FIFA.COM Reports Traffic Spike

FIFA.com, the official website for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, reported huge traffic spikes on its website are tournament play reached the Final 16 stage. On June 23, FIFA.com delivered a total of more than 410 million page views. 126 million of them occurred shortly after the match between England and Slovenia ended between 5pm and 6pm local time in South Africa, when data requests from visitors reached more than one million a second.


The numbers were expected to increase even further over the weekend and as the tournament progresses.


FIFA.com estimates that the average internet user is now clocking up 55 minutes per day - that's a combined 28.4 hours over the 31 days of the tournament -- looking for World Cup news, statistics and video, and interacting with other fans on social networking sites such as Twitter.


A survey of European Internet users found that German fans spend the most time online, clocking up 76 minutes per day, followed by the Spanish (65 minutes) and the Swiss (61 minutes). UK-based fans average 44 minutes per day.


The survey of 5,000 people across Europe also revealed that, at the start of the tournament, over two-thirds of Europeans (71%) were planning to watch TV or go online to follow all key matches - whether involving their own team or not -- while over one-quarter (27%, comprising 38% of men and 17% of women) were planning to watch at least half of all games, regardless of their own team's success.
http://www.FIFA.com

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South Africa's Telkom Sets Sights on Mobile, CEO to Step Down

Citing a continued slide in traditional voice revenue and growing competition, Telkom, South Africa's incumbent operator, reasserted its plan of restructuring into three business units.


"Our strategy seeking to re-position the Telkom Group is imperative given the tough operating environment. Similar to the strategies of other leading operators in the world, we are focusing on growing other revenue streams -- data centre operation, mobile and Africa -- to compensate for the decline in fixed voice revenues. We are improving our execution in current growth markets, such as broadband and wholesale, and are taking actions to defend our consumer and enterprise markets," said Group CEO Reuben September.


Earlier this month, Reuben September announced his intention to retire from his position and resign his directorship at the expiry of his contract in November 2010.


Some operational notes for the 2010 financial year:

• There was a 9.3% decrease in Telkom SA's voice traffic revenue.



• Telkom is preparing to launch a mobile offering. A roaming agreement with MTN will cover services such as voice, 2G and 3G data, MMS and USSD on a national basis. Telkom will also offer a full international roaming agreement at launch. Initially, prepaid, post-paid and hybrid voice and data services will be offered and these will be provided by a unified 2G and 3G voice and data network.



• Telkom has already ordered 2,000 base stations which are in the process of being constructed in the first year. The company plans to have 40% population coverage at launch which will be grown as required over five years. Full national coverage will be provided through the roaming agreement with MTN.



• Telkom launched a new "cybernest" data centre operation in November 2009.



• The new Telkom Management Services (TMS) has been created to provide consultancy services to telecommunications operators in Africa in order to improve their performance by providing network, IT, vendor and funding strategies, hands-on management and technical expertise best suited to meet their challenges.
  TMS is currently exploring opportunities in Malawi, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Angola, Ghana, Uganda, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.



• Telkom's capital expenditure was R5.4 billion for the year ended 31 March 2010. This was down 44.2% from the R9.6 billion spent in the 2009 financial year. As a result, normalized free cash flow improved significantly to R5.5 billion.



• Interconnection revenue increased 25.1% to R2,608 million. From February 2010, there was a reduction in the peak mobile interconnect rate from 125 cents to 89 cents, with off-peak mobile rates remaining unchanged at 77 cents.



• With regard to broadband and data revenue, ADSL subscribers increased by 18.1% (compared to 31 March 2009) and Do Broadband subscribers have increased 25.4%. Broadband penetration as a percentage of post-paid lines equals 19%.



• In addition, total data revenue increased 7.1%, data connectivity services increased by 3.7%, leased line revenue increased 8.1% and Internet access and related services revenue increased 12.9%. Furthermore, managed data network services revenue increased 15.9% -- this includes an increase of 16.3% in satellite services revenue and a 15.9% increase in VPN services revenue.



