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Polycom Completes Acquisition of HP Visual Collaboration Business Unit

Telecom News — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 07:56:03 +0000

Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), a global leader in unified communications (UC), today announced the close of its acquisition of HP’s Visual Collaboration business, and the agreement under which Polycom will serve as an exclusive partner to HP for telepresence and certain video UC solutions, including both resale and internal HP deployments. The acquisition and agreement doubles Polycom’s immersive telepresence marketshare and further strengthens Polycom�s leadership in the UC video market, which is growing rapidly as businesses of all sizes around the world are using video collaboration as a strategic and cost-effective way to improve productivity and create high-performance workplaces. In addition to HP, Polycom works with a large and diverse channel community representing multiple routes to market, including: distribution partners, value added resellers, service providers and systems integrators. Polycom�s uncompromising commitment to open standards and 100% channel orientation remains unchanged.

The two companies also recently agreed to make Polycom’s enterprise-grade video applications available for HP’s webOS platform, in keeping with Polycom’s commitment to enable mobile UC as a key element in its UC Everywhere� vision.

Polycom CEO & President Andrew M. Miller

“Polycom is excited to close this acquisition and we welcome Halo customers to Polycom. We’re looking forward to our expanded strategic relationship with HP, to offer customers an end-to-end UC solution with an unparalleled user experience, open standards-based interoperability, the industry’s best TCO, investment protection through backwards- and forwards-compatibility, and ease of deployment,” said Andrew Miller, Polycom president and CEO. “HP has enormous global reach, and our broadened relationship with the company is another important step in meeting Polycom’s commitment to bring the most advanced and innovative UC solutions to market � from mobile video applications and UC software to room and immersive telepresence solutions. In addition, Polycom and HP share a strategic ally in Microsoft, and we believe our combined offerings will provide transformative benefits and value to customers worldwide.”

In the rapidly growing UC and telepresence markets, Polycom has emerged as a leader and continues to gain significant marketshare in both video endpoint solutions and video infrastructure. In the latest Wainhouse Research quarterly report on video conferencing and telepresence, “Wainhouse Spotcheck: Videoconferencing Q1 2011,” Polycom gained nine points vs. the previous quarter and extended its leadership in video endpoint unit shipments to 45 percent market share in Q1 2011. Polycom also grew three points sequentially in video infrastructure revenue (Polycom offers the UC Intelligent Core� platform), as the overall video infrastructure market grew at 24 percent year-over-year.

The acquisition strengthens Polycom’s leadership position in the UC and telepresence markets by bringing HP’s installed base of visual collaboration products and technology together with Polycom’s customer base � the industry’s largest at about 1 million video systems. The acquisition includes the assets of HP’s Visual Collaboration business, including the Halo Products and Managed Services business. Polycom picks up customer sites with many Global 500 customers across 36 countries.

For current Halo and Halo Video Exchange Network (HEVN) customers, Polycom will deliver uninterrupted services and support� providing the same quality of experience and service level agreements these customers have enjoyed and expect. Polycom is also committed to providing interoperability between Halo deployments, Polycom telepresence systems and open-standards UC systems.

Polycom and HP’s Expanded Alliance
Under the terms of its agreements with HP, Polycom provides expertise in software technology and UC infrastructure and solutions, covering the full continuum of integrated and secure mobile, desktop, room and immersive telepresence solutions. HP provides its expertise and leadership in go-to-market strategies for UC solutions and will resell Polycom’s UC solutions including: mobile, personal and group UC devices, UC Intelligent Core software platform, UC managed services, and audio/video software.

Together, Polycom and HP empower collaboration, increase productivity, speed decision making and help create high-performance workplaces across industries and the globe by offering a tailored approach to customer requirements and supporting a variety of UC solutions that scale and evolve as business needs change.

“Clients are seeking ways to enable their employees to share information faster, increase responsiveness and ultimately improve productivity,” said Arthur Filip, vice president and general manager, Technology Consulting, HP. “HP works with clients to create their unique Unified Communications strategy, transforming their communications infrastructure to improve collaboration and business responsiveness. By collaborating with HP and Polycom, clients will benefit from an end-to-end UC solution that will address their needs today and in the future.”

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Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM and Sony now Own Nortel’s remaining pattents

Telecom News — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:00:58 +0000

Nortel Networks Corporation [OTC: NRTLQ] announced that it,its subsidiary Nortel Networks Limited (NNL), and certain of its other subsidiaries, including Nortel Networks Inc. and Nortel Networks UK Limited (in administration), have completed the sale of all of Nortel’s remaining patents and patent applications to a consortium consisting of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony, for a cash purchase price of US$4.5 billion.

As previously announced, the sale includes more than 6,000 patents and patent applications spanning wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patents. The extensive patent portfolio touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications and additional markets as well, including Internet search and social networking.

As previously announced, Nortel does not expect that the Company’s common shareholders or the NNL preferred shareholders will receive any value from Nortel’s creditor protection proceedings and expects that the proceedings will result in the cancellation of these equity interests.

