TelecomWeb News Digest articles from July 2005

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from July 2005

Alltel-Western Wireless Merger One Step Closer.
July 7, 2005... At press time, Alltel said it reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice related to the company's pending merger with Belleview, Wash.-based Western Wireless Corporation. Alltel now will divest 16 markets in rural Arkansas,...

The Mouse Goes Mobile.
July 7, 2005... Here comes the MousekaPhone. The Walt Disney Company's Internet Group and Sprint this morning disclosed signing a deal under which Disney will become a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), selling cellphone service next year under the...

Retail VoIP Use Doubles.
July 7, 2005... The number of consumers using retail voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services has more than doubled during the past nine months, according to new estimates by U.K. research house Point Topic, which estimates that more than 11 million...

CompTel/ALTS Demands Stronger Port-Blocking Action.
July 7, 2005... The CompTel/ALTS trade group, representing competitive communications service providers, has urged the FCC to take a stronger, formal stand and a clearer position prohibiting incumbent network owners from blocking rival VoIP offerings and...

Survey: Voice Still The Killer Wireless App.
July 7, 2005... According to results of a recent survey conducted by ForceNine Consulting and SMS.ac, five times as many U.S. wireless users expect they will use wireless almost exclusively for voice communications during the next five years compared with...

Russian Hosted VoIP Service Taps BroadSoft.
July 7, 2005... VoIP application software supplier BroadSoft today said its products were selected by Russian telecom network provider Comstar United Telesystems for hosted VoIP offerings to support the carrier's suite of corporate voice services. Comstar,...

Wales Picked For 21CN Test Bed.
July 7, 2005... The city of Cardiff in Wales won the brass ring to serve as the test bed for - and the first to get services from - BT's vaunted $19 billion 21st Century Network (21CN) next-generation network (NGN) project. BT says it will migrate...

Portal Lands Multiple Billing Deals.
July 7, 2005... Billing and revenue-management solutions vendor Portal Software Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., today disclosed a series of contracts for its product suites, including deals with Web and search services company Lycos as well as mobile operators...

Study: IPT Systems Top U.S. Line Stats.
July 11, 2005... According to a new study from global research and consulting firm InfoTech (a division of TelecomWeb parent company Access Intelligence LLC), IP telephony (IPT) systems now represent the majority of enterprise communication shipments in the...

FCC: ADSL Surge Drives U.S. Broadband Growth.
July 11, 2005... Driven by massive growth in higher speed ADSL lines, the U.S. broadband market grew by 34 percent during 2004, according to the latest semi-annual Federal Communications Commission report on the subject. The FCC reports are always nearly...

Vonage Eyes Australia, Courts Web Chatters.
July 11, 2005... Reports from down under suggest Vonage is preparing a launch in Australia, which would become the fourth country in which it is active (following the United States, Canada and the U.K.). Meanwhile, Vonage inked a pact with chat-room specialist...

Net2Phone Rejects IDT Buyout Offer.
July 11, 2005... VoIP service provider Net2Phone Inc. says an independent committee of its board of directors rejected an offer by domestic/international carrier IDT Corporation to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Net2Phone stock it does not...

IDT Rebuffs Net2Phone Buyout Offer.
July 11, 2005... Domestic/international carrier IDT Corporation DOES NOT want to sell its controlling shares in VoIP wholesale service provider Net2Phone Inc. to a third party, rebuffing an earlier suggestion made by Net2Phone itself (TelecomWeb, July 7)....

N.Y. Regulators Eye Verizon/MCI Controls.
July 11, 2005... A New York Public Service Commission staff white paper tentatively concluded that the proposed Verizon Communications/MCI merger may pose enough market-power concentration and competitive impact to warrant controlling regulatory measures...

Google's Power Play.
July 11, 2005... Internet search giant Google, investment house Goldman Sachs & Co. and The Hearst Corporation have put an estimated $100 million into broadband over powerline (BPL) start-up Current Communications Group LLC. Google's interest ostensibly...

T-Mobile USA, Cingular Wireless Swap Messages.
July 11, 2005... T-Mobile USA and Cingular Wireless inked an agreement to offer inter- carrier Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) traffic, essentially allowing their customers to exchange picture and short video messages - including text and audio - with each...

Americans Diss Cellphone TV As Telecom Spending Soars.
July 13, 2005... Despite all of the current hype, fewer than 10 percent of U.S. cellphone users have any interest in watching TV on their handsets, according to a study released today by research house TNS Telecoms. In contrast, 20 percent are interested in...

