TelecomWeb News Digest articles from February 2008

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from February 2008

Microsoft Takes On Google With Astounding Yahoo! Offer.
February 1, 2008... Microsoft, a company built of dozens of acquisitions as much as by its own technological expertise, has made its biggest bid yet: $44.6 billion in cash and stock for Yahoo! The bid, uncharacteristically unsolicited, has been immediately...

Ericsson To Slash Thousands, Blames Chinese Competition, War.
February 1, 2008... The ax has fallen at market-leading wireless infrastructure vendor Ericsson, which today said it will eliminate some 1,000 jobs from operations in Sweden and 4,000 jobs globally. The company cited a flattening market due to a long series...

Motorola Puts Faltering Handset Unit Up For Sale.
February 1, 2008... Motorola has put its cellphone-manufacturing unit - which accounts for half of the company these days - on the block. The move comes barely a week after the company disclosed losses of more than $1 billion on its 2007 handset sales. The...

EGPS Forum Tasked With Futurizing Location Technologies.
February 1, 2008... An open industry forum "to evaluate and foster enhanced Global Positioning System (EGPS) technologies" is being formed by wireless-solution developer CSR and Motorola, with a mandate to "advocate improvement to location technologies in mobile...

FCC Puts Rural Broadband On The Front Burner.
February 1, 2008... Earlier today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced two new joint initiatives to push the continued buildout of U.S. rural broadband networks. First, the two are launching an...

Red Condor Offers SMBs Scalable, Secure E-Mail Appliance.
February 1, 2008... Red Condor's MAG1500 Message Assurance Gateway has hit the market, targeting small to medium sized (SMB) businesses needing more than 100 mailboxes and 20 domains. According to the Calif.-based company, the MAG1500 provides small...

While Microsoft Courts Yahoo!, Google Strikes Back.
February 4, 2008... In a highly unusual move, Google this past weekend launched a sneak attack on Microsoft's announced $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo! (TelecomWeb news break, Feb. 1), warning the world that Microsoft could take over the Internet if the deal...

Lenovo Is Ericsson's First HSPA Module Customer.
February 4, 2008... Ericsson, in its first announced mobile-broadband-module win, has landed Lenovo - the third-largest PC company in the world following its acquisition of IBM's Personal Computing Division three years ago - as a customer for its HSPA...

Is Vyyo Imploding?
February 4, 2008... Cable broadband access equipment house Vyyo, after burning through more than $250 billion in the past few years, reportedly is firing most of its staff, closing its R&D unit in Israel and putting such assets as its T1-over-DOCSIS and...

Troika Announces DVB-H Mobile-TV Partnership.
February 4, 2008... Three prominent names in the mobile-handset-software space - embedded security solutions provider Discretix, multimedia application provider VisualOn and mobile-TV middleware developer Axel Technologies - are teaming to provide a...

VoiceNEXT Enhances Hosted PBX Suite.
February 4, 2008... Hosted PBX provider VoiceNEXT now is using U4EA Technologies' Fusion Series Multi-Service Business Gateway for its business-class VoIP service. Web-based VoiceNEXT's hosted PBX solutions manage such voice services as local and...

Wireless Social Networking And 'Sticky Beak' Syndrome.
February 4, 2008... Eighty percent of U.K. Internet users admit to being queasy about sharing their mobile-phone numbers in the contact areas of such social-networking sites as "Facebook", "Bebo" and "MySpace," and this feeling could spill over into other types...

FCC Greenlights AT&T 700 MHz Spectrum Buy.
February 5, 2008... With most of the industry's attention focused on the massive 700 MHz spectrum auction that continues in Washington, D.C., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) quietly approved AT&T's $2.5 billion acquisition of the nationwide 700 MHz...

VoIP Provider CounterPath Buys Into FMC.
February 5, 2008... VoIP software house CounterPath, in a major move into the fixed mobile convergence (FMC) market, has purchased BridgePort Networks, whose marketing slogan is "where mobile meets VoIP." The deal is the latest in a string of acquisitions...

