NTT DOCOMO Unveils "Xi" LTE Service Brand
Thursday, July 29, 2010 Service Providers
In anticipation of its LTE service launch slated for December, NTT DOCOMO unveiled the brand name and logo of its forthcoming next-generation mobile service for the Japanese market.
The brand name is written "Xi" and read "crossy."
The "X" denotes both "connection" and "infinite possibility," and the "i" both "individual user" and "innovation." The logo, which resembles the infinity symbol, aligns the letters in a single stream to embody the bonds that organically link people, goods and information, and lead to new innovation.
DOCOMO said its Xi LTE service will offer downlinks of up to 75 Mbps, approximately 10 times faster than the company's current FOMA 3G service. Initially, Xi will be available in the Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka areas, but coverage eventually will be expanded to other major cities and then additional areas of the nation. Xi users will be seamlessly handed over to the FOMA network whenever they leave a Xi service area.
Xi handsets, billing plans and other details will be announced later.
Best Buy to Launch "Connect" Broadband Service with Clearwire
Thursday, July 29, 2010 Mobile
Best Buy will use Clearwire's 4G network to offer mobile internet service to customers under its own Best Buy Connect brand. The service launch is anticipated for 2011.
"Our strategic wholesale agreement with Clearwire will enable Best Buy Connect to leverage the Clearwire 4G network's speed and bandwidth to deliver compelling new mobile broadband experiences for our customers," said Jed Stillman, vice president of Best Buy Connect. "This agreement paves the way to providing one-stop shopping and support for mobile broadband as more people become more connected across all kinds of devices. We believe consumers will appreciate the added advantage of relying on Best Buy Connect for both 3G and 4G mobile broadband services beginning next year."http://www.clearwire.com
http://www.bestbuy.com/bestbuyconnect
Harris Acquires CapRock for $525 Million
Harris completed its previously announced acquisition of CapRock Communications for $525 million in cash.
CapRock provides managed communication services including broadband Internet access, VoIP, networking and real-time video delivered to harsh and remote locations around the world. CapRock managed network solutions include multiband, portable and fixed satellite communications services supported by its teleports and network operations centers around the globe. CapRock supports a wide range of customers in the energy, maritime and government industries, including Chevron, Diamond Offshore, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, MODEC, Shell, Transocean, KBR, Green Reefers, Gulf Offshore, Seatrans, Oceaneering, Subsea 7, the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and other federal civilian agencies. The companies has its headquarters in Houston, Texas.
http://www.harris.com
Applied Micro Revenues Rise 6% Sequentially, 35% YoY
Thursday, July 29, 2010 Financial
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) reported quarterly net revenues of $60.8 million, up 6% sequentially and up 35% year over year. GAAP net income was $1.4 million or $0.02 per share. Book to bill, exiting the quarter, was 1.3x.
"The demand for our products continues to be very strong and we exited the quarter with a solid book-to-bill which demonstrates the wide acceptance for our products and the continued traction we are enjoying from the introduction of our new product lines. For the quarter, we once again delivered solid results and this is the sixth straight quarter we have met or exceeded the Street's expectations," said Dr. Paramesh Gopi, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Bob Gargus, Chief Financial Officer, commented, "We had a very strong quarter. In spite of industry-wide supply chain constraints, we were able to proactively manage our business and delivered results that exceeded expectations. Through solid execution, we continue to leverage the business towards sustained double digit profitability."
http://www.apm.com
Motorola Partners with Intrado on NG9-1-1 Texting
Motorola's Enterprise Mobility Solutions group has formed an alliance with Intrado to deliver next-generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) text messaging enabled products and services.
The two companies will initially focus on a citizen text messaging trial to enable access for individuals who may have speech or hearing disabilities. The result of this trial will help inform how citizen text messages are best integrated as public safety agencies move toward NG9-1-1 services.
In June 2009, Intrado launched the first text messaging solution to successfully deliver text messages directly to 9-1-1 and has continued to enhance that solution in preparation for broader deployment across the public safety community.
For the initial text trial, the interoperability and integration of Motorola's IP based PremierOne CAD and Intrado's A9-1-1 equipment and technology will be achieved using the ATIS Emergency Services Messaging Interface (ESMI) standard.
The companies said they support the need for NG9-1-1 standards. As future NG9-1-1 standards evolve and are approved by industry recognized standards organizations, trial solutions supporting these standards will be considered.
http://www.motorola.com
http://www.intrado.com
Crown Castle to Acquire NewPath Networks for $115 Million
Crown Castle International will acquire NewPath Networks, a provider of distributed antenna system (DAS) networks in the US for $115 million. NewPath was the eleventh platform investment made from the Charterhouse Equity Partners IV fund.
Crown Castle owns, operates, and leases towers and other communication structures for wireless communications. Crown Castle offers significant wireless communications coverage to 92 of the top 100 US markets and to substantially all of the Australian population. Crown Castle owns, operates and manages over 22,000 and approximately 1,600 wireless communication sites in the US and Australia, respectively.
NewPath designs, develops, owns and operates DAS networks that deliver enhanced network coverage, capacity and performance to wireless service providers (WSPs) in areas where traditional network build-out is difficult due to zoning, space, aesthetic, physical obstruction or cost constraints (such as urban areas, residential neighborhoods, large corporate, retail, or university campuses, sports arenas and stadiums).
http://www.crowncastle.com/http://www.newpathnetworks.net
Qualcomm Names Two Investors in India LTE Venture
Qualcomm, which won Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum in four telecom circles in India in the government auction earlier this year, announced the first two shareholders for its India LTE venture: Global Holding Corporation Pvt. Ltd. and Tulip Telecom Ltd. In the recently concluded BWA auction, Qualcomm won one slot of 20 MHz TDD spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band covering the key telecom circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala.
Qualcomm will have a 74 percent stake in the venture, while Global Holding Corporation and Tulip Telecom will hold 13 percent each, as required by applicable Indian Foreign Direct Investment regulations. Qualcomm said its objective is to facilitate the deployment of LTE while ensuring interworking with current and upcoming 3G HSPA and EV-DO networks.
Global Holding Corporation is the holding company of the Global Group, which provides network services to India's mobile operators and owns India's largest independent and neutral telecom tower infrastructure.
Tulip Telecom is India's largest enterprise data connectivity service provider and has significant experience in creating and managing large networks across industry verticals, such as telecom, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail, education, health care and government.
"Our objective was to secure initial shareholders who are operator-neutral, yet bring strong telecom and broadband experience, and we are extremely pleased we met that objective with Global Holding Corporation and Tulip Telecom," said Kanwalinder Singh, president of Qualcomm India and South Asia and senior vice president of Qualcomm. "With our initial shareholders, and operators we intend to bring into the venture in the future, Qualcomm will facilitate accelerated deployment of LTE in concert with 3G HSPA and EV-DO networks, which protects and enhances the significant investment made by Indian operators in securing 3G and BWA spectrum."
http://www.globalgroupenterprise.com
Cable&Wireless Worldwide Closes London Centre
Thursday, July 29, 2010 Satellite
Cable&Wireless Worldwide closed Thameside its earth/satellite location centre in London as part of its ongoing pledge to significantly reduce its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Originally the Docklands Telecommunications Centre, Thameside was a collection of huge satellite dishes in the midst of the city. The relocation to various other sites took over two years to complete.
As a global network node and co-location centre Thameside provided global IP backbone access of up to 10 Gbps for roughly 40,000 100 Mbps Ethernet services. It also supplied direct access to all United Kingdom national and international cable heads, connecting tens of thousands of IP data and voice users around the world via cable networks to Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas.
The relocation of tens of thousands of users' network connectivity was an immense project that has taken just over two years to complete. A team of more than a hundred people were a part of the 24 hour-a-day, two-year long operation to close Thameside, migrating all services and closing all voice, IP and data, hosting; and access platforms located in the site. All electronic equipment was disposed of according to WEEE regulations and, wherever possible, the equipment removed from the site was repurposed in other locations or recycled.
The various services provided by Thameside have been successfully dispersed to other C&W Worldwide locations with the satellite capability moved to Whitehill Earth Station in Oxfordshire and a new ecologically friendly network site, built with low-carbon efficiency in mind, even boasting a living roof that provides insulation, attracts local wildlife, creates an appealing facade for the surroundings and helps C&W Worldwide realise even more carbon savings.
http://www.cw.com
Redknee to Acquire Nimbus for EUR 11 Million
Redknee Solutions, which supplies converged billing, real-time charging, rating and personalization systmes for Service Providers, will acquire privately-held Spanish-based Nimbus Systems for EUR 11.25 million.
Established in 2001, Nimbus Systems has been engaged in analysis, control and management solutions, with a particular focus on customer relationship management systems and billing, rating and partner relationship management. Nimbus Systems currently supports more than 10 customers, including group operators Telefonica and Telia Sonera, and non-telecommunications clients, such as Santander, Spain's largest bank, and First Data, one of the world's leading transaction credit and loyalty card infrastructure companies. Following the acquisition, Nimbus Systems' customers and employees will be integrated into Redknee's existing business with a view to leveraging Nimbus Systems' customer base, partner network and employees.
Redknee said the acquisition of Nimbus Systems will further strengthen its operating model and market share, particularly in global group operators, including Telefonica, Orange and Vodafone, while providing future opportunities to expand into the Latin American markets. Redknee is based in Toronto.
http://www.redknee.comhttp://nimbussys.prohosting.es/
Alcatel-Lucent Sees Improving Market Conditions
Citing improved overall market conditions and growing traction for its products, Alcatel-Lucent reported quarterly revenues of Euro 3.813 billion, up 17.4% sequentially, and down 2.4% year-over-year. The company said it is preparing for a strong second half of the year, backed with a growing order book, and confirmed its financial outlook for the year.
The demand for telecommunications equipment and related services is recovering due to booming data traffic and the need to increase network efficiency, however Alcatel-Lucent noted that its supply chain is still experiencing capacity constraints. Adjusted operating income was Euro 28 million or 0.7% of revenue.
