TelecomWeb News Digest articles from November 2005

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from November 2005

Telenor Offers $1.25B As Vodafone Exits Sweden.
November 1, 2005... In yet another of what's turned into a string of European telecom acquisitions this year, Telenor is buying Vodafone Sweden in a deal worth $1.25 billion. The move marks Vodafone's exit from what has been a difficult Swedish market for...

Qwest Offers To Settle Shareholder Suits.
November 1, 2005... Qwest Communications International today disclosed signing a memorandum of understanding to settle shareholder lawsuits that will result in a $400 million cash payout to plaintiffs. Accounting firm Arthur Andersen, a co-defendant, will be...

Cablecos Want To Peel Israel's Orange.
November 1, 2005... Israel's three cable television companies, which are in the process of attempting to merge, have been holding quiet but preliminary talks with Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd, the emerging-markets telecom arm of...

CRTC Sees Telco Competition Growing.
November 1, 2005... Canada's federal regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), released its fifth and final report on the status of competition and services deployment in Canada's telecom market, indicating that local...

Telus Taps Nokia For NGN DSLAMs.
November 1, 2005... Canadian carrier Telus and Finnish manufacturer Nokia signed a supply- and-deployment agreement for Internet Protocol-based broadband network infrastructure solutions and services as Telus begins to roll out its next generation network (NGN)....

Wi-Fi: Now It's A Real Word.
November 1, 2005... Merriam-Webster has added the word "Wi-Fi" to the dictionary. Needless to say, the Wi-Fi Alliance is in seventh heaven because "Wi-Fi" made it into the newly released 2005 update of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh...

Exposed - VoIP's First Major Hacking Scheme.
November 2, 2005... The voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) industry has been hit with its first major security exploit. That a major attack would occur some time this year has been expected, and dreaded, by many in the industry but nobody knew where it...

Sprint/Nextel, Cableco JV A Homer.
November 2, 2005... In what appears to be an unprecedented move, four national cable companies and Sprint Nextel have formed what they called a "landmark cable and wireless joint venture" to integrate video, voice, Internet and mobile- communications...

911 VoIP Cutoff Deadline Extended Again.
November 2, 2005... The Federal Communications Commission has once again extended by a month the deadline for service providers to confirm that all of their customers understand voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) emergency-calling capabilities and limitations....

Deutsche Telekom To Cut 32K Landline Jobs.
November 2, 2005... Deutsche Telekom AG, Europe's biggest phone company, in a filing with German regulators today said it's going to slash 32,000 jobs from its payroll during the next 36 months - the vast majority from its T-Com landline unit, which accounts...

Swisscom's Cellphone TV Trial.
November 2, 2005... Swisscom now is involved in a DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) trial, becoming the latest in a growing group of European telcos to look at the technology. Some 100 people will take part in the trial, which will run until to...

Nortel-LG Joint Venture Launched.
November 2, 2005... Nortel and LG Electronics (LGE) yesterday kicked off their $295 million joint venture, named LG-Nortel Co Ltd., which was announced earlier this year. The operation springs into life with 1,400 employees and $570 million in sales; Nortel...

Suit Filed To Stay FCC 911 Order.
November 3, 2005... A group of voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court against the Federal Communications Commission order on enhanced 911 emergency call-handling services, seeking a partial stay of the Nov. 28 deadline, in...

Senate Moves On VoIP Public Safety Bill.
November 3, 2005... The U.S. Senate's Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation yesterday finished its markup process to move forward with proposed legislation that mandates basic and enhanced 911 for all Internet Protocol-enabled voice services. ...

Buyers In The Wings As TDC Ups Estimates.
November 3, 2005... Danish telco TDC, reporting a strong performance in its third-quarter results, has upgraded its forecasts for 2005 - which could be a factor in the size of any upcoming bids for the company. TDC was mum on the status of any expected...

Golden Buys Two More Little Telcos.
November 3, 2005... Moscow's Golden Telecom, a facilities-based provider of integrated telecommunications and Internet services in major cities in Russia and the CIS, has completed the acquisition of a pair of small Russian telecom operators - SochiTelecom and...

FCC Targets Local Cable Franchise Practices.
November 3, 2005... The Federal Communications Commission today opened a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) into whether municipal governments and other local authorizing agencies may be posing a barrier to video market entry by either granting exclusive...

