Cox Selects Atrica/Fujitsu for Metro Optical Ethernet

Cox Communications has built a carrier-class optical Ethernet backbone to serve the New Orleans Public Schools using Fujitsu Network Communications' Flexible Architecture for Subscriber Service Termination (FASST) and Ethernet equipment from Atrica. The new network links nearly 140 schools and administrative sites using Gigabit Ethernet connections. Each site now receives high-speed, guaranteed services including Internet access, Voice over IP, IP/H.323 videoconferencing, and distance learning. The new network replaces a mix of T1s, Frame Relay and other access technologies previously employed by the school district.


Cox is using Atrica's A 8100 Optical Ethernet core switches at hub locations, A 4100 Optical Ethernet aggregation switches at select aggregation sites, and A 2100 Optical Ethernet edge switches to deliver services at each school or administration site. Cox is also utilizing the Atrica Service Platform for Ethernet Networks (ASPEN), an integrated service provisioning and management system, to manage the entire network.


Atrica's Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)-compliant Committed Information Rate (CIR) capabilities allow Cox to accurately control bandwidth and ensure each site has an equal share of bandwidth and services. The equipment also provides guaranteed SLAs, QoS, Ethernet Operations, Administration, Maintenance and Provisioning (OAM&P), and sub-50 millisecond resiliency.


Fujitsu provides service and support for the project. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Fujitsu noted that it has numerous other carrier trials and deployments underway for networks based on its FASST architecture.http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom
http://www.atrica.com

• In June 2004, Fujitsu Network Communications introduced its Flexible Architecture for Subscriber Service Termination (FASST) aimed at integrating SONET, Optical Ethernet, ATM, Frame Relay, IP, MPLS and Operational Support System (OSS) products. Fujitsu has formed partnerships with Atrica and Hammerhead Systems to implement its FASST strategy.

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Alcatel and Finmeccanica Merge their Satellite Activities

Alcatel and Finmeccanica reached a final agreement to merge their space activities through the creation of two joint ventures companies, to which both partners will contribute their respective satellite industrial and service activities.


The first company, Alcatel Alenia Space, of which Alcatel will hold 67% and Finmeccanica 33%, will combine Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio's activities. It will concentrate on the design, development, and manufacturing of space systems, satellites, payloads, instruments and associated ground systems for civilian and military applications. The headquarters of Alcatel Alenia Space will be located in France, with plants in France, Italy, Belgium and Spain. With estimated 2004 sales of EUR 1.8 billion and around 7,200 people, it will create the European leader in satellite systems and services.


The second company, Telespazio, of which Finmeccanica will hold 67% and Alcatel 33%, will combine Telespazio with Alcatel Space Services and Operations activities. It will concentrate on operations and services for satellite solutions, which includes control and exploitation of space systems as well as value-added services for networking, multimedia and earth observation. Its headquarters will be located in Italy with plants in Italy, France and Germany. With estimated 2004 sales of EUR 350 million and around 1,400 people, it will be a key player in the space services market.
http://www.alcatel.com
http://www.finmeccanica.it

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Siemens Announces Restructuring of Wireline Business

Siemens announced a corporate restructuring aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of its wireline business. The company said it would be increasing its focus on growth areas such as VoIP, Ethernet Access, applications and services for broadband networks or Home Entertainment. The restructuring is expected to affect some 600 jobs in Germany and 650 jobs overseas, although Siemens seeks to transfer the affected employees within the company wherever possible.
http://www.siemens.com

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Eblana and Vitesse Announce Breakthrough in Laser Fabrication

Eblana Photonics and Vitesse Semiconductor announced a manufacturing relationship for single-mode laser diodes on Vitesse's 4" Indium Phosphide (InP) Integrated Circuit Fabrication Line.
This manufacturing relationship builds on an industry first where the companies fabricated 2.5 Gbps, single wavelength, laser diodes using established InP IC toolsets and processes.


