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will plan, design and implement its full mobile core network, including open mobile softswitches* and Evolved Packet Core (EPC)**. The company will also deploy its subscriber data management and repositories, operations support system (OSS), billing mediation, and value added services platform, supporting up-to-date GSM and 3G core networks. In addition, the company will support Intercity Zakelijk's network operations and provide care services.http://http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com
http://www.intercityzakelijk.nl/

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Synchronica to Acquire Nokia's Operator Branded Messaging Business

Synchronica plc will acquire Nokia's Operator Branded Messaging (OBM) business, which provides white-label mobile Email and Instant Messaging (IM) services across a wide range of devices to operators in North America.


The deal includes assignment of mobile operator contracts as well as source code of the related Nokia Messaging client and server software. Synchronica and Nokia will enter into a long-term relationship in which Synchronica will provide the messaging software which Nokia will continue to preload on Nokia Series 40 phones. Synchronica will assume responsibility for development, maintenance and support of the Nokia Messaging software shipping with millions of Nokia devices and the gateway functionality for both Series 40 and Symbian devices. Approximately 250 employees, externals and contractors are planned to transfer from Nokia to Synchronica.


Synchronica said the acquisition will provide it with a successful and complementary mobile messaging business and a strong foothold in the strategically important North American operator market. Combined with more than 80 existing carrier contracts in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Russia and Asia, Synchronica aims to become the global leader in next-generation mobile messaging. With Nokia's assignment of ten operator contracts in North America, Synchronica's total addressable market across all operator customers worldwide will extend to 1.8 billion end-users. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Nokia's Operator Branded Messaging technology enables mobile operators to affordably deliver an operator-branded email experience on mobile devices via an easy to-use interface. MSN Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Google mail/Gmail and multiple other portal/ISP email services are all supported via a single client on a mobile device. Similarly to email, multiple IM accounts, such as GoogleTalk, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, AOL and others are accessible via the IM clients.
http://www.synchronica.com

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Deutsche Telekom Signs Blue Jeans Network for Cloud-based Video Conferencing

Deutsche Telekom has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Blue Jeans Network to market a scalable, interoperable videoconferencing solution in Europe by the end of the year.


The Blue Jeans videoconferencing solution enables companies of all sizes to initiate multi-party videoconferences in an extremely easy way - no matter whether they want to use smart phones, tablets or full-fledged HD room systems.
Blue Jeans Network provides a bridging solution creating interoperability across providers and protocols. Each video-enabled device requires a native Blue Jeans client, like Skype.


"Excellent customer experience is decisive. We, therefore, increasingly cooperate with innovative partners that enable us to bring superior experiences to our customers. The Blue Jeans Network videoconferencing solution is cloud based and scalable. It is easy to use and complementary to our existing video offerings. I am delighted that we are entering into this strategic partnership," said Edward Kozel, Deutsche Telekom Chief Technology and Innovation Officer.
http://www.telekom.comhttp://bluejeans.com/

• Earlier this week, Blue Jeans Network, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, announced $23.5 million in venture funding for its high-quality, cloud-based video communications service.
  
  
  Blue Jeans Network said its goal is to make video conferencing accessible to everyone at any time, any place and from practically any device.
  
  
  Its service will bridge together business solutions from Cisco/Tandberg, Polycom, Lifesize and others, with consumer solutions such as Skype and Google Talk.

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France's CELESTE Deploys Tellabs 7100 Optical Transport

CELESTE has selected Tellabs to exclusively provide its nationwide optical transport network across France. The broadband operator is deploying the Tellabs 7100 Nano Optical Transport System (OTS) to all major cities in France.


CELESTE is building a nationwide fiber optic network which will stretch over 4,000 kilometers around France. The network will extend its high-bandwidth services to new French regional markets and reach more enterprises. Financial terms were not disclosed.


"CELESTE's emergence as a nationwide competitor is a major revolution for the French broadband market," said Nicolas Aubé, President of CELESTE. "With this deployment, medium size enterprises across France can access competitively priced, high-bandwidth services quickly and easily. Tellabs' extensive knowledge and experience of international enterprise markets is an invaluable part of our success in this ambitious venture."http://www.tellabs.com
http://www.celeste.fr

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Level 3 Offers Ultra-Low-Latency between London and Stockholm

Level 3 Communications has been selected to provide ultra-low-latency transport services from London to Stockholm by QuantHouse, a global provider of end-to-end systematic trading solutions.


QuantHouse's services help market makers, proprietary trading desks and latency-sensitive sell-side firms to leverage the advantages of ultra-low-latency market data technologies, algorithmic trading development framework, proximity hosting and order routing services.


The London-Stockholm route was recently added to Level 3's portfolio of low-latency offerings.
http://www.level3.com

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Extreme Networks Appoints CMO

Extreme Networks has named David Ginsburg as its Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Paul Hooper, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, has resigned and will be leaving the company to pursue other interests.


Ginsburg joined Extreme Networks in December 2010, when he was appointed to lead strategic marketing, product portfolio definition, and vertical solutions marketing. Ginsburg previous held key marketing positions at Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks, and at start-up companies including Allegro Networks, Shasta and Innopath. As senior vice president of worldwide marketing and product management for Riverstone Networks, he led the efforts to drive global branding and field marketing, coupled with key product differentiation, to focus on driving revenue and winning market share in the Ethernet market.
http://www.extremenetworks.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Utilized Broadcom Premier Custom IC Program

Broadcom confirmed that Alcatel-Lucent used its Premier Custom IC Program to develop and deploy the 400 Gbps FP3 Network Processor.


