END OF YEAR SALE OF IGI CONSULTING MARKET RESEARCH REPORTS, UP TO 50% DISCOUNT 1--- 20%, 2---25%, 3--- 30%, 4--- 35%, 5--- 40%, 6--- OR MORE 50% TOP STORY Nortel signs a five-year, $2 billion CDMA deal with Verizon Wireless

NEW EVENTS ChinaTel Summit 2007 January 13-14, 2007 - Hilton Hawaiian Village - Honolulu, Hawaii WIRELESS Vodafone Portugal conducts 3G tests in the 900 MHz frequency bands Four Liberia-based GSM operators sign granted 18-year licenses by LTA KTF to invest KRW1.2 trillion ($1.3 billion) in 2007 BUSINESS Google holds talks with Orange regarding a multi-million dollar deal Indosat gives contract to Alcatel-Lucent to supply Carrier Ethernet services to Indonesia MERGER & ACQUISITIONS Redback to be acquired by LM Ericsson for $2.1 billion INTERNET Linksys launches new 'iPhone' or internet-enabled phone AboveNet starts to upgrade capacity of its Tier 1 IP network using Jupiners' T-Series routers MARKET INTELLIGENCE Number of internet users in Argentina by end of 2006 to reach 13 million NEW REPORTS “Internet Growth 2006 - New Market Forecasts" "What are the Bandwidth Needs of the Access Network" UPDATED REPORTS “FTTP - Still the Big News in 2006, AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth Plans - an Update.” On the R-OADM to The Lightwave Network Updated "R-OADM Components" Unrepeatered Submarine Cable Fiber Optic Systems Next Generation Network: Will the RBOC's be Googled Up?

It's Budget Closing Time Again! It's hard to believe, but 2006 is almost gone. Don't lose those funds left in budgets - use them intelligently!! This Year Use Some of those Excess Funds in Departmental Budgets Wisely Buy Reports that Will Pay Dividends all Next Year! Information Gatekeepers Inc. Is Offering Discounts on all Multiple Report Purchases for the Next Three Months! Get the Latest Information • Most Important Current Subjects - • “FTTP - Still the Big News in 2006!” • “On the 'R-OADM' to the Lightwave Network” • “IPTV - The Telcos' New Light Sword” • “The Market After the Mergers” • “The Next Generation Network - Will the RBOCs Be Googled Up?” •How Much Bandwidth Is Enough in the Access Network? • “Internet Growth - 2006 - Traffic on the Internet” • Authoritative Material - All Part of the Highly Credible “Lightwave Series” • Best Prices of the Year! And - Just In Time for Budget Close-Out! Contact Us at 617-782-5033 or E-mail ppolishuk@igigroup.com NEW SERVICE FROM IGI CONSULTING Network Design Service Industrial Ethernet Cabling Systems Market $3,990 $4,740 PDF Data Center Cabling Systems Market $4,490 PDF VOIP Cabling Systems Market $2,990 PDF FREE DOWNLOAD Holliday's Holiday Horoscope - PowerPoint Version and “The Dancing Bells”

TOP STORY

Nortel signs a five-year, $2 billion CDMA deal with Verizon Wireless
Nortel has a signed five-year, $2 billion deal with the Verizon Wireless, a US based CDMA operator. Verizon Wireless would deploy CDMA2000 radio base stations, IP platforms, switching, optical networking solutions and other concerned equipment. This deal would build on the agreement, which was announced in July 2006 under which, Nortel was chosen to provide CDMA 1XEV-DO Revision A technology to Verizon Wireless. Ed Salas, network planning vice president, Verizon Wireless said that this agreement would symbolize true mobility for the customers and take their PC experience to a higher level via feature such as V CAST Music, V CAST video, mobile games and more. This deal also allows Verizon Wireless and Nortel to create and deploy next-generation IMS-based services and applications.



NEW EVENTS






ChinaTel Summit 2007 + VC Forum Hosted By IGI group
January 13-14, 2007 - Hilton Hawaiian Village - Honolulu, Hawaii

Dr. Hui Pan
Summit Chair
Chief Economist
IGI Group

Organized by Information Gatekeepers, in cooperation with the PTC, ChinaTel Summit & VC Forum 2007 will explore the market opportunities in wirelss communications and venture capital in China.

