01/02/12 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Monday, January 2, 2012

SK Telecom Develops LTE + Wi-Fi Femtocell

Monday, January 02, 2012 Mobile

South Korea-based SK Telecom has developed its own Wi-Fi Integrated LTE Femtocell to spur its 4G rollout.

The ultra-mini base station improves indoor coverage using both Wi-Fi and LTE, while significantly reduce equipment installation and operating cost. SK Telecom uses POE (Power over Ethernet) to ease installation. The company said its design also minimizes interference between the frequencies within the cellular bands.

SK Telecom plans to build LTE networks in 84 cities across the country by April 2012, eight months ahead of schedule, after which it will utilize Wi-Fi Integrated Femtocells to boost its service quality.

The carrier plans to deploy its Wi-Fi Integrated LTE Femtocells in densely populated regions, focusing primarily on central commercial areas of major cities where LTE traffic and users are concentrated, and then be expanded to areas with high data demand – i.e. indoor areas like shopping centers, offices, houses, and school, etc.

Kang Jong-Ryeol, Head of Network Technology Center of SK Telecom said, "SK Telecom has already installed over one million repeaters to expand LTE coverage including indoors and underground areas and will continue to enhance its LTE service quality by installing Wi-Fi Integrated LTE Femtocells. Furthermore, SK Telecom will keep on developing and providing femtocell technologies suitable for many different environments so as to create an optimal data communication environment for customers."http://www.sktelecom.com

In November 2011, SK Telecom announced an LTE Smart Cloud Access Network (SCAN) pilot deployment. SCAN separates digital signal processing from the base stations and concentrates it in one place, allowing the network to respond to traffic demands in certain locations. Additional antenna radio units can be deployed at a lower cost instead of a full base station. The smart cloud base stations also cooperate with each other to reduce interference, especially in border areas in the network.

SK Telecom inaugurated its 4G LTE service in Seoul on July 1, 2011. The network provides a maximum downlink speed of 75Mbps, which is five times faster than that of its 3G WCDMA network (HSUPA) and 1.9 times faster than Wibro that provides maximum downlink speed of 39.8Mbps and maximum uplink speed of 10Mbps. The network uses the 800 MHz band. The company plans to expand the frequency bandwidth for LTE from one-way 5MHz (at the time of service launch) to 10MHz by the fourth quarter of 2011 to achieve the full downlink potential.

The LTE rollout in Seoul was accomplished by building 1,772 Radio Units (RU) and 609 Digital Units (DU). In addition to this, the company will also use its 200,000 existing 800MHz repeaters to offer seamless and flawless 4G LTE service in all areas of Seoul, including underground and indoor areas.

In January 2011, South Korea's SK Telecom announced the selection of Samsung Electronics, LG-Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks as key equipment suppliers for its LTE network.

Acme Packet Cuts Guidance

Monday, January 02, 2012 Financial

Citing uncertainty in the North American service provider market, Acme Packet trimmed its financial guidance for Q4 2011. Based on preliminary fourth quarter estimates which are subject to change, the company now expects
total revenues to range between $84 million to $86 million, while total revenues for 2011 are expected to range between $308 million and $310 million compared to its earlier outlook of between $315 million and $320 million.

“Our results were impacted by uncertainty in the North American service provider market,�? said Andy Ory, President and Chief Executive Officer of Acme Packet, Inc. “Outside of the North American service provider market, Acme Packet continued to perform very well – particularly in our enterprise business as well as in our Europe and Latin America businesses. Looking ahead, we believe we are very 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.�?
http://www.ir.acmepacket.com

Australia's NBN Ends 2011 with 4,000 On-Net Customers

Monday, January 02, 2012 Last Mille

As of December 31, 2011, Australia’s National Broadband Network had more than 4000 homes and businesses were connected to its infrastructure. Construction is expected to ramp up in 2012.

