Comcast Extends Technical Support for all Connected Devices

Comcast launched a new 24x7 technical support and equipment protection program for consumers needing help with the growing number of home electronics devices – like laptops, home networking equipment, gaming consoles, Wi-Fi enabled smart phones and tablets – that are connecting to Comcast's services.


Comcast Xfinity Signature Support offers customers a single source for troubleshooting and support for their connected devices. Customers can select an enhanced level of technical support with monthly subscription plans and one-time support options. The service is offered in addition to the 24x7 support Comcast already provides for its video, high-speed Internet and phone services.
http://www.comcast.com
http://www.xfinity.com/signaturesupport

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Cisco Prices $4 Billion of Senior Unsecured Notes

Cisco announced the pricing of three series of senior unsecured notes for an aggregate principal amount of $4 billion. The offering is expected to close on March 16, 2011.Of these notes, $2.0 billion will mature in March 2014 and will bear interest at an annual rate of 1.625%, $1.25 billion will mature in March 2014 and will bear interest at a floating rate equal to three-month LIBOR plus 25 basis points, and $750 million will mature in March 2017 and will bear interest at an annual rate of 3.150%.


Cisco intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes.
http://www.cisco.com

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Nokia Siemens Networks Selected for Qinghai-Tibet Power Grid

Nokia Siemens Networks has been selected to supply optical transmission gear for the Qinghai-Tibet power grid, which is the largest construction project in the region. Nokia Siemens Networks will provide its Surpass hiT 7065 DWDM and Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP). The company will also supply its all-in-one Transmission Network Management System to optimize State Grid's network operations through centralized control and supervision. Services including installation, project management and system integration form an essential part of the overall scope of the project.
http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Clearwire's CEO Steps Down

Bill Morrow resigned as CEO and as a director of the board of Clearwire, citing personal reasons. He is being replaced on an interim basis by John Stanton, chairman of Clearwire's board of directors and former CEO of Western Wireless and VoiceStream Wireless. Stanton will continue to serve in his role as board chairman.


Clearwire also announced the following management changes. Erik Prusch, Clearwire's CFO, has been promoted to the newly created position of chief operating officer (COO). In this position, Prusch will be responsible for the company's day-to-day operations, including wholesale and retail sales, marketing, customer service, supply chain, human resources, IT and network operations. In addition, Hope Cochran, Clearwire's senior vice president and treasurer, has been promoted to the position of CFO. Cochran will be responsible for all of the company's financial and investor related functions, including overseeing Clearwire's ongoing fundraising efforts.


The company also announced that Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer, and Kevin Hart, CIO, are both leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.


In a statement, Clearwire said these changes in executive leadership are not expected to impact the company's progress on an agreement with Sprint to resolve wholesale pricing disputes. Clearwire believes that an agreement with Sprint is imminent.
http://www.clearwire.com

• Craig O. McCaw resigned as Clearwire's Chairman of the Board of Directors on December 31, 2010.

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U.S. Congress: Proposed Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011

A new "Wireless Tax Fairness Act of 2011" has been introduced in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives and co-sponsored by over 140 Representatives and Senators.


The proposed bill provides for a 5-year moratorium on any new discriminatory wireless tax or fee. It does not take away any existing revenue from state or local governments, it simply caps the current taxes and fees.


"Wireless Tax Fairness Act, is about expanding access and innovation in our nation's wireless broadband market," noted Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who represents much of Santa Clara County, California. "By freezing wireless taxes and fees, we hope to spur additional consumer driven development in wireless broadband and to increase access to advanced wireless networks. This legislation is about stabilizing the wireless and giving consumers the opportunity to choose services based on the merits and not on the changing rate of taxation."


"In light of today's challenging economic conditions, it is hard to understand why the average wireless consumer is being charged more than 16 percent in taxes and fees when other taxable goods and services are only 7.4 percent. When you add the fact that policymakers are looking for ways to make affordable broadband accessible for all Americans, it's incomprehensible why 47 states and the District of Columbia charge their wireless consumers a rate that exceeds the general rates for other taxable goods and services," stated CTIA-The Wireless Association President and CEO Steve Largent.
http://www.ctia.org http://lofgren.house.gov

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Dell'Oro: PON Market Surges to Record, Driven by China

The PON market posted record revenues of almost $800 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. The report shows that the continued upward trajectory of the market was driven largely by growing fiber deployments in China.



