Wazco Presents Multi-Sector LTE MetroCell

Wazco, in conjunction with Interphase, AirHop Communications, and DataSoft Corporation, presented its MetroStorm and MetroStorm Cluster small-cell base stations for LTE operators.


The Wazco Multi-Sector MetroStorm consists of a single self-contained fully-integrated enclosure, hosting up to 4 coordinated sectors, powered via standard interfaces available on street lights, power poles or other similar devices. The company said its approach does not rely on MIMO, beam-forming and other antenna techniques which require each path to have its own set of RF hardware. The Wazco MetroStorm utilizes an innovative approach – each of its sector's power amplifiers are an integral part of the active antenna array, allowing up to four of its sector arrays to be self-contained within a single enclosure, removing the need for bulky cabinetry or additional equipment.


"Wazco's groundbreaking LTE MetroStorm provides everything needed to quickly deliver a first-of-its-kind, high-performance, well-differentiated small-cell base station to the LTE mobile-infrastructure market," said Mike Nasco, CEO and Co-founder of Wazco. "Bringing these industry leaders together provides a truly innovative, self-contained, self-organizing, self-optimizing, street-level network element."


"Our team's deep experience in RF innovation, specifically RF isolation management, RF shaping expertise and enclosure design have been leveraged to deliver more coverage, bandwidth, throughput, and user density per base station than other small-cell designs," commented, Ravindra Noubade, CTO and Co-founder of Wazco. "This has enabled Wazco to quickly develop a highly-innovative, 700 MHz LTE MetroStorm Antenna Array architecture, facilitating the sleek, aesthetically pleasing, self-contained, rapidly-deployable MetroStorm design demanded by both carriers and city managers."http://www.wazco.com
http://www.airhopcomm.com

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DIRECTV Deploys Amdocs Mediation Software

DIRECTV, which is a long-term Amdocs customer, has deployed Amdocs Mediation software to support its growing number of partnerships with service providers that bundle DIRECTV video services into their offerings.


Amdocs Mediation software allows DIRECTV to capture more revenue from reseller agreements, and give consumers the choice to receive DIRECTV products via a larger number of channels and bundles spanning wireline, wireless and Internet services.


Amdocs Mediation analyzes the service data from both DIRECTV and partner systems, expanding DIRECTV's auditing and error-handling capabilities for large volumes of data.
http://www.amdocs.com

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VMware to Acquire Shavlik for Cloud-based IT Management

VMware will to acquire Shavlik Technologies, a provider of cloud-based IT management solutions for small and medium businesses (SMBs), for an undisclosed sum.


Shavlik Technologies provides on-premise and SaaS-based management solutions that enable SMBs to more effectively manage, monitor and secure their IT environments while addressing their unique needs when moving to virtual and cloud computing IT deployments.


VMware already provides a SaaS offering based on Shavlik. The service helps with the deployment and management of VMware vSphere.
http://www.vmware.com
http://www.shavlik.com

• Shavlik Technologies is headed by Mark Shavlik. The company was founded in 1993 and is based in New Brighton, MN.

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Ceragon Posts Quarterly Revenue of $100 million

Ceragon Networks reported Q1 2011 revenue of $100.3 million, up 68% from $59.7 million for the first quarter of 2010, and up 50% from $67.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. The results include the recently acquired Nera Networks.Net loss in accordance with US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for the first quarter of 2011 was $21.4 million or $(0.60) per basic share and diluted share, compared to net income of $3.0 million in the first quarter of 2010, or $0.09 per basic and $0.08 per diluted share.


"We are happy to conclude another strong quarter," said Ira Palti, President and CEO of Ceragon. "Revenue from traditional Ceragon customers in the quarter accounted for about 70%, making it another record quarter for our core business, and the revenue contribution from Nera Networks customers since the January 19th closing was in line with our expectations.


Geographical breakdown, first quarter of 2011:


Europe: 22%

Africa: 18%

North America: 13%

Latin America: 15%

India: 15%

APAC: 17% http://www.ceragon.com

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Shenick Shows Cloud Application Flow Testing

Shenick Network Systems introduced a virtual per-flow test solution for cloud computing environments.



