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Tailoring 100G for Metro Networks
by Stephan Rettenberger

 
 
 
 
 
HP Enables OpenFlow across its Enterprise Switches
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HP is enabling OpenFlow across its FlexNetwork enterprise switches. The new capabilities are delivered as a free software upgrade across 16 switches, including the HP 3500, 5400 and 8200 series. The support will be expended to all switches in the HP FlexNetwork architecture this year.

OpenFlow is an emerging network virtualization technology pioneered at Stanford University and by the Open Networking Foundation, of which HP is a founding member.

OpenFlow is aimed at reducing the complexity of network devices and automating tasks using simplified network management.

“To help enterprises uniformly manage network traffic flow across the data center, HP became an early innovator of the OpenFlow standard, supporting more than 60 universities and research centers in trials, development efforts and practical real-world applications,” said Bethany Mayer, senior vice president and general manager, Networking, HP. “With more than 10 million OpenFlow-capable switch ports deployed and the broadest portfolio currently available on the market, HP is leading the move to the OpenFlow standard and further simplifying networks for our enterprise clients.”
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U.S. Cellular to Launch LTE Next Month
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U.S. Cellular, which serves about 5.9 million mobile users, plans to launch its first LTE markets next month in partnership with King Street Wireless. Initial markets include Milwaukee, Madison and Racine, Wis.; Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa; Portland and Bangor, Maine; and Greenville, N.C. U.S. Cellular is the first wireless carrier to offer 4G LTE in several of these markets. The next wave of market launches will be announced later this month.

The 4G LTE network will cover 25 percent of U.S. Cellular's customers and will coincide with the launch of the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE mobile tablet, followed shortly by the Samsung Galaxy Aviator 4G LTE smartphone.

King Street Wireless currently holds 700 MHz wireless spectrum in 27 states and is partnering with Chicago-based U.S. Cellular to deliver high-speed 4G LTE service to U.S. Cellular's customers in several of the carrier's markets. King Street Wireless is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.
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India's Supreme Court Cancels 122 Telecom Licenses for 2G
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India's Supreme Court invalidated 122 licenses issued to telecom operators for 2G spectrum after 2008 due to the charges of corruption in the ongoing scandal. A new auction for these quashed 2G licenses will need to be held.

The ruling notes that the subjective process of 2G spectrum allocation in lieu of a public auction violated established procedures and laws, and that the government received only one-sixth of what it would have got had it gone through a fresh auction route.

"The total loss to the exchequer of giving away 2G GSM spectrum in this way – including to the CDMA operators – is over Rs.50,000 crores and is said to be one of the biggest financial scams of all times in the country."
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Ericsson and Qualcomm Complete Voice Handover from LTE to WCDMA
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Ericsson and Qualcomm announced the successful handover of a voice call from LTE to WCDMA on an end-to-end network. The handover used 3GPP-standardized Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC).

The testing, which was completed in December, demonstrated seamless voice service when the user moves out of LTE coverage as the call is automatically handed over to WCDMA or GSM. The end-to-end network was supplied by Ericsson and the smartphone used an LTE/3G multimode chipset from Qualcomm. The handover mechanism is supported on Ericsson's end-to-end products and solutions; LTE/WCDMA/GSM RAN, Evolved Packet Core, MSC and IMS to work towards VoLTE enabled LTE smartphones.

"By accomplishing this advanced LTE handover technology together with Qualcomm, we now ensure that operators can meet consumers' expectations on a high-quality voice over LTE service. Operators will be able to maintain their quality brand for their voice business when they launch voice over LTE," stated Johan Wibergh, Head of Business Unit Networks, Ericsson.

The first operators are expected to begin deploying SRVCC during 2012, followed by more global commercial launches in 2013.
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Facebook Connects 483 million Users per Day -- 48% YoY Growth
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In an SEC filing for its expected IPO, Facebook disclosed key facts about operations. Some site metrics:

Worldwide Monthly Active Users (MAUs) reached 845 million, up 39% from a year earlier.

In the U.S., MAUs reached 161 million, up 16% over a year earlier. In India, Facebook had 46 million MAUs in December.

Worldwide Daily Active users (DAUs) increased 48% to 483 million during December 2011 from 327 million during December 2010.

DAUs as a percentage of MAUs increased from 54% in 2010 to 57% in December 2011.

Mobile MAUs reached 425 million during December 2011. The Facebook app for the iPad launched in October 2011.

In April 2011, Facebook began serving traffic out of its first wholly-owned data center in Pineville, Oregon. The company is investing in new data centers in the U.S. and in Europe.

There were more than 100 billion friend connections on Facebook as of December 31, 2011.

On average more than 250 million photos per day were uploaded to Facebook in the three months ended December 31, 2011.

Users generated an average of 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day during the three months ended December 31, 2011.
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Cisco Boosts 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet Capabilities
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Cisco introduced a 40 Gigabit Ethernet Interface Module for its Catalyst 6500 Series and 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet capabilities for its Nexus 7000 data center switch. To expand its campus aggregation and data center top of rack switching, Cisco also announced two new fixed-configuration platforms that provide high-density 10 GE switching.

