Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Clearwire Adds 1.8 Million Users in Q1

Clearwire announced record quarterly net subscriber additions of 1.8 million; including 1.6 million wholesale, and 155,000 retail customers.


Clearwire now has a customer base of 6.15 million - 1.29 million retail subscribers and 4.86 million wholesale subscribers – using its 4G WiMAX service.


"During the quarter we made good progress toward our objective of achieving positive EBITDA in 2012 by executing new agreements with Sprint, delivering strong post-pay subscriber growth and company-best wholesale revenue growth, as well as significantly lowering our operating costs," said John Stanton, Clearwire's Chairman and interim CEO.


Erik Prusch, Clearwire's Chief Operating Officer added, "Looking ahead, we expect to work closely with Sprint and all of our other wholesale partners to expand our 4G leadership and capitalize on our rich spectrum holdings that enable us to meet the exploding customer demand for mobile broadband internet access. Since the beginning of the year, our network has experienced a 40% increase in network usage due to expanded coverage, record subscriber growth and higher usage per device."


Clearwire now expects to end 2011 with approximately 9.5 million subscribers, with most of those subscribers coming from its wholesale business. This is an increase from the previous guidance of 8.8 million subscribers provided in February 2011. The Company continues to expect capital expenditures in 2011 to be less than $400 million.
http://www.clearwire.com

Meru Debuts Three-stream 802.11n Quad-radio AP

Meru Networks introduced its AP400 Mobile Edge access point (AP) platform featuring three-stream 802.11n quad-radio capability and a maximum total data rate of 1.8Gbps. It uses Meru's virtualized wireless LAN (WLAN) technology to deliver a flexible, software-configurable mobile edge architecture purpose-built for high-performance enterprise mobility, supporting indoor and outdoor use.


Meru said its new platform is optimized for mobile devices such as iPads, iPhones, Android-based smartphones and tablets, and supports the user's need to access high definition (HD) video, wireless VoIP and other multi-media applications. The AP400 Mobile Edge platform also leverages Meru's Orthogonal Array Beam Forming technology and next generation sub-carrier level beam forming to deliver Adaptive Optimization. This new innovative capability is designed to deliver the highest performance and consistent quality-of-service (QoS) for low-power multi-media mobile devices. The AP400 platform also includes an onboard USB port for adding an additional WLAN radio to provide cellular WAN backhaul capabilities.
http://www.merunetworks.com

Sierra Wireless Posts Q1 Revenue, Some Weakness in M2M

Sierra Wireless reported Q1 revenue of $144.3 million, a decrease of 5% compared to $151.3 million in the first quarter of 2010.


Mobile Computing revenue was $71.6 million, up 14% compared to $62.6 million in the first quarter of 2010.


Machine-to-Machine ("M2M") revenue was $72.7 million, down 18% compared to $88.7 million in the first quarter of 2010. The year-over-year revenue decrease in M2M was driven by significantly lower sales to Barnes & Noble, declining from $26.7 million in the first quarter of 2010 to $0.7 million in the first quarter of 2011, offset by solid year-over-year revenue growth of 16% in the remainder of the M2M business.


"While we are experiencing some weakness in the first half of 2011, we believe this is a short-term situation and expect to return to year-over-year growth and profitability in the second half," said Jason Cohenour, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The company continues to execute on our strategy and make good progress on a number of business initiatives. In Mobile Computing, we have a strong pipeline of 4G products and anticipate numerous launches with leading operators and PC OEMs during the year. In M2M, we continue to build on our market leadership position and expand our role in the value chain." http://www.sierrawireless.com

Etisalat Nigeria Outsources to Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent has won a renewed two-year multivendor managed services agreement with Etisalat Nigeria for day-to-day network operations and maintenance. Under the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will provide network operations, consulting, design, network optimization, spare parts management, maintenance services, and project management.


Etisalat Nigeria's mobile subscriber base has dramatically grown 120 percent year-over-year to over seven million subscribers in just two years.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Magyar Telekom Picks Ericsson for RAN Upgrade

Hungarian operator Magyar Telekom, of the Deutsche Telekom Group, has chosen Ericsson to undertake a complete overhaul of its radio access network. This includes deployment of Ericsson's multi-standard RBS 6000 radio access network equipment, which will also be ready for 4G/LTE functionality once licenses have been allocated. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Ericsson noted that this year marks 100 years for the company in Hungary. Also, Ericsson has the largest R&D operation in the country. http://www.ericsson.com

NSN Announces Single RAN Solution for Motorola GSM Base Stations

Having just completed the acquisition of Motorola Solutions' Networks assets, Nokia Siemens Networks announced a solution that connects existing Motorola Solutions' GSM base stations to its Flexi Base Station Controller. The solution will be available for commercial use by the end of June 2011.


