Huawei Technologies, a leader in next generation telecommunications network solutions, has been selected by T-Mobile International to provide Packet Switched Core Networks (PS-CN) across five key European countries: Germany, the UK, Austria, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. This is an important cooperative arrangement between Huawei and T-Mobile, indicating the establishment of an effective partnership between two companies.
     The contract requires Huawei to replace existing networks with its next-generation PS-CN equipment. Huawei’s advanced solutions can meet T-Mobile’s business needs in future competition. Also, Huawei’s long term evolutionary strategy in Next Generation Mobile Networking (NGMN) can help T-Mobile to protect their long term investment and ideally provision their development strategy. This latest contract stands as proof of the success of Huawei’s work with T-Mobile.
     “We believe Huawei to be a reliable and trustworthy partner for us, and a company that, we hope, could be a long term partner,” said Joachim Horn, CTO, T-Mobile International. “By deploying Huawei’s advanced solutions, T-Mobile looks forward to providing excellent and more reliable services to our customers and to achieving our strategic business objectives.”
     “We are delighted to continue our work with T-Mobile,” said William Xu, the president of Huawei Europe Region and executive vice president of Huawei. “We look forward to commencing work on this latest project. At Huawei, besides providing advanced solutions featuring large capacity, high performance, intelligent billing and full 2G/3G integration, we are committed to providing fast delivery and excellent service, ensuring a win-win outcome for T-Mobile.”
     The Shenzhen, China based Huawei Technologies is a leader in providing next generation telecommunications and now serves 31 of the world’s top 50 operators, along with over one billion users worldwide. The company is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and growth potential for its customers.
     Huawei’s products and solutions encompass wireless products (HSDPA/ WCDMA/ EDGE/ GPRS/ GSM, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO/ CDMA2000 1X, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX), core network products (IMS, Mobile Softswitch, NGN ), network products (FTTx, xDSL, Optical, Routers, LAN Switch), applications and software (IN, mobile data service, BOSS) as well as terminals (UMTS/ CDMA).
     The design of major products is based on Huawei’s ASIC chipset and utilizes shared platforms to provide quality and cost-effective products.

3 Hong Kong, Novarra launch Mobile Video platform

     Novarra, a specialist in mobile web gateway platforms and services, has announced that 3 Hong Kong, the mobile telecommunications operation of Hutchison Telecommunications (Hong Kong) Limited, has launched a new premium service to deliver full streaming video from the web, using its Vision Internet Platform. 3 Hong Kong’s customers can now seamlessly select and watch millions of videos from the web, using their existing handsets.
     The Vision product suite now includes advanced real-time transformation of web video into mobile-compatible formats across the range of 2.5G and 3G handsets. The service provides access to the full web, a PC-quality video experience and a dramatic reduction in network bandwidth — all of which are required for broad consumer deployments.
     Using the service, consumers can watch any video on popular web sites such as YouTube and Facebook, and it is available at launch on 25 deployed handsets. The video service will be included in the new 3Xplorer 2.0 package, built using products developed by Novarra for multimedia applications based on the company’s core Vision Internet Platform.
     Novarra’s Vision Media Server provides real-time transformation of video content, from any PC format to industry standard mobile formats, while optimizing delivery for the specific device and media-player capabilities. In addition, the server dynamically adapts video encoding rates to achieve optimal quality based on available network bandwidth. The Vision servers for web and media are fully integrated to provide a scalable multimedia solution. Novarra also provides Java and BREW micro-clients that seamlessly integrate video playback into the web browser with a PC-like user interface.
     Amy Lung, chief operating officer ---- mobile of Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong, commented, “We are expanding our partnership with Novarra because innovation and content choice are fundamental to our successful consumer offerings.”
     “Leading operators like 3 Hong Kong are leveraging the demand for Internet access and consumer willingness to pay for the value of anytime, anywhere access,” commented Jayanthi Rangarajan, president and CEO of Novarra. “Our new video offering provides the usability, scalability and network performance to achieve successful consumer uptake.”
     Novarra’s Vision Internet Platform is a proven, carrier-grade solution for next-generation content and services. It delivers the benefits of content adaptation, content reduction, acceleration, optimization, real-time media, filtering, and services definition on a single platform and fits seamlessly with portal, network and billing infrastructure. Novarra has a website at http://www.novarra.com.

