Spain's Jazztel Picks Huawei for Network Upgrade

The Spanish operator Jazztel has selected Huawei for a major network upgrade project. Huawei will provide and deploy new network technologies that will allow the operator to face the expected strong increase in the number of customers. At the same time, Jazztel awards Huawei the integral management of its network.


Under the project, Jazztel will increase its current access network with new DSLAMs capable of delivering VDSL2 and ADSL2+ Bonding. This equipment will have integrated voice cards. The agreement also contemplates data network and transmission network expansion, as well as the deployment of softswitch equipment.


The renewable five-year management contract will allow Jazztel to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of its network and focus on the business development and value-added services. Huawei will assume full responsibility of network operation activities such as 24x7 network monitoring and operation, field maintenance, multivendor network technical support, and spare parts management.
http://www.huawei.com

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Huawei Offers IMS-based HD Video Conferencing

Huawei introduced an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) based HD (high definition) video conference solution, enabling enterprise users to participate in virtue meetings across a broader way of access methods using a carrier' s existing network. Huawei said its new solution is capable of supporting almost any conferencing devices such as HD and standard definition (SD) video in fixed/mobile phones, desktop soft-clients and facilities with tele-presence and offering more functions for enterprise users including multiple access methods and open media capabilities. Beyond the traditional voice and video connections, it will enable enterprises to take full advantage of additional services such as desktop sharing, high definition video, and virtual reality. The solution can be deployed in an operator' s existing network.
http://www.huawei.com

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Ignis and Gemfire to Merge

Ignis and Gemfire, both suppliers of fiber optical components, announced a merger. Under the deal, Ignis will issue approximately 36 million shares to the current shareholders of Gemfire, corresponding to an ownership of 48% of the combined company. Furthermore, as part of the transaction, privately held Palo Alto Investors (PAI) and Gemfire's current lead shareholder, will inject US$15 million in the combined company at a subscription price per share of NOK 5.50.


Gemfire's "PhotonIC" planar technology platform enables wafer-scale processing for optical components, such as Athermal and standard AWGs, TODCs, VOAs, VMUXs, and Phase Modulators.


Ignis' current shareholders will retain an ownership of approx. 43% in the combined company post the merger and the capital injection of USD 15 million. The combined company will maintain its listing on the Oslo Stock Exchange.


"Ignis is experiencing substantial growth in the international markets for fiber optical components, particularly in Asia. I believe the complimentary product portfolios, the operational economies of scale and our mutual market penetration will give the combined company an even stronger position for further growth and expansion in the international telecommunication sector," said Thomas Ramm, CEO of Ignis, who will take the position as Chairman of the combined company.


Richard Tompane, President and CEO of Gemfire, who will become the CEO of the combined company.
http://www.ignis.com
http://www.gemfire.com

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Adara Tests its Network Path Xcelerator with Shenick

Adara Networks, which offers a Network Path Xcelerator platform of proprietary routing products that operate at the application-layer for optimizing network performance and virtualizing network resources, has chosen Shenick Network Systems' "diversifEye" technology to emulate, test and measure its NPX solution for per-flow aware routing.


Shenick's diversifEye can both emulate and analyze each and every application flow in real-time, guaranteeing Adara a method of generating real users using real applications and also a way to drill down to each and every individual user flow to pin-point quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) issues. http://www.shenick.com
http://www.adaranet.com

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Italtel and ECI Telecom Enter Partnership

Italtel and ECI Telecom announced a partnership agreement for the sale and customization of optical transport systems for metropolitan networks and access platforms for voice, data, IP video and fixed/mobile convergence. As such, Italtel will be a preferred vendor and system integrator for ECI Telecom technology in the building of integrated communication networks for service providers, communications providers and utility companies in the "Quadruple Play" access and transport markets. This makes Italtel one of ECI's Global Partners.


Initially, the partnership will cover the integration and customization of ECI's Multi-Service Access Node (MSAN) Hi-FOCuS, and the metro edge BroadGate line of products. The Hi-FOCuS supports voice, data and video over one, converged IP platform, while the BroadGate line is an advanced multi-service provisioning platform for the transporting of data streams over fibre optic in metropolitan networks.


"The partnership with Italtel strengthens our presence in important and growing international markets. With our access and transport portfolio, Italtel will be able to provide their customers with high-end platforms that are optimized for next-generation evolution. In Italtel, we have found a partner with the required ability and expertise that are complementary to our own, in addition to a strong and recognised specialization in system integration," noted Tony Scarfo, Head of Global Channel Sales, and Partners of ECI Telecom.


