2010 January

January 29, 2010

Cambridge Broadband and Gateway Communications create microwave network for Nigeria

by Jan Harris
Cambridge Broadband Networks today announced a contract with Gateway Communications to create the world’s largest point to multipoint microwave access network. Gateway will use Cambridge Broadband Networks’ industry leading VectaStar II platform to provision 130 hubs and 5000 terminal stations that will deliver mobile broadband connections across Nigeria. Gateway Communications Nigeria, headquartered in Lagos, are building a pan-African, all-IP connectivity network that ...

ip.access launches enhanced nanoGSM picocell

by Jan Harris
ip.access, the leading developer of 2G and 3G in-building wireless solutions, today announced that it has significantly enhanced the capabilities of the nanoGSM® product range with a new system release 4.1 that supports “plug and play” customer self installation and a range of other features which extend the performance and capabilities of the system. By enabling enterprise customers to directly install ...

NTT Europe Expands Global IP Transit Network in Europe

by Jan Harris
NTT Europe, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTT Communications (NTT Com) overseeing operations in Europe, Middle East and Africa, today announced that it has extended its Global IP Transit Service into Spain, terminating its Global Tier 1 IP Backbone in Interxion’s Madrid data centre. Interxion is a leading European operator of carrier-neutral data centres. The new service went live on 1st December 2009. NTT ...

i3 concerned over Next Generation Access fund

by Jan Harris
The Next Generation Access Fund now under consultation could be responsible for disincentivising the firms that can deliver universal broadband according to fibre optic infrastructure specialist, i3 Group. The consultation, a result of the Digital Britain Report, was launched this month and is designed to get feedback on how the 50p levy on all fixed telephone lines will be utilised. Elfed Thomas, ...

iBAHN in-room TV services debuts in Spain

by Janet Harris
iBAHN, the worldwide leader in digital entertainment and internet solutions for the hospitality and meeting industries, has signed a deal with Hotel ADA Palace in Madrid, part of Corporación Hispano Hotelera (CHH), to deliver the most advanced in-room digital entertainment and internet connectivity services on the market. The installation, which has just been completed, provides all 80 rooms of the Spanish ...

Samsung Galaxy 2 spotted

by Darren Allan
A photo of the Samsung Galaxy 2 has appeared online over at Androphones. As have spec details of the handset, which will apparently be powered by Android 2.1. The Galaxy 2 will reportedly have a 3.7 inch touchscreen, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 32GB memory, and a 5 megapixel camera. Androphones quotes the release date of the smartphone, which will be going up against ...

Apple top for apps in Netsize survey

by Janet Harris
Apple top for apps in Netsize survey

Netsize, a leading mobile commerce and communications enabler, today revealed the first results of the Mobile Trends Survey 2010. Drawing from an online survey of 1,000+ professionals and practitioners, the survey provides insights into key trends that top the industry agenda, including the advance of mobile applications stores, progress towards global ...

Will iBooks be coming to the UK?

by Darren Allan

The e-reader app for Apple's new iPad, predictably named iBooks, might not make it over this side of the pond. According to various reports floating around on the net, Apple hasn't been able to confirm that iBooks will be available in the UK. There is also a disclaimer on Apple's website, at the foot of the iPad features page, which ...

Easytalk expands European Prepaid services with DIGITALK

by Jan Harris
Easytalk, the alternative Spanish service provider, has selected the DIGITALK Multiservice Platform to launch new IP products across its European markets in early 2010. Easytalk have already migrated their existing prepaid services to the DIGITALK SIP Application Server to gain immediate inherent improved operation efficiencies and cost savings. The group offers its customers high quality telephony services at competitive prices for both ...

Cyber-Ark reports 40 per cent sales growth in 2009

by Janet Harris
Cyber-Ark® Software, the leading global software provider for protecting critical applications, identities and information, announced today that it achieved a more than 40 percent increase in sales in 2009 versus 2008, and continued profitability. Demonstrating the strength of its market-leading Privileged Identity Management and Governed File Transfer Suites, Cyber-Ark added an impressive 130 new customers in 2009, bringing the company’s user ...

Importance of encryption highlighted by data privacy day

by Janet Harris
Thursday was international data privacy day and, says Origin Storage, the storage systems integration specialist, a report released to coincide with the campaign shows the need for best practices when it comes to digital data records. "The research, from Iron Mountain, found that 77 per cent of companies have no established policies that cover electronic data records, even though the vast ...

Exterity StreamForce Channel Program

by Janet Harris
Exterity, the Building IPTV specialist, today announces the launch of the Exterity StreamForce Channel Program to help systems integrators and value-added resellers take advantage of the rapidly growing demand for Building IPTV solutions. The program is specifically designed to assist Exterity’s channel partners in the development of IPTV systems, increase sales and provide service support. The program is comprised of three levels, ...

