Interxion Plans 8th Frankfurt Data Center

Interxion announced plans to build its 8th data center in Frankfurt, Germany.  The new facility will be built on an adjoining campus, consists of four phases, each of approximately 900 m2.  CAPEX for the first two phases is expected to total EUR 30 million.

Interxion said the data center market in Frankfurt is being driven by cloud services, digital media and the financial sector.

http://www.interxion.com

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Huawei Announces LTE Carrier Aggregation Solution

Huawei introduced a Carrier Aggregation designed to maximize spectrum resource utilization for existing operators.  It is deployable using Huawei's SRC (Single Radio Controller) hardware platform solution for centralized cell resource coordination.

Peter Zhou, VP & COO for Huawei LTE, said: "Through customer-centric innovation and strong partnerships, we are dedicated to providing competitive solutions that create maximum value for our customers. Our CA total solution not only dramatically increases spectrum resource utilization and increase peak data rates, but does so while flexibly combine bandwidth to solve spectrum discontinuity."

In October 2012, Huawei partnered with a leading operator to launch the world's first commercial LTE-Advanced network that provides downlink peak rates of up to 300 Mbps. 

As of April 2013, Huawei had won more than 160 commercial LTE networks and deployed 78 commercial LTE networks worldwide. 

http://www.huawei.com/en/about-huawei/newsroom/press-release/hw-264508-cambb.htm

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Cyan's Blue Planet SDN Digs into Multi-Vendor Network Inventory and Resources

Cyan introduced Planet Inventory, a multi-vendor network asset management application that forms part of the company's Blue Planet suite of software-defined network (SDN) applications.

Planet Inventory provides physical asset and logical resource management in complex, multi-layer, multi-vendor environments, including Cyan’s Z-Series family of packet-optical transport platforms, as well as equipment from a broad range of third-party network equipment suppliers. It includes a dynamic set of tools to browse collected data, including an advanced search-driven Object Browser, as well as a dynamic Object Graph, showing the relationships between various object types, such as cards, ports and services.

Cyan said accurate network asset information helps network operators reduce operating costs and accelerate service availability. Cyan’s Blue Planet SDN system provides a centralized orchestration service from which network operators can configure and manage network-wide services. Because Blue Planet has direct access to the equipment, the data it provides represents the true state of the network. Operators may use this network-side data for a variety of needs, including inventory management.

"Rapidly changing demands on networks is causing an increased emphasis on the performance and ROI of network assets. As a result, many network operators are asking for a clear, multi-vendor view of what is in their network and how it is performing. Our Planet Inventory application significantly improves their visibility," stated Michael Hatfield, Cyan's president,

Cyan will offer Planet Inventory both as a cloud-based service and as a locally-hosted implementation.

http://www.cyaninc.com

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GSMA: Average Mobile Data Speed 75% Faster in U.S. Than Europe

Europe now lags far behind the United States in the deployment of next-generation mobile technologies and the advanced services, according to a new report from the GSMA.

As recently as five years ago, the European mobile market was performing as well as, or even better than, the United States. However, since then, the situation has dramatically reversed. The report, developed in collaboration with Navigant Economics, explores the many factors that have contributed to Europe's lost mobile leadership and offers policy recommendations.

Some key findings of the report:

• On average, U.S. consumers spend more each month than their EU counterparts and use mobile services much more intensely, consuming five times more voice minutes and nearly twice as much data.
  
• The U.S. has opened up a large lead in deployment of next-generation technologies; by the end of 2013, nearly 20 per cent of U.S. connections will be on LTE networks, compared to fewer than two per cent in the EU.
  
• Average mobile data connection speeds in the U.S. are now 75 per cent faster than those in Europe and by 2017 will be more than twice as fast.
  
• Mobile investment in the United States has outpaced that in Europe, with capital expenditure in the U.S. growing by 70 per cent since 2007 while declining in the EU and the gap continues to widen.

"Europe was the early leader in mobile, with a wide range of companies pioneering the innovation that now benefits more than 3.2 billion men and women around the world," said Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA. "However, this report confirms the very sobering reality that Europe has lost its edge in mobile and is significantly underperforming other advanced economies, including the United States. While there are many factors that have contributed to Europe's current position, it is clear that enlightened policy reforms could bring improvement, creating substantial benefits for EU consumers and driving economic growth."

Some policy recommendations in the report: prioritise spectrum allocation and harmonisation; allow for efficient mergers & acquisitions; discriminations in favour of new entrants should be discontinued, allowing market forces to take hold; drive a single European market for mobile services; and encourage mobile innovation and investment in Europe.

http://www.gsmamobilewirelessperformance.com/

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Telefónica Announces Digital Wallet Joint Venture with Spanish Banks

Telefónica will form a joint venture company with CaixaBank and Santander to develop new business opportunities based on the latest mobile and communication technologies. The new company will build an online community to ease the connection between merchants and consumers when it comes to offers, discounts and promotions. It also plans to offer a Digital Wallet in which customers can keep all their cards, which will serve as identification in stores and for making purchases within the digital community, as well as being a person-to-person (P2P) mobile payment service for community members.

The companies described their agreement as the first such alliance in Europe between financial institutions and a telecom operator. They believed there is the potential to reach more than 600,000 businesses in Spain.  An international expansion is also part of the plan.

"There is a profound change happening in the way we buy things. Digital technologies are transforming how consumers research products and then identify the best prices, promotions or discounts. This joint venture combines the partners’ technical and financial services expertise to create an ecosystem for the benefit of both retailers and consumers," stated José María Álvarez-Pallete, CEO of Telefónica.

http://www.telefonica.com

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Rogers and Videotron Announce LTE Network Sharing Deal in Québec and Ottawa

Videotron and Rogers announced a 20-year, LTE network sharing agreement in the province of Québec and the Ottawa region. The two companies will pool their efforts to quickly build out and operate a shared LTE wireless network.  The deal will deliver capital and operating savings, allowing both companies to reinvest in their customers and networks. Videotron and Rogers will maintain their business independence, including their product and service portfolios, billing systems and customer data.