Shenick's diversifEye VM can emulate and analyze real time IP traffic in cloud environments right down to each individual application flow, leading to highly granular issue identification and a quicker time to resolve problems. All tests can be carried out in a virtualized mode. The end result is virtualized network performance that is better understood and more reliable with greater visibility of virtual IP networks.



demand on the network infrastructure and has resulted in serious problems for network operators who need to assess the performance and capabilities of these virtual networks quickly," said Kevin Glavin, CTO, Shenick. "So-called 'Bit-blast' testing is just not enough anymore. Service sophistication is migrating onto the virtualised environment. Services such as firewalling, load balancing and IDS/IPS are being deployed within the virtualization infrastructure so test tools are needed that can work within these environments without requiring physical test ports. Using diversifEye and diversifEye VM all these test scenarios can be covered. It also gives vendors an easy migration path, where they can use existing hardware with just a software upgrade to diversifEye VM."http://www.shenick.com

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Comcast Intros Metro Ethernet in 20 U.S. Markets

Comcast introduced Metro Ethernet services targeted at mid-sized businesses with 20 - 500 employees in 20 markets across the U.S.



Comcast Metro Ethernet services are delivered using the company's fiber-based IP network at rates from 1 Mbps up to 10 Gbps that can be remotely scaled in increments of 1 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps.



Three different classes of service are offered. Comcast has three certifications from the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF 9, 14 and 18), which are backed by strict service level agreements, and monitored 24x7x365 from Comcast's dedicated Network Operations Centers.



Comcast Metro Ethernet Services:

Ethernet Private Line Service – point-to-point connectivity between two customer sites for bandwidth-intensive applications.



Ethernet Virtual Private Line Service – a point-to-multipoint connection that allows customers to tailor bandwidth, performance characteristics and cost to meet the needs of their applications.



Ethernet Network Service – multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity to connect organizations with high-bandwidth requirements and multiple locations across Comcast's network.



Ethernet Dedicated Internet Access Service – continuous, high-bandwidth connectivity between customers' LANs and the public Internet.



"Our fiber-rich network powers our Metro Ethernet services and provides a secure, reliable and cost-effective solution for mid-sized businesses' data needs," said Bill Stemper, President of Comcast Business Services. "Metro Ethernet is quickly overtaking T1 and other legacy services as the preferred technology for business communications. Just as broadband supplanted dial-up in consumers' homes, our new Metro Ethernet services are designed to help businesses compete and win using our fast and scalable digital platform."



Comcast currently provides Metro Ethernet services in the following markets: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Harrisburg (Pa.), Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, state of New Jersey, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington D.C. and western New England. Additional markets will be launched on an ongoing basis.http://business.comcast.comIn May 2011, Comcast introduced Metro Ethernet services targeted at mid-sized businesses with 20 - 500 employees in 20 markets across the U.S.
Comcast Metro Ethernet services are delivered using the company’s fiber-based IP network at rates from 1 Mbps up to 10 Gbps that can be remotely scaled in increments of 1 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps.



Three different classes of service are offered. Comcast has three certifications from the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF 9, 14 and 18), which are backed by strict service level agreements, and monitored 24x7x365 from Comcast’s dedicated Network Operations Centers.



Comcast Metro Ethernet Services:

Ethernet Private Line Service – point-to-point connectivity between two customer sites for bandwidth-intensive applications.



Ethernet Virtual Private Line Service – a point-to-multipoint connection that allows customers to tailor bandwidth, performance characteristics and cost to meet the needs of their applications.



Ethernet Network Service – multipoint-to-multipoint connectivity to connect organizations with high-bandwidth requirements and multiple locations across Comcast’s network.



Ethernet Dedicated Internet Access Service – continuous, high-bandwidth connectivity between customers’ LANs and the public Internet.



"Our fiber-rich network powers our Metro Ethernet services and provides a secure, reliable and cost-effective solution for mid-sized businesses’ data needs,�? said Bill Stemper, President of Comcast Business Services. “Metro Ethernet is quickly overtaking T1 and other legacy services as the preferred technology for business communications. Just as broadband supplanted dial-up in consumers’ homes, our new Metro Ethernet services are designed to help businesses compete and win using our fast and scalable digital platform."



