Sprint Nextel Loses 1.3 million Customers in Q3, Re-Negotiates Credit

Sprint lost a total of 1.3 million net wireless customers during Q3, including losses of 1.1 million post-paid customers and 329,000 prepaid users, which was slightly offset by a 130,000 increase in the number of wholesale and affiliate subscribers. This gives Sprint a total of 50.5 million customers at the end of the period, compared to 54.0 million at the end of the third quarter of 2007. At the end of the third quarter, the company served 37.8 million post-paid subscribers, 3.9 million prepaid subscribers and 8.8 million wholesale and affiliate subscribers. Subscribers by network platform include 35.4 million on CDMA, 13.5 million on iDEN and 1.6 million Power Source users who utilize both networks. More than 9% of post-paid customers upgraded their handsets during the third quarter, resulting in increased contract renewals.


Sprint's revenues for Q3 were $8.8 billion, 3% lower than in the second quarter, primarily due to a lower contribution from wireless. Wireless service revenues for the quarter of $6.8 billion declined 13% year-over-year and 3% sequentially. Wireline revenues of $1.6 billion for the quarter were slightly lower sequentially and year-over-year as legacy voice and data declines offset Internet revenue growth.


Wireless capital investments were $217 million in the third quarter, compared to $393 million spent in the second quarter of 2008 and $813 million spent in the third quarter of 2007. Lower spending levels reflect reduced capacity needs and the conclusion of several network investment initiatives.


Also, Sprint announced that it successfully renegotiated the terms of its revolving credit facility and increased the ratio of total indebtedness to trailing four quarters earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and certain other non-recurring charges from no more than 3.5 to 1.0 to no more than 4.25 to 1.0. The company also paid down $1 billion of outstanding debt and decreased the current borrowing capacity of the credit facility from $6 billion to $4.5 billion, of which $1.3 billion is available.


"During tough economic times, we tightly managed our business to generate and retain cash and maintain substantial liquidity while continuing to reduce debt. At the same time, we made advancements in improving operations and delivering on the promise of the Now Network," said Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel CEO. "Customer care metrics have improved steadily throughout the year, and external surveys are confirming we're providing a better customer experience."http://www.sprint.com

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NTT Europe Offers Customer Portal for Hosted Virtualization Services

NTT Europe Online, which specializes in managed hosting services, has launched a virtualization Customer Portal offering extensive levels of control to companies deploying virtualized services in any of its European data centres.


NTT Europe Online's Customer Portal gives IT Managers on-demand access to VMware's VirtualCenter control node - enabling users to configure provision and manage their virtualized IT environments online.


Users are able to activate, deactivate and reboot their hosted virtual servers in a matter of seconds. It also enables the seamless drag-and-drop migration of server resource across virtual machines without engaging SLA support services from the dedicated NTT Europe Online. The Customer Portal also provides full-featured reporting capabilities.http://www.ntteuropeonline.comhttp://www.ntteuropeonline.com/virtualization-vmware.aspx

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iSkoot Raises $19 Million for IP Mobile Services

iSkoot, a start-up based in San Francisco, secured $19 million in a Series C funding round for its mobile services.


iSkoot is targeting a new class of highly integrated Web/mobile communications. The company recently acquired Social.IM -- a desktop IM client that brings real-time communication and notifications to social networks. Previously, iSkoot had developed a mobile Skype client. iSkoot also worked with Skype and Hutchison 3 to launch the first carrier-deployed mobile Skype application in 2006, and to develop the 3 Skypephone, currently sold in eight countries on three continents.


The new funding round was led by Vision Opportunity Master Fund and included participation from existing investors Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Jesselson Capital Corporation and ZG Ventures. iSkoot will use this round of funding to support the introduction of a new suite of mobile communication solutions.
http://www.iskoot.com

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Sierra Wireless Demos Windows 7 Mobile Broadband Support

Sierra Wireless demonstrated support for Microsoft Windows 7 Mobile Broadband using its modems for HSPA and EV-DO networks.