In addition to the network sharing agreement, Videotron and Rogers have also come to an agreement regarding Videotron's unused AWS spectrum in the Greater Toronto Area. Videotron will have the option to transfer its Toronto spectrum licence to Rogers, subject to regulatory approvals, beginning January 1, 2014 for a price of $180 million.

Rogers said the deal builds on its extensive LTE footprint across Canada, including Montreal, Ottawa and Québec City. The fast-paced rollout of LTE infrastructure will position the two companies to meet the steadily growing needs of consumers and businesses, ensuring many more can enjoy incredibly fast speeds, throughput and take advantage of the latest and greatest LTE enabled devices.

Videotron serves 1,849,200 cable television customers in Québec, including 1,500,300 subscribers Digital TV. Videotron also has 1,397,300 subscribers to its cable Internet service, 420,900 subscriber connections to its mobile telephone service, and 1,274,000 subscribers to its cable telephone service.

"This agreement will benefit businesses and consumers and is part of Rogers focused, strategic game plan," said Nadir Mohamed, President and CEO, Rogers Communications Inc. "This network and spectrum sharing agreement, combined with the expansion of our LTE footprint, will allow even more consumers to experience the superior connectivity and incredibly fast speeds that LTE delivers."

"This is excellent news for our customers and our shareholders. This agreement will enable us to go farther and to do it faster and is indicative of our determination to anticipate our customers' needs and to maintain the close relationship we have built with them." said Robert Dépatie, President and CEO of Quebecor Inc. and CEO of Videotron.

http://www.rogers.com
http://www.videotron.com

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Digital Realty Buys Six Buildings to Expand Austin Data Centers

Digital Realty Trust has acquired six buildings at the MetCenter Business Park in Austin, Texas for $31.9 million.  The facilities include operating data centers and flex office space totaling approximately 337,000 square feet.  The overall portfolio is currently 90% leased to a variety of data center, biotechnology, technology and/or telecommunications enterprises.

The six buildings are located adjacent to Digital Realty's data center at 7500 Metro Center Drive, near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

"The acquisition of this portfolio achieves several key objectives for us," said Scott Peterson, Chief Acquisitions Officer at Digital Realty. "It expands our existing data center footprint in the Austin market, while providing stable cash flow immediately at an attractive going-in cap rate. Second, it provides near-term opportunity to add value by lease existing vacant space. And third, it offers the option to convert a portion of the property to data center space over the longer term as leases expire."

http://www.digitalrealty.com

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Verizon Pumps its Private IP network with 100GE Access

Verizon is bringing 100GE to the edge routers of its Private IP network, giving its enterprise customers faster access speeds to support growing cloud applications.  The company confirmed plans to implement the technology on the same U.S. and European routes where 100G long-haul is deployed. In addition, Verizon now is offering standardized 1GE and 10GE access for its Private IP network to continue to support the growing bandwidth needs of customer applications. Standardization of these services means quicker ordering and delivery, compared with previous processes.

Verizon's Private IP service provides the foundation for communication and business-process automation both within and between companies, including e-commerce, shared intranets and extranets, as well as video applications.

"The increase in demand for cloud and data center connectivity is driving the decision to expand our service offering to higher speeds in order to meet the bandwidth needs of our customers by providing reliable, high-performance and secure services," said Ihab Tarazi, vice president of product technology. "Verizon is a leader in high-bandwidth technology, and extending 100GE to the edge is the next natural step for us."

"Our customers are transforming the way they access information and increasingly are looking to quickly turn their big data into information that offers real business advantages," said Rich Montgomery, Verizon group vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. "Extending 100GE to the edge gives customers the connectivity they need to run their businesses most effectively while staying competitive in the global market."

http://www.verizon.com

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Broadcom's Bluetooth Smart SoC Targets Android Peripherals

Broadcom introduced a new Bluetooth Smart system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed to connect a broader range of low-cost, low-power peripherals to work with Android-based smartphones and tablets.

Broadcom's new BCM20732 Bluetooth Smart SoC seamlessly connects peripheral devices like heart rate monitors, pedometers, door locks, lighting, proximity alarms, etc. that are powered by coin cell batteries.  It is powered by an ARM Cortex M3.  Broadcom said its new SoC makes it possible to operate Bluetooth Smart-enabled products for more than one year without recharging the small batteries that power them.

Broadcom also announced the contribution of its Bluetooth software stack, including classic Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart (formerly Bluetooth Low Energy) technology, to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The new Broadcom chip and contribution of its software will help drive proliferation of Bluetooth technology in the "Internet of Things" ecosystem. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.

"The integration of Bluetooth Smart into the Android community is a huge step forward for the 'Internet of Things'," said Brian Bedrosian, Broadcom's Senior Director, Embedded Wireless, Wireless Connectivity Combo Group. "Broadcom is committed to driving new standards of connectivity for OEMs by providing both software and hardware for simplified development of high-performance products. Adding direct support for Bluetooth Smart directly into the most widely used mobile OS will greatly expand the opportunities for users to easily monitor and control aspects of their health, fitness, and security for smartphones and tablets."

http://www.broadcom.com

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Telecom Italia to Spin-Off Fixed Line Infrastructure

The board of directors of Telecom Italia adopted a plan to spin-off the company's fixed line access business into a separate company. Infrastructure belonging to the separated company will include resources for developing and managing the passive access network (both copper and fibre) and the active components of the fibre, consisting of OLTs (Optical Line Terminals) and cabinets.

Telecom Italia said its new structure will guarantee all operators (OLOs and Telecom Italia) access to the fixed-line network, including Unbundled Local Loops (ULLs) and Virtual Unbundled Line Access (VULA) for next-generation networks leveraging FTTx and FTTH architecture.

http://www.telecomitalia.com/

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Octasic Enables 20 km Small Cell Radius

Octasic released an updated version of its flexiPHY HSPA software, adding support for a cell radius of 20 kilometers.

Octasic’s flexiPHY software, which runs on Octasic’s OCT2224W base station devices and Octasic’s small cell platform products such as the OCTBTS2000 and OCTBTS4000, offers 3GPP-compliant physical layers for GSM, UMTS, and LTE, integrated with leading RNC and Iuh stack vendor products. This eliminates the need for OEMs to develop the baseband and stack portion of their design.

