TelecomWeb News Digest articles from August 2008

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from August 2008

Nortel Blames Red Ink On Layoffs & CDMA Shortfall.(Financial report)
August 1, 2008... Nortel this morning reported what it characterized as "consistent and disciplined" financial results that included far larger losses than expected, mainly due to layoff costs, and a modest increase in revenues despite plummeting CDMA sales....

SaaS Players Combine BI & Sales Analytics.
August 1, 2008... Web-based business intelligence (BI) solutions provider LogiXML has bought sales analytics specialist OnDemandIQ, a smaller company that used LogiXML's software as a service (SaaS) platform for its own offerings, in another consolidation of...

Qualcomm Makes 20 Mb/s Data Call Over HSPA+.
August 1, 2008... Qualcomm said it has completed what it characterized as the "world's first data call" using High-Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) network technology, achieving a data transfer rate of more than 20 Mb/s in a 5 MHz channel. Qualcomm said...

Cable Broadband Numbers Beat Recent Telco Reports.
August 1, 2008... While cableco Comcast's second-quarter financials reinforce the notion of a cooling broadband market, they also show cable is winning a heated online- services battle against the telcos. According to TelecomWeb news break's sister...

Product Duo Handles High-Volume Contact-Center E-Mail.
August 1, 2008... Talisma Corporation, a Wash.-based Customer Interaction Management (CIM) software solution provider, has combined its Talisma Email and Talisma Answer offerings to address what it believes is a market need for a solution that manages and...

Whaleback Creates National Channel Sales Program.
August 1, 2008... Managed VoIP service provider Whaleback Systems, reporting a torrid growth rate of 30 percent per quarter, has created a partner and sales agent program in a move to bring distribution of its CrystalBlue Voice Service to national scale. ...

Motorola Lures Qualcomm COO.
August 4, 2008... Motorola has recruited Qualcomm COO Sanjay Jha to take over its massively ailing wireless handset business, naming him co-CEO along with current CEO Greg Brown, who gets the rest of the company, soon to be split in two. Jha has his work...

Siemens M2M Spinoff Now Born In The USA.
August 4, 2008... Cinterion Wireless Modules, the new entity emerging from Siemens Wireless Modules in June, officially launched today in the United States, completing its worldwide transition to the new entity. The Issiquah, Wash.-based company supplies...

Aruba WLANs First To Win EAL-2 Certification.
August 4, 2008... Aruba Networks has laid claim to becoming the first wireless local area network (WLAN) supplier to win Common Criteria EAL-2 certification for its Wi-Fi solutions, a distinction it says opens the door to enterprise business demanding high...

Qwest Launches Enterprise Net Security Offering.
August 4, 2008... Qwest Communications International has gone to market with a pair of services it says unify the management of endpoint security, both within and outside of the traditional corporate "walled environment." Qwest turned to Fiberlink for the...

New Enterprise Collaboration Tools From Socialcast.
August 4, 2008... On-demand corporate-social-networks provider Socialcast has added features to its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) collaboration platform, including "worklog" and "bookmarklet" tools. "Socialcast puts an entire company's brain to work with...

RCN Beefs Up Business VoIP Offerings.
August 4, 2008... Triple-play provider RCN Corporation unveiled a new suite of hosted phone services it says "will change the way many businesses manage calls, features and costs." According to John Baker, RCN's senior vice president/Marketing and...

TelecomWeb Parent Purchased, New Venture Dubbed T3i Group.(Company overview)
August 5, 2008... T3i Group LLC, an investor-backed company formed by financier Richard Dorfman, announced today that it has acquired the Telecom Intelligence Group (TIG) division of Access Intelligence, comprised of four operating units - TelecomWeb,...

Security As A Service - The Other SaaS.(Company overview)
August 5, 2008... The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry did double take this week as not one but two previously unknown start-ups went to market, offering enterprise users Security as a Service (the "other" SaaS) using the SaaS business model. First...