Comcast currently provides Metro Ethernet services in the following markets: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Harrisburg (Pa.), Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, state of New Jersey, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington D.C. and western New England. Additional markets will be launched on an ongoing basis.

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Italy's LightNet Picks ADVA

LightNet, an association of educational and research institutions in Italy's Trieste territory, has deployed ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 to enable new collaboration, medical and scientific applications. ADVA Optical Networking's carrier-class, 40 Gbps DWDM connectivity and dynamic bandwidth allocation within and among LightNet's diverse roster of 10 member institutions, as well as to Italy's and neighboring countries' national research and education networks (NRENs) and the commercial



ADVA Optical Networking partner is Telecom Italia SpA.

"Multi-site computation and data mining, virtual laboratories, digital libraries, distributed learning and telemedicine are just some of the critical applications enabled by our optical-networking solutions in research-and-education networks around the globe," said Stephan Rettenberger, vice president of marketing with ADVA Optical Networking. "This first generation of LightNet is already transforming the scope and capabilities of the Italian research-and-education community, and our FSP 3000 provides a flexible, scalable foundation for ongoing growth in both its number of network users and the innovative ways that LightNet is employed."http://www.advaoptical.com

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Lonestar Education and Research Network Deploys ADVA

Lonestar Education and Research Network (LEARN) has deployed ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 DWDM platform to extend its metro solutions in Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, Texas, and has named the FSP 3000 as its platform-of-choice for future network expansion. LEARN is a consortium of K-12, colleges, universities, research, healthcare and public-service institutions in the state of Texas.

"ADVA Optical Networking has a proud tradition of supporting the research-and-education community," stated Stephan Rettenberger, vice president of marketing at ADVA Optical Networking. "We've strengthened our partnership with LEARN through the delivery of innovative solutions that provide OPEX savings with increased functionality. With the decision to deploy the R7 version of the FSP 3000, LEARN can support the ongoing drive for bandwidth from its future-focused member base."http://www.advaoptical.com

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NTT Raises CAPEX Forecast for 2011

NTT is forecasting FY2011 CAPEX of 1,950.0 billion yen, representing an increase of 79.9 billion yen from FY2010. Increased spending is expected in FTTH -- 300 billion yen compared to 295 billion yen for last fiscal year. Spending at NTT DoCoMo will hit 705 billion yen, up from 668.5 billion yen for last year. CAPEX at NTT Communications is also expected to make a significant jump to 136.0 billion yen, up from 115.3 billion yen in FY 2010.

The company's over CAPEX-to-Sales ratio is forecast to be 18.5% for FY 2011, compared to 18.1% last year and 19.5% in FY 2009.


http://www.ntt.co.jp/news2011/1105ezqg/rhqy110513.html

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NTT Bolsters its Global Business Unit

In light of its recent strategic alliance and merger & acquisition activities, NTT will elevate the role of its Global Business Strategy Office. Under a new corporate structure, the department will now report directly to the president. NTT will also change the name of its department to Global Business Office. http://www.ntt.co.jp

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NBN Co Selects Fujitsu Australia for $100M Contract

NBN Co has appointed Fujitsu Australia Limited as its prime alliance partner to deliver fibre infrastructure under a contract valued at over $100M for the first 12 months. Fujitsu will manage the design, construction and associated works for the deployment of fibre to new developments. The company was chosen because it has "the capacity and scale of operations to meet NBN Co's unique requirement for the deployment of fibre to a large number of discrete locations across the country simultaneously."


NBN Co CEO, Mike Quigley said: "Since 1 January 2011 NBN Co has received more than 1,480 applications from developers of new estates, representing approximately 133,000 premises to be connected across Australia. These applications are submitted for individual stages of developments, but due to different construction timeframes and housing demand, fibre deployment will be spread over a period of up to three years. NBN Co will work with developers to deploy fibre as and when it is needed."http://www.nbnco.com.au

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Ericsson Forecast: Network Equipment Market Growing 3-5%

In an investor's briefing held last week in New York, Ericsson executive presented the following observations:

• The total telecom market based on operator OPEX and CAPEX in 2010 estimated to US$223 billion.