Octasic noted that small cells with a large radius could prove especially useful in rural areas or for applications such as emergency networks, search and rescue, public safety, and military deployments.

http://www.octasic.com//news/details/809

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NSN and MediaTek Test Orthogonal Sub-Channel for GSM Spectral Efficiency

Nokia Siemens Networks has successfully completed testing of Orthogonal Sub-Channel (OSC) support for Voice services over Adaptive Multi-user channels on One Slot (VAMOS) handsets with the mobile chipsets provided by MediaTek. OSC, which was invented by NSN, improves the spectral efficiency for GSM.

Nokia Siemens Networks Liquid Radio Software Suite uses OSC to support up to four devices in one radio timeslot, providing up to double voice capacity in GSM.  The company said the OSC feature is currently in commercial use in networks serving more than 500 million users.

By enhancing OSC with support for VAMOS handsets, an average capacity increase of 5% can be provided, helping operators further reduce the capacity required for GSM and dedicate more network resources to WCDMA and LTE when they are re-farming spectrum. Successful compatibility testing with VAMOS capable chipsets is a major milestone in this development.

"Collaboration with MediaTek to implement OSC enhancements for VAMOS-capable devices puts us in a position to offer even better GSM spectral efficiency to our customers,” said Kimmo Virkki, head of GSM product management at Nokia Siemens Networks. “We will continue innovating in this area."

Nokia Siemens Networks’ OSC support is compliant with 3GPP GERAN release 9.

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/nokia-siemens-networks-mediatek-collaborate-for-improved-gsm-spectral-efficiency

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Cisco: Total IP Traffic to Grow 3X from 2012 to 2017

Total global IP traffic will grow three-fold between 2012 and 2017, according to Cisco's newly released Visual Networking Index Forecast. 

Cisco is projecting that PC-originated traffic will grow at a 14% CAGR, while other devices/connections will have higher traffic growth rates over the forecast period ― TVs (24%), tablets (104%), smartphones (79%), and machine-to-machine (M2M) modules (82%).

Some highlights from the latest Cisco VNI:

Global IP Traffic Projections and Analysis

• By 2017, annual global IP traffic will reach 1.4 zettabytes (23% CAGR from 2012 to 2017). – A zettabyte is equal to a sextillion bytes.
• By 2017, more traffic will traverse global networks than all prior "Internet years" combined
  1984 – 2012: 1.2 zettabytes2017 Forecast: 1.4 zettabytes
• "Busy hour" Internet traffic, (hours of the day during which traffic is highest), is increasing faster than average Internet traffic. Busy hour Internet traffic increased 41% in 2012, compared to 34% growth in average traffic.
• Metro traffic will surpass long-haul traffic in 2014, and will account for 58% of total IP traffic by 2017. Metro traffic will grow nearly twice as fast as long-haul traffic from 2012 to 2017.
• Content delivery networks (CDNs) will carry over half of total Internet traffic by 2017.
• Wi-Fi and mobile-connected devices will generate 68% of Internet traffic by 2017.
• Nearly half of total IP traffic will originate with non-PC devices (including tablets, smartphones, and televisions) by 2017.

Standout IP Networking Trends

• Fixed/Wi-Fi traffic will grow at a CAGR of 26% between 2012 and 2017, compared to a 16% CAGR for fixed/wired traffic.
• Globally, the average household had 4.7 devices / connections (including M2M) in 2012; the average household will have 7.1 devices / connections (including M2M) by 2017 (an 8.8% CAGR).
• Globally, there will be 8 billion IPv6-capable fixed & mobile devices/connections in 2017, up from 1.6 billion in 2012 (38% CAGR).
• Globally, 42% of all fixed & mobile networked devices/connections will be IPv6-capable in 2017, up from 14% in 2012.

Regional & Country IP Traffic Projections

• Asia-Pacific (APAC) will generate the most IP traffic by 2017 (43.4 exabytes/month), maintaining its leadership from last year.
• The Middle East and Africa will continue to be the fastest growing IP traffic region from 2012 – 2017 (5-fold growth, 38% CAGR over the forecast period); MEA was the fastest growing region last year as well (10-fold growth, 57% CAGR for the 2011 – 2016 forecast period) in this category.
• By 2017, the highest traffic-generating countries will be the United States (37 exabytes per month) and China (18 exabytes per month).
• For fastest growing IP traffic at the country-level, India will have the highest IP traffic growth rate with a 44% CAGR from 2012 – 2017. Second is Indonesia (42% CAGR) and third is South Africa (31% CAGR) over the forecast period.

Regional IP Traffic Growth Breakouts

• APAC: 43.4 exabytes/month by 2017, 26% CAGR, 3-fold growth
• North America: 40.7 exabytes/month by 2017, 26% CAGR, 3-fold growth
• Western Europe: 24.3 exabytes/month 2017, 17% CAGR, 2-fold growth
• Central Europe: 8.8 exabytes/month by 2017, 21% CAGR, 3-fold growth
• Latin America: 7.4 exabytes/month by 2017, 17% CAGR, 2-fold growth
• Middle East and Africa: 3.5 exabytes/month by 2017, 38% CAGR, 5-fold growth

Global Consumer Internet Video Consumption

• Globally, there will be nearly 2 billion Internet video users (excluding mobile-only) by 2017, up from 1 billion Internet video users in 2012.
• Internet video-to-TV traffic will increase nearly 5-fold between 2012 (1.3 exabytes per month) and 2017 (6.5 exabytes per month).

HD and 3D Internet Video Traffic

• By 2017, 3D and HD Internet video will comprise 63% of consumer Internet video traffic.
• Advanced consumer Internet video (3D and HD) will increase 4-fold between 2012 and 2017.

Global Consumer VoD Traffic                               

• VoD traffic will increase 3-fold between 2012 and 2017.

Global Consumer Internet File Sharing Traffic

• Peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic will decline at a CAGR of -9%, while web-based and other file sharing traffic will grow at CAGR of 17% from 2012 – 2017.
• By 2017, global P2P traffic will be 65% of global consumer Internet file sharing traffic, down from 85% in 2012.

