Sony Ericsson Sees Big Loss in Q4 Amid Android Competition

Citing intense competition, price erosion and restructuring charges, Sony Ericsson reported Q4 2011 sales of EUR 1.3 billion, down 16% year-on-year and 19% quarter over quarter. The year-on-year decline reflects the decrease of feature phone sales which was only partially offset by an increase in smartphone sales. There was a net loss of EUR 247 million before taxes.


Average selling price (ASP) for the quarter was Euro 143, up 5% year-on-year but down 14% sequentially. The year-on-year increase is due to the shift to smartphones and geographic mix. The sequential decrease in ASP is attributed to geographic and product mix, including declining prices of products launched earlier in the year, and the absence of new products introduced in the fourth quarter.


The gross margin for the quarter was 24%, a decrease of 6 percentage points year-on-year and 3 percentage points from the previous quarter.


Sony Ericsson estimates that its share of the global Android-based smartphone market was 10% in volume and 7% in value during the quarter and 10% in volume and 10% in value for the full year.


Sony Ericsson estimates that the global smartphone market for the full year 2011 increased by 60% in volume to 463 million units.
http://www.sonyericsson.com

• In October 2011, Sony agreed pay EUR 1.05 billion in cash to acquire Ericsson's 50 percent stake in Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB. The mobile handset vendor will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony when the deal closes in early 2012. Sony said it plans to rapidly integrate smartphones into its broad array of network-connected consumer electronics devices - including tablets, televisions and personal computers.

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NSN Wins 5-year Managed Service Contract with Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Networks as its managed services partner in eight circles across India - Bihar and Jharkhand; Kolkata; Gujarat; Maharashtra and Goa; Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh; Mumbai; Orissa and West Bengal.


The five-year managed services contract covers Bharti Airtel’s 3G and GSM networks as well as iWAN (internet Wireless Access Network), the operator’s enterprise broadband service. This next phase of managed services relationship will help Bharti Airtel achieve better network efficiency, simplify operations and deliver better quality services. NSN will also provide network optimization, operations and maintenance services remotely from its Global Network Solutions Center (GNSC) in Noida, India. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Nokia Siemens Networks is already a managed services partner to Bharti Airtel in these eight circles. These services specifically support Nokia Siemens Networks’ installed base of mobile broadband equipment for the operator.
http://www.nsn.com

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Telekom Austria Rolls with Vectoring from Alcatel-Lucent

Telekom Austria will deploy vectoring technology from Alcatel-Lucent to deliver significantly higher data transmission speeds on its domestic Giga-Network. Vectoring technology minimizes the impact of interference or “crosstalk�? between copper lines in a copper bundle.


Telekom Austria's A1 group is initially deploying vectoring in Korneuburg, lower Austria. A comprehensive countrywide rollout is planned for the second half of 2012.


With the world’s first commercial launch of VDSL2 Vectoring technology, Alcatel-Lucent has demonstrated once again its technology leadership. Based on cutting-edge innovation from our research center Bell Labs, the VDSL2 Vectoring technology marks a further important step in our efforts to get the utmost out of the current network infrastructure and thus create real added value for network operators such as A1 and their customers,�? said Stephen Carter, President, Europe Middle East and Africa for Alcatel-Lucent.

“The still untapped potential of copper lines is incredibly impressive. Since the late 1990s, when private households started to use modems for data transmission, we have been able to reach a thousendfold increase in transmission capacities of existing copper lines. We are currently facing a dual challenge: on the one hand, we have to invest in the further rollout of our high-performance fiber optic network going forward, and on the other, we have to provide our customers with a full-coverage broadband network with ever-increasing bandwidths starting from today," stated Walter Goldenits, CTO, A1.
http://www.telekomaustria.com
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• In September 2011, Alcatel-Lucent introduced a VDSL2 vectoring solution capable of delivering 100 Mbps over existing copper loop lengths of 400 meters.
  
  VDSL2 vectoring uses digital signal processing to remove crosstalk between copper pairs in a bundle, similar to noise cancellation in headphones. From line cards at the central office or DSLAM, the system measures the crosstalk from all the lines in the bundle and then generates an anti-phase signal to cancel out the noise. For this solution, Alcatel-Lucent developed its own chipset and software. It began field trials in 2010 with a number of operators, including Belgacom, A1 Telekom Austria, Swisscom, Orange, P&T Luxemburg and Türk Telekom.
  
