RCN to Sell San Francisco HFC Network for $45 Million -- $2500 per Customer

RCN announced an agreement to sell its San Francisco assets to Astound Broadband for $45 million in cash, or approximately $2500 per customer. Astound Broadband is a cable, Internet and phone services company currently serving approximately 55,000 video, data and phone customers in Concord and Walnut Creek, California. RCN's San Francisco operations serve approximately 18,000 customers.



RCN said it plans to focus on the Northeast corridor and the Chicago region.

http://www.rcn.com

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Virgin Mobile and Virgin.net offer Free 8 Mbps Broadband Service

Virgin Mobile and broadband provider Virgin.net have joined forces to offer a year's free up to 8 Mbps broadband to customers that take one of Virgin Mobile's new SIM-only pay monthly tariffs.



Anyone joining Virgin Mobile's £15 (normally £20) or £30 (normally £32) a month SIM-only service will be able to save up to £275 by registering for 12 month's free broadband through Virgin.net.



The free broadband service will offer customers up to 8 Mbps download speeds, a 6 Gigabyte monthly download allowance, free set-up and a free broadband modem. Customers have three months to redeem the Virgin.net free broadband offer once they have joined Virgin Mobile.http://virginmobile.com

• In July 2006, the ntl: Telewest group completed its acquisition of Virgin Mobile. The deal positioned ntl: Telewest for delivering "quadruple play" services -- TV, Internet and fixed and mobile telephony services for the UK.
  
  
  
  Under a previous agreement, ntl: Telewest has also entered into a licensing arrangement with Virgin Enterprises permitting use of the Virgin brand for ntl: Telewest's full portfolio of consumer services.
  
  
  
  Commenting on the transaction, ntl:Telewest's CEO Steve Burch said: "This is a transformational deal for ntl:Telewest and good news for UK consumers. Virgin Mobile has a justified reputation for being one of the country's most customer-focused companies. This combined with ntl:Telewest's portfolio of competitively-priced, cutting edge products, will create a formidable competitor in the UK's fast changing communications and entertainment industries."



• In March 2006, ntl and Telewest merged into a single company with more than 5 million residential customers. It became the largest provider of residential broadband services in the UK with 2.8 million subscribers, the second largest pay TV provider with 3.3 million subscribers and also the second largest fixed telephony provider with 4.3 million subscribers.

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NEC Develops High-Power Gallium Nitride Transistor Amplifier for 3G

NEC announced a compact gallium nitride (GaN) power transistor amplifier, which boasts the world's highest output power level of 400W while featuring low-distortion characteristics, for 3G base stations.



NEC said the key features of its newly developed GaN amplifier include:

• The GaN power transistor achieves high output power density under high-current (1A/mm) and high voltage (45V) operation owing to NEC's proprietary field-modulating plate technology.



• The single-ended GaN power amplifier boasting a compact configuration decreases the number of assembled RF components.



• Newly developed output bias networks inside the amplifier suppress the memory effect of the amplifier, thereby achieving excellent linearity with a digital predistorter placed within.

http://www.nec.co.jp

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Huawei Wins CDMA Contract in Nigeria

Multi-Links, the leading CDMA operator in Nigeria, selected Huawei Technologies for its network expansion. Multi-Links chose Huawei to deploy its industry-leading BTS and core network softswitch and install a CDMA2000 1X network in Lagos, Abuja, PHC, Kano, Ibadan, and Kaduna.



Multi-Links is one of the four local phone operators in Nigeria which was awarded unified licenses in May 2006 by the National Communications Commission, Nigeria's telecoms regulator. Operators with a unified licenses are able to offer multiple services, including, but not limited to mobile telephony, fixed, wireless services, broadband internet and other value-added services.

http://www.huawei.com

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Cisco Settles Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit for $92 Million

Cisco Systems agreed to resolve the consolidated shareholder class action lawsuit filed in 2001 against the company and certain current and former directors and officers in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California by paying $91.75 million to the plaintiffs. Cisco said the payment will have no impact on its financial position or results of operations, as the settlement amount is within applicable insurance limits.