Windows 7 Mobile Broadband will enable users to connect to their mobile broadband service using the View Available Networks feature within Windows, a process similar to connecting to a WiFi network.


Windows 7 Mobile Broadband was demonstrated during the opening keynote address on Wednesday, using the Sierra Wireless Compass 885 USB modem. http://www.sierrawireless.com

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Brocade and Foundry Networks Amend Acquisition Agreement

Brocade and Foundry Networks have amended their original merger agreement, which was fist announced on July 21, 2008.
The amendment provides for the acquisition of the outstanding shares of Foundry Networks by Brocade. Under the revised terms, Foundry stockholders would be entitled to receive $16.50 per share in an all-cash transaction at the closing of the deal, as previously announced by the companies on Oct. 29, 2008.


In addition, Foundry stockholders may receive the proceeds of the sale of Foundry's portfolio of auction rate securities -- up to approximately $50 million in the aggregate -- calculated on a fully diluted basis based on the treasury stock method, if Foundry is successful in liquidating its portfolio of these securities prior to the close of the acquisition. It is anticipated that such amount, if any, would be distributed shortly before the closing of the acquisition through a dividend to Foundry stockholders.


Brocade expects to finance the acquisition from various financing sources, including cash on hand at both companies and the net proceeds from a $1.1 billion term loan facility which has already been deposited into a restricted Brocade custody account pending the closing of the acquisition of Foundry and other customary release conditions.http://www.foundrynet.comhttp://www.brocade.com

• On July 21, 2008, Brocade announced a deal to acquire Foundry Networks for approximately $3 billion. Under the agreement, Brocade agreed pay a combination of $18.50 of cash plus 0.0907 shares of Brocade common stock in exchange for each share of Foundry common stock, representing a total value of $19.25 (based on Brocade's closing stock price on Friday, July 18, 2008 of $8.27). The acquisition will position Brocade as a leading provider of enterprise and service provider networking solutions. Brocade currently offers a range of Storage Area Networks (SANs) and File Area Networks (FANs) solutions. The company is based in San Jose, California.



• Foundry, which was founded in 1996 and held its initial public offering in September 1999, supplies a range of enterprise and service provider switching, routing, security and Web traffic management solutions, including Layer 2/3 LAN switches, Layer 3 Backbone switches, Layer 4-7 application switches, wireless LAN and access points, metro routers and core routers. The company is based in Santa Clara, California.

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BT Awards non-UK Network Contract to Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent announced a seven-year extension of its partnership with BT, focused on the support of BT's global network operations. The agreement is aimed at further enhancing the services delivered to BT Global Services' customers and at optimizing BT's non-UK non-IP network. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Under the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will manage most of the legacy networks serving BT Global Services' customers. This will enable BT to focus on its Global 21CN Platform in order to further improve the customer experience, speed up the delivery of new services and reduce cost and complexity. The contract is built on the two companies' Multi-Vendor Managed Services contract signed in November 2006.


During the first phase of the project Alcatel-Lucent will assume operations for five legacy global and domestic networks in 27 countries outside the UK, along with the BT Global Managed Platform legacy transport network.


A few hundred BT employees will transfer to Alcatel-Lucent within the scope of the project.


"This contract will help us to better serve our customers. BT will be free to focus on its global 21st century platform, while Alcatel-Lucent can concentrate on further improving standards of service for those using our legacy networks" said Hanif Lalani, the newly appointed CEO of BT Global Services.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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European Commission Proposes Reforms to EU Telecoms Rules

The European Commission published a set of proposals for the reform of the EU Telecoms rules, designed to create a Single EU Telecoms Market with improved rights for consumers and businesses, more competition and investment to boost the take-up of cross-border services and wireless high-speed broadband.


At the heart of the compromise texts is a new, small and independent office for Europe's telecoms regulators. The EC hopes this central authority will bring about more consistency to regulatory measures on Europe's telecoms markets.




