BriefingRoom on Connected Planet Online

Amid the gloom and doom surrounding our economy, one company continues to stand out. Zeacom, a provider of contact center, unified communications and business process automation software and services, today reported significant growth in both the number of enterprises and individual users of its Zeacom Communications Center (ZCC) platform
.
As of September 1, 2011, more than 76,000 contact center and 226,000 unified communications users at more than 4,000 sites use ZCC daily.

Ernie Wallerstein, Zeacom president, noted that, “I am very pleased with Zeacom’s continued success, which is a direct result of consistent focus in contact center, unified communications and process automation solutions. Since our inception, we have remained steadfast in our operational mandate as a software provider and unlike other vendors, we do not try to be all things to all people.”

He continued, “With organizations both public and private emphasizing customer service, engagement and more

GONZALES, La. (September 20, 2011) – Ascension-based EATEL today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Vision Communications (Vision), a 66-year-old telecommunications company headquartered in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana. Vision has been owned by BV Investment Partners, a Boston based private equity firm, which acquired the Company in 2007. Vision provides cable TV, Internet, phone, home security, and alarm monitoring services to both residential and business customers from Raceland to Port Fourchon and Grand Isle, Louisiana. The acquisition of Vision will give EATEL an expanded service area throughout southeastern Louisiana that stretches from lower Livingston Parish to southern Jefferson Parish.

“From a business perspective, we are pleased to expand EATEL’s winning formula of reliable service coupled with unequalled support and look forward to providing the most advanced high-bandwidth broadband services to Vision’s customers, consistent with EATEL’s well-established track record,” said John Scanlan, EATEL President. “On a more

Across the board, today’s Telephony service providers face more challenges than ever before. For converged IP and related offerings, such as hosted VoIP, video, IPTV, cable, ISP, etc., selecting the correct partner for billing & OSS is critical and should provide the differentiation needed to stand out in an ever-increasingly crowded market.

We caught up with Ryan Susanna, Director of Sales for LogiSense (www.LogiSense.com), a hosted billing and OSS software and services provider, who shared his insight on what works – and what doesn’t – in today’s marketplace.

Q: We hear a lot of jargon coming from vendors as to their respective positions as “industry leaders.” Can you cut to the chase for us and describe what, in your opinion, is most important for service providers to think about before selecting a billing & OSS partner?

RS: The most successful companies we work with that enjoy more

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ADTRAN®, Inc., (NASDAQ:ADTN), a leading provider of next-generation networking solutions, today announced that Peetz Cooperative Telephone Company, an independent telephone cooperative serving rural Colorado, has selected ADTRAN’s Total Access® 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform (MSAP) for its broadband expansion. This project, the first awarded under the Broadband Stimulus program, will enable the expansion of broadband services for both business and residential customers in its service area.

“We needed a highly flexible and scalable access platform that would not only meet the needs of today, but allow us to continue to deliver state-of-the-art services well into the future – ADTRAN’s Total Access 5000 was the perfect fit,” said Brent Davis, Peetz Cooperative Telephone Company. “Not only does the Total Access 5000 protect our investment by giving us the ability to add bandwidth as needed with virtually unlimited backplane capacity, but ADTRAN stands behind its products with superior more

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ADTRAN®, Inc., (NASDAQ:ADTN), a leading provider of next-generation networking solutions, announced today that NTS Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xfone, Inc. (AMEX:XFN) and the largest non-ILEC telecommunications network in West Texas, has selected ADTRAN as its vendor of choice for its Broadband Stimulus Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) buildout. Exceptional reliability and unmatched scalability of the Total Access® 5000 GPON solution helped resolve a number of network hurdles that NTS faced in deploying high-definition IPTV and Over-the-Top (OTT) video services. This three-year FTTH project is scheduled to reach more than 25,000 subscribers by completion.

“The Total Access 5000 is not only allowing us to meet our current needs for GPON, but it will allow us to grow our services quickly and easily. In fact, we have already added mobile backhaul and plans are already in place to add Active Ethernet in the near future.”

