Vonage Rolls out its Broadband Telephone Service in UK

Following a five month market trial, Vonage announced its official UK roll-out. Vonage's telephone adapter will be initially available in 136 Staples stores across the UK, with further expansion and additional high-street retailers coming on board throughout 2005. The company will also launch an advertising campaign.


Vonage is charging £9.99 per month for unlimited UK & Ireland local and national calls and unlimited Vonage-to-Vonage calls. Customers can choose their number from more than 120 UK dialing codes. There's also the option of choosing an additional virtual number in Canada, the US or the UK, giving them a local presence in another location.


According to the company's website, Vonage provides access to public emergency call services to all customers in the UK. When dialing either 999 or 112, the call is routed from the Vonage network to national emergency operators who will handle the call. The emergency operator will ask for specific information to correctly transfer the call.
http://www.vonage.com

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Australia's WiZZ Deploys Cisco Aironet

WiZZ Communications, a wholesale service provider, has deployed Cisco Systems' Aironet equipment to deliver QoS-enabled, managed wireless connectivity for its clients such as retail service providers and Internet service providers (ISPs). Through the deployment of Cisco Aironet 1300 and Aironet 1400 series wireless bridges across the Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne metropolitan areas, Wizz can provide data rates of up to 100 Mbps over the 802.11 standards-based wireless spectrum to sites that are out of reach of traditional optical or DSL. The network also employs Cisco 7200 Series routers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cisco.com

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Siemens to Provide Satellite Tracking for London Busses

Siemens was awarded a EUR 175 million contract to track and monitor London's 8,000 buses using satellite navigation technology. The project, which is described as the largest of its type in the world, will provide real-time information to passengers so they can see more accurate predicted arrival time at 2,000 bus shelters around the city. Buses run by London's 30 private operating companies will be fitted with the technology over the next four years.
http://www.siemens.com

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NTT Com Signs Wi-Fi Roaming Deals with BT, Telecom Italia

NTT Communications signed Wi-Fi roaming deals with BT and Telecom Italia.


NTT Com already has roaming arrangements with KT (Korea), T-Mobile USA (USA), Telstra (Australia), StarHub (Singapore) and Maxis (Malaysia).


NTT Com customers will now be able to use their Wi-Fi subscriptions for a consistent, global wireless broadband experience to access information, communications and entertainment at more than 35,000 Wi-Fi hotspot locations across Asia--Pacific, North America and Europe, including 1,500 within Japan.
http://www.ntt.com

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Nortel and IBM to Develop New Class of Telecom Blade Servers

Nortel and IBM announced a strategic alliance to support customized products across a range of market segments. The companies will establish a Nortel-IBM Joint Development Center in Research Triangle Park, NC to collaborate on the design and development of new products and services.


Initially, the companies plan to develop a new class of blade servers combining IBM's Server Technology and Nortel's carrier-grade communications expertise. Nortel also expects to utilize IBM engineering and technical services for a number of projects, all aimed at broadening its broadband, VoIP, multimedia services and applications and wireless broadband offerings.


"This agreement with IBM is a critical component of our strategy to partner for growth," said Bill Owens, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nortel. "Working with IBM, as one of their key partners, is a bold step forward in our efforts to transform our business by reaching an entirely new level of R&D collaboration while reducing our R&D costs, introducing products at a faster pace and serving a broad range of customers more rapidly."http://www.nortel.com
http://www.ibm.com

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Belgium's Telenet Deploys Cirpack Switches

Telenet, the largest provider of broadband cable services in Belgium, has deployed Cirpack's Class-5 switch solution to deliver voice over broadband services to business customers in Belgium and Luxembourg. The service allows small and medium-sized businesses to connect their ISDN PBX to a secured DSL line. Cirpack's MultiNode delivers a complete set of ISDN services over the DSL line. The companies noted that almost all enterprises in Belgium and Luxembourg have an ISDN PBX and said that broadband local loops are very efficient alternatives to deliver carrier-grade voice services.
http://www.cirpack.com
http://www.telenet.be

• In April, Thomson acquired Cirpack, a privately-held developer of class-5 softswitching solutions based near Paris. Financial terms were not disclosed.
  
  Cirpack claims 45 telco and ISP customers in 15 countries. The customer list includes Free, a subsidiary of the Iliad Group and the second largest French ISP, which is using a joint solution from IBM and Cirpack to deliver a consumer VoIP service over unbundled DSL lines. The residential VoIP is provided as an add-on to the company's ADSL service in the areas where Free has deployed its own DSL infrastructure.
  
  Cirpack's softswitch platform can host a range of high-density network interfaces (IP, ATM, TDM) and supports multiple local signaling protocol variants simultaneously (ISDN, SS7, VoIP, VoATM). It can be configured to manage voice transit services (Class-4) as well as subscriber services (Class- 5). The company partners with IBM Global Services.

