Thursday, September 28, 2006

Verizon sees FiOS profitable in 2009

US operator Verizon expects its fibre-to-the-home service FiOS to post its first operating profit in 2009, about five years after starting work on the project. The company expects to book a return on all its FiOS investments, excluding associated interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 2008. The profitability estimates are based on attracting 7 million FiOS internet customers and 4 million FiOS TV customers by the end of 2010. Verizon had around 500,000 internet customers at the end of the second quarter and this is expected to reach 750,000 by the end of this year. The FiOS TV service is expected to reach 175,000 subscribers by the end of 2006.

Verizon said its on track for the FiOS network to pass 6 million homes by the end of this year, rising to 18 million by 2010, or 50 percent of Verizon's wireline footprint. The company is investing in total USD 18 billion in the period 2004-10 in the fibre network, a figure net of the estimated USD 4.9 billion it would have cost to maintain the copper network during that period. The company expects by 2010 a penetration of 20-25 percent for TV and 30-35 percent for internet services among homes passed by the network."

Thursday, September 14, 2006

BT Corporate Fusion

BT today announced BT Corporate Fusion, a ground breaking premise based fixed-mobile convergence service for large organisations.

The new service will enable organisations to take advantage of fixed-mobile convergence and their increasing deployment of IP Telephony and WiFi coverage to potentially deliver greater productivity, the possibility of reduced GSM call costs and to result in improved quality of service to their customers.

The first customer to trial the service in the UK is Leeds City Council (LCC), the second largest local authority in the UK. The Council, which has the largest in-house ICT provision of any local authority, is piloting BT Corporate Fusion across two of its premises, in order to assess its capability to improve productivity and improve communications.

LCC employees involved in the trial will use a dual-mode mobile phone that incorporates both regular GSM and additional WiFi connectivity. Within LCC’s premises, calls made from these mobile phones are connected via WiFi access points and are routed over existing fixed-line infrastructure. Deploying WiFi access points across LCC’s premises ensures optimal in-building coverage. At present it is estimated that over 50% of employees’ mobile phone calls are made within offices¹ (despite the fact that cheaper fixed-line phones are readily available). The use of BT Corporate Fusion will allow LCC employees to continue using a mobile device, whilst at the same time allowing the Council to migrate these calls onto WiFi and potentially bring the cost down.

Outside the office the device works like a regular mobile phone, enjoying ubiquitous coverage and the benefits of global roaming on GSM.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

CSR design for £11 Wi-Fi phones - IT Week

IP telephony may get a boost from wireless chipmaker CSR, which said it can slash the cost of producing Wi-Fi handsets for both residential and business use.

CSR's UniVox is a reference handset for voice-over-Wi-Fi that costs under $20 (£11) to build, according to the firm, compared with a typical figure of $200 (£110) for current designs. The company aims to license the design to handset makers and said it expects to see broadband operators offer end-products to customers some time in the second half of 2007.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

KPN Chooses Lucent IMS Solution to Replace PSTN Network

Lucent Worldwide Services will provide network transformation services as part of the network, including network design, systems integration, deployment, maintenance and support services. Lucent will oversee the migration of KPN’s existing services and customers to the All IP network in order to meet KPN’s marketing objectives.