NCTA Protests FCC Inquiry into

The President of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), Kyle McSlarrow, sent a letter of protest to the FCC concerning an newly-opened inquiry into about the industry's digital migration and its impact on consumers. Earlier this month, the FCC Enforcement Bureau sent letters to 13 cable operators asking about the industry's digital migration and its impact on consumers. McSlarrow said that cable operators welcome the opportunity to describe the benefits of this evolution but that that this collection of data constitutes an abuse of the Commission's processes and violates the Paperwork Reduction Act. Furthermore, McSlarrow said the FCC inquiry appeared to be a "broad fishing expedition" rather than a means of addressing any specific complaints that the agency is investigating. The NCTA letter is posted online.http://www.ncta.com

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CableLabs Issues Modular Headend Architecture Specifications

CableLabs released a set of Modular Headend Architecture (MHA) specifications that define interfaces for narrowcast MPEG digital video services such as video-on-demand (VOD) and switched-digital-video (SDV). These build on the existing DOCSIS Modular CMTS specifications.


The MHA suite includes multiple specifications and an architecture overview technical report. The new specifications define MPEG video processing functionality for VOD and SDV Edge Quadrature Amplitude Modulators (EQAMs), as well as an interoperable resource management and video session setup protocol and an interoperable EQAM provisioning and configuration mechanism. With the addition of these new specifications, the MHA suite provides a common industry-wide approach for Universal EQAMs, as well as for Video EQAMs and M-CMTS EQAMs.


CableLabs said these new digital video specifications result from an effort involving headend equipment manufacturers and cable operators. The specifications provide a point of harmonization between the Time Warner Cable-led Interactive Services Architecture (ISA) and the Comcast-led Next Generation on Demand (NGOD) architecture, which are used throughout the industry.


"This is important because for the first time we have an interoperable set of specifications that will lead to integrated equipment from multiple suppliers for delivery of advanced video and data services," said Tony Werner, Comcast CTO. Added Mike LaJoie, Time Warner Cable CTO: "Once again our industry's suppliers have worked with us through CableLabs to achieve a common approach which benefits the whole industry and our suppliers."http://www.cablelabs.com

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OIF Adds Long Haul DWDM Transmission Module Project

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) is launching a 100G Long-Haul DWDM Transmission Module project that will define mechanical dimensions of an optical line interface module, as well as the electrical connector, maximum power consumption and communication interface. This project is part of the OIF's efforts to accelerate the availability of 100G networks.


"In an attempt to alleviate the problems of early adopters, the OIF is bringing together carriers, systems vendors and component suppliers to arrive at a consensus solution," said Karl Gass of Sandia National Laboratories and the Physical and Link Layer Working Group vice chair. "The 100G Electromechanical project will give suppliers a starting point for multi-source transponder designs. The OIF continues to identify projects that are required to address the 100G needs of the industry."


At its meeting last month's meeting. In addition, OIF members approved the completion of SFI-S, an implementation agreement that defines a scalable interface between SERDES and Framer devices from 40G to 100G and beyond. Specifically, the SFI-S IA is based on 4 - 20 data lines plus deskew channel, for aggregate data bandwidths in the range of 40 -- 160 Gbps data rate.


The SFI-S project is an extension of the prevalent OIF SFI-4 specification for electrical 10 Gbps interfaces used on all 300-pin transponders. SFI-S is targeted to support the 100G work being addressed by standards bodies like IEEE 802.3ba and ITU-T and forums like ATIS and the Ethernet Alliance.


In addition, the OIF announced that Torsten Wuth of Nokia Siemens Networks has been elected to serve a two-year term as the Physical & Link Layer User Group chair. In the board of directors election, the OIF membership reelected Hans-Martin Foisel of Deutsche Telekom, Steve Joiner of Finisar and Stephen Shew of Nortel Networks to two-year terms; Hans-Martin Foisel will continue to serve as president; Stephen Shew will continue as secretary/treasurer. Alessandro D'Alessandro of Telecom Italia and Jeff Hutchins of CoreOptics were also reelected to the board of directors for one-year terms. Monica Lazer of AT&T continues to serve as vice president and Jim Jones of Alcatel-Lucent continues to serve as vice president of marketing, both as part of two-year terms on the board.


