HP Launches CloudStart Services

HP introduced a "CloudStart" solution to simplify and accelerate private cloud deployments. HP CloudStart consists of hardware, software and services to enable pay-per-use services for infrastructure in their private clouds. This is enabled via real-time access to consumption and chargeback reports. HP clients will also be able to integrate their private clouds with third-party enterprise portals, public cloud services, usage billing packages and multiplatform resource management.


""To better serve the needs of their enterprises, clients are asking us to help them become internal service providers with the ability to deliver applications through a highly flexible private cloud environment," said Gary M. Budzinski, senior vice president and general manager, Technology Services, HP. "With CloudStart, HP is enabling clients to optimize applications for private cloud computing today, while providing a platform for a comprehensive, open and hybrid environment in the future."http://www.hp.com

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Clearwire Offers Pay-As-You-Go Mobile Broadband, $5/Day

Clearwire launched a pay-as-you-go 4G mobile broadband service with daily, weekly and monthly payment options. The Clearwire "Rover" service, which will be marketed at tech-savvy Gen Y customers, offers unlimited data usage with no bandwidth caps over the company's WiMAX network.


Rover is available in all of Clearwire's 49 4G markets across the U.S. at rover.com. Rover is also available at CLEAR stores, Best Buy stores and select independent wireless dealers in Houston and St. Louis.


Clearwire is betting that the market for prepaid mobile services in the U.S. is expanding beyond consumers with credit issues. The company believes there will be a growing segment, especially among younger consumers, who wish to be connected with mobile broadband wherever they go, but who prefer simplicity over a long-term contract.


"Simple, commitment-free wireless services are wildly popular with the Gen Y crowd, and Rover provides them with the first pay-as-you-go unlimited mobile internet offering at 4G speeds," said Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer for Clearwire.


Rover's flagship device is the Rover Puck: a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that lets the user share broadband access, or "Puck", with up to eight devices or friends in Wi-Fi range. The Rover Puck promises mobile download speeds of 3 to 6 mbps, with bursts over 10 Mbps. The device is priced at $149.99 (plus tax). Clearwire will also offer a 4G USB modem for $99.99 (plus tax).
http://www.clearwire.com
http://www.rover.com

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Verizon Boosts DSL to 10-15 Mbps Downstream

Verizon introduced a new s High Speed Internet DSL tier at 10 to 15 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. The service is initially available to more than 4 million households and small businesses.


Pricing for the 10 to 15Mbps/1 Mbps service is $49.99 per month for residential customers with voice service from Verizon, and $59.99 per month for those without voice service. Small-business pricing for the new, higher speed tier begins at $89.99 per month as a stand alone service with a two-year agreement, and $99.99 per month with no term contract. Equipment fees and other charges apply.
http://www.verizon.com

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NSN Partners with Telefónica on Smartphone Experience Lab

The future lies in "smart networks for smart devices" said Rajeev Suri, CEO of Nokia Siemens Networks, speaking at the 24th annual Spanish telecoms summit in Santander, Spain. To help chard this future, NSN will create a "Smartphone Experience Lab" based in Telefónica premises in Madrid. The lab is investigating ideal configurations between mobile handsets, applications and networks to minimize any negative network impact from smart devices, improve resource consumption as well as better handset and application performance, and to ultimately provide people with the best possible user experience. The outcomes from the Lab's activities will include guidelines on the optimum network and handset configurations and application development.


"Networks need to transform - now - to cope with the huge amounts of signalling and data traffic smart devices generate. Our approach is the only one that can cope with this explosion, while preparing operators for the fast-approaching roll-out of Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks," said Rajeev Suri.


Suri also confirmed that private equity firms have expressed interest investing in the company. Suri said reflects a turnaround underway at the company.
http://www.nsn.com

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Sierra Wireless Supplies 42 Mbps HSPA+ Modems for Telstra

Sierra Wireless is supporting the launch of Telstra's first-in-the-world dual-channel HSPA+ network with the commercial launch of its AirCard 312U wireless USB modem. The device is being marketed as the Telstra Ultimate USB modem.


Dual-channel HSPA+ doubles the speeds of current HSPA+ networks from a peak downlink of 21 Mbps to 42 Mbps. However, Telstra advises that customers using a Telstra Ultimate USB modem in enabled coverage areas will experience real-world download speeds up to 20 Mbps.
http://www.sierrawireless.com

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Ceragon Notes Mobile Backhaul Order from Leading Indian Carrier

Ceragon Networks announced new orders for its advanced FibeAir platforms from a leading Indian operator. Ceragon's equipment will be deployed in a number of circles to facilitate the operator's network expansion. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.ceragon.com

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Voltaire Packs 48 ports of 10GbE in Top-of-Rack Switch

Voltaire Ltd. introduced a low-latency, high-performance Layer 2/3 top-of-rack switch optimized for cloud computing. The new Vantage 6048 switch features 48 ports of 10GbE line rate connectivity in a 1U box. It provides non-blocking switching throughput of 960 Gbps, low latency and power consumption of 6.3 watts/port. to deliver superior application performance as well as data center efficiency.


