TelecomWeb News Digest articles from July 2008

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from July 2008

Tata Offers Global Hosted Telepresence Services.
July 1, 2008... India's Tata Communications has added telepresence services to its portfolio, calling them "the first ever offering to deliver both private and public Cisco TelePresence rooms to businesses across the world." And according to industry...

EC Now Targets Mobile Voice-Termination Rates.
July 1, 2008... The European Commission (EC) has started the public-comment clock regarding the future regulation of wireless "voice call termination rates" in the European Union (EU) based on a draft EC recommendation. The EC's draft includes principles...

Investors Plow More Cash Into eFMC Startup.
July 1, 2008... Agito Networks, the enterprise fixed-mobile-convergence (eFMC) venture founded by a clutch of former Cisco executives, picked up $13 million in second- round venture capital just eight months after bursting onto the scene (TelecomWeb news...

IP PBX Hosting Service Creates Reseller Program.
July 1, 2008... Business IP PBX service provider Junction Networks now has an authorized agent program in place to develop a nationwide channel of qualified resellers for its flagship OnSIP offering. Junction says it's recruiting system integrators in...

VocalTec, ICSS Team For VoIP Connectivity.
July 1, 2008... Israel's VocalTec Communications Ltd., a global provider of carrier-class multimedia and VoIP solutions for communication service providers, is teaming with a division of Deutsche Telekom to launch a new solution for global VoIP...

Europe The Next Frontier For Open-Source Telephony Vendors.
July 1, 2008... New research says open-source telephony gradually is gaining traction in Europe due to its cost advantages over proprietary IP PBX and contact-center products. According to Frost & Sullivan, the cost of an open-source telephony "line"...

U.K. Biz Subs Won't 'Hurry Up And Wait' For E-Mail Replies.
July 2, 2008... The Vodafone Critical Response Time Index, now in its second year, says a third of U.K. businesses continue to expect an e-mail response to their new business inquiries within two hours, consistent with the 2007 survey. More alarmingly,...

The New Birch Communications 'At Your Service'.
July 2, 2008... Now that their networks have been merged, business telecom providers Access Integrated Networks and Birch Telecom have decided to "unify" under the Birch Communications name. Calling customer service its claim to fame, Atlanta-based Birch...

Survey Sez: Verizon Again The 'Most Competitive Telecom Provider'.
July 2, 2008... Independent research firm The wRatings Corporation rates Verizon FiOS as the Number One telecom provider for the second year in a row, winning a wRating of 73. Following far behind were Frontier Phone, Dish Network, Embarq, Qwest...

Swedish FTTx David Vows To Take On Goliaths.
July 2, 2008... Fiber-to-the-user (FTTx) house PacketFront AB this morning closed on $41.27 million in new financing, earmarking the cash for an attempt at penetrating the carrier market. And the Swedish player says it's going right into the lion's den:...

Broadband Bonding Promises Cheap VPN Uplinks.
July 2, 2008... Broadband bonding specialist Mushroom Networks has gone to market with a "Virtual Leased Line" (VLL) solution. Using the solution, enterprises can create high-speed, dedicated point- to-point connections with fast uplinks at what Mushroom...

Zenoss Markets 'Cloud'-Based Managed-Service Tool.
July 2, 2008... The new version of Zenoss for Service Providers includes new multi- tenancy features, improved scalability and pricing options that enable managed- service providers to more closely align costs with revenues. According to parent company...

Purple Labs Brings Openwave Back Into The Fold.(Company overview)
July 3, 2008... Purple Labs, a French developer of Linux-based mobile software, now owns the mobile client-software business of Calif.-based Openwave Systems following the wrap-up of what in reality is a $32 million management-buyout deal. Under terms...

Largest U.K. Enterprise Fixed Wireless Carrier Goes WiMAX.
July 3, 2008... On-Communications, which boasts of being the U.K.'s biggest enterprise wireless broadband provider, is ripping out all of its non-802.16 gear, replacing it with fixed WiMAX equipment that includes Airspan's base stations. No financial...

