Cablevision Adds 130,000 VoIP Users in Latest Quarter

Cablevision Systems, which serves some 3 million households in the New York metropolitan area, added more than 130,000 VoIP customers for Q4 2005 and 458,653 for all of 2005. Some other operating highlights:

• Optimum Online high-speed data customers up 93,900 or 5.9% for the quarter and 341,793 or 25.3% for the year



• Basic video customers were up 17,930 or 0.6% for the quarter and 63,993 or 2.2% for the year; the company's seventh consecutive quarter of basic video subscriber gains



• Interactive Optimum digital video customers were up 119,496 or 6.5% for the quarter and 479,566 or 32.3% for the year



• Revenue Generating Units up 361,045 or 5.1% for the quarter and 1,342,403 or 22.1% for the year



• Advertising revenue up 8.9% for the quarter and 3.8% for the year



• Cable Television Average RPS of $100.46, up $3.77 or 3.9% for the quarter and $12.13 or 13.7% for the year.

http://www.cablevision.com

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Verizon CFO Says FiOS Plan is on Track

Speaking at the annual Bear Stearns Media Conference, Verizon's CFO Doreen Toben said the company is "rapidly executing" on its integration of operations acquired from MCI, and that the company "continues to see a strong and growing customer response" to fiber-optic-based FiOS data and video product offerings.



Customer take rates for the FiOS services are "well on plan." She noted that deployment costs are declining and that the next-generation fiber network platform is driving innovation for new FiOS TV offerings.



Some highlights of the presentation:

• FiOS TV has a 23% penetration rate in the town of Keller, Texas. The company is targetting a 25% penetration in all the markets it enters within 5 years or entry.



• Verizon Wireless is seeing accelerated growth in data services, which accounted for $2.2 billion in 2005 (content, access/email, and messaging).



• CAPEX for Verizon Wireless is expected to be $6.3 billion for 206, compared to $6.5 billion in 2005.



• Wireline growth services now total about $11 billion and are increasing at a rate of more than 10 percent year-over-year.



• Verizon expects 2006 diluted earnings per share before special items such as MCI integration costs (a non-GAAP measure) to be similar to 2005's level of $2.56 per share. Verizon expects 2006 quarterly earnings to increase during the year, with the first quarter estimated to be in the range of 57 cents per share to 59 cents per share.



• Verizon continues to target the completion of the divestiture of its Verizon Information Services (VIS) unit by the end of this year. In December Verizon had announced that it had begun reviewing strategic alternatives -- including a spin-off, sale or other strategic transaction -- for the domestic operations of the company's wholly owned directories publishing business.

A webcast is available on the Verizon investor website.

http://www.verizon.com

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Virginia General Assembly Passes Cable Choice Bill

The Virginia General Assembly Senate and House of Delegates have passed legislation that will hasten competition for cable television services in the state. The bill now moves to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine for his signature into law. If signed by Gov. Kaine, the new law will take effect July 1.



Verizon issued a statement welcoming the passage of the bill: "No party got all it wanted in the legislation, but the end result is one Verizon believes will stimulate competition, increase consumer choice and provide localities with continued control over their rights of way, consistent with the legal requirements in Virginia."http://www.verizon.com

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Extreme Networks' BlackDiamond 12K Deliver "Multidimensional" Carrier Ethernet

Extreme Networks introduced its new BlackDiamond 12K carrier switch designed for delivering "multidimensional" Ethernet to both business and residential subscribers.



Extreme Networks said the parameters for deploying a successful carrier Ethernet platform have evolved to include a need for massive scalability, much lower costs, and huge numbers of VPNs.



For instance, guaranteed data connections are needed for valuable IPTV and VoIP services.



Key features of Extreme Networks' Multidimensional Ethernet and BlackDiamond 12K switch include:

• guaranteed services with three-tier hierarchical QoS.



• support for up to tens of thousands of subscribers per line card with eight QoS service levels for each subscriber.



• the ability to serve as an "Ethernet Cross Connect" linking access networks to various content networks using a Layer 2 approach



• standards-based MAC in MAC technology that will vastly increase the number of Ethernet VPNs per network to millions of service VPNs. Extreme's Mac-in-Mac implementation is being standardized as IEEE 802.1ah Provider Backbone Bridges.