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Polycom RealPresence Ready Launched

Telecom News — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:47:51 +0000

Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) today announced new video offerings designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that make it easier than ever to purchase, install, and operate high-quality, business-grade video collaboration solutions from Polycom. Today, Polycom introduced Polycom RealPresence Ready, its new comprehensive open video collaboration solution optimized for SMBs that delivers the highest quality video collaboration at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). Polycom is also introducing with its partners new cloud-based offerings powered by the Polycom� UC Intelligent Core� software platform to deliver affordable and secure video solutions on demand. Tailored for the tighter budgets and leaner staffs of emerging companies, these cost-effective solutions are integral to Polycom’s strategy to offer SMBs a fast on-ramp to the benefits of video collaboration and a flexible expansion path in line with their business growth.

“Polycom has built a strong business in the SMB market over many years with tens of thousands of customers across many industries that choose Polycom for our commitment to interoperability, highest quality and lowest TCO,” said Susan Hayden, executive vice president, Polycom. “As the demand for affordable and easy-to-use video solutions continues to grow, we’re doubling down on our SMB initiatives and accelerating the pace at which we’ll bring innovative software solutions to market�delivered on premises or from the cloud to any end point: room systems, desktops and mobile, while ensuring the best video experience at the most compelling price point. When customers choose Polycom open solutions, they can be assured that all their communications systems will work together seamlessly today and as their businesses grow.”

Polycom Video Solutions: The Best Choice for SMBs
Polycom RealPresence Ready is a comprehensive video solution for SMBs that delivers business-grade performance in terms of quality, reliability, security, and scalability at an affordable price and with the ease-of-use that growing businesses need. Demonstrating Polycom’s commitment to assuring interoperability with open standards-based solutions, RealPresence Ready is fully backward and forward compatible with any communications system customers have today or may purchase in the future.

Comprehensive and easy to use. Makes it easy to purchase, deploy and manage business-grade video with a complete system that includes two Polycom HDX� 6000 room systems, one Polycom HDX� 7000 system, and five Polycom Telepresence m100 software licenses.
Business-grade quality, security, reliablity. Delivers high-quality, reliable and secure conversations with Polycom UltimateHD� technology and patented innovations that ensure great experiences even in congested networking environments. Polycom video is the highest quality available with the lowest consumption of network resources � using H.264 coding and compression technology that delivers life-like video experiences while consuming up to 50 percent less network bandwidth than alternative products.
Cost-effective for the lowest TCO. Combining a competitive entry-level price with the lowest total cost of ownership, Polycom RealPresence Ready can be financed for less than the cost of one business trip per month. Polycom solutions are modular so that SMB customers can add innovative components such as Polycom� Eagle Eye Director, Polycom telepresence m500 for tablets, and Polycom VVX� 1500 business video phone down the road � bringing the full Polycom video experience to SMBs as they expand. To assure interoperability with other systems and products that SMBs may have in place, Polycom systems are based on open standards and provide native integration with industry-leading partners and products, including Microsoft Lync. With Polycom, SMBs can interoperate with the broadest range of video collaboration systems, and be assured of a cost-effective growth path.

“There’s something about seeing the person you’re working with that a voice alone can’t provide,” said Gene Crosby, chief operating officer at Jackson Spalding, an Atlanta, Georgia-based firm of 80 creative professionals who develop advertising, media, and public relations campaigns. “We need to be able to communicate face-to-face, internally and with our clients, even if we aren’t in the same place. When looking for affordable, high-quality and secure video conferencing capabilities, we needed to weigh the investment carefully. Choosing Polycom telepresence solutions was easily the smartest purchase we made last year, and we’ve seen amazing results. Polycom improves our productivity and the work we do, and our employees and clients feel much more engaged.”

Polycom’s Go-To-Market Ecosystem Expanding to Meet Growing Demand from SMBs
Polycom’s SMB customer base is growing from virtually every corner of the SMB market, across a wide variety of industries including financial services, manufacturing, professional services, education, retail, non-profit, and media and entertainment. Polycom continues to aggressively build out its successful telesales program to reach more SMB customers and to simplify the purchasing and deployment of video communications systems through VARs and service providers. Polycom’s partner ecosystem and open collaboration network include thousands of partners and resellers with deep expertise in meeting the unique needs of SMBs around the world, offering flexibility and choice in products and services that customers can be assured will interoperate.

Polycom also works with companies such as Regus to enable travelers and businesses of all sizes to reserve Polycom-equipped video conferencing rooms. This service is especially helpful for SMBs with mobile employees or offices that do not have dedicated video conferencing space and limited IT resources, providing yet another affordable deployment option for SMBs.

Cloud Solutions from the Polycom Ecosystem
Launching this week, a new cloud-based “Virtual Room” service from 8×8, Inc., enabled by the Polycom UC Intelligent Core software platform, will include Polycom HDX video solutions and Polycom VVX business media phones. 8×8′s “Virtual Room” service allows users to join meetings via video and audio devices as well as web telephony and smart mobile phone clients.

Another new offering from Polycom’s ecosystem is BroadSoft’s BroadCloud Video service, a cloud-based, hosted infrastructure that integrates with existing service provider offerings and Polycom UC solutions to create more video conferencing service-option packages for SMBs to choose from. Additional Polycom service provider partners plan to announce cloud-based video solutions in the coming months.

Polycom, in concert with the Open Visual Collaboration Network, is also working with many partners and service providers to offer cloud-based video conferencing services to companies of all sizes with a common vision to make video collaboration between people and devices as simple and reliable as making a phone call � regardless of network, provider, end-point or technology.