• With reference to Telkom International, Telkom's equity stake in the Nigerian Multi-Links operation remains a major concern as EBITDA losses of R659 million were reported, a 191.6% increase from the loss of R226 million reported at the corresponding period last year. This was largely attributable to trading conditions in Nigeria, tough local economic conditions, pricing pressures and the short-term strategy previously in place to reduce inventories and acquire subscribers.



• During the 2009/10 financial year, Multi-Links' deployed additional packet based mobile switching centres increasing the available capacity from 2 800,000 to 4,000,000 subscribers; rolled out an additional 373 base transceiver stations to 878, increasing total radio capacity (Rf) from 1,800,000 to 3,100,000 subscribers on 706 tower sites, 340 of which are Multi-Links owned and the remaining are co-located.



• Multi-links also added 2,962 kilometers of optic fibre (1,822 MLTL owned and 1,140 Swop) resulting in a total to 6,673 km (4,639 Multi-Links owned and 2,034 swop). Its DWDM network has been extended to 39 cities.

http://www.telkom.co.za

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Russia's MTS and Comstar to Merge

Comstar-UTS, the leading fixed-line telecommunications company in Moscow, and Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), a leading mobile operator across Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, are planning a merger that will create the largest integrated telecommunications provider in Russia and the CIS.


Under the deal, 0.825 MTS ordinary shares would be exchanged for one Comstar Ordinary Share. The implied price represents a 13.1% Premium to the three month volume weighted average trading price of the Comstar GDR.


MTS currently owns 61.97% of Comstar (64.03% excluding treasury shares) and consolidates Comstar in its financial results. As a result of the statutory merger, Comstar will be subsumed into MTS and will cease to exist as a separate legal entity.


The companies said a full consolidation of Comstar into MTS is strategically important because it would facilitate the full integration of MTS's and Comstar's subscriber bases and enable the cross-selling and bundling of broadband and television services to MTS's customers. There are also operational synergies and cost savings across the combined entity.


Mikhail Shamolin, President and Chief Executive Officer of MTS, commented: "We believe that the merger of MTS and Comstar is attractive for our shareholders because it will accelerate the delivery of our "3i" strategic goal of realizing growth through increasing customer value, by providing our customers with a broad, innovative and integrated offering of mobile and fixed line telephony, high-speed internet access and pay-TV services. The merger will enable the full integration of the Comstar and MTS customer bases and the provision of bundled service offerings across Russia, which we believe will further enhance our combined competitive position."http://www.mtsgsm.com
http://www.comstar-uts.com

• Including its subsidiaries, the MTS Group services over 103.5 million mobile subscribers in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus, a region that boasts a total population of more than 230 million.



• Comstar-UTS provides voice, data, television and other value-added services to residential and corporate subscribers and operators, using its extensive backbone network and exclusive last mile access to 96% of Moscow households. The Company also offers communications services in 82 cities in the Russian regions, Armenia and Ukraine. Comstar had 3.6 million residential subscribers including 860 thousand residential broadband internet subscribers in Moscow, as well as 2.6 million regional and international residential subscribers, including 426 thousand residential broadband internet subscribers and 2.0 million residential pay-TV subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2010.

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Duke Energy Forms Joint Venture to Grow Communications Business

Duke Energy Corp., Alinda Capital Partners and DukeNet Communications LLC today announced the formation of a joint venture to grow DukeNet. An affiliate of Alinda will acquire 50 percent of the ownership interests in DukeNet from an affiliate of Duke Energy in exchange for $137 million in cash. Duke Energy, through it affiliate, will continue to own the remaining 50 percent in DukeNet.


The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010.


DukeNet is one of the largest wholesale fiber-based carriers in the Southeastern U.S. It operates more than 5,300 miles of fiber network. http://www.dukenet.com

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France's Covage Deploys Ericsson's GPON

Covage, a French network operator, has selected Ericsson to roll out an FTTH infrastructure to local and regional governments and estate owners. Ericsson will provide Covage with active and passive equipment for its fiber-optic networks as well as associated operator support services. The first deployment in Angoulême, France is already underway. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Covage is an open access network operator, acting as the single point of contact for local and regional governments and property management agencies. Initially focused on the enterprise market, Covage has now made its open access network available to residential users.


