GSA Technology Council

Europeans continue to migrate away from their land based phone lines to the mobile networks and the trend shows every sign of accelerating – particularly in those countries that have experienced the most traffic migration already – according to a new report, The Acceleration of Fixed–Mobile Substitution in Western Europe: facts and figures, published by Analysys, the global advisers on telecoms, IT and media (http://research.analysys.com).

Fixed Voice Disappearing Rapidly in Many European Markets…

“In many markets it looks as if fixed voice is going to suffer not the slow and lingering decline many have predicted, but a rather rapid one,” says report co-author, Dr Alastair Brydon. “At the current rate of traffic migration, 90% of all voice minutes in Finland will originate on mobile phones by 2008.”

Key findings from the new report include:

• In five Western European markets, more voice minutes originate on mobile networks than on traditional voice and broadband networks combined.
• VoIP appears to have little impact on the migration of voice traffic to mobile networks. Paradoxically, it appears to release consumer cash for additional spending on mobile services.
• Finland had the highest level of fixed–mobile traffic substitution in Western Europe in the fourth quarter of 2005 – mobile-originated calls accounted for 64.6% of voice traffic. However, the country also experienced the greatest increase in this proportion during 2006, by 10 percentage points, to reach 74.6% in the fourth quarter of 2006.
• Traffic substitution is also progressing rapidly in markets that have previously undergone little FMS. Germany has experienced much less traffic substitution than the Western European average; only 17.5% of its voice traffic originated on mobile phones in the fourth quarter of 2005. However, this proportion increased by 6.8 percentage points – one of the highest increases in Western Europe – to reach 24.3% in the fourth quarter of 2006.

“The widespread introduction of home-zone tariffs in Germany is having a significant effect, which demostrates that mobile operators’ actions can significantly increase usage,” says co-author Dr Mark Heath. “Following years of usage stagnation, average outgoing mobile voice usage per subscriber increased by 23% during 2006.”

“What is particularly worrying for fixed-line operations is not that FMS is happening, but the pace at which it is happening,” adds Rupert Wood, principal analyst at Analysys Research. “Of course, fixed-network operators are looking to different sources of revenue for growth, but the accelerating decline in core voice revenue is damaging at a time when they are embarking on long and expensive next-generation network re-engineering programmes.”

Full report at analysys

GigaBeam Corporation has announced the appointment of Mark Hahn as the Company’s new Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration. Mr. Hahn, a long-time CFO and a former Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, will join GigaBeam during period of sustained corporate growth.

Previous to his new position at GigaBeam, Mr. Hahn was CFO of at BuildLinks, Inc., where he led the development of that company’s financial models, strategic plans and drove the closing of several rounds of venture capital investment. At Performaworks, Inc., Mr. Hahn led the restructuring of that business by modifying short and long-term strategic initiatives that reduced its monthly burn rate by 40%.

“Mark is the ideal candidate for the CFO position at GigaBeam due to his experience and for his proven ability to develop viable financial strategies,” said Louis Slaughter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GigaBeam. “I would also thank Leighton Stephenson for his tireless work as our former CFO and respect his decision not to relocate to Durham. Mark will step right in as an important member of the GigaBeam management team as we continue to execute on our overriding mission to build shareholder value.”

Mr. Hahn also served as Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, LLP, where he led project management, engagement planning, client relations and the development of both public and private growth oriented companies. Following his position at Ernst & Young, Mr. Hahn served as the CFO of Charles & Colvard, where his executive accomplishments included growing the firm from three employees with $1 million in seed money into a thriving, NASDAQ traded company with more than 75 employees.

GigaBeam’s WiFiber® technology is similar to terrestrial fiber in terms of speed and reliability. WiFiber® has a substantial advantage over terrestrial fiber because it can be rapidly deployed and costs significantly less to deploy than terrestrial fiber. Terrestrial fiber can take months to deploy and also require significant regulatory and environmental approvals prior to installation.

WiFiber’s point-to-point high-speed units transmit data at speeds equal to 641 T1 lines or 1000 DSL lines.

Current GigaBeam partners and customers include Google, Verizon, ING, Sprint, The Department of Defense, as well as several cities and universities such as San Francisco and Boston University. The Company has implemented an aggressive commercialization strategy to expand into major metropolitan areas around the world.

3D Systems Corporation has announced the availability of InVision® 3-D Modeling courses at 3D Systems University.

Students will learn the fundamentals of transforming object designs into three-dimensional concept models using InVision® 3-D Modelers during these two- and three-day courses offered by York Technical College at the newly constructed 3D Systems University in Waterford Business Park in Rock Hill. 3D Systems University is the premier training resource for skill development in 3-D Modeling, Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Manufacturing.

Tekelec has announced that Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s flagship telecommunications company selected the Tekelec EAGLE® 5 Integrated Signaling System (EAGLE 5 ISS) to support its substantial customer growth.

Tekelec’s EAGLE 5 ISS will support Dialog Telekom’s current needs while providing a flexible platform to handle additional signaling capabilities and applications in the future. The implementation was carried out by Tekelec’s representative, Keels Business Systems Limited (KBSL), which also provides other support to Dialog Telekom.

“Tekelec’s strong reputation in signaling solutions was an important factor in our decision to select its technologies above those of its competitors,” said Mohd Rosman Mat Ali, general manager of planning and development at Dialog Telekom. “Above all, however, we were particularly impressed with Tekelec’s global experience when it comes to ensuring its products are interoperable with a wide variety of systems and technologies. The company’s capabilities in this area are invaluable as they enable us to provide a highly efficient, cost-effective and scalable network to support our customers and manage future growth.”

Thusha Weerasooriya, CEO and vice president at KBSL, added, “We appreciate the opportunity to work with Tekelec to deploy its solutions across Dialog Telekom’s network. Tekelec’s products are among the most impressive available today and will ensure that Dialog Telekom is well positioned to retain its competitive standing in the marketplace.”

Rajesh Kaul, managing director of Tekelec’s India region, said, “We’re delighted to announce this implementation with Dialog Telekom. It represents a major step forward in our strategy to expand our business in the Indian subcontinent and also demonstrates our traction with tier one operators around the globe. We look forward to working with Dialog Telekom as it continues to grow its customer base in the region.”

Dialog Telekom is the first 3G operator in South Asia to commence commercial operations. With a subscriber base in excess of 3.5 million, Dialog Telekom is the largest and fastest growing cellular service in Sri Lanka. www.dialog.lk

Tekelec is globally accelerating the transition to Internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) networks for service providers. Their corporate headquarters are located near Research Triangle Park in Morrisville, N.C., U.S.A., with research and development facilities and sales offices throughout the world. www.tekelec.com

via Tekelec

Upstate-based Rosenfeld Einstein has named Rod Martin as director of large group underwriting at the regional brokerage and consulting firm.

A graduate of the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in business administration, Martin joined Rosenfeld Einstein from Gallagher Benefit Services in Charlotte, N.C. He is a member of the National Association of Health Underwriters and a native of Knoxville, Tenn.

Greg Hillman is a member of the GSA Technology Council’s Board of Advisors and the GSATC FastTrac® TechVentureâ„¢ Facilitator.

Greg Hillman is also an advisor to knowledge-based businesses, his general management and information technology career spans the spectrum from startups to the Fortune 50, leading businesses through conceptual design, formation, growth, global expansion and acquisitions. Greg is currently working with Champion Communications, Leighton Cubbage’s start-up that is developing markets for new-media products such as the Video E-Mercial.

As a founder and CEO of Integrated Business Solutions, Inc. for five years Hillman built a team and led that systems integration firm to become one of the largest information technology services companies in the mid-south to clients Federal Express, Sharing Plough Corporation, IBM, BellSouth, First Tennessee and Union Planters Banks and others. Greg served as chairman and CEO, investor, to start-up high-fashion bath and body company Indulge Beauty, Inc., as it grew to become a highly visible trend setter competing with major national prestige lines. As Principal Consultant / Program Director with Computer Sciences Corporation Consulting Division he led strategy, risk mitigation and enterprise-wide platform change implementation efforts globally at Dupont, Nortel and MCI (in the US) and contributed to the development of conceptual IT architectural plans for US government intelligence agencies and the USPS.

Hillman managed industry relations to Gartner Group, client PC manufacturers Intel, Gateway, AT&T, NCR and associated industry press while with Cincinnati Bell’s Information Systems (CBIS) $30m acquisition – (start-up) Software Support, Inc. (SSI). As systems engineer with Ross Perot’s Electronic Data Systems (EDS) he built relationships which later fostered success during the $90m acquisition of start-up cellular S/W and MTSO servicing firm Appex Corporation ($5m earl- stage investment by Greylock Partners) by EDS. As National Industry Director for publicly traded cellular / telephony systems development company – Auxco, his efforts were critical components of its $90m acquisition by CBIS. He holds an MBA in finance and economics from University of Utah and a BA in management / chemistry from Park University in Kansas City, KS. Hillman served as aircraft maintenance manager / technician and operations program manager while in the USAF stationed at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, MHAFB, Idaho and Pleiku, Vietnam.

Transbotics Corporation (www.transbotics.com) has added three to it’s board of directors. The new members are:

• Mr. Neville Croft , shareholder, Vice President AutoMotion division of Transbotics


• Mr. Anthony Packer, shareholder, businessman, sports commentator


• Mr. Curt Kennington, shareholder, retired businessman

They will hold office until the next election of directors by the stockholders.

“We are delighted to have all three join our team,” said Bruce Wise, Chairman of the Board of Directors. “All of these men are shareholders in our Company and have a very strong business acumen. It will be a great asset to Transbotics to be able to tap into their business backgrounds. This is just the kind of experience and knowledge Transbotics needs in the years to come to continue our growth plans.”

Charlotte based Transbotics Corporation designs and develops Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs), robotics, conveyors, palletizers and related products.