"I am pleased with the continuing progress in our transformation journey, illustrated in the second quarter both by the top line and profitability. Revenues for the quarter reflect the on-going and expected overall improvement in market conditions and the good traction of our product portfolio. This is notably highlighted by the good performance in IP and wireless and, from a geographic standpoint, by strong growth in North America. The quarter also saw strategic and major wins with our selection by the NBN Company as a supplier for the Australian nationwide superfast broadband network rollout and by the ACE consortium to deploy a submarine optical link between Europe and Africa. And I am proud to announce that Alcatel-Lucent has been selected by AT&T as one of its Domain Suppliers for IP/MPLS/EPC equipment," stated Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent's CEO.
Networks segment were Euro 2.304 billion, a decrease of 3.4% compared to Euro 2.384 billion in the year-ago quarter and an increase of 19.5% compared to Euro 1.928 billion in the first quarter 2010.
Revenues for the IP division were Euro 318 million, an increase of 11.2% from the year ago quarter, with near 30% growth from the year ago quarter in IP/MPLS service routers revenue reflecting continued strong momentum in North America and EMEA.
Alcatel-Lucent has been selected by AT&T as one of its Domain Suppliers for IP/MPLS/Ethernet/EPC equipment and consistent with that selection, the group has been awarded a multi-year project related to AT&T's cell site backhaul infrastructure.
Revenues for the Optics division were Euro 622 million, a decrease of 14.6% from the year ago quarter. However, the company said terrestrial optics witnessed significant sequential increase and declined year-over-year at a lower rate than in Q1 2010 driven by strong growth in the WDM segment associated with the success of a new platform and the growing market demand, particularly in North America and Asia Pacific.
Alcatel-Lucent's next-generation terrestrial optics portfolio, including packet optical and microwave products, continues to gain traction, with the first commercially available solution to carry a single carrier 100G signal using Next-Generation Coherent technology.
After sustained strong growth in 2009, the submarine business declined at a double digit rate as some large projects have been completed or are near completion, while recent contracts have not yet started generating revenues and decisions on some other expected projects have been delayed. New major contracts include undersea networks linking Africa and Europe, and the Canary Islands and Spain.
Revenues for the Wireless division were Euro 1.021 billion, an increase of 5.0% from the year ago quarter. The WCDMA business was the key driver of that increase with another quarter of near 50% year-over-year growth driven primarily by the North American market. A very strong sequential increase in the CDMA business reflected spending to accommodate data traffic growth on 3G CDMA (EV-DO) networks, and the year-over-year decline in our GSM business eased to a single digit rate. During the quarter, Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile completed the first high-definition video call over a TD-LTE network at the Shanghai World Expo and was selected as the sole equipment provider for China Telecom's CDMA/EV-DO Rev. B network at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
Revenues for the Wireline division were Euro 366 million, a decrease of 13.7% from the year ago quarter. Although the wireline decrease reflects ongoing spending cuts on legacy technologies, including core switching and ADSL, Alcatel-Lucent is deploying new technologies, including VDSL2 and pair bonding, with carriers like AT&T to extend the reach of their existing copper access infrastructure. In next-generation fiber-based access, sales grew significantly and the company was selected as a strategic supplier for the rollout of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) and will provide GPON and Carrier Ethernet aggregation equipment, as well as engineering and integration services. Alcatel-Lucent was also selected by both China Mobile and China Telecom to deploy its PON-based solutions.
Applications revenues grew at a low single-digit rate with enterprise solutions & Genesys stable. Services revenues declined at a mid single digit rate.
From a geographic standpoint, traction was strong in North America with a double digit rate of growth and an improved trend in Rest of the World with a much smaller decline in revenues than in the first quarter. The sales decline in Europe remained in the high single digit range. Finally, Asia Pacific witnessed a double digit rate decline due to low activity in China, partly offset by significant growth in India.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
IP Infusion Moves Ahead with MPLS-TP
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Packet Systems
IP Infusion is preparing to add MPLS-TP (MPLS-Transport Profile) functionality to its ZebOS Network Platform software, which is widely used by network equipment manufacturers. The forthcoming MPLS-TP specification, which is expected to be finalized next year, will enable carriers to extend their core IP/MPLS network to the edge of mobile networks. MPLS-TP will enable automated maintenance, administration, provisioning and bandwidth management functions in the mobile aggregation network.
IP Infusion said its ZebOS MPLS-TP will preserve the operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) and management characteristics allowing a full end-to-end integration with existing and future IP/MPLS infrastructures. By using IP/MPLS and MPLS-TP from ZebOS, OEMs will be able to provide a consistent way of provisioning, troubleshooting and managing the networks from edge to edge.
MPLS-TP has been engineered specifically for transport networks. It is a reliable connection-oriented, packet-switched transport layer technology that is aligned with existing circuit-switched transport networking. MPLS-TP overlays on existing MPLS networks to provide:
Standardized control plane functionality
Advanced Quality of Service (QoS)
End-to-end Operation, Administration and Maintenance (OAM)
Reduced network equipment footprint
OAM monitors and drives protection switching
Support for existing management processes and work procedures
Initially, IP Infusion will be supporting MPLS-TP static capabilities. This will be updated to full MPLS-TP capabilities as the specification is completed.
IP Infusion has also added support for G MPLS to ZebOS, which can be used as a dynamic control plane with MPLS-TP so that the network sets up Label Switching Paths (LSPs) and PseudoWires (PWEs). GMPLS is based on the TE extensions to MPLS (MPLS-TE). It may also be used to set up the OAM function and define recovery mechanisms.
http://www.ipinfusion.com
IBM Acquires Storwize for Real-time Data Compression
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Start-ups
IBM will acquire Storwize, a privately held developer of real-time data compression technology. Storwize can compress primary data, or data that clients are actively using, of multiple types -- from files to virtualization images to databases -- in real-time while maintaining performance. This is in contrast to other storage compression technologies that only compress secondary or backup data. The companies claim the technology can reduce physical storage requirements by up to 80% Financial terms were not disclosed.
Storwize , which is based in Marlborough, MA, claims over one hundred customers, such as Mobileye, Polycom Israel, Shopzilla, Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Construction.
http://www.ibm.com
http://www.storwize.com/
Dell'Oro: WLAN Market to Exceed $7 Billion by 2014
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Wi-Fi
Overall WLAN market revenues are expected to surpass $7 billion by 2014, according to a newly released market forecast report by Dell'Oro Group. The enterprise segment and the small office, home office segments will account for a majority of that growth, with enterprise revenues expected to expand more than 100 percent over 2009.
"The proliferation of Wi-Fi enabled devices and users' desire for constant access are fundamentally changing how network administrators accommodate the devices," said Loren Shalinsky, Senior Analyst of Wireless LAN research at Dell'Oro Group. IT departments actively seek ways to allow these mobile users to connect to the network, regardless of which client device is used, increasing the requirements for wireless networks. Previously, IT departments often only allowed corporate owned or approved devices to connect. "The increase in the number of Wi-Fi enabled devices will contribute to growth in all three WLAN market segments, as mobile users want access to the same information, regardless of where they are located. US Government spending, through programs like the Smart Grid Investment grants, the Broadband Investment Program, and the E-rate program also will contribute to WLAN growth," added Shalinsky.
http://www.delloro.com
SF Bay Area to Build Public Safety 700 MHz LTE Net with Motorola
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Mobile
Public Safety Agencies within the San Francisco Bay Area have selected Motorola's Enterprise Mobility Solutions
to build a 700 MHz LTE system.
As part of the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System (BayRICS) plan, the system will serve multiple agencies across the greater bay area, including San Francisco, Alameda County/Oakland, Contra Costa County, as well as the cities of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. This broadband system provides an overlay to the existing Project 25 standards based IP cores and networks.
The Public Safety LTE system will be installed this year and is expected to be operational in early 2011. This first phase includes an LTE core, 10 sites and 330 Motorola Public Safety LTE user modems to provide Bay Area responders access to a host of media rich applications delivered over the new broadband network for increased public safety information sharing.
"This agreement represents a first step in realizing the BayRICS vision for a unified, state-of-the-art, mission critical voice and broadband multimedia network," said Laura Phillips, general manager of the Bay Area UASI. "Combining a Public Safety hardened LTE overlay network with our Project 25 voice and data networks, we have the opportunity to equip our first responders with the advanced communications tools they need to better protect themselves and our communities."http://www.motorola.com/nextgenhttp://www.bayareauasi.org
Boeing Completes Acquisition of Narus
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Financial
Boeing completed its previously announced acquisition of Narus, a leading provider of real-time network traffic and analytics software used to protect against cyber attacks and persistent threats aimed at large IP networks. Its NarusInsight system provides deep insight into multiple layers of IP network traffic in real time, enabling applications such as network cyber protection, traffic and application monitoring and capture for legal intercept, and traffic management via policy enforcement.
At the time the deal was announced, Boeing said the acquisition follows a successful partnership with Narus and advances its strategy to offer world-class, scalable, state-of-the-art cybersecurity solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.boeing.com
http://www.narus.com
Motorola Reports Improving Financials
Motorola reported Q2 2010 sales of $5.4 billion and GAAP earnings of $162 million, or $0.07 per share, which compares to GAAP earnings of $26 million, or $0.01 per share, in the second quarter of 2009. Motorola generated positive operating cash flow of $242 million, reduced long-term debt through a $500 million tender offer and ended the quarter with a total cash position of $8.3 billion. For Q3, Motorola expects earnings will range from $0.10 to $0.12 per share.
Mobile Devices segment sales were $1.7 billion, down 6 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. GAAP operating earnings were $87 million, which included income from a significant legal settlement of $228 million, compared to an operating loss of $287 million in the year-ago quarter. The non-GAAP operating loss was $109 million, compared to an operating loss of $239 million in the year-ago quarter.
Home segment sales were $886 million, down 13 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. GAAP operating earnings were $29 million, compared to $18 million in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating earnings were $57 million, compared to $49 million in the year-ago quarter.
Enterprise Mobility Solutions segment sales were $1.9 billion, up 10 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. GAAP operating earnings were $181 million, compared to operating earnings of $141 million in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating earnings were $292 million, compared to $225 million in the year-ago quarter.