The enhancements include two new M2-Series modules for the Nexus 7000: a 2-port, 100 GbE Module with XL Option, which enables up to 32 high-density, non-blocking 100 GE ports in a Nexus 7000 chassis; and a 6-port 40 GbE Module with XL Option that enables up to 96 non-blocking 40 GE ports per Nexus 7000 chassis. A new Nexus 3064-X Switch is offers ultra-low-latency Ethernet specifically targeted at financial services companies. Cisco Nexus 1010-X Virtual Services Appliance offers a dedicated hardware platform for scalable deployment of services critical to virtualization infrastructure. Cisco also introduced a "Easy Virtual Network" tool for its Catalyst 6500, 4500 and Aggregation Services Router (ASR) 1000 product lines to make it easier to manage virtual services. It simplifies the creation of separate logical networks on a single physical infrastructure.
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Qualcomm Posts Record Quarter, up 14% Sequentially
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Qualcomm reported record quarterly revenue of $4.68 billion, up 40 percent year-over-year and 14 percent sequentially. Net income was $1.40 billion, up 20 percent y-o-y and 33 percent sequentially. Diluted earnings per share were $0.81, up 14 percent y-o-y and 31 percent sequentially.

"I am pleased to report another record quarter with revenues, earnings and MSM shipments reaching all-time highs, driven by our industry-leading chipset portfolio and the continued strong demand for smartphones around the world," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. "We are raising our revenue and earnings guidance as our broad licensing partnerships and extensive chipset roadmap, led by our integrated Snapdragon processors, position us well for strong growth in fiscal 2012. We continue to invest in innovative wireless technologies, products and services, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead as 3G and 4G continue to expand across new device types and geographies."

The y-o-y comparisons include the results of Qualcomm Atheros, which was acquired on May 24, 2011. Gains from Qualcomm's sale of substantially all of its 700 MHz spectrum for $1.9 billion will be reported in the next quarterly report.

Some notes:

MSM shipments reached 156 million units, up 32 percent y-o-y and 23 percent sequentially. September quarter total reported device sales reached approximately $41.4 billion, up 22 percent y-o-y and 6 percent sequentially.

September quarter estimated 3G/4G device shipments were approximately 191 to 195 million units, at an estimated average selling price of approximately $212 to $218 per unit.

Qualcomm is currently holding approximately $22.0 billion in cash equivalents and marketable securities. Of this, approximately $15.9 billion is overseas.
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Tellabs Drops 9100 LTE Platform in Restructuring
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Tellabs reported Q4 2011 revenue of $317 million, compared with $410 million in the year-ago quarter. There was a GAAP net loss of $5 million or 1 cent per share, compared with a net loss of $11 million or 3 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2010. On a non-GAAP basis, Tellabs recorded net earnings of $4 million or 1 cent per share in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared with net earnings of $6 million or 2 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Broadband segment revenue was $166 million, Transport segment revenue was $92 million and Services segment revenue was $59 million.

Tellabs announced a major restructuring which will see it drop development of its SmartCore 9100 LTE platform, although the company will continue to support its SmartCore 9100 WiMAX products. R&D will be consolidated into fewer location and as a result Tellabs will close facilities in Petaluma (California), Vancouver (Canada), Bangalore (India) and Karachi (Pakistan). The move will eliminate about 530 jobs. Tellabs will incur about $107 million in restructuring charges in Q1 2012.

”In a climate of economic uncertainty, Tellabs needs to align expenses with revenue,” said Rob Pullen, Tellabs CEO and president. “Unfortunately, our restructuring will affect about 530 people. We will reduce expense and stop new development work on the Tellabs SmartCore 9100 LTE product, while continuing to support Tellabs SmartCore 9100 WiMax customers. “We’ll address customers’ needs through our next-generation portfolio of products and services for the smart mobile Internet, including Tellabs Mobile Backhaul Solution, Tellabs Packet Optical Solution and professional services such as Tellabs Insight Analytics Services.”

Revenue for Q1 is expected to be in a range from $260 million to $290 million.

During Q4, Tellabs saw revenue from 11 new customers for its Packet Optical Solution, including its Optical 7100 and 7300 systems. In the fourth quarter, there was revenue from 2 new customers for the Tellabs Mobile Backhaul Solution, including the Tellabs 8600 and 8800 systems. The company continues to shift to new Tellabs 8609 and Ethernet-optimized mobile backhaul platform for LTE networks. Tellabs now reports two 8600 LTE networks running and LTE trials underway with 3 customers.

At the end of Q4, Tellabs had 3,250 employees compared with about 3,300 employees at the end of 3Q.

Revenue outside of North America grew 27% year-over-year to $636 million in 2011. Tellabs' revenue outside of North America was 49% of overall 2011 revenue, the highest percentage ever.

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FCC Updates Lifeline Program for Low-Income Americans
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The three current commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve a comprehensive overhaul of the Lifeline universal service program, which helps tens of millions of low-income Americans afford basic phone service. The current Lifeline program, which was put in place in 1985, predated the rise of mobile phone service and gradually enabled perverse incentives for some carriers to continue an entrenched cost to the government.

The FCC estimates that its reforms will save the government $2 billion over the next three years. Key elements of the reforms include:

