AT&T and Union Agree to One Year Wireline Contract Extension

AT&T and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers reached an agreement on a one-year contract extension covering nearly 7,000 core wireline employees. The agreement extends all terms of the current contract without modification until June 22, 2013. Most of the IBEW employees covered under the contract are members of IBEW Local 21 and are in Illinois and northwestern Indiana; the rest are spread across the country.
http://www.att.com

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FBI Opens Criminal Investigation into ZTE Shipments to Iran

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into whether ZTE shipped U.S.-made networking components and surveillance equipment to Iran.  According to various news sources, including Reuters, The Washington Post and The Smoking Gun, various documents have emerged, including a shipping manifest, related to a $130 million sales contract between ZTE and the Telecommunications Company of Iran.  Equipment reportedly includes systems from Cisco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Juniper, Microsoft, Oracle and Symantec.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/fbi-probes-zte-iran-deal-645912
http://www.washingtonpost.com/

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Nationwide Public Safety LTE Demonstration Conducted by Harris

Harris conducted the first live, multi-state demonstration of 700 MHz Band LTE for first responders. Users at multiple sites across the United States tapped into the LTE network to share streaming video, voice, mapping and presence to support various simulated mission-critical surveillance operations.


Harris has provided 700 MHz Band LTE pilot programs to key public safety organizations including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Miami-Dade Police Department. With these programs, officers there have been experiencing Harris’ LTE capabilities — such as presence, real-time video, mapping, data applications, and voice and messaging. In addition, Harris has Band 14 LTE Radio Access Networks (RAN) on the air and operating at its Chelmsford, Mass. location and in Rochester, New York. All the locations are connected to the Harris LTE core in Chelmsford.


The demo used the Harris BeOn application, which possesses the full feature set of Project 25.  Officers in Chelmsford coordinated the efforts of three vehicles simulating surveillance scenarios in the field. Chelmsford participants viewed the presence of remote users in Las Vegas, Miami-Dade and Rochester, as well as a streaming video feed from dash cams mounted on cars representing local public safety agencies.


Harris said this public safety LTE demo was the first of its kind – connecting “pilot” programs around the nation over 700MHz spectrum. This and ongoing “pilot” programs support public safety agencies’ exploration of the potential power of a nationwide LTE network – designated for emergency responders – while also helping to ensure that Harris network capabilities and equipment are field-tested to meet the future needs of emergency responders.
http://www.harris.com

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SK Telecom Tests LTE-Advanced with eICIC, CoMP and CA

Credit SK Telecom Investor Presentation, May 2012

SK Telecom expects to be among the first mobile operators worldwide to commercialize LTE-Advanced in its network during 2013.

SK Telecom, in collaboration with Qualcomm and Nokia Siemens Networks, recently tested a core LTE-Advanced technology called 'Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) that coordinates signal interference between macro and pico base stations. eICIC is gaining importance as more and more micro base stations are being built in traffic concentrated areas to accommodate explosive data traffic growth, thereby aggravating inter-cell interference.

To demonstrate the technology, SK Telecom, Nokia Siemens Networks and Qualcomm created an environment where the strength of micro base station signals being transmitted to mobile devices was weaker than that of nearby macro base signals, resulting in signal interference. Then, they applied eICIC to prove that it can actually control the interference and stabilize data communications.

The companies also succeeded in showing that the technology is capable of offloading data traffic by adjusting the coverage of micro base stations based on the level of data traffic concentration in macro and micro base stations. As commercial base station equipment has been used for the demonstration, the companies are expecting to achieve early commercialization of eICIC.

SK Telecom noted that it now holds the record of demonstrating the three core technologies needed to usher in the era of LTE-Advanced: eICIC, Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) and Carrier Aggregation (CA). The company successfully demonstrated CoMP at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011 and CA at MWC 2012.

CoMP is a technology that prevents base station interference and abrupt call disconnections in coverage boundary areas by enhancing signal strength, the lack of which leads to a significant drop in data transmission speed, and CA is a technology that provides twice or faster data rates by utilizing multiple frequency bands at the same time.

SK Telecom expects to commercialize eICIC in the second half of 2013 to control signal interference and effectively offload data in downtown areas that experience heavy data traffic so as to provide customers with a mobile data service with greater speed and stability.

