TelecomWeb News Digest articles from March 2006

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from March 2006

EU, U.S. End Telecom Trade Sanctions.
March 1, 2006... The European Union (EU) and the United States this morning ended a decade-long trade dispute under which companies from 11 European states were barred from bidding on certain types of U.S. government contracts, primarily smaller contracts in...

Tele2/Versatel Deal Nears Completion.
March 1, 2006... The $1.62 billion absorption of Dutch telco Versatel into pan-European telco Tele2 has moved a step closer, with completion of the deal now likely to be a little more than a month away. According to the two carriers, a merger proposal...

FCC Slaps Recidivist With Junk-Fax Fine.
March 1, 2006... The Federal Communications Commission wants to levy a $776,500 fine against national discount medical insurer First Choice Healthcare, Inc. for allegedly violating rules on unwanted (junk) facsimile messages. The regulator's Enforcement...

Covad, XO Broaden Third-Party Resale Deals.
March 1, 2006... Covad Communications Group and XO Communications today separately disclosed moves to enhance their third-party reseller arrangements. Covad signed a new national resale distribution deal, and XO disclosed what it considers to be improvements...

BT Movio: 'Cache'-Ing In On Mobi-TV.
March 1, 2006... BT Movio (formerly known as BT Livetime), a wholesale mobile-broadcast entertainment service in the U.K. that transmits using the digital audio broadcasting (DAB) network, has signed Virgin Mobile as a customer and is on the lookout for...

Virginia Law Eases Video-Franchise Rules.
March 1, 2006... Earlier this week, the Virginia House of Delegates followed the state's Senate in passing a cable-TV and video-franchise bill that eases telco entry into the business. However, it doesn't establish a statewide system, something the Texas...

Philadelphia Muni Wi-Fi Contracts Inked.
March 2, 2006... The city of Philadelphia signed a series of four contracts with EarthLink and Wireless Philadelphia (WP), the nonprofit group overseeing development of a citywide Wi-Fi network, thus finalizing the plan to build a massive 135-sq.-mi....

Arab Comms Satellite A 'Lost Cause'.
March 2, 2006... An upper-stage failure aboard a Russian Proton rocket has left the Arabsat 4A satellite short of its intended orbit, according to launch provider International Launch Services (ILS). News agency RIA Novosti reports the Russian Federal Space...

Telecom Bill Goes To Indiana Governor.
March 2, 2006... Indiana's House has passed comprehensive telecom-reform legislation with statewide video-franchise, broadband-deployment and price-deregulation provisos (TelecomWeb news break, Jan. 25, 11, 9, 5). House Bill 1279, which is essentially the...

Nokia, Telenor In Converged Services Trials.
March 2, 2006... After a year of planning, Finland's Nokia and Norway's Telenor are jointly trialing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other converged services that combine fixed wireline and mobile wireless technologies, platforms and devices. ...

CMU Sez: Planes Affected By Electronic Devices.
March 2, 2006... According to a recent study released by Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Engineering and Public Policy, that cellphone, laptop or DVD player you use in flight may be causing some havoc in the air. CMU researchers who kept track...

Executive Search: ITAA Needs New Prez.
March 2, 2006... The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is using executive search firm Korn/Ferry International to assist the 45-year-old trade and lobbying group in recruiting its next president. The ITAA board of directors expects to...

Rumor Du Jour: BT Targeted For $35B Takeover.
March 3, 2006... Private-equity firms - most likely a consortium of them - are considering an offer of $35 billion for BT, according to a story today in The Times of London. The report, which cited only unidentified sources, set off a trading frenzy in...

Troika Takes Telecom To The Bank.
March 3, 2006... Reports out of Hong Kong today say the China Post is considering partnering with China Telecom and China Unicom to open a bank perhaps as early as June. Local papers say the newspaper would be the majority owner, with at least a...

Congressional Call-Records Fury Intensifies.
March 3, 2006... The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is preparing a mark-up session for yet another piece of legislation that will criminalize obtaining, selling and buying customer telephone call records without user authorization (TelecomWeb news...

FCC Extends Katrina Aid.
March 3, 2006... The Federal Communications Commission has extended its special universal service fund (USF) support initiative started last year to help educational institutions that were victims of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast states of Alabama,...

Motorola Melds Business Groups.
March 3, 2006... Motorola is combining its Networks business group and its Government & Enterprise Mobility Solutions business group into a single organization, a move claimed to be in anticipation of the retirement of one of the company's senior executives....

