TelecomWeb News Digest articles from May 2008

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from May 2008

Has RIM Finally Flipped Its Lid?
May 1, 2008... The rumor-mongering blogger circuit this morning was electrified by what are claimed to be the first surreptitious photos and technical data of a new Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry Curve, code-named "Kickstart." The rumored handset...

AT&TV Launches, Going With The FLO.
May 1, 2008... AT&T finally is going commercial with its long-delayed mobile-TV service this Sunday, using the same MediaFLO platform from Qualcomm as does arch-rival Verizon Wireless. To no surprise, the vast majority of content is identical. Not...

NSN Forwards Multicore Agenda With Board Seat.
May 1, 2008... Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) now sits on the executive board of the Multicore Association, a global non-profit group focused on developing standards to help speed time to market for products that involve multicore implementations. ...

SS7? Not Dead Yet.
May 1, 2008... Remember Signaling System 7? European telecom-equipment vendors do, and nearly 75 percent of them still believe support for their SS7 infrastructure is essential to their long-term businesses. Not only that, says a recent survey by...

802.11n Heads To College.
May 1, 2008... The adoption of emerging 802.11n wireless broadband technology, which promises a theoretical speed of as much as 248 Mb/s, will almost be universal among North American universities within the next five years. And as if to give substance...

Need An Instant Contact Center? Call 'Mandi'.
May 1, 2008... SpeechPhone says its new "Mandi Answers" app is a Web-configurable service aimed at giving small businesses the power of a 24/7 call center, up to and including "the flexibility and personality of a personal receptionist." SpeechPhone...

S&P 'Junks' Sprint-Nextel.
May 2, 2008... The agony at Sprint-Nextel continues as rating firm Standard & Poor's, citing the carrier's loss of a million wireless customers, slashed its bond ratings to "junk." This news comes just as Sprint finally found a new CFO and barely a...

Despite Bigger Losses, Nortel Says Turnaround Still On Track.
May 2, 2008... To hear CEO Mike Zafirovski tell it, Nortel's on the upswing, saying this morning his company "only" lost $138 million in the first 90 days of 2008. This new figure compares with a loss of $103 million in the quarter a year earlier, but...

Intel BX Promises SMB Best-Of-Breed Solutions.
May 2, 2008... The just introduced Intel Business Exchange (Intel BX) is an online storefront and business-solution Web portal designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The chipmaking giant says Intel BX includes such resources as product...

World's Biggest BPL Project Converted To Utility Use Only.
May 2, 2008... Plans to deliver broadband to businesses and homes in Dallas using broadband over powerline (BPL) technology, together with plans to bundle the offering with satellite TV, died this morning in a deal that will see the massive network used for...

On Femtocell Front, Bigger Players Choose To Partner, Not Build.
May 2, 2008... UbiquiSys has been ranked as the top femtocell box vendor in the latest Vendor Matrix released by ABI Research, followed by Alcatel-Lucent and ip.access. The other seven femtocells that made ABI's Vendor Matrix Top 10 (in order) were...

TDS Joins Carbonite's Online Backup Stable.
May 2, 2008... Boston-based Carbonite Inc., a provider of online backup services for small businesses, is partnering with TDS Telecommunications Corp. to provide core technologies for a new service called "TDS Backup Online, Powered by Carbonite." ...

Guten Morgen, You've Reached Sprint?
May 5, 2008... Deutsche Telekom and its U.S. wireless subsidiary T-Mobile USA have gotten serious about entertaining a bid to buy ailing Sprint. According to reports emanating out of Germany over the weekend, such a deal could create the world's biggest...

Wildfire Extinguished In Scottsdale.
May 5, 2008... The municipal Wi-Fi network in downtown Scottsdale, Ariz., has gone dark, and the company running the network has disappeared. Service, which was launched with great ballyhoo barely 24 months ago at the brief height of hype for muni...

