TelecomWeb News Digest articles from June 2008

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from June 2008

Dismissal Motion Could Topple Alcatel-Lucent C Suite.
June 2, 2008... Alcatel-Lucent shareholders, irate that their investments have plunged 66 percent in only a year, vetted a motion making it easier to get rid of embattled CEO Patricia Russo and Chairman Serge Tchuruk. The shareholders, some reportedly...

BT Carbon-Reduction Plan Could Be Global Benchmark.(Company overview)
June 2, 2008... BT aims to cut its global carbon footprint some 80 percent by 2020, setting what it says is one of the most aggressive corporate carbon-reduction targets worldwide. BT already claims to have reduced emissions in the U.K. by nearly 60...

Nortel Inks Voice-Security Partnership.
June 2, 2008... A new "strategic relationship" between SecureLogix and Nortel will deliver what they claim is first-of-kind voice security-and-management solutions to enterprise customers worldwide. The two had disclosed previously they were working...

Survey Sez: APAC, EMEA Lead 1Q08 CDMA Growth.
June 2, 2008... New numbers say the CDMA industry continued its strong growth through the first quarter, increasing its customer base by almost 17 percent during the past year to 451 million CDMA subscribers worldwide. According to the CDMA Development...

When It Comes To SaaS, Money Talks.
June 2, 2008... During the past few days, the increasingly hot software as a service (SaaS) market has gotten even hotter following some high-cost deals. Investors have plowed $17 million into U.K. SaaS house Jobpartners PLC, while "cloud computing"...

Everywhere E-1 Service Bypasses Standards Conversion.
June 2, 2008... Interconnection gateway provider FiberNet Telecom Group Inc., now is offering "Everywhere E-1" transport services to its international service providers. Using the new program, they can terminate E-1 services into their customer...

China Telecom Chooses LTE Over CDMA As 4G Platform.
June 3, 2008... Yet another of the world's largest CDMA carriers - China Telecom, which is in the process of buying China Unicom's CDMA business for $15.9 billion - says it's ditching CDMA in favor of Long Term Evolution (LTE). The plan by China Telecom...

Vodafone Poised To Grab Tiscali.
June 3, 2008... Vodafone reportedly is emerging as the top bidder for Tiscali's broadband operations in both the U.K. and Italy, and it's expected to submit a firm bid of more than $2.5 billion within the next 24 hours. At least seven competitors are...

Survey Sez: The Rush To UC Has Begun.
June 3, 2008... A whopping 78 percent of Nortel's customers have begun to, or plan to, deploy unified communications (UC) within the next two years, according to the results of a survey of 800 of the company's customers worldwide. The survey results,...

ERM Take-Up Highlights Need For Higher Info Security.
June 3, 2008... Information security in the enterprise is the new hot button, and anyone wondering why enterprise rights management (ERM) is growing in importance need only review recent news stories regarding lost or stolen sensitive data. "The...

GigaBeam, Presidio Team For Leasing Plans.
June 3, 2008... GigaBeam Corporation now is offering an equipment leasing program through Presidio Technology Capital LLC, a provider of technology financing solutions. GigaBeam sells products for use in the upper-millimeter-wave communication bands from...

Arris Added To IPtimize Managed-Services Roster.
June 3, 2008... Denver-based IPtimize Inc., a provider of turnkey broadband data management and VoIP services to cable carriers, will be using the Arris ServAssure Advanced Hosted Services solution to offer customers a package of new business tools. The...

iProvo FTTH Purchase Squeaks By.
June 4, 2008... The sale and privatization of iProvo, the largest municipally owned U.S. fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network to date, was narrowly approved by Provo's city managers following a 4-3 vote. The vote came late last night after a marathon Provo...

MSOs Begin Metered Broadband Tests.
June 4, 2008... Tomorrow, Time Warner Cable is bravely going where no large multiple system operator (MSO) has gone before. It plans to make good on its previously announced plans to launch a trial in Beaumont, Texas, that charges its broadband customers...