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Netcentrex Enhances its Softswitching with Video, SIP, and Triple Play Integration

Netcentrex has enhanced its "MyCall" Residential Services with new capabilities for video telephony, enhanced triple play and fixed-mobile convergence. MyCall version 3 provides interworking of video services between fixed or mobile video terminals, such as fixed video phones, 3G mobile video phones, and PC-based video clients. It could also be used to extend voice and video applications over 3G and broadband networks. In addition to the previously available H.323 video, the latest release adds the capability of implementing video services using SIP. Video applications such as Video Mail and Video Conferencing have also been added and are available as an upgrade to existing MyCall platforms.


NetCentrex said new functionality in MyCall v3 allows the owner of a MyCall solution to share the platform among different Application Service Providers (ASPs), each of them delivering its own service bundles to its subscribers. The ASPs can also provide services on different access technologies (DSL, Cable, Fiber, WiFi etc.), in different countries and different languages.


MyCall uses open APIs for integration into a triple play solution to enable an end-to-end solution for MPEG2, MPEG4 or future High Definition TV, or mobile IPTV & VOD, and an integrated User Portal which can manage TV programs, VOD purchasing, video game features, IP telephony services and voice or video mail messages. Following the previous integration with Envivio, MyCall now also ensures integration with Thales Broadcast and Multimedia Smartvision TV middleware, for the delivery of a centralized TV self-care portal, caller ID presentation on TV and call rejection from the TV interface.


NetCentrex claims an installed base of more than 1.5 Million subscribers/ Its customer list includes FastWeb, which is using MyCall to deliver residential IP Telephony, video telephony, and triple play services.
http://www.netcentrex.com

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JDS Uniphase to Sell Ottawa Facility

JDS Uniphase agreed to sell its 912,000 square foot Ottawa facility located at 3000 Merivale Road in Ottawa, Canada to construction and management company Minto Developments Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed.


"The Subsystems Product Group at our Ottawa facility develops our
company's most highly integrated communications products," said Kevin Kennedy, president and chief executive officer of JDS Uniphase. "The sale of the property is a positive step in our transformation strategy for right-sizing the assets of our company."


The team will be relocated in the Ottawa area.
http://www.jdsu.com

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"Combined Endeavor" Brings Together Largest Interoperability Event

"Combined Endeavor 2005", the largest and most complex Communications and Information System (CIS) military exercise in the world, is currently underway in Lager Aulenbach, Germany , with the participation of more than 1,200 military and civilian personnel from 43 countries and four continents.




The 13-day military exercise, which is organized by the U.S. European Command and the German and Romanian Ministries of Defense, brings together NATO and Partnership for Peace nations to plan and execute interoperability testing of command, control, communications and computer equipment systems from participant nations in support of future combined humanitarian, peacekeeping and disaster relief operations.


Participants in Combined Endeavor 2005 will be conducting over 1,400 different interoperability tests, with the main elements being satellite communications, video teleconferencing, VoIP, and single channel radio networking.


During the exercise, Spirent Federal Systems is supporting the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) with a team of System Engineers and the latest test instrumentation. The JITC, based out of Fort Huachuca, Ariz., is a field command of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and supports all the military services in their efforts to manage information both on and off the battlefield with the continual goal of achieving command, control, communication, computers and intelligence (C4I) interoperability. As part of the JITC team, Spirent Federal is using Spirent's Abacus 5000 to conduct VoIP and video testing and using Spirent's SmartBits Performance Analysis Test System with its Avalanche Web and Security Test System to simulate multiple users of the data network into command centers.http://217.91.54.244:8080/http://www.spirentfederal.com

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Marvell Reports Revenue of $365 Million, up 35% YoY

Marvell Technology Group reported quarterly revenue of $364.8 million, an increase of 35% the same period last year and a 7% sequential increase from the preceding quarter. Net income (GAAP) was $63.5 million, or $0.20 per share (diluted), compared with net income of $14.5 million, or $0.05 per share, a year earlier.

The period represented the 30th consecutive quarter of sequential revenue growth for Marvell.
http://www.marvell.com/

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Lucent Appoints Satoshi Fujita President of Japan Operations

Lucent Technologies announced the appointment of Satoshi Fujita as president of its operations in Japan. Fujita-san is a former Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) executive, having started with NTT in 1969. He has held leadership positions in sales, marketing, finance and operations throughout his career. He was most recently corporate auditor for NTT DoCoMo Inc. Prior to that he was the executive vice president and general manager of the global services business division of NTT Communications Corporation.
http://www.lucent.com

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Minnesota Town Deploys Municipal FTTX with ADC

Windom, Minnesota is deploying a $8.6 million city-owned broadband network supported by ADC's OmniReach FTTX infrastructure solutions.