O2 and Orange to bag the iPad?

by Darren Allan

The blaze of iPad related gossip continues to burn strongly, and the latest snippet concerns which mobile operators will stock the device when it comes to the UK. This rumour is based on the micro-sim card the iPad uses for mobile broadband, which as the name suggests, is a mini version of a standard sim card. Those of you with ...

BSkyB increases profits

by David Allen

The satellite, broadband and phone provider BSkyB has once again defied the recession and posted an increase in revenues and at the same time have been signing up new customers. If ever a business was recession proof Sky TV would have to be up there with the leaders. The company has consistently risen to the challenge and come out ...

BBC criticised over Alan Titchmarsh B&Q job

by David Allen

Bringing the celebrity gardener back to the BBC was celebrated as being a coup over commercial TV and the 60 year old gardening expert is about to start a new gardening show for the BBC as well as other projects and shows. But it seems while his management were finalising the deal, they must have also been taking to ...

Windows 7 buoys Microsoft’s coffers

by Darren Allan

It's a good day for Microsoft, as the firm has announced a big leap in profits for the last quarter. Its net profit was $6.66 billion (the profit of the beast, some might joke) for the last quarter of 2009. That's a huge 60% up on the same quarter the previous year. Total revenue jumped 18% to a smidge over ...

Apple iBooks in page flip controversy

by Darren Allan

Apple's e-reading app for the iPad has taken inspiration from another independent developer's effort, so says the Internet rumour mill. This particular story was unleashed by Wired writer Brian Chen, in a piece he published on Wednesday, in which he claimed that iBooks was very similar to an app called Classics. Classics is a book reading app for the iPhone ...

BSkyB to phase out SD set top boxes

by David Allen

The satellite broadcaster BSkyB is set to stop selling the standard definition set top box and instead will be providing all new customers with the latest high definition set top box as standard, even if the customers does not subscribe to the Sky+ HD service. The latest set top box is capable of so much more than just offering ...

1 TB set top box launched by Sky TV

by David Allen

In its quest to bring new technology into the home, satellite broadcaster BSkyB has brought out a new set top box capable of handling anything that the broadcaster demands of the device. The latest deign comes with a massive 1 TB hard drive, said to be the largest available in Europe at the moment and is capable of storing ...

EA Sports looking at 3D gaming

by David Allen

The gaming world is about to get another dimension. According to the head of EA Sports, Peter Moore, the firm is seriously looking into 3D gaming and will add this feature to its games just as soon as the technology becomes commercially available. He was speaking to CVG and went to suggest that EA will use the new technology ...

Renault TV launches on Sky TV

by David Allen

The French car maker Renault has launched a television channel on Sky TV in the UK and on CanalSat in France. Renault TV will be used by the firm to showcase new models, technology and news. There will also be features and even the possibility of some entertainment too. According to Renault this channel has the potential to reach around ...

ITV gets a new Chief

by David Allen

The wait is over for ITV and now the channel can begin its long awaited resurgence with the top job going to the former head of the Football Association and current boss of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier. One of the main jobs for the new ITV chief executive will be to turn around the fall in advertising revenues because ...

Changes to take place at Sky One

by David Allen

The premier entertainment channel Sky One has announced some changes within the management team, with the director of programming for Sky One, Sky One HD, Sky Two and Sky Three, Stuart Murphy filling two senior positions from within. Duncan Gray will now be Head of Entertainment, he has been responsible for the “Got to Dance” show with Davina McCall, ...

BBC should control event spending

by David Allen

The National Audit Office (NAO) has been looking into the BBC's spending and has come to the conclusion that the corporation could have done better when it comes to live event broadcasting. The focus is on the Beijing Olympics, the Euro 2008 Finals and last year’s Glastonbury Festival. Astonishingly it has been made clear that the BBC paid £246 million ...

Big companies set to use more free software

by Darren Allan

The pervading economic gloom has driven a lot of cuts in business, and IT budgets certainly aren't immune to them. In fact, recent research by software developer Global Graphics indicates that 51% of large firms are going to deploy free software in 2010, mainly because their IT spending has been frozen or cut. The survey interviewed some 400 CIOs from ...

Guardian sets newspaper site traffic record

by Darren Allan

The Guardian has announced that it has broken the record for the most web traffic on a UK newspaper site. In December almost 37 million readers perused the Guardian's musings on events around the world. In fact, the paper had broken the record in November, so this is the second month in a row of massive traffic for the site ...

Apple iPad has own chip on its shoulder

by Darren Allan

Recovered from the hullabaloo of the iPad's launch yet? On the technical side, one of the most interesting things about Apple's new tablet computer is that it's powered by its own chip. The Apple A4 system-on-a-chip runs at 1GHz, and consists of a processor, graphics and memory controller all in one unit. Apple has the power to produce its own ...