CT Networks Earns Additional Street Creds.
July 3, 2008... Unified Communications (UC) solutions provider CT Networks has earned a specialization accreditation in Advanced Wireless LAN, and it's now delivering product to clients that purchase from members on the New York State Contract. The...

Unik For Corporate Offers One-Number Biz-Phone Access.
July 3, 2008... France Telecom division Orange Business Services is launching "Unik for corporate," a managed fixed-mobile-convergence solution it says integrates mobile and office phones via one-number dialing. "Unik for corporate" is the latest in the...

Nortel Tapped For Southern Cross 40 Gb/s Upgrade.
July 3, 2008... Southern Cross Cables Limited has asked Nortel to quadruple its bandwidth from 10 Gb/s to 40 Gb/s, and it's considering similar boosts in its trans- Pacific cables and other networks along with an eventual jump to 100 Gb/s. The Southern...

VoIP Management Toolbox Integrates With Visio.
July 3, 2008... Codima's upgrade to its VoIP Management Toolbox "visualizes" the topology of VoIP networks directly in Microsoft Office Visio, creating a kit that supports VoIP testing, monitoring and troubleshooting before and after a VoIP deployment. ...

BCE Buyout Negotiations Continue On A More Positive Track.
July 7, 2008... BCE, Canada's largest carrier, set off some fireworks of its own July 4 by announcing that the largest leveraged buyout deal in the history of the telecom industry finally is moving forward. Now, BCE says, "the purchaser and the lenders...

As Other Global Regions Ramp Up, U.S. Wireless Capex Remains Flat.
July 7, 2008... New research says global capital expenditures (capex) on mobile communications continues to rise due to new data services, increased traffic load and 4G preparation. However, North America is holding back. With the U.S. economy's...

Avaya Creates Federal Sales Subsidiary.
July 7, 2008... Avaya is setting up a wholly owned subsidiary chartered to focus on sales, service and solutions for the U.S. government. The new unit, to be called Avaya Federal Solutions Inc., will begin life on Aug. 1 with a staff of 400. Jeff Hansen,...

Sun Builds Java App To Suit For Latest HP Smartphone.
July 7, 2008... Sun Microsystems says its Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) has been integrated into the new HP iPAQ 900 series Business Messenger smartphone. Based on the Sun Java Wireless Client software - Sun's Java ME implementation for wireless...

Siemens Enterprise Comms Goes Distributed, Shuns Traditional Tiering.
July 7, 2008... Siemens Enterprise Communications says it's migrating to a "pure distribution model" from its previous one- and two-tier approach as a way to improve partner support and service, to increase market share and to help partners win more...

Sangoma Enters Windows UC Market Via Paraxip Deal.
July 7, 2008... VoIP hardware house Sangoma Technologies Corporation, in a deal that propels it into the Windows-based unified communications (UC) and IP contact- center markets, is buying Paraxip Technologies. Under terms of the $4.8 million deal,...

Microsoft Unveils 'Software Plus Services' At Partner Confab.
July 8, 2008... Microsoft this morning disclosed pricing, packaging and partner compensation details for Microsoft Online Services, its software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering for businesses. The deal includes a bargain-basement $3/month/worker package for...

InfoTech: AsiaPac Led 2007 Messaging Mailbox Growth, Sales.(Letter to the editor)
July 8, 2008... According to the latest "InfoTrack for Converged Applications" (ICA) report on messaging, the 2007 global voice mail/unified messaging mailbox market grew 6.5 percent year over year, led by the Asia Pacific region. The newly released...

FCC NYC Hearing Examines Telecom-Entry Financing.
July 8, 2008... The Federal Communications Commission is targeting women and minorities for its July 29 en banc public hearing and conference at New York City's Barnard College that will explore ways to overcome barriers to communications financing. ...

