TelecomWeb News Digest articles from August 2007

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from August 2007

Cellmates: Enron Broadband Exec's Weekend With Bernie.
August 1, 2007... Former Enron Broadband Services CEO Kenneth Rice yesterday reported to prison to serve his 27-month sentence for securities fraud, assigned to the same Louisiana lockup where former MCI WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers is incarcerated. Former...

Alcatel-Lucent Reports Another Financial Fumble.
August 1, 2007... Once again proving that one plus one does not always equal two, Alcatel- Lucent reported its second disappointing quarter in a row following Alcatel's acquisition of Lucent in the famous alleged "merger of equals." The company resorted to...

TelecomWeb Analysis: Why Vonage Is Playing 'How Low Can You Go?'.
August 1, 2007... "Pure play" VoIP house Vonage yesterday hit a new low, $2.08 per share, and threatened to drop past the psychologically important $2 mark, playing "how low can you go?" as worried investors looked on. The company so far has said nothing...

Live From Las Vegas: CompTIA Updates Convergent Technologies Study.
August 1, 2007... At this week's CompTIA show in Lost Wages, the group released the results of its fifth annual survey regarding trends and opportunities in the U.S. and Canadian SMB markets. The SMB market is a major area of growth today, but why should...

Bluetooth Still Is Hot, But Cooler Days Are Predicted.
August 1, 2007... Despite the fact the technology is beginning to experience a certain amount of complications arising from integration trends, new standards and a chip market in flux, Bluetooth had another successful year in 2006, and it will have continued...

Does Offshore Outsourcing Still Make Sense?
August 1, 2007... The enterprise trend to contract out contact-center operations overseas as a means of saving the high costs related to supporting an all-American staff may start to reverse, due in part to customer backlash and pending government oversight....

Nokia Cements Market Lead As Handset Sales Top 100M.
August 2, 2007... Nokia sold more than 100 million handsets in the quarter ended June 30 as the company continues to steal marketshare from Motorola, and it reported earlier today profits had more than doubled compared with those of a year ago - despite a...

EU Says 'Bah, Bah' To Roaming Black Sheep.
August 2, 2007... It's only been a month since the European Union cut over its new regulations aimed at reducing wireless roaming charges by as much as 70 percent (Telecom Policy Report, June 10), and it appears a number of scofflaws scattered among the 27...

Qwest Investors Get Refunds, Motorola Reportedly Eyes Qwest CEO.
August 2, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday afternoon began mailing out $267 million worth of checks to Qwest investors who lost their shirts because of the company's alleged fiscal shenanigans - the same shenanigans that a week...

Telenor Wins, Storm Loses Shareholder-Agreement Arbitration Battle.
August 2, 2007... Norse carrier Telenor got satisfaction in its New York arbitration proceeding against Alfa Group subsidiary Storm LLC in connection with Storm's alleged violations of the shareholder agreement relating to the parties' joint investment in...

ECI To Go Private As No New Bidders Appear.
August 2, 2007... Israeli telecom hardware house ECI received no offers from potential bidders willing to pony up more than the $1.2 billion put on the table more than a month ago by investors planning to take the company private. As such, it's decided to...

How Handset Subsidies Help Carriers Retain Customer Control.
August 2, 2007... The trend toward reducing or eliminating handset subsidies by carriers (most recent case in point: AT&T Wireless and the Apple iPhone) may not, in the end, be the best way to cut costs. According to U.K.-based adviser group Analysys,...

Surprise: 'Pure Play' 8x8 Makes A Profit.(Financial report)
August 3, 2007... "Pure play" VoIP provider 8x8 Inc. has reported a profit, both the first known profit in the industry and the first for 8x8 since launching its Packet 8 VoIP service in November 2002. 8x8 now is the second largest pure play company in the...

Telstra Goes To Court In $1B Bush Broadband Battle.
August 3, 2007... Australian incumbent Telstra is in litigation again, protesting the award of $1 billion in government subsidiaries to rival Optus and the rural finance company Elders to bring broadband Internet service to rural and regional Australia...

