Tropos Cites Growing Deployments of Municipal Wi-Fi

Tropos Networks, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, cited another deployment of its metro-scale Wi-Fi. The City of Corpus Christi, Texas, will deploy the Tropos Wi-Fi system for use by the city-owned water and gas utilities, public works departments, and public safety agencies.



In addition to the utility applications, the network will be available for use by city public works crews, as well as the Corpus Christi Police and Fire Departments. The public safety agencies, with more than 315 police, fire, and EMS vehicles in their collective fleet, will use VPN authenticated access to all of the applications currently available only in their offices. The city also plans to operate GPS-based asset and vehicle tracking applications over the Wi-Fi network. Financial terms were not disclosed.



The first phase of the network will utilize approximately 300 Tropos 5110 Wi-Fi cells, an outdoor-optimized and ruggedized wireless mesh router based on the 802.11 standard.



Tropos Wi-Fi cells form a wireless mesh, dynamically routing traffic along the highest throughput path to a wired gateway. This intelligent routing negates effects of radio frequency (RF) interference, wired backhaul failure and node failure. http://ww.troposnetworks.com

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UTOPIA Gets Financial Go-Ahead for Municipal FTTP

The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) closed $85 million in revenue bonds to finance Phase I of a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network that will serve residents of 11 pledging member cities across the state. Construction of the FTTP network will begin in August. Phase I will connect more than 50,000 premises in portions of six cities in Salt Lake County (Murray, West Valley and Midvale) and Utah County (Orem, Payson and Lindon). Phase II, which will expand the network to other cities (Brigham City, Centerville, Layton, Perry, and Tremonton) and additional connections in the Phase I cities, will require additional financing.



UTOPIA noted that tax dollars will not be used to build or operate the system. The network will rely on revenues from service providers to repay the bonds. Eleven of the participating cities have pledges that guarantee a portion of the entire project. The pledges may only be called upon if the project is unsuccessful. http://www.utahpolicy.com

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Cox Reaches 2.2 Million Cable Modem Users

Citing growth in digital cable, high-speed Internet access and telephony services, Cox Communications reported Q2 sales of $1.6 billion, an increase of 12% over the same period last year. Higher basic cable rates, an increase in business service customers, as well as an increase in advertising sales, also contributed to overall revenue growth. Cox ranks as the nation's third-largest cable television provider.



Some highlights for Q2:

• Ended the quarter with approximately 6.3 million basic video customers, up 0.6% from June 30, 2003.



• Ended the quarter with approximately 6.6 million total customer relationships, up 1.8% from June 30, 2003.



• Ended the quarter with over 11.9 million total RGUs, up 12% from June 30, 2003, driven by 27% growth in advanced-service RGUs.



• Added 60,351 Cox Digital Cable customers, ending the quarter with approximately 2.3 million digital cable customers, representing year-over-year customer growth of 18%. Cox Digital Cable is now available to 99% of the homes in Cox's service areas with 36% penetration of our basic video customer base.



• Added 97,517 cable modem customers, ending the quarter with over 2.2 million high-speed Internet customers, representing year-over-year customer growth of 34%.



• Added 66,265 Cox Digital Telephone customers, ending the quarter with over 1.1 million telephone customers, representing year-over-year customer growth of 35%.



• Generated $478.6 million in cash flows provided by operating activities and $155.3 million in free cash flow (cash flows provided by operating activities less capital expenditures).



• Reduced capital expenditures to $323.3 million for the quarter, down 4% from the second quarter of 2003.



• Generated 12% revenue growth during the quarter and six months ended June 30, 2004, compared with the same periods in 2003.

http://www.cox.com

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British Government Moves to IP Telephony with Siemens

Siemens Information and Communication Networks (ICN) and Global Crossing will supply an IP telephony solution serving more than 110,000 public sector personnel in the U.K. in over 550 locations. The project is described as a first step towards ultimately migrating government users to a fully converged IP VPN communications solution. The deployment will use Siemens' HiPath technology, providing the ability to use any device, in any location to gain the functionality of the desk phone. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.siemens.com/hipath

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Japan's KVH Telecom Deploys Atrica's Optical Ethernet

Japan's KVH Telecom, a competitive carrier, is deploying Atrica's Carrier-class Optical Ethernet Systems to support a new Ether-MAN Plus next-generation Ethernet service offering in the Tokyo metropolitan region and other selected areas of Japan. Financial terms were not disclosed.