New NEC Unified-Communications Offer Addresses Employees.
February 5, 2008... NEC Corporation says its newly unveiled Univerge360 enables businesses "to fully integrate employee roles with automated business processes, resulting in a unified organization." The Japanese giant now will combine new and existing...

Broadband Co-Op Sinks New Funding Into Backbone Expansion.
February 5, 2008... The Richmond, Va.-based Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative (MBC) has "dramatically" expanded the backbone capacity of the Southside Virginia Regional Backbone Network via additional funding from its backers and expansions to its Infinera...

LogMeIn Adds Symbian To IT Remote-Service Package.
February 5, 2008... Mass.-based LogMeIn Inc. is previewing its LogMeIn Rescue+Mobile support service for smartphones running the S60 platform on the Symbian operating system, saying the service enables everyone from the wireless carrier down to the...

Ipswitch Adds Managed Services To Net Management Pack.
February 5, 2008... Network management software specialist Ipswitch has gone to market with a managed-services version of its flagship network-management product "WhatsUp Gold." By using the new "WhatsUp Gold MSP Edition," managed-services providers (MSPs)...

Big Auction Update: Has Google Dropped Out?
February 6, 2008... Bids in the FCC's massive 700 MHz spectrum auction stopped just a hair shy of $19 billion on Tuesday, at the end of 38 rounds of bidding, as speculation grew that Google has dropped out of the bidding and that Verizon is now the biggest...

WiMAX Killer LTE Tops 300 Mb/s.
February 6, 2008... The Long Term Evolution (LTE) / System Architecture Evolution (SAE) Trial Initiative (LSTI) said that it has completed a second key round of LTE tests, this time hitting a somewhat phenomenal 300 Mb/s for the technology that's considered...

AirWave Enterprise Software Adds 802.11n Support.
February 6, 2008... Wireless network manager AirWave Wireless is marketing a new suite is says will help IT departments manage large-scale and mission-critical wireless networks. The San Mateo, Calif.-based company says its new AirWave Wireless Management...

On-Demand SaaS On Sale At The Jamcracker WebStore.
February 6, 2008... Jamcracker WebStores, developed by the Jamcracker Services Delivery Network, now provides a front- and back-end services delivery infrastructure along with billing and settlement as well as customer administration and support for Software as...

Redback Promotes Mgm't Team, Beefs Up Wireless R&D.
February 6, 2008... Redback Networks Inc., now 12 months into being a part of Ericsson, has made some management changes while creating a larger product unit that will merge Ericsson's R&D resources for fixed and mobile IP products into the Silicon Valley...

Israeli Ethernet House Wins At Deutsche Telekom.
February 6, 2008... Israeli Carrier Ethernet house Corrigent Systems has nailed down a contract from Media Broadcast to supply network infrastructure hardware for network solutions deployed by Deutsche Telekom's wholesale business unit. Value of the deal...

Cisco Scares The Street.
February 7, 2008... It looks like it's now Cisco Systems' turn to raise some financial concerns for the communications industry and with the nation's investors. Following what seemed like a decent financial report yesterday that met most expectations, Cisco CEO...

Rumor du Jour: Arab Investors Sniff Around Sprint.
February 7, 2008... Reports out of Dubai suggest the Kuwaiti-based Islamic investment firm that last year bought a 50-percent stake in legendary car maker Aston Martin now may be eyeing Sprint-Nextel, holding what it says is a $800 million bankroll designated...

'Luxury' MVNO Kills Off Celebrity Service.
February 7, 2008... Voce, which fancied itself the world's only mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) targeting the rich and famous (think "free" Prada phones, a promise of "the ultimate in customer service and cellular attention" and concierge-like...