The first deployment is planned for a property management company in the city of Angoulême in south-west France in July 2010.


"Covage's choice centers on the Ericsson EDA 1500 -- the high-density all-IP GPON platform that efficiently manages fiber-optic networks and the traffic volumes associated with the explosion of broadband, IPTV and other multimedia services as well as enterprise services. The solution also comprises SmartEdge IP routers from Ericsson, which have already been adopted by several operators in France," says Franck Bouetard, President of Ericsson France.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Parks Associates Forecasts NAS Revenues to Exceed $4.4B in 2014

DVRs and video downloads will push the storage needs of U.S. broadband households to almost one terabyte by 2014, creating a parallel rise in the market for file backup and storage solutions, according to international research firm Parks Associates.


The firm's new report Consumer Storage Opportunities finds almost 50% of households are performing regular backups, including external storage, flash drives, and online backup, up from only 35% in 2006.
http://www.parksassociates.com

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IPeak Awarded Patent for Packet Protection

IPeak Networks, a start-up based in Ottawa, was awarded a U.S. patent in connection with its "IPQ" (Internet Performance and Quality) packet protection technology designed for video conferencing, telepresence, and virtualized computing markets.


Matthew Williams, IPeak Networks founder and chief technology officer, is the author of the patent and inventor of the IPQ technology.


IPeak Networks implements the patented methods in a full line of IPQ appliance products for video conferencing and telepresence applications: IPQ VC2, IPQ Presence, and IPQ Concentrator. An optimized version of the same IP packet protection engine is also found in the company's new line of software clients and virtual machines developed for the terminal services, server-based computing, and virtual desktop infrastructure markets. Additional patents are pending.


http://www.ipeaknetworks.com

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Public Mobile Launches Service in Montreal

Public Mobile's Montreal network went live on 25-June-2010. The company has no contracts and no credit checks and offers two unlimited voice and texting plans.


"We want to give the people of Montreal an economical option," said Alek Krstajic, Chief Executive Officer of Public Mobile. Added Krstajic, "For the first time, people in Montreal can have a cell phone with unlimited talk and text at a predictable price. Whether they are calling friends and family locally, or in other parts of Canada, the United States, or overseas, Public Mobile's plans are all unlimited, which means customers will never be surprised by price, no matter how much they talk or text."


Public Mobile stores began opening in Montreal on March 18th, 2010. There are now 31 stores open in Montreal with a total of 74 Public Mobile stores open in Toronto and Montreal.


Public Mobile's plans:

• $24/mo. Unlimited talk


• $40/mo. Unlimited talk and text


• $5/mo. Unlimited Canadian long distance


• $10/mo. Unlimited Canadian and U.S. long distance

http://www.publicmobile.ca

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Vopium Raises $16.5 Million for Mobile Alternative Skype

Vopium, a start-up based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has raised US$16.5 million from an Indian investor to support its efforts to launch a mobile alternative to Skype. The Indian investor, Raghuvinder Kataria, along with his own investment company are underwriting the funding.


Vopium, which is headed by Tanveer Sharif, was originally intended for immigrants to Denmark who were looking for cheap telephony solutions to get in contact with family and friends in distant countries. The company's target has since been expanded to all people and companies who want to make cheap international phone calls. The mobile client software enables users to make very cheap calls, e.g. from Denmark to the US for only $0.02 per minute.


The company claims one million users have already installed Vopium on their mobile phone and 250,000 users in 49 countries are using the solution.
http://www.vopium.com

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Senate Committee Adopts CyberSecurity Legislation

The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a major cybersecurity bill that would "fundamentally reshape" the way the federal government protects public and private sector cyber networks.


The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 (S.3480), which is sponsored by Senators Lieberman, Collins, and Carper, would create a White House Office of Cyberspace Policy to lead federal and private sector efforts to secure critical cyber networks and assets.


The office would be led by a Senate-confirmed director who would be accountable to the public. The bill also creates a new center within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement cybersecurity policies as they pertain to federal and private sector networks.


"Catastrophic cyber attack is no longer a fantasy or a fiction," Lieberman said. "It is a clear and present danger. This legislation would fundamentally reshape the way the federal government defends America's cyberspace. It takes a comprehensive, risk-based, and collaborative approach to addressing critical vulnerabilities in our own defenses. We believe our bill would go a long way toward improving the security of our government and private critical infrastructure, and therefore the security of the American people."

Some industry reaction:

Sara C. Santarelli, Chief Network Security Officer at Verizon: "Unfunded regulatory mandates and command-and-control type governance must be avoided. The most effective approach, which appears to be the direction that this bill is taking, is a public-private partnership where government provides assistance and expertise to the private sector, coupled with incentives like confidentiality and
liability protection to encourage the private sector to implement desired activities and with freedom to take decisive actions."


Mark Bregman, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer at Symantec:

"This important legislation will enhance and modernize our nation‟s overall cybersecurity posture in order to safeguard our critical infrastructure from attack. The bill also importantly recognizes cybersecurity as a shared government and private sector responsibility which requires a coordinated strategy to detect, report and mitigate cyber incidents."http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/

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Bank of China Funds CDMA network in Canada supplied by ZTE

The Export-Import Bank of China will underwrite the construction of a CDMA network in Canada for Public Mobile, a new carrier formed in 2008. The financing deal was valued at $350 million.


ZTE will supply end-to-end equipment for the project, including wireless, core network, service platforms and IP architecture. ZTE will also deploy over 1,000 base stations for the network. A commercial deployment commenced in Toronto on May 26 2010 and will be followed by a commercial deployment in Montreal at the end of June.


The loan signing ceremony in Ottawa was attended by China's Commerce Minister and National Development and Reform Commission Director as well as Canada's International Trade Minister.



"This is a significant deal for both Public Mobile and ZTE," said Alek Krstajic, CEO of Public Mobile. "We chose to work with ZTE because of their expertise in technology and commitment to financing. ZTE provides the world's top mobile operators with high-quality and high-capacity network performance," added Krstajic.
http://www.zte.con.cn

• In May 2009, The Export-Import Bank of China (China Exim Bank) has granted a US$10 billion credit line to ZTE Corporation. Under the cooperation agreement, ZTE and China Exim Bank will join together to establish a financing platform to support ZTE and its holding subsidiaries in overseas market activities including export seller's credit, export buyer's credit, import credit, preferential foreign loans, transferred loans of foreign governments and trade financing, as well as other premium financial services. ZTE agrees to deal with China Exim Bank as a principal banker and handle loans and relevant businesses through China Exim Bank.

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InnoPath Over-the-Air MDM Powers Android Updates for KDDI

InnoPath Software has supplied its over-the-air update software for use with KDDI's first Android device, the IS01 from Sharp. The client will be used to add features and services in addition to fixing bugs on the phone.



InnoPath's end-to-end solution for OTA Android updates consists of an on-device client as well as a server, which is deployed at the service provider.


The company said its OTA Updates, and in particular Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) updates, has proven wildly successful and popular, saving service providers millions of dollars in avoided recalls and support calls while providing the subscriber with a better end user experience. Issues such as dropped calls, corrupted contacts, device crashes and other problems have all been fixed over the air.
http://www.innopath.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Renews Global ISO 9001 and TL9000 Certification

Alcatel-Lucent successfully renewed its combined certificate of registration for the International Quality Standards of ISO 9001 and TL9000 for another three years. The certification covers more than 220 company locations, 32 different product categories and approximately 42,000 employees. In addition, the registration now includes a TL 9000 certification for Alcatel-Lucent's LTE solution -- key to Alcatel-Lucent's corporate Application Enablement and High Leverage Network strategy.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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BT Offers GENBAND's Carrier-Hosted Communications in Spain

BT Spain is leveraging GENBAND's C20 (previously CS 2000) and the A2 (previously referred to as the Adaptive Application Engine), both recently acquired from Nortel, to support its iComms Unified Communication service. Key features of BT iComms service that were highlighted at the event include:

• Unified Communications (UC), giving business subscribers an advanced communication solution that combines the enterprise's voice, conferencing, presence and mobility applications into a single, converged network. This also includes a PC-based call control capability through the GENBAND Personal Communicator PC client, which allows users to handle incoming calls, view call logs, manage voicemail and send and receive text messages from their PC.