National Lampoon's Mobilized Magazine.
November 3, 2005... It's neither newsy nor interesting that yet another familiar media brand launched a mobile extension, but the premier of National Lampoon Mobile is significant in one respect: It is the first instance where we have seen a magazine brand try...

UPLC To FCC: Shut Down ARRL BPL Objection.
November 4, 2005... Broadband over powerline (BPL) trade association The United Power Line Council (UPLC) has asked the Federal Communications Commission to quickly throw out a petition by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) asking the FCC to shut down the...

Ciena Shakes Up Top Management.
November 4, 2005... Optical system supplier Ciena today realigned top-level management responsibilities, naming one executive to the new post of COO and another to head a consolidation of all research-and-development activities. In the realignment, the...

SatComs Show Congress Their Right Stuff.
November 4, 2005... The satellite communications industry launched into the halls of the U.S. Congress yesterday with product-and-service demonstrations to emphasize that emergency communications via satellite can improve national responses to disasters. The...

As Inmarsat-4 Launch Counts Down.
November 4, 2005... Sea Launch Co. LLC has begun final preparations for the launch of the Inmarsat-4 satellite tomorrow (Nov. 5) - a satellite designed to provide Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service to South America, most of North America, the Atlantic...

Hong Kong Cuts Over Mainland IP-VPN Service.
November 4, 2005... China's state-owned China Telecom Telecommunications Corp (China Telecom) signed a deal with publicly traded City Telecom (H.K.) Ltd to launch the first- ever "one-stop-shop" for IP-VPN connections between mainland China and Hong Kong. ...

Mobile Wireless Security Votes For Reverse Split.
November 4, 2005... Without offering a reason why, Las Vegas-based Mobile Wireless Security Inc. on Monday will effect a reverse split of the company's common stock at a ratio of 1:1000. The company, a visual security monitoring service provider that...

TeliaSonera Buys Norway's Chess/Sense.
November 7, 2005... TeliaSonera has closed the deal to acquire Norwegian mobile service provider Chess/Sense, paying $245 million for 91.2 percent of the shares of Chess/Sense owner Vollvik Gruppen. The deal grows TeliaSonera's Norwegian wireless base by 23...

XO Exits Telecom, Focuses On Broadband.
November 7, 2005... Late last week, XO Communications said it will divest its national wireline telecom operation for $700 million in cash to Elk Associates, a private firm owned by XO controlling stockholder Carl Icahn. The carrier says it now will focus any...

N.Y. County May Mandate Wi-Fi Security.
November 7, 2005... New York's Westchester County has begun considering a law that would mandate that a network gateway server with a firewall be installed on every Wi- Fi network connected to a computer that stores or collects personal information - from cyber...

Inmarsat-4 Launch Delayed Again.
November 7, 2005... Saturday's scheduled launch of the Inmarsat-4 satellite (TelecomWeb news break, Nov. 4) was delayed due to an automated halt in the launch countdown system prior to fueling. Following a launch-team review of data from the systems and an...

Cablevision Launches Pre-Emptive Attack On FiOS.
November 7, 2005... Cable operator Cablevision Systems this morning, in what was seen as a move to blunt the rollout of Verizon's FiOS service, said it is going to offer broadband at speeds up to a symmetrical 50 Mb/s - and will immediately up the speed of its...

Westell Joins Video/IPTV Groups.
November 7, 2005... Access systems and solutions vendor Westell Technologies has joined two video/digital entertainment industry groups - the Multimedia Over Coax Alliance (MoCA) and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions' (ATIS) IPTV...

APCO, NENA Question Senate 911 Bill.
November 8, 2005... Two major public-safety groups yesterday suggested a pending Senate bill might prevent the Federal Communications Commission from sufficiently enforcing its current rules on 911 capabilities among VoIP service providers (TelecomWeb news...

SingTel Mobile Numbers Explode But Profits Erode.
November 8, 2005... Singapore Telecom (SingTel), one of Asia's leading telcos, passed the 74- million milepost for aggregate number of mobile customers in the region at the end of September. Despite that rosy picture, analysts are expecting that SingTel, which...

Inmarsat-4 Finally Launches.
November 8, 2005... Inmarsat-4, the satellite designed to provide mobile broadband global area network (BGAN) services to South America, most of North America, the Atlantic Ocean and part of the Pacific Ocean, finally lifted off its launch pad early this...