The original suit, filed April 20, 2001, claimed that the company made misleading statements, or omitted statements of material fact, that were relied on by purchasers of Cisco stock. It also alleged that the individual defendants sold Cisco stock while in possession of material, non-public information. Cisco denied all allegations in the suit.



"Cisco continues to firmly believe that the suit's claims are without merit, and we have been eager to achieve a victory in this case. Given the expense and disruption associated with prolonged litigation, and the fact that this resolution is achieved with no additional cost to Cisco and with the consent of our insurance carriers, we believe this settlement is in the best interest of Cisco and its shareholders," said Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Cisco Systems.

http://www.cisco.com

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Siemens Helps Build W-CDMA Net in Kabul

Siemens Communications was awarded a contract by Telephone Systems International Ltd. (TSI), New York, to set up a W-CDMA network in Kabul for Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC). In addition to 3G technology, Siemens will also supply 2G equipment to the mobile operator in Afghanistan.



AWCC was the country's first GSM network provider and the first mobile carrier in Afghanistan with a W-CDMA license.



TSI is the 80% shareholder of Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), with the Afghan Ministry of Communications the remaining 20% shareholder.



It is estimated that 1.5 million people use mobile telephony in Afghanistan, a market penetration of about four percent. "http://www.siemens.com

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QUALCOMM to Acquire Qualphone for IMS Embedded Client

QUALCOMM will acquire San Diego-based Qualphone Inc., a developer of IP-based Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) embedded client software solutions for mobile devices and interoperability testing (IOT) services, for $18 million in cash. Completion of the acquisition is expected later this month.



QUALCOMM said the acquisition would help it accelerate the delivery of multimedia-capable, feature-rich 3G solutions on top of the emerging IMS and Multi Media Domain (MMD) architectures to WCDMA/UMTS and CDMA2000 markets.



Qualphone's IMS client platform provides mobile operators with a technical and commercial framework for offering services using a wide range of integrated and interactive media, voice, text, picture and video technologieshttp://www.qualcomm.com

• Qualphone is headed by Isaac Eteminan, who has also served as founder and CTO of Sonim Technologies. As a founder of Sonim, he developed the initial Push-To-Talk idea over 2.5G/3G commercial wireless networks. Eteminanis the pioneer of Push-To-Talk Over Cellular(PoC) and co-author of initial PoC standard. Prior to founding Sonim, he worked with Motorola for 5 years where he was a member of architecture team responsible for designing Motorola 3rd Generation wireless architecture and Satellite System. Prior to Motorola, he worked with Nortel Networks for 12 years as an architect in design and development of telecom and wireless technologies. Isaac is the author/co-author of several key patents in the area of wireless technologies.

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Level 3 Supplies Bandwidth MySpace.com's Expansion to Video

MySpace.com selected Level 3 Communications to provide bandwidth to support the company's social networking services, including video transmission. Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, Level 3 will initially provide its High Speed IP Service to support MySpace's services in multiple markets. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.level3.com

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FCC Considers DBS Rules

The FCC is seeking comment on licensing procedures and service rules for satellites providing Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service. Specifically, the FCC is seeking input on proposals that will apply to any application for authority to provide DBS service in the U.S. using the 12.2-12.7 GHz band and associated feeder links in the 17.3-17.8 GHz band. This includes both unassigned channels at orbit locations assigned to the U.S. under the ITU Region 2 BSS and feeder-link Plans, and applications for DBS service from space stations located at orbital locations not assigned to the United States in the ITU Region 2 BSS and feeder-link Plans.



