Xplornet Communications, the Canadian rural broadband specialist, has committed to a lifetime lease for all of the Canadian satellite broadband capacity on Hughes Network Systems’ Echostar XIX, a next-generation high throughput satellite due for launch in mid-2016. In addition to satellite capacity, Xplornet will take delivery of satellite gateways, operational and support services and consumer user terminals in a programme that is expected to be worth around USD200 million. Built by Space Syste...

Canada’s Globalive Wireless (Wind Mobile) acquired over 100,000 net new mobile users in the twelve months to the end of March 2014, including 26,000 added in January-March, to end Q1 with a total of 702,000 customers, of which more than 55% were post-paid. The performance compares well with Canada’s three large national mobile operators, Rogers (which lost a net 71,000 wireless users in the first three months of 2014, while gaining 56,000 year-on-year), Bell (minus 16,000 quarter-on-quarter, up ...

Canadian quadruple-play operator Telus reported a 4% year-on-year rise in net profit to CAD377 million (USD347 million) in Q1 2014, on consolidated quarterly revenues which increased by 5% to CAD2.9 billion. Telus also reported that it added a net 48,000 post-paid mobile subscribers in the three months ended 31 March 2014, which was lower than the 59,000 post-paid users added in 1Q13, but was a higher rate of customer acquisition than both of its nationwide cellular rivals Ro...

The Net Optics Director family of smart filtering appliances (Network Packet Brokers) directs traffic of interest to monitoring tools in order to relieve oversubscription, leverage tool investment across groups, and centralize monitoring in the NOC. As part of the new Director 7.8 software release, we are introducing several new key features for the Director and Director Pro product lines: Port behavior configuration options are enabled for customers: Previously, network ports were bi-directiona...

Canadian all-business communications provider Allstream (part of MTS Allstream) has partnered Cisco Canada to add further capacity to its 30,000-plus kilometre national IP fibre-optic network, with the aim of adapting to ‘meet any customer needs’ and offer a larger range of IP communications solutions and services to Canadian businesses. Allstream will deploy a comprehensive IP Next Generation Network (NGN) built on Cisco’s latest technology which will help the company consolidate platforms, str...

When tracking user experience in Unified Communications (UC) applications, like VoIP and videoconferencing, the accuracy of analysis hinges upon your ability to capture, integrate, and analyze multiple data streams that make up a call session including: Control management setup of the conversation Audio and video streams traversing between the callers Protocols used for managing the transfer of audio and video The primary challenge is that network teams lack visibility into call traffic as it tr...

Today's networks are growing in both size and complexity, presenting new challenges for IT and network administrators. More mobile devices are now connecting to more data from more sources—and much of that is due to virtualization. IT challenges are further complicated by increasingly high customer expectations for always onaccess and immediate application response. This complexity creates network “blind spots” where latent errors germinate, and pre-attack activity lurks. Blind spots are commonl...

The principles of managing VoIP performance The use of VoIP in the corporate world is growing rapidly, driven by a combination of increasingly mature technology and a desire to reduce costs. A single network infrastructure should enable organizations to reduce capital expenditure and create a more homogeneous environment that is easier to maintain, monitor and manage. However, using the network to transport voice as well as data naturally reduces the amount of traffic it can support. Moving to V...

A premium insurance financing company based in the United States decided to upgrade their interactive voice response (IVR) platforms in call centers located in Philadelphia, PA, and Irvine, CA. Their project team leader was given responsibility for ensuring all new and existing contact center components worked together at go-live. The team leader knew the only way to accomplish this was to test each system’s ability to handle real telephone calls that “behaved” just like real callers. The compan...

What is a Tap? Test Access Ports or Taps are primarily used to optimize ITs ability to easily and passively monitor a network link. They are normally placed between any two network devices, including switches, routers, and firewalls to provide network and security personnel a connection for monitoring devices. Protocol analyzers, RMON probes and intrusion detection and prevention systems can now be easily connected to and removed from the network when needed. By using a Tap, you also eliminate t...

