Ericsson and Telstra run world’s first live 40Gbps optical transmission trial in Australia

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Telstra have successfully completed the world’s first live network trial for next-generation 40Gbps optical transmission technology in Australia.


The technology trial demonstrated that Telstra’s existing 10Gbps Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) transmission technology, which carries voice, data and video, can be increased to 40Gbps without major changes to the network.


Dan Burns, Telstra Executive Managing Director, Network and Technology said: "This trial was commissioned as a part of Telstra’s forward planning to meet expected growth on the inter-capital networks. It demonstrates the capability of the Telstra Next IP(TM) network and effectively positions Telstra at the forefront of industry development to implement high capacity long distance transmission."


"Enabling 40Gbps connections between Telstra’s IP core routers, will allow us to expand our network capacity in line with expected growth in IP traffic," added Mr Burns.


The trial was conducted over Telstra’s existing 10Gbps 1,121 km coastal and 1,244 km inland optical fiber routes from Sydney to Melbourne.


Bill Zikou, CEO, Ericsson Australia and New Zealand, explained the trial was conducted over a 10Gbps network with no modification to the existing optic fiber infrastructure.


"Ericsson’s DWDM solution, Marconi MHL 3000, provides a seamless in service upgrade of capacity with minimal investment. This means that with Ericsson they would have no need to change the existing optic fiber infrastructure," he added.


The ability to offer an extremely scalable, high capacity optical solution enables network operators to respond to expected bandwidth increases caused by new and exciting consumer (Residential, Mobile and Business) packet-based Full Service Broadband applications.


Ericsson’s next-generation 40Gbps optical transmission technology is based on the new modulation format which exhibits high robustness against PMD (Polarization Mode Dispersion - a fiber characteristic which can limit high-speed transmission).


Ericsson has provided Telstra’s transmission infrastructure in Australia for several years. The infrastructure is part of the Telstra Next IP(TM) network providing the connectivity between major Australia cities and where it integrates with more recently implemented technology provided by other Strategic Suppliers.


Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world.


Read more at http://www.ericsson.com


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT


Telstra Media Relations

Sarah McKinnon

Phone: + 61 437 757 261

E-mail: Sarah.McKinnon@team.telstra.com


Telstra’s national media inquiry line is 1300 769 780 and the Telstra Media Centre is located at: www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media


About DWDM

DWDM or Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing - is a technology used to increase the capacity and efficiency of fiber-based optical networks. Telstra has deployed DWDM extensively throughout its inter-capital network.

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Zombies? No Problem

The story is not that a large group of zoobies periodically forms up in downtown San Francisco to wander the streets seeking victims. It’s also not notable that security guards throughout the downtown throw up a cordon to prevent the un-dead from coming into their stores, including the Disney Store, The Gap and the giant Westfield mall. No, the story is really about the Apple store employees’ utter non-chalance, and even amusement, when a group of 30 or so creepies staggered into the San Francisco retail store on Market Street last Friday, swept up the stairs and ended up at the Genius Bar. Staffers took photos, laughed and continued helping customers, while the security staff kept a discrete watch. Within minutes the group was gone, leaving only fingerprints on the glass staircase. After all, it’s more than a store.








[photos by Steve Rhodes. See his full set of Zombie Mob photos]

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MySpace Officially Blocked at Stores

In the first acknowledgment of congestion at Apple retail stores, the company announced today that it is now blocking access to the MySpace Web site from stores’ display computers. “Nearly 2 million people visit Apple stores every week. We want to provide everyone a chance to test-drive a Mac, so we are no longer offering access to MySpace in our stores,” the company said. Up to now, the stores have not restricted access to the Internet, which is part of a deliberate strategy to attract visitors, create buzz, and make the stores a destination spot. That philosophy has indeed generated visitors, but it has also meant that display computers were unavailable for those wanting to investigate a computer purchase.

The number of visitors to the stores has continued to increase, both in total and per-store. Apple tallied 81.1 million visitors during fiscal 2006, compared to 50.7 million the year before. On a per-store basis, visitors jumped from 372,700 in fiscal 2005, to 491,500 in 2006, an increase of 31.8 percent.

In April 2006 information surfaced that various social networking Web sites were blocked at Apple stores. However, it was learned that the restrictions were unofficial, imposed by individual store managers to regain access to display computers for potential buyers. Tipsters said that retail executives told the mangers to remove the blocks to allow full Internet access.

A visit to any store–but particularly flagship stores–will find that all computers are occupied by people checking their Hotmail or Gmail accounts, snapping pix with PhotoBooth, writing memos with Word, or surfing various social networking sites. In many cases, computer users are literally camped at a computer, with coffee cups, notebooks, bookbags and other personal property strewn across the display tables.

The issue of store congestion has been raised before within Apple. During a September, 2006 talk to financial analysts, Sr. V-P Retail Ron Johnson said that Apple store customers love the free Internet access. “The question I get all the time is, ‘The store’s too crowded. How do people buy anything?’ But we all know what we like–we like busy places,” Johnson said. He continued, “Free Internet access is the way we bring people into our stores. And people touch a Mac for the first time and they go, ‘Wow! That’s just like my computer. Macs and PCs aren’t that different.’ Big part of the story.”

During his talk, Johnson recalled the origins of the retail store initiative. He recalled thinking, “We’re going to break the norm. We’re going to be a store for everyone. PC owners, Mac owners. Small business, consumers. Eighty year-olds trying to connect with their grandkids. Grandkids trying to get on a computer for the first time. Forget the conventional wisdom of retail that it’s all about specializing.” He imagined the stores as a public place, like a library, where people could come to visit and participate. “What if we built a retail strategy that was a place to belong? What if our store was really a part of the community…it’s was a place to be, not just a place to buy?” he explained to the analysts.

