Polycom Conferences In Cisco Telepresence Systems

Polycom is building interoperability between its unified communications (UC) systems and other vendors' solutions, including the closed Cisco telepresence systems based on the Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP). The announcement heralds the opening of hitherto closed telepresence platforms. Polycom plans to support interoperability with Cisco TIP beginning in Q2 2011.


Polycom said its UC Intelligent Core platform will soon enable customers to deploy multi-vendor UC solutions and protect their investments in legacy third-party systems.


"Cisco customers have told us for years that they've been imprisoned by a closed telepresence platform that builds a wall around their UC environment and keeps out non-Cisco users. Today, all that changes," said Andrew Miller, CEO, Polycom. "With its unparalleled support of open standards, the Polycom UC Intelligent Core solution liberates these customers and gives them more options for collaborating and expanding their UC environments than ever before, without having to sacrifice their existing systems. Breakthroughs like this are fundamental to our vision of UCEverywhere."http://www.polycom.com

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ARRIS Sees Drop in Q4 Revenue and Income

ARRIS reported Q4 2010 revenue of $266.2 million as compared to Q4 2009 revenues of $300.0 million, and as compared to Q 2010 revenues of $274.3 million. Full year 2010 and 2009 revenues were $1,087.5 million and $1,107.8 million, respectively. GAAP net income in the fourth quarter 2010 was $0.09 per diluted share, as compared to fourth quarter 2009 GAAP net income of $0.26 per diluted share and third quarter 2010 GAAP net income of $0.11 per diluted share.


"Fourth quarter financial results closed in line with our expectations and we continued to strengthen our balance sheet during the quarter," said Bob Stanzione, ARRIS Chairman & CEO. "ARRIS continues to invest aggressively in new IP based video products as the industry moves towards a convergence of conventional TV and IP based TV. In the meantime, internet traffic continues to grow, which will create ongoing demand for both our existing and new products as well."


During the quarter the Company announced its highly-anticipated downstream module upgrade, significantly increasing the downstream density of the DOCSIS(R) 3.0 C4 CMTS. DOCSIS 3.0 was introduced initially in 2008 on the C4 CMTS with a 16 downstream channel single slot Cable Access Module (CAM). With this second generation DOCSIS 3.0 capability, the capacity of the 16D CAMs can be increased to 32 Annex B or 24 Annex A downstream channels.


"We are off to a good start in 2011. With respect to the first quarter 2011, we now project that revenues for the Company will be in the range of $260 to $280 million, with adjusted net income per diluted share in the range of $0.14 to $0.18 and GAAP net income per diluted share in the range of $0.05 to $0.09," said David Potts, ARRIS EVP & CFO. http://www.arrisi.com

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SingTel Posts 6% Growth Driven by Mobile

Singapore Telecommunications' (SingTel's) revenue rose strongly by 6 percent to S$4.70 billion in the third quarter, led by revenue growth in Singapore and Australia. The stronger Australian dollar helped to lift revenue.


The Singapore business reported a 7 percent increase in revenue to S$1.63 billion with growth across major revenue streams led by mobile. In Australia, revenue rose 4 percent to A$2.38 billion, driven by continued mobile growth despite an increasingly competitive market. Mobile across Singapore and Australia now comprises 43% of total revenue, up 1.5 percentage points from the same quarter a year ago.


Overall, EBITDA came in at S$1.80 billion -- down 1.2%. The underlying net profit was S$968 million -- down 2.2%. Excluding the effects of Bharti Africa, underlying net profit was stable.
http://www.singtel.com

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PAETEC to Acquire XETA Technologies

PAETEC agreed to acquire XETA Technologies, which sells enterprise communications gear, for $5.50 per share in cash valued at approximately $61 million. XETA is among the largest full-service, providers of advanced communications solutions with 32 locations and redundant 24/7 customer contact and data network operating centers. At the time of the Avaya and Nortel merger, XETA was the only national provider with the highest accreditations from both companies, and will expand on those relationships with PAETEC's existing platinum partnership with Avaya.


