Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Telefónica to Raise Stake in China Netcom

Telefónica announced an agreement with AllianceBernstein to acquire an additional stake of up to approximately 5.74% of the share capital of the China Netcom. he acquisition will be structured in two tranches, (i) the first tranche will be in respect of shares representing approximately 2.71% of the issued share capital of CNC as of the date hereof, and (ii) the second tranche will be in respect of a number of shares in CHINA UNICOM LIMITED ("CU") issued after its merger with CNC in exchange of shares representing up to a 3.03% stake
in CNC.


After the first tranche acquisition, which will be closed in the following days, Telefónica's stake in CNC would represent approximately 9.9% (inclusive of the acquisition of a 2.2% stake announced on January 18, 2008 which is pending regulatory approvals).


In the event of the acquisition of the entire stake involved in the second tranche, Telefónica's pro forma shareholding in the enlarged entity resulting from the merger of CU and CNC following the completion of the Scheme would stand at approximately 5.50% (inclusive of the
above mentioned acquisition of a 2.2% stake in CNC which is pending regulatory approvals).


The acquisition of the first tranche will involve a total investment of approximately EUR 368 million (depending on the exchange rate prevailing when the transaction is closed). The purchase price of the shares in the second tranche may be adjusted according to the average of closing
prices of the CNC shares prior to the merger between CNC and CU. If completed, the acquisition of the entire stake of the second tranche would involve a total investment of approximately between EUR 392 million and EUR 434 million.http://www.telefonica.es

Fonality Closes $12 Million for Open Source Systems

Fonality, which specializes in open source phone systems and contact center solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, has secured a $12 million financing round led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund with participation from existing investor Intel Capital.


Fonality makes open source Internet-based telephony and unified communications solutions that tie together all forms of business communication -- instant message, landline calling, mobile calling, chat, voicemail, customer relationship management (CRM), e-mail and more -- into one unified desktop software application. Products include IP-PBX VoIP phone systems based on a patent-pending Anywhere Management Hybrid-Hosted architecture. The company's phone systems are sold direct to businesses at fonality.com, through a global network of resellers, and by Dell.


Fonality said its focus on building affordable, easy-to-use, and full-featured products enables it to compete directly with Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel and Avaya while creating an entirely new market for affordable professional call centers for companies with five to 500 employees.


Fonality's headquarters are in Los Angeles with additional offices in Australia and Argentina. Company investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund, Intel Capital, and Azure Capital Partners. http://www.fonality.com

Nortel Cites 40G Wins with Bell Canada, Alaska Communications

Bell Canada has begun deployment of Nortel's 40G Optical Solution in its backbone network. Initial deployments are occurring within Bell's Montreal-New York, Toronto-Chicago and Toronto-Montreal traffic corridors. The solution, which co-exists within Bell's current 10G network. is built on Nortel's Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 and runs over the Nortel Common Photonic Layer line system. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Separately, Nortel announced that Alaska Communications Systems has chosen it to provide a 40G optical network for the terrestrial portion of an undersea fiber-optic cable from Alaska to Oregon. This network will position ACS to deliver end-to-end communications solutions for enterprise and mass market customers who require reliable, high-performance connectivity between Alaska and the lower 48 states. The ACS optical network solution includes the Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 convergence platform and the Common Photonic Layer (CPL) line system.http://www.nortel.com

ADC Reports Sales of $390 Million, Up 13% YoY

ADC's sales for its third fiscal quarter of 2008 were $390 million, up 13% from the third quarter of 2007 and down 3% from the second quarter of 2008. Excluding sales from the LGC Wireless and Century Man Communication acquisitions of $36 million and $35 million in the third and second quarters of 2008, respectively, adjusted sales in the third quarter of 2008 were up 3% from the third quarter of 2007 and down 4% from the second quarter of 2008.


