TelecomWeb News Digest articles from June 2006

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from June 2006

Enron Broadband Jury Hands Down Split Verdict.
June 1, 2006... The jury in the trial of a pair of lower-ranking former Enron Broadband Services (EBS) executives, after a week of deliberations, yesterday handed down one conviction and one acquittal. The conviction brings to 20 the number of former Enron...

Vonage Demands IPO Subscribers Pay Up.
June 1, 2006... Vonage's IPO disaster took a new twist last night as the company issued a statement that it is going to demand that those of its VoIP subscribers who bought into the IPO pay up and eat their losses. Meanwhile, Vonage shares continued the...

3G Buyout: Motorola To Pay $193.5M For U.K.'s TTP.
June 1, 2006... Motorola today signed an agreement to acquire U.K. mobile phone technology company TTP Communications plc (TTPCom) for an estimated $193.5 million in cash, ostensibly aimed at giving the U.S. company additional clout in the third-generation...

VoIP, Inc. Rallies Shareholders With New 'Goals'.
June 1, 2006... In the wake of its recent management shakeup and additional financing, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software and solutions supplier VoIP, Inc. today outlined consolidation measures and other business development goals it aims to...

PT & Telefonica Mull Vivo Buyout.
June 1, 2006... Portugal Telecom (PT) and Telefonica SA are now reportedly both willing to buy the other's half of their Brazilian mobile joint venture Vivo, if that's what its going to take to reinvigorate the company. The sale price for half of Vivo is...

BT Targets Small Businesses With Hosted BlackBerry Service.
June 1, 2006... BT, in a move to attract small business customers, has launched a hosted BlackBerry service - sweetening the pot with a satellite navigation add-on deal with the lure of free service for up to half a year. Users who buy into BT's new...

T-Online Chief Logs Out Amid Merger Flap.
June 2, 2006... Europe's Internet community was rocked today by the resignation of T- Online International's top executive one day after a German high court ruling paved the way for the ISP's full merger with majority owner Deutsche Telekom. Rainer Beaujean...

Ohio Advocate Blasts Verizon's Freedom Bid.
June 2, 2006... In its latest clash with incumbent telcos over state deregulation, the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel (OCC) is taking Verizon Communications to task for seeking approval on a service plan that could increase the rates consumers pay...

EC Mobile Carriers Pledge To Slash Roaming Charges.
June 2, 2006... A large group of European cellular operators, faced with the prospect of being slammed by the European Commission (EC) with regulations virtually eliminating cross-country roaming charges, have agreed to their own set of massive tariff...

KPN Eyes $89.5M ISP Buy In Dutch Push.
June 2, 2006... KPN today said it has agreed to acquire Dutch ISP Demon Netherlands for about $89.51 million in cash from U.K. telecom operator Thus in a continuing effort to consolidate its position in the domestic broadband market. The incumbent...

Italtel Bags Its First Middle East Deal.
June 2, 2006... Italian softswitch specialist Italtel has bagged its first deal in the Middle East - an order from startup telecom operator du in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - plus a pair of lucrative broadband networking deals from South American...

Fifth FCC Member McDowell Sworn In.
June 2, 2006... Attorney Robert M. McDowell was sworn in yesterday by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin J. Martin as the fifth member of the regulatory agency for a term that runs until June 30, 2009, giving the FCC its full complement...

Opponents Will Rap Against AT&T/BellSouth Deal.
June 5, 2006... Industry groups and consumer organizations are preparing to muster strong opposition to the proposed combination of AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular Wireless as today's midnight deadline approaches for filing comments on the deal at the Federal...

AirCell, JetBlue Fly High In Spectrum Auction.
June 5, 2006... With total net bids of $38.3 million, AirCell's AC BidCo and JetBlue Airways' LiveTV late last week emerged as 800 MHz spectrum licenses winners for new nationwide air-to-ground (ATG) services aboard commercial aircraft, ending Auction No....

Vonage Slammed With First IPO Lawsuit.
June 5, 2006... Vonage, whose shares are well on their way to setting a record as the biggest IPO disaster so far in the 21st century, was hit with the first of what some think could be a flood of lawsuits over its public offering. The first suit, which...

Group Plans New Trans-Pacific Cable.
June 5, 2006... A consortium of seven Asian carriers, led by Telekom Malaysia (TM), has banded together for what will be the longest new undersea cable project seen by the industry in years: a 12,400-mile monster stretching from Malaysia to the West Coast...