Polycom UC Solutions
Polycom UC solutions bring people face-to-face, creating a highly collaborative environment that significantly improves learning, retention, and engagement as well as overall productivity and efficiency. Polycom helps companies of all sizes, in all industries, become high-performance workplaces where people collaborate on-demand between any location, over any network, with their device of choice to enable UC Everywhere� by Polycom.

Polycom UC offerings include HD voice and video solutions for personal, mobile, group, and immersive telepresence experiences � using up to half the video bandwidth required by other solutions. The UC Intelligent Core technology is the only platform that connects up to 75,000 devices and enables 25,000 simultaneous calls with 100 percent auto-failover, providing the best-in-class user experience. With a broad ecosystem of strategic partners, Polycom provides the most comprehensive, reliable, and scalable collaboration platform for managing and delivering UC solutions to employees, partners and suppliers � on premises or from the cloud.

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Avaya in Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure Worldwide

Telecom News — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 17:43:26 +0000

Avaya announced that the company was positioned as a Leader in the recently published 2011 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide.(1)

In the annual report, Avaya was cited as a contact center infrastructure leader based on two key criteria: ‘ability to execute’ and ‘completeness of vision.’ Gartner defines contact center infrastructure as “the products (equipment, software and services) needed to operate call centers for basic telephony support and contact centers for multichannel support. This type of infrastructure is used by customer and employee service and support centers, inbound and outbound telemarketing services, help-desk services, government-operated support centers and other types of structured communication operations.”

Avaya offers a range of contact center solutions, including Avaya Aura Contact Center, which enables businesses to deliver high-quality agent-assisted experiences across multimedia channels, and Avaya Aura Call Center Elite, the company�s powerful voice-based customer routing solution. Both integrate with Avaya Aura�, which provides Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)-based communication services that enable unified communications and contact center solutions to be deployed to connected endpoints, regardless of the infrastructure the endpoints reside on.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant observed a variety of broad global trends influencing the planning of enterprise contact center infrastructure for 2011. They include:

“Momentum for multichannel routing, including email response management, web chat and customer collaboration solutions.”
“Once almost solely limited to point-solution providers, many contact center infrastructure suites or portfolios include some level of contact center workforce optimization functionality.”
“Increasing awareness of social media influences and the potential impact on contact center exists, although actual adoption of social CRM solutions in contact centers remains primarily limited to companies that take a more aggressive approach to technology adoption.”

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Comcast Selects Cisco ASR 9000 for Business Metro Ethernet Services

Telecom News — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:40:15 +0000

Comcast has deployed the Cisco Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series (ASR 9000) as part of its next-generation network that is delivering advanced business services in more than 20 major U.S. markets, with expansion into new markets planned in the months ahead.

Comcast is working with Cisco on this deployment based on Cisco’s technology, services, and experience helping network operators scale services to meet business customer demands. Designed to deliver massive scale and accommodate the projected explosion in global Internet traffic, Cisco’s ASR 9000 provides Comcast with a converged infrastructure that optimizes service delivery through its flexibility, wide array of features and its emphasis on Carrier Ethernet.

Surya Panditi, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Core Technology Group stated:

“Growing businesses depend on service providers to deploy business-critical applications and services that are vital to their business success. In response, service providers must make the necessary network enhancements to enable these services with platforms that not only provide the necessary functions but are also easy to provision, scale and upgrade. Backed by leading technologies like the ASR 9000, which is deployed with major service provider customers worldwide, Cisco is equipping customers with the very best network foundation for extending new business applications well into the future.”

Comcast’s Metro Ethernet services, which provide access to the company’s next-generation fiber optic network for businesses with high-bandwidth needs in multiple locations, are part of an ongoing strategy to expand Comcast’s portfolio of business services to meet the requirements of larger customers.

The Cisco ASR 9000 includes capabilities optimizing it for video delivery, including integrated content caching and in-line video performance monitoring. The new platform also uses Cisco’s IOS XR modular software operating system, helping simplify Comcast’s network operations and enable economic, seamless comprehensive system redundancy and network resiliency.

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Johnson Controls & Avaya Aura Unified Communications Platform

Telecom News — Mon, 23 May 2011 13:04:04 +0000

Avaya today announced that Johnson Controls (JCI) will be upgrading to Avaya Aura as the company’s new global IP telephony platform. This will provide new capabilities and a solution that supports the company’s commitment to state of the art communication technologies and lower costs. Avaya Global Services will design, deploy and manage the entire operation, which will extend to over 1000 locations and 75,000 employees from three key hubs in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

The agreement extends the existing Avaya relationship with JCI as the company replaces its current PBX equipment with the Avaya Aura unified communications platform. JCI and Avaya have had a business relationship for over 10 years and both companies are pleased with this extension of the agreements.

“Avaya Aura will help JCI move to a whole new level of communications capabilities that have a tremendous potential to positively impact their business,” said Joel Hackney, senior vice president, Global Sales and Marketing and president, Field Operations, Avaya. “Avaya Global Services will also be with them every step of the way to help ensure they have an unparalleled experience that maximizes that potential. We are thrilled that JCI has decided to extend its relationship with us.”

