T-Mobile USA Launches FMC Based on UMA

T-Mobile USA launched a fixed mobile convergence (FMC) service that enables mobile subscribers equipped with a Wi-Fi-enabled handset to use their home broadband connection or Wi-Fi hotspot for unlimited domestic calling. The deployment is based on Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), an access technology that allows a seamless handoff of mobile voice and data from a wide area cellular network to a wireless local area network (WLAN).




T-Mobile HotSpot@Home enables calls to seamlessly transfer from T-Mobile's GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless network whenever an authorized Wi-Fi hotspot is in range. While at home, customers benefit from a strong wireless signal and unlimited domestic calling over the Wi-Fi connection; while mobile, customers also can get the same benefits at all the nearly 8,500 T-Mobile HotSpot locations across the U.S.



Key components of the T-Mobile HotSpot@Home service include new mobile phones -- the Samsung t409 and the Nokia 6086. Each phone currently retails for $49.99 with a two-year contract on a qualifying rate plan. Battery life for each of the phones is rated at over 4 hours of talk time.



T-Mobile also has partnered with D-Link and Linksys to offer free Wi-Fi routers optimized for the service.



As part of its launch promotion, the T-Mobile HotSpot@Home service can be added to any qualifying T-Mobile voice plan for $9.99 per month for a single line, and $19.99 per month for up to five lines on a FamilyTime plan.

http://www.t-mobile.com

http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com

• Kineto Wireless is supplying its Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) client software for the Samsung handset used for T-Mobile service.

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Paul Reynolds leaves BT for Telecom NZ

Dr. Paul Reynolds, who currently serves as Chief Executive of BT Wholesale, is leaving the company in September to take up the position of CEO of Telecom New Zealand.



Paul will succeed Theresa Gattung, who leaves Telecom New Zealand this week after twelve years at the company, the past eight as the company's CEO. Simon Moutter has been appointed as acting CEO until Paul Reynolds formally takes up his role.

http://www.btplc.com

http://www.telecom.co.nz

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C&W Barbados Selects Calix

Cable & Wireless (Barbados) has selected the Calix C7 multiservice access platform (MSAP) and the Calix Management System (CMS) to implement a 24,000-line expansion of its existing network that will bring DSL and VOIP services to more customers. Cable & Wireless (Barbados) had previously installed more than 10,000 Calix combo ports for POTS and ADSL2+ service.

http://www.calix.com

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DISA Awards $11.5M Contract to AT&T for Global Videoconferencing

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) awarded a $11.5 million six-month contract extension to AT&T to manage a global videoconferencing system for the Department of Defense. U.S. military commanders throughout the world communicate on the DISN Video Services-Global (DVS-G), the Department of Defense's all-service video teleconferencing (VTC) system.



Under the terms of the contract, AT&T will provide network management services for the DVS-G. AT&T will also provide such networking services as configuration and installation and inventory management services for DVS-G equipment.



The DVS-G operates six video hubs worldwide - four in the U.S., one in Germany and one in Kuwait. The DVS-G also supports conferences at the Department of Defense Unclassified, Secret and Top Secret classifications, as well as Allied and NATO Secret. AT&T developed, and has managed, the DVS-G for more than 10 years.

http://www.att.com

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Tektronix Tests World's Fastest, Longest Infiniband Cable -- 100m

Tektronix validated the performance of a new Intel 100 meter Infiniband cable operating at speeds up to 20 Gbps. Described as the world's longest InfiniBand optical cable, it has an electrical interface on either end and uses four serial data lanes at 5 Gbps each. The cable, which is designed for large computing clusters, is being used as the part of the backbone network at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) show in Dresden, Germany.

http://www.tektronix.com/http://www.intel.com

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ST Chips Enable In-Vehicle SIRIUS Backseat TV

STMicroelectronics is supplying the digital broadcasting chipset for SIRIUS Backseat TV, a new TV service that will deliver three channels of family programming directly to vehicles. SIRIUS Backseat TV will be launched later this year in select 2008 model Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles.



SIRIUS Backseat TV is received via an in-vehicle satellite video receiver and two small roof-mounted antennas. The SIRIUS Backseat TV digital audio and video signal is broadcast over the same frequency spectrum allocation as SIRIUS radio.



The core of the in-vehicle satellite video receiver, which is manufactured by Delphi for SIRIUS, is based on three ST chips: the STA210 RF tuner IC; the STA240 channel, service and source decoder IC; and the STA264 advanced hierarchical demodulator chip, which extracts the video stream and performs error correction on the received signal.