Ericsson Pincer Movement Presses VDSL2, IPTV.
June 5, 2006... Ericsson had a busy day today via a major pincer movement addressing video markets, including introduction of a new VDSL2 platform solution aimed at low-cost telco video deployments and an end-to-end offering for carrier-provided Internet...

The Next WTC Gets 'Smart'.
June 5, 2006... Reports out of Bahrain say the 50-story twin towers of the Bahrain World Trade Center (BWTC), to be completed soon, will be the kingdom's first truly intelligent office buildings. The BWTC, being built in one of the Middle East's financial...

Rumor Du Jour: FCC Eyes Interim USF Revamp Plan.
June 6, 2006... Reports circulating around Washington say the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering a new plan to revamp the universal service fund (USF) program on an interim basis by broadening the base of contributions, thus keeping the...

Live From The Windy City: Globalcomm Day One.
June 6, 2006... Globalcomm, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)-sponsored contender for the mantle of successor to the once-mighty Supercomm trade show, opened its doors yesterday morning in Chicago - but it remains far from clear if the show...

ACLU Papers NSA, FCC Regarding Illegal Wiretaps.
June 6, 2006... In legal papers filed last night in a federal court, the American Civil Liberties Union said the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program "runs roughshod over the constitutional rights of U.S. residents and impedes the work of...

Rival Carriers Rip AT&T/BellSouth Merger.
June 6, 2006... Just as the deadline hit for the first round of comments on the proposed combination of AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular Wireless (TelecomWeb news break, June 5), a group of competitive telecom carriers asked the Federal Communications...

FTMSC Tweaks Pricing To Make The 'Connexion'.
June 6, 2006... France Telecom Mobile Satellite Communications (FTMSC) is launching two new pricing initiatives to encourage commercial shipping companies to subscribe to the "Connexion by Boeing" maritime, global, high-speed communications services. ...

NDS Targets IPTV-Bound Telcos.
June 6, 2006... London-based NDS Group plc is the latest vendor to launch an initiative aimed at telcos looking to break into television markets around the world, debuting its system at this week's Globalcomm show in Chicago. The vendor, which supplies...

It's A Disaster In Washington!
June 7, 2006... No, it's not inside-the-Beltway politics as usual. AT&T is planning to conduct a network-disaster-recovery (NDR) exercise in the Washington, D.C., area today and tomorrow in order to emulate service continuity for business enterprise and...

Vonage's IPO Lawsuit Troubles Increase.
June 7, 2006... In the wake of its disastrous IPO (TelecomWeb news break, June 5), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providerVonage Holding Corp. was served with yet another legal action related to its public offering. Philadelphia law firm Berger &...

Live From The Windy City: Globalcomm Day Two.
June 7, 2006... Day Two is over at Globalcomm, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)-sponsored contender for the mantle of successor to the once- mighty Supercomm trade show, and we're still waiting for the crowds. Day Two was, by all...

House OKs Caller-ID Spoof Bill; Senate Next.
June 7, 2006... The U.S. House of Representatives by voice vote last night approved a bill to outlaw and penalize caller-ID spoofing, a practice that currently includes online services and portable cards that allow users to fake caller-ID information often...

Canadian Coast Guard Enhances Satellite Options.
June 7, 2006... Hometown player Telesat won a contract from the Canadian Coast Guard to provide ship-to-shore communications via satellite, representing the second commercial phase for the European Space Agency (ESA)-supported Marine eCommerce Applications...

France Telecom Closes The Book On PagesJaunes.
June 7, 2006... France Telecom (FT) says it's ready to exit its European directories business, PagesJaunes, because the carrier no longer considers the French version of the Yellow Pages core to its range of businesses. This is the latest move by FT in...

C&W Sends Bulldog To The Pound.
June 8, 2006... Cable & Wireless, the U.K.'s second-largest fixed-line network operator, is getting out of the retail broadband business barely two years after it bought Bulldog, the ISP unit on which it's now lost a large fortune. In a statement issued...

Live From The Windy City: Globalcomm Ends With A Whimper.
June 8, 2006... Yesterday was the last day of Globalcomm, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)-sponsored contender for the mantle of successor to the once- mighty Supercomm trade show, and it remains unclear what the future of telecommunications...

Feds Bust VoIP Hackers.
June 8, 2006... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is making arrests connected with a scheme that allegedly cheated at least 15 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers out of what could amount to approximately $300,000 worth of bogus...