Sales outside the United States of $173 million increased 32% from the third quarter of 2007 and 3% from the second quarter of 2008. These sales were 44% of total ADC sales in the third quarter of 2008, an increase from 42% and 38% in the second quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2007, respectively. Comparing the third quarters of 2008 and 2007, Europe/Middle East/Africa sales of $91 million were up 28%, Asia Pacific sales of $54 million were up 52% and Latin America sales of $18 million were up 53%. Comparing the third quarter of 2008 to the second quarter of 2008, Europe/Middle East/Africa sales were approximately flat, Asia Pacific sales were up 8% and Latin America sales were up 11%. The remaining sales outside the United States were in Canada.http://www.adc.com

Ciena Posts Solid Q3 Revenues, Cautions on Q4 Outlook

Ciena reported revenue of $253.2 million for its fiscal third quarter ended July 31, 2008, representing a 5% sequential increase from fiscal second quarter 2008 revenue of $242.2 million, and an increase of 24% over the same period a year ago when Ciena reported revenue of $205 million. Ciena's net income (GAAP) was $11.7 million, or $0.12 per diluted common share. This compares to fiscal second quarter GAAP net income of $23.8 million, or $0.23 per diluted common share, and a reported GAAP net income of $28.3 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, for the same period a year ago.


Ciena said non-U.S. customers drove 38% of revenue in the quarter. The was a GAAP gross margin of 49.6% with product gross margin of 52% and services gross margin of 34%.


Ciena also struck a cautious note for the current quarter.


"In addition to existing customer-specific challenges, we have recently begun to experience order delays from many of our Tier One service provider customers, which we attribute to their guarded approach to capital expenditures given the uncertain macroeconomic environment," said Smith. "While we've seen no project or order cancellations, sales cycles are lengthening and some deployments are slowing. As a result, we now expect fiscal fourth quarter revenue in a range of $190 to $210 million."


"While current economic conditions warrant a cautious near-term outlook, the fundamental drivers of our business -- growing capacity demands and the transition to more efficient, more powerful, automated networks -- remain sound. We are confident that our portfolio and value propositions are differentiated, positioning us to take advantage of what is predicted to be a longer-term investment cycle in the transition from SONET/SDH to Ethernet-based networks," said Gary Smith, Ciena's president and CEO.http://www.ciena.com

Aicent Raises Funding from Intel for 3G/4G/WiMAX Messaging Exchange

Aicent, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced new funding from Intel Capital for its efforts to accelerate 3G and 4G global data roaming initiatives, including mobile WiMAX. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Aicent currently provides data network, messaging and roaming solutions to more than 100 GSM and CDMA mobile operators worldwide, which serve over one billion mobile subscribers in aggregate. The company operates one of the world's largest multimedia messaging exchanges, and offers other value-added services to carriers.http://www.aicent.com
  • Aicent is headed by Lynn Liu. Previously, Lynn was a co-founder, Chief Operating Officer and President of Asia Pacific region for GRIC Communications (IPO in 1999).

Comscore: U.S. Catches Up with Western Europe in 3G Adoption

The United States has caught up with Western Europe in the adoption of 3G with 28.4 percent of American mobile subscribers having 3G devices versus 28.3 percent in the largest countries in Europe, according to a new report from Comscore.


The number of U.S. subscribers with 3G enabled devices has grown 80 percent to 64.2 million during the past year.


Comscore attributed the rapid adoption of 3G devices in the U.S. to the introduction of sleek devices over the past year.


http://www.comscore.com

Cablevision Activates WiFi Zones in Long Island

Cablevision Systems has completed an initial rollout of its Optimum WiFi service in commercial and high-traffic areas of Nassau County, in areas of Suffolk County, and on the commuter rail platforms and station parking lots across all of Long Island. The service is provided as a value-added benefit for Cablevision's Optimum Online high-speed Internet customers.


Cablevision in May announced plans to deploy WiFi in the commercial and high consumer traffic areas across its entire tri-state service area over the next two years. http://www.optimumwifi.comhttp://www.cablevision.com/

Alcatel-Lucent Receives Mobile WiMAX Certification

Alcatel-Lucent has been awarded the WiMAX Forum Certified seal of approval for its WiMAX 802.16e Compact Base Station at 2.5GHz. Alcatel-Lucent's infrastructure portfolio is made up of products that strictly comply with the 802.16e-2005 standard (also called Rev-e), which supports fixed, nomadic and mobile services. The company said its "Open CPE Program" is helping to accelerate the availability of terminals by encompassing comprehensive interoperability testing programs with WiMAX chipset and end-user device suppliers.


