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News in Brief >

❑ Russian operator Vimpelcom could acquire Italian operator Wind and 51% of Orascom Telecom, both controlled by Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris, in a deal worth $6.5 billion in cash and shares. This would give Sawiris and his associates 20% to 23% of Vimpelcom, according to some reports. Vimpelcom’s main shareholders, Telenor and Alfa Group, would see their stakes drop to 27% and 35%, from 36.03% and 44.65% respectively.

❑ Fibertech Networks has entered into an agreement under which Court Square Capital Partners would acquire Fibertech. Under the agreement, Court Square will acquire the company from its original investors, Nautic Partners and Ridgemont Equity Partners. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2010. The agreement has already been approved by the Fibertech board.

❑ US metro network operator Alpheus has expanded its Ethernet network footprint, adding over 50,000 buildings in major metropolitan markets in Texas. The expansion brings the total number of pre-qualified buildings ready for the Alpheus Ethernet Service to over 58,000. “We can provide Ethernet connectivity to far more than these 58,000 buildings, but identifying this set of pre-qualified locations helps our customers’ targeted marketing efforts,” said Paul Hobby, CEO at Alpheus.

❑ Tinet has launched a terrestrial route between Hong Kong and Europe. It runs over the Transit Europe-Asia (TEA) cable, creating a path from Sweden across Russia, China and Hong Kong. “The capacity adds further value, both in terms of increased network diversity and improved latency for our IP transit and Ethernet customers,” said Paolo Susnik, CEO at Tinet.

❑ Global Crossing is to launch a telepresence solution along with cutting-edge collaboration tools for high-quality virtual meetings in conjunction with Teliris. Global Crossing claims its relationship with Teliris allows customers around the world to experience life-like virtual meeting environments. The new offer is an expansion of Global Crossing's managed video collaboration service that aims to unite geographically dispersed teams of people. It says customers will experience improved decision making, reduced travel costs, lower carbon footprints and increased productivity.

❑ Sycamore Networks, a developer of intelligent bandwidth management solutions for fixed-line and mobile network operators, has introduced IQstream, aimed at facilitating mobile data growth in the radio access network market. It says IQstream helps operators ensure a superior multimedia experience for their subscribers by dramatically reducing congestion in the access network caused by rising demand for internet video and other rich media applications.

❑ Mobile services provider Lycamobile has signed an MVNO partnership agreement with Danish mobile operator TDC. Under the terms of the contract, Lycamobile will use TDC’s mobile network to launch mobile virtual network operations in Denmark. Lycamobile is already selling prepaid SIMs in Denmark, and is focussing on ethnic groups with offers of low-cost international calls.

❑ Indonesian operator Bakrie Telecom has extended its investment with Redknee, a provider of billing software for service providers. It says it will now be able to deliver further value-added services to its 11 million subscribers as it expands nationwide. In particular it will now be able to deliver mobile broadband services to the Indonesian market, including the introduction of low-cost wireless devices to provide internet access in any location.

❑ Global Crossing has been selected to provide high-speed internet connectivity for Broadcasting Center Europe (BCE), a European leader in technical services for the media and broadcasting sectors. Under the terms of the deal, Global Crossing will supply Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) to the company as well as Ethernet point-to-point services.

❑ Infinera and Colt have partnered to deploy the former's low latency optical networking system to support low latency services on Colt's pan-European network. With Infinera systems optimised to deliver substantial reductions in latency and the benefit of new direct fibre routes, Colt is offering services with a measured latency of 4.22ms between London and Frankfurt and 2.65ms between Paris and Brussels.

❑ Data centre operator Equinix and Level 3 Communications have announced the opening of an access node in Equinix's International Business Exchange (IBX) campus located on the outskirts of London. The access node will link the Equinix LD4/5 IBX campus directly with three of Level 3's transatlantic routes to New York, which it says will improve diversity and lower latency on the route. ■

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