Verizon Drills Down Wholesale Call Records.
July 8, 2008... Verizon Business has gotten granular regarding the level of detail it will include in the traditional voice and VoIP call-detail records (CDRs) provided to wholesale customers. The new CDRs provide more detail on the costs of...

Twisted Pair Integrates PTT With Microsoft, Nortel UC/IP Apps.
July 8, 2008... Seattle-based Twisted Pair Solutions now is marketing WAVE 4.0, the latest version of its unified communications (UC) software that can incorporate push-to-talk (PTT) radios and other group-communication systems into an enterprise UC...

AltiGen UC Solution Migrates To All-Software Backbone.
July 8, 2008... AltiGen Communications' next generation of its VoIP iPBX phone system and unified communications (UC) solution for businesses uses a software-based architecture with support for as many as 5,000 users. The new version, MAX Communications...

Sprint Names Backhaul Provider For Initial Xohm Markets.
July 9, 2008... Sprint continues to soldier on with its plan to deploy its Xohm 4G WiMAX network, choosing to partner with Canada's DragonWave Inc. for IP backhaul. DragonWave's "Horizon Compact" and "Horizon Duo" products will make their first...

Aspect Buys BlueNote In UC Contact-Center Deal.
July 9, 2008... Aspect Software, which specializes in unified communication (UC) for contact centers, has acquired "substantially all" of the assets of BlueNote Networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it appears venture-backed BlueNote never...

Nortel Lands Managed-Telepresence Gig At Deloitte.
July 9, 2008... Nortel, in a major showcase win for its managed offerings, landed global consultancy Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu as a global managed services customer for telepresence, video conferencing and associated multimedia services. The value of the...

Enterprises Turn To TEM As Economy Waffles.
July 9, 2008... Recent economic trends are forcing enterprises to re-examine their top expenses, to reduce overhead and to increase corporate profitability, and one of the ways they're coping is via telecom expense management (TEM) (TelecomWeb news break,...

AastraLink RP Ties In With Microsoft Response Point App.
July 9, 2008... Houston-based Aastra Telecom's newest enterprise phone product is the AastraLink RP, a Microsoft Response Point system designed specifically for small businesses with 50 employees or fewer. The AastraLink RP phone system is made up of the...

Rivals Band Together To Prevent Service Defections To Cable.
July 9, 2008... In a rare team effort, the nation's three surviving regional holding companies - AT&T, Verizon and Qwest - are cooperating to prevent cable companies from poaching their voice and video customers when those customers change residences. ...

Verizon Tempts Enterprises, SMBs With New Apps Laundry List.
July 10, 2008... From Verizon Business today: tools for large enterprises to customize hosted speech apps, a new interface for road warriors to locate Verizon Wi-Fi access points, and FiOS TV service for small businesses. In addition, it's contracted...

Cisco Vets BT For Global Certification.
July 10, 2008... BT now is sporting Global Certification from Cisco, and the U.K. carrier is the fourth to have earned such status. According to Cisco, "Global Certification recognizes Cisco partners with expertise and resources to plan, design, implement...

Oki Teleconferencing Goes Green.
July 10, 2008... With the price of oil inching higher and thus impacting business travel, telepresence/teleconferencing products are hot, and Oki is touting a new "green" version of its videoconferencing software. This update of Oki's "Visual Nexus,"...

Packet Island 'Lite'ens Up VoIP-Data Network Management.
July 10, 2008... Packet Island's "Enterprise-Lite" version of its PacketSmart carrier- class converged VoIP-data network lifecycle management solution targets SMB IT administrators who oversee VoIP in multiple branch offices using mixed network topologies and...

ASPCA Goes IP For Better Customer Service, Animal Protection.
July 10, 2008... The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is the latest customer win for Interactive Intelligence, which will deploy its all-in- one IP communications software suite at the ASPCA's Midwest digs. The animal-protection...

AsiaPac Enterprises Ramp Up UC Spending.
July 10, 2008... Unified communications (UC) has altered the way business communications take place today, and enterprises have begun to make large investments to deploy it to enhance productivity and to collaborate effectively with remote or mobile workers....