A meeting of the Council of Telecoms Ministers is scheduled for 27- November-2008. The vote in second reading in the European Parliament is scheduled for April 2009. A new regulatory framework is expected to become law in all 27 EU Member States by 2010.


"The European Parliament and Council agree with the Commission on the need to strengthen the EU single telecoms market. We now need to move beyond this consensus on the objectives and reach agreement also on the concrete legislative texts. With the text proposals published by the Commission today, we intend to facilitate the work of the European lawmakers. We have focused on what is important and have left out what is not essential at this moment in time", said Viviane Reding, EU Telecoms Commissioner. "I hope this will help the French Presidency to make substantial progress on the EU Telecoms Reform in view of the next Council meeting on 27 November."


The Commission's modified proposal on the EU Telecoms Reform covers the following main points:


The European Telecoms Authority -- a new proposal envisions an authority that will be substantially smaller in size and competences than initially envisaged. Following the wishes expressed by Parliament and Council, it will be a lean and efficient office that will focus on telecoms regulation and have no competences with regard to spectrum or network security. In contrast to the initial Commission proposal, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) will not be merged with the new office, but continue to exist separately[1], as it had been requested by Parliament and Council. Taking into account the recent position adopted by the European Regulators Group (ERG), independent national regulators will form the heart of the new office, which will be called "Body of the European Telecoms Regulators", to underline this change of approach. The heads of the national telecoms regulators will be given a strong role in the management of the new office and in the appointment of its Managing Director, and the personal and financial independence of the "Body of the European Telecoms Regulators" will be fully ensured. The Commission also accepts the Parliament's proposal that 50% of the staff of the new office can be seconded by national regulators. Including such seconded staff, the new office should employ no more than 20 experts, according to the Commission's proposal: 10 experts recruited by the new office itself, and 10 seconded from national regulators.


National Telecoms Regulators -- The Commission reaffirms its proposals of 13 November 2007 to entrench the personal and financial independence of national telecoms regulators in the reformed EU Telecoms rules, a proposal that has been endorsed already by the European Parliament. More consistent remedies on the EU Telecoms Market: The existing rules under which national regulators consult the Commission and their peers in other Member States on draft regulatory measures are strengthened to ensure a direct and efficient involvement of the new "Body of the European Telecoms Regulators". In particular national regulators may be required to amend or withdraw a draft measure which both the Commission and the new office consider to create a barrier to the single market or to be otherwise incompatible with Community law.


The modified proposal reaffirms the power of national regulators to impose, where required to overcome persistent competition bottlenecks, the remedy of functional separation. This remedy would require a dominant operator to separate its network infrastructure from its service branch (without changing the ownership structure) to improve competition in the market. This remedy can only be imposed by a national regulator with the approval of the Commission which, as "guardian of the Treaty", needs to ensure that it is used in a way consistent with the principles of the EU's telecoms rules.


Radio spectrum policy -- the strategic coordination of radio spectrum policy will be strengthened at political level through a process whereby the Commission submits a multi-annual EU radio spectrum policy programme to be jointly adopted by Parliament and Council. The promotion of cultural and media policy objectives has also been strengthened in line with the European Parliament's amendments, even though the Commission has made sure in its modified proposal that this does not unduly restrict the increased flexibility in the use of spectrum and does not call into question the promotion of wireless broadband in rural and other non-metropolitan areas in line with the Commission's "broadband for all" policy. The Commission's role in coordinating conditions and procedures relating to rights to use spectrum is now clearly focused on "pan-European services" as proposed by the European Parliament. The creation of a new advisory body for radio spectrum policy, as suggested by the Parliament, has however not been retained by the Commission, in order to avoid duplication of work with the existing Radio Spectrum Policy Group.


Investment in new networks: The Parliament has confirmed and reinforced the existing EU rules applying to investment in high-speed broadband networks by rejecting all calls for "regulatory holidays" and promoting efficient investment in new fibre optic networks, and the Commission welcomes these important clarifications. In line with this, the Commission will give more detailed regulatory guidance on next generation access networks in 2009.


