Starbucks Picks Google for Wi-Fi in U.S.

Starbucks is replacing AT&T with Google as the provider of in-store Wi-Fi for its company-owned stores across the U.S.  Level 3 Communications will upgrade existing Wi-Fi devices and will manage in-store connectivity.

Beginning in August and extending over the next 18-months, Starbucks will convert more than 7,000 U.S. stores to the upgraded store network and Wi-Fi experience powered by Google.  The company are targeting up to 10 times faster network and Wi-Fi speeds.

In addition to providing faster Wi-Fi, Starbucks and Google will also work together to co-develop the next-generation Starbucks Digital Network.

“Every day, our customers rely on the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks to study, work, connect with friends or just relax. We want to make sure that they can access the web effortlessly and quickly, no matter what they’re doing, or what device they are using,” said Adam Brotman, chief digital officer, Starbucks. “Our goal is to continue to provide our customers with the best in-store experience possible, and we are excited to offer these kinds of unparalleled experiences at a broad scale.”

“Google has always invested in projects that help the Internet grow stronger, including projects that make Internet access more affordable and more widely available. We hope that speedier Internet will make the time customers spend at Starbucks even more enjoyable and productive,” said Kevin Lo, the General Manager of Google Access.

http://www.starbucks.com
http://www.google.com

• In February 2008, Starbucks named AT&T as the provider of Wi-Fi for 7,000 company-owned stores across the U.S.   At the time, the companies planned to offer a mix of free and paid Wi-Fi.  Previously, T-Mobile had been the provider of Wi-Fi in Starbucks across the U.S.

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UK Clears 800 MHz Broadcast Spectrum for 4G

The UK has just completed a process of clearing broadcast spectrum for new use in mobile networks.

Last year, Ofcom secured an accelerated timetable for releasing these Freeview frequencies following discussions with TV broadcasters, Digital UK and the transmission company Arqiva. The project's completion on Wednesday comes five months earlier than originally planned. Work was conducted at more than 600 transmitters across the UK, while wireless microphones now use alternative frequencies.

The 800 MHz spectrum was auctioned by Ofcom for use by 4G companies in February. This section of the airwaves is particularly suitable for offering mobile broadband coverage over wide areas, and penetrating buildings to provide a good indoor signal.

"This week we are clearing the path for 4G mobile broadband, allowing mobile companies to provide coverage across the UK.”
“4G services will reach 98% of the UK population indoors – and even more when outdoors – which will provide a significant boost for rural businesses and consumers," stated Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive.

http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2013/07/29/path-clear-for-4g-as-airwave-clearance-is-complete/

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Southern Cross Competes 100G Expansion with Ciena

The Southern Cross Trans-Pacific submarine cable network, which connects Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and the west coast of the U.S., has completed the deployment of Ciena’s 100G transmission equipment across its entire network.

The 100G upgrade brings total lit capacity across the two cables to 2.6 Tbps. If deployed on all Southern Cross fibres, along with gridless optical networking, our potential capacity capability increases to 12 Tbps, between Australia/New Zealand and the USA.

Southern Cross Sales and Marketing Director Ross Pfeffer says, “The implementation of 100G technology is a major milestone in the ongoing expansion and enhancement of our 30,000km submarine network in continued support of the development of high-speed broadband in Australia and New Zealand.

"Retail broadband data caps have expanded dramatically on the back of current international capacity prices in both Australia and New Zealand with demand for capacity continuing to grow at around 35 to 40 per cent annually,” Pfeffer stated. “Our deployment of this latest technology places Southern Cross in an even stronger position to stay well ahead of the demand growth resulting from Australia’s NBN (National Broadband Network) and New Zealand’s UFB (Ultra-fast Broadband) initiatives, and the growth associated with cloud services and new content. The long-standing Southern Cross policy of using the latest technology improvements to expand lit capacity and to lower marginal cost will ensure that Southern Cross remains in a position to cost-effectively support demand growth for many years."

http://www.ciena.com

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Eutelsat Acquires SatMex to Expand Latin America Coverage

Paris-based Eutelsat Communications announced a deal to acquire 100% of Satmex for US$831 million, representing an enterprise value of US$1,142 million when considering the company's debt.

Based in Mexico, Satmex operates three satellites at contiguous positions, 113.0° West (Satmex 6), 114.9° West (Satmex 5) and 116.8° West (Satmex 8) that cover 90% of the population of the Americas. The company benefits from frequency rights in C and Ku-bands and was granted Ka-band rights in 2012. It has an 11% market share in Latin America where it enjoys a strong franchise in corporate data networks and cellular backhaul.

Eutelsat said this acquisition, together with the recently ordered EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite, will position it as a major satellite operator in Latin America, reflecting its strategy to expand in high growth markets.

Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat CEO, said: "With Satmex’s strategic orbital slots, state of the art fleet and upcoming satellites, Eutelsat is gaining a robust platform from which to access the significant opportunities in this region. Via these two strategic steps, we are significantly upscaling our presence in Latin America to complement our footprint in fast-growing markets, and securing future sources of growth and value creation."

http://www.eutelsat.com/home/news/communiques-de-presse/press-list-container/eutelsat-communications-scales-u.html

http://www.satmex.com/

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NEC Exits Mobile Handset Business

NEC is ending the development, manufacturing and sale of smartphones, other than models already on the market.

The company said the handset business is now ruled by economies of scale, admitting that its own efforts failed to generate sufficient market momentum to continue as a competitive player.  Instead, NEC will focus its resources on its Social Solutions Business.

http://www.nec.co.jp

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Cisco Completes Acquisition of Composite Software

Cisco completed its previously announced acquisition of Composite Software, a developer of data virtualization software and services, approximately $180 million in cash and retention-based incentives.

Composite Software, which is based in San Mateo, California, connects many types of data from across the network and makes it appear as if it's in one place. Composite's software integrates traditional and new data sources including cloud and big data, into a simplified consolidated view.
Cisco said Composite's software will expand its portfolio of Smart Services, enabling companies to better leverage network knowledge (APIs) and programmability, which maximizes the benefits of data virtualization. As with the transition from physical servers to server virtualization and from physical networks to network virtualization, together Cisco and Composite will accelerate the shift from physical data integration to data virtualization for customers and partners.

http://www.cisco.com

• Composite Software was founded in 2002.  Investors included Apax Partners, Clearstone Venture Partners, Dot Edu Ventures, Palomar Ventures and Tenaya Capital.

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Cavium Reports Q2 Revenue of $74 Million, Uo 34% YoY

Cavium reported Q2 revenue of $74.2 million, a 6.7% sequential increase from the $69.5 million reported in the first quarter of 2013 and a 34.2% year-over-year increase from the $55.3 million reported in the second quarter of 2012.

