MOUNTAIN LAKES, NJ — Capital expenditures (capex) by telecommunications service providers globally will be very uneven, with North America, Europe and the Latin American-Caribbean regions showing little or no growth and only Asia-Pacific and Africa continuing to make investments in telecommunications hardware and software to keep up with burgeoning customer demand for new services, says a new market analysis report from The Insight Research Corporation. “Customers in every region are pinching pennies and the demand [...]

MARTINSRIED/MUNICH, GERMANY – ADVA Optical Networking, a global provider of intelligent telecommunications infrastructure solutions. including software-automated Optical+Ethernet transmission technology, announced the availability of Ethernet Ring Protection Switching (ERPS) on its
FSP 150 family. The ITU-T standard, also known as G.8032v2, provides sub 50 millisecond protection and recovery switching, ensuring highest reliability for ring-based Carrier Ethernet infrastructures. Fully configured to support IEEE Connectivity Fault Management (802.1ag), the FSP 150 family now features robust fast failure detection, protection [...]

LAS VEGAS – With the addition of the 836GE Residential Services Gateway (RSG) to Calix’s Unified Access portfolio, service providers will be able to extend their access networks into subscribers’ homes. This Wi-Fi-enabled fiber-access gateway, which acts as a central management hub for all broadband-enabled devices within the home, gives service providers new revenue options while lowering in-home costs. Calix’s fully managed network device gives service providers the potential to generate new revenues from in-home [...]

AMSTERDAM – Alcatel-Lucent has introduced a network monitoring solution designed to save service providers time and cost in maintaining fiber broadband access networks by using optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR), a method for locating flaws in fiber optic lines developed by Bell Labs. The solution, which provides an easy, fast and affordable method for accurately identifying and pinpointing faults, plugs into a network’s existing fiber access nodes and is integrated with Motive Network Analyzer, Alcatel-Lucent’s [...]

MINNEAPOLIS — Two new fiber management products designed to improve density and ease of fiber access were announced by Clearfield Inc., a specialist in fiber management and connectivity platforms. The new products, which are designed to enable customers to scale operations as they grow subscriber revenues, are Clearview Blue — the latest-generation Clearview Cassette — and FieldSmart FxHD, a high-density fiber distribution system. Like all Clearfield designs, they are maximized for modularity and scalability. Integrated [...]

PARIS – To distinguish themselves from competitors, communications service providers are increasing their budgets for improving customer experience, according to a survey conducted by telecom research house Heavy Reading and sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent. The survey indicates that providers are interested in understanding the experiences their customers have with various products and services so they can correct problems and improve customer loyalty. The survey, conducted in collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent’s Market and Consumer Insight, quantifies and ranks [...]

A few years back the FCC decided rather belatedly to start using actual data from actual broadband connections to start influencing policy decisions, a policy that involved using UK stat firm SamKnows and custom in-home routers to collect data on service quality. The endeavor has paid some dividends, the FCC occasionally at least naming and shaming particularly pathetic ISP performance resulting in some scattered but significant improvements for consumers. Now in a new public order [...]

An editorial first posted over at the Wall Street Journal recently bubbled up over at GigaOM. In it, “management consultant” Rags Srinivasan talks about how AT&T and Verizon are, like most duopolies, just pretending to compete — giving each other winks and nods when it’s time to raise prices. The latest example of course is Verizon’s new shared data plans, which jack up the price of data dramatically to offset a reduction in user voice [...]

Verizon is heading to court for just the beginning of their legal challenge against the FCC’s rather wimpy network neutrality rules, which went into effect last year. The rules were largely based on a set of equally wimpy guidelines crafted by Google and Verizon, who wanted to make sure the rules didn’t really cover wireless networks and their new Android partnership (as a result, they don’t). Verizon got what they wanted but decided to sue [...]

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah has been attracting businesses due to the state’s exceptional level of high-speed Internet access and communications infrastructure, according to a new report released by the Utah Broadband Project. The Utah Broadband Advisory Council Report details the findings and recommendations of the Utah Broadband Advisory Council during its first year of meetings. “Utah enjoys a greater level of connectivity than many other states with similar population densities and geography, largely due [...]