Global Business IP Traffic              

• Overall business IP traffic, which includes Internet, backup, VoIP, etc., will nearly triple between 2012 and 2017.
• In 2012, business IP traffic represented 20% of monthly total global IP traffic (consumer IP traffic represented 80% of monthly total global IP traffic).
• By 2017, business IP traffic will represent 18% of monthly total global IP traffic (consumer IP traffic will represent 82% of monthly total global IP traffic).

Global Business Internet Video Traffic                

• Business Internet video traffic will from 5.3-fold from 2012 to 2017.
• Business Internet video traffic grew 52% in 2012.
• Video will account for 58% of all business Internet traffic in 2017, up from 31% in 2012.

http://ciscovni.com/index.html

Last year's VNI

Cisco Forecasts 4X Global IP Traffic by 2016

Wednesday, May 30, 2012  Cisco, India, Mobile, Research  No comments

By 2016, annual global IP traffic is forecast to be 1.3 zettabytes – (a zettabyte is equal to a sextillion bytes, or a trillion gigabytes), according to the newly issued Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2011-2016). For comparison, the total global IP traffic generated in 2011 was 369 exabytes. The additional traffic added in 2015-2016 alone is expected to be 330 exabytes, or an addition over that 12 month period nearly equal to the entire IP traffic volume last year.

Not surprisingly, Cisco finds the leading factors of growth to be:

More devices: Cisco predicts that by 2016 there will be nearly 18.9 billion network connections ―- almost 2.5 connections for each person on earth -- for tablets, mobile phones, and other smart devices as well as machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. Cisco estimates there were 10.3 billion connections in 2011.

More Internet users: By 2016, there are expected to be 3.4 billion Internet users ― about 45 percent of the world's projected population according to United Nations estimates.

Faster broadband speeds: The average fixed broadband speed is expected to increase nearly fourfold, from 9 Mbps in 2011 to 34 Mbps in 2016.

More video: By 2016, 1.2 million video minutes―the equivalent of 833 days (or over two years) ―would travel the Internet every second.

Wi-Fi growth: By 2016, over half of the world's Internet traffic is expected to come from Wi-Fi connections.

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D11: Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report

Mary Meeker, a partner at the venture investment firm of the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, presented her annula Internet Trends report at the D11 conference organized by The Wall Street Journal.  Her series of 117 slides covers a wide range of key trends in mobile networking, smartphone adoption, advertising and social issues.

Here are a few highlights on the networking side:

• 2.4 billion Internet users is 2012, up 8% Y/Y.
  
• 80% of Top Ten Global Internet sites are "Made in USA" while 81% of users are outside USA.
  
• 500 million photos are now uploaded and shared every day on Flickr, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.
  
• 100 hours of video are uploaded per minute to YouTube as of May 2013.
  
• More than 1.1 billion Facebook users, 68% on mobiles, 60% log-in daily, average 200+ friends
  
• Global mobile traffic is about 15% of total Internet traffic. Rising rapidly.
  
• In China, more users are now accessing the web via mobiles than via desktop PCs
  
• In Korea, mobile search queries surpassed PC search queries in Q4 2012.
  
• There are currently about 1.5 billion smartphone users, representing about 21% penetration. The growth rate is 31% Y/Y.

http://www.slideshare.net/kleinerperkins/kpcb-internet-trends-2013

KPCB Internet Trends 2013 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

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BT Reduced Energy Consumption by 3.3% in Last Year

BT published its annual Better Future sustainability report, promising to use the power of communication to improve lives, ways of doing business and to make its overall impact on society a positive one.

Some highlights of the report:

• BT invested £27 million in 2012/13 to support its commitment to being a responsible and sustainable business.  There are three focus areas - Connected Society, Net Good and Improving Lives – each with its own vision and an ambitious goal to achieve by the end of 2020.
  
• BT's 2020 goal is that more than nine out of ten people in the UK will have access to fibre-based products and services.
  
• BT's investment alongside 19 partnership investment projects has accelerated UK fibre broadband rollout to around 15 million premises already.
  
• BT's Connecting Africa initiative is providing internet services via satellite to 20 locations, creating access to information and critical services for up to 700,000 people.
  
• BT's 2020 goal is to help customers reduce carbon emissions by at least three times the end to end carbon impact of its business.
  
• BT has achieved its target of hitting an 80% reduction in UK carbon emissions three years ahead of deadline despite increased volume.
  
• BT reduced its energy consumption in 2012/13 by 3.3%, saving the business £33m annually.
  
• BT's 2020 goal is to use BT's skills and technology to help generate more than £1bn for good causes. 

"Our Better Future programme signals BT's evolution to a new model in which every part of the business and every employee has a role to play in realising our visions and achieving our goals to create a better business with a better future. It's a long-term commitment, focusing on what we do best – bring together our networks and our technology with the expertise of our people to make a better world. Using the power of communications, we can benefit our customers, our bottom-line and the communities we operate in," Niall Dunne, stated Chief Sustainability Officer.

http://www.btplc.com/betterfuture

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Sprint + Softbank -- No Unresolved National Security Concerns

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) completed its investigation of the proposed transaction between Sprint and SoftBank and determined that there are no unresolved national security issues relating to the transaction.

As part of this aspect of the transaction’s clearance, Sprint and SoftBank have entered into a National Security Agreement with the U.S. government.

Details of the agreement were not made public but it is expected to cover the exclusion of telecom infrastructure from Huawei and ZTE in the merged company's U.S. network, including Clearwire. The National Security Agreement will terminate in the event that the merger between Sprint and SoftBank is not completed.

The FCC is still conducting its public interest review of the proposed merger.  Sprint shareholders must also vote on the deal.  The companies believe the deal is on track for consummation in July 2013.

http://www.sprint.com

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AMD Debuts Opteron Processors for Scale-out Data Center Servers

AMD introduced its Opteron X-Series x86 processors for scale-out server architectures.

The first AMD Opteron X-Series processors, formerly known as “Kyoto,” will come in two variants:

• The AMD Opteron X2150, which consumes as little as 11 watts, is the first server APU system-on-a-chip integrating CPU and GPU engines with a high-speed bus on a single die. It incorporates AMD Radeon HD 8000 graphics technology for multimedia-oriented server workloads.
  
