LONDON — The Finnish telecommunications company Nokia said on Wednesday that it had agreed to an all-stock deal to acquire Alcatel-Lucent that valued its French rival at about $16.6 billion.
The combined company is expected to become the world’s second-largest telecom equipment manufacturer, behind Ericsson of Sweden, with global revenues totaling $27 billion and operations spread across Asia, Europe and North America.
via Nokia Agrees to $16.6 Billion Takeover of Alcatel-Lucent – NYTimes.com.
Bell Labs achieved 1Gbps symmetrical over just 70 meters on a single copper pair and 10Gbps was achieved over a distance of 30 meters by using two pairs of lines bonding. Both tests used standard copper cable provided by a European operator. The speeds are impressive but the distance is clearly more problematic, which might mean more of a choir for operators as they’d need to bring the accompanying fibre optic cable even closer to your doorstep at this range you could almost call it FTTB.
via World Record as Alcatel-Lucent Push 10Gbps Broadband Down Copper Lines – ISPreview UK.
The question for some operators will be whether or not it’s even worth following the G.fast to XG-FAST path, as opposed to simply putting fibre optic cable in the ground and having less to worry about in the future.
Admittedly some of you might look at this and point out that Alcatel-Lucent has already successfully transmitted data at the staggering speed of 31Tbps (Terabits per second) over a single long-haul 7200km optical fibre cable (here). Similarly a UK team managed to push 73.7Tbps down a hollow fibre optic cable (here). But the difference here is that BT has pulled off an impressive improvement using an existing link in a real-world environment with commercial grade hardware. ISPs will be happy to hear that.
via BT and Alcatel-Lucent Claim Fastest Real World Fibre Optic Speed of 1.4Tbps – ISPreview UK.
The experiment itself, which was carried out at by the firms R&D focused Bell Labs division on the Innovation City campus in Villarceaux (Paris), is understood to have used 155 lasers. Each laser was operating at different frequencies and carrying 200Gbps of data (single-carrier data channels) over a 50GHz frequency grid.
Normally such signals suffer from distortions and noise, which limit performance, but it’s understood that Alcatel-Lucent were able to resolve this by using an enhanced version of Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) that works by splitting light up into different wavelengths so that it can carry more data (a variety of other methods were also used).
via Alcatel-Lucent Breaks Record with 31Tbps Over a Single Fibre Optic Cable – ISPreview UK.
Whereas the telcos are migrating from voice-centric architectures to flat, all-IP networks, cable operators are set to go through a similar transition, but from video-centric to IP-centric networks.
Verizon is calling 4G small cells a “complement” to its existing LTE network and distributed antenna system deployments in hard-to-cover areas like building basements. The operator currently has 497 live LTE markets, which represents 95 percent coverage of its existing 3G footprint.
via Light Reading – Verizon Taps AlcaLu & Ericsson for 4G Small Cells.
At trial in East Texas Cheng took the stand to tell Newegg’s story. Alcatel-Lucent’s corporate representative, at the heart of its massive licensing campaign, couldn’t even name the technology or the patents it was suing Newegg over.
via Newegg nukes “corporate troll” Alcatel in third patent appeal win this year | Ars Technica.
This is big win #2 in recent times for Newegg. Here’s their win against the shopping cart patent.
The concept isn’t new, but the AlcaLu team believes its system, which includes its patent-pending Agile Rules Technology (ART), enables service providers to develop new mobile service offers more quickly, efficiently and accurately by giving them greater control over the process using a single system.
via Light Reading – AlcaLu Gets Smart With Mobile Data.
Not sure what this actually means. What kind of “service” can a service provider provide for data other than blindly routing IP packets and counting them? I’ll await a powerpoint presentation on this.
At the end of the third quarter of 2012, the analyst put AlcaLu at the top of the 100G leader board, followed by Ciena and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.
via Light Reading – 100G Land Grab Is Well Underway.
It’s nice to see some wins for AlcaLu.
Alcatel-Lucent has acquired Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) specialist Capella Photonics Inc. for an undisclosed sum.