Consumer rights: More transparency and better information, better access for users with disabilities, consumers' right to change fixed or mobile operator within 1 working day while keeping their number, as well as a more efficient 112 European emergency number, are major consumer benefits proposed by the Commission and supported strongly by the European Parliament. The Commission therefore reaffirms these consumer rights in its modified proposal. The Commission also agrees with the European Parliament about the need to ensure effective implementation of harmonized numbers of social value that begin with "116", such as the 116000 missing children hotline number. In addition, national telecoms authorities will be able to take action in order to secure minimum quality of service for internet users in order to maintain, if necessary and appropriate, "net neutrality" in Europe. The Commission's modified proposals ensure that any national requirements are set in a consistent way that does not create barriers to the internal market.


Data security: The Commission reaffirms the need of telecoms operators to notify regulators and the public about security breaches. The Commission reaffirms that notifications must, as a matter of principle, be sent to the individuals affected by them and that the notification procedure must remain swift, simple and effective. In order to clarify, in an objective manner, the cases where such notifications will be required, the Commission will, under the new legislative text, give more detailed guidance as to the circumstances of a breach that would trigger a notification.http://europa.eu

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AT&T to acquire Centennial for Rural Wireless Coverage

AT&T announced plans to acquire Centennial, a regional provider of wireless and wired communications services, for $944 million in cash. Under terms of the agreement, Centennial stockholders will receive $8.50 per share for a total equity price of $944 million. Including net debt, the total enterprise value is approximately $2.8 billion.


Centennial has 1.1 million wireless subscribers and serves largely rural areas of the Midwest and Southeast United States and in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.


AT&T said the Centennial acquisition demonstrates its commitment to continuously enhance network quality and coverage for its wireless customers. The addition of Centennial's high-quality 850 MHz spectrum will improve service quality for AT&T customers in parts of Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. Centennial also provides switched voice and high-capacity data and IP solutions for business customers in Puerto Rico.


For Centennial, the deal provides its customers with better access to the AT&T network and its product portfolio, including the iPhone 3G and the BlackBerry Bold.


"Mobility is a vital investment area for AT&T and our company's biggest growth driver," said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive officer of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "This transaction enhances network coverage for our consumer and business customers and is expected to create long-term value for AT&T's stockholders.http://www.att.comhttp://www.centennialwireless.com

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Deutsche Telekom Reports No Impact Yet from Financial Crisis

Deutsche Telekom's reported revenue for Q3 2008 declined by 1.5 percent to EUR 15.5 billion. On an organic basis, i.e. adjusted for exchange rate effects and excluding changes in the composition of the Group, revenue decreased by 0.9 percent in the third quarter. On a cumulative basis, i.e. in the first nine months of 2008, exchange rate fluctuations reduced revenue by around EUR 1.5 billion. Reported net profit in the third quarter increased by EUR 0.6 billion to around EUR 0.9 billion compared with the same period last year. Net profit adjusted for special factors increased by 12 percent to around EUR 1.2 billion.




Deutsche Telekom asserted that the financial crisis has not yet had an impact on its operations.


"Deutsche Telekom is well positioned in financial terms, our balance sheet ratios are good, and our short and medium-term funding is on a broad and solid footing. We have again made extremely good operational progress in the third quarter and are on the right track to achieving our targets for 2008," said René Obermann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Deutsche Telekom.


Some highlights for Q3:

Mobile Communications

• Mobile communications remained the Group's growth drivers. Around 1.2 million new contract customers were added in the third quarter alone. Overall, the Mobile Communications companies in the United States as well as in Central and Eastern Europe achieved double-digit growth rates both in terms of revenue as well as EBITDA.



• T‑Mobile Deutschland reported 271,000 net additions, 82 percent more than in the same period last year. In the first nine months of 2008, growth of 19 percent was recorded, taking the total of new contract customers to 685,000. A significant driver of the encouraging development in the past quarter was the iPhone 3G, which was in extremely high demand following its launch on July 11.



