Thursday, July 28, 2011

GSA Notes Rapid Growth in LTE Ecosystem

The Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) confirms that 45 manufacturers have announced 161 LTE-enabled user devices, representing 155% growth in the number of products reported by GSA in early February 2011.


Alan Hadden, President of GSA, said: "The majority of LTE user devices are focused on the 700 MHz band where LTE networks are developing fastest. As LTE rollouts accelerate in other regions, particularly in Europe and Asia Pacific, where operators will primarily be using 2600 MHz, 1800 MHz and digital dividend spectrum, we expect manufacturers will follow to support them with products for those markets."


The breakdown of LTE devices by form factor is as follows:


Modules = 29

Tablets = 8

Notebooks/netbooks = 10

PC Cards = 2

Smartphones = 8

Routers including personal hotspots = 63

USB modems/dongles = 41http://www.gsacom.com

Vodafone Wins 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz Spectrum in Spain

Vodafone Spain was the successful bidder on a total of 60 MHz of spectrum in Spain's auction. Specifically,Vodafone Spain bid successfully for a total of 20 MHz (2x10 MHz) in the 800 MHz band and 40 MHz (2x20MHz) in 2.6 GHz band for a total consideration of €518 million (£454 million1). The 800 MHz ‘digital dividend' spectrum will become available in 2014 after the switchover from analogue to all-digital TV broadcasting in Spain. The 2.6 GHz spectrum band is immediately available for use.


Additionally, Vodafone Spain received approval from the Spanish government to re-farm spectrum in the 900 MHz frequency band currently used for 2G services. The Company has already begun to deploy versatile single Radio Access Network (RAN) base stations designed to handle 2G, 3G and LTE technologies on a common shared platform.
http://www.vodafone.com

Huawei Opens R&D Center in New Jersey

Huawei announced the opening of its Northeast regional headquarters office in Bridgewater, New Jersey. In addition to sales, services, and operations to deliver on the company's customer-centric promise; the Bridgewater, NJ facility is also the North American Research & Development (R&D) hub for wireless technologies. The opening event was attended by New Jersey Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno.

Huawei noted that it now has nearly 1,500 U.S. employees, with over 110 employees in New Jersey.
http://www.huawei.com

Telefónica España Wins 70 MHz in Spectrum Auction

Telefónica Spain was the winning bidder on five blocks of frequencies (70 MHz total) in the spectrum auction conducted by Spain's Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade. This includes 2x10 MHz in the 800 MHz band, which the company plans to use for a nationwide LTE network. Additionally, Telefónica has secured 2x5 MHz in the 900 MHz band and 2x20 MHz in the 2.6 GHz band, enabling other broadband wireless services.


Telefónica bid 668 million euros, payable in two installments, September 2011 (53%) and June 2012 (47%). The spectrum licenses extends to December 31, 2030.


Telefónica España said it looks forward to launching LTE in September 2011. http://www.telefonica.com http://www.mityc.es/telecomunicaciones/es-ES/Paginas/index.aspx

Palo Alto Networks Appoints CEO, Notes $200 Million Run Rate

Palo Alto Networks, which supplies next-generation firewalls, has appointed Mark D. McLaughlin as president and CEO. McLaughlin previously served as president and CEO of VeriSign.


Palo Alto Networks also released several financial metrics , including that it has achieved a bookings run rate well above the US$200 million mark and that its cashflow from operations has been positive for five consecutive quarters. The company also noted that it has doubled its employee count over the past year and that to accommodate this growth, it has recently moved into a larger headquarters located in Santa Clara, California. http://www.paloaltonetworks.com

CA Technologies Acquires Watchmouse for SaaS-based Monitoring

CA Technologies agreed to acquire privately-held Watchmouse B.V., which provides SaaS-based monitoring for cloud, mobile and traditional Web applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.


WatchMouse uses a globally-distributed infrastructure of more than 60 monitoring stations in more than 40 countries. It replicates real-user transactions from these locations to provide rich, up-to-the-minute insight into application performance and availability.


"As companies extend more applications to their customers through the Web and smartphones, the performance of those applications is having a greater impact on revenue, customer loyalty and brand value," said David Dobson, executive vice president, CA Technologies. "By adding WatchMouse to our industry-leading portfolio of solutions for managing and monitoring IT, we are enabling these companies to better safeguard the performance of these customer-facing applications—so they can better safeguard the performance of their business."