Voltaire said the combination of its existing Vantage 8500 Layer 2 core switches and new Vantage 6048 switches enables customers to build flat data center fabrics of more than 3,400 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports with non-blocking, lossless switch fabric capacity of 69.12 Terabits per second. The company offers Unified Fabric Manager (UFM) software that orchestrates the fabric as a single logical switch, enforcing fabric-wide service policies, providing real-time fabric flow level monitoring, and simplifying fabric administration across many physical and virtual switching elements.
http://www.voltaire.com

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UNH-IOL Hosts IEEE 1588 Precision Time Plugfest

The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) will host a plugfest for interoperability testing of devices in compliance with the Precision Time Protocol IEEE 1588-2008 standard.


The Precision Time Protocol Interoperability plugfest, which will take place September 27 -- September 29 at the UNH-IOL's 32,000+ square foot facility in Durham, N.H., will be held in association with the 2010 International IEEE Symposium on Precision Clock Synchronization (ISPCS) for Measurement, Control and Communication. The Symposium immediately follows the plugfest on September 29 -- October 1 in Portsmouth, N.H..
http://www.iol.unh.edu

• In May 2010, the UNH-IOL IEEE 1588 Consortium was launched and is currently accepting founding member companies. Consortium members have access to a comprehensive test bed that supports the entire spectrum of profiles under the IEEE 1588-2008 standard resulting in a cost effective and efficient way to ensure interoperability.

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Equinix Plans $63M Data Center in Hong Kong

Equinix announced plans to build its second International Business Exchange (IBX) data center, HK2, in Hong Kong. The new $63 million facility will provide total capacity for more than 1,450 cabinet equivalents and the first phase is targeted for opening in the third quarter of 2011.
http://www.equinix.com

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Intel Confirms Acquisition of Infineon Wireless

Intel announced its intention to acquire Infineon's Wireless Solutions Business, called WLS, in a cash transaction valued at approximately $1.4 billion. The deal expands Intel's current Wi-Fi and 4G WiMAX portfolio to include Infineon's 3G capabilities. Intel said the acquisition also accelerates its entry into LTE.



Intel plans to integrate the Infineon's wireless technology in its Intel Core processor-based laptops and Intel Atom processor-based devices, including smartphones, netbooks, tablets and embedded computers.


"The global demand for wireless solutions continues to grow at an extraordinary rate," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "The acquisition of Infineon's WLS business strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy -- Internet connectivity -- and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options from Wi-Fi and 3G to WiMAX and LTE."


Infineon said the deal enables it to concentrate its resources towards growth in its core segments Automotive (ATV), Industrial & Multimarket (IMM) and Chip Card & Security (CCS). The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.
http://www.intel.com
http://www.infineon.com

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Financial Times: YouTube Seeks Pay-per-View Hollywood Films

Google is in talks to stream Hollywood content as a pay-per-view service from its YouTube site, according to a widely circulated report from the Financial Times.


Earlier this year, the company unveiled plans for its own GoogleTV set-top-box that would layer Internet data over video from regular TV or cable service.
http://www.ft.com

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The Australian: Doubts over National FTTP

With the government of Australia remaining in caretaker mode following the recent elections, uncertainty is growing over Labor's $43 billion National Broadband Network. The Australian newspaper reports that one of the side-effects has been chaos in new commercial and residential property projects, where developers are unclear as to whether they will soon have fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure provided by NBN Co. or not.

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Financial Times: Private Investors Considered for NSN

Nokia and Siemens are discussing investments with private equity firms into their joint venture, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), according to the Financial Times. NSN's recent deal to acquire Motorola and thus gain a bigger share of the North American market is seen as an inducement to attract more equity and partners in the firm.
http://www.ft.com

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Two Minute Video: Carrier Ethernet Service Engineering

Presented by Mark Showalter, Extreme Networkshttp://www.extremenetworks.com

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Sigma Designs Reports Revenue of $73M, up 12%

Sigma Designs, which provides silicon solutions for set-top boxes, reported Q2 revenue of $73.3 million, up $8.1 million, or 12%, from $65.2 million reported in the previous quarter and up $22.0 million, or 43%, from $51.3 million reported for the same period last year. GAAP net income for the second quarter was $0.5 million, or $0.02 per diluted share. This compares to GAAP net income of $1.1 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, for the previous quarter and $4.8 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, in the same period last year. In Q2, Sigma wrote off $5.2 million associated with a strategic investment in a privately held company which reduced Sigma's net income after taxes for the quarter by approximately $0.10 per diluted share.


