Sun Enhances its Java Content Delivery Server for Mobiles

Sun Microsystems introduced new features for the Sun Java System Content Delivery Server (CDS), a mobile content delivery and management platform for mobile operators.



Sun's CDS is designed for vending of mobile content, including content catalogs, storefronts, viral marketing tools, payment and delivery components. New features such as the Central Device Catalog enable service providers to launch new devices by aggregating sources of content from multiple providers and then collecting accurate data to help ensure correct records, enabling the segmentation of customers according to usage patterns and demographics.



The content download process is improved by allowing a user to download content through a mobile-originated push, using a short code, and by keyword. Users with older phones or devices will now have access to premium SMS content services -- higher value content like music, rich ringtones, graphics, video and games.

http://www.sun.com

Read More

QUALCOMM (AirGo) Announces 802.11n Draft 2.0 Chipset

QUALCOMM announced the availability of a chipset offering full support for Draft 2.0 of the IEEE 802.11n standard. The AGN400 chipset is the fourth generation 802.11n-compliant chipset from Airgo Networks and features Airgo's True MIMO Gen-N technology.



Draft 2.0 improves upon the earlier Draft 1.0 with significantly better performance, a greater feature set and enhanced interoperability. The company said its AGN400 chipset also supports a full array of interface buses for OEM products in the retail, PC OEM, enterprise, consumer electronics and service provider market segments. Additionally, "neighbor friendly" coexistence is supported when the AGN400 is transmitting 40 MHz-mode 802.11n traffic and there are active 802.11a/b/g/n networks nearby.

http://www.qualcomm.comhttp://www.airgonetworks.com

Read More

QUALCOMM to Acquire Airgo and Bluetooth Assets of RFMD

QUALCOMM will acquire Airgo Networks, a developer of WLAN technology, and the majority of RF Micro Devices' (RFMD's) Bluetooth assets.



Airgo possesses intellectual property assets and resources in WLAN technology and has provided WLAN products to both manufacturers of access points and laptop computers. In addition to supporting Airgo's existing business, QUALCOMM plans to integrate the company's 802.11a/b/g and 802.11n technology into select Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipsets. QUALCOMM also plans to use this technology for chipsets on its new Snapdragon platform, which is designed to offer ubiquitous mobile broadband connectivity.



Under the deal with RFMD, QUALCOMM will acquire the majority of North Carolina-based RFMD's Bluetooth assets, specifically those based in San Diego. QUALCOMM will be integrating the Bluetooth Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) technology into MSM reference designs to offer its device manufacturing customers a more complete solution. RFMD's San Diego-based team currently designs technology for both the mobile handset and headset markets.

http://www.qualcomm.comhttp://www.airgonetworks.com/

• Airgo Networks, which was founded in 2000, is based in Palo Alto, California. The company's investors include Accel Partners, Nokia Venture Partners, OVP Venture Funds, and Sevin Rosen Funds, among others.

Read More

ITU Telecom World 2006 Opens in Hong Kong

ITU Telecom World 2006 opened in Hong Kong featuring over 600 exhibitors and three industry pavilions representing the G-PON industry, the Internet community, and the WiMAX Forum. ITU Telecom World 2006 expects to attract 42,000 to 57,000 visitors and participants over the course of the week.



Winners of the Digital Life Theatre competition, comprising four categories to capture the scope of digital life, are: Ericsson (Digital Life at Home), Motorola (Digital Life at the Office), Lucent Technologies (Digital Life in the field of Media & Entertainment) and Teldat (Digital Life in Society).



Speaking at the opening ceremony, Professor Muhammad Yunus,
Founder and Managing Director of Grameen Bank and recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, described a new, virtual "ICT Empowerment Network" that is being launched in partnership with the ITU. This network of partners will be devoted to a collective global effort to combine the power of ICTs with micro-credit financing to help the poor earn sustainable income. To make this initiative a success, Grameen will reach out to more than 3,000 microfinance organizations and 100 million borrowers worldwide, while ITU will lever the support and participation of its 191 member states and some 650 private sector members from around the world.



Professor Yunus said "There is a view in some quarters that ICTs are totally irrelevant for poor people. ICTs are too complicated for the poor who are generally illiterate; ICTs are too expensive; the poor don't need fancy ICT gadgets, they need food etc. The skeptics will always be there.