The companies said their landmark process line production of high-quality laser diodes will have significant impact for the communications industry. Short term, it its expected to disrupt the production costs of photonic components by permitting low cost manufacture of the highest quality laser products on a mature electronics fabrication platform using only IC toolsets and processes and their associated process control regime. The companies believe this manufacturing process will enable the required levels of photonics integration to drive the burgeoning rollout of FTTP and Gigabit Ethernet in Access and Enterprise communications applications. Loner term, they expect that the integration of mature InP circuit technology with a InP laser technology to will create new components and new applications based on integrated photonics and electronics.
http://www.vitesse.com
http://www.eblanaphotonics.com

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Verizon Selects Microsoft TV Platform

Verizon will use the Microsoft TV platform for the commercial rollout of its FiOS TV service. src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11402824/CND/v11n222-
msiptv.jpg" align="left"> The selection builds on a string of recent, high-profile wins for the Microsoft TV platform amongst telecom carriers, including SBC, Telecom Italia, Swisscom/Bluewin and others. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Verizon plans to use the Microsoft TV platform to deliver high-definition television, digital video recording and on-demand programming. In addition, it will provide FiOS TV customers with an interactive programming guide. Verizon and its third-party partners will use the Microsoft software to add advanced IP applications for future FiOS TV services. The companies said this would differentiate Verizon in the marketplace and bring consumers the benefits of voice, video and data convergence.


FiOS TV will also use the Motorola set-top hardware platform.


Verizon said the Microsoft TV platform will work in parallel with its "iobi" service delivery platform, which allows information to be shared across many different networks, applications and devices. Significantly, the Microsoft .NET architecture supports applications on Verizon's iobi platform as well as applications from third-party developers. Microsoft .NET architecture also supports the Microsoft TV platform.
http://www.microsoft.com/tv

• In November 2004, SBC Communications selected the new Microsoft IPTV Edition software platform for its Project Lightspeed initiative. The deal was valued at $400 million over 10 years. SBC Labs has been testing an IP-based television service built on the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform since June 2004. SBC companies and Microsoft will begin field trials in mid 2005 and plan commercial availability of the IP-based television platform in late 2005.



• In January 2005, BellSouth announced a technical trial of Microsoft TV Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Edition software platform over its DSL network. BellSouth plans to leverage new DSL technologies, including ADSL2+ and copper pair bonding, as well as its deep fiber network, to test a feature-rich IP video offer during the first half of 2005.



• In September 2004, Verizon Communications hired Terry Denson, former vice president of programming for Insight Communications, the ninth-largest cable operator in the country, to manage entertainment content and marketing strategies. As vice president of video programming and content marketing and strategy for Verizon, Denson will guide video product packaging, pricing and marketing strategies; video content acquisition and distribution agreements; and customer education, acquisition and retention planning.

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Optical Internetworking Forum Launches New Project

The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) is embarking on two new technical projects:

• the Architecture and Signaling working group, in conjunction with the Carrier working group, will address Neighbor Discovery as it applies to links used by the optical control plane. Neighbor Discovery is a process that allows the control plane to identify new links and to initialize the control plane to use those links. OIF working groups will seek to define Neighbor Discovery requirements based on carrier scenarios and define control plane extensions to achieve them.



• the Physical and Link Layer (PLL) working group has begun work on a next generation TFI (TDM Framer-to-Fabric Interface) project. The project will extend the existing TFI-5 TDM Framer-to-Fabric Implementation Agreement (IA), which utilizes 2.488 to 3.1104 Gigabits per second signaling to utilize CEI signaling at 6G rates (4.976 to 6.375 Gigabits per second) and 11G rates (9.95 to 11.1 Gigabits per second). This will enable system vendors to architect next generation SONET/SDH Cross-Connect and DCS Digital Cross Connect systems with increased density and lower costs.


The OIF's recent quarterly meeting resulted in the reelection of the following officers, Amy Wang of Avici Systems as Interoperability Working Group Co-Chair (Networking), Doug Zuckerman of Telcordia Technologies as OAM&P Working Group Chair, Hans-Martin Foisel of T-Systems / Deutsche Telekom as Carrier Working Group Chair and Brian Von Herzen of Xilinx as Interoperability Working Group Co-Chair (Physical & Link Layer).
http://www.oiforum.com

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NEC Assembles 3G Base Stations in China

NEC has commenced production of 3rd Generation mobile radio base stations (Node-B)
at one of its production sites in China. The facility procures major core pre-product modules, such as channel coding cards and line cards, from NEC's major manufacturing sites in Japan, and other general parts such as power modules and racks from local vendors. The plant then assembles and customizes them according to the requirement of each operator.


The first lot of the products has been delivered in January to operators in Europe. The plant will also be used for manufacturing base stations for the Chinese market.


Takakuni Kuki, Executive General Manager and head of NEC's Mobile Network Operations Unit commented, "NEC hopes to take a leading position for the construction of 3G infrastructure in China... In order to accelerate the progress of the Chinese 3G market, NEC will build up its basic
production as early as possible to meet the increasing demand of the market."http://www.nec.co.jp

• In 2004, NEC established a 3G demonstration center in Guangdong. The center showcases NEC's 3G network solution offerings such as node-B radio base station, radio network controller and 3G terminals, and mobile internet application platform, and demonstrates attractive mobile multimedia service using the 3G technology. In addition, NEC recently established "NEC Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited", a mobile network operation outsourcing company to further expand the business of the new company to include 3G projects in China in the
  future.

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Alcatel to Resell Widevine Cypher for TVoDSL

Alcatel has entered into a global agreement to resell Widevine Technologies' Cypher technology-Virtual SmartCard and Application Level encryption for securing content over video networks. The Widevine Virtual SmartCard solution is currently used a content security solution in the TVoDSL and FTTH markets. The companies cited Chunghwa Telecom's rollout as the catalyst for their agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.widevine.com/http://www.alcatel.com

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StarOne Selects Alcatel for South American Satellite

Star One, the largest satellite solutions company in Latin America, awarded a contract valued at US$150 million to Alcatel for the construction of a telecommunications satellite serving South America. It is the second satellite that Alcatel will build for the Brazilian operator.


Star One C2, which will be based on the Alcatel Space Spacebus 3000B3 platform, will be fitted with 44 transponders, 28 C-band and 16 Ku-band and 1 X-band. Star One C2 will replace the Star One B2 satellite in the C band for direct TV broadcasting over South America and will provide new optimized capacity in Ku band for telephony and trunking transmissions over two coverage zones: Brazil and Mexico.


Star One, which was incorporated in December 2000, is the outcome of a partnership between Embratel (controlled by US-based WorldCom) and the Société EURpéenne des Satellites SA (SES).
http://www.alcatel.comwww.starone.com.br

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Siemens Sets up Carrier Ethernet Network in Kenya

Kenya Data Networks Ltd. (KDN) has commissioned Siemens Communications to deliver, install and maintain an optical network. The fiber optic rings will be installed in Nairobi and equipped with Siemens Carrier Ethernet technology. The installation is planned for completion in spring of 2005. By that time the metro network should cover a distance of 35 kilometers. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The main components in the network are Surpass hiD products, which were developed jointly by Siemens and the Korean company Dasan. Siemens has been the majority shareholder in this company specializing in broadband network access since September 2004.
http://www.siemens.com/communications

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T-Com Selects Marconi for Europe's First 40G Optical Network

T-Com, the fixed-network unit of Deutsche Telekom, awarded a three-year contract to Marconi to build Europe's first 40 Gbps optical network. Marconi will supply T-Com with its Multihaul 3000 DWDM transmission platform and its ServiceOn Optical network management system. The Multihaul 3000 will act as an expressway carrying high-bandwidth traffic between switching nodes in the network, with a capacity of 3.2 Tbps (terabits per second) on each optical fiber pair. This will give T-Com an unrivalled capacity in its core network.



T-Com's decision to choose Marconi follows its successful involvement in the Global Seamless Network (GSN) research and demonstration project, which ran in 2003.



Marconi's Multihaul 3000 system is configurable for transmission spans of between 100 km and 4000 km. It includes a range of reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers as well as data, Synchronous Digital Hierarchy and OTN transponders and muxponders for 2.5G, 10G and 40G bandwidths equipped with full-band tunable lasers. The Multihaul 3000's 40G transponders were developed by Marconi in cooperation with CoreOptics.



"This is an important strategic win for Marconi in that it delivers a new platform into a new and prestigious customer," said Mike Parton, CEO, Marconi Corporation plc.
http://www.marconi.com
http://www.coreoptics.com

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CableLabs Issues Headend VoD Specs

CableLabs issued the first set of specifications to aid in the creation of next-generation Video-on-Demand (VoD) cable services through the development of headend metadata and content distribution documents. Common metadata specifications are expected to pave the way for new types of VoD application models, such as enhanced VoD, subscription VoD, advertising, and audio services in the cable headend. The newly released specifications build upon a family of specifications that currently are in use.



The ADI2.0 (Asset Distribution Interface) Asset Structure specification defines the logical organization of metadata structures (Group Asset, Metadata Asset, Content Asset) and operations to place content assets in context with one or more cable service offerings. This allows for better utilization of asset management systems at cable headends. Additionally, the specification provides a document message structure containing assets and operations that is transmitted from the content provider to the cable operator to provide initial management and validation of files and structures. XML schema formats are used to provide some of the initial validation mechanisms.



The ADI2.0 (Asset Distribution Interface) Asset Inventory Messages specification is an auxiliary document that defines messages to indicate an upcoming schedule of content distribution or messages meant to help content providers manage existing content distribution processes.



CableLabs developed the specifications working with cable operators, content providers, and hardware component developers operating under a royalty-free Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) pool.
http://www.cablelabs.com

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Broadcom Reports Q4 Revenue of $539 Million

Broadcom reported Q4 net revenue of $539.4 million, a decrease of 16.6% from the $646.5 million reported for Q3 2004 and an increase of 12.6% from the $479.1 million reported for Q4 2003. Q4 net income (GAAP) was $71.1 million, or $.20 per share (diluted), compared with GAAP net income of $43.9 million, or $.13 per share (diluted), for Q3 2004.



"As discussed previously, our fourth quarter results were negatively impacted by the industry-wide inventory correction that affected all of Broadcom's business groups, but which was most pronounced within a limited number of customers in our direct broadcast satellite (DBS) and enterprise networking businesses. In addition, we continued to experience the long-anticipated decline in our chipset business for servers based on Intel processors. Our focus remains on entering new markets and bringing new products into existing markets," said Scott McGregor, Broadcom's President and CEO.
http://www.broadcom.com

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Nokia Estimates 1.7 Billion Mobile Users Worldwide

Nokia reported record mobile device volumes in Q4 2004, saying it now estimates that mobile subscriptions worldwide number 1.7 billion. The company cited the ongoing boom in growth markets such as Latin America, Russia, India and China, and brisk sales of color screen and camera phones. However, Nokia's North American phone volumes were disappointing.

Nokia's full-year 2004 mobile device market share was 32%, based on an estimated market volume of 643 million units.

Additional highlights of the quarterly report include:

• Q4 net sales increased 3% to EUR 9 063 million (EUR 8 789 million in Q4 2003), up 8% at constant currency.



• Q4 operating profit decreased 19% to EUR 1 357 million (EUR 1 669 million), with an operating margin of 15.0% (19.0%).



• For Q1 2005, Nokia group net sales are expected to be in the range of EUR 7.0 billion - EUR 7.3 billion, compared with EUR 6.6 billion in the first quarter 2004.

http://www.nokia.com

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Verizon Cites Strong Wireless Growth, Good Start for FTTP

Verizon Communications' Q4 revenues increased 6.2% to a record $18.3 billion, driven by a 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit, year-over-year revenue increases for wireless services. Wireless contributed $27.7 billion to the corporation's $71.3 billion total revenues in 2004. For the fourth quarter 2004, Verizon reported earnings of $3.0 billion, or $1.08 per diluted share, compared with a loss of $1.5 billion, or 53 cents per share, in the fourth quarter 2003. Some highlights for the quarter:

• Verizon Wireless contributed more than 40 percent of Verizon's total revenues in the fourth quarter 2004, compared with less than 35 percent in the fourth quarter 2003. Wireless revenues were $7.3 billion in the fourth quarter 2004, a 22.7 percent increase compared with $6.0 billion in the fourth quarter 2003. Full-year 2004 wireless revenues were $27.7 billion, an increase of $5.2 billion, or 23.0 percent, compared with 2003.



• Overall, Verizon's growth businesses -- wireless, long-distance, broadband, data and Enterprise services -- accounted for 55.2 percent of fourth-quarter 2004 revenues, compared with 49.3 percent of fourth-quarter 2003 revenues. Over the past year, revenues from these businesses have grown by 19.0 percent.



• Operating revenues for Domestic Telecom, the company's U.S. wireline business segment, were $9.7 billion in the fourth quarter 2004, a 2.4 percent decrease compared with the fourth quarter 2003. For the year, wireline operating revenues were $38.6 billion, a 2.7 percent decrease compared with 2003.



• Verizon Wireless added 1.7 million net new customers, the largest quarterly customer increase in the history of the company. For the year, Verizon Wireless added 6.3 million net new customers, as its total number of customers grew 16.8 percent year-over-year to 43.8 million, including 41.8 million retail customers.



• Verizon added a net of 306,000 DSL lines in Q4 for a total of 3.6 million DSL lines in service, representing 1.2 million net additions over the past year -- a growth rate of 53.5 percent. Revenues from DSL contributed to total wireline data revenues of $2.0 billion in the fourth quarter 2004, a 9.2 percent increase compared with $1.9 billion in data revenues in the fourth quarter 2003. For the year, data revenues of $7.8 billion grew 7.4 percent compared with 2003 and now represent more than 20 percent of total wireline revenues.



• Verizon's FiOS fiber-optic-based broadband service currently has more than 20 percent market penetration in Keller, Texas, Verizon's first market, after the first four and a half months of sales.



• Revenues from long-distance services, including regional toll services, were $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter 2004, a 5.8 percent increase compared with $1.0 billion in the fourth quarter 2003. On an annual basis, these revenues totaled $4.2 billion in 2004, a 10.4 percent increase compared with 2003.



• The company had 17.7 million long-distance lines in service as of year-end 2004, an increase of 342,000 lines from end of the third quarter 2004.



• Resale and Unbundled Network Element-Platform (UNE-P) lines totaled 6.6 million at the end of the fourth quarter 2004, up from 5.8 million at the end of the fourth quarter 2003 and down from 6.7 million at the end of the third quarter 2004. UNE-P lines decreased by 93,000 from the third to the fourth quarter in 2004. The company had 53.0 million switched wireline access lines in service as of year-end 2004.



• Enterprise revenues totaled approximately $6 billion in 2004, increasing 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter 2004 and 1.9 percent in the full year, compared with the same periods in 2003.



• Verizon's Enterprise Solutions Group ended 2004 with more than 750 Enterprise Advance sales, meeting its year-end target of $250 million in Enterprise Advance revenues.



• Verizon's total debt decreased $6.1 billion last year, to $39.3 billion at year-end 2004 from $45.4 billion at year-end 2003 -- reaching a previously announced target of debt levels in relation to corporate earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

http://www.verizon.com

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T-Mobile USA Adds 1 Million Net Customers in Q4

T-Mobile USA added more than 1 million net new customers in Q4 2004, compared to 901,000 in the third quarter of 2004 and 1,015,000 in Q4 2003. The company ended the year with over 17.3 million customers.



Net new postpay customer additions amounted to 812,000 in Q4. Postpay churn was 2.6%, the same as the third quarter of 2004. Blended churn, a mix of postpay and prepay customers, was 3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2004, up from 3.0% in the third quarter of 2004, and down from 3.2% in the fourth quarter of 2003.
http://www.t-mobile.com

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Chunghwa Telecom Consolidates on Cisco 12800 Routers

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom has selected Cisco Systems for an IP Next Generation Network to consolidate traffic of all its services. Cisco 12800 Series Routers will be deployed to scale company's IP backbone to support all its services including MPLS VPNs, multicast video, VoIP and other Internet-related services. Since 2001, Chunghwa Telecom's HiNet division has used the Cisco 12000 Series Routers for its broadband infrastructure.



The major installation of the CHT IP network took less than two months. The upgraded network is expected to serve more than three million customers, including the existing 2.5 million ADSL broadband users. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cisco.com

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France's neuf telecom Expands TV-over-DSL Network

neuf telecom's has reached a major milestone in delivering broadband services throughout France with the deployment of a network connecting 3,000 cities in 18 months. neuf telecom is using Cisco equipment for the extension and expansion of its network to support local loop unbundling and to facilitate triple-play over ADSL to residential customers. Cisco's 7600 Series routers, Catalyst 3000 Series switches and Cisco IOS network infrastructure software are used to provide the QoS-enabled multi-service network, supporting intelligent video distribution using dynamic multicast.



In November 2004, the company launched neuf TV, a digital-quality TV over DSL service offering over 70 channels. The company will shortly be launching ADSL2+ services. As of the end of 2004, neuf telecom a total of 700,000 ADSL users from its retail and wholesale operations. neuf telecom reported sales in 2003 of EUR 992 million. For the first half of 2004, neuf telecom increased its sales to EUR 564 million, up 24% compared to the same period in 2003, EBITDA was up 33% to EUR 60 million and earnings of EUR 15 million.
http://www.cisco.com

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SBC Offers Discounted 3 Mbps Service

SBC Communications trimmed the price on its fastest DSL tier for bundle customers. SBC Yahoo! DSL Pro service, which provides download speeds of up to 3 Mbps, is now $29.99 a month with a one-year term agreement and when bundled with an SBC unlimited local and long distance calling plan. Previously, the lowest price for the 3 Mbps service was $36.99 when ordered online or as part of a Total Connections bundle with a one-year term agreementhttp://www.sbc.com

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Nortel Appoints Peter Currie as CFO

Nortel Networks announced today the appointment of Peter Currie as CFO. Currie is rejoining Nortel as he had previously served as senior vice president and chief financial officer from 1994 until early 1997. He most recently served as vice chairman and chief financial officer of RBC Financial Group, one of North America's leading financial services organizations. This appointment was made following the decision by William Kerr, the current CFO, to step down from this position, which he had assumed last year to lead the completion of the restatement. At the request of president and chief executive officer Bill Owens, Kerr has agreed to serve as senior advisor to the CEO.
http://www.nortel.com

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