"The agreement with ECI is part of our plan to develop into specific foreign markets and to widen the perimeter of our products and services," commented Claudio Chiarenza, Head of Planning, Marketing & Business Development of Italtel. "This partnership allows us to extend our portfolio of solutions for service providers in the EMEA and Latin America markets with products for access and optical transport, and to adopt a structured approach to a market segment that is potentially attractive, represented by European service providers and utilities with their own network infrastructure."http://www.ecitele.com
http://www.italtel.com/

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Mu Dynamics Appoints VP of Products

Mu Dynamics announced the appointment of Simon Berman to lead its Product efforts. Berman is responsible for all aspects of the company's product management and marketing initiatives and will oversee the strategic planning and execution of product delivery. Previously, he spent 2 years with AtHoc, a leading provider of emergency notification solutions, as vice president of product marketing where he helped grow the business and penetrate new markets. Prior to AtHoc, he spent over 12 years at Mercury Interactive.
http://www.mudynamics.com

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Ceragon Supplies High-Capacity Wireless in Botswana

Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) has selected Ceragon for upgrading its nationwide wireless backbone as well as the backhaul network of its cellular subsidiary BeMobile. Equipment orders related to this deployment top $1.5 million.
http://www.ceragon.com

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Lockheed Martin Builds Cyber Innovation and Technology Center

Lockheed Martin IS&GS is opening a NexGen Cyber Innovation and Technology Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland designed to preserve and protect Lockheed Martin customer missions and address the greater cyber security challenges worldwide. The unique 25,000 square foot center leverages existing Lockheed Martin and partner capabilities in cyber security. It features seven collaboration areas, reconfigurable spaces, global cyber range, cloud computing platforms, green IT datacenter, telepresence and high definition video teleconferencing and global site connectivity.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/isgs/capabilities/NexGen/

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Tele2 Netherlands Selects Espial's IPTV Middleware

Tele2 Netherlands has selected Espial's IPTV middleware. Tele2 Netherlands will use the Evo TV Service Platform to launch its next generation television platform supporting linear TV, Video-on-demand, High Definition, PVR (Personal Video Recorder) and interactive services.


Espial noted that there are 7 million subscribers using its TV software. The company s headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.
http://www.espial.com

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Logitech to Acquire LifeSize for HD Video Conferencing

Logitech International agreed to acquire privately held LifeSize Communications of Austin, Texas for $405 million in cash.


LifeSize specializes in HD video communication solutions and has more than 9,000 video conferencing customers across 80 countries in large enterprises, small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and public healthcare, education and government organizations. The company expects approximately $90 million in revenue in CY 2009, with CY 2010 revenue expected to grow between 40 percent and 60 percent. Logitech expects the acquisition to be neutral to slightly positive to its operating income (excluding acquisition-related charges) in FY 2011, ending March 31, 2011, and positive thereafter.


"We expect this acquisition to enable Logitech to extend our leadership in video communication beyond the desktop," said Gerald P. Quindlen, Logitech president and chief executive officer. "Together we can make life-like, HD-quality video communication as mainstream and seamless as a telephone, for meeting participants in the boardroom, at their office desk, in a remote-location meeting room, telecommuting from home or on the go with a laptop."


The companies said they plan to pursue existing and new relationships with unified communications, collaboration and VoIP industry partners and competitors to drive the development of an open eco-system for interoperable video communication.
http://www.logitech.com
http://www.lifesize.com

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HP to Acquire 3Com for $2.7 Billion

Vowing to transform the networking industry, HP announced its intention to acquire 3Com, a leading provider of networking switching, routing and security solutions, for approximately $2.7 billion in cash ($7.90 per share). The deal would make HP the No.2 enterprise networking vendor worldwide with a growing share of the Chinese market.


HP said the acquisition accelerates its next-generation data center strategy focused on the convergence of servers, storage, networking, management, facilities and services. In particular, the acquisition of 3Com will dramatically expand HP's Ethernet switching offerings, add routing solutions and significantly strengthen the company's position in China via the H3C offerings. In addition, the combination will add a team of 2,400 engineers in China.


"Companies are looking for ways to break free from the business limitations imposed by a networking paradigm that has been dominated by a single vendor," said Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Servers and Networking, HP. "By acquiring 3Com, we are accelerating the execution of our Converged Infrastructure strategy and bringing disruptive change to the networking industry. By combining HP ProCurve offerings with 3Com's extensive set of solutions, we will enable customers to build a next-generation network infrastructure that supports customer needs from the edge of the network to the heart of the data center."