Net loss (GAAP) was $4.3 million, or $(0.08) per diluted share compared to $3.2 million, or $(0.06) per diluted share in the first quarter of 2013. Gross margins were 58.3% in the second quarter of 2013 compared to 62.4% in the first quarter of 2013. Total cash and cash equivalents were $97.6 million at June 30, 2013.

http://www.cavium.com

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Nokia Siemens Networks Readies Virtualized Telco Cloud Core

Nokia Siemens Networks reported progress in its efforts to deliver mobile voice core services via a virtualized telco cloud core.  The company, which previously has demonstrated various use cases covering Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and other IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based services in the Telco Cloud, said the technology is now on the brink of commercial deployment.

The latest progress includes further testing to verify end-to-end VoLTE deployment readiness in a Telco Cloud. This testing involved end-to-end verification of VoLTE call cases to ensure feature parity with customers’ current 2G/3G circuit-switched voice services, Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) functionality, and the reuse of existing billing, lawful interception and intelligent network interfaces.

During 2012, Nokia Siemens Networks demonstrated the reliability of core virtualization in several “proof of concept” projects. The company said these projects provided the technology foundation for core network element software running on top of a virtualized infrastructure. In addition, the projects helped identify telco-specific requirements for cloud computing. The testing used industry-standard virtualization and cloud management infrastructure as well as commercial off-the-shelf IT server hardware.

Specifically, NSN's test program for Telco Cloud deployment verified:

• automated deployment and elastic scaling of virtualized network elements
  
• live migration of virtual machines from one server to another,
  
• recovery from hardware failures. 

"The range of test cases we ran during the pre-deployment verification phase underlines the essential role of the OSS components in the Telco Cloud,” said Peter Patomella, vice president, Operations Support Systems at Nokia Siemens Networks. "We’ve shown how the complete lifecycle of a network element can be managed remotely via our OSS – including initial network element cloud deployment, monitoring of virtualized VoLTE application resources, and elasticity management."

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Ericsson Enables LG U+'s LTE-Advanced

Ericsson confirmed that South Korea's LG U+'s recently launched LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) commercial service network is using their equipment.

Specifically, Ericsson has supplied Evolved Packet Core network and radio base stations and integrated new software for LTE-A service. The LTE-A rollout involved a Carrier Aggregation (CA) software upgrade.

LTE-A supports up to 150 Mbps throughput – twice and 10 times the speed of LTE and 3G services.  Furthermore, LG U+ is able to support voice and data both on the LTE-A network with upgraded data speeds and service quality.

The two companies have agreed to jointly develop LTE-A and post LTE-A technology such as coordination functions between cells to enhance throughput by minimizing inter-node interference, inter-cell interference control technology to expand small cell coverage through coordination between macro and small base stations, and soft cell related technology to enhance data quality and speed by separating nodes for controlling signal and actual traffic data.

“Ericsson has successfully deployed LTE-A commercial service and accumulated unrivalled technology, experience and know-how,” said Jan Signell, Head of Region North East Asia, Ericsson. “We will not only bolster our partnership with LG U+ but also contribute to the future technology development to lead the Beyond 4G era as well as LTE-A market in the region.”

http://www.ericsson.com/

On July 18th, South Korea's LG U + officially launched its LTE-Advanced service, promising download speeds of 75 Mbps to 150 Mbps -- roughly twice the performance of its standard LTE service. The LTE-A network is using carrier aggregation of 800 MHz and 2.1 GHz spectrum.  Compatible handset initially include a version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and soon the LG Electornics Optimus G2.  By the end of the year, the company expects there will be six LTE-A terminal devices on the market.

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Hughes Network Systems Hits 1 Gbps with JUPITER

Hughes Network Systems reports carrier data rates exceeding 1 Gbps on its JUPITER System. 

"With this development, we are extending our JUPITER technology to maximize data throughput and achieve the industry's fastest VSAT," said Adrian Morris, executive vice president of Engineering and CTO, Hughes. "This capability positions us to continue to lead the market in delivering the most bandwidth-hungry applications that demand the highest speeds."

Hughes' JUPITER powers its newly launched HughesNet Gen4 service, which was launched in October 2012 and is credited with accelerating growth of the total HughesNet subscriber base in the U.S. to approximately 700,000 subscribers, making it the world's largest satellite Internet service. 

HughesNet Gen4 delivers downlink speeds from 10 to 15 Mbp.  It also features a VoIP voice calling option.

“This breakthrough demonstrates the enormous potential of our JUPITER technology,” said Arunas Slekys, vice president of Corporate Marketing, Hughes. “Not only has it proven rock-solid in powering the fastest growth of satellite Internet service experienced anywhere, it means we can further expand the addressable market for satellite-based services—whether for consumers, enterprises or governments—and beyond North America, as we are poised to bring JUPITER Systems to International markets soon.”

http://www.hughes.com
http://www.hughes.com/company/news/hughes-crosses-threshold-in-high-throughput-satellite-technology\

• HughesNet Gen4 Business Internet is powered by the EchoStar XVII satellite with JUPITER high-throughput technology -- a next-generation Ka-band satellite employing a multi-spot beam architecture.  It is designed to provide well in excess of 100 Gbps capacity to HughesNet across North America. Its multi-spot beam architecture will expand coverage and focus capacity on the areas with the highest traffic demand. It uses the Space Systems/Loral 1300 platform and is designed to provide service for 15 years or longer. The satellite is in a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator at 107.1 degrees West longitude.
  
• In July 2012, EchoStar XVII was launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

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ViaSat Gains FCC License for Airborne Internet Services Using Ka-band

ViaSat confirmed that it has been granted a Blanket License Radio Station Authorization by the FCC for Ka-band aeronautical earth stations, enabling it to deliver airborne Ka-band services over all 50 U.S. states.

The 15-year, renewable license permits operation of the ViaSat Mantarray, low-profile airborne antenna on the ViaSat Ka-band satellite fleet of ViaSat-1, WildBlue-1, and Anik-F2.

"This is the first license of its kind in the world," said Mark Dankberg, ViaSat chairman and CEO. "We're gratified to see the FCC recognizing that the advanced technical design of this equipment is compatible with the operating environment in which our other Exede services successfully operate. Now airlines, and their passengers, will have access to an unprecedented amount of bandwidth. We want to let everyone on board be connected at high speed."

ViaSat is preparing to launch its "Exede In The Air" in-flight broadband service this fall with initial availability on the U.S. fleets of JetBlue Airways and one other major airline. Approximately 400 aircraft are already under contract to receive the service.

ViaSat also initiated work with the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) two years ago that led to a related Electronic Communication Committee decision in March, allowing mobile earth station operation – including in the Ka-band – in participating countries in Europe.

The service will be powered by ViaSat-1, which holds the title of the World's Highest Capacity Communications Satellite to date with 134 Gbps of total throughput capacity.

http://www.viasat.com

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Juniper Debuts Ruggedized Router

Juniper Networks introduced its LN2600 ruggedized router for deployment in harsh environments where dust, heavy vibration, moisture and extreme temperatures are often the norm. It could be used for connecting remote telemetry units, surveillance cameras, programmable logic controllers and other intelligent devices.