XETA will become part of PAETEC's robust Managed Services portfolio, consisting of products such as hosted services, service lifecycle management software and Allworx IP-PBXs.


"This transaction highlights our strategy to increase our capabilities to service enterprise CIOs beyond traditional telecom products with advanced managed services and cloud computing solutions," said Arunas A. Chesonis, chairman and CEO of PAETEC.
http://www.paetec.com

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WSJ: Clearwire to Focus on Wholesale Model

Clearwire will focus on wholesale broadband wireless and abandon its retail programs, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move is seen as benefiting Sprint, the largest shareholder in Clearwire, which offers competing 4G service over the same WiMAX network.
http://www.wsj.com

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Cisco's Sales Growth Slows to 6%

Cisco reported net sales of $10.4 billion for its second quarter, ended 29-Jan-2011, net income on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis of $1.5 billion or $0.27 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.1 billion or $0.37 per share. Revenue was up 6% compared to a year earlier, however net income fell nearly 18% compared to a year ago. Earnings per share came in at $0.27, down 16% from a year earlier, but ahead of market expectations. In its previous fiscal quarter, Cisco reported net sales of $10.75 billion, up 19% compared to a year earlier.


Cisco said it is in a period of architectural transition. Sales of switching equipment was down 7% compared to a year earlier. The company said it saw some softness in public sector spending, but was pleased overall with its momentum in major categories.


"The quarter played out as we expected. Our strategy of tightly integrating our multiple products through an architectural approach is working, and we are delivering innovation in each major product family," said John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco. "As a company, we are going through a period of transition as we move aggressively in the market with our architectural strategy. We have managed these market transitions many times, positioning Cisco and our customers for success. Simply put, we are owning our evolution and the next generation of industry leadership."


Some highlights for the quarter:

• Compared to a year earlier, enterprise sales were up 10%, public sector sales were up 7%, Service Provider sales were up 9%, commercial sales were up 11% and consumer sales were down 15%.



• Revenue growth in New Products category up 15% y/y, Data Center up 59%, Collaboration up 37% and Wireless up 34% y/y.



• Cash flows from operations were $2.6 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2011, compared with $2.5 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2010, and compared with $1.7 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2011.



• Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $40.2 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2011, compared with $39.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2010, and compared with $38.9 billion at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2011.



• During the second quarter of fiscal 2011, Cisco repurchased 89 million shares of common stock under the stock repurchase program at an average price of $20.15 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $1.8 billion.



• Headcount at the end of the period was 72,935 compared to 65,874 a year earlier.

http://www.cisco.com

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Verizon Wireless Completes First IMS-based VoLTE Call

Verizon Wireless completed the first IMS-based VoLTE (Voice over LTE) call over its commercial network on at 9:54 a.m. ET Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011.



The initial call was placed by Balaji Raghavachari, manager of technology for Verizon Wireless, using a LG Revolution 4G smartphone from Verizon headquarters in Basking Ridge, N.J. The call was received by Sanyogita Shamsunder, director of technology for Verizon Wireless, who was also on a LG Revolution 4G smartphone in Basking Ridge. The initial call was 33 seconds in duration. The participants were were able to browse the Web and use other data services while participating in voice calls. Subsequent test calls lasted more than 10 minutes.



Verizon Wireless plans to enhance VoLTE with rich communications services and optimize performance on its commercial 4G LTE network during 2011. Commercial services are expected to be available in 2012.



"The GSMA launched a voice over LTE initiative a year ago with the aim of driving a single, industry-wide solution for voice and messaging services via IP," said Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer at the GSMA. "We commend Verizon Wireless for helping to make this a reality by conducting the world's first voice call over a commercial LTE network. The progress made by the GSMA, its members, and in particular Verizon Wireless, to enable this functionality will play a crucial role in driving strong momentum and vast economies of scale for LTE all over the world."http://www.verizonwireless.com/LTE

• In November 2010, at Mobile Asia Congress 2010, ZTE demonstrated IMS-based Voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls running CSL's LTE network in Hong Kong and its existing mobile networks. The calls finished between IMS clients as well as IMS client and conventional 2G/3G handsets.