The top three GPON vendors in the fourth quarter were Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, and Ericsson. While Chinese vendor, Huawei, remained the top PON supplier in its domestic market, non-Chinese vendors Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson also derived substantial portions of their fourth quarter GPON revenues from shipments to China. Alcatel-Lucent benefited from being a leading supplier for Verizon's FiOS, which also accounted for a significant 15 percent of total GPON revenues.



"We estimate that China accounted for more than half of total GPON revenues in the fourth quarter," said Tam Dell'Oro, President of Dell'Oro Group. "Chinese operators initially utilized EPON when fiber deployments began a couple of years ago, but have increasingly utilized GPON over the last several quarters. We now expect that GPON will become the leading PON technology in China within the next few years due to its higher bandwidth capabilities and functionality," Dell'Oro added.http://www.delloro.com

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HP Claims 50% Improvement in Energy Efficiency of Products since 2005

HP has reduced the energy consumption of its products by 50% compared to its offerings in 2005. This is nine months ahead of the aggressive energy-reduction goals made by the company in 2009.



HP also unveiled energy savings research and analysis showing that if all makes and models of printers, notebook and desktop PCs, displays and servers shipped in 2005 were recycled and replaced with new HP energy-efficient models, customers could save approximately $10.4 billion in energy costs, and avoid more than 40 million metric tons of CO2 emissions within a year. http://www.hp.com/go/unlocking

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FiberTower Loses a Key Wireless Backhaul Customer

FiberTower, which provides wireless backhaul service for U.S. mobile operators, reported Q4 2010 service revenue of $20.5 million, up 22% compared to $16.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2009. Average monthly revenue per deployed site net of ETL increased 15% to $2,049 in the 2010 fourth quarter from $1,789 in the 2009 fourth quarter. Deployed sites grew 5% to 3,276 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010 from 3,117 at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009.



However, FiberTower recently announced that it received an early termination notice from a customer, which resulted in the February 28, 2011 disconnection of approximately 220 billing locations and reduced monthly billing revenue by approximately $256,000. The customer is now reviewing approximately 50 additional locations, which generate monthly billing revenue of approximately $88,000, for possible termination on March 31, 2011.



Kurt Van Wagenen, FiberTower's president and chief executive officer, stated, "We have taken immediate actions to reduce costs, including a 10% headcount reduction, to offset this financial impact without compromising continued consistent execution and excellent customer service. While we are not issuing 2011 financial guidance because of the uncertainty described above, we expect to remain Adjusted EBITDA positive in 2011 by continuing to add revenue and control costs. We are planning a $10 to $15 million capital program for 2011, focused on meeting existing customer commitments, supporting customer bandwidth growth, increasing density in existing markets and maintaining our network. The combination of our cash on hand, cost reductions and a more modest 2011 capital budget is designed to offer us sufficient liquidity this year." http://www.fibertower.com

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NSN Carries 100 Gbps across 4000 km Submarine Cable

Nokia Siemens Networks announced the transmission of 100 Gbps line rate over a record 4,000 km span of undersea cable. The trial of the Submarine Line Terminal Equipment (SLTE) solution was performed over a submarine segment between Florida and Puerto Rico for a major submarine cable network. As part of the demonstration, Nokia Siemens Networks also achieved 40G DWDM transmission over a distance of 9,000 km.

Nokia Siemens Networks' SLTE solution based on its hiT 7300 platform increases the capacity of the already deployed undersea cable links by adding 40G and 100G DWDM channel and bandwidth management capabilities to support current and future network requirements. Nokia Siemens Networks' SLTE solution with new transmission capacities of 40G and 100G will be commercially available this year.