SMIC begins 12-inch wafer production in Shanghai

     Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), a leading semiconductor foundry in China, has held a ceremony to celebrate the startt of production at Shanghai’s first 12-inch (300 millimeter) wafer fab, SMIC Fab 8. More than 200 guests, including customers, investors, banks, strategic partners, vendors, industry experts, and government representatives attended the ceremony.
     SMIC’s Shanghai 12-inch manufacturing line is part of the science and education project (Ke Jiao Xin Shi) promoted by the Shanghai Municipal Government to encourage productivity and competitive development. Construction for SMIC’s Fab 8 began in October 2005. Eighteen months later, in May 2007, state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication equipment was moved in, and pilot production of the first wafers commenced in July 2007.
     At the ceremony, Dr. Richard Chang, president and chief executive officer of SMIC, reflected on SMIC’s progress over recent years and thanked government officers and industry representatives for their long-term support and commitment to bolstering the high tech industry.
     Yu ZhengSheng, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, together with members from the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government and key officials from the Pudong and Zhangjiang area, attended the ceremony. The Secretary of the Pudong New Area Party Committee, Du JiaHao, spoke at the ceremony, noting the significance of SMIC’s Shanghai 12-inch fab in the development of the integrated circuit industry in China and affirmed SMIC’s contribution, over the past seven years, to the growth of the domestic IC industry.
     At the conclusion of the ceremony, secretary Yu ZhengSheng and president Richard Chang jointly pushed a button, a symbolic action that marked the output of the first 12-inch wafer produced in Shanghai. Afterwards, SMIC’s first Shanghai 12-inch wafer was displayed for all to see.
     Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) is the largest and most advanced foundry in mainland China, providing integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing service at the 0.35-micron and 90-nanometer nodes, and finer line technologies. Headquartered in Shanghai, SMIC has a 300mm wafer fabrication facility (fab) under pilot production and three 200mm wafer fabs in its Shanghai mega-fab, two 300mm wafer fabs in its Beijing mega-fab, a 200mm wafer fab in Tianjin, and an in-house assembly and testing facility in Chengdu.
     In addition, SMIC manages and operates a 200mm wafer fab in Chengdu owned by Cension Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, while a 300mm wafer fab in Wuhan, owned by Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, is under construction.

Broadcom, RaisingSun collaborate on DTV solution

     Broadcom Corporation, a global leader in communications semiconductors, is to collaborate with RaisingSun Digital Video Technology Company of Shanghai, which is providing the industry’s first complete digital television (DTV) solution for China’s television market. Through the combination of Broadcom’s television-on-a-chip platform (BCM3560/ BCM3563) and RaisingSun’s iTVware middleware, TV manufacturers are able to develop complete lines of affordable digital televisions for the China market that support all of China’s standards while delivering superior picture, sound and graphics quality. No other solution in the market today provides all-in-one compliance with China’s DTV standards.
     The Chinese domestic television market currently utilizes different flavors of DTV standards, including its own terrestrial modulation and cable-card specifications in support of the country’s initiative to convert analog TV services to digital TV services by year 2015. With this mandatory transition to digital TV, Broadcom and RaisingSun joined forces, and under the arrangement, RaisingSun provides DTV middleware that has been ported to the popular Broadcom BCM356x series of television-on-a-chip platforms, providing compliance with all of China’s DTV standards. The result is that this collaboration enables DTV manufacturers to provide faster time-to-market for China-specific DTV solutions.
     With its accumulated technical advantages and innovation in digital video household appliance product design, RaisingSun has developed the first complete middleware platform (iTVware) for digital television applications in China. The iTVware middleware has a comprehensive universal extension interface for wireless multimedia, networked multimedia and mature application module requirements, and is currently available for developing DTMB and digital video broadcast (DVB)-based HDTVs in China and advanced television systems committee (ATSC)-based HDTVs in the US. In its third generation, iTVware has been tested by the third parties in the China market and North America.
     “By working with RaisingSun, Broadcom is the first company to provide a highly integrated, yet flexible time-to-market solution for China’s DTV market,” said Stuart Thomson, director of product marketing for Broadcom’s Digital TV line of business. “With RaisingSun’s middleware optimized for the Chinese DTV market and our BCM356x series platform, the complete solution eliminates large upfront investments in engineering, field testing and standards-compliance testing, enabling Broadcom to be well positioned as the technology and integration provider for China’s DTV requirements.”