  • Setting a savings target of $200 million for 2012, and putting the Commission in a position to adopt an appropriate budget for the program in early 2013 after review of a six-month report and one-year report on the effects of the Order.
  • Creation of a National Lifeline Accountability Database to prevent multiple carriers from receiving support for the same subscriber. The database will build on FCC efforts in 2011 that eliminated nearly 270,000 duplicate subscriptions in 12 states following review of over 3.6 million subscriber records, saving $33 million.
  • Creation of eligibility databases from governmental data sources, enabling fully automated verification of consumers’ initial and ongoing Lifeline eligibility. This would reduce the potential for fraud while cutting red tape for consumers and providers. A database based on the three most common federal benefit programs through which consumers qualify for Lifeline will be created no later than the end of 2013.
  • Establishing a one-per-household rule applicable to all providers in the program, defining household as an “economic unit” so that separate low-income families living at the same address can get connected.
  • Establishing clear goals and metrics to measure program performance and effectiveness.
  • Phasing out support for services such as Toll Limitation – subsidies to carriers for blocking or restricting long-distance service—and ending Link Up – subsidies to carriers for initial connection charges. Link Up will continue in Tribal lands.
  • Reducing burdens on carriers by establishing a uniform, interim flat rate of reimbursement, allowing carriers to obtain a subscriber’s signature electronically, and streamlining enrollment through uniform, nationwide eligibility criteria.
  • Adopting an express goal for the program of ensuring availability of broadband for all low-income Americans.
  • Establish a Broadband Adoption Pilot Program using up to $25 million in savings from other reforms to test and determine how Lifeline can best be used to increase broadband adoption among Lifeline-eligible consumers. Starting this year, the program will solicit applications from broadband providers and will select a number of projects to fund. Lifeline will help reduce the monthly cost of broadband service, but applicants will be expected to help address other challenges to broadband adoption, including the cost of devices and digital literacy.
  • Proposes increasing digital literacy training at libraries and schools.
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BT Openreach Launches Optical Spectrum Access with ADVA
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Openreach, the infrastructure division of BT Group, launched a new Optical Spectrum Access (OSA) service that is built on ADVA Optical Networking's FSP 3000 DWDM platform.

The new service enables enterprises to transport enormous amounts of data throughout the U.K. with much improved latency and unparalleled encryption and security. The OSA service provides dedicated single or resilient point-to-point optical fibre links throughout the U.K. With a route distance of up to 103km, the service accommodates a range of interfaces and uses the same low-latency technology deployed extensively in many of the world’s leading financial trading networks.

“The response to the FSP 3000 introduction has been exceptional,” said Jon Hurry, MD, Strategy, Commercial, Portfolio & Policy, Openreach. “Since the pre-launch of this service we’ve collaborated with a range of communications providers, whose customers are expecting dramatically more from their networks. Scalability and protecting their investment is at the heart of our customers’ strategy; they need to transport increasing amounts of data across greater distances more securely and faster than ever before. OSA meets those criteria. Today’s launch marks a milestone for U.K. businesses seeking to position their networks as a competitive advantage.”

“This is an incredible time to be involved in U.K. networks,” commented Alistair Swales, senior vice president, U.K. sales, ADVA Optical Networking. “In less than one month we’ve seen over 200 design requests from customers interested in the new OSA service.” .
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Fujitsu Wins Key Domain Supplier Status with AT&T
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Fujitsu Network Communications has been selected as one of AT&T's Domain Suppliers for optical and transport equipment. The multi-year selection covers equipment used to expand and maintain AT&T's metropolitan and long-haul network infrastructure. Financial terms of the supplier agreement are still being negotiated.

AT&T's Domain Supplier program, launched in September 2009, facilitates a more collaborative relationship with AT&T's equipment and software suppliers, enabling AT&T to have the best technologies in place to serve its customers. The program is also designed to ensure that the company's network technology investment accelerates AT&T's move toward a network that is well-equipped for the future. Fujitsu Network Communications, which is headquartered in Richardson, Texas, offers packet optical networking solutions, WDM and SONET platforms manufactured in North America. It also provides multi-vendor network services as well as end-to-end solutions for design, implementation, migration, support and management of optical networks.

"After an extensive evaluation of multiple optical and transport equipment suppliers, we are pleased to extend our relationship with Fujitsu," said Tim Harden, President of AT&T's Supply Chain and Fleet Operations organization.
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NetLogic Offers Xen Hypervisor for Multi-Core MIPS64
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NetLogic Microsystems introduced an open–source Xen hypervisor for its high-performance multi-core MIPS64 processors for delivering virtualization for next-generation communications, networking and server platforms.

The Xen hypervisor enables multiple instances of the same or different operating systems on a single processor. NetLogic said this capability enables applications to run completely independently and securely on a single processor. For example, a base station can be designed to provide both 3G and LTE services with a single processor, ultimately reducing the cost and complexity of the hardware, while enhancing the flexibility and capability of the system solution.

NetLogic Microsystems’ XLP and XLP II multi-core, multi-threaded processors feature an innovative quad-issue, quad-threaded and superscalar architecture with out-of-order execution capabilities. The processors support virtualization of multiple applications and multiple operating systems on each of the high-performance cores.

NetLogic's flagship XLP processor family in 40nm operates at up to 2GHz and delivers cache-coherent scalability of up to 128 NXCPUs, while the next-generation XLP II processor family is designed for up to 2.5GHz and scalability up to 640 NXCPUs in the state-of-the-art 28nm process.
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NTT DOCOMO Extends LTE Introductory Discounts
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NTT DOCOMO announced a set of discounts for subscribers to its "Xi" LTE s from May 1 to September 30, 2012. Subscribers to selected packet flat-rate and data service plans will automatically receive a ¥1,050 (including tax) discount on their basic monthly charges. At present, Xi subscribers are scheduled to receive monthly discounts of ¥1,575 (including tax) through April 30, so the new campaign means they will continue to enjoy special discounts until the end of September.

In addition, NTT DOCOMO announced plans to throttle users who exceed 7GB of data per month, unless they choose to pay an additional ¥2,625 per month for each additional 2GB increment. This plan goes into effect on October 1.
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NTT Docomo Reports LTE Progress
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As of December 31, 2011, NTT Docomo had 1.14 million LTE subscribers -- its first full year of operating a commercial LTE network.

Docomo currently has four LTE handsets, 2 LTE-enabled tablets, and three LTE modems/routers on offer.

Docomo's LTE network now covers all prefectural capital-sized cities across Japan, covering about 24% of the population. This footprint consists of approximately 5,000 LTE base stations in operation. By the end of March 2012, Docomo aims to have approximately LTE 7,000 base stations in operation.

