Huawei Announces the World’s Smallest LTE Cat4 Mobile WiFi

Huawei introduced an LTE Category 4 Mobile WiFi device boasting top download speeds of up to 150 Mbps.

The new unit, which measures 99mm x 62.2mm x 14.4mm, offers 2x2 WiFi as well as 5 GHz coverage.  The company states a a battery lasting up to 6 hours. It also features an auto offload function that can switch to a secure WiFi connection as soon as one becomes available.

"The new HUAWEI E5372 reinforces Huawei’s position as a global LTE industry leader and joins its portfolio of world-class products, as the world’s smallest LTE Cat4 mobile WiFi device," said Mr. Wu Shimin, President of the Mobile Broadband Product Line, Huawei Device. "The E5372 is further evidence of Huawei’s continued commitment to the research and development of LTE technology and its global commercialization."

http://www.huawei.com

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Telstra's 4G Covers 65% of Australian Population, 85% by Year-End

As of mid-year, Telstra's 4G services were available to 66 percent of the Australian population.  So far, Telstra has deployed more than 2,000 4G base stations in all of the country's capital cities and many surrounding metropolitan suburbs.  Telstra had 20MHz of contiguous spectrum in the 1800MHz band in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and 15MHz in Sydney and Melbourne.

By year-end, Telstra aims to make 4G available in more than 300 towns across Australia, including many popular holiday hotspots.  By then, there should be more than 3,500 4G base stations in operation.

http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media-centre/announcements/200-australian-towns-will-get-telstra-4g-for-christmas.xml

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Huawei hosts Global Innovation Event in Shenzhen

Last week, Huawei hosted a Global Innovation Index 2013 event for Asian economies in Shenzhen, China.

Huawei, which now operates 28 joint innovation centers around the world, attributes part of its success to its collaboration with customers instead of being focused exclusively on technology.  The company stressed the importance of open markets for innovation.

"Innovation requires open markets that embrace fair competition and effective IPR protection to sustain vitality." These views were expressed by Ken Hu, rotating CEO of Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, in a speech delivered at an event to acknowledge the contribution of Asian countries and economies to the Global Innovation Index for 2013 in Shenzhen today.

http://www.huawei.com

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South Korea's LG U + Launches LTE-Advanced

South Korea's LG U + officially launched its LTE-Advanced service, promising download speeds of 75 Mbps to 150 Mbps -- roughly twice the performance of its standard LTE service.

The LTE-A network is using carrier aggregation of 800 MHz and 2.1 GHz spectrum.  Compatible handset initially include a version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 and soon the LG Electornics Optimus G2.  By the end of the year, the company expects there will be six LTE-A terminal devices on the market.

• LG U+ said its network will offer pure LTE connectivity between compatible handsets, where voice is carried by VoLTE rather than falling back to CDMA.
• LTE-A is initially available in Seoul / Manila / Gwangju, Daejeon and other major cities.
• LG U+ vendors include LG, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Samsung.

http://www.uplus.co.kr/com/cpif/lgin/lgns/RetrieveComNewsListView.hpi?cntnsSrlno=454083#

• In late June 2013, SK Telecom launched the world's first LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) service through smartphones. The LTE-A service offers download speeds of up to 150 Mbps, which is two times faster than its regular LTE service, and 10 times faster than its 3G network. LTE-A coverage initially is available in Seoul and central city areas of Gyeongg-do and Chungcheong-do.  Expansion to 84 cities nationwide is planned.  At top speed, LTE-A users can download an 800MB movie in just 43 seconds.  The LTE-A implementation leverages several advanced mobile network technologies including Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Coordinated Multi Point (CoMP). SK Telecom plans to implement Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) in 2014.

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Verizon Delivers Strong Q2, Increases CAPEX

Verizon reported Q2 2013 operating revenues of $29.8 billion, up 4.3 percent year-over-year, while operating income increased 16.0 percent, to $6.6 billion, compared with $5.7 billion in second-quarter 2012.  Cash flow totaled $17.1 billion in first-half 2013, compared with $15.3 billion in first-half 2012.  Capital expenditures in first-half 2013 were $7.6 billion, compared with $7.4 billion in first-half 2012.

