MetroPCS Goes Live with First Rich Communications over LTE

MetroPCS Communications announced the commercial launch of Rich Communication Services (RCS) on its 4G^LTE network under the  GSMA-licensed joyn brand. 

Based on the GSMA RCS 5.0 standard, joyn by MetroPCS will deliver an experience beyond voice and basic messaging to provide customers with a unified and intuitive way to use enriched services like integrated instant messaging or chat, WiFi and video calling and simplified content sharing.

MetroPCS will support the following RCS services at launch for customers with 4G^LTE joyn-enabled smartphones:

• Contacts Presence - joyn knows and shows how users can reach and share content with contacts at any time
  • Contact availability/status sync (online, busy, away, unavailable)
  • Calendar sync
  • Social network interaction
• Enriched Chat - Threaded conversations keep track of who's said what and show which people and groups are available to chat and share content
  • Instant messaging and group chat
  • Conversational view
  • Delivery of read notifications and composing indications
• Content Sharing - Bring calls and chats to life by sharing content with just one click from the address book
  • Share video, images and files while on a call and within instant messaging or chat
  • Display service capabilities
  • Geo-location
• WiFi and Video Calling - Stay connected with voice and video calls in areas with little or no cellular coverage
  • WiFi calling and video calls over WiFi

 "As the first 4G LTE carrier in the world to offer RCS, we are excited to join the global community of operators implementing the RCS standard and we are proud of our team and partners who were critical in building this capability that will evolve and expand over the next year," said Roger Linquist, CEO and Chairman of MetroPCS.

"We believe RCS is a tremendous differentiator among prepaid and postpaid competitors alike and recognize that achieving interoperability across U.S. 4G LTE networks is the next key step to paving the way for more innovative services and capabilities in the future," added Linquist.

joyn by MetroPCS will be available beginning today on the Samsung Galaxy Attain 4G. 

http://www.metropcs.com

In August, MetroPCS officially launched its commercial Voice-over-LTE service. The first sale of a VoLTE-capable handset occurred at one of the company's Dallas/Fort Worth store locations.

Its first VoLTE-capable LG Connect 4G Android smartphone is now on sales at select stores across the U.S.. MetroPCS said it will continue to roll out VoLTE services and phones in the coming weeks.

MetroPCS had 9.3 million overall mobile subscribers as of the end of Q2, of which over 700,000 were LTE subscriptions.

With the new VoLTE, voice calls are carried transparently over LTE regardless of the handset or network used on the other end of the call.

"The initial move to LTE and this move to VoLTE allow us to achieve significant spectral efficiencies and will increase network capacity so that we can enhance the 4G LTE experience that our customers have today at a tremendous value. VoLTE also provides a foundational capability for future Rich Communication Services (RCS), which we plan to launch later this year," stated Roger Linquist, chairman and chief executive officer of MetroPCS.

MetroPCS noted that it was the first U.S. carrier to deploy a commercial 4G LTE network in September 2010. So far, the LTE network rollout covers roughly 90 percent of its CDMA footprint. 

http://www.metropcs.com 

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AT&T and T-Mobile Enable Open Roaming in Sandy's Wake

AT&T and T-Mobile agreed to enable roaming on their networks in areas impacted by Hurricane Sanday and where capacity is available and subscribers have a compatible device.  Both networks use GSM and UMTS.

Customers will be able to place calls in a normal fashion and the traffic will be carried by the most available network.   There will no change necessary for rate plans.

AT&T also noted that it has many disaster response teams engaged and making progress in restoring wireless and wireline services in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy.  The vast majority of the company's cell sites in the Northeast are online and working. 

T-Mobile USA said its network in New York City is more than 80% operational and that restoration work continues in the harder hit areas of lower Manhattan, Staten Island, Long Island, coastal and Northern New Jersey, Connecticut and portions of Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia.

http://www.att.com
http://www.tmobile.com

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Infinera's DTN-X Selected for Mediterranean Subsea Network

Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (Cyta) has deployed Infinera’s DTN-X platform across the TE-North Cable System, interconnecting Asia and Africa to Europe.  Cyta operates and maintains the ALEXANDROS subsystem, part of Telecom Egypt’s TE-North Cable System which stretches 3,600 kilometers connecting Abu Talat, Egypt, to Marseilles, France, with a branch to Pentaskhinos, Cyprus.

Infinera’s DTN-X platform allows Cyta to add additional capacity to the ALEXANDROS subsystem, with the ability to upgrade TE North’s terrestrial network in the future.

Infinera’s DTN-X platform supports 500 Gbps long-haul FlexCoherent super-channels integrated with 5 Terabits per second (Tbps) of Optical Transport Network (OTN) switching per bay.  Infinera also supports multiple software-programmable modulation formats for optimization of the network. Integrated OTN switching is coupled with a GMPLS control plane to deliver wavelength flexibility.

“We are delighted to work with Infinera to deploy the DTN-X platform on this critical international telecommunications route,” said Yiannis Koulias, Cyta’s Director of National & International Wholesale Market. “We are confident the Infinera DTN-X delivers the most advanced optical transport platform based on 500 Gb/s photonic integrated circuits. The FlexCoherent technology will allow us to optimize transmission performance across our existing subsea fiber plant and meet the demands of our customers quickly and efficiently.”

