Mediatrix Telecom launches new VoIP product line
Siemens and Omnipoint establish Opuswave Networks
CoServ Communications to deploy Unisphere switch
Telecom equipment on tap from Cisco
Net victory could cut DSL prices
Transmeta finally hints at their "Smart" Microprocessor
DSL reaches for its full potential
Puzzling out wireless content
UbiNet: the Ubiquitous Internet Will Be Wireless
Convergence through Softswitches?
Best of Comdex Fall '99 winners
Comdex witnesses dawn of new IT age
Can Bluetooth survive past the hype?
Globalstar takes phones into space

Mediatrix Telecom launches new VoIP product line
Source: iLocus

Mediatrix Telecom has announced that it has released the first product in its third generation VoIP product line: a one port terminal adapter and PSTN gateway, the APA III-1.  The APA III-1 is a telecommunications device that allows a conventional telephone or G3 fax machine to be connected to an IP based network.  The APA III-1 performs all IP fax and telephony tasks in one small standalone enclosure and supports all major Internet Protocol standards including H.323, SIP, MGCP and T.38 IP fax.  The APA III-1 is compatible with all standard IP vocoders, such as G.711, G.723.1 and G.729 and is available with a variety of options including the ability to be used as a one port gateway to the PSTN.  The APA III-1 enables enterprises and service providers to create a voice and/or fax overlay network on top of any IP network and provides new added services on this network. The APA III-1 leverages on existing telecommunications equipment.  Privately owned Mediatrix is headquartered in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where they develop, market, and sell standard based IP telephony systems, IP network management software and standard based IP protocol stacks.

Siemens and Omnipoint establish Opuswave Networks
Source: ilocus

Opuswave Networks  has been chosen as the name for the organization recently established by Siemens and Omnipoint Technologies to create integrated enterprise communication solutions, which will support VoIP protocol.  Opuswave integrates GSM base stations on campus with the existing PBX voice and IP-based data network. The result is secure on-campus communication and seamless roaming between the campus and the public GSM network.  This corporate GSM is a way of integrating PBX voice networks, IP-based LANs and WANs, and GSM-based mobile phone service across a corporate enterprise.  Corporate GSM protects legacy investments in PBX and IP networks, while being fully compatible with the rapidly emerging VoIP Internet telephony protocol, as well as General Packet Radio Services, Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution and third-generation GSM enhancements.  Mobile users can use all major features of the PBX and access the enterprise network through their mobile handsets. The solution is slated for release in the summer of 2000.

CoServ Communications to deploy Unisphere switch
Source: iLocus

Unisphere Solutions announced on November 17, that CoServ Communications is deploying the Unisphere ERX-1400 Edge Routing Switch with Subscriber Access Feature Pack.  CoServ Communications, a joint venture between CoServ and Poka Lambro Telecommunications, will use the ERX-1400 to differentiate in target markets with deployed services, including high-speed Internet access and Virtual Private Networking services to both leased line and xDSL customers.  The Unisphere Solutions ERX-1400 is placed between DSL Access Multiplexers and Internet Backbone Routers, providing termination and aggregation for as many as 32,000 DSL connections.  A range of encapsulation schemes are supported. This allows service providers to purchase DSL transport from different carriers with complete interoperability.



Telecom equipment on tap from Cisco
Source: CNet

Cisco Systems will soon release new technology to tie older phone networks to the world of data communications, furthering the company's aim to gain a greater share of the market for telecommunications equipment.  Cisco announced plans to ship a new "gateway" device in the first quarter of next year that will grab traffic from older telephone systems and send it to new networks based on Internet technologies.  
Cisco's new offering, called the MGX 8260, aims to make its mark in a space dominated by telecommunications products from rivals Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks, as well as from start-ups such as Sonus Networks.  Many carriers have either slashed or scuttled continued investments in older phone switches based on time division multiplexing, or TDM, technology. The transition from the older systems to new Web-based networks reflects the changing needs of customers, according to Cisco executives. Cisco is hoping its collection of Internet technologies that can combine voice and data on one network will serve as an attractive alternative as firms upgrade their networks.  One of the benefits of the new technology is that it can take modem-based phone calls, which often require long connection times, and transfer them to a data carrier's network, said Rob Redford, director of marketing for Cisco's multiservice switching business. The device can also convert traditional voice traffic into packets of data based on Internet protocol.  Cisco acquired the technology as part of its $400 million acquisition of TransMedia Communications in June.  Time Warner Telecom is currently testing the new network equipment, Cisco executives said. TransMedia previously announced that communications carrier Global Crossing, formerly Frontier Communications, was also testing the company's technology.

Net victory could cut DSL prices
Source: CNet

Federal regulators voted on November 18 to approve a controversial rule that could slash prices for consumer high-speed Net access.  The decision has the potential to open the floodgates of competition in the high-speed Internet market, previously dominated by the big local phone firms and cable companies. Companies like Covad Communications, NorthPoint Communications and Rhythms NetConnections have said they needed this decision to compete on price with the Bell companies in the consumer market.  Federal Communications Commission  officials today decided that Baby Bell companies must allow competitors to share the main telephone line into homes to offer high-speed DSL service. Previously, firms like Covad and Rhythms had to lease a separate line to offer their own services, raising their total cost for service. The decision, which essentially levels the playing field between the companies, is geared to further the spread of consumer broadband services.

The big local phone companies have tried to prevent line sharing rules, saying that technical restrictions could make splitting a single line between two providers expensive, if not difficult or even impossible. Today the Bells criticized the decision, saying it was an unnecessary move by the FCC.  "We're concerned with the order, because it adds another layer of unneeded regulation," SBC Communications spokesman Matt Miller said.  Last week, US West threatened to appeal the FCC's order in court if the decision did not allow the company to recover the costs of setting up the line sharing, a process executives said could range in the millions of dollars.  FCC regulators said state regulators would determine specific pricing rules.  The FCC's decision will go into effect in 30 days, but at that point the big local phone companies need to work out the technical details with their smaller competitors.

Transmeta finally hints at their "Smart" Microprocessor
Source: wired

Over the years, the super-secret, celebrity-studded chip company Transmeta has proven to be a repository of a lot of hopes, dreams, and fanciful thinking.  Exactly what was the company -- whose top brass includes Linux creator Linus Torvalds and other prominent names in the business -- working on?

At Comdex this past week, Torvalds offered the first loose details of the project, saying that company had developed a "smart" microprocessor called the Crusoe Processor.  But that's about as far as anyone from the company will go when talking about Transmeta's January launch. "There are to be a few surprises expected," stated Transmeta. "It will be worth everyone's wait, and it will not only fulfill expectations, it will exceed them."  As Salon's Andrew Leonard has pointed out, Transmeta is right out of novelist Thomas Pynchon: A startup obsessed with secrecy hires the most famous programmer in the world. Rumored to be the great white hope for breaking up the Intel/Microsoft duopoly, it's funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

DSL reaches for its full potential
Source: Comsoc

DSL service provides an inexpensive, flexible Internet access solution for businesses, offering applications including VoIP and streaming media. However, the multiplexers used by DSL carriers are not equipped to handle major applications like frame relay over DSL and quality-of-service guarantees. Thus, suppliers are beginning to introduce DSLAMs that can support broadband services. The latest developments include Nortel Networks' Promatory Communications' Intelligent Multiservice Access System and Lucent Technologies' Stinger. DSLAMs allow multiple application services while offering quality of service and guaranteed bandwidth. DSL can handle new types of broadband services like frame relay over DSL, virtual private networks, and videoconferencing. Still, IT departments will not find such services attractive until end-to-end quality of service is guaranteed. ATM could be incorporated into intelligent DSLAMs because of the quality-of-service it was created to provide, but standards need to be in place that would enable IP networks to handle the kinds of applications ATM-based DSLAMs would allow.

Puzzling out wireless content
Source: Comsoc

Motorola's promised upgrade of its two-way paging protocol, ReFLEX, could pave the way to the paging industry's equivalent of third-generation. The upgrade will allow ReFLEX 50, which is used by SkyTel Communications, and ReFLEX 25, which is used by PageMart and PageNet, to converge. The protocol is currently in draft form, but a final version is expected by the end of the year. Vic Jensen, Motorola's engineering director for its FLEX and ReFLEX technology, believes that service providers will sign up for the upgrade in the next month. Carriers can also benefit from the technology's ability to reuse frequencies more efficiently and to employ four subcarriers instead of three. In addition, the protocol is expected to reduce network costs, as equipment suppliers will not have to develop separate units for the two different air interfaces. 

UbiNet: the Ubiquitous Internet Will Be Wireless
Source: Comsoc

The emergence of mobile phones as a conduit for delivering Internet access is expected to eventually make PCs obsolete. The Gartner Group predicts that there will be a billion wireless phone users by 2005, and the number of people connecting to the Internet via wireless devices will exceed the number of people using wired gadgets by 2008. Wireless offers a way for the Internet to become ubiquitous, but the technology is being hindered by limited bandwidth and the lack of interoperability between competing standards worldwide. The introduction of 3G service, which will offer significantly increased bandwidth, combined with the steep decline of airtime rates is expected to boost consumer interest in the Internet. Companies are maneuvering to take advantage of the growing market for mobile phone Internet access. Vodafone AirTouch, the world's largest mobile phone carrier, is positioning itself to become the next major Internet company. Cisco Systems and Motorola have contributed $1 billion to its 3G initiative, and other companies including Microsoft and British Telecom are pursuing the market. Meanwhile, Apple Computers rolled out the iBook, a computer that communicates with home computing appliances through a built-in AirPort wireless access point and IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN products from Lucent Technologies. The 802.11 standard is facing competition from Bluetooth, a short-range radio frequency protocol that backers are pushing as the backbone of a home network. While Bluetooth is being backed by such giants as IBM, Intel, Toshiba, Nokia, Motorola, Boeing, Saab, and Silicon Wave, it supports only 1 Mbps connections between devices that are located no more than 10 meters apart. This compares to IEEE.802, which delivers data rates of 11 Mbps. 

Convergence through Softswitches?
Source: Comsoc

Suppliers and carriers, including Enron Communications, Nortel Networks, and Cisco Systems, have joined the International Softswitch Consortium to establish standards and interoperability for softswitch technology. The softswitch was introduced to replace class 4 and class 5 circuit switches by performing their distributing functions. It was also intended to eliminate the need for circuit switches. But softswitches may fall short of completely replacing circuit switches, according to Ike Elliot, Level 3 Communications' vice president of softswitch services. Upstart carriers may find it easier to migrate from circuit switches, said Robert Kelley, Rhythms NetConnections' director of innovation. Suppliers and carriers will have to alter their traditional business strategies if softswitches are to be accepted. While softswitches will assist with migration to packets, they will not have an explosive impact on the industry, according to Stan Hanks, research and technology vice president at Enron Communications. Magellan Network Systems is one of the suppliers developing softswitch devices. Still, CIMI President Tom Nolle questions the value of softswitch technology. 




Best of Comdex Fall '99 winners
Source: ZDNet

For the third consecutive year, PC Week Labs analysts and PC Week Corporate Partners teamed to award Best of Comdex honors to the most innovative products exhibited at Comdex/Fall.

Comdex witnesses dawn of new IT age
Source: ZDNet

The notion of Internet appliances as adjuncts to or replacements for the PC dominated the industry's biggest trade show. Comdex marked a symbolic end to much of what IT buyers have come to expect from the beige-box PC, not only in technology and style, but also in terms of services, content and support.  Every major PC company is developing systems for consumers and corporate customers alike that look and function more like VCRs than PCs, with televisionlike simplicity the ultimate, albeit long-term, goal.

Beyond the box, PC companies such as Compaq Computer Corp. are building portals for customized content. Dell Computer Corp., which once eschewed handheld devices, is expanding its hardware lineup to include a two-way wireless device, which it will license from Research In Motion Ltd.  In addition, services, not systems, are becoming a primary driver of PC sales. Dell, of Round Rock, Texas, is refining the support.dell.com site for personalized Web support, an initiative that was announced in August. Gateway Inc. in January will launch eSource, a program for providing corporate customers with customized, private Web sites. Also in January, the San Diego company will expand its consulting practice for corporate accounts.  Four out of the top five PC makers have established venture capital funds to invest in infrastructure and content companies in an effort to offer customers an outside-the-box experience.

Surprisingly, the world's No. 1 PC maker, Compaq, has become the most bullish on information appliances. It's predicting that by 2005, multifunction cell phones, pagers, desktop terminals and handheld computers will make up 90 percent of its client sales. The other 10 percent, it says, will be desktops, portables and workstations.  While acknowledging that the role of PCs is narrowing and being redefined, two companies with a vested interest in today's platform -- Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. -- say the PC remains the cornerstone of the digital age.  "PCs are alive and well," said Pat Gelsinger, vice president and general manager of the Desktop Products Group at Intel, in Santa Clara, Calif. "We're doing 120 million units a year. We support the other [platforms], but let's not forget [ the PC]."

Can Bluetooth survive past the hype?
Source: ZDNet

The Bluetooth standard may be a leap forward in terms of technology, but it still faces the same major problem that plagued infrared: The standard has yet to extend beyond hardware compatibility to encompass the software that runs across it.  That and other issues are slowing down the adoption of Bluetooth products. Devices based on the specification were originally due this year. However, industry officials don't expect the technology to show up in volume on cell phones, peripherals, notebook PCs and PC cards until the end of next year.

The logical company to lead Bluetooth software compatibility efforts, Microsoft, has yet to commit to the technology. There are more than 850 members of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, but Microsoft isn't one of them.  Analysts said Microsoft support is vital to Bluetooth's success. "The key thing missing is that Microsoft is not giving it support." said Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Group Inc., in San Jose, Calif.

The Bluetooth SIG is working on the application compatibility issue by writing profiles for various applications. Version 1.0 of the core spec doesn't include those profiles, however.

"Hardware is a no-brainer for Bluetooth," said Marc Jourlait, director of worldwide market development for mobile computing at Hewlett-Packard Co., which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., and is a member of the SIG. "The software, well, people still need to work on it. Hopefully, we'll get close in Version 1.0 and solve it in Version 2.0." Version 2.0 is due next year.

Another unresolved issue for Bluetooth is security. There's a layer of security in the spec, but some industry vendors don't think it's effective enough, increasing the possibility for someone to intercept communications between Bluetooth devices.

In addition, the SIG still hasn't solved the problem of how to keep Bluetooth from interfering with wireless LANs—both the 802.11 wireless LAN spec and Bluetooth run on the 2.4GHz radio frequency.  Officials at Symbol Technologies Inc., in Holtsville, N.Y., said wireless LANs eventually will run on a 5GHz frequency, but that's at least a few years away. Symbol supports both technologies.

Some phone companies were showing prototypes of Bluetooth-enabled cell phones at Comdex here last week. But since the SIG has yet to issue the test that devices must take to meet the standard, most mobile industry officials don't expect the technology to be pervasive before the end of next year.

Steve Andler, vice president of marketing at Fujitsu PC Corp., in Milpitas, Calif., agreed, adding that voice support and the strong support from cell phone manufacturers may help Bluetooth succeed where other wireless initiatives have not. But Andler doesn't expect Bluetooth to be embedded on notebooks for up to two years.

And Bluetooth supporters shouldn't get overconfident, Andler said. "Everyone worked on IrDA, too," he said. "It's on every notebook on the planet, but nobody's using it. "What Bluetooth still lacks:

• User interface support for software applications
• Official support from Microsoft
• A way to keep it from interfering with wireless LAN communications
• The test that devices must take to be labeled "Bluetooth compliant"
• A real-world demonstration of the efficacy of its security layer
  
  

Globalstar takes phones into space
Source: Mercurycenter

Its $3.3 billion satellite-phone network nearly complete, Globalstar Telecommunications of San Jose is about to test whether there is a market for a pocket-size phone that can stretch the boundaries of telephone service.  Its pioneering predecessor, Iridium, is in bankruptcy. So is a second planned network, ICO Global Communications Ltd., which ran out of money before it could complete its satellite constellation.  Nevertheless, Globalstar chief Bernard L. Schwartz, who also runs Globalstar's New York-based founding partner, Loral Space & Communications, argues forcefully that there is a huge, untapped need for a satellite-phone service. Iridium was not a true test of the market, Schwartz says, in part because its prices were sky-high.

Globalstar's fate is critical to the 290 workers in the San Jose area who run the company's satellite-control center and do engineering, administrative and marketing work for the project. In addition, its primary U.S. partner, Vodafone AirTouch Satellite Services, has close to 100 employees at its headquarters in Walnut Creek.

Unlike Iridium, Globalstar is integrating its service closely with AirTouch and other land-based cellular networks, allowing users to avoid the more costly satellite charges when they're in cities. It's also expecting to charge $1.50 to $2 per minute for satellite calls, compared to Iridium's initial prices of $2 to $8 per minute.

More important is the difference in its target market. Iridium initially aimed for globe-trotting executives, but Schwartz sees much more fertile ground among workers in underdeveloped and undeveloped areas. For example, a Brazilian businessman with clients on the outskirts of Sao Paolo, or a rancher whose range extends far beyond the reach of cellular networks. That's where most of Globalstar's customers will be, Schwartz said.

Some of that business will be in satellite phone booths and desk phones, not just the portable handsets that cost upward of $1,000. For the estimated 50 percent of the world without phone service, adding Globalstar would be an easier way to connect to the global economy than building a land-based phone network, company officials claim.