• The GSMA's VoLTE initiative is based on IMS (IP multimedia subsystem), which supports voice call service features such as call waiting, call hold and call barring, and is highly scalable to serve very large subscriber bases. IMS also provides mobile operators with the ability to offer services that can integrate voice calls with enhanced, rich features such as presence, instant messaging and video content, delivered in an interoperable and multi-operator environment. Fall back mechanisms to circuit-switched voice services over existing 2G/3G networks is also being worked on.

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Cavium, Kontron and Tata Elxsi Demo LTE eNode B

Cavium Networks Kontron and Tata Elxsi will showcase an LTE eNodeB solution at next week's Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona based on Cavium OCTEON II multi-core processor as part of Kontron's open standard hardware running Tata Elxsi's LTE eNodeB L2/L3 software stack. The joint solution offers 3GPP Release 8 compliant LTE Layer 2 and Layer 3 processing that is capable of delivering up to 450 Mbps of aggregate throughput from a single AdvancedMC module featuring the OCTEON II CN6335 cnMIPS64 6-core processor.



The Cavium OCTEON II CN63XX processor family provides up to 9GHz of compute with a large 2MB L2 cache, DDR3 memory controller, security acceleration for SNOW 3G and KASUMI, TCP/IP, DPI, QoS and packet processing acceleration. Maximum power ranges from 7 to 17 watts from low-end to high-end. The OCTEON II processors have been designed into a range of tier-1 OEM systems ranging from eNodeB to packet-core platforms and services rich wireless infrastructure gateways.



The Kontron AM4211 ATCA Mezzanine Card (AMC) module can be configured with ATCA node blades and MicroTCA platforms (Picostation, Microstation to Macrostation). It is designed to support 1x 10GbE to the front and software configurable interfaces to the Fabric with either 2x PCIe x4 or SRIO which expands its application usage when configuring systems in combination with standards based third-party Digital Signal Processing (DSP) AMCs.



For control plane functions the Kontron AM4211 provides GbE on Ports 0 and 1 connected to the CN6335 processor and is fully software compatible with previous generation Kontron AMC packet processing modules, AM4204, AM4210 and AM4220, all based on OCTEON Plus processors from Cavium Networks. It is configurable with the Kontron MicroTCA 1U carrier-grade platform OM6061.



Tata Elxsi has architected its LTE eNodeB L2/L3 protocol stack to leverage the advanced hardware acceleration capabilities available in Cavium's OCTEON II multi-core processors, thereby delivering market-leading performance and scalability. The Tata Elxsi L2/L3 protocol stack also exploits the ability of the Cavium OCTEON II to support multiple virtual operating systems including Linux and Simple Executive to accelerate data plane performance.http://www.caviumnetworks.com

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Netronome Appoints New CEO and CFO

Netronome, which specializes in network flow processors, named Howard Bubb as its new president and CEO and Perry Grace as CFO. Bubb most recently served as chairman and chief executive officer of fabless semiconductor company Ambric until its acquisition by Nethra in 2009. Previously, he held executive management positions at Intel including corporate officer and vice president of Intel's $1.7B Communications Infrastructure Group (CIG) which led the industry in network processors, embedded application processors, 10G optical modules and modular communications platforms. Bubb joined Intel through its acquisition of Dialogic, where he was CEO. Bubb replaces Netronome founder and CEO, Niel Viljoen, who has been responsible for the company's technology vision, and who will now become chief development officer.



Perry Grace joins Netronome from Zilog, Inc., a microcontroller company, where he served as the company's chief financial officer and executive vice president since 2001. During his time at Zilog, Grace led the company to a successful IPO in 2004 and was responsible for leading the finance, IT, legal, facilities and human resources functions. Prior to Zilog, Grace spent 12 years at National Semiconductor Corporation.http://www.netronome.com

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NSN Tests LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation

Nokia Siemens Networks has conducted tests of LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation on its commercial Flexi Multiradio Base Station.