When I visited the San Francisco store last Christmas, I found the full range of users at the display computers, preventing their use by anyone interested in a purchase. I also found the same situation at the SoHo (NYC) store when I visited last May, just after the new black MacBooks were introduced. There wasn’t a free computer among the 70 or so on display, and there were two or three persons standing behind each user waiting their turn. When I visited the Regent Street (London) store last March, I found that computers no the ground floor were unblocked, but that some on the second level near the theater were blocking some major Web sites.

Bandwidth at the stores is apparently not an issue. Speed tests at most stores consistently show 2 Mbps uploads and downloads.

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MySpace v. Facebook: “It’s Not A Decision. It’s an IQ Test”

Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman rips into MySpace today as he applauds Facebook’s new developer platform.

Facebook’s timing is perfect. They just released an API that gives third party developers deep access to Facebook functionality and it’s 20 million users. Not only can these third party startups get a widget placed on people’s Facebook profiles, but they can also get viral distribution through users’ news feeds and access core Facebook features. Using the tools that Facebook made available, developers could build new versions of some of Facebook’s own applications, like Facebook Photos. Users can then remove those default applications and add the new ones. Like Microsoft with Windows, Facebook is now competing with application developers on its own platform.

This isn’t all just talk, either. The most popular third party application, iLike, has nearly 400,000 users just a couple of days after launching and 10x what they had just last Friday. That means nearly 5% of Facebook’s users have now included it on their profile.

Kopelman’s post looks at the new reality from the perspective of a startup. MySpace is a minefield - startups want access to their users but suffer from the very real possibility of being banned, either temporarily or permanently.

Facebook is viewing things from exactly the opposite position: they are giving startups access to Facebook’s core feature set, and allowing them to show advertising and conduct transactions with users without even asking for a cut. This is exactly why I called Facebook the Anti-MySpace last week. Kopelman goes on to say:

Think about it. If you ran a venture-backed company and had to decide whether you wanted to focus your effort on: (a) a property that welcomed you in and let you keep 100% of the revenue you generate or (b) a company with a vague policy that doesn’t let you generate any revenue, which would you choose? I don’t think it’s even a decision. It’s an IQ test.

Kopelman estimates that $250 million has been invested in widget companies in the last 18 months. When these startups think about where to spend their resources, they’ll be weighing MySpace’s relative size advantage (MySpace has 100 million users, growing by 300,000 or so per day. Facebook has 20 million users, growing by 100,000 per day) to the open and transparent nature of Facebook’s approach. On balance I agree with Kopelman. Startups can build a very large business on the back of Facebook. The MySpace path is much riskier.

DRM-free iTunes set this week?

Apple is prepared to launch its DRM-free catalog of music from EMI this week, according to French sources familiar with negotiations for multiple online music stores. The seeming delay for introducing the new tier of content has been primarily attributed to a desire to offer the entire catalog at once in the unprotected format rather than a gradual rollout. The companies' technicians are simply in the later stages of encoding and hosting the files before they go live, the contact says.

Apple's terms will require that whole albums be offered as a second tier of 256Kbps AAC files without the iTunes-only FairPlay copy protection scheme, necessitating that the company revisit existing master copies on an individual basis. The iTunes Store itself was not described as an issue with the upgrade.

Legal issues may also have contributed to the relatively late debut, with Apple and EMI having reportedly signed a final deal only last week following negotiations of similar contracts with both the just-announced Amazon store and Europe's VirginMega service. Both Apple and EMI are nevertheless hoping to "ideally" have the change implemented before the end of the month, the report says. Whether or not this will meet Apple's regular Tuesday update schedule is currently unknown.

Firefox keyboard shortcut to retrieve closed tabs

I can’t count the number of times I have been closing windows or tabs and have accidentally a tab that I wanted kept open. In the past, it has been annoying at best and disastrous at worst, but now I no longer have any issues… why you may ask? Because I know a keyboard shortcut that is perhaps amongst the most useful in Firefox… Command-Shift-T . Yes that’s all you need, the next time you accidentally close a tab and you want it back, simply hit Command-Shift-T and the tab will magically reappear again! Now that you know it, try to live without it.

Fast Hidden Firefox Commands

Finally I'm able to bring something fresh about the Firefox commands, very few Internet users know about these commands and those are technology avid dudes that want to know everything. These commands will speed up your work and you will agree with me as soon as you see what i have prepared for you.

1. Fastest way to find a word in a website is to type / followed by the word you want to search. It will highlight the word. Press Ctrl+G if you want to “Find Again” that word.

2. If you want to delete an address from your Address Bar Drop down menu,
Highlight it without clicking and press Shift+Delete.

3. Type about:cache?device=disk in your address bar to view/save items that you stored in your firefox disk cache.

4. Type about:cache?device=memory in your address bar to view/save items
that you stored in your Firefox memory cache.

5. Click and Drag a link to the Download Manager Window to add and download the
link.

6. Stop animated gifs from moving by pressing the ESC key.

7. Holding down the Ctrl key when you right click to “View Image” will open the image in a New Tab.

8. You can bookmark the current page by dragging the icon from the
location bar to your Bookmarks folder, or by pressing Ctrl+D. Or drag it to the desktop to make an icon for it.

You will surely love these tips, i really loved the first one, it's great for Heavy Internet Users, enjoy!