Mitel Wins Inter-Tel Acquisition Shareholder Vote.
August 3, 2007... Inter-Tel shareholders yesterday voted to allow their company to be acquired by Mitel for $723 million ($25.60 a share) in a vote that looks to be the next-to-last chapter in the acrimonious year-long proxy battle between Inter-Tel's current...

How The iPhone Will Change The Smartphone Market.
August 3, 2007... When the phenomenally successful Apple iPhone launched at the end of June, estimates of iPhone shipment volumes the first weekend they were available ranged from 140 thousand units to 500 thousand units, depending on who was asked....

GoAmerica Buy Bolsters Its Hearing-Impaired Offerings.
August 3, 2007... GoAmerica Inc., a provider of services to people who are deaf, hard-of- hearing or speech impaired, will spend $50 million in cash and perhaps $8 million more in contingent cash considerations to purchase the assets of Verizon's...

Berggi, Avanzit Team Con Mucho Gusto.
August 3, 2007... Houston-based Berggi, which calls itself "the fastest-growing provider of mobile messaging services for consumer cellphones," is going global, inking a strategic partnership with Spain's Avanzit. In return, Avanzit will invest $8 million in...

Tele2 Rumors & Fact: Who's Buying Whom?
August 6, 2007... Reports out of Europe during the weekend say Tele2 units in Belgium, Spain and Italy are on the block - depending upon whom you believe. Tele2 appears to be confirming a sale in Italy, but it's keeping mum (although not denying) about the...

Google Curries Indian Favor.
August 6, 2007... Google inked a pact with India's Bharti Airtel Broadband and Telephone Services, the country's largest privately owned telephone and broadband provider, under which Bharti subscribers are going to get a Google-based creation as their home...

Internet Co-Inventor Resurfaces With Newfangled Router In Tow.
August 6, 2007... Lawrence G. Roberts, popularly credited as one of the four persons responsible for the birth of the Internet, has emerged from his laboratory after almost three years of effort with what he's touting as a new species of Layer 3 router. ...

First Cableco Taps Into NetMotion VPN, More To Come.
August 6, 2007... NetMotion Wireless, which provides mobile-productivity and -management software, is targeting the cable industry, with Cox Communications being the first to complete deployment of NetMotion's Mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution to...

nTelos Makes Good On EV-DO Buildout.
August 6, 2007... In a three-year contract that could be worth more than $88 million in equipment, services and hardware, NTELOS Holdings Corp. , a Va.-based integrated telecom provider serving customers in the mid-Atlantic region, will use Alcatel- Lucent to...

Following Minnesota Disaster, Text, Not Voice, Got Through.
August 6, 2007... Reports out of Minnesota following last Wednesday's bridge collapse say T-Mobile knew something was happening in the area because of a sharp spike in subscriber calling activity. As a result, a company conference call whipped staffers...

U.S. Trade Rep Refuses To Enter Broadcom/Qualcomm Patent Fray.
August 7, 2007... A day after U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said she wouldn't intervene in the patent case between Broadcom and Qualcomm that currently bars the importation of Qualcomm's baseband chips and certain cellular phones containing those...

FCC Takes Up CMRS Roaming, Seeks More Info.
August 7, 2007... After being bumped from the agenda last week in favor of a vote on the 700 MHz auction rules, a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) was vetted earlier today by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),...

AT&T, Partner Cut Over Phone-In Interpreter Service.
August 7, 2007... For those in Fresno County and in California's Central Valley to whom English is not the first language, a new service will make it easier to communicate via telephone with businesses, service providers, banks and many other everyday...

Connecticut AG Demands A Halt To AT&T IPTV Sales.
August 7, 2007... Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, citing a federal court ruling last month that AT&T's U-verse IPTV offering is actually a form of cable television, yesterday asked for an emergency order from the state regulators forbidding...