Bye, Bye Bernie.
July 13, 2005... Despite Martha Stewart's recent rehabilitation at the misnomered "Camp Cupcake," she must be feeling a touch vengeful following news of Bernie Ebbers' 25-year prison term for his part in bringing down WorldCom and its investors. While his...

Sprint/Nextel Shareholders OK Takeover.
July 13, 2005... Nextel Communications shareholders this morning voted overwhelmingly to approve the company's $35 billion acquisition by Sprint, as had been widely expected. Sprint shareholders obligingly returned the favor, approving the deal in a tally...

Canadian Gyros? Nortel JV Targets Greek Market.
July 13, 2005... Athens-based systems integrator Unisystems SA and Nortel signed an agreement to establish a joint venture called Uni-Nortel to handle the sales, marketing and support of Nortel's telecom equipment and networking solutions in Greece and...

Covad VoIP Targets PBX/Key System Users.
July 13, 2005... Covad Communications Group is going to market with a VoIP service aimed at enterprises that want to retain their existing private branch exchange (PBX) and key telephone systems - rather than switch to a managed VoIP service - but that also...

Mrs. Andretti, Your Tire Is A Little Low.
July 13, 2005... The RF sensors market has been pretty quiet of late, but there could be a consumer resurgence now that time is getting short regarding instituting the "Transportation Recall, Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act" in...

TIA Predicts $2T International Market.
July 14, 2005... The telecommunications market outside the United States will pass the $2 trillion mark by 2008, according to new estimates from the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) contained in its just-published annual Telecommunications...

Mobile Marketing Sizzles This Summer.
July 14, 2005... The tipping point will be reached by September when it comes to mobile- marketing initiatives, as several major brands prepare to launch mobile campaigns throughout the summer. McDonalds, Timex, Coca-Cola and Heineken will leverage...

Wanted: Homeland Security Cyber/Telecom Czar.
July 14, 2005... U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff has disclosed intentions to reorganize DHS operations and to name several new high- level officers, including an Assistant Secretary for Cyber and Telecommunications...

Bell Canada, Nortel Test Small-Town Broadband.
July 14, 2005... Incumbent service provider Bell Canada and manufacturer Nortel are making a hullabaloo about a small geographically and financially challenged town in northern Ontario where they suggest a broadband access and communications deployment...

BBN Snags $2.9M DARPA Speech Deal.
July 14, 2005... BBN Technologies today won a $2.9 million contract to lead a multi-year program to develop a noise-robust, ultra-low-bit-rate vocoding radio for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Advanced Speech Encoding (ASE) program....

Telekom Austria Ramps Acquisitions Tear.
July 14, 2005... Telekom Austria has completed its acquisition of Bulgarian mobile operator Mobiltel. The acquisition set the carrier back close to $2 billion - the largest acquisition ever made by an Austrian company - but gives it a strong position in terms...

Surprise: Texas Resurrects IPTV Bill.
July 15, 2005... During a special session ostensibly called to take care of pressing school and tax legislation, the Texas State Senate passed a hotly contested bill eliminating local franchise requirements for telcos to enter video markets - instead allowing...

IDT, Verizon Negotiate UNE-P 'Substitute'.
July 15, 2005... Domestic/international interexchange carrier IDT Corporation signed a long-term wholesale services agreement with Verizon Communications for local telephone services starting Aug. 1. Newark, N.J.-based IDT says the deal calls on the...

Equant Taps GRIC For U.S. Managed Broadband.
July 15, 2005... France Telecom Group's global accounts carrier Equant inked an alliance pact for managed broadband solutions and services with GoRemote Internet Communications (GRIC), allowing Equant customers with U.S. offices to set up comparable and...

Tele2's Buying Binge Continues.
July 15, 2005... Pan-European telecom carrier Tele2 completed its second major acquisition this year, solidifying its position in the Spanish market with the acquisition of Comunitel, one of Spain's largest alternative operators. It paid $310.6 million on a...

More $$ For Broadband In The Outback.
July 15, 2005... The Australian government has come up with another $37.4 million to fund its program to bring broadband to remote areas of the country - an amount that increases total funding of the program, called the Higher Bandwidth Incentive Scheme...

Turning Big Brother Into Big Bucks.
July 15, 2005... This should start wireless carriers and application developers thinking: Revenue from mobile location-based services (LBS) like navigation in the European market will grow by 153 percent this year alone to reach nearly $330 million,...

