Frontier Expands in Former VZ Territory with ADTRAN

Frontier Communications has selected ADTRAN for its build out of broadband services in new markets in 14 states acquired by Frontier in July 2010. Frontier's goal is to extend High-Speed Internet to at least 85 percent of this customer base by 2013. ADTRAN's extensive broadband portfolio, professional services and network management solutions are being utilized to enable delivery of enhanced broadband and new bundled services to customers across this expanded geographic footprint. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Michael Golob, senior vice president, Engineering and Technology for Frontier stated, "ADTRAN was a major part of our 180-day roll out last July and performed exceptionally well. The breadth of its solutions is enabling us to meet our footprint coverage goals and positions us perfectly for future business and premium residential services."
http://www.adtran.com
http://www.frontier.com

• In July 2010, Frontier completed its acquisition of Verizon Communications' (local wireline operations in 14 states. The combined operations will provide voice, High-Speed Internet, wireless Internet data access, satellite video, FiOS and other services to more than 4.0 million residential and business customers in 27 states using the Frontier Communications brand. The transaction positioned Frontier as the largest pure rural telecommunications carrier in the United States.

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Equinix Growth Continues: Revenues up, New Data Centers

Equinix recorded Q2 revenues of $394.9 million, a 9% increase over the previous quarter and a 33% increase over the same quarter last year. Reported adjusted EBITDA of $181.3 million, an 8% increase over the previous quarter and a 37% increase over the same quarter last year. This quarter included the results from the acquisition of an indirect, controlling equity interest in ALOG Data Centers do Brasil S.A. from April 25, 2011, which is referred to as the ALOG acquisition.


"With outstanding first-half results, Equinix is on target to surpass its original financial objectives for 2011. Solid market fundamentals such as the growth of IP, mobile, video, cloud and electronic trading combined with our global leadership position set us up well for the long term," said Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix. "Our investments are paying off and we will continue to carefully allocate capital to support our growth, while generating attractive returns for our shareholders."

Equinix also announced plans to build a tenth International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Washington, D.C. (DC10) as well as the opening of its Business Continuity Services facility in Milan, Italy. DC10 will provide approximately 77,000 square feet of customer floor space, built out in multiple phases. Targeted to open in early 2012, the first phase is expected to cost $34 million in expansion capital, which is already reflected in the company's guidance.
http://www.equinix.com

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Global Crossing Sees Q2 Revenues Rise 10% YoY

Global Crossing reported revenue of $692 million in the second quarter of 2011, an increase of 5 percent sequentially and 10 percent year over year. The company's strategic "invest and grow" services generated revenue of $622 million in the second quarter, an increase of 6 percent sequentially and 12 percent year over year. Global Crossing reported $96 million of OIBDA in the second quarter, compared with $84 million in the first quarter of 2011 and $93 million in the second quarter of 2010.


"Strong demand and continued enterprise-wide focus on customer experience drove solid progress toward the achievement of our annual guidance," said John Legere, chief executive officer of Global Crossing. "We are building strong operating momentum as we prepare for our strategic combination with Level 3."http://www.globalcrossing.com

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ARRIS' Q2 Revenue Slips to $266 Million

ARRIS reported Q2 revenue of $265.8 million as compared to second quarter 2010 revenues of $280.4 million and as compared to first quarter 2011 revenues of $267.4 million. Through the first half of 2011 and 2010, revenues were $533.2 million and $547.1 million, respectively.


GAAP net income in the second quarter 2011 was $0.13 per diluted share, as compared to second quarter 2010 GAAP net income of $0.15 per diluted share and first quarter 2011 GAAP net income of $0.09 per diluted share.


Gross margin for the second quarter 2011 was 40.2%, which compares to the second quarter 2010 gross margin of 40.4% and the first quarter 2011 gross margin of 36.3%.