Is BT Buying Ribbit In Challenge To Google?
July 11, 2008... BT is buying, or may even have already bought, Ribbit, the little Silicon Valley web telephony startup with a web-based platform which it says can be used to link any telephony platform, including VoIP or TDM, to any other and to web- based...

Nokia Touts China Mobile Deal, Navteq Buyout.(Company overview)
July 11, 2008... Nokia and one of its joint ventures have wrapped a pair of high-priced global deals, the first involving network expansion and the second its acquisition of a digital-mapping giant. China Mobile Communications Corp., the parent company of...

GTX, Phantom Team For 'Geo-Aware' Enterprise Mobility Apps.
July 11, 2008... A joint-venture company comprised of GTX Corp and Phantom Fiber Corp. plans to introduce a spate of enterprise-focused, global, mobile, device- and carrier-agnostic "geo-aware" applications. According to market-research firm iSuppli, the...

TIA Offers Advanced Notice Of Upcoming ICT Initiatives.
July 11, 2008... Global telecom revenue is projected to hit nearly $5 trillion by 2011, with growing demand for high-volume data applications driving business markets. As such, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is developing "unique" market...

Session Border Control House Newport Goes On The Block.
July 11, 2008... British session border controller house Newport Networks this morning said that it is close to going under, the victim in part of a rapidly changing enterprise telecom market in which major router players are making companies such as Newport...

Apatar Synchs Salesforce And QuickBooks.
July 11, 2008... Data integration startup Apatar has gone to market with a hosted offering to synchronize Salesforce.com CRM and Intuit's market-leading small- to medium- sized business accounting software QuickBooks. Like Salesforce.com's offerings,...

HaaS Meets SaaS As MSPs Get Equipment-Leasing Deal.
July 14, 2008... Managed-service-provider trade group the MSPAlliance (MSPA) has put together a hardware-lending financing program its members can offer their customers, thus creating a new term: "Hardware as a Service" (HaaS). What the MSPA says its done...

Unisys Offers Free Trials Of Hosted Microsoft UC.
July 14, 2008... Unisys, in a bid to attract business, today unveiled a trial service that lets enterprise customers test-drive Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 and Microsoft Office LiveMeeting at no cost. ...

Fiber Driver Gets USDA Nod For Rural Network Buildouts.
July 14, 2008... The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) vetted the "Fiber Driver" product line from MRV Communications, qualifying it for technical acceptance and making it eligible to serve as the basis of network...

Athiva Cuts Enterprise-Software Development Costs, Time.
July 14, 2008... Aeturnum Inc., an emerging provider of IT consulting and software- product-development services, is touting "Athiva," a new software platform it says "dramatically" reduces the time and cost associated with developing, deploying and...

Near-Time Widget Connects To WebEx Apps.
July 14, 2008... The Near-Time Connection, a widget developed by Near-Time, which sells on-demand Enterprise 2.0 collaboration solutions, now provides Enterprise 2.0 capabilities to the WebEx Connect collaboration environment. WebEx, now a part of Cisco...

Sprint Chooses WiMAX MDM Partner; Intel Stumbles.
July 14, 2008... Sprint has named another in the emerging crew of partners for its delayed Xohm WiMAX rollout, signing a mobile device management (MDM) software vendor. However, rumor has it Intel may not hit its own WiMAX deadline. Sprint and partner...

Tiscali Bucks BT With Faster Upstream Biz Broadband.
July 15, 2008... Tiscali has turned to the relatively obscure "Annex M" variant of ADSL2+ to commence an enterprise broadband market blitz targeting BT in the U.K. The new Tiscali business service is promising "up to" 16 Mb/s downstream and "up to" 2.5...

Juniper Unveils WAN Acceleration Appliances.
July 15, 2008... Juniper Networks unleashed a trio of wide area network (WAN) optimization devices it claims can yield as much as a "100-fold increase in effective WAN capacity" for enterprises. In effect, Jupiter is trying to make application run over a...