To earn this certification, Alcatel-Lucent's 802.16e WiMAX products underwent testing by the WiMAX Forum's lead certification laboratory partner, AT4 wireless, spanning protocol conformance, radio conformance and interoperability testing.http://www.alcatel-lucent.comhttp://www.at4wireless.com

Latest TiVo Records up to 150 hours of HD Content

TiVo introduced its HD XL Digital Video Recorder, featuring the ability to record up to 150 hours of HD content, THX certification, a Series3 premium backlit remote control and an included HDMI cable. Similar to TiVo HD, dual tuners allow subscribers to record two different shows in HD at the same time, while watching a third pre-recorded show. The unit uses a 1TB (1,000GB) hard disk drive.http://www.tivo.com

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Australia Sets Date for National Broadband Network Proposals

Stephen Conroy, Australia's Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, has set 26-November-2008 as the closing date for the submission of National Broadband Network proposals.


The Government issued its Request for Proposals for the National Broadband Network on 11-April-2008. The closing time has been amended to account for time taken by the Government to necessarily work with carriers to ensure that proponents have access to information about existing networks and time to consider it. The intention is that this will help them prepare robust, competitive proposals.


Key provisions of this RFP issued in April include the ability to:

  • deliver minimum download speeds of 12 Mbps to 98% of Australian homes and businesses;


  • have the network rolled out and made operational progressively over five years using fibre-to-the-node or fibre-to-the-premises technology;


  • support high quality voice, data and video services including symmetric applications such as high-definition video-conferencing;


  • earn the Commonwealth a return on its investment;


  • facilitate competition in the telecommunications sector through open access arrangements that allow all service providers access to the network on equivalent terms; and


  • enable uniform and affordable retail prices to consumers, no matter where they live.
http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au

Russia's VimpleCom Launches 3G, "Beeline" Corporate Services

VimpelCom announced the commercial launch of a 3G network in certain Russian regions, including the cities of Saint Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara and Chelyabinsk. The networks currently cover the central and some of the most densely populated districts in these cities, and VimpelCom expects that during 2008 coverage will be extended to bedroom communities.


VimpelCom is offering seven tariff plans to accommodate a wide range of users. The company said it plans to launch 3G networks in around 40 cities by the end of 2008.


In addition, VimpelCom announced the launch of its "Beeline Business" brand for the Russian corporate market. All the products and services provided to corporate clients by Golden Telecom and Corbina Telecom will be offered under the new single brand.


"The launch of ‘Beeline Business' means that we are an integrated operator which provides its clients with a wide range of telecom solutions. Business customers will soon find it natural to receive different types of communications services from one vendor that will help to make their business more successful", said Jean-Pierre Vandromme, the Executive Vice President for Russian Operations of VimpelCom.http://www.vimpelcom.com
  • The VimpelCom Group includes companies operating in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Armenia, in territories with a total population of about 250 million.

RADWIN Releases WinLink 1000 5.8 GHz C

RADWIN introduced its WinLink 1000 5.8 GHz High-Power solution featuring compliance with the latest ETSI regulation [EN 302 502 V1.1.1] allowing 4 watt maximum radiated power (EIRP).


The WinLink 1000 5.8 GHz High-Power incorporates a Dynamic Frequency Selection (DFS) mechanism as defined by the new ETSI standard. It provides carrier-class Ethernet and E1 connectivity with longer range and higher capacity than previously available in unlicensed bands. Geared for service providers and ISPs, the WinLink 1000 5.8 GHz is aimed at a range of telecom applications including access in rural areas, cellular and WiMAX backhaul and private network connectivity.http://www.radwin.com

Verizon and Yahoo! Extend Strategic Alliance with New Multiyear Co-branded Portal Agreement

Verizon Communications and Yahoo! announced a new multiyear agreement to provide an integrated, co-branded Verizon-Yahoo! portal as a preferred starting point for new Verizon broadband subscribers. This new agreement extends the relationship between Yahoo! and Verizon that began in 2005. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Under the terms of the new agreement, the customizable Verizon-Yahoo! portal will be offered as the first portal choice option for all new subscribers to Verizon's FiOS Internet and High Speed Internet services. Customers who choose the Verizon-Yahoo! portal will get Yahoo! Search, and co-branded e-mail, Instant Messenger and Toolbar applications. Yahoo! also will provide search and display advertising on the co-branded portal and e-mail application, and both companies will share the search, advertising and e-commerce revenues generated by users of the co-branded portal.