Windomnet delivers digital cable, telephone and 100 Mbps Internet access to the city's homes, businesses and schools.

http://www.adc.com
http://www.windomnet.com/

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BT Media and Broadcast Deploys Juniper IP/MPLS

BT Media and Broadcast has selected Juniper Networks' routing platforms to create what is described as Europe's first point-to-multipoint IP/MPLS-based broadcast distribution network. The network has been deployed by BT Media and Broadcast on behalf of Meridian, a regional member of ITV, the UK's leading independent national television broadcaster. The network uses Juniper's M320 and M10i routing platforms to transport broadcast-quality video, data files, voice and IT traffic between ITV's studios. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.juniper.net

• In March 2005, BT unveiled plans to establish a global digital media distribution capability with major hubs in continental Europe, the US and Asia. To support this vision, BT Broadcast Services, which has been supporting the broadcast industry for over 40 years, is merging with BT Rich Media, which develops channels to market for digital content. The division will be known as BT Media and Broadcast (BTM&B).

This global offering and new structure will build on BTM&B's investment in its UK-based "BT Mediahive" digital content management capabilities, enabling it to capture, store, manage and distribute any type of media file, including video, audio and still images.

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Ericsson and ZTE to Collaborate on TD-SCDMA

Ericsson and Zhongxing Telecom Equipment Corporation (ZTE) announced an alliance to collaborate in the TD-SCDMA area. In accordance with the agreement, Ericsson is to integrate ZTE's TD-SCDMA Node B into its radio access network, including hardware and software, on an OEM basis. The two parties will also team up to participate in the TD-SCDMA trials in China.


Ericsson also announced plans to establish a new R&D center in Nanjing, China, to focus on the development of TD-SCDMA product offerings. The facility is expected to have 50 research staff at first. http://www.ericsson.com

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FCC Issues VoIP E911 Order

By a vote of 4-to-0, the FCC adopted rules that require all VoIP providers that permit their customers to receive and place calls over the public-switched telephone network to provide their customers with 911 access. At its open meeeting, the FCC heard from witnesses who described tragedies that followed from their inability to reach emergency services over a residential VoIP line. One woman from Florida told how she was unable to connect with 911 using Vonage when her 3-month old daughter stopped breathing. The mother ran to a neighbor's house to place the emergency call, but unfortunately the child died.


Key provisions of the VoIP E911 order include:

• Interconnected VoIP providers must deliver all 911 calls to the customer's local emergency operator. This must be a standard, rather than optional, feature of the service.



• Interconnected VoIP providers must provide emergency operators with the call back number and location information of their customers (i.e., E911) where the emergency operator is capable of receiving it. Although the customer must provide the location information, the VoIP provider must provide the customer a means of updating this information, whether he or she is at home or away from home.



• By the effective date, interconnected VoIP providers must inform their customers, both new and existing, of the E911 capabilities and limitations of their service.



• The incumbent LECs are required to continue to provide access to their E911 networks to any requesting telecommunications carrier. They must continue to provide access to trunks, selective routers, and E911 databases to competing carriers. The Commission will closely monitor this obligation.

VoIP providers were given 120 days to comply, but the order does not dictate the technical means by which providers must come into compliance. VoIP providers may interconnect directly with the incumbent LECs' 911 network or purchase access to this network from competitive carriers and other third-party providers.


"Anyone who dials 911 has a reasonable expectation that he or she will be connected to an emergency operator; this expectation exists whether that person is dialing 911 from a traditional wireline phone, a wireless phone, or a VoIP phone. Today, we take this action to ensure this expectation is met as soon as possible," stated FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin.


FCC Commissioner Michael Copps wrote "The sad fact is that we have spent so much time splitting hairs about what is a telecommunications service and what is an information service that we have endangered public safety. At some point the semantic debates must end and reality must assert itself--when customers sign up for a telephone they expect it to deliver like a telephone. When an intruder is in the house and the homeowner goes to the phone to call the police, that's a call that just has to go through."http://www.fcc.gov

• in April 2005, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a decision requiring VoIP service providers to provide the same level of 9-1-1 emergency service that is provided by the incumbent telephone companies within 90 days. Specifically, the Commission requires VoIP service providers providing either nomadic VoIP service or foreign exchange VoIP service to implement, within 90 days of the date of this decision, an interim solution which provides a level of service comparable to Basic 9-1-1 service. In addition to the above service requirements, the Commission also requires all VoIP service providers to provide customers with notification, both before service commencement and during service provision, regarding any limitations associated with their emergency 9-1-1 service. The VoIP service providers must also secure the customer's express acknowledgement that they are aware of these limitations, prior to providing this type of service.