• Multimedia Office Client that allows enterprises to integrate real-time multimedia communications within Microsoft Outlook while also enabling these services to be used with existing business voice systems. This can greatly simplify and enrich the business communications experience.



• Customized Web portal application that allows businesses to create and manage communications services via a personalized Web application. Preferences such as call routing and call blocking can be prioritized for each incoming call.

http://www.genband.com

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FCC Denies Qwest Request to Change Pro-competition Policy Status Quo in Phoenix

The FCC denied a request from Qwest Corp. to change the current pro-competition policy status quo in the Phoenix, Arizona market. The FCC denied similar petitions in 2007 and 2008.


In reviewing Qwest's petition, the FCC said it applied a data-driven "market power" analysis to determine whether Qwest had shown that the competition policies governing traditional telephone services in Phoenix were no longer necessary. While the Commission found that Qwest failed to demonstrate that it no longer had market power for the relevant services in Phoenix, the agency acknowledged the significant growth of wireless and residential cable voice services. Moving forward, the FCC indicated that stronger evidence of lack of market power in future proceedings could result in a different outcome.
http://www.fcc.gov

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Australia's NBN Selects GPON from Alcatel-Lucent

Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) has selected Alcatel-Lucent's GPON solution for its forthcoming FTTH deployment. The initial contract is worth Aus$70M and NBN Co has committed to spend up to $1.5 billion on this network equipment during the lifetime of the project. In addition to its GPON platform, Alcatel-Lucent will supply aggregation equipment and engineering assistance.


NBN Co was established in April 2009 to design, build and operate a wholesale-only national high-speed broadband network for all Australians. In the fibre footprint, the network will deliver broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbps, subject to the retail plan chosen. The goal is to cover 90% of the Australian population in eight years.


Alcatel-Lucent's CEO, Ben Verwaayen said, "The Australian NBN is one of the most important initiatives in our industry. The world is watching." He added, "Infrastructure projects of this scale demand and command leading edge technology and smart solutions. We are committed to delivering both."


Separately, NBN Co. issued an RFP for the design and construction of the Fibre Access Network. The RFP was issued to 21 Australian firms seeking tenders to begin the rollout.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
http://www.nbnco.com.au

• Earlier this week, NBN Co Limited (NBN Co) reached an agreement with Telstra that would provide access to Telstra facilities and the progressive migration of Telstra traffic onto the National Broadband Network, subject to regulatory approval. The agreement for these terms will have an approximate value of $9 billion and would enable Telstra to participate in the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN). Separately, the Australian federal government has agreed to progress public policy reforms with an attributed value of approximately $2 billion to Telstra. The Heads of Agreement covers the migration of subscriber traffic and the decommissioning of Telstra's copper network and its cable broadband service. NBN Co will pay Telstra for migration of traffic on to the NBN and the decommissioning of its network.



• In July 2009, the Australian government appointed Mike Quigley as the Executive Chairman of the National Broadband Network (NBNCo). Previously, Quigley served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Alcatel-Lucent.

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OFS and China's Hengtong to Form Joint Venture

OFS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Furukawa Electric Co., and the Hengtong Optic-Electric Co. will form a joint venture company in China to manufacture, market and distribute optical fiber preforms used in the production of optical fiber.


The joint venture company will be called Jiangsu OFS Hengtong Optical Technology Co. As part of the agreement, OFS, as a leading U.S. designer, manufacturer and provider of optical fiber and related products, will bring the latest Vapor Axial Deposition (VAD) optical fiber preform technology and expertise to this greenfield operation. Hengtong, as a leading Chinese optical fiber and cable company, brings significant optical fiber draw and cable manufacturing expertise in the China market. http://www.ofsoptics.com
http://www.hengtonggroup.com

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XO Communications Kicks Off Nationwide Ethernet VPLS

XO Communications announced the nationwide launch of XO Ethernet VPLS, providing a layer 2 option for businesses, large enterprises and government agencies to transform their Ethernet local area networks into wide area networks. VPLS is designed to combine the simplicity and scalability of an end-to-end, unified Ethernet network and the application-aware capabilities of MPLS.