"I am pleased with our second quarter financial results," said Bob Stanzione, ARRIS Chairman & CEO. "I am particularly gratified by the high level of customer acceptance of our new higher density C4 CMTS line cards and software upgrades and the increasing interest and demand for our Home Media Gateway. The strong level of interest and traction with these and other new ARRIS products bodes well for the remainder of 2011."http://www.arrisi.com

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Level 3 Posts Revenue of $932 Million -- Flat

Level 3 Communications reported consolidated revenue of $932 million for the second quarter 2011, a slight increase compared to consolidated revenue of $929 million for the first quarter 2011 and $908 million for the second quarter 2010. The net loss for the second quarter 2011 was $181 million, or $0.11 per share, which included a $0.02 per share charge of $23 million on the extinguishment of debt and $14 million in costs associated with Global Crossing.


"Our track record around execution in the business, combined with our continued focus on the customer experience, has proven to be successful in winning new business, contributing to positive revenue growth," said James Q. Crowe, CEO of Level 3. "We are pleased with the progress we have made in growing Core Network Service revenue over the last year."


"In the second quarter 2011 we saw Core Network Services revenue increase 1.7 percent sequentially on a constant currency basis, demonstrating continued improvement in our overall rate of Core Network Services growth," said Sunit Patel, executive vice president and CFO of Level 3. "We saw particular strength from wireless, content, financial services and Government customers during the quarter. Additionally, gross margin grew from $557 million in the first quarter 2011 to $566 million in the second quarter 2011."http://www.level3.com

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Meru Posts Q2 Revenue of $23.2 Million, up 11% YoY

Meru Networks reported record quarterly revenues of $23.2 million, an increase of 11% year-over-year. Net loss GAAP) was $9.8 million for the second quarter of 2011, or a net loss of $0.56 per basic and diluted share, compared to net income of $901,000, or $0.05 per diluted share, for the same period of 2010.


Products revenues grew 24% year-over-year and 23% from the previous quarter. The company's customer count is now over 5,000 worldwide, an increase in the installed base of approximately 9% from the end of the prior quarter.


"We are pleased with our performance this quarter. We achieved record revenues, surpassed 5,000 customers, and expanded our international footprint, further strengthening our competitive position," said Ihab Abu-Hakima, president and chief executive officer of Meru Networks. "We believe the demand for our platforms further validates our ability to meet the challenges of density, diversity and cost for environments where uncompromising wireless services are essential. We are well positioned to capitalize on what we believe will be inevitable shifts as organizations strive to support the onslaught of wireless devices and meet the expectation of ubiquitous WiFi access by mobile users." http://www.merunetworks.com/

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U.K. Arrests LulzSec's Spokesman -- Topiary

The U.K.'s Metropolitan Police Service arrested a 19-year-old man in the Shetland Islands who is believed to be "Topiary." a spokesman for the hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSec. Another 17-year-old male is being interviewed under caution in connection with the inquiry. He has not been arrested.


Earlier on Wednesday, LulzSec issued a communiqué blasting PayPal, as well as the FBI, while claiming that the group's activity is not comparable to malicious botnets and should not be considered a cyber crime.http://bit.ly/mUVhpq

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Polaris Wireless Offers Software-based Mass Location Tools for Law Enforcement

Polaris Wireless introduced its "Altus" suite of applications for law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. The new software-based surveillance tools, which are powered by Polaris Wireless Location Signatures (Polaris WLS) technology, enable accurate mass location – providing law enforcement with the ability to simultaneously locate all subscribers in a wireless network in real time and on a historical basis.


Polaris Wireless said its unique capabilities enable functions, such as target identification, tracking via geo-fence, and post-event analytics, which are vital to the anti-crime and anti-terrorism surveillance efforts of Polaris Wireless customers in the Middle East/Africa, and Asia-Pacific regions.


"Altus enables government agencies to take a major leap forward in their efforts to locate and track known and suspected criminals and terrorists," said Mahesh Patel, senior vice president of surveillance applications at Polaris Wireless. "The Altus application suite offers high-availability and high-reliability carrier-grade infrastructure to meet the mission-critical needs of law enforcement and intelligence agencies."