• The total network service provider equipment market in 2010 was an estimated to US$94 billion with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 3-5% 2010-2013.



• Mobile networks market (excluding WiMax, site material and OSS) will have a compound annual growth rate estimated at 6-8% 2010-2013.



• Ericsson's market share in mobile networks (excluding WiMax) is approximately 32%.



• Total addressed global telecom services market in 2010 grew to an estimated to US$96 - 101 billion, with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 6-8% 2010-2013.



• Ericsson's market share is estimated at 11%.



• By year-end 2011, Ericsson expects more than 80% of its radio product deliveries will be RBS 6000.

http://www.ericsson.com

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DOCOMO Adds Two LTE Data Terminals

NTT DOCOMO unveiled its 2011 summer lineup of 24 new mobile devices for launch on or after May 20, including nine Android smartphones, plus a wide variety of feature phones compatible with DOCOMO's i-mode mobile Internet platform, as well as mobile Wi-Fi routers for DOCOMO's Xi (read "Crossy") LTE extra-high-speed service.



The company said LTE service will expand to include Japan's six largest urban metropolises by July and other large cities including prefectural capitals by March 2012.http://

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Singapore's M1 to Complete LTE Network in Q1 2012

Singapore-based M1 expects to complete the rollout of an LTE network island-wide by Q1 2012.



Huawei has been awarded a five year contract, valued at S$280 million, to provide the turnkey LTE solution for M1. This will include installation of macro base stations, distributed base stations and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), for M1's island-wide next generation network.



"We are building an advanced world class mobile network which will truly enhance the wireless internet experience for our customers, and cater to the increasing demands of future mobile devices and applications," commented Ms Karen Kooi, Chief Executive Officer, M1 Limited.



Huawei's President of wireless product line, Mr David Wang Tao said: "It is a great privilege for Huawei to be M1's partner in the deployment of the region's first commercial LTE network. With our innovative end-to-end solution, Huawei is fully committed to make this network deployment a success."http://www.huawei.com http://www.m1.com.sg

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Ericsson's Smart Services Router to Offer Multi-Application Blades, Caching

Ericsson's next generation Smart Services Router (SSR) is on-target for introduction later this year, said Georges Antoun, Head of Product Area IP & Broadband. The platform, which is being developed at Ericsson's Silicon Valley R&D center, will offer a capacity of 16 Tbps per system and feature 20 slots with 400 Gbps full-duplex capacity each.



Ericsson's Smart Services Router is being designed to scale in several dimensions -- scalability in subscribers, scalability in bandwidth, scalability in signaling, and scalability in the number of applications.



The Smart Services Router (SSR) is being positioned as a "multi-application" platform for advanced services on both fixed access and broadband wireless access. Specific blades will deliver processing power for applications, including: video (caching), mobility (mobile gateway), business and residential services with powerful DPI and policy enforcement.



Ericsson said the SSR will handle the onslaught of video traffic by support uni-cast and multicast, by implementing intelligent subscriber policy management functionality, and by offering built-in CDN capabilities. Ericsson has a partnership project underway with Akamai, although product plans have not been disclosed.



The company expects that operators deploying the SSR will "recognize new revenue opportunities through rapid deployment value-added services and user experience optimization. They can also reduce operational costs through functional consolidation, unified management, and low energy consumption".



Some other items of note from last week's Ericsson Business Innovations Forum in Silicon Valley:





Ericsson demonstrated an OpenFlow-based "Split Architecture", where end-to-end MPLS paths are used for access aggregation. The goal of this research project, which leverages work underway at Stanford, is to separate the control and data planes so that lighter-weight, programmable switches can be used instead of routers. This demo used Ericsson's EDA 1500 and SEA20 platforms, along with a Tilera programmable softswitch. The Tilera platform leverages 64 cores and offers 50- 100 Gbps of capacity for handling 100k to 1 million flow entries. While OpenFlow has initially been directed at data center switching, Ericsson said future versions of the spec could be opened up for Metro applications and integration with MPLS.