"We are pleased to report over $73 million in revenue for the second quarter, representing more than 12% growth over our first quarter, with contributions from all three of our primary business segments. Our largest increase came from sales in our IPTV media processor segment, representing the bulk of this quarter's growth, and reflecting a fundamentally strong market. Connected media players were also up this quarter and continue to provide a substantial revenue contribution, demonstrating the popularity of consumer products such as network players that enable Internet access for playback of over-the-top content. Likewise, revenues from our Home Connectivity Business Group were up, largely a result of our continued leadership in all-wire network solutions. Moving forward, we are continuing to pursue major design wins in our current market segments with special initiatives for penetrating the hybrid IP Cable set-top box industry and the increased adoption of Z-Wave based home control solutions," stated Thinh Tran, chairman and chief executive officer, Sigma Designs.
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/IR

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Time Warner Cable to Launch SPEED2 Sports Channel for Broadband

Time Warner Cable is preparing to launch a broadband service that aggregates live and on-demand streaming of motor sport events and enthusiast programming. SPEED2 will launch nationally for Time Warner Cable Sports Pass subscribers (formally known as Time Warner Cable Sports Tier) -- at no additional charge -- on August 29. A complement to the offerings of the linear SPEED network, a FOX Sports property, SPEED2 allows motor sports enthusiasts to view racing content from any Internet based connection (wired or wireless), at home or on the go.
http://www.timewarnercable.com

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IBM Acquires Sterling Commerce from AT&T

IBM completed its acquisition of Sterling Commerce from AT&T for approximately $1.4 billion in cash. AT&T, which acquired Sterling Commerce in 2000, expects to record a one-time pretax gain of approximately $800 million in the third quarter of 2010.


Sterling Commerce provides software for cross-channel commerce and integration of customer, partner and supplier networks across a wide range of industries.


"In combination with IBM's existing offerings, Sterling Commerce, Coremetrics and Unica are expanding IBM's ability to help companies automate, manage and accelerate core business processes across marketing, selling, order management and fulfillment," said Craig Hayman, general manager, IBM Industry Solutions.


AT&T said the divestiture is consistent with its focus on developing and providing a full portfolio of networking-based solutions and services, including network- and cloud-based data storage and managed hosting, application and computing services, to its business customers.


AT&T also stated that it remains committed to its strategic alliance with IBM, its largest customer, to provide a unified set of telecommunications and computing services to multinational corporations across the globe.
http://www.ibm.com
http://www.att.com

• The deal was first announced in May 2010.

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Nortel to Sell Multi Service Switch Business for $39 million

Nortel Networks will sell its Multi Service Switch business to private investors for US$39 million in cash.
The deal includes Nortel's North America, Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) and Asia Multi Service Switch (MSS) business and the assets of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) portion of its MSS business. The buyer is PSP Holding LLC, a special purpose entity to be fully funded at closing by Marlin Equity Partners and Canadian based Samnite Technologies Inc.


Nortel's MSS business consists of its Data Packet Network and Shasta product groups and associated intellectual property. Nortel expects all MSS employees would have the opportunity to continue employment with PSP as envisioned by the sale agreement.

Commenting on the announcement, John Luszczek, General Manager of Nortel's MSS business said: "Today's announcement is welcome news to all MSS customers, suppliers, partners and employees. The proposed transaction represents a clear and positive step forward and is a testament of our continued commitment to innovation and customer support that resulted in the creation of the business value evident by today's announcement. Throughout this process we will remain focused on providing our customers with the highest level of service, support and responsiveness that they have come to expect."
http://www.nortel.com

• In 1999, Nortel Networks acquired Shasta Networks, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, for $340 million in stock and cash. Shasta has developed a new class of service-enabling gateways and subscriber policy management systems for the "subscriber edge" of business IP networks.

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SK Telecom Selects ALU's MPLS-TP Packet Optical Backhaul

SK Telecom, Korea's largest mobile service provider, has selected Alcatel-Lucent's packet optical transport solution to upgrade its nationwide wireless data network. The project, which is currently being deployed, will increase backbone capacity for the delivery of its WiFi and WiBro services. In addition, it will support SK Telecom's WCDMA traffic and lay a solid foundation for LTE-based services.


Alcatel-Lucent's packet optical transport solution is based on its 1850 Transport Service Switch (TSS) and is managed by its 1350 Optical Management Suite (OMS). Featuring T-MPLS/MPLS-TP, the Alcatel-Lucent 1850 TSS provides a graceful evolution path to packet backhaul in support of all mobile generation from 2G/3G to LTE-based 4G. MPLS-TP provides an evolution path from SONET/SDH-based networks to packet transport networks by enabling convergence between the transport and service routers.


Alcatel-Lucent noted that major global service providers, including BT, China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo have selected this solution for their mobile backhaul and transport networks.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Royalty-Free End-User Licensing for H.264 AVC Internet Video

MPEG Licensing Authority has decided to extend royalty-free licensing to end-users of the H.264 video codec (known as "Internet Broadcast AVC Video") during the entire life of this License. MPEG LA previously announced it would not charge royalties for such video through December 31, 2015.


MPEG LA's AVC Patent Portfolio License provides access to essential patent rights for the AVC/H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10) digital video coding standard.


In addition to Internet Broadcast AVC Video, MPEG LA's AVC Patent Portfolio License provides coverage for devices that decode and encode AVC video, AVC video sold to end users for a fee on a title or subscription basis and free television video services. AVC video is used in set-top boxes, media player and other personal computer software, mobile devices including telephones and mobile television receivers, Blu-ray Disc™ players and recorders, Blu-ray video optical discs, game machines, personal media player devices and still and video cameras.
http://www.mpegla.com

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