HP Expands Telecom Consulting Services

HP has expanded its set of telecom consulting services and hired more consultants.



The HP Solution Consulting Services portfolio (HP SCS) has enhanced its core methodology with expertise gained in recent transformation projects. Also, the HP SCS services portfolio is now organized into specific capabilities that can be used to address many different solution needs. HP said this provides telecom operators with the flexibility to select, combine and customize capabilities to meet key business objectives.


HP also announced a recent customer win at Magyar Telekom, Hungary's largest CSP. HP SCS consultants focused on a redesign of the way services are provisioned, as well as interface standardization, application integration and overall project management.


Magyar Telekom serves both consumers and businesses with fixed, mobile and broadband services. Previously, each of its three business units handled service activation and provisioning separately. After consultation with Magyar Telekom, HP developed a single, consolidated platform, called SPA (service provisioning and activation), that uses HP Service Activator to automate key processes and workflows. The solution is now in operation for new IP services, and Magyar Telekom plans to extend it to the rest of its services portfolio.
http://www.hp.com/go/SCS

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DISH Selects Widevine for Video Optimization and DRM

DISH Network has selected Widevine to provide adaptive streaming, virtual DVD-like "trick play" and digital rights management (DRM) for the pay-TV provider's "TV Everywhere" service.


Widevine said its video optimization and DRM platform will ensure that DISH Network customers viewing their live and recorded shows throughout the home with TV Everywhere receive the highest-quality entertainment, while at the same time ensuring that DISH Network programming is securely delivered wirelessly to any device anywhere in the home. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.widevine.com

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Clustrix Optimizes Web Database Scalability

Clustrix, a start-up based in San Francisco, unveiled its Clustered Database System (CDS) for Internet-scale applications. The fundamental problem that Clustrix address is how to scale the massive databases employed by eCommerce websites, photo sharing sites, dating sites and social networks. The mixed read/write workloads have necessitated application partitioning across isolated databases and this requires lots of custom code writing to scale the system.


The Clustrix technology, which is implemented in a server appliance, combines the fully relational, ACID-compliant functionality of SQL with the massively scalability, high-performance of NoSQL key-value stores. The company said its approach requires no custom application work and is easier to administer.
http://www.clustrix.com

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SiTime Reaches Milestone for its MEMS-based Silicon Timing

SiTime, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, announced that cumulative shipments of its MEMS First CMOS oscillators and clock generators are expected to exceed 20 million units in May 2010. The MEMs-based devices replace quartz in applications including networking, telecommunications, storage and consumer electronics.
http://www.sitime.com

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Excelocity and Aricent Partner on Multi-Service Business Gateway

Excelocity and Aricent have developed a Multi-Service Business Gateway reference design based on the Intel CAP24-60 hardware platform. The solution integrates Excelocity's XL-Gateway, a framework for building Voice/Video IP solutions, and Aricent's Converged Access Software (CAS), a software framework for multi-service gateways for the Intel CAP24-60 Multi-Service Business Gateway reference HW platform.

The Excelocity XL-Gateway Framework introduces a new class of an open (software development kit) SDK for the development of embedded Multimedia (Voice/Video) gateways. It offers high level APIs for call, media, signaling and OAMP control. It has been pre-integrated with third party TDM and IP signaling protocol stacks and provides the multimedia path and call control for all combinations of FXS, FXO, ISDN, CAS and SIP calls over PSTN, LAN and WAN networks.

Aricent's CAS spans several product categories such as Residential/Home Gateways, Business Service Routers and Multi-Services Business Gateways (MSBGs). CAS enables vendors to develop integrated modular devices on a single software platform.

"The combination of the Excelocity's XL-Gateway, Aricent's CAS, and Intel's CAP24-60 robust reference hardware platform, provides a strong development platform for developing scalable multi-service gateway solutions," said Steve Price, performance products marketing director, Intel.
http://www.aricent.com
http://www.excelocity.com

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Limelight Acquires EyeWonder for Monetization Tools

Limelight Networks completed its acquisition of EyeWonder, a privately held company based in Atlanta offering video content monetization tools for publishers.