• T‑Mobile Deutschland reported revenue of EUR 2.0 billion in the third quarter, down 2.8 percent on the same period last year.



• T‑Mobile USA's results in the third quarter were again significantly affected by the weak U.S. dollar exchange rate. Measured in euros, the company reported a rise in revenue in the third quarter of 2.7 percent and growth in adjusted EBITDA of 1.0 percent.



• As of the end of September, T-Mobile USA had 32.14 million customers. Including the customers from the acquired company SunCom, this represents an increase of 4.4 million customers within a year. At 670,000, the number of new customers in the third quarter was on a par with the previous quarter.



• T‑Mobile UK's financial figures are being negatively impacted by tough competition, a weak sterling exchange rate and regulatory intervention in the market. In local currency, revenue in the third quarter fell 6.7 percent year-on-year to GBP 0.8 billion. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by 29.4 percent to GBP 175 million. The rate plans launched in May have been well received by the market. With 96,000 contract additions,



• The companies in Central and Eastern Europe continue to drive growth in Mobile operations. Revenue in the third quarter increased by 14.8 percent, while adjusted EBITDA climbed as much as 18.9 percent.



• The trend toward mobile data usage continues unabated. The European national companies recorded revenue -- excluding text and multimedia messaging -- of EUR 380 million between July and September 2008, which represents year-on-year growth of 45.3 percent. The number of web'n'walk customers climbed 67.2 percent to 4.7 million. Including occasional mobile Internet users, i.e. those without data contracts, the figure is much higher -- 13 million.



• Data revenue in the United States, including messaging, increased by 27.6 percent to US$833 million.

Broadband/Fixed Network

• T‑Home claimed a 49 percent DSL net add market share in the third quarter, this was the highest level reported by the company since the launch of the resale DSL offer in 2004. Of the 344,000 new DSL customers, around 50,000 were customers returning from competitors. This brings the total of DSL customers won back from resale providers and other network operators to around 150,000 since the beginning of the year.



• The IPTV service, Entertain, now has around 333,000 customers -- an increase of 33 percent within a single quarter.



• The number of line losses for the full year is forecasted at 2.5 to 3.0 million. This includes losses due to regulatory measures as well as on technical grounds as a result of the migration of DSL resale customers to All-IP. At 1.8 million in the first nine months of 2008, the number of line losses was at the lower end of this guidance. With 574,000 in the third quarter, the number of line losses was at an annual low.



• The decline in revenue in the domestic market by 5.9 percent year-on-year to EUR 4.7 billion in the third quarter is primarily attributable to line losses and a drop in call revenues as a result of the higher take-up of flat rate offers. EBITDA decreased by 5.4 percent in the same period to EUR 1.6 billion. On a nine-month basis, revenue declined 5.5 percent and EBITDA 1.6 percent. T‑Home's cost base was reduced by EUR 0.7 billion year-on-year, mainly driven by the "Save for Service" program.



• Revenue from international business at T-Home declined, chiefly due to the deconsolidation of T-Online France and T-Online Spain in the previous year. The adjusted EBITDA margin of the fixed-network companies in Central and Eastern Europe in the first nine months of 2008 was 42.9 percent compared with 36.4 percent in the same period last year. Broadband growth and positive exchange rate effects at national companies in Eastern Europe did not fully compensate for the decline in the traditional fixed network. At the end of September, the number of IP-TV customers in Eastern Europe was at 164,000, driven mainly by Croatia, with a total of 92,000.

Business Customers

• T‑Systems' international business saw revenue growth of 5.4 percent. This was primarily attributable to major international outsourcing agreements. In Germany, the business customer arm posted an overall decrease of 12.9 percent to approximately EUR 6.1 billion. This was chiefly due to the sale of Media & Broadcast and the reassignment of ActiveBilling to T-Home, as well as the ongoing price erosion in the telecommunications and IT business.

http://www.telekom.de

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Ekinops Introduces 40G Wave Bonding Technology

Ekinops introduced 40 Gbps capabilities for its multi-reach long-haul, regional, and metro transport aggregation platform. The new 40G Wave Bonding technology provides the ability to transport both native 40G and 4 x 10 Gbps payloads.




