Cavium Networks and Wind River Expand Networking Partnership

Cavium Networks and Wind River Systems are expanding their technology partnership. Wind River's VxWorks 6.6 SMP product will include out-of-the-box, optimized support for Cavium Networks' OCTEON processors in its initial worldwide release. The joint solution is targeted at SOHO, SME and enterprise networking, wireless infrastructure and service provider OEM equipment.

http://www.caviumnetworks.com

http://www.windriver.com

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ECI Announces Reorganization

ECI Telecom announced a reorganization focused on three key areas -- the creation of a Network Solutions Division, a Global Services Division, and expansion of the Global Sales and Marketing organization.



ECI said the changes will enable it to rapidly meet the needs of the market by accelerating growth in its transport and access businesses, expanding its service offering, while improving operational efficiencies.



The new Network Solutions Division (NSD) is the result of consolidating ECI's two business units -- the Broadband Access and the Transport Networking Divisions -- into one single unit. Eyal Shaked, currently Executive Vice President & General Manager of the Transport Networking Division, will lead the new division.



In addition, ECI is announcing the creation of the Global Services Division (GDS), which will centralize and expand the company's service portfolio, from delivery and installation to value-added advanced service offerings, such as managed services, turn-key projects and consulting services. This Division will continue to partner with carriers as they introduce new services and migrate to next-generation environments.



As part of this reorganization plan, ECI will reduce its total workforce by approximately six percent.

http://www.ecitele.com

• In September 2007, ECI Telecom was acquired by affiliates of the Swarth Group and certain funds that have appointed Ashmore Investment Management Limited as their investment manager, for a total value of approximately $1.24 billion.

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BigBand Posts Revenue of $38 Million, Restructuring Eliminates CMTS

BigBand Networks posted Q3 revenue of $38.5 million, a decrease of 10% from the third quarter of 2006. GAAP net loss for the third quarter of 2007 was $12.2 million, or $(0.21) per diluted share compared to GAAP net income of $1.6 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2006. GAAP gross margins for the third quarter of 2007 were 36% compared to 52% in the third quarter of 2006.



In addition, BigBand announced a restructuring plan designed to realign resources and significantly increase its efforts on video networking. As part of this plan, BigBand will reduce its workforce by 15% and retire its Cuda CMTS platform.



"Since our revised guidance announcement, we have re-evaluated our business, reviewed our market opportunities and conferred with our customers," commented Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, president and CEO of BigBand Networks. "We have decided to focus on our unique core competency -- video -- and no longer commit resources to the Cuda CMTS platform. In addition, we will reduce our workforce across the company to more closely align spending with near-term revenue opportunities. While our current operating challenges will take some time to work through, we expect to emerge from the next few quarters as a stronger, more focused company."http://www.bigbandnet.com

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SipStorm Chooses Level 3 to Enable FMC

SipStorm has selected Level 3's voice services to enable nationwide wholesale mobile phone service and fixed mobile convergence (FMC) services. SipStorm's converged communication service supports wireless and voice service providers who are implementing FMC services to both residential and business customers.



SipStorm includes the ability to send and receive local, long distance and international calls. By utilizing a single Level 3 VoIP phone number, a subscriber can send or receive phone calls to and from any mobile device, VoIP terminal adapters, or soft phones. The service can be used as a standalone pre- or post-paid mobile phone service -- or in conjunction with residential voice, data, and video -- enabling service providers to deliver triple or quadruple play services to their residential and small- to medium-sized business customers.



Level 3's local voice footprint allows SipStorm to offer its customers a broad and deep nationwide footprint by making local phone numbers available in areas where they previously could not offer service. In addition, Level 3's Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) hand-off capabilities enable their customers with flexible call control -- allowing SipStorm's customers to self-manage enhanced services such as voicemail and interactive voice response (IVR) services.

http://www.level3.com

http://www.sipstorm.com/

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Ditech Debuts Dynamic Transcoding

Ditech Networks announced a Dynamic Transcoding capability for its Packet Voice Processor (PVP) that supports a wide range of compressed and uncompressed codecs. The transcoding enables Service Providers to directly connect diverse codecs without compromising scalability, network performance or call quality. It can also reduce the required equipment session capacity for supporting VoIP service by up to 50 percent.



Specifically, Ditech's Dynamic Transcoding provides the ability to connect directly between 10 different industry standard codecs, resulting in thousands of potential combinations for interconnecting calls that traverse IP networks. In addition to voice codecs, the PVP also supports Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) and fax conversion for highly reliable IP transport.







