BT to Build Data Centre in South London

BT Global Services will invest £14m over the next seven years for a new data centre services centre located within the M25 perimeter. The South London facility, which offers 930sqm of premium new space, will host high-end IT services for BT's growing base of customers in the £5.2bn European data centre services market. Commercial availability is expected by September 2007 and BT has an exclusive option on a further hall of a similar size within the location for further planned expansion.

http://www.btplc.com

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Alcatel-Lucent joins WiMAX Forum Board of Directors

Alcatel-Lucent's Philippe Goossens has been appointed to The WiMAX Forum's Board of Directors. Commenting on the announcement, Goossens said Alcatel-Lucent is committed to promoting the IEEE 802.16e-2005 open standard to advance the adoption of WiMAX worldwide. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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QUALCOMM and Broadcom Settle Some Patent Claims

QUALCOMM and Broadcom agreed to settle claims and counterclaims associated with two patents belonging to Broadcom and two patents belonging to QUALCOMM. The agreement results in the dismissal of a court case involving Broadcom's claims for infringement of the two now-dismissed Broadcom patents and eliminates the need for a trial that had been scheduled to begin on March 5, 2007. The agreement also includes the dismissal of infringement claims under two of QUALCOMM's patents, also pending in federal court in San Diego.



The remaining patent infringement claims between the parties in federal courts in San Diego and Orange County, Calif. are unaffected by the agreement.
http://www.qualcomm.com

http://www.broadcom.com

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Kentrox to Acquire Applied Innovation for $52 Million

KEG Holdings, Inc. (KEG), the parent company of Kentrox, agreed to acquire Applied Innovation, a provider of network management solutions for the communications industry, for approximately $52 million.



Applied Innovation, which is based in Ohio, provides services including sophisticated remote site management, 3G network data quality monitoring and logical security of critical networks.



Kentrox is a supplier of high-speed network access equipment.



Under the deal, KEG will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Applied Innovation for $3.45 per share in cash. Upon completion of this transaction, Investcorp Technology Partners, a current investor in KEG, will own a controlling interest in the combined company.

http://www.kentrox.com

http://www.appliedinnovation.com

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Sylantro Systems Appoints VP of Marketing

Sylantro Systems announced the appointment of Frank Salm to vice president of marketing. Salm has been with Sylantro since May 2000, serving most recently as the senior marketing director of product technologies, and has more than 24 years of extensive technical and product marketing experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining Sylantro, Salm worked for AG Communication Systems (a subsidiary of Lucent Technologies) for 19 years.



http://www.sylantro.com

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NET Supplies its NX5010 to Department of Defense

Network Equipment Technologies will supply its new NX5010 high-speed multi-service aggregation and switching platform to an agency in the Department of Defense (DoD). The initial order for 10 units will be used to provide continuous transport of time-sensitive secure applications at line-rate OC-192 speeds between disparate network locations. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.net.com

• The NX5010 was jointly developed by NET and Bay Microsystems. It is offers the ability to convert 10 Gbps to a wide area connection on a very small a foot print (2RU). It has been tested extensively by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Following the trials, NRL awarded NET and Bay an initial order for multiple units, which are targeted for use within NRL's test bed for Advanced Network and Advanced Terabit Storage Area Networking trials.

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Nuance to Acquire BeVocal for Mobile Customer Care

Nuance Communications, which supplies speech recognition technology, agreed to acquire BeVocal, a provider of self-service customer care applications, for approximately $140 million, net of BeVocal's cash and using yesterday's closing price of Nuance stock at $14.98 per share.



The acquisition enables Nuance to offer speech-based solutions that address the need to service the large and growing customer base of the mobile industry.



The companies estimate that approximately 70 percent of mobile consumers obtain support via the phone, and the number of support calls has increased 42 percent over the last five years. BeVocal's customer lifecycle management solution helps mobile carriers and related vendors reduce customer churn, increase average revenue per user (ARPU), reduce cash cost per user (CCPU), reduce cost per gross addition (CPGA) and increase customer satisfaction.
http://www.nuance.com

http://www.bevocal.com

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Australia's Powertel Deploys Mid-Band Ethernet for 2-20Mbps over Copper

PowerTel, an Australian provider of infrastructure-based voice, data and Internet services, will roll out Mid-Band Ethernet services, offering 2-40Mbps symmetrical Ethernet-over-copper connectivity throughout Australia. PowerTel owns its own telecommunications network with DSL access in approximately 300 exchanges in all the major population centers in Australia, including Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle, Sydney and Perth.