SaaS Continues Its Worldwide Roll.
June 4, 2008... During the past 48 hours, the global software as a service (SaaS) bandwagon has seen a Canadian company sell off all non-SaaS assets, a New Zealand company launch that country's first SaaS-based monitoring system for virtualized operating...

Taking FCoE Out For A Drive.
June 4, 2008... QLogic Corp. today kicked off its "Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Test Drive" event in San Diego that runs through Friday. QLogic sells high-performance storage networking solutions that include controller chips, host adapters and...

ECI Makes Good On Promises, Releases Next-Gen Offerings.
June 4, 2008... Israel's ECI Telecom says its Hi-FOCuS multi-service access node (MSAN), with integrated support for xDSL, fiber access and voice solutions, now supports SIP signaling for VoIP. According to the company, the added protocol support "gives...

New Kid Max Telecom Taps Converse For IPT Solutions.
June 4, 2008... Max Telecom, a new carrier serving Bulgaria, has launched voice and data services for corporate and residential subscribers over its WiMAX infrastructure using the Comverse MyCall Converged Communications, IPCentrex and business trunking...

Mega-Deals Marry Verizon-Alltel and Orange-TeliaSonera.
June 5, 2008... In a market-changing pair of nearly simultaneous disclosures this morning Verizon Wireless said its inked a massive $28.1 billion deal to buy Alltel and France Telecom (or Orange, if you will) said its made an even bigger $49.1 billion offer...

VCs Get SaaS For VCs.
June 5, 2008... This just had to happen: With the software as a service (SaaS) market as hot as it is these days, and venture capitalists almost throwing wads of cash at anyone who breathes the term SaaS, a VC-funded California startup called Fundability,...

Another Survey Sez: UC Is On Everyone's Front Burner.
June 5, 2008... With unified communications (UC) the name of the game for enterprises, it's not surprising numerous surveys have been crafted, with the newest saying 87 percent of businesses are looking to invest in UC solutions in the near future --...

How Alcatel-Lucent Is Dressing Up TPSDA.
June 5, 2008... Billing new enhancements as "going beyond the initial, mass-market solution requirements for IPTV, voice and Internet services," Alcatel-Lucent is beefing up its Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture (TPSDA). According to the...

sipgate Betas Free iPhone VoIP App.
June 5, 2008... sipgate Inc. is touting a free application for the iPhone it says allows users to natively use any VoIP service that uses the industry standard SIP. Using the application, iPhone owners can make and receive VoIP calls from their devices...

UC Comes To Quatar.
June 5, 2008... Quatar's incumbent carrier, Quatar Telecom (Qtel), has gone to market with a unified communications (UC) offering targeted at small- to medium-sized enterprises, including the mushrooming number of multinational enterprises establishing...

China Tops U.S. Broadband Totals.
June 6, 2008... China has now topped the United States in total number of broadband subscribers - an event that's been predicted for well over a year now - according to new estimates. According to the latest numbers, compiled by telecoms consultant and...

Femto Surprise: Standard Set.
June 6, 2008... The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), with no public notice yet issued by the group, has quietly set what is now expected to become the key specification for a standardized femtocell architecture for the industry. With femtocell...

SaaS-based eCommerce House Funds Warchest.
June 6, 2008... eCommerce software as a service (SaaS) house Infopia has landed $12 million in third round venture funding, cash it's earmarked in part to find a competitor to buy and to fund a new SaaS product launch next week of what it promises will be an...

Contact-Center Reps Evolve Into 'Professional Listeners'.
June 6, 2008... Independent research commissioned by Siemens dials in on the much- maligned contact-center representative, dispelling thoughts that such workers are "disloyal, unmotivated, poorly trained and have a 'couldn't-care-less' attitude." ...

3CX VoIP App Now Works With Linksys Gear.
June 6, 2008... London-based 3CX, developer of the 3CX Phone System for Windows, has wrapped what it says was the successful testing of interoperability with Linksys IP telephones. 3CX is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. Its 3CX Phone System for...