• The AMD Opteron X1150, which consumes as little as 9 watts, is a CPU-only version optimized for general scale-out workloads.

“The data center is at an inflection point and requires a high number of cores in a dense form factor with integrated graphics, massive amounts of DRAM and unprecedented power efficiency to keep up with the pace of innovation of Internet services,” said Andrew Feldman, corporate vice president and general manager, Server Business Unit at AMD.

“Fundamental changes in computing architectures are required to support space, power and cost demands organizations need to deliver compelling, new infrastructure economics,” said Paul Santeler, vice president and general manager, Hyperscale Server business segment, HP. “The new x86 AMD Opteron X-Series processors integrated into future HP Moonshot servers will continue to push the boundaries of power efficiency for social, mobile, cloud and big data workloads."

http://www.amd.com/us/press-releases/Pages/amd-launches-the-2013may29.aspx

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AT&T Mobile Workplace Offers Remote Content Access/Editing/Sharing

AT&T launched a cloud-based service designed to simplify how businesses access and share content with coworkers and teams across multiple mobile devices.

AT&T Mobile Workplace enables employees to seamlessly access, share, edit and create content through their mobile devices.  Key capabilities:

• Store, share and view content from the cloud
• Create, edit and annotate documents
• Access the service from virtually any mobile device
• Automatic sync for up-to-date company content across multiple devices
• Link multiple devices and computers to the service

"The use of mobile devices continues to be a key tool for SMBs as they look to manage and expand their operations," said Lou Delery, AT&T Senior Vice President of Small Business Marketing. "Our new Mobile Workplace solution puts the work experience at the fingertips of employees regardless of where they are and allows small businesses to become more productive."

AT&T Mobile Workplace is available as a web-based solution supported by a desktop agent or mobile application that can be accessed and synched on web-connected devices. Business content can be viewed online or offline, enabling continued work even while in transit. The service can be self-installed and is backed by 24/7 U.S.-based remote, technical support from AT&T as needed.

Pricing of AT&T Mobile Workplace starts at $6 per user per month for the Basic service package subscription. Each subscription includes cloud storage ranging from 25 GB to 100 GB.

http://www.att.com
http://attmobileworkplace.att.com

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Cisco to Acquire JouleX for Energy Management Software

Cisco agreed to acquire JouleX, a start-up specializing in enterprise IT energy management for network-attached and data center assets, for approximately $107 million in cash and retention-based incentives.

JouleX, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, develops software that helps to reduce energy costs by monitoring, analyzing and managing energy usage of all network-connected devices and systems through a set of policies derived through analytics tailored for an enterprise’s needs. The company was founded in Munich and currently has research and development operations in Kassel, Germany.

Cisco said JouleX complements its existing services portfolio by using the capabilities of the network to gain visibility into and control energy usage across global IT environments. Specifically, JouleX’s energy management solution, together with Cisco EnergyWise™, will provide customers with a simple way to measure, monitor and manage energy usage for network and IT systems across the enterprise, without the use of device-side agents, hardware meters or network configurations. 

“JouleX’s technology will strengthen Cisco Services’ Smart Offerings and complements our evolving services strategy. It extends our ‘Internet of Things’ capabilities and is a good alignment to Cisco EnergyWise,” said Faiyaz Shahpurwala, senior vice president, Industry Solutions. “With network-enabled devices increasing exponentially, our partners and customers are asking for this solution today to operationalize their energy management capabilities in the network and reduce cost. JouleX’s cloud-enabled, agent-less architecture will allow our partners and customers to quickly deploy this solution at scale in addressing their IT energy management needs.”

  

http://thenetwork.cisco.com.

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UK's Zen Internet Deploys ADVA FSP 150

Zen Internet, a leading Internet Service Provider in the UK, has chosen the ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 150 to scale its Ethernet delivery platform and efficiently hand over services to service provider partners.

The ADVA FSP 150 is a family of intelligent Ethernet access and aggregation devices designed to optimize site costs, increase service offerings and reduce operational expenditures. The platform monitors availability, latency, jitter and packet loss, all of which are critical for verifying SLA conformance and providing an advanced indication of performance degradation before a service outage occurs.

“Delivering world class Ethernet services to enterprises requires access and aggregation equipment that is highly reliable, flexible and efficient,” said Robin Abel, director sales UK, ADVA Optical Networking. “Through our partnership with Imtech ICT UK, we’ve optimized Zen Internet’s investment in aggregation at the exchange. The ADVA FSP 150 allows them to standardize on a single access and aggregation device to ensure rapid service delivery that saves resources and enables Zen Internet to focus on their customers.”

http://www.advaoptical.com

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Amazon Web Services Adds Web Identity Federation

Amazon Web Services has expanded its identity federation capabilities to support web identity federation.

AWS said this enables developers to create cloud-backed mobile apps that use public identity providers such as Facebook, Google, or the newly launched Login with Amazon service for authentication. Apps can use Amazon.com, Facebook, or Google sign-in without having to write any server-side code and without distributing long-term AWS security credentials with the app.

http://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2013/05/28/announcing-iam-web-identity-federation/

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France Telecom to Become Orange on July 1st

France Telecom-Orange will officially change its name to simply "Orange" on 01-July-2013.  The name of the shares will be Orange under the ticker symbol' "ORA".

Orange was adopted as the single brand for all of the company's mobile, Internet and digital services in 2006. The fixed line services adopted the Orange brand in 2012.

http://www.orange.com

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TIA Lobbies for Unlicensed Access to 5 GHz Band

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), which represent the manufacturers and suppliers of high-tech communications networks, filed comments with the FCC advocating an expansion of unlicensed access to the 5 GHz Band on a technology-neutral basis.

TIA noted that commercial wireless networks are already offloading 47 percent of all traffic to fixed wireline networks and that offloading is projected to grow to 66 percent by 2017. The next generation of Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11ac, allows a significant increase in data rates by empowering wider channel bandwidths than prior Wi-Fi standards, and is designed to take maximum advantage of the large contiguous 5 GHz band that would be created in the United States by designation of the 5350-5470 MHz and 5850-5925 MHz bands for “Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure” (U-NII) use.

TIA President Grant Seiffert commented, “America is experiencing exploding demand for wireless data connectivity that cannot possibly be satisfied by licensed spectrum alone.  Consumers and businesses — today’s society as a whole —depend on their mobile devices, and need access everywhere.   Of the 326 million connections to U.S. mobile networks, 174 million consisted of smartphones, laptops, tablets or modems.”

Seiffert continued, “By making available, on a technology-neutral basis, the large swath of contiguous spectrum at 5 GHz available, the FCC can help provide the high capacity throughput that is needed to support advanced applications, as well as optimizing a more efficient channel arrangement.”

“TIA supports allowing U-NII use of additional 5 GHz band spectrum under the technology-neutral approach could provide capacity for data offload by heterogeneous networks, particularly in urban regions, airports, stadiums and other area where congestion is a growing concern,” Seiffert said.  “Such expansion, however, must be accomplished in a manner that affords suitable protections for incumbents.”

http://www.tiaonline.org

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T-Systems and Orange Business Sign Corporate Video Pact

T-Systems and Orange Business Services signed an interprovider agreement for corporate video services that will allow customers who use T-Systems' Corporate Video Exchange Services to meet live with customers of Orange's Telepresence Community via videoconference.

T-Systems and Orange Business Services already have video interconnections with other providers in place and will continue to expand these networks to give their customers access to as many video users around the world as possible.

http://www.orange-business.com

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Savvis Builds Out its Data Center Fleet

CenturyLink's Savvis division announced 10 expansions to its worldwide data center footprint, including the opening of new facilities in Hong Kong and London.

The expansions will add approximately 85,000 square feet of new space to Savvis' global presence, boosting the company's total available data center space to more than 2.4 million square feet across more than 50 data centers located throughout North America, Europe and Asia:

• Boston (expansion completed in April 2013)
• Atlanta (expansion completed in April 2013)
• London (addition completed in April 2013, plus separate facility expansion to be completed in September 2013)
• Singapore (completed expansion in April 2013) 
• Washington, D.C. (expansion completed in May 2013)
• Dallas (expansion to be completed in July 2013)
• Piscataway, N.J. (expansion to be completed in August 2013)
• Tampa (expansion to be completed in October 2013)
• Hong Kong (addition to be completed in November 2013)

"Whether it's empowering stock trades in the global market, pulling data from the cloud to deliver life-saving medical treatments or simply sending e-cards to friends across the world, the foundational technology that makes it all possible resides in a data center," said Jeff Von Deylen, president of Savvis. "By expanding our footprint, we're giving businesses additional strategic, secure locations and interconnectivity opportunities for growing their capabilities and core business offerings through infrastructure outsourcing."

http://news.centurylink.com/index.php?s=43&item=3050

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Dell'Oro: Strong Demand for Microwave Transmission Gear in N. America

The point-to-point Microwave Transmission equipment market grew 33 percent year-over-year in the North American region, according to a newly published report by Dell'Oro Group.  For the trailing four quarter period, the North American microwave market grew 18 percent over the year ago period reaching $645 million.  However, North America was the only region to achieve significant positive growth in the first quarter 2013.

Dell'Oro finds that Alcatel-Lucent benefited from its dominant North American market position, growing its trailing four quarter revenues 28 percent year-over-year.


"LTE mobile radio backhaul has been a catalyst for high speed microwave equipment roll-out in the North American market," said Jimmy Yu, Vice President of Microwave Transmission research at Dell'Oro Group.  "While fiber backhaul to cell towers has been the focus over the past few years, time-to-market is one the strongest advantages that microwave has had.  So as operators work towards offering LTE coverage in geographic regions where fiber isn't readily available, microwave has been proven to be a great alternative to meet the bandwidth, reliability and quality requirements while reducing installation times from years to weeks," Yu added.

http://www.delloro.com

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HomeGrid Forum and HomePNA Alliance Merge

The HomeGrid Forum and the HomePNA Alliance have merged into a single industry group dedicated to promoting G.hn for home networks while continuing support for HomePNA.

The combined organization, under the HomeGrid Forum banner, will promote the smooth transition of all current generation wireline home networking technologies to G.hn, the “any wire” technology defined by ITU-T open international standards.

“HomePNA is a mature, field proven technology, and continues to be selected by large service providers worldwide for IPTV deployments,” said HomePNA president Eran Gureshnik. “Service providers over four continents have achieved great results with HomePNA-based products and we have gained considerable experience in deploying home networks. However, the obvious future direction for all wireline home networking is to migrate to G.hn. Therefore, it made sense for us to merge the HomePNA Alliance with the HomeGrid Forum at this time, providing a clear, strong vision to existing and new customers.”

The merged HomeGrid Forum has more than 70 members, including 28 Service providers, and some of the largest OEMs, ODMs and retailers in the world.

http://www.homegridforum.org/

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Sonus and Juniper use SDN to Integrate SBC and Edge Routers

Sonus has formed a partnership with Juniper Networks to develop SDN solutions.  The partners will integrate the Sonus 5000 Series of Session Border Controllers (SBCs) with the Juniper MX Series Routers and SRC Policy Engine in order to pool intelligence from the application/session layers of the OSI stack with the network layer.

Sonus and Juniper Networks are also working to deliver, test and demonstrate integration between Sonus Session Border Controllers and Juniper Networks JunosV App Engine.

http://www.sonus.net/resources/press-release/sonus-juniper-form-alliance-develop-sdn-capabilities

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T-Mobile Poland Selects Ericsson for Billing

T-Mobile awarded a three-year contract to Ericsson for application development and maintenance for its billing system in Poland.  T-Mobile, Poland has previously selected the Ericsson BSCS iX, a billing system that is now complemented with a service to cost-efficiently develop and maintain the associated business-critical applications.

Ericsson noted that it employs over 12,000 consulting and systems integration professionals globally.  In addition, Ericsson is the global leader in Business Support Systems (BSS) with more than 1,000 billing and revenue management solutions supporting more than 2 billion subscriptions.

http://www.ericsson.com

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Washington Post: Weapons Designs Compromised by Chinese Hackers

The Washington Post posted a long list of U.S. missile defense and combat aircraft programs that have been compromised by hackers from China. T

he report warns that the cyber intrusions are far more extensive than previously acknowledged by the Obama Administration and will greatly help China accelerate its own developments of advanced weapons. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/confidential-report-lists-us-weapons-system-designs-compromised-by-chinese-cyberspies/2013/05/27/a42c3e1c-c2dd-11e2-8c3b-0b5e9247e8ca_story.html?hpid=z1

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Huawei Publishes Sustainability Report

Huawei published its 2012 Sustainability Report, focusing on its efforts to bridge the digital divide, supporting stable and secure network operations, promoting environmental protection, and seeking win-win development.  

Some highlights of the report:

• In 2012, Huawei demonstrated optical transport at 2 Tbps line rate.  This will lead to DWDM systems with 56 Tbps capacity per fiber.
  
• As of September 2012, Huawei had deployed 100G networks for more than 40 customers in over 30 countries and regions.
  
• In 2012, Huawei supported communications security for one-third of the world’s population and supported the stable operations of 1,521networks for more than 600 customers in over 140 countries and regions.
  
• Huawei will begin offering carbon footprint data for all of its devices. In addition, the company has optimized methods for assessing the carbon footprint of such devices as mobile phones, mobile broadband products, and home devices. The company so far has released assessment reports for the carbon footprint of ten selected products.
  
• Huawei now has over 30,000 non-Chinese employees in 156 countries.

http://www.huawei.com/ucmf/groups/public/documents/csr_report/hw_263600.pdf

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Source Photonics Appoints CEO

Source Photonics, which supplies optical transceivers and subsystems, named Doug Wright as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately. Wright succeeds current CEO, Dr. Near Margalit, who will assume the role of chief product officer. Prior to joining Source Photonics, Wright served as a group president at United Technologies for five years, primarily based in Shanghai.

Source Photonics is based in Chatsworth, California, with offices in China and Taiwan.

http://www.sourcephotonics.com

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DE-CIX Apollon Goes Live - World's Largest Internet Exchange

DE-CIX, which operates the world's largest Internet Exchange in Frankfurt am Main (Germany), has activated the first "supernode" if its next generation interconnection platform -- DE-CIX Apollon.

The platform leverages ADVA Optical Networking's flagship FSP 3000 platform for optical transport capacity of up to 2 Terabits/sec per fiber pair. 

The switching layer is powered by Alcatel-Lucent's Core Router 7950 XRS, which supports port density of up to 80 100 Gigabit Ethernet ports per chassis. The core of the DE-CIX Apollon network is based on four supernodes that are built from the Alcatel-Lucent 7950 XRS and which are fed by customer-facing switches, both located at secure locations spread throughout the Frankfurt metro.

Now that the first node is active, DE-CIX plans to migrate its remaining legacy switches over to the 7950 XRS switches over the coming months.

http://apollon.de-cix.net/

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Telefónica and MegaFon Form Global Strategic Partnership

Telefónica and MegaFon, a leading Russian universal telecommunications operator, have established a strategic partnership. The carriers hope to achieve cost savings in equipment purchases via joint procurement.  MegaFon and Telefónica will also exchange technological know-how.

Under the Agreement Telefónica will provide services to multinational corporate clients using MegaFon’s network and similarly MegaFon business customers will have access to services when abroad.

MegaFon will join Telefónica’s Partners Programme, which enables telecommunications operators to work together and to benefit from Telefónica’s scale and knowledge.  Telefónica's programme already includes equity partners such as China Unicom and Telecom Italia, as well as other members.

Currently Telefónica and its Partners provide services to customers in 52 countries with a population of 1.5 billion people.

 “Joining Telefónica’s Partners Programme is in line with MegaFon’s long term strategy focused on efficient growth, mobile Internet service development and enhancement of the customer experience. This Agreement enables us to work with the best international professionals to use their experience in improving quality of services, customer relationship management and in new product development," stated Ivan Tavrin, Chief Executive Officer of MegaFon.

http://www.telefonica.com

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NTT Develops 10G LEAP Laser with 90% Power Reduction

Researchers at NTT have developed a Lambda-sacle Embedded Active Photonic-crystal (LEAP) Laser that enables 10 Gbps communications while using only 10% of the power of conventional lasers.  NTT believes the technology could be used for optical cross-connects between microprocessors, yielding significant reduction in power consumption and heat.

NTT Laboratories have been developing the LEAP laser to create the world’s first continuum wave operation of a current-injection photonic crystal laser with the threshold current of 390 microamperes at room temperature (20°C-30°C).  NTT Laboratories are aiming to market this laser in about 2016.

http://www.ntt.co.jp/news2013/1305e/130524a.html

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Cisco Acquires Ubiquisys for Small Cells

Cisco completed its acquisition of privately held Ubiquisys for approximately $310 million in cash and retention-based incentives.

Ubiquisys, which is based in Swindon, U.K., specializes in 3G and LTE small-cell technologies that provide seamless connectivity across mobile heterogeneous networks for service providers. Ubiquisys employees will be integrated into the Cisco Mobility Business Group, reporting to Partho Mishra, vice president and general manager, Service Provider Small Cell Technology Group.

Cisco said Ubiquisys' indoor small-cell expertise and focus on intelligent software for licensed 3G and LTE spectrum, coupled with its own mobility portfolio and Wi-Fi expertise, gives it a comprehensive small-cell solution for service providers that supports the transition to next-generation radio access networks.

http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1196947

• Ubiquisys investors included Accel Partners, Advent Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, 5 Continents Consulting Group (5CCG), Pacific Venture Partners, SerComm Corporation, UMC Capital Corporation, Yasuda Enterprise Development Co and T-Mobile Venture Fund.

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Colt: Largest Cloud Footprint in Europe

Colt Technology Services announced "the largest cloud footprint in Europe" via its data centers in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland.

Colt is using a standardised orchestration layer in these data centers to ensure that regardless of where the business is located, or where the applications are hosted, customers can access, provision, manage and automate their network, infrastructure and storage via a single, online portal.

In addition to enabling network, server and storage provisioning, Colt’s orchestration layer also links service management to flexible commercial frameworks in a simple-to-use online service request catalogue, accessible from anywhere, via any device. Service levels can be designed to reflect different business priorities and scaled up as required all the way from self-service through to a fully-managed service. Customer support is provided in 15 languages from Colt’s dedicated customer service centres.

“To date, CIOs have faced the choice between public cloud and outsourced IT services,” explains Jon Bennett, VP of Portfolio and Strategy. “But the ability to scale compute resource should not exclude flexible commercial and service levels that allow the CIO to guarantee business outcomes.”

“Our enterprise cloud services are designed to deliver scalable cloud solutions as well as flexible service and commercial levels delivered via our service catalogue. After consulting closely with our customers, it is clear that being able to offer infrastructure, platforms and workloads will give the CIO confidence that they can focus on delivering business objectives, rather than managing technology.”

http://www.colt.net/

Colt also operates a 22-country, 43,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 39 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 19,000 buildings and its 20 Colt data centers.

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MTS to Sell Allstream for C$520 Million to Naguib Sawiris

Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS) agreed to sell its Allstream division to Accelero Capital Holdings , an investment and management group, for $520 million, subject to certain customary adjustments.  The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2013, subject to receipt of Investment Canada approval and customary closing conditions.

Allstream provides enterprise communications services acress Canada and counts more than 65,000 businesses - large, mid-sized, and small - among its national customer base.  Allstream operates an IP network spanning 30,000 route kms across Canada, including 18,000 route kms of inter-city fiber and 8 cross border connections to the U.S.

Accelero is an investment and management group focused on telecommunication, digital media and technology. Accelero is controlled by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, Non-Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, is a renowned telecom entrepreneur.

"This transaction is the successful culmination of a diligent process to determine the best way to create shareholder value and drive strong, competitive and sustainable futures for both MTS and Allstream," said David Leith, Chair of the Board of Directors. "We believe this transaction represents attractive value for Allstream, is in the best interests of the Company, its customers, employees and business partners, and that it will increase the level of investment and competition in Manitoba and across the Canadian business market."

Pierre Blouin, Chief Executive Officer, said, "This transaction makes MTS a stronger, more focused and more valuable company. MTS goes forward as a pure-play telecom with a strong consumer franchise and significant free cash flow to support our dividend. We will also have sufficient capital to invest in wireless spectrum and to continue bringing fibre-to-the-home, 4G LTE wireless technology and other products and services to more communities across Manitoba, further solidifying our position as the undisputed market leader in the province."


http://www.mts.ca/
http://www.allstream.com/

• Naguib Onsi Sawiris is also known for being chairman of the telecommunications companies Wind Telecom and Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH)

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Telstra Activates 1500th 4G base station

Telstra turned on its 1,500th LTE base station. The network is expected to cover 2/3's of Australia's population by the end of June.  The company said it is deploying "dozens" of new base stations each week.

Telstra’s 4G milestones:

• activating its first 4G site in May 2011;
• activating its 1000th 4G site in May 2012; and,
• activating its 1500th 4G site in May 2013.

http://www.telstra.com.au/

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Google Acquires Makani Power for Power Generating Kites

Google will acquire Makani Power, a start-up that has been developing kites capables of holding wind turbines. The idea is for a tethered wing to generate 30 kW of electricity by flying in large circles. Financial terms were not disclosed. Makani is based in Alameda, California.

http://www.makanipower.com/

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CloudEthernet Forum Gets Underway

A new CloudEthernet Forum has been established to address the specific issues of scaling and applying suitable Ethernet services to meet the stringent demands of delivering cloud services.

The CloudEthernet Forum aims to provide a framework for industry stakeholders to collectively develop solutions that address technical challenges such as VLAN scaling, layer 2 performance and resilience across very large domains and consolidating storage network technologies onto Ethernet. The goal is to enable cloud service providers, carriers and enterprises to quickly and simply build and manage very large amounts of computing and storage capacity to meet the rapidly changing localized performance, scalability and regulatory requirements of cloud services.

The founding members of the CloudEthernet Forum include: Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Equinix, HP, Juniper Networks, PCCW Global, Spirent Communications, Tata Communications and Verizon. The CloudEthernet Forum is an MEF organization but will operate independently. New members such as systems integrators, NEMs and service providers, including leading cloud providers, are encouraged to join.

"Four years ago we migrated our Ethernet services over SDH to native Ethernet over PBB and it is proving highly popular with our datacenter customers. They love Ethernet’s simplicity and scalability and want more. However, as datacenter networks become larger and more sophisticated, they are coming up against challenges, and the CloudEthernet Forum is committed to resolving those issues," stated James Walker, president of the CloudEthernet Forum and vice president of Managed Network Services, Tata Communications

"Establishment of the CloudEthernet Forum is a reflection of Ethernet's critical position in the future of the communications industry," says Ihab Tarazi, chairman of the board of the MEF and vice president of product technology at Verizon. "Ethernet is ideal for delivering dynamic high speed bandwidth for public and private clouds with reliability, scalability and high performance."

http://www.CloudEthernet.org

The CloudEthernet Forum is an independent MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum) organization. For more information, please visit

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Internet2 Establishes Direct Peering to Windows Azure

Internet2 has established a direct peering relationship with two Microsoft cloud services:  Windows Azure and Microsoft Office 365 Education. These services will enable unmetered access to both the high-performance computing and the communications infrastructure to aid collaboration.

The move to privately peer the Microsoft data centers to the Internet2 Network eliminates the need to traverse these very large data sets over the public Internet.

“Microsoft and Internet2 have agreed to establish direct peering to leverage the nation’s fastest research and education network in bringing the power and diversity of Microsoft cloud services to the entire education and research community,” said Shelton Waggener, senior vice president, Internet2.

“Big Data researchers need the power of a service like Windows Azure. With Internet2, they will be able to transfer very large data sets to and from Windows Azure across Internet2’s 100 Gigabit per second network,” said Kelli Trosvig, vice president for UW Information Technology and chief information officer, University of Washington. “This same high-performance will also be available for applications such as Office 365 Education.”

http://www.internet2.edu

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