Using the basic Altus application, customers can create a custom geo-fenced area and locate all subscribers in it, as well as receive alerts when designated targets enter or exit the geo-fence. The geo-fenced area can be identified in real time or at a specified time in the past, enabling government agencies to perform critical post-event analytics to discover, for example, which subscribers were in the vicinity of a busy downtown intersection during the hours before a terrorist event occurred.


Altus now offers an enhanced graphical user interface (GUI), including advanced geographic mapping capabilities powered by Esri's GIS (geographic information systems) mapping software. The enhanced GUI introduces multi-color display and animated icons, providing a more intuitive and productive user experience. Altus also includes standardized APIs to enable easy integration with other surveillance solutions and lawful intercept systems. Polaris Wireless plans to expand the Altus application suite with the ability to assess risks based on multiple inputs, including user identity, call logs, and social data. http://www.polariswireless.com

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Sprint Inks New Cell Site Agreement with Crown Castle

Sprint and Crown Castle announced a new agreement to enable the delivery of the next-generation networks through Sprint's Network Vision plan. The agreement impacts more than 10,000 of Sprint's nationwide cell sites.


The new deal agreement:

• Establishes uniform rates for deploying all Network Vision sites rather than negotiating tower contracts on a site-by-site basis. This provides a high degree of cost predictability to Sprint as its network evolves and grows.



• Provides Sprint with the flexibility it needs to deploy next-generation technologies and to affect its future migration from iDEN.


Could enable a quicker deployment of Network Vision by allowing Sprint to operate existing equipment simultaneously with the new Network Vision equipment for a period of time to ensure a smooth transition for customers.

"We are pleased to reach this agreement with Crown Castle as we evolve our networks to meet the needs of our growing customer base," said John Harrison, Sprint vice president, network supplier performance management. "We look forward to a continued relationship as we roll out Network Vision sites nationwide."

Sprint said it is working with its vendors to plan, test and begin site preparations for Network Vision. In the lab, calls have successfully been completed on 800 MHz 1x voice, 1x data and SMS. Nineteen hundred calls on MHz 1x voice, 1x data, SMS and EVDO have also been completed. Work has begun on thousands of sites and renegotiation of existing contracts with tower companies is an important step in launching these sites later this year.


Crown Castle owns, operates and manages over 22,000 and approximately 1,600 wireless communication sites in the US and Australia, respectively. http://www.sprint.com http://www.crowncastle.com

• In December 2010, Sprint unveiled its "Network Vision" for consolidating its infrastructure and spectrum into a single, more cost-effective and flexible network. Sprint also announced the selection of Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Samsung as key partners to enable this transformation.
  
  
  The key idea behind Sprint's "Network Vision" is to operate a single network. Sprint currently uses separate equipment to deploy services on 800 MHz spectrum, 1.9 GHz spectrum and, through its relationship with Clearwire, 2.5 GHz spectrum. The New Vision blueprint calls for the deployment of multimode base stations for delivering 3G/4G services across all of these bands. New remote radio heads at the cell sites would be connected with fiber rather than coaxial risers. The consolidated cell site would be significantly more energy-efficient.
  
  
  Sprint intends to repurpose some of its 800MHz spectrum for CDMA service, thereby enhancing coverage, particularly the in-building experience for customers. Augmenting its 1.9GHz footprint with 800MHz, Sprint expects its CDMA coverage density will increase throughout the country.
  
  
  Regarding its iDEN network and push-to-talk, Sprint expects to launch the next-generation of PTT services in 2011 on the CDMA network, offering customers sub-second call set-up time along with robust data capabilities. There are no immediate plans to force migrate iDEN customers to the CDMA network, but Sprint expects its PTT device/app portfolio on the CDMA network will continue to evolve to include high-bandwidth data services.
  
  
  "Network Vision builds on our legacy of wireless innovation and represents the next step in the evolution of our networks to best meet unprecedented growth in mobility services. We are well- positioned to take advantage of new technology, chipsets, devices and applications. Working with these three partners, we expect to deliver to our customers the most cutting-edge network capabilities available today and in the future."
  