Ditech said its Dynamic Transcoding can be combined with its Experience Intelligence (EXi) and Voice Quality Assurance (VQA) solutions. EXi non-intrusively monitors and measures voice quality during each call, and delivers an industry-standard voice quality score that reflects the subscriber call experience. VQA mitigates network- induced voice quality impairments and impairments from the caller's environment in real-time, on both ends of the call. The PVP platform simultaneously supports Dynamic Transcoding, VQA and EXi applications with a capacity of 16,128 concurrent calls per platform.

http://www.ditechnetworks.com

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Packeteer Resolves IRS Tax Dispute, Not Subject to $122 million

Packeteer resolved its previously reported dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Under the deal, the company's pre-existing federal net operating loss carryforwards ("NOLs") will offset essentially all increases in income with the following net impact: the company will not be subject to the $122 million and $49 million of regular tax liabilities and penalties, or related interest, previously asserted by the IRS with respect to 2003 and 2004; and the company expects that the total federal and state regular and alternative minimum income tax and interest payments required to be made by the company as a consequence of the agreement (including adjustments impacting 2005, which were not included in the original assessment), to be less than $500,000.

http://www.packeteer.com/

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AT&T Expands its Wholesale VoIP Connect Service

AT&T is expanding its wholesale Voice Over IP Connect Service (AVOICS), which provides U.S. service providers with IP-based connectivity to AT&T's global IP network for long distance call termination.



AVOICS provides unbranded and unbundled transport over the AT&T network, as well as termination of international and U.S. domestic traffic. Customers connect to the service via AT&T's Managed Internet Service (MIS)/Multiprotocol Label Switching-Private Network Transport (MPLS-PNT) service, which provides class-of-service voice quality, key security elements and advanced network reliability. AVOICS accepts U.S.-originated domestic outbound (1+) calls and international outbound (011+) calls by using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) signaling.



AT&T said it has now expanded the scale and scope of its wholesale VoIP services, and is now offering AVOICS to customers that want the service with T1, T3 and OCX connectivity as well as meeting a market demand for a customer managed model.



The expansion of AVOICS specifically includes:

• Increased capacity in the VoIP network infrastructure to meet customer traffic demand



• Increased connectivity from T1 to T3 ... all the way to OC48



• Moving from an AT&T Managed Router Model to a Customer Managed Router Model to monitor the circuit



• Native and non-native IP traffic on the same circuit with unique IP signaling addresses

AT&T said it will continue to provide its Global Hubbing IP Access (GHIA) for operators that carry substantial volumes of international traffic. With GHIA, customers send their VoIP traffic to the AT&T network for VoIP termination. If no VoIP termination is available, a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) conversion is made to cost-effectively deliver calls over AT&T's network. AT&T also offers AT&T IP Toll-Free service to wholesale customers for use in their own large call centers, supporting their evolution to the contact center of the future.

http://www.att.com

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Verizon FiOS TV Enhances its Program Guide

Verizon introduced its new FiOS TV interactive media guide, which pulls together content from a variety of sources -- broadcast TV, Verizon's more than 12,000- title video-on-demand library and the subscriber's own DVR recordings -- into one media management system. Customers who have FiOS TV's Media Manager can also search, organize and enjoy their digital photos and music with the remote control. Verizon said that over the next year, subscribers will be able to manage additional content like games, podcasts and Internet video through the same guide. The company will also enable FiOS customers to use cell phones and the Internet to manage their home entertainment -- including scheduling recordings on their Home Media DVR.




http://www.verizon.com

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High Definition TV Reaches 14% Penetration in U.S. Households

Almost 14% of TV households in the U.S. are equipped with an HD television and HD tuner capable of receiving signals in HD (HD Capable), while 11.3% are equipped with an HD television and HD tuner and receive at least one HD network or station (HD Receivable), according to new research released by The Nielsen Company.



Los Angeles has the highest penetration of HD Capable homes (20.4%) and New York has the highest penetration of HD Receivable homes (17.5%). http://www.nielsenmedia.com/

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CounterPath Licenses Unified Communications Solution to Verizon Business

CounterPath, which develops softphone and SIP applications, has licensed its software to Verizon Business to enable voice, messaging and presence management in its Integrated Communications Package. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Verizon Business' Integrated Communications Package - currently available to U.S.-based Hosted IP Centrex customers - is a unified communications service which enables employees to control incoming and outgoing calls, access voicemail, manage their online presence, send text messages, and synchronize contacts and calendars.