Salesforce.com Certifies SaaS/PaaS Experts, With DaaS Coming.
July 15, 2008... Salesforce.com had developed what it says is the industry's first certification program for software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) experts. It also says it's defining a new job category in the industry. The new...

CWA, Industry Push For Congressional Broadband Action.
July 15, 2008... The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has ramped up it lobbying efforts on the Hill, calling on House and Senate leaders to support legislation aimed at developing a national broadband policy. The union - which represents 700,000...

TMC Bolsters Enterprise Offerings With App Performance Mgm't.
July 15, 2008... Business provider TMC Communications plans to offer Streamcore application performance management to its enterprise customers. Streamcore, which develops and markets visibility and dynamic performance control solutions to manage...

TEM Managed-Service Packages Come Separate, Bundled.
July 15, 2008... With telecom expense management (TEM) becoming one of TelecomWeb news break's more frequent topics, TEM provider Rivermine has created a suite of enhanced "eXPERTSolutions" managed-service packages. Leveraging Rivermine's team of TEM...

Convergys Goes 'One-Stop-Shop' With Intervoice Buy.(Company overview)
July 16, 2008... Both boards have blessed the merger of relationship-management specialist Convergys Corporation and Intervoice Inc., and Convergys will write a $335 million check translating into $8.25 per share, a 24-percent premium over yesterday's...

Sprint Adds IPoDWDM To Network Alphabet Soup.
July 16, 2008... There's a new acronym in the industry - IPoDWDM - and Sprint, Cisco and Ciena are pushing it. The three are implementing 40 Gbps network capabilities on the global Sprint Tier 1 IP Network using a technology called Internet Protocol over...

Wireless Ethernet Bridges Connects Anywhere, Anytime.
July 16, 2008... According to Motorola, its new PTP 300 Series wireless Ethernet bridge offers enterprises and government agencies "carrier-class connectivity while offering a strong return on investment compared to alternatives like leased lines, fiber or...

8x8 Finds The 'Key' To VoIP.
July 16, 2008... "Pure play" business VoIP provider 8x8, working with handset maker Aastra Telecom, has a new offering that makes its service look like the traditional key telephone systems that dominate the small-business market. Key systems are those...

snom Teaches Businesses How To Hook Up VoIP.
July 16, 2008... Tomorrow, VoIP handset maker snom will kick off a worldwide series of training events focused on installing VoIP systems powered by the open-source Asterisk iPBX and snom's VoIP telephones. Here's the catch: To attend a training event, a...

Femto Forum Embraces xDSL Management Scheme.
July 16, 2008... The Femto Forum has adopted the same real-time management protocol already used for DSL worldwide, mirroring action already taken by many of its members. Earlier today, the Forum decided not to try to craft its own standard for real-time...

Verizon Wireless Adds Field-Force Mgm't To BlackBerry Basket.
July 17, 2008... "Field Force Manager," a turnkey solution combining Web-based applications with handsets to provide management control of workers in the field, is the newest addition to the Verizon Wireless business-service stable. Field Force Manager...

As LTE Takes Flight, CDMA/WiMAX Could Crash Land.
July 17, 2008... ATG licensee Aircell has decided to turn to Long Term Evolution (LTE) for its 4G needs, eschewing both WiMAX and a UMB upgrade to the CDMA it's using today. "Having pioneered the first commercial in-flight Internet service in North...

Optimum Lightpath Buys N.J. Network.
July 17, 2008... Cablevision's Optimum Lightpath business broadband subsidiary is buying N.J.-based last-mile fiber provider 4Connections LLC to expand its New York metropolitan area network. Terms of the deal, which will expand Optimum's footprint in...

Business WISP Sparkplug Rolls Out Hosted Services.
July 17, 2008... Wireless business broadband provider Sparkplug has gone to market with a suite of hosted communications services and related unified communications (UC) applications across all its U.S. regions. Sparkplug, which currently operates...