The router combines switching, routing and security into a single platform, and contains no vents or other openings to keep it dust-free and splash-resistant.

http://forums.juniper.net/t5/The-New-Network/Is-it-Tough-Enough-Juniper-s-LN2600-Takes-Rugged-to-a-New/ba-p/200901

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Marvell's ARMADA Powers Google's Chromecast

Marvell is the silicon supplier for Google's new Chromecast device which delivers online content directly to the HDMI port of a TV.

The new ARMADA 1500-mini is optimized to support low-power applications such as TV dongles while being extremely energy efficient. It supports 1080p decode and has a high security grade enabling multiple DRM solutions like Widevine and Playready. Marvell said its advanced Wi-Fi solution enables easy set up.

"I am very excited to see the brilliance of the tiny and beautiful Chromecast. I believe this is truly a game-changing solution to drive the new era of the 'Connected Lifestyle' by enabling easy access to online entertainment for an immersive, interactive multi-screen experience across any smartphone, tablet, laptop and big screen. I am very proud of Google's leadership in driving the ecosystem partners to deliver more powerful and very affordable solutions to serve the world of consumers for better lives," said Weili Dai, President and Co-Founder of Marvell.

http://www.Marvell.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Sees Progress in Q2 Results

Alcatel-Lucent reported Q2 revenues of Euro 3,612 million, up 1.9% year-over-year, up 3.7% year-over-year at constant currency.

“We are at the beginning of our journey towards 2015 and cash remains a challenge. Looking ahead, our clear focus will be maintaining a strict and disciplined approach to implementing The Shift Plan across all of its industrial, operational and financial dimensions," stated Michel Combes, CEO Alcatel-Lucent.

Gross margin for Q2 came in at 31.9% of revenue for the quarter, compared to 31.8% in the year ago quarter and 29.4% in the first quarter 2013. The sequential increase in gross margin mainly resulted from higher volumes and favorable product mix. Operating expenses decreased -4.4% year-over-year on a reported basis and -4.3% adjusted for constant currency.

There was a net loss (group share) of Euro (885) million or Euro (0.39) per share, including restructuring charges of Euro (194) million, an impairment charge of Euro (552) million resulting from the impairment test review of assets carried at the end of the second quarter 2013, using assumptions consistent with The Shift Plan documentation, and Euro (180) million of financial loss, which included Euro (108) million of interest charges, Euro (26) million of net loss on debts repurchased during the quarter and Euro (24) million of pension and OPEB financial component.

Some highlights for Q2:

• Revenues for Networks & Platforms were Euro 3,063 million, an increase of 5.9% compared to Euro 2,891 million in the year-ago quarter and a 12.9% increase compared to Euro 2,713  million in the first quarter 2013. At constant currency exchange rates, Networks & Platforms revenues increased 8.1% year-over-year and increased 12.5% sequentially.
  
• Revenues for the IP division were Euro 624 million, increasing 20.9% from the year ago quarter and 25.6% at constant currency, driven by strength in edge routers and carrier ethernet switches across all regions, especially in the US and APAC, as well as a return to growth in EMEA.
  
• The new 7950 XRS platform has a total of 10 wins and more than 20 trials to date.
  
• Nuage Networks has a number of active trials.
  
• Revenues for the Optics division were Euro 422 million, a decrease of 7.0% from the year-ago quarter.
  
• 100G shipments now represent 27% of total WDM line cards shipments in Q2’13, compared to 19% in Q1’13.
  
• Revenues for the Wireless division were Euro 1,010 million, a decline of 1.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  
• Strong growth in LTE and RFS was offset by an overall decline in 2G/3G technologies.
  
• CDMA revenues now represent approximately 20% of wireless revenues, and for the first time were surpassed by LTE revenues, as the US continues to drive growth in LTE.
  
• Revenues for the Fixed Networks division were Euro 468 million, an increase of 3.3% from the year-ago quarter, reflecting continued strong growth in copper, especially in the US and Europe. This was partially offset by weakness in ONT fiber products, representing now less than 30% of fixed networks products.
  
• VDSL2 vectoring products are now being used by 13 customers, including 2 new contracts in the second quarter, in addition to be involved in more than 45 trials.
  
• Revenues for the Platforms division were Euro 262 million, an increase of 23.0% from the year-ago quarter.
  
• Revenues for the Services division were Euro 285 million, an increase of 22.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  
• Strong growth continued in Network Build and Implementation (NBI) as well as Integration Services, both of which benefitted from network rollouts in the US.
  
• Revenues from Focused Businesses decreased -18.3% in the second quarter with declines in both Enterprise and Submarine businesses.
  
• Revenues in the Managed Services business were Euro 215 million, a decrease of -14.7% compared to Euro 252 million in the year-ago quarter and an increase of 5.4% compared to Euro 204 million in the first quarter 2013. 

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com


In June, Alcatel-Lucent outlined a "Shift Plan" aimed at transforming the company from a generalist supplier of networking solution into a specialist provider of IP Networking and Ultra-Broadband Access.  The company is targeting Euro 1 billion in reduced sales, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses over the next three years as it makes a decisive in its industrial focus toward high-value equipment and services. 

Current business segments outside of this new area of focus include Terrestrial Optics, Submarine, Wireless Transmission, Network Applications, Integration Services for Strategic Industries, Consulting Businesses and OSS/BSS.

Key points of the plan:

• Grow revenues in Core Networking by more than 15%, from Euro 6.1 billion in 2012 to over Euro 7 billion in 2015,
• Lift operating margins from 2.4% in 2012 to more than 12.5% in 2015.
• IP, cloud and ultra-broadband portfolio at the center of operations, including WDM, 100G, IMS and customer experience product lines, as well as the 'FTTx' group of fiber-based connectivity technologies serving homes, businesses and other types of premises, vectoring, the 4G LTE mobile wireless access and small-cells.
• Bell Labs will continue to be the company's innovation engine, with an 8% increase in R&D from 2013 through 2015. IP and Ultra-Broadband Access will represent 85% of R&D investment in 2015.
• Alcatel-Lucent's intellectual property portfolio will become a dedicated profit center and will adopt an entrepreneurial approach to licensing in order to develop a solid revenue stream from its library of more than 30,000 patents and 16,000 applications.
• On a cash basis, The Shift Plan is expected to be self-funding over the 2013-2015 period.  Once the company has clearly demonstrated the successful execution of the Shift plan, it plans to seek a reduction of its debt by approximately Euro 2 billion including through further asset disposals or through access to the equity markets in order to support its long-term strategic goals.
• The company did not announce any further job cuts at this time although reductions are planned.
• Alcatel-Lucent will reduce the number of countries in which it operates from 185+ to 145 countries.  It will go from 100+ sales offices to 75 sales offices. It will consolidate warehouse and purchasing locations.
• The company will undertake a 40% cut in real estate and sites, reducing its footprint in non-strategic locations.
• In Manages Services, the company will address its 15 unprofitable contracts.

