TelecomWeb News Digest articles from September 2006

TelecomWeb News Digest archives from September 2006

Nortel Dumps UMTS Access Business On Alcatel.
September 1, 2006... Nortel this morning disclosed inking a deal to sell its selling its money-losing UMTS access business to Alcatel for what some are seeing as a bargain-basement $302 million. Sale of the business, to either Alcatel or Motorola, had been...

Net-Neutrality Proponents Knock On Congressional Doors.
September 1, 2006... Organized groups of net-neutrality proponents during the past few days say they have been visiting the home-state offices of many U.S. Senate members in at least 25 cities to resume pressure on federal lawmakers to pass communications-reform...

Carriers Get More Time To Debate 'Missoula Plan'.
September 1, 2006... The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has given the industry some wiggle room to digest and to respond to the so-called "Missoula Plan" - a new scheme for a long-sought reform of the intercarrier compensation (ICC) mechanism local and...

Are You Ready For Some ESPN Mobile Football?
September 1, 2006... You have to wonder why it took a TV-fueled company like ESPN Mobile to figure out that its greatest asset, its chief differentiator, the rocket fuel for its brand, is TV. The struggling mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) finally will...

China Telecom Looks To 3G, Investors To Bolster Revenue.
September 1, 2006... Reports out of China today say China Telecom's chairman is talking with five as-yet-unnamed foreign telecom groups that might be interested in taking strategic minority stakes in the country's largest fixed-line carrier. Some industry...

Happy Labor Day Weekend From TelecomWeb news break.
September 1, 2006... The editors of TelecomWeb news break will not be laboring on Monday, Sept. 4. Your next news update will be posted Sept. 5. Have a safe and restful holiday. [Copyright 2006 Access Intelligence, LLC. All rights reserved.]

First Wi-Fi VoIP Carriers Emerge In The U.K.
September 5, 2006... An outfit called Mobiboo has launched what it's touting as the U.K.'s first Wi-Fi-based mobile VoIP service. Proving that fame is fleeting, U.K. SMS specialist aql barely hours later launched its own competing version of such a service. ...

Qwest Hits New Markets With OnFiber Purchase.
September 5, 2006... Qwest Communications International has completed the acquisition of privately held OnFiber Communications for $107 million in cash, giving the Denver-based carrier new, dedicated-local-loop capability in some 23 U.S. markets outside the...

Canada Examines Looser Incumbent VoIP Rules.
September 5, 2006... Canadian regulators have opened a proceeding to reassess the conditions for lightening up on rules that ostensibly restrict incumbent telcos in the emerging Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) business. This comes amid new government...

3G Comes To Haiti.
September 5, 2006... ZTE has built a 3G CDMA2000 1x EV-DO network for HaiTel, Haiti's largest wireless carrier, as 1x EV-DO technology percolates throughout the Caribbean. The value of the network, which ZTE says can accommodate 500,000 lines - compared to...

Nokia Scores A One-Day Double Play.
September 5, 2006... In just one day, Nokia inked deals with operators in China and Bulgaria, including its first network deal with Bulgarian operator Vivatel, which has named Nokia as its sole 3G core-network supplier. Under the Bulgarian contract, Nokia...

DT Revamps Corner Offices.
September 5, 2006... Earlier today, Deutsche Telekom shook up its top management structure, with CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke taking on more responsibilities despite recent press reports saying less-than-satisfactory financials have put him on the outs with the board. ...

IBM/Cisco Team Wins Massive Silicon Valley Wi-Fi Mesh Race.
September 6, 2006... A four-company team that includes Cisco Systems and IBM was selected by a 42-city Silicon Valley government regional consortium in California to build and operate a wireless-communications and Internet-access network spanning nearly 1,500...

Psst, Wanna Buy Into Greece's Phone Company?
September 6, 2006... The government of Greece is going to sell off another chunk of incumbent Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE S.A.), which it's been privatizing a bit at a time. The Greek government still owns 38.6 percent of OTE, and it didn't...

Huawei Grabs Top Spot As Optical Network Market Explodes.
September 6, 2006... Worldwide optical network hardware sales soared an impressive 20 percent between the first and second quarters of this year, as Huawei turned in what research house Infonetics Research calls an "amazing quarter" to unseat Alcatel for the...

Spy Vs. Spy: House Probes NSA Vs. Secret Court.
September 6, 2006... A key House of Representatives committee today is scheduled to start examining legislative proposals dealing with how an existing secret federal court handles National Security Agency (NSA) communications-surveillance and traffic-monitoring...