The Avaya Unified Communication and Collaboration solutions being implemented by JCI include: Avaya Aura unified communications architecture with Session Manager, Communication Manager, Presence Services, Application Enablement Services, System Platform, Avaya Branch Gateway, Avaya Meeting Exchange, EC500, IBM Sametime Integration, Avaya one-X� Mobile and Avaya Aura Conferencing.

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Alcatel-Lucent Testing LTE Serving Gateway

Telecom News — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:10:15 +0000

Sunnyvale, Calif. � May 17, 2011 � A live demonstration this week at TIA 2011 in Dallas, Texas will showcase how the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router (SR) Mobile Gateway performs under the most demanding conditions in a 4G/LTE environment while maintaining the highest Quality of Service (QoS), even for bandwidth intensive video applications. Using Landslide on Spirent TestCenter, Alcatel-Lucent will show how the 7750 SR Mobile Gateway supports millions of active mobile broadband subscribers, each with multiple data connections. Landslide on Spirent TestCenter is the industry�s only test platform that combines real world subscriber behavior and mobile broadband traffic to evaluate wireless core packet network performance.

The demonstration features high scalability and performance with sustained aggregate throughput in excess of 180 Gbps, which is the equivalent of more than 250,000 simultaneous and individual iPad/iPhone quality Netflix streams. Even in this demanding network scenario, Alcatel-Lucent reaches the highest publicly-demonstrated throughput achieved to date.

�These tests show the 7750 Service Router�s ability to handle speed, high-throughput and connectivity challenges under an assortment of real-world cases.� said Kevin Macaluso, vice president and general manager of the Service Router product group within Alcatel-Lucent. �This is critical in allowing our service provider customers to understand that our solution will help to not only address their needs today, but also as video applications become even more pervasive. LTE and other 4G technologies require a powerful platform for testing and Spirent�s Landslide was the principal tool we used in the lab that helped us to validate the performance of our router in the role of a mobile gateway.�

This public demonstration will showcase the highest subscriber traffic aggregate speeds while supporting 1.5 million active mobile devices and three million default and dedicated data connections. It will use two Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SRs configured as an LTE Serving gateway (SGW) and a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway, and will emphasize the way this solution performs under the most demanding real world conditions.

The Landslide on Spirent TestCenter solution provides a comprehensive end-to-end offering that emulates millions of mobile data subscribers, simultaneously accessing the wireless network using various access models. It tests all of the key wireless core elements, and combines control plane and data plane simulation. This provides real-world emulation of millions of mobile nodes in various stages of activation, deactivation, and hand-off between cells, all while transmitting and receiving real-world application data over an AnyG mobile network.

�This testing builds on our long relationship with Alcatel-Lucent, allowing this leading mobile infrastructure provider to deliver products that live up to the promise of next-generation networks.� said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. �As a leader in next-generation mobile infrastructure testing, Spirent�s ability to scale up to millions of data connections at line rate enables Alcatel-Lucent to gain a detailed awareness of subscriber scalability and data performance.�

The Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router integrates the scalability, resiliency, and predictability of MPLS along with the bandwidth and economics of Ethernet and a broad selection of high-speed (100 Gbps) and legacy interfaces, to enable a converged network infrastructure for the delivery of next-generation services. The platform�s advanced and comprehensive feature set enables it to be deployed as the aggregation router in mobile backhaul applications or as a mobile gateway for wireless networks.

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ALU Q1 2011 – Particularly Pleasing says Ben Verwaayen, CEO

Telecom News — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:41:47 +0000

Alcatel-Lucent continues its momentum into 2011 with a strong start to the year: 15% top line year-over-year growth in Q1�11 & positive adjusted operating profit

KEY NUMBERS�FOR THE FIRST QUARTER�2011

Revenues of Euro 3.740 billion, up 15.2% year-over-year
Adjusted² gross profit of Euro 1.354 billion or 36.2% of revenues
Adjusted² operating income¹ of Euro 13 million or 0.3% of revenues
Operating cash flow³ of Euro 169 million
Net (debt)/cash of Euro 106 million as of March 31, 2011

Ben Verwaayen

Ben Verwaayen, CEO, commented:�We have started this year the way we ended the last, increasing growth, profit and global strength, and to do so in the first quarter is particularly pleasing.�

�A favourable geographic and product mix impacted positively our gross margin while actions on fixed costs have been taken which will drive further efficiency gains during the course of the year. We improved our free cash flow by more than Euro 200 million compared to the year ago quarter.

Market momentum remains robust, driven by demand for more capacity and service delivery capabilities in many geographies. While we are facing some difficulties with our supply chain, we believe those challenges will have a limited impact on our business performance thanks to rapid actions taken. With a strong start to the year, we are reaffirming our full-year outlook to grow faster than our addressable market with an adjusted operating margin above 5% of our 2011 sales.�

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

First quarter revenue increased 15.2% year-over-year and decreased 23.1% sequentially to Euro 3.740 billion. At constant currency exchange rates and perimeter, revenue increased 13.9% year-over-year and decreased 21.6% sequentially. Networks saw a strong year-over-year increase in revenue with all divisions growing.IP revenues maintained a very strong pace of growth with an increase of more than 20% as did wireless with an increase close to 34% driven by 3G defined as the sum of WCDMA & CDMA EV-DO and 4G technologies.The optics division posted sales growth both in submarine and terrestrial transmission and wireline benefited from good growth in GPON and IPDSLAM. Applications revenues posted a year-over-year high single digit increase with Networks applications growing at a double digit rate and Enterprise applications increasing close to 6%.Services revenues grew at a low single digit rate with strong double digit growth for Network & System integration.From a geographic standpoint, growth in North America accelerated again this quarter at 40% year-over-year, Rest of World grew at a low double digit rate driven by Brazil and Mexico. Asia Pacific grew slightly thanks to China, somewhat compensated by lower sales in the rest of the region and Europe declined 1% year-over-year with Eastern Europe and Western Europe declining at roughly the same pace.

Adjusted² operating¹ income of Euro 13 million or 0.3% of revenue. Gross margin came in at 36.2% of revenue for the quarter, compared to 32.6% in the year ago quarter and 36.2% in the fourth quarter 2010. The year-over-year increase in gross margin was driven by a very good geographical and product mix. The sequential stability in the gross margin results from a decrease in volumes compensated by a better geographical & product mix. Operating expenses increased 7.0% year-over-year on a reported basis and adjusted for constant currency, the increase is 5.7% year-over-year primarily driven by an increase in R&D spending related to new product development in IP and wireless and an increase in SG&A spending related to seasonal accruals activity. On a sequential basis, operating expenses decreased by 1.8% as reported and by 1.5% at constant currency reflecting a decrease in R&D.

Reported net loss (group share) of Euro (10) million or Euro (0.00) per share. This includes a one-time gain of Euro 69 million pre-tax and after tax related to an amendment of the US management pension plan. Purchase Price Adjustments amounted to Euro (68) million pre-tax and to Euro (42) million after tax.

Net (debt)/cash of Euro 106 million, versus Euro 362 million as of December 31, 2010 (the value of the net debt for past quarters has been restated from previous reported figures to take into account the Mark-to-Market of foreign exchange derivatives on intergroup loans).The sequential decrease in net cash of Euro 256 million primarily reflects the positive operating cash flow of Euro 169 million partly offset with interests expenses of Euro (100) million, restructuring cash outlays of Euro (82) million, contribution to pensions and OPEB of Euro (46) million and capital expenditures of Euro (134) million. The positive operating cash flow results from the level of adjusted operating income and a decrease in operating working capital requirements of Euro 82 million.

Funded status of Pensions and OPEB of Euro 10 million at end of March, compared to Euro (516) million as of December 31, 2010. Excluding currency impact, the improvement of the funded status of Pensions & OPEB mainly results from an increase of the fair value of the plan assets for Euro 451 million and a positive impact of Euro 69 million from an amendment of the U.S management pension plan. Effective 1^st of April, an amendment of the management pension plan has been signed in February 2011 to include a lump sum option for the active employees who are eligible for service pensions. The accounting impact is a credit of around Euro 69 million in the P&L recorded in the first quarter 2011 which increases by the same amount the IFRS funded status at the end of March 2011.

Read the full report here

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Alcatel-Lucent OpenPlug Studio Toolkit License Now Free

Telecom News — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:11:06 +0000

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced two initiatives to fuel the growth of applications that work across platforms and devices.

Effective immediately, OpenPlug Studio (formerly OpenPlug ELIPS Studio) will now be available to application developers free of charge. OpenPlug Studio is a development toolkit that allows developers to efficiently create native applications for smart phones, tablets and other web-connected devices from a single code base using well-known web development technologies such as JavaScript, ActionScript and XML. Developers can download OpenPlug Studio at http://developer.openplug.com

The company also launched a Certified OpenPlug Solutions Provider Program focused on application development and developer training. Initial members include Exuvis, Nexworld and On3. They will teach developers how to use the OpenPlug tools, while also building mobile applications for businesses that run on any platform or device and leverage service providers� network-based APIs (application programming interfaces).

These new initiatives will make it easier for a new generation of applications to be developed and rolled out �at the speed of ideas� � a core commitment of Alcatel-Lucent in its support of the application developer community.

The tremendous growth in mobile applications is largely fueled by the consumer and enterprise adoption of smartphones and tablets. Industries such as transportation are looking to these devices to more efficiently mobilize their staffs and deliver an entirely new level of service. Media and entertainment industries are using the technology to extend the value of content subscriptions across as many platforms as possible � keeping paid content in play.

Alcatel-Lucent acquired OpenPlug in September 2010, one of several aggressive moves it has made to advance Alcatel-Lucent�s Application Enablement vision. Application Enablement combines the service provider�s trusted network capabilities with the speed and innovation of the Web to enable a new generation of richer services for consumers and business users. The OpenPlug tools are also incorporated into the company�s Open API Platform which enables service providers and enterprises to open up their networks and attract a community of application and content providers.

Marc Muller, CEO at Nexworld: �Thanks to OpenPlug Studio, our customers will open their enterprise systems to new use cases enabled by smartphones and tablets. Nexworld will bring them the best architecture and software solutions to guarantee agility, efficiency and performance.�

Scott Guthman, Director of Sales and Marketing at On3: �On3 is proud to be the first North American Certified OpenPlug Solutions Provider. The OpenPlug Studio supports ActionScript which lets us leverage our expertise in Adobe Flex. This one tool allows for the deployment of native applications to the major mobile platforms: iOS, Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile. Combining these tools for mobile software development increases productivity and will lower the cost of multiplatform development for us.�

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Good Enough Network Myth Debunked by Cisco

Telecom News — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:09:17 +0000

Update: view the presentation online here

On Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Cisco will host a live IPTV broadcast to debunk the Myth of the “Good Enough” Network by outlining the seven most common misperceptions about taking a tactical, multi-vendor approach to building business-critical networks. The webcast will be hosted by Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s executive vice president of worldwide operations, and will feature executives from The Royal Bank of Scotland and BlueWater Communications Group.