The Broadcom Premier Custom IC program offers a higher level of service and performance than traditional custom ASICs, providing superior execution and faster time-to-market. http://www.broadcom.com

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BT Openzone Serves Hiltons in UK and Ireland

BT Openzone was selected to provided enhanced Wi-Fi and Internet services at approximately 100 Hilton hotels and properties in the UK and Ireland. BT Openzone will use an 'above property', centralised cloud computing architecture, and will oversee network operations, guest Internet support, network engineering, software development and 24/7 network monitoring for Hilton Worldwide's business Wi-Fi.
http://www.bt.com

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LightSquared Files Spectrum Plan with FCC

LightSquared submitted a new proposal to the FCC to address GPS interference issues with its planned hybrid LTE + broadband satellite network. The company claims this new plan resolves interference issues for 99.5 percent commercial GPS devices by moving the rollout of the network to a different spectrum block. Approximately 200,000 high-precision GPS units in the field would still suffer interference, but LightSquared said it is committed to resolving this issue as well.


LightSquared asserts the interference is caused "by the GPS device manufacturer's decision over the last eight years to design products that depend on using spectrum assigned to other FCC licensees." It believes that inexpensive filters could have been included in GPS device designs, and this would have prevented the problem.
http://www.lightsquared.com

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Lockheed Martin Refines Cyber Security Solution for SmartGrid

Lockheed Martin is introducing a "Palisade" cyber security solution tailored to the energy industry. Palisade will include advanced threat detection and forensic tools that give utility cyber security analysts the actionable intelligence they need to defend and maintain their networks.

"As the Smart Grid is implemented, utilities are being challenged by regulators and customers to ensure the security of new digital energy management systems," said Rich Mahler, Cyber Security Senior Manager, Lockheed Martin Energy Solutions. "Our cyber security experts are working together with utilities to combat more advanced threats and to defend their critical networks."http://www.lockheedmartin.com

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Fujitsu: Ethernet Tag Switching Achieves 32% Percent Lower OpEx Than MPLS-TP

Fujitsu's implementation of Connection-Oriented Ethernet (COE), called Ethernet Tag Switching, reduces service providers' annual operating expenses by 32 percent over five years when compared to an MPLS-TP implementation, according to a research report by Network Strategy Partners (now part of ACG Research) cited by the company.


Fujitsu said its Connection-Oriented Ethernet enables a single metro network infrastructure with all the flexibility and cost benefits associated with Ethernet, while providing the performance, quality-of-service and security previously only available via SONET/SDH.


The study by Network Strategy Partners calculated the impact of using Ethernet Tag Switching, and then MPLS-TP, across six categories of service provider operations: OSS System Integration and Software Expenses, Network Management Equipment and Software, Training, Testing and Certification Operations, Network Care and Network Upgrades and Patches. In each category, Fujitsu Ethernet Tag Switching resulted in greater cost savings versus MPLS-TP.


"We found that the Fujitsu Ethernet Tag Switching implementation of COE produces lower OpEx than the MPLS-TP implementation of COE when service providers migrate from a SONET-centric to a packet-centric transport network infrastructure," said Michael Kennedy, Ph.D., principal analyst for ACG Research. "In particular, Ethernet Tag Switching goes a long way toward simplifying Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) while incorporating widely-accepted Carrier Ethernet standards. The combination allows transport operations personnel to continue using the procedures and applications they've used for years, even as service delivery and transport functions become increasingly packet-based."http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom

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Verizon Works with JANET(UK) on 100G

Verizon is working with JANET, the U.K.'s education and research network, on implementing 100 Gbps connections between academic institutions.

Jeremy Sharp, head of JANET(UK)'s Strategic Technologies division, said: "We have a strong reputation for serving education and research, and we are widely recognized as having a critical role to play in the U.K.'s future economic prosperity. JANET(UK) is committed to supporting the future of U.K. research and education. At a time when research and education is being asked to do more with less, this is a great example of how technology can not only be innovative, but a power innovation."


"Verizon is an innovative communications company with a long history of devising advanced solutions for our customers around the world," said Michael Bauer, director of European network planning for Verizon. "We have a great opportunity to share our engineering and network expertise with JANET(UK), and this teamwork gives the U.K. academic community an opportunity to use the latest technology available in the marketplace."


The Verizon solution also gives JANET a platform that can not only support the U.K.'s educational needs today, but will also provide a foundation on which future innovative educational services can be offered.

Managed by JANET(UK), the JANET network connects the U.K.'s academic community, helping teachers and students at universities, colleges, schools and research councils to access and share information – text, images and video -- daily, and is constantly working to deliver innovative educational services.

Verizon's extensive experience and strong understanding of JANET(UK)'s business objectives made the company the best fit to work with the organization from a technical, engineering, network operations and cultural perspective.


Verizon is a global network communications leader in driving better business outcomes for enterprises and government agencies. Verizon delivers integrated IT and communications solutions via its global IP and mobility networks to enable businesses to securely access information, share content and communicate. Verizon is rapidly transforming to a cloud-based "everything-as-a-service" delivery model that will put the power of enterprise-class solutions within the reach of every business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com http://www.verizon.com

• In March 2011, Verizon activated a 100 Gigabit Ethernet link for an IP backbone on a portion of its European long-haul network between Paris and Frankfurt, a distance of 893 km. The deployment uses Juniper Networks' routers and Ciena's 100G Ethernet coherent optical transport solution

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