The following members were reelected for one-year terms; Dave Brown of Alcatel-Lucent and Rod Smith of Tyco Electronics as Market Awareness & Education (MA&E) Committee co-chairs; Lyndon Ong of Ciena as Technical Committee Chair; and Chuck Sannipoli of IP Infusion as Technical Committee Vice Chair. Jonathan Sadler of Tellabs was reelected to a two-year term as Architecture and Signaling working group chair.http://www.oiforum.com

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Tellabs Intends to Resume Common Stock Repurchases

Tellabs announced plans to resume its common stock repurchases under an existing Board of Directors authorization, previously announced on Nov. 8, 2007. Over the next four quarters, the company may repurchase up to $100 million (about 7.1% of shares at Wednesday's closing price) under the previously announced repurchase program. The resumption follows Tellabs' significant curtailment of stock repurchases since the second quarter of 2008, as the company re-evaluated uses of cash.http://www.tellabs.com

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Verizon Business Adds Nortel for Managed Telepresence

Verizon Business has selected Nortel to help deliver a new managed telepresence service over IP. Nortel managed telepresence services include set-up and management of high-definition (HD) video conferencing and collaboration, including such concierge-like amenities as web-based reservations and pre-configured, pre-connected conferences. In addition, Nortel offers video bridging and gateway services, allowing enterprises to take full advantage of video systems from multiple equipment providers by enabling them to interoperate. Nortel noted that it also provides proactive testing, 24/7 network performance monitoring, recording, on-demand playback and metrics reporting are also part of Nortel's managed telepresence services portfolio. http://www.nortel.com

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BT Posts Quarterly Revenue of GBP 5,303 million, Announces Job Cuts

BT reported revenue of £5,303 million for its second fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2008, up by 4% over the previous year based on continued growth in managed solutions and broadband and convergence revenue. However, the company experienced weakness in BT Global Services primarily due to slower than anticipated delivery of efficiency savings, the continued decline in higher margin UK business and the negative effects of currency movements. Overall, EBITDA came in at £1,429 million, down 1%.


"Three out of our four business units, BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach are delivering on or ahead of target. But profits in BT Global Services are simply not good enough and we are taking decisive action to put matters right. We have appointed Hanif Lalani as the new CEO of BT Global Services and he will continue to grow the business while reducing the cost base," said Ian Livingston, BT's CEO.


Some key points of the quarterly report.:

• BT plans to cut its work force by about 10,000 positions. The work force currently includes 110,000 direct employees and 50,000 indirect employees (contractors, off-shore workers, etc).



• Managed solutions revenue, including MPLS and networked IT services, increased by 23 per cent to £1,523 million, and broadband and convergence revenue increased by 2 per cent to £649 million. This was partially offset by an 8 per cent decline in revenue from calls and lines to £1,601 million, together with a 4 per cent decline in revenue from transit, conveyance, interconnect circuits, WLR, global carrier and other wholesale products to £822 million.



• BT had 13.3 million wholesale broadband connections (DSL and LLU) at September 30, 2008, including 5.1 million local loop unbundled lines. There were 258,000 net additional broadband connections in the quarter. BT's retail share of those net additions was 27 percent. In the maturing broadband market, BT remains the UK's number one retail broadband provider with a customer base of 4.6 million. BT's retail market share of the DSL and LLU installed base was 34 percent at September 30, 2008.



• BT's next generation Ethernet platform now has 110 nodes complete and the company is on target for 600 by April 2009.



• ADSL2 service at up to 24 Mbps should be available to 40% of UK by April 2009. The company is taking orders from 8 resellers.



• BT's MPLS network now has 1,282 PoPs in over 170 countries. The company is installing 5,200 new MPLS connections per month - up 68%.