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Extreme Networks Reports $79.5 Million in Revenues

Extreme Networks reported quarterly revenue of $79.5 million, representing a 16.5% increase compared to the prior quarter's revenues of $68.2 million and a 9.4% decrease compared to revenues of $87.7 million in the same period a year ago. GAAP net income for Q4 was $3.2 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, an increase of $5.4 million, or $0.05 per diluted share compared to the previous quarter.

"We are pleased with the significant sequential quarter over quarter growth in revenues and operating income, which is indicative of the strength of our product offering," said Chuck Berger, president and chief executive officer of Extreme Networks. "Our extensive line of Ethernet switches, reaching from the edge of the campus to data centers, all running on the most robust network operating system in the industry, have strong appeal to customers and partners.  That said, we continued to report year over year declines in revenues, which clearly indicates there is much to be done to improve our execution across the board.  We have identified the areas where changes are needed and are making solid progress, but it will take several quarters to realize the full benefit of these efforts.  Additionally, as in our third fiscal quarter, we were unable to fulfill a significant amount of orders due to reduced inventory levels and lengthening component lead times.  We will continue to face these shortages for the first half of the first quarter, but believe we will have caught up with demand as we go into September."

http://www.extremenetworks.com

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Ixia Posts Q2 Revenue of $116 Million

Ixia's Q2 revenues grew 28% to $115.9 million, compared with $90.7 million reported for the 2012 second quarter. The 2013 second quarter includes $33.2 million in revenue from the recent acquisitions of Anue Systems, and BreakingPoint Systems,  which closed in June and August 2012, respectively.

Q2 net income (GAAP) was $3.8 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, compared with net income of $25.7 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, for the 2012 second quarter. Non-GAAP net income for the 2013 second quarter was $14.5 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, compared with non-GAAP net income of $12.9 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, for the 2012 second quarter.

“Although revenue for our core products was lower than anticipated due to order delays from our Service Provider and network equipment manufacturer customers, we made solid progress on our key growth initiatives,” commented Vic Alston, Ixia's president and chief executive officer. “Anue and BreakingPoint revenue surpassed expectations and grew to $33.2 million, our revenue from enterprise customers increased by nearly 50 percent compared to last year and we added several new channel and technology partners.”

http://www.ixiacom.com

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Dell'Oro: Ethernet Switch Market to Approach $25B in 2017

The L2-3 Ethernet Switch market is forecast to approach $25 billion in 2017, with future growth to be driven primarily by sales of higher speed Ethernet switches optimized for larger data center deployments, according to a recent report from Dell'Oro Group.  The report expects a quick migration to 40 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit Ethernet at the core of the data center.

The report also shows that Fixed and Modular 10 Gigabit Ethernet port shipments are expected to expand beyond the data center to campus devices, such as high-end workstations and 802.11ac access points.

"The data center will be the site of almost all revenue growth during the forecast horizon, as the Cloud forever changes how networks are built.  In general, we are moving toward a period of data center consolidation and change, where there will be fewer, larger, data centers and the ownership of data center equipment will change," said Alan Weckel, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group.  "At the same time, single vendor wins at these large data centers will be sufficient to shift market share in the overall market as well as vendor ranking in individual segments.  We expect many large-magnitude Cloud wins throughout the forecast period and believe a dominant Cloud provider could apply significant pricing pressure on this market and the vendor(s) it selects," Weckel stated.

http://www.delloro.com/

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Riverbed Posts Q2 Revenue of $250M, including $40M from OPNET

Riverbed Technology reported Q2 revenue of $250 million, compared to $198 million in Q2 2012, representing 26% year-over-year growth. GAAP net loss for Q2'13 was $16.5 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $18.1 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, in Q2’12.

“Total non-GAAP revenue increased twenty-eight percent year-over-year, with growth across all major product lines, geographies, and verticals,” said Jerry M. Kennelly, chairman and CEO. “Riverbed’s core revenue, excluding OPNET, grew 7% sequentially to $215 million in the second quarter. Non-GAAP revenue from the acquired OPNET products was $40 million, as we still have work to do integrating the two companies,” continued Kennelly. “Our market expanding products outside of WAN optimization and OPNET grew almost 50% compared to last year, and we believe our multi-product strategy to deliver unmatched application performance will allow us to accelerate the company’s revenue growth.”

http://www.riverbed.com

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Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm Collaborate on Small Cells

Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm agreed to collaborate on small cell base stations for residential and enterprise environments.

Specifically, the companies will jointly invest in a strategic R&D program to develop the next generation of Alcatel-Lucent lightRadio Small Cell products featuring Qualcomm Technologies’ FSM9900 family of Small Cell chipsets. The investment would be shared by Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm Technologies.

"This initiative perfectly illustrates The Shift Plan we announced last month, which will see Alcatel-Lucent focus on growth technologies, including those facilitating ultra-broadband access. We also said we would actively seek collaboration with key industry players.  In working together with Qualcomm Technologies - a world leader in advanced wireless platform solutions such as its small cell chipsets - Alcatel-Lucent will continue to be positioned at the forefront of innovation in the small cells market," stated Michel Combes, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent.

"Small cells greatly increase capacity by bringing the network closer to the user, thus enabling operators to serve the anticipated 1000x growth in mobile data traffic and dramatically improving the experience for wireless subscribers," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. “Working together with industry leaders like Alcatel-Lucent, we can accelerate the dense deployment of small cells globally, driving another significant leap in advanced wireless broadband technology and services."

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
http://www.qualcomm.com

The future of wireless is small, but very, very big

by Marcus Weldon, CTO, Alcatel-Lucent, 22-August-2012
We are at a defining moment in broadband network deployment.  We are on the verge of a transformation in behaviors so profound that what we think is normal now will be viewed as quaint and amusingly antique in the same way that the Model T Ford, or wooden-cabinet enshrouded black and white TVs, or dial-up internet access are viewed today.  And this behavioral change will not be...

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Riverbed Boosts Steelhead WAN Optimization with Path Selection

Riverbed is rolling out a series of enhancements for its Steelhead WAN optimization product family, including a new hardware appliance and new path selection capabilities that enable specific applications to be directed over selected WAN paths.

Significantly, the new release of the Riverbed Optimization System (RiOS 8.5) enables application-specific path selection for branch offices where both MPLS  and Internet WAN services are available.

Riverbed is integrating DPI in CascadeFlow with RiOS 8.5, thereby leveraging DPI capabilities within Cascade Profiler 10.0.7 to identify and characterize traffic flows across the network and among branch offices.  Riverbed said this capability could be used for fine-tuning QoS, directing certain branch office traffic onto the corporate MPLS VPN while sending other application flows directly to alternate paths, or to a cloud service provider using an alternate Internet connection instead of through the MPLS VPN. The combination of path selection and application identification via deep packet inspection also ensures that application flows could be rerouted in the event of performance degradation on the primary route.

