The WACS consortium and Alcatel-Lucent have signed a turnkey contract valued at several hundred million US dollars to deploy a new submarine cable network that will provide the first direct connection between Southern Africa and Europe.

Named the West Africa Cable System (WACS), this 14,000 km-long submarine network system is expected to bolster internet and other communications capabilities to and from the African continent.

The 11 parties that form the consortium are Angola Telecom, Broadband Infraco, Cable & Wireless, MTN, Portugal Telecom, Sotelco, Tata Communications, Telecom Namibia, Telkom SA, Togo Telecom and Vodacom.

WACS is expected to open access to faster connectivity to support IP-based services such as video applications for e-education and healthcare.

Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will provide connectivity between South Africa and Portugal. With a minimum design capacity of 3.84 Terabit/s, WACS will connect South Africa to the UK with landings in Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, and Portugal.

Australia Japan Cable and Bharti Airtel have announced a partnership agreement to interconnect their current and future networks in Guam.

The agreement will allow both parties to offer services from a number of locations including Singapore and the USA West Coast to Australia. Bharti Airtel believes this will pave the way to offering new and alternative routes to existing customers and future prospects.

The company further informed that the agreement will utilise the undersea cable assets of Bharti Airtel and AJC.

Bharti Airtel will be utilising its assets on the upcoming AAG ‘Asia America Gateway’ Cable System and AJC will use its assets on its Australia Japan Cable System. The cable systems will be connected in Guam.

AJC will provide capacity between Australia and Guam, whilst still offering connectivity to Japan. Bharti Airtel will be provisioning services between Guam and major hubs like Singapore, Japan and the US. The joint network is expected to carry commercial traffic by end of Q1 FY 09-10.

NXP Semiconductors, a semiconductor company founded by Philips, has unveiled the new STB150 system solution, delivering a complete production-ready platform for the digital cable TV services market.

The NXP STB150 integrates a new single-chip CX2448x MPEG-2 decoder for DVB-C (Digital Video Broadcasting – Cable)  reception with a TDA18252HN silicon tuner and complete software stack, giving cable operators a silicon platform for a range of advanced, digital entertainment services.

Targeting the digital cable TV market in China, NXP is working closely with iPanel Technologies to provide Chinese cable operators a turn-key solution that enables fast time to market.

Integrated with iPanel-DVB MediaService middleware, the new STB150 platform enables set-top box manufacturers to meet the diverse needs of all Chinese cable operators with a single, pre-validated hardware and software platform, the company said. Optimised for iPanel-DVB MediaService middleware, the STB150 provides a range of digital TV broadcasting and interactive information services, with support for all worldwide and domestic Conditional Access Systems.

NDS, a provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, has announced that Hathway, a digital cable provider in India, has launched its Digital Box PLUS DVR solution, based on NDS XTV DVR technology.

The new DVR solution is aimed at enabling subscribers to take control over what they watch and when they watch it.

The NDS XTV DVR solution gives Hathway subscribers the ability to record one television channel while viewing another one.

Subscribers can now pause, record, play back, rewind and fast forward recorded content for viewing when they choose.

MIPS Technologies, a provider of architectures, processors and analog IP, has announced that its cooperation with NXP Semiconductors has resulted in, what is claimed to be, the industry’s first 45nm HDMI 1.3 receiver IP solution.

The companies announced a year ago that they were extending their strategic relationship to offer HDMI-based IP solutions for digital home applications, including high-definition DTVs and display units, A/V receivers and set-top boxes.

Created through a combination of co-development and co-licensing, the HDMI receiver IP is integrated in NXP’s global digital TV solution: TV550 platform, and is available for licence as IP from MIPS Technologies.

The new HDMI 1.3 Receiver Interface comprises an HDMI RX controller and an HDMI RX PHY, and is based on 90nm technology.

The controller features video interface flexibility supporting all CEA-861D video formats. It also supports True Color and Deep Color modes and several video pixel encodings, as well as Gamut Metadata, the company added.

The controller also features audio interface flexibility, and has an integrated HDCP decryption engine and I2C slave interface for HDCP authentication. The HDMI 1.3 RX PHY features an automatic adaptive equaliser function and a variable number of input channels, and is capable of supporting cables up to 20m, it was noted.

Fusionone, a provider of mobile phone content portability services, has partnered with Susteen, an international content transfer provider specialising in the area of data communications and mobile computing, to integrate Fusionone’s Handset Transfer Solution product with Susteen’s Mobile Genie in-store cable-based data transfer solution.

As a result of this integration, consumers purchasing a new mobile phone from any cellular store using Mobile Genie will be able to transfer their content from their old phone to their new phone and install the MightyBackup application at the point of sale.

Mobile Genie is a touch screen Wi-fi UMPC standalone device that enables mobile content backup and transfer from phone to phone, right at the retail location, regardless of the phone make, model, or mobile operator.

The Handset Transfer Solution rounds out the content transfer process by managing and transferring licensed content from one mobile phone to another, ensuring the migration of subscribers’ licensed content when switching from one mobile device to another. It also allows the operators to make subscription-based revenue by providing over-the-air-based backup to their customers.

Siemon, a provider of network cabling solutions, has introduced its Z-MAX end-to-end network cabling solution, designed from the ground up at Siemon Labs, reportedly ‘to shatter the previously accepted limitations of the RJ-45 interface’.

This category 6A twisted pair copper family is available in category 6A UTP and shielded configurations.

Z-MAX cords feature an exclusive RJ-45 Smart-Plug design which integrates a precisely tuned printed circuit board (PCB) into every plug.

The PCB-based Smart Plug’s enhanced signal tuning is matched to the Z-MAX outlet, providing end-to-end system. The Z-MAX Smart Plug’s Zero-Cross termination process also eliminates the split pair and pair-cross condition that is the primary cause of inconsistent or degraded transmission performance common in traditional, non-PCB RJ-45 plugs, the company said.