At the time the deal was first announced last December, the companies valued the transaction at approximately $110 million, comprised of approximately $62 million in cash (subject to adjustment based on EyeWonder's financial condition at Closing) and approximately 12.74 million shares of Limelight common stock.


EyeWonder's advertising serving platform was projected to service over $500 million in media spend globally in 2009, helping stakeholders across the digital advertising ecosystem to realize increased return-on-investment from that spend.


The combination of EyeWonder's value-added monetization solutions and Limelight Networks' delivery, storage, management and consulting services will help content publishers to deliver and monetize their video content.
http://www.limelightnetworks.com
http://www.eyewonder.com

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IBM Acquires Cast Iron Systems for Cloud Integration

IBM has acquired Cast Iron Systems , a start-up based in Mountain View, California to broaden the delivery of cloud computing services for clients. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Cast Iron Systems specializes in cloud integration software, appliances and services. The company has completed thousands of cloud integrations around the world for financial institutions, media and entertainment companies and retail organizations. The company's clients include Allianz, NEC, Peet's Coffee & Tea, Dow Jones, Schumacher Group, ShoreTel, Sports Authority, Time Warner, Westmont University and many others.


IBM said the acquisition provides it with a greater ability to help businesses integrate their cloud-based applications and on-premise systems. The acquisition also advances IBM's capabilities for a hybrid cloud model, which is attractive to enterprises because it allows them to blend data from on-premise applications with public and private cloud systems.


Cast Iron Systems' approximately 75 employees will be integrated into IBM. The IBM Software Group has acquired more than 55 companies since 2003.
http://www.ibm.com
http://www.castiron.com/

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JDSU Acquires Agilent's Network Solutions Test Group

JDSU completed its previously announced acquisition of Agilent's Network Solutions communications test business. The deal, which was valued at $165 million in cash, includes the unit's LTE network verification and deployment products.


The business acquired from Agilent had annual revenue for its fiscal year ending October 31, 2009 of $162 million from global sales of service assurance monitoring systems, drive test and network protocol test instruments used by communications service providers and equipment manufacturers worldwide. The business, including approximately 700 employees in Colorado, the U.K., Singapore and Beijing, will be integrated into the existing Solutions Division of JDSU's Communications Test and Measurement business segment.


JDSU said the acquisition enables it to offer one of the industry's most complete set of wireless test solutions, including the following offerings from Agilent's Network Solutions portfolio:


Service Assurance -- Market leading service monitoring, troubleshooting and deployment solutions for maximum reliability, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Products include Agilent Assurance for Mobile Voice and Data, Agilent Assurance for MSS (Mobile Softswitch Voice Networks) and Agilent NgN Analysis Systems.


Protocol Analyzers and Network Diagnostics -- Network protocol analyzers for lab and field testing by network equipment manufacturers and wireless service providers, supporting protocols such as 3G/UMTS R8, Femtocell and emerging 4G/LTE networking technology. Products include Signaling Analyzer Real-Time (SART) Network Analyzer 10 GigE, Distributed Network Analyzer (DNA), Triple Play Analyzer (TPA) and Voice Quality Tester (VQT).


Wireless Drive Test--Drive test network optimization platform and instruments used by service providers and NEMs that provide infrastructure equipment to measure performance and to optimize the integrity and quality of all the major established wireless networks and evolving technologies including LTE and WiMAX. This multi-band, multi-technology receiver solution delivers advanced troubleshooting capabilities and greatly increases measurement and
network deployment speeds.
http://www.jdsu.com

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GigOptix Ships 40G RZDQPSK Receiver Amplifiers

GigOptix has begun volume shipping of its new 40G RZDQPSK receiver amplifier to a tier 1 telecom OEM. The new device is a high gain, broad bandwidth, and low power differential amplifier in a compact 3x3mm QFN form factor that is capable of directly driving a 40G de-multiplexer. The product was developed through close collaboration with a tier 1 telecom OEM consistent with GigOptix's strategy of partnering with industry leading customers to define and drive commercialization.
http://www.gigoptix.comhttp://

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Equinix Acquires Switch and Data -- 87 Data Centers and Counting

Equinix completed its previously announced acquisition of Switch and Data. The company now operates 87 data centers in 35 strategic markets in 11 countries.