“Verizon’s consistent strategic investments in wireless, FiOS and global networks drove strong financial performance in the first half of 2013,” said Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO.  “Having posted double-digit earnings growth in five of the last six quarters, we are focused on continuing to provide the best portfolio of products on the most reliable networks; capturing incremental revenue growth in broadband, video and cloud services; and sustaining our earnings and cash-flow momentum.” - See more at: http://newscenter.verizon.com/corporate/news-articles/2013/07-18-verizon-reports-2013-2q-earnings/#sthash.vQx0uaSH.dpuf

Verizon is increasing its capital spending guidance from $16.2 billion to between $16.4 billion and $16.6 billion for full-year 2013.  The company said it anticipates higher demand for wireless data consumption as it begins deployment of AWS (advanced wireless services) spectrum in second-half 2013.

Some highlights:

Wireless

Total revenues were $20.0 billion in second-quarter 2013, up 7.5 percent year over year.  Service revenues in the quarter totaled $17.1 billion, up 8.3 percent year over year.  Retail service revenues grew 7.8 percent year over year, to $16.4 billion.

Verizon Wireless added 941,000 retail postpaid net connections, out of a total 1.0 million net retail connections, in the second quarter.  These additions exclude acquisitions and adjustments.  Verizon expects to continue to see increases in quarterly sequential net additions for retail postpaid connections in the second half of 2013. At the end of the second quarter, the company had 100.1 million retail connections, a 6.3 percent increase year over year -- including 94.3 million retail postpaid connections.

Smartphones accounted for 64% of the retail postpaid customer base at the end of Q2 - up from 61% at the of Q1.

Wireline

Consumer revenues were $3.6 billion, an increase of 4.7 percent compared with second-quarter 2012.  Consumer ARPU for wireline services increased to $109.67 in second-quarter 2013, up 9.4 percent compared with second-quarter 2012.

FiOS revenues grew 14.7 percent, to $2.7 billion in second-quarter 2013, compared with $2.4 billion in second-quarter 2012.  ARPU for FiOS customers continued to be more than $150 in second-quarter 2013.  Verizon added 161,000 net new FiOS Internet connections and 140,000 net new FiOS Video connections in second-quarter 2013.  Verizon had a total of 5.8 million FiOS Internet and 5.0 million FiOS Video connections at the end of the quarter, representing year-over-year increases of 12.2 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively.

Broadband connections totaled 8.9 million at the end of second-quarter 2013, a 1.9 percent year-over-year increase.  Overall, net broadband customers increased 45,000 in the second quarter, as FiOS Internet net customer additions more than offset a decline in subscribers for DSL-based High Speed Internet services. Verizon has been replacing high-maintenance portions of its residential copper network with fiber optics to provide enhanced services and to reduce ongoing repair costs.  In first-half 2013, Verizon migrated 169,000 homes to fiber, toward a target of 300,000 migrations within FiOS markets in 2013.

Sales of strategic services to global enterprise customers increased 4.8 percent compared with second-quarter 2012 and represented 57 percent of total enterprise revenues, compared with 52 percent in second-quarter 2012.  Strategic services include cloud and data center services, security and IT solutions, advanced communications, strategic networking and telematics services.

http://newscenter.verizon.com/corporate/news-articles/2013/07-18-verizon-reports-2013-2q-earnings/

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Ericsson Reports Flat Sales for Q2

Ericsson reported Q2 sales of SEK 55.3 billion, flat compared to last year, as operating income fell to SEK 2.5 billion, down 24% compared to last year.

Sales for comparable units, adjusted for FX, grew 7%. Reported sales were flat YoY, due to continued currency headwind,” said Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson.  "There was continued high project activity in Europe as well as in North America where two large mobile broadband coverage projects have peaked in first half 2013. North East Asia had another challenging quarter following continued structural decline in GSM investments in China, FX in Japan and lower business activity in South Korea due to spectrum delays."

Some highlights from the quarterly report:

• Networks sales increased 1% YoY, with strong growth in North America and Latin America as well as Western and Central Europe, while sales continued to decline in North East Asia. Networks sales were flat QoQ, with strong sales in Latin America. CDMA sales continued to decline rapidly both YoY and QoQ.
  
