Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Some Industry Reaction

Sprint: "The DOJ today delivered a decisive victory for consumers, competition and our country. By filing suit to block AT&T's proposed takeover of T-Mobile, the DOJ has put consumers' interests first. Sprint applauds the DOJ for conducting a careful and thorough review and for reaching a just decision – one which will ensure that consumers continue to reap the benefits of a competitive U.S. wireless industry. Contrary to AT&T's assertions, today's action will preserve American jobs, strengthen the American economy, and encourage innovation." --


CWA Union: "-The decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to seek to block the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA is simply wrong. In today's sinking economy, where millions of Americans are looking for work, the DOJ has decided to oppose a merger that will create as many as 96,000 quality jobs. In the U.S., where too many Americans, especially in rural areas, don't have access to the tools of Internet technology, the DOJ has determined that a plan to build out high speed wireless access to 97 percent of the country should be opposed."


FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski: "Competition is an essential component of the
FCC's statutory public interest analysis, and although our process is not complete, the record before
this agency also raises serious concerns about the impact of the proposed transaction on
competition."


FCC Commissioner Michael Copps: "Today's announcement shows a Department of Justice taking its pro-competitive responsibilities seriously. I share the concerns about competition and have numerous other
concerns about the public interest effects of the proposed transaction, including consumer choice
and innovation."


COMPTEL: ""COMPTEL is thankful the Department of Justice recognized the substantially negative impact this merger would have on competition and has taken the appropriate action of filing an antitrust lawsuit to block AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile." Jerry James, CEO of COMPTEL.


Rural Telecommunications Group: "DOJ's pre-Labor Day decision (less than 4 months after AT&T filed to acquire T-Mobile) shows that there is no question that this merger would have been bad for rural America, rural consumers, and rural carriers. AT&T pulled out all of the stops to get this deal done and failed. RTG applauds the DOJ for allowing wireless competition to live to see another day and to allow T-Mobile to continue to innovate and be the low price alternative to AT&T and Verizon. The jobs that have been saved today and the competition that has been preserved across the United States will go a long way to help the U.S. economy." -- RTG's General Counsel, Carri Bennet.


Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.): "The Justice Department's decision to take action to block AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile is a victory for competition, consumers and choice. We should be protecting American consumers holding their cell phones, not just telecommunications titans holding stock in the companies."http://www.convergedigest.com

DOCOMO and KT Share Android Content

NTT DOCOMO and KT agreed to share content for Android smartphones. DOCOMO has begun offering KT-provided content on its mobile Internet portal in Japan. The initial lineup comprises 30 titles of Android content now popular in South Korea, including action games and puzzles, utility apps for translation, travel etc., and live wallpapers featuring supercars in action. In South Korea, KT plans to offer about 20 titles of DOCOMO-provided content via its content and application store, "olleh market," by the end of 2011.
http://www.ntt.co.jphttp://www.kt.com

Ericsson expands Managed Services capabilities in China

Ericsson has opened a new global network operations center (GNOC) in China, adding to the three existing global network operations centers located in Romania, India and Mexico. Ericsson's Global Service Center (GSC) in India now employs more than 5,000 service professionals and houses the world's largest GNOC.


Ericsson noted that it is currently managing networks serving more than 800 million subscribers, and more than half of these subscribers are served through its global NOCs.
http://www.ericsson.com

Chunghwa Telecom Selects Alcatel-Lucent's Packet Transport Switch

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom has selected Alcatel-Lucent's Packet Transport Network solution to upgrade the SDH infrastructure currently supporting its mobile network. The upgrade will use the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 Transport Service Switch. Alcatel-Lucent also noted it Chunghwa Telecom have already conducted a successful 4G LTE field trial.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

AT&T to Challenge DOJ Decision in Court

AT&T expressed surprise and dismay at the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to block its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA. AT&T is seeking an expedited court hearing.


Wayne Watts, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, stated:

"At the end of the day, we believe facts will guide any final decision and the facts are clear. This merger will:

* Help solve our nation's spectrum exhaust situation and improve wireless service for millions.

* Allow AT&T to expand 4G LTE mobile broadband to another 55 million Americans, or 97% of the population;

* Result in billions of additional investment and tens of thousands of jobs, at a time when our nation needs them most."http://www.att.com

Department of Justice Blocks AT&T + T-Mobile Merger

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. to block AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile. The DOJ said it will block the deal because the merger would result in "tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for their mobile wireless services."


The acquisition, which was valued at US$39 in cash and stock when it was announced on March 20, 2011, reportedly carries a break-up fee of $6 billion in cash, spectrum and services that AT&T must pay to Deutsche Telekom if it is not completed.


In announcing its decision, the DOJ noted that AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile would eliminate a company that has been a disruptive force through low pricing and innovation by competing aggressively as the "the No. 1 value challenger." The DOJ also expressed concern that further market concentration would make it even more difficult for regional providers who already face significant competitive limitations stemming from their lack of national networks.


AT&T is the second largest mobile operator in the U.S. with approximately 98.6 million connections to wireless devices. T-Mobile USA is the fourth-largest mobile operator in the U.S. with approximately 33.6 million wireless connections to wireless devices.


In conclusion, the DOJ said it was not convinced by AT&T's arguments that the proposed transaction would yield efficiencies benefiting consumers and outweighing adverse impacts on competition. The key finding was that AT&T could achieve the same network power and reach by deploying its own infrastructure rather than by eliminating a competitor.


"T-Mobile has been an important source of competition among the national carriers, including through innovation and quality enhancements such as the roll-out of the first nationwide high-speed data network," said Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. "Unless this merger is blocked, competition and innovation will be reduced, and consumers will suffer."


The 22-page complaint is online.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/August/11-at-1118.htmlhttp://www.justice.gov/opa/documents/Justice-ATT-TMobile-Complaint.pdf

Dell'Oro: Microwave Radio Market Shows Rapid Growth in Q2

The number of point-to-point microwave radio transceiver shipments grew 30% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2011, and is projected to reach 1.6 million shipments for the full year, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group.

"Point-to-point microwave is in high demand," said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Microwave Transmission research at Dell'Oro Group. "Demand for microwave has increased in all of the major regions, especially Europe where sales have increased 58 percent year-over-year. The equipment manufacturers that benefited the most from the surge in demand were Huawei, Ericsson, and NEC. All three vendors enjoyed shipment growth rates higher than 40 percent year-http://www.delloro.com

AT&T Prices LTE Android Tablet at $700 with 2-year Plan

AT&T will begin selling the HTC Jetstream 4G LTE/HSPA+ tablet on September 4th for $699.99 with a new two-year contract. AT&T is offering 3GB per month for $35 with the two-year contract.


The HTC tablet features a 10.1" HD display, Snapdragon 1.5 GHz dual core processor and front and rear facing cameras. The Jetstream is HTC's first tablet running on the Android™ 3.1 (Honeycomb) operating system which was specifically built for tablets. http://

Ericsson Introduces Smart Services Routers Family

Ericsson formally announced its SSR 8000 family of Smart Services Routers (SSR )for both fixed and mobile networks.


The SSR, which the company highlighted at MWC earlier this year, is being developed by Ericsson Silicon Valley (formerly Redback) and runs the Ericsson IP Operating System. The Smart Services Router (SSR) is being positioned as a "multi-application" platform for advanced services on both fixed access and broadband wireless access. Specific blades will deliver processing power for applications, including: video (caching), mobility (mobile gateway), business and residential services with powerful DPI and policy enforcement.


The Ericsson SSR 8000 family of Smart Services Routers, includes:




  • Ericsson SSR 8020, Smart Services Router, 20 slots, 16 Tbps system with 400G full-duplex slots combined with leading density (e.g. up to 800x1G or 200x10G ports)

  • Ericsson SSR 8010, Smart Services Router, 10 slots

  • Ericsson SSR 8006, Smart Services Router, 6 slots


The Ericsson SSR 8020 will ship at the end of 2011. Other Smart Services Routers will be available next year.


"To enable a truly Networked Society, operators must effectively manage an ever-increasing traffic volume and a diverse pool of applications and end-user devices. The network must not only be able to handle a tremendous volume of data, it must also address an unprecedented level of signaling traffic," said Jan Häglund, Head of Product Area IP & Broadband, Ericsson. http://www.ericsson.com