"Our global customers are faced with a continuous need to expand their installed network capacity to keep up with the tremendous increase in traffic requirements," said Pathmal Gunawardana, head of Transport Networks business unit, North America, Nokia Siemens Networks. "As we support them in terrestrial network expansions, it made perfect sense to do the same for their global networks as well, which often include submarine cable links. While terrestrial networks increase capacity, these submarine cable links often remain a bottleneck."http://www.nsn.com

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NSN's Acquisition of Motorola Wireless Networks Awaits China's Approval

Nokia Siemens Networks and Motorola Solutions announced a further delay in NSN's pending acquisition of Motorola's wireless networks infrastructure assets. Originally announced on July 19, 2010, the deal is still pending anti-trust approval from the Chinese regulatory authorities. The companies said the closing will not be completed in the first quarter of 2011 as previously targeted.


The proposed acquisition has entered phase three of the review process with the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce in China (MOFCOM).


Nokia Siemens Networks said it remains committed to the acquisition but will provide no further guidance on when it is likely to be completed. Motorola said it also remain committed to the deal.
http://www.nsn.com
http://www.motorola.com

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Devicescape Tracks Consumer Demand for Wi-Fi Services

Devicescape, which works with device manufacturers and service providers to enable easy WiFi connectivity, published the results of a broad consumer survey into wireless connectivity preferences.


Key findings from the "Q1 2011 Devicescape WiFi Report" showed:

• Eighty percent of respondents believe 24/7 connectivity has improved their lives, and almost 90 percent of respondents like feeling connected while on the go.



• The majority of respondents (80.5 percent) prefer to shop at retail outlets that offer WiFi.



• More than 65 percent of respondents would take advantage of a WiFi zone in a retail store to sign up in real time for club cards, free memberships and coupons.



• WiFi availability and pricing have no real significance when choosing an airline, according to 55.3 percent of respondents.



• Reduced data plan costs are not enough to entice 50.3 percent of iPhone and Android enthusiasts to switch brands.



• When cash flow is strained, almost 60 percent of respondents say paying for a gym membership takes a backseat to paying for their smartphone.

The survey queried a cross-section of Devicescape's members — a group of 1,088 respondents that includes a variety of professionals and students.

"Connectivity is simply critical to everyday life, as evidenced by the demand for WiFi in our homes, shopping centers, airports, businesses, parks, cafés — you name it," said Dave Fraser, CEO of Devicescape. "Wherever there is a need to interact with another human, there is a need for connectivity. This is why such importance is placed on how we deliver that connectivity — whether over 3G or WiFi."http://www.devicescape.com

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Aircell Outlines Upgrades to its Gogo Inflight Connectivity

Aircell, which offers the Gogo Inflight Internet service, will enhance its existing Air-to-Ground (ATG) technology via a next generation version of ATG (ATG-4) as well as Ka-band satellite technology. Specifically, the Gogo Inflight Internet service will be supported by:

• Air-to-Ground (ATG): Aircell's ATG-based service will continue to use EV-DO Rev. A.



• ATG-4: Aircell's ATG-4 service will significantly enhance the existing ATG network and improve per aircraft capacity by approximately four times current performance through the addition of Directional Antenna, Dual Modem and EV-DO Rev. B technologies. ATG-4 is scheduled for commercial delivery beginning in the first half of 2012. This new platform is backward compatible and allows for upgrades to existing ATG systems through low cost retrofits.



• Ka-band satellite: Aircell's Ka-band satellite technology will provide additional capacity to supplement what is available through ATG, ATG-4 and current generation satellite technology, as well as enable Gogo service beyond the continental United States (CONUS). Based on satellite launch and antenna development schedules, Aircell expects its Ka-band technology to be available for CONUS in 2013 and globally by 2015. Aircell expects many aircraft to take advantage of its unique and proprietary ability to integrate air-to-ground solutions with satellite solutions for better performance, enhanced features and higher reliability.

These technology options will be selectable at the aircraft or fleet level and enable attractive solutions for every airline, aircraft and mission.