PowerTel is deploying Hatteras Networks' Mid-Band Ethernet platforms.

http://www.hatterasnetworks.com

http://www.powertel.com.au

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Tekelec Reports Revenues up 14% YoY

Tekelec reported Q4 2006 revenue from continuing operations of $154.5 million, up 11% compared to $138.6 million for Q4 2005. Telecom backlog as of December 31, 2006 was $455.3 million compared to $455.0 million as of September 30, 2006 and $520.2 million as of December 31, 2005.



For Q4 2006, Tekelec reported a loss (GAAP) from continuing operations of $1.1 million, or $0.02 loss per diluted share, compared to a loss from continuing operations of $51.5 million, or $0.77 loss per diluted share, for Q4 2005.



As previously announced, Tekelec has retained J. P. Morgan as an advisor to help evaluate strategic alternatives to leverage its Switching Solutions Group.



"We are pleased with our fourth quarter results," said Frank Plastina, president and CEO of Tekelec. "In particular, our order input reflected several new customer wins for our Network Solutions Group, and our Communications Software Solutions Group was profitable for the year on an operating basis.

http://www.tekelec.com

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AT&T Supports U.S. Marine Corps' Secret IP Router Network

AT&T Government Solutions was awarded a $9.4 million contract with the U.S. Marine Corps to support the Secret IP Router Network (SIPRNET), which ensures secure communications among all of the U.S. Marine Corps commands worldwide.



SIPRNET is the largest interoperable command and control IP data network at the Department of Defense and is primarily used for the exchange of classified operational and tactical information at the SECRET classification level.



Under the contract, AT&T will provide networking and IT services, such as Network Management, Information Assurance and Program Management, for the SIPRNET Refresh Program. AT&T will also expand Wide Area Network (WAN) security features including firewalls and intrusion detection systems and will upgrade SIPRNET WAN point of presence (PoP) transport and routing capabilities.

AT&T is the prime on the contract. Subcontractors include SAIC and Smartronix, which will provide technical equipment configuration and firewall installation services at the Marine Corps regional locations.

http://www.att.com

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Avaya to Integrate Communications with Google Apps

Avaya has joined Google's "Enterprise Professional" and will integrate communication capabilities into Google's new Web services.



Specifically, Avaya will develop, market and support offers that integrate Avaya's advanced communications solutions for small businesses with the new "Google Apps Premier Edition", a subscription services solution for email, instant messaging, calendar and Web publishing. The companies' collaborative efforts will initially focus on Avaya IP Office, Avaya's flagship IP telephony communications solution for small and mid-size businesses, with availability planned for fall 2007.



Some capabilities the companies expect to support include, enabling subscribers to easily share contact information, presence information and alerts; enabling a single in-box for voice mail, email, instant messages and fax messages; and enabling web calling over the Google Talk instant messaging service network.

http://www.avaya.com

http://www.google.com

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AT&T to Build Metro Wi-Fi in Napa, California

AT&T was selected to build a 12-square- mile Metro Wi-Fi network by the town of Napa, California. The planned Wi-Fi network will offer publicly accessible wireless broadband to residents, visitors and businesses. Users will be able to choose from a variety of connectivity options, including a free, advertising-supported access choice or higher-speed access tiers offered by AT&T.



In addition, the city of Napa will use a parallel AT&T Metro Wi-Fi system supporting municipal and public-safety communications needs. The parallel network will run over 4.9 GHz spectrum to enhance communications for city police, fire and public works employees. Possible uses of the parallel network include streaming video in police vehicles, remote meter reading, data transmissions of patient records from ambulances rushing to hospitals and temporary or remote emergency operations centers.



The agreement is the third planned deployment of AT&T Metro Wi-Fi service to date. The other contracts include the city of St. Louis and the city of Riverside, California.

http://www.att.com

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Tellme Adds VoiceXML for Mobile Phone Info Displays

Tellme Networks has enhanced its voice services platform with new multimodal capabilities for mobile phones allowing companies to create a visual experience.



TellMe enables phone users to use their voice to find what they want, from getting a listing in directory assistance to tracking a package or buying a movie ticket. T



Tellme is now using VoiceXML to create a multimodal "voice & visual" interface, enabling users to simply say what they want and then see it on their mobile screen. Tellme said it will continue to work with the W3C on VoiceXML 3.0 and multimodal standards.



With these new multimodal extensions, businesses can use the Tellme Platform to enhance their voice experience with a visual interface for mobile phone users. For instance, after a customer orders a movie ticket they might see the receipt on their screen or get a confirmation text message and a map to the theater. Or, if a caller is looking to ship a package, they might ask for the nearest location and see a map and hours of operation on the screen.