In November, NTT Docomo introduced a "Xi Talk 24" service that provides LTE customers with unlimited voice calling to all other Docomo subscribers (including 3G users) for a flat rate of 1,480 yen per month. Already 80% of LTE handsets are on this plan.

Overall, NTT Docomo had 59.62 million subscribers across Japan, up slightly by 2.41 million users over a year earlier.

On the financial side, during the quarter ending Dec. 31, NTT Docomo generated revenue of ¥3,174 billion, down ¥35.0 billion from the same period last year due a decline in voice ARPU, which was partially offset by a rise in packet data revenue. Operating expenses declined by ¥20.3 billion yen in the quarter due to a more efficient use of CAPEX, yielding an operating income of ¥743 billion for the quarter, which is a decrease of ¥14.7 billion from a year earlier.

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AT&T: iPhone Accounts for 80% of Smartphone Sales
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AT&T reported blockbuster mobile broadband sales in Q4 2011 with 9.4 million smartphone activations in the quarter -- 50 percent more than the previous quarterly record and nearly double 3Q11 sales. This equates to over 100,000 smartphone activations for every day of the quarter. There were 7.6 million iPhone activations, meaning that Apple represented 81% of smartphone sales in Q4 for AT&T.

“This was a blowout quarter for smartphone sales. Our network performance is at a high level on voice quality and best-in-class mobile download speeds. U-verse sales continue to be strong and business revenue trends are on a good track," stated Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive officer.

For Q4, AT&T’s consolidated revenues totaled $32.5 billion, up $1.1 billion, or 3.6 percent, versus the year-earlier quarter. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2010, operating expenses were $41.5 billion versus $29.3 billion; operating loss was $9.0 billion, compared to operating income of $2.1 billion; and AT&T’s operating income margin was (27.7) percent, compared to 6.7 percent, including costs related to T-Mobile USA.

CAPEX for 2012 is expected to be about $20 billion, stable with 2011, as increases in wireless spending offset declines in wireline capital expenditures.

Some highlights:

Wireless

Best Postpaid Growth. AT&T posted a net increase in total wireless subscribers of 2.5 million in the fourth quarter to reach 103.2 million in service. Subscriber additions for the quarter include postpaid net adds of 717,000, the best gain in five quarters. Prepaid net adds were 159,000, connected device net adds were 1,029,000 and reseller net adds were 592,000. Fourth-quarter net adds reflect accelerated adoption of smartphones, including the October launch of iPhone 4S, increases in prepaid and reseller subscribers and sales of tablets and connected devices such as automobile monitoring systems, security systems and a host of other emerging products.

Record Quarter for Smartphone Sales. Fourth-quarter smartphone sales represented more than 80 percent of postpaid device sales. Both iPhone and Android device sales set records.

At the end of the quarter, 56.8 percent of AT&T’s 69.3 million postpaid subscribers had smartphones, up from 42.7 percent a year earlier and 32.8 percent two years ago.

The average ARPU for smartphones on AT&T’s network is 1.9 times that of the company’s non-smartphone devices. About 87 percent of smartphone subscribers are on FamilyTalk® or business plans. Churn levels for these subscribers are significantly lower than for other postpaid subscribers.

AT&T had its best sales quarter ever for branded computing subscribers, a new growth area for the company that includes tablets, aircards, mobile Wi-Fi hot spot devices, tethering plans and other data-only devices.

AT&T added 571,000 of these devices to reach 5.1 million, an almost 70 percent increase in total subscribers from a year ago. Most of those new subscribers were tablets, with 311,000 added in the quarter, more than half of which were postpaid.

Total wireless revenues, which include equipment sales, were up 10.0 percent year over year to $16.7 billion. Wireless service revenues increased 4.0 percent, to $14.3 billion, in the fourth quarter.

Wireless data revenues — driven by Internet access, access to applications, messaging and related services — increased by $956 million, or 19.4 percent, from the year-earlier quarter to $5.9 billion. AT&T’s postpaid wireless subscribers on monthly data plans increased by 16.4 percent over the past year. The number of subscribers on tiered data plans also continues to increase. About 22 million, or 56 percent, of all smartphone subscribers are on tiered data plans, and about 70 percent have chosen the higher-tier plans.

Wireless margins were impacted by record-setting smartphone sales and customer upgrade levels. This was offset in part by improved operating efficiencies and further revenue gains from the company’s growing base of high-quality smartphone subscribers. AT&T’s fourth-quarter wireless operating income margin was 15.2 percent versus 22.9 percent in the year-earlier quarter, and AT&T’s wireless EBITDA service margin was 28.7 percent, compared with 37.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Wireline

Total business revenues grew sequentially for the second consecutive quarter. Revenues were $9.3 billion, down 1.4 percent versus the year-earlier quarter but a slight increase over the third quarter of 2011. The year-over-year decline reflects economic conditions and weakness in voice and legacy data products somewhat offset by growth in IP data. Business service revenues, which exclude CPE, declined 1.2 percent year over year, compared to a year-over-year decline of 4.3 percent in the year-ago quarter and were essentially flat sequentially, despite fewer business days in the fourth quarter.

Revenues from the new-generation capabilities that lead AT&T’s most advanced business solutions — including Ethernet, VPNs, hosting, IP conferencing and application services — grew 16.4 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, continuing strong trends in this area. This now represents a nearly $6 billion annualized revenue stream.

Total business IP data revenues grew 9.2 percent versus the year-earlier fourth quarter, led by growth in VPN revenues. IP-based solutions allow customers to easily add managed services such as network security, cloud services and IP conferencing on top of their infrastructures. Total business data revenues grew 1.3 percent year over year.