ST has been a supplier to SIRIUS since 2004 for of its radio receiver chipsets.

http://www.st.com

http://www.sirius.com

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Neopolitan Raises $3 Million for Ethernet Services

Neopolitan Networks, an Ethernet network service provider based in Palo Alto, California, secured $3.17 million in its first round of venture capital financing. The company operates metro Ethernet networks in Silicon Valley and Miami.

http://www.neopolitan.com

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CommScope to Acquire Andrew for $2.6 Billion

CommScope, which is the global leader in structured cabling systems for business enterprise applications and also the largest manufacturer of coaxial cable for Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC), agreed to acquire Andrew Corp. in a deal valued at $2.6 billion.



Andrew provides broad-based wireless solutions for antennas, cable products, base station subsystems, in-building and distributed coverage, geolocation systems and satellite communications.



The merger will create a global leader in infrastructure solutions for communications networks. Its portfolio will include structured cabling solutions for the business enterprise; broadband cable and apparatus for cable television applications; and antenna and cable products, base station subsystems, coverage and capacity systems, and network solutions for wireless applications.



Under the deal, CommScope will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Andrew for $15.00 per share, at least 90 percent in cash. Based on CommScope's and Andrew's results for fiscal year 2006, on a pro forma basis, the combined companies would have had sales of approximately $3.8 billion comprised of approximately 35 percent in wireless antenna and cable products; 29 percent in carrier and network solutions; 21 percent in enterprise products; and 15 percent in broadband/cable television solutions. The combined companies' revenues on a geographic basis would have been approximately 57 percent in North America; 24 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; 12 percent in Asia/Pacific Rim; and 7 percent in Latin America. The combined company will have more than 2,200 global patents and pending patent applications and approximately 16,000 employees serving more than 130 countries.



Following the close of the transaction, Andrew will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of CommScope. Frank Drendel will remain Chairman and CEO of CommScope, and CommScope will retain its global headquarters in Hickory, North Carolina. The combined company also plans to maintain its Chicago-area presence, including Andrew's state-of-the-art manufacturing and office facility in Joliet, Illinois.

http://www.commscope.com

http://www.andrew.com

• In August 2006, CommScope dropped its bid to acquire Andrew Corporation. A day earlier, Andrew Corporation had rejected CommScope's proposal to acquire all of Andrew's outstanding shares for $9.50 per share in cash.



• Also in August 2006, Andrew Corporation and ADC Telecommunications mutually agreed to terminate a merger agreement that had been set in May 2006.

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XO Launches Point-to-MultiPoint on Demand Service for Carriers

XO Communications launched a new wholesale network service that enables carriers and service providers to obtain bandwidth on demand over the XO advanced, nationwide optical network.



Through a single connection to the XO National Hub, service providers can obtain network connections and capacity on demand to establish hubs on a local, regional and national basis in carrier hotels, ILEC central offices and other end user locations across the United States. The XO solution allows customers to reserve network capacity and deploy it when it is needed, but only pay for the circuits when they are used.



XO said its service is aimed at:

• International carriers that need to extend their network coverage
  within the United States;



• Mobile wireless companies that need the ability to rapidly expand network capacity;



• Telecommunications carriers' that require primary or redundant network solutions supporting dispersed end user data traffic;



• Internet Service Providers that need to aggregate traffic nationwide through a single network handoff.

http://xo.com/products/carrier/transport/nationalhub

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Toshiba Adds 4GB microSDHC Card for Mobiles

Toshiba expanded its line of small-format, high-speed, high-capacity memory cards with the launch of a 4-GB microSDHC card for mobile phone applications.



Toshiba's 4GB microSDHC card meets SD memory card standard Ver. 2.00(3), the SDHC card standard for high density SD products with a capacity of over 2GB. The card is designed for use in dedicated microSDHC slots, but can also be used in standard SDHC card slots in an adapter.



Toshiba said 4GB of capacity will store 69 hours of music encoded at 128 kps or 28 hours of one-segment TV programs at 312 kbps.

http://www.toshiba.com

• The SD memory card was jointly developed in 1999 by Toshiba, SanDisk and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.

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ARRIS Boosts QAM Density by 50%

ARRIS will boost the QAM capacity of its D5 Universal Edge QAM (UEQ) by 50% from 48 QAMs per 2 RU chassis to 72 QAMs per 2 RU chassis as part of the D5's planned Release 2.3, available for shipment in the latter part of 2007. This increased density is achieved via a software upgrade and will result in significantly lowering the cost per QAM channel.



The field upgradeable, next-generation D5 UEQ is designed to support multiple video and DOCSIS-based services. ARRIS said an added advantage of the D5 UEQ's increased density is that an operator can choose between Quad Bonding ratios (4 QAM channels per RF port) and Hex Bonding ratios (6 QAM channels per RF port) to be able to mix and match QAM capacity to the network configuration needed on a channel by channel basis. http://www.arrisi.com

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KDDI and Microsoft to Collaborate on Software as a Service (SaaS)

KDDI and Microsoft will jointly develop and provide applications using a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model for corporate users. The companies will also create an ecosystem to support independent software vendor (ISV) partners and spur the development of new service-enabled applications to drive momentum for new SaaS applications.