"Our extensive product line and innovative technology together with HP's breadth and scale will expand our global opportunity," said Bob Mao, chief executive officer, 3Com.


http://www.hp.com
http://www.3com.com

• In May 2009, 3Com outlined plans to return to the global enterprise networking market by leveraging its broad portfolio of H3C edge-to-data-center solutions. As a first step, the company is introduced two new switching platforms, the H3C S12500 for end-of-rack in data centers, and a "flex-chassis" switching platform, the H3C S5800, for wiring closets, smaller network cores and top-of-rack in data centers. The products are manageable by a new platform.



• In June, 3Com marked the 30 year anniversary since Ethernet-inventor Bob Metcalfe incorporated the company.

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Washington Post: China proves to be an Aggressive Foe in Cyberspace

The Washington Post published an article covering cyber intrusions into U.S. government systems/ The attacks are believed to originate in China. Targets have included Barack Obama's campaign team, Congressional offices, nuclear weapons labs, defense contractors, the State Department and other sensitive federal government agencies. A spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Washington denied the claims, noting that with 360 million Internet users of its own, China is now integrated with and reliant on the same Internet infrastructure.

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MobileAccess Develops In-Building 4G-over LAN Solution

MobileAccess, which supplies in-building wireless solutions, introduced its 4G distributed antenna system (DAS) for delivering cellular services over a LAN infrastructure.


MobileAccessVE leverages existing building infrastructure, enabling carriers and enterprise customers to address indoor coverage needs at a significantly lower total installed cost and in less than half the deployment time of traditional DAS solutions.


MobileAccess said its converged wireless and cellular solution delivers:

• a path to 4G MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) services in any indoor environment;



• all wireless services - 2G, 3G and 4G cellular services as well as enterprise applications - over a single, shared LAN infrastructure without using any of the customer's Ethernet capacity;



• patented, unobtrusive Access Pods that simply connect to any Ethernet port and use Power over Ethernet (PoE), removing the challenge and expense of individual power sources;



• the unique ability to connect to a single or multiple distributed RF source of any type, including femtocells, picocells, microcells and bi-directional amplifiers (BDAs), which significantly reduces carrier costs;



• a 100% recoverable asset by re-using cabling infrastructure, allowing carriers to recoup their investment in MobileAccessVE hardware for redeployment elsewhere.

"The growth of the smartphone, from the iPhone and BlackBerry to the newly introduced Droid, and the thousands of applications available on the Android Market, will continue to drive traffic and create wireless performance challenges for carriers," said Ron Wells, vice president of corporate development, MobileAccess. "In order to keep up with the data demand and off-load traffic from the macro network, carriers are seeking new ways to deliver in-building wireless solutions, Wi-Fi networks and 4G technologies to customers. The MobileAccessVE DAS solution is enabling carriers and enterprises to quickly and cost-effectively deploy in-building solutions in office buildings, hotels, hospitals and public venues, where users depend on reliable wireless service and strong performance."http://www.mobileaccess.com

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Vodafone Doubles OPEX Savings Goals, Plans HSPA+ Upgrades

In its half year financial report, Vodafone reported that its group revenue increased by 9.3% to £21.8 billion. Group adjusted operating profit increased by 2.4% to £5.9 billion with a positive contribution from Verizon Wireless and foreign currency benefits offsetting lower profit in Europe.


The company showed growth in data revenues and confirmed further cost savings measures. Vodafone said it will continue to reduce its OPEX costs by leveraging its global scale, controlling marketing expenses, implementing better technology, further accelerating the outsourcing of IT functions, entering more network sharing partnerships, improving call centre effectiveness and consolidating network access expenses.


In an investor webcast, Vodafone executives stated that HSPA+ upgrades to its networks would be sufficient to handle increased data traffic for the next 2-3 years. While data traffic has risen 300% in the past two years, average network utilization has increased from 20 to 30%. Peak utilization -- or sites where 90% of network capacity is being used during the busiest hour of the day -- is actually 5%. Around 40% of the company's European 3G networks now supports 7.2 Mbps. In the coming six months, the company plans to upgrade 20-25,000 sites across Europe to a higher HSPA+ version. The company is also deploying Ethernet microwave backhaul upgrades. A major push into widescale LTE is not expected till 2011 or after.


"The Group has performed in line with our expectations and we have made strong progress with our strategic priorities, in particular in mobile data and cash generation. We have confirmed our guidance for the full year, despite the uncertainties of current economic trends. The £1 billion cost reduction programme is expected to be delivered a year ahead of plan and we have extended this to a further £1 billion of cost savings by 2012," stated Vittorio Colao, Vodafone's Chief Executive.


