NTT DOCOMO to Double Number of LTE Base Stations

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...

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Cisco Adds Citrix NetScaler to Unified Fablic Cloud Portfolio

Cisco will integrate the Citrix NetScaler application delivery controller (ADC) technology into the Cisco Unified Fabric Cloud Network Services portfolio. Specifically, the Citrix NetScaler 1000V will be sold by Cisco and its channel partners worldwide and supported by the Cisco Technical Assistance Center. The announcement builds on a strategic alliance announced by the companies in October 2012. Some key points: The Citrix NetScaler 1000V will...

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Mobile Infrastructure Sales Fall in Q1 Despite LTE Rollouts

The worldwide 2G/3G/4G mobile infrastructure market totaled $9.8 billion in Q1 2013, down 9% sequentially, and down 2% year-over-year, according to a new report from Infonetics.  Overall sales fell despite another LTE ramp-up driven by North America and Europe. "We are clearly seeing the broad shift to LTE and its direct effect on 2G, 3G, and WiMAX,” notes Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics...

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Swisscom Enables LTE Roaming with Ericsson Diameter Signaling Controller

Swisscom is set to become the first European operator to launch LTE roaming services on a global basis.  The mobile operator is using Ericsson's Diameter Signaling Controller, which is implemented in an Ericsson Blade System platform. Ericsson said its DSC supports the scaling of Diameter-signaling networks, is mission-critical and requires carrier-grade software and hardware. Magnus Furustam, Vice President and Head of Product Area...

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Cisco to Acquire Composite Software for Data Virtualization

Cisco agreed to acquire privately held 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...

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BT Appoints Gavin Patterson as Chief Executive

BT appointed Gavin Patterson as chief executive, replacing Ian Livingston, who will take up a role in government as Minister of State for Trade and Investment. The change will occur in September. Gavin Patterson, 45, has served as chief executive of BT Retail and as a BT Board member since 2008, having joined the company as a senior executive four years prior to that. He previously spent four years at Telewest (which later merged with NTL to become...

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Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 Plans Upgrade to 100G

NEC was selected to upgrade APCN2 (Asia Pacific Cable Network 2) to 100G wavelengths.  The contract was signed by the purchasing consortium of 13 major telecom operators involved with APCN2. The APCN2 system, with over 19,000km of cable, connects 10 landing stations in the Asia Pacific region and was originally supplied by NEC in 2001 with a 10G DWDM system design. The system was later upgraded with NEC's 40G DWDM transmission equipment in...

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KPN Implements Huawei's 100G with SD FEC

KPN International is implementing Huawei's second generation soft-decision forward error correction (SD FEC) technology in its pan-European 100G WDM backbone. SD FEC is an advanced error correction technology for optical transport field.  Huawei said the use of Optical Digital Signal Processing (oDSP) modules, essentially a 400G technology breakthrough, achieves lower-penalty WDM transmission with lower power consumption per bit. Specifically,...

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Russia's MTS Picks Ericsson for LTE

Russia's Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) selected Ericsson to deploy its LTE network in four regions covering more than half of Russia, thus becoming MTS's main vendor. Financial terms were not disclosed. Under the three-year agreement and starting in Q2, 2013, Ericsson will roll out LTE in the Siberian, Ural, Volga, and Southern Federal Districts of Russia. In the first stage of the project, Ericsson will supply no less than 10,000 new-generation products...

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Pacnet Signs Chinese Carriers for BGP Interconnectivity

Pacnet, which operates submarine cable systems with over 46,000 km of fiber and connectivity to interconnected data centers across 16 cities in Asia-Pac, has signed Master Service Agreements (MSAs) with each of China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile for BGP Internet connectivity services that will integrate into its Internet network fabric in China. The agreements with Pacnet’s equity joint venture in China, Pacnet Business Solutions (PBS),...

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Sprint Raises its Bid for Clearwire by $5/Share

Sprint increased its bid to acquire the approximately 50 percent of Clearwire it does not currently own (the “minority stake”) by $5.00 per share, valuing Clearwire at approximately $14 billion, or about $0.30 per MHZ-pop. The new offer represents a 47 percent premium to Sprint’s previous offer of $3.40 per share announced on May 21, 2013 and a 285 percent premium to Clearwire's closing share price on Oct. 10, 2012, the day before the Sprint-SoftBank...

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Symmetricom Announces Restructuring

Symmetricom announced a strategic restructuring plan and updated financial guidance for its fiscal fourth quarter ending June 30, 2013. The restructuring plan includes the realignment and consolidation of several organizations, elimination of certain activities, and a workforce reduction of approximately 12% of total headcount. Symmetricom expects to incur total charges in the range of $7.5 to $8.0 million in connection with the plan, of which...

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