Intelsat 21 Successfully Launched

Intelsat 21 was successfully launched into orbit aboard a Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket from the equatorial Pacific.

Intelsat 21 will serve the leading direct-to-home (DTH) and cable programmers in Latin America. It will deliver C-band services for South America, North America and Europe, and Ku-band services for North America, the Caribbean, Brazil, Europe and Western Africa. It also a Ku-band mobility beam, providing coverage across the South Atlantic to Intelsat�s maritime and aeronautical customers. It was built by Boeing Satellite Systems and replaces Intelsat 9.

Intelsat 21 is the fourth of five Intelsat launches planned for 2012. Intelsat 23 is scheduled for launch later this year aboard a Proton launch vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. http://www.intelsat.com http://www.sea-launch.com.

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Intelsat 21 Successfully Launched

Intelsat 21 was successfully launched into orbit aboard a Sea Launch Zenit 3SL rocket from the equatorial Pacific.



Intelsat 21 will serve the leading direct-to-home (DTH) and cable programmers in Latin America. It will deliver C-band services for South America, North America and Europe, and Ku-band services for North America, the Caribbean, Brazil, Europe and Western Africa. It also a Ku-band mobility beam, providing coverage across the South Atlantic to Intelsat’s maritime and aeronautical customers. It was built by Boeing Satellite Systems and replaces Intelsat 9.

Intelsat 21 is the fourth of five Intelsat launches planned for 2012. Intelsat 23 is scheduled for launch later this year aboard a Proton launch vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
http://www.intelsat.com
http://www.sea-launch.com

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FCC Issues New 800 MHz Band Plan for U.S. - Mexico Sharing Zone

The FCC issued its new 800 MHz band plan for the U.S. - Mexico border. The notice is a follow up to the agreement signed in June between the United States and Mexico for sharing spectrum in the 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz bands along the U.S.-Mexican border.

The FCC said this marks the beginning of the final phase for rebanding in the 800 MHz band across the country. These actions will help support commercial broadband services and public safety mission-critical voice communications along the U.S.-Mexico border and throughout the United States.

http://www.fcc.gov

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Communications Workers Of America Ratify AT&T Wireline Agreements

Wireline employees represented by the Communications Workers of America have voted to ratify three-year contracts for the AT&T Midwest region and AT&T Corp. (CWA Telecommunications and Technology Office). The deals were reached July 21 and cover more than 13,000 wireline employees in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The AT&T Corp. agreement covers about 5,700 wireline employees located throughout the country.

http://www.att.com/corewirelinebargaining

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Philippines’Smart Ready for LTE Launch

Smart Communications is ready to launch its first commercial LTE service in the Philippines. Test networks have been underway in various parts of the country over the past year conducted by PLDT’s wireless subsidiary. Several LTE sites located in Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao, and Boracay have already been active months prior to the commercial launch.

Smart’s LTE service will deliver speeds of up to 42 mbps with fallback to HSPA+, HSPA and 3G .

Smart’s LTE deployment was made possible by the PLDT Group’s P67.1 billion network technology refresh program which has replaced the base station equipment in all of Smart’s over 9,500 base stations nationwide with 4G-ready facilities. This program has also strengthened the PLDT Group’s fiber optic networks and overseas fiber optic cable systems.

"The Philippines’ first and only LTE service is here and it’s running on Smart’s ‘super-charged’ mobile network," said Smart Chief Wireless Adviser Orlando B. Vea.

http://www.smart.com.ph/lte

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ZTE Intros First Multi-Mode TDD/FDD LTE Devices

ZTE introduced the first multi-standard USB modem and uFi which supports LTE FDD/LTE TDD/TD-SCDMA / EDGE.


The company said its multi-mode approach breaks down regional standard barriers and constraints at user end points.
The MF820S2 is the world’s first LTE FDD/LTE TDD/TD-SCDMA/EDGE multi-standard data card. It features LTE TDD 68M DL speed, LTE FDD 100M DL speed, USB Rotator (270 degrees rotation), and internal antenna. It is compatible with major operators and network systems around the world. With customized networks at different locations, it provides flexibility for travelers.

The MF91S is a portable uFi, supporting LTE FDD/LTE TDD/TD-SCDMA/EDGE standards. Weighing only 105g and running on Li-ion 2300mAh, the mini pocket uFi is the most suitable companion for PC laptops, Macbooks or multi-device users on-the-go.

“This is a transformational year for ZTE’s terminal business. We are catalyzing LTE development on the global stage through heralding new innovations in the LTE terminal market. The new MF820S2 and MF91S are clear demonstrations of ZTE’s leadership in LTE," said ZTE EVP and Head of the Terminal Division, Mr. He Shiyou. “Through continued investment in R&D, we hope to deliver even more cutting edge products for ZTE’s end-to-end terminal suite."
http://www.zte.com.cn

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Infonetics: Optical Network Spending up 15% Sequentially in 2Q12

The global optical network equipment market-WDM and SONET/SDH-grew 15% in 2Q12 from the previous quarter, but is down 10% from the year-ago 2nd quarter, according to new analysis released by Infonetics Research.


The improved results are a step up from very weak performance in Q1 2012, especially in Europe and in the Service Provider segment.

"The optical hardware market outlook looks decidedly different depending on which market you sell into," notes Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. "While spending on WDM is reasonably healthy, SONET/SDH is sailing off a cliff. Vendors who have good WDM products but large exposure to SONET/SDH are struggling to replace lost revenue fast enough to show growth."

Schmitt adds: "Asia Pacific notched a big increase in the second quarter, with large seasonal gains by Huawei and ZTE. Despite tepid growth in the first half of 2012, we expect significant growth in optical spending in China, where ZTE continues to take market share from Huawei."

Some other highlights:

• The global optical network equipment market-WDM and SONET/SDH-grew 15% in 2Q12 from the previous quarter, but is down 10% from the year-ago 2nd quarter


• Huawei expanded its lead in the global optical network hardware market in 2Q12; Alcatel-Lucent held onto the #2 spot (optical revenue up 5%); and Ciena posted its strongest quarter on record, easily maintaining 3rd overall and edging into 2nd in the WDM segment.


• North American SONET/SDH spending is down 45% year-over-year, negatively impacting vendors with legacy revenue streams; AT&T, in particular, has cut aggressively


• WDM now accounts for 80% of all optical spending in North America


• Optical equipment revenue in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) was up sharply in 2Q12, but still down year-over-year; spending growth on WDM equipment outpaced SDH, a positive indicator for the region.

http://www.infonetics.com

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NSNs Optical Platform Gains U.S. DISA Certification

Nokia Siemens Networks’ optical technology has been accorded Approved Product List (APL) status by the US government’s Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), enabling the Department of Defense (DoD) to purchase and deploy the company’s optical equipment, which is based on its hiT7300 platform that uses coherent CP-QPSK technology.


NSN's high capacity DWDM transmission system allows up to 96 optical channels on a single fiber, with each channel carrying data at 100 Gbps. This gives a total capacity of up to 9.6 terabits per second per fiber.


“This US approval is testimony to our optical technology’s capabilities," said Bob Fennelly, head of the US government and public safety customer team at Nokia Siemens Networks. “With the need to access advanced applications across its defense bases, the DoD’s bandwidth requirement has increased exponentially. Nokia Siemens Networks hiT7300 platform is scalable and able to support the DoD’s current and future demand for bandwidth."

http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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China Mobile Reaches 683 Million Users, Wireless Data Traffic up 184% in 1H2012

China Mobile reported revenue of RMB266.5 billion (US$41.8 billion) for the first half of 2012, up 6.6% over the same period last year, as profits increased by 1.5% over the same period last year to RMB62.2 billion. EBITDA slightly decreased by 0.9% over the same period last year to RMB123.1 billion, with EBITDA margin reaching 46.2%.

Despite increased mobile penetration rates and intensified competition, China Mobile had a net addition of 33.51 million customers, bringing the total customer base to 683 million. The mid- to high-end customer base remained stable. Revenue derived from wireless data traffic, as a component of data services revenue, achieved RMB29.2 billion, up 51.6% over the same period last year.

Some highlights for the first half of 2012:

• Added 15 million 3G subscribers to reach total of 67 million.
• Voice usage volume continued to increase, with total voice usage reaching 2,060 billion minutes, up 9.2% over the same period last year.
• Wireless data traffic accounted for 11.0% of operating revenue.
• Revenue from applications and information services reached RMB24.6 billion, up 8.2% over the same period last year.
• China Mobile's 2.83 million Wi-Fi APs 68.6% of total data traffic in 1H 2012, effectively offloading its GSM network
• China Mobile has 750,000 GSM Base Stations, with network utilization at ~72.4%.
• China Mobile now has nearly 240,000 3G base stations, network utilization reached 18.5%
• China Mobile is currently offering 167 smartphone models, 126 of which are priced below RMB 1,000
• China Mobile is making progress with its Smart Pipes initiative: Mobile Mailbox revenue was up 82% to RMB 1.1 billion, Mobile Reading Revenue was up 77% to RMB 502 million, Mobile Video revenue was up 83% to RMB 420 million, Mobile Gaming revenue was up 48% to RMB 415 million.
• Added 480,000km of fiber to its metro networks.

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NSN Tracks a 54% Rise in Mobile Data in India over 7 Months

Mobile data traffic in India spiked 54% between December 2011 and June 2012, according to a newly released MBit Index report from Nokia Siemens Networks.


The report aggregates real data traffic across all the 2G (GSM and EDGE) and 3G multivendor networks managed by Nokia Siemens Networks for operators in India. The company currently provides 30% of the total 2G and 3G networks in India which provide services to about 300 million subscribers. This large sample size, amounting to a third of India’s 2G and 3G mobile networks.

The report further reveals that data traffic generated by 3G services has increased by 78% while that of 2G services has increased by 47% during the same period.

"Our report highlights India’s enormous appetite for consuming data services on the go and hence the need to provide high quality mobile broadband services to satisfy users," said Sandeep Girotra, head of India region at Nokia Siemens Networks. "2G has been relatively successful in driving mobile broadband use in India, but we are now witnessing 3G pushing the mobile broadband use to unprecedented levels."
http://www.nsn.com

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Alcatel-Lucent Offers API Consulting Services

Alcatel-Lucent is launching a new consulting and professional services practice to help service providers adopt a lifecycle methodology for application programming interfaces (APIs). The goal is to provide expertise and technology to streamline the creation, deployment and management of network-based services.


"APIs are the glue that ties together all the elements of the data economy – apps, the cloud and big data. But launching and supporting a dynamic API strategy is not easy - these programs need to be monitored, nurtured and directed as they evolve over time. Operators need to offer a program that lowers the barrier to entry for developers and creates a more supportive environment. Our methodology and related services are designed to address the pain points affecting developers when designing, implementing and integrating APIs," stated Laura Merling, Senior Vice President, Application Enablement at Alcatel-Lucent.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Apple Plans Massive Data Center in Oregon

Apple is planning to build a massive data center in Prineville, Oregon, in proximity to Facebook's main data center, according to city documents reported by The Bend Bulletin. The facility reportedly will be over 500,000 square feet (46,451 m2) located on 160 acres of land. This would be equivalent in size to Apple's flagship data center in Maiden, North Carolina.
http://www.bendbulletin.com/

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Marvell's Revenue Rises 2% Sequentially to $816 Million

Marvell Technology Group reported revenue of $816 million for the second quarter of its fiscal 2013, a 2 percent sequential increase from $796 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2013, ended April 28, 2012, and a decrease of 9 percent from $898 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2012, ended July 30, 2011.



GAAP net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2013 was $93 million, or $0.16 per share (diluted), compared with GAAP net income of $95 million, or $0.16 per share (diluted), for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, and $192 million, or $0.31 per share (diluted), for the second quarter of fiscal 2012.

"Our results in the second quarter were affected primarily by the slowdown in the macro-economic environment that impacted our storage and mobile end markets. However, our SSD, 500 gigabyte per platter HDD and wireless connectivity products grew double digits sequentially and our networking end market continued to outperform on the strength of new products and share gains," said Dr. Sehat Sutardja, Marvell's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Despite the soft near-term demand environment, we are maintaining good profitability and continue to deliver shareholder value through our share repurchase and dividend programs."
http://www.marvell.com

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PICMG Adopts 40 Gbps AdvancedTCA Spec

The PICMG standards organization officially adopted the AdvancedTCA 3.1R2 specification, which quadruples the system bandwidth that can be achieved in AdvancedTCA systems to 40 Gbps.



The new specification allows a single chassis to handle data transfers up to 10 terabits per second for full mesh designs.


"The 40-gigabit fabric interface defined in PICMG 3.1R2.0 is the natural evolution for AdvancedTCA platforms," said Doug Sandy, Chairman of the PICMG 3.1R2.0 committee and CTO of the Embedded Computing business of Emerson Network Power. “It guarantees backward compatibility and interoperability, and offers a significant bandwidth improvement for next-generation data-hungry applications."

The new specification is available in print and electronic formats.
http://www.picmg.org

 

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Brocade Reports Strong Results, Sales up 10% YoY

Brocade reported revenue of $555.3 million for its third fiscal quarter of 2012, representing an increase of 10% year-over-year and 2% quarter-over-quarter. GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.09, up from break-even EPS in Q3 2011.

"Fiscal Q3 was a great quarter for Brocade. With continued differentiation in our products and focused execution across our organization, we were able to overcome many issues in the current challenging macroeconomic environment. As a result, our financial performance in the quarter exceeded our expectations for revenue, operating margin and earnings per share," said Michael Klayko, CEO of Brocade.

Some highlights:


Storage business revenue, including products and services, was $377.6 million, up 13% year-over-year and down 6% sequentially. Storage product revenue increased 17% year-over-year and decreased 6% sequentially, in a seasonally soft quarter for the company. Brocade's 16 Gbps Fibre Channel products represented nearly 30% of director and switch revenue in the quarter.


Ethernet business revenue, including products and services, was $177.8 million, up 5% year-over-year and up 24% quarter-over-quarter. Revenue growth for the Ethernet business was driven by an increase in Federal sales, which were up 40% year-over-year and 108% quarter-over-quarter. Enterprise business revenue was up 2% year-over-year and up 21% quarter-over-quarter as the Brocade ICX products continue to ramp. Service provider business revenue was up slightly quarter-over-quarter and down 5% year-over-year.
http://www.brcd.com

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Michael Klayko Steps Down as CEO of Brocade

Michael A. Klayko will resign as CEO of Brocade pending identification of a successor.

Michael Klayko, CEO of Brocade, stated, "Decisions like these are never easy, but I believe it is the right time. The Company is in a great position financially, and our product pipeline will continue to strengthen and clearly separate Brocade from other networking providers. Until a successor is identified, I remain focused on my role as CEO and on continuing to execute our strategy."

Brocade's Chairman, Dave House, said, "We want to thank Mike for his more than seven years of service as CEO. He has led us through two major acquisitions and has positioned us as a technology leader and world-class provider of networking solutions. We wish him the best and appreciate his continued service to Brocade as the Company works to identify the right leader to assume his role."
http://www.brocade.com

• Brocade acquired McDATA in 2006 and Foundry Networks in 2008.

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Conditional Approval for Verizon Wireless + CableCo Spectrum Deal

Verizon and cable operators made a number of concessions in order to gain preliminary approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for their proposed spectrum and co-marketing deal. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced his support for the amended agreement.

In December 2011, Verizon Wireless announced a deal to acquire 122 Advanced Wireless Services spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo, a joint venture between Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks, for $3.6 billion. The transfer of licenses will require approval from the FCC and review from the Department of Justice. The companies also announced several agreements to resell each others' services. The cable companies will have the option of selling Verizon Wireless' service on a wholesale basis. Furthermore, the companies will form an innovation technology joint venture to develop technology that better integrates wireline and wireless products and services.

To gain DOJ approval, the companies have agreed to a proposed settlement forbids Verizon Wireless from selling cable company products in FiOS areas and removes contractual restrictions on Verizon Wireless’s ability to sell FiOS, ensuring that Verizon’s incentives to compete aggressively against the cable companies remain unchanged.

In addition, under the proposed settlement, Verizon Wireless’s ability to resell the cable companies’ services to customers in areas where Verizon sells DSL Internet service ends in December of 2016 (subject to potential renewal at DOJ's sole discretion), thereby preserving Verizon’s incentives to reconsider its decision to stop building out its FiOS network and otherwise innovate in its DSL territory.

The DOJ is limiting the duration of a technology joint venture that the companies had planned to set-up to develop wireless + wireline solutions. In addition, the companies are limited in the exchange of competitively sensitive information.http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/August/12-at-1014.html

• In June 2012, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless announced a sale and exchange deal covering certain Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum licenses in 218 markets across the U.S. Some of the spectrum contemplated in this transaction included licenses that Verizon is purchasing from SpectrumCo, Cox and Leap, and the agreement is contingent on the closing of those transactions and is subject to regulatory approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice.

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China Mobile Updates on TD-LTE Scale Deployments

In its 1H2012 financial report, China Mobile confirmed that it has successfully completed TD-LTE trial in "6+1" cities and commenced an expanded build-out of the technology. China Mobile has also carried out two-way roaming trials between Hangzhou's TD-LTE network and Hong Kong's LTE FDD networks.

By the end of this year, China Mobile aims to deploy 20,000 TD-LTE base stations in 13 cities. The goal is to have 90% effective coverage in key areas of Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

In 2013, the number of TD-LTE base stations will reach 200,000 to achieve contiguous outdoor coverage in data hotspots of prefectural level and above cities.

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Cyan Supplies SDN-enabled Packet-Optical in Auckland

Vocus Communications, which provides telecommunications and data center services to ISPs in Australia and New Zealand, is deploying the Cyan Z-Series packet-optical transport platforms and the Cyan 360 software-defined network (SDN) operations system for its newly constructed network in Auckland.

The initial deployment consists of Cyan Z-Series packet-optical transport platforms configured with wavelength selectable switch (WSS) reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) and 10G service modules. Vocus will employ Cyan 360 SDN operations systems to facilitate multi-layer planning, management and performance verification of the network. Cyan's metro SDN solution also supports multi-vendor integration to maintain operational simplicity while using best-in-class ecosystem components. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.cyaninc.com


 

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XO First to Implement 100G on Nationwide Long-haul Network

XO Communications has become the first service provider in the U.S. to deploy 100 Gbps across its long-haul fiber network on a nationwide basis.

XO is using Nokia Siemens Networks' hiT7300 DWDM optical transmission platform, which is capable of carrying 96 100G wavelengths simultaneously for a maximum capacity of 9.6 terabits per second per fiber. Coherent technology enables transmission over existing fiber. The system can scale to 400G and beyond. In addition, Nokia Siemens Networks said that by offering DCM-free transmission, its solution enables lower latency (less delay) in data transmission. It supports colorless, directionless ROADM functionality.

XO said the increased capacity gives it the flexibility to more efficiently manage the increasing data traffic across its network from enterprise and wholesale customers’ Internet, video, mobile data and cloud-based enterprise applications. The carrier plans to offer 100 Gbps optical network services to cable companies, mobile wireless service providers, and domestic and international telecommunications companies.

"While other telecommunications companies have deployed or tested 100G optical systems across portions of their networks, XO Communications is the first service provider to deploy 100G technology on an operational basis coast-to-coast across its nationwide fiber network,” said Randy Nicklas, senior vice president and chief technology officer for XO Communications. “By making this leap to 100G, XO Communications is taking a leadership role in utilization of optical networking and offering customers the network infrastructure and services needed in order to deliver today’s cloud computing, mobile wireless and Internet video delivery platforms and services."

"We are happy to play a key role in enabling XO Communications to reach this important industry milestone," said Jim Benson, head of Optical Networks for the Americas at Nokia Siemens Networks. “With the use of our high performance 100G coherent technology, XO Communications has built an automated, high capacity, state of the art network that will allow it to provide end customers with very low latency service connections coast-to-coast."

http://www.xo.com
http://www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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