Hearing Set For Controversial Telecom-Reform Draft.
November 8, 2005... Tomorrow, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet is scheduled to hold an open staff discussion of its 70-page telecom reform draft bill (TelecomWeb news break, Sept. 19) aimed at...

Major Builder Taps BellSouth As Preferred Provider.
November 8, 2005... BellSouth has teamed with home-builder Pulte Homes in an agreement naming the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) as the "preferred provider" of communications and entertainment services for home-buyers in the Bloomfield Hills,...

Motorola Invests In Mini Power Maker.
November 8, 2005... With its eye firmly on what this company can do for wireless devices, Motorola Ventures, Motorola's equity-investment arm, has made an unspecified strategic investment in Tekion Inc., a North American developer of micro fuel cells. ...

Iowa Voters Split On Muni Nets.
November 9, 2005... Iowa voters yesterday weighed in with mixed results in 32 local referenda to decide whether to support municipal government-run utilities for network services and Internet access, with 17 towns favoring the measures and 15 towns defeating...

FCC Defends VoIP 911 Order In Court.
November 9, 2005... As the Nov. 28 deadline for compliance looms, the Federal Communications Commission yesterday went to court to defend its June decision ordering voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers to implement 911 emergency call-handling...

CTIA Issues Wireless Content Guidelines.
November 9, 2005... On behalf of wireless communications carriers, CTIA-The Wireless Association has issued a set of what it calls "wireless content guidelines," representing a voluntary pledge by the industry to proactively provide tools and controls to manage...

Swisscom Confirms Eircom Talks.
November 9, 2005... Following recent speculation regarding such a buy, Swisscom today confirmed it has entered into discussions to buy Ireland's leading telecom operator, Eircom. While the potential size of the deal was not disclosed, it is believed to be just a...

Vietnam Goes Broadband with IPStar Rollout.
November 9, 2005... Vietnam, whose total international broadband capacity until now has been a paltry 30 Mb/s, today became the first country outside of Thailand to connect to Shin Satellite's sexy new Thaicom 4 (IPStar) satellite. Vietnam, one of 14...

Digital Convergence: Lead, Follow Or Get Out Of The Way.
November 9, 2005... A new report from Deloitte's Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) industry practice says companies that don't buy into digital convergence will "face failure." Digital Convergence: The Trillion Dollar Challenge not only asserts...

Is House Telecom Legislation Doomed?
November 10, 2005... Federal lawmakers and witnesses bantered for nearly five hours over a GOP-led telecom draft bill proposal during a House hearing yesterday which raised the possibility that the much-discussed but less-than-sweeping reform legislation may not...

BT Broadband Outweighs Landline Losses.
November 10, 2005... BT has continued its impressive momentum in the broadband arena in the U.K, with broadband offsetting a revenue decline 4.8 percent in its traditional businesses - enough for the company to show an overall 5 percent increase in revenues for...

Bush Names FCC Commissioners.
November 10, 2005... President George W. Bush yesterday disclosed his intention to make two nominations at the Federal Communications Commission, designating Republican Tennessee regulator Deborah T. Tate for the remainder of a five-year term expiring June 30,...

Fixed-Mobile Convergence Group Declares Independence.
November 10, 2005... MobileIGNITE, the partner program created by BridgePort Networks back in January to promote interoperability of mobile and fixed SIP-based communications services, has become an independent industry trade group. The new group, which will...

India Slashes Long Distance License Fees.
November 10, 2005... In a move that the Indian government hopes will lure new competitors into the Indian telecoms market, the government has slashed the enormous multimillion dollar license fees that it has been charging new entrants. It's also more than halved...

Canadians Launch Rural Broadband Research Project.
November 10, 2005... Bell Canada and Nortel have deployed service, product and applications technology in the 3,000 resident town of Canadian town of Chapleau, Ontario, where a joint initiative is being implemented to research and evaluate the social and...

'Ban Skype' Movement Grows.
November 11, 2005... A pair of rival analytical firms in the U.K. have joined what looks to be a growing worldwide movement to ban the use of Skype, particularly in corporate settings. The analysts are worried about a string of ills, ranging from exposing...

SBC/AT&T Set Top-Level Management.
November 11, 2005... SBC Communications yesterday designated senior management and transition team executives in preparation for completing its $16-billion acquisition of AT&T. Having recently received federal government approvals as did the $8.5- billion Verizon...