House Call: Video-Franchise Bill Faces Moment Of Truth.
June 8, 2006... The House of Representatives today or tomorrow may be ready for a floor vote on the controversial proposed bill to create a telco-advocated national video-franchise system in the United States. Such a measure has been bogged down in...

Proximus Readies Rival HSDPA Service.
June 8, 2006... Like many other carriers in Europe, Belgian mobile operator Proximus is getting ready to launch superfast mobile Internet services in its home country by upgrading its 3G network with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) technology. ...

Enterprise Mobility: More Than Just Technology.
June 8, 2006... New research says several well-recognized companies that recently have gone mobile have been successful in optimizing their service operations by addressing business processes, organizational structure, scope of information captured, and...

BREAKING NEWS: Court Upholds FCC's CALEA Stance.
June 9, 2006... At press time, TelecomWeb news break learned a U.S. appellate court has reaffirmed last year's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision pulling broadband and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers into legal...

MobilePro Ditches Muni Mesh Project.
June 9, 2006... Wireless data specialist MobilePro this morning walked away from its contract to build a citywide Wi-Fi mesh in Sacramento, Calif. - only two months after the first test system went live - in what looks to be an acrimonious disagreement with...

House Passes Video-Franchise Bill; Battle Moves To Senate.
June 9, 2006... The U.S. House of Representatives last night passed a controversial bill to establish a national video-franchise system in the United States, moving to the Senate the battle not only over the core issue but also a series of even hotter...

Rumor Du Jour: Will Carphone Drive AOL U.K. Into Its Warehouse?
June 9, 2006... Carphone Warehouse, which has been in the broadband business for a grand total of 60 days now, is being touted as a potential bidder for Time Warner's AOL U.K. subsidiary - a deal that could potentially approach $2 billion in what might be a...

Microsoft TV Faces French Acid Test.
June 9, 2006... Deutsche Telekom subsidiary Club Internet in France disclosed this morning it is going to launch an IPTV service based on Microsoft TV this month - a move that makes it one of the first in the world to attempt to go live with Microsoft's IPTV...

EU Carriers To EC: 'C'mon, Give Us A Break'.
June 9, 2006... The CEOs of 29 European Union incumbent and alternative telecom carriers yesterday met in Brussels to lobby for more liberal EU policies on new services and investments aimed at communications convergence and multimedia that they say will...

Qualcomm Hits Nokia With Another Patent Complaint.
June 12, 2006... Qualcomm has filed paperwork at the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), charging Nokia Corporation and Nokia Inc. with trade-practice and patent infringements, including accusations involving such products as handsets used on...

Speedus, Verizon Have Their Patent Date In Court.
June 12, 2006... Speedus Corp. and Verizon Wireless will battle it out in court on one of the smaller company's lawsuits charging the second-largest cellular company in the United States with violating a pair of Speedus patents, one of which covers the...

Afghanistan Outdoes U.S. In Intelligent Community Awards.
June 12, 2006... Once again, the United States has been outdone in the Intelligent Community Forum's (ICF) annual competition for the most visionary and innovative uses of broadband communications - this time with awards going to an Afghan ministry, the city...

Belgacom Taps Siemens For Europe's First 40 Gb/s ROADM Net.
June 12, 2006... Belgacom International Carrier Services (Belgacom ICS) has ordered gear from Siemens Communications for what it's touting will be the first next- generation network (NGN) in continental Europe based on reconfigurable, optical add-and-drop...

No Surprise Here: Wireless Sports, Porn Sells.
June 12, 2006... According to new research, focusing services around specific events or themes will play an influential role when it comes to consumer take-up and payment for mobile-data services. The idea is for operators to use these themes and/or...

Norway Gets ADSL2+,'ADSL Mini'.
June 12, 2006... Earlier today, Telenor launched what it calls its second generation of broadband services as it looks to tighten its grip on the Norwegian broadband market. The carrier is using ADSL+2 to offer as much as 16 Mb/s service and at the same...

Vonage Faces Another Lawsuit: Shares Still Dropping.
June 13, 2006... Vonage has been hit with the third known class-action lawsuit involving its disastrous IPO; meanwhile, the company's shares continue in free fall, setting new lows in trading today. With fortunes to be made as the law firm in a successful...

Shareholders Approve Bell Canada's Telecom 'Trust'.
June 13, 2006... BCE Inc. received approval from its common shareholders for the implementation of a plan to form a new "regional telephone income trust" that will own and manage 1.6 million local access lines in parts of Bell Canada's Ontario and Quebec...