Revenues from residential customers totaled $5.3 billion, an increase of 0.5 percent versus the fourth quarter a year ago. The fourth quarter marked the sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.

AT&T U-verse TV added 208,000 subscribers to reach 3.8 million in service. As U-verse scales, its margins improve, contributing to profitability. In the fourth quarter, the AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet attach rate was 90 percent and about half of new subscribers took AT&T U-verse Voice. About three-fourths of AT&T U-verse TV subscribers have a triple- or quad-play option from AT&T. ARPU for U-verse triple-play customers was almost $170, up 2.5 percent year over year.

AT&T’s U-verse deployment has reached its goal of passing 30 million living units.

AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet delivered a fourth-quarter net gain of 587,000 subscribers to reach a total of 5.2 million, helping offset losses from DSL. Overall, AT&T lost 49,000 wireline broadband connections. About 74 percent of consumers have a broadband plan delivering speeds of 3 Mbps or higher versus 65 percent in the year-ago quarter.
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2011 Major Networking Acquisitions (some pending)
Buyer Target  
Huawei Centre for Integrated Photonics photonic R&D 1/25/2012
Aurelius (private equity) KPN's Getronics divisions IT consulting 1/24/2012
Semtech Gennum Mixed Signal Semiconductors 1/23/2012
Synopsys ExpertIO verification IP for protocols 1/23/2012
Microsemi Maxim's timing and synch products network timing devices 1/20/2012
JDSU Dyaptive Systems Mobile Test Solution 1/5/2012
Mindspeed Technologies Picochip Femtocell silicon 1/5/2012
IBM Green Hat Cloud-based Test Platform 1/4/2012
Marvell Xelerated Programmable switching silicon 1/4/2012
Newport ILX Lightwave Photonic components 12/28/2011
Akamai Cotendo Global CDN Suite 12/22/2011
Crown Castle NextG Networks DAS installations 12/16/2011
American Tower Telefonica's towers in Mexico 2,500 Towers for wireless operators 12/12/2011
Private equity Blue Coat Security and WAN optimization 12/9/2011
IBM DemandTec Cloud-base Smarter Commerce analytics 12/8/2011
HickoryTech IdeaOne Fiber network in Fargo, North Dakota 12/6/2011
Zayo 360networks 18-500 mile Inter-city fiber network 12/2/2011
SAP SuccessFactors Cloud-based Enterprise Software 12/2/2011
NewNet NSN's WiMAX business WiMAX 11/29/2011
Twitter Whisper Systems Android security 11/28/2011
3S Photonics Manlight optical components 11/25/2011
Microsoft VideoSurf Video content search 11/22/2011
NetScout Simena Packet Flow-based Monitoring Switch 11/21/2011
Aruba Networks Avenda Systems Identity-based policy engine 11/17/2011
Huawei Symantec's 49% in Huawei-Symantec JV network security & storage 11/15/2011
Qualcomm HaloIPT   11/8/2011
Private equity Tekelec Network signaling and management 11/7/2011
DragonWave NSN's microwave transport business Microwave backhaul for carriers worldwide 11/4/2011
Alvarion Wavion Carrier outdoor Wi-Fi 11/2/2011
Vector Capital Motorola Solutions' Orthogon & Canopy groups Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint Wireless 11/2/2011
Sony Ericsson 50% in Sony Ericsson Mobile Handsets 10/27/2011
LSI SandForce SSD processors 10/26/2011
PCTEL Envision Wireless Indoor wireless 10/25/2011
AT&T Superclick Wi-Fi management for hotels 10/24/2011
Cisco BNI Video video control plane software for MSOs 10/20/2011
Private Equity Alcatel-Lucent's Genesys division call center solutions 10/19/2011
ARRIS BigBand Video delivery / ad insertion platform 10/11/2011
Neustar TARGUSinfo Network Information systems 10/11/2011
IBM Platform Computing Software for HPC clusters 10/11/2011
McAfee NitroSecurity Cyber security software 10/4/2011
IBM Q1 Labs Cyber security analytics software 10/4/2011
Avaya Sipera Systems SIP-based Security for Enterprise Communications 10/4/2011
Intel TelMap Location-based Servicees 10/3/2011
NeoPhotonics Santur Tunable Laser Arrays 9/29/2011
Oracle GoAhead Software High-availability middleware for carrier platforms 9/22/2011
MicroSemi Zarlink networking silicon 9/22/2011
The Gores Group Alpheus Fiber network in Texas 9/21/2011
NetCracker Subex division Activation and Provisioning products and business 9/19/2011
Broadcom NetLogic Multi-core embedded processors 9/12/2011
Cisco Versly collaboration plug-ins 8/29/2011
Verizon CloudSwitch cloud interconnect for enterprise apps 8/25/2011
Ericsson Telenor Connexion M2M tools 8/24/2011
Cisco Axioss Software service fulfillment software 8/22/2011
Skype GroupMe mobile group messaging 8/21/2011
Amdocs Bridgewater policy management for 3G/4G networks 8/17/2011
Time Warner Cable Insight 750,000 cable customers 8/15/2011
F5 Crescendo application acceleration technology 8/15/2011
Google Motorola Mobility patents, mobile devices, set-top boxes 8/15/2011
ADTRAN Bluesocket virtual LAN technology 8/9/2011
Windstream PAETEC national CLEC, 36,700 fiber mile network, 7 DCs 8/1/2011
CA Technologies Watchmouse Saas-based monitoring 7/29/2011
Tektronix Optametra 100G Coherent Lightwave Signal Analyzer 7/26/2011
Mindspeed IPG Communications WCDMA signal processing technologies 7/25/2011
Dell Force10 data center and service provider switching 7/20/2011
Riverbed Zeus and Aptimize web optimization technologies 7/19/2011
Intel Fulcrum Microsystems 10/40 GbE switching silicon 7/19/2011
Citric Cloud.com Hypervisor-agnostic Scaling 7/12/2011
Private Equity Go Daddy web registry, hosting 7/1/2011
Synchronica Nokia's operator branded messaging white label email and IM services 6/30/2011