VoIP Houses Plead With Court For 911 Delay.
November 11, 2005... The four voice of Internet Protocol (VoIP) companies seeking a stay against the Federal Communications Commission's Nov. 28 deadline to comply with a 911 emergency call handling order continued to press their case yesterday, asking the US...

Enron Broadband Execs Reindicted.
November 11, 2005... A special Enron grand jury has reindicted five former executives of Enron Broadband Systems (EBS), albeit on significantly reduced charges. All five were tried earlier this year, but the three-month trial ended in a mistrial in July with the...

Broadband Saves The Day At Tiscali.
November 11, 2005... Tiscali is closing in on 1.5 million ADSL customers across Europe - a key metric as the operator, in common with most of its brethren, reported flat voice revenues and falling dial-up sales. The broadband sales were the highlight of 3Q...

ICG Enters Metro Ethernet Market.
November 11, 2005... ICG Communications (ICG) yesterday entered the metro Ethernet service market with an offering it expects to have available to more than 300 buildings in Colorado and more than 200 buildings in Ohio. The target end markets are connected by...

Survey Sez: Americans Prize Affordable Rates.
November 14, 2005... At the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) 117th Annual Convention, results from a nationwide phone survey of 1,000 voters commissioned by the Coalition to Keep America Connected were released, showing Americans...

Optus Last To Launch 3G in Australia.
November 14, 2005... Australian telco Optus has launched 3G services down under - the last of Australia's four wireless carriers to get on the 3G bandwagon. The carrier is playing catch-up with a bevy of features it wants consumers to buy, including the...

Juniper Makes 'Funk'-y Acquisition.
November 14, 2005... Looking to fill a hole in its own product line - beefing up standards- based security in its Unified Access Control solution introduced just last month - rather than simply adding products to its catalog, Juniper Networks is paying $122...

BPL Makes It To Mexico.
November 14, 2005... The first known installation of broadband over powerlines (BPL) in Mexico has gone live - at a 400-year-old monastery and hacienda in use these days as a luxury hotel. The installation, by Telkonet, comes on the heels of Telkonet's iWire...

N.J. Cableco Launches VoIP With Nortel, Level 3.
November 14, 2005... New Jersey cable/Internet access company Patriot Media & Communications CNJ launched Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services to its subscriber base using hardware/software solutions supplied by Nortel and local/regional telecom carriage...

Telecom Websites Get Less Respect.
November 14, 2005... Respect for telecom carriers has declined slightly, according to a recently completed fourth-quarter survey on how online customers are treated, says Ipswich, Mass.-based research/consulting house The Customer Respect Group. Based on...

At Press Time: Court Rejects VoIP E911 Petition.
November 15, 2005... Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers will be scrambling to meet the Federal Communications Commission's Nov. 28 E911 mandate, now that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia turned down a request by several carriers...

Telstra Transformation: Job Cuts, New Networks.
November 15, 2005... Australian telecom incumbent Telstra today said it may cut at least 10,000 full-time jobs within five years as part of a long-range strategy assessment to improve its business. Specifically, the telco said its intention was to "reduce the...

Cisco Enters Wi-Fi Mesh Fray.
November 15, 2005... Cisco has entered the Wi-Fi mesh market - a move that's both a threat to the many smaller players, mainly startups, that today dominate the mesh industry, but at the same time a validation of the growing importance of the market. Not to...

Level 3, Wiltel Seek FCC Merger Blessing.
November 15, 2005... Level 3 Communications and Wiltel Communications Group yesterday filed license/asset transfer approval applications at the Federal Communications Commission for their proposed merger (TelecomWeb news break, Oct. 31). The formal request...

Consumer Groups Petition For IP Captioning.
November 15, 2005... The Federal Communications Commission says a petition for rulemaking - filed by 13 organizations representing consumer advocates and persons with hearing or speech disabilities - asks the regulator to mandate that carriers provide captioning...

Agilent Pursues $2.7B Share Buy-Back.
November 15, 2005... Agilent Technologies has launched a modified "dutch auction" tender offer to purchase as many as 73 million shares of its common stock at a price-per- share not less than $32 and not greater than $37 - a total of about $2.7 billion dollars...

Breaking News: Nokia Boosts Enterprise Biz With Intellisync.
November 16, 2005... Right before we went to press, TelecomWeb news break learned that Intellisync Corporation, a provider of platform-independent wireless messaging, will be acquired by Nokia for approximately $430 million. Intellisync stockholders will...