Beyond news and information, the co-branded Verizon-Yahoo! portal offers access to content and tools from Yahoo!, including e-mail previews, to-do lists, sports updates, weather, finance portfolios and TV listings, as well as photos and videos from Flickr.http://www.verizon.comhttp://www.yahoo.com

Telecom New Zealand International Tests GSMA IPX with Veraz

Telecom New Zealand International (TNZI) and Veraz Networks, have completed a multi-operator global trial of the GSM Association (GSMA) IP eXchange (IPX) framework for IP-based network interconnect services.


The IP eXchange (IPX) is a global private IP network, supporting end-to-end quality of service, and the principal of cascading interconnect payments for next generation GSM and CDMA mobile operators, fixed line service providers and application service providers. In order to provide these features the IPX is service aware, unlike the Internet and the GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX). With over seven hundred mobile operators, serving three billion mobile subscribers, looking for value-added interconnect solutions to extend their service reach, IPX is expected to quickly become the dominant global peering arrangement.


TNZI's IPX trial network involved four other carriers, including Telekom Austria and MTT, connected to TNZI as IPX Provider-Service Provider pairs. The testing demonstrated the ability of the IPX architecture to provide a secure IP-based platform for interconnecting mobile and fixed operators. In addition to VoIP peering, the trial also demonstrated value-added services including transcoding, security features provided by Veraz's Network-adaptive Border Controller as well as VoIP to PSTN interworking that IPX providers can use to differentiate their offering.


Veraz said its IPX solution has been successfully tested by multiple IPX providers interested in offering IPX services. Veraz's IPX solution includes the ControlSwitch converged TDM and IP softswitch, the Network-adaptive Border Controller family of security products and the I-Gate 4000 family of media gateways.http://www.veraznetworks.comhttp://www.tnzi.com

BridgeWave Supplies Gigabit Wireless for Campuses

BridgeWave Communications announced the deployment of its gigabit wireless to three U.S. colleges: Coppin State University in Baltimore, Md., Rush University in Chicago, Ill., and California State University in Fullerton, California.


BridgeWave's point-to-point wireless links can be used to connect multiple campus buildings in place of leased lines.


BridgeWave's radios are deployed without the obstacles associated with fiber such as cost, licensing or construction needed to lay optical cables. The wireless links are capable of delivering full-rate, full-duplex gigabit Ethernet speeds with the low latency required for many bandwidth-intensive applications.http://www.bridgewave.com

Proximion Launches Single Channel Dispersion Compensation Module

Proximion Fiber Systems introduced a new, small form factor, single channel dispersion compensation module (DCM-SC). The company said its new module extends single channel SDH/SONET/GE system reach otherwise limited by the dispersion tolerance of the transceivers. The low loss of the DCM-SC enables a system solution without amplifiers in a cost effective way. Proximion also offers the option of different customized wavelengths, suitable for other applications and network solutions.


DCM-SC is currently available on volume basis.
http://www.proximion.com

Acme Packet Appoints Former Colubris Exec as CFO

Acme Packet announced the appointment of Peter Minihane to the position of Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Minihane joins Acme Packet from Colubris Networks where he served as Chief Financial Officer. Colubris Networks is a global provider of intelligent wireless local area networks for enterprises and service providers. http://www.acmepacket.com

WildBlue Secures $50 Million in Additional Equity

WildBlue Communications has completed a $50 million equity financing to support its continued growth. Specifically, the proceeds will fund WildBlue's recently launched customer equipment leasing program, enabling the company's service to be offered to new customers throughout rural America at the lowest upfront price in the company's history. WildBlue will also expand its workforce in the areas of customer care and field service operations.


The financing was led by Liberty Media , Intelsat, the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and the private equity firm of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers. Terms of the financing were not disclosed.http://www.wildblue.com

AT&T Offers Reward for Info in Copper Telephone-Cable Thefts

AT&T announced a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the thefts of AT&T copper telephone cables in West Virginia. AT&T said the steady rise in the price of copper has led some people to take extreme measures, including stealing copper cables from houses and telephone poles.
http://www.att.com