In the business aviation market, Aircell currently offers three different inflight technologies, including Iridium Satellite, Inmarsat SwiftBroadband (satellite) and Gogo Biz™ (ATG). Specific details about ATG-4 and Ka-band Satellite technologies for the business aviation market will be released in the coming months.
http://www.gogoinflight.com

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Dell'Oro: Wireless LAN Market Reached Record Level in 2010

The worldwide Wireless LAN (WLAN) market achieved a record high in 2010 as revenues grew 25 percent to surpass $5 billion, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. The report also shows that the small office, home office (SOHO) segment surpassed $3 billion, while the Enterprise WLAN segment grew at its fastest rate since 2006 to exceed $2 billion in 2010.


According to the report, the following vendors each posted full-year 2010 WLAN revenue growth that exceeded 40 percent: Alcatel-Lucent, Aruba, Belkin, NETGEAR, Tropos, and ZyXEL.


"The enterprise WLAN segment has now seen seven straight quarters of revenue growth, having pushed its way over the $500 million mark for the first time in the third quarter of 2010, and then over the $600 million mark in the fourth quarter," stated Loren Shalinsky, Senior Analyst of Wireless LAN research at Dell'Oro Group. "Enterprise WLAN vendors recognized continued strength from the education and healthcare vertical segments, but also saw a corresponding rise from their general enterprise sales as well. We believe this to be another sign of the continued importance of wireless LAN to companies' networking infrastructures, and of a worldwide economy that is on the upswing. Almost all enterprise WLAN vendors had at least modest quarterly revenue gains in the fourth quarter, but Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and Aruba each posted quarterly revenue gains of more than 10 percent," added Shalinsky.

http://www.delloro.com

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NetApp to Acquire LSI's External Storage Systems Business for $480 Million

NetApp has agreed to acquire LSI Corporation's external storage systems business for $480 million in cash.


The business develops and delivers Engenio external storage systems products and technology to a wide range of partners that provide storage solutions to end customers. It generated revenues of $705 million in 2010.


The LSI RAID adapter business, which develops LSI MegaRAID and 3ware storage controllers and software for direct-attached storage environments, will remain with LSI.


"NetApp will build upon the success of the Engenio storage platform and OEM business model to expand our total addressable market and extend our market reach," said Tom Georgens, NetApp president and CEO. "We're excited about the talented team that will join NetApp and the valuable OEM partner relationships we're committed to supporting and making successful."http://www.netapp.com

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Extreme Networks Appoints Meyercord as Chairman, Replacing Gordon Stitt

Extreme Networks appointed Edward Meyercord as its independent Chairman of the Board, succeeding the company co-founder, Gordon Stitt. Meyercord joined the Extreme Networks board in October 2009 and also serves on the compensation committee. In addition to his role as Chairman of the Extreme Networks board of directors, Mr. Meyercord is the CEO and co-founder of Critical Alert Systems, LLC, a provider of wireless communications and technology solutions in the healthcare industry and also serves on the Board of Tollgrade Communications, Inc.



Gordon Stitt, co-founder of Extreme Networks and the prior Chairman, recently completed an 18 month assignment as a consultant to the company, working on data center market development.http://www.extremenetworks.com

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JDSU Expands 40/100G Portfolio

JDSU released a new set 40G and 100G optical components, including:

• 40G QPMZ Modulators supporting DP-QPSK coherent detection


• 40G Coherent Receivers supporting DP-QPSK coherent detection


• 40G DDMZ Modulators supporting DPSK direct detection


• 40G DPMZ Modulators supporting RZ-DQPSK direct detection


• 100G QPMZ Modulators supporting DP-QPSK coherent detection


• 100G Coherent Receivers supporting DP-QPSK coherent detection

JDSU said it is able to leverage in-house fabrication capabilities in Indium Phosphide, planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) and Lithium Niobate materials for these components.
http://www.jdsu.com

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Finisar Stock Drops 39% Following Weakened Outlook from China

On Tuesday, Finisar reported record revenue $263.0 million for its third fiscal quarter ended 30-January-2011, exceeding the revenue guidance. The company said revenue growth was driven primarily by demand for 40 Gbps transponders, wavelength selective switches (WSS) and ROADM line cards. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was a record $0.47, at the top end of our prior guidance of $0.45 to $0.47 per share, and would have been $0.48, except for the impact of our common stock offering in December 2010.