KVH's Ether-MAN Plus service, which is enabled by Ethernet over Multi Protocol Label Switching (EoMPLS), combines the reliability of leased lines with the flexibility of a wide-area Ethernet service to deliver integrated voice, video, and data connectivity. The service can be configured as a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint topology, depending on the end user's requirements and network environment. In addition to TDM (T1/E1) services, interfaces such as 10Base-T, 100Base-TX and 1000Base-SX are supported, and bandwidth is scalable from 1.5Mbps to 1Gps with a variety of options.



Atrica's Optical Ethernet Systems portfolio is comprised of the A-2000 family of Optical Ethernet Edge Switches, the A-4000 family of Optical Ethernet Aggregation Switches, the A-8000 family of Optical Ethernet Core Switches, and the Atrica Service Platform for Ethernet Networks (ASPEN), an integrated service provisioning and management system. http://www.atrica.comhttp://www.kvh.co.jpTokyo-based KVH Telecom was established in 1999 by the Fidelity Group.

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Siemens Forms New Communications Unit focused on Convergence

Siemens has formed a new business unit combining wireless and wire line infrastructure, devices, and IP convergence applications.



Siemens Communications, which will be based in Boca Raton, Florida, will combine all Siemens wire line and mobile businesses. It will serve all major customers in the industry -- wireless and wire line carriers, enterprises, cable operators and service providers.



Andy Mattes, who has been leading Siemens' U.S. networking business, will be appointed president and CEO of the new U.S. companyhttp://www.usa.siemens.com/

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BT Reaches 2.7 million DSL Users, Adds 36K per Week

BT reported quarterly turnover of £4,567 million, down 0.4% including the impact of mobile termination rate reductions. However, BT noted that turnover for its "New Wave" services rose 32% over last year to £936 million. New wave turnover is mainly generated from Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions, broadband, mobility and managed services. ICT turnover grew by 15 per cent to £634 million partly reflecting the strong order intake last year. Mobility turnover at £43 million achieved growth of 169 per cent. Broadband turnover doubled to £186 million.



DSL : As of 30-June-2004, BT had an installed base of 2.7 million wholesale broadband lines, an increase of 154% on the number of connections 12 months ago, with net additions in the quarter growing at more than 36,000 per week. BT Retail had 1,102,000 broadband connections at 30-June-2004, an increase of 98% on 30-June-2003.



During the quarter, BT Retail's market share of DSL net additions was 29%.



Traditional Business : Turnover from the BT group's traditional businesses declined by 6% (5% lower excluding the impact of reductions in mobile termination rates), a percentage point improvement compared to the preceding quarter.



Free cash flow (before acquisitions and disposals, dividends and financing) was a net inflow of £157 million in the quarter. http://www.btplc.com

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Ericsson/Juniper Selected for IP Backbone Upgrade by China Mobile

China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile) selected Ericsson to provide a major IP backbone upgrade in all 31 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions. The expansion will leverage MPLS to improve overall scalability in China Mobile's network and facilitate more efficient use of bandwidth. Ericsson is the IP/MPLS routing platforms through its long-term strategic relationship with Juniper Networks. Ericsson was also the sole equipment supplier of China Mobile's Phase One IP backbone network in 2000. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.ericsson.com/presshttp://www.juniper.net

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Riverstone to Deliver Active Ethernet FTTP to 14 Utah Cities

Riverstone Networks will immediately begin shipping Ethernet equipment to the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) for its FTTP municipal networks across the state. The network design uses an open, active Ethernet architecture recommended by DynamicCity. The UTOPIA project uses Riverstone's RS 38000 core routers and RS 8600 metro aggregation routers. It also employs MPLS-based Ethernet to support Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) that carries a combination of voice, video and data traffic to end-users .



The UTOPIA project is expected to take three years to build at an estimated cost of $300 million. Upon completion, the UTOPIA network will provide a wholesale active Ethernet network to approximately 140,000 residential and business subscribers. The network will utilize DynamicCity's patent-pending Open Service Provider Network (OSPN) model, keeping network ownership separate from the service providers and enabling service providers to simultaneously operate on the network's bandwidth to deliver retail communications services. End-users will only pay for the services provided over the network, not access. http://riverstonenet.com

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Alcatel Reports Rise in Q2 Sales with Growth in Broadband Access

Alcatel reported Q2 sales or EUR 3.078 billion, compared with EUR 2.967 billion in the second quarter 2003, up 3.7% and 7.2% at a constant EUR/USD exchange rate. Net income pre-goodwill for the quarter was EUR 125 million, or diluted EUR 0.09 per share (USD 0.11 per ADS).



Some highlights for the quarter:

• Fixed communications : Revenue was stable at EUR 1.353 billion from EUR 1.360 billion in Q2 2003. Significant growth was registered in broadband access, data networking, and solutions. In broadband access, growth was seen both in Western Europe and in North America, with new business ramping up in emerging markets such as Turkey and Egypt.



• DSL : 4.8 million DSL lines were delivered during the quarter, up 50% over the same period last year, bringing the year to date cumulative deliveries to 10.3 million.



• IP Business : 10 new customers were added in Q2 for edge service routing, which included customers in the U.S., China, and Belgium. A total of 30 customers exist to date in addition to 40 on-going trials, including a new one added in the UK this quarter.



• Softswitching : Five new customers were added during the quarter for various softswitch solutions, resulting in a cumulative total of 26 customers for the softswitch and over 50 customers for NGN/VoIP solutions to date.



• Optical networks: growing momentum was seen in North America with deployment of cross connects, in particular for metro applications for both fixed and wireless networks, and in Western Europe where the complete optical portfolio has been deployed as service providers focus on building out their metro networks. Submarine networking remains depressed.



• Voice networking : the decline continued, though slowing down by shifting the focus to revenue generating maintenance service of the installed base.



• Mobile communications : revenue increased slightly to EUR 842 million from EUR 834 million in Q2 2003, impacted by the transitioning to a new product in wireless transmission and some slippage in revenue recognition in mobile networks.



• Private communications : revenue increased by 7.0% to EUR 929 million compared with EUR 868 million in Q2 2003. The IP/PBX business registered a solid quarter with the activity continuing to grow, particularly in Europe, once again solidifying its leadership position. Genesys also continued to increase its business, confirming its traction in North America where some significant wins were registered. The enterprise data business was soft during the quarter, partly due to IT spending being under scrutiny in the U.S.



• Gross margin : 38.3%, compared to 31.8% for the same time last year.



• Geographical distribution of sales : W. Europe: 43%, Other Europe: 7%, North America: 17%, Asia: 16%, RoW: 17%

http://www.alcatel.com

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Level 3 Reports Revenue of $391 Million

Level 3 Communications reported revenue of $391 million for its Communications business, compared to $389 million for the previous quarter. Revenue for Level 3's information services business was $503 million compared to $494 million for the previous quarter. The net loss for the second quarter 2004 decreased to $63 million or $0.09 per share compared to a net loss for the previous quarter of $147 million or $0.22 per share.



During the quarter, the company announced two new consumer VoIP services aimed at cable operators, enhanced service providers, ISPs, IXCs and others who provide residential voice services to end-users: (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service, which is targeted towards customers who currently operate their own switching infrastructure, but want to deploy residential voice services cost effectively with minimal involvement in local interconnection issues; and HomeTone, which is a turnkey VoIP residential service offering local and long distance capabilities. http://www.level3.com

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Sprint and Novatel Offer Wi-Fi/PCS Connection Card

Sprint and Novatel Wireless are offering a new PCMCIA that offers seamless always-on connectivity via the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network and Wi-Fi networks. The Sprint PCS Connection Card by Novatel Wireless (Merlin C201) now comes packaged with Sprint PCS Connection Manager Software.



While connected to the enhanced Sprint Nationwide PCS Network that covers 99% of the nation's largest cities, customers can wirelessly access the Internet and corporate applications at data speeds averaging between 50 and 70 Kbps, with peak speeds up to 144 Kbps prior to bandwidth optimization. The Sprint PCS Wi-Fi Access provides connectivity at up to 11 Mbps. http://www.sprint.com

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Telefónica Reaches 3.7 million ADSL Lines

Telefónica reported a 5.6% growth in operating revenues to EUR 14.324 billion for the first half of 2004, compared to the same period in 2003. First-half operating profit was EUR 3.421 billion, 21.4% more than in the year-ago period.

Some highlights:

• Telefónica enlarged its worldwide customer base by 12.6% to 103.8 million.



• The number of ADSL connections rose by 1.7 million net versus June 2003 to 3.7 million. The 2 million connections operative in Spain (+58.2% vs June 2003) equate to an estimated 74% share of the overall broadband market, while Telefónica Group's 1.6 million retail clients give it 58% of this ADSL segment. In Latin America, ADSL connections now number over one million (0.6 million one year back), of which 0.6 million fall to Telesp (+58% year-on- year).



• Telefónica de España operating revenues rose 2.2% year-on-year to EUR 5.399 billion at the 1H04 close. Worth noting is the clear spurt in revenue growth in the second-quarter period, which owes in part to the rise in the monthly fee effective as of 01-April-2004.



• A geographical breakdown shows Spain representing 61.6% of the Group's consolidated revenues at the end of the second quarter, though its weight had dropped 1.3 p.p. vs. June 2003 with the slack taken up by Brazil (17.6% vs. 16%). Latin America raised its share of total revenues by 0.9 p.p. to 33.1%.