Slovenia Slated For Nationwide FTTH.
August 7, 2007... The tiny, formerly Communist nation of Slovenia is about to get nationwide fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) from government-owned incumbent Telekom Slovenije. The carrier, which now is expected to be partially privatized by the end of the year and...

O2 Pulls Its Punches In U.K. Broadband Battle.
August 7, 2007... Reports out of the U.K. this morning hint Telefonica's U.K. operation O2 has scaled back its broadband ambitions for now, and it won't offer a nationwide service in order to avoid being dependent on BT for service in places where it doesn't...

Feds Get Another One: Brocade CEO Convicted.
August 8, 2007... A federal jury has convicted former Brocade CEO Gregory Reyes of 10 counts of back-dating stock options, in a finding that has sent waves of panic through a major chunk of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, given...

WiMAX, Merger Send Sprint Profits Plunging; But Defections Stop.
August 8, 2007... Sprint Nextel profits in the quarter ended June 30 plunged 95 percent - but not as much as many had feared - as the company was hit by higher than expected merger costs and the expense of its risky WiMAX network buildout. And while it...

Vodafone Again Says 'No' To Verizon Wireless Sale.
August 8, 2007... Vodafone, as if asking 'what don't you understand about the answer no,' this morning again said that it has no plan to sell off any part of its stake in Verizon Wireless. Verizon shareholders had already overwhelmingly voted against a sale...

Enterprise Wireless Subs Want More Warm Fuzzies.
August 8, 2007... While none probably would admit to being a prima donna, North American business wireless users are the first to leave one carrier for another if they aren't made to feel special. According to research firm In-Stat, wireless carriers are...

Sprint, MSV Team For ERT Public-Safety Network.
August 8, 2007... Mobile Satellite Ventures LP (MSV) inked a three-year strategic distribution alliance with Sprint's Emergency Response Team (ERT) to offer continuous wireless connectivity for public-safety agencies in situations where the public switched...

Naughty, Naughty: Too Many Americans Text And Drive.
August 8, 2007... Although nearly 9 out of 10 (89 percent) American adults believe sending text messages or e-mail while driving is distracting, dangerous, and should be outlawed, two in three adults (66 percent) who drive a car and who have used text...

Think Tank Calls For End To FCC's 'Dictator/Regulator' Regime.
August 9, 2007... As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prepares to auction valuable wireless spectrum (TelecomWeb news break, July 31), potential bidders, including Google, are demanding the agency impose strict requirements on how any purchased...

Loss Lessens But Vonage Growth Stalls As Next Lawsuit Looms.
August 9, 2007... Vonage, mainly because it's slashed marketing costs, says it's cut its losses by more than half. However, its new-subscriber signups have plummeted by 78 percent. The industry's largest "pure play" VoIP provider also claimed to be...

Kiwis Cautiously Unbundle.
August 9, 2007... Putting on a brave face, Telecom New Zealand (TNZ) this morning opened up two of its exchanges to competitors for a trial of local loop unbundling (LLU). Telecom had been fighting tooth and nail against LLU but, with the New Zealand...

Telecom, Broadband Bashed As 40,000 Virgins Fly To Sky.
August 9, 2007... U.K. cable TV, telecom and broadband operator Virgin Media, reporting its latest financial quarter, says it's been slaughtered by consumer defections and slowdowns in every part of its business. The quarterly report came just 24 hours...

Japan Intros Enterprise Push Wireless E-Mail.
August 9, 2007... Push mobile e-mail is the next Japanese frontier to be tackled by partners Visto Corporation and PTS Consulting Japan. The new service, dubbed Visto Mobile, will target large and medium-sized Japanese companies, including one of the world's...

ITC To Tackle Yet Another Infringement Case.
August 9, 2007... Pa.-based InterDigital Inc.'s wholly owned subsidiaries, InterDigital Communications LLC and InterDigital Technology Corporation, are charging Nokia Corporation and Nokia Inc. with unfair trade practices. In a complaint filed with the...

Brits Lift Licensing Requirement For Ultra-Wideband.
August 10, 2007... Next Monday, U.K. regulator Ofcom will drop the requirement that ultra- wideband (UWB) use must be licensed. The move paves the way for rapid development of a UWB market in Britain, making it the first country in the EU to allow use of the...

The Next Big Cellular Thing: Smoking + Texting = Smexting.
August 10, 2007... A new indoor smoking ban in Britain has sent the use of text messages surging, according to a recently released count by cellular carrier Orange. The carrier claims the number of text messages flowing over its network spiked by 7.5 million...

ABI Sees 802.11n Wi-Fi Flooding Consumer Electronics.
August 10, 2007... The consumer-electronics market will rapidly adopt the nascent IEEE 802.11n high-speed Wi-Fi - which hasn't yet been standardized but which already is causing a sensation in the market - according to new estimates by ABI Research. ABI...

Another Telenor Property Enters IM Land of OZ.
August 10, 2007... Telenor Sweden's customers now can access Windows Live Instant Messaging (IM) on their wireless devices, courtesy of consumer mobile-messaging-solution provider OZ, which just deployed its Mobile IM solution on the network. Telenor...

Move Over Berlitz, Here Comes EF.
August 10, 2007... China has been on the fast track when it comes to creating the environment for next year's Olympics in Beijing, and that includes instructing as many people as possible in English, now via wireless handsets of all types. Stockholm-based...

Law Firm Seeks Lead Plaintiff For Motorola Suit.
August 10, 2007... Motorola is the target of a new class-action suit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of purchasers of Motorola's publicly traded securities between July 19, 2006, and Jan. 4, 2007. ...

Virgin Media Seeks A French Connection.
August 13, 2007... Rumors out of the U.K. say Virgin Media, frustrated in its attempt to sell itself in country, has instead embarked on a scheme to spread the Virgin Media brand across Europe, starting with a foray into France, where it is negotiating with...

New Qwest CEO Sneaks Into Town.
August 13, 2007... Qwest has a new CEO, hiring Edward A. Mueller to succeed the retiring Richard Notebaert (TelecomWeb news break, June 11), the executive credited with saving the company. It's the second time Mueller will take over from Notebaert; he did the...

Tele2 Trades Siberian Unit For Roaming Rights.
August 13, 2007... Sweden's Tele2 sold its Siberian unit, Corporation Severnaya Corona (CSK), to Russia's second-largest wireless carrier, VimpelCom, for $232 million. For VimpelCom, the deal represents instant entree into the coveted Irkutsk market while...

Reding Backs Super Agency, But EU Member States May Balk.
August 13, 2007... Hot on the heels of its successful revamp of wireless roaming rules, the European Commission (EC) reportedly is looking at requiring former phone monopolies to open their networks to competitors. The European press says Viviane Reding,...

Help Wanted: New Qualcomm General Counsel.
August 13, 2007... Qualcomm, which has seen its share of court disputes in the last several months and years, says Lou Lupin has resigned as executive vice president and general counsel. He'll be temporarily replaced by Carol Lam, senior vice president and...

Corporate Early Adopters Set 'Disruptive Technology' Pace.
August 13, 2007... Corporate early adopters of technology, whose buying decisions often predict trends in broader business and consumer markets, increasingly are looking to purchase "disruptive technologies," especially in the software, hardware, wireless,...

New Zealanders Get 'Free' Broadband, VoIP.
August 14, 2007... Vodafone's New Zealand unit, taking a page from the U.K. broadband playbook, has launched "free" broadband to those taking its landline phone service in a blatant move to lure customers away from increasingly beleaguered incumbent Telecom...

Israel Cancels WiMAX Auction.
August 14, 2007... There will be no sale of spectrum for fixed broadband use - WiMAX, if you will - in Israel as a result of what looks like a political battle between the country's trio of biggest cellular companies, Motorola and a pair of Israeli ministries....

Real GSM-Based 'Dick Tracy Watch' Hits The Streets.
August 14, 2007... Qiao Xing Mobile Communication Co. Ltd. (QXM) subsidiary CEC Telecom Co., Ltd. (CECT) this morning went to market with a GSM-based cellular wristwatch that would definitely make Dick Tracy jealous. The watch is latest in what's been a...

LCC Fights For Nasdaq Status, Admits Filing Delays.
August 14, 2007... McLean, Va.-based LCC International Inc. says it's received notice that the Nasdaq Listing and Hearing Review Council has decided to review the June 25 decision of the Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel regarding LCC and a possible...

Contact Centers Trend Toward Professional, Managed Services.
August 14, 2007... During the past three years, the percentage of contact-center decision makers who are planning to consider contact-center professional services has risen from 7.9 percent to 21 percent. Keeping pace with this trend, the percentage of...

Alltel Cuts Over BSP B2B Program.
August 14, 2007... The new Business Solutions Partner (BSP) program introduced by Alltel Wireless pledges to help the carrier's development partners get their mobile business solutions to market faster and cheaper. Says Wade McGill, senior vice...

Rumor Du Jour: Apple, Orange France In Wireless Fruit Bowl.
August 15, 2007... Reports out of France suggest France Telecom, operating under its Orange cellular brand, is about to or may already have clinched the deal as the first European carrier to sell Apple's iPhone. At this point, the reports - rumors actually...

Zimbabwe Strips Egyptians Of Cellular License.
August 15, 2007... While most of the world's attention to affairs in the troubled African nation of Zimbabwe have focused on the "redistribution" (or "confiscation," as is charged) of white farmers' land holdings, the government of Zimbabwe strongman Robert...

Quarterly DSL Shipments Top 25 Million.
August 15, 2007... Worldwide shipments of DSL ports in the second quarter of 2007 topped 25 million for the first time, according to new estimates by research house Ovum RHK, with a growth rate that far outpaced cable broadband. Alcatel-Lucent remained the...

Interop Inks Three New Enhanced-Services Contracts.
August 15, 2007... Interop Technologies, a Fla.-based provider of advanced wireless technology solutions, secured agreements with the Rural Independent Network Alliance (RINA), with East Kentucky Network (dba Appalachian Wireless) and with LEACO Wireless to...

Survey Sez: Cable, Satellite-TV Providers Must Bundle To Succeed.
August 15, 2007... Satellite-backed DIRECTV ranks highest in customer satisfaction in three regions while WOW! ranks highest in one region among U.S. cable and satellite providers, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Residential Cable/Satellite...

Enterprise, SMBs Favor Microsoft For Voice-Related Systems.
August 15, 2007... According to InfoTech's "2007 InfoTrack on Microsoft and Disruptive Convergence program: Enterprise and SMB Strategies for Implementing Microsoft's VoIP Solution," 46 percent of enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMBs) surveyed...

Skype Has A Global 'Heart' Attack.
August 16, 2007... An unknown number of millions of e-Bay VoIP subsidiary Skype users around the world today found themselves without service, due to an admitted software glitch that could take a day or more to fix. Skype's in-and-out VoIP connections to...

Sprint Steps Back From 'If We Build It, They Will Come' WiMAX Stance.
August 16, 2007... Earlier today, Sprint Nextel gave a name to its upcoming WiMAX service while at the same time announcing the first two U.S. markets to trial the technology. However, its plans for a nationwide WiMAX buildout, announced last month, have been...

Singing The iPhone Billing Blues.
August 16, 2007... The first flock of iPhone fanatics have gotten their first bills this week - some of them 300 pages long and delivered in a box, others for $3,000 or more. AT&T's customers are not amused. Dramatizing the situation better than most has...

Alice Goes Dutch Treat.
August 16, 2007... Telecom Italia (TI) today launched its "Alice" Internet service in the overcrowded Netherlands market, dishing up 20 Mb/s broadband and VoIP, with IPTV and a mobile offering to come. TI already claims 10 million Alice subscribers in...