  
  Alcatel-Lucent's VDSL2 Vectoring solution includes both Board-level Vectoring (ideal for small nodes) and System-Level Vectoring options for the company's existing ISAM DSLAM platforms, including the 7356 ISAM, the 7330 ISAM and the 7302 ISAM. The new products include a 48-port Board Level Vectoring card, a 48-port System Level Vectoring card, and a Vector Processing card supporting 192 ports initially and expanding to 384-ports of system level vectoring in 2012.

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New JONAH Submarine Cable Links Italy and Israel

A new undersea cable named ‘JONAH’ has been launched between Tel Aviv, Israel and Bari, Italy -- a span of 2,300 kilometers across the Mediterranean. JONAH, which is fully-owned by Bezed, the Israeli carrier, leverages Alcatel-Lucent’s most advanced submarine communications technology.


JONAH integrates Alcatel-Lucent OALC-5 cable, optimized with coherent submarine fiber (CSF), repeaters and the 1620 Light Manager (LM) submarine line terminal which is designed to accommodate 10G/40G/100G wavelengths in the same platform, enabling seamless capacity upgrade on flexible grid for channel spacing without traffic interruption.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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General Dynamics Opens Cyber Intelligence Center in Annapolis

General Dynamics inaugurated a Cyber and Intelligence Solutions Center in Annapolis Junction, Maryland. The 28,000 square foot facility is built to serve the U.S. Department of Defense and the intelligence community. The National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command are located nearby in Ft. Meade, Maryland. Approximately 100 cyber security experts will staff the new facility. This is in addition to the 8,000 General Dynamics workers already employed in Maryland and the national capital region.


"Defending the nation's networks requires new levels of close collaboration between government network operators and industry to deliver advanced, integrated cyber-defense solutions," said Bill Ross, vice president of Federal Systems and Cyber Solutions for General Dynamics C4 Systems. http://www.generaldynamics.com

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Sprint Signs Itron, Lanner, Power Insight and Silver Spring for Utility M2M

Sprint is collaborating with Itron, Lanner, Power Insight and Silver Spring to expand its M2M capabilities for electric and water utility companies. All of these companies will offer Sprint wireless network connectivity in support of their automated products and services.


Itron has enabled their Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) solution for use on the Nationwide Sprint Network. This solution allows water, gas and electric utilities to wirelessly collect metering data from Itron meters and a wide variety of other manufacturers’ meters using Itron ERT modules (100W / 100G), over the highly reliable and secure Sprint 3G network.

Lanner Electronics is working with Sprint to certify its Substation Automation computing platform. The solution will give utilities the option of remotely managing substation assets without relying on costly private networks. Lanner provides real-time monitoring and edge computing and control of Substation Automation that is ruggedized and easily installed.


Power Insight provides residential and lite commercial building automation platforms that give utilities and business owners the option of using public cellular without having to rely on local broadband and contend with private network firewall configurations. This gateway allows the automation, scheduling and control of sensors, large energy loads, HVAC and lighting that can be easily installed and result in immediate energy savings. The Power Insight software platform allows the end user to monitor and control their energy consumption. It also provides a rich API allowing easy customization of device automation.


The Silver Spring Smart Energy Platform combines networking, software and services to enable utilities to build the smart grid. A standards-based system, from the customer's home or business to the back office, the Silver Spring solution supports multiple smart grid applications running over a unified network and leveraging common back-office software. Utilities from small to large benefit from a lower total cost of ownership and the flexibility to focus on advanced metering, distribution automation and demand-side management in any order and combination they need.
http://www.sprint.com

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Apple's iBooks Weigh in at 1GB+

Apple unveiled its plans to revolutionize educational publishing with the release of iBooks Author, iBooks 2, and iTunes.


The first E-Textbooks are already available through the iBooks store from Pearson, McGraw-Hill and other educational publishers. The books include video, photos, narrations and other interactive material, all of which is downloaded in a single package to the iPad. A biology textbook from McGraw-Hill contains 1,906 print pages and weighs in at 1.49 GB, while a competing Biology textbook from Pearson contains 1,791 pages and weighs 2.77 GB.


The content presumably is downloaded once over Wi-Fi and stored locally on the iPad, as well as being archived on iCloud.
http://www.apple.com

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