Bluebird Network Deploys ADVA in Middle Mile Project

Bluebird Network, a telecom operator serving communities in Missouri and Illinois, has selected ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 for a government-stimulus-funded project that will enable the extension of broadband services to underserved regions in Missouri.

The ADVA FSP 3000 is a scalable WDM system that supports up to 40 100 Gbps secure and reliable wavelengths for multiplexing, transporting and protecting Bluebird Network’s array of high-speed data, storage, voice and video traffic. The platform offers an advanced ROADM capability and a GMPLS control plane that allows Bluebird Network to use a combination of hardware pre-provisioning, point-and-click configuration and flexible provisioning.

Bluebird’s Missouri Ultra-High Capacity Middle Mile Project is supported by a $45 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and a $10.5 million in-kind contribution from the state of Missouri, as well as private investors.

http://www.advaoptical.com
http://www.BluebirdNetwork.com

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Sprint Updates Network Rollout Status in 100 More Cities

Sprint confirmed that its LTE network rollout is under way in more than 100 additional cities within its existing nationwide 3G footprint.  Key markets as part of this expansion include Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Indianapolis; Los Angeles; Memphis, Tenn.; Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; New Orleans; New York; Philadelphia; and Washington, D.C.  The LTE network is currently up and running in 19 markets.

“We are committed to delivering a cutting-edge network as quickly as possible, one that provides a greater level of reliability and speed to our 3G and 4G customers,” said Bob Azzi, senior vice president-Network, Sprint. “We know our customers depend on their mobile devices as their primary source of communication, business connectivity and entertainment. We want to deliver a network that delivers mobile access, productivity and entertainment at a highly competitive price point.”

http://www.sprint.com

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Riverbed Scales its Optimized Cloud Storage to 32TB

Riverbed has expanded its Whitewater cloud storage gateway portfolio with a larger model with four times the storage capacity and twice the RAM for larger backup data sets headed for cloud storage.

The Whitewater platform ingests back-up data into its local data cache that scales to multiple terabytes in size. Whitewater performs deduplication, compression, encryption and other optimization techniques before delivering the back-up traffic over the WAN to a cloud-based storage service. Riverbed said its clients often achieve 10-30x reduction in backup traffic over the WAN, thereby making cloud-based back-ups a faster, easier and lower-cost alternative to tape with offsite warehousing. Data restoration is much faster too since the local cache typically stores a majority of the previous 30 days of backed up data.

The new Whitewater 3010 model appliance supports up to 32 TB of deduplicated local storage and 160 TB of deduplicated cloud storage. This capacity increase represents total source data of 1.6 PB to 4.8 PB.·

Riverbed supports a range of cloud storage services, including Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Windows Azure, Rackspace Cloud Files, HP Cloud Services, EMC Atmos-based cloud storage solutions and Nirvanix Cloud Delivery Network (CDN), OpenStack Object Storage (Swift) etc.  

Riverbed is also introducing Whitewater Operating System (WWOS) version 2.0, which was built for enterprise-grade performance, high scalability and simplified administration. Whitewater appliances 

http://www.riverbed.com

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Go Daddy Downed by @AnonymousOwn3r

Go Daddy, which ranks as the world's largest domain name registrar and Web hosting provider with more than 53 million domain names under management, suffered a serious outage on Monday impacting all of its hosted sites.  The company operates out of 9 data centers, including facilities in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago, Ashburn (VA), Amsterdam and Singapore..

A Twitter user called @AnonymousOwn3r claimed responsibility.

Small businesses that rely on Go Daddy for hosting their sites were impacted by the attack.

By the end of the day, Go Daddy confirmed that most sites were back online and that no customer data had been lost.

http://www.godaddy.com

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Alcatel-Lucent's Restructuring Seeks to Simply Operating Model

Alcatel Lucent announced the next steps in its on-going restructuring with the goal of focusing on profitable markets and customers around the world.

"In today's markets it makes sense to play to your strengths. Alcatel-Lucent’s leadership in core networking, reflects our innovation excellence and long-standing customer relationships.   The objective of the new operating structure is to strengthen Alcatel-Lucent’s presence in key telecommunications products and services through a unified business group," stated Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive Officer.

The following changes were announced:

• Paul Tufano becomes Chief Operating Officer, with worldwide responsibility for Supply Chain, Procurement and three individual focused businesses (Enterprise, Strategic Industries and Submarine), in addition to his current role as Chief Financial Officer.
  
• Robert Vrij becomes President Global Sales & Marketing, leading a single global sales organization to oversee and manage all customer-facing commercial relationships.
  
• Stephen A. Carter becomes President Managed Services & EVP Corporate Restructuring; overseeing the Performance Program and Corporate Marketing & Corporate Communications.
  
• Philippe Keryer becomes President of Networks & Platforms. This worldwide business group will replace the existing regional operating structure with four global product & services business units, each with full P&L responsibility, comprising:
  
• i. Core Networks, leveraging global leadership in IP and Optics; IP and Optics will be placed under the management of Basil Alwan leveraging Alcatel-Lucent’s leadership position in both of these fast growing markets.
• ii.  Fixed Networks, investing further in the Company’s leadership position in this market and the synergies with Small Cell deployment.
• iii. Wireless, focusing customers in North America, China and EMEA.
• iv.  Platforms, evolving the company’s High Leverage Network capabilities into unified software platforms for control, optimization and network analytics.
  
• George Nazi remains President of the previously created Global Customer Delivery division.
• Jeong Kim remains President of Bell Labs and Chief Strategy Officer and will be responsible for the Company’s patents assets/portfolio.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

• In July 2012, Alcatel-Lucent announced 5,000 job cuts as part of an accelerated restructuring program.

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Singapore's M1 Readies LTE Launch

Singapore's M1 is preparing to launch its LTE service this week.  The carrier is promising download speeds of up to 75 Mbps and uplinks of up to 37 Mbps.
http://m1.com.sg

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

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Sequans Gains LTE Baseband Chip Approval from China’s MIIT

Sequans Communications' 2nd gen LTE baseband chip has been officially approved by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) for use in China. Sequans’ first generation LTE technology was approved by MIIT last year.

Sequans said this clears the way for it to participate in the phase 2 large-scale LTE trials of MIIT now being deployed by China Mobile. The trials demonstrate the operation of LTE Release 9 and dual-mode TD-SCDMA and LTE as required in China.

http://www.sequans.com

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FCC Targets First Spectrum Incentive Auction

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated a proposal to his fellow commissioners regarding the first incentive auction aimed at freeing up significant spectrum for mobile broadband.

Genachowski said his proposal would also free up a significant amount of unlicensed spectrum for innovative WiFi-like uses, and create the first uniform, national low-band unlicensed spectrum in any country.

“As smartphones and tablets proliferate, the opportunities to benefit consumers and businesses become clearer every day. In freeing up licensed and unlicensed spectrum for wireless broadband, incentive auctions will drive faster speeds, greater capacity, and ubiquitous mobile coverage. The mobile experience for millions of consumers and small business owners will improve as a result of successful incentive auctions. These are essential ingredients for innovation and leadership in the 21st century economy where smartphones and tablets powered by 4G LTE and Wi-Fi networks are proliferating, and the mobile Internet becomes more important every day. Over the last few years, the U.S. has regained global leadership in mobile innovation – and we must not let up now," stated FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

A vote on the proposal is expected on September 28.

http://www.fcc.gov

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Intelsat Connects Gogo’s International In-flight Wi-Fi Service

Intelsat will provide broadband satellite capacity for Gogo's in-flight Internet access service on transoceanic air routes and other areas around the globe starting in early 2013.

Specifically, Gogo signed a multi-year, multi-transponder contract to use Ku-band satellite capacity on Intelsat 19, Intelsat 21, Intelsat 22 and Intelsat 27. These satellites cover portions of the Atlantic and northern Pacific oceans, as well as routes over South America, Asia, Africa and Australia. Intelsat 22 and Intelsat 19 are currently in service. Intelsat 21 was launched on August 19, 2012 and will operate at 302° East. Intelsat 27 is planned for launch in early 2013 and will be positioned at 304° East.

"We believe Intelsat brings to the table a long term commitment to providing Aero solutions for the aviation market, including the recently announced Intelsat EpicNG, which we expect will allow us to provide the reliable and seamless satellite coverage our current and prospective airline partners must have to meet passenger demand for high-speed Internet access on transoceanic and other international flights,” said Michael Small, Gogo’s president and CEO. “This agreement is expected to enable Gogo to provide a broad range of aircraft with a variety of technology solutions. Whether it’s our exclusive air to ground and ATG-4 technologies, or advanced satellite technologies, we expect to offer a full range of connectivity solutions for any aircraft type or mission."

http://www.intelsat.com

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Google Acquires VirusTotal

Google has acquired VirusTotal, a start-up offering a free virus scanning service for an undisclosed sum. The company allows anyone to upload files to the site to check for the presence of malware. VirusTotal describes its service as a "second opinion" and not a substitute for full anti-malware suites.

VirusTotal said it plans to continue to operate independently, maintaining partnerships with other antivirus companies and security experts.

VirusTotal is based in Málaga, Spain.

http://www.virustotal.com

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Colt Ties into Hibernia Media's Video Transport Service

Colt Technology Services is partnering with Hibernia Media to deliver professional video transport over its fiber network.

Colt is already connected to more than 150 broadcast hubs across Europe from news and sports broadcast venues to production and postproduction houses, master control rooms, distribution centres, media switching hubs and play-out facilities. The partnership with Hibernia will increase that number to over 300, giving Colt’s broadcast customers access to Hibernia’s US and European television networks, news and sports venues, and broadcast studios.

“This is an exciting time for Colt,” commented Ken Wood, Colt’s media sector expert. “Our customers are increasingly asking us to help them deliver high quality content to their customers across the world. Our joint offering with Hibernia Media provides unmatched connectivity options for both US and European media companies, helping broadcasters meet increasing demands for HD and 3D quality content.”

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Aldea and Hibernia Media Merge to Create Global Video Transport Provider

Hibernia Media, the video transport division of Hibernia Atlantic, will merge with Aldea Solutions.  Both companies are video transport providers operating 100% QoS Media Service DTM

networks over fiber.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

The combined network will connect highvalue media destinations, reaching 25 countries and 80 cities, with over 300 On-Net locations spanning Europe, North and South America.

Montreal-based Aldea operates a fully automated fiber-based network for broadcast services with points-of-service in major cities throughout the Americas, and with international points-of-presence in Europe.


Hibernia Media links over 200 media connection points for professional video transport
solutions on an occasional use or dedicated basis.

http://www.hiberniamedia.com
http://www.aldea.tv/

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Google Builds New Data Center in Santiago

In a blog posting, Google confirmed that it is building a new, state-of-the-art data center in Quilicura, near Santiago, Chile. This is Google's first data center in Latin America.

Construction is underway and activation is expected by the end of 2013.  Google estimtes its investment in the facility at US$150 million.

http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/quilicura/index.html

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CommScope Updates its PON Portfolio

CommScope is introducing a new PON capable of accommodating both EPON and GPON.  The complete PON portfolio includes optical line terminals (OLTs), optical network units (ONUs), system-management software and installation components.

“Technology is continuing to progress at a rapid pace and operators must keep up with their customers’ increasing demand for bandwidth,” said Ric Johnsen, senior vice president, Broadband, CommScope. “Our new PON solution provides an alternative technology for operators to deploy competitive Ethernet services to small- and medium-sized business and improved bandwidth to rural areas. This launch demonstrates how CommScope continues to expand it ability to deliver more end-to-end, scalable access networks to the industry.”

http://www.commscope.com

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Spirent to Acquire Metrico for Cloud Testing

Spirent Communications agreed to acquire Metrico Wireless, which provides cloud-based Testing-as-a-Service, for $52.0 million in cash.  Metrico is privately held by Dimitrios Topaltzas and others.

Metrico’s solution delivers end-to-end testing under real-world conditions on live networks with comprehensive reporting and analysis, measuring QoE of devices and services with respect to voice, data, video, battery, location and application performance. These solutions can be delivered anywhere and managed centrally, through the use of cloud-based test infrastructure located in 25 countries around the world. In addition to its service offerings, Metrico supplies innovative Measurement Systems to carriers and device manufacturers.

“Innovation and competition in the wireless industry is driving aggressive release cycles of sophisticated devices and services,” said Bill Burns, CEO of Spirent. “As carriers and device vendors strive to minimise time to market, improve subscriber quality of experience and reduce device return rates, they must also contend with disruptive technologies including 4G data, VoIP and the cloud. In line with our strategy of investing in growing and emerging technology markets, Spirent is responding to these needs by bringing together our device performance test strength in the lab with Metrico’s field-based, subscriber-level focus.”

http://www.spirent.com
http://www.metricowireless.com

• Earlier this year, Spirent Communications acquired Mu Dynamics, which offers a network security and application performance testing tools, for $40.0 million in cash.
  
• Mu Studio, the company's flag ship product line, enables performance and security testing of cloud infrastructure, including network security systems, deep packet inspection (DPI) solutions, and LTE networks. Its Blitz is a self-service load and performance testing solution for cloud applications. Mu TestCloud compiles thousands of ready-to-runs tests, covering hundreds of applications.

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Amazon's Kindle Fire HD Tablet Resets the LTE Market

Amazon set a new pricing model for mobile broadband with the introduction of its Kindle Fire HD tablet, which offers LTE connectivity for $50 per year with a monthly cap of 250 MB.  Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO, said the company aims to make money by selling content and products rather than in selling devices and distribution.

