Today's Top Stories Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) is adding another element to its OSS portfolio by acquiring Bangkok-based TeleOSS Consulting, a deal that will give Ericsson additional systems integration capabilities for OSS in South East Asia and Oceania. TeleOSS Consulting brings to the table a set of OSS-related solutions for service providers, particularly inventory and traffic management and software development. "The acquisition of the entire business of TeleOSS Consulting Ltd. will complement our capabilities in systems integration for OSS in South East Asia and Oceania, particularly in the areas of traffic and inventory management areas to offer a wide-range of solutions to our customers," said Paolo Colella, head of consulting and systems integration at Ericsson, in a release. Terms of the deal, which is expected to be completed at the end of Q3 this year, were not revealed. By acquiring TeleOSS, Ericsson will gain about 50 OSS systems integration professionals, who will become part of the Swedish company. Already a major player in both the wireline and wireless domains of the telecom industry, Ericsson has been expanding its software and integration capabilities over the past year. In addition to TeleOSS, the vendor recently acquired Red Bee Media and, earlier, Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) IPTV business to gain a larger foothold in the broadcast TV and IPTV middleware market segments. For more:
- see the release On the Hot Seat: Ericsson's Nandlall: Mediaroom acquisition positions us as a video space player Related articles:
Ericsson acquires Red Bee Media, enhances broadcast TV capabilities
It's official: Ericsson to acquire Microsoft's IPTV business
Rumor mill: Ericsson looking to buy Microsoft's IPTV business
Telus employs Ericsson's compression solution for its Optik IPTV service Read more about: Ericsson
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AT&T (NYSE: T) is looking to add more than 75 employees in Arkansas to address the growth of U-verse in the state. The telco wants to fill technician positions to help with U-verse installation as well as add sales consultants and customer service representatives for its call centers and retail stores. Since the beginning of this year, the service provider has hired about 250 new workers in Arkansas and employs a total of 2,200 who reside in that state. Ed Drilling, AT&T's state president in Arkansas, said that between 2009 and 2012, the company invested "more than $700 million" in its Arkansas wireless and wireline networks. Driven by the company's Project Velocity IP (VIP), a three-year investment plan to expand and enhance AT&T's wireless and wireline IP broadband networks, the hiring push in Arkansas is just one in many states where AT&T is expanding its employee base. The service provider recently announced similar hiring drives in Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Providing greater support for its higher speed and IPTV U-verse services may enable AT&T to offer greater differentiation over smaller cable operators such as Indco Cable, which today only provides 3 to 6 Mbps over its cable network. U-verse is a strong revenue source in AT&T's wireline division. AT&T won't release its Q2 earnings until July 23, but the telco said during a recent financial analyst meeting that it was seeing stronger U-verse broadband and TV subscriptions in the second quarter compared to Q2 2012. For more:
- see the release Commentary: Is municipal broadband worth the cost? Related articles:
AT&T to ramp up its Texas U-verse workforce by 1,800
AT&T refreshes network, call center workforce in Mississippi
AT&T turns up hiring for South Carolina's wireline and wireless workforce
AT&T ramps up North Carolina wireline, wireless workforce Read more about: AT&T
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Verizon (NYSE: VZ) is hoping to convince startup businesses to establish or expand themselves in lower Manhattan by taking part in a new contest where the winner will get FiOS 300/65 Mbps Quantum service for free for one year. This contest is being conducted in partnership with Take the HELM (Hire and Expand in Lower Manhattan), an initiative of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. HELM said this competition will "provide to business startups and entrepreneurs recognition and awards for contributing to the evolution of lower Manhattan as a diverse hub of the creative economy." As an area where the telco's copper network was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy, Manhattan is a key point of FiOS expansion and future growth. In this part of New York City, the telco decided the best path was to replace the decades-old copper wires that were severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy with fiber. Under this plan, the telco has been replacing damaged copper on New York City's Broad Street area and areas of New Jersey such as the Barrier Islands. The company said this would enable it to upsell customers a dual and even triple play set of data, voice and video services. Verizon's CFO Fran Shammo said that, in addition to providing higher speeds and bundled revenues, converting what he calls "chronic" copper customers to fiber will help the company save money because it can cut down on maintenance costs. During the first quarter, Verizon transferred over 83,000 homes from copper to fiber, pushing it closer to its goal of 300,000. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Report: Verizon's FiOS, wireless will drive up Q1 EPS by 11.8 percent
Report: AT&T, Verizon retain dominant spots in cloud market
Verizon FiOS lifts wireline consumer revenues to $14 billion in 2012
Verizon FiOS additions drove up consumer revenue 4.3% to $3.6 billion Read more about: Verizon
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Fatbeam may not compete with Google Fiber (Nasdaq: GOOG) yet in the markets it serves, but the company's recent win to provide a 2 Gbps network to serve the Butte, Mont., school district shows that the competitive provider has taken a note from the Internet giant's playbook. The competitive provider will build a $1.6 million all fiber-based network that will provide 2 Gbps connections to 14 Butte school district locations. Services are being delivered to the school district via a partnership between Fatbeam and the Montana Economic Revitalization and Development Institute (MERDI). Phillip J. Curtiss, owner of SIAFU Technology Group, which manages the MERDI data center in Butte, said the new network connectivity, in conjunction with a recent investment MERDI made in its data center, will enable it to deliver "virtual desktop infrastructure, virtual private clusters, high-speed broadband access to the Internet, disaster recovery and business continuity services that are today not readily available in Butte, Montana." Operating now in five states--Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming--Fatbeam is becoming a new option in rural areas like Butte for area service providers such as tw telecom (Nasdaq: TWTC) and XO as well as for a growing base of school districts and health care providers that have traditionally been ignored by larger providers. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Fatbeam's EMAN acquisition ups Washington State fiber presence
Washington, Massachusetts, Delaware get progressive about broadband
NoaNet wraps up middle-mile expansion in Washington state
Washington State breaks ground on its NoaNet middle mile expansion project Read more about: Fatbeam
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Mike Quigley, NBN Co.'s CEO, is retiring from the company after leading the team that is building out and operating Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN). Quigley will continue to serve as CEO until the company's board finds a suitable replacement. Having come out of retirement in 2009 following a 36-year career at Alcatel, the predecessor company to Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Quigley said his job of laying the foundations for the next 30 years of NBN "is largely complete." After suffering a three-month delay due to a lack of qualified workers and what it said were "ambitious" targets, NBN Co. reported last week that it had met its revised end-of-year target of 190,000 to 220,000 homes passed by its fiber to the home rollout. Still, whoever takes over from Quigley will face two immediate challenges. First, Quigley's replacement will have to find a solution for wholesale customers such as iiNet that are threatening to split from NBN. Although iiNet just began offering services over NBN in Perth last month, it recently said it might abandon NBN if the company does not lower its wholesale prices. Then, there's Australia's Liberal-National coalition political party, which has proposed an alternative hybrid copper/fiber-based fiber to the node (FTTN) architecture, rather than fiber to the premises (FTTP), to deliver 25 Mbps speeds to the country's residents and businesses. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
NBN Co. meets FTTH deployment goal, but competitors want lower wholesale prices
Australia's NBN Co. purchases iiNet's FTTP network
Telstra migrates South Brisbane copper network to fiber
Australia's NBN now covers 784,592 premises Read more about: FTTH
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