TelecomWeb News Digest articles from February 2006

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from February 2006

Public Safety Could Get Unauctioned Paging Spectrum.
February 1, 2006... A petition for rulemaking submitted to the Federal Communications Commission more than 18 months ago regarding the reallocation of unauctioned paging spectrum finally is up for comment. In June 2004, Icom America asked the agency to...

Verizon Increases Global Ethernet Footprint.
February 1, 2006... Verizon Business, the consolidated enterprise/government accounts activity resulting from the Verizon Communications/MCI merger (TelecomWeb news break, Jan. 6) is expanding its Ethernet network access facilities and services in the United...

Bell Canada Envisions Unique Telecom 'Trust'.
February 1, 2006... Bell Canada will form a new "regional telephone income trust" that will own and manage 1.6 million local access lines in parts of its Ontario and Quebec operating territories. The carrier then will distribute shares in the trust to...

Intellisync Stockholders OK Nokia Deal.
February 1, 2006... Shareholders of wireless messaging and mobile-software developer Intellisync Corporation voted to adopt the merger agreement that will result in the San Jose, Calif., company being acquired by Finland's Nokia for approximately $430 million...

Senate Committee Awaits FCC Nomination.
February 1, 2006... The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has juggled its hearing schedule on communications-related topics in part due to yesterday's vote to approve Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, which ate into the committee's...

Virgin Mobile Sub Growth Adds Allure.
February 1, 2006... Virgin Mobile continues to demonstrate why it is such an attractive target for U.K. cable operator ntl. At the end of 2005, the carrier served more than four million customers. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the three months ending...

Next DTV Step: Bush's Signature.
February 2, 2006... President George W. Bush has signaled his willingness to sign major budget-reconciliation legislation just passed by the House of Representatives that includes a digital-television cutover measure (plus a transition deadline three years from...

'Thus,' Your 'Legend' Is Born; Bye Bye 'Demon'.
February 2, 2006... U.K. telco Thus is preparing to step up its activities in the U.K. telecom market with a series of moves that should strengthen its nationwide position, including two key acquisitions in the U.K. and the divestiture of its Dutch ISP unit. ...

The Hill Shakes Unified Fist At Call-Data Fraud.
February 2, 2006... Angry members of the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday explored a variety of legal remedies to penalize thieves and brokers of confidential telephone call records, with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin...

Fujitsu Enters N. America GPON Market.
February 2, 2006... Fujitsu Network Communications is preparing for an assault on the North American GPON market with a product link that combines key optical products it's been selling in Asia and the DSLAMs it's providing to BT as part of BT's highly touted...

3G In The Sky.
February 2, 2006... Even those in remote areas of the world soon will get a shot at 3G technology, once satellite communications specialist TriaGnoSys and its UMTS equipment partner 3Way Networks launch their flavor of satellite-telephony service. ...

MIT Hackers To Wi-Fi Cambridge.
February 2, 2006... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is going to provide hometown Cambridge with a free city-wide Wi-Fi mesh - built using hacked hardware and software. The project is being justified as a "research experiment" by MIT and as a...

AT&T Lowballs DSL At $12.99.
February 3, 2006... The "new" AT&T today began offering DSL at a first-year promotional price of $12.99, believed to be the lowest per-month fee ever seen in the United States. The cheap rate means AT&T has stolen the price lead away from Verizon, whose...

Aramiska Ex-CEO: Bleak Satellite Broadband Future.
February 3, 2006... A week after pan-European satellite broadband operator Aramiska shut down operations, giving its customers fewer than seven-hours notice (TelecomWeb news break, Jan. 30), the company still has not disclosed exactly what happened or why it...

Congressmen Launch Letter-Writing Campaign.
February 3, 2006... Earlier today, House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders demanded answers from operators of Internet sites like "phonebust.com" and"datafind.org" that offer criminals, stalkers and any other paying customers detailed personal- call records....

3G Spectrum Auction Set For June.
February 3, 2006... Bidders will get their shots at 90 megahertz of spectrum for new third- generation (3G) advanced wireless services (AWS) in an auction the Federal Communications Commission has scheduled to start on June 29. The long-awaited bidding...

Russia's VimpelCom In Budget Flap.
February 3, 2006... Russian wireless carrier Vimpel Communications (VimpelCom) found itself in some emotional distress today because of continuing board disagreements over its annual budget, but the company maintains it will carry on. Moscow-based...