The company commercialized CoMP, for the first time in the world, in January 2012, after adjusting the technology to suit the current LTE system, and plans to achieve early commercialization of CA in the second half of 2013.

The operator will deliver LTE using both existing 800MHz frequency band (20MHz) and the 1.8GHz band (20MHz) it newly acquired last year. With an additional 20MHz uplink/downlink spectrum, it is now using a total of 40MHz for its LTE services. SK Telecom has launched a pilot service for multi-carrier in May 2012 and began full-fledged commercialization on July 1 to ensure a more stable and faster LTE service based on twice wider frequency bandwidth than its competitors. CA realizes data rates of up to 150Mbps by combining the speeds of 800MHz (75Mbps) and 1.8GHz (75Mbps) frequency bands.

SK Telecom is also working with Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to develop next-generation LTE technologies. http://www.sktelecom.com 12-Jul-12

• In June, SK Telecom commercialized world's first LTE Femtocell to provide stable LTE call quality in underground, buildings and data traffic concentrated areas. With LTE Femtocell, customers can use high speed, premium quality LTE services anywhere, anytime.
• In May 2012, Ericsson announced that SK Telecom, South Korea's largest operator, had signed a contract for LG-Ericsson to provide the LTE network including LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core as well as support services including engineering, design, deployment and support services. The LTE radio access network will make use of Ericsson's Operation Support System for Radio & Core (OSS-RC) and RBS 6000 base stations. The contract, which covers commercial launch of LTE services in some of Korea's major cities - including Busan and Daegu, makes Ericsson one of the operator's main partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
• In January 2012, SK Telecom achieved the world's first commercialization of Advanced-SCAN (Smart Cloud Access Network), an upgraded version of SCAN, which has been developed to enhance LTE speed and coverage. Advanced-SCAN uses virtualization technology to ensure four times better call quality in base station boundary areas, thereby improving the overall LTE coverage and speed.

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ADTRAN Reports Tighter Carrier Spending in Q2

ADTRAN reported Q2 sales of $183,998,000 compared to $184,227,000 for the second quarter of 2011. Net income was $21,070,000 for the quarter compared to $36,943,000 for the second quarter of 2011. Earnings per share, assuming dilution, were $0.33 for the quarter compared to $0.56 for the second quarter of 2011. Non-GAAP earnings per share for the quarter were $0.38 compared to $0.59 for the second quarter of 2011.

ADTRAN Chief Executive Officer Tom Stanton stated, "Our results for the second quarter reflect a tightening spending environment. Total quarterly revenues grew 37% sequentially, with organic revenues (excluding the recently acquired NSN BBA business) up 20%, representing a flat year over year performance. Our Broadband Access category grew 38% (8% organic) over the same period last year. Our Internetworking category grew 6% over the same period last year. Total core products which include Broadband Access, Optical and Internetworking, grew 17% (flat organically) over the same period last year and now represent 84% of total revenues. Decreasing visibility leaves us cautious for the near term but we are confident that our strong customer alignment and increasing global footprint will deliver long term growth for the company."
http://www.adtran.com

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Huawei USA Appoints Chief Security Officer

Huawei USA has appointed Donald A. (Andy) Purdy Jr. as its Chief Security Officer (CSO). He will oversee Huawei USA's cyber security assurance strategy and system, and support the global security system adopted by all of the company's business groups and departments, including R&D, supply chain, marketing and sales, project delivery and technical service. Mr. Purdy will be based in the U.S. and he will report to the Senior Huawei Representative to the U.S. and the Global Cyber Security Officer.
http://www.huawei.com

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ViaSat to Supply Satellite System from Australia's NBN

 Australia's national broadband network has selected ViaSat to provide the ground-based communications, network management, and data processing systems for the Long Term Satellite Service component of its project.

The initial value of the contract is valued in excess of $240 million, which is expected to increase as the network is built out to reach up to 200,000 homes and businesses.

ViaSat will supply consumer satellite terminals, including broadband modems and antennas for Australian homes and businesses, and 13.5-metre diameter Ka-band satellite antennas for ten ground station gateway facilities across Australia. The contract award follows a comprehensive, two-year procurement process by NBN Co.