CA said the WatchMouse solution will be sold as an add-on capability to the full-featured CA APM solution. Existing CA APM customers can further extend the value of the solution and gain even deeper visibility into end-to-end transaction performance, regardless of where their applications are running—in the data center, outside the firewall, in the cloud or from a MSP. For customer applications that do not require a comprehensive APM solution, WatchMouse provides a fast, easy and cost-effective way to understand the health, availability and end-user experience.
http://www.ca.com

Leading Carriers Submit USF/ICC Plan to FCC

A coalition of six of the leading carriers in the U.S., submitted a proposal to the FCC for reforming the Universal Service Fund (USF) and the Intercarrier Compensation (ICC) system. Members of the group include AT&T, CenturyLink, FairPoint, Frontier, Verizon and Windstream -- which collectively serve the vast majority of U.S. wireline customers, including those residing in high-cost rural areas, which are the primary focus of USF support.


The big telcos said the key aim of their proposal is to speed broadband deployment to more than 4 million Americans living in rural areas. They also announced an agreement with three organizations that represent small carriers on a framework for complementary reform. Joining the companies in support of reform are the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, the Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies and Western Telecommunications Alliance.


Core components of the proposal, called America's Broadband Connectivity Plan, include:


Focusing the Universal Service Fund on Broadband Deployment


Consistent with the National Broadband Plan, a new Connect America Fund (CAF) would transition the USF over five years to an exclusive focus on broadband deployment. Key features of the plan:



  • Connect virtually all Americans to broadband access within 5 years.

  • Do so without growing the $4.5 billion high-cost USF..

  • Target support to broadband deployment in areas where there is no business case for companies to provide service..

  • Promote efficiency by targeting support more precisely to identified high-cost areas, and supporting only one provider in each area.

  • "Broadband" is defined as a minimum of 4 mbps downstream and 768 kbps upstream (supporting robust education, health care and other applications).


Rationalizing an Outdated Intercarrier Compensation System


The proposal seeks to modernize intercarrier compensation to provide certainty, stability and a healthy foundation for growth to meet the needs of consumers.



  • Transition terminating intercarrier compensation to a low, uniform default rate of $0.0007 per minute over a five- to eight-year timeframe.


  • Eliminate, through new rules and lower access rates, costly arbitragescams that exploit today's outdated rules at the expense of broadband companies and consumers, as well as FCC resources, as the Commission chases after these fast-proliferating schemes.


"After years of debating and discussing how to update the universal service and intercarrier compensation programs for the broadband era, a workable framework has emerged," said Hank Hultquist, vice president, AT&T Federal Regulatory. "To truly bring broadband services to all Americans, the rules of the road for the black rotary phone desperately needed to be updated for today's competitive, high-speed communications networks. We look forward to continuing to work with policymakers, Congress and others to ensure we accomplish this important goal this year."


"This plan recommends significant federal regulatory reforms to achieve the goal of connecting more Americans to broadband," said Melissa Newman, vice president, CenturyLink Federal Regulatory Affairs. "The policy changes offered in this proposal also are necessary for bringing long-term stability and predictability to the nation's universal service program. We look forward to working with the FCC as it develops an order that ultimately will provide consumers with the support they need to connect to broadband and its many opportunities."


"This proposal modernizes the USF and ICC mechanisms as our industry migrates toward a broadband-oriented future," said Mike Rhoda, senior vice president, Windstream Government Affairs. "Importantly, the proposal provides an adequate transition period for carriers to move from the current structure to one that will meet the changing needs of telecommunications consumers and help close the rural-rural divide that has persisted under the existing flawed framework." http://www.windstream.com http://news.windstream.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1313"After years of debating and discussing how to update the universal service and intercarrier compensation programs for the broadband era, a workable framework has emerged," said Hank Hultquist, vice president, AT&T Federal Regulatory. "To truly bring broadband services to all Americans, the rules of the road for the black rotary phone desperately needed to be updated for today's competitive, high-speed communications networks. We look forward to continuing to work with policymakers, Congress and others to ensure we accomplish this important goal this year."

South Korea Internet Users Suffer Cyber Attack

Hackers have stolen personal account information from 35 million South Korean Internet users of the popular Nate portal and social network Cyworld, operated by SK Communications, according to the country's Communications Commission. The attack is believed to have originated from IP addresses registered in China. The incident is described as Korea's largest cyber attack to date. http://www.kcc.go.kr/user.do