Euro T-Mobile Makes Data Faster, Cheaper.
February 3, 2006... Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile, in a major mobile-data-services push in Germany, has unveiled a flat-rate wireless-data pricing scheme and a new High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) service with bandwidth as much as 1.8 Mb/s. ...

Big ISPs To E-Marketers: Pay To Play.
February 6, 2006... In a deal first announced in October 2005 but apparently only being subjected to scrutiny within the past few days, America Online Inc. (AOL) and Yahoo! Inc. say they will be charging large companies fees ranging from $2 to $3 per 1,000...

Senator Wants Federal Excise Tax Gone...
February 6, 2006... For the second time in less than a month, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted the continued imposition of the federal excise tax (FET) on wireless telephone bills, suggesting recently that legislation may be necessary to end the...

...Meanwhile, Wireless Continues To Upstage Wireline.
February 6, 2006... The federal excise tax (FET) notwithstanding, market-research house In- Stat today released the results of a survey that underscores the fact that wireless services will accelerate the erosion of wireline offerings, with nearly 20 percent of...

India State Adopts Canopy Technology.
February 6, 2006... Motorola has begun delivery of its MOTOwi4 Canopy system to the Indian state of Rajasthan for what will be the first statewide deployment of wireless broadband in the subcontinent. Most wireless broadband deployments pale in comparison to...

Alcatel Lands Chinese Triple-Play Deal.
February 6, 2006... Alcatel won a contract from China's largest fixed-line operator, China Telecom (CT), to upgrade its network in preparation for the launch of triple- play services. The value of the contract was not disclosed but it is believed to be...

Level 3, Charter Sign VoIP Agreement.
February 6, 2006... Level 3 and cableco Charter Communications inked a multi-year network services agreement that calls on Level 3 to support Charter Telephone's expansion of consumer and small-business telephony services, including Voice over Internet Protocol...

Bush Wants $3.6B Wi-Fi Tax.
February 7, 2006... The Bush administration has asked the Federal Communications Commission to consider imposing fees that would yield about $3.6 billion during the next 10 years on unauctioned spectrum licenses - a notion widely seen as targeting newer...

Portugal Telecom Faces Hostile Takeover.
February 7, 2006... Portuguese conglomerate Sonae that, among other assets, controls the country's Number Three mobile-phone company, late yesterday made a surprise $12.85 billion takeover bid for Portugal Telecom (PT). The offer, said to be the largest...

SMB Market Drives New Telecom-System Sales Growth.
February 7, 2006... Demand from small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) is beginning to drive global enterprise telecom-system shipments, according to new research from InfoTech, the market research arm of The Telecom Intelligence Group, of which TelecomWeb is...

FCC Nomination Sent To Senate.
February 7, 2006... The U.S. Senate now has in its hands the nomination of lobbyist/attorney Robert M. McDowell to be a member of the Federal Communications Commission, filling the remaining vacant GOP seat at the five-seat regulatory agency (Telecom Policy...

Verizon Business Names International Execs.
February 7, 2006... Verizon Business, the consolidated enterprise/government accounts activity resulting from the Verizon Communications/MCI merger (TelecomWeb news break, Feb. 1, Jan. 6), has reorganized its international activities and its management...

Nokia, Telecom Italia Expand WCDMA Pact.
February 7, 2006... Nokia and Telecom Italia say their initial joint work on WCDMA-based 3G technologies and services now will be expanded under a recently signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) for wider cooperation. The MoU is being followed up with...

Update: Portugal Telecom Says $12.85B Not Enough.
February 8, 2006... Portugal Telecom (PT) last night rejected the $12.85 billion hostile- takeover bid made by Sonae on Monday (TelecomWeb news break, Feb. 7), strongly hinting it wants a far higher price. Meanwhile, rumors have surfaced regarding preparations...

Research: VoWLAN Device Sales To Spike In 2007-08.
February 8, 2006... Enterprise Voice-over-Wireless LAN (VoWLAN) usage is expected to grow dramatically during the next three years, according to a new study issued by TelecomWeb's sister division InfoTech as part of its InfoTrack for Enterprise Mobility...

Qualcomm Rebuffs Broadcom Patent Suit.
February 8, 2006... Qualcomm obtained a court order permanently enjoining Broadcom from prosecuting patent-infringement claims against the San Diego company in the International Trade Commission (ITC) proceedings started last year (TelecomWeb news break, May 23,...