What: A live, global IPTV broadcast and interactive Q&A session to discuss:

IT industry trends driving the evolution of the network
Common misperceptions about taking a “good enough” approach to networking
Real world benefits of investing in the network as a strategic asset and innovation engine

Who:

Rob Lloyd, executive vice president, Worldwide Operations, Cisco
Mike Rau, vice president and chief technology officer, Borderless Networks, Cisco
George Kelsey, head of Technology Solutions, The Royal Bank of Scotland
Darren Buckley, director of Network Transformation, The Royal Bank of Scotland
Bob Cagnazzi, chief executive officer, BlueWater Communications Group

When: Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 8:00 a.m Pacific Time (11:00 a.m. Eastern Time; 4:00 GMT)

Where: To register for the webcast please visit: http://newsroom.cisco.com/enough/webcast

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Debunking the “Good Enough” Network Myth

Cisco’s New Green Data Center in Texas Showcases Private Cloud Deployment

Telecom News — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:48:42 +0000

Cisco today announced a new green data center in Allen, Texas, with an architecture deploying Cisco’s entire data center technology portfolio spanning computing, switching, and data storage access to support Cisco’s internal private cloud and deliver Information Technology (IT) as a service. The new data center demonstrates the value of a network-based approach through improved resilience, performance and use of resources, while delivering IT services such as video, mobility, security, and collaboration to Cisco employees, customers, partners, and other constituents.

In 2007 Cisco created a vision to deliver IT as a service and developed a long-range plan to deliver that vision through data center consolidation, virtualization, and cloud computing.� Cisco’s newest data center combines the best in environment-friendly facility design, green approaches to power and cooling, and an architectural approach optimized for virtualization and cloud computing, with the aim of delivering “everything as a service.”

This next generation data center tightly integrates Cisco Unified Fabric, Unified Computing, and Unified Network Services into a holistic data center fabric designed to be simple, scalable and highly secure, delivering any application across any location, within the data center, across data centers, and to the cloud.� Along with technology from key partners like EMC, NetApp, and VMware, the new data center is a showcase for Cisco solutions, including the Cisco Unified Computing System�, Nexus 7000 Series switches�,Nexus 5000 Series switches�, Nexus 1000V Virtual Switch�, MDS storage networking switches, Data Center Network Manager and NX-OS, a comprehensive data center operating system that spans the Cisco data center portfolio.

Data Center “Metro Pairs” Deliver Business Resiliency

Cisco’s new data center is paired with a second data center facility in Richardson, Texas to form what Cisco calls a Metro Virtual Data Center (MVDC). Together, the Active/Active data centers form a virtualized, dynamic IT services cloud, also serving as backup sites for one another. This enables both data centers to run real-time critical applications, such as WebEx, simultaneously in both places for world-class business resiliency.

Charting a Course to the Cloud

Cisco has plans to consolidate its data centers into three pairs of MVDC production data centers worldwide, which will serve as the building blocks for Cisco’s private cloud � Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services.� �Through its resilient private cloud, Cisco will deliver to employees, customers, partners, and other constituents IT services like video, mobility, security, and collaboration, while reducing costs for hardware, real estate, power/cooling, and operations.

The Cloud Makes Data Centers Greener

While energy-efficient buildings and smarter power and cooling solutions contribute to greener data centers, the technology that runs the data center can also make a huge contribution.� For example, a Unified Fabric in the data center unites storage and data traffic, reducing the number of switches, adapters and cabling required, and therefore the power usage.� Cisco saved more than $1 million on cabling in this facility, and fewer cables translate to increased air circulation so the equipment runs cooler and more efficiently.� Cloud computing is forecast to cut worldwide data center energy usage by 38 percent in 2020, according to “cleantech” analysts at Pike Research. This could also cut greenhouse gases by 28 percent in 2020 compared to 2010.

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Cisco Acquisition of newScale Completed

Telecom News — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:11:00 +0000

Cisco has completed its acquisition of privately-held newScale Inc., a provider of software that delivers a service catalog and self-service portal for IT organizations to select and quickly deploy cloud services within their businesses. Based in San Mateo, Calif., newScale allows commercial and enterprise customers to initiate the provisioning of their own systems and infrastructure on an as-needed basis.

Cisco’s cloud strategy is to harness the network as a platform for building and using clouds and cloud services.� newScale complements and expands existing Cisco and partner software offerings in IT and cloud management and automation. Cisco remains committed to supporting flexibility and choice in management through a broad ecosystem of technology partners, and newScale delivers an additional option the company can provide to its customers.

Financial terms of the transaction are undisclosed. With the close of the acquisition, the newScale team reports into Cisco’s Advanced Services organization.

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Nortel Mediation Sessions Failed…

Telecom News — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 09:37:47 +0000

Nortel Networks Corporation announced that the mediation process that had been commenced in respect of the allocation of sale proceeds of Nortel’s various business and asset divestitures and other inter-estate matters, including inter-company claims, has ended without resolution of the matters in dispute. As previously announced, the Nortel entities that are in creditor protection proceedings in Canada, the United States, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as the Canadian Monitor, the U.S. Principal Officer, the U.S. Official Unsecured Creditors’ Committee, the Ad Hoc Bondholders Group and certain other interested parties, had entered into a confidential, non-binding mediation in an attempt to reach a consensual settlement of all material outstanding inter-estate matters. Mediation sessions were first held in November 2010 and again from April 11 to April 13, 2011.

In light of the unsuccessful conclusion of the mediation process, delays in the ultimate resolution of allocation and inter-company claims matters potentially could be significant. Such delays would result in a corresponding significant delay in the timing of distributions to holders of validated claims of the various estates.

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Cisco Restructures Consumer Business – Goodbye Flip & Hello Business TelePresence

Telecom News — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:58:17 +0000

As part of Cisco’s plan to align its operations, it will exit aspects of its consumer businesses and realign the remaining consumer business to support four of its five key company priorities � core routing, switching and services; collaboration; architectures; and video. As part of its plan, Cisco will:

Close down its Flip business and support current FlipShare customers and partners with a transition plan.
Refocus Cisco’s Home Networking business for greater profitability and connection to the company’s core networking infrastructure as the network expands into a video platform in the home. These industry-leading products will continue to be available through retail channels.
Integrate Cisco umi into the company’s Business TelePresence product line and operate through an enterprise and service provider go-to-market model, consistent with existing business TelePresence efforts.
Assess core video technology integration of Cisco’s Eos media solutions business or other market opportunities for this business.

“We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy,” said John Chambers, Cisco chairman and CEO. “As we move forward, our consumer efforts will focus on how we help our enterprise and service provider customers optimize and expand their offerings for consumers, and help ensure the network’s ability to deliver on those offerings.”

In connection with the changes to the consumer business, it is anticipated that Cisco will recognize restructuring charges to its GAAP financial results, with an aggregate pre-tax impact not expected to exceed $300 million during the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2011. The charges will be disclosed in upcoming earnings conference calls and quarterly Form 10-Q filings.� Additionally, the company expects this will result in a reduction of approximately 550 employees in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.

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Google LTE or Self Defence? Google offering $900m for Nortel’s Patent Portfolio

Telecom News — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:47:02 +0000

Google has offered $900m for Nortel’s patent portfolio. Google claims it does so to protect it’s own patent claims and their Android strategy sure has a play in this. Nortel finds Google’s offer high enough, but there is still time for other parties to bid higher, though we find that not too likely. According to the NY Times the portfolio holds over 6000 patents.

Is Google just protecting their patents or are they trying to get a piece of the LTE market to at one day become a mobile operator? Please share your views below.

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Frost & Sullivan Recognizes Avaya as Global Market Leader in Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solution

Telecom News — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:31:28 +0000

Avaya has received the 2011 Global Market Share Leadership Award in Enterprise Premises-Based FMC Solutions from Frost & Sullivan. The award is presented to the company that has demonstrated excellence in capturing the highest market share within its industry.
Frost & Sullivan cited Avaya as one of the pioneers and leaders in fixed mobile convergence, and the following contributing factors to the company’s success:

Strong position and brand name recognition in IP telephony
A wide, diverse enterprise mobility portfolio
Successful communications bundling strategy through Avaya UC All Inclusive
An extensive ecosystem of partners, including the Avaya DevConnect developer program and the Avaya Connect channel program
Plans to extend Avaya Flare Experience to a broad range of fixed and mobile devices
Constant innovation to offer a choice of mobility solutions that fit diverse customer needs

“Throughout the years, Avaya has demonstrated unwavering commitment to delivering superior communication solutions to its business customers, and has proven once again its market leadership in enterprise mobility,” said Alaa Saayed, senior analyst, Frost & Sullivan. “Today, Avaya is a widely recognized for best-of-breed IP telephony systems and next-generation unified communications and collaboration solutions. The company has successfully invested time and resources in its vision, direction, and overall strategy, gaining the trust and confidence of a large portion of the enterprise communication customers.”

Avaya led the industry with 35.5 percent of the total advanced premises-based FMC clients shipped in 2010. Advanced FMC solutions are defined by Frost & Sullivan as all fixed-mobile convergence solutions created to work with smartphones to go beyond the typical touch-tone interface and the access number prefixing of a basic PBX-to-mobile extension.

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Nortel Sells IPv4 Block of IP Addresses for US$ 7.5-million

Telecom News — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:43:05 +0000

Bankrupt Nortel sold 666,624 IPv4 addresses to Microsoft for the sum of US$ 7.5-million, which is over $11 per IP address. According to a court filing “Because of the limited supply of IPv4 addresses, there is currently an opportunity to realize value from marketing the Internet Numbers, which opportunity will diminish over time as IPv6 addresses are more widely adopted.”.
Read more here

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ALU Banned: Alcatel-Lucent Admitted also Paying Bribes for Contracts in Malaysia

Telecom News — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:34:32 +0000

Telekom Malaysia and mobile operator Axiata have barred Alcatel-Lucent from bidding for new tenders for a year after it admitted paying bribes for contracts.

