Mannesmann and Vodafone agree to merger
Revving the E-Commerce engine
Packet tax myths and truths
Voice-Over-DSL turns heads at ComNet
AT&T and MediaOne merger heats up FCC
NetSpeak in $15m agreement with Fujitsu
ACT and Clarent release Action VOIP
Information Highway.com launches VoIP in Toronto & Vancouver
Mockingbird Networks using AudioCodes technology
Picazo to launch first Linux-based PBX
Telenor tests switchless DWDM mesh network based on tuneable lasers  
EarthLink and MindSpring complete merger
Russia and Latin America installing fiber-optic networks
A cell phone so small you can just toss it out

But the deal, that ends a three-month battle for dominance of mobile communications in Europe, has yet to be ratified by Mannesmann's supervisory board, which includes top industrialists and employees.  Vodafone, already the world's largest mobile phone company, is poised to add to its fold Mannesmann's 18.5 million customers to create a 54 million-strong global empire with interests stretching across 25 countries and five continents.

Revving the E-Commerce engine
Source: Comsoc

Network professionals intend to focus on e-commerce, convergence, and VPNs over the next two years, according to the Network World 500 survey. Within two years respondents plan to obtain an average of 41 percent of total revenue from e-commerce, and devote a yearly average of $83 million to e-commerce. Many companies also plan to focus on the convergence of voice and video on data networks. Roughly 57 percent of those surveyed say convergence in LANs and WANs is practical, while 17 percent say convergence makes sense for WANs only, and 11 percent say the same for LANs. IP was chosen as the best protocol for voice traffic by 42 percent of respondents, while 35 percent chose ATM, and 9 percent chose frame relay. Another indication of the confidence in IP is that 42 percent of respondents already use VPNs, and an additional 36 percent believe they will use VPNs within two years. 

In general, respondents were positive about Windows NT and Active Directory, with 70 percent saying they do use or will use NT for e-commerce servers. Ninety-three percent of respondents say they use NT as a network operating system, although Unix closely matches NT in terms of user confidence. Meanwhile, 36 percent of respondents plan to deploy Active Directory within 12 months, while 20 percent will implement Novell Directory Services. The network management capability that respondents consider most important is troubleshooting and event notification, with storage management and comparison of performance against service-level agreements also ranking high. Handheld devices will become more common in offices, with 51 percent of respondents saying they will buy handhelds for employees in the next 12 months. 

Packet tax myths and truths
Source: Comsoc

Although ATM and IP historically have been rivals, the two are coming closer to interoperability via the ATM/IP Collaboration Working Group. The working group is a cooperation between the Internet Engineering Task Force and the ATM Forum. Despite the rivalry between the two standards, they work together a great deal. Actually, up to 80 percent of IP transmissions use ATM cells, according to the ATM Forum. The standards work closely together because their strengths are different, but complimentary. ATM retains QoS with IP, which may experience packet loss and delays. The two are not expected to part ways anytime soon, according to experts, since ATM is still believed to be necessary for QoS over WANs. Eventually, IP may take on QoS capabilities that will allow it to replace ATM in such environments. The ATM/IP Collaboration Working Group is dedicated to increasing the efficiency of IP over ATM. Some even believe that the two standards may be merged. IP could adopt some ATM features for QoS, but it would take five years or so for that to happen, according to Fred Harris, Sprint's director of network planning and design.

Voice-Over-DSL turns heads at ComNet
Source: Comsoc

Several suppliers introduced new VoDSL equipment at the recent ComNet 2000. Successful interoperability demonstrations were also held at the show, said Matthew Davis, a Yankee Group senior analyst. Davis believes customer-site routers that blend voice and data on DSL connections will enable carriers to provide phone and Internet access services for 30 percent to 40 percent less. Supplier Vina Technologies introduced its DSL e-Link, an integrated access device (IAD) that allows as many as 16 standard phone channels on a 768 Kbps SDSL line. Efficient unveiled its SpeedStream 8600 IAD, which enables ADSL and SDSL. Also, Promatory Communications joined with Jetstream to show the interoperability between their VoDSL offerings. Finally, Alcatel displayed its OmniPCX 4400 VoIP offering, which integrates voice and data networks. 

AT&T and MediaOne merger heats up FCC
Source: Teledotcom

Consumer groups, Bell companies and Internet service providers (ISPs) are all in agreement for once--that the pending merger between AT&T and MediaOne Group Inc.  would cripple competition. Ironies flew fast and furious as those groups forcefully argued their cases Friday morning in front of a special Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forum on the deal.