According to the IDC, nearly 5 million 10 Gb ports were shipped in the third quarter of 2013, surpassing the number of Gigabit switches for the first time since the technology was introduced in 2001. That's a lot of upgrades, but with Big Data analysis, VoIP, video, and other bandwidth-intensive applications gobbling up more and more network resources, it's no surprise. The real challenge for many network teams today is managing performance monitoring expectations in the new 10 Gb environment, a...

Multi-tiered applications are no longer the exception but the rule. In the past, assessing application performance meant monitoring response time and health on a single server hosting one application. Now, with the applications increasingly becoming virtualized, utilizing multiple protocols, and operating over multiple servers, the approach to tracking overall application performance needs a reboot. So how do you effectively track the health and conversations involved in a service comprised of m...

British Columbia (BC)-based telecoms provider ABC Communications has partnered with Huawei to deploy TD-LTE fixed wireless broadband services throughout its operating area, claiming the first commercial rollout of the technology in the western Canadian province, according to a press release. Using licensed 3.5GHz spectrum, ABC’s newly expanded and upgraded wireless broadband network gives coverage of ‘up to 20km of linear service range’ and provides internet access speeds of up to 50Mbps, while ...

Anyone who uses a phone has experienced IVR by now. It's the "Interactive Voice Response" system that many companies have implemented to handle incoming customer calls. I've found it's been helpful and efficient most of the time, but IVR seems to be the subject of jokes and scorn by many. Why all the animosity? IVR gets a bad rap and I know why: bad design and implementation. Let's look at some common problems and solutions. Having to press 1 for this and press 2 for that seems to really irritat...

Infosim®, the technology leader in automated Service Fulfillment and Service Assurance solutions, today announced the release of its award winning software suite StableNet® Version 6.7 for Telco and Enterprise customers.   This version provides a significant number of powerful new and enhanced features, including: Enhanced Application and Business Process Monitoring Raspberry PI full featured StableNet® Agent New Java GUI Look & Feel New User Tracking New LogNG Module / Log File Analysi...

When it comes to points of network visibility, common knowledge dictates that more is always better. And, when we’re talking about troubleshooting and identifying the point of delay, increased visibility is important. But multiple points of visibility can also lead to duplicate packets. There are times when duplicate packets help in troubleshooting, but they can also lead to incorrect analysis and forecasting. It’s critical for successful network management to understand when duplicate packets c...

Unified communications is on the move. The unified communications (UC) segment is forecast to grow from $22.8 billion in 2011 to $61.9 billion by 2018, according to Transparency Market Research. UC is viewed by businesses of all sizes as a way to cut costs and improve both productivity and collaboration. It cuts costs by using the latest Internet technologies instead of more costly solutions such as traditional corporate video conferencing solutions, and it boosts productivity by reducing the nu...

Between data centres, clouds and physical servers, enterprises are seeing rapidly growing complex networks. With this ever-expanding infrastructure comes the issue of visibility as data slips into blind spots when the network grows, which can be a stumbling point for businesses. Roark Pollock, Ixia VP of Marketing, Network Visibility Solutions, spoke to CBR about how Ixia is battling the blind spots with its new Visibility Architecture solution. Visibility Architecture is being launched to 'help...

My new report is live for Forrester clients - Predictions For 2014: Technology Monitoring. Normally I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to predictions, especially in regards to technology, because while they are interesting to read they can cause confusion and unnecessary deliberation for a buyer/strategist if they are not in context. So my aim for this report was to provide some concrete advice for I&O professionals in 2014 in regards to their technology monitoring (user experience, appli...

Contact center and communications solutions offer companies a significant opportunity to control costs and improve customer satisfaction if implemented and maintained appropriately. If the solutions are not implemented and maintained properly, the opportunities become risks and eventually customers are negatively impacted. With StressTest™ performance and load testing, you can validate the performance of your end-to-end contact center and communications solutions to assure the best possible expe...