The BlackDiamond 12K carrier switch leverages the company's ASICs and existing hardware resiliency and software resiliency features. Pricing starts at US $60,000.

http://www.extremenetworks.com

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T-Com Selects Nominum's Foundation Caching Name Server

T-Com, Deutsche Telekom's broadband/fixed network unit,, has selected Nominum's Foundation Caching Name Server (CNS) to provide its broadband subscribers with a faster and more reliable, 'always-on' internet access.



Nominum said its CNS software will be deployed over T-Com's broadband network, which has 13 points of presence across Germany. http://www.nominum.com

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Broadbus Demonstrates Network-Based Time-Shifting of Live TV

At this week's CableLabs Winter Conference, Broadbus Technologies is demonstrating a network-based solution for pausing, fast-forwarding and rewinding live television using existing digital set top boxes. A network-based solutions eliminates the need for deploying PVRs at the customer end.



Broadbus said its B-1 Video Server provides the ability to simultaneously ingest, store, and stream hundreds of channels of live television and support ultra-high concurrency rates.


http://www.broadbus.com

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Nortel Completes Tasman Networks Acquisition

Nortel completed its acquisition of Tasman Networks. Nortel paid US $99.5 million in cash for Tasman Networks.



Tasman Networks supplies a line of secure, high-performance enterprise routers. The company is now part of Nortel's Enterprise Data Networks business unit. The products from the Tasman acquisition are marketed as part of Nortel's Secure Router line.

http://www.nortel.com

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Movaz Supplies Optical Gear for U.S. Department of Energy Lab

Movaz Networks has supplier gear for a secure regional optical network for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), one of the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratories. The new network links PNNL's campus in southeastern Washington State to Seattle. At the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP) in Seattle, PNNL has direct access to other national laboratories through the DOE Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and UltraScience Network, as well as other PNWGP member institutions. The fiber and facilities utilized by PNNL create a private network now supporting six 10 Gbps channels and engineered for growth to at least 20 channels.



PNNL is using the Movaz RAYexpress optical add/drop multiplexer, which supports mixed 10G/2.5G services and a wide selection of telecommunications and data client interfaces. http://www.movaz.com

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Cisco Completes Acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta

Cisco Systems completed its acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta. Cisco paid $43 per share in cash in exchange for each share of Scientific-Atlanta, and assumed outstanding options, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $7.0 billion, or approximately $5.1 billion net of Scientific-Atlanta's existing cash balance. The deal was first announced in November 2005.

http://www.cisco.com

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Sentito Adds New Executives

Sentito Networks, a provider of VoIP gateways, named Chris Lee as Vice President and General Manager of Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Will Engler as Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. Lee has held a number of senior management positions with companies such as BBN, Xenia, and Lucent Technologies and has worked with the Metro Ethernet, Frame Relay, and ATM forums.



Engler joined Sentito Networks from Lucent Technologies, where he held the position of VP & GM, Access Networks, and had responsibility for marketing and R&D. At Lucent, he delivered IPTV solutions and VoIP Gateway products to tier 1 service providers worldwide.

http://www.Sentito.com

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Cisco Joins the new Ethernet Alliance

The Ethernet Alliance, a new industry group dedicated to the expansion of Ethernet technology, announced the addition of 16 new members, including Cisco Systems. Cisco has also been appointed to the board of directors of the Ethernet Alliance.



Additional new members include Aeluros, Allied Telesis, Beam Express, ClariPhy, Extreme Networks, Fulcrum Microsystems, Gibson Guitar, Infinera, Luxtera, NetEffect, Neterion, Solarflare Communications, SYSTIMAX Solutions, Teknovus, and Test-Um.

http://www.ethernetalliance.org

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The Multiservice Forum Outlines GMI 2006 Event for IMS Interoperability

The Multiservice Forum (MSF) outlined its plans for a GMI 2006 event in October that is designed to serve as "a dress rehearsal for the opening night of what may be the next-generation multi-vendor service delivery platform." Global MSF Interoperability 2006 (GMI 2006) will bring together equipment suppliers with top tier global carriers to demonstrate practical implementations of IMS convergence and to address key interoperability issues before actual network implementations. The event will provide a massive testbed of the MSF IMS-compatible Release 3 architecture.