Private Equity Masergy managed, virtualized network services worldwide 6/27/2011
Ixia VeriWave wireless testing 6/27/2011
Charter US Cable 16,000 cable customers in Missouri 6/24/2011
CommScope Argus antenna technologies 6/17/2011
Ericsson Telcordia service fulfillment, service assurance, OSS 6/14/2011
Qualcomm Rapid Bridge IC design tools 6/10/2011
CommScope LiquidxStream dense QAM systems 6/2/2011
Mavenir Mobile Messaging mobile messaging 5/30/2011
Qualcomm Atheros Wi-Fi silicon 5/24/2011
euNetworks LambdaNet Deutschland fiber networks in Germany, Czech and Austria 5/19/2011
Skyworks SiGE Semiconductor RF front-end chips 5/17/2011
VMWare Shavlik cloud-based IT management 5/16/2011
Rambus Cryptography Research semiconductor security 5/12/2011
Motorola Mobility SunUp Digital Systems software for IPTV, digital cable, DTH 5/10/2011
Private Equity Tollgrade Communications network assurance solutions 5/10/2011
Microsoft Skype 170 million Web voice users 5/10/2011
Sophos Astaro unified threat management 5/9/2011
Xilinx Modelware traffic management IP cores for 10/40/100G 5/9/2011
NVIDIA Icera 3G/4G baseband processors 5/9/2011
Broadcom SC Square security software 5/8/2011
Vimplecom Vladivostok's New Telephone mobile operator in Russia's Far East 5/6/2011
TelePacific Orange County Internet Xchange California CLEC 5/5/2011
TelePacific Telekenex California CLEC 5/5/2011
Applied Materilas Varian silicon wafer manufacturing 5/4/2011
RadiSys Continous Computing ATCA communication platforms 5/3/2011
Consortium Nortel Networks patents   5/2/2011
Aurora Network GoBackTV cable headend and edge solutions 5/2/2011
Nokia Siemens Networks Motorola Solutions' Networks assets GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE products 4/29/2011
Equinix ALOG Data Centers of Brazil data centers in Sao Paolo and Rio 4/26/2011
Neustar Evolving Number Systems OSS 4/21/2011
Level 3 Global Crossing fiber network spanning 3 continents 4/11/2011
Metaswitch Colibria enhanced mobile messaging 4/6/2011
Texas Instruments National Semiconductor analog silicon 4/4/2011
EMC NetWitness network security analysis solutions 4/4/2011
Lightower Open Access network operator on Long Island 4/1/2011
Cisco newScale self-service portal software 3/29/2011
NetScout Psytechnics performance management technology 3/28/2011
Motorola Mobility Dreampark IPTV software 3/23/2011
AT&T T-Mobile USA nationwide network, spectrum, 33 million users 3/21/2011
Broadcom Provigent microwave radio backhaul silicom 3/21/2011
NetLogic Optichron LTE Base Station Processors 3/21/2011
NETGEAR Westell Technologies Customer Networking Solutions (CNS) division 3/18/2011
Cisco Inlet adaptive digital media processing 3/14/2011
Ericsson Nortel's Multiservice Switch switching platforms for CDMA networks 3/11/2011
NetApp LSI's External Storage Business Engenio external storage 3/9/2011
Overture Hatteras Networks carrier Ethernet systems 3/1/2011
Private equity Conexant   2/25/2011
Interoute KPN's fiber network in Germany 3600km fiber net in Germany 2/22/2011
CSR Zoran imaging and video silicon 2/21/2011
EchoStar Hughes broadband satellite systems 2/14/2011
Symmetricom Brilliant Telecom network timing 2/14/2011
PAETEC Xeta Technologies enterprise communication sales 2/9/2011
Time Warner Cable NaviSite enterprise cloud services, 10 data centers 2/1/2011
Corning MobileAccess distributed antenna systems 1/31/2011
Silicon Laboratories SpectraLinear network timing silicon 1/26/2011
Cisco Pari Networks net configuration and change manament tool 1/26/2011
Google SayNow voice messaging software 1/25/2011
Ceragon Nera Networks short and longhaul microwave backhaul 1/19/2011
Aerohive Pareto WLAN + cloud services 1/18/2011
GE Linear Power telco power solutions 1/13/2011
NetApp Akorri data center optimization tools 1/12/2011
Skype Qik video sharing software 1/6/2011
Avaya Konftel audio collaboration 1/4/2011
GENBAND Cedar Point VoIP switching platform 1/4/2011
Earthlink ONE Communications   12/20/2010
Altera Avalon 100G OTN 12/14/2010
Dell Compellent   12/13/2010
Start-up Funding
Huawei photonic R&D NA Ipswitch,UK 1/25/2012
Talari Networks WAN virtualization appliance $4.5 million San Jose, CA 1/24/2012
Aurelius (private equity) IT consulting NA Europe and APAC 1/24/2012
Semtech Mixed Signal Semiconductors $494 million Ontario, Canada 1/23/2012
Synopsys verification IP for protocols NA   1/23/2012
Microsemi network timing devices NA California 1/20/2012
Bridgewave Communications 4G backhaul $10.3 million Santa Clara, CA 1/10/2012
JDSU Mobile Test Solution NA Vancouver, B.C. 1/5/2012
Mindspeed Technologies Femtocell silicon $51.8 million UK 1/5/2012
IBM Cloud-based Test Platform NA London, UK 1/4/2012
Marvell Programmable switching silicon NA Stockholm, Swedem 1/4/2012
Newport Photonic components $9.3 million Bozeman, Montana 12/28/2011
Akamai Global CDN Suite $268 million Sunnyvale, CA and Israel 12/22/2011
Jawbone Mobile Lifestyle $40 million San Francisco 12/21/2011
Crown Castle DAS installations $1 billion   12/16/2011
BinOptics   $13 million Ithaca, NY 12/16/2011
ip.access Small cell products $15 million Cambridge, UK 12/12/2011
Soasta Cloud-based Test Platform $12 million Mountain View, CA 12/12/2011
American Tower 2,500 Towers for wireless operators $500 million Mexico 12/12/2011
Private equity Security and WAN optimization $1.3 billion Sunnyvale, CA 12/9/2011
IBM Cloud-base Smarter Commerce analytics $440 million San Mateo, California 12/8/2011
Twilio Cloud Communication APIs $17 million San Francisco 12/7/2011
HickoryTech Fiber network in Fargo, North Dakota $28 million Fargo, ND 12/6/2011
SAP Cloud-based Enterprise Software $3.4 billion San Mateo, California 12/2/2011
NewNet WiMAX NA Arlington Heights, IL 11/29/2011
Twitter Android security NA San Francisco 11/28/2011
Microsoft Video content search NA San Mateo, California 11/22/2011
NetScout Packet Flow-based Monitoring Switch NA Sterling, Virginia 11/21/2011
Aruba Networks Identity-based policy engine NA Santa Clara, CA 11/17/2011
YuMe Connected TV monetization solution $12 million Redwood City, California 11/16/2011
NexGenStorage Solid state shared storage $10 million Colorado 11/15/2011
Deca Technologies Wafer Level Chip Packaging NA Tempe, Arizona 11/9/2011
Cloudera Apache Hadoop solutions for Big Data $40 million Palo Alto, California 11/9/2011
Qualcomm   NA New Zealand 11/8/2011
Quantenna 4x4 MIMO 11n Silicon NA Fremont, California 11/7/2011
Private equity Network signaling and management $780 million Morrisville, North Carolina 11/7/2011
DragonWave Microwave backhaul for carriers worldwide up to EUR 110 million Milan, Italy and Shanghai, China 11/4/2011
Alvarion Carrier outdoor Wi-Fi $30 million Israel 11/2/2011
Vector Capital Point-to-Point and Point-to-Multipoint Wireless NA Schaumburg, Ill. and Ashburton, England 11/2/2011
Traffix Systems Network signaling solutions $7 million Israel and New Jersey 11/2/2011
SolidFire SSD for Cloud Providers $25 Million Boulder, Colorado 10/31/2011
Mendix Platform as a Service $13 million Boston 10/31/2011
CALIENT Technologies 3D MEMS photonic switching $19.4 million Santa Barbara, California 10/28/2011
Qwilt ISP video caching system $24 million Redwood Shores, California 10/19/2011
Dropbox Cloud storage $250 million San Francisco, California 10/18/2011
Siklu Wireless E-band radio for backhaul $19 million Israel 10/18/2011
Box.net Cloud storage $81 million Palo Alto, California 10/11/2011
Skorpios Silicon Photonics $19 million Albuquerque, New Mexico 9/15/2011
Qosmos DPI network Intelligence software EUR 19.8 million Paris, France 9/8/2011
Embrane Virtual network service layer $18 million Santa Clara, California 8/25/2011
6connect IPv4 to IPv6 tools $2 million Palo Alto, California 8/23/2011
nLIGHT Chip-based lasers $17.5 million Vancouver, Washington 8/22/2011
6fusion Cloud management $7 million Raleigh, North Carolina 8/22/2011
Centrify On-premise and cloud security $16 million Sunnyvale, California 8/17/2011
Airband Fixed Wireless Service $20 million Dallas, Texas 8/11/2011
CloudBees Java middleware $10.5 million Boston, Massachusetts 7/25/2011
BlueCat IP address management $16.8 million Toronto, Canada 7/21/2011
Nakina Systems Network Integrity NA Ottawa, Canada 7/20/2011
Nimble Flash + iSCSI storage $25 million San Jose, California 7/14/2011
Iptronics Parallel Optical Interconnects $6 million Roskilde, Denmark 7/8/2011
Qualtre Silicon MEMS Gyroscope $10 million Marlborough, Massachusetts 7/8/2011
Valens HDBaseT Chips $14 million Israel 7/6/2011
Neul White Spaces $12.8 million Cambridge, UK 6/29/2011
Blue Jeans Network Video conferencing $23.5 million Santa Clara, California 6/29/2011
ViVOtech NFC $24 million Santa Clara, California 6/29/2011
SiliconBlue Mobile FPGAs $18 million Santa Clara, California 6/29/2011
Square Mobile Payments $100 million San Francisco, California 6/29/2011
ScaleXtreme Cloud Management System $11 million Palo Alto, California 6/21/2011
ClariPHy WHDI silicon NA Los Altos, California and Cordoba, Argentina 6/20/2011
Nicira Hypervisor for OpenFlow network virtualization NA Palo Alto, California 6/20/2011
Macheen Mobile Cloud Services $10 million Austin, Texas 6/16/2011
Aylus Mobile MRF Platform $16 million Westford, Massachusetts 6/16/2011
Cotendo Content Acceleration Service $17 million Sunnyvale, California 6/15/2011
JouleX Network-based Energy Management $17 million Atlanta, Georgia 6/10/2011
XtremIO Solid State Storage $14 million Tel Aviv, Israel 6/6/2011
Infineta Data Center WAN optimization $15 million San Jose, California 6/6/2011
Mavenir Systems LTE solutions $40 million Richardson, Texas 5/30/2011
MobileIron Enterprise mobile device managemet $20 million Mountain View, California 5/26/2011
SkyCross LTE antennas $11 million Viera, Florida 5/23/2011
CloudPassage Cloud security compliance NA San Francisco, California 4/27/2011
Big Switch Networks Open Flow Network Virtualization $13.75 million Palo Alto, California 4/25/2011
Bamboom Cloud-based TV antenna $4.5 million New York, New York 4/15/2011
VideoSurf Video discovery $16 million San Mateo, California 4/14/2011
Zixi Online VOD Software $4 million Waltham, Massachusetts 4/11/2011
Altair LTE silicon $26 million Israel 4/11/2011
Tabula 3D logic silicon $108 million Santa Clara, California 3/28/2011
AMIMON WHDI Silicon $15 million Herzlia, Israel 3/23/2011
Altobridge Rural wireless access $12 million Dublin, Ireland 3/14/2011
Glue Networks Cloud networking service $4.5 million Sacramento, California 3/3/2011
AirWalk Small Cell Radios $10 million Richardson, Texas 2/8/2011
Loc-Aid Location-as-a-Service $13 million San Francisco 2/7/2011
Violin Memory Scalable Memory Arrays $35 million Mountain View, California 2/7/2011
BLiNQ Wireless backhaul solutions $7.4 million Plano, Texas 2/7/2011
Aircell In-flight broadband service $35 million   2/7/2011
CyOptics Optical Components $50 million Breinigsville, Pennsylvania 1/26/2011
Tilera Multi-core processors $45 million San Jose, California 1/18/2011
Stoke Mobile Broadband Gateways $17 million Santa Clara, California 1/18/2011
CipherOptics Scalable Network Encryption $21 million Raleigh, North Carolina 1/11/2011
Nasuni Cloud Storage Gateways $15 million Natick, Massachusetts 12/20/2010
Mobixell Mobile optimization $10 million San Jose, California 12/13/2010