Some highlights:

• In Europe service revenue decreased by 4.5% on an organic basis with continued growth in both data and fixed lined revenue offset by a decline in voice revenue resulting from continued market and regulatory pressure on prices. Service revenue decreased in the majority of markets but was partially offset by growth in Italy and the Netherlands. Data now represents 11% of all European service revenues.



• In Africa and Central Europe service revenue declined by 3.2% on an organic basis as growth in Vodacom and the effect of a 6.8% increase in the average customer base for the region were more than offset by an adverse impact of around three percentage points from termination rate cuts as well declines in Romania and Turkey.



• In Asia Pacific and Middle East service revenue grew by 12.3% on an organic basis driven by a 3.6 percentage point contribution from the revenue stream generated by the network sharing joint venture, Indus Towers, as well as the 48.2% organic rise in the average customer base and continued strong data revenue growth. Substantially all of the organic growth was generated in India.



• Verizon Wireless contributed about 34% of adjusted operating profit. Organic service revenue growth was 7.5%, EBITDA margins were maintained and data revenue continued to grow rapidly.



• The Group invested £2.6 billion in capital expenditure, a similar level to the same period last year after adjusting for foreign exchange, including £0.5 billion in India. Capital intensity for Europe and Common Functions was slightly higher at 8.8%.



• Data revenue grew by 19.8% on an organic basis and is nearing £4.0 billion on an annualised basis.



• In fixed broadband (DSL), Vodafone now has 5.1 million customers, up around 1.1 million in 12 months, with strong net adds share in Spain, Italy and
  Germany.

http://www.vodafone.som

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BSNL Selects Dilithium for Mobile Video Services

BSNL, India's largest telecommunications company, has selected Dilithium solutions for the deployment of new mobile video & streaming services over 2G and 3G networks. BSNL South Zone will deploy 3G Live TV & other video services.


Dilithium has partnered with Huawei Technologies in BSNL South Zone to provide end to end delivery solutions for BSNL's live mobile video services. The solution includes the Dilithium DTG 3021 multimedia gateway and the DCA content adaptation and video streaming solution, enabling 2-way video calling and other advanced video services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.dilithiumnetworks.com

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Occam Showcases New BLC 6006 Chassis

Occam Networks is showcasing its new BLC 6006 chassis at this week's TelcoTV 09 in Orlando, Florida. The BLC 6006 chassis is a new deployment option for the BLC 6000 multi-service access platform and is optimized for small to medium density access networks in the midst of transition to high capacity broadband.


The BLC 6006 incorporates Occam's distributed intelligence architecture which allows each BLC blade to function standalone or in system level operation. As a result, service providers can customize any BLC chassis to accommodate any broadband technology all within a single operating system. The new chassis can accommodate up to six BLC blades in a 7 rack unit space and, when paired with the high-density BLC 6216 VDSL2 or BLC 6316 Gigabit Ethernet FTTP blades, can support up to 288 subscribers.


The BLC 6006 complements the existing BLC 6001 single-slot chassis and BLC 6012 twelve slot chassis. ANSI and ETSI versions of the BLC 6006 chassis will be available. The 6006 is expected to be available in Q1 2010.
http://www.occamnetworks.com

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Cavium to Acquire MontaVista Software for Embedded Linux

Cavium Networks agreed to acquire MontaVista Software for $50 million, comprised of $16 million in cash and $34 million in Cavium Networks common stock.



MontaVista Software supplies multi-core embedded Linux operating systems, virtualization, development tools and professional services to a broad array of Tier-1 customers. The company's Carrier Grade Linux is embedded in telecom gear from companies that include Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC, Nokia-Siemens, NTT, Motorola, Samsung and others. MontaVista's embedded Linux market segment also includes Tier-1 CE manufactures such as Sony, Samsung and Philips; MID and Mobile vendors such as NEC and Garmin; Industrial Automation vendors such as HP, Kyocera-Mita and Fuji Xerox and leading Automotive infotainment suppliers.


"Software is becoming an increasingly important part of the total solution with the rapidly increasing adoption of multi-core processors.", said Syed Ali, President and CEO of Cavium Networks. "This acquisition will complement Cavium's market leading processor portfolio with world-class software expertise and will enable us to deliver highly compelling and differentiated solutions to the market."