Telstra Outsources Staff-Training Program.
March 3, 2006... Telstra signed a five-year, $49.9 million deal with Accenture to create a new training program for the carrier's 7,000-person field-service staff. The deal is the first phase of a massive $149.2 million training program Telstra disclosed...

AT&T And BellSouth: All Approvals In 12 Months.
March 6, 2006... The $67.1 billion proposed melding of AT&T, BellSouth and their Cingular Wireless joint venture (TelecomWeb news break, March 5) could get all the formal government approvals it needs within the next 12 months in order to close the all-stock...

Meanwhile, Thus Sniffs At C&W.
March 6, 2006... With most eyes on the "new" AT&T's planned acquisition of BellSouth or perhaps on Europe with rumors of a $35 billion leveraged takeover bid for BT (TelecomWeb news break, March 3), little attention is being paid right now to yet another...

Ofcom Hangs Up 'Silent' Auto-Dialer Calls.
March 6, 2006... U.K. telecom regulator Ofcom has ordered new, more stringent rules to clamp down on so-called "silent and abandoned" telephone calls generated by automatic dialers run by telemarketing organizations with overburdened call- center personnel....

Cisco, IBM, Microsoft In SIP Troika.
March 6, 2006... Cisco Systems is collaborating with IBM and Microsoft on separate session initiation protocol (SIP) efforts to interface its new IP-based communications systems and software with networked-computer and server-resident applications. Both...

Singapore Targets A Gigabit For All.
March 6, 2006... Singapore's government has outlined plans to become the first nation in the world that would sponsor its own next-generation network (NGN) capable of delivering at least 100 Mb/s and as much as 1 Gb/s to every home, business and school in...

Despite Legal Issues, KVH Pushes Ahead.
March 6, 2006... KVH Industries Inc., which manufactures satellite antennas for boats, cars and recreational vehicles, continues to expand its efforts in the mobile market, and executives feel confident about the future despite a patent lawsuit filed against...

AT&T/BellSouth Merger Reaction A Mixed Bag.
March 7, 2006... AT&T's proposed $67.1 billion all-stock merger with BellSouth (TelecomWeb news break, March 6) is starting to draw mixed yet somewhat predictable reactions, ranging from a rather conciliatory tone by the union representing many threatened...

Shareholders Offered Cash To Reject Takeover Bid.
March 7, 2006... Portugal Telecom (PT) issued its expected formal rejection of Sonae's hostile $12.85 billion takeover bid, but with a couple of twists: The carrier is now promising to return $3.6 billion to its shareholders if they reject Sonae's offer...

BT Final Four Finally Get 21CN Contracts.
March 7, 2006... BT said it finally signed contracts with the last four of the eight preferred suppliers for its vaunted $17.4 billion 21st Century Network (21CN) next-generation network (NGN), giving no new explanation for the months-long delay in signing...

Public-Safety Group Sketches E911 Blueprint.
March 7, 2006... A major group of U.S. public-safety professionals issued a report on the need for next-generation emergency communications in this country with what it characterized as a blueprint for deploying new enhanced 911 (E911) systems in the future....

Research: Long-Haul Optical Bounces Back.
March 7, 2006... The long-haul optical market was up 32 percent last year, the first time since 2001 that long haul has shown a year-over-year increase, according to new estimates by research house Infonetics Research. Still, long haul remains a far...

CSI Wireless Banks Desktop Cellphone Orders.
March 7, 2006... Calgary, Ontario-based CSI Wireless Inc., which sells advanced wireless and GPS products to more than 50 countries globally, has received purchase orders for more than $6.5 million of its GSM-based desktop cellular (or fixed wireless)...

Slim Pickin's: Colombia State Telco Back On The Block.
March 8, 2006... A half-dozen companies have paid the fees for a bid package that will allow them to vie for control of Colombia Telecomunicaciones (CT), the Colombian state-controlled company said Tuesday. The list is said to include Telefonos de Mexico SA,...

Full House Committee Deals Tighter Privacy Hand.
March 8, 2006... Earlier today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act that, if signed, not only will stop data sellers from lying to obtain individual consumers' personal phone...

Portugal Telecom Takeover Defense Faces Probe.
March 8, 2006... Portugal's stock-exchange regulator, the Comissao do Mercado de Valores Mobiliarios (CMVM), is going to launch an investigation into just where Portugal Telecom (PT) says it can find the $3.6 billion it promised to give shareholders if they...

