NTT Raises CAPEX Forecast for 2011

NTT is forecasting FY2011 CAPEX of 1,950.0 billion yen, representing an increase of 79.9 billion yen from FY2010. Increased spending is expected in FTTH -- 300 billion yen compared to 295 billion yen for last fiscal year. Spending at NTT DoCoMo will hit 705 billion yen, up from 668.5 billion yen for last year. CAPEX at NTT Communications is also expected to make a significant jump to 136.0 billion yen, up from 115.3 billion yen in FY 2010.

The company's over CAPEX-to-Sales ratio is forecast to be 18.5% for FY 2011, compared to 18.1% last year and 19.5% in FY 2009.


http://www.ntt.co.jp/news2011/1105ezqg/rhqy110513.html

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NTT Bolsters its Global Business Unit

In light of its recent strategic alliance and merger & acquisition activities, NTT will elevate the role of its Global Business Strategy Office. Under a new corporate structure, the department will now report directly to the president. NTT will also change the name of its department to Global Business Office. http://www.ntt.co.jp

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NBN Co Selects Fujitsu Australia for $100M Contract

NBN Co has appointed Fujitsu Australia Limited as its prime alliance partner to deliver fibre infrastructure under a contract valued at over $100M for the first 12 months. Fujitsu will manage the design, construction and associated works for the deployment of fibre to new developments. The company was chosen because it has "the capacity and scale of operations to meet NBN Co's unique requirement for the deployment of fibre to a large number of discrete locations across the country simultaneously."


NBN Co CEO, Mike Quigley said: "Since 1 January 2011 NBN Co has received more than 1,480 applications from developers of new estates, representing approximately 133,000 premises to be connected across Australia. These applications are submitted for individual stages of developments, but due to different construction timeframes and housing demand, fibre deployment will be spread over a period of up to three years. NBN Co will work with developers to deploy fibre as and when it is needed."http://www.nbnco.com.au

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Ericsson Forecast: Network Equipment Market Growing 3-5%

In an investor's briefing held last week in New York, Ericsson executive presented the following observations:

• The total telecom market based on operator OPEX and CAPEX in 2010 estimated to US$223 billion.



• The total network service provider equipment market in 2010 was an estimated to US$94 billion with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 3-5% 2010-2013.



• Mobile networks market (excluding WiMax, site material and OSS) will have a compound annual growth rate estimated at 6-8% 2010-2013.



• Ericsson's market share in mobile networks (excluding WiMax) is approximately 32%.



• Total addressed global telecom services market in 2010 grew to an estimated to US$96 - 101 billion, with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) at 6-8% 2010-2013.



• Ericsson's market share is estimated at 11%.



• By year-end 2011, Ericsson expects more than 80% of its radio product deliveries will be RBS 6000.

http://www.ericsson.com

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DOCOMO Adds Two LTE Data Terminals

NTT DOCOMO unveiled its 2011 summer lineup of 24 new mobile devices for launch on or after May 20, including nine Android smartphones, plus a wide variety of feature phones compatible with DOCOMO's i-mode mobile Internet platform, as well as mobile Wi-Fi routers for DOCOMO's Xi (read "Crossy") LTE extra-high-speed service.



The company said LTE service will expand to include Japan's six largest urban metropolises by July and other large cities including prefectural capitals by March 2012.http://

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Singapore's M1 to Complete LTE Network in Q1 2012

Singapore-based M1 expects to complete the rollout of an LTE network island-wide by Q1 2012.



Huawei has been awarded a five year contract, valued at S$280 million, to provide the turnkey LTE solution for M1. This will include installation of macro base stations, distributed base stations and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), for M1's island-wide next generation network.



"We are building an advanced world class mobile network which will truly enhance the wireless internet experience for our customers, and cater to the increasing demands of future mobile devices and applications," commented Ms Karen Kooi, Chief Executive Officer, M1 Limited.



Huawei's President of wireless product line, Mr David Wang Tao said: "It is a great privilege for Huawei to be M1's partner in the deployment of the region's first commercial LTE network. With our innovative end-to-end solution, Huawei is fully committed to make this network deployment a success."http://www.huawei.com http://www.m1.com.sg

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Ericsson's Smart Services Router to Offer Multi-Application Blades, Caching

Ericsson's next generation Smart Services Router (SSR) is on-target for introduction later this year, said Georges Antoun, Head of Product Area IP & Broadband. The platform, which is being developed at Ericsson's Silicon Valley R&D center, will offer a capacity of 16 Tbps per system and feature 20 slots with 400 Gbps full-duplex capacity each.



Ericsson's Smart Services Router is being designed to scale in several dimensions -- scalability in subscribers, scalability in bandwidth, scalability in signaling, and scalability in the number of applications.



The Smart Services Router (SSR) is being positioned as a "multi-application" platform for advanced services on both fixed access and broadband wireless access. Specific blades will deliver processing power for applications, including: video (caching), mobility (mobile gateway), business and residential services with powerful DPI and policy enforcement.



Ericsson said the SSR will handle the onslaught of video traffic by support uni-cast and multicast, by implementing intelligent subscriber policy management functionality, and by offering built-in CDN capabilities. Ericsson has a partnership project underway with Akamai, although product plans have not been disclosed.



The company expects that operators deploying the SSR will "recognize new revenue opportunities through rapid deployment value-added services and user experience optimization. They can also reduce operational costs through functional consolidation, unified management, and low energy consumption".



Some other items of note from last week's Ericsson Business Innovations Forum in Silicon Valley:





Ericsson demonstrated an OpenFlow-based "Split Architecture", where end-to-end MPLS paths are used for access aggregation. The goal of this research project, which leverages work underway at Stanford, is to separate the control and data planes so that lighter-weight, programmable switches can be used instead of routers. This demo used Ericsson's EDA 1500 and SEA20 platforms, along with a Tilera programmable softswitch. The Tilera platform leverages 64 cores and offers 50- 100 Gbps of capacity for handling 100k to 1 million flow entries. While OpenFlow has initially been directed at data center switching, Ericsson said future versions of the spec could be opened up for Metro applications and integration with MPLS.



Ericsson's Innova Program is seeing some early success. Ericsson Innova encourages employees to bring forth new ideas. The program rapidly provides the employees with development time and light funding. In the past few months, thousands of ideas have come, a few hundred have gotten approval, a few dozen will get serious development support, and perhaps a handful will make it to product status.




Ericsson is working with Stanford University on a "MobiSocial" project aimed at a new way to run social networking without giving up your privacy.http://www.ericsson.com

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TeliaSonera Launches New Looks Across its 18 Divisions

TeliaSonera launched a new purple logo and branding that will be used across its 18 global brands: Netcom and NextGenTel (Norway), Telia (Denmark), Telia (Sweden), Sonera (Finland), EMT and Elion (Estonia), Omnitel (Lithuania), TeliaSonera, TeliaSonera Finans and TeliaSonera International Carrier, Kcell (Kazakhstan), Geocell (Georgia), Ncell (Nepal), Tcell (Tajikistan), Azercell (Azerbaijan), Moldcell (Moldova), and Ucell (Uzbekistan).


"The purple colour differentiates us as we will be the only operator on the international telecoms scene using it. I personally like the colour very much as we can 'own' it, and it is modern, warm and unique in many ways," says Cecilia Edström, Head of Group Communications, TeliaSonera.


In addition, TeliaSonera lowered data roaming prices for customers in the Nordic and Baltic countries by approximately 90 percent. With the new prices, a customer surfing on a mobile phone pays SEK 29 for 20 MB per day.
http://www.teliasonera.com

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Korea's LG UPLUS Picks Ericsson for LTE

LG U+, a Korean wireless service provider, has selected Ericsson for its LTE commercial service network. The deployment will be able to support the existing CDMA and 4G LTE mobile service concurrently.


Ericsson will be responsible for building LTE network in Seoul and will supply Evolved Packet Core network, LTE base stations and optical repeaters for access and transmission. The project will start in May this year and be completed in 2012.


LG-Ericsson is Ericsson's local presence in Korea.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Fon Tops Four Million Wi-Fi Hotspots

There are now over four million Fon hotspots available to users worldwide. The number has grown by 30% since the beginning of the year.


"Four million hotspots is an amazing figure and proof that the Fon model works. Together with the spike we are seeing–one million new hotspots this year alone–the Fon network is achieving the footprint and rapid growth we have dreamed of," said Martin Varsavsky, Fon CEO and founder.


Fon's partners include BT, MTS Russia, SFR France, SoftBank Japan and ZON Portugal.
http://www.fon.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Teams with Polaris Wireless and Thales Alenia for Positioning Solutions

Alcatel-Lucent is partnering with Polaris Wireless and Thales Alenia Space to offer an advanced solution for mobile device geographic positioning.



The Alcatel-Lucent Positioning Solution (ALPS) utilizes a range of technologies to support Location Based Services (LBS), public safety, emergency services, and other applications that rely on accurate location information.



Polaris Wireless provides a highly-accurate, software based location solution capable of locating mobile devices across all air interfaces and all environments, including urban areas and indoors.



Thales Alenia Space is also a key partner and a worldwide player in satellite navigation systems and provide ubiquitous Located Based Solutions with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) assistance with data quality, dynamic location technique selection and hybridization, along with a strong availability for highly reliable applications.http://www.alcatel-lucent.com http://www.polariswireless.com

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BT Revenue Slides 3%, Profits Up

BT reported quarterly revenue of £5,055m, down 6% compared to year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA increased by 3% to £1,551m. Total group operating costs were reduced by 8% to £4,367m, as the company continued to trim expenses. Revenue for the full fiscal year ended 31-March-2011 was £20,076m, in line with the company's published outlook.



"We have consolidated our position as the leading provider of broadband in the UK with our highest quarterly share of DSL broadband net additions for eight years. BT Global Services order intake was up 10% at 7.3bn pounds Sterling and it has turned cash flow positive a year ahead of plan. Openreach saw growth in its copper line base in the year, reversing historic trends. Our roll out of super-fast broadband is one of the most rapid in the world, passing an average of 80,000 additional premises each week and we have plans to roughly double the speed of our fibre-to-the-cabinet based service in 2012," stated Ian Livingston, Chief Executive.http://www.btplc.com

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Rambus to Acquire Cryptography Research for $342 Million

Rambus agreed to acquire privately-held Cryptography Research, Inc. (CRI), which specializes in semiconductor security, for an aggregate of $342.5 million comprised of $167.5 million in cash, approximately 6.4 million shares of Rambus stock, and $50 million payable to CRI employees in cash or stock over three years.



CRI holds numerous patents for content protection, network security, anti-counterfeiting and financial services.
Over five billion semiconductor products secured by CRI's technology are made under license annually. CRI's licensees include leading semiconductor, electronics and services companies such as Atmel, Infineon, Microsoft, NXP, Raytheon, Renesas, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Toshiba, and Visa.



CRI, which is based in San Francisco, is led by internationally renowned cryptographer and scientist Paul Kocher, whose accomplishments include helping author the SSL 3.0 standard, discovering differential power analysis (DPA), as well as developing techniques for securing electronic systems against DPA attacks.



DPA attacks involve monitoring the fluctuating electrical power consumption of a target device and then using advanced statistical methods to derive cryptographic keys and other secrets. With CRI's DPA countermeasures, electronic systems and security devices, such as smart cards, are protected from DPA attacks.http://www.rambus.com http://www.cryptography.com

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White House Pitches National Cyber Security Plan

The Obama Administration outlined a national cybersecurity legislative proposal aimed building a public/private partnership in securing critical infrastructure while protecting civil liberties and privacy. The proposal seeks to provide the government with better tools to detect and prevent cyber attacks on federal networks, power grids, water systems, and other critical "wired" systems.



Under the proposal, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will implement intrusion detection and prevention systems to address such attacks. It would also establish a framework for protecting privacy and civil liberties by requiring new oversight, reporting requirements, and annual certification to ensure that cybersecurity technologies are used for their intended purpose and nothing more.



Some specifics of the plan:



National Data Breach Reporting. There would be a national law that requiring businesses to notify consumers when a data breach occurs with the potential for identity theft. The national law would supersede the 47 different state laws currently in effect.



Penalties for Computer Criminals. The proposal would apply the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to cyber crimes, providing stronger measures against criminal organizations involved in cyber attacks.



Voluntary Government Assistance to Industry, States, and Local Government. Clarifies the assistance that DHS can provide to other government agencies and businesses that are under cyber attack.



Voluntary Information Sharing by Industry, States and Local Government. Provides immunity to industry, states and local governments when sharing cybersecurity information with DHS.



Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Plans. Requires DHS to work with industry to identify the core critical-infrastructure operators and to prioritize the most important cyber threats and vulnerabilities for those operators. Critical infrastructure operators would develop their own frameworks for addressing cyber threats. Then, each critical-infrastructure operator would have a third-party, commercial auditor assess its cybersecurity risk mitigation plans. Operators who are already required to report to the Security and Exchange Commission would also have to certify that their plans are sufficient.



DHS Authority. The proposal makes permanent DHS's authority to oversee intrusion prevention systems for all Federal Executive Branch civilian computers. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) implement these systems on behalf of DHS, blocking attacks against government computers. The Attorney General currently reviews and provides immunity for those ISPs, as necessary, to provide that service, and the proposal streamlines that process.



Data Centers. The proposal prevents states from requiring companies to build their data centers in that state for delivering cloud services to the government, except where expressly authorized by federal law.http://

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Russia's RASCOM Selects Ciena for Coherent 40G

Russia's RASCOM will deploy Ciena's 40G coherent optical technology in its international network. The network will offer a seamless upgrade path to 100G as bandwidth requirements dictate.



RASCOM's optical network connects key routes from Moscow - Saint-Petersburg - Russian-Finnish Border - Helsinki - Stockholm. The carrier claims to transport approximately 50 percent of Russia's cross-border Internet traffic. RASCOM's existing network, based on widespread deployment of Ciena's coherent 40G technology, connects Moscow to Stockholm through sites in St. Petersburg and Helsinki. This new link extends that network to Frankfurt through Copenhagen – a key data traffic route.http://www.ciena.com

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Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile Complete First TD-LTE Call

Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile completed the first call over a trial TD-LTE network deployed in the city of Shanghai. The network in Shanghai is based on Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end 4G LTE solution.


"We are excited to be able to collaborate with China Mobile and demonstrate our leadership in TD-LTE on this important trial network. The first call takes us a step closer in delivering a high-quality network that will provide faster wireless services and applications to the people of Shanghai," said Rajeev Singh-Molares, president of Alcatel-Lucent ‘s activities for Asia-Pacific.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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LG-Ericsson Launches 48-Port, 10 Gig Data Center Switch

LG-Ericsson USA introduced its "iPECS ES-5048XG" 48-port, 10G SFP+ Managed Switch for the data center.
The switch provides for the aggregation of high-density 1U rack servers. Specifically designed to support the Converged Enhanced Ethernet market segment, the new iPECS ES-5048XG offers congestion and traffic management features such as Congestion Notification and Per Priority Flow Control to support the emerging Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) solutions for LAN, SAN and IPC networks.

"We designed this switch from the ground up with the features that business needs in order to make 10Gig Ethernet a viable choice for the data center," said LG-Ericsson USA's Director of Product Marketing, Iain Kenney. "High-density, optimal performance, front-to-back/back-to-front cooling, and front port configuration make it ideal for interconnecting a large number of 10 gigabit Ethernet links from servers."http://www.lgericssonus.com

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Communications Workers Union Endorses AT&T/T-Mobile Merger

Communications Workers of America (CWA), which represents more than 700,000 workers employed in telecommunications and other sectors, has endorsed the proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA by AT&T.


President Larry Cohen today told a Congressional panel that the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile will accelerate broadband deployment, benefit consumers, and positively impact employees.


"AT&T is the only union wireless company. Past experience in major wireless mergers indicates that employee issues can be managed through careful planning and by returning overseas work to this country. This integration will benefit both AT&T and T-Mobile workers. At the end of these inquiries, we believe three points will become apparent. First, the AT&T/T-Mobile merger will accelerate high-speed broadband development. Second, the transaction will positively impact consumers and finally, the merger will benefit workers. Therefore, we believe the merger should be approved."http://www.cwa-union.org

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Huawei Confirms 2G Upgrade for Everything Everywhere UK

Huawei confirmed a contract to upgrade the 2G network of Everything Everywhere, the joint venture that operates the networks for T-Mobile (UK) and Orange (UK). There will be a significant increase in coverage and network capacity, including indoor coverage. Customers can also expect HD voice experience for voice calls in line with the UMTS (3G) network. The upgrade will also prepare the Everything Everywhere network for its evolution to LTE in the coming years. Financial terms were not disclosed.


"This contract marks a very significant milestone in the evolution of the UK mobile market and represents yet another major breakthrough for Huawei in The European tier one wireless service provider arena," said Victor Zhang, CEO of Huawei UK. "Huawei has a proven track record in providing cutting-edge mobile solutions to operators across the world. We are committed to becoming a serious network supplier for mobile operators in the UK and are pleased to collaborate with Everything Everywhere, offering an effective solution with future-proofed technology that will improve voice quality and network coverage for its customers across the UK."http://www.huawei.com

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Cisco Sees Slower Growth, Restructuring Underway

Cisco posted revenue of $10.9 billion for its third quarterly of fiscal 2011, an increase of 5% year over year and slightly ahead of expectations. Q3 net income was $1.8 billion (GAAP), or $0.33 per share, a decrease of 11% year over year.


"This quarter played out as we expected," said John Chambers, chairman and CEO, Cisco. "We have acknowledged our challenges. We know what we have to do. We have a clear game plan, and we are a company with a track record of market-shaping innovation. We thank our shareholders, employees, customers and partners as we transition to the next phase of Cisco."


In a conference call, Cisco said it is taking step to simplify its organization and reduce costs by $1 billion in its FY '12 expense run rate. This is likely to include job cuts, although the number was not specified. Cisco is also divesting or exiting underperforming operations, including the Flip consumer camera division which was dropped last month. The company will also start issuing quarterly dividends. Looking ahead, Chambers said Q4 is likely to continue to show weakness as the company works through these various issues. The company expects Q4 revenue growth to be in the range of flat to up 2% on a year-over-year basis. The long term growth target of 12 12-17% is also "not reflective" of the current environment.


Regarding areas of its business that are "under pressure", Cisco cited: consumer, traditional set-top boxes, switching, and its Public Sector Customer segment. Product transition is underway in switching.


Some other highlights for the quarter:


Non-GAAP product gross margin was 63.1%, down 2.2 points


Employee headcount is 73,408, which is an increase of 473 from last quarter, approximately 40% of which were from acquisitions.


Cash and cash equivalents and investments were $43.4 billion at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2011, compared with $40.2 billion at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2011, and compared with $39.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2010.
http://www.cisco.com

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