Global Crossing, Telstra U.S. Ink Services Deal.
February 8, 2006... Global Crossing signed an agreement with Telstra Corporation Limited's U.S. subsidiary to support international business-communications offerings throughout the Americas region. The deal with Telstra essentially will allow the Australian...

Lucent, IBM 'Blend' IP Solutions.
February 8, 2006... Lucent Technologies and IBM will work together to develop, market and deliver joint solutions based on Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) they say will be aimed at accelerating the introduction of new blended services by...

Norwegians Prefer 'Interactive' Mobile TV.
February 8, 2006... The results of an extensive mobile-television trial in Norway reveal viewers spend more time with the content when it has a more interactive approach - a whopping five minutes compared with just 150 seconds of regular mobile-TV programming...

Vonage IPO: Too Little, Too Late?
February 9, 2006... VoIP maven Vonage filed preliminary IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicating it will seek only $250 million - far less than expected. The filing was a double-edged sword, forcing Vonage to reveal just how deep...

Next Up: Mobile-Application Sponsors.
February 9, 2006... As the mobile-content industry starts to gear up for an ambitious year of new mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) launches plus wireless multimedia deployments and every brand under the sun trying get space on the carrier deck, one of the...

Bush Signs DTV-Transition Legislation.
February 9, 2006... It's official. President Bush yesterday signed into law a massive budget bill that includes the historic federal mandate to transition the United States from analog to digital television broadcasting in mid-February 2009, thus freeing 24...

FTC: Some Call-Data Brokers Back Off.
February 9, 2006... A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) officer says some online brokers of personal wireless and wireless telephone calling records have been backing off recently from such Internet activity following regulatory and legislative investigations...

Broadband Saves The Bacon At BT, Telstra.
February 9, 2006... Driven by booming broadband sales, BT today reported financial results far better than analysts had expected. The U.K. giant says "new wave" revenue - from networked IT services, broadband and mobility - for the quarter ending Dec. 31,...

No Escape: Timbuktu Goes Wireless.
February 9, 2006... Timbuktu, "for centuries a by-word for the most remote places on earth" in the words of China's ZTE, is about to get its first telephones. ZTE snagged a contract from Societe des Telecommunications du Mali (Sotelma), Mali's state- owned,...

CLECs Announce 'Merger Of Equals'.
February 10, 2006... In what is being described as the creation of one of the largest competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) in the United States and the largest privately held CLEC in the Northeast, carriers CTC Communications of Waltham, Mass., and Choice...

Bankrupt Birch To Shrink Under Reorg Plan.
February 10, 2006... Kansas City-based Birch Telecom, operating under the protection of Chapter 11 bankruptcy since last summer, yesterday filed a reorganization plan that envisions the company slashing half of its workers, watching sales plummet during the next...

Senate Bill Touches USF, Increased Broadband.
February 10, 2006... Legislation has surfaced in the U.S. Senate to revamp the universal service fund (USF) subsidiary program by including broadband deployment in the mix of supported services and by punishing miscreants associated with the USF's E-rate segment...

Nokia Completes Intellisync Purchase.
February 10, 2006... Earlier today, Finland's Nokia wrapped its $430 million all-cash purchase of wireless-messaging and mobile-software developer Intellisync Corporation, fewer than two weeks after shareholders of the company gave their approval (TelecomWeb...

Qualcomm Wins Current Round In Patent Dispute.
February 10, 2006... According to Qualcomm, a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals earlier today denied a Broadcom emergency motion seeking to delay the permanent injunction preventing that company from prosecuting two Bluetooth technology-related...

Swisscom, KPN Strengthen Niche Presence.
February 10, 2006... Two of Europe's leading telcos, KPN and Swisscom, have made a series of acquisitions in the last couple of days to strengthen their positions in niche markets: Swisscom in the domestic e-healthcare market and KPN in narrowcasting. ...

Wireless Carriers Pledge IM Interoperability.
February 13, 2006... Eight of the world's largest GSM cellular carriers along with a clutch of seven India-based GSM players today unveiled a plan to provide instant-messaging services that will work across the various carriers' networks worldwide. The plan,...

Bevy Of Bidders For Portugal Telecom?
February 13, 2006... As many as four more rival bidders may emerge for Portugal Telecom following Portuguese conglomerate Sonae's surprise $12.85 billion hostile takeover bid for the carrier last week (TelecomWeb news break, Feb 7), according to various reports...

Microsoft Gives BlackBerry A 'Direct Push'.
February 13, 2006... Microsoft, in its strongest attempt yet to muscle in on Research In Motion (RIM) and to take over the mobile e-mail market dominated by RIM's BlackBerry, today disclosed deals with Cingular Wireless, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone to provide a...

FCC Eyes Tighter Consumer Data Privacy.
February 13, 2006... Capitol Hill shock over commercial online infringement of customer calling records and confidentiality reached another stage late last week as the Federal Communications Commission opened a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) examining the...

Is There A Digital Doctor In The House?
February 13, 2006... The medical establishment received a lot of attention recently when a U.S. legislator called for special tax incentives to stimulate increased usage of electronic documents and communications by doctors along with a series of vendor/service...

In Spain, Jazztel Prepares IPTV Launch.
February 13, 2006... According to Conchi Ferreras, head of Spanish telco Jazztel's content division, "We will launch a nationwide TV service next month, and then we expect to offer nationwide Video on Demand (VoD) services in the second quarter." Jazztel is...

Skype Makes Major Mobile Move.
February 14, 2006... eBay subsidiary Skype, in its first significant move into the mobile market, today formally unveiled a version of Skype software for mobile devices running Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 - a release that lets users of such devices make Skype...

Virgin Mobile Promises First "Real" Cell Phone TV.
February 14, 2006... Virgin Mobile has signed up for BT's Movio broadcast digital TV and radio service for mobile phones, a deal that will apparently make it the first carrier in the world to offer IP packet-based TV on the tiny screen using standard Digital...

Level 3 Seeks FCC Nod On Progress Deal.
February 14, 2006... Level 3 Communications has filed asset and license transfer applications at the Federal Communications Commission on its proposed $137 million purchase of Progress Telecom from joint owners Progress Energy and telecom-oriented investment...

Lucent Nabs EU Network Security Contract.
February 14, 2006... The European Commission has hired Lucent Technologies to analyze the availability and robustness of the voice and data networks, both wired and wireless, throughout the EU's entire 25-country territory - although Lucent isn't putting it that...

GSM Trade Group Blasts Africa Regulation.
February 14, 2006... The GSM Association (GSMA) today blamed "erratic regulation" of mobile telephony in African countries for what it apparently considers laggard wireless penetration on the continent, with a particular emphasis on problems in the Sub- Saharan...

$1B Urged For Public Safety Communications.
February 14, 2006... The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International today charged that there's a lack of adequate funding for dedicated first responder interoperable communications grant programs in the fiscal year 2007 federal...

23K Jobs To Go In France Telecom's VoIP Revolution.
February 15, 2006... About 23,000 jobs will be eliminated as no longer relevant - the workers expected to leave voluntarily - while 6,000 new wave jobs will be created and 10,000 other positions reshuffled at France Telecom as the company positions itself to...

SatCom Giant Born As Stratos Closes On Xantic.
February 15, 2006... Stratos Global Corp. yesterday closed on its $191 million acquisition of rival satellite communications company Xantic B.V., creating a half billion dollar company with a 44 percent market share of Inmarsat mobile satellite...

Congress Probes China Internet Censorship.
February 15, 2006... The Peoples' Republic of China is increasingly becoming the focal point of U.S. policy maker flaps over the Asian country's international behavior in the global marketplace, with accusations building that it seriously abridges Internet...

U.S. Mobile Workforce Composition To Stay Static Through 2008.
February 15, 2006... The composition of the U.S. mobile workforce is expected to remain basically unchanged during the next three years, according to a new study issued by TelecomWeb news break's sister unit InfoTech's InfoTrack for Enterprise Mobility (IEM) in...

Nokia Shuffles Top Tech Jobs As CTO Leaves.
February 15, 2006... Nokia today disclosed a shift in top-level technology oversight assignments at its group executive board effective April 1 due to the upcoming resignation at that time of Pertti Korhonen who is becoming CEO at Elektrobit Group Oyj; Korhonen...

Senator Seeks Joint Telecom Board Consensus.
February 15, 2006... A key U.S. senator yesterday revealed that legislators and regulators are currently discussing the formation of one or more new joint federal-state boards to develop common groundwork for the handling of future telecom services billing,...

Breaking News: Aramiska Rises From The Ashes.
February 16, 2006... Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, satellite broadband house Aramiska - which shut down operations three weeks ago giving customers fewer than seven hours notice - has flickered back to life with new owners, new management and a new...

New York Bill Bans Call Records Sale.
February 16, 2006... In the latest wrinkle surrounding online brokers of user call data (TelecomWeb news break, Feb. 13), legislation to ban the access and sale of telephone customer calling records and also hold carriers accountable has been introduced into the...

Helio Blasts Off Into MySpace.
February 16, 2006... Helio, the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) joint venture between Earthlink and Korean operator SK Telecom, has cut a deal with MySpace, the trendy teen Internet site that Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp bought last year for $580...

FCC Seeks Advisory Committee Members.
February 16, 2006... The Federal Communications Commission said it is now seeking nominations by March 31 for 15 new members of its Intergovernmental Advisory Committee (IAC) that provides input to the regulator on a wide range of telecom issues from...

Ensign-McCain Telecom Bill Attracts Attention.
February 16, 2006... The telecom regulation reform bill introduced by Sens. John Ensign (R- Nevada) and John McCain (R-Arizona) last year (TelecomWeb news break, July 27, 2005) generated renewed interest and support this week as the Senate pressed closer toward...

France Telecom Ups Its Stake In Moldova.
February 16, 2006... France Telecom has upped its stake in Voxtel, Moldova's leading cellular operator, by 10 percent to 61 percent just as new figures revealed that there are now more cell phones in the Eastern European country than there are land lines. ...

Canadian Billing Overpayments Will Fund Broadband.
February 17, 2006... According to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), rather than refunding US$566.54 million to consumers who overpaid on their telephone bills, Canada's incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) should use the...

ITC Judge Ponders Patent Dispute.
February 17, 2006... An initial piece of the far-reaching Broadcom-Qualcomm wireless patent dispute is now in the hands of Administrative Law Judge Charles E. Bullock at the International Trade Commission (ITC), where a hearing was held earlier this week on...

Ad Blitz Planned In IPTV Franchise Battle.
February 17, 2006... Trade associations representing U.S. telcos and cablecos are preparing to bring their hot video-franchising battle to the public via print and television advertisements, with part of the message being whether the U.S. Congress should change...

Swisscom Sets $1.1B Share Buyback.
February 17, 2006... Swisscom has announced details of a share buyback - forced by the Swiss government - under which the carrier will issue $763.9 million to shareholders during the current year and another $382 million in 2007-08. The transaction will take...

NTT DoCoMo Keeps It Real.
February 17, 2006... Japan's NTT DoCoMo, hoping to take its video services for the tiny screen to the next level, inked a partnership pact - its second major tie-up in the video area fewer than two weeks - with RealNetworks to deploy mobile video- streaming...

Happy Presidents' Day From TelecomWeb.
February 17, 2006... In observance of the federal Presidents' Day holiday Monday, Feb. 20, TelecomWeb's editors will be on hiatus. TelecomWeb will resume publishing Tuesday, Feb. 21. [Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]

Telecom NZ's Aussie Unit Drawn & Quartered.
February 21, 2006... Telecom New Zealand (Telecom NZ), hoping a change in the structure of its struggling AAPT subsidiary in Australia will lead to stronger performance, has split the business into two units while walking the CEO out the door. Local New Zealand...

Alltel Adds To Wireless Portfolio.
February 21, 2006... Alltel has signed a deal to add First Cellular of Southern Illinois to its growing cellular empire, agreeing to buy the wireless carrier for an undisclosed amount of cash. Mt. Vernon, Ill.-based First Cellular, which is privately held,...

Canada Readies 'Do-Not-Call' List.
February 21, 2006... Canadian regulators are preparing to establish the ground rules for a national Do-Not-Call List (DNCL) comparable to the registry mandated by the Federal Communications Commission as well as writing new telemarketing regulations that will...

Gigabit To The Home Comes To Missouri.
February 21, 2006... The city of North Kansas City (Mo.) is about to become the first place in America to install fiber all the way to the user (FTTx) with gigabit-per-second Carrier Ethernet capacity from Day One. Truth be told, residents aren't going to get...

BICO, Vegas Wireless Entertainment Merge For Gaming.
February 21, 2006... In a cross-border deal, Dove Canyon, Calif.-based BICO Inc., a distributor of Internet appliances and an advertising and content publisher primarily focused on the multi-housing and hospitality industries, is buying Toronto's Vegas Wireless...

Senate Bill Would Free Broadcast Spectrum.
February 21, 2006... A bill has been introduced into the U.S. Senate to free spectrum not being used by broadcasters and to allow the frequencies to be used for unlicensed wireless devices in communities with wireless broadband and home networking services. ...