"If this merger is approved, their [AT&T and MediaOne's] grasp on the average American consumer will be unprecedented," Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, vice president for FCC at SBC Communications Inc., told assembled FCC cable bureau staff during the public meeting. "Put simply, AT&T has embarked on an aggressive strategy to dominate the way Americans communicate," she said.  "If allowed to proceed, AT&T would end up serving nearly 60 percent of the homes passed by the cable industry. It would control about 98 percent of high-speed cable Internet subscribers and about 85 percent of the total broadband market," said Hill-Ardoin.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Consumers Union, strenuously objected to the way the FCC was reviewing the merger. He said AT&T was trying to circumvent existing cable ownership rules and would limit competition. He also said the FCC wasn't watching the merger proceedings closely enough and urged it to slow down in deciding on the deal's fate.

For their part, AT&T and MediaOne contend that they still need the merger if they are to be a fast, efficient competitor to the Bell companies.  AT&T has fought hard to get the Bell companies to open their networks to local telephone competition. The Bells' arthritic response was the single reason AT&T decided to buy cable companies, said James Cicconi, general counsel and executive vice president of government affairs at AT&T.

The combination of MediaOne and AT&T, argued Frank Eichler, MediaOne's executive vice president of law and public policy, will allow for deployment and upgrade of MediaOne systems three times faster than if the company went it alone. "Based on current penetration levels, it would take MediaOne 5 to 10 years to get 15 percent penetration" for cable-based telephone services in homes served by its cable systems. With AT&T's marketing punch and technical know-how, that time would be halved and penetration doubled, said Eichler.

NetSpeak has entered a three-year, $15 million OEM agreement with Fujitsu to provide ITSPs and enterprises with an integrated solution that incorporates IP-telephony call management.  Fujitsu Business Communication Systems will offer NetSpeak's iTEL product line in conjunction with its new CLASS+IP and VPN+IP Internet Protocol-based telephony solutions.  The combined solution enables corporate network managers to standardize their networks, providing centralized voice messaging, enabling enterprise-wide calling name and number display, and improving network management.  The enterprise system - which makes use of both Cisco and Motorola VoIP gateways and operates through a company's Fujitsu private branch exchange (PBX) - also enables support for extranet environments and lays the foundation for advanced IP telephony services.

According to the agreement, Fujitsu will private label and sell NetSpeak's H.323 product and application suite through its distribution and systems integration channels.  The OEM relationship covers all of NetSpeak's iTEL H.323 products and applications - including NetSpeak's Gatekeeper, Route Server, Event Management Server, Media Server, WebPhone and Mini-WebPhone products as well as its Phone-to-Phone, PC-to-Phone, Voice eCommerce, Internet Call Waiting and Call Screening applications.

ACT Teleconferencing and Clarent have introduced a full duplex IP telephony conferencing solution. The new solution, called Action VOIP, is expected to utilize Clarent's IP Telephony gateway combined with ACT's audio conferencing services and equipment.  Customers would be able to conduct attended, unattended and fully automated audio conferences via IP telephony regardless of conference participant location.  The new service could make Internet telephony a significant vehicle for voice and data conferencing in the future. Action VOIP also plans to use OutReach Technologies' Embrace platform to deliver this service.

Information Highway.com confirmed that its VoIP analog program has been successfully completed allowing the Company to begin production on its rollout program in Canada utilizing AT&T fibre optic backbone.  With the Company's gateway (www.ihwyphone.com) basic and enhanced voice services over the Internet, including voice enhanced web commerce and interactive multimedia communications can now be offered.

The Company has retained Inglenet Software to complete the next production phase for digital production of its VoIP project, with the high volume version to be announced shortly.  Inglenet Software, a software developer of advanced corporate database and network solutions is based in Vancouver.

Mockingbird Networks announced on February 2nd the NuvoStream compact PCI, a Unix-based IP telephony switch that delivers port density and integrated hot swap capabilities.  The NuvoStream switch incorporates voice compression technology from AudioCodes to offer port density and voice quality in a compact, rack-ready footprint.  The NuvoStream uses the AudioCodes' TP-400 VoIP Communications Board, a high-density, hot-swappable, compact PCI media streaming board with a capacity of 120 independent channels which support voice and fax streaming over IP networks.  The TP-400 board is powered by AudioCodes VoIP DSP communication chips that support industry standard codecs such as G.723.1, G.729A, G.711, and T.38.

The NuvoStream media gateway supports from 96 to 1,680 ports in a single chassis. A full-configured 10,000-port switch can be implemented by adding gateways in the same point of presence, or across the network through Mockingbird's distributed switching architecture.  The NuvoStream utilises a Solaris Unix-based operating system running on Sun Microsystems UltraSPARC IIi processors.  The NuvoStream is fully compatible with the Nuvo 200 and Nuvo 500 IP telephony switches, with suggested retail price starting at $48,000. The NuvoStream is available now with shipment 30 days after acceptance of order.