Networks segment sales were $967 million, down 2 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. GAAP operating earnings were $178 million, compared to $92 million in the year-ago quarter. Non-GAAP operating earnings were $191 million, compared to $147 million in the year-ago quarter.
France Telecom Reaches 182 million Customers Accesses
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 Service Providers
The France Telecom Group reported consolidated revenues of 22.144 billion euros for the first half of 2010, down 2.2% on a comparable basis. EBITDA was 7.745 billion euros for a margin of 35.0%, with the erosion limited to 0.9 points on a comparable basis. The company confirmed its ambition for organic cash-flow generation for 2010 and 2011.
Capital expenditure was 2.114 billion euros in the first half, for a CAPEX rate of 9.5% of revenues
organic cash flow of 3.989 billion euros in the first half of 2010.
A total year-on-year increase in the customer base of 3.8%, with 182 million customers at 30 June 2010
There was a 6.6% growth in the mobile customer base to 123.1 million customers at 30 June 2010, driven by Africa and the Middle East with a combined total of 34.0 million customers at 30 June 2010, an increase of 18.4% year on year.
There was a 2.2% growth in ADSL broadband subscribers (13.2 million customers) and rapid growth of digital TV with 3.6 million subscribers at 30 June 2010, a year-on-year increase of 34%
In France, broadband ARPU grew by 4.6% to 36.6 euros per month. The company's Pay TV customer base reached 1,687,000 vs 1,619,000 at the end of March 2010. Orange Cinema Series + Orange Sport had about 752,000 subs.
The company experienced stable first half 2010 revenues compared with the first half of 2009 excluding the effects of regulation, an improvement after the 0.9% downturn recorded in the second half of 2009:
There was a very strong growth of 8.0% in Africa and the Middle East driven mainly by the 29% increase from new operations.
Growth of operations in France (+0.3%, including +4.0% growth in mobile services), Spain (+2.5%, including +3.7% growth in mobile services), Poland (an improvement of 1.8 points to -3.4%, following -5.2% in the second half of 2009) and the other European countries (+0.9%), led by Belgium.
France Telecom will propose a dividend of €1.40 per share for the fiscal years 2010, 2011 and 2012, subject to a vote in favour of these payments by shareholders at the relevant Annual General Meetings.
http://www.orange.com
BT Revenue Declines as Profit Increases
BT Group reported quarterly revenue of £5,006 million, down 4%, and adjusted EBITDA of £1,399 million, up 6%, as total group operating costs, before specific items, decreased by 6% to £4,424m, primarily due to reductions
in total labour costs and the delivery of other cost savings by all lines of business. Adjusted profit before tax was £446 million, up 17%.
"We have made an acceptable start to the year, delivering improved financial results while investing in the future of the business. In TV we are offering great value premium sports packages and can now compete on a more even playing field. We hit the first major milestone in our fibre roll out, passing over 1.5m premises, and we are now running at an average rate of around 100,000 premises passed every week. In BT Global Services we continue to win significant contracts due to our ability to deliver a world class service to our customers," stated Ian Livingston, Chief Executive.
For BT Retail, revenue decreased by 7%. This decline was largely due to the ongoing reduction in calls and lines revenue. Excluding the one-off revenue benefit last year, our Consumer revenues were down 6%. Business revenues were down 4%. Consumer ARPU increased to £314, up £5 over the previous quarter, principally due to increasing take up of broadband. Broadband net additions were 96,000 in the quarter and BT's retail market share was 40%. Since the launch in January of BT's "Infinity" fibre based broadband service has seen order levels accelerate.
For BT Wholesale, revenue declined by 10%. Excluding the £44m reduction in low margin transit revenue, primarily due to mobile termination rate reductions, revenue declined by 2%. This decline reflected in part continued reductions in broadband and circuits revenue of £69m. Managed network services (MNS) revenue grew by 19% to £199m and now represents 24% of external revenue (Q1 2009/10: 19%). 42% of external revenue is now underpinned by long term contracts (Q1 2009/10: 34%).
For Openreach, revenue declined by 8%. Growth in Ethernet volumes stimulated by lower prices and other connection revenues offset the continued migration from WLR to lower priced MPF. Net operating costs reduced by 17% partly due to changes in the internal trading model offsetting the revenue decline and lower leaver costs. Capital expenditure increased by 16% due to the increased investment in the fibre roll.
http://www.btplc.com
AT&T Selects Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and Juniper for IP/MPLS/Ethernet/EPC Domain
AT&T has selected Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and Juniper Networks as its Domain Suppliers for IP/MPLS/Ethernet/Evolved Packet Core equipment needed for its industry-leading IP-based network. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"After conducting an extensive review of multiple IP/MPLS/Ethernet/Evolved Packet Core equipment suppliers, we're pleased to extend long-standing relationships with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, and Juniper Networks," said Tim Harden, President of AT&T's Supply Chain and Fleet Operations organization. "AT&T's selection of these three industry-leading suppliers as Domain Suppliers showcases our ongoing commitment to meet the quality expectations of our customers today, while preparing for the demands of tomorrow."
AT&T said its Domain Supplier program, launched in September 2009, facilitates a more collaborative relationship with its equipment and software suppliers. The company noted that its network carries 18.7 petabytes of IP and data traffic on an average business day, the equivalent of transporting the entire digitized Library of Congress more than 250 times. This traffic volume has doubled over the last four years. The network includes more than 880,000 route miles of fiber-optic cable.
AT&T in January announced total 2010 capital expenditures are expected to be between $18 billion and $19 billion, a level framed by the expectation that regulatory and legislative decisions relating to the telecom sector will continue to be sensitive to investment.
Portugal Telecom Selects Alcatel-Lucent's HLN Strategy
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Service Providers
Portugal Telecom has awarded a three-year agreement to Alcatel-Lucent to extend the capacity of its IP/MPLS network to support existing and new services to its growing customer base. PT will evolve its converged IP/MPLS network based on Alcatel-Lucent's High Leverage Network (HLN) architecture.
The architecture will leverage an all-IP network layered with embedded intelligence and application awareness that improves the end-users experience as well as PT's ability to bring new services to market more efficiently. The platform will also enable Portugal Telecom to implement 100 Gigabit Ethernet, L2/L3 mobile backhaul and IPv6 services.
Specifically, Alcatel-Lucent will enhance PT's use of the 7750 Service Router, managed by the 5620 Service Aware Manager, to become the converged service edge for consumer Internet, IPTV and VoIP services, Carrier Ethernet VPNs services for enterprises and mobile backhaul services. The new, distributed architecture locates the IP service edge functionality at the edge of networks, close to subscribers, providing a significant increase in bandwidth per subscriber.
http://www.telecom.p
HomePlug AV2 Spec to Support Gigabit-class Powerline
The HomePlug Powerline Alliance announced major advancements by its Technical Working Group (TWG) on the HomePlug AV2 specification, which will be fully interoperable with current HomePlug AV and future HomePlug Green PHY and IEEE 1901 products.
Key powerline enhancements the TWG selected for inclusion in the developing HomePlug AV2 specification include:
MIMO (Multiple-Inputs Multiple-Outputs) offers significant increases in link throughput and range without requiring additional spectrum or transmit power. MIMO allows the data signal to propagate from multiple outputs to multiple inputs implementing advanced transmission coding schemes which will increase capacity and enable more reliable and expanded home coverage. This is similar to the 802.11n and 802.16e which use MIMO solutions with wireless products to extend performance.
Increased MAC (Medium Access Control) efficiencies that lower overhead and expand throughput.
Increased operating spectrum: the specification will expand operations into an additional spectrum, up to an order of magnitude beyond current powerline technology. This increased bandwidth will further improve performance.
Extending coverage via repeating and routing technology in networks of three or more nodes
The HomePlug AV2 specification is expected to deliver a 5x increase in performance over current HomePlug AV solutions at the application layer to offer significant improvements in whole home coverage to guarantee reliable delivery of throughput intensive applications such as multiple streams of 1080p HD video (and emerging 3D and 4K HD) broadband Internet, Internet gaming and security camera video over existing electrical wiring. These advancements are necessary to meet the increasingly demanding Quality of Experience (QoE) requirements of service providers and consumer electronics companies.
http://www.HomePlug.org
Pacific Crossing Boosts Capacity
Pacific Crossing, which is a division of NTT Communications, has again boosted the capacity of its PC-1 trans-Pacific undersea cable network and expanded its Ethernet service capability.
The newly added capacity will come into service at the end of July. A third upgrade of the PC-1 system is scheduled for later in 2010.
Following its upgrade of the PC-1 system in 2008, which pushed the lit capacity of the cable over the 1Tbps mark, Pacific Crossing has now added additional wavelengths to boost trans-Pacific capacity further to more than 1.3Tbps. The upgrade has been implemented seamlessly on the existing PC-1 infrastructure, with no interruption to customer services and circuits.
http://www.pacificcrossing.com
Dell'Oro: Ethernet Microwave Market Forecast
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Mobile
The point-to-point microwave equipment market is forecast to grow 30 percent over the next five years to $6.6 billion in 2014, according to a newly published report by Dell'Oro Group.
"Mobile data traffic is expected to nearly double each year in the near future and by 2014, the vast majority of traffic backhauled from cell sites will be data packets and not voice circuits," said Jimmy Yu, Sr. Director of Microwave Transmission research at Dell'Oro Group. "We believe this will drive demand for Ethernet microwave systems that allow mobile operators to scale their backhaul network beyond a few megabits of T1s and E1s to adding a full fast Ethernet. This migration to Ethernet will likely also give operators an opportunity to create a more efficient data backhaul network that takes advantage of statistical multiplexing and quality of service that prioritizes traffic according to its type. We, therefore, expect that combined Packet and Hybrid Microwave, both of which switch and transmit native Ethernet, will become 95 percent of the total radio transceiver shipments by 2014," Yu added.
Korea's LG U+ Teams with Microsoft on Cloud Services
LG U+, the new Korean telecommunication service provider formed by the merger of LG Telecom, LG Dacom and LG Powercomm, will partner with Microsoft to offer a broad range of cloud services. By leveraging Microsoft Online Services, LG U+ will be able to deliver enterprise-class solutions and rich user experiences to small and midsize enterprises and consumers through its Smart Workplace offering. Additional services contemplated under the alliance include collaboration on cloud services across three areas, software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service.
http://www.lguplus.com/
ARRIS Posts Q2 Revenue of $280 Million
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Financial
ARRIS reported Q2 2010 of $280.4 million, up approximately $1.9 million as compared to second quarter 2009 revenues of $278.5 million, and up $13.7 million as compared to first quarter 2010 revenues of $266.7 million. Through the first half of 2010 and 2009, revenues were $547.1 million and $532.0 million, respectively. GAAP net income in the second quarter 2010 was $0.15 per diluted share, as compared to second quarter 2009 GAAP net income of $0.18 per diluted share and the first quarter 2010 GAAP net income of $0.15 per diluted share. Year to date, GAAP net income was $0.30 per diluted share in 2010 as compared to GAAP net income of $0.28 per diluted share in 2009.
"The second quarter closed in line with our expectations and I continue to believe that we are well positioned for long-term growth," said Bob Stanzione, ARRIS Chairman & CEO. "I am particularly encouraged by our progress related to future products that will enable hybrid and full IP video architectures that our customers are now exploring."http://www.arrisi.com
Meru Networks Reports Rapid Sales Rise
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Wi-Fi
Meru Networks, which supplies enterprise WLAN solutions, reported Q2 2010 revenue of $20.9 million, up 22% from $17.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2009. Products and services revenues for the second quarter of fiscal year 2010 were $18.0 million, up 47% from the $12.3 million reported in the second quarter of fiscal year 2009.
Net income as reported in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) was $0.9 million for the second quarter of 2010, or $0.05 per fully diluted share, compared to a net loss of $2.3 million, or net loss per share of $6.20, for the same period of fiscal year 2009.
"I am pleased with our second quarter results, which I believe demonstrate the continuing demand we're seeing from our key markets as well as our proven ability to execute," said Ihab Abu-Hakima, president and chief executive officer, Meru Networks.
http://www.merunetworks.com
GENBAND Adds Automated Cutover to Softswitch
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 PacketVoice
GENBAND introduced a new Automated Cutover capability to its C15 Compact Softswitch that eliminates downtime normally associated with network transitions to IP. The Automated Cutover capability is an embedded software utility that equips services providers to migrate legacy networks to IP without having to shut-down their network or perform time-consuming flash cutovers, which can result in loss of service for end users. It enables service providers to migrate multiple Central Offices on a site-by-site, frame-by-frame and line-by-line basis. During the network migration, inbound and outbound calls continue to route to the appropriate legacy TDM or C15 IP softswitch automatically.
http://www.genband.com
NetLogic Posts Q2 Revenue of $95 Million
NetLogic Microsystems reported Q2 revenue of $95.0 million, a 10.2 percent sequential increase from $86.3 million for the first quarter of 2010 and a 192 percent increase from $32.5 million for the second quarter of 2009. Second quarter 2010 net loss (GAAP) was $4.8 million or $0.08 per diluted share. By comparison, GAAP net loss was $2.2 million or $0.05 per diluted share for the second quarter of 2009.
"This is a very exciting time for us," said Ron Jankov, president and CEO. "When we announced the merger with RMI last June, we were committed to not only executing on both companies' highly ambitious technology roadmaps, but also to leveraging each company's best-in-class technologies to offer our customers highly valuable and unique system-level solutions for communications networking. "http://www.netlogicmicro.com
Telefónica gains control of Brazil's Vivo
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Brazil, Latin America, Service Providers
Telefónica reached an agreement with Portugal Telecom to purchase 50% of Brasilcel held by the Portuguese operator.
The entity to result from the Telesp-Vivo business combination, to which Telefónica will bring its extensive track record in integrating acquisitions and capturing synergies, will be the largest integrated operator in Brazil by all key metrics: by customer numbers (69.2 million to March 2010), revenue/OIBDA (11.8 and 4.1 billion euros in 2009, respectively) 1, and profitability (OIBDA margin 2009: 35%).
Chairman of Telefónica, Cesar Alierta, said of the outcome: "We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Portugal Telecom which benefits both companies shareholders. It is a unique value creation opportunity. Vivo leads the Brazilian mobile telephony market, a market to which Telefónica is strategically committed."http://www.telefonica.com
Sprint Nextel Adds 111K Subscribers in Q2
Sprint gained a total of approximately 111,000 net subscribers in the quarter. The company cited steady demand for smartphones like HTC EVO 4G and BlackBerry Curve combined with its best ever postpaid churn of 1.85 percent for the positive net postpaid subscriber growth of 136,000 on the CDMA network and 285,000 for the Sprint brand. The company also posted its best ever year-over-year quarterly net postpaid subscriber loss improvement of 763,000. The company achieved its best year-over-year quarterly improvement in postpaid gross subscriber additions in more than five years.
Sprint posted second quarter consolidated net operating revenues of approximately $8.0 billion, a net loss of $760 million and a diluted loss per share of 25 cents, which includes a non-cash $302 million (10-cent-per-share charge) increase in valuation allowance on deferred tax assets resulting from net operating loss carryforwards generated during the second quarter, for a pro forma diluted loss per share of 15 cents. The company generated $709 million of Free Cash Flow* in the quarter, and maintained a strong liquidity position with approximately $4.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the quarter after retiring all 2010 note maturities of $750 million in the quarter.
"Our intense focus for the past ten quarters on improving the customer experience, strengthening our brands, and generating cash are paying off," said Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel CEO. "With strong cash flow, stable OIBDA and widespread third-party recognition for the improvements we're making in the customer experience, which in turn strengthens our brands, we feel we can confidently improve our subscriber forecasts for the second half of 2010 and deliver positive total net wireless subscriber additions for the remainder of the year."
Sprint 4G is now available in 43 markets serving approximately 51 million people. Its partner, Clearwire, expects coverage to reach up to 120 million people by the end of 2010 including deployments in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
http://www.sprint.com
Comcast Report Q2 Revenue of $9.5 Billion
Comcast's revenue increased 6.1% in Q2 2010 to $9.5 billion, while Operating Cash Flow increased 5.7% to $3.7 billion and Operating Income increased 10.9% to $2.1 billion. This growth was due to solid operating results in the Cable and Programming segments, partially offset by $22 million of NBC Universal-related transaction costs.
"We delivered healthy operating and financial results in the second quarter, reflecting overall customer growth, double-digit increases in high-speed internet and voice revenue, an improving advertising market and continued momentum in Business Services. We are very focused on profitable growth. At the same time, we continue to make significant progress deploying All-Digital and DOCSIS 3.0," stated Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast.
Capital Expenditures for the second quarter of 2010 increased 1.5% to $1.1 billion, or 11.9% of total revenue, reflecting increased investments in Comcast Business Services and product enhancement initiatives. For the six months ended June 30, 2010, capital expenditures decreased 9.6% to $2.1 billion, or 11.0% of total revenue.
As of June 30, 2010, Comcast's Video, High-Speed Internet and Comcast Digital Voice customers totaled 47.8 million, an increase of 3.4% over the prior year.
http://www.comcast.com
NTT and Mitsubishi Electric Develop Advanced Encryption Scheme
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Packet Systems
NTT and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. have developed a new advanced encryption scheme that uses a mathematical approach called the "dual pairing vector spaces. The companies said their new encryption scheme will play an important role in achieving secure environments for cloud computing and other advanced network services. The two companies now plan to study how to efficiently implement and utilize this scheme for various applications.
Alcatel-Lucent Tests 100GE Performance with Isocore and Ixia
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Optical
Isocore has tested and verified the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router's (SR) 100 Gigabit Ethernet (100 GE) performance using Ixia's K2 100 GE test solution. The tests validate the Service Router's ability to handle high-touch service connections at 100 Gbps line-rate speeds. The companies said the test results also demonstrate the viability of 100 GE for broad deployment throughout carrier networks, extending beyond the IP core and into the service edge and metro, where services meet the network.
This test is the first 100 GE demonstration of line-rate, loss-less transmission using a diverse mix of service traffic types with thousands of queues and service attributes, which are critical for service assurance. Ixia's K2 and IxNetwork were used to emulate the Ethernet and IP traffic seen on business VPN services offered to corporate customers who have stringent performance and service level agreement (SLA) expectations.
Specifically, Isocore and Ixia tested configurations that emulated large-scale connection and service attributes in service provider networks which offer high-touch IP and Ethernet VPN services. Isocore used Ixia's K2 100 GE test solution to transmit, capture and perform real-time analysis with full line-rate 100 GE Internet mix (IMIX) traffic in conjunction with layer 3 Virtual Private Networks (L3VPN), layer 2 VPNs, QinQ double tagging at the customer edge, and Ethernet Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS).
The test emulated both customer edge (CE) and provider edge (PE) routers with OSPF (Open Shortest Path First), LDP (Label Distribution Protocol) and MP-iBGP (multiprotocol-Interior Border Gateway Protocol) sessions. The Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SR was configured with 8,000 IP-VPNs, 4,000 Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) links, and 20,000 layer 2 VPNs. The 7750 SR maintained comprehensive quality of service (QoS) on each flow while operating at 100 Gbps line rate.
Ixia noted that its Higher Speed Ethernet (HSE) solutions are the only full-production test products available today that validate IEEE 802.3ba standards-based network elements. Ixia's K2 modules generate and analyze 40 GE and 100 GE BERT and layer 2-7 line-rate traffic, with up to one million distinct flows. K2 modules are compatible with Ixia's testing applications, which allowed Isocore to initially develop its configurations using 10 GE interfaces and then to quickly adapt as needed to support Alcatel-Lucent's 100 Gbps service routing interfaces.
http://www.ixiacom.com
Tellabs Posts Q2 Revenue of $423 Million, up 10% YoY
Monday, July 26, 2010 Financial
Tellabs reported Q2 2010 revenue of $423 million, up 10% from $385 million in the second quarter of 2009.