Malaysian authorities in December began to probe accusations by US officials that Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent gave kickbacks to government officials in Latin America and Asia — including Malaysia — between December 2001 and June 2006.

The investigation came days after Alcatel-Lucent agreed to pay $137 million in fines and penalties to settle the charges as part of an agreement with US authorities. Transparency International Malaysia welcomed the the decisions but described the 12-month punishment as “mild” by international standards.

Alcatel-Lucent agreed in December to pay the huge fine to settle the charges following a deal with the US Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It had told the two US authorities that it made improper payments to obtain contracts with Celcom, a unit of Axiata. Axiata was previously known as TM International, a unit of Telekom Malaysia.

The Justice Department said Alcatel had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prior to its 2006 merger with US-based Lucent Technologies.

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Cisco continues to be #1 ranked Innovator according to The Patent Board

Telecom News — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:13:03 +0000

Cisco Systems, Inc. (San Jose, California, USA) continues to hold the top rank on this week�s Patent Scorecard. Cisco holds a comfortable lead over the industry, and had a patent count increase of 10%, well above the 8.3% industry average increase. It also had a 16% improvement in Research Intensity� for the period. AT&T (Dallas Texas, USA) maintains its 2nd place spot, with healthy increase across all indicators, including an 11% increase in patent count, an 18% increase in Science Strength� and a 16% improvement in Research Intensity�.

The latest Telecom & Communications Patent Scorecard was released today and has ranked 129 of the top Telecom & Communications companies according to the relative strengths of their patent portfolios as measured by Technology Strength�. The Patent Scorecard� provides an overall assessment of a company�s recent intellectual property quality and quantity at a broad industry level. The Patent Board tracks seventeen industry scorecards and also creates customized scorecards that provide insight with leading performance indicators for an entire portfolio and its closest competitors, scalable at the technology or business unit level.

Qualcomm, Inc. (San Diego, California, USA), Nokia Group (Espoo, Finland) and Motorola, Inc. (Schaumburg, Illinois, USA) all remain unchanged at 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively. Qualcomm had a 16% increase in patent count, and an 18% increase in Science Strength�, which leads the industry and is over double that of its nearest competitor, Cisco. The company also improved its industry leading Research Intensity� score by 11% and is now almost double that of the industry average. Nokia had a strong increase in Research Intensity�, at 18%, and also improved its Science Strength� by almost 10%. Motorola declines…

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Telecom News — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:41:02 +0000

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE:ALU ) has been selected by China Mobile to participate to the world�s largest 4G TD-LTE trial network deployment in China. This qualification follows successful completion of various interoperability tests which started from January 2010 as required by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT) and China Mobile. Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent�s flagship company in China is one of the first suppliers to have successfully achieved this key milestone and will be deploying its end-to-end LTE solution for China Mobile�s large-scale 4G TD-LTE trial in the city of Shanghai.

Covering 6 major Chinese cities, namely Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Xiamen, and recently extended to Beijing, this large scale TD-LTE trial will help China Mobile to provide a wide range of high speed mobile broadband services to its subscribers, such as high definition video, 3D gaming, FTP transmission and high speed Internet. It will also enable new industries with LTE connectivity like automotive industry and multi-industry ecosystem development thanks to initiatives pioneered by Alcatel-Lucent through the ng Connect Program launched two years ago.

Rajeev Singh-Molares, president of Alcatel-Lucent�s activities in Asia-Pacific said: �This is a major accomplishment for Alcatel-Lucent and clearly reinforces our leading position in China and our global leadership in LTE. We are committed to provide China Mobile with the most advanced LTE solution for the world�s largest TD-LTE trial and to demonstrate the maturity and cost-effectiveness of our solution for TD-LTE which is emerging as the 4G standard for TDD spectrum globally. The successful interoperability tests with terminal suppliers further demonstrate our commitment to create an open TD-LTE ecosystem that will participate in the broader global LTE value chain.�

The tests were conducted in both 2.3GHz and 2.6GHz frequency bands for indoor and outdoor deployments and relied on Alcatel-Lucent�s industry-leading LTE expertise to provide an end-to-end integrated solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC). Alcatel-Lucent�s solution successfully passed interoperability tests with two major terminal suppliers.

Alcatel-Lucent is a key partner of China Mobile on TD-LTE and next generation wireless networks initiatives and evolution programs. During the 2010 Shanghai World Expo Alcatel-Lucent supported China Mobile in the first large-scale TD-LTE trial network deployment delivering advanced mobile services including ultra high speed Internet access and High Definition TV (HDTV). Most recently, at Mobile World Congress, Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile demonstrated with Audi, a variety of in-vehicle high-value applications that worked seamlessly on a converged Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) network ensuring seamless global coverageand the ability to benefit from a common LTE ecosystem across both modes. Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile are partnering to develop next-generation radio access network based on Alcatel-Lucent�s lightRadio, a groundbreaking innovation to prepare wireless networks to handle the explosive growth in demand for wireless broadband services while making the networks more eco friendly.

Having been selected so far by twelve customers for commercial deployments — including two of the world�s largest service providers — and being involved in over 60 trials worldwide �- including thirteen LTE TDD trials in seven countries — Alcatel-Lucent has established a strong leadership position in LTE.

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end alcatel