• As an example of its cost-saving strategy, BT cited its 7 year contract with Alcatel-Lucent to manage non-UK
  legacy networks. This deal is expected to yield savings of c.£100m over the contract term.

http://www.btplc.com

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NSN Supplies Security Solution for China Mobile Jiangsu

China Mobile (Jiangsu Mobile) is implementing a security solution from Nokia Siemens Networks to protect itself against the potential risks brought by its increased use of IP networks and data services. Nokia Siemens Networks said it has worked closely with Jiangsu Mobile to deliver a tailor-made solution which combines project management, network structure design, system integration and operation and maintenance. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks also provided Jiangsu Mobile with a security evaluation tool based on international standards, which will help the operator measure the effectiveness of its security system, and evaluate the return on its security investment.
http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Appoints New Leadership Team

Alcatel-Lucent announced a new leadership team to coincide with its new business model, which is comprised of three Regions, Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and APAC.

• Robert Vrij, President Americas.


• Adolfo Hernandez, President Europe, Middle East and Africa (to join on December 1st).


• Etienne Fouques, President APAC.

Three newly created organizations will be headed by:

• Kenneth Frank, President Solutions and Marketing.


• Janet Davidson, President Quality and Customer Care.


• Michel Rahier, President Operations.

In order to reflect the company's focus on open innovation led by Bell Labs, state-of-the-art product and software innovation as well as its continued momentum in Services and Enterprise markets, four Groups are formed. The groups will be headed by:

• Philippe Keryer, President Carrier Product Group.


• Andy Williams, President Services Group.


• Paul Segre, President Applications Software Group. Paul will additionally continue to be President and CEO of Genesys.


• Tom Burns, President Enterprise Product Group.

All the above-mentioned leaders will be part of the company's management committee together with Claire Pedini, Human Resources, Hubert de Pesquidoux, Chief Financial Officer and Jeong Kim, President Bell Labs.


The new leaders will take office effective January 1st, 2009.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• In September 2008, Alcatel-Lucent's Board of Directors appointed Philippe Camus as the company's non-executive Chairman as of October 1st, 2008. Ben Verwaayen is appointed as the company's chief executive officer. Ben will also join the company's Board of Directors. Philippe Camus has previously served as the Co-CEO at European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) and managed a large, global business in the high-tech industry. He is Co-Managing Partner of Lagardère, an international media group, and a partner of Evercore Partners, a New York based investment and advisory firm.



• Ben Verwaayen served as CEO of BT from February 2002 to June 1, 2008. He was formerly vice-chairman of the management board of Lucent Technologies in the US, which he joined in September 1997. Prior to that, he worked with KPN in the Netherlands for nine years as president and managing director of its telecom subsidiary, PTT telecom. Before that, Ben worked for ITT, a predecessor of Alcatel. Ben Verwaayen's office will be in the company's headquarters in Paris.

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Huawei Joins Global e-Sustainability Initiative

Huawei Technologies has joined the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), an international organization aiming to promote energy saving and emission reduction in the ICT industry.


Established in 2001, GeSI coordinates environmental protection policies and implementation measures in the global ICT industry, exerts its influences on the formulation of environmental protection standards and regulations, and promotes the development of the cause of environmental protection in the communication industry. Currently, GeSI is made up of five workgroups: the Green Supply Chain Group, the Climate Group, the Green Material Group, the e-Waste Group, and the Public Policy Group. In the near future, a sixth workgroup -- the Standardization Group will be set up in GeSI.


Huawei cited its efforts to develop environmentally friendly Base Transceiver Stations, which are engineered to reduce equipment energy consumption by up to 30 percent. In 2007, Huawei signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China Mobile as a partner in its Green Action Plan and embarked on other green initiatives such as recyclable packaging,http://www.huawei.comhttp://www.gesi.org

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Nortel Wins Contact Center Contract Extension with Bharti Airtel