Specifically, Verizon Business will use the CounterPath C++ SDK (Software Development Kit) to help power the soft phone components of the Integrated Communications Package. The CounterPath SDK runs beneath the surface of the Integrated Communications Package desktop client allowing Verizon Business customers to direct their incoming calls to a traditional phone, computer, mobile phone, PDA or voicemail. http://www.counterpath.com

http://www.verizon.com

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Alcatel-Lucent and IBM Expand Unified Communications Solution

Alcatel-Lucent introduced an integrated audio conferencing solution for IBM Lotus Sametime customers. The "OmniTouch My Teamwork for IBM Lotus Sametime" provides click-to-conference capability from Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Notes and audio conference scheduling and management from Lotus Sametime Web conferencing. Additional features include PSTN quality dial-in "meet-me" conferencing, audio conference scheduling, conference call control, active talker indication, and call recording. All features are embedded within the Lotus Sametime unified communications and collaboration client.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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U.S. Internet Tax Ban Extended Through 2014

The U.S. Congress has approved legislation that would bar states and local municipalities from imposing Internet specific taxes through 2014. The bill now heads to the President for signature. The current ban was set to expire on November 1st.

http://www.house.gov

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Huawei Unveils its ALL IP 4G Platform

Huawei Technologies rolled out its New Generation WiMAX commercial solution at PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2007 in Beijing.



Huawei said its ALL IP- based New Generation WiMAX solution adopts HSPA/LTE/UMB co-platform infrastructure, and integrates the 4G technologies including HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat-reQuest), MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Out-put). The products include a gateway, distributed base station, transmission, network management system and terminal. The solution could be deployed alongside GSM, CDMA, IMS, NGN and DSL integrated network.



Also at PT/EXPO COMM CHINA 2007, Huawei showcased its 100 Mbps Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in a demonstration of multiplexed HDTV services. The demonstration features transmission speeds of 100 Mbps.

http://www.huawei.com

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RadiSys Adds Media Processing Blade, Boosting Media Server to 24K Ports

RadiSys introduced a new media processing blade for its Convedia CMS-9000 Media Server, delivering capacity and performance improvements for processing-intensive applications such as conferencing, video and low bitrate codec.

The Convedia CMS-9000 Media Server, which is already in customer production networks, was designed to accommodate modular capacity upgrades. The new MPC-IV card adds additional Digital Signal Processor (DSP) resources to the original Media Processing Card III (MPC-III) hardware design, providing up to 24,000 ports of media processing power on the CMS-9000 platform, representing a 30 percent capacity improvement compared to the media processing cards in RadiSys' first generation CMS-6000 Media Server systems. The new MPC-IV card continues to offer the improved CPU power of the original MPC-III design for CPU-bound applications like VoiceXML IVR processing, while adding the additional DSP resources for improved conference mixing, video, low bitrate codec and transcoding capacity.

http://www.radisys.com

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Akamai Releases "HDWeb" Proof-of-Concept Portal

Akamai Technologies announced The HDWeb, a proof-of-concept portal designed to showcase the experience consumers can have with high definition content online. The Website, available at www.thehdweb.com, showcases content from a variety of industries including music, movies, professional sports, games and news.



Companies providing HD content for the initiative include Apple, BBC Motion Gallery, CBS, Gannett, MTV Networks, NBA and more. Akamai said the proof-of-concept portal will serve as a temporary Internet Programming Guide to HD video on the Web and provide access to a complete HD experience. These companies understand the value that HD content brings their brand and are ahead of the curve by offering HD programming online.

http://www.thehdweb.com

http://www.akamai.com

• In August 2007, Akamai Technologies began delivering HD quality video content for its customers via its distributed edge delivery network with servers in more than 750 cities worldwide. For the Internet, Akamai said it is making the HD web possible by continuing to refine the infrastructure required to bring the HDTV experience to online audiences.
  
  
  
  HDTV is defined as pixel resolution of 1080i, 1080p or 720p. A 2-hour feature-length movie would need to be encoded at a bit rate of at least 6-8 Mbps, which would result in the file being a size of 5-8 GB. This presents numerous technical challenges to deliver such a high-quality, large file.
  
  
  
  Akamai calculates that to deliver a file encoded at 6 Mbps to an audience of one Nielsen ratings point (1,102,000 households) would require 6.6 Terabits of sustained bandwidth. Another critical factor to enable high bit rate delivery of very large HD files is the proximity of the end-user to the server sending the file. As the distance from the server becomes greater, throughput dramatically decreases. Even a seemingly small distance can result in lost throughput due to lower throughput, higher packet loss, and increased latency. As an example, the only way to achieve 10 to 20 Mbps throughput for typical PC end-users is if the server is less than 20 milliseconds away.

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"Connect Africa" Draws Promise of Large Investments from Leading Mobile Operators

At the Connect Africa summit, an ITU event being hosted by the government of Rwanda, leading global mobile operators announced plans to invest more than $50 billion in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years. The goal is to provide more than 90% of the population with mobile coverage by extending the reach of GSM mobile networks and enhancing the services with GPRS, EDGE and HSPA technologies.