Carrier aggregation is a key feature of LTE-Advanced that enables operators to create larger "virtual" carrier bandwidths for LTE services by combining separate spectrum allocations. The benefits of this aggregation include higher peak data rates and increased average data rates for users.



"We saw an increase in LTE data rates of 90% using a combination of 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands, a scenario relevant to the spectrum allocations of many operators," said Thorsten Robrecht, head of Network Systems product management, Nokia Siemens Networks. "The demonstration underlines our holistic approach to LTE and LTE-Advanced where research and IPR activities are well aligned with product development, targeting real and relevant opportunities for network operators."



The demonstration was conducted at Nokia Siemens Networks' LTE Center of Excellence in Ulm. The LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation demo will also be shown at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.http://www.nsn.com

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Nokia Siemens Networks Launches LTE Certification

Nokia Siemens Networks is launching a training and certification program focused on end-to-end LTE solutions in multi-vendor environments. The company aims to roll out the program to customers and third party IT professionals in the second quarter of 2011.



Nokia Siemens Networks offers four levels of accreditation within the LTE solution certification program - Associate, Specialist, Professional and Expert.



In the first two months of its rollout within the company, hundreds of Nokia Siemens Networks engineers and sales people have been certified. Examinations are conducted by industry-leading, independent test centers to verify the LTE expertise achieved. The company expects to increase its number of certified employees to 4,500 by the end of 2011.http://www.nsn.com

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MetroPCS Launches Samsung LTE Android Smartphone

MetroPCS Communications introduced the world's first commercially available 4GLTE enabled Android smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Indulge.




MetroPCS' $50 and $60 4GLTE smartphone service plans, which include all applicable taxes and regulatory fees, provides unlimited talk, text and 4G LTE Web page browsing, along with data access to streaming audio, video and gaming content, downloads and Android applications.



Customers can watch and listen to exclusive entertainment and multimedia content from their favorite shows through the MetroSTUDIO application. The Samsung Galaxy Indulge is the second LTE-enabled mobile phone offered by MetroPCS, following the Samsung Craft TM which was introduced in late 2010. The Galaxy Indulge will be available in MetroPCS stores and online later this week with a suggested retail price of $399 plus tax.http://www.metropcs.com

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KT Picks Alcatel-Lucent for Next Gen IP Edge Network

KT is replacing its legacy best effort infrastructure with a new IP edge network based on Alcatel-Lucent's 7750 Service Router (SR). The new infrastructure will converge all services onto a common, scalable, service aware network allowing KT to streamline its current network operations and derive significant savings in both capital and operational expenses. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Alcatel-Lucent said that by leveraging the advanced Hierarchical-Quality of Service (H-QoS) and embedded routing intelligence (DPI) capabilities of the 7750 SR, KT will be able to offer compelling new services to its customers such as the Application Assured L2/L3 VPNs and IPsec security services.



"This achievement demonstrates we have strong leadership in IP solution area in global market including APAC region" said Rajeev Singh-Molares, president of Alcatel-Lucent's activities in Asia-Pacific. "We will be dedicated to enhancing KT's infrastructure and helping KT provide the differentiating, converged services to its business customers."http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Akamai Posts Q4 Revenue of $284.7 million, up 12% Sequentially

Akamai Technologies reported Q4 revenue of $284.7 million, a 12 percent increase over third quarter revenue of $253.6 million, and a 19 percent increase over fourth quarter 2009 revenue of $238.3 million. Total revenue for 2010 was $1,023.6 million, a 19 percent increase over 2009.

http://www.akamai.com

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Kazakhtelecom Tests 100G with Alcatel-Lucent

