Unfiltered

Nortel Networks today confirmed that it is seeking a buyer for its majority stake in its joint venture with Korean vendor LG Electronics. Rumors of the sale of Nortel’s business divisions have been circulating since the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year. While it has acknowledged it is in negotiations to sell some of its business units, today is the first specific plans Nortel has confirmed. (more…)

Good Technology today announced it will acquire social networking platform provider Intercasting Corporation, expanding its reach beyond smartphones and giving it access to tier-one carriers. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the two companies will target the enterprise, government and consumer markets through mobile operators and device manufacturers. (more…)

Interactive television provider ActiveVideo Networks today announced plans to acquire Netherlands-based Avinity Systems, which also provides cloud-based interactive TV and applications. By acquiring the complementary company, Silicon Valley-based ActiveVideo Networks is looking to expand its presence in the still nascent market for interactive TV in Europe. (more…)

I first met Terry Barnich when he was still the chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission. As a state regulator, Barnich was ahead of the curve on seeing the value of bringing competition to markets – energy and telecom – that had previously been dominated by monopolies. It didn’t always make him popular in the Republican circles that were his power base, but that didn’t seem to phase him.

When Terry left the public sector and founded New Paradigm Research Group with colleague Craig Clausen, the name wasn’t just a collection of terms — Barnich really did believe that there was a new paradigm ahead for competitive communications. This morning, in a conversation with Craig, I shared my strongest memory of Terry, which is that he was an original thinker.

Clausen agreed, as you can see here. One of the things that kept taking Barnich back to Iraq was the excitement of seeing infrastructure rebuilt and technology put to use in new ways, Clausen said.

That doesn’t surprise me, because one of the other things I remember about Terry is how passionate he could be about his ideas and what he thought the telecommunications industry could become. On multiple occasions, I shared a speaking podium with Terry and was impressed by how thoroughly prepared he was to challenge those asssembled, usually service providers, to be bolder in embracing new competitive opportunities and new technological possibilities.

I didn’t realize Terry had spent the last two-and-a-half years in Iraq, not as an independent contractor, getting rich during wartime, but as a government employee, trying to help rebuild critical infrastracture that will eanble Iraq to be economically stronger and more secure. But it doesn’t surprise me now to learn what he was doing and to hear that, despite repeated plans to return to the U.S. for good, Barnich kept going back.

Clausen admits it was a running joke that Terry was always coming home “next April,” but adds that there were plans for him to return permanently at the end of June. Our industry and many lives will be the less for the fact he won’t come home at all.

Good old-fashioned television viewing isn’t going anywhere, according to Nielsen’s Three Screens report put out this week. The quarterly study found that Americans watch an average of 153 hours of TV each month, up 1.2% from last year. More impressive, however, is the fact that mobile TV and video viewing jumped up 50% year-over-year, while online video has grew 13%. (more…)

MetroPCS Communications(NYSE: PCS) today announced it has completed the conversion of its customers onto Amdocs (NYSE: DOX) CES 7.5, which provides integrated software for convergent real-time charging and billing, customer relationship management (CRM) and operational support systems (OSS) to support Metro’s prepaid, roaming and retail offers. (more…)

Verizon Business (NYSE:VZ) announced a new network management service for private IP networks today delivered using a software-as-a-service (Saas) model and based on the Spectrum Infrastructure Manager CA unveiled last month. (more…)

The next version of Ciena’s (NASDAQ:CIEN) CoreDirector optical switching platform appears to be delayed, according to George Notter, managing director of communications equipment equity research at Jefferies & Company, who cited multiple unnamed carriers as sources.

Though expectations vary, Notter said in a research note this week that the new product may start shipping some time in the second half of this year and that subsequent back-office testing could push its actual field deployment in some cases to early next year.

“In total, the system is at least one year late vis-à-vis the original delivery dates,” Notter said. (more…)

It’s official – Sprint (NYSE: S) will make the Palm (NASDAQ: PALM) Pre available beginning on June 6th, it announced today via press release, putting an end to the rampant release-date speculation. The phone will retail for $200 with a two-year service plan after a $100 rebate, the same price point as the 8 GB iPhone 3G and $100 cheaper than the 16 GB version. (more…)