Saudi Wireless Startup Turns To Ericsson For 3G.
June 13, 2006... Mobily, the new Saudi wireless carrier that only launched last year, has turned to Ericsson for its next-generation 3G wireless services needs. Under terms of a deal whose sized was not disclosed, Ericsson will build a High-Speed Packet...

Senate Mulls Revised Draft Telecom Bill.
June 13, 2006... The U.S. Senate is now contemplating a revised draft of a sweeping communications-reform bill that retains but slightly slows the pace of national video franchising compared with the earlier version. Nevertheless, the new draft still is...

Study Claims Harm Without Net Neutrality.
June 13, 2006... The latest analysis regarding the heated dispute over network neutrality claims there is likely to be substantial harm to consumers and the Internet economy "if Congress abandons" the net neutrality principals in pending telecom reform...

Partners Tap LMDS For Powered-Up Wireless Ethernet.
June 13, 2006... Wireless broadband service provider Nextlink Wireless Inc., a subsidiary of XO Holdings Inc., is teaming with Covad Communications Group Inc. in a strategic partnership that will allow Covad to deploy higher-speed wireless Ethernet services...

Techies Moan Over Law-Enforcement Compliance.
June 14, 2006... Internet technologists yesterday complained about the complexities and possible reverse security risks connected with meeting Federal Communications Commission orders that pull many broadband and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service...

Zhone-Nortel Team Brings IP To Telecom Egypt.
June 14, 2006... Telecom Egypt (TE), with 10.6 million subscribers the largest fixed line provider in the Middle East and Africa, has turned to Zhone Technologies and Nortel to upgrade large parts of its network to IP. The value of the project, which was...

State 'Tele-Taxes' Under Scrutiny.
June 14, 2006... The U.S. Congress is taking a fresh - and very likely skeptical - look at state-level telecom-services taxation, which when heaped upon current federal levies now typically adds double-digit percentages to landline and wireless bills. ...

TeliaSonera Wraps NextGenTel Acquisition.
June 14, 2006... TeliaSonera has completed its $310 million acquisition of Norway's second largest broadband provider, NextGenTel, following a decision by the Norwegian competition authority not to investigate the acquisition. TeliaSonera announced...

Supercomm Successor Still Suspect.
June 14, 2006... Last week's Globalcomm show, which the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) dearly hopes will be the successor to Supercomm, has apparently failed to prove itself yet worthy of succession to the throne - but then again the competing...

Third World Still Loves 2G.
June 14, 2006... According to a new report from ABI Research, 2G and 2.5G wireless infrastructure is alive and well and living in the developing world. With most wireless infrastructure markets in industrialized nations near or at saturation levels,...

CWA Ally Claims Laggard Tech Jobs.
June 15, 2006... U.S. job growth in the IT sector (and, by proxy, embracing the telecom segment) has been significantly less robust than industry management and associations have claimed, according to a study just released by an affiliate of a major national...

Congressman Advocates Strong Antitrust In Senate Lawmaking.
June 15, 2006... A key GOP member of the House of Representatives yesterday told the Senate to pay close attention to buttressing existing antitrust laws to control monopolist behavior as it considers current attempts to enact communications- reform...

TeliaSonera: No One Expected The Spanish Acquisition.
June 15, 2006... TeliaSonera, which has only just completed its acquisition of Norwegian broadband provider NextGenTel (TelecomWeb news break, June 14), has now made an even more significant acquisition that will see it lock horns with Telefonica, Vodafone...

More Vonage: How Low Can You Go?
June 15, 2006... VoIP service provider Vonage has been hit with two more class-action lawsuits involving its disastrous IPO, making a total of five, from all reports. Meanwhile, the company's shares continue in free fall, with seemingly no bottom in sight....

And the Ad-Supported Apps Rush In.
June 15, 2006... A week after Cingular's content chief Jim Ryan warned the industry against simply trading free content for ad exposure, that very same model seems to be falling into place. Versaly Entertainment's free TV channel on Sprint, called "Fast...

Linux Fills Mobile's Need For Speed.
June 15, 2006... A group of heavy hitters - Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone - are partnering to establish what they say will be the world's first global, open Linux-based software platform for...

BREAKING NEWS: Court Upholds FCC On UNEs.
June 16, 2006... A federal appellate court today upheld the Federal Communications Commission's fourth decision in December 2004 to revamp and loosen many of the unbundled network element (UNE) obligations on the former Bell companies and other major...

Inter-Tel Founder Offers Big Bucks To Regain Company.
June 16, 2006... Inter-Tel Founder and, until earlier this year, CEO Steven Mihaylo yesterday afternoon floated a $600 million leveraged takeover bid for the company - the latest move in what looks to be an acrimonious battle between Mihaylo and current...