Infinera is the first to deliver 500 Gb/s long-haul super-channels based on Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) and FlexCoherent™ Processor, scaling transport capacity without scaling operational complexity.  Infinera’s PICs combine multiple optical subsystems on a single IC and result in fewer fiber connections, less space, and less power when compared to conventional systems based upon discrete components. The Infinera DTN-X increases network efficiency with 5 Terabits of integrated OTN switching per bay, resulting in much more efficient utilization when compared to conventional WDM architectures that do not allow sub-lambda grooming and switching. Infinera’s Bandwidth Virtualization™ simplifies service deployment, enabling operators to deploy networks in days and services in minutes, thereby lowering operational costs.

http://www.infinera.com
http://www.cytaglobal.com

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Verizon Wireless: 6% of Cell Sites Offline in Northeast

As of Wednesday afternoon, Verizon Wireless reported that more than 94% of it cell towers in the Northeastern United States (from Maine to Virginia) were operational and supporting customers.   The company said it has seen some improvement to wireless service in lower Manhattan and elsewhere in the NYC metro area over the past 24 hours as power is being restored.

A number of cell sites are still on backup power and the company is working to refuel these locations as expeditiously as possible.

http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2012/10/pr2012-10-31a.html

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IPtronics Files Complaint Against Avago for 40/100G Modules

IPtronics has filed legal suit against Avago Technologies in the U.S. District Court in San Jose for allegedly violating commitments made to standards setting organizations and failing to protect IPtronics’ confidential information.

IPtronics claims that Avago ignored legally binding commitments to standards setting organizations to disclose patented technology and to make that technology available for licensing.

The claims concern short-range, 40G and 100G multimode VCSEL-based fiber optical modules.

http://www.iptronics.com

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PacketFront Acquired by Fiber Access AB

PacketFront Network Products AB has been acquired by Fiber Access Holding AB for an undisclosed sum.

PacketFront is a supplier of broadband access equipment for network operators. The company has shipped more than 1.2 million access connections since its founding in 2001.

The main owners of Fiber Access Holding AB is the investment group ShortCap, which focuses on entrepreneurial companies with strong potential for growth.

http://www.packetfront.com

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Big Switch Raises $25 Million for Open SDN

Big Switch Networks raised $25 million in Series B funding for its platform-independent Software-Defined Networking (SDN) solution.

Big Switch Networks, which was founded in March 2010 and is based in Palo Alto, California, leverages open APIs to enable customers to deploy dynamic and flexible networking applications, including data center network virtualization. The company is building an ecosystem of physical and virtual switching partners for its Open SDN architecture.

The new funding was led by Redpoint Ventures and joined by Goldman Sachs, and existing investors Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and others. The company has now raised $39 million to date.

“Big Switch is delivering on the vision of software-defined networking (SDN) with an open and standards-based platform that enables network programmability, flexibility and new levels of network service delivery. We started this revolutionary trend away from closed and proprietary systems, and are gratified that every major physical and virtual infrastructure vendor is now participating,” said Guido Appenzeller, CEO and co-founder of Big Switch Networks. 

http://www.bigswitch.com

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Ixia Validates LTE Base Station Performance

Ixia introduced its XAir solution for validating LTE base station performance in terms of realistic subscriber and service modeling, scalability, and QoE measurements.

Ixia said its new XAir provides realistic subscriber modeling, supporting web, voice and video applications, all LTE mobility types, and modeling of radio characteristics — cell edge, cell center and user movements.  It supports more than 1,000 emulated user equipment’s per sector and more than 6,000 per chassis.

Carriers can also use XAir carriers to optimize voice quality, including voice over LTE (VoLTE) and video quality by stressing the infrastructure with real-world traffic and measuring QoE.

Other features include:

•        End-to-end LTE network testing from the LTE base station, through the mobile backhaul and core networks, all the way to the data center.
•        QoE analysis and scoring of each traffic stream.
•        Mobility over multiple sectors.
•        Built-in high-accuracy 10 MHz clock for eNB synchronization.
•        Fully compatible with the Ixia XM and XG chassis and load modules for seamless testing with other Ixia hardware and test applications.

http://www.ixiacom.com
http://www.ixiacom.com/pdfs/datasheets/xair-module.pdf

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Extreme Posts Revenue of $76 Million, Down 13% Sequentially

Extreme Networks reported revenue of $76.1 million for its first quarter of fiscal 2013 ending September 30, 2012, a 3.5% decrease compared to revenue of $78.9 million reported for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 and a 13.1% decrease compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012. GAAP net income for the first quarter was $12.9 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, an increase year-over-year compared to GAAP net income of $1.6 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2012.


"Q1 results were in-line with our targets and we are encouraged by customer and partner response related to our strategy and products released earlier in the calendar year," stated Oscar Rodriguez, President and CEO of Extreme Networks.  "Our goal is to grow revenues while continually refining our cost structure and enhancing our selling efforts to deliver superior products that we believe provide both a technology and cost advantage for both new and existing customers."

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Nasuni Raises $20 Million for Enterprise Cloud Gateway

Nasuni, a start-up based in Natick, Mass., raised  $20 million in Series C funding for its enterprise cloud gateway. Nasuni provides a consolidated storage-as-a-service solution for distributed enterprises.  The solution brings all primary storage (i.e. file and block) together with built-in backup, replication, and offsite protection using an on-site appliance connected to the cloud.

The funding came from a new key investor,.Previous investors Flybridge Capital Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners also participated in the financing.

http://www.nasuni.com

• Nasuni is headed by Andres Rodriguez, who previously was founder and CTO of Archivas, which developed an enterprise-class cloud storage system and was acquired by Hitachi Data Systems in 2006. Earlier, he was CTO of the New York Times, where he drove digital strategy at NYTimes and Boston.com.

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MIT Tech Review: Breakthrough in Power Amplifiers

Eta Devices, a start-up company led by two MIT electrical engineering professors, has cracked the energy efficiency problem in power amplifier designs for radio communications.  According to MIT Technology Review website, the technology promises to reduce power usage in LTE base stations by half.  The company has the backing of Strata Venture Partners.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506491/efficiency-breakthrough-promises-smartphones-that-use-half-the-power/

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