LTE in Latin America-- First Sites Likely to be Colombia and Puerto Rico

Ericsson expects the first commercial deployments of LTE in Latin America to occur this year, starting in Puerto Rico and Colombia. The first live LTE trial that Ericsson held in the region was with Entel PCS in Chile in January 2010. Since then, Ericsson has also demonstrated LTE with Telecom Personal in Argentina, in June 2010, and most recently with Orange Dominicana in the Dominican Republic in April 2011. http://www.ericsson.com/news/110818_lte_latin_america_caribbean_244188809_c

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Brocade Reports Flat Performance -- Cites Headwinds for IT

Brocade reported quarterly revenue of $503 million, representing flat revenue performance year-over-year and resulting in breakeven diluted earnings per share (EPS) on a GAAP basis and $0.09 on a non-GAAP basis. The results are consistent with the anticipated ranges it provided on August 5, 2011.


Revenue for Brocade's Storage business, including product and services was $334.3 million in the third quarter, down 6% year-over-year. The lower revenue for Storage reflects a reduction in the third quarter of approximately one-half week of Fibre Channel inventory held at the OEMs, representing approximately $24 million. In addition, the Company experienced weaker-than-expected Storage end-user demand, which was down approximately 1% from the previous quarter.


Revenue for Brocade's Ethernet business was $168.5 million in the third quarter, an increase of 13% year-over-year. The year-over-year growth in Ethernet was driven primarily by Service Provider and Enterprise customers, with revenues from those customers up 28% from the prior year. The Federal Ethernet business was down 33% year-over-year, but up 32% sequentially, as Federal spending improved in the third quarter.


"Headwinds in the IT market, federal spending, and overall global economy made for a challenging quarter for the company," said Michael Klayko, CEO of Brocade. "While we are doing well in areas such as our Ethernet business including the adoption and deployment of Ethernet fabric solutions, we recognize that there are opportunities to optimize and improve our business. We have already taken, and will continue to take, important steps to generate growth, improve our profitability and make ourselves more efficient. Our goal is to ensure that our resources and priorities are well-aligned with our go-forward strategies for long-term success in the networking industry." http://www.brocade.com

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HP to Exit WebOS and PC Businesses, Double Down on Enterprise Services

HP announced a strategic plan to enter into higher value, higher margin growth categories by sharpening its focus on cloud, solutions and software for enterprises and government customers. Key aspects of the plan include:

• Explore strategic alternatives for the company's Personal Systems Group, including a spin-off or sale of the division. PSG is the leading manufacturer of personal computers in the world and had annual revenues of approximately $41 billion in fiscal year 2010. For its most recent quarter, Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue declined 3% year over year with a 5.9% operating margin. PSG remains the PC market leader in terms of units, revenue and profit share. For comparison, margins for HP's Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking group are 13% and margins for HP's Software group are 19.4%



• Discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. The TouchPad entered the market only about a month ago, but sales have not met internal milestones and financial targets. HP is exploring the possible sale webOS software or intellectual property.



• Acquire Autonomy Corporation plc for £25.50 ($42.11) per share in cash, representing a one day premium of approximately 64 percent and a premium of approximately 58 percent to Autonomy's prior one month average closing price.



• Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) platform allows computers to harness the richness of information, forming a conceptual and contextual understanding of any piece of electronic data, including unstructured information, such as text, email, web pages, voice and video.
  
  "HP is taking bold, transformative steps to position the company as a leader in the evolving information economy. Today's announced plan will allow HP to drive creation of long-term shareholder value through a focus on fewer fronts, thereby improving its ability to execute, invest in innovation and drive a higher-margin business mix," stated Léo Apotheker, HP president and chief executive officer. http://www.hp.com

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Russia's Express AM4 Satellite Lost After Launch

The Russian Satellite Communications Company lost contact with the $265-million Express AM-4 satellite shortly after launch aboard a Proton-M rocket from Kazakhstan.


