TelecomWeb News Digest articles from November 2006

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from November 2006

Another Bankruptcy: Wave Wireless Waves Goodbye.
November 2, 2006... Wireless mesh house Wave Wireless Corporation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it's down to its last $1 million in assets, with debt totaling $5 million that it can't pay. Its largest creditor is Vodafone, which had...

Broadband Uncertainty Clouds Carphone Warehouse Results.
November 2, 2006... The U.K.'s Carphone Warehouse either reported a 60-percent surge in underlying pre-tax profits for the first half of its fiscal year or it's plunged into the red. It all depends on how you want to look at it. In the heated British...

Verizon Seeks Ubiquitous Garden State IPTV License.
November 2, 2006... Verizon Communications filed its first application to offer Internet Protocol television (IPTV) and other video services in New Jersey, following the enactment of a law allowing statewide franchising (Telecom Policy Report, Aug. 5). ...

FCC Gives Free Airport Wi-Fi Clearance To Take Off.
November 2, 2006... The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled in favor of airlines running private Wi-Fi hot spots at public airports, ostensible settling a specific dispute between Continental Airlines and the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport)...

Amp'd Mobile: The Brains Behind The Hype.
November 2, 2006... Youth-oriented and vastly under-subscribed mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Amp'd is trying to energize a secondary revenue stream by distributing its content to other carriers and to other markets. "Amp'd Live" will be a collection of...

EMS Sheds Cellular Antenna Unit.
November 2, 2006... EMS Technologies Inc. is selling off its cellular base-station antenna and repeater business, EMS Wireless, to Andrew Corp. for $50.5 million in cash. The unit, despite reportedly counting just about every major cellular carrier in the...

Shunning Merger Vote Yet Again, FCC Grants BPL Dereg Parity.
November 3, 2006... Although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today delayed its vote on the AT&T/BellSouth merger for the second time, the regulator nevertheless partially tackled another sticky issue by deregulating a portion of the emerging U.S....

Commerce Creates Spectrum-Management Advisory Group.
November 3, 2006... U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez has appointed a diverse group of representatives from the private sector to a two-year term on an advisory committee dealing with RF spectrum. Committee members will provide advice and...

Shriners Sue Qwest.
November 3, 2006... Legal action over Qwest's alleged past financial shenanigans just keeps coming. The latest is a lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Denver by The Shriners Hospital For Children. The Shriners are demanding $20 million from...

Canada Cuts Over First HSDPA System.
November 3, 2006... Rogers Wireless launched its High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) service - the first in Canada - joining Cingular as the only HSDPA carriers so far in North America. Initially, the 3.5G service is available only in the so-called...

BSkyB Reveals Early Broadband Takeup.
November 3, 2006... U.K. direct to home (DTH) satellite pay-TV operator BSkyB says that, as of the end of October, some 1 million customers already had indicated an interest in subscribing to its spanking new broadband service, thus indicating a strong early...

EC OKs Luxembourg's Broadband Plan.
November 3, 2006... The European Commission (EC) is endorsing a plan submitted by Luxembourg's national regulator to further open broadband access and Internet Protocol (IP) communications markets to the competition, including the newest higher-speed digital...

O'Brien Pledges Hill Fight Following FCC Petition Dismissal.
November 6, 2006... On Cyren Call Communications' Web site, the clock continues to tick down to a Nov. 29 comment-filing deadline regarding its reallocation petition that was put out for public comment just last week, even though the Federal Communications...

Will Seniors 'Phone' Congress About Taxes, USF?
November 6, 2006... On the national level, the mid-term elections are likely to be determined by voter patterns on a variety of issues other than telecom matters - little things like war, ethics, unemployment and the economy - but one exception may very well be...

Fitch: Wireless Sub Growth Trends Up.
November 6, 2006... An updated review of 62 operators from 28 different countries shows total aggregate wireless subscriber base reached 1.196 billion at mid-year 2006, representing a year-over-year growth of 19.4 percent. A new Fitch report says this...

Indonesia's Mobile-8 Sets Two-Penny IPO.
November 6, 2006... Indonesian CDMA carrier Mobile-8 Telecom over the weekend set the terms of a planned IPO later this month, pricing its shares at a tad more than two pennies each. But those pennies will add up. But it plans to sell a somewhat phenomenal...

FTC Ramps Up Work On Tougher Telemarketing Rules.
November 6, 2006... The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking a little more time to investigate and amass public input on proposed rule changes designed to stiffen regulations governing pervasive and growing telemarketing call activity. Coming amid...

