UC Berkeley Turns to AT&T for Wi-Fi on Campus

At a time of reduced state funding, the University of California, Berkeley, is turning to AT&T to upgrade Wi-Fi across its 178 acre campus. Under the agreement, AT&T will expand and upgrade voice and data coverage in over 80 buildings and place additional Wi-Fi hotspots on campus and in surrounding areas. AT&T will also upgrade its mobile broadband network on campus.


"Improving our wireless network and extending mobile services within our buildings can be challenging initiatives, especially at a time when the campus has fewer resources," said Michael Mundrane, Deputy Chief Information Officer at UC Berkeley. "This unified effort is an example of what can be accomplished when institutions of higher learning collaborate with companies like AT&T to address students' needs."


Currently, UCB has around 1,500 Wi-Fi access points in operation. Under the 5-year deal with AT&T, all equipment and infrastructure that is not directly associated with AT&T's internal service delivery will be owned by UCB at the end of the contract. http://ist.berkeley.edu/att

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Celeno's Wi-Fi Silicon Implemented for Deutsche Telekom's IPTV

Celeno Communications' 802.11n silicon is being used to power Deutsche Telekom's Speedport W 102 Bridge, which is used to distribute the company's "Entertain" IPTV service wirelessly throughout the home. The Bridge can distribute the Entertain IPTV service on multiple set-top boxes (STBs) wirelessly, and to share multi-room digital video recorder (DVR) content wirelessly.


In addition, Celeno announced that iiNet, Australia's second largest DSL broadband provider, has selected Celeno-enabled Wi-Fi Ethernet bridges to support wireless delivery of its fast-growing IPTV services, including Video on Demand (VoD) and other interactive video applications.
http://www.celeno.com

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HickoryTech Acquires a Fiber Network in Fargo for $28 Million

HickoryTech agreed to acquire IdeaOne Telecom Group for $28 million in cash. IdeaOne operates a fiber network in Fargo, North Dakota that serves about 1,900 business customers and 1,700 residential customers. The acquisition will add 225 fiber route miles to HickoryTech's regional network. The fiber network facilities, which extend to 650 on-net fiber-lit buildings, include: multiple 10 GB fiber rings, Ethernet capabilities, soft-switching infrastructure, and colocation services. IdeaOne had fiscal 2010 revenue of $11.1 million.


HickoryTech's multi-state fiber network spans more than 3,250 route miles serving Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. Enventis provides IP-based voice and data solutions, MPLS networking, data center and managed hosted services and communication systems to businesses across a five-state region. HickoryTech delivers broadband Internet, Digital TV, voice and data services to businesses and consumers in southern Minnesota and northwest Iowa.
http://www.hickorytech.com

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MRV's CEO Resigns

Dilip Singh has resigned as CEO of MRV Communications. The company has named Chris King as interim CEO. King will continue to hold his current position CFO during this interim period. MRV's Board also announced that it has named Barry Gorsun as President and Chief Operating Officer of MRV Communications. Gorsun will also maintain his role as President of MRV's Optical Communications Systems (OCS) division.
http://www.mrv.com

• In October, Dr. Ken Shubin Stein resigned as chairman of MRV Communications. He was replaced by Board member Philippe Tartavull as interim chairman. The Board also announced that Dilip Singh resigned from the Board.



• Also in October, MRV reported third quarter 2011 revenue of $62.5 million, compared with revenue of $68.2 million last quarter and $66.1 million in the third quarter of 2010. The year-over-year decrease was attributable to a decline of $3.3 million in the company's Network Integration Group and, to a lesser degree, a decline of $0.7 million at its Network Equipment Group, offset by a decrease in intersegment sales between each of these two business units, which are eliminated in the company's consolidated reporting.

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Vitesse Reports Slower Sales in Latest Quarter

Vitesse Semiconductor reported revenue of $30.3 million for its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, a decline of 29.3% compared with $42.9 million reported for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010, and a decline of 15.7% compared with $36.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011.


Product revenues were $28.9 million, a 32.6% decrease from $42.8 million the same quarter in fiscal year 2010, and a 9.3% decrease from $31.9 million reported for the third quarter of fiscal year 2011. Revenues from licensing intellectual property were $1.5 million compared with $0.07 million in the same period a year ago, and $4.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011.