More Players For Singapore Next-Gen Network.
May 5, 2008... Earlier today, the Infinity Consortium, manned by Hong Kong's City Telecom (CTI) and Singapore's M1 and StarHub, entered the process to build a next-gen fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband network in Singapore capable of delivering ultra-high...

Speakeasy Hosted Voice Supports Virtual Staffing.
May 5, 2008... Currently, more than 80 of Fortune's "Best 100 Companies to Work For" allow employees to telecommute or work from home at least 20 percent of the time, compared with 25 companies 10 years ago. Nemertes Research reports more than 80...

Blue Coat Offers Enterprise Social Networking Of Sorts, Malware Protection.
May 5, 2008... WAN specialist Blue Coat Systems Inc. says there's been a 50-percent increase in the number of prospective customers that now want corporate video delivery and management - aka "enterprise content delivery network" (eCDN) capabilities -...

Nortel Intros 1-Percent LTE Handset Royalty Program.
May 5, 2008... To push the global adoption of 4G technology, particularly long-term evolution (LTE), Nortel now is offering what it says is a "competitive handset royalty rate" of about 1 percent, subject to certain terms. As such, Nortel says it will...

Sprint Loses Qwest MVNO Biz To Verizon.
May 6, 2008... Adding to its misfortune, Sprint has lost Qwest as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), with Verizon Wireless snatching away the MVNO contract and nearly a million subscribers that goes with it. Qwest laid the blame for an emerging...

The Wireless Gold Rush, Costa Rica Style.
May 6, 2008... An all-star cast of eight of the industry's major suppliers have been invited to compete for a potentially lucrative $225 million contract to supply a 3G network upgrade to Costa Rica's government-owned phone company, the Instituto...

BT, Siemens Team For Converged Communications Bundle.
May 6, 2008... BT and Siemens Enterprise Communications inked what is described as "a global sales agreement" under which they will offer a converged communications solution to large multinational enterprises. Promising "a compelling transition path to...

Colubris Offers Three-Tiered WLAN Incentive Program.
May 6, 2008... The Colubris Advanced Partner Program (CAPP), a worldwide reseller plan designed "to provide partners with new market opportunities and the tools they need to drive maximum revenue with Colubris products and services" now is available from...

LightEdge Adds BlackBerry Service To SMB Hosted Basket.
May 6, 2008... Managed-services provider LightEdge Solutions has added a hosted BlackBerry plan it says "extends the deliverability of LightEdge's Hosted Microsoft Exchange service." The Iowa-based, Cisco Powered Network data-center company says its new...

Survey Sez: M2M Line Growth On The Fast Track.
May 6, 2008... The number of cellular network connections used for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.9 percent, going from 37.5 million in 2007 to 186 million in 2012. According...

Surfing The Friendly Skies: Panasonic Unveils Its Entry.
May 8, 2008... Panasonic Avionics Corporation is teaming with satellite service provider Intelsat to make its long-promised entree into the in-flight broadband business. Panasonic's new broadband service, to be called "Panasonic eXConnect," joins...

Vonage Narrows Losses But Fears Debt Payments.(Financial report)
May 8, 2008... Pure-play VoIP market leader Vonage, in a widely anticipated report, this morning said it had narrowed its loss to just $8.9 million in the first quarter on a 15-percent boost in sales. However, it also reported dismal subscriber growth...

Munis Better Off Owning, Running Broadband Networks.
May 8, 2008... According to a new white paper released earlier today by Tropos Networks, it's more advantageous for municipalities to own their own wireless broadband networks than to "rent" service from another carrier. The paper, "Build Versus Rent:...

Dell Taps AMD Processors For New Virtualization Servers.
May 8, 2008... Dell says it's now marketing "one of the industry's most scalable virtualization servers" based on the Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor. According to AMD, enterprise customers interested in consolidating server infrastructure have two Dell...

DHS Adds Fiber Carrier To Priority-Service Line-Up.
May 8, 2008... Wholesale long-haul, fiber-optic transport company USCarrier Telecom was vetted by the Department of Homeland Security to be part of the country's Wireless Priority Service (WPS). WPS, a key critical infrastructure in the event of a...

