BT's Openreach Expands its FTTP Ambitions to 300 Mbps

Openreach, the wholesale access division of the BT Group, launched its initial 110 Mbps Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) service and announced plans to boost this capacity to 300 Mbps starting next year. The company's first commercial FTTP connections are launching in Ashford in Middlesex, Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes, Highams Park in North London, Chester South, St Austell and York this month. Trials of 1 Gbps connections are also underway.


Openreach also revealed a third boost for broadband speeds by saying it now has approval from the relevant authorities to roughly double the speeds delivered by Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) broadband. This development will see FTTC downstream speeds roughly double from up to 40Mbps to up to 80Mbps.


The network upgrade is part of the company's £2.5 billion initiative to make fibre broadband available to two thirds of UK premises by the end of 2015. Openreach reports that more than five million premises already have access to the network.


“Today is a significant step in the UK's broadband journey. These developments will transform broadband speeds across the country and propel the UK up the broadband league tables,�? stated Openreach chief executive Liv Garfield.
http://www.openreach.co.ukhttp://www.bt.co.uk

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Huawei Launches Enterprise Business group in the U.S.

Huawei has opened a third major division to serve the U.S. market.


The Huawei Enterprise Business group will deliver a broad product portfolio and solutions, including teleconferencing, switches and enterprise-class routers, to channel partner (VARs, Distributors, System Integrators and via Carriers as a channel.) Huawei and its channel partners will also focus on vertical segments. Solutions will include campus networks, branch access, IP backbone, Data Center and Video Conferencing.


Huawei's other two U.S. divisions are focused on Devices and telecom infrastructure.


"Huawei is uniquely positioned to combine our growing device expertise and market presence with our traditional telecommunications infrastructure products and services solutions with emerging leadership in open-application-based cloud computing and mass storage solutions," said Karen Yu, President of Huawei's Enterprise business in the U.S. "Success in our Enterprise business will focus on nurturing an open, interoperable and partner-based ecosystem to ensure long-term and maximum value for our channel partners and their enterprise customers."http://www.huawei.com

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Microsoft Signs Big Players for Xbox 360 LIVE Entertainment Service

Microsoft unveiled its Xbox 360 online entertainment service boasting content and support from nearly 40 leading TV partners, including Bravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K., Telefónica in Spain; Rogers On Demand in Canada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and MediaSet in Italy. Content providers already on the Xbox include AT&T, Netflix and Hulu Plus in the U.S., TELUS in Canada, BSkyB in the U.K., Canal+ in France, Vodafone Portugal, VimpelCom in Russia, and FOXTEL in Australia.


Xbox 360 aims for seamless, living room entertainment integrating gaming, music, live TV and video-on-demand using a common interface and controlled by remotes, voice or Microsoft's exclusive Kinnect technology.


Xbox LIVE currently has 35 million members worldwide who spend 2.1 billion hours a month on the service. Microsof said the service has seen three times the growth in video consumption last year.


"Today's announcement is a major step toward realizing our vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy,�? said Don Mattrick, president of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “Combining the world's leading TV and entertainment providers with the power of Kinect for Xbox 360* and the intelligence of Bing voice search will make TV and entertainment more personal, social and effortless."


"Microsoft and Verizon share a common vision to transform the ways people enjoy and interact with the entertainment they want — what Verizon calls the borderless lifestyle,�? said Eric Bruno, vice president of consumer and mass business product management for Verizon. “FiOS TV on the Xbox 360 is an excellent example of how we're working with market leaders to erase old technology borders to expand the FiOS TV experience and taking advantage of unique new features including voice- and gesture-control of live TV entertainment via Kinect. This holiday, Verizon will bring a selection of popular live TV channels to Xbox 360 and will be a leader in delivering live, multichannel streaming HD TV, integrated with Kinect, via Xbox."http://www.microsoft.com

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Acme Packet Updates Financial Guidance

Acme Packet updated its financial guidance saying it now expects Q3 revenues to be approximately $70 million, with earnings per share on a non-GAAP1basis to be between $0.20 and $0.22.


The company reaffirmed its previous business outlook for 2011.