• In March 2005, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit against Vonage, the country's largest Internet-based telephone service provider, for failing to make clear to consumers that the company's current service does not include access to traditional emergency 9-1-1 service. The story was widely reported in newspapers across the country. The state of Texas said the dangers posed by Vonage's failure "to clearly disclose the lack of traditional 9-1-1 access" have resulted in tragedy.

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FCC Skips USF Issue

At its open meeting on Thursday, the FCC skipped over its planned review of the Universal Service Fund (USF) and support mechanisms going forward. No word on when the issue will be reconsidered.
http://www.fcc.gov

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WSJ: Cellphone Calls to 911 Go Unlocated

An unacceptably high number of mobile calls to emergency response operators are failing to provide accurate or useful location information, according a report in The Wall Street Journal. Despite FCC requirements more than a decade old, emergency operators in major U.S. cities are finding that many calls lack useful latitude and longitude data. Reasons given for the problems include urban density, geography, topography or poor implentation of GPS.
http://www.wsj.com

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Pulver Blasts FCC E911 Order for Discouraging Innovation

Jeff Pulver, CEO of pulver.com and founder of Free World Dialup (FWD), the VON Coalition, LibreTel and other VoIP industry endeavors, blasted the FCC's E911 order for its failure to prohibit port blocking as a means of addressing emergency responses.


"The FCC had a golden opportunity to take one positive steps to promote IP- based communications. The FCC could have prohibited "port blocking" and compelled direct access to the ILEC-controlled emergency response infrastructure. Instead, the FCC chose to regulate the previously unregulated, and declined to regulate those that it has obvious authority to regulate -- the traditional telecom carriers. As it stands, unaffiliated VoIP providers are left to the mercy or goodwill of their retail rivals -- the telecom carriers that control access to the emergency response network. The FCC has given lip-service to its desire to prohibit port blocking and has been looking for a vehicle to do so. A proceeding fell into its lap, and the FCC abdicated its responsibility on this issue," wrote Jeff Pulver.


Pulver argues that IP technology could allow for functions far beyond the capabilities of traditional communications networks, but that the FCC needs to encourage innovators to experiment and push the limits of IP technology. "If regulators tell the industry to provide nationwide E911 for nomadic VoIP services, without simultaneously compelling fair access by unaffiliated VoIP providers to selective routers and prohibiting port blocking, how can they expect us to accomplish their mission? Make excessive demands on the never-before-regulated and most-vulnerable new start-ups, but don't dare impose any access obligation on the traditionally regulated entities, the only ones with the essential infrastructure? I don't get it."http://pulverblog.pulver.com/

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Broadcom Sues Qualcomm for Patent Infringement

Broadcom has commenced federal litigation against Qualcomm alleging that the San Diego-based company infringes 10 Broadcom patents related to wired and wireless communications and multimedia processing technologies.


In two complaints filed yesterday in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Broadcom is seeking unspecified monetary damages from Qualcomm as well as a permanent injunction barring the manufacture and sale of Qualcomm's core suite of baseband and RF integrated circuits, including its multimedia, enhanced and convergence platform chips and its QChat VoIP technology for cellular phones, which Broadcom alleges infringe its patents.


Additionally, today Broadcom filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Qualcomm has engaged in unfair trade practices by importing integrated circuits and other products that infringe five Broadcom patents. Broadcom requested that the ITC institute an investigation into Qualcomm's infringing imports and ultimately issue an Exclusion Order to bar importation of those Qualcomm devices into the United States. Broadcom also seeks a Cease and Desist Order to bar further sales of infringing Qualcomm products that have already been imported.


Broadcom's intellectual property portfolio today includes 955 issued U.S. patents and over 3,200 additional U.S. patent applications.
http://www.broadcom.com

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RCN Hires Former Nextel Executives

RCN announced the appointment of Timothy J. Dunne as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Dunne also manages the corporate marketing, programming, and information technology functions for the company. Prior to joining RCN in March 2005, Dunne was Vice President, Digital Media & Business Development for Nextel Communications.


RCN also named Michael T. Sicoli as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining RCN, Sicoli spent over seven years at Nextel Communications, where he held a number of positions of increasing authority within the company's finance organization, including his most recent position of Vice President & Assistant Treasurer, which he has held since 2002.


Additional appointments announced by RCN include Joseph Sorresso serves as Senior Vice President, Network Operations. Sorresso joined RCN in January of 2005. Prior to joining RCN, he served in various positions at MCI, most recently as an executive staff member.


Stephen A. Bogiages was named Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Prior to joining RCN in April 2005, Bogiages was Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary to Neon Communications.


Richard Ramlall was named Senior Vice President Strategic and External Affairs. Prior to joining RCN in March 2005, Ramlall served as Senior Managing Director and Executive Vice President of Spencer Trask Media and Communications Group, (a division of New York based venture capital firm Spencer Trask & Company).
http://www.rcn.com/

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