The Last UC 'Survey Sez:' This Week...We Promise.
June 6, 2008... Three's the charm, and here it is: The Asia-Pacific Unified Communications (UC) market earned revenues of $4.03 billion in 2007 and it could ramp up to $8.17 billion by year-end 2014, at a compound annual growth rate of 10.6 percent...

Verizon Sells ATG Network To JetBlue Subsidiary.
June 9, 2008... LiveTV LLC, which calls itself the "leading provider of live in-flight entertainment and connectivity systems for commercial airlines," plans to be the new owner of the Verizon Airfone network. The buyer, which is a wholly owned...

Is T-Mobile USA Crying Over Spilled Wi-Fi?
June 9, 2008... T-Mobile USA, which saw its Wi-Fi hot-spot business ravaged when it lost its massive Starbucks contract to AT&T Wireless (TelecomWeb news break, Feb. 11), is taking the coffee-house chain to court. As such, T-Mobile USA is charging...

Auction Watch: Canada May Have Two New Celcos.
June 9, 2008... Canada's spectrum auction has finished its second week, with bids now unexpectedly topping $3 billion - almost twice the total expected. Based on current standing, as the auction enters "Stage Two" today, the country may see two new...

Belden Buys Into Enterprise WLANs.
June 9, 2008... Belden, perhaps best known for such things as connectors and switches, is buying enterprise wireless local area networking (WLAN)-equipment and management-software vendor Trapeze Networks for $133 million in cash. The acquisition, Belden...

Nexus Adds FoIP Capabilities For Better UC.
June 9, 2008... Sagem-Interstar Inc., a provider of advanced fax solutions for IP networks, is teaming with enterprise service developer Nexus "to offer the benefits of its IP fax solution as part of an integrated Unified Communications (UC) strategy." ...

3 Business Targets Enterprises With Cafeteria Plan.
June 9, 2008... The new small-business division of U.K. wireless carrier 3 has gone commercial with a range of "Business Mix and Match" offerings. According to 3 Business, starting at about $25 per month, 3 Business enterprise customers can choose from a...

The Greening Of Verizon.
June 10, 2008... Verizon has joined the Green movement, telling its broadband, video, data-center, network and customer-premises equipment (CPE) vendors that, as of Jan. 1, 2009, it intends to only buy hardware that uses less power - 20-percent less if...

GSA Adds Redline WiMAX Gear To Approved Shopping List.
June 10, 2008... WiMAX and broadband provider Redline Communications Group Inc. now has its broadband wireless products listed on the Federal GSA Contract Schedule in the "IT Solutions and Electronics" category. In addition, Future Technologies, a Redline...

Sparkplug Sets Off Chicago Bandwidth Explosion.
June 10, 2008... Fixed wireless business broadband provider Sparkplug has completed a major expansion of its service in the Chicago metropolitan area, upping the number of businesses it reaches by 43 percent. The company, which operates in five states...

RAD Picks Vegas For Access Gateway Launch.
June 10, 2008... At next week's NXTcomm 2008 tradeshow in Las Vegas, RAD Data Communications will launch a new TDM pseudowire access gateway it says has been designed to enable transport operators to maximize return on investment (ROI) from their fiber...

Survey Sez: IT/Telecom Providers To Reap Healthcare Dividends.
June 10, 2008... Although the healthcare sector historically has lagged behind others in terms of aggressive deployment of next-gen IT and telecom solutions, new investments are being made to enhance operational efficiency and to comply with various...

Axesstel Unveils World's First EVDO Rev. A Fixed Phone.
June 10, 2008... San Diego-based Axesstel Inc. now claims to be first to market with an EVDO Rev. A fixed wireless phone. The PV500 Series of CDMA2000 1xEVDO Rev. A "innovatively combines voice and high-speed data communications with receive diversity...

Nortel Ditches WiMAX Work In Favor Of LTE.
June 11, 2008... Nortel is ending all development work on WiMAX hardware, instead plowing all of its resources into Long Term Evolution (LTE), signing a deal with Israeli wireless broadband house Alvarion for any WiMAX that Nortel might need. With every...

Nokia Siemens To Spin Out Fiber Unit.
June 11, 2008... Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), in its latest move to concentrate on what it considers its core operations, is shedding its Open Transport Network (OTN) division. OTN which makes hardware for enterprises to build their own private optical...

Rumor Du Jour: Bidding Battle Budding For TeliaSonera.
June 11, 2008... Reports out of Oslo indicate that Telenor is preparing to make a counter- bid for TeliaSonera A.B., starting a bidding war with Telia suitor France Telecom. France Telecom offered a breath-taking $49.1 billion for TeliaSonera last week,...

3 Italia Intros Free Mobile-TV Business Model.
June 11, 2008... Here's a first for European wireless subscribers: free mobile TV, offered by 3 Italia and based on the DVB-H standard. The new service will be branded "La3," and the carrier claims it's unique in Europe, with similar offers available in...

WiMAX Group Of The Month: The Open Patent Alliance.
June 11, 2008... Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Clearwire, Intel, Samsung Electronics and Sprint form the backbone of the new Open Patent Alliance (OPA), aimed "accelerating the widespread adoption and deployment of WiMAX technology and products," in an...

Warrantless Wiretap Deal Slammed For 'Stacked Deck' Court Implications.
June 11, 2008... The cross-Capitol debate on warrantless wiretapping continues and, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), there's a new Republican proposal to amend foreign intelligence surveillance law, fronted by Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) with...

Wi-Fi Surprises: Starbucks Settles, Philly Talks.
June 12, 2008... Starbucks has apparently come to heel just days after T-Mobile sued it for trampling on the terms of a transition deal as AT&T moves into the coffeehouse chain while, in other Wi-Fi news, Philadelphia is in desperate last- minute talks to...

Clearwire Beats The WiMAX Drum.
June 12, 2008... Clearwire, in a dawn briefing today clearly aimed at bolstering investor confidence, said that it thinks it's going to be able to drum up 30 million users for a nationwide WiMAX network and generate $17.5 billion in sales - by 2017. ...

VoIP House 8x8 Targets Bigger Businesses.
June 12, 2008... Pure-play VoIP provider 8x8, in a major move upscale into the enterprise market, has launched a "Virtual Trunking" service that lets companies keep their current TDM phone systems while migrating to VoIP service for the actual carriage of...

Device-Management Program Targets Windows 5/6 Gear.
June 12, 2008... Computrace Mobile, a new offering from Absolute Software, is being touted as "the only solution on the market for the management of all remote computers and handhelds owned by an organization." The provider of patented computer-theft...

SMB CLEC Taps Overture For Carrier-Ethernet Solution.
June 12, 2008... NuVox, a CLEC targeting SMBs in 16 states, is expanding its mid- to high- bandwidth Ethernet-based offerings by deploying ISG products from Overture Networks, a N.C.-based developer of converged packet-access solutions for Carrier Ethernet....

'Smart Tasks' Software Takes On The 'Activity Pipeline'.
June 12, 2008... According to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider "StreetSmart" creator InfoStreet Inc., Version 4 of its tasks-management software, dubbed "Smart Tasks," gives small businesses "significant productivity increases through easier yet more...

FCC Finally Redefines Broadband.
June 13, 2008... The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), following years of criticism and threats of Congressional action, yesterday finally issued an order scrapping its previous definition of "broadband" as any service delivering of at least 200 Kb/s....

Motorola Research Labs Slashed In Half.
June 13, 2008... Motorola is slashing its research and development laboratory in half, laying off around a quarter of the staff and sending another quarter out to work in product divisions. The 600-man Motorola Labs, until now charged with handling the...

NetSuite Targets SAP With Manufacturing SaaS Launch.
June 13, 2008... Software as a Service (SaaS) house NetSuite has launched a version of its software designed for manufacturing enterprises - venturing where angels fear to tread, onto the core turf of Germany's mighty SAP AG, the world's largest business...

NXP Unveils Super-Speed LTE Modem.
June 13, 2008... NXP Semiconductors has taken the wraps off a blazingly-fast cellular soft modem that it says can dish up 150 Mb/s download speeds, and 50 Mb/s uploads, with the first units to go to "early access" cellphone makers in the second quarter of...

EU Ministers Nix Pan-European Telecom Watchdog.
June 13, 2008... The 27 telecommunication ministers of the European Union (EU) have unanimously repudiated Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding's plans to create a powerful central telecom regulatory body, similar to the U.S. Federal Communications...

Embarq Gives Nokia Siemens Its NOCs; Shutters 3 Call Centers.
June 13, 2008... Embarq is turning over operation of its network operations centers (NOC) to Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), in a deal said to be the first significant managed network operations agreement of its kind for NSN in North America. Under terms...

Wireless Shock & Awe: 'Mobile WiMAX Killer' 802.20 Approved.
June 16, 2008... In an unexpected move, the IEEE has quietly issued notice that the oft- controversial 802.20 mobile wireless broadband - a direct contender to the IEEE's own 802.16e-2005 spec on which so-called "mobile WiMAX" is based - has been approved,...

MSO Cogeco Buying Toronto's Municipal Telecom Unit.
June 16, 2008... The City of Toronto is getting out of the telecom business, selling off the municipal unit that provides business voice and data service to multiple system operator (MSO) Cogeco Cable, Canada's fourth largest cable company by subscriber...

Nortel In New Big Green & Blue UC Deals.
June 16, 2008... Nortel, has separately unveiled new unified communications (UC) deals with two fellow industry Gorillas - Microsoft and IBM - Big Green and Big Blue, if you will. The Microsoft deal consists of the release of a fully hosted carrier...

Ethernet Standards Targeted By Two New Committees.
June 16, 2008... In a pair of key Ethernet standardization moves, the Ethernet Alliance has created a Data Center subcommittee and the "Road to 100G Alliance" has formed an official Technical Committee. As the name implies the Ethernet Alliance's new Data...

Asia-Pac Predicted To Lead LTE Revolution.
June 16, 2008... Even though many believe no Long Term Evolution (LTE) network will go commercial before 2010, a new study forecasts that, by 2013, there will be more than 32 million subscribers using this flavor of network. According to ABI Research,...

Verizon Unveils Dedicated Enterprise Web Site.
June 16, 2008... Verizon Business and Verizon Wireless have joined forces to launch the Verizon Enterprise Center (VEC), a unified portal they say gives large business customers a "seamless online experience" with a single log-in option. Formerly known...

Proxim Unleashes Frequency-Agile Wireless Backhaul Kit.
June 17, 2008... Earlier today, Proxim Wireless took the wraps off a new version of its point-to-point wireless offering capable of supporting both T1/E1 and 10 Mb/s/100 Mb/s Ethernet. The new product is being targeted at enterprise and traditional...

HP Telco Blades Upgraded, Sideways Server Unveiled.
June 17, 2008... Hewlett-Packard is marketing the first major upgrade to its carrier-class blade servers since jumping into the telco blade market last year (TelecomWeb news break, Dec. 7, 2007). At the same time, it's adding a rack-mounted telco server...

Cisco Loses One Round In California Reseller Case.
June 17, 2008... An Orange County, Calif., court denied Cisco's motion for summary judgment on contract claims in a lawsuit filed against it by Infra-Comm Corp., a San Juan Capistrano-based reseller that used to sell Cisco gear. In its lawsuit, Infra-Comm...

Longtime Partners Solidify Management-Software Union.
June 17, 2008... Alcatel-Lucent inked a definitive agreement to acquire Motive Inc., offering $2.23 per share for all outstanding Motive shares to the tune of nearly $68 million. The two have been working together for some time, jointly developing and...