“ADTRAN helped to save more

LightSquared, the nation’s first wholesale-only integrated 4G-LTE wireless broadband and satellite network, announced today the creation of the Empower Rural America Initiative led by an advisory board that includes former Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and former Representatives George Nethercutt of Washington and Charlie Stenholm of Texas.

The group will partner with LightSquared to:

* Work with small cities and rural communities to ensure the deployment of this new satellite and broadband service;
* Work with LightSquared and other parties to make sure device filters and other approaches are developed that will resolve any GPS issues related to precision agriculture and other areas;
* Ensure that LightSquared’s integrated satellite network can help rural markets augment their broadband and GPS services to provide greater accuracy and continuity of service;
* Address the unique public safety concerns of small towns and rural communities by making the deployment of satellite more

Arlington, Va., (June 16, 2011) – The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) worked diligently with members of the U.S. House of Representatives to gain partial reinstatement of the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Broadband Loan Program in the Agriculture Appropriations bill, H.R. 2112, debated today in a full House session. The House voted 221–198 in favor of an amendment to H.R. 2112 that includes restoring $6 million, which provides about $100 million in loan authority, to the program for Fiscal Year 2012.

“Over the last several days, we have worked with key members of Congress to inform all House members about the value of the program and the positive investment it has been for both the federal government and rural telecommunications,” stated NTCA Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield. “With current regulatory uncertainty, private funding sources have become scarce, so having the support through the RUS Broadband Loan Program is more

Anne Brogan brings extensive telecom experience and customer focus to new role
CHICAGO – Nitel, Inc., a nationally recognized provider of telecommunications network services, is pleased to announce that Anne Brogan has joined the company as Agent Program Manager.
Additional Resource for Agents
Brogan serves as an added level of support to the sales team and channel managers. She is responsible for training Nitel agents around the country, improving communication to the agent base, managing promotions, and raising awareness of Nitel resources available to the agents, such as Nitel’s recently launched mobile application.
“Our sales force already is second to none in the industry,” said Tim Basa, Nitel vice president of sales and marketing. “Anne’s role is designed to enhance support to our agents, making them even stronger partners in serving Nitel customers and continually growing our business. We are fortunate to add a telecom professional with the energy and insights of Anne Brogan to our team.”
more

100Gbit/s Metro/Enterprise Solution Shows Error-Free Operation
over Tier-One European Carrier Network

ADVA Optical Networking announces the successful trial of a direct-detection 100Gbit/s solution in the metro network of a tier-one European carrier. The solution ran error-free under real-life conditions with unfavorable fiber characteristics. The trial demonstrated the potential of non-coherent technologies for low-latency applications in metro and enterprise networks.

“ADVA Optical Networking has a long history of providing innovative and pragmatic solutions that deliver top performance, optimized for specific applications,” said Christoph Glingener, chief technology officer at ADVA Optical Networking. “There is a market for 100G solutions outside the traditional long-haul space,” he continued. “In the metro and data center connectivity domain, users need low latency, a small footprint, low power consumption and aggressive price points. This trial was excellent proof that we can deliver against these requirements.”

The demonstration was part more

Experienced wireless professionals provide legal and financial expertise to support further company growth

FORT MYERS, FL.—February 10, 2011—Interop Technologies, a provider of core wireless solutions for messaging, device management, and connectivity gateways, has added two new members to its board of directors. Fred Tannenbaum, Managing Partner of the Chicago law firm Gould & Ratner LLP, and Brian Rich, Managing Partner of New York-based Catalyst Investors LLC, will advise Interop Technologies on business strategy and operations.

Drawing on their strong backgrounds in the wireless business, Tannenbaum and Rich will provide additional legal and financial expertise to the Interop board and support the company’s plans for further growth.

Tannenbaum has been a practicing business lawyer for more than 25 years and has been involved in the telecommunications industry since the early days of cellular. He has represented wireless service more