After the acquisition, MontaVista Software will run as a separate operating unit and will retain the MontaVista brand name. In addition, Cavium Networks will continue the MontaVista business model and support embedded Linux on multiple architectures from multiple processor vendors. MontaVista will maintain its own dedicated and focused engineering, sales and product management staff. The deal is expected to close in December 2009. Cavium expects the deal will be gross margin and non-GAAP earnings accretive in 2010 and beyond.
http://www.caviumnetworks.com
http://www.mvista.com

• In June 2009, Intel agreed to acquire Wind River Systems, a leading supplier of software for embedded processors, for $11.50 per share in cash, or approximately $884 million in the aggregate. Wind River's main products include its VxWorks, a proprietary and multicore-ready real-time operating system, and commercial-grade Linux software platforms. The company also provides design services and software expertise, including custom-built solutions, development tools and device testing products.

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Zeugma Partners with Skitter.tv to Optimize OTT Video

Zeugma Systems, which supplies an advanced service delivery router, has formed a partnership with Skitter, a developer of an Internet TV platform.


The solution partnership combines the Zeugma Services Node (ZSN), a service delivery router providing subscriber management, edge routing, and broadband aggregation, Skitter.TV, a set of video technologies to encode, configure, deliver, and monetize internet and linear TV services. The ZSN automatically detects streaming content from Skitter.TV and, depending on subscriber policy, allocates bandwidth for that stream across the broadband network. Alternatively, broadband subscribers can dynamically alter their downstream bandwidth using Zeugma's SmartBoost application, in order to maximize video quality for both standard- and high-definition streams.


According to Andrew Harries, Zeugma president and CEO, "This really rounds out the over-the-top (OTT) approach to video delivery. What has thus far been lacking from the wide array of primarily on-demand OTT systems is live television broadcasts, something subscribers demand before pulling the linear TV plug. Skitter.TV adds that vital element and affords broadband service providers a compelling alternative to IPTV."http://www.zeugmasystems.com
http://www.skitter.tv

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Clearwires Adds 49,000 WiMAX Subs in Q3, Confirms $1.5B New Financing

Clearwire's total subscribers increased to approximately 555,000 at the end of the third quarter of 2009, up from approximately 469,000 on a pro forma basis at the end of the third quarter 2008. Total subscribers in the Company's 13 CLEAR 4G markets (both new markets and legacy markets recently upgraded to CLEAR 4G service) were approximately 173,000 at the end of September. On a consolidated basis Clearwire added approximately 44,000 net new subscribers during the third quarter of 2009. This third quarter increase included the addition of approximately 49,000 net new subscribers in the company's 13 CLEAR 4G markets, which were partially offset by a modest net decline in subscribers in domestic and international pre-WiMAX markets for the quarter.


ARPU for the third quarter of 2009 was $39.71, a decrease of $0.72 from the $40.43 pro forma ARPU level from the prior year third quarter and a sequential quarter increase of $0.24 compared to $39.47 reported in second quarter of 2009. ARPU declined year-over-year on a pro forma basis due to increased promotional discounts as a result of higher gross subscriber additions during the third quarter of 2009 than in the same quarter of 2008


Financially, Clearwire maintained its business outlook for 2009 and 2010, expecting consolidated ARPU to be generally sustained at current levels over this period of significant development and expansion of its wireless 4G network. The company continues to anticipate that churn will increase in its pre-WiMAX markets as the company transitions these networks to mobile WiMAX technology and that cost per gross addition ("CPGA") will increase, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2009, as new markets are launched. Consolidated revenue increased by 13 percent to $68.8 million in the third quarter 2009, versus pro forma revenue of $60.8 million for the same quarter of 2008.


Clearwire also confirmed its new $1.564 billion round of equity financing from Sprint Nextel Corporation, Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable Inc., Intel Corporation, Eagle River Holdings, LLC and Bright House Networks, LLC in exchange for newly issued shares priced at $7.33 per share. This was divided as follows: Sprint Nextel for $1.176 billion, Comcast for $196 million, Time Warner Cable for $103 million, Intel for $50 million, Eagle River for $20 million and Bright House Networks for $19 million.
http://www.clearwire.com

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Broadcom Offers Royalty-Free Wideband and Narrowband Codecs

Broadcom has begun offering its BroadVoice family of voice codecs royalty-free and without any licensing fees. Specifically, Broadcom is releasing its wideband and narrowband BroadVoice codecs in both floating-point and fixed-point C code as open source software under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1, as published by the Free Software Foundation. The company said that by eliminating the royalties and licensing fees it is driving a cost effective transition to HD VoIP applications by enhancing the quality of voice transmissions enabling a higher quality audio experience. http://www.broadcom.com/broadvoice

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