"The rollout of Australia's NBN is the most comprehensive broadband plan in the world and we are excited to deliver part of the satellite ground portion," said Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of ViaSat Inc. "We have long-shared the NBN Co vision of fiber-grade satellite network access. The work we do in Australia over the next three years will be pivotal in establishing the state-of-the-art in affordable, satellite broadband."

http://www.viasat.com

 

• NBN Co. plans to launch two KA-band satellites in early 2015 at a cost of $620 million. The Long Term Satellite System (LTSS) Ka-band satellite service is then expected hit the market by the end of 2015.
•  
• In May 2011, NBN Co awarded a 10-year contract to Ericsson to design, build and operate a 4G fixed-wireless network. The deal is valued at up to AUS $1.1 billion. The fixed-wireless broadband network will deliver up to 12 Mbps downstream to locations not reachable by fiber.

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Swisscom Tests Huawei’s Vectoring and G.fast DSL at 400 Mbps over 200m

Huawei has delivered a Giga DSLAM prototype to Swisscom.

Since April 2012, Huawei and Swisscom have been testing Huawei’s Vectoring and G.fast solution in a demo set-up in Riggisberg, near Berne. The companies report that with G.fast, over 400 Mbps at a distance of 200 meters can be achieved.

Huawei’s Giga DSL system employs time division duplex (TDD) to achieve a total upstream and downstream rate of 1000 Mbps over a single twisted pair. It also reduces radiation interference and power consumption, providing a total upstream and downstream rate of 1 Gbps within 100 meters, and 500 Mbps-plus within 200 meters.
http://www.huawei.com

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NYSE Euronext Deploys ADVA's FSP 3000 WDM

NYSE Euronext has deployed ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 WDM platform in its new Secure Financial Trading Infrastructure (SFTI) access center.
SFTI, owned and operated by NYSE Euronext, is a dedicated backbone for the securities markets and is used by the financial community for trading, market data and colocation access.
"The financial industry has some of the most demanding requirements of any in the network," commented Christoph Glingener, CTO at ADVA Optical Networking. "In this environment, customers need to know their mission-critical data is always safe, always accessible. There's no room for error. But success here isn't just about leading-edge technology, it's about collaboration, it's about developing a strong working relationship. This is something we've developed with NYSE Euronext and we’re looking forward to seeing the relationship grow."
http://www.advaoptical.com

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NYSE Expands Direct Connectivity with Equinix Centers

NYSE Euronext (NYX) will build and operate a Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI) Access Center at the Equinix NY5 data center in Secaucus, New Jersey, providing customers within the Equinix facility with direct connectivity to SFTI and access to a range of financial markets, market data and post-trade services.

Along with the deployment in NY5, NYSE Euronext now has SFTI Access Centers inside six Equinix data centers in key markets around the world, including New York (NY1 and NY5), Chicago, Singapore, Frankfurt, and London. The addition of NY5 as a SFTI access center will offer customers in the facility reduced connectivity costs, enhanced performance and simplified trading architecture.

http://www.equinix.com

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ECI Appoints Darryl Edwards as CEO

ECI Telecom has appointed Darryl Edwards as its new President and Chief Executive Officer.
Most recently, Mr. Edwards was the Chairman of MACH, and telecommunications advisor to Warburg Pincus. Prior to MACH, Mr. Edwards was the Chief Executive Officer of AIRCOM International and previous to this, he spent 17 years at Nortel Networks, where he held several executive positions rising to the position of President of Global Sales where he was responsible for revenues in excess of $10 billion annually.
http://www.ecitele.com

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Calix Posts Preliminary Revenue of $79 Million, Below Guidance

Citing softness in demand across multiple customer markets, Calix reported preliminary Q2 revenue of approximately $79 million, flat with the first quarter of 2012, below previous guidance for the second quarter of 2012. Non-GAAP earnings per share are expected to be 4 cents per share, up from 1 cent per share in the first quarter of 2012.

On May 1, 2012, the company provided guidance for the second quarter ending June 30, 2012 for revenue to range between $93 to $97 million and non-GAAP earnings per share to be between 7 to 11 cents per share.