Nortel will continue to provide its contact centre technology (CCT) to Bharti Airtel under a two year contract extension. The initial contract was announced in March 2006 . Nortel's CCT solution for Bharti Airtel features interactive voice and video response capabilities, providing a 24x7 'virtual storefront' where customers can complete routine transactions and subscribe to new services through an auto attendant that interacts naturally in English, Hindi and four other regional languages. Nortel said that more than 70 percent of Bharti Airtel customer requests are handled through this virtual storefront, resulting in greater availability, flexibility and responsiveness to subscribers. http://www.nortel.com

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South Korea's SK Broadband Deploys Nortel's 40G

SK Broadband, has boosted its network capacity with a 40G optical solution from LG-Nortel, the joint venture between LG Electronics and Nortel. The installation allows SK Broadband to quadruple the capacity of its current 10G network simply by swapping its existing fiber-optic interface cards with new cards. SK Broadband now has 3.52 Tbps of bandwidth (88 x 40G wavelengths) using Nortel's 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine. The Nortel gear offers a nonregenerated reach greater than 2000 km and provides an upgrade path to future 100G speeds. http://www.nortel.com

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Pakistan's Mobilink Launches 802.16e Mobile WiMAX Service

Mobilink, Pakistan's cellular market leader, has launched a wireless broadband and telephony service for residential and enterprise consumers based on the mobile WiMAX standard, 802.16e-2005 (Rev-e). Mobilink Infinity went live on October 22 in Karachi, Pakistan's financial capital and major business center. In its very first week, the service attracted several thousands of subscribers. Mobilink, a member of the Orascom Telecom group, estimates that the service will attract 50,000 subscribers by year-end.


Alcatel-Lucent noted that it supplied Mobilink with a comprehensive WiMAX Rev-e solution including both fixed and nomadic terminal devices from various CPE partners, thanks to its Open CPE program, which is designed to ensure service provider customers have the widest possible range of interoperable end-user devices. The Alcatel-Lucent WiMAX network leverages existing sites and equipment in Mobilink's GSM network, helping to optimize deployment economics.http://www.mobilinkgsm.comhttp://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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NSN Launches its Next Generation IPTV Solution

Nokia Siemens Networks unveiled its latest IPTV software release, Home Entertainment Release 3.0, featuring User Interface (UI) customization capabilities, third party application integration and new management tools and verification processing. Whereas IPTV developments to date have typically been a closed exercise, Nokia Siemens Networks said its aim is to pursue an open model by offering a Software Development Kit (SDK) that allows for third-party customizable User Interface development on HTML and Java. This should allow IPTV operators to customize and enhance their offerings by themselves.


Specifically, Nokia Siemens Networks is decoupling the User Interface layer from the application layer by using ready-to-use building blocks like so-called Scriptables and Plug-ins, allowing for Internet Web2.0 type applications to integrate within an IPTV system quickly and cost effectively.


Home Entertainment Release 3.0 supports HDTV, DVR, VOD and Caller ID. Availability for North America is scheduled for the first quarter of 2009.


"The IPTV industry must take a leap forward beyond a proprietary, vendor-only development model, and leverage the proven internet model for introducing open and flexible applications and services," added Brook Longdon, Global Head of IPTV Solutions, Nokia Siemens Networks. "The industry is at a crossroad of being able to blend the world of Web2.0 with that of traditional linear broadcast offerings, and the next generation IPTV solution we are launching today will help accelerate that reality."http://www.nsn.com

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Virtela Joins Carbon Free Meeting Coalition

Virtela has joined the Carbon Free Meeting Coalition, an organization that serves as a conduit of like-minded companies interested in reducing carbon emissions through the use of advanced communication technologies.


The Carbon Free Meeting Coalition is dedicated to helping companies and individuals gain the knowledge, information and resources they need to help their organization reduce its carbon footprint through the use of advanced communication technologies.


With its multi-carrier network model, Virtela's Secure Video Extranet service overcomes the challenges typically associated with videoconferencing between partner communities, where endpoints often reside on different carriers and Internet peering to connect them adds jitter, latency and packet loss that can severely impact video quality. Virtela optimizes video calls between partners via its multi-carrier network and also ensures security posture as trusted and untrusted environments become linked.http://www.c02fmc.comhttp://www.virtela.com

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RADWIN Introduces High-Capacity IP Backhaul Solution

RADWIN introduced a high-capacity IP backhaul solution capable of providing 50 Mbps capacity (full-duplex net throughput) in a combo design that supports multiple bands in a single platform. RADWIN 2000 delivers Ethernet at ranges of up to 120 km/75 miles, according to the company. RADWIN said its new solution also delivers carrier-class performance in a sub-6GHz radio system at a new price benchmark.
http://www.radwin.com

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Qualcomm Unveils "Kayak" PC Alternative for 3G Networks

Qualcomm unveiled its "Kayak PC" alternative that leverages 3G wireless broadband to bring Internet connectivity to markets where wired Internet access has often been difficult to access or unaffordable. Qualcomm believes the Kayak PC will fill the niche that exists between desktop PCs, which normally require landlines or separate accessories for connectivity, and Internet-capable wireless devices.


The Kayak PC alternative includes a reference design and recommended software specifications that will be made available to device manufacturers. The reference design uses Qualcomm's dual-core Mobile Station Modem (MSM) MSM7xxx-series chipsets to provide both computing and connectivity. Key capabilities of devices based on the Kayak reference design will offer:

• a full-featured Web 2.0-capable browser from Opera Software able to perform at desktop resolutions



• Access via the browser to Web 2.0 productivity applications



• Support for both television sets and computer monitors to be used as displays and/or for a built-in display



• Compatibility with a standard keyboard and mouse for input



• Music player and/or a 3D gaming console functionality

Taiwan-based Inventec plans to rollout a Kayak PC alternative and initiate user trials during the first quarter of 2009 in Southeast Asia on both CDMA2000 and WCDMA (UMTS) networks.http://www.qualcomm.com

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NTT DOCOMO to Acquire Stake in Tata Teleservices

NTT DOCOMO will acquire 26 percent of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) for approximately 130.7 billion Indian rupees (US$2.7 billion). In addition, DOCOMO expects to make an open offer to acquire up to 20 percent of the outstanding common shares of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), a Tata telecommunications company, through a joint tender offer with Tata Sons .http://www.ntt.co.jphttp://www.tata.com

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Alloptic and SAIC Sign Reseller Agreement

Alloptic, which specializes in RF over glass (RFoG) and passive optical networking (PON) solutions, has signed a multi-year technology and distribution agreement with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Under the agreement, SAIC will resell Alloptic equipment to federal, state, and military customers in both the U.S. and around the world. The deal encompasses all of Alloptic's GEPON and 10GEPON equipment along with its RF over glass (RFoG) products.http://www.alloptic.com

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Tellabs Unveils New Ethernet Aggregation Switch

Tellabs unveiled a new line-up of Metro Ethernet products that extend its Carrier Ethernet solutions even closer to end users. The Tellabs 7345 Ethernet Aggregation Switch is the first product in the new line. Key features include:

• Aggregation of up to 48 10/100/1000 Mb/s optical or electrical interfaces into 10GbE uplinks, all in a compact 2RU shelf configuration. This flexibility enables operators to meet a wide range of deployment needs;



• Temperature-hardened device for deployment in uncontrolled environments;



• Redundant architecture for delivery of highly available services. Tellabs provides support for redundant port interfaces, redundant power supply and redundant control plane processors. With this flexibility, operators can satisfy a wide range of deployment needs;



• Rich Ethernet feature set that supports traditional switched Ethernet applications and emerging connection-oriented applications.

Commercial availability is expected in the first quarter of 2009.http://www.tellabs.com

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Canada's MTS Allstream Selects Harmonic for H.264 IPTV Upgrade

MTS Allstream Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Manitoba Telecom, has selected Harmonic's MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) video processing solutions for an IPTV service expansion. The upgrade will enable MTS Allstream to deliver equivalent MPEG-2 quality at half the bandwidth and a broader HD and SD channel line-up to its customers in Manitoba, Canada,. Financial terms were not disclosed.http://www.harmonicinc.com

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