Reliance Globalcom selects Ciena for 40G ultra long haul submarine network

LINTHICUM: Ciena Corp., the network specialist, has announced that Reliance Globalcom, a leading global provider of managed network services for multinational enterprises, carriers and services providers, is deploying its market-leading coherent 40G optical networking solution on a cable route that connects the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Egypt.

Spanning more than 6,400 kilometers, the upgraded cable route will add 2.4 Terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity on a crucial submarine route from Europe to the Middle East that helps transport traffic between the Atlantic crossing and Asia portions of Reliance Globalcom’s global submarine network.

Reliance Globalcom owns the world’s largest private undersea cable system that spans a total of 65,000 kilometers. When combined with the 190,000 kilometers of domestic fiber of its parent company, Reliance Communications, the global network connects 40 key business markets in India, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the United States.

This upgrade to 40G technology using Ciena’s ActivFlex 6500 Packet-Optical Platform with 40G ultra long haul interfaces is a part of a strategy to significantly increase the submarine network capacity without disrupting existing customer traffic or adding cost and complexity to the network.

“Even in uncertain economic times, delivering services to a global customer base of hundreds of service providers, thousands of enterprises and millions of consumers requires an agile, high-capacity network,” said Rory Cole, president and COO, Carrier & ISP, of Reliance Globalcom. “By adding Ciena’s 40G technology at our terminal stations, we increase our capacity by a factor of four with a clear, in-service path to 100G without disrupting existing customers, re-engineering our network or sending ships out to lay more fiber. With this one simple step, we bolster the value and extend the lifespan of our submarine network.”

Ciena's 40/100G technology – which includes coherent optics, electronic dispersion compensation, and directionless and colorless ROADM functionality – enables operators to maximize the reach, capacity and flexibility of submarine networks with a focus on ease-of-deployment, cost efficiency and network investment protection.

Ciena has further enhanced its industry-leading 40G/100G technology to enable upgrades of ultra-long haul submarine networks. Using innovative coherent receiver and dual polarization phase shift key (DP PSK) modulation technology, submarine networks can be seamlessly upgraded to 40G/100G with only the addition of new terminal equipment, significantly extending the life of existing cable plants.

“As the volume of global voice, video and data traffic increases between consumers, enterprises and service providers, submarine networks can be a potential bottleneck due to the time, expense and environmental challenges associated with upgrading them,” said Mike Aquino, senior vice president, global field operations at Ciena. “This competitive win with one of the largest submarine network operators in the world underscores the upgrade simplicity, in-service scalability and time-to-market benefits of our market-leading 40G/100G coherent technology.”

With more than 70 customer deployments to date, Ciena is leading the industry with 40G/100G coherent solutions, which provide significant CAPEX and OPEX benefits for both terrestrial and submarine applications.

Huawei and TELUS sign agreement for new joint innovation center

MARKHAM, CANADA: Huawei and TELUS have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create and maintain a Joint Innovation Center in Canada. This new endeavor demonstrates the companies’ deep commitment to providing best-in-class solutions for TELUS customers, and driving the Canadian telecommunications industry forward.

“This unique partnership arrangement provides TELUS with the ability to quickly turn our best ideas into valuable products and services for our clients,” said Ibrahim Gedeon, TELUS’ CTO. “It also demonstrates the value of our choice of Huawei in terms of the right strategic partner for now and into the future.”

The collaborative platform will take Huawei and TELUS’ existing relationship to a new level, increasing business benefits for both companies. Huawei and TELUS will work together on enhancing broadband solutions, wireless and wireline offerings. According to terms of the memorandum, the length of the agreement is three years and each company will own 50 percent of the Joint Innovation Center.

“By joining forces with TELUS, we are able to introduce a broad range of benefits to Canada,” said Charles Ding, President of Huawei North America. “Not only are we providing unrivalled opportunities to deliver the latest wireless and broadband technologies to Canadians, we are also supporting the local industry with the development of a world-class innovation center. We are honored to strengthen our commitment to Canada in announcing this joint initiative with TELUS.”

Toshniwal announces partnership with Ascom Network in India

BANGALORE, INDIA: Toshniwal Enterprises Controls Ltd announced that Ascom Network Testing AB has selected Toshniwal as its sales partner for the Indian market on a non-exclusive basis.

The agreement includes the resale of TEMS (TEst Mobile System) Investigation, TEMS Pocket, and TEMS Discovery, key product offerings in the market-leading TEMS Portfolio.

Ascom’s TEMS Portfolio, which includes some of the most trusted and renowned wireless test and measurement tools in the world, also has a significant share of the Indian telecom market.

