NTT Com Launches Cloud UC Service in US and Europe

NTT Communications has begun offering U.S. and Europe-based platforms for Arcstar UCaaS, its globally seamless, cloud-based unified communications service for enterprises.

NTT Com's Arcstar UCaaS uses cloud-based infrastructure to assure low-latency, highly redundant communication. It integrates VoIP phones, web and audio conferencing, instant messaging, presence and other collaboration tools in the cloud.

Arcstar UCaaS combines the expertise and experience of NTT Com and group companies including Arkadin in fields such as applications, cloud infrastructure and networks.

http://www.ntt.com/aboutus_e/news/data/20140203.html

In 2013, NTT Communications agreed to acquire the majority stake in Arkadin, which delivers SaaS conference-related solutions covering audio, web, video conferencing and unified communications services.

Arkadin, which was launched in 2001 by CEO, Olivier de Puymorin, serves approximately 37,000 customers in 32 countries, including France, Germany, the UK, USA, Australia, China, Singapore and Japan. The company was based in Paris.  Arkadin was backed by AXA Private Equity.

Arkadin offers unified communications based on Microsoft Lync, as well as Cisco Jabber combined with WebEx. Services are delivered in the cloud.  Arkadin also offers Adobe Connect for audio/video/web conferencing and collaboration.

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Australia's NBNco Picks Optus for Satellite Services

Australia's NBN Co awarded a key contract to Optus to operate two purpose-built satellites that aim to deliver high speed broadband across rural and remote Australia.

Under the contract Optus will provide tracking, telemetry and control services in connection with NBN’s Long Term Satellite Service. The two satellites currently under construction are scheduled to launch in 2015. The contract has a five year term, with options to extend for up to 15 years.

Matt Dawson, Program Director Satellite at NBN Co, said the company was committed to delivering fast broadband to Australians and it made sense to use modern satellite communications to serve around 200,000 homes, farms and businesses in rural and remote areas, including Australia’s overseas territories.

http://www.nbnco.com.au/about-us/media/news/nbn-co-selects-optus-to-operate-long-term-satellite.html

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Bouygues and SFR Reach Network Sharing Agreement

Bouygues Telecom and SFR have signed a network sharing agreement.

The companies are to roll out a new, shared network in an area covering 57% of the French population (excluding the 32 biggest urban areas in France and certain blind spots). The new network of shared base stations is expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

Negotiations had been underway since July.

http://www.bouygues.com/
http://www.sfr.fr

• Bouygues Telecom currently serves 11.1 million mobile and 1.9 million fixed broadband customers across France, which include more than 1.5 million business and corporate clients.

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Italtel Introduces Virtualized Session Border Controllers

Italtel is introducing a Session Border Controller (SBC) that leverages Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies to provide greater flexibility based on the telco-in-the-cloud model.

Italtel's NetMatch-S manages and secures voice, video and multimedia IP sessions at the border of Enterprises and Service Providers' networks. It will be offered in three different models:

• Performance Edition - based on 14-slots ATCA shelf
• Compact Edition - based on 2-slots ATCA shelf
• Lite Edition - the pure software edition running on COTS hardware platforms

It is designed to support different virtualization technologies, including VMware, Linux KVM and MS System Center, and can be managed by different/multiple Cloud Orchestrators.

"Our NetMatch-S is the first "cloud-inside" SBC because it was fully designed and developed in a cloud environment," said Stefano Pileri, CEO of Italtel. "Maximum flexibility, dynamic configuration and scalability to respond to customers' needs are the key features of this product which is designed for differentiating service solutions and strongly reducing OpEx."

http://www.italtel.com/

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Compass-EOS Names Matt Bross as Chairman and CEO

Compass-EOS named Matthew Bross as its Chairman and CEO, replacing Gadi Bahat, who had expressed his wish to pursue new challenges. He will also assume the role of Chairman of the Board, replacing Mr. Haim Shani, who will remain as a board member of Compass-EOS, as he begins managing his newly established technology private equity fund. Bross will manage the company from its US and Israel offices.

Bross previously served as CTO of Huawei, and before that he was BT Group Chief Technology Officer and CEO of BT innovate.

Compass EOS is a next-generation routing company that leverages silicon photonics to radically transform routing architectures.

http://www.compass-eos.com

In November 2013, Compass-EOS, a start-up based in Netanya, Israel, announced $42 million in new venture funding for its next-gen silicon-to-photonics-based routers.

The company's silicon-to-photonics implementation, which it calls icPhotonics, simplifies router design by bringing the entire backplane on-chip.   The on–chip optical integration ensures QoS routing at high utilization rates and congestion-free multicast packet handling.

The company's first product, r10004, is a carrier-grade, modular platform offering 800 Gbps Capacity in a 6U enclosure.  It offers 2 x 100G ports or 20 x 10G ports with full Layer 3 routing functionality for core, peering or aggregation deployments. Compass-EOS launched its r10004 router in March 2013, announcing the commercial shipment of its icPhotonics-based routers. 

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Violin Memory Names Kevin DeNuccio as CEO

Violin Memory named Kevin A. DeNuccio as president and chief executive officer, effective immediately, replacing interim CEO Howard A. Bain III.

DeNuccio most recently managed Wild West Capital LLC, an angel investing, management and technology consulting firm he co-founded in 2012. From 2010 to 2012, he served as the chief executive of Metaswitch Networks, and before that he served as President and CEO of Redback Networks, a publicly-traded provider of edge routers that was acquired by Ericsson.

http://www.violin-memory.com

In December, Violin Memory fired CEO Don Basile, three months after the company raised $162 million in an IPO in September.  Since then, the price of shares declined significantly.

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Service Electric Cable TV Picks Infinera

Service Electric Cable TV & Communications (Service Electric), a cable operator serving Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania and Northwestern New Jersey, has deployed the Infinera DTN platform across its new regional network.

Infinera said Service Electric selected its Intelligent Transport Network for the speed, simplicity and reliability. The Infinera DTN platform can quickly deliver services ranging from 155 Mbps) to 100 Gbps.

"We have a very busy engineering team, so we're looking for intelligent solutions that simplify network operations and accelerate new service turn-up. This allows us to focus on growing our business," said John M. Walson, President of Service Electric. "An Infinera Intelligent Network lets us do just that. With one-time optical layer engineering coupled with intelligent software that automates many provisioning operations that were previously manual, the Infinera solution allows our engineers to turn up services quickly. This gives us a competitive advantage with our customers."

Infinera's solutions for cable operators include the Infinera DTN, an Intelligent Transport platform for long-haul and metro core platform; the Infinera ATN metro edge platform designed to provide scalable optical transport for access and commercial service aggregation; and the Infinera DTN-X platform featuring 500 Gb/s long-haul super-channels. Infinera's Intelligent Transport Network solutions are widely deployed by major U.S. MSOs in national backbone, regional, and metro applications.

http://www.infinera.com

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ALU Supplies Undersea Cable Linking Tripoli to Benghazi

The Libyan international telecommunications company (LITC) awarded a turnkey  contract to Alcatel-Lucent to build a new 1,000 km undersea cable system linking the country’s capital, Tripoli, to Benghazi, and providing the broadband connectivity needed in support of ongoing efforts to revive the Libyan economy.

Based on Alcatel-Lucent‘s 100G technology and a cable optimized with coherent submarine fiber, the system will ultimately carry capacity in excess of 10 Tbps per fiber pair and is expected to be ready for completion mid of 2015.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

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

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Mellanox Launches Venture Arm

Mellanox Technologies has launched a global investment arm to provide equity investments in leading technology start-ups and companies worldwide.

Mellanox Capital will make investments in start-ups and technology companies that focus on innovative approaches to storage, compute, virtualization, cloud infrastructure, Big Data, enterprise application platforms, and embedded solutions.

In addition to capital, Mellanox said its portfolio companies will gain access to its broad product portfolio of data center interconnect solutions, world-class technology and process expertise and business relationships.

“As a key component of Mellanox’s innovation strategy, equity investments will provide us with access to technologies, markets, applications and key innovations influencing the data center as well as the high-performance interconnect market,” said Eyal Waldman, president and CEO of Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox Capital will enhance our relationships with entrepreneurs, opening doors to new markets, customers, alliances, co-investors, and emerging technologies.”

http://www.mellanox.com/

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F-Secure Announces Mobile Security Partnership with NSN

F-Secure announced a partnership with Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) to provide new solutions to protect consumers’ privacy and to keep mobile devices clean from malware incidents.

F-Secure, which offers its Internet security products through over 200 operators around the world, said rapidly developing mobile malware is growing threat to users that must be confronted by network operators.

“We are pleased to partner with NSN, the world leader in mobile networks,” said Samu Konttinen, executive vice president, Customer and Market Operations at F-Secure. “We’re glad to join with them in proactively attacking the problems that mobile malware create for both the consumer and Internet service providers.”

http://www.f-secure.com

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