Time Warner to Spin-Off Cable Business, Triple Play Reaches 18% Penetration

Time Warner announced plans to separate its cable business from its media assets.


During Q1 2008, Time Warner Cable's revenues grew 8% year over year ($309 million) to $4.2 billion. Subscription revenues were up 8% ($301 million) to $4.0 billion.


Some highlights:

• Video revenues climbed 4% ($99 million) to $2.6 billion, driven by continued growth in digital video services and video price increases.



• High-speed data revenues rose 11% ($100 million) to $1.0 billion, fueled mainly by continued year-over-year residential high-speed data subscriber growth.



• Voice revenues increased 39% ($102 million) to $366 million, reflecting strong Digital Phone subscriber growth. Advertising revenues grew 4% ($8 million) to $197 million.



• Revenue generating units ("RGUs") reached 33.0 million, reflecting a robust 896,000 net additions.



• Triple Play subscribers surpassed 2.6 million (or 18% of total customer relationships), benefiting from a record 247,000 net additions.

http://www.timewarnercable.com

Read More

Motorola and Widevine Sign Global Reseller Agreement

The home and networks mobility division of Motorola will resell Widevine Technologies' conditional access and digital rights management products globally under an agreement announced by the firms.


Motorola offers head-end and consumer device solutions while Widevine Cypher, a downloadable conditional access, digital rights management and digital copy protection solution, enables video operators to acquire and securely distribute premium multimedia from major Hollywood studios and broadcasters. Currently, Motorola and Widevine jointly support over fifty video service providers worldwide.


The joint solution includes Motorola's consumer devices, compression and infrastructure solutions for video delivery and Widevine Cypher which enables telco, cable, Internet, mobile and satellite service providers to support an unlimited number of subscribers and assets using a single content security solution for protecting delivery to all major consumer devices--including set-top boxes, PVRs and PC-based consumer devices.http://www.widevine.comhttp://www.motorla.com

Read More

HP Labs Develops “Memristor�? -- A New Type of Electronic Circuit

Researchers from HP Labs are developing a "memristor" -- a blend of "memory resistor" -- had previously been only theorized as the fourth fundamental circuit element in electrical engineering. The "memristor", which has the unique property of retaining a history of the information it has acquired, promises a new level of innovation in electronics.


In a paper published in today's edition of Nature, four researchers at HP Labs' Information and Quantum Systems Lab, led by R. Stanley Williams, presented the mathematical model and a physical example of a "memristor."


HP said the innovation could lead to the development of a new kind of computer memory that would supplement and eventually replace today's commonly used dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Computers using conventional DRAM lack the ability to retain information once they lose power. A memristor-based computer would retain its information after losing power and would not require the boot-up process, resulting in the consumption of less power and wasted time. Other applications could include the memory and storage systems used in data centers and in cloud-computing clusters.


Leon Chua, a distinguished faculty member in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department of the University of California at Berkeley, initially theorized about and named the element in an academic paper published 37 years ago. Chua argued that the memristor was the fourth fundamental circuit element, along with the resistor, capacitor and inductor, and that it had properties that could not be duplicated by any combination of the other three elements.http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/quantum_systems.html

Read More

BT Introduces ADSL2+ Wholesale Broadband Service

BT will begin offering a Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) service to ISPs over its 21st Century Network (21CN). The service uses ADSL2+ for a maximum downstream capacity of 24 Mbps (distance from the exchange, internal wiring, interference from electrical appliances and other factors affect performance.)


Wholesale Broadband Connec will initially be available from exchanges serving around one million homes and businesses. The service will progressively roll out across the country, rising to a potential footprint of 10 million homes and businesses by the spring of 2009.http://www.btplc.com

Read More

3Com Names Robert Mao as CEO, Ronald Sege as COO

3Com appointed Robert Mao as its new CEO, replacing Edgar Masri who is leaving the company. Mao will continue to serve on the company's Board of Directors. The company also announced that it hired Ronald Sege as President and Chief Operating Officer and appointed him to the Board of Directors effective upon his joining the company on April 30, 2008.


To support the company's increasing emphasis on its growing and profitable China-based H3C operations, Mao will be based in China. Sege will be located in the United States and will focus on 3Com operations outside of China, accelerating the adoption of H3C-developed products in global market.


Mao, 64, was most recently 3Com Executive Vice President, Corporate Development from August 2006 to March 2007. Prior to joining 3Com, Mao worked for Nortel Networks, where he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the company's greater China operations from 1997 to 2006. Prior to his time at Nortel, he was Regional President of greater China for Alcatel. Mao also held senior managerial and technical positions at ITT in Asia and the United States. He holds a master's degree in material science and metallurgical engineering from Cornell University, and has a master's degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).


Before returning to 3Com, Sege, 51, most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Tropos Networks, Inc. a provider of wireless broadband networks, from 2004 to 2008. He is currently on Tropos' Board of Advisors. Prior to Tropos, Sege was President and Chief Executive Officer of Ellacoya Networks.http://www.3com.com

Read More

Mellanox Wins "Best of Interop" for 10GigE Adapter with FCoE

Mellanox Technologies was named "Best of Interop" in the Data Center and Storage category for its ConnectX EN 10GigE server and storage I/O adapter with Fibre Channel over lossless Ethernet (FCoE). ConnectX EN is the first adapter to support FCoE hardware offload and Priority Based Flow Control, providing a substantial performance boost while also enabling networking and storage I/O consolidation over a unified Ethernet fabric in the Data Center.http://www.mellanox.com

Read More

New Zealand's WorldxChange Deploys Juniper's E320 Broadband Routers

New Zealand's WorldxChange has deployed Juniper Networks' E320 Broadband Services Routers, enabling the delivery of premium voice and data services over a single connection. WorldxChange has also deployed Juniper Networks Secure Services Gateways (SSGs) to secure its services and backend systems, including its domain name system (DNS) servers. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Juniper noted that in the two years since it was introduced, more than 1600 E320 platforms have been shipped to over 70 service provider customers worldwide.http://www.juniper.net

Read More

Akamai's Q1 Revenue Grows to $187.0 million, up 34% YoY

Akamai Technologies reported Q1 2008 revenue of $187.0 million, a 34% over first quarter 2007 revenue of $139.3 million, and a two percent increase over fourth quarter 2007 revenue of $183.2 million. Net income (GAAP) was $36.9 million, or $0.20 per diluted share.


The number of customers under long-term services contracts at the end of the first quarter increased by 27 to a record 2,672, an 8 percent increase year-over-year. http://www.akamai.com

Read More

Cisco and Nokia See Gains in Mobile Unified Communications

The Mobile Business Solution from Cisco and Nokia is currently being commercially deployed with more than 100 customers, including the city of Biel, Switzerland; the city of Maastrich, The Netherlands; Millipore, United States; Omicron, Austria; SESCAM, Spain; Tifco Hotels, Ireland; and University of Arizona, United States. Additionally the combined solution is in trials with more than 600 enterprise and small and medium-sized business customers.


The Mobile Business Solution from Cisco and Nokia is an IP-based Cisco Unified Communications solution, featuring Nokia's dual-mode business-optimized Eseries smartphones and Cisco Unified Wireless Network family of wireless LAN controllers and access points. The Cisco and Nokia combined mobile unified communication solution helps businesses improve productivity and efficiency across their enterprise and mobile workspaces by extending the rich set of communications features from the Cisco Unified Communications family of products to Nokia Eseries smartphones.


The two companies also announced that they are beginning to deploy each other's mobile solutions. Cisco is beginning to deploy Nokia Eseries smartphones for its sales organization in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific theaters, while Nokia will begin with Cisco Unified Wireless Network in its offices, labs, and manufacturing sites.http://www.cisco.comhttp://www.nokia.com

Read More

Alcatel-Lucent Posts Q1 Revenue of EUR3.864 billion

Alcatel-Lucent reported that its Q1 2008 revenues declined 0.5% year-over-year and 26.2% sequentially to Euro 3.864 billion. At constant Euro/USD exchange rate, revenues grew 6.3% year-over-year and declined 23.2% sequentially.

At constant exchange rate and on a year-over-year basis, Carrier revenues grew 1.7%, Enterprise revenues grew 8.4% and Services revenues grew 14.6%. The adjusted gross margin was 36.2% of revenues, of which approximately 0.9-percentage point is due to gains on currency hedging. Adjusted2 operating income1 was Euro 36 million or 0.9% of sales, including a Euro 31 million capital gain from the receipt of proceeds due to a sale of intellectual property rights.


"Considering the impact of the Euro/USD adverse shift, our revenue performance was in line with our expectations, with a year-over-year growth of 6.3%and a sequential decline in the mid point of our typical seasonal pattern of --20% to --25%. Our carrier business grew year-over-year at constant exchange rate, reflecting the solid performance of our wireline business, essentially driven by optics. Our wireless access business showed good resilience, as the expected decline in CDMA was more than offset by the strong year-over-year double-digit growth of our revenue in GSM, W‑CDMA and RFS. Our strategic initiatives to enhance growth in the Enterprise and Services businesses are paying off as we report a strong year-over-year growth in each of these segments at constant exchange rate. And our business in North America showed good year-over-year growth in US dollar terms," stated Patricia Russo, Alcatel-Lucent's CEO.


Q1 Revenue Breakdown By Geography


Europe -- 33%

North America -- 35%

Asia-Pacific -- 17%

Rest of World -- 15%


Some other highlights from the financial report:

• Alcatel-Lucent noted strength in its submarine activities where both revenues and orders doubled in the first quarter 2008.
  
  
• Fixed access activities were impacted by the ongoing decline in new subscribers to copper-based broadband access, with shipments of ADSL ports down 8% year-over-year to 6.6 million. However, the company saw continued growth in the FTTx market, with an increase in shipments of GPON solutions to a number of European, Korean and U.S. large customers such as AT&T, Verizon and France Telecom/Orange



• Alcatel-Lucent added ten new customers in IP routing and introduced its next generation 7750 SR and 7450 ESS.



• Alcatel-Lucent's GSM business grew year-over-year in a declining market, driven by network expansions in China, India, the Middle East and Africa. W-CDMA revenues more than doubled year-over-year, albeit from a low base, benefiting from the ramp-up in revenues at several key clients. CDMA revenues declined materially year-over-year, from an especially strong first quarter 2007. Radio Frequency Systems enjoyed very strong year-over-year growth, benefiting from surging demand in North America and China.



• Alcatel-Lucent's core switching business declined strongly year-over-year, as the rapid drop in legacy TDM voice was only partly offset by growth in mobile and fixed NGN.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Read More

Matisse Networks Announces Virtualization For its Metro EtherBurst

Matisse Networks is introducing "vMETRO" virtualization capabilities for its metropolitan optical networking solution.


Matisse's EtherBurst architecture, which has been shipping since last year, integrates Ethernet and WDM technologies.


The new virtualization capabilities could simplify the interconnection of distributed data centers and campus local area networks (LAN) so that servers, storage and bandwidth resources may be efficiently shared across the metro area. Specifically, Matisse's vmSwitching capability, now integrated into EtherBurst, makes it possible for an entire network of EtherBurst systems to operate as a single distributed Layer 2 Ethernet switch. Since vmSwitching makes the metro network of EtherBurst nodes manageable as a single entity, the entire metro network can be managed as any Ethernet switch within the datacenter.


Under this architecture, optical VLANs control the logical grouping of virtualized IT resources throughout a metro region. Matisse noted that conventional circuit based WDM systems only provide point-to-point circuit connectivity and require the ongoing management of a separate Layer 1 network. In contrast, optical VLANs are managed using standard VLAN management interfaces, enabling end-to-end Layer 2 networking of distributed resources.


Matisse's mQOS delivers dynamic bandwidth reallocation, shifting bandwidth in real-time between applications and between sites while ensuring higher priority applications receive all resources necessary for optimal operation. EtherBurst dynamically responds to changing traffic patterns to deliver bandwidth to the highest priority users and applications anywhere across the metro optical network.


http://www.matissenetworks.com/

Read More

Cricket Deploys GENBAND's G9 Converged Media Gateway

Cricket Communications, an operating subsidiary of Leap Wireless, is deploying the G9 Converged Media Gateway controlled by GENBAND's C3 Signaling Controller, to deliver enhanced voice quality and advanced IP services as they continue to evolve to an all-IP architecture. The deployment of the G9 platform complements existing GENBAND products, the GENBAND 8000 Media Gateway and the GENBAND C3 platform, already operational in Cricket's network. Financial terms were not disclosed.


GENBAND noted that in addition to a wide range of features to provide voice quality enhancements (VQE), it is adding Enhanced Variable Rate Codec (EVRC) support over IP. The G9's ability to support EVRC over IP allows Remote Transcoder Operation (RTO) throughout the Cricket network. An added advantage is that the G9 gateway can now interface with a wider range of MSCs, providing added flexibility for future Cricket network growth.http://www.genband.com

• In April 2008, GENBAND announced a five-year OEM agreement under which Nokia Siemens Networks will be the preferred supplier of trunking media gateways for their global fixed network market. The companies have also reached a definitive agreement for GENBAND to acquire Nokia Siemens Networks' SURPASS hiG fixed line trunking media gateway product line. Nokia Siemens Networks will continue with its fixed core networks solution portfolio and provide service and support to its current installed base and future customers.

Read More

Belgacom selects Alcatel-Lucent for IMS Integration

Belgacom has selected Alcatel-Lucent as its technology and network integration partner to design, integrate, and deploy an end-to-end multi-vendor IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solution. The platform will enable Belgacom to effectively support and to further develop a wide variety of fixed and mobile services including VoIP and multimedia communications for both residential and business customers.


Alcatel-Lucent will deliver a complete IMS applications and core network solution, based on a standard architecture, incorporating products from Alcatel-Lucent and partners, including application servers, session controllers, home subscriber servers, session border controllers and network/service management functionality. The solution, based on widely adopted standards facilitating convergence, will be a cornerstone of Belgacom's future network. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Read More

Solera Announces Search Engine for Packet and Payload Data-in-Motion

Solera Networks released a beta version of its "DeepSee" tool for enabling IT or business executives to search, locate and reconstruct specific network traffic in an intuitive, web-like search format. DeepSee works in conjunction with Solera Networks' DS appliances, which provide complete network visibility for both virtual and physical networks through software-based packet capture and stream-to-storage technology.


Key capabilities of Solera DeepSee include the ability to:

• Execute web-style queries, searching by keywords, user, type of traffic, type of attachment, IP or MAC address, and many other variables


• Search network traffic for the existence of the most common enterprise file formats


• Extract and view network artifacts from the search results


• Obtain visibility into key network-based traffic for legal, HR and other business professionals without requiring networking expertise
  
• Monitor and keep a record of all data-in-motion inside the enterprise

http://www.soleranetworks.com

Read More

SkyPilot Raises $3 million in Funding for its Wireless Mesh

SkyPilot Networks, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $3.4 million in new funding from its existing investors, including August Capital and Mobius Ventures, bringing the total raised since inception to over $70 million. The primary use of the funds will be to continue to expand sales and bring new products to market for the growing customer base of broadband wireless service providers.


"The recent financing is designed specifically to bring SkyPilot to profitability," said Paul Gordon, president and CEO of SkyPilot.http://www.skypilot.com

Read More

NXP to Acquire Conexant's Set-top Box Operations

NXP Semiconductors, the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips, agreed to acquire the Broadband Media Processing (BMP) business of Conexant Systems for US $110 million in cash up front, and additional consideration of up to US $35 million based on achievement of certain revenue milestones over the period from closing through 2009.


Conexant's BMP business, which provides industry-leading solutions for satellite, cable and IPTV applications, accounted for US $205 million in revenue in 2007.


NXP said Conexant's strengths in broadcast operator set-top box (STB) solutions are complementary to its terrestrial IP and retail STB and Digital TV products. The combined operations will create a top three player in digital video systems.


When the transaction closes, approximately 700 Conexant employees at locations in the United States, India, Northern Ireland, Israel and China will join NXP's Home Business Unit. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the next 60 days.


The deal represents NXP's fourth acquisition since independence and is the first for its Home Business Unit.
http://www.nxp.comhttp://www.conexant.com

Read More

Taiwan's Chunghwa Reaches 435,000 IPTV Subscribers

As of the end of the first quarter of 2008, Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom had 435,000 IPTV subscribers, a 52.7% year-over-year increase, with the addition of 41,000 new subscribers during the first quarter of 2008 alone. Some highlights from the companies financial report.:

• Total revenue increased by 12.1% to NT$51.0 billion



• Internet and data revenue grew 2.9% to NT$12.5 billion; ADSL & FTTB revenue increased by 2.3% to NT$5.1billion



• Mobile revenue grew 0.3% to NT$18.1 billion; Mobile VAS revenue increased by 35.3%



• Net income totaled NT$10.7 billion, representing a decrease of 11.4%, Earnings per share (''EPS'') decreased by 1.8% to NT$1.12



• Capital expenditures totaled NT$5.5 billon for the first quarter of 2008, of which 71% was for wire line (including fixed-line and internet and data), 5.8% was for mobile equipment, and the remainder 23.3% was for other investments, including purchases of state-owned land where one of our outlets locates.



• Total HiNet Internet subscribers decreased 5.8% year-over-year due to the separation of 350,000 Prepaid Card subscribers from the total HiNet subscriber base in May 2007. This decline was partially offset by the strong HiNet FTTB subscription growth, with 385,000 net additions over past twelve months bringing the total HiNet FTTB subscriber number to 622,000 as of March 31, 2008.



• Overall, the company had 4.28 million broadband subscribers (including ADSL and FTTB) at the end of the first quarter of 2008, representing a 4.1% increase in total broadband subscribers compared to the end of the first quarter of 2007. By the end of the first
  quarter of 2008, the number of ADSL and FTTB subscriptions with a service speed greater than 8 Mbps reached 1.28 million, representing a 29.9% increase of the total broadband subscribers.



• As of March 31, 2008, Chunghwa had 8.72 million mobile subscribers up by 2.0% compared to 8.70 million as of the first quarter of 2007. Chunghwa remained the leading mobile operator in Taiwan with a 36% share.



• As of March 31, 2008, Chunghwa had 2.59 million 3G subscribers, a 12.9% increase as compared to that of the end of 2007. At the end of the first quarter of 2008, 3G ARPU was 61% higher than that of 2G.



• Mobile VAS revenue for the first quarter of 2008 was NT$1.7 billion, posting a 35.3% increase year-over-year, with SMS revenue up 32.8% and mobile internet revenue up 54.7% year-over-year, respectively.

http://www.cht.com.tw/

Read More

Extreme Delivers "Top of Rack" 24-port 10GigE Switch

Extreme Networks unveiled its new Summit X650, a 24-port non-blocking 10 Gigabit fixed switch aimed at next gen data centers. The Summit X650 is a purpose-built, top-of-rack 1 RU switch, with up to 32 10 Gigabit ports on a single system, or up to 256-ports in a stacked system. The Summit X650 supports switch stacking with total throughput performance of 512 Gbps. It also features the ExtremeXOS Operating System -- a modular OS that is consistent with Extreme Networks core, aggregation and edge switches.


The Summit X650 switch will be available in the fourth quarter of 2008 and has a U.S. list price starting at $19,995.http://www.extremenetworks.com

Read More

Mobile Handset Vendors Develop Next Gen Memory Interface Standard

A group of leading mobile handset vendors have formed a new working group committed to creating an open standard for next-generation memory interface technology targeting mobile devices.


The proposed standard for dynamic random access memory (DRAM), named Serial Port Memory Technology (SPMT), aims to enable extended battery life, bandwidth flexibility, significantly reduced pin count, lower power demand and multiple ports by using a serial interface instead of the parallel interface commonly used in today's memory devices. The technology would significantly extend battery life while allowing high-performance media-rich applications on next-generation mobile phones.


Companies backing the new working group include ARM, Hynix Semiconductor, Inc., LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Silicon Image, Inc., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, and STMicroelectronics.


The SPMT Working Group said its goal is to define a technology that reduces pin count by a minimum of 40 percent, provides a bandwidth range from 3.2GB/s to 12.6GB/s and higher, reduces input/output power by 50 percent or more to extend battery life, and provides the ability to use either a single port or multiple ports into a single SPMT-enabled memory chip. While initially targeted at the mobile handset market, the technology will also be in demand by other markets such as portable media players, digital still cameras and handheld gaming devices.http://www.spmt.com

Read More

Broadcom Debuts 65nm StrataXGS 4 Switching Architecture

Broadcom introduced its next generation family of single-chip 65 nanometer (nm) Ethernet switching chips for OEMs designing modular, stackable and fixed form factor equipment for the service provider, data center, and enterprise markets. Broadcom's 4th generation StrataXGS architecture utilizes a low power, 65nm CMOS process. Two new devices are being announced:

• The Broadcom BCM56624 -- a 48-port Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) plus 4-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) solution that provides carrier-class features such as IPv4 and IPv6 routing, as well as advanced metro encapsulation protocols and advanced security mechanisms such as IPFix and large access control lists (ACLs) for user and flow-based authentication. The BCM56624 also includes advanced QoS features for service provider applications with a new dynamic adaptive memory buffer technology that provides better QoS and network performance. It also features large external address and security tables that scale to meet the demands of high performance equipment at the core of the network.



• The BCM56720 -- a 4th generation StrataXGS HiGig switch fabric that provides half a terabit of packet switching capacity on a single chip and scales to achieve multi-terabits of capacity on a single backplane. It is compatible with the new StrataXGS 4 series of products as well as products from earlier StrataXGS architectures. This switch fabric also leverages the company's HiGig stacking protocol and service aware flow control (SAFC).

http://www.broadcom.com

• In November 2007, Broadcom introduced its BCM56820 24-port, multi-layer 10GbE switch solution for the data center and other high performance applications. Also designed in 65nm, the BCM56820 offers significant per port power savings over previous generation 10GbE switch products, providing greater density at a lower power.

Read More