The deal was valued at $683.4 million and comprised of a cash payment of approximately $134.0 million and the issuance of approximately 5.5 million shares of Equinix common stock valued at $549.4 million. Equinix adds 34 data centers in 22 markets in the U.S. and Canada, including Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Seattle and Toronto. The transaction adds more than one million gross square feet of data center capacity, bringing Equinix's total to more than six million gross square feet. In addition, the deal expands the number of network service providers available from 410 to more than 575 providers for Internet, peering, Ethernet and wide area network (WAN) services within Equinix IBX data centers.


Equinix said its larger size will help customers respond to two broad market trends. The continued rapid growth for online information is requiring companies to reliably connect and improve the performance of their business-critical content and applications by storing and distributing latency-sensitive assets at the network edge, near local population centers. At the same time, the market compels companies to develop aggregation and distribution strategies for their digital assets in markets around the world.
http://www.equinix.com

• Last month, Equinix rolled out its new multi-carrier environment for the exchange of data traffic between providers of Ethernet services. The Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange enables carriers to translate between different carrier Ethernet offerings to ensure transparent service by providing an interconnection technical specification. The service complies with Metro Ethernet Forum standards. The service bridges Ethernet connectivity between 24 participants, including AboveNet, BroadbandONE, Easynet Global Services, euNetworks, Exponential-e, Hibernia Atlantic, RCN Metro Optical Networks, Internet Solutions, KPN International, Level 3 Communications, PacketExchange, PCCW Global, Reliance Globalcom, SSE Telecoms, TeraGate AG, Tinet and Virgin Media Business.
  
  
  The service is rolling out to five metros including the Los Angeles, New York, Silicon Valley, Chicago and London metro regions, and is expected to expand to 14 other metro regions throughout the next year.

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Orckit-Corrigent Opens Office in Germany

Orckit Communications has opened a new sales office and service center in Germany. Mr. Bernd Muehlhaus has been appointed to lead the new office as Regional Sales Director. Before joining Orckit-Corrigent, Muehlhaus served as the Vice President Sales Channel Partner for DATUS AG, Sales Director Central Europe for Telco Systems and Account Manager Central and Eastern Europe for Atrica Germany. In addition, Mr. Muehlhaus has held various positions at Tellabs and other leading companies.
http://www.orckit.com

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China Unicom Cites Costs of 3G Expansion in Q1 Results

China Unicom reported Q1 revenue of RMB40.42 billion. Excluding the effect of deferred fixed-line upfront connection fees of RMB80 million, revenue for the period would be RMB40.34 billion, up by 6.8% from the same period of last year, of which, telecommunications service revenue accounted for RMB38.62 billion, up by 4.6% from the same period of last year. For the first quarter of 2010, profit for the period was RMB1.13 billion, down by 68.3% from the same period of last year, basic earnings per share was RMB0.048.


As of the end of March 2010, China Unicom was serving 147.263 million 2G mobile subscribers and 4.824 million 3G subscribers. On the wireline side, China Unicom had 101.838 million local access subscribers and 41.504 million broadband subscribers.


Telecommunications service revenue from mobile business was RMB18.63 billion, up by
11.9% from the same period of last year. Monthly average minutes of usage per subscriber per month was 257.8 minutes. Monthly ARPU was RMB41.5.


Excluding the effects of deferred fixed-line upfront connection fees of RMB80 million, telecommunications service revenue from fixed-line business would be RMB19.90 billion, down by 1.6% from the same period of last year, of which, service revenue from broadband business was RMB7.13 billion, up by 23.8% from the same period of last year. ARPU of broadband business was RMB59.5.


China Unicom said the cost of expansion of its 3G network were significant. For the first quarter of 2010, the Group's costs and expenses and others (including finance costs, interest income and other income-net) was RMB38.94 billion, up by 16.9% from the same period of last year.
http://www.chinaunicom.com.hk

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Taiwan's Chunghwa Continues ADSL-to-FTTx Migration

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom was serving 4.3 million broadband subscribers as of March 31, 2010. There were 1.74 million FTTx subscribers, accounting for 40.4% of Chunghwa's total broadband subscriber base. This compares to 1.64 million FTTx subscribers at the end of the last quarter (Dec 2009).


By the end of the first quarter 2010, the number of ADSL and FTTx subscribers with a service speed greater than 8 Mbps reached 2.1 million, representing 48.8% of total broadband subscribers, compared to 39.0% at the end of the first quarter of 2009.


As of March 31, 2010, Chunghwa had 9.4 million mobile subscribers, an increase of 4.2% compared to 8.98 million at the end of the first quarter of 2009. Chunghwa had 4.9 million 3G subscribers at the end of March 2010, accounting for 52.7% of its total subscriber base.


Chunghwa's total consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2010 increased by 1.0% year-over-year to NT$49.6 billion, of which 44.8% was from the mobile business, 11.8% was from the internet business, 34.7% was from the domestic fixed business, 8.0% was from the international fixed business and the remainder was from the other business segment. The primary reasons for the year-over-year increase were the economic recovery and the company's marketing efforts.
http://www.cht.com.tw

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Two Minute Video: Dispersion Compensation at 40 and 100 Gbps

Presented by Dr. Adell Asseh, Proximionhttp://www.proximion.com

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Motorola Achieves 80 Mbps Downlinks in TD-LTE Field Trials with China's MIIT

Motorola has completed the Phase I TD-LTE field trials with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). This over-the-air (OTA) TD-LTE trial included key functionality, performance and mobility test cases in a multi-sector, multi-site environment that lays a solid foundation for large scale TD-LTE deployment.


Motorola noted the following achievements for the trial:

• High performance with downlink throughput up to 80 Mbps



• Successful demonstration of key TD-LTE features including mobility and handover with live applications, low latency and more



• Utilization of third-party user equipment (UE) test to guarantee standard compliance



• TD-LTE trial sites overlaid on existing 2G/3G sites

Motorola is now ready to begin Phase II TD-LTE field trials with increased focus on applications and quality of service (QoS) in Shunyi, Beijing.


The milestone follows the recently announced TD-LTE key functionalities test initiated by the TD-LTE working group, which was set up by MIIT in June 2009 with China's three telecom operators and other key industry partners.


In addition, Motorola said it is demonstrating end-to-end TD-LTE experiences at the Information and Communication Pavilion to support China Mobile Communications Corporation's (CMCC) presence at the Shanghai Expo.
http://www.motorola.com

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Ericsson Outlines TCO2 Framework for Energy Efficiency

Two-thirds of all CO2e emissions associated with network equipment during its lifetime are attributed to its operation, according to a recently published whitepaper from Ericsson.



To help operators who are being challenged to respond to growing carbon emissions concerns, volatile fuel prices and potential added costs such as carbon taxes, Ericsson is now offering a TCO2 approach that measures carbon emissions and uses the total-cost-of-ownership methodology. During 2009, Telstra worked with Ericsson on this approach during a nationwide carbon and energy audit of its wireless network.


Ericsson said telecom operators can use its TCO2 methodology in network operations to evaluate carbon emission
and energy consumption savings from different solutions and network scenarios.


In its whitepaper, Ericsson observes that networks worldwide are expanding to serve more subscribers and increasing traffic per subscriber. The ICT sector is estimated to account for about 2 percent of global energy use and subsequent carbon emissions (with telecom representing just 0.6 percent). Nevertheless, the absolute amount of energy consumed by telecom networks is growing -- along with associated CO2e emissions.


However, the carbon intensity of the network traffic is lower than the activities the traffic replaces (such as video conferencing replacing travel). One approach is to increase energy efficiency in driving additional traffic so the carbon intensity differential between that traffic and the activities it replaces is as great as possible.


Ericsson TCO2 also provides a framework for evaluating two or more network architecture choices for their overall energy efficiency. The approach applies to both greenfield and existing networks.


The whitepaper is posted online.
http://www.ericsson.com
http://www.ericsson.com/res/thecompany/docs/whitepapers/TCO2_0211high.pdf

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Motorola and Opticon Announce Cross Licensing Agreement

Motorola announced a cross license agreement settling all outstanding intellectual property disputes between the two companies and their subsidiaries, including Motorola's subsidiary, Symbol Technologies.


Under the cross license agreement, Opticon has taken a royalty bearing license to Motorola's patents in the fields of laser based barcode scanning, imaging based barcode scanning and mobile computing. The specific terms of the settlement are confidential.
http://www.motorola.com

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Cisco Wins Major Contract with Emirates

The Emirates Group a three-year contract for the purchase of Cisco network support and optimization services to be financed by Cisco Capital in the UAE. Emirates Group has selected Cisco Gold partner Gulf Business Machines (GBM), a leading IT solutions provider in the Middle East fulfilling the IT requirements of local, regional and international organizations in the GCC, to purchase Cisco services and work closely with Cisco to deliver these services and support the Cisco infrastructure.

Cisco said this deal represents an important milestone in that the Emirates Group is one of the first companies in the region to utilize the additional innovative resources that Cisco has to offer beyond its products and standard maintenance services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cisco.comhttp://

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China Telecom's Mobile Base Continues Fast Growth as Wireline Declines

China Telecom continues to ramp-up its mobile subscriber base, ending Q1 2010 with 65,450,000 mobile subscribers up by 9.36 million for the quarter. The average mobile service revenue per user per month (ARPU) for the first quarter primarily remained stable, while the average mobile minutes of usage per user per month (MOU) has slightly increased, as compared to that for the full year of last year.


However, due to this intensified mobile substitution and churn of its Personal Handyphone System (PAS) subscribers, China Telecom continued to record negative growth in its number of local access lines in service for the first quarter. It ended Q1 with 184.23 million local access lines in service, down by 4.3 million for the quarter.


Mobile voice usage is correspondingly expanding rapidly and will likely soon eclipse local access voice usage.


Services like Internet and data services, integrated information services continued its robust growth momentum, which effectively mitigated the impact of decline in the wireline voice services. The wireline broadband subscribers reached 55.84 million, representing a net addition of 2.38 million.


For Q1, the China Telecom Group reported operating revenues of RMB 52,712 million, representing an increase of 3.6% from the first quarter of last year. The profit attributable to equity holders of the Company was RMB 4,272 million, representing a decline of 9.1% from the first quarter of last year and an increase of 127.4% from the fourth quarter of last year. EBITDA (before CDMA network capacity lease fees) was RMB 22,796 million, an increase of 2.7% from the first quarter of last year and an increase of 22.7% from the fourth quarter of last year. EBITDA margin was 43.2%, representing a decline of 0.4 percentage points from 43.6% of the first quarter of last year and an increase of 8.5 percentage points from 34.7% of the fourth quarter of last year.
http://www.chinatelecom-h.com

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Microsemi Releases Energy Efficient Power-over-Ethernet

Microsemi introduced highly efficient, single port Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) midspans, featuring lowest power consumption in both no-load and load conditions. Microsemi's new single port midspans offer compact, fully IEEE 802.3af compliant solutions for remotely powering wireless LAN access points, IP security cameras, VoIP phones, access control systems and other low port density installations. The new midspans enable delivery of both data and power over a single standard RJ-45 cable, eliminating the need for external power supplies and their associated AC/DC power cabling, while providing affordable, safe and reliable power over existing Ethernet infrastructures.


In addition, Microsemi introduced a one-port Power-over-Ethernet manager chip (PD69101) capable of delivering 51 watts to powered devices while still complying with stringent IEEE802.3at-2009 requirements. The company said system designers also can go well beyond the IEEE standard to safely deliver up to 75W of power by using two of the new Microsemi PoE chipset devices over four pairs of Ethernet cable.


The IEEE802.3at-2009 standard defines sourcing of 30W over two pairs of Ethernet cable, guaranteeing delivery of 25.5W to powered devices across distances of up to 100m. The standard does not preclude delivering power over all 4-pairs in a CAT5 cable. Thus, Microsemi said its new PD69101 chip enables customers to build four-pair PSEs that can deliver 51W of fully standards-compliant power to a PD. Applications include a wide variety of power sourcing equipment including switches, routers and specialized platforms including PoE-enabled TVs and set-top boxes.
http://www.microsemi.com

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