Aussie Gov't Fires Salvo In Bush Broadband Battle.
March 8, 2006... The raging battle between the Australian government and incumbent Telstra intensified when the government threatened to at least partially fund a national broadband network that would compete with the carrier. The threat came during a...

Nokia Lands Thai Mobile-Expansion Deal.
March 8, 2006... Nokia was tapped to further serve Thailand's second largest mobile operator, Total Access Communications (DTAC), by providing the gear to help the carrier expand its GSM/GPRS/EDGE network. Under the Thai agreement, Nokia will deliver a...

European Insurers Embrace M2M Security.
March 8, 2006... Insurance companies across Europe are paying close attention to the latest achievements in wireless M2M security technology, according to a new report from Swedish telecom-analyst firm Berg Insight. As a result, their clients frequently are...

VoIP History In the Making: Lucent Managed Services Lands Sprint.
March 9, 2006... Lucent Worldwide Services has landed Sprint as the first known Tier One carrier in the world to begin offering hosted business voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) via managed services - an architecture under which Sprint will look like it's...

BT Targets Abandoned C&W Customers.
March 9, 2006... BT, rushing into the breach in order to grab as much of the business of the thousands of companies being abandoned by Cable & Wireless (C&W) as it can, has quickly put together a dedicated team and hotline for C&W refugees. The move follows...

Senate Bill Adds Call-Records Punch.
March 9, 2006... Another bill to outlaw telephone call-records brokering and to impose heavy fines on violators surfaced in a Senate subcommittee late yesterday following introduction of a similar proposed measure in the House (TelecomWeb news break, March...

Ohio Favors New Local-Service Regulation.
March 9, 2006... The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) adopted rules that would either exempt from regulation or grant alternative regulation for basic local telephone services in exchange areas where competition exists and where there are no...

Luck Of the Irish: EC OK's Rural Broadband Buildout.
March 9, 2006... The European Commission has given its blessing to a planned publicly funded $202.4 million fiber buildout to bring broadband to 120 rural villages in Ireland. European Union rules require a finding that there will be "no overall negative...

J2ME Joins The Virus Fraternity.
March 9, 2006... The first mobile virus aimed at standard Java-enabled handsets emerged in Russia last week, a dark-side, proof-of-concept of things to come. According to Kapersky Lab, the Trojan-SMS.J@ME.RedBrowser.a virus is a Java application that can...

Nortel To Restate Its Financials Yet Again.
March 10, 2006... Earlier this morning, Nortel said it will delay filing its annual report because it found still more errors in its accounting and it needs to restate past sales and earnings - for the third time in as many years. The company did,...

Cable Chief Blasts House Franchise Bill.
March 10, 2006... The head of the largest cable-operator lobby group has blasted pending House telecom-reform legislation for being overly fixated on what he charged is video-franchise streamlining that favors large telcos while unfairly stifling cablecos....

France Telecom Joins Million-Man VoIP Club.
March 10, 2006... France Telecom claims to have zoomed passed the million-customer mark in residential voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), making it one of what still is only a handful of companies in the world that can claim such a customer base. The...

FCC Nominee Pledges Decision Neutrality.
March 10, 2006... Although he clearly favors a free-market, deregulatory approach to the telecom business, Federal Communications Commission nominee Robert M. McDowell essentially told senators in hearings yesterday that he would exercise fair, balanced and...

Vodafone Jumps On U.K. HSPDA Bandwagon.
March 10, 2006... Vodafone has decided to deploy High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSPDA) service in the U.K. - a move that trails similar decisions by every other major wireless service provider in that country. The operator will begin customer trials...

FTC Backs FCC On Withholding Auction Info.
March 10, 2006... The Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics filed reply comment agreeing with the changes the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to make regarding the way the upcoming June 29 auction of advanced wireless services licenses...

Key Wi-Fi Mesh Standard Solidified.
March 13, 2006... The IEEE standards group working on a new species of 802.11 that will set the stage for interoperable Wi-Fi mesh networks has passed a key milestone with the adoption of a single proposal as the basis for the new standard. The new...

Deal Du Jour: Telecom Malaysia Buys Spice-y Indian Snack.
March 13, 2006... Telecom Malaysia Bhd. will purchase a 49-percent stake in India's wireless carrier Spice Telecom Ltd. for $178.8 million in the latest acquisition of what some are starting to call the Indian telecom gold rush by carriers looking to cash in...

NJ Franchise Bill Fuels Verizon Poll.
March 13, 2006... Just as New Jersey lawmakers are getting ready to consider a resurrected bill on statewide video franchising (TelecomWeb news break, Jan. 6), Verizon today released a poll it sponsored indicating that a large majority of respondents support...

