| Analyst Show Flashes from NXTcomm | |
NXTcomm comes to the Las Vegas Convention Center in 2008 featuring more than 500 exhibitors and 100 keynote addresses, sessions and conferences. Trends and developments affecting the entire communications industry and its new partners, such as media and entertainment entities, are major themes for this year’s program -- themes such as IPTV, FMC, network transformation, WiMAX, home networking, content and applications, mobile and wireless, international perspectives and VoIP. Current Analysis is at the show and our coverage includes reports written from analysts in our Telecom Infrastructure and Services modules. In these Show Update reports, the analysts give their view of announcements made at the show providing perspective on the relative merits of the announcements as well as their importance to the vendor and the market as a whole. Analyst Show Flashes are excerpts from these reports, and are available to all visitors at no charge. Clients with subscriptions to the respective modules can read the full Show Update reports on our CurrentCOMPETE™ Intelligence Portal by following the Client Access links. |
NXTcomm08 Analyst Show Flashes
| ► | IMS/NGN Plugfest 5 Defines the Gm Interface or IP UNI IP Services Infrastructure - Jun 20, 2008 - The IMS/NGN Plugfest 5 continues its work, defining the Gm Interface for the IP NGN of the future, along with other key features and functions, but is this work yielding positive momentum for the industry or simply just another lab exercise? |
| ► | Foundry Announces 320 Gbps Trunks, MPLS-Layer 2 Interworking, and BGP Stability Features Carrier Infrastructure - Jun 20, 2008 - Foundry announced a 320 Gbps link aggregation capacity and improved scaling of metro Ethernet services through MPLS-Layer 2 integration. The company also announced BGP scalability enhancements, but it did not provide a customer endorsement. |
| ► | MRV Enters Packet Optical Fray, Announces Slew of "New" Capabilities Optical Infrastructure - Jun 20, 2008 - MRV announced a set of upgrades aimed at bolstering its packet optical networking capabilities. However, positioning some widely supported features as novel could bring its understanding of the competition and of market requirements into question. |
| ► | Tellabs Adds Density, OADM Flexibility to 7100 OTS with Feature Pack 5.0 Optical Infrastructure - Jun 20, 2008 - Tellabs made basic improvements to the 7100 OTS, which makes it a much more practical solution from both CapEx and OpEx points of view. But the fact that these improvements are just now being made could explain the product’s slow initial ramp up. |
| ► | Alcatel-Lucent Finds a New Broadband Motive Broadband Infrastructure - Jun 19, 2008 - Alcatel-Lucent locked up Motive for a reasonable, bargain price of $68 million to expand its ability to fulfill a wider range of operator broadband service requirements and strengthen overall relationships with customers. |
| ► | NextPoint Assembles the Troops to Attack Mobility Market IP Services Infrastructure - Jun 19, 2008 - Through its partnership extension with GlobalLogic, NextPoint is looking to accelerate its efforts to grab an early and commanding share of the mobile session management market – without suffering an identity crisis along the way. |
| ► | ADTRAN Embarqs on Total Access 5000 Deployment, and Enhances 1100 Series with VDSL2 Broadband Infrastructure - Jun 19, 2008 - ADTRAN has added VDSL2 interfaces to the 1100 series and chalked up a high-profile deployment with Embarq for its flagship access platform, the 5000 series, paving the way for continuing success in North America, and potentially, the ETSI markets. |
| ► | Tellabs Adds RFoG and Highlights North America PON Market Leadership and WDM-PON Research Broadband Infrastructure - Jun 19, 2008 - Tellabs, looking to move past the recent Verizon exit and 8865 termination, has announced RFoG support and highlighted its North American market leadership and WDM-PON research, seemingly demonstrating its long-term commitment to the PON market. |
| ► | New Edge Networks Launches Private Label MPLS VPN Service Featuring DSL Access for SMBs Wholesale Telecom Services - Jun 19, 2008 - New Edge Networks is making its MPLS IP VPN service with DSL access available for resale by service providers. DSL access should prove popular with smaller companies for whom a full T1 is still too expensive. |
| ► | Microsoft Makes Its Presence Known in the Hosting Arena Internet/Managed Services - U.S. - Jun 18, 2008 - Microsoft stepped up its game in the managed application space with the introduction of an enhanced hosting platform and new partners. However, questions remain about whether Microsoft will sabotage its success by competing against its partners. |
| ► | Hosted OCS Services Broaden Unified Communications Options Enterprise Communications - Jun 18, 2008 - Nortel and Microsoft deliver a platform for hosted unified communications services. It is not the first time such a platform has become available and it remains generally unclear how attractive hosted UC services will be to businesses. |