Kazakhtelecom, Kazakhstan's leading operator, in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent, has tested a 100 Gbps optical network connection linking the cities of Almaty and Taldykurgan. In this trial, Kazakhtelecom used the Alcatel-Lucent 1626 Light Manager enhanced with 100G next-generation coherent technology through the 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS). Designed to address the booming demand for more bandwidth driven by video streaming, web applications and cloud services, Alcatel-Lucent's single-carrier, next-generation coherent technology offers unprecedented resilience to optical transmission impairments across the network. The solution deployed is part of Alcatel-Lucent's Converged Backbone, a key domain of the Alcatel-Lucent High Leverage Network™ (HLN) architecture.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com http://www.telecom.kz

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Cavium's NITROX DPI L7 "Bump in the Wire" Processor Hits 40 Gbps

Cavium Networks unveiled its next generation NITROX DPI II family of L7 content processors offering deep packet inspection across millions of definable rules at 40 Gbps.


The NITROX DPI II is a "bump-in--the-wire" single chip deep packet inspection processor designed for a range of enterprise, data center, and 3G/4G infrastructure equipment requiring fine grain content processing at wire speed. DPI processing enables advanced functions, such as protocol analysis, application recognition, intrusion prevention, anti-malware protection, URL Filtering, unified threat management, antivirus gateways, subscriber charging, application aware QOS and service level agreements, usage monitoring and preventing denial of service.


The new NITROX DPI II chip is enabled by Cavium's Hyper Finite Automata (HFA) engines and optimized TurboDPI software. It can be used in both inline and coprocessor modes. In coprocessor mode it connects over its in-built PCI Express interface to offload general purpose processors i.e. x86, MIPs or PowerPC based systems that lack such advanced hardware DPI engines.


The HFA engines in CN18XX family support highly complex rules and can process millions of rules without any performance impact. The NITROX DPI II family is fully software and rule syntax compatible with the DPI engines in Cavium's OCTEON II processor family and the NITROX DPI CN17XX family offering a wide variety of scalable and compatible system design options to customers.


"Our new NITROX DPI II product line further extends our reach into 'bump-in-the-wire' and coprocessor designs where power, space and real estate budget previously limited the ability to add complex deep packet inspection features," said Rajneesh Gaur, GM of the Coprocessors & Adapters Group, Cavium Networks. "Now OEMS building switches, routers and WAN appliances can more easily add DPI functionality."http://www.caviumnetworks.com

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Qualcomm's FlashLinq Peer-to-Peer Targets Proximal Communications

Qualcomm is introducing "FlashLinq" technology that helps mobile users easily discover and establish peer-to-peer communications with others in close proximity. The idea is to let users continuously connect, disconnect and communicate directly with other mobile users at broadband speeds based on their physical proximity.


Qualcomm describes FlashLinq as a synchronous TDD OFDMA technology operating on dedicated licensed spectrum and distinguished by its high discovery range (up to a kilometer), discovery capacity (thousands of nearby devices) and distributed interference management. Users would communicate in a peer-to-peer link, without any intermediary radios, towers or switches. The company believes this technology will be complementary to the services offered by mobile operators.


"FlashLinq's direct discovery and distributed communications allows operators to naturally extend their cellular networks. The technology can efficiently support new and enhanced services in areas such as direct local advertising, geo-social networking and machine-to-machine communications," stated Ed Knapp, senior vice president of business development and engineering for Qualcomm. Qualcomm plans to collaborate with SK Telecom to trial FlashLinq in South Korea and explore potential commercial uses.
http://www.qualcomm.com

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Qualcomm and Continuous Computing Team on 3G Femtocells

Qualcomm has selected Continuous Computing's Trillium wireless protocol software to support Qualcomm's Femtocell Station Modem (FSM) product line for 3G Wireless small cell products. The combined solution offers a quick time-to-market for low-power and high-capacity base stations for residential, enterprise and metro applications.
http://www.ccpu.com

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AirWalk Raises $10 Million for Small Cell Radios

AirWalk Communications, a start-up based in Richardson, Texas, raised a further $10 million of Series B funding for its small cell radio products.


AirWalk offers a range of CDMA femtocells, enterprise femtocells, picocells, metrocells and microcells, with LTE products in the pipeline.