Wireless, Photo, Electronics Giants Team For Next-Gen Data.
July 17, 2008... In Tokyo today, 15 global heavy hitters unveiled a consortium aimed at developing specs for interconnecting products using "TransferJet," a new, interoperable, wireless technology that enables the rapid transfer of high-res video, music and...

Test Drive Says FCoE Now Ready For Prime Time.
July 17, 2008... QLogic Corp., which sells networking for storage and high-performance computing (HPC), released the results of its Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Test Drive conducted last month in San Diego (TelecomWeb news break, April 9). Based on...

Nokia Siemens Walks Away From GPON.
July 18, 2008... In a brief statement this morning, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) said it's decided to "limit" its investment in Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON) because a massive short-term market for fiber to the home (FTTH) "is unlikely." The...

ShoreTel Beefs Up UC Offerings, Adds Video.
July 18, 2008... ShoreTel 8.0 adds new software and hardware, including a video solution, two new energy-efficient voice switches and support for third-party SIP phones to ShoreTel's IP PBX and unified communications (UC) arsenal. According to TelecomWeb...

BT, SMBLive Team For Online SMB Marketing Help.
July 18, 2008... BT is proving that social networking isn't just for meeting with friends. Its "Tradespace" site, powered by SMBLive's 1StoreFront software, is showing small and medium businesses (SMBs) how to make online hay. According to Va.-based...

JaJah Dives Deeper Into Enterprise VoIP.
July 18, 2008... VoIP carrier JaJah, intensifying its effort to morph from pure consumer carrier to enterprise provider, has added a managed IP telephony solution, including hosted IP PBX, to its SMB solutions suite. JaJah jumped into the enterprise game...

'Free' InstantConference Available In Two Flavors.(Conference notes)
July 18, 2008... Global Conference Partners subsidiary InstantConference, an on-demand, reservationless service, now is offering user-managed enterprise conferencing that can be set up and managed via an online administrator account. InstantConference...

Wireless Tax-Relief Bills Live On Both Sides Of The Capitol.
July 18, 2008... While it didn't garner as much attention as did talk about suspending the gas tax, bipartisan legislation aimed at enacting a five-year moratorium on new or increased taxes on wireless infrastructure and services was introduced in the...

New Celco Launches Imminent As Canada Auction Ends.
July 21, 2008... Canada's advanced wireless spectrum (AWS) auction finally ended just a few hours ago, and the country probably will see at least four new carriers. The auction, which lasted eight weeks and 331 rounds, raked in more than $4.2 billion...

Motorola Unveils 802.11n LAN Planning Package.
July 21, 2008... Motorola, introducing the eleventh iteration of its LANPlanner software for enterprise wireless deployments, has added support for 802.11n or, more precisely, pre-802.11n. That addition of 802.11n is an unabashed move to promote the sale...

Cistera Intros Plan To Boost VAR Revenues.
July 21, 2008... Cistera CollaborNET, launched earlier today by Cistera Networks for its value-added reseller (VAR) partners, can handle product marketing from lead generation to maintenance renewal and upsell. A 2007 report from Cascade Business Group,...

New BCS Version Recovers Microsoft Apps, Data.
July 21, 2008... Asempra Technologies says the latest update of its Asempra Business Continuity Server (BCS) is "the only solution to recover Microsoft applications and data in seconds." Asempra's BCS helps ensure that mid-market companies that are...

Ruckus Promises To Take The Worry Out Of Wi-Fi.
July 21, 2008... Ruckus Wireless' ZoneFlex line of Smart Wireless LAN (WLAN) products now is guaranteed for life. "We want to take the worry out of Wi-Fi," says Bart Burstein, vice president/product management at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Ruckus Wireless....

Survey Sez: Enterprises Diss Net Performance Kits.
July 21, 2008... Fewer than half of the large enterprises in the United States and Europe rate the software used to maintain the high performance of applications on their corporate networks as "good." According to research house Ovum, which surveyed 150...