Rajesh Toshniwal, director and CEO, Toshniwal Enterprises Controls, said: “With this partnership, Toshniwal is ideally suited to help Ascom increase the local sales and support of its TEMS products in the fast growing telecom market of India. Ascom is the industry’s premier provider of solutions to measure, analyze, and optimize mobile networks, which together with Toshniwal’s leading presence in the Indian telecom market, will result in best-in-class deployment, optimization, and maintenance of 2G, 3G, and 4G networks across India.”

Toshniwal Enterprises Controls is one of the most respected distributors of T&M products in India with over 25 years in Indian T&M market and having offices at Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. It also has an ISO certified NABL registered repair and calibration LAB at Kolkata.

HID Global RFID module chosen by DESKO for mobile 3-in-1 border-control identity-checking system

BANGALORE, INDIA: HID Global announced that its RFID reader module has been chosen by DESKO for its Personal Identification Mini Dock (PIMD) identity-checking system.

Jointly developed with Panasonic, the system is designed for border-control, policing and other security applications, and includes a DESKO-designed optical character recognition (OCR) unit and a fingerprint scanner that are connected to Panasonic’s Toughbook CF-U1 ultra-mobile PC device.

“HID Global’s RFID reader module is a key element in our revolutionary 3-in-1 solution,” said Bruno Geyer, MD with DESKO. “We chose HID’s module because it is one of the fastest readers on the market at transfer rates of 848kbps, and features a rugged design that ensures reliable outdoor operation under harsh conditions. We know we are providing a superior solution by incorporating HID technology inside our 3-in-1 PIMD.”

“HID and DESKO have worked jointly with Panasonic to create a truly exciting advance in border-control identity-checking technology,” said Maik Pogoda, vice president of e-government sales for HID Global’s Identification Solutions (IDS) business. “Our RFID reader module supports the latest generation of e-passports that comply with EAC mandates to deliver stronger encryption plus biometric data, such as a fingerprint or iris scan, which is more difficult to impersonate on the RFID chip. By supporting both BAC and EAC standards, HID’s RFID readers provide future-proofed flexibility as the world migrates to the ultimate in secure technology.”

The PIMD RFID reader module features a user-friendly document-holding clip and standard PC-SC interface to support biometric reading. It is designed for reading biometric passports or ID cards and other RF documents that require support for MIFARE Type A/B protocols.

It is the only solution available that supports both BAC and EAC standards, and also complies with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) 9303, International Standardization Organization (ISO) 14443 and ISO 15693 standards, and follows German Federal Ministry for Security in the Information Technology (BSI) specifications for biometric passport reading.

HID Global offers a wide range of RFID reader board modules that OEM customers can use to develop customized solutions. The read/write readers enable modular set-up for easy integration, and are designed to support all existing and yet-to-be-developed ISO chips and chip operating systems.

The inclusion of both BAC and EAC standards future-proof designs, and for additional security,advanced encryption techniques protect against unauthorized access to the chip data. The option of field-upgradeable firmware or a read-only memory (ROM) mask is also available upon request depending on platform.

Experian warns smartphone users to smarten up

LONDON, UK: Experian has warned smartphone users may be risking the security of their identity if they store sensitive information on their phones and use unsecure Wi-Fi networks to get online. This is according to new research by ProtectMyID, Experian's identity-protection service.

According to this latest research:
- Nearly two thirds (65 percent) of smartphone users send and store e-mails on their phones – even if these include sensitive information such as receipts and credit card details from shopping online.

- More than half (53 percent) of smartphone users access social networking sites from their phones. This could easily reveal key pieces of information like names, dates of birth and other details commonly used as passwords for online banking and other accounts, such as first school or place of birth.

- Nearly one third (29 percent) of smartphone users take advantage of public Wi-Fi hotspots (often found in city centres, used whilst having a break from the shops) which are unsecure and highly vulnerable to electronic eavesdroppers.

- Of these, one in five (19 percent) say they conduct online banking while using public Wi-Fi, risking their accounts, PINs and passwords.

The Home Office found that mobile phone identity fraud, rose by three quarters (74 percent) in the first half of last year* but more than half of the smartphone users who took part in the Protect My ID survey were completely unaware of the problem.

"The personal information on an average smartphone is like gold dust to an ID thief and many of us could be putting this on a plate by using public Wi-Fi networks," said Peter Turner, MD of Experian Interactive. "A criminal can use this information to masquerade as the phone's owner, drain his or her accounts, run up debts in their victim's name and even open new accounts.

"Often, the first people know about it is when they receive a demand for payment for services they haven't used or for an account they have never heard of. We've certainly seen cases where criminals have changed the address of the smartphone, ordered new handsets and run up huge bills."