Nokia Siemens Networks Single RAN Advanced implements GSM, 3G, LTE and LTE-Advanced within one single and flat radio access network. Single RAN Advanced is based on the software defined Flexi Multiradio Base Stations and the Multicontroller platform for GSM and 3G.
http://www.nsn.com

Sunrise Telecom Offers CATV Spectrum Analyzer

Sunrise Telecom introduced a CATV Spectrum Analyzer, providing enhanced Modulation Error Rate (MER) performance.


The new unit provides impairment detection in the head end, ensuring that operators can eliminate problems in the network before they affect the end customer experience. Features include automated digital proof of performance test capabilities, answering cable operators' need for a solution that assesses the quality of a rapidly expanding range of digital video services.


Sunrise Telecom said its new AT2500 Spectrum Analyzer ensures delivery of high quality digital video feeds and helps troubleshoot issues that impact QAM-supported digital video offerings, allowing operators to quickly catch impairments before they escalate into major service interruptions.
http://www.sunrisetelecom.com/at2500rq4/pr

Applied to Acquire Varian, Extending Silicon Wafer Expertise

Applied Materials has agreed to acquire Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates for $63 per share in cash for a total price of approximately $4.9 billion on a fully-diluted basis. The price represents a 55 percent premium to the closing price on May 3rd. Both companies supply equipment for semiconductor manufacturing.


Applied said the deal provides it with deep expertise in ion implantation - a critical step in integrated circuit manufacturing, thereby extending its leadership in wafer fabrication equipment (WFE). This complements Applied's Silicon Systems Group's suite of products in the areas of transistor, interconnect, wafer level packaging and patterning. The combined company will provide customers a broad product portfolio for transistor formation, enabling the manufacture of higher performance chips particularly for mobile applications with faster speeds and longer battery life. In addition, Varian's technology has strong potential to extend into adjacent markets, including solar, display and light emitting diodes.


"The pace of product innovation is accelerating, requiring devices that are more mobile, more connected and more personalized. These global trends are driving our customers to find new solutions for smaller transistors and faster and higher performance chips, while pushing the boundaries of innovation," said Mike Splinter, chairman and chief executive officer of Applied.
http://www.appliedmaterials.com
http://www.vsea.com/

India's AIRCELL implements Ericsson's Mobile Location System

Aircel has selected Ericsson to provide mobile positioning systems for its 2G and 3G subscribers. This will provide real time tracking, navigation information and information services of 2G and 3G subscribers while on the move. As part of this three-year contract for supply and support, Ericsson will supply its Mobile Positioning Centre (GMPC and SMPC) and features that support various applications to Aircel. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Ericsson Mobile Positioning Systems (MPS) will offer advanced Location Based Services (LBS) to Aircel subscribers and can support several positioning alternatives for GSM and WCDMA. That ranges from network-based methods with cell accuracy aimed for all terminals, to more accurate terminal-based methods using GPS positioning.



The WCDMA positioning method - Cell ID with round-trip time measurement - will improve the positioning accuracy for 3G and 2G phones. The same system can be used for GSM, WCDMA, circuit- and packet switching.



Mallikarjun Rao, Chief Technology Officer Aircel, said: "There is huge potential in offering this value- added service to our consumers. Most Indians spend on average 90 minutes per day on the roads; location-based services will definitely increase efficiency and enhance the quality of their life. Our belief in Ericsson technological superiority and their unparalleled support gives us the confidence to provide superior services to our customers."

http://www.ericsson.com

Boingo Completes IPO -- NASDAQ "WIFI"

Boingo Wireless completed its initial public offering of 5,770,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $13.50 per share. The shares are now trading on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "WIFI".



Boingo Wireless believes provides commercial mobile Wi-Fi Internet access at more than 325,000 hotspots worldwide, including top airports, major hotel chains, cafés and coffee shops, restaurants, convention centers and metropolitan hot zones. http://www.boingo.com

Intel Develops 3-D Tri-Gate transistors in 22nm

In what it calls a major technical breakthrough and historic innovation likely to drive Moore's Law for years to come, Intel unveiled its first 3-D transistors, called Tri-Gate, in a production device. The 22nm microprocessor – codenamed "Ivy Bridge" – will be the first high-volume chip to use 3-D Tri-Gate transistors.



The three-dimensional Tri-Gate transistor technology, which Intel first described in 2002, represent a fundamental departure from the two-dimensional planar transistor structure that has powered not only all computers, mobile phones and consumer electronics to-date, but all other electronic controls.



The 3-D chips to operate at lower voltage with lower leakage. Intel said these advantages provide an unprecedented combination of improved performance and energy efficiency compared to previous state-of-the-art transistors. The company calculates that the new 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate transistors provide up to 37 percent performance increase at low voltage versus Intel's 32nm planar transistors. Applications could include small handheld devices, which operate using less energy to "switch" back and forth. Alternatively, the new transistors consume less than half the power when at the same performance as 2-D planar transistors on 32nm chips.



"Ivy Bridge" has now been demonstrated working in a laptop, server and desktop computer. Ivy Bridge-based Intel® Core™ family processors will be the first high-volume chips to use 3-D Tri-Gate transistors, with volume production slated for later this year.

"The performance gains and power savings of Intel's unique 3-D Tri-Gate transistors are like nothing we've seen before," said Mark Bohr, Intel Senior Fellow. "This milestone is going further than simply keeping up with Moore's Law. The low-voltage and low-power benefits far exceed what we typically see from one process generation to the next. It will give product designers the flexibility to make current devices smarter and wholly new ones possible. We believe this breakthrough will extend Intel's lead even further over the rest of the semiconductor industry.http://www.intel.com

Sony's Data Breach Tied to Anonymous DDoS Attack

The recent data breach on the Sony Playstation Network followed a coordinated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack mounted by the group calling itself "Anonymous," according to an open letter from Sony to a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. The "Anonymous" hacker(s) also left behind a file with the note "we are legion."



Sony's data forensic teams said the hackers used "very sophisticated and aggressive techniques to obtain unauthorized access, hide their access from system administrators, and escalate privileges inside the servers." The hackers deleted log files to hide their work. The criminals, who have not been identified, stole information from all of the approximately 77 million user accounts.
http://www.sony.com http://bit.ly/ktVhlm

Monday, May 2, 2011

RadiSys Reports Higher Than Expected Q1

RadiSys posted Q1 2011 revenue of $73.6 million, up 9% YoY, a GAAP net loss of $529,000 or $0.02 per share, and non-GAAP net income of $2.2 million or $0.09 per diluted share. Next-Generation Communications Networks product revenue was $30.4 million, up 8.5% from $28.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 and 41% of total revenue.


Scott Grout, RadiSys President and CEO, "We had higher than anticipated ATCA revenues as well as larger legacy communications revenues enabling us to exceed revenue expectations and come in on the high end of our earnings range for the quarter. We were awarded new ATCA business in a variety of applications including notable wins in IMS and wireless infrastructure. We entered a new geographic market with our full media server solution with application software by closing business with a leading China-based Conferencing Service Provider. "http://www.radisys.com

EB Enhances its LTE In-Lab Testing

EB has upgraded its Wireless Environment Solution (EB WES), which is a virtual drive test software application running on the EB Propsim F8 radio channel emulator that re-creates a real world, live network in laboratory environment. It is used for testing and optimizing networks in laboratories minimizing the need for field testing.


EB said its testing solution shortens roll-out schedules as the products are more mature at the time of field testing because on in-lab testing. LTE products tested with EB WES enables higher call connection rates, a higher Base Transceiver Station (BTS) capacity, minimal dropped calls and decreased spending on Quality of Service.
http://www.elektrobit.com

Arista: Open Always Wins







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Doug Gourlay, VP of Marketing at Arista Networks, discusses an open framework in the context of data center switching, including OpenFlow, and scalability challenges for cloud infrastructure.http://www.aristanetworks.com

RadiSys to Acquire Continuous Computing

RadiSys agreed to acquire privately-held Continuous Computing Corporation in a deal valued at up to $120 million in cash and stock. This includes approximately $73 million in cash and 3,666,667 shares of RadiSys common stock. Certain performance-based earn-out payments are also part of the deal.



Continuous Computing develops ATCA-based communications systems and is also known for its Trillium protocol software, as well as its SW Professional Services for network equipment suppliers. Key customer applications include 3G and 4G Wireless infrastructure, Small Cell base stations, Traffic Management, Internet Offload and Network Security.



RadiSys is a leading supplier of hardware and software platforms for network equipment vendors. Its products include ATCA and IP Media Server platforms, as well as application software for new IP-based communications services. These products enable Targeted segments include 3G/4G/LTE wireless voice, data and video, Femtocell,
VoIP and Video over IP communications and conferencing, Voice Quality Enhancement (VQE), and secure defense
communications,



The companies cited a number of strategic drivers for the merger, including a shared technology vision centered on ATCA, a common customer base of network equipment suppliers, and expanding opportunities in the wireless, especially LTE, femtocells and deep packet inspection (DPI) appliances. The broadened product portfolio and the Trillium software will benefit the customers.



After the deal closes, the companies will make the following leadership changes. Mike Dagenais, Continuous Computing President and CEO, will become RadiSys' Chief Executive Officer. Brian Bronson, current Chief Financial Officer of RadiSys will become RadiSys' President and Chief Financial Officer. Scott Grout, current President and Chief Executive Officer of RadiSys will become Vice Chair of the RadiSys Board of Directors.http://www.radisys.com http://www.ccpu.com/

Brocade Sharpens its SP Cloud Services Architecture

At its annual Technology Day Summit in San Jose, Brocade outlined its plans to deliver new cloud-optimized networking solutions to enable the next evolution in public cloud infrastructures. The aim is to service providers leverage their existing infrastructures to create a broad set of new revenue-generating services, such as virtual private cloud services, for enterprise customers.



Highlights of the announcements include:



Significant software advancements to the entire family of Brocade Internet core, metro and edge routing products, including a clear migration path from today's IPv4-based networks to IPv6. Specifically, Brocade has expanded its set of dual-protocol networking solutions with embedded support for high-speed routing of IPv6 traffic over an MPLS network. The software release also significantly increases MPLS scalability and features for large networks.



A new set of carrier-grade 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 100 GbE blades for Brocade MLX Series routers to enable massive scalability for highly virtualized and cloud-based networks. General availability of two-port 100 GbE and eight-port 10 GbE (8×10G-X) blades for the Brocade MLX Series. When installed in the Brocade MLXe router, the 100 GbE performance can power a half-million high-definition video streams over a single managed connection. This provides more than twice the operational efficiency of competitors at a fraction of the cost, resulting in massive gains in profitability.



Brocade 6910 Ethernet Access Switch -- a compact MEF compliant solution that extends wire-speed Ethernet services to the network edge without compromising performance. Target applications are metro access for enterprise customers, mobile backhaul for cellular 4G/LTE, public safety networks and managed customer premises devices for enterprise customers.



Brocade NetIron CER 2000 Series of compact 1U routers -- designed for high-performance Ethernet edge routing and MPLS applications. Newly introduced models of this router provide significant scalability enhancements to accommodate future growth of IPv4 and IPv6 route tables. With its expanded capabilities, the NetIron CER 2000 enables a wide range of services and applications to help service providers deliver advanced cloud-optimized routing throughout the metro edge. The target applications include provider edge routing, data center border routing and enterprise border routing.



Enhanced IPv4/IPv6 and MPLS routing capabilities and scalability for the Brocade NetIron CER 2000 Series compact routers to expand the service provider cloud in metro networks.http://www.brocade.com

Brocade Introduces 16 Gbps Fibre Channel Portfolio

Brocade is pushing ahead with the next generation of Fibre Channel (FC-PI-5) with the introduction of its end-to-end 16 Gbps portfolio. This includes the Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone, the Brocade 6510 Switch, the Brocade 1860 Fabric Adapter, Brocade Network Advisor 11.1 management software and the Brocade Fabric OS 7.0 operating system. These products are based on the next-generation Fibre Channel industry standard, FC-PI-5, offering 16 Gbps performance, which doubles the performance of solutions that Brocade first pioneered in 2008.



Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone: Designed to support private cloud storage, it is available in 8-slot or 4-slot chassis models supporting up to 384 16 Gbps ports at line-rate speeds and 8.2 Tbps of chassis bandwidth. It simplifies scale-out network design to reduce complexity, simplify management and reduce overall costs. Energy consumption is 0.27 watts/Gbps.



Brocade 6510 Switch: A flexible design that is purpose-built to enhance server virtualization, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and solid state disk (SSD) deployments in an efficient 1U form factor. It can be expanded from 24 ports to 48 ports, delivering up to 768 Gbps aggregate throughput, while offering power consumption rates of just 0.14 watts/Gbps. Each port delivers 40 percent greater performance than 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) ports at a comparable cost.



Brocade 1860 Fabric Adapter: A new class of server adapter that supports Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and Ethernet connectivity needs on a single adapter for flexible server I/O consolidation, the Brocade 1860 is ideally suited for private cloud-optimized data center networks. It also delivers wire-speed performance for both 16 Gbps Fibre Channel and 10 GbE, and more than 1 million IOPS for storage applications. It unifies the management of adapter, SAN and LAN resources via a single interface with Brocade Network Advisor.



Brocade Network Advisor 11.1: The unified management software solution for Brocade Fibre Channel, wired Ethernet and wireless Ethernet as well as converged network environments, Brocade Network Advisor provides greater insight for end-to-end network management to help reduce costs and simplify operations. It delivers a wide range of powerful management features as well as advanced server adapter and virtual machine management capabilities. To simplify management, it integrates seamlessly with third-party storage resource management and data center orchestration tools such as the EMC Resource Management Suite and the HP Virtual Connect Enterprise and Storage Provisioning Managers.



Brocade Fabric OS 7.0: The Brocade Fibre Channel hardware runs on the latest generation of Brocade Fabric OS, which is now available in version 7.0. This latest release offers several unique features designed for virtualization and cloud architectures, including Bottleneck Detection, Advanced Performance Monitoring and Adaptive Networking to help optimize fabric behavior and application performance.



The Brocade 16 Gbps Fibre Channel solutions will be available beginning in calendar Q2 2011. http://www.brocade.com

HomeGrid Forum Backs ITU-T MIMO Spec for G.hn

The HomeGrid Forum announced its endorsement of a new draft standard (ITU-T G.9963) called G.hn-mimo that
adds state-of-the-art MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology to the G.hn standard for high-speed networking over existing home wiring.





MIMO significantly increases robustness, rate, and coverage, making G.hn by far the premier home networking technology, especially in very challenging noise environments such as powerlines in the home.



MIMO works by using the multiple paths available because power wires have 3 conductors (phase, neutral and ground). G.hn-mimo standard devices will be able to send traffic streams over multiple paths simultaneously and thus increase throughput rates and noise robustness. In cases where a communication path is affected by impairments, other paths can be used to compensate and hence ensure full coverage and persistent delivery of content.



ITU-T G.9963 is the first powerline MIMO specification to be developed by an international SDO (Standards Development Organization). As G.hn-mimo is an enhancement to G.hn, G.hn devices with MIMO are fully interoperable with devices built to the G.hn standard approved in 2010.
http://www.homegridforum.org

Motorola Mobility to Sell BelAir's Carrier Wi-Fi for MSOs

Motorola Mobility will resell BelAir Networks' carrier Wi-Fi systems to cable operators worldwide. This new relationship combines Motorola's cable video and broadband solutions and customer support organization with BelAir's solutions, including its picocellular technology and advanced Wi-Fi network provisioning and management solutions.



The Cable Wi-Fi portfolio supports virtual Wi-Fi access points that allow cable operators to offer branded Wi-Fi services to their service provider partners using a single access point. Deployment options include strand mount, pedestal and even underground locations, promoting limitless possibilities for access point locations. Supporting 802.11n and 3x3 MIMO standards based beam forming, Motorola's Cable Wi-Fi portfolio includes access to the entire BelAir portfolio, with initial focus on the CW100SNE for cable network applications, the CW20E for indoor applications, CW20EO solution designed for outdoor wireless mesh applications and CWView, an advanced provisioning and management tool supporting the complete Motorola Cable Wi-Fi portfolio.



"Cable Wi-Fi is a natural extension of our leading cable video and broadband portfolio that complements our business and the solutions we offer to cable operators worldwide today," said Joe Cozzolino, senior vice president and general manager, network infrastructure, Motorola Mobility. "As we move beyond the early adopter phase and into the growth phase of the market, we believe the combination of Motorola's global reach and BelAir's proven and trusted portfolio will be compelling for both companies. We are excited to be teaming with BelAir and look forward to serving our customers the latest innovations in cable video, broadband and now Cable Wi-Fi solutions."http://www.motorola.com/mobilityhttp://www.belairnetworks.com