UC Trio Uses Femtocells To Target Enterprise FMC.
August 5, 2008... Tango Networks, AirWalk Communications and Tatara Systems have teamed to combine their products into a femtocell-based fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) system aimed at the enterprise unified-communications (UC) market. Essentially, the...

Sybase Intros 'Sybase Unwired' At Industry Confab.
August 5, 2008... Sybase this morning cut the cord, taking the wraps off "Sybase Unwired," a new enterprise-mobility platform it's readying for release in the fourth quarter. The platform "takes mobility to the next level," promises Sybase Chairman and...

Satellite Broadband Provider Adds SMB Private Networking.
August 5, 2008... HughesNet Private Networks for small to mid-size businesses (SMBs) is the newest offering from broadband satellite services provider Hughes Network Systems. According to the Md.-based carrier, HughesNet Private Networks is a "secure and...

Saaspoint Branches Out, Adding Biz-Transformation Arm.
August 5, 2008... Saaspoint, specializing in business and systems consulting for customers who use such Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications as Salesforce.com, is sporting a new consultancy division it says "aims to employ 50 people and generate $15...

Cisco Defies Economic Slump, Reports First $10B Quarter.
August 6, 2008... Cisco has managed to surprise the industry and beat financial expectations for 2Q08, the last quarter of its fiscal year. Profits grew by 4.4 percent on sales up a healthy 9.9 percent, and the company sported its first $10 billion quarter...

Allison Gets New Gig As Asterisk IVR Spokesvoice.
August 6, 2008... Asterisk parent Digium, teaming with speech-technology company Cepstral, is offering "Allison voice" text-to-speech software, an Asterisk-based interactive voice response (IVR) application. The two say the new app "allows customers to...

Young 3G Startup Now A Part Of Sierra Wireless.
August 6, 2008... Sierra Wireless is the new owner of the assets of four-year-old 3G player Junxion Inc. No financial details were disclosed. Based in Seattle, Junxion is a privately held company that delivers managed 3G wireless router solutions for...

Sprint-Nextel Posts Another Loss As More Subs Flee.(Financial report)
August 6, 2008... Sprint-Nextel, admitting it's lost another 901,000 customers (net), reported its third consecutive quarter in the red as the wireless carrier continues to struggle to turn itself around. CEO Dan Hesse tried to put the best light on the...

Telus Adds Calabrio To Contact-Center Mix.
August 6, 2008... Canadian carrier Telus is the latest reseller to sign with workforce- optimization and unified-desktop-software developer Calabrio Inc., and it now will market Calabrio Workforce Management and Calabrio Quality Management products as part of...

Entire Delta Domestic Fleet To 'Gogo' Broadband.
August 6, 2008... Delta Airlines has committed to become the first airline to put broadband on every flight it offers over the continental United States, signing with air- to-ground (ATG) in-flight broadband carrier Aircell. The deal, which will see...

T-Mobile USA Gains Subs, Aims At Sprint.
August 7, 2008... Number Four U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile USA says it added 668,000 new subscribers in the second quarter, and some pundits are now painting scenarios in which it could overtake Sprint-Nextel for the Number Three market spot. Or maybe...

SMBs Cut UC Spend This Year, But Expand Future Plans.
August 7, 2008... According to a recent InfoTech primary research study of the small and medium business (SMB) market demand for unified communications (UC), about 70 percent of U.S. SMBs are implementing, trialing or planning to implement UC applications....

Done Deal: Verizon Wireless Now Owns Rural Cellular Corp.
August 7, 2008... A year after announcing its purchase intent, Verizon Wireless has finalized its buyout of Rural Cellular Corporation (dba Unicel) for $2.66 billion in cash and assumed debt. The carrier says this acquisition will increase its licensed...

New Juniper Ethernet Switches Get Net-Management Compatibility.
August 7, 2008... Juniper Networks is extending interoperability with a series of major network-management platforms that include its EX-series Ethernet switches. The Ethernet switches, which scale to a massive 3.2 Tb/s and which Juniper brought to market...