  
  The financial impact of the Network Vision plan includes a total, estimated incremental cost over the deployment period to be between $4 billion and $5 billion. Sprint estimates the total net financial benefit over a seven-year period will be between $10 billion and $11 billion.
  
  
  The vendor contracts with Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Samsung includes purchases of hardware, software and services. These contracts are divided geographically:
  
  
  Alcatel-Lucent: New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C./Baltimore and Los Angeles
  
  
  Ericsson: Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Kansas City and Dallas
  
  
  Samsung: Chicago, Denver, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Seattle.

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Crown Castle Raises 2011 Outlook

Crown Castle International Corp.'s Q2 revenue increased 10% to $500 million from $456 million in the same period in 2010. Site rental revenue for the second quarter of 2011 increased $47 million, or 12%, to $457 million from $410 million for the same period in the prior year. Site rental gross margin, defined as site rental revenue less site rental cost of operations, increased $42 million, or 14%, to $336 million in the second quarter of 2011 from $294 million in the same period in 2010. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2011 increased $40 million, or 14%,to $320 million from $280 million in the same period in 2010.


"We had an excellent second quarter, exceeding the high-end of our Outlook for site rental revenue, site rental gross margin, Adjusted EBITDA and recurring cash flow," stated Ben Moreland, President and Chief Executive Officer. "As reflected in our results, we enjoyed solid growth in our core business, driven largely by the evolution to 4G networks and the continued growth in mobile Internet use. This growth in our core business resulted primarily from amendment activity from existing tenants. Further, the contribution from our services business exceeded our expectations. Based on our strong second quarter results and our expectations for the remainder of 2011, we have raised our full year 2011 Outlook."


Crown Castle owns, operates and manages over 22,000 and approximately 1,600 wireless communication sites in the US and Australia, respectively. http://www.crowncastle.com/

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New Pluggable Transceiver Module Multi-Source Agreement for 40 Gbps

Leading optical chip manufacturers, including Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, OKI SEMICONDUCTOR, Opnext, Renesas Electronics, and Sumitomo Electric Industries, announced a transmitter optical sub-assembly (TOSA) and receiver optical sub-assembly (ROSA) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) for 40 Gbps pluggable transceiver modules.


The new TOSA/ROSA MSA defines both the laser transmitter devices and the PIN Photodiode - Trans-impedance amplifier (PIN-TIA) receiver devices that comply with 40 Gbps interface standards. The MSA targets transmission modules for more than 10 km applications.


"The TOSA/ROSA agreement will leverage the 40 Gbps market to achieve compact, low-power-consumption pluggable modules, which will provide advanced 40 Gbps serial solutions to high capacity network and storage systems," said an MSA Committee spokesperson. In the future, the MSA will continue to define specifications that consider future advanced technologies, such as 1310 nm light source devices and direct modulation lasers. http://www.cfp-msa.org/http://www.xlmdmsa.org/

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Verizon Partners with Dept. of Energy

Verizon will collaborate with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop new ways to reduce energy use in the information and communications technology industry. Specifically, Verizon will work with the laboratory on a possible blueprint for reducing energy use throughout the information and communications technology industry.


The collaboration targets several areas:


Energy efficiency and energy management at Verizon's buildings and facilities, including data centers.


Advancement of smart grid technologies and best practices, including energy and communication technologies in homes and buildings.


"Innovation and application of energy-saving technologies in a way that makes sense in the marketplace are vital to improving the nation's economy and environment," said Dan Arvizu, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "NREL's collaboration with Verizon offers a variety of possibilities for using clean energy and improving energy efficiency in a large and meaningful way." http://www.verizon.com http://www.nrel.gov

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IEEE 802.22 Whitespaces Spec Supports 22 Mbps up to 100km

The IEEE published the 802.22 standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs) using the favorable transmission characteristics of the VHF and UHF TV bands. 802.22 enables broadband wireless access over a large area up to 100 km from the transmitter. The standard specifies up to 22 Mbps per channel without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations, using the so-called white spaces between the occupied TV channels.