Home to the world's largest number of mobile subscribers, the Chinese market has been experiencing exponential growth in the last several years. The Chinese mobile operators are trialing out 3G technologies based on GSM, CDMA and TD-SCDMA.
With the issuing of 3G licenses expected by early next year, all leading equipment manufacturers are aggressively positioning themselves to compete in this market.
In addition to the opportunities in mobile and Internet infrastructure, new value-added services and business models are being sought after by Chinese consumers and carriers. Recognizing the great market potential, Western venture capital firms are leading the charge in financing new start-ups with innovative technologies.
Come and network with Chinese carriers, policy makers, equipment manufacturers, and venture capitalists. Learn what opportunities exist for your company in this dynamic market.
For more details, check the developing program at: www.chinatelecomconference.com/conference.htm



WIRELESS

Vodafone Portugal conducts 3G tests in the 900 MHz frequency bands
Vodafone Portugal has conducted trials in the 3G voice, data calls and videocall in the 900 MHz (frequency band) in Portugal. It is one of the first occasions when such a trial has been conducted in a real-working environment. This trial is authorized by the Portugal-based communications regulator Anacom, and is being conducted in Penamacor in the district of Castelo Branco. Vodafone would be leveraging Nortel Networks network equipment, Option data cards and handsets from Qualcomm for this trial. The current technical tests and validation of UMTS 900 are necessary to figure out the feasibility of implementing this technology. Vodafone Portugal suggests that this UMTS 900 system would allow mobile broadband communications to be extended to sub-urban and rural areas also, thus greatly benefiting the users in those areas. Vodafone Portugal will make use of the UMTS 900 technology on its 3G/UMTS network expansion.

Four Liberia-based GSM operators sign granted 18-year licenses by LTA
Each of Liberia's four GSM mobile network operators - Cellcom Lonestar Communications Corporation (Areeba), Comium Liberia, Cellcom Liberia and Atlantic Wireless Liberia (Libercell) has signed deals with the country's telecom regulator, the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA). LTA has awarded the operators licenses to provide services for duration of 18 years. This duration period however, would be subject to review. Each cellular operator would need to pay a fee of at least $300,000 per annum for concessions. LTA's chairman, Dr Saah Abdulai Vandi, said that the total mobile user base of Liberia is around 500,000. The mobile coverage in the country has reached almost 75%, and the coverage of one of the four providers has reached almost 80%.

KTF to invest KRW1.2 trillion ($1.3 billion) in 2007
South Korea's second-biggest wireless operator, KTF intends to invest KRW1.2 trillion ($1.3 billion) in 2007. KTF said it is looking to double its sales and become the biggest mobile communications firm in South Korea in the next decade. KTF CEO Cho Young-chu said to reporters that the company intends to be the country's largest telecom firm, double its sales and triple the value of the company by 2015-end. KTF will invest KRW400 billion ($431 million) to expand the coverage of the company's HSDPA platform.



BUSINESS

Google holds talks with Orange regarding a multi-million dollar deal
Google is holding talks with telecom operator Orange, concerning multi-billion dollar collaboration for cellular telephone users to browse the web. Orange's executives flew to California-based Silicon Valley for engaging preliminary talks about the deal at the headquarters of Google, according to London-based newspaper, The Observer. The pair is looking to produce a branded Google phone, which would carry the logo of Orange, and have a screen that resembles a video iPod. Taiwan-based firm HTC, which has its expertise in PDAs and smart phones, would manufacture the phone.

Indosat gives contract to Alcatel-Lucent to supply Carrier Ethernet services to Indonesia
Indonesia's Indosat has signed contract with Alcatel-Lucent for an IP/MPLS portfolio. This will be used to provide Carrier Ethernet services like Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS) in Indonesia's prominent cities. The contract will enable Indosat to provide a steady level of business services to Southeast Asian market. The multi-service infrastructure can support triple-play services and convergence of the operator's mobile and fixed networks. According to Indosat, the new network will provide the advantages of advanced virtual private network (VPN) technology to operate highly reliable video, voice and data services across an IP/MPLS-based infrastructure. Initially, Alcatel-Lucent 7450 Ethernet Service Switch, Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router, and Alcatel-Lucent 7250 Service Access Switch will be installed.



MERGER & ACQUISITIONS

Redback to be acquired by LM Ericsson for $2.1 billion
Redback Networks Inc will be taken over by Sweden-based cell phone equipment maker LM Ericsson for $2.1 billion (in cash). This deal comes in the wake of an increasing need amongst service provides to upgrade their networks to accommodate massive bandwidth needs. Redback specializing in making routers for connecting computers to the Internet and for handling simultaneously, the voice data and video downloads made by the users. Redback CEO Kevin DeNuccio said this agreement would allow both firms to fulfill the need of telecom firms and Internet providers concerning the upgrade of their networks. The deal is likely to be completed in early 2007. The management team of Redback would be intact. Redback has a staff of around 800 employees.



INTERNET

Linksys launches new 'iPhone' or internet-enabled phone
A division of Cisco, Linksys, has launched the new 'iPhone' or Internet-enabled this week. These phones make use of the popular VoIP services to allow users to shift over to traditional landline calling. They also browse the Web and allow users to locate the friends who are online and willing to take calls. The name though, has caused a controversy, as Cisco owns the trademark of "iPhone" since 2000, when it took over the firm with the registered name, InfoGear Technology. Analysts speculate that Apple also intended to launch a combination of iPod and mobile telephone in January. Until Linksys announced this name, the name of the device to be launched by Apple was also speculated to be 'iPhone'.