The latest software release also adds new application optimizations for the Steelhead appliance, including for Microsoft SharePoint 2013, Exchange 2013, Office365 and file sharing applications that utilize the server message block 3 (SMB3) protocol in Windows 8 and Server 2012 environments, and NetApp SnapMirror for tiered SLAs.

The new hardware includes the Steelhead CX 255 series appliance, which offers up to 6 Mbps of WAN link optimization for small branch offices, which is triple the through-put capacity of the previous Steelhead CX  250 appliance series.  CS 255 series also replaces CS 150

Riverbed cites significant performance gains for its WAN optimization -- up to 98% decrease in bandwidth utilization and improving application acceleration up to 100 times faster.

RiOS 8.5, Cascade Profiler 10.0.7 and the Steelhead CX series 255 appliances are expected to be generally available in Q3 2013.

http://www.riverbed.com

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Amazon Web Services Launches CloudFront Edge Locations in India

Amazon Web Services has launched two points-of-presence edge facilities India.  The new Amazon CloudFront POPs, which are located in Chennai and Mumbai, join a global network of 42 edge locations worldwide that Amazon uses to deliver content to end users with low latency and high data transfer speeds.

The new edge locations also support Amazon Route 53, a highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service.

"Organizations in India need the flexibility to rapidly scale IT infrastructure as they grow without spending precious capital on hardware or getting locked into a long term contract with a co-location facility," said Shane Owenby, Amazon Web Services Managing Director of Asia Pacific. "Using AWS has removed the constraint related to infrastructure resources and has enabled many of our customers, ranging from start-ups to enterprises to unleash their ideas, innovate fast and build new businesses quickly. With 9 AWS Regions and 42 Amazon CloudFront edge locations around the world, our customers are able to expand globally virtually overnight while delivering great local user experience for their services."

http://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/

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Audi Integrates LTE into S3 Sportback

Audi announced its first car with embedded LTE capability.

Starting this month, the Audi S3 Sportback may be ordered with integrated LTE. All other Audi model variants of the A3 premium compact car will be available with embedded LTE from early November.

Audi says the advantage of LTE in automobiles is better communication between the car, the driver, the environment and the Internet. LTE enables the exchange of large amounts of data via the Internet, such as music and films in HD quality. Commercial LTE networks already exist in many European countries and in the USA. In Germany, LTE is available in a few large cities, but is primarily active in many rural areas. 

To use LTE, drivers will need to provide their own SIM card with a flat rate data plan.  The SIM card is inserted in the Audi MMI navigation plus unit. The MMI navigation plus uses LTE to deliver the tailored services of Audi connect to the driver - from navigation with Google Earth and Google Street View to Audi music stream web radio and online traffic information.

The Audi S3 Sportback is equipped with a Wi-Fi hotspot, enabling multiple passengers to surf the web independently.

Audi is also making Facebook and Twitter vehicle-friendly with a text-to-speech function and a text function with prepared text modules. In addition, there are over a dozen Audi connect services, including a text-to-speech function for e-mail and a dictation function for text messages (SMS). And the range of services is expanding rapidly.

http://www.audiusanews.com/pressrelease/3523/1/first-market-audi-brings-new-lte-standard-car

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Gigamon Posts Strong Growth in 1st Quarter as Public Company

Gigamon reported Q2 revenue of $32.4 million, compared to $22.5 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2012. GAAP net loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2013 was $7.9 million, or $0.41 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income of $1.3 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, in the second quarter of fiscal 2012.

"In our first quarter as a public company, we delivered solid revenue growth of 44% year-over-year," said Paul Hooper, CEO of Gigamon. "Our Visibility Fabric enables our customers to gain higher levels of visibility into their IT infrastructure by delivering the right network traffic to the right management system, at the right time.  We believe our market is significantly underpenetrated, and through our broad, intelligent and scalable solution, we believe we are well-positioned to capitalize on this exciting growth opportunity."

http://www.gigamon.com

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PMC-Sierra Posts Revenue of $128 Million, Down 7% YoY

PMC-Sierra reported Q2 revenue of $127.9 million, an increase of two percent compared to $125.2 million in the first quarter of 2013, and a decrease of seven percent compared to $137.8 million in the second quarter of 2012. GAAP net loss in the second quarter of 2013 totaled $4.2 million, or $0.02 per share, compared to a GAAP net loss in the first quarter of 2013 of $6.8 million, or $0.03 per share. Non-GAAP net income totaled $16.3 million, or $0.08 per diluted share, up 22 percent in the second quarter of 2013 compared to non-GAAP net income of $13.4 million, or $0.07 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2013.

"Our second quarter results were in line with our outlook despite the muted environment," said Greg Lang, PMC president and chief executive officer. "The recent acquisition of IDT’s PCI Express (PCIe) flash controller business further expands our growth opportunities and positions us as a leader in the rapidly growing enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) market segment."

http://investor.pmcs.com/

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Extreme Networks Hires Cisco Executive

Extreme Networks announced the appointment of Edward (Ed) T. Carney as executive vice president of product and customer success.

Carney previously served in general management at Cisco in Research Triangle Park (RTP) where he spent 15 years, and prior to that with IBM. Carney will be based at Extreme Networks facility in the RTP, in Morrisville, NC.

http://extremenetworks.com

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NTT DOCOMO Pushes LTE to 150 Mbps

NTT DOCOMO is preparing to push its LTE service to 150 Mbps maximum downlink rates, roughly double today's top performance.  The 150 Mbps service is currently being verified in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.

NTT DOCOMO expects to launch 150 Mbps commercial service this October, starting in parts of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

DOCOMO, in addition to steadily improving the quality of its LTE network for increased reliability, continues to upgrade LTE coverage and data transmission speeds, most recently by expanding 112.5 Mbps downlink service to more than 130 cities as of this month.

http://www.ntt.co.jp
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2013/0726_00.html

In June, NTT DOCOMO plans to increase its number of LTE base stations from 24,400 (March 31, 2013) to 50,000 by March 31, 2014.

As part of this effort, NTT DOCOMO introduced a new compact LTE base station with simultaneous 3G capability, measuring less than 1/10th the size and less than 1/5th the weight of conventional LTE base stations.  The first units entered commercial operation in DOCOMO's Xi LTE and FOMA 3G networks in Japan this month.

The compact all-weather base station, which is mainly designed for area expansion in low-traffic areas such as mountainous locations, can be installed in places where conventional LTE base stations cannot be deployed due to excess size or cost.