The first application of the Wave Bonding technology will target higher channel counts at 10G using a 4x10G Muxponder to multiplex four 10G payloads onto a 40G wavelength. Wave Bonding will allow Ekinops to achieve up to 320 channels, all in the C-Band spectrum, at 10G.


Ekinops said that because other 40 Gbps systems don't transmit as far as 10G systems, customers who want to move up from 10G to 40G over longer links find that they need to install regeneration equipment. Ekinops' Wave Bonding technology enables delivery of 40G with essentially the same performance characteristics as its 10G transmission. That includes the ability to reach hundreds of kilometers with no in-line amplification and a total distance of 2,000 kilometers with full channel counts on the Ekinops 360 transport system.


In addition to the use of Wave Bonding, Ekinops said it is leveraging new "DynaFEC" technology to enable 40G to achieve a reach similar to 10G. DynaFEC is the highest-gain forward error correction technology on the market, according to the company, allowing for cost-effective transport by providing gain through software rather than more expensive hardware components.


The initial offering in early 2009 features a 4x10G muxponder, enabling 160 channels of 10G transmission. Later in 2009, Ekinops will deliver a 40G serial interface, and at that point be able to offer 320 channels of 10G, or 80 channels of 40G, all in the C-Band spectrum.http://www.ekinops.com

• Ekinops' technical team is led by Jean-Luc Pamart, an FEC expert who has been awarded 7 patents in optical transmission. Before joining Ekinops, Mr. Pamart was Director of Hardware Development at Corvis-Algety in Lannion, France. Previous to that, he held various R&D positions at Alcatel within its Submarine and Terrestrial Division, and Optical Network Transmission business unit.

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Sonus Sees Revenues Decline 18% YoY to $62 Million

Sonus Networks reported Q3 revenue of $62.2 million, compared to $87.8 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2008 and $75.8 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2007, a decrease of 18% year over year. The company's loss from continuing operations on a GAAP basis was $19.0 million, or $0.07 per share, for the third quarter of 2008, compared to GAAP income from continuing operations of $3.5 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008, and a GAAP loss from continuing operations of $26.6 million, or $0.10 per share, for the third quarter of 2007.


"We had a challenging quarter, and are disappointed with our results," said Richard Nottenburg, president and CEO of Sonus Networks. "We experienced a downturn during September that impacted our revenue and earnings performance. We have maintained a strong cash position and a stable financial platform which allow us to focus on managing the business through the current economic climate."http://www.sonusnet.com

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AT&T to Acquire Wayport; Adding Thousands of Wi-Fi Hotspots

AT&T agreed to acquire privately-held Wayport, a provider of managed Wi-Fi services, for approximately $275 million in cash.
The acquisition expands the AT&T Wi-Fi footprint to nearly 20,000 domestic hotspots, takes the company's global Wi-Fi presence to more than 80,000 locations, and creates thousands of new ways for customers worldwide to stay in touch.




Key Wayport hotspots are in key locations, including select Wyndham, Marriott Vacation Club and Four Seasons hotels; HealthSouth and Sun Healthcare locations; plus McDonald's restaurants.


The acquisition also complements AT&T's mobile access options for businesses. As Wayport currently provides back-office management for AT&T's Wi-Fi Hot Spots, the acquisition expands such capabilities and brings management of Wi-Fi infrastructure completely under AT&T management.


