France's Altitude Telecom to Offer Voice-over-WiMAX

Altitude Telecom, a fixed-wireless operator in France, has deployed Cirpack's Class-5 switches to launch telephony services over WiMAX for businesses.


Altitude, which holds a license to operate in the 3.5GHz band throughout France, has deployed 802.16d-compliant WiMAX equipment to offer wireless broadband connectivity to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as to large businesses. Altitude will now use Cirpack's softswitch and gateway products to leverage this wireless infrastructure for VoIP, in addition to its IP VPN and IP MPLS services. http://www.cirpack.com
http://www.altitudetelecom.com

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NetCentrex Builds its Americas Market Team

NetCentrex announced three executive appointments to its North America market team.


Guillaume Widmer, who was NetCentrex' first employee when founder Olivier Hersent spun off France Telecom's VoIP R&D program in 1998, will serve as CTO for the Americas. He was one of the original developers of the NetCentrex CCS softswitch and has defined architectures for some of NetCentrex' biggest customers, including Telefonica Germany, France Telecom, NextGentel, Rostelecom, and TransTelecom.


Jodi Benassi will serve as NetCentrex's VP Sales for North America. She comes to NetCentrex after spending five years at Minerva Networks, where she was Vice President of Sales. Prior to Minerva, Jodi held the position of Western Regional Sales Manager for Sigma Designs.


Brian Mahony will serve as the company's VP of Marketing for North America. Prior to NetCentrex, Brian was Executive Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Tundo Corporation. Other management and consulting experience includes roles at Siemens/Unisphere, Nextel, and Nortel.
http://www.netcentrex.net

• NetCentrex is based in Paris. The company has its North America office in San Jose, California.

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Vonage Signs Partnership With Campus TeleVideo

Vonage announced a partnership under which Campus TeleVideo will resell its broadband telephony service to universities nationwide. These universities include, but are not limited to: UCLA, Penn State University, University of Georgia and Rutgers University. Vonage will offer Campus TeleVideo's subscribers unlimited local and long distance calling throughout the United States and Canada for a flat rate.


Campus TeleVideo specializes in providing turnkey video and data solutions for colleges and universities seeking an alternative to the local cable operator.


http://www.vonage.com
http://www.camptv.com/

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Cingular Signs its 50 Millionth Customer

Cingular announced its 50 millionth mobile customer. The company said it has added more than three million customers since its merger with AT&T Wireless in October 2004.
http://www.cingular.com

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T-Com Selects Juniper/Lucent for IP Net Support

T-COM, the fixed line division of Deutsche Telekom, awarded a two-year contract, Lucent Worldwide Services (LWS) will provide a complete range of maintenance and technical support for Juniper Networks E-, M- and T-series routing platforms. LWS will provide maintenance and second and third level support for the Juniper equipment in T-Com's IP network. LWS will remotely monitor, repair and exchange components of the IP network by providing remote technical support and four-hour and next-business- day options for advanced exchange services, including software updates. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Over the past year, LWS has provided service and maintenance for T-Com's Internet access platform, including Lucent's MAX( TNT systems, which form part of the Universal Gateway product line and has connected T-Com's voice network with their IP network, as well as for several thousand network elements delivered by Lucent in T-Com's optical transport network.
http://www.lucent.com

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Lucent Lands U.S. Army Network Contracts Valued At $36.3 Million

Lucent Technologies announced several contracts, totaling $36.3 million, with the U.S. Army to provide network integration and professional services for a communications infrastructure upgrades at U.S. Army bases in Georgia, Hawaii and Germany. The agreements are in support of the Army's Installation Information Infrastructure Modernization Program (I3MP), which is focused on upgrading voice and data network infrastructure at Army bases around the world.


In 2003, Lucent announced an earlier group of contracts with the Army valued at $50 million for infrastructure upgrades at Army installations in North America and Asia.
http://www.lucent.com

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Verizon Signs Starz Entertainment for Premium Movie Services

Verizon signed a long-term affiliation agreement with Starz Entertainment Group enabling it to carry East and West Coast feeds of all 13 Starz Entertainment Group movie channels on Verizon FiOS TV when it launches later this year. The programming includes the flagship Starz and Encore brands, Starz On Demand and Starz HDTV. The deal is the first that Verizon has signed with a premium pay-TV provider. Financial terms were not disclosed. Verizon is also negotiating with other premium services.