Verizon Intensifies European VoIP Push.
November 6, 2006... Verizon Business, in a major expansion of its VoIP offerings overseas, has released its entire VoIP portfolio to the international market. Verizon Business is the operating unit Verizon Communications created when it bought MCI earlier...

Nortel Quarterly Loss Narrows But Disappoints.
November 7, 2006... Nortel this morning reported a $99 million third-quarter loss, better than its results a year ago but nonetheless disappointing to an industry that thought the company was going to eke out at least a slim profit. Sales were up a healthy...

Survey Sez: EC Wireless Subs Protest High Roaming Fees.
November 7, 2006... The European Commission (EC) tussle with wireless operators over high roaming charges continued today with the release of a Europe-wide survey detailing apparent widespread subscriber dissatisfaction with such pricing trends. In its...

Telekom Austria Snags Serbian Cellular License.
November 7, 2006... Telekom Austria subsidiary Mobilkom Austria AG won a license to become the third wireless provider in Serbia. The license is something of a consolation prize, following Telekom Austria's defeat by Telenor earlier this year in the bidding...

FTC Slaps Yesmail With $50K Spam Fine.
November 7, 2006... As it considers new regulations on automatic call dialing while continuing a series of enforcement actions against telemarketing violations in general (TelecomWeb news break, Nov. 6), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took on Internet spam,...

The Matrix: Ericsson Comes Out On Top.
November 7, 2006... In its most recent evaluation of worldwide service delivery platform (SDP) vendors, ABI Research tapped Sweden's Ericsson as the global leader, followed by Siemens and Alcatel. The rest of the pack includes BEA Systems, Telcordia,...

New Group Advances Wireless Device Management, Security.
November 7, 2006... U.K.-based Synchronica is throwing its support to the new Device Management Forum and to its associated portal that was launched Oct. 31. The mobile-device management and synchronization software company says the DMF is the first group to...

Election Fallout: House Dems Pose Telecom Bill Redoubt.
November 8, 2006... Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives from Republicans in yesterday's mid-term elections will have an immediate effect on telecom legislation and key committee memberships, with the incumbent telco and cableco duopoly...

C&W: 'The Plan Is Working'.
November 8, 2006... Cable & Wireless (C&W), releasing financial results for the first half of its fiscal year this morning, says its turnaround plan is working and, indeed, is ahead of schedule. The company took a 65-percent hit to net profits in order to...

Sprint Lands Another Cableco VoIP customer.
November 8, 2006... Sprint Nextel and cable-TV operator Suddenlink Communications signed a five-year agreement that has the telecom carrier to handling the smaller company's wireline-based voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. In a prepared...

Ofcom Vets Possible Fiber Alternative.
November 8, 2006... After 10 weeks of industry consultation, U.K. regulator Ofcom reportedly will license carriers there to use the 71 GHz-76 GHz and 81 GHz-86 GHz bands for broadband fixed wireless access. This is a departure of sorts, because those two...

Slim's Latest Pickings: Carlos Eyes Brazil's TIM.
November 8, 2006... Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu's wireless company, America Movil, reportedly is behind an unsolicited bid for Telecom Italia's wireless subsidiary TIM Brasil, according to reports out of both Brazil and Italy. And there's...

BT Television CEO Confirms 'Autumn' IPTV Launch.
November 8, 2006... BT Television CEO Dan Marks told TelecomWeb news break's sister e-letter Inside Digital TV the launch of "BT Vision" is on track, adding that the eagerly awaited IPTV service will happen "soon." According to Marks, "The plans that we...

GOP Senate Losses Add To Telecom Lobby Uncertainty.
November 9, 2006... The Republican loss of U.S. Senate control to Democrats after two cliff hanger voting results were resolved late yesterday will add to the telecom industry lobby's uncertainty about legislative shifts in the next Congressional session...

BT Loses Broadband Share But Posts Record Results.
November 9, 2006... BT today reported its 11th consecutive quarter of increasing sales, and 18th of increasing earnings per share, despite market share losses in the turbulent U.K. broadband market and continued hemorrhaging of land line revenues as consumers...

S. Africa Braces For Cellular Price War.
November 9, 2006... A cellular price war is widely expected to break out in South Africa, triggered by the introduction of mobile number portability (MNP) on Friday. Mobile companies in the country have been gearing up for weeks now, with the smaller players in...