"We achieved new company records for quarterly revenues, non-GAAP operating income and non-GAAP net income during the quarter. Our revenues for WSS/ROADM line card products grew 22.7% from the second quarter," said Eitan Gertel, Finisar's Chief Executive Officer."



However, looking ahead to this quarter, Finisar said it is being impacted by the full three months of the annual price negotiations with telecom customers that typically take effect on January 1, the 10-day long shutdown at certain customers for Chinese New Year in February, the adjustment of inventory levels at some telecom customers, particularly for products which had previously been on allocation and long lead times, including WSS and ROADM line cards, and a slowdown in business in China overall.



Primarily as a result of these factors, Finisar currently expects revenues for the fourth quarter to be in the range of $235 to $250 million. On a GAAP basis, operating margin is expected to be in the range of approximately 10 to 12%. http://www.finisar.com

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Hurricane Electric Scales its IPv6 Backbone with Brocade

Hurricane Electric now claims to operate the largest IPv6 Internet backbone in the world, measured by the number of networks connected. As of January 2011, the company had 1,200 IPv6 networks connected to its IPv6 backbone.



Brocade supplies IPv6-enabled switches and routers in Hurricane Electric's geographically distributed network. Specifically, Hurricane Electric has deployed the Brocade NetIron XMR Internet core router and Brocade MLXe core routers to future-proof its global network and multiple data centers, including its 200,000 square foot colocation facility in Fremont, California.http://www.brocade.com http://www.he.net

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NSN Carries 400 Gbps Line Rate with FlexiGrid

Nokia Siemens Networks has demonstrated FlexiGrid in its hiT 7300 DWDM platform that enabled it to carry a 400 Gbps transmission over a distance of 600 km.



At present, the channel spacing is hard wired and 50GHz by default . FlexiGrid dynamically adapts the wavelength grid to the needs of high-capacity transport channels, enabling speeds as high as 400G and beyond.



The trial was conducted at Nokia Siemens Networks' R&D lab in Munich, Germany.



Nokia Siemens Networks used FlexiGrid and advanced digital signal processing for this demonstration. Once the solution is commercialized, it will allow 400G evolution for operators' current 10G/40G or 100G DWDM multi-haul hiT 7300 platform and Next Generation Packet Optical Transport Solution (P-OTS). In addition, the increased utilization of fiber capacity will drive down costs.



"With the increase in network traffic outgrowing revenue coupled with 100G reaching the limits of spectral efficiency, operators are looking to evolve their network beyond 100G," said Uwe Fisher, head of optical networks product management at Nokia Siemens Networks. We have now reached another milestone, which demonstrates that our hiT 7300 paves the way for operators to easily upgrade their optical data transport networks and allow them to flexibly balance between speeds above 100G and the fiber length along with improving the efficiency of their fiber infrastructure."http://www.nsn.com

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Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs Shows 256 Gbps Line Rate

Alcatel-Lucent announced a number of innovations that make it possible to transmit data at significantly higher bit rates and over significantly longer distances by leveraging a number of innovations, including applying higher-order signal modulation to achieve greater spectral efficiencies; heightening the sensitivity of optical receivers to a point approaching their fundamental limit; exploiting new multimode transmission to increase the capacity of optical networks by orders of magnitude.



Highlights of the announcement:



Doubled spectral efficiencies -- enabling a per line transmission rate of 256 Gbps over a distance of 400 kilometers by using 64-QAM modulation.



Record modulation/receiver sensitivity -- reduces by half the number of photons needed to transmit information and achieves a record degree of sensitivity by applying an advanced 16-ary-pulse-position-modulation scheme.



New multimode fiberr -- promising the potential to increase the capacity of a single fiber strand by an order of magnitude.



Fully-integrated optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) generator -- based on photonic integrated circuits using Indium Phosphide(InP).
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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