Nortel Takes Its Message Across The Pond.
September 6, 2006... In a European market blitz, Nortel paraded its top executives across a stage in London earlier today to deliver the same turnaround marketing slogan the company has been attempting to get across in North America: "Business Made Simple." ...

As 3G Subs Grow, Access Technologies Will Determine Vendor Winners.
September 6, 2006... After years of market uncertainty, 3G finally has gained credibility. At least, that's what ABI Research says. "3G subscriptions, including CDMA2000, are forecast to hit 285 million by the end of 2006," says Jake Saunders, ABI Research's...

Alcatel, Lucent Shareholders Approve Merger.
September 7, 2006... Shareholders of both Alcatel and Lucent today approved the merger of the two companies, fending off last-minute attempts to scuttle the deal on both sides of the Atlantic. The merger is now scheduled to close before the end of the year....

Yahoo! To Drive More Nokia Search Capabilities.
September 7, 2006... According to partners Nokia and Yahoo! Inc., Yahoo! Search has become more embedded in the Nokia Mobile Search application to create a more robust user experience. Nokia says this pact will strengthen the Internet search offering on...

Another Telco Privatization: Bosnian Bidding Battle Brews.
September 7, 2006... In the latest of what has become an almost constant stream of bidding battles for telecom properties around the world, 11 carriers now are said to be sniffing at Bosnia's state-owned Telekom Srpske. A 65-percent stake in the carrier goes...

Local U.S. Gov'ts Decry Possible Telecom Tax Losses.
September 7, 2006... Local and state government groups have resumed their campaigns to get the U.S. Congress to back off from jurisdictional telecom-taxation reform (Telecom Policy Report, July 31) by issuing a study that warns they could lose $8 billion a year...

India Regulator Battles Gov't, Wireless Operators.
September 7, 2006... India's telecom regulator is in a pitched battle with the country's wireless service operators as well as with the central government in New Delhi over user contracts, billing policies and allegedly poor network quality. The Telecom...

Is Local News Mobile Video's Killer App?
September 7, 2006... News brands have had big marquee value but are less of a traffic draw for fledgling 3G data packages like Verizon Wireless' VCast and those offered by Sprint PCS. Content providers tell TelecomWeb news break's sister e-letter Wireless...

Congress Back Inside The Beltway.
September 8, 2006... With summer vacation over for the U.S. Congress, representatives and senators are readying their schedules for near-future discussions that will include nomination hearings for two high-profile agency bureaucrats and the continued battle for...

Unified Communications Drive SMB Converged-Apps Growth.
September 8, 2006... According to new research, during the next five years, revenue growth from small and medium-sized business (SMB) converged applications will average 47 percent per year, compared to only 16 percent for underlying IP Telephony (IPT) systems....

Led By Miami, Cell Talkers Top 2.5 Billion.
September 8, 2006... Cellphone user number 2,500,000,000 bought his or her shiny new handset just a few hours ago. It's unknown just where in the world that user lives - though it's a good bet he or she is in a developing nation - or exactly what type of...

India Undersea Fiber Battle Intensifies.
September 8, 2006... A disputed Flag Telecom demand to be interconnected with the sub-sea fiber-cable network run by rival Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has become more intense as India's dominant telecom operator brought an appeal of an unfavorable...

Telus Details Its NGN Budget.
September 8, 2006... Telus, Canada's second largest telco, this morning outlined its plans to spend $536 million between 2007 and 2009 on the continuing upgrade of its broadband network, with a major fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) rollout targeted for thousands of...

Telecom New Zealand Presses Separation Plan.
September 8, 2006... Managers of Telecom New Zealand recently met with several key members of the country's Parliament to sell its plan for separating and managing wholesale and retail activities without a mandated full structural breakup (TelecomWeb news break,...

Vodafone Joins U.K. Broadband Party; Pipex Does A Dog-And-Bird Show.
September 11, 2006... In the continuing Broadband Battle of Britain, wireless carrier Vodafone decided to join the party - a move announced straight on the heels of competitor Pipex disclosing it had bought both the retail customer base of Cable & Wireless (C&W)...

Ireland's Smart Smarts From Lack Of Cash.
September 11, 2006... Ireland's Smart Telecom, estimated by some to be the Emerald Isle's second-largest carrier, admitted last Friday that it has run out of money. The company's founder and CEO has departed - medical reasons were cited - and Smart Telecom...

FCC Eyes New Uses For 700 MHz 'Guard Bands'.
September 11, 2006... The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering new uses for so-called "guard bands" in the 700 MHz frequency range that were auctioned off to licensees in 2000 and 2001. The winners of the licenses have deployed only a handful...