Picazo to launch first Linux-based PBX
Source: Commweb

Modeled, feature-wise, after Picazo's  VS1 business telephone system, the new LinBX has the telephony features one would expect -- voicemail, automatic call distribution (ACD), conferencing, paging and call control features, and multiple (up to 20) auto-attendant support.  Picazo says they are developing a solution for Linux that's not only based on customer demand, but because "LinBX fits like a glove." They say with Linux you get a server-based phone system that is reliable, network friendly, easily integrated into an IP network, manageable via any standard web browser and includes TAPI-compliant network capabilities.  And since Linux uses open source code, interoperability with legacy PBX systems and integration with third-party applications may be eased.

"Clearly, Linux is a good choice for telecom products, particularly the PBX. It has proven itself capable to run mission-critical, single function applications such as interactive voice response, voice messaging or switching," said Brian Strachman, Cahners In-Stat Group. "This is a great idea whose time has come and a very smart move for Picazo -- the market is going to eat this up!"

The LinBX will offer T-1 support, intelligent call routing, digital promotion recording, auto paging and remote management to name a few.  The Picazo Linux-based telephony solution is scheduled to ship in the second half of this year. The product will be sold through a network of authorized resellers. Picazo already has 300 VARs.  Picazo also leads market share in PC-based PBXs.

Telenor tests switchless DWDM mesh network based on tuneable lasers  
Source: Convergedigest

The Norwegian carrier Telenor AS is testing a 100-channel, mesh DWDM network that is driven by tunable laser technology instead of conventional electrical or electro-optical switches.  The technology was supplied by Altitun, Marconi and NTT.  Telenor deployed a five-node, 100-channel demonstrator network with 50-60 km fiber spans between the nodes. The channel spacing was 50 GHz.  Switching was accomplished by varying the frequencies of the transmitter lasers.  The companies said widely tunable semiconductor lasers could provide the means to both manage the existing backup and inventory-control problem associated with large DWDM networks.  

Tunable laser technology could also be used to enable flexible, future networks where individual optical channels can be routed through the network.  

Several companies, such as Global Crossing, KPNQwest and Worldwide Fiber, are building or planning international fiber-optic networks and undersea cable links. The demand for those networks, primarily serving portions of Europe, Asia or trans-Atlantic connections, is fairly predictable, analysts said.

But in Latin America and Russia, though the economies of both are improving, business growth trails well behind that of North America, which raises questions about the necessity of expensive new networks at this time.  "Given the recent political developments in Russia, the attendant reduction of risk and uncertainty, and the renewed prospects for a positive economic turnaround, I believe that (our network) is at the right place and at the right time," Andersen Group chairman Francis Baker said in a statement.  Analysts believe that so-called third-world regions, and countries that have long been under-served by communications companies, will flourish when introduced with high-speed data connections.

Analysts also believe the new networks, in many cases, are less about responding to increased demand by local residents and businesses, and more about large U.S. and European companies expanding their foreign operations with far-flung remote offices.  "It's driven partially by multinationals building out their own wide-area networks," said Blaik Kirby, vice president at Renaissance Strategy, a communications market research firm.

A cell phone so small you can just toss it out
Source: Digitalmass

Some day in the not unimaginably distant future, you might find yourself buying a new cell phone with a block of minutes, and when your time is up you simply throw the phone out.  That's the idea behind a concept-level prototype for a disposable phone developed by engineers at Motorola, for which researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are contributing some crucial ideas at a new Motorola product-development lab opening this spring.

The idea is to make a phone literally the size of a credit card that fits inside a 50-cent plastic holder to make it easier to handle. The card would have 12 slim round bumps making up a 1-to-# phone keypad, plus a miniature earpiece, microphone, hair-size antenna, and a processor chip, and would come loaded with as many minutes of airtime as you wanted to buy.

Once the minutes were up, it might be just as easy to buy a new phone as to take it someplace to have the minutes replenished.  The cost of the new phone might add barely pennies to the per-minute calling fee.  Among other advantages, such a system would be a huge leap of convenience over the current prepaid wireless market, which is small but rapidly growing.  Texas market researchers Frost & Sullivan estimate that more than 5.3 million Americans are using prepaid wireless calling plans, accounting for nearly $2.3 billion of the industry's $51.1 billion in revenues.

Engineers with Motorola's Advanced Concepts Group have developed a version of the disposable cell phone. It was one of several toys that aides to Motorola chief executive Robert Growney showed when they came to Cambridge in December to announce a new consumer products research center they are opening near MIT this spring.

One of the Motorola Fellows, Silicon Valley expatriate Rob Poor, a former Grateful Dead recording engineer and technician at George Lucas's film studio, has been working on a concept he calls ''embedded networking'' that could prove crucial to making disposable phones work, by greatly reducing the amount of power they need to function.  Currently, cell phones must have strong-enough batteries to send their signal as far as five or six miles to a tower.  Imagine, however, that each phone only had to send its signal as far as the next nearest phone in service, which in turn forwarded the signal hopscotch-fashion to the cell tower and on to the landline phone network. With enough units operating, each phone could work on a battery no bigger than what you might put in a watch.