Management Tools For That Mound Of Content.
August 7, 2008... Regardless of size, all companies accumulate a massive amount of content over time. As part of its broader enterprise content-management strategy, Vorsite is offering a suite of search and content-connection solutions it says provide tools...

Vonage Growth, Losses Set New Lows.
August 7, 2008... Pure-play VoIP market leader Vonage this morning said it had added only some 2,000 subs (net) in the second quarter, a stunning drop in growth from the heady days of little more than a year ago. The company reported a net loss of $7...

IBM Launches Enterprise Mobility Blitz.
August 8, 2008... IBM this morning unveiled a broad swath of enterprise-mobility software and services ranging from a mobile consulting-and-implementation service to a bundle to transform "green screen" applications into mobile Web-based services. The...

Packet Island Offers 'On Demand' Net Monitoring Service.
August 8, 2008... Packet Island has gone to market with an "on demand" version of its Converged Network Monitoring and Diagnostics Solution, delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS) and offering users monitoring and diagnostics just seven days a year, rather...

Survey Sez: Chinese TD-SCDMA Subscribership Ramps Up.
August 8, 2008... Just a few hours before the opening ceremonies of the summer Olympics in Beijing, a new research report predicts TD-SCDMA subscribers in China will reach 12 million by 2012 while overall mobile terminal shipments will equal 11.5 million...

Aussie Buyer Taps ASC For Modular Contact-Center App.
August 8, 2008... Germany's ASC, a global provider of solutions to record, analyze and evaluate communications, installed its integrated recording and quality- monitoring solution, INSPIRATIONcompact, at Australia's Gizmo Corporation Ltd. ASC says its...

RF Power Semiconductors Headed For 5-Year Decline.
August 8, 2008... With what ABI Research characterizes as the gradual decline of cellular/3G base-station deployments, the market for RF power semiconductor devices will continue to see the erosion in revenues for that segment. "The market opportunity for...

Stealth IP Video Collaboration Startup Emerges.
August 8, 2008... Bada Networks, a previously unknown Silicon Valley startup, no longer is in stealth mode, going public with promises of a "massively scalable, real-time IP video-processing and collaboration platform" and a new CEO taken from the ranks of...

No Verizon Strike, Business Unit Workers Unionized.
August 11, 2008... Verizon has agreed to a new three-year contract for 65,000 of its workers, replacing the contract that expired more than a week ago and narrowly averting a company-wide strike at one minute past midnight this morning. The settlement also...

HP Buys Into 802.11n Enterprise WLAN Market.
August 11, 2008... HP soon will be the new owner of enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN) house Colubris Networks in a move that both signifies the continued consolidation of the industry and the increasing dominance of heavyweight players. The...

Motorola Taps Avotus For Billing-Management Services.
August 11, 2008... In a multiyear contract, Motorola is going with Avotus Corporation for the management of the communications giant's expenses related to billing for voice, data and wireless telecom solutions globally. No financial details were disclosed....

Atheros Chipsets Now Up To Cisco CCX V5 Snuff.
August 11, 2008... Semiconductor maker Atheros Communications Inc. says its XSPAN AR9280 and AR9281 chipsets are the first wireless LAN (WLAN) units to be certified for the new Cisco Compatible Extensions Program Version 5 (CCX V5). According to the...

Covergence Kit Lets Microsoft, IBM UC Offerings Coexist.
August 11, 2008... Covergence has gone to market with a gateway it says enables incompatible Microsoft and IBM unified communications (UC) solutions to talk to each other. The new offering, called the Covergence Collaboration Gateway (CCG), hits market...

Verizon Visual Voice Mail Powered By Alcatel-Lucent, Comverse.
August 11, 2008... Available today on the Voyager by LG handset offered by Verizon Wireless, Visual Voice Mail gives enterprise users an easy-to-use display screen with one- touch management of voice-mail messages. Subscribers also can delete, reply and...

Speakeasy Now Offers SMBs Slower Ethernet.
August 12, 2008... Best Buy's "Speakeasy" business broadband subsidiary this morning went to market with a 5 Mb/s symmetrical Ethernet offering, targeting the small- to medium business (SMB) market for which its 10 Mb/s offering is too fast, but a T1 is too...

Optical-Net Market Healthy Everywhere But North America.
August 12, 2008... The global optical-networking market topped the $4 billion mark in the second quarter, but there may be trouble on the horizon because of an unexpected plunge in North American spending. According to research firm Ovum, global...

Avistar Patents Enhance VoIP, IM Enterprise Services.
August 12, 2008... Avistar Communications Corporation, which provides unified visual communications solutions, has extended its patent ownership by two, further expanding the company's intellectual property in the areas of login-based Voice over IP (VoIP)...

Survey Sez: Telecommuting Is A Double-Edged Sword.
August 12, 2008... Even in this time of high gas prices and a perceived emphasis on telecommuting, a new survey says a majority of office workers fear working at home can hurt their career prospects. However, more than half believe it's beneficial for a company...

Replay VoIP Searches, Retrieves IP PBX Voice Recordings.
August 12, 2008... "Replay VoIP," now available from Trisys Inc., is a software-only, SIP- based solution for recording phone conversations in an IP PBX environment. The company says Replay VoIP is a viable solution for small- and mid- sized businesses as...

SaaS Providers Team To Target Mfr'ing Market.
August 12, 2008... Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) supply chain and logistics solution providers SPS Commerce and 7Hills have integrated their offerings to create a combined package for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). The combo offering is aimed...

Nortel Buys Linux UC Supplier.
August 13, 2008... Earlier today, Nortel announced its purchase of Pingtel, the open-source VoIP PBX operation Wi-Fi developer BlueSocket bought barely a year ago. What Nortel really wants is BlueSocket's unified communications (UC) software and...

Leveraged-Buyout Interest Mars Alltel Financials Pre-Verizon.
August 13, 2008... Alltel (whose planned acquisition by Verizon Wireless would create the nation's largest wireless carrier) is blaming massive debt from the deal that took it private for its river of red ink, despite healthy 2Q08 gains in subscribers and...

SaaS Web-Meeting App Saves SMBs Time, Travel Expenses.
August 13, 2008... With road and air travel becoming more expensive, companies are turning to the Web for business meetings, and the new SMB-targeted HyperMeeting offering from HyperOffice Inc. aims to take advantage of the trend. HyperMeeting supports...

Tandberg In Talks To Go Private.
August 13, 2008... Worldwide Number Two telepresence marketer Tandberg is in "preliminary talks" with an unidentified private-equity investor that wants to buy the company, and this sent Tandberg share prices soaring. As is typical in such cases, Tandberg...

BridgeWave Ramps 4G Backhaul Plans With Mfr'ing Pact.
August 13, 2008... Remec Broadband Wireless International Inc. (RBWI), which makes wireless modules and systems, will take on turnkey volume production of BridgeWave Communications' 60 GHz and 80 GHz product lines to make sure that company can "address...

Boeing Seeks Opex Savings, Productivity Boost With AT&T Deal.
August 13, 2008... AT&T will service a $400 million-plus contract from aircraft giant The Boeing Company, consolidating the company's diverse communications networks while becoming its primary provider of advanced wireline and wireless services. AT&T has...

Will Unicom's Plan Spark A Chinese 3G War?
August 14, 2008... China Unicom, the country's second-largest wireless carrier, has outlined plans to spend $14.57 billion on a 3G buildout during the next 24 months - about 50 percent more than had been expected - in a move that signals intensified...

VoIP Pioneer VocalTec Fights Delisting.
August 14, 2008... Israeli VoIP developer VocalTec, still struggling to stay afloat years after being rescued once from the brink of bankruptcy, is going to court to remain listed on the Nasdaq. The company, warned more than six months ago it wasn't meeting...

Ofcom Says SMS Drives U.K. Data Revenues.
August 14, 2008... People in the U.K. are spending more time using communications services than ever before but they're paying less for them, and text messaging is the clear preference, with 2007 revenues nearly three times that of traditional data revenues....

Smartphone Terminal Now Boasts Lower Price, More Choice.
August 14, 2008... Celio Technology Corp has cut the price of its Redfly Mobile Companion by 20 percent (to $399) while releasing drivers for 12 additional smartphones. This brings to 19 the number of the most popular Windows Mobile models from HP, HTC,...

European Carriers Warned To Reassess Roaming Data Blocking.
August 14, 2008... Following on the EU's threat to impose legal measures to force carriers to cut roaming charges, some operators reportedly have considered banning all data downloading when subscribers are away from their home markets (TelecomWeb news break,...

Blackberry Gets Bold.
August 14, 2008... Research in Motion's (RIM) latest and greatest BlackBerry, the Bold, now is being sold in various markets around the world, sporting tri-band HSDPA 3G wireless data networking on any GSM network worldwide for the first time in BlackBerry...

Survey Sez: Customer-Service Wait Time Ramps.
August 15, 2008... Perhaps due to the influx of more advanced wireless devices that are more complex to operate, it appears "hurry up and wait" when it comes to customer service continues to dog the wireless industry, with a new survey saying hang time has...

Investors Up The Ante In Carrier Ethernet Chip Contender.(Company overview)
August 15, 2008... Investors have plowed another $13 million into Xelerated, the fabless network-processor chip developer that's taking on Broadcom and Marvell in the Carrier Ethernet market. Xelerated, which bills itself as "the global leader in...

ClearSight 'Simulates' Human Telecom Network Experts.
August 15, 2008... ClearSight Networks says its new software package "simulates real human network experts" to help telecom operators understand problems and error conditions on their networks. The new offering, called ClearSight Apex, does more than just...

Aastra Enhances Solidus eCare For Contact Centers.
August 15, 2008... A new release of contact-center solution Solidus eCare from Aastra Technologies Limited is an option for the MX-ONE Telephony Server and the earlier MX-ONE Telephony Switch (based on MD110), formerly an Ericsson product but now available from...

One-Stop Broadband Shop Offers Streamlined Retailer Program.
August 15, 2008... A partnership between petroleum-management concern Gilbarco and managed- network-services provider Cybera promises gas-station and convenience-store operators they will need fewer phone lines while enjoying greater security and faster...

Nuance Mounts Zi Takeover Bid.
August 15, 2008... Speech-and-imaging product specialist Nuance Communications has swooped in on financially troubled Canadian mobile-phone software provider Zi Corp. with an unsolicited takeover offer, following Zi's report of yet-another down quarter. ...

Wherify/Lightyear Deal Forms LBS Powerhouse.
August 18, 2008... Wherify Wireless Inc., developer of the Springboard location-based services (LBS) platform, plans to meld that application with wireless offerings from Lightyear Network Solutions LLC when the two merge. The proposed business combination...

HBAs Now Work With Hitachi SAN Offerings.
August 18, 2008... The 8Gb/s LightPulse Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA) family from Emulex Corporation now is available and qualified for Hitachi Data Systems' enterprise and midrange storage platforms. Featuring advanced LightPulse Virtual HBA...

Fluke Buys Pioneering VoIP Testing Manufacturer.
August 18, 2008... Fluke Networks, in its strongest foray into enterprise-class VoIP so far, has purchased the assets and technology of once-hot Israeli IP network performance-assurance and automated-diagnosis provider Viola Networks. The acquisition is...

snom Teams With Epygi For SIP/Key System Phones.
August 18, 2008... Earlier today, VoIP enterprise phone maker snom Technology AG announced the integration of its SIP-based phone portfolio with that of IP PBX and gateway manufacturer Epygi Technologies Ltd. "After rigorous testing and evaluation, snom's 3xx...