When we began our cell-phone company, Grameen Phone, the skeptics said: "You've got to be crazy to give cell phones to illiterate poor women in the villages who never saw a conventional telephone in their lives; she would not know how to dial a number; anyway, whom is she going to call ? It's too expensive for her to afford."



Today, everybody in Bangladesh looks at Grameen telephone ladies in the villages with admiration, and some, with jealousy. They are doing a roaring business selling telephone services to the villagers. Another Grameen company is setting up internet kiosks in the villages and running them on a commercial basis. We are pleasantly surprised to see the response from the villagers in using the Internet and other computer services. Young people are signing up to learn computer skills for a fee. In villages where electricity does not exist, solar panels are powering the cell phones and computers. Grameen has set up a Solar Energy Company to bring solar energy to those villages."http://www.itu.int/WORLD2006/index.html

Read More

Veraz and Aperto Partner on IMS over WiMAX

Veraz Networks and Aperto Networks have partnered to deliver voice and IMS multimedia services over WiMAX. The companies have built a joint demonstration lab that includes a live link between Aperto's Milpitas headquarters and Veraz's San Jose headquarters. The lab showcases how the two platforms interoperate under a variety of service scenarios to demonstrate a reliable, high capacity, high quality WiMAX network for the delivery of advanced multimedia services.



Aperto's PacketMAX platform enables service providers to deliver broadband wireless services via point-to-point and point-to-multipoint networks. Veraz's ControlSwitch allows service providers to deploy an advanced IMS network capable of delivering rich, IP-based multimedia services to both fixed and mobile subscribers.

http://www.veraznetworks.comhttp://www.apertonet.com

Read More

Hynix Debuts 200MHz 512Mb Mobile DRAM for 3G Phones

Hynix Semiconductor introduced a 512Megabit mobile DRAM device described as the fastest and smallest such product for 3G phones. By using 32 I/Os, Hynix's 512Mb mobile DDR SDRAM processes 1.6Gbytes (400Mbps x 32) of data in 1 second, which is by close to 1.5 times faster than speed of the company's existing mobile DRAM products.

http://www.hynix.com

Read More

Huawei to Sell Sylantro's Feature Server in IMS Portfolio

Huawei Technologies has selected Sylantro Systems' Synergy application feature server as part of its IMS solution for customers around the world. Sylantro will be featured at the Huawei booth at ITU Telecom World in Hong Kong.

http://www.sylantro.com

Read More

NEC Launches TDM/RPR Hybrid Multiplexer for 40 Gbps

NEC launched its new SpectralWave UN5000, a hybrid multiplexer that provides simultaneous Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) transport, in the Japanese market. The SpectralWave UN5000 was released for overseas telecommunications carriers in August 2006 and has been shipped to Rostelecom in Russia and at AIS in Thailand.



NEC's new product can be used to build 40 Gbps core networks. In addition to TDM and RPR, it also features RPR and Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS).

http://www.nec.co.jp

Read More

Alcatel-Lucent Creates Independent Subsidiary for U.S. Government Contracts

Alcatel-Lucent announced the creation of LGS, an independent subsidiary dedicated to serving the U.S. government.



LGS, headquartered in Vienna, Va., will be created by joining employees from Lucent's Government Solutions business unit, Alcatel Government Solutions, Inc., and Lucent's Bell Labs Government Communications Lab. LGS will become the sole sales and contracting channel for all classified and unclassified business contracted from U.S. federal agencies and departments, both military and civilian.

LGS is currently finalizing its operational structure and processes, which are planned for completion in early January. LGS will have its own leadership team as well as its own board of directors, initially including three previous members of the national security community: William Perry, former Secretary of Defense, James Woolsey, former director of Central Intelligence and Kenneth Minihan, former director of the National Security Agency.

LGS will be led by Ron Iverson, CEO, who recently joined Lucent from Northrop Grumman where he was responsible for coordination of Air Force marketing and business development dealing with Information Technology.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Read More

Alcatel-Lucent Unveils New Look

Alcatel-Lucent unveiled its new logo and corporate visual identity. The company's new logo is a stylized version of an infinity symbol that looks as if it were drawn by hand. Embedded within the symbol is an A and an L.