In addition to expanding its platform capabilities, Tellme has named TuVox and Viecore as Tellme Partners. These partners can now use the Tellme Platform to help businesses create voice applications that dramatically improve their caller experience while eliminating significant costs.

http://www.tellme.com/

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Microsoft to Pay $1.52 Billion to Alcatel-Lucent in MP3 Patent Dispute

A U.S. District Court ruled in favor of Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute with Microsoft involving MP3 patent licensing. The court ordered Microsoft to pay $1.52 billion to Alcatel-Lucent, which argued that the technology used in Windows Media Player was developed at Bell Labs. Microsoft contended that its technology originally was developed by Fraunhofer in Germany.



Microsoft disputed the court ruling. In a press statement, Tom Burt, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, stated: "Like hundreds of other companies large and small, we believe that we properly licensed MP3 technology from its industry recognized licensor -- Fraunhofer. The damages award seems particularly outrageous when you consider we paid Fraunhofer only $16 million to license this technology.



"Therefore, today's outcome is disappointing for us and for the hundreds of other companies who have licensed MP3 technology. We are concerned that this decision opens the door for Alcatel-Lucent to pursue action against hundreds of other companies who purchased the rights to use MP3 technology from Fraunhofer, the industry-recognized rightful licensor."http://www.microsoft.com

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Alcatel-Lucent to build WiMAX Net in Chile for Telmex

Alcatel-Lucent was awarded a contract by Telmex to build a WiMAX network in Chile. The project is expected to lead to the first commercial WiMAX service in Latin America. Financial terms were not disclosed.



The Telmex Chile WiMAX network will comply with the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard for fixed, nomadic and mobile usage and will be deployed in the 3.5GHz frequency band using Alcatel-Lucent's 9100 WiMAX end-to-end solution. The network is scheduled to be operational in the second half of 2007.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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European Commission Adopts UWB Spectrum Rules

The European Commission adopted rules specifying conditions for using ultra-wideband (UWB) technology in mass-market, consumer electronics (laptops, mobile phones, digital cameras, TVs...).



The goal is to establish a single market for UWB devices in the European Union. UWB devices can transmit data at very high rates by "spreading" the signal over very broad ranges of the radio spectrum.



The technical conditions in this decision, which must be applied within the next six months throughout the EU's 27 Member States, were developed following extensive compatibility studies between UWB and all other spectrum users that could potentially have been affected. The studies were done by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) for the Commission.

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/radio_spectrum/ref_documents

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EC Endorses Public Funding for North Yorkshire Broadband Network

The European Commission endorsed a UK initiative to create an advanced broadband network in North Yorkshire using public funds. The Commission concluded that the aid was unlikely to cause undue distortion of competition within the EU and was therefore compatible with European state aid rules. The local authorities have retained the right to use the network for public sector needs for a period of 10 years.


North Yorkshire's geography and local economy discourage commercial operators from providing advanced broadband services in many rural parts of the region. As a result, only a minority of citizens and businesses located in certain towns currently have access to advanced broadband services.

http://europa.eu

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SureWest to Freeze Pension Plan

SureWest Communications, which serves the Sacramento, California region, said it will freeze its pension plan effective April 1, 2007. The pension plan will be closed to future employees and future benefit accruals for current employees will be discontinued. No employees will lose their previously earned pension benefit. In place of a pension plan, SureWest in introducing a "Total Rewards Program" and putting in place other forms of employee benefits such as enhanced educational reimbursement options, enhanced employee recognition programs and revisions to certain compensation policies.

http://www.surewest.com

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BT Selects ADVA's Ethernet Gear for 21CN

BT has named ADVA Optical Networking a supplier of Ethernet last mile access products for its 21st Century Network (21CN). Specifically, BT's 21CN will deploy the ADVA FSP 150 as the Network Termination Equipment (NTE) throughout the network. The ADVA FSP 150 portfolio provides Ethernet demarcation, extension and aggregation. Financial terms were not disclosed.



ADVA said its equipment will enable BT to provide stringent monitoring from the network core to the customer premise to remotely respond to faults, minimizing the need for manual intervention at customer sites and rapidly increasing their response time. The ADVA Network Manager (NM) will be integrated with BT's OSS to provide continuous end-to-end service provisioning and monitoring.



ADVA has previously supplied its FSP 500 switch to BT.

http://www.advaoptical.com

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PostPath Enhances its Email/Collaboration Server

PostPath, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, released an updated version of its email and collaboration server that offers enterprises a drop-in alternative to Exchange.



PostPath Server 2.2 supports unmodified Outlook desktops, Active Directory tools, and Blackberry Enterprise Server. The new product is aimed both at organizations that intend to run a mixed Exchange/PostPath infrastructure and at those that wish to migrate away from Exchange entirely. s. http://www.postpath.com

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