Cisco Connects Argentina's AcerBrag

AcerBrag, an iron and steel manufacturing company in Argentina, has implemented a Cisco Unified Wireless network that enables bar code readers to track the company's inventory of materials in real time.

The solution is based on the Cisco Borderless Network Architecture and is mainly composed of switches, access points and wireless controllers that are integrated with the SAP system and data collectors. Encryption standards and codes keep the same security in the wireless access points and in the fixed network of the company.


http://www.cisco.com

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Huawei and Intel Announce LTE Partnership

Huawei and Intel will establish a joint LTE TDD test lab in China under a new collaboration partnership announced by the firms. The collaboration will utilize Huawei's expertise in LTE TDD network infrastructure technologies and Intel’s cost-optimized mobile communication platforms to expedite the maturity and deployment of LTE TDD.


"Huawei has been committed to LTE TDD commercial deployment worldwide," said Deng Taihua, president LTE TDD & WiMAX &TDS wireless networks, Huawei. "We will continuously invest in LTE TDD research and deployment as well as the global expansion of LTE TDD networks. We are excited to partner with Intel to accelerate the development of our technology and provide our customers with leading LTE TDD solutions."

"Collaborative innovation is Intel’s strategy in China," said W.K Tan, VP of Intel IAG & Head of MCG, China. "The engagement with Huawei will take advantage of the two companies’ strengths and leading technologies. We are committed to working together with partners in China to build a healthy LTE TDD ecosystem within China and even beyond."http://www.huawei.com
http://www.intel.com

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MetroPCS Reaches 580,000 LTE Subscribers -- 6% of Customer Base

MetroPCS reported Q1 total revenues of approximately $1.3 billion, an increase of 7% over the first quarter of 2011. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $262 million, a decrease of 8% over the first quarter of 2011.

During Q1, MetroPCS surpassed 580 thousand 4G LTE subscribers, representing over 6% of total subscribers.

Roger D. Linquist, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MetroPCS, said, "Our first quarter results highlight our continued focus on getting affordable 4G LTE smartphones into the hands of our customers. We upgraded 16% of our subscriber base, 40% of which went from a feature phone to a smartphone, and we reported churn of 3.1%, matching the all-time low for the company. However, the significant number of upgrades at a higher promotional handset cost during the quarter resulted in higher costs and as a result both Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margins were pressured significantly.

"The wireless industry is rapidly moving towards 4G LTE and while the first quarter presented us with challenges, we believe we remain well-positioned for long-term growth and success. In wireless, speed does matter and our 4G LTE network will provide a significant enhancement in the customer experience when compared to our current 3G CDMA experience. Our service plans offer the predictability, affordability and flexibility our customers have come to expect, and with all taxes and regulatory fees included, and no contract, we believe we continue to offer the best deal in town," Linquist concluded.

Some highlights:

Quarterly churn of 3.1%, down 60 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2011 and flat when compared to the first quarter of 2011.

Quarterly net subscriber additions of 132 thousand, resulting in a 7% increase in total subscribers over the prior twelve month period.

Quarterly ARPU of $40.56, an increase of $0.14 over first quarter 2011.

For the year ending December 31, 2012, MetroPCS today reaffirms its prior guidance, originally provided on February 23, 2012.

MetroPCS currently expects to incur capital expenditures in the range of $900 million to $1.0 billion on a consolidated basis for the year ending December 31, 2012.
http://www.metropcs.com

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Tellabs Revenue Drops 20% YoY to $258 Million

Tellabs reported Q1 2012 revenue of $258 million, down from $322 million in the year-ago quarter. There was a net loss of $140 million or 38 cents per share in the first quarter of 2012, compared with a net loss of $24 million or 7 cents per share in the first quarter of 2011. Tellabs’ GAAP gross profit margin was 37.1% in the first quarter of 2012, compared with 37.9% in the year-ago quarter.


Broadband segment revenue was $130 million, Transport segment revenue was $80 million and Services segment revenue was $48 million.


�?The first quarter of 2012 was tough, yet we made progress on advancing Tellabs’ solutions and
products,�? said Rob Pullen, Tellabs CEO and president. “Looking ahead to the second quarter, we’re
encouraged by solid bookings and we expect to see revenue growth and profitability on a non-GAAP
basis.�?http://www.tellabs.com

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Clearwire Targets TDD-LTE in Hot Zones for 31 Cities

Clearwire will target high demand "hot zones" in major urban centers with its TDD-LTE network.


During the first half of 2013, Clearwire will launch its TDD-LTE network in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle. A total of 31 cities will be targeted.


Clearwire said its advantage will be in leveraging its deep spectrum holdings to commercialize large contiguous swaths of spectrum in a given market. Clearwire believes its LTE Advanced-ready network will further differentiate it as a leader in next-generation 4G mobile broadband.