"While we remain confident in our second half growth plans, our third quarter results were adversely impacted by a very large opportunity at one of the two largest service providers in North America.�? said Andy Ory, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acme Packet, Inc. “We now expect this opportunity to close in the first half of the fourth quarter and we remain confident in our ability to execute on our full year business outlook. I continue to believe we are well positioned to leverage the broad, multi-year, secular growth drivers associated with the global transition from TDM to IP for real time communications like voice and video."


Acme Packet was recently selected as the session border controller supplier for a major universal voice platform at this Tier-1 service provider in the United States. This platform is initially designed to support the existing customer's "over-the-top" and wireline service offerings and will become a key infrastructure component to their Voice over LTE offering. http://www.acmepacket.com

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Bridgewater Wins LTE Policy Project in Puerto Rico

Open Mobile, a leading mobile operator in Puerto Rico, has selected the Bridgewater policy and subscriber network control solution, for its new LTE network. The Bridgewater solution will enable Open Mobile, a Bridgewater customer since 2007, to rapidly launch new LTE data services such as the creation of volume-based packages with pre-set quotas, real-time subscriber redirection to top-up service quotas, and roaming controls to manage data usage and prevent mobile bill shock. The solution will also allow Open Mobile to manage and monetize mobile data with real-time policy control and improve subscriber transparency with dynamic notifications when service quotas are reached.


Bridgewater is now a division of Amdocs. http://www.amdocs.com http://www.openmobilepr.com

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IBM and Crocus Develop Next Generation Magnetic Memory Technology

IBM and Crocus Technology have entered into a cross licensing agreement to spur the development of magnetic memory technology.
The partnership brings together Crocus' thermally assisted next generation Magnetic-Logic-Unit (MLU) technology with IBM's magneto-resistive random access memory (MRAM) technology and processing capabilities.


Crocus' MLU, which was first announced by Crocus in June 2011, is based on a self-reference architecture and enables practical implementation of advanced magnetic logic and memory capabilities, a first for the industry.


IBM's MRAM technology promises significant advantages over competing memory technologies including low power usage, high speed, unlimited endurance (read and write cycles), and inherent non-volatility meaning data can be retained even if power is discontinued. MRAM has the potential to enable "instant-on" computers and longer battery life for mobile computing devices. http://www.ibm.com http://www.crocus-technology.com

• In June 2009, Crocus Technology, a start-up with offices in Grenoble, France and Sunnyvale, California, announced a major milestone in its efforts to develop Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). Tower Semiconductor will port Crocus' MRAM process technology into its CMOS manufacturing environment. As part of the exclusive agreement, Tower will perform all manufacturing steps required for Crocus' next-generation MRAM technology in its state-of-the-art 200mm Fab2 facility. Tower and Crocus will each dedicate specific equipment in Tower's factory to the manufacture of Crocus' MRAMs.
  
  
  Crocus' co-founder and CEO, Jean-Pierre Braun, said MRAM is particularly suitable for telecommunication, networking, computing and handheld applications that currently use SRAM and/or flash memory technology. MRAM provides non-volatile, unlimited-write-endurance, high-density, and symmetrical high-speed read & write.
  
  
  Crocus has developed a robust, reliable and scalable MRAM process based on its patented technology. It has seen improving yield and performance on its full-functionality 130nm MRAM test vehicle and is ready for the transition to commercial manufacturing. The integration into Tower's copper 130nm logic process sets the stage for bringing to market leading edge single chip memory products as well as for embedding MRAM into complex SOCs for market segments such as microcontrollers , automotive and communications.

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Gigamon Shows Inline Switch for Monitoring 10G Networks

Gigamon introduced a new switch that enables intelligent distribution and management of traffic within Enterprise DMZs.


The G-SECURE-0216 Inline Traffic Distribution Switch is able to receive traffic at up to 10 Gb and intelligently distributes it to different 1 Gb security tools (up to 8 in parallel), such as IPS, firewall, DPI devices, NACs or Web Filters. Integration of both session-based and application-based intelligence allows security teams to distribute traffic loads based upon IP or MAC addresses, as well as by application port number. http://www.gigamon.com

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