NTT Com Offers Low Latency Route to Europe Across Russia

NTT Communications has begun offering a dedicated connection between London and Hong Kong using the new TEA-2 cable system, which offers the low-latency route alternative to subsea cables.

NTT Communications is providing European customers with access to the TEA-2 wavelength service.

As part of a broader strategy, this European connection into Hong Kong complements NTT Communications' "Gateway to Asia" offering between Europe, Singapore, Japan and China. And with the launch of the NTT Communications Hong Kong Financial Data Center (FDC) in 2013, the TEA-2 landing site will provide Tier IV ready data center infrastructure with an ultra-low latency network.

John Hammond, VP Business Network Services at NTT Europe, says, "We are always looking at how we can expand our network to give customers greater capacity with newer, faster and more reliable routes but also better value for money. The TEA-2 cable system really does strengthen our capability in Europe." http://www.ntt.co.jp 08-Aug-12

• In May 2011, Russian national carrier Rostelecom and KDDI signed an agreement for upgrade and modification of the Russia-Japan Cable Network (RJCN) and Transit Europe-Asia (TEA) service in order to support 10Gbps wavelength resources between Japan and Europe using shortest route via Russia. The contract for the original project was signed in 2006, with NEC as the primary contractor for portions of the network.

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NTT Com Readies 40G Asia Submarine-cable Express

NTT Communications is ready to start operation on the Asia Submarine-cable Express (ASE), a 40 Gbps, ultra-low latency undersea cable connecting major cities in Asia. At launch, the cable has a carrying capacity of 15 Tbps 7,800 km and has landing points in Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia, and will add Hong Kong in the first quarter of 2013. It incorporates special designs to withstand earthquake and typhoon damage. The system is also upgradeable to 100G channels.
The cable follows the lowest latency route between Japan and Singapore. It will provide direct connections to the Serangoon Data Center in Singapore and later will also connect to the Hong Kong Financial Data Centre. The direct connection enables customers there to use NTT Com’s network, data centers and cloud services on an end-to-end, one-stop basis.

NTT Com is the major investor in the cable system, which has been constructed in cooperation with Malaysia-based Telekom Malaysia, Philippines-based PLDT and Singapore-based StarHub.

On August 20, 2012, NTT Com will begin offering an enhanced global leased line service, by incorporating ASE’s low-latency routes into its existing Arcstar Global Leased Line Service. The newly enhanced service leverages ASE’s Japan-Singapore connection with an industry-leading latency of less than 65 milliseconds latency, more than 3 milliseconds faster than routes via other subsea cables. Existing US-Japan routes also will be used, including the NTT Com’s own PC-1 cable which offers the lowest latency connection between Tokyo and Chicago, home of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Superior service between Asia and the U.S. is especially attractive for financial enterprises, such as high-frequency trading firms that issue huge numbers of buy/sell orders for financial products and must transmit such information instantaneously.

Also this month, NTT Com will incorporate ASE into the backbone of its Tier-1 global IP network, which directly connects the world’s major internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers, and, in the near future, will do the same for Arcstar Universal One, its scalable, cloud-based network service.  http://www.ntt.co.jp 09-Aug-12

In 2011, NEC and Fujitsu were selected as primary contractors for the Asia Submarine-cable Express system. The manufacture and installation of all submersible plants such as Repeaters, OADM Branching Units and Cables, the Power Feeding Equipment and submersible plant monitoring system was to be implemented by NEC. The manufacture and installation of Submarine Line Terminal Equipment and the Management Controller was designated to Fujitsu.

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AT&T Southeast Reaches Tentative Labor Deal

AT&T Southeast (BellSouth Telecommunications) announced a tentative labor agreement with the Communications Workers of America covering more than 22,000 wireline employees in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The contract will be submitted to the CWA's membership for a ratification vote in coming days.

Key provisions include:

• General wage increases in each year of the contract for most employees – 2.25 percent the first year, 2.75 percent the second year, and 3 percent the third year.
• A 1 percent pension band increase in each year of the contract to the banded pension plan enjoyed by most current employees. New hires will continue to receive the Bargained Cash Balance 2 Pension Plan, with a one-time, 1 percent pay credit increase and an 80 percent match in the AT&T Retirement Savings 401(k) Plan.
• Expands to additional employees a guaranteed job offer provision that promises qualified surplused employees a guaranteed job opportunity with AT&T.
• Maintains one of the most robust health care plans in the nation, continuing to cover 100 percent of network preventive care, including such items as annual physicals and well-child care, with modest increases in employee contributions. For example, employees with individual coverage will pay monthly contributions of $38 in the first year of the contract, $58 the second year and $79 the third year of the contract. Employees with family coverage will pay monthly contributions of $81, $121, and $163 over the three years of the agreement. New hires will pay higher contributions. Deductibles for network care will be $500 for individual coverage and $1,000 for family coverage in each year of the contract.

http://www.att.com 08-Aug-12

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Dell'Oro Forecasts LTE Equipment Revenues to 2016

The Mobile Radio Access Network (RAN) LTE equipment market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 50 percent over the next five years, according to Dell'Oro Group.