Cellphones To Take Flight In The Emirates.
November 9, 2006... While the United States continues to hedge on making a real decision on consumer air-to-ground cellphoning, Air Emirates is joining Air France and Ryanair in promising such a service, and soon, but its not going to be cheap. Emirates, in...

EC, German Regulator To Scrutinize DT's Leased Lines.
November 9, 2006... The European Commission (EC) and Germany's regulator say they have agreed that the national agency will prepare for what the EC calls a "deeper analysis of the wholesale leased lines markets" in the country - an analysis that is widely...

Vodafone Report Endorses Third-World Cellular 'M-Banking'.
November 9, 2006... The Vodafone Group, working with The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, says banking by cellphone (m-banking) is creating economic and social benefits among the world's poorest communities. The group's report, "Economic Empowerment...

Obermann In, Ricke Out At Deutsche Telekom.
November 13, 2006... It didn't take long this morning for the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom to appoint Rene Obermann as the new CEO, effective immediately. Obermann, the former head of the carrier's T-Mobile International division, replaces Kai-Uwe...

BT Strikes Back In U.K. Broadband Battle.
November 13, 2006... BT this morning outlined plans to slash its wholesale broadband prices by as much as 12.5 percent come May 2007 in a counterstrike against the likes of "free" broadband provider Carphone Warehouse and new broadband market entrant...

Alcatel Triumphs As Optical Networking Sales Soar.
November 13, 2006... Alcatel "destroyed the competition" as the optical-networking market topped $3.1 billion in the third quarter of this year, turning in the best performance the industry has seen since the beginning of 2002, according to new estimates by...

Cisco Set To Buy Ethernet IC House.
November 13, 2006... Cisco Systems signed a definitive agreement to buy privately held Greenfield Networks Inc., which develops and makes integrated circuits and related performance-accelerator and optimization products that back up Ethernet- oriented packet...

TIM, Qualcomm Play 3D Games.
November 13, 2006... Telecom Italia and U.S. mobile technology developer Qualcomm are collaborating on new wireless applications, including 3D games, to be offered by the carrier's wireless subsidiary Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM). The two the companies say an...

Missoula Plan' Debate Digs Up 'Phantom Traffic' Issue.
November 13, 2006... The so-called "Missoula Plan' for intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform that has divided the industry now is mixed up in the bothersome "phantom traffic" issue that involves telephone calls transiting networks without the proper...

TiVo Unveils Broadband Survival Plan.
November 14, 2006... TiVo, in another attempt by the video time-shifting pioneer to some day make a buck, today unveiled plans to try to leverage broadband to stay alive. The company said, as part of a string of five announcements, that it will introduce a...

Millicom Threatens To Shutter Pakistani Cellular Operations.
November 14, 2006... Millicom International Cellular S.A. is threatening to shutter its Pakistani subsidiary, Paktel Ltd., in a move that could strand its more than 1.5 million subscribers. The threat is part of an acrimonious fight between Millicom and Pakistani...

Japan Returns To Guam As FCC OK's Cell Sale.
November 14, 2006... NTT DoCoMo yesterday won Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval to acquire two wireless operators on the U.S. territorial Pacific island of Guam, putting the final seal on a nearly $72 million agreement signed in March. The...

U.S. Court Shuts Spyware Purveyor.
November 14, 2006... A federal court yesterday ordered the shutdown of one of those secret "spyware" activities that now annoy so many Internet users and the development prompted Microsoft - often grilled about its product line's online security breaches and...

Optical Industry Searches For A Cheaper 40 Gb/s Path.
November 14, 2006... A powerful combine of nine optical broadband companies has forged a working group to define what will be a multi-sourced implementation of 40 Gb/s technology - a move the group hopes will result in the significant slashing of 40 Gb/s...

U.K. Survey: 'Free' Broadband = Poor Customer Service.
November 14, 2006... As they say, there's no such thing as a free lunch. While the U.K. broadband market has been inundated with low cost and 'free' broadband offers, the price of "free" appears to be lower levels of customer satisfaction. In a report issued...

Microsoft In Muni Mesh Fray Play.
November 15, 2006... Microsoft Corp. yesterday said it will be joining the large municipal wireless network project in Portland, Ore, supplying products and content for the MetroFi Inc. mesh Wi-Fi contract that was awarded earlier this year by the city...

Siemens Raided In Telco Bribery Probe.
November 15, 2006... A reported 200 or more police, tax collectors and prosecutors raided some 30 Siemens locations including company headquarters in Munich and offices in Erlangen and the homes of some its employees this morning, amid charges that a half a...