Ericsson's Innova Program is seeing some early success. Ericsson Innova encourages employees to bring forth new ideas. The program rapidly provides the employees with development time and light funding. In the past few months, thousands of ideas have come, a few hundred have gotten approval, a few dozen will get serious development support, and perhaps a handful will make it to product status.




Ericsson is working with Stanford University on a "MobiSocial" project aimed at a new way to run social networking without giving up your privacy.http://www.ericsson.com

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TeliaSonera Launches New Looks Across its 18 Divisions

TeliaSonera launched a new purple logo and branding that will be used across its 18 global brands: Netcom and NextGenTel (Norway), Telia (Denmark), Telia (Sweden), Sonera (Finland), EMT and Elion (Estonia), Omnitel (Lithuania), TeliaSonera, TeliaSonera Finans and TeliaSonera International Carrier, Kcell (Kazakhstan), Geocell (Georgia), Ncell (Nepal), Tcell (Tajikistan), Azercell (Azerbaijan), Moldcell (Moldova), and Ucell (Uzbekistan).


"The purple colour differentiates us as we will be the only operator on the international telecoms scene using it. I personally like the colour very much as we can 'own' it, and it is modern, warm and unique in many ways," says Cecilia Edström, Head of Group Communications, TeliaSonera.


In addition, TeliaSonera lowered data roaming prices for customers in the Nordic and Baltic countries by approximately 90 percent. With the new prices, a customer surfing on a mobile phone pays SEK 29 for 20 MB per day.
http://www.teliasonera.com

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Korea's LG UPLUS Picks Ericsson for LTE

LG U+, a Korean wireless service provider, has selected Ericsson for its LTE commercial service network. The deployment will be able to support the existing CDMA and 4G LTE mobile service concurrently.


Ericsson will be responsible for building LTE network in Seoul and will supply Evolved Packet Core network, LTE base stations and optical repeaters for access and transmission. The project will start in May this year and be completed in 2012.


LG-Ericsson is Ericsson's local presence in Korea.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Fon Tops Four Million Wi-Fi Hotspots

There are now over four million Fon hotspots available to users worldwide. The number has grown by 30% since the beginning of the year.


"Four million hotspots is an amazing figure and proof that the Fon model works. Together with the spike we are seeing–one million new hotspots this year alone–the Fon network is achieving the footprint and rapid growth we have dreamed of," said Martin Varsavsky, Fon CEO and founder.


Fon's partners include BT, MTS Russia, SFR France, SoftBank Japan and ZON Portugal.
http://www.fon.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Teams with Polaris Wireless and Thales Alenia for Positioning Solutions

Alcatel-Lucent is partnering with Polaris Wireless and Thales Alenia Space to offer an advanced solution for mobile device geographic positioning.



The Alcatel-Lucent Positioning Solution (ALPS) utilizes a range of technologies to support Location Based Services (LBS), public safety, emergency services, and other applications that rely on accurate location information.



Polaris Wireless provides a highly-accurate, software based location solution capable of locating mobile devices across all air interfaces and all environments, including urban areas and indoors.



Thales Alenia Space is also a key partner and a worldwide player in satellite navigation systems and provide ubiquitous Located Based Solutions with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) assistance with data quality, dynamic location technique selection and hybridization, along with a strong availability for highly reliable applications.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com http://www.polariswireless.com

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BT Revenue Slides 3%, Profits Up

BT reported quarterly revenue of £5,055m, down 6% compared to year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 3% to £1,551m. Total group operating costs were reduced by 8% to £4,367m, as the company continued to trim expenses. Revenue for the full fiscal year ended 31-March-2011 was £20,076m, in line with the company's published outlook.



"We have consolidated our position as the leading provider of broadband in the UK with our highest quarterly share of DSL broadband net additions for eight years. BT Global Services order intake was up 10% at 7.3bn pounds Sterling and it has turned cash flow positive a year ahead of plan. Openreach saw growth in its copper line base in the year, reversing historic trends. Our roll out of super-fast broadband is one of the most rapid in the world, passing an average of 80,000 additional premises each week and we have plans to roughly double the speed of our fibre-to-the-cabinet based service in 2012," stated Ian Livingston, Chief Executive.http://www.btplc.com

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