BellSouth, Cox Lose Battle Of The Bayous.
July 18, 2005... The citizens of Lafayette, La., by an overwhelming margin of 62 percent to 38 percent, last Saturday voted to go ahead with the city's planned $125 million municipal fiber-to-the-home project, capping an acrimonious 18-month battle in which...

Study: Hosted IPT To Hit $5.9B In 2010.
July 18, 2005... According to global research and consulting firm InfoTech (owned by TelecomWeb news break parent Access Intelligence LLC), U.S. enterprise purchases of hosted IP telephony (IPT) - in which IP-based voice communications are provided remotely...

Update: Texas IPTV Bill Clears State House.
July 18, 2005... The Texas State House of Representatives late yesterday followed the Texas State Senate by resurrecting and passing a hotly contested bill that eliminates local franchise requirements for telcos to enter video markets in favor of statewide...

Takeover Talks: C&W Eyes Energis...Again.
July 18, 2005... Cable & Wireless, according to local U.K. press reports this morning, is negotiating a $1.2 billion bid for rival U.K. telco Energis - like C&W, a player with a strong client base in the corporate sector. Such a takeover would result in a...

Sonus To Power Intrado's VoIP E911.
July 18, 2005... Emergency services system-and-solutions pioneer Intrado will use Sonus Networks' softswitch technology to support its new V911 Mobility Service platform for VoIP E911. The emerging Intrado offering reflects the vendor's effort to supply...

IDC: Wholesale Spending Drives Telecom Services Growth.
July 18, 2005... In a review of top vertical markets in the 2004-09 timeframe, research firm IDC says spending on telecom services is growing the fastest in the multi- industry wholesale business, followed by the retail, healthcare and financial- services...

Gartner: Billion-Unit Handset Sales By 2009.
July 20, 2005... The number of mobile phones sold in a year will pass the one-billion mark in 2009, according to forecasts released this morning by research house Gartner. By that date, it estimates, there will be 2.6 billion mobile phones in use worldwide,...

Vonage Finally Goes Wireless.
July 20, 2005... In just four days, Vonage will begin selling wireless phones for use with its service - albeit months later than expected - with hardware from only one of its three anticipated vendors ready to roll and not even the promised WiFi-based...

MCI, Verizon Beef Up Call Centers.
July 20, 2005... Would-be merger partners MCI and Verizon Communications today made separate yet similarly motivated moves to beef up their international user- oriented call-center activities, emphasizing global traffic patterns and overseas customer bases in...

Occam Networks Reaps Iowa Telco Buyers.
July 20, 2005... Broadband loop carrier vendor Occam Networks has added three new independent Iowa telcos to its list of customers: Long Lines, Partner Communications Cooperative and Western Iowa Telephone. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based supplier of Ethernet...

O2, Virgin Financials A Mixed Bag.
July 20, 2005... O2, reportedly the U.K.'s largest wireless provider, and rival Virgin Mobile released their latest subscriber figures - both disappointing in some ways despite an increase in numbers for O2 that beat forecasts and new customer milestones for...

Report: Mobile TV Needs A Better Look, Feel.
July 20, 2005... In its latest report, Forrester Research says it believes mobile television as a mass-market medium in either Europe or the United States will not become a reality for years, due to a combination of issues that includes a lack of consumer...

Texas Senate Falters: IPTV Franchise Bill Delayed.
July 21, 2005... The Texas Senate late last night failed to pass critical school financing and tax acts during its special session, thereby delaying consideration of a controversial telco IPTV franchise bill and related communications laws as well as other...

N.Y. Regulators Explore Mega-Merger Impacts.
July 21, 2005... The New York Public Service Commission today is conducting public hearings regarding the proposed Verizon Communications/MCI and SBC Communications/AT&T mergers, with a specific focus on a recent staff white paper that tentatively concluded...

Telecom Italia Starts Trials; Sets IPTV Launch.
July 21, 2005... Telecom Italia, stepping up its plans to launch an IPTV service, has gone into large-scale trials in four cities, saying it now plans a commercial rollout later this year in 21 Italian markets. More than four million households will have...

PFF's New Federal-State Regulatory Regime.
July 21, 2005... Earlier today, the Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) think tank/study organization released the second of five draft proposals for telecom-reform legislation posited as a model for the U.S. Congress. It advocates a new charter for federal,...