Eircom Budgets A Billion For Fiber, NGN And Wireless.
November 15, 2006... Ireland's dominant Telco, Eircom, has increased its capital spending plans over the next three years by $384 million, bringing to total to about $1.28 billion (actually a round one billion Euros), in large part to pay for new plans for a...

Motorola Grabs DSL House Netopia.
November 15, 2006... Motorola is buying DSL customer premise equipment (CPE) hardware house Netopia for $208 million in cash. The acquisition is the 11th so far reported this year for Motorola, as the company looks to further reduce its dependence on its...

TeliaSonera Splits Itself In Four.
November 15, 2006... TeliaSonera, in a major restructuring initiative it hopes will drive more than a billion dollars in new revenues, is splitting itself into four main business units. As of Jan. 1 the company will be organized into four divisions: mobility...

Qatar Promises Telecom Competition.
November 15, 2006... The family-ruled Mideast nation of Qatar says it is planning to open the country's telecom sector to competition with the enactment of a new law essentially ending the monopoly of Qatar Public Telecommunications Corporation (Qtel) that was...

Regulator Overruled As Canada Deregulates VoIP.
November 16, 2006... In a surprise move the Canadian federal government, over-ruling its own regulatory agency, has ordered the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to immediately deregulate VoIP services. The move ends a year...

BT Gobbles Up Broadband Customer Service Champ.
November 16, 2006... BT is buying PlusNet, one its plethora of small rivals in the U.K. broadband market, in a move that looks to be as much about getting its hands on PlusNet's reportedly world class customer service system as it is on picking up a relatively...

Skype Goes Mobile.
November 16, 2006... Skype has begun working with wireless operators to deploy a U.S. start-up company's Software and system package that allows mobile cellular handsets to handle the SkypeOut free Internet phone calls worldwide. The result is cellular...

EC Bares New Telecom Policy Proposals.
November 16, 2006... The European Commission (EC) yesterday outlined a series of long-awaited new telecom policy proposals for communications carrier businesses and industries, including encouragement of competition and investment especially for trans-national...

3 & Sling To Send Standard TV To Cellphones.
November 16, 2006... In a landmark move cellular operator 3 has signed a deal with Sling Media which will enable 3's subscribers to access their home cable TV channels and other shows on their mobile handsets. The deal is the first for Sling with a major...

Michigan Video Franchise Bill Looking Good.
November 16, 2006... Proposed bipartisan legislation to create a new state-wide video franchising regime is now moving to the Michigan Senate following Tuesday's passage by the House of Representatives and its prospects apparently look good. Sources say last...

Martin Wins Senate Nod As FCC Chairman.
November 17, 2006... The full U.S. Senate last night unanimously approved the nomination of Kevin J. Martin to a second stint as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), quickly removing the item from its agenda before any post- election lame-duck...

'Free' Dial-Up ISP NetZero Does Broadband - For A Price.
November 17, 2006... United Online, arguably the last large nationwide dial-up ISP in America that hasn't bowed to broadband, has signed a deal with Verizon under which it will sell Verizon DSL service under the NetZero name. The company, which also does ISP...

Hostile PT Takeover Bid May Finally Get Off The Ground.
November 17, 2006... Sonae's hostile $13.07 billion takeover bid for Portugal Telecom (PT), which has turned into a sort of never-ending story since it was made early this year, may finally be formally launched in another months. According to reports out of...

TeliaSonera Buys A Present For Its New Services Division.
November 17, 2006... TeliaSonera, barely 48 hours after unveiling a major restructuring plan, has bought its newborn integrated enterprise services division a present - managed IP services house Cygate. The acquisition of Cygate "strengthens our position as...

EC Disparages Proposed Polish Network Access Rules.
November 17, 2006... In it's on-going sparring with select countries over telecom policy conformity across the European Union (TelecomWeb news break, Nov. 3), the European Commission (EC) has warned Polish authorities that the country's proposed regulations on...

FTC Fines Online Security House For Security Shortcomings.
November 17, 2006... The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday settled en enforcement proceeding against a software and services company which the agency claimed failed to take reasonable online security measures that protect sensitive customer data - a...

Lucent Alcatel Merger Gets Green Light.
November 20, 2006... Lucent and Alcatel said late on Friday that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) had approved their plan to merge, a recommendation that has been accepted by the White House - but with a national security caveat...