Distributor Offers Hitachi Storage In 24 Flavors.
February 7, 2008... Bell Microproducts Inc., a global value-added distributor of storage and computing technology, just inked a deal with Hitachi Data Systems to distribute the Hitachi Simple Modular Storage 100 product line. The Hitachi Simple Modular...

Clearfield Tapped For Kansas FTTH Buildout.
February 7, 2008... Citing the company's "extreme temperature resilience and service reliability," Rural Telephone Service Company Inc., selected Clearfield Inc. to provide fiber-management solutions for its business customers throughout northwest and north...

It's Permanent: No Unwanted Telemarketing Calls To Your Biz.
February 7, 2008... Congress finally vetted a permanent "Do Not Call" registry after batting the contentious telemarketing issue around both sides of the Capitol since September 2007. As things stand now, businesses and consumers won't have to re-register...

Softbank Boosts Microsoft's Bid For Yahoo!
February 8, 2008... Japan's Softbank, which owns 3.9 percent of Yahoo! and 41 percent of Yahoo! Japan (and among other holdings is that country's third-largest wireless carrier, called Softbank Mobile), this morning gave its tacit (if not implicit) backing to...

Alcatel-Lucent Losses Bode No Good; Dividends Denied.
February 8, 2008... Alcatel-Lucent this morning reported a massive $3.74 billion loss, most of it due to a write-down of the value of its CDMA IMS businesses (the Lucent side of the house), and it's still $70 million in the red when it had expected to make a...

Fujitsu Unveils SaaS Offering.
February 8, 2008... Fujitsu Ltd.'s service arm has jumped into software as a service (SaaS) with a multi-tiered offering designed to cover everything from the small- to medium-business (SMB) set to large-enterprise customers. The company is targeting sales...

Microsoft Dynamics 'Roadmap' Goes Truly Mobile.
February 8, 2008... Logotec Engineering Group has configured its "roadmap" of mobile extensions to now allow wireless users to access its Microsoft Dynamics CRM information on all Windows Mobile 6.0 and 5.0 devices. Logotec Engineering Group, an...

D.C. Government Extends Verizon Comms Contract.
February 8, 2008... The District of Columbia Government signed a three-year contract with Verizon Business under which the carrier will provide local voice, data and voice-mail services at more than 200 District offices. No financial details were disclosed,...

Friday Auction Wrap: Six Rounds/Day, Still No Real D-Block Players.
February 8, 2008... The ongoing auction of 700 MHz blocks at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) now is in Stage 2, but six rounds a day still haven't forced any movement in the sale of the channels earmarked for the nationwide broadband public-safety...

Yahoo! Demands Microsoft Pay A Higher Price.
February 11, 2008... The Yahoo! board of directors, as widely expected, has formally rejected Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid and, amid a swirl of rumors of feints such as a Yahoo! offer to buy what little is left of AOL, is apparently looking for more...

Rumor Du Jour: Motorola & Nortel Talking Wireless Merger.
February 11, 2008... Nortel and Motorola have reportedly been negotiating a deal to merge their wireless infrastructure units, with Nortel emerging the dominant owner in a joint venture that would supposedly have more market muscle in competition with rival...

AT&T Drinks T-Mobile's Latte.
February 11, 2008... In a major wireless broadband industry coup AT&T has stolen away the high profile Starbucks Wi-Fi contract from T-Mobile, which has provided wireless broadband to Starbucks coffee connoisseurs for the past six years. Starbucks Wi-Fi is also...

ArcSoft Touts Next-Gen Threaded Messaging.
February 11, 2008... Wireless companies are using the 2008 GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week as the launching ground for new products and service, and one of them is ArcSoft Inc., showcasing its next-generation Mobile Messaging solution. "As...

snom Phones Slated For New CTI Features.
February 11, 2008... Berlin-based snom technology AG, a developer and manufacturer of voice- over-IP (VoIP) phones, and the U.K.'s Camrivox Ltd., which provides computer telephony integration (CTI) software for CRM applications, are teaming to provide a...

AWS Licensee Launches Its First Wireless Broadband Network.
February 11, 2008... Oklahoma City-based Stelera Wireless, a broadband service provider that plans to concentrate on rural areas, launched its first wireless broadband network, this one serving Floresville, and Poth, Texas, and giving those communities...

Alcatel-Lucent Inks Another LTE Pact.
February 12, 2008... Alcatel-Lucent, in a major commitment to Long Term Evolution (LTE), this morning at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona disclosed setting up a wide- ranging LTE joint venture with NEC to pool their efforts in creating a common LTE...

Verizon Targets EMEA, AsiaPac With Managed LANs.
February 12, 2008... Verizon Business has begun offering its managed local area network (LAN) service in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. Verizon's already offered wide area networking (WAN) services on a worldwide basis, claiming...

Dell Dives Deeper Into SaaS.
February 12, 2008... Dell says it will spend $155 million in cash to acquire MessageOne, a specialist in software as a service (SaaS)-enabled, enterprise-class e-mail business continuity, compliance, archiving and disaster-recovery services. MessageOne...

Survey Sez: Wireless Carriers Still Providers Of Choice For FMC.
February 12, 2008... An independent survey of 300 European enterprises, investigating their attitudes toward fixed mobile convergence (FMC), says that, despite carriers showing little interest in the enterprise market during the last few years, 34 percent of...

Maravedis, WiMAX20/20 Team For Turnkey Biz Data.
February 12, 2008... Maravedis Inc., a broadband wireless access (BWA)/WiMAX research-and- analysis firm, and BWA consulting firm WiMAX20/20 LLC are partnering to "bring together industry-leading WiMAX research, analysis and business planning expertise" in a...

Nextel Peru Tackles SMBs, Partners With Simdesk.
February 12, 2008... Simdesk Technologies is working with Nextel Peru to power the carrier's Oficina Nextel mobile services targeting small-to-medium businesses (SMBs). According to Nextel Peru, which claims to be Peru's leading wireless service provider to...

World's Biggest Carriers Team To Test LTE.
February 13, 2008... The world's three largest wireless operations in their individual countries - China Mobile, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless - have banded together to conduct joint Long Term Evolution (LTE) trials. China Mobile is the world's largest...

Qwest Ponders Sprint Alternative.
February 13, 2008... Qwest, the smallest of what's now only three regional holding companies and the only one without a cellular operation of its own, is considering a replacement for Sprint as the carrier for its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) offering....

Losses Narrows But Vonage Keeps Churning.
February 13, 2008... "Pure play" VoIP market leader Vonage, beating analyst estimates, said that, in the final quarter of last year, it only lost $13 million (10 cents a share), beating some expectations by a couple of pennies. For the first time in its...

Cloudmark, IBM BladeCenter Gear Team For Network Security.
February 13, 2008... Cloudmark Inc. is launching an integrated messaging security platform for telecom service providers based on IBM's BladeCenter systems, aimed at protecting next-gen mobile and fixed-line messaging infrastructures and pipes from the growing...

Will 2008 Make Or Break WiMAX?
February 13, 2008... One European research firm believes this year will be "decisive" in the development of the Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), which it says experienced major setbacks in 2007. "WiMAX suffered a major setback when...

Avaya Vets Abrazo FMC Solution.
February 13, 2008... Avaya has certified Tango Networks' "Tango Abrazo" product as being compliant with Avaya's IP telephony solutions. Tango, a provider of enterprise fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solutions, says its Abrazo "helps businesses extend the...

Has LiMo Trumped Android?
February 14, 2008... The LiMo (think mobile Linux) Foundation, a trade group created a little more than a year ago to unify the way Linux is used as an underlying cellphone/featurephone operating system, rolled out the strategy for its promised software...

Sprint's WiMAX Funding Foundering.
February 14, 2008... Sprint-Nextel hasn't approved the budget for a full commercial rollout of its Xohm wireless broadband service, handing yet another blow to WiMAX proponents' hopes for the technology. Meanwhile, the carrier formally announced it will move...

Yahoo! Courts Murdoch To Counter Microsoft.
February 14, 2008... Yahoo! reportedly is talking to Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp (which, among other things, owns MySpace) in its search for a "white knight" to counter Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to buy the company. However, many observers believe...

Alcatel-Lucent OKs New Recording Solutions.
February 14, 2008... ASC, a global provider of innovative solutions to record, analyze and evaluate communications, says Alcatel-Lucent has certified its newest communications recording solution, called Marathon Evolution, and its VoIP recording solution, dubbed...

EMEA The Next Frontier For Hosted Contact Centers.
February 14, 2008... New research points to the hosted contact-center market in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)getting ready to shed its early-adopter tag, with companies of all sizes warming up to the concept of having a third party host their...

Telovations, Tech Data Team For Managed Voice Services.
February 14, 2008... Telovations Inc. and Tech Data Corporation forged a strategic partnership designed to extend Telovations' Managed Voice Services to select Tech Data resellers in 16 U.S. markets. Tech Data will offer its resellers the ability to promote...

Spectrum Auction Drags On, But The Real Game's Over.
February 15, 2008... Amid a flood of guesses and more than a little grumbling, the FCC's auction of 700 MHz spectrum slogged into its 17th day today, with a trickle of small bid increases on relatively minor pieces of spectrum keeping the commission's one-ring...

Voice Mobility UCs Google Apps.
February 15, 2008... Canadian enhanced messaging solutions house Voice Mobility International integrated its offerings with Google Apps, creating what it brags is the first such unified communications (UC) solution for Google Apps in the enterprise market. ...

India IT House Goes SaaS.
February 15, 2008... NIIT Technologies has turned to Software as a Service (SaaS) in hopes of invigorating its stagnating profits and sales worldwide. Initially, the India-based NIIT says it's launching "ProcureEasy" as its first SaaS offering. That program...

Tower Owner Gleans More Acquisition Cash.
February 15, 2008... GE Commercial Finance's Media, Communications & Entertainment business is backing Mobilitie, a portfolio company belonging to Oaktree Capital Management and the owner of a nationwide network of telecom towers, in the form of a $425 million...

De-Fi Taps Covergence For Edge Protection.
February 15, 2008... Covergence, a provider of next-gen Session Border Controller solutions, inked a contract with De-Fi Mobile Ltd. that has the client using the Covergence Session Manager (CSM) to implement security, management and control policies at the...

SMBs Continue As Main IP PBX Sales Targets.
February 15, 2008... Telecommunications manufacturers continued to focus on the small and mid- sized business (SMB) telephony market throughout 2007, with bigger and better gear expected this year. Database and analyst group TelecomTactics, a division of The...

RIM Vs. Motorola In Patent Suit Shoot-Out.
February 19, 2008... Research In Motion (RIM) and Motorola, like a pair of gunfighters meeting at high noon in the OK Corral, last weekend filed opposing lawsuits, charging each other with violating patents covering key wireless technologies. The suits...

Gates Gets Stingy With Yahoo!
February 19, 2008... Microsoft apparently would rather fight than switch to a higher price in its bid to take over Yahoo!, and the result is starting to look like a proxy battle royale. Multiple reports are in play today from news and wire-service sources,...

Conferencing Giants Agree To Buyout.(Company overview)
February 19, 2008... Outsourced communications services giant West Corp. has offered a handsome $268.8 million for French conferencing and collaboration specialist Genesys in a friendly tender offer priced at a 50-percent premium compared with Genesys' current...

Covad Taps Arbor Networks To Hook Network Worms.
February 19, 2008... Covad Communications, a national provider of integrated voice and data communications, now is using Arbor Networks' "Peakflow SP" software to protect its network against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, worms and other...

Survey Sez: U.S. Handset Sales Topped $11B Last Year.
February 19, 2008... According to The NPD Group, mobile-phone sales in the United States reached 146 million units by the end of 2007, with smartphones accounting for 12 percent of unit sales in the fourth quarter. Revenues reached $11.5 billion after rebates...

DATAllegro Pulls No Punches On Teradata Plans.
February 19, 2008... DATAllegro, whose product portfolio includes what it says is the "most advanced data-warehouse appliance on an enterprise-class platform," unveiled a new set of utilities designed to help it topple rival Teradata from its top spot in the...

Managed-Service Deals Target North American Market.
February 20, 2008... In a pair of managed-service pacts spanning the North American continent, Fla.-based distributor Tech Data and managed-services-infrastructure provider Zenith Infotech inked a partnership to recruit, train and support managed services...

Alcatel-Lucent, HP Team For Secure Governance.
February 20, 2008... At the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum taking place today and tomorrow in Paris, the host company is touting a product integration it says brings together HP SOA Systinet governance software with Alcatel-Lucent's OmniAccess 8550 Web Services...

French SMBs Hike IT Security Spending.
February 20, 2008... Among small and medium businesses (SMBs or companies with as many as 999 employees) in Western Europe, SMBs in France closed 2007 by spending approximately $34 billion to beef up their IT and telecom infrastructures and applications, up 5...

Tranzeo Promises WiMAX 'Price/Performance Breakthrough'.
February 20, 2008... Canadian wireless broadband house Tranzeo is getting into the WiMAX base- station market, promising "a price/performance breakthrough" when its first IEEE 802.14-compliant base-station offering, described as a turnkey pico base station, hits...

Yahoo! Readies Poison Pill; Microsoft Girds For Battle.
February 20, 2008... Expectations that Microsoft is about to launch what would be a hostile proxy battle to take over Yahoo! have firmed up, going from assumptions, rumors and unnamed sources to near certainty with the disclosure Microsoft has hired...

New IP PBX Incarnation Supports Firewalls.
February 20, 2008... London-based 3CX just released Version 5.1 of its 3CX Phone System for Windows, a version it says makes the integration of remote workers and branch offices easy. Traditionally, 3CX says, a firewall configuration for remote SIP/VoIP...

T-Mobile Eyes Landline Service.
February 21, 2008... Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile U.S. subsidiary is looking at getting into the landline phone business as a VoIP-based carrier. In a challenge both to the likes of 'pure-play' VoIP providers such as Vonage as well as to both telcos and...

U.S Gov't Torpedoes 3Com Acquisition.
February 21, 2008... The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), in what's considered a relatively rare action, has vetoed the planned $2.2 billion acquisition of 3COM by affiliates of global private investment firm Bain Capital Partners...

IBM Launches Telecom Cost Saving Service.
February 21, 2008... IBM has launched a service to help corporations around the world manage what it characterizes as "the skyrocketing volume and expense of the myriad telecommunications services needed to stay competitive in business" - and save money among...

Ethernet Bandwidth Provider Goes 'Postal'ized.
February 21, 2008... USCarrier Telecom, a provider of wholesale, long-haul fiber optic transport, today announced flat-rate (also known as postalized) Ethernet pricing throughout its entire Southeastern metropolitan and regional networks for bandwidths of 50 Mb/s...

Telcos Warned Not To Count On Big TV Money.
February 21, 2008... New research says service orientation, rather than next-generation access (NGA), is the key to new fixed telecom revenues, and "smart and timely" investment in the core will deliver better returns than will banking on success in...

Fiber Coalition Releases XLMD-MSA Specs.
February 21, 2008... Fiber giants Eudyna Devices Inc., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., NEC Electronics Corp., Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd., Opnext Inc. and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., have detailed common specifications for pigtail-type optical devices based...