The Express AM4, based on Astrium's Eurostar E3000 satellite design, is the largest of the Express satellites so far. IT is equipped with a total of 63 active transponders in L-, C-, Ku- and Ka-bands and 10 antennas, both fixed and steerable. Its mission is to deliver digital TV, Internet and telecom services for eastern Russia. http://eng.rscc.ru/

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ZTE Establishes Resource Hub in India

ZTE announced the opening of a global experts resource hub in India. The facility will serve as a key technical resource provider for ZTE's operations and subsidiaries in other countries as the company continues to scale up its global growth. To date, 200 ZTE India employees have been deployed to company projects in Africa, Europe, Hungary, Turkey and the UAE. The company aims to have 2000 employees at the center in two years. http://wwwen.zte.com.cn

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Marvell Technology Posts 12% Sequential Rise in Revenue

Marvell Technology reported revenue of $898 million for its second quarter of fiscal 2012, ended July 30, 2011 -- a 12 percent sequential increase from $802 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012, ended April 30, 2011, and up slightly from $896 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2011, ended July 31, 2010. GAAP net income was $192 million, or $0.31 per share (diluted), for the second quarter of fiscal 2012, compared with GAAP net income of $147 million, or $0.22 per share (diluted) in the first quarter of fiscal 2012, and $220 million, or $0.33 per share (diluted), for the second quarter of fiscal 2011.


"We continue to execute well on all of our new product initiatives including in our Mobile and Wireless end market which grew 18% sequentially," said Dr. Sehat Sutardja, Marvell's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Our second quarter results were at the high-end of our earlier projected range and we experienced solid revenue growth in all our served end markets leading to increased profitability. Looking forward, we continue to focus our investments on initiatives designed to increase revenue and profit through both new products and share gains."


GAAP gross margin for the second quarter of fiscal 2012 was 57.9 percent, compared to 58.3 percent for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 and 59.1 percent for the second quarter of fiscal 2011. http://www.marvell.com

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Anritsu Adds OTU4 Mapping to 40/100G Ethernet Analyzer

Anritsu has added an OTU4 mapping option for its MD1260A 40/100G Ethernet Analyzer. This enables the instrument to conduct analysis for 40GE, 100GE, OTU3 and OTU4, providing manufacturers of telecommunications and transport equipment, as well as network operators with a single-instrument solution that can assure the quality of high-speed networks.


The new option allows the MD1260A to support GMP (Generic Mapping Procedure) mapping with Ethernet client signals at OTU4 rates for Gigabit Ethernet, 10GE and 100GE client signal types to evaluate if GMP mapping is being conducted properly. It also supports all error and alarm testing at OTU, ODU, GMP, GFP-T and client layers, as well as has a client-signal adjustable clock offset at OTN frame payload.


The new OTU4 mapping option has a U.S. price of $6,242. The base MD1260A analyzer is $124,844. http://www.anritsu.com

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China Mobile Tops 616 Million Users, 3G Rollout Underway

China Mobile, the world's largest operator, continued its rapid expansion in the first half of 2011 growing its customer base to over 616 million against the backdrop of China's steady and fast economic growth. However, the operator is facing slower growth ahead due to higher penetration rates across the country as well as intensified market competition.




Operating revenue for the six months ended 30 June 2011 reached RMB 250.1 billion, up 8.8% over the same period last year. The Group's profit margin reached 24.5%, and profit attributable to shareholders increased 6.3% over the same period last year to RMB61.3 billion. EBITDA rose 6.5% over the same period last year to RMB124.2 billion, with EBITDA margin reaching 49.6%. Basic earnings per share grew 6.3% over the same period last year to RMB3.05.


Revenue from the value-added business contributed 32.2% of operating revenue, reaching RMB 80.4 billion and up 18.5% over the same period last year. The Wireless Data business achieved revenue of RMB 19.3 billion, an increase of 42.8% over the same period last year.


Some notes from the semi-annual investor's presentation:

• Total customer base reached 616,787,000 up 11.3% over 554,042,000 at 30-June-2010.



• Voice usage was up 13.3% over last year. Minutes of Use (MOU) per user has reached 528 minutes.



• Wireless Data business revenue up 42.8%.



• Over 35 million 3G customers.



• China Mobile now has 800,000 base stations in operation, including 199,000 3G base stations in operation



• Total Voice Revenue reached RMB 169 billion, up 4.8% from a year ago.



• Market share in 3G customers reached 43.5%.

http://www.chinamobileltd.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Joins Broadband Project for Eastern Poland.

Alcatel-Lucent has signed an agreement with TP Group and HAWE SA to spur the rollout of broadband infrastructure in eastern Poland.


Poland has been granted almost € 1.5 billion for the development of broadband infrastructure in 2007-2013, including 300 million for the program "Broadband Network for Eastern Poland".


Under the agreement, Alcatel-Lucent, TP and HAWE will work with local governments to develop a model of EU funds absorption and implementation of ICT broadband projects, covering the phases of network design, construction and operation, addressing the needs of Eastern Poland "voivodships" (regional governments) and other selected regions in Poland. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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