Rumor Du Jour: Motorola To Buy Sagem Handset Unit?
September 11, 2006... Motorola is being touted as about to buy the money-losing cellular- handset business of Sagem, the French aero engine and communications subsidiary of Safran, according to press reports circulating the continent. A decision on the deal...

Study Sez: Garden State Needs Telecom Replanting.
September 11, 2006... New Jersey's telecom industry needs a new growth strategy, following several years of company and job disintegration, and with the possibility of more bad news following the combination of Alcatel and Lucent technologies. According to a...

Another 9/11 Scare: BlackBerries On A Plane.
September 11, 2006... An unclaimed BlackBerry was enough to cause a United Airlines flight from Atlanta to San Francisco this morning to be diverted to Dallas. While five-year-anniversary Sept. 11 memorial services were being televised nationwide this morning,...

HP Head Resigns As Feds Delve Into Call-Records Affair.
September 12, 2006... Following inquiries by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and California law enforcement (Telecom Policy Report, Sept. 9), the Department of Justice and the U.S. Congress are now looking into Hewlett-Packard's (HP) confession it had...

ABC, NBC, CBS And Now...AT&T.
September 12, 2006... For those who still believe watching TV on the smallest of screens is the consummate waste of time and money, keep reading: Ma Bell has just thrown her support behind the medium. Earlier today, San Antonio-based AT&T and Emeryville,...

Italy Roiled As Teleom Italia Reveals Split Personality.
September 12, 2006... Telecom Italia (TI) late yesterday said it will split itself in two - creating separate landline and cellular companies. The theory behind the move is that broadband, including IPTV, is the growth path for TI in a market where cellular...

Celco Combo Consideration: DoJ Demands Alltel Divestitures.
September 12, 2006... The U.S. Department of Justice says Alltel Corporation has agreed to divest wireless carrier assets in rural Minnesota in exchange for government approval of its proposed $1.075 billion purchase of Midwest Wireless Holdings LLC (TelecomWeb...

Lucent Buys Wireless-Content-Management House.
September 12, 2006... Lucent Technologies inked a deal to buy Mobilitec, a specialist in the emerging field of content-management software for wireless service providers. Mobilitec claims to have the largest deployed base in the industry to date. The...

Iliad Plans French FTTH Odyssey.
September 12, 2006... French telecom operator Iliad tapped Draka Comteq to supply a state-of- the-art fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network in Paris in the first piece of a $1.27 billion, six-year project. Earlier this year, Iliad said it had no fiber plans until...

Deutsche Telekom Given 90 Days To Open Its New Net.
September 13, 2006... German regulators this morning told Deutsche Telekom (DT) it has 90 days to open its spiffy new VDSL network to competitors. DT has been embroiled in a running battle with the European Commission (EC), which pretty much forced the rules...

Live From CTIA: A Slow Start In L.A.
September 13, 2006... Aside from some acquisition-and-investment announcements (RealNetworks buying Mobile WiderThan, and News Corp. getting controlling interest in Jamba), the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment show in Los Angeles has so far been underwhelming and...

Senate OKs Emergency Alert/Communications Bill.
September 13, 2006... The U.S. Senate has approved a bill to establish a new national emergency alert-and-communications system for potential natural disasters, major accidents and terrorist attacks, although its passage was positioned as an amendment to a more...

Telecom Italia Faces Protest Strike.
September 13, 2006... Opposition to Telecom Italia's (TI) plan to split itself asunder (TelecomWeb news break, Sept. 12) and possibly to sell off its mobile unit Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) has become a cause celebre in that country. The carrier's unions are...

Cisco Wi-Fi Mesh Nets Cleveland Neighborhoods.
September 13, 2006... More Cleveland residential areas will be getting wireless Internet access in an extension of an existing private/public partnership arrangement between Cisco Systems and a local nonprofit organization known as OneCommunity. The San Jose,...

Nokia Deals Span Europe To China.
September 13, 2006... Nokia, in a slew of announcements made during the last 24 hours, unveiled wins in areas ranging from 3G in Eastern Europe to mobile entertainment and a major new initiative in China. The Finnish group says mobile operator Latvijas...

No More Time Warner In Time Warner Telecom.
September 14, 2006... Time Warner (TW) is selling off most of its remaining stake in Time Warner Telecom (TWT) in a $500 million secondary offering and giving up its board control of the carrier, currently rated the third largest carrier of business Ethernet in...