January 28, 2010

Harris Stratex rebrands as Aviat Networks

by Jan Harris
Marking the third anniversary of the merger between the Microwave Communications Division of Harris Corporation and Stratex Networks, Inc., Harris Stratex Networks, Inc. announced today that it has changed its name to Aviat Networks, Inc. Along with the name change, the Company’s ticker symbol will change to AVNW and its common stock will continue to trade on NASDAQ. The new brand represents ...

TeleWare deploys Private Mobile Network for innovITSADVANCE

by Jan Harris
TeleWare, the leading provider of intelligent communication solutions to businesses and service providers, today announced the new deployment of a Private Mobile Network for innovITSADVANCE. Private Mobile Networks Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the TeleWare Group), has designed, developed and will implement a cellular-based private communications network that meets the communication needs of the facility. The solution is due to go live ...

Babelgum and FilmBuff Launch Mobile Channel

by Janet Harris
Babelgum and FilmBuff Launch Mobile Channel

Cinetic Rights Management’s digital movie label “FilmBuff” has launched a channel on the Babelgum mobile platform. FilmBuff will make available a series of clips and trailers from some of the Sundance Film Festival’s past hits, such as Slacker, Metropolitan, The Order of Myths, which FilmBuff has released on retail platforms such ...

Shoretel reports financial results for Q2 2010

by Jan Harris
ShoreTel, Inc., (NASDAQ: SHOR) today announced financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2010, which ended December 31, 2009. For the second quarter of fiscal year 2010, revenue was $35.5 million, up 5 percent sequentially from the first quarter of fiscal 2010 and up slightly from the second quarter of fiscal year 2009. GAAP net loss was $(2.5) million, or ...

Handmark Launches Twitter App for Android Smartphones

by Janet Harris
Handmark Launches Twitter App for Android Smartphones

Handmark®, a leading global developer and distributor of mobile applications and services, today released TweetCaster, the most advanced, feature-rich Twitter application available for Android smartphone customers. TweetCaster makes “tweeting” from Android-based smartphones fast, easy, and fun, delivering a simple, yet comprehensive Twitter experience. In addition to all the standard features needed to ...

iWork comes to the Apple iPad

by Darren Allan

There's been another development today regarding Apple's much-written-about tablet PC, and that's the launch of iWork for the device. iWork is Apple's office suite, although it won't be bundled up as a suite for the iPad, coming as separate apps instead. Tailor-made versions of three iWork apps will be made available for download, specifically designed to work with the iPad's ...

New EU telecoms body starts work

by Jan Harris
A new EU body tasked with boosting the EU single market for telecoms has met for the first time today. Malcolm Harbour, the chairman of the European Parliament's internal market committee for the European Conservatives and Reformists group was present at the launch. Mr Harbour told the regulators from all 27 member states that the new Body of European Regulators for Electronic ...

Ecrio unveils FastTrack for IP communications

by Jan Harris
Ecrio, whose client software enables communications-rich IP opportunities, today unveiled the industry-first FastTrack™ client framework, a mobile solution that lets developers quickly tap rich IP communications, such as IP Messaging, VoIP, Video Share and Presence, with applications written in Java, Flash and other popular environments. Unlike alternative “solutions”, developers now can bypass complex coding in ‘C’ and other heavyweight languages; tracking ...

Network Box says 55% of email viruses are Phishing attacks

by Janet Harris
More than half (55.59 per cent) of all malware sent on email is an attempted phishing attack, according to analysis of malware in January 2010 by managed security firm, Network Box. Phishing attacks soared before Christmas (to 57 per cent of malware), as criminals attempted to exploit the number of people shopping online, but the numbers have stayed at a similar ...

BroadSoft and Polycom announce voice and video solution

by Jan Harris
BroadSoft®, the worldwide leader of VoIP application software, and Polycom®, Inc. [Nasdaq: PLCM], the leader in telepresence, video and voice communications solutions, today introduce a fully integrated voice and video solution delivered over one common infrastructure. V2Connect leverages Polycom’s Open Collaboration Network strategy with BroadSoft’s BroadWorks® VoIP application platform. Together, BroadSoft and Polycom enable service providers to deliver a unified voice and ...

Dialogue survey identifies growing demand for SMS

by Janet Harris
Dialogue survey identifies growing demand for SMS

People want to use SMS even more in their daily lives. In an extensive survey of the UK market by mobile messaging and mobile payments specialists Dialogue Communications more than 67% of mobile users would like to receive reminders or alerts by text for everything from medical appointments to bill payments. The ...

Movius brings new apps to Mobile World Congress

by Janet Harris
Movius brings new apps to Mobile World Congress

Movius Interactive Corporation announced today that several new innovative applications, designed specifically to help operators increase revenue and expand market presence, are set to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. This follows a highly successful and profitable 2009 – leading to high confidence that ...