The new funding was led by Sevin Rosen and included investors: TL Ventures, Alta Berkeley, Duchossois Technology Partners and Nedelco Inc.
http://www.airwalkcom.com

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FCC Proposes Reforms to USF and Intercarrier Compensation

The FCC proposed reforms to universal service and intercarrier compensation policies with a goal of transforming 20th century programs into a streamlined, efficient Connect America Fund that would help make broadband available and affordable to rural communities.


USF is intertwined with the complex system of payments between carriers called intercarrier compensation (ICC). The system is rooted in outdated distinctions between local and long-distance telephone service, and inefficient per-minute charges. ICC also suffers from loopholes that distort markets and derail investment in advanced Internet Protocol (IP) networks.


The NPRM proposes four key principles to guide reform:

• Modernizing USF and ICC To Support Broadband Networks. Modernize and refocus USF and ICC to make affordable broadband available to all Americans and accelerate the transition from circuit-switched to IP networks, with voice ultimately one of many applications running over fixed and mobile broadband networks.



• Ensuring Fiscal Responsibility. Control the size of USF as it transitions to support broadband by combating waste and inefficiency. The Commission recognizes that American consumers and businesses ultimately pay for USF.



• Demanding Accountability. Require accountability from companies receiving support, to ensure that public investments are used wisely to deliver intended results. Government must also be accountable for the administration of USF, including through clear goals and performance metrics for the program.



• Enacting Market-Driven and Incentive-Based Policies. Transition to market-driven and incentive-based policies that encourage companies to maximize the impact of scarce program resources and the benefits to all consumers.

The NPRM proposes immediate steps to cut waste, reward efficiency, and close loopholes. Long-term proposals call for simplifying and unifying USF into a single, streamlined Connect America Fund, and gradually eliminating per-minute intercarrier charges.

During the process launched today, the FCC will hold a series of public workshops on key issues in its reform proposals. These workshops, in addition to submissions of written comment, will provide ample opportunity for public input to improve and refine the proposals in the NPRM as the Commission moves toward an Order on these issues.

Specific proposals in the NPRM include:

Eliminate waste and inefficiency throughout the current program.

• Transition funding for duplicative phone service by multiple phone companies operating in the same area to provide support where it's most needed.



• Impose reasonable limits and guidelines for reimbursement to providers that have little incentive under our current subsidy system to operate efficiently.



• Review continued need for funding mechanisms that have not been reevaluated in many years.


Use savings to spur investment in high-speed Internet in unserved areas.



• Identify unserved areas using the forthcoming National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) national broadband map.



• Create the Connect America Fund to quickly and efficiently deliver support to unserved areas.



• Use market-based policies to support providers in a technology-neutral manner, targeting areas where broadband funding will have the biggest impact.



• Ultimately, streamline and consolidate the five separate Universal Service Fund programs that support rural phone networks into the Connect America Fund. This will constrain spending and bring fixed and mobile broadband to unserved areas while preserving voice service for all, creating jobs and fueling economic growth.

Stimulate investment in broadband by reforming the Intercarrier Compensation system.

• Eliminate wasteful billing disputes by closing loopholes and tightening rules to prevent "phantom traffic," which is traffic that has been disguised so it can't be identified for billing purposes.



• Amend rules to reduce "traffic pumping," a practice that drains revenues from the system by exploiting existing rules to earn more intercarrier compensation. Reclaimed revenues could be invested in networks or used to reduce prices for consumers.



• Gradually reduce per-minute Intercarrier Compensation charges. These charges create incentives for carriers to maintain legacy networks that maximize intercarrier revenues rather than investing in advanced, efficient IP-based infrastructure.



• Develop a system to offset reductions in intercarrier rates, including, where necessary, support from the Connect America Fund.

Increase accountability for recipients and for government, and more effectively measure program performance.

• Adopt clear performance goals and metrics for the Connect America Fund.


• Require increased disclosures about the operating performance and financial condition of companies that receive universal service support.


• Increase transparency, oversight, and accountability.

http://www.fcc.gov

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