This report also shows that the growth in mobile broadband will eventually offset declining investments in CDMA/GSM/WiMAX. The total Mobile RAN market, macro and public access small cells, is expected to grow at a CAGR of two percent between 2011 and 2016. The public access small cell market is expected to generate significant revenues in the outer years of the forecast period and account for nine percent of all RAN revenues in 2016.

"The success with early adopters in North America, Japan, and South Korea is driving operators around the world to commit to LTE and reap the benefits of improved efficiencies, latencies, throughputs, and to ensure a future-proof roadmap," said Stefan Pongratz, analyst at Dell'Oro Group. "It has been only 18 months since the first large scale commercial deployment of LTE and it is already generating more than 15 percent of total RAN revenues," continued Pongratz http://www.delloro.com 08-Aug-12

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Xilinx Boosts its Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC to 1 GHz

Xilinx boosted the peak processing performance of its Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC family to 1 GHz -- a 25% increase over initial specifications for the two largest Zynq-7000 devices.

The Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoCs are the first tightly integrated hardware, software and I/O 'all programmable' devices in the industry. Applications include high-end image and graphic processing applications within the medical, Aerospace and Defense (A&D) markets, as well as computationally intensive systems targeting wired and wireless equipment.

"Using Zynq for our measurement devices gives us an extremely compact physical solution as well as an extremely compact system because software and hardware are closer together than ever before," said Matthias Goetz, hardware project leader at Rohde & Schwarz. "We especially appreciate the great bandwidth performance between the FPGA and industry standard processing sub-system because it accelerates our processing and system development and it allows us to easily move functions from processor to programmable logic when and where needed." http://www.xilinx.com 08-Aug-12

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AT&T and Alere to Deliver Diabetes Monitoring

AT&T is teaming up with Alere Health to deliver "DiabetesManager", an end-to-end mobile health (mHealth) diabetes solution powered by WellDoc that will help adults with type 2 diabetes manage their health and engage with their caregivers.

Alere Health currently provides patient-centered health management for over 290,000 individuals with diabetes in the U.S.

The FDA-cleared DiabetesManager will be targeted for higher risk, higher acuity patients, in contrast to Alere's Mya solution that is designed for lower risk, lower acuity patients. With this new system, patients enter blood glucose readings and medication data into DiabetesManager on their compatible mobile device or the web and receive real-time feedback regarding their blood glucose control and immediate, recommended next step actions. The solution will be integrated with the Alere advanced clinical care management system, Apollo, to provide active, clinically based care management, with live clinicians available 24/7.

"There are hundreds of mHealth diabetes applications in the market today; however, this solution will be one of the first to be fully connected to a clinical system as part of an integrated plan of care," said Mike Cotton, CEO of Alere Health. "It goes beyond providing real-time coaching to the patient and enables the valuable patient information collected to be shared with nurses, case workers and doctors, who can communicate directly with the patient if needed." http://www.att.com http://www.alere.com 08-Aug-12

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Boingo Acquires Cloud Nine for Wi-Fi Hotspot Advertising

Boingo has acquired Cloud Nine Media, which provides Wi-Fi sponsorship and location-based advertising at more than 6,000 airports, hotels, bars and restaurants, and recreational areas in the U.S. and Canada. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Cloud Nine technology platforms will allow Boingo to deliver 100% share-of-voice sponsored access that can be used across Boingo’s global portfolio of managed Wi-Fi hotspots, including airports, shopping malls, restaurants, stadiums, transportation hubs and metropolitan hotzones that reach more than 1.5 billion people each year. San Francisco-based Cloud Nine Media also brings a team of skilled technologists and ad sales executives to the table, as well as relationships with key venues and advertisers.

"As we’ve expanded our Wi-Fi services into new venue categories, the demand for sponsored access and location based advertising services has grown in parallel,” said David Hagan, president and chief executive officer of Boingo Wireless. "Cloud Nine Media brings a formidable portfolio of tools and talent that will help us take our execution to the next level." http://www.boingo.com 06-Aug-12

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