According to the GSM Association, there are more than 150 million mobile subscribers in sub-Saharan Africa today. However, a further 350 million people have mobile coverage and are not yet directly connected. As well as extending coverage, the mobile industry is focused on using its economies of scale to connect these people. As the number of users grows, so too will economic prosperity.



The GSMA estimates that an increase of 10 percentage points in mobile penetration can increase the annual growth rate of GDP by up to 1.2 percentage points.



Since sub-Saharan governments began liberalizing their telecommunication sectors at the turn of the millennium, the GSMA estimates that the mobile industry has invested $35 billion, providing more than 500 million people (67% of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa with mobile coverage.



MTN, Orange, Vodacom and Zain subsidiary Celtel are among the mobile operators planning to invest heavily in the expansion and enhancement of their networks.

http://www.gsmworld.com

http://www.connectafrica.gov.rw/

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XO Completes 800 Gbps Core Network Capacity Upgrade

XO Communications completed an 800 Gbps capacity upgrade on major coast-to-coast routes of its nationwide fiber optic network.
The upgrade delivers an additional 80 10-Gbps channels on major coast-to-coast network routes. This additional network capacity augments a capacity expansion XO completed last year which delivered 400 Gbps of capacity across the XO network.



XO also announced a new installation guarantee for wholesale customers that need faster provisioning of high-capacity network services. Specifically, XO is offering the XO "10 Gigs in 10 Days" Guarantee. This offers wholesale customers the ability to order 2.5 Gbps or 10 Gbps high capacity network transport services and have them provisioned in 10 business days across select major coast-to-coast routes on the XO network. Under guarantee, if XO Communications fails to install the service within business 10 days, the customer will be eligible for a one month service credit for each year of the customer's contract. The "XO 10 Gigs in 10 Days" Guarantee is being offered from November 1, 2007 until December 31, 2007 to wholesale customers that sign two- or three-year contract terms.

http://www.xo.com

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Atheros Posts Q3 Sales of $101 Million, Up 34% YoY

Atheros Communications reported record Q3 revenue of $106.3 million, up five percent from the $100.8 million reported in the second quarter of 2007 and up 34 percent from the $79.6 million reported in the third quarter of 2006. Net income (GAAP) was $9.7 million or $0.16 per diluted share. This compares with GAAP net income of $9.3 million or $0.16 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2007.



"Our networking business was especially strong in the third quarter, as sales of our 11g and 11n solutions led to significant increases in revenue with both our retail and carrier customers," said Craig Barratt, president and CEO of Atheros.

http://www.atheros.com

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Atheros Announces Low-Power Wi-Fi Solution for Mobile Devices

Atheros Communications announced a low-power chip for mobile WLAN devices that draws near-zero standby power and has nominal impact on battery life even in active mode, according to the company. The gains are achieved using a combination of advanced hardware and software power-saving protocols and techniques.



Atheros said that based on consistently repeated, actual power demonstration measurements, its new AR6002 chip consumes 70 percent less power than competitive solutions on the market in active mode while downloading content. This substantial power reduction results in longer battery life, enabling significantly more downloads and longer talk time between mobile device charges. For example, the AR6002 solution will take more than 100 hours to deplete a standard 3.7V, 800mAh phone battery in continual VoIP mode. In another application using the AR6002, 200 gigabytes of data can be downloaded before depleting the same battery.



In addition, Atheros said its AR6002 significantly extends battery life by drawing virtually zero power in standby, relieving users from having to switch the Wi-Fi function on and off. http://www.atheros.com

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D2 and Ikanos Partner for VoIP-Enabled Quad Play Gateways

Ikanos Communications has partnered with D2 Technologies to develop a quadruple play residential gateway design that integrates Ikanos' Fusiv Vx180 VDSL2 gateway processor with D2's vPort VoIP software. The residential gateway supports voice, video, data and mobile wireless services. The residential gateway design also accelerates the rollout of new VDSL2 customer premises equipment (CPE) for the home office or small- to medium-size businesses, offering comprehensive quality of service (QoS) for VoIP and Internet protocol television (IPTV) applications.



The Fusiv Vx180 multi-mode VDSL2 gateway processor provides 2.7 GHz of processing power, VoIP, multimode DSL and security, and supports QoS and wire speed performance. With the Fusiv Vx180, space and power requirements are lower because it combines Ikanos' VDSL2 CPE PHY and its Fusiv network processor architecture onto a single chip. The gateway processor is optimized for IPTV and triple play with features such as dynamic rate repartitioning (DRR) and seamless rate adaptation (SRA), which are expected to be incorporated into future standards enhancements.



D2's vPort embedded VoIP software offers support for integrated circuit and system on a chip (IC/SoC) designs, including ARM- and MIPS-based architectures.

http://www.D2tech.com

http://www.ikanos.com

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