AboveNet starts to upgrade capacity of its Tier 1 IP network using Jupiners' T-Series routers
Fiber-based connectivity solutions provider AboveNet, Inc. has started to upgrade the capacity of its countrywide Tier 1 IP network backbone via Juniper Networks' T-series core routers. AboveNet's private optical network provides IP and network services in 14 leading U.S. markets and London. Junipers' T-series will boost the capacity of AboveNet's network apart from its current Layer 2 eWAN service. Rajiv Datta, Chief Technology Officer of AboveNet, said that the upgrading of the core network with state-of-the-art network would enable the company to meet the growing traffic demands of the customers and Juniper's T-Series outers would help in providing reliable services to the company's customers. Juniper Networks T-series has deployed above 2000 units in customer networks throughout the world and is the most proven core routing platform in the industry.



MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Number of internet users in Argentina by end of 2006 to reach 13 million
Citing local consultancy firm Prince & Cooke, BNAmericas stated that the number of Internet users in Argentina would be 13 million by the end of 2006, a 30% year-on-year increase. The consultancy included those users who surfed the web at least twice a week. The figure of monthly contracts has reportedly increased by 32% during 2006, due to good growth in the broadband segment. By the end of this year, the number of total broadband users in the country is likely to be 1.45 million.





NEW PRODUCTS

EMCORE announces availability of QSFP devices for optical and copper media
EMCORE Corp. has made available, its family of Quad Small Form factor Pluggable (QSFP) devices for copper and fiber-optic media. This product family, QTR-3600(optical) and QTR-700 (copper) represents the next generation of parallel interconnections with greater port-density which provides designers with flexibility with current pluggable module infrastructures. The QTR-3600 and QTR-3700 devices enable high-density interconnections in various application environments like high-performance computing, telecom central offices, defense, enterprise data centers, etc. Devices are allowed to be arranged in stacked and ganged configurations to help manufacturers to increase the port-density by double, which in turn boosts system data throughput and reduces costs.
Editor's Note:  
Dr. Alan Benner of IBM Systems and Technology Group addressed some of the issues related to this story in his presentation on
"POF in Supercomputers and Servers"  at the just-concluded "POF World East 2006" conference organized by IGI.  Please visit www.pofworld.com for more details. 

Dust Network to expand its product family to include network-ready SoC products
Dust Networks will expand its product portfolio to include network-ready System-on-Chip (SoC) products. These SoC products combine very low-power radio technology with strong networking capacities with the Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol (TSMP) in a Mote-on-Chip (MoC), creating new benchmarks for power-cum performance regarding reliable wireless sensor networking. Compared to other available radios, Dust's MoC products consume 80% less power. This drastic reduction gives customers flexibility while designing battery-operated or power scavenging control devices. Dust's network-ready SoC products will increase the longevity of future WSN products using TSMP technology, apart from increasing the range of applications for these products.



IGI NEW SERVICES

"NEW" Network Design Service
IGI consulting(IGIC) has announced a joint venture with Amesbury Consulting to provide a new service which locates "Dark fiber" facilities in any city in the U.S. Amesbury Consulting has extensive experience in dealing with real estate developers, building owners, systems integrators, and government agencies in identifying and documenting "Dark Fiber Facilities" in a number of cities in the U.S. As a result of these projects over the past several years, Amesbury has developed a methodology which allows it to quickly and efficiently determine the location of "Dark Fiber" facilities in any city in the U.S. The service saves clients time and money in identifying a reliable source of this type of data in a particular city. IGI Consulting has a long history of high quality market analysis and technology forecasting in the fiber optics field. By combining the capabilities of both companies, clients can obtain high quality and reliable data on "dark Fiber" facilities to meet their needs.
For further information or quotes on a particular location, contact Paul Polishuk at 617 782-5033
email at: ppolishuk@igigroup.com or visit:: www.igigroup.com


NEW REPORTS

"Internet Growth 2006 - New Market Forecasts"
This report forecasts how much traffic will be carried for the period to the end of this decade, on the Internet backbone and on the total national North American. Given this statement of purpose for the report, it is interesting to note that there really is no Internet backbone or North American network, in the sense of an individual entity.
For further information and a complete table of contents visit our site, or contact:
Dr. Paul Polishuk, Information Gatekeepers Inc., 320 Washington Street, Suite 302, Boston, MA 02135. 617-782-5033, Fax 617-782-5735, ppolishuk@igigroup.com, or visit, http://www.igigroup.com/st/pages/growth06.html

" How Much Bandwidth is Enough In the Access Network?
Strategies of AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth in the Design of the Last Mile
When Bell shouted, “Watson, come here!” He probably wanted to debate the design of the 'last mile' of his planned telephone network. Ever since then, telephone engineers and executives have been debating the design of the last mile. The debate continues now with the various FTTX schemes for bringing fiber to within various distances of the customer. In some ways the debate really hasn't changed much - it is still about the economics of each approach - but in a very real way the debate is different now. In the past, this debate was always about POTS, and the economics of various way of providing it. Now it is still about economics, but it is also about - maybe even more so - alternative ways to meet requirements for some very exotic services.