"We will look back on 2011 as a pivotal year for the NBN which saw us move from planning and designing the network to ramping up the rollout of a key piece of telecommunications infrastructure that over the next decade will reach every Australian. Indeed, the biggest challenge we face is managing the expectations of communities who want the NBN – and want it now. The key question we hear is not ‘Why do we need the NBN?’ but ‘When am I going to get it?’ A crucial task for 2012 will be to educate and inform Australians about the principles that dictate the rollout," stated NBN Co’s Head of Product Development and Industry Relations, Jim Hassell.
http://www.nbnco.com.au

Qatar's Qtel Offers WaveLink Services up to 100G

Monday, January 02, 2012 Service Providers

Qatar-based Qtel launched a WaveLink WDM service for corporate and government customers. Qtel’s WaveLink provides a complete end-to-end solution offering bandwidths of 1Gbps, 2.5Gbps or 10Gbps, 40Gps going all the way up to 100Gbps. WaveLink can be used to supply Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Ethernet, or other protocols such as Fibre Connection (FICON) or Enterprise Systems Connection (ESCON).

WaveLink’s supporting applications range from basic voice and data services to virtualization and storage area network applications, allowing customers to manage traffic over one network.
http://www.qtel.qa/

Zayo Acquires MarquisNet - a Las Vegas Data Center

Monday, January 02, 2012 Service Providers

The Zayo Group has acquired MarquisNet’s data-center business in Las Vegas, Nevada. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The 28,000 square foot data center, located at 7185 Pollock Drive, will be the twelfth zColo Colocation facility.

Zayo noted that the deal represents its 18th acquisition since its inception. The company recently completed the acquisition of 360Networks on December 1, 2011. With the Las Vegas facility, zColo operates 12 data centers across 11 markets, including Los Angeles and three facilities in key Carrier Gateway locations in New York and New Jersey. The company is the exclusive manager and operator of the 60 Hudson St. “Meet-Me-Room�? in New York City, one of the world’s most connected buildings. zColo reported $38.7M in annualized adjusted revenue and $13.5 in annualized adjusted EBITDA in 3Q11.
http://www.zayo.com

Rambus Boosts Q4 Guidance

Monday, January 02, 2012 Financial

Rambus increased its revenue guidance for Q4 2011, saying it now expects revenue to be approximately $83 million. Rambus initially provided revenue guidance for the quarter in the range of $66 million to $71 million.
http://www.rambus.com

LightSquared Appoints Marc Montagner as CFO

Monday, January 02, 2012 Financial, France

LightSquared has appointed Marc Montagner as its new chief financial officer. He previously served as executive vice president, sales, marketing and strategy for SkyTerra, LightSquared’s predecessor company, where he worked on the regulatory, technical and business issues associated with re-purposing SkyTerra’s satellite spectrum for terrestrial use. His nearly 25 years of experience also includes working for companies such as France Telecom, Morgan Stanley, Sprint Nextel and Banc of America Securities.

Prior to joining LightSquared, in addition to his role at SkyTerra, Montagner was managing partner of Dupont Circle Partners, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm specializing in the media, technology and telecommunications industries. Previously, he was managing director and co-head of the Global Telecom, Media and Technology Merger and Acquisition Group of Banc of America Securities where he advised a number of companies during acquisitions.

Montagner was also senior vice president, corporate development and mergers and acquisitions for Sprint Nextel Corporation, where he was responsible for all M&A activities for the company, including the $70 billion merger between Sprint and Nextel. Prior to Sprint Nextel, Montagner was a managing director in the Telecom and Media Group at Morgan Stanley. Montagner started his career in the telecom industry at France Telecom.
http://www.lightsquared.com

Taipei to Launch FTTH Project

Monday, January 02, 2012 FTTH, Optical

The City of Taipei is launching a municipal FTTH project that aims to install 3,000 km of lines over the next four years. The project will deliver wholesale access to service providers. Five contractors have been selected.http://english.taipei.gov.tw/

BT Expands Ethernet Service in U.S. and Canada

Monday, January 02, 2012 Service Providers

BT has expanded its global Ethernet virtual private network (VPN) service in the U.S. and Canada with new nodes added in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Newark, N.J. and Toronto. In addition to the new nodes, three access resilience options are now available: