ITU Appoints BT Exec to Chair Climate Change Group

BT's Dr Dave Faulkner has been selected by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to chair a new Focus Group examining the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on climate change.
img border="0" src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11402824/CND/itu-climate.jpg" align="right">

The new group will focus in particular on the reduction of ICT emissions and how ICTs can assist in cutting emissions in other industry sectors such as energy, transportation and buildings. The ICT sector is seen as a major part of the solution to climate change with the growth of teleconferencing and other e-communication services reducing the need for physical journeys and international travel.


"It is crucial that the ICT industry both acknowledges and seeks to reduce its role in climate change. Communications technologies can play a vital role in reducing carbon emissions worldwide. Developing global standards for reducing the energy requirements of networks and equipment will help make ICT an even more powerful tool for businesses to use in managing their greenhouse gas emissions and meeting their climate change targets," stated Dr. Faulkner.http://www.itu.int/themes/climate/http://www.btplc.com

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Qwest Now Offering Verizon Wireless Services

Qwest Communications is now offering Verizon Wireless services to all new residential and business customers in its residential service area. The companies announced a five-year agent earlier this year.

http://www.qwest.com

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Corning Announces $1 Billion Stock Repurchase Plan

Corning's board of directors and executive committee have approved the repurchase of up to $1 billion of common stock between now and the end of 2009. This is in addition to last year's $500 million repurchase authorization of which $125 million remains.


Separately, Corning reported Q2 sales of $1.69 billion, up 19% year over year. Earnings per share were $2.01, including a $2.429 billion net special gain primarily related to the release of U.S. deferred tax asset valuation allowances.


Telecommunications segment sales in the second quarter were $477 million, a 13% sequential increase and a 9% increase over a year ago. The increase was driven by strong fiber-to-the-premises demand as well as overall strength in optical fiber sales.http://www.corning.com

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Tiscali International Network To Expand via Equinix's European Centers

Tiscali International Network (TINet), which specializes in wholesale IP-MPLS market, selected Equinix as a strategic partner for the expansionof its European network.

The expansion will occur initially from Equinix's Frankfurt and Paris Internet Business Exchange (IBX) data centers.


TINet offers IP Transit, MPLS lines and long distance Ethernet services to major service providers in North America, Hong Kong, Singapore and across Europe. TINet has an extensive network of close to 100 IP/MPLS PoPs.http://www.equinix.comhttp://www.tiscali.net.

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Crescendo Raises $9.5 Million for Web Application Acceleration

Crescendo Networks, a start-up based in Israel, secured $9.5 million in third round funding for its web application acceleration solutions. Crescendo Networks features a multi-tier application architecture that improves the operation of existing application infrastructure. The company was founded in 2002.


The Challenge Fund -- Etgar II L.P. participated in the current financing and joined current investors, Evergreen Venture Partners, Apax Partners, Magma Venture Partners, StageOne Ventures and Convergent Capital. The company has now raised $36.2 million to date.http://www.crescendonetworks.com

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Internet2 to Provide Dedicated 10Gbps to GENI Effort

Internet2 has agreed tol donate a 10 Gbps dedicated circuit on its national backbone to support the GENI Project Office (GPO), located at BBN, and its subcontractors as they build and test prototypes of the GENI system. GENI subcontractors and developers will be able to access the circuit at every connection point on the network to enable nationwide collaboration on GENI prototypes.


GENI is envisioned as a national data communications laboratory, supporting experiments on a wide variety of advanced research in communications, networking, distributed systems, cyber-security, networked services, and applications. It is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.


BBN is currently negotiating with potential subcontractors who responded to the GPO's solicitation earlier this year and expects to announce the subcontracts shortly.http://www.geni.nethttp://www.internet2.edu

• The Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI), a project managed by BBN Technologies, is funded by grants from the US National Science Foundation.

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Australia's Foxtel Selects NDS to Power Quad Tuner HD DVR

FOXTEL, which delivers subscription TV via cable and satellite to more than 1.5 million homes in Australia, has selected NDS XTV DVR technology to power its new FOXTEL iQ2 High Definition quad tuner DVR. NDS has also developed a next-generation EPG for the FOXTEL iQ2 and carried out the systems integration for the launch of FOXTEL's HD services.


NDS XTV technology allows subscribers to pause, record, play back, rewind and fast forward their TV programs for viewing when they choose.http://www.nds.com

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Verizon Business Wins Mobile Managed Service Bid

Verizon Business was awarded a new managed services contract to help the U.S. Department of Interior manage and track the expenses for more than 22,000 mobile devices. Under the two-year deal, worth up to $15 million if all three additional one-year optional extensions are exercised, Verizon Business will provide expense-management services for mobile phones, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices used by the Interior Department, which has eight bureaus nationwide. The bureaus are: the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Land Management, the Office of Surface Mining, the Minerals Management Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Reclamation.httpp://www.verizon.com

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Harris Stratex Networks to Restate Financials, Trim Expenses

Harris Stratex Networks will need to restate prior period financial statements. The company also announced that the earnings release for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, which ended June 27, 2008, will be rescheduled.


The company noted strong revenue of approximately $188 million for the quarter. Total revenue for the year is expected to increase by approximately 10 percent compared to previously reported combined company results for fiscal 2007. All three business segments -- North America Microwave, International Microwave and Network Operations -- generated increased revenues in fiscal 2008 compared with fiscal 2007.


The company also reported record booking levels in the fourth quarter with a 1.6 book-to-bill ratio. Increased orders came from Africa, Europe, Middle East and Russia as well as North America. Demand for the company's Eclipse product line was particularly strong when compared with prior periods.


However, expense levels in the quarter increased by approximately $13 million to $14 million compared with previous estimates, as a result of higher orders-based sales compensation expense, increased allowance for doubtful accounts charges, project charges, and outside professional services. As a result, non-GAAP earnings per share for fiscal 2008 will not meet the company's previously announced target of $0.82 per diluted share.


Harris Stratex Networks also stated that it continues to focus on the acceleration of the transition from higher cost legacy products to lower cost next-generation IP-based technologies. This transition, which is underway at a pace faster than originally contemplated at the time of the merger, resulted in a charge of $11 million in the fourth quarter for integration related inventory impairment of raw materials and finished goods for some of the legacy products.


"The company achieved significant top line growth in all segments in fiscal 2008, and our cash position has remained strong in the second half of the year," said Harald Braun, President and Chief Executive Officer of Harris Stratex Networks. "While the additional expenses incurred in the fourth quarter delayed the expansion of our earnings, the company is well-positioned for achievement of our growth objectives as we enter the new fiscal year. The company has added customers, achieved meaningful top line growth, and developed a significantly enhanced foundation for long-term competitiveness. We must, however, continue to take action to reduce costs and expenses in the business through increased product outsourcing activities and process related restructuring actions at certain global locations. This will have associated costs in order to implement, and we expect additional restructuring and integration charges to be incurred in fiscal 2009."http://www.harrisstratex.com

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ARRIS Posts Q2 Revenues of $281.1 million

ARRIS reported Q2 revenues of $281.1 million, an increase of $7.6 million or 2.8% , as compared to first quarter revenues of $273.5 million. Second quarter 2008 gross margin was $92.9 million, or 33.0%, as compared to $85.2, or 31.2%, in the first quarter 2008 and $72.4 million, or 28.6%, in the second quarter 2007. Order backlog increased to $206.0 million at the end of the second quarter as compared to $147.0 million at the end of the first quarter. Book-to-bill ratio in the second quarter was 1.21. GAAP net income in the second quarter 2008 was $0.08 per diluted share, as compared to $0.21 per diluted share for the second quarter 2007.http://www.arrisi.com

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Telecom Liechtenstein Deploys VDSL2 with Ericsson

Telecom Liechtenstein has selected Ericsson to upgrade and expand its ADSL network with VDSL2 technology. Ericsson will also provide support over the next three years. The deal will bring high-speed broadband to Telecom Liechtenstein subscribers across the country. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.ericsson.com

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Comcast Revenue Rises to $8.6 billion, up 11%

Comcast reported Q2 revenue of $8.6 billion, an increase of 11% of the same period last year. Operating Income increased 19% to $1.8 billion. This growth was due to solid operating results at Comcast Cable and in the Programming segment, as well as the positive impact of cable acquisitions.


"We delivered solid results in the second quarter of 2008, highlighting the strength of our businesses even in a challenging economic environment. We continue to manage the business for profitable growth, resulting in healthy revenue, operating cash flow, earning per share, and free cash flow generation," stated Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast.


Some highlights for the quarter:

• Basic video subscribers declined 138,000 or 0.6% during the second quarter.



• Added 320,000 digital cable subscribers during the second quarter - 67% or 16.3 million video subscribers have digital service.



• 7.0 million or 43% of digital cable subscribers have advanced services such as digital video recorders (DVR) and/or high-definition television service (HDTV).



• Video revenue increased 3% to $4.7 billion in the second quarter of 2008 from $4.6 billion in 2007. The revenue increase reflects price increases for video services and growth in digital video customers, offset in part by an increasing number of customers in bundles and promotional offers, as well as a decline in basic video customers.



• Basic cable subscribers decreased by 138,000 to 24.6 million during the seasonally-weak second quarter. This compares to a 101,000 subscriber decline in the second quarter of 2007. Year to date through June 30, 2008, basic subscribers decreased 195,000.



• Comcast added 320,000 digital cable customers in the second quarter of 2008, below the 823,000 digital cable customers added in the same period one year ago. This deceleration was anticipated and reflects the significant deployment of digital boxes in the second quarter of 2007 in advance of a July 1st regulatory deadline. Year to date through June 30, 2008, Comcast added 814,000 digital cable customers. PPV revenue decreased 3% in the second quarter of 2008 primarily reflecting the absence of 2 major live events that contributed approximately $33 million to last year's second quarter. In the six months ended June 30, 2008, PPV revenue grew 9% compared to the same period in 2007.



• Added 278,000 high-speed Internet subscribers during the second quarter -- penetration reached 29% of homes passed or 14.4 million customers.



• High-speed Internet revenue increased 10% to $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2008 from $1.6 billion in 2007 reflecting a 12% increase in subscribers and a 3% decline in average monthly revenue per subscriber to $42.01, reflecting the impact of additional bundling and the recent introduction of new offers and speed tiers.



• Added 555,000 Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) customers during the second quarter -- penetration reached 12.5% of homes passed or 5.6 million customers.



• Phone revenue increased 50% from $425 million to $640 million in the second quarter of 2008, reflecting significant growth in CDV subscribers and a decrease in average revenue per subscriber to $39.48, resulting from an increase in the number of customers receiving service as part of a promotional offer or in a new product package. The increase in CDV revenue was also partially offset by a $64 million or 96% decline in circuit-switched phone revenue as Comcast exits that product offering.
http://www.comcast.com

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One Minute Video: What is E-Line?

One Minute Video presented by Dr. Hans-Juergen Schmidtke -- What is E-Line?


Jargon Buster

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ST-NXP Wireless to Begin Operations

NXP -- the independent semiconductor company founded by Philips -- and STMicroelectronics announced the closing of the deal bringing together key wireless operations of both companies into ST-NXP Wireless, a deal they announced on April 10th, 2008. At the closing, STMicroelectronics took an 80% stake in the joint venture and contributed $1.55 billion to NXP, including a control premium. The new organization will start with a cash balance of about $350 million.


The joint venture launches as a solid top-three industry player with a complete wireless product and technology portfolio and as a leading supplier to major handset manufacturers who together ship more than 80% of all handsets.


"The wireless industry is undergoing a major change. Semiconductor companies are coming to play an ever more important role, contributing an ever larger share of the product value chain to handset makers, who expect us to deliver leading-edge solutions across the full spectrum of mobile applications," said Alain Dutheil, Chief Executive Officer of ST-NXP Wireless.http://www.st.comhttp://www.nxp.com/

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Hitachi and Airvana Enter Development Agreement for CDMA Femtocells

Airvana announced an agreement with Hitachi Communication Technologies to create and deliver customized versions of Airvana Femtocell products for the Japanese market. The solution will inter-work with Hitachi Com core network products.


Airvana's contribution to the solution includes its HubBub CDMA femtocell, which supports both 1x-RTT and EV-DO services; its Universal Access Gateway, a carrier-class femtocell network gateway; and its Femtocell Service Manager, a scalable auto-configuration and remote management system. Hitachi Com brings its carrier-grade Femtocell Convergence Server that allows operators to connect femtocells to an existing mobile switching core, leveraging features and supplementary services that operators have developed over the years to provide service parity between the macro-cellular and femto-cellular networks.http://www.hitachi-com.comhttp://www.airvana.com

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MRV Posts Revenue of $148 Million, up 45% YoY

MRV COMMUNICATIONS reported Q2 revenue of $147.6 million, above previously stated guidance and an increase of 45% over revenue of $102 million in the second quarter of 2007. Strong growth was driven by a 28% increase in the network equipment segment, a 17% increase in the network integration segment and 112% in the optical components segment. Revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2008 was $273.2 million an, increase of 43% from the six months ended June 30, 2007.


MRV said its Network Equipment segment posted the strongest growth in recent history and its best quarter ever with $33.6 million in revenue, compared with $26.4 million in the same quarter of the previous year. For the quarter ended June 30, 2008, MRV Network Integration reported $61.6 million in revenue and Optical Components reported $56.2 million in revenue.


"We are very pleased with our achievement of obtaining significant growth while improving the health of our operational structure," commented Noam Lotan, President and Chief Executive Officer of MRV. "Growth was driven by both our fiber optic group and strong growth for our network equipment division, which traditionally has been our higher margin business segment. We have an innovative product roadmap specifically focused on carrier access and aggregation, packet optical transport and wireless backhaul, which is clearly supporting our mission and contributing to our success."http://www.mrv.com

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Vonage Names Former Cingular Exec as CEO

Vonage has appointed Marc Lefar as its new CEO, replacing interim CEO Jeffrey Citron, who had assumed the additional role in April of 2007. Citron will assume the role of non-executive Chairman of the Board and serve as a consultant on long-term strategy. Lefar previously served as Chief Marketing Officer of Cingular Wireless, (now AT&T Mobility). After leaving Cingular, Lefar founded Marketing Insights, a technology and media consultancy. Prior to joining Cingular, Lefar was Executive Vice President, Marketing and Value-Added Services at Cable & Wireless Global. http://www.vonage.com

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BT Acquires Ribbit for Telco 2.0 Platform

BT has acquired Ribbit Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based start-up that developed a "voiceware" platform that combines telephony and the Internet, for $105 million in cash.


Ribbit's open platform which enables developers to create new and innovative voice applications and services. For example, using Ribbit, developers have integrated voice into salesforce.com and built voice applications that run directly from Facebook or iGoogle. Ribbit said it has attracted thousands of developers since its launch earlier this year. The company is currently testing a consumer application scheduled for general release later this year.


The foundation of the platform is the Ribbit SmartSwitch, a multi-protocol carrier-grade, CLASS 5 soft switch and an open Flash/Flex-based API .


BT said the acquisition will accelerate its strategy to transform itself into a next- generation, platform-based, software-driven services company. Specifically, the acquisition of the Ribbit platform will complement BT's existing capability in the software platform space with its award-winning Software Development Kit (SDK) initiative. BT's SDKs enable developers to integrate new applications with BT's services using a single line of code. Ribbit, which will maintain its management team and identity, will extend its global footprint by becoming part of BT.


Michael Boustridge, President, BT Americas said: "The Ribbit platform makes it simpler, cheaper and faster to build communications functionality into applications, enabling developers to introduce new revenue-generating voice services in hours, rather than weeks. By combining the Ribbit platform with BT's existing web services, we have the potential to deliver some of the world's finest applications for communications innovation benefiting consumers and businesses alike."


http://www.btplc.comhttp://www.ribbit.com/

• Ribbit Corporation was founded in February 2006 and funded by venture capital firms Alsop Louie Partners, Allegis Capital, KPG Ventures and Peninsula Ventures.

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Alcatel-Lucent Posts Q2 Revenue of EUR 4.101 billion, up 6.1% sequentially

Alcatel-Lucent reported Q2 revenue of EUR 4.101 billion, up 6.1% sequentially but down 5.2% year-over-year. At constant Euro/USD exchange rate, revenues grew 1.7% year-over-year and 8.5% sequentially. The adjusted2 gross profit was EUR 1,433 million or 34.9% of revenues, compared to an adjusted2 gross profit of EUR 1,447 million or 33.4% of revenues in the year ago-quarter.


During the second quarter of 2008, the CDMA activity declined at a higher pace than the company had planned. This was due, to a large extent, to a strong reduction in the capital expenditure of a key customer in North America.


Some highlights from the period:

Carrier

• For Q2, revenues for the Carrier operating segment were EUR 2,811 billion compared to EUR 3,104 million in the year-ago quarter, a 9.4% decrease at current exchange rate and a 3% decrease at constant rate.



• Fixed access revenue decreased at a double-digit rate, due to the ongoing decline in new subscribers to copper-based broadband access.



• Alcatel-Lucent shipped 7.7 million xDSL ports in the quarter, down 20% from the demanding basis of the year-ago quarter but up 16% sequentially. The year-over-year decline in xDSL revenue was only partially compensated by the very strong growth in FTTx revenue.



• In data networking, growth in edge routing was softer this quarter than in the first one, which is essentially attributable to a demanding year-over-year comparison as well as the timing of deliveries at certain large customers. The ATM switching business continued on its structural decline path in the second quarter 2008, albeit at a more moderate rate than in the first quarter.



• Optical networking enjoyed strong double-digit growth this quarter, essentially driven by submarine activities and wireless transmission while terrestrial optical networks grew at a mid single-digit rate.



• In mobile networks, the GSM business grew at a double-digit rate in the second quarter, which was driven by network expansions in China, India, the Middle East and Africa. W-CDMA revenue grew very strongly, benefiting from the ramp-up in revenues at several key clients, including AT&T Mobility, Bouygues and SFR and sustained growth at other accounts such as Orange, SKT and KTF. CDMA revenue declined sharply year-over-year, hurt by the significant reduction in the capital expenditure of a key customer in North-America.



• Core switching activities contracted at a moderate rate in the second quarter, as the ongoing decline in legacy TDM voice was almost entirely offset by the strong, double-digit growth in Fixed and mobile NGN. It must be noted that our NGN activity is now close in size to our TDM activity.



• Applications activities grew in excess of twenty percent the second quarter, a sharp contrast to the moderate growth rate achieved in the first quarter, due to a pick-up in revenues from Messaging applications and a stabilization in our legacy IN (Intelligent Networks) business.

Enterprise Operating Segment

• Q2 revenues for the Enterprise operating segment were Euro 386 million compared to Euro 376 million in the year-ago quarter, an increase of 2.7%at current exchange rate and of 7% at constant rate. Adjusted2 operating income1 was Euro 29 million, or 7.4% of revenues compared to Euro 23 million or 6.1% in the year ago quarter.



• Enterprise Solutions grew in the high single-digit range, with a particularly strong performance in data networking but also good growth in IP Telephony. The division also showed progress in Security solutions, driven by recent successes in firewalls and additional orders for its Laptop Guardian product. From a geographic standpoint, growth remained solid in North America and was strong in APAC.



• Genesys, the contact centre software activity, enjoyed another quarter of double-digit growth, driven by a strong performance in Europe and good resilience in North America.

Services Operating Segment

• Q2 revenues for the Services operating segment were Euro 818million compared to Euro 750 million in the year-ago quarter, an increase of 9.1% at current exchange rate and of 16% at constant rate. Adjusted2 operating income1 was Euro 71 million or 8.6% of revenues compared to Euro 29 million or 3.9% of revenues in the year ago quarter.



• Operations grew very strongly, as a result of some of the very large contracts won in 2007 and in 2008. Alcatel-Lucent announced two large managed services contracts in the second quarter, including Reliance Communications in India and Sunrise in Switzerland.
  Network integration also enjoyed another quarter of very strong growth which was driven by several large and complex projects for the design, integration and optimization of networks in Asia and North America.



• Growth in professional services -- which includes the integration of software applications either from Alcatel-Lucent or third parties - was more moderate this quarter than in the first one, which is mainly due to a much more demanding comparison basis. For the first half, however, this business grew in the high single-digit range. Finally, Maintenance returned to growth this quarter, due to sustained growth in multivendor maintenance combined with an unusually strong quarter in legacy maintenance.



• The segment enjoyed a material improvement in profitability year-over-year, due to a very favorable mix, a material increase in the gross margin in Network operations, Network integration and Professional services and an overall better absorption of fixed costs.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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NTT Communications Deploys Juniper T1600 Core Routers

NTT Communications (NTT Com) has deployed Juniper Networks' T1600 core routers to scale the capacity of its global IP network. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The companies said a key considerations for the T1600 selection included the non-disruptive upgrade path from the T640 to the multi-terabit capacity and energy efficiency advantages of the T1600.

NTT Com began its global IP network service in July 1997 with 45 Mbps bandwidth between Japan and the U.S. In 2000, NTT Com acquired a Tier-1 Internet service provider, Verio, and expanded the bandwidth between Japan and the U.S. to over 1 Gbps. NTT Com has been continuously upgrading its global Tier 1 IP backbone both in bandwidth to support end users' broadband Internet usage, and in direct connections to major ISPs in Asia, the U.S., Europe and the South West Pacific.

Cody Christman, NTT America 1. What is driving IPv6 in the U.S.? 2. What IPv6 services are currently offered? 3. What does a typical IPv4-to-IPv6 migration look like? 4. Are there significant security concerns with IPv6? 5. What are the regional differences for IPv6 rollouts?  6. What consumer applications will benefit from IPv6? Voice Peering Forum 2008, San Francisco

http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.ntt.com

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