Real Networks Launches its Own Digital Music Service

Real Networks launched its "RealOne RHAPSODY" digital music subscription service offering consumers unlimited streaming access to its library of 330,000 tracks from major and independent music labels. The service is priced at $9.95 per month for on-demand, streaming access to the content. The service also allows subscribers to burn certain songs to CD for $0.79 per song. The library of songs that can be burned to CD includes more than 200,000 tracks.
http://www.realnetworks.com

• Last month, RealNetworks announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Listen.com. Listen.com introduced the RHAPSODY music service in 2001.
• 
  
  On 28-April-2033, Apple launched its iTunes Music store, an online service that lets customers download music for $0.99 per song, including the rights to burn songs onto an unlimited number of CDs for personal use, listening to songs on an unlimited number of iPods, playing songs on up to three Macs and using songs in any application on the Mac.
• 
  
  In its first 16 days, Apple's iTunes Music store sold more than 2 million songs. The iTunes Music Store features over 200,000 songs.

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Broadband Subscribers up 136% in Europe

High-speed residential Internet subscribers in Europe increased 136% from April 2002 to April 2003, according to a report from Nielsen//NetRatings. The UK experienced the largest increase of any European country during this period: 235%. Currently, 28% of European Internet users are connected at high speed, versus just 14% one year ago. This compares to 35% in the United States, and much higher rates in certain Asian markets, including 82% in Hong Kong.


The study also found that broadband users are spending significantly more time online, using the web more often, and visiting more websites than dial-up users. In Germany, for instance, the average narrowband user spends 7.5 hours on the web every month, while the average broadband user is online for 21 hours. Nielsen//NetRatings also said that the Web sites with the strongest growth due to broadband growth are file-sharing sites, music sites, film sites and adult sites.


If current growth rates continue, Nielsen//NetRatings projects that by March 2004 over 50 million
Europeans will be connected at high speed, and the US will have 53 million broadband surfers.
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

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Agere Packs 8 ARM Cores into a Single Chip

Agere Systems has integrated eight ARM966E-S processor cores into a single chip thereby offering four times the processing performance of current generation technology. Agere designed and verified each ARM core on the 0.16 micron device as a subsystem, which was integrated into a customer's proprietary ASIC architecture. The company said the primary technical challenge for the design team to solve was working out how the eight cores talk to each other across the device.
http://www.agere.com

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Sunrise Adds Gigabit Ethernet to its Test Platform

Sunrise Telecom introduced a multi-port Ethernet test module for its STT (Scalable Test Toolkit) platform, which provides key measurements for SONET/SDH and DWDM metro networks. The STT Ethernet Module can test up to 8 Ethernet/Fast Ethernet and 2 Gigabit Ethernet links simultaneously, aiding the roll out of metro Ethernet services.
http://www.sunrisetelecom.com

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BRECIS Wins $15 Million Order for VoIP in Indonesia

BRECIS Communications was awarded a $15 million contract with Syspol Co. Ltd. of South Korea to provide the processor platform for a broadband gateway that will be deployed in Indonesia. PT TELKOM, the nation's incumbent operator, is planning to rollout an HFC network that will serve over one million homes and offices in Indonesia. A single broadband connection would be used to provide telephony, high speed Internet access, multi-channel CATV, and other services. The BRECIS processors will be used inside of Syspol access devices at each customer site.
http://www.brecis.com

• In February 2003, BRECIS Communications, a start-up based in San Jose, California, raised an additional $20 million in funding for its line of multiservice processors. The BRECIS network processors will leverage distributed intelligent processing "engines" on the same chip to rapidly and simultaneously perform prioritized data transactions with an extremely efficient peer to peer communications mechanism. Each of these engines could be dynamically managed, prioritized, or even reprogrammed to suit both the immediate needs of the data being processed and the particular design goals of the integrated access device.
• 
  
  Also in February, BRECIS announced a design win with Ericsson. The BRECIS processors will be one of the processors to be used in Ericsson's HL950 Multi-Service Edge Device.

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3Com Issues Revenue Warning

3Com anticipates revenues for the quarter ending 30-May-2003 will be in the range of $165 million to $175 million, excluding revenues from CommWorks which will be accounted for as discontinued operations. This compares with quarterly revenue of $245 million (including CommWorks) for the prior quarter.


Excluding CommWorks, gross margins are expected to be in the mid thirty percent range and adversely impacted by the decline in sales. Connectivity sales are expected to decline by 15 to 20% compared to the prior quarter. Enterprise Networking sales are expected to decline by 20 to 25% sequentially, due largely to weakness in international regions and competitive pressures.


Full financial results are expected after the market close on 25-June-2003.
http://www.3com.com

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Cingular Ties Yahoo! Messenger into its Mobile Service

Cingular Wireless is extending its PC-to-mobile messaging services by allowing users of Yahoo! Messenger to send instant messages to Cingular Wireless customers' phones. The two-way text messaging works only with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://www.cingular.com

• T-Mobile USA has a similar partnership with America Online's Instant Messenger (AIM).

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Korea Telecom Trials Navini's Beam-forming Wireless to Extend Wi-Fi Coverage

KT (Korea Telecom) launched a 2.3 GHz "portable" broadband wireless trial this month in Seoul using equipment from Navini Networks. KT already operates the largest public Wi-Fi network in the world (over 8,000 hot-spots, growing to 16,000 by year's end). KT will test the extension of those hot spots using Navini Ripwave equipment. The field trial uses spectrum defined by the Korean government as high-speed wireless Internet service called PI (Portable Internet). Navini uses phased-array smart antennas with beamforming capabilities and multi-carrier synchronous CDMA (MC-SCDMA) to provide capacity, range, speed and spectral efficiency. Trial participants will be provided with multimegabit access via a new PCMCIA modem.
http://www.navini.com

• Over the past several months, Navini has announced deployments and trials of its Ripwave products with the following companies: BellSouth (Daytona, Florida); IBAX (Italy); IntroWeb (The Netherlands); Irish Broadband (Dublin); Liberty Technologies (Panama); Rioplex Wireless (Rio Grande Valley, Texas); Sprint (Houston, Texas); WINTEL (Trinidad and Tobago); and YourInter.Net (Indiana, Pennsylvania).
• 
  
  In April 2003, Navini Networks, a start-up based in Richardson, Texas, raised an additional $25 million in Series C funding for its non-line-of-sight, wireless broadband technology. Austin Ventures, Granite Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Sternhill Partners, all existing investors in the company, led the new round of financing. The company has raised $91 million to date.
• 
  
  Navini's broadband wireless access platform uses Multi-Carrier Synchronous Beamforming technology to provide non-line-of-sight access at broadband data rates for up to 1000 users per antenna face. The company claims up to 50% lower total-cost-of-ownership than DSL or cable networks, and up to 70% lower total-cost-of-ownership than previous fixed wireless systems.

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Qwest Sees Improvement in Retail Consumer Access Line Losses

Citing signs of improvement in its core businesses, Qwest Communications reported Q1 net income of $150 million or $0.09 per diluted share. Revenue for Q1 was $3.63 billion, a 9.4% decrease from the same period last year. The decline was attributed to competitive pressures in local voice and wireless services, as well as strategic de-emphasis of certain lines of business, including CPE resale and out-of-region consumer and wholesale long-distance. Some of the key operational and financial highlights for the quarter include:

• in DSL, Qwest ended the quarter with 526,000 in-region subscribers and 25,000 out-of-region subscribers for a total of 551,000 lines.



• the company has signed up 530,000 access lines within its local service area for long-distance service



• the company lost approximately 130,000 retail consumer access lines, 27,000 fewer lines than in Q4 2002. This represents its third consecutive quarter of improvement. Factors cited include better customer retention programs, offset by UNE-P competition and technology substitution. Combined consumer and business access lines declined 4.1 percent year-over-year in Q1.



• CAPEX for the quarter was $450 million, or approximately 12% of revenue



• the company obtained a commitment for a $1 billion senior term loan due in 2007

As for its outlook, Qwest expects its annual revenue decline to be in the mid-single digit range. Free cash flow from continuing operations is expected to be approximately breakeven. CAPEX for the year is targeted at $2.5 billion.
http://www.qwest.com

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BT Sells Voice Detection Patents to Korea's LG Electronics

BT announced its largest intellectual property sale to date. The deal involves the sale of BTexact's voice activity detector (VAD) patents to Korea's LG Electronics. The technology can be used to detect the presence or absence of voice to prolong battery life in mobile devices, increase the capacity of the networks and to solve other problems encountered in mobile communications. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.btexact.com
http://www.lge.com

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Marconi Posts 2002/03 Preliminary Statement

Marconi announced financial results for the three months and twelve months ended 31 March 2003. The company said "very tough market conditions" continue but that its financial condition is improving in spite of lower sales volume. Some key points include:

• the company has emerged from bankruptcy protection and the new listing of Marconi Corporation plc is trading on the London market



• gross external debt has been reduced to £808m (pro forma) from £3.9bn



• sales for the quarter ending 31-Mar-03 were £426 million



• gross margins for the quarter were 24.4%, compared with 17% for the first quarter of the company's fiscal year



• for the full fiscal year, Marconi's ten largest customers - BT, BellSouth, Metro City Carriers, Qwest, Telecom Italia, UK Government, US Government, Vodafone Group, Verizon and Wind. These ten customers accounted for 48% of sales



• the company has reduced its annualized, break-even operational cost run-rate to £490 million in revenue per quarter, approximately 45% down from the £890 million run-rate at 31-March-2002. Savings were driven mainly by headcount reductions and site closures and consolidation



• as of 31-Mar-03, the company employed approximately 15,300 people in its core business, a reduction of over 19,000 employees since 31-March-2001. Marconi plans further cuts, resulting ine a workforce of about 13,500 employees

As for its market outlook, Marconi expects a further contraction in market volumes and group sales during the current financial year as telecom operators continue to maintain tight controls over capital expenditures.
http://www.marconi.com

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BellSouth, SBC and Verizon Agree on Specs for FTTP

BellSouth, SBC Communications and Verizon agreed on a common set of specifications for fiber to the premises (FTTP) local access networks. The common technical requirements will be based on existing technical standards. The three service providers today issued a letter to telecom equipment manufacturers, alerting them that the providers will soon be seeking proposals for equipment based on the common requirements. The companies will independently finalize their FTTP deployment plans for 2004 and beyond based on the evaluation of these proposals, ongoing internal studies, and on the resolution of related regulatory issues. In a joint statement, the chief technology officers (CTOs) of BellSouth, SBC and Verizon described the common set of FTTP specifications as a major step in driving fiber optics to homes and businesses. The companies are looking to the FCC to issue its final order under its Triennial Review of network interconnection regulations clarifying the extent to which unbundling and pricing regulations, such as those imposed on traditional copper technologies, will apply to new fiber deployments on a nationwide basis.
http://www.bellsouth.com
http://www.sbc.com

• In its landmark ruling on 20-February-2003, the FCC voted 3-to-2 to adopt a new set of network unbundling rules for incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs). Final details of the ruling are expected shortly. Regarding new fiber deployments, the preliminary order said the FCC will not require unbundling of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) loops. "The FCC elects not to unbundle bandwidth for the provision of broadband services for loops where incumbent LECs deploy fiber further into the neighborhood but short of the customer's home (hybrid loops), although requesting carriers that provide broadband services today over high capacity facilities will continue to get that same access even after this relief is granted."
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  In 1996, the Joint Procurement Consortium -- formed by Ameritech, BellSouth, Pacific Bell and SBC Communications -- agreed on a common set of requirements for ADSL. Members of the Joint Procurement Consortium eventually selected Alcatel as their primary supplier of ATM DMT-based ADSL equipment.

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Octasic Offers Latest Voice Quality Enhancement Chips

Octasic introduced a new series of echo cancellation and voice quality enhancement (VQE) modules for telecom equipment manufacturers. The OCT9600 series is a family of voice processor modules offering a range of densities from 256 to 4032 channels. These modules are powered by Octasic's OCT6100 echo cancellation chips, which use a unique echo cancellation algorithm to improve voice quality. Advanced features of the modules include ITU G.169 automatic level control, automatic noise reduction, integrated debugging and monitoring, extensive in-band signaling tone detection, audio conferencing, announcement storage and playback, and in-path tandem free operation (TFO) capabilities.
http://www.octasic.com

• Octasic was founded in 1998 and has been an outsourced design house for ATM and IP voice-over-packet solutions for major telecommunications vendors, such as Ericsson, Alcatel, Nortel Networks, NEC and Fujitsu. The company is now developing its own line of ASICs for key VoP functions: packetization, aggregation and mediation; compression; and echo cancellation. Octasic offers specialized processors performing each one of those individual functions.
• 
  
  See the Octasic White Paper A Deterministic Approach to Echo Cancellation.

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Alcatel Tunes is Metro Ethernet Switching Portfolio

Alcatel introduced a Smart Continuous Switching (SCS) feature providing carrier-class reliability for its OmniSwitch 7000 and 8000 series of metro Ethernet products. SCS distributes intelligence functions throughout network interface modules, rather than through a central processor, to ensure that there is no interruption of services or performance during the loss of a critical network element. The Alcatel OmniSwitch also features a distributed ASIC and network processor architecture to ensure no single point of failure. The OmniSwitch line can also be tied into the Alcatel 5620 Network Manager to provide one-touch provisioning of VLANs and to centralize other management tasks. In addition, the OmniSwitch can be combined with VPN functionality on the Alcatel 7670 Routing Switch Platform (RSP) so that a carrier can support all flavors of VPNs (FR, ATM, IP) from a consolidated PoP.
http://www.alcatel.com

• In April 2003, Alcatel introduced Frame Relay to Metro Ethernet Service Interworking capability, enabling service providers to offer Ethernet access through their widely-deployed Frame Relay networks. The new capability for the Alcatel 7670 RSP allows carriers to offer switched VPN services to their customers with the choice of mixing Frame or cell relay with Ethernet access to the same VPN. The new software maps the Ethernet VLAN IDs into Frame Relay DLCI / ATM VCI parameters. While recommending its own OmniSwitch metro Ethernet solution, Alcatel said the new Service Interworking capability would be able to support any standard Ethernet VLAN implementation.
• 
  
  Alcatel has shipped over 7,000 units of its OmniSwitch line for metro Ethernet deployment.
• 
  
  Alcatel has 22 publicly announced customers for its 7670 RSP, including SBC, Bell Canada, Telus, Cable & Wireless, China Telecom, BT, France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom and others.

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Marconi to Resell Laurel's Service Edge Router

Marconi will resell Laurel Networks' Service Edge Router as part of its networking solutions for U.S. federal government network operators and global service providers. Under the partnership, Marconi introduces the BXR-5000, a scalable 160 Gbps per rack platform (80 Gbps in and 80 Gbps out) that supports the aggregation of high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) into a high-speed multiservice core over OC-48c / STM-16 or OC-192c / STM-64. The edge router complements Marconi's BXR-48000, a 960 Gbps (480 Gbps in and 480 Gbps out) switch-router by supporting high-density, high-speed aggregation using Packet over SONET/SDH. In addition to providing aggregation of high-density GigE and IP services, the edge router addresses federal government market requirements for IP QoS solutions. Marconi's Broadband Routing and Switching group (formerly FORE Systems) and Laurel Networks share a common company heritage and both are based in Pittsburgh.
http://www.marconi.com
http://www.laurelnetworks.com

• In April 2003, Marconi's Broadband Routing and Switching group and Riverstone Networks formed a partnership focused on metro Ethernet solutions. The partnership combines Riverstone's IP-based metropolitan routers and carrier-class features with Marconi's multiservice switch-routers, optical transport and broadband access solutions, and its softswitch.
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  In April 2003, Laurel Networks introduced 10 Gbps SONET/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet Physical Interface (PHY) cards for its flagship ST200 Service Edge Router. The platform enhancements include a 1-port OC-192c/STM-64 SONET/SDH PHY card that scales to 8 ports per ST200 (16 per telco rack) and supports Packet over SONET (POS), Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), High-level Data Link Control (HDLC) and Frame Relay encapsulations. Laurel is also introducing a 1-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet PHY card that scales to eight ports per system (16 per telco rack) and supports advanced Ethernet over MPLS capabilities including 802.1Q VLANs and 802.1p prioritization. To meet the needs of growing MPLS networks, the ST200 10 Gbps SONET/SDH and Gigabit Ethernet PHY Cards support 256k MPLS Label Switched Paths (LSPs).
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  Laurel Networks is headed by Atul Bansal, previously president of FORE Systems' Network Control Technology. Its senior management staff also includes Stephen Vogelsang, previously senior director of strategic and technical marketing at FORE Systems; Robert Warden, who previously managed the hardware engineering teams at FORE Systems responsible for the design, implementation, and market introduction of new ATM and IP switching systems; Robert Rennison, previously a Principal Engineer at FORE Systems responsible for core Internet switching products; Dimitris Varotsis, a principal engineer at FORE Systems responsible for MPLS switching; a Jeffrey Prem, a software developer at FORE Systems.

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Juniper Advances Network Security Across its Platforms

Juniper Networks introduced new network security capabilities across its E-, M- and T-series platforms. New capabilities within Juniper's J-Protect security solution include:

• Adaptive Services Physical Interface Card (PIC) and enhanced Tunnel Services Module add integrated, high-performance Network Address Translation (NAT) and Stateful Firewalling capabilities
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  Monitoring PIC (M-PIC) delivers integrated high-performance Flow Monitoring to the portfolio
• 
  
  Port Mirroring in the E-series simplifies traffic monitoring and analysis
• 
  
  New J-Protect Professional Services facilitate and enhance security best practices

Juniper Networks noted that security incidents continue to grow in frequency and sophistication and that the network itself has become a potential target, or multiplier, of attacks. The company said its goal is to secure the network by providing high performance protection across all devices and across the control plane, to protect the user by safeguarding data flows, and to reduce capital and operational burdens by minimizing the need for separate security devices.
http://www.juniper.net

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Telica Chooses DCL for VoIP Software

Telica has licensed Data Connection Limited's (DCL's) DC-MGCP, DC-Megaco, DC-SIP and DC-ATM software for its Plexus 9000 softswitch-based switching platform. DCL's SIP, MGCP and Megaco/H.248 products provide portable source code for VoIP applications, with support for advanced distributed and fault-tolerant architectures. The Telica Plexus 9000 is a carrier-grade switch that includes all the elements of a softswitch-based solution, media gateway, media gateway controller and signaling gateway, to provide Class 4/5 switching for the PSTN as well as for ATM and IP networks. Data Connection's DC-SIP provides a full SIP User Agent and Proxy to the latest RFCs, and DC-MGCP/Megaco provides flexible MG and MGC function.
http://www.dataconnection.com

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BellSouth Captures 19% of Consumers and 33% of Businesses in Long Distance

Marking the first anniversary of gaining regulatory approval to offer long distance voice services in Georgia and Louisiana, BellSouth said it has captured 18.5% of residential customers and 32.9% of mass market business long distance customers in those states. BellSouth now serves more than 1.9 million long distance customers region-wide.
http://www.bellsouth.com

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Switch and Data Announces Positive Net Income

Switch and Data, a provider of carrier-neutral interconnection and colocation services, reported two consecutive months of positive net income following its acquisition of PAIX. Switch and Data, which is a privately held firm, has seen a 91% increase in revenues from April 2002 to April 2003 and reports current annualized monthly revenues of $74 million, which is ahead of plan. The company expects positive net income for the full year. Through April, Switch and Data added 53 new customers to its interconnection and colocation facilities bringing its total customer base to 442 and interconnections to more than 7,500 cross connects.
http://www.switchanddata.com/

• In March 2003, Switch and Data Inc. acquired the assets of PAIX.net, a leading Internet peering exchange provider with facilities in Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Palo Alto, Seattle, and Vienna, Virginia. Switch and Data's acquisition is inclusive of all PAIX sites. Financial terms were not disclosed. Switch and Data also provides neutral interconnection and colocation services in the US.
• 
  
  PAIX, the Palo Alto Internet Exchange, was originally opened by Digital Equipment Corporation in July 1996. AboveNet acquired PAIX in May 1999 from Digital/Compaq for $75 million. Metromedia Fiber Network agreed to acquire AboveNet Communications in June 1999 in a stock swap valued at about $1.55 billion at the time. AboveNet had co-location facilities in operation in San Jose, California and Vienna, Virginia at the time.

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Lithuanian Telecom Deploys Cisco MPLS Core

Lithuanian Telecom (AB Lietuvos Telekomas) is deploying a 10 Gbps MPLS IP core based on Cisco 12000 Series routers. The backbone will be used to help underpin next-generation services such as video content delivery and Ethernet access. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cisco.com

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