Adelphia Files Fourth Reorg Plan.
November 16, 2005... Continuing to prepare for its estimated $12.7 billion acquisition by Comcast and Time Warner, financially distressed cableco Adelphia Communications today filed its fourth rendition of a reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for...

3G In Paradise: Lucent Lands In The Bahamas.
November 16, 2005... Lucent won the contract to build a 3G network in the Bahamas from the government-owned Bahamas Telecommunications Company Limited (BTC), which holds a monopoly on all landline and wireless communications for the island chain, a popular...

Motorola Claims Inroads In India.
November 16, 2005... Motorola today disclosed a number of developments and initiatives to underscore its market inroads into India, including a strategic agreement with Bharti Teletech Ltd., the start of domestic assembly activities and the national introduction...

Sprint Nextel Preps For Disabled Users.
November 16, 2005... Sprint Nextel has completed work on its network that allows the company to prioritize telecommunications relay service (TRS) for individuals with hearing or speech disabilities. The development allows the company to participate in the...

Telenor Quadruples Business Broadband Speed.
November 16, 2005... Telenor, ramping up its broadband offerings to the Norwegian business market, has as much as quadrupled the speed of ADSL for its business customers with no increases in price for existing users - and even a slight price decrease at one...

BT Slashes Broadband Charges.
November 17, 2005... U.K. giant BT substantially cut the price it charges ISPs for connecting new broadband customers to BT's fully unbundled local loops (LLU) by 40 percent. The move is the latest in a string of price reductions - mostly forced on BT by UK...

Consumer Groups Demand USF 'Stealth Tax' Hearing.
November 17, 2005... The U.S. Congress and the Federal Communications Commission are getting an earful from consumer and citizen advocacy groups that want them to more publicly air potential plans for changing the methods of collecting and disbursing universal...

TalkPlus Tries To Ring Up VoIP Service.
November 17, 2005... Promising voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) versatility over cellular networks, Huntington Beach, Calif.-based TalkPlus is shopping its new product around to carriers, and it's getting some traction according to analysts. Unlike some other...

IDT Divests Russian Telecom Business.
November 17, 2005... IDT Corporation's IDT Telecom operating subsidiary today signed an agreement to sell the company's Russian telecom business for approximately $146 million to a Moscow-based consortium of private-equity investors. The proposed deal...

The 'Falcon' Lands In Sudan.
November 17, 2005... Sudan's Canar Telecommunication Co. disclosed today that it's made what's described as a "multimillion-dollar" investment in Flag Telecom's Falcon undersea cable, the first in the Persian Gulf region to dish up Terabit/s speeds. As part...

TIA Adds To Board, Okays Research Charter.
November 17, 2005... During a recent meeting of its directors, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) elected two new board members and drew up a charter for its emerging Communications Research Division (TelecomWeb news break, Aug. 12). The group...

Cisco Buying Scientific-Atlanta for $6.9B.
November 18, 2005... Internet Protocol systems and software kingpin Cisco Systems today disclosed it has agreed to purchase Scientific-Atlanta, a long-standing electronics, satellite earth station and cable TV technology supplier, in a transaction worth...

China Telecom Sets IPTV Launch, Looks At Investors.
November 18, 2005... China Telecom has tapped UTStarcom to supply the hardware for a complete IPTV service. The first, albeit small, service launch has been set to happen by year-end, with a 5,000-user roll-out in Shanghai. Meanwhile, reports out of China...

Midwest Wireless Goes to Alltel For $1B.
November 18, 2005... Having just swallowed Western Wireless Corporation in an estimated $6.5- billion cash and stock transaction (TelecomWeb news break, Aug. 1), Little Rock, Ark,-based Alltel today said it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Midwest...

FCC Posturing Starts As Abernathy Departs.
November 18, 2005... Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy late yesterday handed in her long- awaited resignation from the Federal Communications Commission, opening the door for rounds of speculation and Capitol Hill maneuvering to name a new Republican member of...

Wireless Broadband Houses Merge: The Perfect Wave?
November 18, 2005... Two smaller wireless broadband houses, Wave Wireless Corporation and WaveRider Communications, have agreed to merge in a deal that will create a new company with a broader product line that both hope will boost their fortunes. The two did...

U.S. Outflanked In M-Commerce Progress.
November 18, 2005... It appears the United States is once again behind the power curve when it comes to wireless innovation. This time, the subject is m-commerce. Three Canadian companies are teaming to create a cellphone infrastructure that, over time, will...