The Name Game: DSL Forum Drops The 'DSL' Moniker.
June 17, 2008... The DSL Forum has decided there's more to broadband than just DSL, even with all the flavors of xDSL. In simultaneous announcements at this week's NXTcomm in Las Vegas, the concurrent CommunicAsia 08 in Singapore and the FTTx Summit in...

NEC Awards Will Benefit U.S. Schools.
June 17, 2008... NEC Corporation of America is sponsoring the "Empowered By Telecommunications" Awards, open to all United States Telecom Association (USTelecom) carrier member organizations. The program "seeks to identify outstanding achievements...

Live From Las Vegas: NXTComm Day One.
June 18, 2008... There used to be a massive trade show called SuperComm, but it died. This week, the two trade associations that own the name SuperComm once again are attempting to revive it under the name NXTComm. But where are the crowds? The...

China Mobile Adds A Billion To Alcatel-Lucent's Coffers.
June 18, 2008... Alcatel-Lucent is $1 billion to the better following the signing of a framework agreement with China Mobile to help that carrier provide better 3G equipment and services. The frame-agreement signing ceremony, witnessed by Chinese Vice...

Telecom Test Alliance Tackles Automation.
June 18, 2008... A group of four telecom test companies, led by Spirent Communications, has crafted what it says is the first alliance of companies to standardize telecom test automation. The new group, dubbed the Test Automation Alliance (TAA), includes...

SPAR Austria Goes With Siemens Division For UC.
June 18, 2008... Siemens Enterprise Communications has been selected by SPAR Osterreichische Warenhandels AG to implement Siemens' OpenScape Unified Communications (UC) Server, a software-based UC solution enabling business- process integration. In...

Survey Sez: HSPA/LTE Mobile Connectivity Spurred By Laptops.
June 18, 2008... New research says the number of notebook PCs with HSPA/LTE mobile broadband connectivity in Europe will grow from 8.4 million last year to 49 million in 2013 via a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.1 percent. According to analyst...

CounterPath Intros Quick Conference.(Conference news)
June 18, 2008... Quick Conference, a SIP-based audio-conferencing solution from CounterPath Corporation, can be configured to work with an enterprise PBX (using SIP trunking or a SIP/TDM gateway) or in a managed/hosted services environment. Since 2003,...

Live From Las Vegas: NXTComm Day Two.
June 19, 2008... NXTComm, which organizers now even more stridently are reminding people is the putative successor to SuperComm, has emerged as a show still in search of a new technology to generate excitement. During the past two days, exhibitor after...

Sprint CEO Discloses New WiMAX Launch Delays.
June 19, 2008... Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, in a keynote address at this week's NXTComm show in Las Vegas, outlined a Xohm "mobile WiMAX" rollout schedule that now has the bulk of the initial launch delayed by at least six more months. Xohm was to have been...

Philadelphia Wi-Fi Gets A New Lease On Life.
June 19, 2008... "Wireless Philadelphia" has been turned back on by a group of private investors after going dark last week as part of EarthLink's exit from the fast- imploding municipal Wi-Fi business (TelecomWeb news break, June 12). The new owners are...

Mounties Formally Charge Ex-Nortel Execs With Fraud.
June 19, 2008... The Royal Canadian Mounted Police always get their man, and this time, they got three. The Mounties' Greater Toronto Area Integrated Market Enforcement Team (RCMP GTA IMET) has charged former Nortel executives with multiple fraud...

Red Hat Touts Real-Time Enterprise Linux Solution.
June 19, 2008... Open-source-solutions provider Red Hat has gone commercial with Red Hat Enterprise MRG V1, offering what it says are "significant" Red Hat Enterprise Linux real-time enhancements as well as a high performance, multi-platform messaging...

AFS Beefs Up Western Ethernet Offerings.
June 19, 2008... American Fiber Systems (AFS) is connecting businesses via new direct fiber-optic links between high-profile, high-traffic metropolitan cities in the western United States. AFS provides metropolitan networking infrastructure, dark fiber...