The question is not just, “Which is cheaper?” But also involved are questions such as, “What services will I provide? “How many of each service will the customer need?” “How much bandwidth do I provide for these requirements?” “How will compression advances impact my choices?” The answers to these questions guide the technology choices for the last mile now, at least, as much as economics. This report addresses these issues in light of the activities of the largest telecommunication companies in the US - AT&T, Verizon, and BellSouth. This report starts with a forecast for demand by end users for bandwidth, based on forecasting bandwidth demand of those end users (watching TV, using the Internet, etc.) It then proceeds to review the available designs to provide bandwidth to the access customer, and finally evaluates each provisioning technology against the demand. The results of this analysis are compared to the activities of the large telecom companies and changes in their strategies are forecast.

While this was never a simple debate, the addition of the new unknowns about service requirements makes it a much more complex consideration. To see how complex, one just needs to note that the three (soon to be two) major telcos - Verizon, AT&T and BellSouth - have studied this issue with all of their great resources and come up with three completely different answers!

For further information and a complete table of contents visit our site, or contact:
Dr. Paul Polishuk, Information Gatekeepers Inc., 320 Washington Street, Suite 302, Boston, MA 02135. 617-782-5033, Fax 617-782-5735, ppolishuk@igigroup.com, or visit, http://www.igigroup.com/st/pages/enough.html

UPDATED REPORTS

“FTTP - Still the Big News in 2006, AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth Plans - an Update.”

This 2006 incarnation of the FTTP Report will focus on the coming change to a new delivery mechanism based on GPONs. Verizon has just announced the successful vendors from its analysis of a GPON RFP, and the other RBOCs are watching closely. The other major change is the merger of AT&T and BellSouth. Shortly there will be only two major RBOCs - Verizon and AT&T.

This report will consider the issues of the background competitive landscape - especially now that the RBOCs have swallowed up the two largest IXCs (and CLECs) ; the details of the RBOC PON (and the coming GPONs); details of the various RBOC access architectures, and how video fits into these architectures; details of the various options for deploying video - FTTX, broadcast video and IPTV; the current deployment scenarios; an analysis of the economic impact (capital and on the overall network) of that deployment; the specific plans of each of the RBOCs; vendors of the equipment and software; and details of the video plans. This update will add the information on the selected vendors, as well as illustrating the impacts of the so-far identified deployment plans.

For further information and a complete table of contents visit our site, or contact:
Dr. Paul Polishuk, Information Gatekeepers Inc., 320 Washington Street, Suite 302, Boston, MA 02135. 617-782-5033, Fax 617-782-5735, ppolishuk@igigroup.com, or visit http://www.igigroup.com/st/pages/fttp.html


On the R-OADM to The Lightwave Network
Now in mid-2006, the R-OADM has become a standard part of long-haul networks – to be included as a matter of course in any new network, and they are rapidly becoming a major update objective for existing networks. For more informaton, visit:
http://www.igigroup.com/st/pages/roadms06.html

Unrepeatered Submarine Cable Fiber Optic Systems
Unrepeatered Submarine Fiber Optics Systems represent a new market opportunity for existing and new players in the market. The original transoceanic links required large investments in research, installation and OAM. As the technology has developed the capability of unrepeatered undersea fiber optic links continues to increase, opening up new markets where only the cable is placed underwater and the electronics are located in a benign environment on the shore. Unrepeatered systems also require less investment and lower cost for installation and OAM. Hence, many smaller players are now able to enter the market. For more information visit: www.igigroup.com/st/pages/unrepeat.html

"The Dancing Bells and GoogleMan":
IGI Consulting has added another animated feature of the report on "Next Generation Networks - Will the RBOCs be Googled Up?" To see this, go to www.igigroup.com/st/pages/ngn.html


To purchase advertising space on Today inTelecom, contact Jaime Perez at jaime@igigroup.com

FREE DOWNLOAD
"The Dancing Bells and GoogleMan":
IGI Consulting has added another animated feature of the report on "Next Generation Networks - Will the RBOCs be Googled Up?" To see this, go to www.igigroup.com/st/pages/ngn.html