The new base station, equivalent to the master station of a remote-type base station, can handle up to two secondary stations. Furthermore, thanks to the new base station's 3G W-CDMA capability, simultaneous LTE and 3G service areas can be tailored efficiently to traffic and installation conditions by using secondary stations and multiple frequency bands.  Electricity consumption is less than 1/4th that of conventional LTE base stations, realizing more eco-friendly operation.

In February, NEC confirmed that NTT Docomo has selected it to develop LTE-Advanced base stations for its new C-RAN architecture.

NTT Docomo is proposing a new Advanced C-RAN architecture that uses small "add-on" cells for localized coverage that act in concert with macro cells in HetNet fashion.  Deep integration is achieved using carrier aggregation technology, one of the main LTE-Advanced technologies standardized by 3GPP.

Under the Advanced C-RAN architecture, high-capacity base stations utilizing advanced C-RAN architecture will serve as master base stations both for multiple macro cells covering broad areas and for add-on cells in smaller, high-traffic areas. The base stations will accommodate up to 48 macro and add-on cells at launch and even more later. Carrier aggregation will be supported for cells served by the same base station, enabling the flexible deployment of add-on cells. In addition, maximum downlink throughput will be extendible to 3Gbps, as specified by 3GPP standards.

Carrier aggregation is expected to yield 3 Gbps maximum throughput by aggregating multiple carriers of up to 100 MHz of carrier bandwidth. 

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Huawei and Qualcomm Test VoLTE TDD to CDMA

Huawei completed an end-to-end voice interoperability test for LTE TDD to CDMA.

The test used the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (8X30) processor and its solutions for CSFB (Circuit Switched Fallback) and eCSFB (Enhanced CSFB).  Huawei said CSFB and eCSFB voice solutions will play significant roles during the initial deployment of LTE networks.

Kevin Wu, President for CDMA/LTE Wireless Networks at Huawei, said, "This successful test is a milestone for the commercialization of LTE voice technologies. It gives CDMA operators more choices for smoothly evolving to a wholly integrated LTE system, and reaffirms Huawei's commitment to protect existing investments and improving the operational efficiency of multi-mode and multi-frequency networks."

http://www.huawei.com/en/about-huawei/newsroom/press-release/hw-276138-ltetdd.htm

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Silicon360 to Supply Netronome's Network Flow Processors

Silicon 360, which provides secure, fully screened and qualified semiconductors to the military, aerospace and other specialized markets, announced a deal to serve as the sole supplier for Netronome’s high performance NFP-32xx Network Flow Processors (NFPs) as Class B military, ruggedized and space level screened products. Netronome will continue to sell the NFP-32xx family of NFPs to customers not requiring such specialized products.

Netronome’s NFP-32xx Network Flow Processors bring high performance to a broad range of network, security and content processing applications and are source-code compatible (including backwards compatibility) with Intel IXP28xx micro-engines for customer application migration. In addition, Netronome’s flow processor technology allows for packet and content processing with robust security features. The integrated cryptography engines provide hardware acceleration of multiple algorithms (including all currently standardized AES variants) performing IPsec at up to 20 Gbps.

“This initiative provides a strong synergistic relationship, and extends the product portfolio available, between Netronome and Si360,” said Marti McCurdy, Vice President of Silicon360. “Designers of Military and Aerospace systems will now be able to utilize these industry-leading Netronome processors in their newest signal processing and encryption applications. Our target market is cyber security as we feel this is an area of critical need in today’s national security efforts.”

http://www.silicon360.com
http://www.netronome.com

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T-Mobile US Expands its MetroPCS Brand

Since completing its acquisition of MetroPCS about three months ago, T-Mobile US has has doubled the MetroPCS brand presence across the country by bringing its "Wireless for All" offer to 15 new markets.

"We've been beating our no-contract competitors hands-down for value, and now, with the strength of the T-Mobile 4G network behind us, that lead is only going to grow," said Tom Keys, MetroPCS COO and executive vice president. "We're setting a blazing fast trail and, with our retail partners, will compete aggressively with our '$40, period' rate plan to win over consumers one-by-one."

http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/

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Time Warner Cable Announces Change in Leadership

Glenn A. Britt will retire as Time Warner Cable’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at of the end of 2013.

Time Warner Cable Board of Directors has elected Robert D. Marcus, currently the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer, to succeed Britt as Chairman and CEO effective January 1, 2014.

http://www.twc.com

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NEC and HP Expand Enterprise Computing Alliance to x86

Last week, HP and NEC announced an expansion of their global alliance to collaborate on joint engineering for mission-critical and blade servers for enterprise clients.

Since 1995, NEC and HP have been strategic alliance partners, focused on NEC's role as a provider of large-scale, mission-critical enterprise IT systems built on HP's Unix-based operating system, HP-UX.

The collaboration previously focused on HP-UX, HP Integrity servers and NEC NX7700i servers.  The companies are extending their alliance to include next-generation, mission-critical x86 systems. This will include DragonHawk," HP's future, scalable x86 infrastructure based on HP Superdome 2 and blade server technology. HP and NEC also plan to increase worldwide delivery of joint solutions, providing clients with greater flexibility, a broader choice of solutions to match their specific enterprise needs and continued investment protection for mission-critical environments, consistent with HP Project Odyssey.

"Performance and reliability are vital to mission-critical computing clients and the business-critical workloads they will deploy into the next decade," said Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager, Servers, HP. "By aligning our expertise, HP and NEC will drive enterprise server technology forward, allowing our joint clients to protect and grow their current and future investments."

http://www.nec.com/en/press/201307/global_20130722_02.html
http://www.hp.com

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Xilinx's 10GBASE-KR Solution Passes Testing for Backplanes

Xilinx's  7 Series GTH transceiver successfully completed testing for 10GBASE-KR LogiCORE IP at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL).

The testing was performed at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) and validated that it fully meets UNH-IOL's receiver (Rx) and transmitter (Tx) electrical and protocol compliance tests for backplane applications.

Xilinx said the achievement enables OEMs to develop high-performance network and data center solutions with 10 Gigabit or 40 Gigabit backplanes that conform to the IEEE Std 802.3  using Xilinx's 10GBASE-KR LogiCORE IP and enable 40GBASE-KR4 LogiCORE IP on Virtex-7 XT and HT devices with GTH transceivers.

"Passing these compliance tests is a significant milestone in the development of our 10GBASE-KR 10-Gigabit serial interface, which is part of our expanding portfolio for addressing the need for service providers to deliver more bandwidth-intensive services intelligently to minimize both capital expenditures and operational expenses," said Raj Seelam, director of solutions marketing at Xilinx.  "We worked closely with UNH-IOL in this effort, providing equipment, boards and experts who worked side-by-side with the UNH-IOL testing teams to achieve this milestone."

http://www.xilinx.com/products/intellectual-property/EF-DI-10GBASE-KR.htm

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CENIC Establishes Five 100G Interconnects with Internet2

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) has established five new 100 Gbps links between the California Research and Education Network (CalREN) and Internet2.

