Telefónica Secures US$1.2 Billion in Loans from China

Telefónica secured US$1.2 billion in credit with China Development Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. BBVA acted as Facility Agent for the ten year loan. Telefónica said the purpose of the credit is for the purchasing of products and solutions by Telefónica group worldwide. http://www.telefonica....

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AT&T's Website Offline for Hours Ahead of iPhone 5

AT&T took its entire U.S. website offline hours ahead of the midnight (PT) commencement of iPhone 5 sales.  Customers log-in to existing accounts remained open. The online Apple store also went offline ahead of the laun...

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ADVA Optical Networking Joins ONF

ADVA Optical Networking has joined the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) to help drive the development and standardization of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and OpenFlow protocols. "SDN presents the networking industry with a real opportunity to drive radical new efficiencies," said Christoph Glingener, CTO at ADVA Optical Networking. "SDN and OpenFlow are already proving themselves inside the data center. By extending SDN beyond physical data...

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Altera Announces 100G OTN Chip

Altera announced a single-chip, multi-rate OTN (optical transport network) muxponder solution for 100G network aggregation. The new device is based on Altera’s 28-nm high-performance Stratix V FPGA, which enables developers to integrate emerging client types into their networks, such as 16G Fibre Channel. The proliferation of 10G ports and the acceleration of networks from 40G towards 100G is driving operators to look for ways to minimize operational...

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Alcatel-Lucent Wins Network Management Contract with Telefónica

Telefónica has awarded a landmark contract to Alcatel-Lucent to overhaul the operator’s network management systems – enabling it to streamline its operations, improve the quality of services for its customers and optimize costs, while leveraging the capacities developed by Telefónica. Financial terms were not disclosed. Under the agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will combine the network management systems at the core of Telefonica’s operational support...

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AT&T Mobility Reaches Labor Deal Covering 40,000 Workers

AT&T Mobility announced a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America in benefits negotiations covering more than 40,000 employees nationwide. Some key points of the four-year tentative agreement: For employees hired on or before Dec. 31, 2012, monthly premiums for individual coverage would be $38 for 2013, $61 for 2014, $69 for 2015 and $82 for 2016. For these same employees,...

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Intel Developer Forum --"Connecting to the Future"

Intel is developing an all-digital radio that follows Moore’s Law by scaling in area and energy efficiency with such digital chip processes as Intel’s latest 22nm tri-gate technology. The all digital Wi-Fi radio system-on-chip designs targets smartphones, tablets and new wearable devices. Some other areas highlighted in the Intel Developer Forum 2012 keynote by Justin Rattner, Director, Intel Labs and Intel Chief Technology Officer: WiGig --...

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LANautilus Undersea Upgrades to 40G with Ciena

The Latin American Nautilus (LANautilus) undersea cable system, which links stations in South, Central and North America with Telecom Italia’s Sparkle Global Backbone, has been upgraded with Ciena’s coherent 40G optical networking solutions. The upgrade effectively quadruples the capacity along this key undersea cable. LANautilus is part of the Telecom Italia Sparkle Group and operates as a wholesale telecommunications service provider that delivers...

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Microsoft Tracks Nitol Botnet Pre-installed in Factory

A Microsoft investigation found that cybercriminals have infiltrated unsecure supply chains to introduce counterfeit Windows software embedded with malware at factories in China.  Microsoft's Operation b70, which stemmed from the study, tracked retailers who were selling computers loaded with counterfeit versions of Windows software embedded with the the Nitol botnet.  Microsoft has just won a restraining order in...

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Telecom Facilities Destroyed in N. Nigeria

A number of mobile masts and base stations in northern Nigeria were destroyed last week in attacks attributed to Boko Haram, a jihadist militant organization. According to allAfrica.com, companies suffering damage in the attacks included MTN, Glo, Airtel, Etisalat, Multilinks, and telecoms infrastructure provider, Helios Towers. http://allafrica.com/stories/201209130182.ht...

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