Under the agreement, KDDI will use Microsoft Connected Services Framework as a foundation for providing services to customers. The first SaaS application will be built on Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration, a carrier-grade platform that offers enterprise-class e-mail and document-sharing services to corporate customers. Subscription is a monthly fee-based model, covering mobile and fixed-line communications and the SaaS application.
http://www.microsoft.com

http://www.kddi.com

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Nielsen to Acquire Telephia for Consumer Telecom Research

The Nielsen Company agreed to acquire San Francisco-based Telephia, which offers syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets. Telephia and Nielsen are both privately held companies and financial terms were not disclosed.



Telephia provides technology-based measurements of consumer behavior, product quality, and consumer attitudes, especially for the mobile sector. The acquisition expands Nielsen's ability to measure the rapidly expanding mobile content delivery industry, where today there are more than 232 million wireless subscribers in the U.S.
http://www.nielsen.com

http://www.telephia.com

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LSI Announces Restructuring, Sells Consumer Business to Magnum Semiconductor

LSI announced a broad restructuring that will include the elimination of approximately 900 positions, or about 13 percent of its non-production workforce, across all business and functional areas on a global basis. The restructuring follows LSI's recent acquisition of Agere Systems in April 2007.



LSI has also agreed to sell its consumer products business to Magnum Semiconductor for an undisclosed amount. The deal includes the LSI DoMiNo, Domino[X] and Zevio architectures, products and related intellectual property of the LSI consumer products business. Additionally, Magnum will offer employment to a significant number of LSI employees associated with the business. Magnum Semiconductor said the acquisition strengthens its existing DVD, digital TV and digital entertainment center solutions while also adding MPEG-2 and H.264 high-definition media processing and low-power 3D graphics products to its portfolio.



Regarding the restructuring, LSI said the job cuts are expected to reduce its non-GAAP operating expenses to between $255 million and $265 million in the third quarter and to between $245 million and $255 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. The corresponding GAAP operating expenses are expected to be between $290 million and $310 million for the third quarter of 2007 and between $275 million and $295 million for the fourth quarter of 2007. The quarterly operating expense run rate exiting 2007 is inclusive of all previously announced synergies and cost savings. The company expects to make further progress on operating expenses in 2008.



LSI also updated its outlook for the second quarter ending June 30, 2007 and revised its estimated revenue range to between $650 million and $670 million. Non-GAAP earnings are expected to be between ($0.03) and $0.00 per diluted share in the second quarter primarily due to lower than expected revenues, partially offset by strong expense control and favorable product mix. GAAP loss is expected to be between 52 and 43 cents per diluted share, noting that the company is in the process of determining the exact amount of charges it will recognize in the second quarter.



LSI said the revised outlook reflects greater than anticipated softness in its businesses but that it remains confident in its long term direction.

http://www.lsi.com

http://www.magnumsemi.com

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EC Insists on Access Network Competition in Germany

The European Commission has requested the German regulatory authority to ensure adequate competitive access and a level playing field in the transition to high bandwidth Next Generation Networks (NGN).



In May, the Germany regulator (BNetzA) notified the Commission of measures intended to continue the obligations imposed on Deutsche Telekom to grant competitors access to its copper fixed telephone network. Since Deutsche Telekom is upgrading its network by rolling out fibre-based Next Generation Networks, BNetzA's regulatory measures also include remedies to tackle the transition to this.



In a statement, the European Commission argues that while the regulatory measures proposed by BNetzA go in the right direction, they are not yet sufficient. The roll-out of fibre closer to the customers, normally to the street cabinets, enables the provision of high bandwidth services. However, it raises important issues regarding the position of alternative operators who currently benefit from access obligations of Deutsche Telekom. As alternative operators in Germany already have started to roll-out their own infrastructure to local exchanges, or more central levels of the network, these operators now need an economic way of reaching the new access points provided in street cabinets.



Therefore, the Commission has requested the German telecom regulator to guarantee that access to Deutsche Telekom's existing copper network by its competitors remains efficient during the roll-out of Next Generation Networks. BNetzA is therefore asked to ensure that competitors have economically viable access to Deutsche Telekom's ducts and fibre network, if appropriate, in order to deploy, their own networks down to the street cabinets and so that the necessary equipment can be installed in those cabinets.

http://www.europa.eu

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Occam Selected by Centennial de Puerto Rico for FTTB

Centennial de Puerto Rico has selected Occam's Broadband Loop Carrier (BLC) system, including Occam's new Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) voice functionality, as part of its strategy to expand its fiber-to-the-business (FTTB) Ethernet solution. Specifically, Centennial has purchased and deployed Occam's BLC 6312 Optical Line Terminal Blades, BLC 6440-01 Optical Packet Transport Blades and 2342 Optical Fiber Network Terminals (ONTs).