The FCC is considering new licensing procedures, including the use of the first-come, first-served process for all DBS applications, regardless of the proposed orbit location. Alternatively, DBS could continue to be licensed outside the scope of the FCC's first-come, first-served satellite application processing procedures.

http://www.fcc.gov

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TiVo Prevails in DVR Case Against EchoStar

In the ongoing patent infringement case brought by TiVo against Echostar Communications, a U.S. District Court judge in Texas issued an injunction ordering EchoStar Communications to cease from offering their DVR products in the United States. The judge also ordered ECC to pay TiVo approximately $73.992 million in damages as awarded by the jury, prejudgment interest at the prime rate through July 31, 2006 of approximately $5.638 million, and supplemental damages for infringement through July 31, 2006 in the amount of approximately $10.317 million.



The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. later temporarily stayed the district court injunction until it reviews the papers submitted by the parties and decides whether a stay should or should not be in effect for the duration of the appeals process. As a result of the stay EchoStar can continue to sell, and provide to consumers, all of its digital video recorder models.



TiVo sued EchoStar in Federal District Court on January 5, 2004, alleging that ECC and certain subsidiaries are violating U.S. Patent No. 6,233,389 issued to TiVo in May 2001, known as the "Time Warp" patent. The Time Warp patent discloses systems and methods for the simultaneous storage and playback of programs, supporting advanced capabilities such as pausing live television, fast-forwarding, rewinding, instant replays, and slow motion. On April 13, 2006, a Marshall, Texas jury concluded that EchoStar had willfully infringed TiVo's Time Warp patent.



For its part, EchoStar issued a statement saying "We continue to believe the Texas decision was wrong, and should be reversed on appeal. We also continue to work on modifications to our new DVRs, and to our DVRs in the field, intended to avoid future alleged infringement."http://www.tivo.comhttp://www.echostar.com

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Koreasat 5 Readied for Launch

Sea Launch Company has initiated its 72-hour countdown in preparation for the launch of the Koreasat 5 communications satellite, scheduled for Monday, August 21.



Built by Alcatel Alenia Space in Cannes, France, the hybrid spacecraft carries 36 active transponders in multi-band frequencies. Koreasat 5 is owned jointly by the Agency for Defense Development of Korea and KT Corporation. The Agency for Defense Development has managed the military side of the Koreasat 5 program and the Joint Chief of Staff of Korean Armed Forces will operate SHF and Ka-band transponders on the spacecraft to provide satellite communications services.



KT will operate 24 Ku-band transponders. Half of these will be capable of switching to regional beams to provide advanced broadband multimedia and digital television transmission services, as well as conventional telecom services to operators in the Asia-Pacific region. The remaining 12 Ku-band transponders will replace Koreasat 2 capacity for domestic use in South Korea. http://www.sea-launch.com

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Boeing to Discontinue In-Flight Broadband Business

Boeing has decided to exit the in-flight broadband market and will shut down its "Connexion by Boeing" service in the coming months. The company will take a pre-tax charge of up to $320 million, or $0.26 per share, in the second half of 2006, for write downs of the network assets, payments of early termination fees to airlines, and other costs related to shutting down the service.



"Over the last six years, we have invested substantial time, resources and technology in Connexion by Boeing," said Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney. "Regrettably, the market for this service has not materialized as had been expected. We believe this decision best balances the long-term interests of all parties with a stake in Connexion by Boeing."http://www.boeing.com

• Airlines currently offering "Connexion by Boeing" on long-haul flights include Air China, China Airlines, Japan Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, ANA, El Al, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Asiana, Etihad and Lufthansa.



• In January 2006, Connexion by Boeing announced a new pricing structure for its in-flight, Internet service. Internet Time -- 1 hour US$9.95; 2 hours for US$14.95; 3 hours for US$17.95; and 24 hours for US$26.95 including connecting flights.



• Boeing first unveiled its In-flight broadband service in April 2000 and received an FCC license in 2001

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Indonesia's Telkomsel Selects Ericsson's 3G/HSPA

PT Telekomunikasi Selular Indonesia (Telkomsel) selected Ericsson to provide its 3G/WCDMA network. In a three-year agreement, Ericsson will deliver 3G/WCDMA radio and core network, including HSPA, with deployment beginning immediately. The contract also includes three years of managed services, with Ericsson providing a comprehensive services offering including establishing, operating and managing the operations of Telkomsel's 3G network.