WiFi Goes To School.
July 21, 2005... The market for wireless local area networks (WLANs) in North American schools is set to explode, growing to $200 million annually by 2008 - double last year's sales - according to new estimates from market researcher Datamonitor. The...

German Wireless Jobs Then And Now.
July 21, 2005... In a study commissioned by Vodafone D2, research house Ovum attributed more than 430,000 jobs in Germany (2002-03) to the wireless communications industry. This came at a time when unemployment in that country hovered between 10.1 percent...

New Legislation Clarifies Wireless Depreciation.
July 22, 2005... It looks like wireless carriers may be getting a break when it comes to the depreciation of their infrastructure gear. Bills introduced simultaneously this week in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the Senate clarify the class life of...

NYC Agency Slaps Cellcos For Bad Ads.
July 22, 2005... Naughty, naughty. The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) filed suit at the New York Supreme Court yesterday, citing three wireless carriers with "deceptive advertisements." Nextel Communications Inc., Sprint and T-Mobile USA...

Cisco Gets KiSS'd.
July 22, 2005... Cisco Systems today signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held KiSS Technology A/S, a Horsholm, Denmark, developer and maker of networked entertainment devices for approximately $61 million in cash and stock. Under the terms of...

Telenor Tops Estimates, Cites Mobile Growth.
July 22, 2005... Norwegian telco Telenor, driven by mobile growth in the dozen countries it's expanded to, has seen a 19 percent increase in net profits to $312 million in the second quarter this year, handily beating analysts estimates by around 10 percent....

Redback Lands Chinese IPTV Deal.
July 22, 2005... Broadband systems vendor Redback Networks has been selected by China Netcom's Heilongjiang Communications Corporation to supply its SmartEdge 800 Service Gateways for a converged platform being deployed to deliver broadband access and...

ADC Grabs FONS To Double FTTx Sales.
July 22, 2005... ADC, in what it said is a move to double its FTTx outside plant sales - growing the business to more than 10 percent of the company - disclosed today that it is buying privately held Fiber Optic Network Solutions (FONS) for $172 million in...

Lawmakers Try Again At Texas Telco Hold 'Em.
July 25, 2005... The Texas legislature continues to meet this week in special session, aimed at tackling school financing and related property-tax reform measures. However, the controversial IPTV bill that would make state-wide IPTV entry easier for telcos...

Here's Looking At You...With Bluetooth.
July 25, 2005... Motorola next month will go to market with what is believed to be the world's first sunglasses with Bluetooth built in. The $250 spectacles - Motorola is calling them "mobile eyewear" - are designed to hook with Bluetooth-enabled phones and...

Centenarian Telco Goes IPO, Funds War Chest.
July 25, 2005... 111-year-old Consolidated Communications late last week went to market with its initial public offering (IPO), raising $203.7 million. Part of the cash has been earmarked to repay debt, and much of the rest will go toward an acquisition war...

Global Crossing On 'Fast Track' To European Growth.
July 25, 2005... International carrier Global Crossing says it's expanding its partner program for European service providers to handle its Fast-Track Services that enable end-to-end global data and converged solutions offerings to enterprise customers. The...

Vodafone Growth Spurt Tops Estimates.
July 25, 2005... Vodafone now has 165 million wireless customers worldwide - following a quarter with its highest growth rate in five years: 4.14 million new customers. The massive growth, approaching twice what many analysts had expected, highlighted...

VSNL Buys Teleglobe In Bid For World-Class Status.
July 25, 2005... Currently on a worldwide expansion campaign, India's incumbent carrier Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) today signed a definitive agreement to acquire Canada's global accounts carrier Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd. for about $239...

Child Advocates Diss Disney's MouseKaPhone.
July 26, 2005... A long list of consumer and children's advocates, in a drive orchestrated by nonprofit Commercial Alert, sent a warning to Congress that the targeting of children as cellular consumers essentially declares "open season" on the nation's kids....

Cisco's Buying Binge Continues.
July 26, 2005... Cisco Systems today signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Sheer Networks, a maker of intelligent network/service management systems, for approximately $97 million in cash and assumed options. Cisco adds that the purchase...

Hughes Taps Covad For xDSL.
July 26, 2005... Broadband satellite products/services company Hughes Network Systems LLC today selected Covad Communications Group as a primary xDSL services provider for Hughes' recently introduced "Direcway Unified Broadband" service, allowing...