Two new 100G connections in Los Angeles will support a variety of research purposes, along with a third 100G connection at Sunnyvale that will also connect to Internet2’s Advanced Layer 2 Services. Along with these, two connections between CalREN and Internet2’s TR-CPS national peering infrastructure will be upgraded to 20G and can scale to 100G.

“Networks all over the world are seeing enormous growth in recent traffic as new scientific instruments come online, cloud computing hits its stride, and collaborative research and education begins to assume a level of bandwidth that would have been unthinkable only a few short years ago,” said Louis Fox, President and Chief Executive Officer of CENIC. “Some projections point to a saturation of existing networks in less than a decade, and not as an outlying possibility. 100G connections like these between the CENIC and Internet2 backbones are absolutely vital to ensure that the pace of global innovation continues to accelerate in California, the US, and the world as well.”

http://www.cenic.org
http://www.internet2.edu

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Savvis Launches Cloud Data Center Based on VMware vCloud + Cisco UCS

CenturyLink's Savvis division announced the global availability of Savvis Cloud Data Center, a virtual data center service built on VMware vCloud Director 5.1 and Cisco's Unified Data Center technologies.

Savvis Cloud Data Center enables business clients to build software-defined data center services that manage compute capabilities, storage, network connectivity and security operations.

Savvis said VMware vCloud Director 5.1 simplifies workload migration and integration, while standardizing on Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) taps the full potential of virtualization and cloud platforms through total infrastructure abstraction and API-driven automation.

"Businesses are looking to migrate applications hosted on-premise into the cloud using a variety of hybrid solutions," said Andrew Higginbotham, chief technology officer at Savvis. "Designed for customers who rely on VMware technologies, Savvis Cloud Data Center streamlines extensions into the cloud with easy-to-use familiar interfaces and tools for scaling performance to their needs."

"Savvis is a partner that understands how to use VMware technologies to help companies build, deploy and manage critical business solutions," said Dave O'Callaghan, senior vice president of Global Channels and Alliances, VMware. "Cloud Data Center, built on vCloud Director 5.1, can provide businesses with a simple and flexible platform for hybrid cloud delivery that enables control and choice on where to run applications and effective asset protection through true data center extensibility."

"Savvis has consistently demonstrated its leadership in providing high-value cloud, network and managed hosting services. Cloud Data Center further reinforces this position and our longstanding partnership," said Giuliano Di Vitantonio, vice president, data center and cloud solutions marketing, Cisco. "The integration of Cisco's Unified Data Center technologies, such as UCS and Unified Fabric, gives Savvis Cloud Data Center end-users the dynamic infrastructure foundation they need to build, manage and connect public, private and hybrid clouds in a secure and efficient manner."

http://www.savvis.com/cloud-data-center

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AppliedMicro Announces X-Weave

AppliedMicro introduced its new family of X-Weave data center connectivity chipsets, spanning 100 Gbps to 240 Gbps with integrated analog I/O for a variety of optical and copper connectivity interfaces.

The X-Weave product family is specifically designed to meet the unique needs of public cloud, private cloud, and enterprise data centers. The idea is span rack and cluster resources within the data center, and then to seamlessly connect multiple data centers together over DWDM optical links.

The first product in the family is X12: AppliedMicro's 28 nanometer, 120G, 12-port Ethernet/OTN "smart PHY" with framer, mapper, and multi protocol DSP-based forward-error correction.

"X-Weave was co-created with top tier service provider and data center customers and uniquely leverages our established position in the service provider market to address the rapidly growing data center market. The convergence of X-Gene™ and X-Weave will offer a full portfolio of components for the new cloud infrastructure and will position us well to execute on our growth strategy," said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, AppliedMicro's President and CEO.

http://www.appliedmicro.com

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NTT Communications Locates in CoreSite Data Centers

NTT Communications will establish a presence in CoreSite's Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia data center campuses.  It will also expand its presence at CoreSite's Chicago and Los Angeles (One Wilshire) facilities.

CoreSite's data centers in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Chicago and Northern Virginia will provide NTT Communications with access to the CoreSite Mesh, including more than 750 national and international carriers, cloud computing providers, networks, content and service providers, financial trading firms, CDNs and systems integrators.

"The facilities we choose to connect into directly impact the growth of our customer base," said Michael Wheeler, Executive Vice President, NTT America. "NTT Communications has had a successful relationship with CoreSite in Los Angeles and Chicago. We are excited to expand our presence in those locations, and extend our footprint with CoreSite into Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia in order to reach a broad community of internet-centric businesses."

"NTT Communications operates one of the world's largest Tier-1 global networks," said Jarrett Appleby, COO, CoreSite. "Today's announcement brings tremendous value to our ecosystem of customers. It delivers direct access to NTT Communications' network through four of our key data center campuses and increases the global connectivity options available to customers across the CoreSite Mesh."

http://www.us.ntt.net
http://www.CoreSite.com

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Telefónica Cuts Debt Through Asset Sales

Telefónica Group’s  revenue for the first half of 2013 totalled 28,563 million euros, marking a return to growth in organic terms for the first time since the first quarter of 2012, as revenues increased 0.5% year-on-year during the second quarter of 2013.  The results were driven by a strong acceleration in Latin America, which grew by double-digits in the same period (+10.4% yoy in organic terms), and improving trends in Europe. At the end of June, OIBDA reached 9,421 million euros (-0.4%) and the company maintained high levels of profitability with an OIBDA margin of 33%.

The company said these results are in line with its internal estimates, allowing it to reaffirm annual operating and financial targets.

Telefónica has reduced net debt by 10 billion euros from June 2012, including the recently announced disposals of 40% in Central America, 100% in Ireland and Inversis. The company's net debt now totals 48,614 million euros. This represents a leverage ratio of 2.36 times net debt over OIBDA and places the Group’s net debt very near its objective of <47 2013.="" euros="" in="" million="" nbsp="" p="">
Some other highlights:

• At the end of June, the Telefónica Group’s customer base reached 317.3 million accesses (+2%) out of which more than 78% are mobile accesses (249.5 million).
  
• 2.1 million net mobile contract customer additions in Q2, resulting in mobile contract customers already amounting to 85 million (+8.1%).
  
• The company added 8.2 million smartphones in Q2
  
• Smartphones already reached a penetration rate of 24% of mobile accesses.
  
• During Q2, Telefónica launched its first Firefox handsets.
  
• Between January and June 2013, the company invested 3,903 million euros, including 834 million euros for purchasing spectrum in the United Kingdom, Uruguay, Spain and Brazil. 84% of the total investment effort was allocated to growth and transformation activities.
  
• Mobile accesses stood at 249.5 million, up 2% compared with June 2012, driven by the contract segment, which accelerated its growth to 8% year-on-year and now accounts for 34% of total mobile accesses The Company strengthened its position in this high value segment and during the second quarter ramped up its pace of customer capture and commercial activity, particularly in smartphones, with net contract additions of 2.1 million, the highest since the third quarter of 2011.
  
• Mobile broadband accesses stood at 63.3 million at the end of June, posting the largest year-on-year growth since the second quarter of 2012 (+41%), almost 7 percentage points higher than the first quarter and increasing its penetration rate up to 25% of mobile accesses (+7 percentage points year-on-year). This strong commercial activity continued to be underpinned by the significant increase in smartphones, with a record of 8.2 million net additions in the quarter, three-fold the figure in the first quarter and more than double the figure in the same period of previous year. The smartphone penetration rate stood at 24% of mobile accesses in June 2013.
  
• Retail broadband accesses totalled 18.3 million at the end of June and improved its growth up to 2% excluding the impact of the sale of the assets of the fixed business in the UK. Net additions in the quarter stood at 165 thousand customers, 4.4 times more than in the first quarter and 1.9 times more than in the same period of 2012.
  
• The acceleration in commercial activity in the quarter was mainly driven by Telefónica Latinoamérica, with mobile contract net adds rising by 44% compared with the first quarter of 2013 and by 64% compared with the second quarter of 2012, reflecting the focus on high-value customers, especially on smartphones. There was also a marked improvement in the operating performance of the fixed business, mainly driven by broadband, with net adds in the quarter 1.6 times higher than in the January-March period, to reach 214 thousand accesses.
  
• By region, Telefónica Latinoamérica is the Group's growth engine, accounting for 51.4% of consolidated revenues in the first half of the year while Telefónica Europe and Telefónica España's contributions fell to 46.9% and 23.0%,respectively.
  
• Mobile data revenues rose 9.8% year-on-year in organic terms (+9.6% in the first half) and accounted for 36.4% of mobile service revenues in the year (up 3 percentage points compared with the first half of 2012).
  
• Non-SMS data revenues growth ramped up sequentially to 22.1% year-on-year in organic terms (+22.0% in the half year) and now account for 63% of total data revenues.
  
• The average headcount was 131,882 employees, down slightly compared with the first half of 2012 (-3.5%).
  
• CapEx in the first half totalled 3,903 million euros (+6.7% year-on-year) and included 834 million euros relating to the acquisition of spectrum; in the UK (671 million euros) and Uruguay (24 million euros) in the first quarter and in Spain (65 million euros), the UK (47 million euros) and Brazil (28 million euros) in the second quarter.

http://www.telefonica.com

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OpenDaylight Project Notes Rapid Progress in Open Source SDN Framework

The OpenDaylight Project , a community-led and industry-supported open source framework to advance Software-Defined Networking (SDN), announce a set of accepted technical contribution networking protocols to virtualization to security. 

OpenDaylight reviewed and accepted contributions from Cisco, ConteXtream, Ericsson, IBM, NEC, Pantheon, Plexxi, Radware and developers Brent Salisbury and Evan Zeller from the University of Kentucky. 

The base architecture for the OpenDaylight controller is a combination of two code bases that were brought together through a collaborative proposal by Colin Dixon of IBM and David Erickson of Stanford. Shortly thereafter, NEC contributed a key feature with its Virtual Tenant Networking technology. 

OpenDaylight highlighted the following recent contributions:

Affinity Metadata Service: Contributed by Plexxi, this service provides an API allowing the OpenDaylight controller and higher-level applications to create and share an abstract, topology and implementation independent description of the infrastructure needs, preferences and behaviors of workloads that use the network to "talk" to one another. 

BGP/PCEP protocol library: The Cisco-contributed library provides Java-based implementation of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and the Path Computation Element Protocol (PCEP).

Defense4All: Radware contributed this toolset to be used for the detection and mitigation of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Defense4All subsystems include statistics collection, anomaly detection, traffic redirection and mitigation management that together allow applications to leverage the OpenDaylight controller and an SDN architecture to effectively manage DDoS attacks.

LISP Mapping Service: ConteXtream contributed its Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) Mapping Service and protocol plugin. The LISP protocol enables separation of endpoint identity (EID) from routing location (RLOC) by defining an overlay in the EID space that is mapped to the underlying network in the RLOC space. LISP is also a mapping service that provides the EID-to-RLOC mapping information including forwarding policy to LISP routers for tunneling and forwarding purposes. In the context of network virtualization, a mapping service can be queried by LISP-enabled network devices to provide mapping of the virtual network endpoints to the underlying physical network, including the associated forwarding policies.

Open DOVE: IBM contributed a version of its established network virtualization technology, called Distributed Overlay Virtual Ethernet (DOVE), that provides isolated multi-tenant networks on any IP network in a virtualized data center allowing administrators to define virtual switches and networks, Quality of Service, security, bandwidth, priorities and more. DOVE provides each tenant with a virtual network abstraction providing Layer 2 or Layer 3 connectivity and the ability to control communication using access control policies. Address dissemination and policy enforcement in Open DOVE is provided by a clustered directory service. It also includes a gateway function to enable virtual machines on a virtual network to communicate with hosts outside the virtual network domain.

OpenFlow 1.3.0 Protocol Library: Pantheon’s contribution is an implementation of the OpenFlow protocol as defined in OpenFlow Switch Specification Version 1.3.0. The library is designed to be extensible from third-party bundles in order to support vendor extensions and should serve as a basis for the OpenFlow 1.3.0 southbound plugin for the OpenDaylight controller.

OpenFlow Plugin: Cisco, Ericsson and IBM combined efforts to create a common, uniform OpenDaylight plugin to support all implementations of the OpenFlow specification as it develops and evolves. It provides support for the existing OpenFlow 1.0 implementation, while aiming to support OpenFlow 1.3.x and further versions of the specification. It will be implemented in a way that existing and future OpenFlow protocol specifications can be integrated and published for the OpenDaylight controller.

Open vSwitch Database Management Protocol (OVSDB) is a project led by Brent Salisbury and Evan Zeller from the University of Kentucky. Open vSwitch is an open source software project implementing virtual switching that is interoperable with many major hypervisors and used extensively in cloud computing environments. The OVSDB integration project will allow OpenDaylight to view, modify and delete Open vSwitch objects such as bridges and ports by way of the Open vSwitch database.

YANG Tools: This is an infrastructure project initiated by Cisco aimed at developing necessary tooling and libraries providing ubiquitous support for YANG as a data modeling language within OpenDaylight.

"Community growth for OpenDaylight has been astonishing with hundreds of developers now contributing their time and talents for the advancement of SDN. Everything is starting to congeal between the contributions and the people working fast and furious to build what we expect will be industry leading SDN technology," said David Meyer, Technical Steering Committee chair, OpenDaylight Project. “The steady growth of the corporate member base is ensuring that we have a solid financial foundation from which to operate. It's an exciting time to be involved with SDN."

OpenDaylight also noted that its membership roster has grown to 27 companies since launch.

http://www.opendaylight.org

http://www.linuxfoundation.org

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