Centennial serves more than 400,000 lines and provides wireline, wireless and broadband data services in Puerto Rico and in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

http://www.occamnetworks.com/http://www.centennialpr.com

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Ericsson Supplies Mobile Softswitch to Algeria

Wataniya Telecom Algérie has selected Ericsson's Mobile Softswitch Solution for its nationwide GSM network in Algeria. The solution will increase network capacity, performance and operational efficiency. Ericsson will also provide a range of associated professional services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.ericsson.com

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TELUS Decides Not to Bid for Bell Canada

TELUS announced that it has elected not to submit an offer to acquire BCE. In a press statement, TELUS said the inadequacies of BCE's bid process did not make it possible for TELUS to submit an offer.

http://www.telus.com

• Earlier this week, BCE, the parent company of Bell Canada, and TELUS, the incumbent operator in western Canada, confirmed that talks are underway regarding a possible business combination. BCE and TELUS have entered into a mutual non-disclosure and standstill agreement on a non-exclusive basis.

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Cavium Develops Storage Services Processors with 2-12 Cores

Cavium Networks announced a new family of OCTEON MIPS64 Multicore Storage Services Processors (SSPs) targeted at applications such as Fiber Channel and Ethernet Disk Arrays, RAID controllers, multi-protocol switches, single-chip iSCSI adaptors, virtualization equipment, Protection and NAS/SAN equipment.



Cavium said its new, single-chip OCTEON SSP processors deliver two to four times more compute cycles versus many alternatives and integrate advanced hardware acceleration for RAID, compression, de-duplication, security and iSCSI.



The OCTEON SSP processor family consists of seven different software-compatible products. Key features include integration of 2 to 12 cnMIPS Plus 64-bit cores, storage application acceleration, an array of high-speed input/output interfaces including 10-Gigabit XAUI, PCI-Express, Gigabit Ethernet ports, dual DDR2 memory controllers, and data protection mechanisms.



OCTEON SSP enables storage equipment vendors to build low to high-end scalable storage solutions providing up to 3 Million on-chip virtual IOPS, 10Gbps of iSCSI, 1GB/s of compression / decompression, up to 2GB/s of in-line encryption in a single chip and up to 10GB/s of RAID acceleration.

http://www.caviumnetworks.com

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Cavium Expands its OCTEON Plus Network Services Processor Family

Cavium Networks introduced two new devices in its OCTEON Plus Network Services Processor (NSP) family. The new processors integrate 2 to 12 cnMIPS 64-bit cores at up to 1 Gigahertz, advanced application acceleration for networking, security, compression/decompression, an array of high-speed industry standard serial packet interfaces including up to two 10-Gigabit XAUI, two 8-lane PCI-Express, eight Gigabit Ethernet ports, and dual DDR2 memory controllers.



Target applications for the new processors include routers, switches, 3G+ and WiMAX equipment, ATCA / AMC blades, security appliances, 802.11n enterprise gateways, and acceleration cards.

Highlights of the new processors include:

• OCTEON CN56XX consists of four different software- and pin-compatible parts with 6 to 12 cnMIPS cores, running at clock speeds of up to 1 Gigahertz, along with integrated dual 72-bit DDR2 memory controllers and a 2MB L2 cache. CN56XX integrates a total of 16 SerDes interfaces that can be flexibly configured as a combination of up to two 1/2/4/8-lanes PCI Express controllers, two 10-Gigabit XAUIs, eight SGMII. The CN56XX delivers up to 12Gbps IPv4 forwarding min packet performance, 20Gbps of in-line encryption and 10Gbps of compression/decompression in a single chip with leading performance/$ and performance/watt.



• OCTEON CN54XX consists of three different software- and pin-compatible parts with 2 to 6 cnMIPS cores, running at clock speeds of up to 1 Gigahertz, along with an integrated 72-bit DDR2 memory controller and a 1MB L2 cache. CN54XX has a total of 12 SerDes interfaces that can be flexibly configured as a combination of up to two 1/2-lanes PCI Express controllers, one 8-lane PCI Express, 1x XAUI, eight SGMII. The CN54XX delivers up to 6Gbps IPv4 forwarding min packet performance, 10Gbps of in-line encryption and 6Gbps of compression/decompression in a single chip with leading performance/$ and performance/watt. The OCTEON CN54XX is the industry's first Network Services Processor that delivers over 3GHz of total CPU processing under 8 watts of power consumption.

http://www.caviumnetworks.com

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