IEEE 802.22 incorporates advanced cognitive radio capabilities including dynamic spectrum access, incumbent database access, accurate geolocation techniques, spectrum sensing, regulatory domain dependent policies, spectrum etiquette, and coexistence for optimal use of the available spectrum. Some key characteristics:

• It operates generally in the 54-862 MHz range. For the United States, it specifies the following VHF / UHF Bands54 – 60, 76 – 88, 174 – 216, 470 - 608 and 614 –698 MHz => Total of 282 MHz or 47 Channels.



• Network Topology – Point-to-Multipoint (PMP)



• Max EIRP and Cell Radius – Fixed BS and Fixed Subscribers using 4W EIRP, Cell Radius 10 – 100 km. Portable Subscribers Station Supported. (Higher power BS allowed in other countries)



• Tx / Rx antenna – BS uses sectorized or omni-directional antenna. At the subscriber Tx /Rx antenna is directional with 14 dB of front-to-back lobe suppression



• Sensing antenna - Requires horizontal and vertical polarization sensitivities to sense TV and microphone signals respectively, with omni-directional pattern.



• Geo-location - GPS based geo-location is mandatory, but terrestrial geo-location (triangulation) is supported.



• PHY Transport - 802.22 uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) as transport mechanism. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is used in the UL.



• Modulation - QPSK, 16-QAM and 64-QAM supported.



• QoS – Various types of QoS services are supported (See below). ARQ supported. Uni-cast, Multi-cast and broadcast services are supported.

The IEEE expects 802.22 to be most suitable for less densely populated areas, such as rural areas, and developing countries where most vacant TV channels can be found.


Additional information on the standard can be found at the IEEE 802.22 WG page. http://www.ieee802.org/22/

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Artelis Deploys ADVA's FSP 3000

artelis, an alternative communications provider in Luxembourg and Saarland, Germany, has deployed the ADVA FSP 3000 in a new backbone infrastructure that effectively unites its separate networks onto one flexible core. Built on over 30 ADVA FSP 3000 units, artelis' new core network primarily consists of two high-availability ring structures and a redundant interconnection to an Internet peering point in Frankfurt, Germany. Each FSP 3000 unit features 40 channels transporting 10Gbit/s per wavelength. These channels will be upgraded to 100Gbit/s as customer demand requires. Each node on the network includes ROADM technology that enables artelis to seamlessly switch wavelengths without manual intervention, ensuring that OPEX costs are kept low. In addition to ROADMs, the new core network also features RAMAN amplification along the fiber routes between Saarland and Frankfurt, Germany. The network integrator for the project was Nokia Siemens Networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Founded in 2006, with the merger of Cegecom S.A. in Luxembourg and VSE NET GmbH in Saarlad, artelis has a broad range of enterprise customers, including banks, government institutions and healthcare organizations. Many of these customers need to transport mission-critical data and require network solutions capable of responding to strict security demands. Additionally, artleis also works with a number of regional network operators. By combining its separate networks onto one core infrastructure, artelis now has the network capacity and flexibility to provision new services and scale to meet future bandwidth growth. http://www.advaoptical.com

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Dell'Oro: $11 Billion Market for Optical Transport DWDM by 2015

Total worldwide Optical DWDM equipment revenue is forecast to grow at a 12% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next 5 years, reaching $11 billion, according to a newly released Optical Transport forecast report by Dell'Oro Group. Demand for high capacity wavelengths will drive up 40/100 Gbps DWDM shipments to an average annual growth rate of 50%.


"We're projecting a very strong market for both 40 and 100 gigabit DWDM," said Jimmy Yu, Sr. Director of Optical Transport research at Dell'Oro Group. "In fact, we have raised our forecast of both 40 and 100 gigabit because the demand for high-speed interconnects continues to exceed our expectations. The adoption of 100 gigabit is occurring faster than that of 40 gigabit, driving revenues to nearly $1 billion by 2013 and $2 billion by 2015. We believe 40 gigabit will also maintain its momentum through the forecast period since it's likely to sustain a competitive price advantage in ultra long haul spans," added Mr. Yu. http://www.delloro.com

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