"Our new logo represents the endless possibilities for the future and our commitment to being a strong and enduring ally for our customers around the world," said Patricia Russo, Chief Executive Officer of Alcatel-Lucent.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Read More

Yahoo! Posts Video News Clips from BBC

Yahoo! News began posting BBC News video on its site, through a new agreement with ABC News. Initially, about 30 video clips of BBC News will be posted per day.



In January 2006, ABC News announced an agreement to become the exclusive representative for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for distribution of BBC News on demand broadband and wireless content in North America. http://www.yahoo.com

Read More

Spirent Highlights Participation in MSF GMI 2006 Interoperability Event

During the MultiService Forum's (MSF's) recent GMI 2006 event, which was held in October, Spirent Communications provided experts, test equipment and advanced IMS test methodologies to facilitate the stringent testing requirements of MSF Release 3 implementation at all five carrier sites (BT, KT, NTT, Verizon and Vodafone). This involved 200 next-generation network (NGN) elements tested against carrier defined test scenarios. Spirent's support included test coverage for all portions of the IMS network:

• IMS Access Network - Spirent provided real-world traffic models to evaluate wireless core packet data network elements associated with FMC applications.



• IMS Core Network - Spirent simulated UE (User Element) traffic and emulated the core network elements.



• PSTN Network - Spirent emulated end to end traffic and all PSTN network elements.



• Service prototyping -- Spirent simulated many Next Generation Network services.

Spirent said that its participating staff saw many difficulties associated with deploying proprietary implementations between multiple service providers. Specifically many differences were observed in the operation of User Element devices and with differing interpretations of the core IMS protocols.

http://www.spirent.com

Read More

Garmin Acquires Dynastream for Wireless Monitoring Tech.

Garmin, a developer of GPS navigation, communication and information devices, acquired Dynastream Innovations $36 million in cash.



Dynastream, which is located in Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, develops personal monitoring technology -- such as foot pods and heart rate monitors for sports and fitness products. The company also specializes in ultra low power and low cost wireless connectivity solutions for a wide range of applications. These products address the needs of a broad spectrum of fitness consumers, from heath and wellness to performance athletes.

http://www.garmin.com

Read More

Belgacom Tops 100,000 IPTV Subscribers

Belgacom passed the 100,000 mark for its IPTV service at the end of September, ahead of its end-of-the-target. Belgacom is using the Surpass Home Entertainment from Siemens, a turnkey end-to-end solution for IPTV delivered over ADSL.



The net ARPU (average revenue per user) stood at EUR 11.6 for the first nine months of 2006. This figure showed a rise in the third quarter which can obviously be traced to the introduction of additional services such as "Rewatching TV" and special offerings sorted by topic.

http://www.siemens.com/networks

Read More

WiMedia Alliance Finalizes UWB Radio Certification Program

The WiMedia Alliance finalized the Certification Program for its member companies to utilize in testing their products for compliance with the WiMedia UWB Common Radio Platform specification.



WiMedia's Certification Program is comprised of two parts, the first of which is a compliance and interoperability process that tests and "registers" Physical Layer implementations (PHYs) based on the WiMedia Alliance's PHY specification. Once a PHY is registered, the program's second part, WiMedia Platform Certification, supports these eligible PHYs for use in a UWB platform that can be submitted for certification.



In the most recent testing event held in late October, six WiMedia member companies and PHY vendors - Alereon, Inc., Realtek Semiconductor, Staccato Communications, Tzero Technologies, Inc., WiQuest Communications, and Wisair - tested their products against compliance criteria that included the final WiMedia Alliance's PHY specification. This event resulted in the establishment of registered PHYs for these companies' products.



"With the WiMedia Certification Program now in place and the registration of initial PHYs, the key building blocks for the WiMedia UWB Common Radio Platform have been established for vendors to develop products that will eventually obtain WiMedia Platform Certification," said Stephen Wood, president of the WiMedia Alliance. "Our certification program is designed to assure vendors and consumers alike that products certified by WiMedia will work properly in the close proximity to other WiMedia certified devices."http://www.wimedia.org

• WiMedia has held five PHY interoperability testing events over the past 11 months

onclick="openMyFlashWindow('http://www.convergedigest.com/glossary/files/CD_UWB2.html', 320, 280)"
href="http://www.convergedigest.com/Bandwidth/newnetworksarticle.asp?ID=19872">
Click to play
video

Read More

BT Selects Motorola for Metro Wi-Fi Deployments

BT selected Motorola to supply Mesh Wi-Fi network infrastructure and services for six of "Wireless City" initiatives across the UK. The contract will see Motorola design, deploy and manage city-wide Wi-Fi networks with BT in, for example, Birmingham and Newcastle. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Motorola will supply solutions from its MOTOwi4 wireless broadband portfolio, which will be deployed across the cities on existing sites such as lampposts. The Motorola solution allows data to be backhauled wirelessly.



