Firefox OS Smartphones Offer Low-Cost, HTML5 Web Apps

Telefónica introduced the first commercial, Firefox OS smartphone.  The ZTE Open phone will be promoted in Spain at Movistar stores from 2 July priced at €69 (inc. VAT), including €30 of balance for prepaid customers and the option of zero interest financing for post pay customers. Some key specs Screen Size: 3.5 inch Display: HVGA.TFT, One Point touch + Gesture Captive(Two point option) Network: UMTS OS: Mozilla Firefox Silicon: Qualcomm...

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Nokia Buys Out Siemens in NSN for EUR 1.7 Billion

Nokia will buy Siemens' entire 50% stake in their joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks, for EUR 1.7 billion.  The deal is expected to close in Q3. NSN was established in 2007 as a joint venture combining Nokia's Networks Business Group and Siemens' carrier-related operations for fixed and mobile networks. Nokia plans to retain Rajeev Suri continuing as NSN's CEO, with Jesper Ovesen continuing as Executive Chairman of the Nokia Siemens Networks...

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Mellanox Acquires IPtronics for 100G Optical Interconnects

Mellanox Technologies completed its previously announced acquisition of privately held IPtronics A/S, for $47.5 million in cash. IPtronics’ current location in Roskilde, Denmark, will serve as Mellanox’s first R&D center in Europe.   Mellanox expects to expand its customer support presence within Europe from this location. Mellanox said the acquisition enhances its ability to deliver complete end-to-end optical interconnect solutions...

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Ericsson Acquires Red Bee for Media Services

Ericsson agreed to acquire Red Bee Media, a media services company headquartered in the UK, for an undisclosed sum. Red Bee, which has about 1,240 employees, provides a range of media services; from media asset management to playout and digital video publishing, metadata services, multilingual access services and creative services to major broadcasters and broadband platforms. The company is the largest editorial metadata provider in Europe and...

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Altair Raises $25 Million for LTE Chips

Altair Semiconductor, which develops high-performance, single-mode LTE chipsets, closed a $25 million round of funding.  The company is based in Hod Hasharon, Israel. Altair introduced its first single-mode LTE chipset in 2009.  The company was first to release a FDD/TDD chipset and the first with a commercial LTE chipset exceeding 100Mbps.  The company said it has over 100 different product design wins to date, including tablets,...

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Orange Launches Corporate Identity Campaign

France Telecom Group officially adopted Orange as its corporate name and 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. Orange is launching a corporate communications campaign that highlights connections between the present and the future, and between France Telecom and Orange. It will also emphasise...

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ALU Powers Mobile Backhaul Network in Ukraine

Intertelecom, a CDMA operator in Ukraine, has completed the deployment of a national IP/MPLS backbone.  The network is based on Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS-based mobile backhaul solution, including its 7750 Service Router (SR) and 7210 Service Aggregation Switch (SAS-M) along with the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM). Alcatel-Lucent also provided a range of other services, like high and low level network design, configuration and...

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Underwriters Laboratories Joins AT&T Mobile Broadband Accelerator

Underwriters Laboratories has been designated as an AT&T preferred PTCRB Lab for the AT&T Mobile Broadband Accelerator (MBA) Labs Program, which is now mandatory for any integrator wishing to use the network. UL said it will offer full access to AT&T's technical requirements, preventing duplication of testing procedures and ensuring that devices meet specific performance requirements. Eliminating redundancies allows for technical acceptance...

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