"We're seeing exponential growth of Wi-Fi-enabled devices -- such as smartphones -- combined with a continued dependency on 24/7, anytime, anywhere Internet access across business and consumer market segments," said John Stankey, president and CEO, AT&T Operations. "Now is the right time for AT&T to affirm our commitment to Wi-Fi leadership. By acquiring Wayport, we're giving consumers more ways to stay in touch and building a more robust network management solution for businesses. We're bringing ready access to the nation's leading Wi-Fi, wireless and IP networks -- on a global scale."http://www.att.comhttp://www.wayport.com

• Wayport is based in Irving, Texas and was founded in 1996. Major investors included Sevin Rosen Funds, INVESCO Private Capital, New Enterprise Associates, BA Venture Partners and Trellis Partners. Other Wayport investors included Lucent Venture Partners, GC Technology Fund, Sanders Morris Harris, Star Ventures and GIC.



• Wayport's roaming partners have included AT&T, Verizon Business, Sprint, iPass, Boingo, Fiberlink, WeRoam, and Trustive.

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AT&T to Offer New 18 Mbps U-verse DSL Service

AT&T is planning to boost its U-verse Internet service to a maximum downstream speed of 18Mbps beginning on November 9. The speed tier will be offered exclusively available for AT&T U-verse TV customers. AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet Max 18 will be available to eligible residential customers for $65 a month as part of a bundle with AT&T U-verse TV. Professional installation is included for new U-verse TV customers, and eligible existing U-verse Internet customers can upgrade their package at any time without additional installation costs or appointments.
http://www.att.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Names former Sun Exec to Head its EMEA Division

Alcatel-Lucent has appointed Adolfo Hernandez as head of the newly created Europe, Middle East and Africa Region effective December 1st, 2008. He will report to Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen. Most recently, Adolfo Hernandez was Senior Vice President of Sun's Global Services Practice, where he was accountable for global services revenue, margin and overall business objectives around the world. http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Cisco Launches a Go-to-Market Program for Global Channel Partners

Cisco is launching a go-to-market program designed to help its channel partners collaborate with each other to better serve multinational customers. Up until now, many multinational customers expanding internationally have engaged in separate transactions with local Cisco resellers in each country of their operations. The new program is built around a transaction-based partner collaboration model.


Specifically, the Cisco Global Resale Agent model provides each "host" partner with policies, processes and tools that enable it to select another Cisco partner as an agent in a different country. The agent can act on the host partner's behalf for the resale of Cisco technologies to new multinational customers.


Cisco said this new model provides local partners with "global rights" to select another partner in a different geography to deliver Cisco technology solutions on its behalf. After the host and agent partner engage in and complete a business transaction, the local partner buys the Cisco solution and invoices the customer locally.
http://www.cisco.com

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Cisco Debuts 20 Gbps ASR 1000 Embedded Services Processor

Cisco significantly boosted the performance of its recently-launched ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Router with a new 20-Gbps Embedded Services Processor (ESP). The release doubles the service processing rate and delivers software enhancements that increase application control and performance.


The ASR 1000 Series, which was introduced in March 2008, is powered by the company's 40-core "QuantumFlow" processor and designed for massive scalability in packet intelligence in both service provider and enterprise networks. The platform packs up to 20 million packet per second (PPS) forwarding rate performance in a compact single router platform. As such, the ASR 1000 could be used to consolidate a number of networking appliances, including firewall, IPSec VPNs, deep-packet inspection (DPI) and Session Border Controllers (SBC).


The new enhancements include:

• 20 Gbps Cisco ASR 1000 Series ESP High-Performance Security Services: Integrated high-performance firewall, virtual private network (VPN), and Network Access Translation (NAT) services with up to 20 Gbps throughput, up to 8 Gbps Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) encryption and up to 10,000 VPN tunnel services.



• WAN Optimization (WCCPv2) Application-Aware Capabilities on the Cisco ASR 1000 Series: Enhanced network performance and dynamic optimization for business-critical applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM). Network-Based Application Recognition (NBAR) is offered to help customers identify, prioritize, limit or block more than 60 applications, including Skype and instant messaging, so that compliance requirements and an optimum performance of mission-critical applications can be maintained.



• Integrated Threat Control on Cisco ASR: Rapid first line of defense against network threats with multigigabit flexible and granular Layer 2-7 Flexible Packet Matching (FPM).



• Enhancements to Cisco Security Manager: Simplified and accurate system-management capabilities for Cisco ASR 1000 platform-level instrumentation and onboard usability tools. Customers benefit from improved operational efficiencies when configuring, managing and troubleshooting network issues.

The Cisco Embedded Services Processor for the Cisco ASR 1000 Series is generally available now with U.S. list price of $50,000.


http://www.cisco.com

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AT&T Reports Largest Text Messaging Spike (+44%) on Election Night

AT&T reported that in the hour following the announcement, text messaging traffic across its network surged about 44% -- the highest spike in company history.

The peak transactions per second following Tuesday's announcement was significantly higher than the peak transactions per second logged for the most recent New Year's Eve, a day that consistently ranks among the busiest texting days for AT&T.


"The spike on Tuesday night rang true for us," said Mark Collins, vice president of Voice and Data Services, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets. "Texting has become so valuable a communication tool that it is how people are sharing thoughts and information and connecting with each other in even the most important moments."http://www.att.com

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Qualcomm Posts Quarterly Revenue of $3.33 billion, up 45% Year-over-Year

Qualcomm reported quarterly revenue of $3.33 billion, up 45 percent year-over-year and up 21 percent sequentially. Net income was $878 million, down 22 percent year-over-year and up 17 percent sequentially. Diluted earnings per share were $0.52, down 22 percent year-over-year and up 16 percent sequentially.


For its full fiscal 2008, Qualcomm posted revenue of $11.14 billion, up 26 percent year-over-year, and net income was $3.16 billion, down 4 percent year-over-year.


"I am very pleased with the performance of our businesses this past year, particularly the strong execution of our chipset business and our successful settlement with Nokia. While we continue to see strong growth in 3G CDMA, the current macroeconomic conditions and potential for further economic slowdown creates an uncertain business environment for the next few quarters," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chief executive officer of Qualcomm. "As a result of the credit crisis and the economic uncertainty, our guidance reflects slower end- market device growth for 2009 than previously anticipated and a significant contraction in channel inventory in the first and second fiscal quarters. While we are estimating strong growth for CDMA-based devices in calendar year 2009, driven by a shift to emerging markets, this growth is meaningfully less than we would have forecast just a few weeks ago."
http://www.qualcomm.com

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Telefónica Deploys 40G Backbone with Huawei

Telefónica de España has deployed its first 40G transmission network using equipment from Huawei Technologies. The network' s WDM optical rings will enable high-bandwidth and intelligent transmission and more flexible dispatch. Deployment details were not disclosed.


Huawei' s solution leverages ROADM technology, which guarantees flexible provisioning, and is ready to activate advanced network Control and Management Planes based on GMPLS.http://www.huawei.com

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AudioCodes Debuts HD VoIP Phones

AudioCodes is expanding its VoIP product portfolio by launching a line of High Definition (HD) VoIP IP Phones for the enterprise and service provider market.




The AudioCodes IP Phone 300HD series is expected to meet a growing demand for High Definition VoIP solutions in end-user phones and terminals, providing high voice fidelity, advanced security and features and enhanced user interface. The IP Phone Series product line is widely interoperable with IP-PBXs, Softswitches and IP Centrex solutions and can utilize the most popular wideband coders such as G.722, G.722.2 (WB-AMR), G.729.1 and G.711.1. Enhanced proprietary capabilities such as packet loss concealment, high quality wideband acoustic echo canceler and low delay adaptive jitter buffer enrich the HD VoIP experience by utilizing these phones.


The AudioCodes 300HD Series of High Definition IP Phones includes three models. The 310HD IP Phone is positioned as an entry level IP-Phone and includes a basic display and user interface. The 320HD Premium model includes a large Monochrome LCD screen. The 350HD Executive model has a large Color LCD. All models support HD VoIP. Power over Ethernet is optional in all models.http://www.audiocodes.com/ipphones

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