XO said its new service is aimed at multi-location organizations that are seeking to simplify the management of their wide area networks, facilitate control of all or parts of their networks, and increase application and network performance. XO Ethernet VPLS also interworks with other XO IP and network services, such as XO Dedicated Internet Access and XO MPLS IP-VPN on the same Ethernet circuit. The service gives customers the flexibility to choose from a wide range of bandwidth options from 3 Mbps to 1 Gbps.


Because XO Ethernet VPLS is a layer 2 VPN solution, it supports the needs of customers that have an emphasis on network security and prefer to maintain control of their routing, rather than share routing protocols with the service provider. In addition, XO Ethernet VPLS is protocol independent, enabling customers to support both IP and non-IP applications and making it attractive for customers who want to migrate away from costly frame relay and private line-based networks.


XO Ethernet VPLS also provides the intelligence to allow organizations to prioritize network traffic to maximize bandwidth use and ensure that mission-critical applications receive the highest priority across the network. The service offers four Classes of Service (CoS) -- Real Time, Critical, Priority and Standard -- with the unique offering of one flat rate for access to all four classes of service. The service is also backed by robust service level agreements (SLAs) to provide customers with the peace of mind that comes with quality of service guarantees.


"Today's enterprise networks are growing more complex in terms of the increasing number of applications and bandwidth demands they are required to support," said Tom Hobika, vice president of product management and sales engineering for XO Business Services at XO Communications. "Customers with distributed locations know that traditional data networks are expensive to maintain, operationally complex and not flexible enough to support the realities of today's enterprise IT environment. Ethernet is the de facto local area network technology, and XO Ethernet VPLS enables organizations to extend the familiarity, simplicity and cost-effectiveness of Ethernet for wide area networking to meet these challenges."


The XO Ethernet Services portfolio now includes:


XO Ethernet VPLS -- Multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet WAN solution for enterprises to connect key locations, transport special applications with protocol transparency, and maintain separation of different network domains.


XO Ethernet Private Line -- Point-to-point Ethernet connectivity ideal for businesses looking for dedicated bandwidth between office locations.


XO Ethernet Hub -- Point-to-multipoint Ethernet solution ideal for connecting branches or offices to centralized headquarters or data center.


Ethernet Access -- affordable, scalable Ethernet access to deliver Dedicated Internet Access, VoIP and MPLS IP-VPN services across the enterprise.
http://www.xo.com

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Enablence Acquires Teledata

Ottawa-based Enablence Technologies, which supplies FTTH equipment as well as optical components and subsystems for access, metro and long-haul markets, completed its previously-announced acquisition of Teledata Networks Ltd.


Teledata, which is based in Tel Aviv, supplies multiservice access solutions, including VDSL equipment. It's flagship BroadAccess-1000E is a FTTX MSAG designed for the delivery of residential Triple Play services and Carrier Ethernet business services over copper or fiber. The BroadAccess-1000E covers multiple functionalities including those of an MSAG, IP-DSLAM, and Carrier Ethernet Switch with a wide range of service interfaces, including POTS, xDSL (ADSL2+, VDSL2, and SHDSL) and broadband over optical fiber.


The merger consideration is comprised of US$10,000,000 in cash, US$10,000,000 in 5% subordinated secured notes payable on the second anniversary of the closing of the merger and 54,932,143 common shares of Enablence (representing 14.3% of total outstanding shares post closing), the equivalent value of which was US$30 million, for gross consideration of US$50 million.


Enablence said Teledata's revenues are generated from technology complementary to its own and derived primarily in geographical markets in which it has not previously operated.
http://www.enablence.com
http://www.teledata-networks.com/.

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Telefónica and Tata Comunications Sign Telepresence Deal

Telefónica and Tata Communications have signed an interconnection agreement to allow customers in each of
the respective networks to have seamless Telepresence sessions, regardless of the service provider from whom they are being serviced. http://www.telefonica.com
http://www.tatacommunications.com

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