VMware Opens vCloud Service Evaluation Beta

VMware has opened its vCloud Service Evaluation Beta to the public, enabling users to run their own tests of vCloud. VMware's vCloud allows users to migrateVMs on demand from their "internal cloud" of cooperating VMware hypervisors to a remote cloud of VMware hypervisors.  The newly opened vCloud Service Evaluation includes a catalog of useful VM templates, virtual networking, persistent storage, external IP addresses, firewalls, load balancers,...

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China's Qihoo Powers New Data Center with Juniper's QFabric

Qihoo 360, a leading Chinese Internet and mobile solution provider, is powering its new data center using Juniper Networks' QFabric architecture. Specifically, the company has deployed a QFX3000-G QFabric System -- designed for large enterprises, service providers and cloud data center environments -- to support its expansion into new web-based services including search and cloud offerings. Qihoo 360 Technology currently supports more...

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European Commission Sees Opportunity in Cloud Computing

The European Commission outlined its ambition to drive European business and government productivity via cloud computing.  The EC believes cloud computing could deliver a net gain of 2.5 million new European jobs, and an annual boost of EUR 160 billion to EU GDP (around 1%), by 2020. Key points of the strategy include: Cutting through the jungle of technical standards so that cloud users get interoperability, data portability and reversibility;...

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Arianespace Launches 2 Satellites: Astra 2F and GSAT-10

An Ariane 5 rocket successfully orbited two telecommunications satellites: Astra 2F, which mainly provides direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast services for the Luxembourg-based operator SES, and the GSAT-10 communications satellite for the Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO. ASTRA 2F, which was built by Astrium using a Eurostar E3000 platform, weighed 6,000 kg at launch. It carries both Ku- and Ka-band transponders. ASTRA 2F will be positioned...

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FCC Readies First Incentive Auction for Repurposed TV Spectrum

The FCC voted to approve plans for the first incentive auction to repurpose broadcast spectrum for mobile broadband use. Incentive auctions offer financial incentives to broadcasters to put their unused, licensed spectrum up for public auction, including giving broadcasters a portion of the auction proceeds.  The U.S. is the first nation to move ahead with incentive auctions for traditional TV spectrum. The major outlines of the incentive...

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Alcatel-Lucent Builds Ghana’s e-government Services

Alcatel-Lucent is working with NITA - the information and communications technology (ICT) policy arm of Ghana’s Ministry of Communications - to connect central and regional administration offices in support of "e-Ghana", a national initiative to develop local IT services and improve the transparency and efficiency of government functions.  Alcatel-Lucent will design and implement a 600km fiber backbone. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent will provide...

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Huawei Completes LTE TDD/TD-SCDMA Interoperability Testing

Huawei has completed LTE TDD/TD-SCDMA multi-mode interoperability testing using Qualcomm's MDM9615 modem, which is highly optimized to support LTE (FDD and TDD), dual-carrier HSPA +, and EV-DO Rev. B. In addition, MDM9615 can also support TD-SCDMA, allowing for interoperability to occur between TD-SCDMA and LTE TDD. http://www.huawei.co...

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ADTRAN Cuts Guidance on Weak U.S. Carrier Spending

Citing weakness in spending by U.S. carriers, ADTRAN cut its revenue and earnings estimates for the third quarter ending September 30, 2012. The company now expects revenue for the quarter to be approximately $162 million. GAAP earnings per share for the quarter, assuming dilution, are expected to range from $0.14 to $0.15. Non-GAAP earnings per share for the quarter are expected to range from $0.18 to $0.19. ADTRAN Chief Executive Officer Tom...

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CTIA Endorses FCC's Incentive Auction of Broadcast Television Spectrum

"Since spectrum is a finite resource, we're pleased the Commission has begun the process of establishing the rules that will fulfill the goals of the recently adopted, bipartisan spectrum legislation.  We also commend the Commission for working to ensure that it not only establishes rules that result in a successful auction, but also completes its efforts in a timely manner. In order to maintain our global leadership in the mobile ecosystem,...

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Intel Strikes at the Tablet Market

Intel, in partnership with Acer, ASUS, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, LG, Samsung and ZTE, showed off new tablets and tablet convertible designs based on Intel Core vPro, Intel Core and Intel Atom processors, including the new Intel Atom processor Z2760 (formerly codenamed "Clover Trail"). Intel said its new chip allow for tablets as thin as 8.5mm and as light as 1.5 pounds. The dual-core, four-thread SoC enables long battery life with more than...