India Plant Churns Out 1M Nokia Phones.
March 13, 2006... According to Nokia, its new plant in Chennai, India (TelecomWeb news break, Dec. 1, 2005) has achieved the milestone of already rolling more than one million handsets off the assembly line since commercial production began on Jan. 2. ...

T-Online Unveils Cell-To-PC Video Telephony.
March 13, 2006... Dick Tracy, eat your heart out. T-Online and T-Mobile announced plans today to launch a video-telephony service in Germany by the end of this year that will let customers of the two Deutsche Telekom (DT) companies make video phone calls...

AskMeNow Bets On Bookie Wireless.
March 13, 2006... Ever wonder what else there is to do when you get tired of talking, playing games, taking pictures, texting or watching TV on your cellphone? How about playing the ponies? AskMeNow, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ocean West Holding...

Vodafone's Dilemma: Keep Or Sell U.S. Interests.
March 14, 2006... Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin is now faced with making some key decisions as the mobile telecom giant looks to recover from a strange and turbulent last few days. Since the weekend, ex-CEO Chris Gent, who had been named life president of the...

Google, Feds Duke It Out On Privacy.
March 14, 2006... Online mogul Google and the Bush administration are intensifying their fight over federal attempts to review data on users' search-engine requests in order to help law enforcement identify and perhaps eventually track criminal patterns and...

Research: SMB IPT Market Up 36% In 2005.
March 14, 2006... Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are adopting IP Telephony (IPT) in droves, according to the most recent report from TelecomWeb sister division InfoTech's InfoTrack for Converged Communications (ICC). The study reveals that demand for IPT...

VoIP Gurus Seek New FCC Emergency Rules.
March 14, 2006... Two Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) entrepreneurs have asked the Federal Communications Commission to consider new rules for handling communications in disaster situations that would include speedier phone-number porting to alternative...

Nielsen: 'Active' Broadband Users Up 28%.
March 14, 2006... According to the latest estimates from Nielsen/NetRatings, the number of active U.S. broadband users who access the network from home increased 28 percent year-over-year, growing from 74.3 million in February 2005 to 95.5 million in February...

LCC Refocuses On New Wireless Pressures.
March 14, 2006... McLean, Va.-based LCC International Inc., a provider of wireless voice and data turnkey technical consulting services, is shifting its strategy to focus the company's domestic sales and business development efforts on its high- end technical...

The Fight For Vodafone Japan.
March 16, 2006... A bidding war looks to be imminent over Vodafone Group PLC's Japanese subsidiary with the reported entry of a pair of U.S. venture firms into the fray - said to be ready to cough up as much as $17 billion for the operation. U.S....

Equant Lands Massive Managed-Services Deal.
March 16, 2006... France Telecom subsidiary Equant landed a massive seven-year managed- services-outsourcing deal - covering data and voice communications plus IT - with global healthcare equipment-and-systems provider Getinge Group, a deal TelecomWeb news...

Microsoft Hot On More Voice, Video.
March 16, 2006... Earlier today, Microsoft said it would pour resources into the further development of Internet Protocol-based voice and video communications capabilities that will intensify network-centric applications within its "Windows Live" program...

Motorola Pours More Capital Into China.
March 16, 2006... With long-term strategic goals in mind, Motorola today indicated it is becoming further entrenched into China's emerging business environment with new investments into a variety of companies by its Motorola Ventures (MV) venture capital arm....

EarthLink Finances New Covad Buildouts.
March 16, 2006... EarthLink and Covad Communications are expanding the market availability of their Voice over IP (VoIP)-oriented services bundled with high-speed Internet access in eight additional cities. As such, EarthLink will provide Covad with $50...

Two More Massive Muni Mesh Projects.
March 16, 2006... Municipal Wi-Fi mesh momentum has taken another leap forward with the announcement of details of a pair of new projects, including the first-ever muni mesh in Illinois and a project in Arizona that will create the largest muni mesh so far...

And The Winner Is: SoftBank.
March 17, 2006... The Vodafone Group early this morning decided to accept a $15.5 billion offer from Japan's SoftBank for its faltering Vodafone Japan cellular operation, the third largest wireless carrier in that country. The seller says it will give $10.5...

3 Inks Tiny TV Deal With Big Partner.
March 17, 2006... U.K. mobile operator 3, in a marketing pact with Microsoft, is adding consumer-shot videos stored on MSN Spaces to its "SeeMeTV" personalized TV channel, a concept that lets consumers see videos shot by other consumers on the tiny screen for...