BT said Westminster is furthest advanced with its plans and roll out of the street-based network, following a successful pilot. The city council has signed an agreement with Vertex Data Science Ltd, who will work with BT to develop applications running over the wireless broadband network, which will improve the flow of information and services across the city.

BT expect to roll out the first 12 Wireless Cities by the end of March 2007.

http://www.motorola.comhttp://www.btplc.com

Read More

AT&T Introduces U-verse in Second Market -- Houston

Houston is the second market where AT&T's U-verse services are now commercially available, following a June launch in San Antonio.




AT&T U-verse TV offers variety of TV packages with more than 300 channels, including digital music, local, and premium movie and sports programming. Over 25 HD channels are available. Three packages of AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet U-verse Enabled service are offered. The top downlink rate currently supported is 6 Mbps.

http://www.att.com/

Read More

Sun, Ericsson, Nokia Form Telecommunications Platform Initiative

Sun Microsystems, Ericsson, Nokia announced the formation of a Telecommunications Platform Initiative to develop the requirements for a standardized, integrated telecommunications technology platform. The aim is to simplify technology integration by enabling design, development and supply chain efficiencies, thereby benefiting the network operator.



The companies said that by collaborating on a series of publicly available requirements documents for the Operations, Administration and Management Layer (OA&M) and Service Layer environments, the Initiative could provide the broader telecommunications industry with new alternatives to improve time to service, time to market and ultimately, time to revenues.

Sun and the members of this Initiative will continue to be actively involved with other standardization and specification bodies such as PICMG and SCOPE.
http://www.sun.com

Read More

Harley-Davidson Awards $10.5 million Networking Contract to AT&T

AT&T has won a three-year, $10.5 million global networking contract from Harley-Davidson. AT&T will deploy an MPLS-based IP VPN integrating 27 Harley-Davidson locations in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific with a full range of voice, data and business continuity services. The contract renews and expands a long-standing relationship between the two companies.

http://www.att.com

Read More

Sonus Delivers National Communications System (NCS) Emergency Call Suite for VoIP

Sonus Networks announced a suite of IP-based voice calling solutions to serve National Security/Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) needs as outlined by the National Communications System (NCS), whose Executive Agent is the Department of Homeland Security. The National Communications System aims to ensure a high probability of call completion for government officials during periods of network congestion, including crisis or emergency, attack, recovery and reconstitution.



Sonus Networks, working in collaboration with the NCS and its integration contractor, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), has developed a robust set of next generation network features that meet the requirements outlined by the NCS.



Most recently, the NCS enlisted the support of Sonus to develop two new features to round out its NS/EP services product functionality: Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Resource Priority Header (RPH) and Office Wide Call Queuing (OWCQ), which together identify and allocate resource priority to calls from authorized federal, state, local, and critical industry personnel who have NS/EP missions.



Sonus Networks said it is the first to develop this set of next generation NS/EP features. The company recently hosted a demonstration in their Richardson, Texas, laboratories for NCS, CSC, other NCS contractors, and a group of leading U.S. carriers. The Richardson lab is Sonus' largest customer integration and testing facility.



To ensure that NS/EP communications are being addressed across various network types, the NCS has implemented the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) and Wireless Priority Service (WPS). Sonus' NS/EP product portfolio is designed to meet the needs of each of these two services.

http://www.sonusnet.comhttp://www.ncs.gov

• President John F. Kennedy established the National Communications System (NCS) by a Presidential Memorandum on August 21, 1963 in response to inter-government communications problems experience during the Cuban missile crisis. The NCS mandate included linking, improving, and extending the communications facilities and components of various Federal agencies, focusing on interconnectivity and survivability.

Read More