Verizon will provide Starz On Demand, showcasing more than 100 movies-on-demand per month, and Starz HDTV at no additional charge for Starz subscribers.


Verizon said its FiOS TV will offer video on demand, hundreds of digital video channels, high-definition programming, music channels, an interactive programming guide and other customer-friendly features. Customers will be able to buy FiOS TV as a stand-alone service or packaged with voice and FiOS high-speed data services, which are already available in some areas.
http://www.verizon.com/http://www.starz.com/

• In February 2005, Verizon announced a long-term agreement with TVN Entertainment for video-on-demand programming and services on its upcoming FiOS TV service. Financial terms were not disclosed. TVN will provide Verizon with a wide range of VOD programming including new studio releases, a library of previous releases, independent movies, family and kids programming, and a broad array of free on-demand and specialty VOD networks. Verizon will also use TVN's advanced services, including TVN's exclusive TVNow rapid-turnaround service that enables subscribers to order news and events, such as the presidential inauguration, within hours of their occurrence. TVN Entertainment Corporation is one of the largest privately held digital content aggregation, management, distribution, and service companies in the U.S. The company currently packages and distributes more than 2000 hours of VOD programming every month. This includes TVN-licensed movie titles, children's and Spanish language content, and genre-themed on demand channels as well as delivering Subscription-Video-On-Demand (SVOD) and network programming for many of the major cable networks.



• In January 2005, Verizon announced plans to use the Microsoft TV platform for the commercial rollout of its FiOS TV service.

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Extreme Networks Reports Quarterly Revenue of $91.9 million

Extreme Networks reported third quarter (FY05) revenue of $91.9 million, up 3.4% from $88.9 million in the year-ago third quarter. The company recorded a net loss of $1.3 million or $0.01 per basic and diluted share in the third fiscal quarter of 2005, compared to a net loss of $1.1 million or $0.01 per diluted share in the third fiscal quarter of 2004. Included in the company's results was a $2.0 million expense related to a technology agreement with IBM. Excluding this item, the Company's profit after tax for the quarter was $0.7 million or $0.01 per share.


"Much of our business remained on a solid growth path during the third quarter," said Gordon Stitt, president and CEO of Extreme Networks. "Our revenues outside of Japan grew by 14 percent compared to the third quarter a year ago. However, continued weakness in our Japanese business combined with longer than expected sales cycles across our business generally led to us not achieving our goal of recording $100 million or more in revenue this quarter."http://www.extremenetworks.com

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ECI Telecom Acquires Optical Technology Business in China

ECI Telecom will acquire the optical activities and technology of Eastern Communications Co. Inc., for an undisclosed amount. The operations of the acquired unit will be merged with ECI's existing joint venture Hangzhou ECI Telecommunications Co., Ltd (HETC).


ECI said the acquisition broadens its current Multi Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) product line, by adding a compact, affordable product. The acquisition also adds a cost-effective R&D and manufacturing operation in China.
http://www.ecitele.com

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Broadband Services Forum Targets IPTV

The Broadband Services Forum (BSF) has set its sights on IPTV and interactive services, such as gaming and video, as its top priorities, following its first meeting this week. The newly merged BSF fosters collaboration across the broadband value chain including content, service and technology providers.


The BSF meeting also marked the release of a white paper on Content-Aware Networking Services (CANS) by its Technology Working Group. Juniper Networks VP Scott Stevens outlined the action plan for the CANS project. Completion of the CANS project will include a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that will facilitate network-level device authentication and automation of service delivery. The BSF will take these APIs to a standards organization for formal codification.


The keynote "The Promise of IP Television" was delivered by Amy Friedlander, SVP of Programming at SBC. In her presentation, Friedlander shared SBC's services vision, and provided valuable insights into how service providers and their partners can work together to define and monetize new services.


The BSF is preparing to launch a brand campaign and is working with Starmark International. This includes a set of consumer-facing product logos for potential future use by consumer electronics companies to easily communicate broadband compatibility.


In addition, BSF member companies Nortel, Alcatel, Aliant, and Skystream will present a panel discussion, "Broadband Entertainment Vision," at NAB 2005 on Thursday, April 21 in Las Vegas.


The next BSF meeting, hosted by the Welsh Development Agency and BT, will be held May 16-17 at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay in Cardiff, Wales.
http://www.broadbandservicesforum.org

• In November 2004, the Broadband Content Delivery Forum (BCDF) and the Service Creation Community (SCC) agreed to merge to form the Broadband Services Forum.

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ATM Forum and MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance Approve Merger

The ATM Forum and the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance announced that their respective memberships have approved the merger of the two organizations. The merger will consolidate the groups and leverage the strengths of each in addressing next generation, multi-protocol, packet-based networks.


The goal of the combined entity, which will be known as the MFA Forum, will be to advance the recognition, acceptance and implementation of packet technologies in the global networking communications industry.


The board of directors of the MFA Forum will include Bernard da Costa, Bell Canada; Joe Kimball, Sprint; Gary Leonard, Riverstone Networks; Andrew Malis, Tellabs; Doug O'Leary, Verizon; John Rutemiller, Marconi; Ananda Sen Gupta, Agilent Technologies; David Sinicrope, Ericsson; Tom Walsh, Lucent Technologies; Rick Wilder, Alcatel.


The ATM Forum and the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance Technical Committees will continue previously established projects, operating as Working Groups under a unified Technical Committee. A joint Interoperability Working Group will oversee the organization's test and interoperability efforts to promote seamless interworking between ATM, MPLS and Frame Relay networks.


"The ATM Forum is entering this new phase having achieved what it set out to do," said Marlis Humphrey of Harris Corporation, chairman of the board, The ATM Forum. "In carrier networks throughout the world, ATM is now an embedded, reliable and secure technology that continues to deliver on the promise of security and flexibility in delivering the Quality of Service guarantees it was designed for. We look forward to the enhanced collaboration and synergies that this merger will bring to developing the interworking standards necessary for the deployment of next generation, converged packet networks."


"As a merged entity, the MFA Forum will represent the industry's technology innovators in MPLS, ATM and Frame Relay," said Andrew G. Malis of Tellabs, president and chairman of the board of the MPLS & Frame Relay Alliance. "We look forward to building on the successes the two groups have had over the years and expect our collaborative technical efforts to bear fruit immediately."http://www.atmforum.com/http://www.mplsforum.org/

• In 2003, The Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) Forum merged with the Frame Relay Forum (FRF). The MPLS Forum was formed in March 2000. The Frame Relay Forum was incorporated in May 1991.
• 
  
  
• The ATM Forum was founded in 1991 and has developed over 200 interoperability specifications.

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Cablevision Mexico Rolls out VOD with SeaChange

Mexico's largest cable television operator, Cablevision, is rolling out SeaChange's on-demand systems and software to deliver an array of services that will span movies, subscription packages, local and network television shows and high-definition programming. Cablevision is also deploying SeaChange's on-air and online systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Alongside its cable television operations, Cablevision runs one of the largest broadcast television operations in Mexico in conjunction with its parent, Grupo Televisa. Cablevision has deployed two SeaChange Broadcast MediaClusters to ingest programming from various sources and to air more than 40 broadcast television channels. Further, SeaChange's Broadcast MediaLibrary online storage system will support the 2005 launch of the Televisa network in High Definition by providing universal media storage for on-air servers, editors and other creation and distribution devices throughout Cablevision.

http://www.schange.com

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Cisco to Acquire Topspin for Server Fabric Switches

Cisco Systems agreed to acquire Topspin Communications, a start-up supplying server fabric switches, for approximately $250 million in cash and options.

Server fabric switches are a new class of server networking equipment designed for grid and utility computing, clustered enterprise applications, and server virtualization. Server fabric switches connect servers together into a grid, and then provide network and storage connectivity to that server grid.

Topspin has developed InfiniBand-based server switching equipment. Several major server vendors have announced support for InfiniBand technology as part of their clustering and/or grid solutions for both their standard and blade server solutions. Specifically, Dell, HP, IBM, NEC and Sun have all announced relationships with Topspin to provide InfiniBand-based server fabric switching as part of their portfolios.

Cisco said Topspin's InfiniBand-based server switching technology would complement its Ethernet-based Catalyst switching platform for internet/intranet infrastructure and its multiprotocol (Fibre Channel, FCIP, iSCSI and FICON) MDS switches for storage area networks.


Upon close of the transaction, Topspin will join Cisco's Data Center, Switching and Wireless Technology Group, led by Senior Vice President Luca Cafiero.

http://www.cisco.com
http://www.topspin.com

• Topspin Communications was founded in April 2000. The company has approximately 135 employees in Mountain View, California and Bangalore, India.



• Topspin was founded by Ross Schibler and Keith Wilkinson. Schibler was a founder of Rapid City Communications (acquired by Bay Networks). Wilkinson previously was Chief Architect for Lucent's Stinger DSLAM program. The company is headed by Krish Ramakrishnan, who joined Topspin from Cisco Systems where he was VP and General Manager of the Content Business Unit, responsible for Cisco's load balancing, caching, and content delivery solutions.



• Topspin raised at least $47.5 million in venture capital. Investors included Advent International and included existing investors Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Duff Ackerman & Goodrich, and Presidio Venture Partners.

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O2 Ireland Tests WiMAX with Alvarion/Siemens

O2 Alvarion successfully completed a test of Alvarion's BreezeMAX 3500, a WiMAX-ready platform, in Ireland. The system, which was supplied by Siemens, was used to provide broadband services to households and small businesses in Gleann Cholm Cille in Donegal, Ireland. The Gleann Cholm Cille valley was selected as the location due to its challenging terrain and substantial distance from the nearest high-capacity network. The trial was conducted over the span of a four month period and concluded in early 2005. BreezeMAX systems are operational in other Western European countries, including France and Spain.
http://www.alvarion.com
http://www.siemens.com

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SkyStream's Video Headends Selected by NTT for IPTV

OnDemandTV, a joint venture of NTT West and Itochu, has selected SkyStream's Mediaplex-20 video headend to support a nationwide rollout of IP-based broadcast television in Japan. Financial terms were not disclosed.


OnDemandTV will provide 23 broadcast channels as well as an extensive library of video on demand (VoD) movies using NTT East and NTT West's networks. The service is currently available to NTT West subscribers in the Osaka metropolitan area. Initially, the service is being broadcast over NTT West's fiber network using MPEG-2 compression. OnDemandTV plans to expand the service on a national scale to the remainder of NTT West and all of NTT East subscribers in the near future, delivering content over ADSL as well as over fiber.


Skystream said its headend can distribute hundreds of high-quality video channels for large-scale video delivery in multiple formats and rates to millions of subscribers at the same time. The Mediaplex-20 system is a complete video headend in a single chassis that offers 48 MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 AVC encoders. It also provides video multiplexing and demultiplexing, routing, video rate-shaping, stream replication, and ATM to IP conversion. The Mediaplex-20 video headend has over 100 field-proven deployments in 18 months.


For smaller deployments or in space-constrained environments, SkyStream also offers the iPlex ultra-compact video headend in a 1 RU form factor that provides the same integrated video headend capabilities of the Mediaplex-20 headend. It supports up to 8 MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 AVC encoders.

by Ramin Farassat SkyStream Networks

A Flexible Video Headend Is Key To An Optimal Video Delivery Architecture This article examines what telephone companies should look for when shopping for a video headend, one of the most important components in the delivery of "Telco TV."

http://www.skystream.com

• In September 2004, SkyStream Networks and Alcatel announced plans to collaborate on IPTV. SkyStream also announced that it has signed a reseller agreement with Alcatel, in which Alcatel will be offering SkyStream Networks' Mediaplex-20 video headend platform as part of its IPTV Open Media Suite of solutions to telecom operators worldwide.

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USTA Schedules TelecomNEXT Conference for March 2006

The U.S. Telecom Association (USTA) announced TelecomNEXT, a new industry conference and exhibition that aims to bring together policymakers, entrepreneurs and the CEOs of the world's leading communications service providers, suppliers, content and applications companies.


TelecomNEXT will be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Convention
Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 19-23, 2006.


The event has already published a list of high-profile, industry keynote speakers, including:

• Duane Ackerman, Chairman & CEO, BellSouth



• Harald Braun, President, Carrier Networks Division, Siemens



• Scott Ford, President & CEO, ALLTEL



• Jonathan Glickman, President, Spyglass Entertainment Group



• Paul Lacouture, President, Network Services, Verizon



• Moshe Lichtman, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft TV Division



• Kevin Martin, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission



• Walter McCormick, President & CEO, U.S. Telecom Association



• Susan Miller, President & CEO, ATIS



• Balan Nair, Chief Technology Officer, Qwest



• Glenn Post, Chairman & CEO, CenturyTel



• Mike Quigley, President, Alcatel North America



• Chris Rice, Executive VP, Network Planning & Engineering, SBC



• Michael Sabia, President & CEO, Bell Canada



• Ivan Seidenberg, Chairman & CEO, Verizon



• Stan Sigman, President & CEO, Cingular



• Bill Smith, Chief Technology Officer, BellSouth



• Norio Wada, President & CEO, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone



• Ed Whitacre, Chairman & CEO, SBC Communications

http://www.Telecom-Next.com

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Germany's TEAG Netkom Deploys Marconi's Ethernet/SDH

TEAG Netkom, the largest alternative carrier in the German province of Thuringia, is using Marconi's OMS840 multiservice edge platform to launch new Ethernet services over its existing SDH infrastructure. TEAG Netkom has rolled out new Ethernet-based data and voice services, such as Ethernet Private Line (EPL) services, to 10 customer locations and has already deployed the platform at a further 40 sites within its own network. Financial terms were not disclosed.


TEAG Netkom existing infrastructure consists of Marconi's SMA multiplexers, MSH64 optical core switch, and the OMS1664, Marconi's multiservice provisioning platform for high-capacity metro applications. The network is managed by Marconi's ServiceOn Optical network management software.
http://www.marconi.com

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QUALCOMM Samples First CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev A Chipset

QUALCOMM began sampling first chipset for CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A. In addition to support Rev A's higher data rates and QoS enhancements, the new Mobile Station Modem MSM6800 chipset also provides increased processing capacity and optimized audio, video, camera and graphics capabilities.


CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Rev. A supports faster data rates and higher system capacity to enable operators to offer in-demand, next-generation wireless multimedia. Capabilities include:

• Optimized for packet data service. Supports peak data rates of up to 3.1 Mbps on the forward link and up to 1.8 Mbps on the reverse link.



• Supports QoS for delay-sensitive applications, including a variety of IP-based services such as VoIP and real-time conversational services such as push to talk, video telephony, low-delay gaming and "instant multimedia" (an extension of push to talk that combines immediate voice with simultaneous delivery of video and pictures).



• Supports 1xEV-DO Gold Multicast, which enables the delivery of high-quality video and audio to a large number of users simultaneously. If standards progress permits, Qualcomm's MSM6800 chipset will also support 1xEV-DO Platinum Multicast.

QUALCOMM said its new MSM6800 chipset would enable mobile next-generation wireless multimedia device incorporating features such as 4.0 megapixel cameras, video camcorders at 30 fps, graphics at 100k triangles/second. , 7M pixels/second graphics for console-quality gaming, 3D sound and MP3/AAC/aacPlus audio support, GPS location awareness, Mobile Digital Display Interface (MDDI) connectivity, and integrated Bluetooth 1.2.


QUALCOMM's 1xEV-DO Rev. A solutions also include the Cell Site Modem CSM6800 device, which sampled in December 2004. The CSM6800 device has been chosen by several leading vendors for infrastructure and test equipment.

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NetCentrex and TdSoft Announce GR-303 Solution

NetCentrex and TdSoft, a provider of VoIP gateways for carriers, announced an integrated GR-303 solution, bridging the gap between softswitched networks and legacy-based access systems. The companies said their solution allows carriers to keep their existing GR-303 access infrastructure, including legacy Digital Loop Carriers (DLCs) and POTS phones, while upgrading their core call control platform to VoIP.

http://www.netcentrex.nethttp://www.tdsoft.com

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Altera and Gennum Develop 3 Gbps Video Interface for Coax

Altera and Gennum, a silicon company based in Burlington, Ontario, announced a serial video interface that supports a 3-Gbps signal over a coax. The solution uses Altera's Stratix GX FPGAs and Gennum's cable equalizer and driver products. This enables a multi-rate link that supports Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) protocols 259M-C (270 Mbps) and 292M (1.485 Gbps), and twice the SMPTE 292M data rate (2.970 Gbps).


"The movement in the broadcast industry toward 1080-line progressive video formats is creating demand for a 3 Gbps serial interface," said Alan Ferguson, director, video transport products at Gennum. "Copper is still the lowest cost method of transporting digital video, so the industry will be pleased to learn that 100 meters of coax is possible at 3 Gbps."


The companies will demonstrate the 3 Gbps link (two times the 292M SMPTE specification for high definition serial video) over 100 meter Belden 1694A cable at next week's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Conference in Las Vegas.
http://www.altera.com/http://www.gennum.com/

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