Calix said it believes the softness is due to a slowdown in capital expenditures by service providers increasingly concerned about macro-economic conditions and uncertainties associated with the implementation of regulatory reforms.
http://www.calix.com

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DragonWave Reports Quarterly Revenue of $13 Million

DragonWave reported Q1 2013 revenue of $13.0 million for the quarter ending May 31, compared with $9.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012 and $11.0 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012. Revenue from customers within North America was $10.1 million, compared with $4.8 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012 and $8.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012. DragonWave had two customers who each contributed more than 10% of revenue in the first quarter.

Gross margin for the first quarter of fiscal year 2013 was 32%, compared with 13% in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012 and 42% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012. The gross margin in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012 reflects the inclusion of an inventory impairment provision of $1.7 million.

Net and comprehensive loss applicable to shareholders in the first quarter of fiscal year 2013 was ($12.6) million or ($0.35) per basic and diluted share. This compares to a net and comprehensive loss applicable to shareholders of ($13.4) million or ($0.38) per basic and diluted share in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012 and ($9.9) million or ($0.28) per basic and diluted share in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012.

In addition, DragonWave said it expects revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2013 to be in the range of $35 million to $45 million.

“We recently completed a transformational event for DragonWave – the acquisition of Nokia Siemens Networks' microwave transport business,” said DragonWave President and CEO Peter Allen. "Nokia Siemens Networks continues to strengthen its position as a leading global supplier of complete solutions for broadband mobile networks. Industry-best packet microwave backhaul from DragonWave is a key component of Nokia Siemens Networks’ complete solution for broadband mobile networks. In turn, Nokia Siemens Networks gives DragonWave the leverage of its large direct sales channel and access to its customer base of tier one mobile operators throughout the world.”
http://www.dragonwaveinc.com

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ARINC and Lemko Demo LTE over Satellite Backhaul

ARINC and Lemko demonstrated a seamless video transmission carried over LTE via ARINC's RapydConnex mobile edge satellite broadband communications platform. The test achieved sustained data upload and download speeds of 2 Mbps.

The companies said their ability to deploy LTE systems using a satellite backbone enables important applications for mobile broadband in tactical communications for the military and public safety markets. Users are now able to establish stand-alone 4G LTE cellular networks that can be customized to meet unique situational requirements.

Lemko's distributed mobile wireless network (DiMoWiNe) has already efficiently connected hundreds of 2G and 3G GSM, CDMA, UMTS, and EVDO commercial and tactical networks via satellite.

http://www.lemko.com
http://www.arinc.com

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AT&T Launches "Watson" Speech API

AT&T released its Speech API featuring a suite of seven different speech recognition and transcription capabilities that "learn" different accents, speaker variations, background environments, platform variations, dialects and speech patterns. AT&T said its holds more than 600 patents in this area, and that the newly released API would open new possibilities for developers.

AT&T Speech API capabilities include:

• Web Search – Search from within an app with the power of your voice. Web Search is trained to recognize several million mobile queries.
• Business Search – Trained on tens of millions of local business entries, this context lets you transcribe your search query to let you find what’s in the area, from donuts to doctors.
• Voicemail to Text – No need to scribble down a message, this context—trained on a massive set of data acquired from call centers, mobile applications and the web—turns your voicemail into sharable text.
• SMS –Tuned to transcribe text, this context can deliver your spoken message as text through a messaging service of your choice.
• Question and Answer – Trained on over 10 million questions, this context accurately transcribes your question and returns the correct answer.
• TV – Searching for show titles, movies and actors? This context transcribes your spoken search queries to enable you to search the AT&T U-verse program guide.
• Generic - Automatically recognizes and transcribes English and Spanish languages. This context can also be used for general dictation, communication and search.

http://www.attinnovationspace.com/innovation/story/a7782925

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ZTE Opens Innovation Center at Univ. de Chile

ZTE is opening an innovation and training center in cooperation with the Universidad de Chile. The announcement was attended by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. ZTE Chile will donate 4G equipments to the center and the Universidad de Chile’s Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences will provide human capital and laboratories. The university and ZTE will sign an MOU to expand the functions of innovation center to include training for ZTE engineers and Universidad de Chile students.
http://www.zte.com.cn

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Vitesse Samples Low-Power, 11-port GigE Switch with 1588v2

 Vitesse Semiconductor introduced an 11-port Gigabit Ethernet switch targeted at low power Industrial Ethernet and Enterprise applications.