• The Group's net debt amounted to EUR 18.776 billion in June 2004, down by EUR 459 million down from the end of 2003 .

http://www.telefonica.com

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Motorola to Offer Apple iTunes on its Mobile Phones

Motorola is partnering with Apple to enable users to transfer songs from the iTunes jukebox on their PC or Mac, or from the iTunes Music Store, to Motorola's next-generation mobile phones. Apple will create a new iTunes mobile music player, which Motorola will make the standard music application on all their mass-market music phones, expected to be available in the first half of next year. The interface will be USB or Bluetooth. http://www.motorola.com

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Comcast Adds 4 Mbps to Service Tiers

Comcast has added a new 4 Mbps cable modem service tier. Comcast customers now can choose between two options: 4Mbps and 3Mbps, which are priced at $52.95 and $42.95 respectively, for customers also buying cable TV service.



Comcast is also increasing e-mail storage for its users to 1.7GB, as compared to the previous 70MB. http://www.comcast.com/

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Alcatel provides BT with SIP-based Solution

BT awarded a multi-million EUR contract to Alcatel to supply a suite of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based multimedia applications. The Alcatel solution will help BT generate additional revenue through the new BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger service offering.



The contract includes the Alcatel 8690 Open Services Platform (OSP) - which allows the customization and rapid roll-out of high-value services and hosts the Alcatel 8605 multimedia application suite - and the Alcatel 5020 Softswitch, which provides the necessary bridge between the voice and data worlds. The selection of Alcatel follows BT's recent decision to employ the Alcatel 8690 OSP as the cornerstone of its common intelligence services layer (CISL) project and reaffirms Alcatel's pedigree as a leader in delivering innovative VoIP-based applications over broadband networks. http://www.alcatel.com

• Earlier this month, BT and Yahoo! launched a residential service that allows consumers to manage all their home communications - phone calls, webcam, emails, texts and instant messaging - together in one place from a Web browser.



• BT Communicator with Yahoo! Messenger is an integrated software package that combines voice services over the web with Yahoo!'s instant messaging. Users are able to make free calls when connecting from their PC to another PC or make calls to a landline or mobile from their computer at the same cost as a phone call on their "BT Together" fixed line phone package. Call records will appear on the standard BT telephone bill as ‘Clic2call' rather than ‘mobile' or ‘local number'. BT customers traveling abroad can make international calls back to any UK number for the price of a domestic UK call.

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Verilink Closes its Acquisition of Larscom

Verilink closed its merger with Larscom. The company is aiming to become a leading provider of next-generation broadband access solutions. Its portfolio encompasses voice over packet and voice over TDM IAD solutions including VoIP, VoDSL and VoATM. The Larscom merger adds to the company's position in the integrated access space as well as introducing solutions for the Optical Ethernet Access market. http://www.verilink.com/

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Nortel Networks Expands Carrier VoIP, Multimedia Developer Program

Products from AFC, ARRIS, Mediatrix, Ubiquity and Verilink have successfully completed interoperability testing with its Carrier VoIP and Multimedia portfolio. As a result, these companies have each been awarded a Certificate of Compatibility under Nortel Networks Developer Program.



In addition, Nortel Networks also announced the following new program members: Bloophone, Computer Talk Technology, Inc., Entrisphere, i3micro, Interval Research, NewHeights, Polycom, SS8 Networks, Inc. and Terayon. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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SEC Drops its Investigation in Charter's Cable Business

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded its enforcement action against Charter Communications. The investigation generally concerned the Charter's determination of the number of its customers, various accounting practices and procedures concerning capitalization of certain expenses and dealings with certain vendors, including programmers and digital set-top terminal suppliers.



In the Settlement Agreement and Cease and Desist Order, Charter neither admitted nor denied any wrongdoing, and the SEC assessed no fine against the company. http://www.charter.com

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Time Warner's Road Runner Accelerates to 6 Mbps

Time Warner plans to introduce a new option for its Road Runner Premium cable modem service that doubles the top download speed to 6 Mbps. The uplink will run at up to 512 kbps. Pricing for the premium service ranges from $64.95-$84.95 per month, depending on the package or bundle of other services they take from Time Warner Cable. This compares to the core Road Runner cable modem service, which offers speeds of up to 3Mbps downstream and 384kbps upstream, and is typically priced at $44.95 retail, with discounts in a bundle or multi-service package.



Time Warner Cable currently has 3.4 million cable modem customers, which represents 18%of eligible homes. http://www.timewarner.com

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