 


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Hundreds of Columns Sorted
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Metro Ethernet

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Security


Tailoring 100G for Metro Networks
by Stephan Rettenberger
100G is in rapid fashion making its way across more and more of the network, as enterprises and carriers seek an extended break from bandwidth exhaustion and traffic bottlenecks. As the state-of-the-art technology has reached the metro, it has quickly spawned a more diverse landscape of solutions from which to choose.

The "Flattening Effect" and Network Intelligence
by Terence Martin Breslin, CEO, and Andy Huckridge, Director of Marketing
Because the network has simultaneously become both flatter and more complex, the journey toward a converged all-IP network comes with an entirely new set of network performance and management philosophies to be adopted and developed by IT organizations. To drive the need for maintaining and managing the experience of the subscriber, real-time monitoring, troubleshooting and provisioning of the network must be implemented strategically and methodically. Real-time monitoring of network traffic has proven to be crucial to diagnosing and analyzing network performance and services, and consequently the subscriber’s quality of experience (QoE).

Focus on a Premium Mobile User Experience
by Ray Greenan
What is left for the service provider to differentiate themselves from their competition? It is the user experience. Since the playing field has been leveled for mobile devices, the most important thing carriers can do is focus on the user experience to create loyalty and drive revenue. Security is a big part of this picture.

Service Delivery Networking: The key to 4G Network Success
by Ray Vinson
Applications and devices require quality network service architectures in order to deliver the QoE that subscribers demand.   This article looks at the framework of Service Delivery Networks.

What Operators Still Need in Next-Generation Transport
by Jimmy Mizrahi
What do operators still need in next generation transport? This article will provide an in-depth look at what operators still need for next generation transport, and Packet Optical Transport Systems (P-OTS) in particular. P-OTS, thought well intentioned, has its weaknesses – and its early promises fell short of its expectations. We will discuss and focus on each of the challenges that exist in early P-OTS implementations by operators. Based on an assessment of these unique challenges, operators and vendors alike are gaining a better picture of what they really need, so that the full benefits of P-OTS can be realized

It's Time for Mobile-specific Encryption Policies
by Brian Tokuyoshi
Imagine for a moment an attacker has gotten his hands on one of your employees’ smartphones. Perhaps it was forgotten in the backseat of a taxi or fell on the floor of a train on the way home from work. The attacker is able to get past the phone’s screen lock and password – 1234 wasn’t too hard to guess. Here's a look at things to consider when implementing encryption for mobile devices.

Video Grade Wi-Fi and the Emerging 802.11ac Standard
by Nir Shapira
The emerging 802.11ac standard promises several big improvements over 802.11n, especially for video delivery in the home. This article looks at 802.11ac's performance enhancements, including wider 80 MHz bandwidth channels, use of 5 GHz spectrum, LDPC coding and beamforming, and multi-user MIMO capabilities. The first generation of 802.11ac silicon will be coming to market soon.

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“Group sales in the quarter were flat year-over-year and grew 15% sequentially, which is weaker than normal in the fourth quarter. The sequential growth is mainly driven by a strong development of 32% in Global Services, while Networks sales were weak, up only 2%. The sales development in Networks is mainly related to North America and Russia, where the trend continued from the third quarter with slower operator spending after a period of high investments in capacity. In addition, we saw some increased operator cautiousness during the quarter due to uncertainties such as economic development and political unrest in some countries."
Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson  
 
25-Jan-12
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