Amazon did not name an LTE partner for its new service, but it is using AT&T's blue/orange 4G/LTE flame logo on its promotional material in the U.S.  The custom modem supports ten different LTE bands, perhaps giving Amazon the flexibility to support multiple LTE partners internationally with the same unit.

Networking capabilities of the Kindle Fire HD:

• Dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi (MIMO) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n standard with support for WEP, WPA and WPA2. Does not support peer-to-peer connections.
• 
  
• 4G LTE 10 band wireless modem with HSPA+, HSDPA, and EDGE/GPRS fallback
• Amazon is using a custom-designed 4G wireless modem that it claims is only 2.2mm thin
• Amazon's 12 month 4G data package includes 250 MB a month of 4G data, 20 GB of additional Cloud Drive storage, and $10 Amazon Appstore promotional credit, for a one-time payment of $49.99
• Amazon will offer optional 3GB and 5GB LTE data packages. (pricing not disclosed)
• Unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content Kindle Fire HD includes the Skype app pre-installed
• Kindle Fire HD will feature a new version of the Amazon Silk cloud-accelerated browser, which the company says will provide a better than 30% reduction in page load times over the previous version. The new browser leverages an updated core rendering engine and a reengineered transport layer, along with the power of Amazon Web Services
• Integrated Bluetooth
• One-click shopping tied into Amazon's billing systems
• Integrated support for Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! and more, as well as Exchange calendar, contacts, and email

http://www.amazon.com

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Alcatel-Lucent's Open Source "apiGrove" Manages APIs

Alcatel-Lucent introduced "apiGrove", an open source software engine to help companies more effectively manage the application programming interfaces (APIs) they use to expose the capabilities of their cloud platforms, telecommunications networks or enterprise infrastructure.

The apiGrove installation package, source code, and documentation are available effective immediately on the open-source repository and collaboration tool GitHub under the business-friendly Apache 2.0 license. The apiGrove software is based on Alcatel-Lucent’s Open API Platform.

"We’ve reached a point where basic API exposure and management is 'table stakes' for doing business in today’s economy. Network exposure, through APIs, is becoming a commodity. The future of the API ecosystem lies in building on an open industry foundation and a holistic approach that spans the network, cloud and enterprise/IT spaces. We believe apiGrove gives our customers and the community the foundation they need to make this a reality," said Laura Merling, Senior Vice President, Application Enablement, at Alcatel-Lucent.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Accedian Networks Rebrands and Focuses on

Accedian Networks announced a new corporate identity designed to refelect its mission to "fulfill the performance assurance and SLA needs of global mobile operators and service providers."

The new logo features three rings representing Accedian’s 3 pillars – Service Assurance, Service Creation and SLA Assurance & Reporting. 

Some company milestones over the last 5 years:

• Shipped over 120,000 systems worldwide, and counting
• First to include unique uses of Y.1564 in its MetroNID and MetroNODE 10GE solutions
• Secured over 250 mobile operator and service provider customers globally

"We have created new businesses, expanded into new markets and developed new technologies – all to ensure we make it easier, faster and less costly for our mobile operator and service provider customers to optimize, improve and manage their networks," stated Patrick Ostiguy, President and CEO of Accedian Networks.

http://www.accedian.com

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Mindspeed Collaborates with China Mobile Research Institute on Small Cells

Mindspeed Technologies and China Mobile Research Institute, the research institution of China’s largest mobile operator, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on Nanocell research in China.

Nanocell is defined as radio access equipment that integrates cellular small cell and carrier grade WLAN access points.

Mindspeeed said this is an important milestone for the continued rapid build-out of China Mobile’s heterogeneous network (HetNet) and Mindspeed’s small cell base station platform based on its Picochip TD-SCDMA and Transcede LTE system on a chip (SoC) solutions. Mindspeed was selected to participate in this pioneering program based on its current leadership in small cells and its future product roadmap.

Mindspeed has demonstrated dual-mode support for both HSPA and LTE in its small cell SoCs, and the only one to have shown both frequency-division duplexing (FDD) LTE and time-division LTE (TD-LTE) solutions.

http://www.mindspeed.com

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Janet6 picks Ciena for 100G

Janet6, the next generation of the national Research and Education (R&E) network in the United Kingdom, has selected Ciena's 6500 packet-optical platform, equipped with WaveLogic™ Coherent Optical Processors, for its optical backbone. The platform, which scale to 400G and up, will enable Janet to rapidly set-up services for strategic research campuses. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.ciena.com

• In July 2007, Janet confirmed deployed 40 Gbps links using Ciena's CoreStream Agility Optical Transport System.

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