On a GAAP basis, Tellabs earned 17 cents per basic share and 16 cents per diluted share in the second
quarter of 2010, up from 4 cents per share (basic and diluted) in the year-ago quarter. Second-quarter
2010 GAAP net earnings were $64 million, compared with $16 million in the year-ago quarter.
Tellabs' GAAP gross profit margin was 53.5% in the second quarter of 2010, compared with 43.5% in
the year-ago quarter.
"Tellabs is achieving profitable revenue growth as our innovations help our customers succeed in growth
markets such as mobile Internet," said Rob Pullen, Tellabs president and chief executive officer. "In the
second quarter, our growth products with IP and Ethernet technologies generated 58% of our revenue."
For the second quarter of 2010, Broadband segment revenue was $229 million, up 9% from the year-ago
quarter. Transport segment revenue was $133 million, up 12%. Services segment revenue was $61
million, up 8%.
http://www.tellabs.com
France's Bouygues Telecom taps Alcatel-Lucent for Mobile Backhaul
Monday, July 26, 2010 Packet Systems
Bouygues Telecom of France has selected the Alcatel-Lucent IP/MPLS-based mobile backhaul solution to support smartphone data traffic. Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its 7750 Service Router (SR) and 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR) along with the Alcatel-Lucent 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM). Alcatel-Lucent will provide a full range of comprehensive business transformation services including network design, installation, integration, testing and system maintenance. Financial terms were not disclosed.
China Mobile Selects Alcatel-Lucent's IMS
Monday, July 26, 2010 Mobile
China Mobile will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's IMS Solution in Shanxi, Shandong and Gansu provinces to support the delivery of enhanced communication services to consumers and businesses. The contract was secured through Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell. Financial terms were not disclosed.
As part of its IMS framework, China Mobile will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's IP Access Border Solution, which provides security at the network's edge to enable network-independent access to offerings such as triple play services, as well as independent scaling of media and signaling elements to flexibly support today's multimedia traffic mix.
Alcatel-Lucent said the IMS network, when it is completed, will help China Mobile to deliver services such as in-call sharing of images and video, presence-enhanced contact management and unified messaging across mobile and fixed devices.
Qualcomm Sees Opportunity in Electric Vehicle Charging
Monday, July 26, 2010 Service Providers
Qualcomm has formed a partnership with ECOtality to implement cellular connectivity into charging stations. The solution will allow ECOtality to use a commercial cellular network to manage its Blink brand charging station operations, transfer usage data, download firmware updates and publish availability to electric vehicle drivers in real time.
ECOtality plans to begin deploying cellular-enabled charging stations this year under the EV Project, a $230 million project involving the U.S. Department of Energy; ECOtality's subsidiary, ECOtality North America; and more than 40 project partners.
The EV Project is the largest deployment of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in U.S. history, including up to 8,300 fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and nearly 15,000 at-home and publicly available charging systems. All chargers to be deployed under this program, as well as those carrying ECOtality's recently unveiled Blink brand, will contain Qualcomm technology to communicate over cellular networks.
http://www.ecotality.com
Broadcom Posts Record Quarterly Net Revenue -- Up 54% YoY
Broadcom reported record Q2 2010 revenue of $1.604 billion, an increase in net revenue of 9.7% compared with the $1.462 billion reported for Q1 2010 and an increase of 54.3% compared with the $1.040 billion reported for Q2 2009. Net income (GAAP) was $278 million, or $.52 per share (diluted), compared with GAAP net income of $210 million, or $.40 per share (diluted), for the first quarter of 2010, and GAAP net income of $13 million, or $.03 per share (diluted), for the second quarter of 2009.
"The second quarter was an exceptional quarter for Broadcom, as strong product demand within our Broadband and Mobile & Wireless segments resulted in record revenue and earnings. Broadcom's substantial increase in earnings per share and solid improvement in product operating margin demonstrates our commitment to driving profitable growth in 2010," said Scott A. McGregor, Broadcom's President and Chief Executive Officer.
"We anticipate that increasing demand for communications solutions and market share gains will drive strong revenue growth for Broadcom in the third quarter."http://www.broadcom.com
Wholesale Applications Community Sets Course
The Wholesale Applications Community, which was formed earlier this year by global telecommunications operators looking to build an open alternative Apple's iTunes and similar storefronts, has taken its first steps.
The initiative has formally registered as a not-for-profit corporate entity based in the UK, named a prestigious board of directors, and joined forces with the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL).
Peters Suh has been named the CEO of the Wholesale Applications Community. Most recently Peters was the CEO of the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL), a joint venture between China Mobile, SOFTBANK MOBILE, Verizon Wireless, and Vodafone. Prior to JIL, Peters held a number of executive positions at Vodafone, Fremont Communications and AirTouch.
The company announced that Michel Combes, Vodafone Chief Executive Europe has been elected Chairman of the Wholesale Applications Community, and Jean-Philippe Vanot, Deputy CEO, France Telecom has been named as Vice Chairman.
In addition to Combes and Vanot, the WAC board of directors includes:
John Donovan, CTO, AT&T
Li Zhengmao, VP, China Mobile
Olivier Baujard, CTO Deutsche Telekom
Alex Sinclair, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer, GSMA
Dr Hyun-Myung PYO, President of Mobile Business Group, KT Corporation
Dr Kiyohito Nagata, SVP, NTT DOCOMO
Sung Min Ha, President Mobile Network Operation Business Unit, SK Telecom
Napoleon Nazareno, President and CEO, Smart Communications
Tetsuzo Matsumoto, Senior Executive Vice President, SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp.
Marco Patuano, Head of Domestic Market Operations, Telecom Italia
Vivek Dev, Group Director of Global New Services, Telefónica
Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO, Telekom Austria Group
Morten-Karlsen Sorby, EVP and Head of Corporate Development, Telenor
Dick Lynch, EVP and CTO, Verizon
WAC aims to establish wholesale applications ecosystem that provides a simple route to market for developers to deliver the latest innovative applications and services. Network operators would be able to distribute applications through their respective application storefronts and charge users through their existing phone bill. In this model, developers will set the application price and will receive a revenue share for the transaction. The revenue share will be defined on an operator-by-operator basis.
WAC aims to publish its initial specification and components of its SDK to developers in November. This specification will be based on W3C standards and create a strong platform for developing rich mobile web applications. WAC will also provide backwards compatibility for devices based upon the current JIL and BONDI specifications.
http://www.wholesaleappcommunity.com
UNH-IOL Launches 40 & 100GigE Consortium
The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) is establishing a 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium for companies preparing products for the IEEE 802.3ba standard for high speed Ethernet.
The consortium is currently accepting founding member companies who will have an early opportunity to provide input into the testing process and have market ready products as the high speed Ethernet standards evolve.
http://www.iol.unh.eduhttp://www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/ethernet
Huawei and Silicon Vendors Complete DSL Retransmission Test
Monday, July 26, 2010 Last Mille
Huawei, in partnership with major DSL chipset suppliers, including Broadcom, Lantiq and Ikanos, successfully completed the industry' s first ITU-T G.998.4-compliant DSL retransmission interoperability (IOP) test. The test proves that DSL retransmission technology is mature, with good IOP among chipsets from major DSL chipset suppliers.
ITU-T G.998.4 retransmission technology is an important milestone for DSL technology because it improves DSL stability by diminishing impulse noise, lowering high bit error rates (BER), and reducing the number of dropped VoIP calls, and frozen, blank, or paused screens. This is seen as a key to ensuring high-quality IPTV services over DSL.
In this Huawei-led DSL retransmission test, chipsets from different suppliers passed the IOP test, even in high impulse noise environments. In the ADSL2+ IOP test between Broadcom and Lantiq, the payload throughputs showed little difference between retransmission features enabled with impulse noise, and retransmission features without impulse noise. The maximum packet delay caused by retransmission is approximately 6 milliseconds, and the anti-impulse-noise capability of the retransmission technology is more than 10 times that of traditional INP technologies.
Mr. Deng Xiaohe, Chief Officer of Access Network Product Line, Huawei, said, "DSL retransmission technology will help carriers worldwide to construct best-in-class ultra-broadband, ultra-stable DSL networks. We believe that through our joint efforts with industry-leading chipset suppliers, this technology will enable carriers to roll out new services that meet the needs of today' s consumers who seek not only higher bandwidth and richer services but better broadband service stability."http://www.huawei.com
OpenSAF Announces High Availability Middleware Release 4.0
Monday, July 26, 2010 StandardsWatch
OpenSAF announced the public availability of Release 4.0 of its high availability (HA) middleware platform. OpenSAF Release 4.0 implements all major functions of the Service Availability Forum Application Interface Specification and includes important enhancements to improve scalability as well as hardware and software management.
"With Release 4.0, OpenSAF has reached a level of maturity that will broaden its reach and cross-industry impact," said Monica Hatlen of Ericsson, President of the OpenSAF Foundation. "Release 4.0 in many ways fulfills the vision of the initial OpenSAF community when the project was created, and we are proud to offer it to the world. It delivers a cost-effective, standards-based way to create highly available and reliable networks, and its new management features take a big step toward solving larger problems, including network saturation from increased smartphone use. Consumers also will reap this benefit as mobile traffic continues to grow."
OpenSAF is an open source community focused on developing HA middleware consistent with SA Forum specifications.
The group said its OpenSAF code base has re-architected to be much more modular, so that users can now build and install only the features they want, reducing the overhead of maintaining unneeded services. Release 4.0 is the first implementation in the industry of the SA Forum Software Management Framework (SMF), which enables users to upgrade -- or roll back -- application software from one deployment configuration to another, seamlessly, without affecting service availability. SMF represents the first real industry effort at standardizing a software management interface, and it offers great potential benefits to users who have had to create and maintain proprietary implementations.
Other key enhancements include implementation of the SA Forum's new Platform Layer Management (PLM) service, which provides hardware abstraction to ease the management of supporting multiple hardware architectures and facilitates virtualization. This can significantly increase scalability and thus the overall usage and ROI of OpenSAF on multiple platforms, within an organization. Release 4.0 also has a number of logging, tracing and debugging enhancements.
http://www.opensaf.orghttp://devel.opensaf.org/wiki/downloads/
AT&T Builds Security Center portal, Implements Arbor for DDOS
AT&T announced two separate enhancements to its cloud-based security services -- the launch of AT&T Security Center, a new Web-based security administration tool that is accessible via the AT&T BusinessDirect Portal, as well as enhancements to AT&T Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) defense protection.
The AT&T Security Center portal enables customers to perform a multitude of network management and administrative tasks:
Centralization of security tools for Network-Based Firewall self-servicing, Premises-Based Firewall, Intrusion Detection, AT&T Threat Management Suite of tools (AIP, DDoS, PIP, MIP), Security Event and Threat Management, End-Point Security, Web Security Services and Token Authentication.
New interactive security reporting for Network-Based Firewall self-servicing, Premises-Based Firewall and Managed Intrusion Detection, with additional reporting options planned to be rolled out in a phased approach.
Access to security resources and tools such as device policy change requests, AT&T Security Product information, AT&T CSO Security Insight microsite, AT&T Tech Channel videos, internet traffic watch (Flood), IP address lookup tool and access to the latest security advisories with tips for customers to keep current on the latest security vulnerabilities
AT&T also is announcing implementation of the next generation of DDoS mitigation hardware from Arbor Networks within its network-based security infrastructure. This new fully managed security platform includes a range of capabilities to help mitigate the latest attacks:
Blocking of known malicious hosts and application layer exploits; defense against Web-based threats and botnets; and protection of VoIP services and critical infrastructure.
24x7 "peace time" pro-active monitoring of customer traffic with learned traffic data fed back into customers' traffic profiles, which can be leveraged to help protect against future attacks.
Up to 40 Gbps surgical mitigation that automatically identifies and removes only attack traffic without interrupting flow of legitimate business traffic.
http://www.arbornetworks.com
Juniper to Acquire SMobile for Mobile Security
Juniper Networks agreed to acquire SMobile Systems, a privately-held developer of smart phone and tablet security solutions, for $70 million in cash.
SMobile's product portfolio protects devices running on Android, Apple iOS, Symbian, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile operating systems from viruses, spyware, identity theft and other threats, while providing parental and enterprise controls. SMobile said its solution combines strong mobile security with a powerful device management console. Enterprises are able to protect mobile users against viruses and malicious attacks while being able to remotely locate and wipe lost devices.
SMobile was founded in 2002, has approximately 35 employees, and is based in Columbus, Ohio. Noted customers include BT, Fortune 15 companies and U.S. government agencies.
Juniper plans to integrate the SMobile technology into Junos Pulse, its software client for enabling ubiquitous connectivity, security and acceleration to smart phones, tablets, netbooks and notebooks.
"Security breaches in today's mobile environment are growing threats that impact everyone," said Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president and general manager, Services Layer Technologies at Juniper Networks. "Juniper already secures the majority of smart phone traffic in the United States, is a global leader in high-end firewalls and the SSL VPN2 market, and enables more than 25 million end users to remotely and securely connect their PCs and smart phones to corporate networks. Integrating SMobile's portfolio into Junos Pulse will provide users with the most comprehensive mobile security solution available on the market."http://www.juniper.nethttp://www.smobilesystems.com/
In June 2010, Juniper Networks released its Junos Pulse multi-service network client for mobile networks. The Junos Pulse client allows the IT staff to enforce consistent endpoint security policies across a wide variety of notebooks, netbooks, and smart phones, regardless of whether or not they are corporate owned. It also designed to reduce the number of software agents they support, while greatly limiting the need for end users to directly interact with network connectivity and security software.
Junos Pulse leverages Juniper's SA Series SSL VPN appliances, Unified Access Control (UAC), and WXC Series Application Acceleration platform. It combines all of these capabilities.
Juniper also announced the availability of AppTrack software, part of the AppSecure suite of security software that enables application-level visibility and control for its SRX Series Services Gateways across the enterprise.
Intel's Silicon Photonics Achieves 50 Gbps Chip Laser Interconnect
Monday, July 26, 2010 Service Providers, Silicon Photonics
Intel Labs has created a silicon-based optical data connection with integrated lasers using Hybrid Silicon Laser technology that can transmit data at 50 Gbps. The prototype device, which is the result of a multi-year silicon photonics research agenda, is composed of a silicon transmitter and a receiver chip.
The transmitter chip is composed of four such lasers, whose light beams each travel into an optical modulator that encodes data onto them at 12.5Gbps. The four beams are then combined and output to a single optical fiber for a total data rate of 50Gbps. At the other end of the link, the receiver chip separates the four optical beams and directs them into photo detectors, which convert data back into electrical signals.
Intel said its chips were assembled using low-cost manufacturing techniques familiar to the semiconductor industry. Intel researchers are already working to increase the data rate by scaling the modulator speed as well as increase the number of lasers per chip, providing a path to future terabit/s optical links.
Intel noted that this silicon photonic project is separate from its Light Peak technology, though both are components of Intel's overall I/O strategy. Light Peak is an effort to bring a multi-protocol 10Gbps optical connection to Intel client platforms for nearer-term applications.
http://www.intel.com
BTI Positions 7200 Metro Services Platform for High Density 10G
Monday, July 26, 2010 Optical
BTI Systems unveiled its 7200 Metro Services Platform, a new metro networking platform designed for optical and packet layer flexibility in delivering wireless backhaul, video and Ethernet business services.
The 7200 Metro Services Platform, which features a modular architecture in a 7U footprint, consolidates Carrier Ethernet, multi-service optical, and Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) functions. BTI adopts a pay-as-you-grow model, allowing the system to scale for high-density 10G hubbing.
BTI Systems said its 7200 Metro Services Platform is especially well suited for the new breed of metro/regional carriers that require a larger solution for ring interconnect, high-capacity metro service delivery, data center interconnections and high-density cloud networking. The platform also acts as a Middle Mile solution for service providers to deliver broadband and video networking functions.
Key features of the 7200 Metro Services Platform include:
The ability to simplify network operations by consolidating packet optical service delivery, WDM multiplexing and photonic-layer building blocks in a single 7RU form factor with 20 modular slots;
Support up to 400 Gbps of 10G private line capacity;
Access over 100 GbE and 18 10GbE Carrier Ethernet switched ports, or a combination of optical and packet functionality; and
Expandable up to 800G with expansion shelf architecture that enables deployment of multiple shelves, managed as a single network entity;
Support existing BTI Systems solutions, including the full line of 10G multiprotocol transponders, muxponders, reach extension and network multiplexing modules.
The 7200 platform also supports all the existing modules in the BTI portfolio.
http://www.btisystems.com
ADC and AFL Reach FTTX Licensing Agreement
ADC and AFL Telecommunications have settled their patent infringement suit. Under the agreement, ADC has added AFL as another licensee to certain patents pertaining to ADC's fiber-to-the-premises (FTTX) technology. ADC's patent technology relates to fiber distribution hubs and optical splitter modules that are widely deployed in an FTTX environment.
"AFL Telecommunications is the second company to take a license to ADC's patented FTTX technology under ADC's FTTX licensing program, which provides further recognition of the value of our portfolio to the FTTX market," said Jaxon Lang, vice president, Global Connectivity Solutions - Americas for ADC.
http://www.adc.com
http://www.AFLtele.com
Speedtest.net Ranks Comcast as Fastest U.S. ISP
Ookla, which operates the popular Speedtest.net website, is now providing ISP performance rankings as part of its "Net Index." The new performance is index is gleaned from the more than one million daily tests on the Speedtest.net site.
The new ISP rankings show the top residential ISP in the U.S. based on download speed performance is Comcast, followed by Charter, Optimum Online, MidContinent Communications and Road Runner to round out the top five. Upload
speeds tell a different story with Surewest Broadband on top, followed by Verizon Internet Services, AT&T Worldnet, Comcast and Cox.
The ISP rankings are updated daily and are available for free by geographic region. The index provides separate tracking for download and upload speeds. In addition, each ISP will be listed with a 1 to 5 star rating
system based on end-user provided input.
"The Net Index already offers a powerful research tool for academia, government, ISPs, and those curious about broadband performance. However, it has always been our goal to expand on that information and provide a resource that helps consumers make more informed broadband decisions," said Mike Apgar, co-founder and managing partner of
Ookla. "The new ISP ranking data takes a giant step in that direction, further empowering consumers for the first time with rich data that helps evaluate ISP performance close to home or throughout the world."
In the near future, Ookla will add a Value component to Net Index, allowing consumers to see the cost breakdown associated with broadband services by country, state, city, and even by ISP. The Value Index is currently in development, but to-date Ookla has collected survey information from more than 100,000 broadband-only participants. Preliminary data shows the current average monthly cost for broadband in the U.S at
$47.32, with the average cost per Mbps at $5.06, although this varies greatly from state-to-state. For example, based on download speed, California broadband costs just $4.24 per Mbps, while residents of Idaho pay $8.80, Washington respondents averaged just $3.89 per Mbps and Michigan subscribers pay $6.36.
http://www.ookla.com
http://www.speedtest.net
AudioCodes Expands Enterprise Session Border Controller Line
Monday, July 26, 2010 PacketVoice
AudioCodes announced the expansion of Enterprise Session Border Controller (E‐SBC) capabilities for the Mediant 1000 and Mediant 3000 platforms with new features targeted at SIP Trunking, Hosted IP‐PBX, Remote Extension, Contact Center and Conferencing services. The new capabilities address the needs of those users who want a combined solution of a media gateway with a Session Border Controller, as well as those users who want stand‐alone Session Border Controllers.
AudioCodes' E‐SBC family delivers perimeter VoIP defense, signaling mediation and media transcoding, as well as QoS monitoring and SLA enforcement. AudioCodes Mediant 1000 and Mediant 3000 E‐SBC configurations address the needs of SMB, SME and larger enterprises.
"As the VoIP market continues to grow with more and more enterprises moving to IP‐based Service Provider networks, the demand for secure VoIP peering is increasing," said Nimrod Borovsky, AudioCodes' Vice President of Marketing. "With our Enterprise Session Border Controller capabilities, customers can safely and transparently migrate from traditional PSTN to SIP Trunking, protecting not only their network from new world VoIP security threats, but also their existing investment in IP and TDM PBX equipment. Customers have been reacting very positively to the new E‐SBC offerings, as well as to the additional Multi‐Service Business Gateway capabilities of the product."http://www.audiocodes.com
BT Employs "SmartWater" Invisible Paint to Deter Cable Theft
Sunday, July 25, 2010 Service Providers
BT's Openreach division has begun to deploy an invisible, "SmartWater" forensic ink in its cabling across the UK as a deterrence to metal thieves. Driven by the recent surge in scrap copper prices, metal theft is a growing problem.
BT's Metal Theft Taskforce is using the SmartWater as a means to tag anyone tampering with its lines. SmartWater is a forensic marking liquid that is unique to a particular location. It will be used to mark the outer shell and inner core of Openreach cable, along with tools and other equipment. This will allow police to irrefutably identify where any stolen items have come from. Any thieves who target Openreach property face being sprayed with the liquid.
BT and the British Transport Police the system, which is also interconnected with GPS, will be used in hot-spot areas to capture criminals red-handed.
Detective Inspector Robin Conway from British Transport Police said: "Cable and metal theft is high on BTP's agenda due to the disruption and economic effect it has on businesses and communities. Anyone arrested for metal theft will be examined for traces of SmartWater. A search will be made of the person's house and any property, including vehicles with traces of SmartWater on them, is likely to be seized by police. Scrap metal dealers will also be visited regularly to ensure they are assisting British Transport Police in identifying criminals attempting to sell stolen metal."
Openreach is already using SmartWater in North London, where it is credited with reducing the number of network attacks, as would-be thieves are discouraged from entering areas where they may be sprayed with the solution, or taking equipment which has been coated.
In addition to rolling out SmartWater, Openreach is stepping up mobile patrolling of network sites, introducing new locks for manholes, and working closely with local police forces on dedicated "sting" operations to target metal thieves. Last year, BT worked with Police to achieve over 200 arrests.
Global Crossing Posts Q2 Revenue of $630M, Down 3% Sequentially
Sunday, July 25, 2010 Financial
Global Crossing reported consolidated revenue was $630 million in the second quarter of 2010, a decrease of 3 percent sequentially and essentially flat year over year. Compared with both prior periods, wholesale voice revenue declined $20 million due to pricing actions taken to improve margin performance. In addition, the sequential decrease included a $9 million unfavorable foreign exchange impact and the year-over-year decrease included a $7 million favorable foreign exchange impact. In constant currency terms, consolidated revenue decreased 1 percent sequentially and 2 percent year over year.
The company's "invest and grow" services generated revenue of $555 million in the second quarter, flat on a sequential basis and an increase of 3 percent year over year, including substantially all of the foreign exchange impacts referenced above. In constant currency terms, "invest and grow" revenue increased 2 percent both sequentially and year over year.
Global Crossing reported $93 million of OIBDA in the second quarter, compared with $77 million in the first quarter of 2010 and $93 million in the second quarter of 2009. On a segment basis, ROW, GC Impsat and GCUK contributed $32 million, $41 million and $20 million, respectively.
Global Crossing's consolidated net loss applicable to common shareholders was $48 million for the second quarter of 2010. On a sequential basis, net loss decreased $72 million, principally due to a decrease in unfavorable foreign exchange impacts and an increase in OIBDA. http://www.globalcrossing.com
CENX Partners with EXFO for SLA Monitoring of Carrier Ethernet Exchange
CENX, which operates Carrier Ethernet exchanges, will begin providing off-net service-level SLA monitoring for Carrier Ethernet services. The new monitoring service is a result of a collaborative partnership between CENX and EXFO, which specializes in test and service assurance solutions for network operators.
CENX said it system enables buyers and sellers of Ethernet virtual connection to monitor key performance indicators across its exchange. Previously, when a service provider needed service-level SLA monitoring to off-net locations via a partner network, their best alternative was to deploy expensive, customer premises monitoring equipment at each of these off-net locations.
Using EXFO's service assurance technology, the CENX System proactively monitors each Ethernet virtual connection (EVC) from the CENX exchange to the off-net Ethernet Service Locations. EXFO's BrixNGN Carrier Ethernet Service Assurance System utilizes a scalable vendor-agnostic methodology to monitor any EVC regardless of the type of vendor equipment at the demarcation points. This enables constant, normalized measurement of the performance of
each service against its SLA criteria.
"This partnership with EXFO represents a significant breakthrough in the industry. It allows a
service provider to deliver an on-net experience for their off-net customer locations without the
huge cost overhead of deploying additional monitoring equipment," said Nan Chen, President
of CENX.
http://www.cenx.com
NXP Acquires Jennic for Wireless Controllers
Sunday, July 25, 2010 Silicon
NXP Semiconductors has acquired Jennic, a leading developer of low power RF solutions for wireless applications in smart energy, environment, logistics and consumer markets. NXP paid approximately $12.2 million to acquire 100% ownership of Jennic shares, plus up to $7.8 million in additional consideration over the next two years if Jennic meets certain performance targets. Approximately 50 UK-based employees will transfer to NXP.
Jennic specializes in 802.15.4 and Zigbee low power RF solutions. The portfolio includes software stacks for Zigbee PRO, 6LowPAN and RF4CE. Applications include smart grid and metering, smart lighting networks, home and building automation and consumer remote controls solutions. Jennic is headquartered in Sheffield, UK.
NXP plans to integrated Jennic's technology with its High Performance Mixed Signal products. Together, this provides NXP with a wireless semiconductor platform for emerging technologies including eMetering, smart lighting, building automation, asset tracking and device remote controls.
"Innovation in low-power wireless RF technology is driving significant demand for exciting new applications and usage models across a broad range of industries," said Rick Clemmer, President and CEO, NXP Semiconductors. "The low power RF solutions for wireless applications which Jennic has developed have set a benchmark for driving down power performance. These also represent a great example of High Performance Mixed Signal technology, which together will enable us to jointly target attractive growth markets and offer a complete range of wireless semiconductor solutions."http://www.nxp.com
http://www.jennic.com
New DMCA Exemptions Allow Mobile Phone Jailbreaking, Carrier Unlock
Sunday, July 25, 2010 Regulatory
The Library of Congress announced a number of exemptions from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), including the "jail breaking" of mobile phones. These exemptions from the copyright law are based on whether the prohibition on circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works is causing or is likely to cause adverse effects on the ability of users of any particular classes of copyrighted works to make noninfringing uses of those works.
Specifically, the Library of Congress named six classes of works for which it is now permitted for persons to circumvent access controls in order to engage in noninfringing uses of works.
The six classes of works cited by the Library of Congress are:
(1) Motion pictures on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use in the following instances: (i) Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students; (ii) Documentary filmmaking; (iii) Noncommercial videos.
(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.
(3) Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.
(4) Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing for, investigating, or correcting security flaws or vulnerabilities.
(5) Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace; and
(6) Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book's read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.
More details are online.
http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-169.html
NetLogic Packs 128 CPUs for 240 Million PPS Performance
NetLogic Microsystems unveiled a multi-core communications processor solution that integrates 128 NXCPUs and over 160 programmable processing engines to deliver 160Gbps throughput and 240 million packets-per-second (Mpps) of intelligent application performance for next-generation 3G/4G mobile wireless infrastructure, enterprise, storage, security, metro Ethernet, edge and core infrastructure network applications.
The new NetLogic XLP8128S multi-core processor solution leverages the company's XLP processor architecture to offer scalability to 128 NXCPUs, each operating at up to 2.0 GHz and based on its superscalar engine and out-of-order execution capabilities for converged data plane and control plane processing.
The 128 NXCPUs offer full cache and memory coherency over the high-speed Inter-chip Coherency Interface (ICI), enabling software applications to seamlessly run in Symmetric Multi Processing (SMP) or Asymmetric Multi Processing (AMP) modes. The company said its unique combination of superior processor cores and scalability from 1 to 128 NXCPUs deliver over 240 Mpps of intelligent application processing performance, making it the highest performance multi-core communications processors for intelligent Layers 4-7 network, services and application processing.
"Our ability to scale to 128 NXCPUs with full cache and memory coherency to deliver 160Gbps throughput and over 240Mpps of application performance is unprecedented in the industry, and enables a new class of equipment for our customers," said Behrooz Abdi, executive vice president and general manager at NetLogic Microsystems. "We are excited to continue to be at the forefront of technology innovation in the area of multi-core processing for next-generation network and communications infrastructure, security and storage applications."
The XLP8128S solution features NetLogic Microsystems' high-speed, low-latency Enhanced Fast Messaging Network to enable efficient, high-bandwidth communication among the 128 NXCPUs and to support billions of in-flight messages and packet descriptors between all on-chip elements. To complement the 128 NXCPUs, the XLP8128S solution offers over 160 fully-autonomous processing engines that provide independent and complete offload of certain network functions from the NXCPUs, including:
160 Gbps fully-autonomous Security Acceleration Engine supporting networking, wireless and storage encryption/decryption/authentication protocols
160 Gbps Network Acceleration Engines for Ingress/Egress Packet Parsing and Management
512 Gbps RAID-5/RAID-6 Acceleration
40 Gbps Compression/Decompression
Packet Ordering
Storage De-Duplication Acceleration
TCP Segmentation Offload
IEEE 1588 Hardware Time Stamping
The XLP8128S solution will sample in Q3 2010.
http://www.netlogicmicro.com
Pace to Acquire 2Wire, Consolidating STB Market
Sunday, July 25, 2010 TTP
Pace, a leading global supplier of set-top boxes for satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms, agreed to acquire 2Wire for $475 million in cash. The consideration includes 2Wire's balance sheet cash at closing, expected to be approximately $55 million.
2Wire supplies residential gateways and multi-service IPTV STBs. The company's key customers include AT&T for its U-verse rollout, as well as Bell Canada, Telmex, BT, SingTel, and others. 2Wire, which is based in San Jose, California, is currently owned by a consortium of strategic and financial investors including Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Telmex, Oak Investment Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, and Technology Crossover Ventures.
Following the completion of the acquisition, Pace, already the number one global digital set-top box company, would also become the number one provider of telco residential gateway devices in the US and the number three provider globally.
"This acquisition will strengthen our Americas business, extending Pace's US market coverage with entry into the tier one telco market. We have built a strong position in the US with cable and satellite operators and 2Wire, with its expertise in the broadband residential gateway market, will enable us to address a full range of US operator requirements. 2Wire's software and gateway expertise will further drive development of our home entertainment convergence strategy. The transaction introduces deep client relationships with important customers including AT&T and further develops our platform to deliver ongoing sustainable growth," stated Neil Gaydon, Chief Executive Officer of Pace.
Pace is based in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, UK and employs over 1,000 people in locations around the world.
http://www.pace.com
http://www.2wire.com
2Wire was founded in 1998 by former members of PictureTel and Polycom.
As of 2010, 2Wire has shipped more than 30 million intelligent gateways.
Clearwire Sells WiMAX Operations in Ireland to Imagine
Sunday, July 25, 2010 Mobile
Imagine Communications Group has acquired Clearwire's Irish operations. As part of the transaction, Clearwire will become a minority shareholder and will nominate a representative to Imagine's board of directors. Other specific financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Imagine gained 50mHz of spectrum when purchasing Irish Broadband in 2008, added more spectrum in a Comreg process in 2009, and with Clearwire Ireland Limited's spectrum now has over 120mHz of crucial 3.4/3.6mHz spectrum. Following the Clearwire transaction, Imagine will have nearly 400 high sites nationwide to facilitate the rapid roll out of the WiMax network.
Imagine expects that the WiMax network will cover 90 percent of Ireland within two years, with prices undercutting Eircom by 50 percent.
http://www.imagine.iehttp://www.clearwire.com
Ceragon Acquires Advanced Carrier Ethernet NMS Technology
Ceragon Networks announced an agreement to acquire the right to use and further develop advanced Ethernet network management software which will accelerate enhancements to its end-to-end network management system (NMS). Ceragon did not name the developer of this technology but said the deal will enhance its FibeAir platforms and its PolyView management solution. The development effort is expected to simplify the design and management of complex Ethernet backhaul networks. Among the features is the ability to manage Ethernet services across multiple technologies and vendor domains, as well as to assign and manage differentiated service level agreements (SLAs) while ensuring high quality of service (QoS) from end-to-end.
http://www.ceragon.com
AT&T Expands its Wi-Fi Hotzone Pilot Project
Sunday, July 25, 2010 Wi-Fi
AT&T is expanding its pilot project to create large outdoor Wi-Fi hotzones in areas with consistently high 3G traffic. In May, AT&T has launched a Wi-Fi hotzone in New York City's Times Square to provide a mobile broadband offload option. Customer usage has been better than expected. Now, the company has created an AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in downtown Charlotte, N.C. AT&T plans to further expand the pilot project with the launch of a third AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in Chicago in the coming weeks.
"Our first AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in New York City has received praise from our customers, and we're excited to introduce this Wi-Fi solution in Charlotte," said Angie Wiskocil, senior vice president, AT&T Wi-Fi Services. "Wi-Fi plays a key role in our strategy to mobilize everything that's important to our customers - including entertainment, news, social networks and business apps. With these pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones, we're examining new ways to use a combination of our Wi-Fi and 3G networks to deliver the best possible mobile broadband experience."
AT&T noted that in the second quarter 2010, it handled 68.1 million Wi-Fi connections on its network, compared to just 15 million in the same quarter last year. Many of the most popular AT&T smartphones support auto-authentication at AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots, making it automatic and convenient for customers to connect. Customers can log onto AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones and more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots nationwide without it counting toward their monthly smartphone data usage.http://
Dell'Oro: 40/100 Gbps DWDM Revenue to Exceed $3B by 2014
Sunday, July 25, 2010 Optical
Total worldwide DWDM Optical Transport equipment revenue is forecast to be $9.3 billion in 2014, of which just over $3 billion will come from 40/100 Gbps, according to a newly released five year forecast report from Dell'Oro Group.
"The demand for 40 Gbps DWDM was resilient in 2009 even as the market for optical equipment was under extreme pressure," said Jimmy Yu, Sr. Director of Optical Transport research at Dell'Oro Group. "40 Gbps DWDM revenues more than doubled in 2009 even though the overall DWDM market declined. Despite the availability of 100 Gbps DWDM, we think demand for 40 Gbps DWDM will continue to expand, and are forecasting a 55 percent CAGR over the next five years, in large part because of the price premium of 100 Gbps. This doesn't mean that there's no demand for 100 Gbps. We think 100 Gbps DWDM shipments will also grow, but that the higher volumes probably won't occur until late 2012 when we think the price of 100 Gbps wavelengths will be lower than that of 40 Gbps wavelengths," added Mr. Yu.
Verizon Sees Continued Wireless Growth, Confirms LTE on Track for Q4
Friday, July 23, 2010 Service Providers
Verizon Communications reported total Q2 operating revenues of $26.8 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent compared with second-quarter 2009. The company reported a loss of 7 cents in basic earnings per share (EPS) in the quarter, which included $2.3 billion in pre-tax costs for workforce reductions associated with a second-quarter incentive offer that will lead to approximately 11,000 voluntary separations this year.
Verizon noted continued strong cash flow growth, coupled with improved margins for both its Wireless and Wireline business segments, and improved revenue trends for sales to global business customers. Wireless data revenues were especially strong, up about 24% year-on-year. The company confirmed that its LTE launch is on schedule for Q4.
"Verizon showed solid improvement in operational results in the quarter," said Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg. "In addition, the wireline spin-off to Frontier on July 1 improves our future growth profile. We see the opportunity to create additional shareholder value with a revenue portfolio that is now more heavily focused on wireless, FiOS and global IP." Seidenberg added, "We have the network platforms in place, and the product and service innovations in the pipeline, to fuel the next generation of growth in our changing industry. Our cost-reduction efforts are gaining momentum, and trends in the global business market are showing signs of stabilization."
Verizon Wireless added 665,000 retail postpaid and 454,000 total retail customers in the quarter, excluding divestitures and adjustments, both increases over the first quarter of 2010.
At the end of Q2, the company had 86.2 million retail customers, which represented nearly 94 percent of the company's wireless customers, the largest number of retail customers of any U.S. wireless provider. The company also added 896,000 reseller customers in the second quarter. The total number of customers at the end of the quarter was 92.1 million, after adding 1.4 million total net customers in the quarter and removing a net 2.1 million customers in connection with divestitures and conforming adjustments related to the Alltel acquisition.
In addition, the company had 7.7 million "other connections" at the end of the quarter -- such as machine-to-machine, eReaders and telematics -- adding 264,000 net other connections in the quarter. This brings the number of total wireless connections to 99.7 million at the end of the second quarter.
In the second quarter, data revenues increased to 34.5 percent of all service revenues, up from 29.3 percent in the second quarter 2009.
Retail postpaid churn, retail churn and total customer churn remained low, at 0.94 percent, 1.33 percent and 1.27 percent, respectively. All are the company's best levels in nearly two years.
Retail service revenues in the quarter totaled $13.5 billion, up 4.2 percent year over year. Retail data revenue was up 23.4 percent to $4.7 billion. Service revenues in the second quarter were $14.0 billion, up 5.2 percent. Total revenues were $16.0 billion, up 3.4 percent year over year.
Retail service ARPU grew 0.9 percent over the second quarter of 2009 to $51.56. Retail data ARPU increased to $17.85, up 19.4 percent year over year.
Wireless CAPEX was $2.3 billion due to the LTE rollout. Year-to-date, wireless CAPEX is $4 billion, which is up $698 million or about 21%.
Wireline Operations
Verizon added 196,000 net new FiOS Internet customers and 174,000 net new FiOS TV customers. Verizon has posted consecutive quarterly gains in the number of customers using FiOS services since FiOS Internet was introduced in 2004, and by the end of the second quarter had 3.8 million FiOS Internet and 3.2 million FiOS TV customers.
FiOS Internet penetration (customers as a percentage of potential customers) was 29.7 percent by the end of the quarter, with the product available for sale to 12.9 million premises. This compares with 28.1 percent and 11.0 million, respectively, at the end of second-quarter 2009.
FiOS TV penetration was 25.9 percent by the end of the quarter, with the product available for sale to 12.4 million premises. This compares with 24.6 percent and 10.3 million, respectively, at the end of second-quarter 2009.
Total wireline broadband and video revenues were $1.8 billion in the quarter, up 20.1 percent from second-quarter 2009. This includes FiOS broadband revenues, which grew 33.2 percent year over year. All FiOS-based services, including narrowband voice, generated 43 percent of consumer wireline revenues in second-quarter 2010, compared with 33 percent in second-quarter 2009.
Wireline CAPEX was $1.8 billion, down by 24%. Year-to-date, wireline CapEx of $3.3 billion is down nearly $1 billion, reflecting lower FiOS deployment capital.
Consumer ARPU for wireline services was $80.76 in the quarter, up 11.4 percent compared with second-quarter 2009. ARPU for FiOS customers was more than $145.
Global enterprise revenue totaled $4.0 billion in the quarter, an increase of 0.6 percent compared with second-quarter 2009 and an improvement from the 1.4 percent year-over-year decline in the first quarter of 2010. Sales of strategic enterprise services -- such as security and IT solutions, as well as strategic networking -- generated $1.6 billion, up 6.2 percent compared with second-quarter 2009.
Verizon Wireless also confirmed plans to launch its LTE network in 25 to 30 markets by the end of this year and cover virtually all of its current nationwide 3G footprint by the end of 2013. In addition, as part of its 4G LTE network deployment plans, Verizon Wireless announced efforts during the quarter to work with rural companies to collaboratively build and operate a 4G network in those areas, using Verizon Wireless' 700MHz spectrum.
http://www.verizon.com