Interlink Global Launches Wholesale VoIP Unit.
July 26, 2005... Miami-based carrier Interlink Global Corp. - active primarily in North America and South America - just formed a new division to handle wholesale carrier-to-carrier sales of its VoIP services and products that now are provided to an...

Eircom Seals Wireless Re-Entry.
July 26, 2005... Welcome back. Irish telco Eircom is buying Ireland's third largest wireless operator, Meteor, from Western Wireless International for approximately $507 million in a deal that significantly enhances its position as an integrated service...

Vonage Launches E911 Fallback Center.
July 26, 2005... Vonage, rushing to meet Federal Communications Commission mandates for the provision of E911 to voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) customers, is setting up an E911 "fallback center" to handle 911 calls from its VoIP customers who, for any...

Sweeping Telecom Dereg Bill Debuts In Senate.
July 27, 2005... Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) today introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate aimed at sweeping telecom deregulation and positioned as a catalyst for replacing the much-maligned Telecommunications Act of 1996. The proposed legislation will be called...

France Telecom Grabs Spanish Cellco.
July 27, 2005... France Telecom (FT), in an assault on the Spanish wireless market that will make it the second largest mobile provider in Europe, signed a deal to buy 80 percent of Amena, Spain's third-largest wireless operator, from Auna Operadores de...

Intrado Wins AT&T VoIP E911 Biz.
July 27, 2005... Emergency system and services company Intrado boasts AT&T has deployed its E911 VoIP solutions for the carrier's CallVantage Service subscribers. The Longmont, Colo.-based vendor's V911 Mobility Service platform is supporting AT&T's nomadic...

Skype Slashes VoIP-To-PSTN Rates.
July 27, 2005... Internet telephony purveyor Skype today said it will continue to lower calling rates on its first premium service SkypeOut - which lets users of the free Skype VoIP service call phones on the PSTN network for a fee. It also plans to expand...

ZTE Promises First African, Central Asian NGNs.
July 27, 2005... China's ZTE won contracts to build what will be the first next-generation networks (NGN) in both Africa and Central Asia. In Africa, the contract is with Mundo Startel in Angola. In Central Asia, ZTE will be working with national carrier...

Court Vets Loral Reorg Plan.
July 27, 2005... The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York gave the nod to a Loral Space and Communications Ltd. plan to emerge from bankruptcy, giving the satellite service provider the green light to move forward with its...

VoIP Pioneer VocalTec Splatters.
July 28, 2005... VoIP pioneer VocalTec, one of a small clutch of Israeli companies credited with sparking the VoIP revolution, has put itself up for sale or auction, laying off two thirds of its staff and living on borrowed money - a $1 million bridge loan...

Cingular Airs $665M Four-State Upgrade.
July 28, 2005... Cingular Wireless today disclosed investment plans totalling about $665 million for upgrading and expanding its network facilities in New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina. The four-state disclosure on increasing coverage...

Comcast VoIP Push Enlists Sprint, Level3.
July 28, 2005... Cableco Comcast is starting to get more serious about telephony with a rapid deployment of VoIP across its national footprint. To do so, it's enlisting the long-distance services of Sprint and Level3 Communications; service provisioning...

U.S. Wireless Online Targets FL For Broadband Buy.
July 28, 2005... Internet access network provider U.S. Wireless Online is buying DHR Technologies, a Fort Myers, Fla.-based ISP and broadband access provider better known under its Skyline Broadband brand name. Louisville, Ky.-based U.S. Wireless Online says...

T-Mobile: Less Talk, More Music.
July 28, 2005... T-Mobile signed a 18-month deal to partner with leading international music artist Robbie Williams. The fact the deal covers such a lengthy timeframe has been hailed as one of its unique aspects, seen as a harbinger of the emerging market...

Coming Soon: Wi-Fi On The Beach.
July 28, 2005... The City of Miami Beach has hired municipal broadband consulting house Civitium to put together a request for proposals (RFP) to wire the world-famous resort city for WiFi. The plan is to offer both free public access and to build a network...

Alameda P&T Warns Of Comcast Slamming.
July 29, 2005... Customers by the dozen have been finding their broadband and cable television mysteriously transferred from municipally owned Alameda Power & Telecom to Comcast during the past few days, according to the 118-year-old municipal utility. At...

'My Summer Vacation' With MCI Shareholders.
July 29, 2005... MCI and Verizon Communications have not yet set dates for shareholder approvals of their proposed $8.5 billion merger transaction, but they still remain hopeful the official votes will take place sometime this summer if government officials...