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Bloomberg: DDoS Attacks on U.S. Banks Worrisome

A group calling itself Izz ad-Din al-Quassam Cyber Fighters is claiming responsibility for the series of DDoS attacks on major U.S. financial institutions over the past 2 weeks, according to Bloomberg, and were possibly inspired as revenge for the controversial YouTube video.  The attacks, which escalated last week, are raising concerns across the industry in part because it was assumed that the major U.S. banks have sufficient...

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Crown Castle to Acquire 7,200 Towers from T-Mobile USA for $2.4 Billion

Crown Castle reached an agreement to acquire approximately 7,200 towers from T-Mobile USA for $2.4 billion in cash. The deal gives Crown Castle the exclusive right to lease and operate the T-Mobile towers for a weighted average term of approximately 28 years. In addition, Crown Castle will have the option to purchase such towers at the end of the respective lease terms for aggregate option payments of approximately $2.4 billion, which payments,...

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Dish Readies Next Gen Satellite Broadband Service

DISH is launching its next gen satellite Internet service across the U.S. offering download speeds of up to 10 Mbps.  Pricing starts at $39.99 per month (plus equipment fees) for 5 Mbps download/1 Mbps upload speeds and data plans of 10 GB, when bundled with DISH's popular America's Top 120 or higher programming packages and with a two-year agreement.  A higher speed tier is also available. The company said 19 million Americans...

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Nokia Siemens Networks Envisions 1GB per User per Day by 2020

Nokia Siemens Networks is preparing to launch a series of new capabilities, software and services within the company’s Liquid Net and Customer Experience Management portfolios. Given the rapid growth of mobile broadband, the company envisions that operators will soon be faced with the challenge of delivering a gigabyte of personalized data, per user, per day on a profitable basis.  As mobile broadband surges, the delivery cost...

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Alvarion Completes BuNGee Project (Beyond 4G)

Alvarion announced the completion of BuNGee (Beyond Next Generation Mobile Networks), a research project funded by the European Commission. Alvarion said the project’s main goals were accomplished. The mission of the BuNGee project was to improve the overall infrastructure capacity density of the mobile network by an order of magnitude (10x) to an ambitious goal of 1Gbps/km2 anywhere in the cell. A demonstration of BuNGee took place in a dense...

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Global Capacity Brings its Access Exchange to 60 Hudson

Global Capacity announced the expansion of its One Marketplace Access Exchange with a new Point of Presence (PoP) at 60 Hudson Street, New York. The expansion includes network interconnections with Sidera Networks and Telx. Global Capacity's One Marketplace Access Exchange offers a transparent means to buy and sell global access services. The platform offers automated pricing, ordering and provisioning of access networks, easily accessible via...

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Huawei Tests LTE-A Uplinks with CoMP

Huawei has completed the first LTE-A uplink coordinated multi-point (CoMP) trial on several commercial LTE networks in Europe and Asia. Huawei said its testing revealed that uplink CoMP can effectively double data rates at cell edges for a single user, improving network performance in terms of coverage, spectrum efficiency and throughput. The company has previously demonstrated LTE-A inter-band carrier aggregation (CA) and heterogeneous networks...

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OpenStack Adds Networking and Block Storage Services

A new version of OpenStack released on Thursday adds important Networking (Quantum) and Block Storage (Cinder) services, along with many other enhancements. The OpenStack "Folsom" release, which was built by more than 330 contributors, automates pools of compute, storage and networking resources, now including emerging Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions via OpenStack Networking plug-ins, to build private and public cloud infrastructures...

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AT&T Unveils MiFi Liberate Hotspot

AT&T introduced the new MiFi Liberate – the first mobile hotspot with a touchscreen display. The LTE device, which was developed by Novatel Wireless, features a 2.8” color touchscreen display for viewing data usages and managing network setting.  It supports up to 10 Wi-Fi devices.  The company claims up to 11 hours of continuous use on a single battery charge. http://www.att.com/gen/landing-pages?pid=330...