Report Details Growing Opps For Third-Party Wireless Support Services.
August 16, 2007... According to the latest InfoTech "InfoTrack for Enterprise Mobility" report, with more smartphones being introduced into the market from the major handset OEMs -- coupled with a growing mobile workforce -- many enterprise companies polled...

Despite Wall Street Woes, LCC Continues To Build Its Business.
August 16, 2007... LCC International Inc., which may or may not be in trouble with the Nasdaq (TelecomWeb news break, Aug. 13), says it's garnered $11 million worth of contracts for WiMAX and EV-DO advanced network services from large, unnamed North American...

Egypt's Orascom Disses $1.5B Iraq Cellular License.
August 17, 2007... Egyptian telecom conglomerate Orascom, whose "Iraqna" cellular operation in Iraq commands an estimated 50 percent of the non-Kurdish market, reportedly dropped out of the bidding for a renewal of its license, and it's leaving the country....

Skype Reported Recovering, But Still On Life Support.
August 17, 2007... Service at eBay VoIP subsidiary Skype slowly and apparently painfully was restored today to at least some users, on the third day after the entire Skype network blew a fuse and went dark. At least intermittent service was reportedly back...

Embarq Tentatively Tests IPTV.
August 17, 2007... Embarq, the erstwhile Sprint landline unit, has decided to dip its toes in the IPTV waters. In a statement, the company said it will launch an IPTV trial sometime next year while at the same time swearing fealty to its long-term...

Another Handset-Sales Survey Weighs In.
August 17, 2007... According to The NPD Group, the sale of wireless handsets to U.S. consumers reached 33 million units in the second quarter of 2007, a decline of nearly 17 percent compared with unit sales during the previous quarter. However, the group...

New Cardless Calling Option For South Asians In The U.S.
August 17, 2007... trueroots, a new calling service from India-based communications service provider Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) that was unveiled this week in a bang-up ceremony in New York City, allows people from South Asia residing in the United...

Windstream Gets FCC Nod For CT Comms Buy.
August 17, 2007... Following in the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) footsteps, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has blessed Windstream Corp.'s $585 million acquisition of rural telecommunications provider CT Communications Inc. With that out of...

Skype Attacks Itself But Blames Microsoft For Outage.
August 20, 2007... eBay VoIP subsidiary Skype is blaming a Microsoft security update for Windows for the better-than-two-day outage that left Skype users worldwide unable to use the service. It claims too many users rebooting at the same time after applying...

Pakistan Set For IPTV.
August 20, 2007... Leapfrogging "advanced" countries like the United States, Pakistan is about to get IPTV, joining the small but growing group of third-world countries getting their boob-tube fix via broadband. The Pakistan Telecommunication Company...

China Jumps On Carrier Ethernet Bandwagon.
August 20, 2007... Nokia Siemens Networks inked a contract with Yunnan CTC (China), a branch of China Telecom, for the supply and implementation of Carrier Ethernet switches. The deployment already has begun. No financial details were disclosed. ...

British Broadband Battle Goes Wireless.
August 20, 2007... U.K. wireless operator 3 has taken the wraps off its long-expected high speed downlink packet access (HSPDA) wireless broadband offering, unveiling pricing that looks to mirror the brutal battle in the British landline broadband market. ...

4G Contenders Emerge Ahead Of Standards Schedule.
August 20, 2007... Although an official definition of wireless 4G technology won't be released until the 2008/09 timeframe in the form of the International Telecommunication Union's IMT-Advanced requirements, there apparently are clear contenders for the...

Marketing Deal Provides SMEs With Secure WLAN Solutions.
August 20, 2007... Ruckus Wireless, a next-gen Wi-Fi company, and AirTight Networks, a provider of wireless intrusion prevention solutions (WIPS), are teaming to market their wireless LAN and wireless intrusion-prevention products as a "complete and secure...