June 10, 1962: Telstar Launches Satellite Communications Era

 Bell Labs marked the 50th anniversary of the launch of Telstar I -- the first active communications satellite, which ushered in the era of modern communications including real-time global telephone service, data communications and TV broadcasting. Telstar I incorporated dozens of innovations from Bell Labs, including the transistor and solar panels, and was powered by 3,600 solar cells also invented by Bell Labs in 1954. The satellite could...

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Frontier Gains $72M from FCC's Connect America Fund

 Frontier Communications has received $71.9 million from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Connect America Fund (CAF). The funds will be used for broadband connectivity in underserved or unserved areas. Frontier said that by accepting this funding, it will provide broadband service to an additional 92,876 households covering more than half of the 27 states it serves, ensuring rural customers in states such as Michigan, Oregon, Washington and West Virginia have access to broadband connectivity. http://www.frontier....

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Troy Cable Picks ADTRAN for SmartBand Project

Troy Cable, which serves southeastern Alabama, has selected ADTRAN to deliver a full range of carrier access and enterprise solutions for the Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program (BTOP) funded SmartBand Project. Troy Cable is deploying a 595 mile fiber optic Middle Mile network across the region that will enable high bandwidth voice, video and data to nearly 150 anchor institutions and 4,000 businesses in the area. The deployment will include ADTRAN's Total Access 5000 Multi-Service Access Platform (MSAP), Total Access 900 series IP...

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Infonetics: Demand for DDoS Prevention Solutions is Hot

 Sustained DDoS activity will drive the market for DDoS prevention appliances to 24% growth in 2012 over 2011, according to a new report from Infonetics. “While the market for dedicated DDoS prevention solutions remains strong, going forward the overall performance of the market and the vendors in it will be challenged by the widening availability of hosted/SaaS solutions and new integrated security platforms that include DDoS prevention...

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TeleGeography Publishes 2012 Submarine Cable Map

TeleGeography published its 2012 Submarine Cable Map, showing more than 150 cable systems that are currently active or due to enter service by 2014. According to TeleGeography, the trans-Atlantic remains the largest submarine cable route by far, with 16.2 Tbps of lit capacity at year-end 2011, followed by the trans-Pacific with 12.5 Tbps of lit capacity. http://www.telegeography.com/telecom-maps/submarine-cable-map/index.html ...

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Opnext Carries 100Gbps Coherent PM-QPSK Signal over 3,300 Km

Opnext supplied its OTS-100FLX 100Gbps digital coherent subsystem for an optical transmission field trial between the National Supercomputing Center, SARA, in Amsterdam and CERN in Geneva. The test used next-generation 100Gbps single carrier technology and soft decision forward error correction (SD-FEC) to optically link Amsterdam to Geneva with a transmission distance of 1,650km using only erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). Opnext said the embedded fiber link comprised a combination of the relatively high-nonlinear TW+ and TWRS fibers. Furthermore,...

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Equinix Acquire Hong Kong's Asia Tone, Gaining 5 Data Centers

Equinix completed its previously announced acquisition of Hong Kong-based data center provider Asia Tone for $230.5 million in cash. In total, Equinix gains five data centers and one disaster recovery center, in addition to one data center under construction, located across three key markets – Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. Asia Tone serves a strategic customer base, which includes many existing Equinix customers. Asia Tone generated approximately $30 million in revenue in 2011, and has been growing at a greater than 50 percent CAGR for the...

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