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Brocade Shows Service-oriented Orchestration using OpenStack Quantum

Brocade demonstrated service-oriented orchestration using OpenStack software and its Ethernet fabric technologies. Specifically, Brocade is leveraging a customized plug-in for OpenStack Quantum to build a prototype that delivers cloud management capabilities for its Ethernet fabrics deployed in public and private cloud environments. Quantum is an OpenStack project to provide 'network connectivity as a service' between interface devices (e.g.,...

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BT Expands its Cloud Services

BT announced a series of enhancements to its unified communications portfolio with a range of new cloud-based services. BT One provides a single unified communications framework for devices, legacy systems and one global network for all global users.   New services include:  • One Cloud Lync: a cloud service based on Microsoft Lync that integrates in a single platform a company’s email with instant messenger (IM), audio, device...

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Sub 10 Supplies Millimetre Radios to Alcatel-Lucent

Sub 10 Systems, a start-up based in the UK, announced a global supply and distribution agreement with Alcatel-Lucent covering Sub 10’s millimetre wave Liberator radio products.  Alcatel-Lucent will resell the Sub10 products as part of its metro cell backhaul portfolio. Sub 10 said its Liberator wireless links deliver “fibre-thru-the-air” capacity in congested city centres and other areas where fibre would be either too costly...

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Xirrus Raises $23.5M for High-Performance Wi-Fi Arrays

Xirrus, a start-up based in Thousand Oaks, California, secured $23.5 million in Series E funding for its high-performance Wi-Fi solutions. The company offers a Wi-Fi Array that integrates 4, 8, or 16 radios and high-gain directional antennas into a single device along with an onboard Gigabit Switch, Wi-Fi Controller, Firewall, and dedicated Wi-Fi Threat Sensor. The solution is designed as a replacement for Ethernet workgroup switches.  The...

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AT&T Advanced Communications Suite Powered by Twilio API

AT&T has selected Twilio's application programming interface (API) for its Advanced Communications Suite -- its collection of web-based cloud applications for enterprises. AT&T's   Advanced Communications Suite includes voice and SMS-enabled apps — such as appointment reminder services, polling & surveying data collection tools, ad-hoc workgroup calling & messaging, business continuity, and geo-smart messaging....

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Cisco Acquires ThinkSmart for Wi-Fi Analytics

Cisco has acquired ThinkSmart Technologies, a software developer specializing in location data analysis using Wi-Fi.  Financial terms were not disclosed. ThinkSmart’s location analytics collects information on movement within a venue including time of day, traffic patterns and dwell times. The company, which is based in Cork, Ireland, was formed at the Incubation Centre of University College Cork. The company becomes part of Cisco’s...

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Google Powers Oklahoma Data Center with More Wind Power

Google will purchase 48 MW of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project in Oklahoma, which is expected to come online later this year, to power its data center in Pryor, Oklahoma (east of Tulsa). Google said the deal brings the total amount of renewable energy it has contracted to over 260 MW.  This deal is notable as well because it is the first time that Google has contracted with a utility company to purchase renewable...

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SingTel Deploys Ciena's Packet-Optical Reconfigurable Switch

SingTel has deployed Ciena’s 5410 Packet-Optical Reconfigurable Switch System (RSS) and OneConnect Intelligent Control Plane software to augment its global ConnectPlus IPLC network. Financial terms were note disclosed. SingTel’s newly enhanced network links connects hubs in Asia, Europe and North America, offering data transfers of up to 10Gbps per single connection. Ciena’s 5410 RSS links SingTel’s global points-of-presence to provide efficient...

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Ericsson Acquires Conceptwave for OSS/BSS Software

Ericsson has acquired ConceptWave, a private company specializing in software for managing the lifecycle of telecom services.  Financial terms were not disclosed. ConceptWave, which is based in Toronto, Canada, has developed Product Lifecycle Management, Order Lifecycle Management and Customer Lifecycle Management solutions for service providers. The company was founded in 2000 and has about 170 employees. Ericsson said the acquisition complements...

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Huawei Shows 480 Gbps Router Line Card

Huawei unveiled the industry's first and highest-capacity 480 Gbps router line card, enabling a capacity of 15.4 Tbps for its high-end core router with 48x10GE, 12x40GE, or 4x100GE line-rate forwarding per slot.  Huawei will offer various daughter cards with 10GE/40GE/100GE ports for flexible configuration. Huawei said the capacity is achieved using its third-generation programmable, custom Solar 3.0 ASICs with Smart Memory...