The deal expands Ericsson's geographical footprint in Indonesia, which will cover 11 provinces: East Java, South Sumatra, North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Irian Jaya.
http://www.ericsson.com

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Marvell Sees Slowdown Due to PC Market and Rollout of 802.11n

Marvell Technology Group revenue for its second fiscal quarter ended July 29, 2006 of $574.0 million, an increase of 47% over net revenue of $390.5 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2006 and a 10.1% sequential increase from net revenue of $521.2 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2007.



All results reported are preliminary because Marvell is in the midst of a previously announced internal review by a special committee of its Board of Directors relating to the Company's historical stock option practices and related accounting matters.



"During the quarter our revenue growth was limited due to some near term challenges in some of our end markets. However, we remain very focused on the execution of our long term growth strategies and are excited about the expanding reach of our technology into an increasing number of end markets and applications, stated Dr. Sehat Sutardja, Marvell's President and CEO.



In a conference call, Marvell said it experienced lower than expected sales for PC-related products, including demand for Gigabit Ethernet related products was weak. It also cited excess inventory in the channel for WLAN products, negatively impacting its rollout of 802.11n devices.

http://www.marvell.com

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Marvell Integrates WiFi + Bluetooth on Single Chip

Marvell has begun sampling the first 90-nm CMOS, WLAN plus Bluetooth single chip solution for cellular handsets, battery-powered media players, portable gaming consoles, smartphones, PDAs and ultra-low-power computing platforms.



The device, which has a footprint of under 80mm, integrates Bluetooth 2.0 EDR -- which is firmware upgradeable to Bluetooth 2.1 features -- and 802.11a/b/g subsystems on a single die allows fully optimized simultaneous dual radio operation and cooperative co-existence. The integrated multi- protocol security engine includes hardware acceleration for UMA, IMS, and other network access methods requiring extensible end-to-end security. It incorporates full Layer 3 networking support (TCP/IP + UDP) and adds the ability to run supplicants natively, offloading WLAN functionality from the host CPU. Additionally, the chip incorporates voice and audio codecs that can be used in a wide variety of media applications and platforms.



"The Marvell 88W8688 represents five years of interaction with our customers and partners. We are very pleased to deliver a new, fully customizable, software compatible platform that will allow them to launch products that are varied in scope and application ranging from gaming to cameras to smartphones up to emerging converged products," said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, Vice President and General Manager of the Embedded and Emerging Business Unit, Communications and Consumer Business Group at Marvell.

http://www.marvell.com

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China Mobile Reaches 274 Million Subscribers

In the first half of 2006, China Mobile added 25.775 million net new subscribers, increasing its total customer base to approximately 274 million. The company continues to add an average of over 4.29 million users per month.



China Mobile also reported that its total usage volume reached 569,203 million minutes, average minutes of usage per user per month (MOU) reached 367 minutes, average revenue per user per month (ARPU) held steady at RMB88 (approximately US$11.02).



In its financial report, China Mobile said it subscriber growth remains steady in China's eastern regions, while its subscriber base is growing rapidly in the central and western regions of the country. The company is now expanding infrastructure construction in rural areas where the penetration rate of mobile telecommunications is relatively low.

http://www.chinamobile.com/ENGLISH/

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Firetide Supplies Wireless Mesh for Singapore National Stadium

Firetide supplied equipment for a wireless mesh network at the National Stadium in Singapore. The wireless network, provided by Singaporean distributor D-Synergy and installed by Internet Service Provider iCELL Network, served as a wireless infrastructure for the National Day Parade celebration at the stadium allowing video surveillance cameras and Wi-Fi access points to be deployed without cabling.



The National Day Parade organizers did not want to invest in a permanent wired network since the National Stadium will soon be replaced with a new facility.