| ► | Taqua Goes Mobile with Mavenir IP Services Infrastructure - Jun 18, 2008 - Taqua goes mobile, with the help of Mavenir’s mOne Convergence Platform, to create a solution addressing the FMC needs and opportunities that are resonating from a majority of the smaller ILECs and CLECs, but will this solution win in this market? |
| ► | Is Microsoft Dating New Mediaroom System Integration Partners? Digital Media Infrastructure - Jun 18, 2008 - How much does Microsoft need Alcatel- Lucent, now that Mediaroom has quietly surpassed 2 million subscriber TV sets, a critical market positioning detail that Microsoft has buried in three simultaneous, partner-related announcements at NXTcomm? |
| ► | ECI Adds Features to Bolster XDM’s Metro Edge Value Proposition Optical Infrastructure - Jun 17, 2008 - ECI added features to its XDM platform that makes its metro edge solution undoubtedly more capable. However, will the fact that other metro WDM platforms already support the same capabilities cause the market to overlook ECI’s latest enhancements? |
| ► | Acme Packet Adds IBM Tivoli Netcool Support, Near Real-time Voice Quality Measurement, and Customized CDRs IP Services Infrastructure - Jun 17, 2008 - Acme Packet added IBM Tivoli Netcool support, along with customized call detail records and in- band voice quality scoring for its Net-Net product family. Were these enhancements in response to market demand or customer opportunities? |
| ► | MetaSwitch Brings Next-Gen Features and Functions to POTS Subscribers IP Services Infrastructure - Jun 17, 2008 - MetaSwitch wants to expand its overall customer base by enabling carriers to add next-gen capabilities to their legacy switches. It’s unclear, however, if significant demand exists among carriers to punch up old systems with new technology. |
| ► | Espial Latches Onto Motorola’s Coat-Tails Digital Media Infrastructure - Jun 17, 2008 - Espial, looking to boost its customer/market reach in the middleware sector, has signed a license and distribution agreement with Motorola. While this move improves Espial’s channel reach, will Motorola give Espial the runway it needs to survive? |
| ► | NSN Brings Network Outsourcing to the U.S. with the Acquisition of Embarq’s Network Operation Centers Telecom Infrastructure Services - Jun 16, 2008 - NSN won its (and the industry’s) first network outsourcing contract in North America, taking over Embarq’s NOCs. Embarq wants to save money and improve quality; if NSN can deliver, it has a built-in platform for future additional business. |
| ► | Despite Bad Press, Fujitsu Shows Confidence in PBB-TE Optical Infrastructure - Jun 12, 2008 - Fujitsu came out in support of PBB-TE at a time when the technology is facing serious doubts. Scuttlebutt aside, PBB-TE remains an interesting option, if not a cure-all, for helping to deliver carrier Ethernet services over optical networks. |
| ► | ANDA Networks and Nakina Systems Team on EtherView 2.0 to Manage a Multi-vendor Ethernet Access World Carrier Infrastructure - Jun 12, 2008 - ANDA Networks and Nakina team to deliver a multivendor management solution which scales to support up to 10,000 nodes; management includes all of ANDA’s EtherTone, Ether Reach and EtherSLAM gear plus a host of other vendors’ access devices. |
| ► | Fujitsu Expands Packet Optical Portfolio to Target Metro Access Optical Infrastructure - Jun 12, 2008 - Fujitsu expanded its packet optical portfolio by announcing a full-featured metro access device. However, while this type of platform is almost certainly interesting to large carriers like Verizon, it broader appeal at this point is unknown. |
| ► | Infinera Announces Passive PICs, Enabling Tighter Channel Spacing and Optical Pass-Through Optical Infrastructure - Jun 11, 2008 - Infinera announced passive PICs that achieve further integration of optical components and help the DTN address key knocks against it, but the upgrade path to take advantage of the new PICs could represent a large- scale swap-out of existing gear. |
| ► | Zhone Leads a New (and Novel) Charge on Metro-Scale WiFi Wireless Infrastructure - Jun 11, 2008 - Launching a new muni WiFi solution in the face of high-profile network failures is a risky proposition. Zhone’s combination of novel business and technology approaches, however, could help to revive what is still a valid business strategy. |
| ► | Infinera Addresses Capacity and Reach Questions with New Line System Optical Infrastructure - Jun 11, 2008 - Infinera announced a new line system promising to increase the DTN’s capacity and reach. While carriers should like the sound of this, uncertain CapEx requirements could negatively impact the investment protection Infinera offers its customers. |
| ► | OpVista Unveils CX8 Platform, Talks Up Migration Path for 40G/100G Optical Infrastructure - Jun 10, 2008 - OpVista followed up on its May 2008 promise to unveil the new CX8 platform in time for NXTCOMM. While the CX8 does appear to contain many improvements over the existing OpVista 2000 platform, some packet features look to be missing. |
| ► | Turin Unveils EoPDH Gateway to Better Address Backhaul Needs Optical Infrastructure - Jun 9, 2008 - Turin introduced an EoPDH card to increase its iConnect solution’s ability to support important new backhaul requirements. But the fact that many larger competitors already feature similar capabilities dilutes the opportunity for differentiation. |