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Huawei Cites 100G Milestones - 40 Carrier Deployments

Huawei confirmed that its 100G networks are now deployed by more than 40 carriers in over 30 countries around the world.  The company claims a 39% share of the 100G market, according to figures from Ovum. Two leading deployment examples are Rostelecom's national 100G network across Russia, and a pan-European 100G WDM network for KPN (the Netherlands). http://www.huawei.com More 100G news about Huawei is here: http://convergedigest...

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Huawei Collaborates with Yale on Open Edge Cloud

Huawei is collaborating with Yale University on Open Edge Cloud – an open content delivery infrastructure using data lockers. Huawei said the idea behind the Open Edge Cloud is to integrate service modules, including storage, computing, video processing and network awareness, over the edge of telecom carrier networks. The service modules are application programmable, enabling a flexible and efficient cloud platform by providing standard APIs and...

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Nominum Leverages DNS Query Analytics for New Applications

Nominum introduced its N2 platform and "IDEAL" ecosystem for helping network operators to harness the power of DNS data analytics to improve their networks and offer in-house applications. Nominum’s DNS software currently processes over one trillion queries per day at over 140 network operators worldwide.  The N2 platform gathers and anonymizes this data allowing application providers seamless access to it.  The N2 platform...

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Ericsson Supports First VoLTE Launches

Ericsson noted its role in the world's first three commercial Voice over LTE (VoLTE) launches: SK Telecom and LG U+ in Korea, and MetroPCS in the US.  All three carriers announced their VoLTE deployments on August 7, 2012. “Telecom grade telephony is going all-IP over commercial mobile broadband LTE networks for the first time. This is a historic moment in the telecom industry. We see increasing operator interest in VoLTE globally,...

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DE-CIX Internet Exchange Scales Across Frankfurt with ADVA's 100G

DE-CIX, the world's largest Internet Exchange serving over 480 Internet service providers via a distributed peering fabric in Frankfurt, Germany, will upgrade its metro network to 100G channels using ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 platform. DE-CIX hit a new data throughput record last week  as Internet traffic across its switching fabric exceeded the 2 Tbps (terabits per second) mark for the first time. The DE-CIX peering infrastructure...

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Australia's NBNCo Picks Cisco for MPLS

Australia's NBN Co has selected Cisco to supply MPLS-enabled routers and firewalls for its National Connectivity Network (NCN) in a deal estimated to be worth up to $38 million over five years. Cisco's solutions will be deployed in NBN Co's depot, aggregation nodes and other key locations and will support the Operations Support System (OSS) and Business Support System (BSS) platforms, signalling and timing. Cisco said the win formally expands...

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BT Openreach Extends Fibre Rollout

BT Openreach is extending its fibre rollout to a further 163 exchange areas as part of BT’s £2.5bn Superfast initiative. So far, 11 million premises have access to Superfast broadband delivered via Openreach fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) or fibre to the premises (FTTP).  This extension, which will add more than one million homes and businesses to Openreach’s previously announced fibre footprint, covers exchanges spread across...

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ECI Announces 100G Optimized Multi-Layer Transport Deployment in Romania

RCS& RDS, a leading cable operator in Romania, is using ECI Telecom's "Apollo" Optimized Multi-Layer Transport (OMLT) platforms to deploy 100G in its network. The 100G DWDM network connects core routers between Oradea to Bucharest -- about 700 km. The operator is using ECI's LightSoft Network Management System to simplify operations and reduce training and personnel expenses. Financial terms were not disclosed.  ECI has...

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China Mobile Hong Kong Deploys TD-LTE with ZTE

ZTE announced the deployment of the first multi-carrier TD-LTE network with China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK). This is the first TD-LTE network in Hong Kong. The network is also the first global multi-carrier, TD-LTE network. In July, ZTE partnered with CMHK and Ericsson to announce a deal to deploy the TD-LTE network with a coverage area of more than 70 per cent of the territory. It marked the first time ZTE adopted a multi-carrier technology...

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SimpliVity Raises $25 Million for Software defined Data Center in a Box

SimpliVity, a start-up based in Westborough, MA, raised $25 million in Series B funding for its "OmniCube" Software Defined Data Center in a Box.  SimpliVity describes its OmniCube as the world’s first truly assimilated IT infrastructure platform.   The 2U rack-mounted box delivers the functionality of more than 10 products for the virtual machine environment. This functionality encompasses enterprise...

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