"Our new 4G network will show that not all LTE networks are created equal," said Erik Prusch, President and CEO of Clearwire. "Clearwire's LTE Advanced-ready network will deploy our deep spectrum resources for the next great era in mobile broadband in which capacity is king. We're positioned to bring much needed capacity on a wholesale basis to address the unbridled demand for mobile data and the scarcity of spectrum in major urban and suburban markets."http://www.clearwire.com

• In September 2011, China Mobile and Clearwire announced a collaboration to accelerate the development of TD-LTE devices. Specifically, the carriers will work jointly to further accelerate the time-to-market availability of high volume TD-LTE chipsets and devices that should be commercially available starting in 2012. In addition, the two companies will collaborate to enable worldwide data roaming among TD-LTE, FDD-LTE and other 2G/3G networks. Both carriers support the global 2.5 GHz spectrum band for 4G deployments along with many other operators around the world. To date, both China Mobile and Clearwire have conducted successful TD-LTE trials and tests using commercially available/production-ready TD-LTE devices from numerous vendors.



• In August 2011, Clearwire confirmed its intention to deploy "LTE Advanced-ready" technology in its 4G network while restating its commitment to its existing 4G WiMAX network, which covers approximately 132 million people while serving 7.65 million retail and wholesale customers.

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Optus Switches On LTE in First Two Markets

Optus announced the first switch-on of its 4G network coverage, with initial coverage across Greater Newcastle, as well as in Port Stephens, the Hunter Valley and Lake Macquarie areas.


Over a thousand business and residential customers will be receiving 4G service and dongles from next week. Optus is initially offering these 4G services to select customers for free, in exchange for their feedback on network performance and device capability.


Optus plans to rollout LTE in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth from mid-2012. Phase two of the rollout will see an expansion of 4G services to Brisbane and Adelaide from the first half of next year.


"Our focus for 4G is to deliver the best experience to our customers. The rollout of our 4G network in Newcastle means customers can do more of the things they love; whether that’s uploading photos to Facebook more quickly, watching videos on YouTube and Vimeo, or streaming their favourite podcasts while on the move,�? Günther Ottendorfer, Optus Managing Director Networks said.http://http://www.optus.com.au

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NTT Comm Opens Data Centers in Singapore and Malaysia

NTT Communications inaugurated its Singapore Serangoon Data Center and its Malaysia Cyberjaya 3 Data Center. The two facilities, NTT Com’s first self-designed-and-built data centers outside Japan, are the company’s fourth such facility in Singapore and the third in Malaysia. They will provide key support for NTT Com’s ongoing expansion in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region, where the company already operates data centers in 13 countries.
http://www.ntt.co.jp

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GigOptix Ramps Production of 40G and 100G

GigOptix announced the availability of its 40G and 100G bundled solutions, which feature a next generation Thin Film Polymer on Silicon (TFPSTM) Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM), the corresponding MZM drivers, Transimpedance Amplifiers (TIA) and their respective bias boards for a number of popular 40G and 100G modulation formats. The sampling includes 40G DQPSK, 40G RZ-QPSK, 100G DP-QPSK.
http://www.gigoptix.com

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Oclaro Says Thailand Flood Recovery Mostly Complete

Oclaro posted quarterly revenue of $88.7 million, compared with revenues of $86.5 million for the preceding quarter. Revenues and operating results for the quarter continued to be materially impacted by the flood in Thailand. Revenues for the quarter were also adversely impacted by approximately $4 million by a short-term work stoppage in Shenzhen, which has since been resolved. GAAP gross margin was 15% for the third quarter of fiscal 2012, compared with a GAAP gross margin of 13% in the second quarter of fiscal 2012.

"This quarter demonstrates our continued progress across all of our strategic initiatives and in our Thailand flood recovery, which is largely behind us," said Alain Couder, chairman and CEO of Oclaro. http://www.oclaro.com

• In March, Oclaro and Opnext agreed to a merger, creating a leader in key components for core optical networking for long-haul, regional and metro DWDM, and positioned to become a leader in data communications for enterprises and data centers, as well as industrial and consumer laser diodes market. The merger brings trans formative consolidation to the optical components market.
  
  
  Oclaro was formed in 2009 through the merger of Bookham and Avanex Corporation, both suppliers of optical networking components. Its product set includes tunable lasers, modulators, dispersion compensation components, wavelength selective switches, modules and sub-systems. In mid-2009, the company acquired the Newport Spectra Physics high power laser diodes business.

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AppliedMicro Advances its X-Gene "Server-on-a-Chip"

AppliedMicro is making progress on "X-Gene", its forthcoming "Server-on-a-Chip" based on 64-bit ARM technology. X-Gene, which the company first announced last October, is being designed to power next-generation cloud-computing data centers and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).

AppliedMicro is now demonstrating an open source Apache Web Server running on an FPGA implementation of X-Gene. This development milestone represents the first 64-bit ARM development vehicle for the ecosystem community that will aid in the acceleration of server system development. The current implementation enables OEMs, ODMs, Cloud Service Providers, Independent Software Vendors and other development partners to conduct early stage performance benchmarking and software development in parallel with silicon development.


AppliedMicro has previously said that it expects to sample X-Gene is later half of 2012.

Other hardware highlights include:

• Multi-core ARM v8 running SMP with L1, L2, and L3 Caches


• System memory to host Linux and other server applications


• Coherent fabric, SOC peripherals and associated bridges


• The platform is capable of running a full LAMP software stack featuring open-source Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.

http://www.apm.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Reports Slow Start to 2012

Citing a slower than expected start to 2012 and economic uncertainties in Europe, Alcatel-Lucent reported Q1 2012 revenues of Euro 3,206 million, down 12.3% year-over-year on a reported basis and down 14.8% year-over-year at constant currency. There was an adjusted operating loss of Euro 221 million or -6.9% of revenue.


Networks saw a double digit year-over-year decline. The IP business continued growing at a double digit rate, but this was more than offset by the double digit decline in Optics and Wireless.


"Today’s results reflect a slow start to the year while demonstrating good control on both cash and costs and a strong momentum in our next generation products portfolio. But gross margin is not at the level we would have liked. Since the last quarter of 2011, we have been negatively impacted by lower volume and by an unfavourable revenue mix, particularly in Services. As 2012 continues to unfold we will maintain strict financial discipline and we will leverage a number of significant next generation network roll-outs around the globe, in particular in North America and China, as well as those expanding our position in countries such as Japan and in Latin America. This activity will be strengthened further by our innovation pipeline and major product introductions. However, market uncertainties remain high in Europe and the transition from CDMA to LTE is accelerating in North America," stated Ben Verwaayen, CEO Alcatel-Lucent.


Some highlights from the quarterly report:


Networks

Revenues for the Networks segment were Euro 1,981 million, a decrease of 18.1% compared to Euro 2,418 million in the year-ago quarter and a decrease of 20.0% compared to Euro 2,476 million in the fourth quarter 2011.


Revenues for the IP division were Euro 431 million, a 23.5% increase from the year-ago quarter. The company cited strength in both the APAC and Americas regions, both growing more than 30% year-over-year.


Revenues for the Optics division were Euro 489 million,a decrease of 25.2% from the year-ago quarter, driven by double-digit declines in both terrestrial and submarine businesses.


Revenues for the Wireless division were Euro 788 million, a decrease of 29.5% from the year-ago quarter. GSM was extremely weak in China due to central bidding phasing, while CDMA stabilized from Q4 levels. These trends were partially offset by double-digit growth in W-CDMA and LTE revenues, which more than doubled compared to the year-ago quarter, and grew more than 50% sequentially.


Revenues in the Wireline division declined 8.7% from their year-ago level, to Euro 282 million. Declines in the legacy businesses were partially offset by strong growth in fiber access equipment. Fiber access grew in excess of 100%, mainly driven by GPON growth in the APAC and Americas regions.


Sales of next-generation Networks products increased 23% from the year-ago quarter, reaching Euro 1,106 million in the first quarter 2012.


Software, Services and Solutions


Revenues for the S3 segment were Euro 969 million, a decrease of 0.6% compared to Euro 975 million in the year-ago quarter and a decrease of 26.3% compared to Euro 1,315 million in the fourth quarter 2011.


Revenues for Services business were Euro 870 million, flat compared to the year-ago quarter. Growth continued in the Managed Services business, with revenues increasing at a double-digit rate with strength across all geographies, particularly CALA, Western Europe and India, compared to the year-ago quarter.


Network Applications revenues declined 6.6% from their year-ago level, to Euro 99 million in the first quarter. Excluding the resale activity that was terminated in the fourth quarter of 2011 from the year-ago quarter, sales in Network Applications would have been flat year-over-year.


ENTERPRISE

Enterprise business revenues were Euro 178 million, a decrease of 8.7% compared to Euro 195million in the year-ago quarter and a decrease of 17.2% compared to Euro 215 million in the fourth quarter 2011. The declines in voice telephony were driven by a difficult economic environment in Europe. The data networking business saw slight declines in the first quarter due to slowdowns in certain services, while revenues related to Ethernet port shipments grew at a double-digit rate, highlighting the success of our renewed portfolio including the OmniSwitch 10k and OmniSwitch 6900.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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