The National Stadium mesh network consisted of 50 Wi-Fi access points and 40 video surveillance cameras connected to 30 Firetide mesh nodes. The mesh nodes connected wirelessly to each other to create the self-forming mesh. The network also features two redundant 20 Mbps Internet gateways to optimize bandwidth and load balancing and to provide instant failover should one of the links fail. http://www.firetide.com

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Tropos Adds Smart Routing to Multi-Band MetroMesh Routers

Tropos Networks introduced a new family of MetroMesh routers featuring "smart routing" capabilities -- the ability to dynamically create multi-band paths through a mesh network.



The first member of this new product family is the Tropos 5320 outdoor MetroMesh router, a dual-band Wi-Fi mesh router. The Tropos 5320 sports 802.11a and 802.11b/g radios, which can be used simultaneously to form both client and mesh connections. The Tropos 5320 is completely interoperable with the entire family of Tropos MetroMesh routers, enabling easy incremental capacity addition in existing networks without re-engineering or network downtime. The Tropos 5320 will begin shipping in October 2006.



Tropos has significantly enhanced its MetroMesh OS, which is embedded in every Tropos MetroMesh router, including the ability to identify dynamically the combination of links within the mesh that forms the highest performing end-to-end data path from clients to the wired connection to the Internet, even if those links are in different frequency bands. This allows service providers and municipalities to use spectrum in the 5 GHz band with the unprecedented flexibility of dynamically shifting to the inherently more reliable 2.4 GHz band for mesh connections in areas where poor 5 GHz propagation causes performance or reliability problems.



The MetroMesh OS intelligently manages multiple radio interfaces automatically, similar to the way a wireline router accommodates multiple Ethernet, Token Ring, WAN and other interfaces. The interfaces provide the patented Tropos Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP) with additional paths from which it can choose when maximizing end-to-end, client-server throughput.



Tropos plans to use this radio-independent approach in other new multi-radio MetroMesh routers combining Wi-Fi, MIMO, WiMAX, 4.9 GHz, 3G/4G cellular and other unlicensed and licensed radio technologies.



Tropos Networks also announced the Tropos Metro Wireless Development (TMWD) program. The TMWD program enables carriers, service providers, spectrum license holders and others to contract with Tropos to add custom radio interfaces to Tropos MetroMesh routers. This effort brings the benefits of the MetroMesh OS to proprietary radio technologies such as 802.16 running in spectrum outside of the bands defined in WiMAX Forum interoperability profiles as well as 3G/4G cellular technologies.

http://www.tropos.com

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MPEG LA Announces VC-1 License Terms

MPEG LA, which is an organization that provides one-stop technology patent licensing, announced that an initial group of essential patent holders have agreed on final terms of license to be included in the VC-1 Patent Portfolio License, expected to issue during 2006.



The VC-1 essential patent holders currently include DAEWOO Electronics Corporation, France Telecom, societe anonyme, Fujitsu Limited, Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, Telenor ASA, Toshiba Corporation, and Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC).



MPEG LA continues to welcome the submission of issued patents for an evaluation of their essentiality to the VC-1 Standard in an effort to include as much essential intellectual property as possible under one license for the benefit of the marketplace.



Any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the VC-1 Standard and wishes to join the VC-1 Patent Portfolio License is invited to submit them for evaluation by MPEG LA's patent evaluators. http://www.mpegla.com

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Harmonic Supplies MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) Encoding for Spain's Jazztel

Jazztel, a leading telecommunications service provider in Spain, has deployed a Harmonic-based digital headend, including the DiviCom Electra 5000 MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoder, for its IP-based Jazztelia TV service. The Jazztel video headend was implemented in conjunction with Telindus, a leading European system integrator and Harmonic strategic partner.



Initiated in March 2006, Jazztel's country-wide IPTV rollout includes standard definition broadcast television channels delivered via its ADSL2+ network. Jazztel operates a network of DSLAMs, overlaying an area encompassing nearly 60 percent of Spain's lines, which is connected to an extensive fiber network.



Harmonic said its DiviCom encoders are powering more IPTV channels for European telcos than any other brand.

http://www.harmonicinc.comhttp://www.jazztel.com/

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