France's Iliad Seeks Mobile License To Challenge Orange.
November 20, 2006... The Iliad Group, which has already made a splash in the French IPTV market, has set forth ambitions to become a 'quad play' operator, confirming its interest in seizing control of the fourth and last mobile license up for grabs in the...

AT&T Readies Dubai Office.
November 20, 2006... About a month after naming a new executive in charge of its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) activities, AT&T International said today it will be is opening a new regional headquarters in Dubai to leverage a growing importance of the...

Collaborative Deals Accent Industry's Fixed/Mobile Convergence.
November 20, 2006... Separate Juniper Networks/NEC and Siemens/Microsoft agreements disclosed today underscored the telecom manufacturing sector's ongoing efforts to meld fixed and mobile technologies and products offerings into a cohesive converged networks...

Moldova Sets GSM License Auction.
November 20, 2006... Yet another cellular license bidding war is about to break out in the world - this time in the tiny Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nation of Moldova, which is gearing up to issue what will be its third GSM license. Opening bid...

Survey Sez: Wireless Devices Maximize Productivity, Playtime.
November 20, 2006... A new Sprint subscriber survey says that while nearly all of them (93 percent) bring work-related wireless devices on vacation, the majority says they have achieved work-life balance (73 percent) and are more productive today than they were...

Vodafone U.K. Moves Beyond Mobile.
November 21, 2006... Vodafone's U.K. operation, in a trio of moves to make good on its promise earlier this year to move beyond simply providing mobile service and become a "total communications provider," has bought wireless services house Isis...

Investors Throw More Cash At Mobile TV Chip Startup.
November 21, 2006... Startup Newport Media, which is developing mobile TV chips for use in cell phones and other handheld devices, had closed a $30 million third round of venture financing. The new cash brings to $66 million total funding for the company, which...

EU Eyes $11.5B In Joint ICT R&D Expenditures.
November 21, 2006... The European Commission (EC) today said European Union-funded research and development allocations for information and communications technology (ICT) projects is now expected to total slightly more than $11.5 billion in programs running...

Investment Banker Snaps Up Daniels.
November 21, 2006... Earlier today, investment banker RBC Capital Markets announced plans to buy Denver-based merger & acquisition expert Daniels & Associates LP, said to be the most active M&A advisor to the cable, telecom and broadcast industries. As...

FCC Readies Game Plan For Next Broadband/PCS Spectrum Auction.
November 21, 2006... The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has started preparing for a 2007 spectrum auction on some 38 licenses - a relatively modest scope - that will be aimed at wireless broadband and personal communications service (PCS) applications....

Broadband Revenue Slowdown Predicted Down Under.
November 21, 2006... The next half decade will see a slowdown in revenue growth in the Australian broadband market, despite an expected doubling of the subscriber base, according to a report released today by Australian research house Market Clarity. Market...

Mobile Broadband Set To Explode, But It Won't Be WiMAX.
November 22, 2006... The number of mobile broadband users in the world will reach 500 million by 2010, according to research from Strategy Analytics, but it predicts precious few will use so-called mobile WiMAX technology. In fact, Strategy Analytics predicts...

FCC Buys More Time To Air ICC 'Missoula Plan'...Again.
November 22, 2006... For the second time in fewer than three months, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is giving the telecom service-provider business additional time to digest and to comment on the sticky and sometimes indigestible "Missoula Plan" for...

Congress Ponders Tougher Caller-ID Spoofing Bill.
November 22, 2006... The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a new bill that is tougher on perpetrators of so-called "caller-ID spoofing" practices - deceiving recipients with financial fraud or other malicious intent. This measure is meaner than...

ITV Reveals Details Of ntl Bid.
November 22, 2006... The fallout related to BSkyB's surprise acquisition of nearly 18 percent of major U.K broadcaster ITV for $1.78 billion last Friday continues. ITV revealed details of ntl's proposal for ITV prior to BSkyB stepping in with a winning bid....

TynTec OTPs Make M-Banking Safer.
November 22, 2006... With many potential users afraid of using a wireless connection for financial-related functions, the uptake of mobile banking (m-banking) outside of the Third World has been slow. TynTec has come up with a solution to help assuage those...

Happy Thanksgiving From TelecomWeb news break.
November 22, 2006... The editors at TelecomWeb news break will be taking a Thanksgiving hiatus to spend time with family and friends. Your next update will appear Nov. 27. Have a safe and happy holiday. [Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights...