Comptel: Global Crossing enhances VPN product
By Carol Wilson
ORLANDO -- Global Crossing today announced a new round of enhancements for its IP VPN product to include migration to MPLS-based IP VPNs, support for IP v6, global multicasting, managed Voice over IP and support for Remote Access VPN that includes home offices....
Virtela offers menu of remote monitoring service
By Carol Wilson
Virtela today announced a suite of remote monitoring and management services designed to appeal to enterprise customers who no longer want to manage all of their IT infrastructure....
Comptel: Progress Telecom launches wireless access
By Carol Wilson
Progress Telecom is adding last-mile wireless service to its roster of wholesale and retail offerings and today announced its first CLEC customer....
Comptel: BellSouth adds wavelength options
By Carol Wilson
In the face of increasing demand for IP and Ethernet services from wireline and wireless service providers, BellSouth Interconnection Services this week unveiled new wavelength service options, in the form of channel and dedicated ring services. ...
COMPTEL: Qwest revamps wholesale pricing
By Carol Wilson
Qwest Communications International today unveiled a new approach to pricing its wholesale IP voice terminating service that ties prices more accurately to costs...
COMPTEL: Indiana Fiber Works signs on with GigaBeam
By Carol Wilson
Indiana Fiber Works, a dark-fiber access provider in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois, has teamed up with GigaBeam and will purchase 12 of its WiFiber wireless systems from that company to deliver Gigabit services over wireless access and backhaul links. This marks GigaBeam’s first announced CLEC customer....
France Telecom unites brands, will sell services as Orange
By Carol Wilson
French giant will focus on strengths of IP/IT/mobile convergence...
Burger leaves SureWest; CEO search to go into ’06
By Vince Vittore
SureWest Communications said today that Robert Burger, Senior Vice President and COO of the company's wireless affiliate SureWest Wireless, will be leaving his position effective tomorrow. Burger, who joined the company in 1998 to launch the wireless business, is relocating to Washington state to pursue opportunities there....
AT&T brand reportedly will survive
By Carol Wilson
SBC Communications has reportedly decided to use AT&T as the brand name for the post-merger entity, according to USA Today. ...
Manassas ready to model BPL success
By Carol Wilson
The first U.S. citywide broadband over power line network debuted in Manassas, Va., Wednesday, ready to be a model for other municipalities even as it works to bring customers onto the network....
Peers or not? Cogent, Level 3 disagree
By Carol Wilson
A war of words has broken out between Cogent Communications and Level 3 Communications, after the latter terminated a peering agreement between their two networks...
Covad buys wireless NextWeb
By Carol Wilson
Covad Communications announced this morning that it will acquire fixed wireless Internet provider NextWeb, a California-based company that delivers business broadband services over licensed and unlicensed spectrum, for $24.7 million....
mPhase uses Broadband World Forum as interop platform
By Vince Vittore
The importance of interoperability among IPTV vendors—or perhaps the sheer volume of vendors—is taking a step up the priority list this week with an IPTV Pavilion at the Broadband World Forum in Madrid....
Qwest takes iQ global
By Vince Vittore
Qwest today is announcing a number of enhancements to its iQ Networking WAN product including an agreement with BT Infonet that will greatly expand the product’s footprint outside the U.S....
GPON RFP to hit the street in November
By Carol Wilson
The road to GPON is about to be paved. BellSouth, SBC Communications and Verizon have issued an RFP for Gigabit Passive Optical Networking technology, helping to immediately put that technology on the launch pad for 2006. ...
Infonetics predicts PON boom
By Carol Wilson
PON subscribership is about to skyrocket, according to an Infonetics report. The analyst firm is forecasting 1,260% growth in PON subscribers between 2004 and 2008, increasing from 1.7 million ports to more than 8 million....
FTTH: New optical entertainment company debuts
By Carol Wilson
A new kind of service provider is making its debut at this week’s FTTH Council conference in Las Vegas. Optical Entertainment Network is a retail and wholesale provider of Triple Play services that is currently operating in Houston but has plans to go national. ...
Basic cable ads bounce back
By Carol Wilson
The basic cable advertising business has rebounded, according to Kagan Research, and will experience “double digit growth as far as the eye can see.” In its annual datebook, Economics of Basic Cable Networks 2006: 12th Annual Edition, Kagan forecasts 12.2% CAGR for basic cable network advertising through 2009....
New Skype software adds call forwarding and more
By Carol Wilson
Skype today unveiled new calling features that include forwarding calls to a mobile or landline phone, its first venture away from the PC, and adding ringtones to VoIP. The new software, Skype for Windows Version 1.4, also promises to improve sound quality on cars, in an ongoing effort to attract more consumers to VoIP....
Bell triple-plays don't threaten cable’s dominance
By Ed Gubbins
As cable companies continue raising the speeds of their broadband offerings, they will maintain their dominance in that market for the foreseeable future and penetrate the voice market faster than Bell companies penetrate video...
U.S. broadband reaching 42% of population
By Carol Wilson
Forty-two percent of Americans now have access to broadband lines at home, an increase of 16% this year, according to a new Nielsen/NetRatings report issued today. The report also found at 61% of active Internet users rely on broadband, an increase of almost 10% in the 12 months following August, 2004....
ECI joins IP DSLAM rush
By Vince Vittore
ECI Telecom today announced the launch of its first all IP DSLAM, joining the growing ranks of traditional vendors moving into the IP market....
AT&T expands hosting centers, managed service portfolio
By Carol Wilson
AT&T today announced an expansion of its data centers and its managed services portfolio, in response to a substantial growth in managed services business...
BellSouth CFO retires at 58
By Ed Gubbins
BellSouth chief financial officer Ron Dykes announced his retirement today after 34 years with the company. The 58-year-old will resign at the end of the year, to be succeeded by senior vice president of finance Pat Shannon, who currently serves as chief financial officer for the company’s domestic operations....
BPL may be overhyped, study says
By Carol Wilson
A new research report says utility companies will face a tough time trying to compete in the broadband services arena with broadband over power line technology. ...