FCC Nomination Moves To Full Senate.
March 17, 2006... Robert M. McDowell's nomination to fill the fifth seat at the Federal Communications Commission moves to the full U.S. Senate for a widely expected easy confirmation after a key committee gave its nod to the CompTel lawyer yesterday. ...

Greek Carriers Get A $1.2M SMS Message.
March 17, 2006... Greek regulators have fined the country's three largest cellular operators - Cosmote Mobile Telecommunications, TIM Hellas Telecommunications and Vodafone - a massive $1.21 million each for alleged price fixing involving SMS text messaging....

PA Examines Merger-Related Job Losses.
March 17, 2006... The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) is looking into AT&T job losses in the state following last year's SBC purchase as well as putting a hold on approving the Sprint Nextel combination's planned spinoff of landline telephone...

FCC Adds Another Layer, Seeks More 700 MHz Info.
March 17, 2006... Things were short and sweet at today's Federal Communications Commission open meeting, with only two telecom-related items up for discussion. Both, however, passed unanimously. First, the commission voted to establish a Public Safety and...

Ericsson Trumps Lucent Bid For Riverstone.
March 20, 2006... Ericsson Inc. has apparently outbid Lucent Technologies for the assets of carrier Ethernet router house Riverstone Networks, turning in an offer of $178 million that trumps an earlier bid by Lucent of $170 million. The assets of...

New This Week: IPTV In A Box.
March 20, 2006... With IPTV barreling down the track like an express train, mPhase Technologies and a group of its partners have put together a sort of "starter kit" for bewildered telcos - particularly smaller ones not ready to take on the daunting task of...

Rural CA Carrier Alleges AT&T Contract Breach.
March 20, 2006... A small alternate-service provider in rural California says AT&T backed out of a 2002 agreement that helped pave its way to get state and federal authority to offer long-distance services in the state. Fones4All, a local carrier that...

Telenor Readies For Ukraine Exit.
March 20, 2006... Norway's Telenor made a key move earlier today to cut its ties with the Alfa Group, a company with which it has had a number of disputes in Russia. Telenor, which holds a majority stake (57 percent) in the Ukrainian wireless operator...

In Europe: Broadband Prices Drop, Speed Increases.
March 20, 2006... According to TelecomWeb's sister division Tarifica, a comparative analysis of current ADSL prices reveals that, in five key European markets, line-rental charges have gone down while access speeds increased from 2004 to 2005. The uptake...

Level 3 Seals The Progress Telecom Deal.
March 20, 2006... Level 3 Communications Inc. today completed its acquisition of all of the membership interests of Progress Telecom LLC, a regional wholesale network services company based in St. Petersburg, Fla. (TelecomWeb news break, Feb. 14). Level 3...

Live From Las Vegas: TelecomNEXT, Without The Telecom.
March 21, 2006... TelecomNEXT, the first of the two trade shows spawned by the death of Supercomm, has opened in Las Vegas - but any notion that the show is about telephony was quickly disabused on the opening day by a string of keynotes by...

DT Goes With Microsoft For IPTV.
March 21, 2006... Deutsche Telekom (DT) is stepping up its plans for the German IPTV arena. The operator is partnering with Microsoft to deliver IPTV services to customers and a range of entertainment products over its VDSL broadband networks. DT says it...

CompTel Day 1: Verizon's FCC Victory, Stevens Goes Neutral.
March 21, 2006... Its competitive-carrier members may have golfed and partied on Sunday, but yesterday the CompTel trade-group conference and expo started with a bang as word spread of a major Verizon regulatory victory at the Federal Communications...

Globalstar Hawks Emergency Services.
March 21, 2006... When it comes to buying emergency satellite communications before disaster hits, governments have yet to fully embrace purchasing complete systems. "Emergency managers at the state level, even after the hurricanes that destroyed the Gulf...

Healthcare Industry Adopts Road-Warrior Tools.
March 21, 2006... With healthcare operations becoming more digital and more wireless, TeleCommunication Systems Inc., a provider of mission-critical wireless communications, today unveiled its 20/20 Home Health Delivery solution to serve the home healthcare...

Juniper Research Reveals VoIP Drivers.
March 21, 2006... Revenues from voice over IP (VoIP) services in the business sector will reach $18 billion by 2010, according to a new study by Juniper Research, due to several business-related factors. Its findings say VoIP growth will be driven by the...