Tele2/Versatel Merger Put On Hold.
June 16, 2006... The $1.6 billion merger between pan-European telco Tele2 and Dutch telco Versatel may not happen. Tele2 has decided to put the preparations for a triangular merger between Versatel (as disappearing entity), Tele2 Finance and Tele2...

StarVox Gets Cash, Merger Offer.
June 16, 2006... Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider StarVox Communications Inc. today received a financing-and-merger offer from U.S. Wireless Data Inc. (USWI), a Los Angeles-based company with no revenues that currently is redeveloping...

Rural Broadband Report Seeks Policy Influence.
June 16, 2006... The importance and economic impact of broadband and multimedia services in rural areas of the United States are detailed in a report soon to be circulated on Capitol Hill as carrier and business interests from such small communities seek to...

Wireless VoIP Service Targets Chinese-Speaking Market.
June 16, 2006... Promising to slash international calling costs by as much as 70 percent, MINO Wireless, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based mobile-services company, is promoting its "International Call from Mobile Phone" Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service...

Nokia/Siemens Merger Girds For War With Ericsson.(Company overview)
June 19, 2006... Nokia and Siemens have agreed to merge their communication-service- provider businesses, creating a global fixed/mobile convergence industry giant with $20 billion in annual sales and positioned to take on arch-rival and market leader...

Leap Plans Auction Foray Via New Credit Facilities.
June 19, 2006... Leap Wireless International Inc., a San Diego-based Qualcomm spinoff that provides wireless services, has closed and syndicated $1.1 billion of senior credit facilities for its wholly owned "all you can talk" subsidiary Cricket...

Verizon Slams Vonage With VoIP Patent Suit.
June 19, 2006... Vonage has been hit with just what it needed the least right now - a patent lawsuit from Verizon claiming the company trampled on seven Verizon patents covering VoIP technology. Already facing a passel of lawsuits over the conduct of its...

WCA Weighs In Against Net Neutrality.
June 19, 2006... The Wireless Communications Association International (WCA) has come down against network-neutrality legislation, joining one of the pressure groups that has been opposing moves in Congress on the polarizing issue (TelecomWeb news break,...

New ITAA Chief: 'My Name Is Bond, Phil Bond'.
June 19, 2006... Concluding a search that started three or so months ago (TelecomWeb news break, March 2), the Information Technology Association of America's (ITAA) board of directors today disclosed naming former U.S. Department of Commerce Under Secretary...

Anopheles Buzz Bites Cellphone Business.
June 19, 2006... Can you hear the buzz? Late last week, a press release started circulating about the launch of the "official" version of the so-called "Mosquito Ringtone" - a ringtone with a pitch so high that adults can't hear it. TelecomWeb news break...

The Marines Have Landed: Vonage Recruits Crisis Expert.
June 20, 2006... Embattled VoIP provider Vonage has recruited Craig A. Streem - a man TelecomWeb news break views as a hired gun with a solid history of handling crisis communications - to take over as its senior vice president/investor relations. With...

O2 Puts A 'Be' In Its Bonnet.
June 20, 2006... Spain's Telefonica has given its U.K. wireless subsidiary O2 a little present - the hot little broadband startup Be. The acquisition puts O2 on the fast track to put together a merged fixed- mobile offering that will compete with deadly...

Katrina Panel Scopes Out Strategy For FCC.
June 20, 2006... As anticipated (TelecomWeb news break, June 7), a special 27-member panel investigating Hurricane Katrina's impact has released its report to the Federal Communications Commission, making a series of sweeping recommendations for public and...

N.J. Senate Passes Video-Franchise Bill...Again.
June 20, 2006... Due to a glitch in the legislative process, New Jersey's State Senate yesterday voted for a second time to approve a statewide video-franchising measure, with more votes in the affirmative this time than last. The 31-5 Senate approval...

BT Fights Back In The Broadband Battle Of Britain.
June 20, 2006... Tomorrow, BT will make its latest move in the U.K. broadband market where competition really is beginning to heat up, launching what it is calling "BT Total Broadband." The service, while not the cheapest on the block, offers what could...

Enforta Readies Phase 1 Russian Broadband Deployment.
June 20, 2006... Netherlands-based Enforta BV has wrapped the construction and initial testing of its wireless broadband network in the Russian cities of Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Omsk and Novokuznetsk, the first leg of its planned 29-city rollout in that...