• The structural decline in GSM sales in China and in CDMA sales in North America continued as anticipated. CDMA sales declined by -54% YoY and -31% QoQ to SEK 0.9 b.
  
• Global Services grew 3% YoY, driven by continued high activity in Network Rollout. Professional Services sales declined -1% YoY, negatively impacted by FX effects. Sequentially, Global Services grew by 16% and Professional Services grew by 15%. Servicesrelated sales in North America were strong in the quarter.
  
• Support Solutions sales declined -33% YoY and -4% QoQ. The YoY decline is mainly due to the divestment of Multimedia Brokering (IPX) in Q312 and continued decline in Media Management sales following the strong
  
• The number of subscribers served by networks managed by Ericsson has passed the 1 billion threshold.

http://www.ericsson.com/res/investors/docs/q-reports/2013/06month13-en.pdf

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NSN Posts is 5th Sequential Profitable Quarter

Nokia Siemens Networks achieved underlying profitability for the fifth consecutive quarter, with a Q2 non-IFRS operating margin of 11.8%, reflecting record non-IFRS gross margin and continued progress relative to its strategy. Nokia said the performance exceeded the earlier expectation for Nokia Siemens Networks non-IFRS operating margin to be approximately 5%, plus or minus four percentage points.

NSN's Q2 net sales decreased 1% quarter-on-quarter to EUR 2.8 billion, partially due to a divestments of businesses not consistent with Nokia Siemens Networks strategic focus, as well as the exiting of certain customer contracts and countries.

Excluding these two factors, Nokia Siemens Networks net sales in the second quarter 2013 declined by approximately 11% due to reduced wireless infrastructure deployment activity, which affected both Mobile Broadband and Global Services.

http://press.nokia.com/2013/07/18/nokia-corporation-interim-report-for-q2-2013-and-january-june-2013/

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EdgeCast Raises $54 Million for CDN

EdgeCast Networks announced $54 million in new financing for its content delivery network.

The company said it has added more than 2,000 accounts in the past year and now has more than 6,000 accounts, including such well-know brands as Twitter, Pinterest, Sony, and Hulu. Its network includes more than 30 POPs in the major data centers where primary carriers exchange traffic.

"Millions of people use EdgeCast every day – when they use Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Hulu, or any other of the thousands of sites we accelerate worldwide. We deliver more than 4 trillion digital items a month to almost every Internet user in the world,” said Alex Kazerani, EdgeCast Chairman and CEO. “We are proud that our investment partners recognize our incredible performance and share our enthusiasm about our continued growth."

The Series D funding round was led by Performance Equity Management (PEM), with follow-on participation from the company’s existing investors Menlo Ventures and Steamboat Ventures. The equity portion of the financing was augmented with a debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank.

http;//www.edgecast.com

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Telx Opens 3rd Data Center in NYC

Telx opened its third data center in New York Cit at 32 Avenue of the Americas (6th Ave).

NYC3’s (32 Avenue of the Americas) Interconnection Center covers an initial 72,000sf with additional opportunity for growth.The facility will leverage Telx’s dense connectivity environments at both NYC1 (60 Hudson) and NYC2 (111 8th Ave) offering the collective Telx customer base access to over 600+ network alternatives.

In addition, Telx confirmed that the Rudin Family has chosen Telx as a long term strategic partner to exclusively manage and operate the HUB, the carrier-neutral meet me room at 32 Avenue of the Americas.  The HUB which aggregates voice, data and wireless service providers in a single network dense facility. Telx will assume exclusive operation of the HUB and will develop a new 10th floor data center with the opportunity for expansion onto multiple additional floors in the building.

Telx now operates a total of 6 within the greater NY/NJ metro area encompassing over 550,000 gross square feet.

http://www.telx.com/

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SoftBank Takes Bloom Energy Fuel Cells to Japan

SoftBank and Bloom Energy are forming 50/50 Joint Venture to bring Bloom's fuel cell technology to Japan.

Bloom Energy's fuel cells are currently deployed in the United States by clients including AT&T, Google, eBay, The Coca Cola Company, Walmart and others.

https://www.softbank.co.jp/en/news/press/2013/20130718_01/
http://www.bloomenergy.com/

• In June 2013, Verizon announced plans to install Bloom Energy fuel cell systems at three of its California-based locations: two call-switching centers in Los Angeles and San Francisco and a data center in San Jose.  The solid oxide fuel cells are expected to generate more than 16 million kilowatt hours of clean electricity for Verizon in California each year.
  
• NTT America is also using Bloom Energy servers in California.

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RiverMeadow Releases Cloud Migration SaaS Version 2.0

RiverMeadow Software, a start-up based in San Jose, California and Westford, Massachusetts, has updated its automated server migration solution developed specifically for carrier and service provider clouds.

RiverMeadow Cloud Migration SaaS version 2.0 automates the migration process for moving both Linux and Windows servers into public, private or hybrid clouds. Unlike other solutions that migrate at the application level and have to account for shared libraries, registry entries and other complex interoperability issues, the RiverMeadow Cloud Migration SaaS migrates whole servers and disk volumes at the OS level.

RiverMeadow currently supports AWS and OpenStack.  Support for Microsoft Azure (Hyper-V) is on the roadmap for later this year.

With AWS, Most of the workloads are spun up as  greenfield (new workloads).   RiverMeadow's goal is to make the difficult process of moving out of AWS fairly into a simpler and automated process.  RiverMeadow also aims to simplify migration into and between the various OpenStack clouds and other cloud OS's.

"The cost and complexity of migrating virtual, physical or cloud-based servers into the cloud can be overwhelming — averaging thousands of dollars per server and man-months’ worth of operational effort,” said Mark Shirman, CEO, RiverMeadow. “With the enhancements delivered in RiverMeadow Cloud Migration SaaS 2.0, we continue to remove the barriers of entry for just a fraction of the cost and without the operational headaches, so organizations can immediately gain the economic and practical benefits of cloud computing.”

http://www.rivermeadow.com

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Nissan USA Picks AT&T + SiriusXM for Telematics

Nissan has selected  AT&T and Sirius XM Radio to provide mobile connectivity to support a suite of security and services for Nissan automobiles in North America.

SiriusXM's in-vehicle telematics solution will provide Nissan vehicle owners 24/7 emergency support for accidents, stolen vehicle tracking and roadside assistance by using a combination of satellite and cellular networks. The architecture will allow SiriusXM to take advantage of both one-to-many and one-to-one network connectivity.

"Your future car is going to be a smartphone with four wheels with powerful capabilities specifically built for a safe and enhanced customer experience," said Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T Emerging Enterprises and Partnerships Organization. "By adding fast, reliable and built-in mobile internet for SiriusXM's forthcoming in-car experience, we are powering a connected experience inside Nissan automobiles for both drivers and passengers."

http://www.att.com
http://www.siriusxm.com/

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Telefónica Leverages ASSIA's DSL Expresse for Real-time Copper Line Optimization

Telefónica will expand its usage of ASSIA's DSL network management technology to cover more than eight million customer lines globally, and will initially focus on South American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. ASSIA is also a portfolio company of Telefónica. An initial contract was signed in 2010.

Telefónica plans to deploy ASSIA's DSL Expresse real-time line optimization module for proactive line repair, and ClearView, a customer-care recommendation engine that presents comprehensive customer line and service information to customer-care professionals through an easy-to-use interface, enabling them to provide the fastest-possible responses and resolutions to customer calls.

“We are pleased to incorporate the latest DSL Expresse features, which reinforce the value of our operations and technical assistance tools in improving service performance and customer care, as well as reducing our maintenance costs,” said Enrique Blanco, global CTO of Telefónica. “The improvements that we have realized with ASSIA for the past three years since we first invested in them clearly justified the expansion of our relationship as we continue to focus on delivering the highest speeds and latest services to our customers.”

Under the deal, ASSIA will provide Telefónica with the following advanced features of DSL Expresse and services for deployment, training, support, assessment and maintenance:

• ClearView, a state-of-the-art expert system that tracks problems to their exact source and provides clear and concise recommendations to a contact center agent or field technician to resolve a customer DSL issue immediately.
• Real-time line optimization, which significantly improves customer satisfaction and reduces service calls and repair costs.
• Support for single-ended loop test (SELT) for enhanced diagnostics, cost savings, and service delivery, such as the ability to pinpoint faults and direct dispatches to the appropriate location.
• Advanced micro-filter detection, which enables call-center agents to see missing micro filters on customer lines and guide the customer to easily and quickly install them. This can rapidly help solve performance problems, avoiding the need for costly, time-consuming field-technician dispatches.
• Power management, which reduces power consumption and costs, and can help Telefónica attain its green initiative goals.
• Advanced ADSL2 diagnostics that enable service personnel to address physical impairments efficiently in the copper plant.

http://www.assia-inc.com/

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Puppet Labs Acquires Cloudsmith for IT Test Automation

Puppet Labs, which develops IT automation software for system administrators, has acquired Cloudsmith, a developer of tools for rapidly building and testing infrastructure automation. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Puppet Labs’ software is used by enterprises to configure and manage their IT infrastructure.

Cloudsmith is the developer of Geppetto, an integrated development environment (IDE) for building and publishing Puppet modules. The company also developed Stack Hammer, a service for integrating, testing, and deploying collections of Puppet modules as complete “stacks” through integrations with GitHub and Amazon EC2. Following the acquisition, both Geppetto and Stack Hammer will continue to be developed and supported, and all Cloudsmith employees will be retained and integrated into Puppet Labs.

"We have been working with the Puppet Labs team and community for years and find we have a shared vision, culture, and passion around helping IT teams improve their lives through automation,” said Mitch Sonies, CEO and founder of Cloudsmith. “And while the Cloudsmith Geppetto community has grown to more than 10,000 users in a short period of time, together with Puppet Labs we’re looking forward to bringing Geppetto’s ease-of-automation benefits to many, many more.”

https://puppetlabs.com/company/news/press-releases/puppet-labs-acquires-cloudsmith/

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Open Networking Foundation Continues Adding Members

Membership in the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) has now surpassed 100 companies. The newest additions are TorreyPoint, Coriant, and Virtela.

The ONF was created in 2011 as a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Software-Defined Networking (SDN).

"Our vision to bring software programmability to networks worldwide is becoming a reality with more companies joining our movement and implementing and deploying this innovative technology that is changing the future of networking,” said Dan Pitt, executive director of the Open Networking Foundation. “In the past two years since our public launch, we have seen a significant increase in OpenFlow-based switches, controllers, and applications, and real-world deployments of the technology. Our growing member community underscores that we are meeting our goals of expanding SDN awareness and driving commercialization, and we are ever more motivated by their continuing support of our efforts to accelerate the global commercialization of open, standards-based SDN for the benefit of users.”

https://www.opennetworking.org

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CommScope Packages Fiber-to-the-Antenna Solution for RRUs

CommScope introduced a bundled solution for fiber-to-the-antenna (FTTA) site deployments where where remote radio units (RRUs) are installed at the top of cellular towers closer to the antennas, reducing loss and improving system performance.

The company says its FTTA Turnkey Solution, which part of the Andrew portfolio of wireless solutions, standardizes RRU installation while bringing simplicity, consistency and performance assurance to a technologically and logistically complex application.

The FTTA Turnkey Solution includes:

• Argus UltraBand multiport antennas
• HELIAX FiberFeed hybrid fiber and power trunk cable and tails
• HELIAX SureFlex RF cable assemblies
• Cabinets, structural supports, connectors and assemblies
• Optional Andrew SiteRise pre-assembled tower solution

"The top of an antenna tower is one of the more challenging places to work, especially when you are adding active components while protecting existing systems,” said Stan Catey, senior vice president and general manager, Cable Products, CommScope. “With the FTTA Turnkey Solution, CommScope will supply decades of wireless network expertise, extensive partner relationships and unique tower equipment solutions that seamlessly integrate with RRU technology.”

http://www.commscope.com

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ADVA's Q2 Financial Results Top Guidance

ADVA Optical Networking announced Q2 2013 revenues of EUR 78.4 million in Q2 2013  -- slightly above guidance of between EUR 73 million and EUR 78 million.  This is down 8.7% vs. Q2 2012 at EUR 85.9 million and up 1.7% vs. EUR 77.0 million in Q1 2013.

IFRS pro forma operating income, excluding stock-based compensation and amortization & impairment of goodwill & acquisition-related intangible assets, amounted to EUR 1.5 million or 2.0% of revenues in Q2 2013, at the upper end of guidance of between -2% and +2% of revenues. This compares to EUR 6.8 million or 8.0% of revenues in Q2 2012 and EUR 0.8 million or 1.0% of revenues in Q1 2013.

"We are pleased with our Q2 2013 results which were achieved in a volatile macro-economic environment. At EUR 78.4 million, our Q2 2013 revenues are above guidance and are up 1.7% vs. the previous quarter. Our pro forma gross margin strengthened from 38.6% in Q1 2013 to 39.9% in Q2 2013. This improvement is due to changes in product and customer mix and also demonstrates our focus on managing operational costs, " commented Jaswir Singh, chief financial officer & chief operating officer of ADVA Optical Networking.

http://www.advaoptical.com

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ARRIS Releases E6000 Converged Edge Router

ARRIS announced the commercial release of its new E6000 Converged Edge Router (CER), which continues the legacy of the company's widely deployed C4® Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS).

The ARRIS E6000 CER delivers new levels of density with the an integrated architecture that has the capability to realize the vision of CCAP — the convergence of high-speed data, voice, and MPEG video service delivery from a single F connector.

"We're excited to declare the General Availability of the E6000 CER," said Bruce McClelland, President, Network & Cloud Global Services, ARRIS. "Operators today are benefitting from the unrivaled efficiencies of the E6000 CER – in rack space, power consumption, cooling, advanced services and new applications."

"The E6000 CER software is based on that of the C4 CMTS, which enables seamless deployments," said McClelland, "Cable operators who deploy IPv6 with the E6000 will benefit from years of operational IPv6 experience gained with the C4 CMTS and from an unprecedented level of service group and channel density, both upstream and downstream."

http://arrisi.com/products/product.asp?id=677

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Lenovo Enters Strategic Global Reseller Alliance with Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks announced a strategic global reseller alliance with Lenovo, the world's #1 PC maker.

Lenovo will provide its campus, data center and cloud customers with open, high performance, and reliable converged infrastructure addressing data center and cloud initiatives.

"Addressing customer needs for cloud and data center today hinges on integrating the network stack with proven solutions for computing, storage and networking," said Darrel Ward, Vice President of Marketing, Lenovo Enterprise Products Group. "With Extreme Networks, we have found an excellent partner that will enable Lenovo to deliver a complete, open standards-based solution that will play a central role in allowing our customers to meet their goal of establishing cost-effective and scalable architectures."

"The Extreme Networks and Lenovo partnership for converged infrastructure demonstrates our commitment to open networking innovations addressing the Cloud-ready data center," said Eileen Brooker, vice president of strategic alliances for Extreme Networks. "This global go-to-market partnership for servers, storage and switching helps customers to deploy high performance systems that are reliable, fast and scalable."

http://www.extremenetworks.com

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Defense Information Systems Agency Approves Brocade's 100 GbE

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has approved the Brocade MLX and MLXe 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) networking solutions to be added to the Unified Capabilities - Approved Products List (UC-APL), which tracks products that have completed Interoperability (IO) and Information Assurance (IA) certification.  The newly certified Brocade networking solutions can be deployed by Department of Defense (DoD) agencies.

"With one of the largest and most complex network environments in the world, the Department of Defense required access to the most robust and flexible network solutions available. DoD network capabilities must meet the challenges posed by the massive influx of data, devices and applications that defense organizations are supporting today," said Anthony Robbins, vice president of federal, Brocade. "Brocade realizes that maintaining uninterrupted network connectivity is essential to meeting DoD mission priorities, and we are proud to be included as part of the DoD UC-APL."

http://www.brocade.com

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