As many as 10,000 smartphones are also stolen every month, according to Metropolitan Police, so it really makes sense for users to take sensible identity protection precautions to keep their personal information safe.

Mobile enterprise apps poised to take off in 2011

BANGALORE, INDIA: Sybase Inc., an SAP company and industry leader in enterprise and mobile software, released the results of a new survey by Kelton Research highlighting that this year 90 percent of IT managers surveyed are planning to implement new mobile applications and nearly one in two believe that successfully managing mobile applications will top their priority list.

As a result, both hosted and on-premise mobility solutions powered by a strong mobile enterprise application platform are valuable options for businesses to seriously consider in 2011.

Mobility is inevitable, are enterprises prepared?
A smarter solution: A majority (82 percent) of IT managers share the belief that it would be beneficial – not detrimental – to host more of their mobile applications in the cloud.

The year of the mobile enterprise app: Nine in ten (90 percent) IT managers reported they will implement new mobile applications this year, with almost a quarter (21 percent) looking to introduce 20 or more applications into their organization. In addition, they anticipate supporting about eight different mobile platforms or operating systems by the end of 2011.

Mobile mismanagement: Despite the enthusiasm and flexibility shared by IT departments, many are currently not being strategic about mobility. Almost half of respondents (46 percent) who do not have a mobile strategy in place did not expect to hire staff to specifically deal with their enterprise mobility strategy while nearly the same number of respondents (45 percent) admitted they did not have a plan or timeline in place.

Mobile application priority: Forty-five percent of respondents predict that implementing or managing the onslaught of mobile enterprise applications tops the priority list in the coming year, even over more common issues such as adhering to IT budgets. Also, 56 percent of IT managers consider customizing company information for mobile purposes a crucial part of conducting business and not just a “nice to have.” In addition, eight in ten (84 percent) of those who feel this way work for companies that are flexible about the use of new mobile applications or devices.

Mobile security concerns: Similarly, IT managers report that possible data security issues with mobile applications cause more problems (65 percent) than implementation (25 percent) or employee adoption hurdles (10 percent).

Other interesting findings from the 250 IT managers polled include:
Workers come first: One in two respondents (50 percent) say that employee demand is driving the adoption of new mobile applications.

Loyal to mobile: In fact, almost three in four (73 percent) say that decision makers are flexible and not rigid about incorporating new mobile applications and mobile devices into their organization, showing that many mid-to-large sized companies are committed to mobilizing the enterprise.

“The proliferation of new devices, coupled with the vast expansion of mobile applications used by consumers has paved the road for mobility solutions to enter the enterprise at the worker, workgroup, and workflow levels. Given all this, we expect 2011 to be the year of the transformation of the enterprise,” said Dan Ortega, senior director product marketing, Sybase.

“As evidenced by this survey, IT managers will be faced with greater complexities and requirements across the entire enterprise mobility framework, which is where a leading mobile solutions provider like Sybase can take an entire industry to the next level.”

Mobile gap between developed and developing Asia widens

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: The divide between mobile operators in emerging and developed markets in Asia-Pacific has widened, with major implications for foreign investment and 3G licensing, according to research firm Ovum.

Leading operators in developed markets such as NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, KT, China Mobile, and China Unicom are focusing more and more on new revenue growth opportunities. These Asian big guns are mindful of the threat of the over-the-top operators to the traditional mobile operator.

“New revenue streams are crucial to operators in developed Asian countries as the over-the-top players encroach on their territory,” said Nicole McCormick, Senior Analyst. “There are no surprises on the list of proposed sources of new revenue: open application stores, cloud computing, and machine to machine (M2M) are being pursued across the developed markets of the region. Emerging markets are way behind on this score.”

Indeed, markets such as Thailand, Bangladesh, and Pakistan have not even issued 3G licenses, yet operators are desperately trying to roll out mobile Internet and woo governments with research showing that greater Internet penetration increases GDP. As such, operators in these emerging markets are considering leapfrogging 3G and going straight to LTE due to continued regulatory delays in issuing 3G spectrum.

“Foreign investors tapping into the region must be wary that some emerging markets are still fraught with regulatory red tape, especially when it comes to 3G licensing,” said McCormick, based in Brisbane. “But it’s going to take some time for LTE consumer devices to become affordable for countries like Thailand and Bangladesh, leaving them with a dilemma – push ahead with 3G, or wait for LTE.”

Conversely, while developed country operators are not burdened by regulatory bureaucracy, operators in these markets still believe they can do everything themselves without the need to partner, for instance, on cloud services. “But it’s very early days, and we believe that partnering is essential and will lead to a more complex reality”, McCormick said.