Live From CTIA: MMS Marketing And The Search For Mobile Search.
September 14, 2006... Part of the buzz at this week's CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment show in Los Angeles concerns the possibility that multimedia message service (MMS) interoperability will, by the end of this year and perhaps as early as the end of...

Senator Seeks $1B For Public Safety Comms Interoperability.
September 14, 2006... As the U.S. Senate considers a national port security bill that already includes an amendment to establish a new national emergency alert and communications system (TelecomWeb news break, Sept. 13), another additional proviso is being...

9/11 Aftermath: Big Apple Hands Northrop Grumman $500M Wireless Contract.
September 14, 2006... The New York City government has awarded defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corporation a five-year, $500 million contract to build and maintain a broadband mobile wireless network for law enforcement/emergency services use. The network is...

India's 3G Spectrum Allocation Getting Green Light.
September 14, 2006... India's ministry-level Department of Telecommunications (DoT) apparently has decided to back up a spectrum band plan by the national regulator that would reallocate 800 MHz range radio frequencies toward third generation (3G) technologies...

BT Sets Aggressive Growth Targets for Global Services Division.
September 14, 2006... BT today, outlining its "vision" for its Global Service division, the fastest growing division within the company, disclosed aggressive growth plans that include division revenues from key global markets such as the U.S., Japan, India and...

Ericsson Reorganizes In Multimedia Push.
September 15, 2006... Ericsson AB, the current cellular-infrastructure market leader, this morning outlined a sweeping reorganization of the company into three business units, a move it says is designed to accelerate R&D in multimedia and broadband networks. ...

HP Execs Invited To Capitol Hill Oversight Party.
September 15, 2006... At press time, TelecomWeb news break learned the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to two Hewlett-Packard executives, requesting their presence later this month at an Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing. ...

E911/VoIP Mandate Slips Into Port Security Bill.
September 15, 2006... Legislation that codifies participation by Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers in the national E911 emergency calling system made its way into a controversial port security bill debated all this week in the U.S. Senate but...

The Magnificent Seven: Wireless Carriers Create 4G Initiative.
September 15, 2006... A group of seven wireless operators from around the world have banded together to create what it's calling "a coherent vision for technology evolution beyond 3G." The group is composed primarily of GSM carriers from the United States,...

Vodafone's Broadband Bundle Rolls Into Italy.
September 15, 2006... Wireless operator Vodafone is teaming with Italian broadband operator FastWeb in yet another deal as Vodafone aims to roll through all of its markets to create wireless/broadband bundles. Earlier this week, the operator disclosed a...

Motorola Markets Real-Time First-Responder Disaster Suite.
September 15, 2006... With all the talk of money for first-responder gear on the Hill and all the reruns of 9/11 communications failures earlier this week, Motorola (whose equipment is used by most public-safety entities), unveiled a new suite of...

TI CEO Resigns In The Wake Of Murdoch, AOL Developments.
September 18, 2006... In a nearly unprecedented, machine-gun-paced series of events during the past 72 hours, Telecom Italia's (TI) embattled CEO has resigned over opposition to his plan to split the company in half, the prime minister of Italy was forced by the...

KPN Buys Tiscali's Netherlands Operations.
September 18, 2006... While Telecom Italia (TI) was making headlines by spending $875 million to acquire Time Warner's AOL Germany (see top story today), Dutch telco KPN also making a significant acquisition to boost its already strong position in the Dutch...

ITU: Wireless Connections Boost LDC Teledensity.
September 18, 2006... National teledensity figures and overall connectivity are being improved in so-called "least developed countries (LDCs)," mostly due to widespread increases in wireless subscriptions instead of fixed telephone lines. According to a...

Alliance, ANSI Team To Right Cyber-Security Woes.
September 18, 2006... An academic/industry security group is teaming with a federal agency in a joint program to develop and issue guidelines and practical tools to help enterprises manage information technology and related cyber-security challenges. The...

Bridge Promises To 'Bridge' Scotland Broadband Outage.
September 18, 2006... Ouranous Networks/Aramiska customers in Scotland who lost their broadband connections now can look to U.K. operator Bridge Broadband for help. Bridge Broadband is offering a support package, which includes free hardware for some sites. On...

Is It Back To The Drawing Board For Pending Telecom Reform?
September 18, 2006... The number of senators doubting the passage of telecom legislation this session continues to grow. "We only have three weeks," said Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), featured this past weekend on C-SPAN's "The Communicators" show (which will...

Symbol Deal Advances Motorola's Enterprise-Mobility Plan.
September 19, 2006... In a bold, and expensive, move aimed at growing market share, Motorola is spending nearly $4 billion to purchase all outstanding shares of Symbol Technologies Inc. The price per share ($15) works out to be slightly more than Symbol's...