Utah Muni FTTH Net Faces Privatization.
May 8, 2008... One of the world's first and largest municipally owned fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks is being privatized, getting just about enough money to pay off the mountain of debt it incurred to build and operate during the past few years. ...

Rumor du Jour: Helio Courts Virgin.
May 9, 2008... Helio, the faltering mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) now controlled by Korea's SK Telecom, is reportedly in talks to buy Virgin Mobile USA in a deal that would merge Sprint Nextel's two biggest MVNOs and give SK a far larger beachhead...

Cablevision Plans Wi-Fi Mesh Challenge.
May 9, 2008... Multiple system operator (MSO) Cablevision has decided to build a massive $350 million Wi-Fi mesh, covering its customer base in the New York Metropolitan area, and offer the service free to its customer base of cable TV, business broadband,...

EC Public Notice Asks For Roaming Ratings.
May 9, 2008... Nearly a year ago, the European Commission (EC) mandated cuts in the rates European wireless carriers were charging for roaming (TelecomWeb news break, Aug. 23, 2007). The EC now is wants to know how this new regulation is working. The...

Survey Sez: Telematics Could Cut Car, Fleet Insurance Rates.
May 9, 2008... New research says technology-enabled programs, including vehicle telematics, could save auto insurers $20 billion in annual claims payouts (17 percent of personal-lines auto-insurance losses each year) while making driving safer. ...

Intel Pays Small, Wins Big In Swedish Auction.
May 9, 2008... The second European 2.6 GHz spectrum auction has concluded in Sweden and, with other auctions planned for the U.K., Austria and the Netherlands, the low prices paid for licenses could be the benchmark for other 2.6 GHz frequencies. The...

FiberNet Sets National Net Expansion.
May 9, 2008... Interconnection/local-access service provider FiberNet Telecom Group has outlined plans for a national network expansion, both beefing up its core network and extending its tentacles into new markets. The company outlined plans for the...

A Million More Subscribers Flee Sprint.
May 12, 2008... Sprint Nextel reported this morning that it's lost yet another million plus subscribers and, trying to put the best light on a horrid situation pointed out that it had expected to lose even more than it did - indeed things are so bad that...

RIM's 'Bold' Caters To Symbol-Conscious Road Warriors.
May 12, 2008... The BlackBerry Bold (Model 9000), the newest smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM), made its debut today, claiming to be the first device to support global tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks. But CrackBerry addicts will have to wait until...

Startup Casa Wins Cable Broadband Race.
May 12, 2008... Massachusetts startup Casa Systems has won the race to be the first company to receive "Gold Level" standard certification from the cable industry's CableLabs for a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem termination system (CMTS), the technology the cable...

India's BSNL Floats World's Biggest GSM Tender.
May 12, 2008... India's state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has set out the rules for a massive 93 million line GSM cellular order - with 21 million of those lines to be 3G - worth an estimated $6.5 billion and believed to be the largest...

Meijer Adds Branded Prepaid Program, Phone Cards.
May 12, 2008... Supercenter retailer Meijer partnered with Fusion Mobile, an Austin, Texas-based wireless provider, to unveil Meijer's own brand of prepaid wireless phones and phone cards. Fusion Mobile is an authorized agent of Telispire. Through its...

Carphone Warehouse Enters The M-Commerce Game.
May 12, 2008... Monitise plc and Metavante are working with the U.K.'s Carphone Warehouse to launch what the partners call a "mobile money" scheme. The launch will see the introduction of a Carphone Warehouse prepaid card, managed directly from the...

Clearwire's Deeper Losses Could Jeopardize WiMAX Deal.
May 13, 2008... Sprint-Nextel's would-be WiMAX partner Clearwire has reported yet another quarter deep in the red, only 24 hours after Sprint reported its own disastrous three months (TelecomWeb news break, May 12). Clearwire, which would (un)wire...