Carrier networking product revenues were $13.2 million, or 45.8% of net revenues, compared with $21.0 million, or 49.1%, from the prior year, and $14.8 million, or 46.4%, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011. Enterprise networking product revenues were $14.8 million, or 51.1% of net revenues, compared with $19.3 million, or 45.1%, a year ago, and $16.1 million, or 50.5%, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011. Non-core product revenues were $0.9 million, or 3.1% of net revenues, compared with $2.5 million, or 5.8% a year ago and $1.0 million, or 3.1%, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011.


"The industry wide slowdown and weak global demand, especially in the Asia Pacific region, impacted our business in the second half of the year. As a result, our fiscal year 2011 results were not as strong as we had anticipated,�? said Chris Gardner, CEO of Vitesse. “However, despite the lackluster demand environment, we made substantial progress in preparing for our new product cycle and positioning Vitesse for growth in 2012 and beyond."http://www.vitesse.com

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Reuters: Verizon Takes Aim at Netflix

Verizon is preparing to launch an over-the-top subscription video service to compete with Netflix, according to a report from Reuters. Verizon, which has not commented on the report, currently has about 5 million FiOS TV subscribers.


Verizon has recently begun streaming content to Microsoft Xbox consoles. It also recently began streaming a livesimulcast of the Longhorn Network – the 24/7 channel devoted to athletic programming and related activities at the University of Texas – and is making it available to Verizon FiOS TV customers across the country. http://www.reuters.com

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NSN Boosts CDMA Base Station by 3X

Nokia Siemens Networks is rolling out 1X Advanced technology, which can triple existing CDMA base station capacity when fully implemented. The upgrade will enable mobile operators to handle greater volumes of voice or data traffic in dense metros or to improve coverage.


Nokia Siemens Networks said 1X Advanced is also more energy efficienthttp://www.nsn.com

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Sprint's Network Vision is Underway -- First Multi-Mode Base Station Deployed

Sprint has deployed the first multi-mode base station as part of its Network Vision architecture. The new base station, which has been activated in Branchburg, New Jersey, is radiating multiple spectrum bands (1.9GHz and 800MHz) and powering both 1x and EVDO services. It is fully integrated with the existing network and performing as expected.


Under its Network Vision plan, Sprint intends to repurpose some of its 800MHz spectrum for Sprint 3G 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. More density generally equates to fewer dropped calls and a more seamless network experience for customers.


"Customers in Branchburg who are served off of this first cell site may already begin to notice improvements," said Bob Azzi, SVP Network for Sprint. “Months of planning and execution with our partners are resulting in performance improvements that more than meet our expectations. We're excited to begin sharing these improvements with our customers."


Sprint noted that its three year Network Vision rollout is expected to cost an incremental $4 billion to $5 billion and deliver $10 billion to $11 billion in net economic value to the company between 2011 and 2017, with a projected NPV of approximately $6 billion. The primary components of value come from reduced roaming, cell-site reduction, the elimination of dual networks, backhaul efficiencies, reduced churn, more efficient use of capital and energy cost savings.
http://www.sprint.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Expands its 100G Reach

Alcatel-Lucent announced a series of improvements to its single-carrier, 100G coherent technology that enables optical waves to travel up to 30% farther, even over poor quality fiber, while opening up many more use cases for 100G optical transport links.


The gains, which are achieved using improved signal processing algorithms developed by Bell Labs for overcoming impairments in the fiber, are being delivered in a 100G eXtended Reach (XR) card for the Alcatel-Lucent 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS). The platform is now able to transmit a combination of 10G, 40G and 100G rates on different wavelengths of an optical fiber for up to 2000 kilometers and beyond -- representing up to a 30 percent increase in reach.


Whereas initial deployments of 100G have been in point-to-point trunks over the highest quality fiber, the new card enables more complex use cases, include 100G over meshed topologies, "alien" lines where other vendors are present, or ultra long haul spans.


Australia's Nextgen Networks is one of the first customers.


"We currently have more than 40 customers using our current 100G single carrier, coherent optical solution and we've used this experience to create a premium offering with improved performance, well before our competitors have even delivered their first-generation product. We are encouraging the acceleration of 100G by alleviating the distance and underlying fiber barriers and allowing any service provider in the world to deploy 100G precisely where they need it, with no trade off in capacity," stated James Watt, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Optics Division.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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UC Berkeley Turns to AT&T for Wi-Fi on Campus

At a time of reduced state funding, the University of California, Berkeley, is turning to AT&T to upgrade Wi-Fi across its 178 acre campus. Under the agreement, AT&T will expand and upgrade voice and data coverage in over 80 buildings and place additional Wi-Fi hotspots on campus and in surrounding areas. AT&T will also upgrade its mobile broadband network on campus.


"Improving our wireless network and extending mobile services within our buildings can be challenging initiatives, especially at a time when the campus has fewer resources," said Michael Mundrane, Deputy Chief Information Officer at UC Berkeley. "This unified effort is an example of what can be accomplished when institutions of higher learning collaborate with companies like AT&T to address students' needs."


Currently, UCB has around 1,500 Wi-Fi access points in operation. Under the 5-year deal with AT&T, all equipment and infrastructure that is not directly associated with AT&T's internal service delivery will be owned by UCB at the end of the contract. http://ist.berkeley.edu/att

Read More

Celeno's Wi-Fi Silicon Implemented for Deutsche Telekom's IPTV

Celeno Communications' 802.11n silicon is being used to power Deutsche Telekom's Speedport W 102 Bridge, which is used to distribute the company's "Entertain" IPTV service wirelessly throughout the home. The Bridge can distribute the Entertain IPTV service on multiple set-top boxes (STBs) wirelessly, and to share multi-room digital video recorder (DVR) content wirelessly.


In addition, Celeno announced that iiNet, Australia's second largest DSL broadband provider, has selected Celeno-enabled Wi-Fi Ethernet bridges to support wireless delivery of its fast-growing IPTV services, including Video on Demand (VoD) and other interactive video applications.
http://www.celeno.com

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HickoryTech Acquires a Fiber Network in Fargo for $28 Million

HickoryTech agreed to acquire IdeaOne Telecom Group for $28 million in cash. IdeaOne operates a fiber network in Fargo, North Dakota that serves about 1,900 business customers and 1,700 residential customers. The acquisition will add 225 fiber route miles to HickoryTech's regional network. The fiber network facilities, which extend to 650 on-net fiber-lit buildings, include: multiple 10 GB fiber rings, Ethernet capabilities, soft-switching infrastructure, and colocation services. IdeaOne had fiscal 2010 revenue of $11.1 million.


HickoryTech's multi-state fiber network spans more than 3,250 route miles serving Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. Enventis provides IP-based voice and data solutions, MPLS networking, data center and managed hosted services and communication systems to businesses across a five-state region. HickoryTech delivers broadband Internet, Digital TV, voice and data services to businesses and consumers in southern Minnesota and northwest Iowa.
http://www.hickorytech.com

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MRV's CEO Resigns

Dilip Singh has resigned as CEO of MRV Communications. The company has named Chris King as interim CEO. King will continue to hold his current position CFO during this interim period. MRV's Board also announced that it has named Barry Gorsun as President and Chief Operating Officer of MRV Communications. Gorsun will also maintain his role as President of MRV's Optical Communications Systems (OCS) division.
http://www.mrv.com

• In October, Dr. Ken Shubin Stein resigned as chairman of MRV Communications. He was replaced by Board member Philippe Tartavull as interim chairman. The Board also announced that Dilip Singh resigned from the Board.



• Also in October, MRV reported third quarter 2011 revenue of $62.5 million, compared with revenue of $68.2 million last quarter and $66.1 million in the third quarter of 2010. The year-over-year decrease was attributable to a decline of $3.3 million in the company's Network Integration Group and, to a lesser degree, a decline of $0.7 million at its Network Equipment Group, offset by a decrease in intersegment sales between each of these two business units, which are eliminated in the company's consolidated reporting.

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Vitesse Reports Slower Sales in Latest Quarter

Vitesse Semiconductor reported revenue of $30.3 million for its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, a decline of 29.3% compared with $42.9 million reported for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010, and a decline of 15.7% compared with $36.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011.


Product revenues were $28.9 million, a 32.6% decrease from $42.8 million the same quarter in fiscal year 2010, and a 9.3% decrease from $31.9 million reported for the third quarter of fiscal year 2011. Revenues from licensing intellectual property were $1.5 million compared with $0.07 million in the same period a year ago, and $4.1 million in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011.


Carrier networking product revenues were $13.2 million, or 45.8% of net revenues, compared with $21.0 million, or 49.1%, from the prior year, and $14.8 million, or 46.4%, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011. Enterprise networking product revenues were $14.8 million, or 51.1% of net revenues, compared with $19.3 million, or 45.1%, a year ago, and $16.1 million, or 50.5%, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011. Non-core product revenues were $0.9 million, or 3.1% of net revenues, compared with $2.5 million, or 5.8% a year ago and $1.0 million, or 3.1%, in the third quarter of fiscal year 2011.


"The industry wide slowdown and weak global demand, especially in the Asia Pacific region, impacted our business in the second half of the year. As a result, our fiscal year 2011 results were not as strong as we had anticipated,�? said Chris Gardner, CEO of Vitesse. “However, despite the lackluster demand environment, we made substantial progress in preparing for our new product cycle and positioning Vitesse for growth in 2012 and beyond."http://www.vitesse.com

Read More

Reuters: Verizon Takes Aim at Netflix

Verizon is preparing to launch an over-the-top subscription video service to compete with Netflix, according to a report from Reuters. Verizon, which has not commented on the report, currently has about 5 million FiOS TV subscribers.


Verizon has recently begun streaming content to Microsoft Xbox consoles. It also recently began streaming a livesimulcast of the Longhorn Network – the 24/7 channel devoted to athletic programming and related activities at the University of Texas – and is making it available to Verizon FiOS TV customers across the country. http://www.reuters.com

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NSN Boosts CDMA Base Station by 3X

Nokia Siemens Networks is rolling out 1X Advanced technology, which can triple existing CDMA base station capacity when fully implemented. The upgrade will enable mobile operators to handle greater volumes of voice or data traffic in dense metros or to improve coverage.


Nokia Siemens Networks said 1X Advanced is also more energy efficienthttp://www.nsn.com

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Sprint's Network Vision is Underway -- First Multi-Mode Base Station Deployed

Sprint has deployed the first multi-mode base station as part of its Network Vision architecture. The new base station, which has been activated in Branchburg, New Jersey, is radiating multiple spectrum bands (1.9GHz and 800MHz) and powering both 1x and EVDO services. It is fully integrated with the existing network and performing as expected.


Under its Network Vision plan, Sprint intends to repurpose some of its 800MHz spectrum for Sprint 3G 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. More density generally equates to fewer dropped calls and a more seamless network experience for customers.


"Customers in Branchburg who are served off of this first cell site may already begin to notice improvements," said Bob Azzi, SVP Network for Sprint. “Months of planning and execution with our partners are resulting in performance improvements that more than meet our expectations. We're excited to begin sharing these improvements with our customers."


Sprint noted that its three year Network Vision rollout is expected to cost an incremental $4 billion to $5 billion and deliver $10 billion to $11 billion in net economic value to the company between 2011 and 2017, with a projected NPV of approximately $6 billion. The primary components of value come from reduced roaming, cell-site reduction, the elimination of dual networks, backhaul efficiencies, reduced churn, more efficient use of capital and energy cost savings.
http://www.sprint.com

Read More

Alcatel-Lucent Expands its 100G Reach

Alcatel-Lucent announced a series of improvements to its single-carrier, 100G coherent technology that enables optical waves to travel up to 30% farther, even over poor quality fiber, while opening up many more use cases for 100G optical transport links.


The gains, which are achieved using improved signal processing algorithms developed by Bell Labs for overcoming impairments in the fiber, are being delivered in a 100G eXtended Reach (XR) card for the Alcatel-Lucent 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS). The platform is now able to transmit a combination of 10G, 40G and 100G rates on different wavelengths of an optical fiber for up to 2000 kilometers and beyond -- representing up to a 30 percent increase in reach.


Whereas initial deployments of 100G have been in point-to-point trunks over the highest quality fiber, the new card enables more complex use cases, include 100G over meshed topologies, "alien" lines where other vendors are present, or ultra long haul spans.


Australia's Nextgen Networks is one of the first customers.


"We currently have more than 40 customers using our current 100G single carrier, coherent optical solution and we've used this experience to create a premium offering with improved performance, well before our competitors have even delivered their first-generation product. We are encouraging the acceleration of 100G by alleviating the distance and underlying fiber barriers and allowing any service provider in the world to deploy 100G precisely where they need it, with no trade off in capacity," stated James Watt, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Optics Division.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Qualcomm Atheros Samples HomePlug Green PHY

Qualcomm Atheros has begun sampling its HomePlug Green PHY silicon designed for embedded smart energy and automation applications in homes and buildings.


The company said that the power saving mechanism in its HomePlug Green PHY can reduce the consumption of a power line communications (PLC) device versus a HomePlug AV solution.


HomePlug Green PHY is a new standard for powerline communications that is interoperable with the IEEE 1901/HomePlug AV powerline networking protocol. It operates at up to 10 Mbps, company to the greater-than-200Mbps rate of the HomePlug AV protocol. The lower data rate can yield more than 80 percent power reduction, making it suitable for applications such as smart meters. http://www.qca.qualcomm.com

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Cisco Positions CloudVerse to Build Public, Private and Hybrid Clouds

Cisco outlined its new "CloudVerse" framework for building, managing and connecting public, private and hybrid clouds. The goal is to help businesses to realize all of the benefits of clouds: improved agility, better economics, enhanced security and a dynamic, assured experience.


Cisco CloudVerse combines these key cloud elements – Unified Data Center, Cloud Intelligent Network, and Cloud Applications and Services.


Unified Data Center changes is a fabric-based platform for automating the "as-a-service" model across physical and virtual environments. Cisco is adding tools to provide automated provisioning and management of data center resources for the delivery of cloud services within and between data centers.


Cloud Intelligent Network provides a consistent and highly secure user experience wherever the user is located and across the multiple clouds involved in delivering an application or service. Cisco now adds new "Cloud-to-Cloud Connect" capabilities: "Cloud-to-Cloud Connect," featuring the Cisco Network Positioning System on the ASR 1000 and 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers in 2012, will enable dynamic resource identification, allocation and optimization between data centers and clouds.


Cloud Applications and Services enable "as a service" delivery of both Cisco and third-party cloud applications. New tools include help enterprises to build their own collaboration cloud using Cisco's validated and tested solution and full management capabilities. Cisco is also introducing tools to help mobile service providers offer collaboration from the cloud, thus extending services from "fixed" devices to mobile phones. For example, providers can virtually connect thousands of mobile users at a company with single-number reach, or enable customers to transition a call from a desk phone to a mobile phone while the call is in progress.


Cisco already has a number of customers adopting CloudVerse as the foundation of the cloud strategies. Marquee customers include ACS, a Xerox Company; Fujitsu; NWN; LinkedIn; Orange Business Services; Qualcomm; Silicon Valley Bank; Telecom Italia; Telefónica; Telstra; and Terremark, a Verizon Company.



http://www.cisco.com

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Idaho's Syringa Selects ADVA FSP 3000

Syringa Networks, an Idaho-based regional provider of high-speed fiber optic services, has selected the ADVA FSP 3000 to provide connectivity throughout its Idaho footprint. The ADVA FSP 3000 is a scalable WDM system specifically designed for multiplexing, transporting, and protecting high-speed data, storage, voice and video applications.
http://www.advaoptical.com

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National LambdaRail Connects NOAA's Supercomputing Facilities

National LambdaRail's next-generation research network, NWave, will interconnect the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) research supercomputing facilities. NLR is the coast-to-coast, high-performance network owned by the U.S. research and education community.


Under the contract, NLR has tapped Indiana University's (IU) Global Research Network Operations Center (GRNOC).


NWave, financed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and with a capacity of approximately 80 Terabytes per day, will enable NOAA scientists and researchers to exchange large data flows and share computational resources between NOAA sites and with the U.S. Department of Energy and other government agencies. http://www.nlr.net

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