Network Neutrality: An Inside-The-Beltway-Only Issue?
September 19, 2006... It looks like lobbyists may have spent a lot of money for nothing. More than 91 percent of registered voters who recently were surveyed on the issue haven't even heard of "network neutrality" (TelecomWeb news break, Sept. 18). Looks like...

Vodafone's Passport To Roaming Savings.
September 19, 2006... According to U.K. giant Vodafone, there has been a strong early take-up of its "Passport" roaming service, with 10 million subs signing up so far for the 13-market program. Passport enables customers to take their domestic wireless price...

DHS Taps ITAA Exec For Cyber Security Chief.
September 19, 2006... The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) named Gregory Garcia of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) as its first assistant secretary for cyber security and telecommunications - a new post the DHS has been urged to...

Gov't Lawyers Blast Telecom Bill's State Pre-Emptions.
September 19, 2006... At least 41 attorneys general have told the U.S. Congress they "strongly oppose" provisos in pending telecom legislation that would, in their opinions, pre-empt states from enforcing consumer-protection laws applicable to wireless carriers...

Motorola Tackles The BPL Market.
September 19, 2006... Motorola has entered into the broadband over powerline (BPL) market with an offering that combines BPL with its market-leading Canopy fixed broadband gear as the "preferred" last-mile delivery method. The move had been expected, with the...

Live From Interop: Day One In The Big Apple.
September 20, 2006... Word put out by organizers of the Interop trade show at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center this week is that the big day for the show is going to be today, Day Two. It had better be, because Day One was, at best, a bust. The...

The U.K.'s Bulldog: In The Doghouse.
September 20, 2006... U.K. broadband provider Bulldog Communications is being rapped on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper for some misleading advertising. According to the U.K.'s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Bulldog breached the code in terms of...

CTE Head May Profit Handsomely From Proposed Merger.
September 20, 2006... Investors and shareholders may be raising their eyebrows over a relatively generous bonus of anywhere between $1.5 million and $3 million that could be collected by the head of Commonwealth Telephone Enterprises (CTE) following the conclusion...

Research Sez: Customer Satisfaction Key For Convergence Services.
September 20, 2006... In its recently published "InfoTrack for Enterprise Services - Professional Services Track" report, InfoTech, part of The Telecom Intelligence Group and a sister division to TelecomWeb news break, reports that "blocking and tackling"...

FCC Prepares For New Public Safety/Security Bureau.
September 20, 2006... The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appears close to staffing its new Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau conceived in the wake of last year's Hurricane Katrina and other several Gulf Coast storms. The new bureau is...

Verizon GNOSC Monitors, Supports Gov't Managed Services.
September 20, 2006... Verizon Business cut the ribbon to its new Government Network Operations and Security Center (GNOSC), which the carrier division says is "dedicated to supporting the unique security and operational requirements of its federal government...

National Wiretapping Arrests Rock Telecom Italia.
September 21, 2006... Amid the management shakeup, political involvement and acquisition/divestiture rumor headlines regarding Telecom Italia (TI) (TelecomWeb news break, Sept. 18), more scandal has erupted over illegal wiretapping activities and arrests that...

Live From Interop: Day Two In The Big Apple.
September 21, 2006... It's now clear that New York City is a great place to see a subway station being rebuilt and a mayor pitching a skyscraper to replace those Al Quaeda destroyed, but it's not a place where the telecommunications/broadband industry wants to...

Wireless Carriers Seek Stronger FCC Roaming Oversight.
September 21, 2006... Some 25 U.S. regional and rural wireless operators essentially are asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to clamp down on the terms and conditions imposed on them regarding roaming agreements they must sign with larger wireless...

Research Sez: 2007 A Banner Year For Mobile TV?
September 21, 2006... By the end of 2007, some four million U.S. wireless subscribers will receive entertainment and information on their wireless handsets via such mobile-broadcast technologies as DVB-H and MediaFLO, rather than via streaming unicast services....

Top News Dailies Go Mobile.
September 21, 2006... Using the same Crisp Wireless mLogic engine behind the recent line of mobile Hachette Filipacchi magazines, Washingtonpost Newsweek Interactive launched its major news brands as mobile publications this week. The Washington Post...

Motorola Taps Vending Machines As Next Marketing Venue.
September 21, 2006... Forgot your mobile phone or lost it somewhere along the way? Never fear. Motorola says it will be the first mobile-device manufacturer to offer its products to consumers through robotic retail stores in a pilot program providing automated,...