IPtimize Doubles Its Enterprise VoIP Reach.
August 18, 2008... Broadband voice and data service provider IPtimize is the new owner of American Fiber Systems' (AFS) broadband access and hosted VoIP telephone services business via a deal that more than doubles the number of IP endpoints it serves....

Convention Strikes Averted As Qwest, Unions Settle.
August 18, 2008... Late yesterday, Qwest reached a tentative agreement with its unions, avoiding what could have been a strike right in the middle of both the Democratic and Republican conventions, for which the ILEC is providing both voice and data services....

XO Ethernet To Go Farther & Faster.
August 19, 2008... Business broadband service provider XO Communications has increased the distance over which it will deliver Ethernet-over-copper, rolling out an extensive new range of speed options for its fiber-connected enterprise users and laying out...

IPC Taps Overture As A Best-Of-Breed Carrier Ethernet Supplier.
August 19, 2008... In a new customer win, Overture Networks says IPC Systems Inc. is using Overture's ISG product family as part of its recently introduced managed Ethernet Connection Service (ECS) for financial trading firms. Here's what Overture, a...

Nuance Supports Latest Genesys Voice Platform Iteration.
August 19, 2008... At SpeechTEK today, Nuance Communications and Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, touted their ongoing collaboration to offer automated solutions for the voice channel that now includes services and support for the Genesys Voice Platform...

Nortel UC Add-On Cuts Contact-Center Costs.
August 19, 2008... Nortel today unveiled an add-on to its unified communications (UC) platform that lets enterprises add such features as IM, e-mail and click-to-call to self-service and speech applications. The new offering, dubbed the Nortel Interactive...

VoSky Skypes Enterprise PBXs.
August 19, 2008... VoSky, one of a clutch of companies attempting to morph eBay's Skype into an enterprise VoIP service, released what it says is the first-ever "Skype- certified, enterprise-grade PBX-to-Skype gateway for SIP networks." The company is...

Trio Plans All-In-One SMB IP PBX Solution.
August 19, 2008... Grandstream Networks, Bandwidth.com and VoIP Supply are teaming to offer a package of solutions to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that will be available exclusively through VoIP Supply, Grandstream's certified partner. ...

SaaS Deal: Salesforce.com Buys Call-Center Specialist.
August 20, 2008... Software as a Service (SaaS) CRM market giant Salesforce.com, in its largest acquisition ever, is the new owner of call-center-optimization software developer InStranet, paying $31.5 million in an all-cash deal. InStranet already had...

Ericsson, STM Combine Wireless Chip Units.
August 20, 2008... Ericsson and STMicroelectronics NV are merging their semiconductor units into a single operation - the better to battle the likes of Qualcomm and TI. The new venture starts life with 8,000 employees, $3.6 billion in sales and a customer...

Cbeyond Ramps Small-Biz, Handset Portfolios.
August 20, 2008... IP-based managed-services provider Cbeyond Inc. now is offering its Hosted Microsoft Exchange service to small businesses in all markets along with an enhanced set of mobile handset options for BeyondMobile customers. Cbeyond sports a...

Avnet Gives VARs Triple-Threat Customer-Support Suite.
August 20, 2008... A new family of services from Avnet Technology Solutions features three levels of support: availability monitoring, preventative monitoring and comprehensive remote management. Targeting value-added reseller partners, Avnet says its...

Embarq Enterprise Service Uses MetaSwitch Backbone.
August 20, 2008... Nearly a month after introducing its Smart IP Enterprise solution (TelecomWeb news break, July 24), Embarq has selected MetaSwitch's softswitch, media gateway and MetaSphere application suite to form its core. No financial details were...

Patent House Looks For New Opportunities.
August 20, 2008... Patriot Scientific has decided to use the piles of cash it's gotten from licensing its IP patents to become a "real" operating company, hiring an investment advisor to help it find wireless, networking or software companies to buy. In a...