The purpose of GMI2006 is to demonstrate multi-vendor interoperability to achieve Fixed Mobile Convergence supporting the IMS service framework and validate MSF R3 Implementation Agreements. Specifically, the MSF is focusing on:

• Roaming services across multiple network types



• QoS (Session Border Controller and Bandwidth Manager)



• 3GPP IMS & Mobile Core Network Interoperability



• IP Carrier Interconnect/Interworking



• Security interoperability



• 3rd party applications and service brokering



• Network management and OSS



• IPv4/6 Interworking

GMI 2006 will use test lab facilities from BT, Vodafone, KT, NTT and Verizon all tied together over a high-capacity, QoS-enabled global IP network. The event is expected to run from 16-October-2006 to 27-October-2006 and involve hundreds of engineers.



At a technical level, GMI2006 will focus on 3 hot issues: provisioning of multi technology VPNs (Inter-site); provisioning of Value Added Services, such as VoIP/IMS; and fault management.

http://www.msforum.org

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Optovia's SpanExpress Optical Amplifier Extends SANs to 200km

Optovia, a start-up based in Acton, Massachusetts, introduced its "SpanExpress" optical amplifier designed to storage area networks (SANs) up to 200km without the cost, complexity and risks associated with mid-span amplification.



SpanExpress is a rack-mountable, optical line system that is utilized between the storage devices at the local and remote data centers.



Currently, optical transport solutions rely on the optical signal being boosted periodically along the transmission line and use optical amplifiers to restore signals to their original characteristics when replicating storage traffic over extended distances. The optical signal typically needs to be amplified somewhere in the middle of the span at distances in excess of 80 to 100km, leading to additional capital and operational expenditures, and a less secure and reliable network.



Optovia's SpanExpress eliminates the mid-span optical amplifiers.



http://www.optovia.com

• Optovia was founded in 2002. The company has a resale agreement through ADVA.

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Cisco to Resell TAZZ IP Policy Control Platform

Cisco Systems will resell TAZZ Networks' IP network policy control platform as the Cisco Broadband Policy Manager under a global distribution agreement. The initial market focus will be on triple play deployments of major service providers. The long-term focus is to help transition legacy networks to next generation architectures -- 3GPP IMS and ETSI TISPAN.



TAZZ likens its IP policy control platform to an air traffic control system for next generation network applications. As such, it coordinates the admission of applications and subscribers to the network, monitors network conditions, and manages resource conflicts.



The TAZZ Policy Control System (PCS) software unites disparate components in a service provider's network to create a policy-based, carrier-grade, service-delivery platform. TAZZ supplies open, standardized interfaces to external systems with pre-defined policy actions, and well defined APIs that support a high degree of customization based on the equipment vendor or service provider's individual needs.

http://www.TAZZNetworks.com

• TAZZ Networks was founded in 2001 and has raised $25.7 million in three funding rounds. The company has about 60 employees.



• In January 2006, TAZZ Networks announced a collaborative effort with BT on the design and delivery of a lab demonstration platform intended to illustrate the power of network-centric ICT (Information and Communication Technology) solutions for enterprise customers. This proof of concept platform delivers an on-demand IP-VPN based on a robust and dynamically controlled CoS (Class of Service) enabled MPLS network - ICT-ADQ (Application Driven Quality of Service).

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Vyatta Develops Open Source Routing

Vyatta, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, launched an online community aimed at developing an open source routing alternative to Cisco and Juniper.



A beta version of the Vyatta Open Flexible Router (OFR) is currently available for download.



Vyatta said its community will bring together users and developers "to advance the cause of open source networking as a flexible, cost-effective, and secure alternative to the incumbent, closed source solutions."



"Vyatta" is a Sanskrit word meaning "open."http://www.vyatta.com

• Vyatta is headed by Allan Leinwand, a venture partner at Panorama Capital (previously JPMorgan Partners). Its technical team is headed by Robert Bays, who previously was the CTO at Infiniroute Networks.

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NTT DoCoMo Experiment Achieves 2.5 Gbps Wireless Downlink Speed

NTT DoCoMo reported achieving an astonishing 2.5 Gbps wireless packet transmission in the downlink while moving at 20 km/h by using MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) techniques. The fourth-generation (4G) radio access field experiment took place in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture on December 14, 2005.



DoCoMo achieved a maximum 1 Gbps speed in a similar field experiment on May 9, 2005. This time, by increasing the number of MIMO transmission antennas from four to six and by using 64-QAM, data volume per transmission was increased from four bits to six bits. As a result, DoCoMo achieved a maximum speed of 2.5Gbps, which is faster than the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R)'s proposed standard.



Frequency spectrum efficiency, which is expressed as information bits per second per Hertz, was also increased from 10 bits per second per Hertz during the last experiment to 25 bits.
http://www.convergedigest.com

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Intrado Signs Partners for Mobile VoIP E9-1-1 Delivery

Intrado announced agreements with three leading location determination technology vendors, Rosum Corporation, S5 Wireless, Inc. and Skyhook Wireless Inc. aimed at providing a more mobile-oriented VoIP E9-1-1 solution.



Intrado said the partnerships reflect the growing importance of location determination in VoIP E9-1-1 service delivery. Intrado will work with these companies to demonstrate a range of location determination solutions and their ability to integrate into Intrado V9-1-1 Services.



"As VoIP moves towards fixed mobile convergence, location determination will become a fundamental component within the IP-enabled communications market," said Stephen Meer, Intrado chief technology officer and co-founder.



Intrado supplies an E9-1-1 solution that allows VoIP service providers to support their increasingly mobile subscribers.



Rosum is a start-up that is using unmodified broadcast TV signals for position location of mobile assets. The Rosum technology provides an ability to track mobile devices in urban areas and indoors, where GPS and assisted GPS solutions often fail. Rosum's founding team includes the original architects of the GPS constellation.



S5 Wireless has developed a new low-cost chip for locating and tracking important items indoors or outdoors with the accuracy of GPS, anywhere in the coverage area. Costing under a dollar, and with years of potential battery life, the S5 chip can be attached or embedded in consumer, industrial, military or communications devices and transmit critical location and telemetry information when it's needed. VoIP callers, for example, could use S5 technology to automatically route their 911 calls to the nearest emergency dispatcher and pinpoint their precise location for first-responders.



Skyhook Wireless is developing a metro-area positioning system that leverages Wi-Fi rather than satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data.

http://www.intrado.comhttp://www.rosum.com

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Orange to Launch Fixed-Line Business Service in UK

Orange introduced a fixed line service for small and medium-sized enterprises, the first to be offered in the UK by a mobile operator. Orange is providing the service following Ofcom's Wholesale Line Rental programme, under which BT is obliged to allow operators to offer both line rental and calls to customers over its network. Orange said it will provide a single point of customer service and call charges up to 20% less than BT. http://www.orange.com

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Motorola Completes Kreatel Acquisitions, Linux-based STBs

Motorola completed its previously announced acquisition of Kreatel Communications, a supplier of Linux-based set-top boxes. Kreatel's management team and employees will remain based in Linkoping, Sweden, and be integrated into the Motorola Connected Home Solutions business.



Kreatel's Linux-based solution extends into the application and middleware layers, allowing it to be used with a broad set of middleware solutions. Kreatel's customer base includes such major service providers as Telefonica (Spain), TeliaSonera (Sweden), and KPN (The Netherlands). http://www.motorola.com

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TI Announces DaVinci Technology for Digital Cameras

Texas Instruments introduced its "DaVinci" technology optimized for the digital still camera market. The processor will support camera resolutions up to 16 megapixels (MP) and offer a high-definition video capture mode greater than 30 frames per second at 720P resolution. TI said camera manufacturers can use designs that capture images using a completely customized software image pipeline or a hard-wired image pipeline with image processing of up to 75 MP/second. HD video can also be captured with instant playback on the camera or on any computer monitor or HD television.

http://www.ti.com/dscinfo

• In September 2005, Texas Instruments unveiled its DSP-based DaVinci silicon technology aimed at next generations of digital video products.
  
  The DaVinci product portfolio, which will include processors, software, tools and partnership solutions, addresses digital video requirements across a range of applications, including video security, IP set-top boxes, video conferencing, automobile infotainment, portable media players and digital cameras.
  
  DaVinci processors, some of which are already on the market, consist of combinations of DSP and ARM cores, memory configurations, video accelerators, and peripheral interfaces for specific applications. DaVinci silicon is based on the new TMS320C64x+ core and it is code compatible with TI's TMS320C64x DSPs. TI will support a full range of audio, video and imaging codecs.
  
  A key feature of the DaVinci portfolio will be common Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to accelerate the development of new consumer products. APIs will make it easier for OEMs to develop interoperable code that will work with other DaVinci-based applications. TI is also developing an en-to-end video ecosystem through a range of partners. Over the coming year, TI and its third parties plan to introduce a large number of products, including multiple development platforms, reference designs, software and silicon based on DaVinci technology.

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