The VSC7414 chip is optimized for power-sensitive enterprise router applications and dissipates only 1.6W – 75% lower than the competition, according to the company. It supports more than eight queues per port along with priority flow control (IEEE 802.1Qbb) mechanism for advanced Quality of Service (QoS). It also incorporates Vitesse's VeriTime IEEE1588v2 technology. The VSC7414’s support of the nanosecond-accurate synchronization in IEEE1588v2 network timing also makes it ideal for utility/smart grid and emerging Audio Video Bridging (AVB) applications where precision timing is required.

“Similar to Carrier networks, Enterprise networks are converging on Ethernet,” said Uday Mudoi, director of product marketing at Vitesse. “This raises the importance of IEEE1588v2 network timing as the data center becomes packet-based. Our customers focused on Industrial Ethernet and Enterprise networking can now leverage Vitesse’s highly accurate IEEE1588v2 VeriTime technology, already adopted by dozens of telecom customers for mobile backhaul applications.”
http://www.vitesse.com

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DIRECTV Drops Channels in Viacom Dispute

Viacom dropped its networks from DIRECTV at approximately midnight EDT as the companies failed to reach a carriage agreement. This includes popular channels such as Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 14 others.

"We have been very willing to get a deal done, but Viacom is pushing DIRECTV customers to pay more than a 30 percent increase, which equates to an extra $1 billion, despite the fact that the ratings for many of their main networks have plummeted and much of Viacom's programming can be seen for free online," said Derek Chang, DIRECTV executive vice president of Content, Strategy and Development.
http://www.directv.com

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Lockheed Martin Selected for Intelligence Analysis Under DIA Contract

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has selected Lockheed Martin as one of eight companies to offer worldwide analytic support across a variety of intelligence areas. The new indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, Solutions for Intelligence II (SIA II) from the Virginia Contracting Activity in support of DIA, has an estimated cost ceiling of $5.6 billion and a period of performance of two base years and three one-year options.

Through the contract's task orders, Lockheed Martin will provide worldwide analytic support across 29 specialized intelligence categories which are critical to satisfying DIA's mission requirements including: Computer Network Operations, Foreign Intel Activities, Foreign Space and Counterspace, Terrorism, WMD, Foreign Denial and Deception, and Illicit Drugs.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com

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Vitesse's VeriTime Delivers High Accuracy 1588v2 Timing for LTE-Advanced

Vitesse Semiconductor unveiled its "VeriTime" distributed timing technology for the highest accuracy in IEEE1588v2 timing for IP Edge networks. The VeriTime technology, which is already incorporated in nearly a dozen Vitesse products, including Carrier Ethernet Switch Engines and SynchroPHY portfolio of 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GE), 10GE and 10GE OTN PHYs, ensures a firmware upgrade path for meeting the more stringent timing requirements of LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).

IEEE1588v2 is widely expected to become the defacto packet synchronization standard for cell sites.
Vitesse's VeriTime eliminates the need for discrete timing FPGAs, processors, and software timing synchronization solutions in the cost-sensitive Edge and Access equipment. It supports both Boundary Clock (BC) and lower cost TC implementations of the IEEE1588v2 standard.

Vitesse recently reported network performance results to the ITU-T documenting VeriTime's < 3ns per hop accuracy over a nine-hop IEEE1588v2 Transparent Clock (TC) network, making it the industry's only solution that fulfills TD-LTE and LTE-Advanced requirements in real-world tests .
Vitesse also noted that VeriTime now includes components for implementing IEEE1588v2 timing over microwave links, overcoming latency variations due to weather and changes of modulation scheme.

"VeriTime represents Vitesse's fifth generation of IEEE1588v2 IP and is a significant architectural advancement towards providing GPS-grade timing over the network without sacrificing systems margin," said Martin Nuss, chief technology officer for Vitesse. "Based on our incumbency with dozens of telecom OEMs, VeriTime is quickly becoming the de facto solution in mobile networks."
http://www.vitesse.com/VeriTime

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