HP Purchase Of EDS Could Double Revenues.
May 13, 2008... Earlier today, HP and EDS confirmed a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase the Ross Perot-founded company for $25 per share, translating into nearly $14 billion. The deal, approved by both boards, should close in the second...

Will Tiscali Be Sold Whole Or In Parts?
May 13, 2008... Italy's Tiscali admits it's in negotiations with a "short list" of bidders for the company, confirming what had been widespread rumors that the Italian broadband carrier is on the block. However, reports say U.K.'s Carphone Warehouse,...

Fujitsu Tapped Verizon For North American Business.
May 13, 2008... Verizon Business will be working even closer with Fujitsu in North America as the $43 billion Japanese electronics giant rapidly expands as a showcase customer for its enterprise services. Under terms of a contract of undisclosed value,...

Survey Sez: IT Techies Positive About Future Employment.
May 13, 2008... Despite the current financial climate, IT professionals are positive about the technology industry and their immediate future in it. According to online recruitment specialist The IT Job Board and recruitment marketing agency Barkers, 69...

York Telecom Joins Nortel Gov't Team.
May 13, 2008... York Telecom will provide integration, maintenance and onsite support services as part of the Nortel Government Solutions team, recently confirmed as the winner of the 10-year, $300 million Telephone Systems Replacement Project (TSRP) award...

Muni Wi-Fi Dies As EarthLink Kills Off Philly.
May 14, 2008... EarthLink has decided to pull the plug on its Philadelphia municipal Wi- Fi mesh network - once the poster child for muni Wi-Fi worldwide. In the end, not only couldn't it find a buyer for the network, it couldn't even give it away. ...

Verizon Cracks Mexico, Enhances Private IP, Joins LiMo.
May 14, 2008... The Mexican government has given its blessing to Verizon Business directly delivering advanced communications services in that country. The "Value Added" authorization, issued by Mexico's regulatory entity COFETEL, will enable Verizon...

Samsung, LG Propose U.S. Mobile-TV Standard.
May 14, 2008... South Korea's Samsung and LG Electronics this morning agreed to drop their own competing proprietary handheld-TV technologies, instead coming up with a unified offering they're going to promote as ideal for the United States. Of course,...

Workday Wins 'World's Biggest' SaaS Contract.
May 14, 2008... Workday, a fast-charging 38-month-old software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup, has landed what's believed to be believed to be the largest order ever in the history of the SaaS business. The contract is a massive 200,000-seat order from...

Microsoft's Aruba WLAN Tops Initial Expectations.
May 14, 2008... According to wireless LAN provider Aruba Networks Inc., Microsoft has deployed more than 11,000 centrally managed access points in its "massively scalable" WLAN used by most of the software giant's employees. The Aruba deployment...

Embarq Enhances Biz Offers As It Contemplates Wireless Exit.
May 14, 2008... Carrier Embarq has teamed with Internet player Synacor to launch a service bundle aimed at small businesses under the Embarq Business-Class High- Speed Internet moniker. However, its wireless customers may go away within the next year. ...

Are Wireless Networks Recession-Proof?
May 15, 2008... Despite the global meltdown of certain kinds of financial activities, there appears to be a vibrant market for gently used wireless carriers. In acquisition action spanning the globe, South Korea's SK Telecom now admits it was fibbing...

Verizon Top Dog In Biggest Gov't Comms Contract Ever.
May 15, 2008... Verizon and AT&T have split a massive 10-year, nearly $1 billion contract to build a nationwide intranet for the Department of Homeland Security. Verizon walks away with the lion's share of the contract - the largest award so far under...

Covad Chooses WiMAX For Certain Fixed Broadband.
May 15, 2008... Following a successful field trial, Covad has decided to begin rolling out a WiMAX wireless broadband offering with a promise of 6 Mb/s fixed service. Meanwhile, AT&T says it has 7.2 Mb/s 3G High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) wireless...

Nokia 810 Could Lighten Road Warriors' Loads.
May 15, 2008... The handheld "wireless appliance," "portable communicator," "handheld browser" or "ultra-mobile PC" has been a dream of OEMs for the past five years. The theory goes that there is some kind of niche, especially in the enterprise, between the...

Avaya Modular Messaging Adds one-X Speech.
May 15, 2008... In its quest to helps mobile employees stay on top of messages and meetings anytime, anywhere, Avaya has added a speech-enabled interface to its "Modular Messaging" platform. According to TelecomWeb news break's sister e-letter...

Carriers 'Gear' Up For 4G Stress-Reduced Networks.
May 15, 2008... New data suggests wireless carriers will spend some $850 million on 4G base-station gateways and fixed mobile convergence (FMC)-related carrier equipment in 2013. The $850 million capital expenditures on the part of the network operators...

LTE Trumps WiMAX For Alltel's 4G Future.
May 16, 2008... Alltel, the Number Five wireless carrier in the United States, is ditching CDMA in favor of Long Term Evolution (LTE), thus traveling the same path as is Verizon Wireless. The move further dashes any hopes WiMAX devotees might have had...

Finisar, Optium Weave Together Fiber-Optics Forces.
May 16, 2008... Finisar Corporation and Optium Corporation are combining via an all-stock merger, creating what they say will be "the world's largest supplier of optical components, modules and subsystems for the communications industry." Sunnyvale,...

Investors 'Flip' For SaaS Venture.
May 16, 2008... In yet another example of just how hot software as a service (SaaS) is or could be, investors have plowed an additional $54 million into SilkRoad technology Inc., the brainchild of software industry near-legend Andrew J. "Flip" Filipowski....

Qualcomm Aces U.K. Spectrum Auction.
May 16, 2008... San Diego-based Qualcomm walked off with 40 megahertz of L-band spectrum in U.K. regulator Ofcom's fifth auction, which no doubt will be used for mobile TV. Qualcomm is the parent of the MediaFLO mobile-TV offering that challenges...

Va. Healthcare Group Taps InnerWireless To Unwire Critical Care.
May 16, 2008... The Virginia Commonwealth University Health System (VCUHS) will deploy the "Horizon" converged wireless solution from InnerWireless in its new, 385,000-sq.-ft. Critical Care Hospital to help ensure wireless connectivity for mission- and...

Sprint WiMAX Testing Passes Another Milestone.
May 16, 2008... Sprint and Samsung Electronics Corporation Ltd. vetted what they say is a new broadband wireless network "offering the speed and mobility of WiMAX." As TelecomWeb news break has reportedly many times previously, Sprint (now in...

Did Icahn Scare Yahoo! Into New Microsoft Talks?
May 19, 2008... Microsoft is talking with Yahoo! again about some sort of deal after walking away from a hostile bid or any increase in its offer to buy the company just two weeks ago. All bets are that Yahoo! is coming to heel because it fears activist...

Rumor Du Jour: AT&T Vs. Verizon In Huawei Handset Bid.
May 19, 2008... Rumors out of China suggest AT&T will participate in the auction of a 50- percent stake in Huawei's handset business, expected to go on the block next week with a reserve price of $2 billion. It's main rival? Verizon or possibly Vodafone,...

Nortel Launches Cable-Based Small-Business Thrust.
May 19, 2008... Earlier today, Nortel unveiled a program to help North American cablecos sell voice and data services to small businesses, with Cox Business the first to jump onboard. The new program includes the opening of Nortel's first "Small...

Next-Gen Globalstar Set To Use Hughes Networking Gear, Chips.
May 19, 2008... Mobile satellite service (MSS) provider Globalstar Inc. inked a deal with Hughes Network Systems LLC that will deliver next-gen equipment and software upgrades for Globalstar's satellite-gateway ground stations. Globalstar says the...

EMC Smarts Adds Ciena Platform To Mgm't Suite.
May 19, 2008... Network gearmaker Ciena says its CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform has been integrated into the EMC Smarts Service Assurance Manager, part of that company's management portfolio. Ciena says the CN 4200's carrier-grade...

Tango's Abrazo Upgraded For UC Apps.
May 19, 2008... Fixed-mobile-convergence (FMC) player Tango Networks is beefing up support for mobile network presence and location information as it pertains to unified communications (UC) systems. This enhancement to Tango's Abrazo solution allows UC...

Muni Wi-Fi Can't Win For Losing As MetroFi Tanks.
May 20, 2008... Despite having some high-powered partners, muni startup MetroFi is going the way of EarthLink's now-aborted and once-grand Wi-Fi plans: down the drain. Reports during the past few days from the nine cities where MetroFi has been offering...

SaaS Gurus Launch Subscription Billing Startup.
May 20, 2008... Zuora, the brainchild of software as a service (SaaS) market leaders Salesforce.com and WebEx, today became the latest entrant in what some predict will be an explosive SaaS market niche - a SaaS offering to help SaaS companies bill for...

Rural Wireless Group Wants FCC Open-Handset Mandate.
May 20, 2008... Due to exclusivity arrangements, many U.S. wireless subscribers can't use the devices of their choice on their networks of choice, but that may change, if the Rural Cellular Association has anything to say about it. Earlier today, the...

Wavesat WiMAX Gear Goes LTE.
May 20, 2008... Canadian WiMAX silicon house Wavesat unveiled an architecture that will let future versions of the WiMAX chips it builds today be used for 4G technologies, including long term evolution (LTE). The company is calling its new architecture...

Software Overlay Targets Ethernet Sales.
May 20, 2008... Telarus Inc., a telecom master agent and the creator of several enterprise-related Web sites, says it can help agents boost Ethernet sales with a new software overlay. The GeoQuote Ethernet tool, layered on top of Google's map...

Push Mail Links Enterprise Mobile Devices To Mainstream Providers.
May 20, 2008... U.K.-based Emansio plans to "revolutionize the way users of mobile phones in the small-business sectors can access their e-mail on the move." According to the company, its new "Push Mail" software provides a direct connection between the...

Motorola Dodges $4B Iridium Bullet.
May 21, 2008... The long, sad tale of Motorola's venture into satellite telephony may have finally ended, with a bankruptcy court judge approving a settlement that will see unsecured creditors - who had been demanding $4 billion from Motorola - instead get...

Carriers Buy Into Femto 'Fa' Interface Interop.
May 21, 2008... The U.K.-based Femto Forum, an independent industry association supporting global femtocell deployment, says operator members have agreed on interoperability principles as they apply to the Fa interface between femtocell access points and...

Citrix News: Virtual Desktops Ride Again.
May 21, 2008... Citrix has begun shipping its "virtual desktop," the XenDesktop, designed to use so-called "thin client" technology - a concept that uses broadband to resurrect the old "dumb terminals" of mainframe days. Citrix, which is holding its...

Alcatel-Lucent, Convergys Team For Billing Upgrades.
May 21, 2008... Alcatel-Lucent and billing giant Convergys are partnering in a multi- year, non-exclusive reseller deal that integrates the Convergys Infinys applications into Alcatel-Lucent's Business Support System (BSS) solution. The new billing...

AT&T's Road Warriors Get Free Wi-Fi.
May 21, 2008... AT&T has decided to turn on the free Wi-Fi tap for its DataConnect customers, mostly road warriors paying the premium to ensure they have nearly continuous wireless broadband as they ply their trade across the continent. The carrier said...

SMS Enterprise Platform Enhanced Down Under.
May 21, 2008... Mobile messaging operator TynTec is supplying the TNZ Group Ltd with enterprise-quality SMS. Under terms of the deal, TynTec's product will be integrated into TNZ's overall suite of messaging solutions for unified messaging alongside its...