GigaBeam Corporation has announced the receipt of an order for five WiFiber® links from MetroNext, Inc, a next generation wireless service provider serving major metropolitan areas in the northeastern region of the U.S.

The Company expects to drive additional revenues and earnings from the projected growth of MetroNext’s network along with the creation of next-generation Wireless Local Exchange Carriers (WiLECs) around the world.

The WiFiber® links are being deployed as a key component of the City of Boston’s wireless initiative WiFi pilot project in Roxbury. Other companies participating with GigaBeam and MetroNext in the pilot project include Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), BelAir Networks Inc., AboveNet Inc., Galaxy Internet Services, and Airpath Wireless Inc.

“We are very pleased to announce that GigaBeam has now established its first major presence in the U.S. Northeast one of the most densely populated and economically active regions in the world,” said Louis Slaughter, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GigaBeam. “We are also looking forward to working with MetroNext as the City of Boston moves to develop one of the most advanced municipal wireless networks in the world. We anticipate there will also be additional bandwidth capacity on our links to support other network requirements such as administrative, security, monitoring, large file transfer and storage.”

This pilot project is expected to demonstrate the feasibility of a city wide wholesale network that is open to any Internet service provider, thereby providing wireless access to consumers and businesses in the Boston metro area.

MetroNext is providing the network’s Internet backhaul and high-speed network backbone connections utilizing GigaBeam’s ultra high-speed radio equipment to facilitate the transmittal of Internet traffic for the City of Boston’s pilot program. The GigaBeam WiFiber links are to be used in lieu of terrestrial fiber and will connect WiFi access nodes located throughout the city’s pilot area to a central fiber hub at a Point-Of-Presence (“POP”) in downtown Boston. This network architecture enables the city to rapidly deploy a network that is more economical because it virtually eliminates the need for new terrestrial fiber, which may not be readily available, is more expensive and is time consuming to deploy.

“GigaBeam’s revolutionary wireless transport technology, coupled with the large blocks of frequency spectrum pioneered by GigaBeam’s founders, for the first time enables a true ubiquitous ultra high speed wireless deployment across a metropolitan area,” said Tom Wetmore, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MetroNext. “This pilot demonstration is the first step in the deployment of a citywide real high-speed wireless network. We see a significant number of follow on orders for GigaBeam as we roll out similar deployments in Boston and across other cities in the region.”

From 2005-2006 the number of cities setting up municipal wireless networks virtually doubled to almost 200. While some are public and either free or low cost, others are strictly for municipal employee use. The U.S. is currently 16th in the world in broadband penetration evidencing the enormous ongoing potential for GigaBeam’s WiFiber® products and solutions. Whether to allow public access, improve productivity or attract business and tourists, the initiation and growth of these networks will rapidly increase over the next decade.

GigaBeam’s WiFiber technology is similar to terrestrial fiber in terms of speed and reliability. WiFiber has a substantial advantage over terrestrial fiber because WiFiber can be rapidly deployed and costs less to deploy than terrestrial fiber. Terrestrial fiber can take months to deploy and also require significant regulatory and environmental approvals prior to installation.

GigaBeam WiFiber products operate in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz upper millimeter wave spectrum bands. The Federal Communications Commission and the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) and certain other countries for licensed wireless commercial use have authorized this portion of the spectrum.

Camstar Systems, Inc, a leading provider of Enterprise Manufacturing and Quality Systems and an SAP® Software Partner, announced today that its eDHR IntelligenceTM version 4.1 packaged composite application for Medical Device manufacturers has achieved “SAP xApps™ Certified – Powered by SAP NetWeaver®” status. The certification extends an already successful business relationship with SAP AG.

The eDHR Intelligence solution integrates Camstar’s best-in-class Manufacturing and Quality Execution solution with the SAP ERP application to address the unique challenges facing the Medical Device industry around risk mitigation, product/process complexity management and cost reduction. This enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA)-based composite application empowers Medical Device manufacturers to reduce manufacturing variability, increase manufacturing efficiencies and ensure real-time intelligence and visibility.

Through a role-based portal, the eDHR Intelligence solution provides a manufacturing and quality dashboard. The non-conformance dashboard component enables analysis of all sources of deviation, improving process understanding and root cause identification to drive continuous improvement. The electronic device history record dashboard component provides compliance reporting and real-time visibility into production traceability. In addition, eDHR Intelligence enables work order execution and manufacturing activity reporting with SAP ERP via pre-built, best-practice integration “touch-points”.

“The eDHR Intelligence composite application, now SAP xApps Certified, provides customers with expanded value that will help them achieve enterprise operational excellence,” said Scott Toney, President and CEO of Camstar. “In particular, the tight coupling of Camstar technology with the SAP xApp™ Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP xMII) composite application offers real-time communication of manufacturing data and global visibility into manufacturing operations through a single, role-based composite user experience. This integration leverages the significant capabilities of the SAP NetWeaver platform, SAP ERP, SAP xMII and Camstar’s Manufacturing and Quality Execution System.”

Camstar delivers a comprehensive manufacturing application that is a highly configurable, best-in-class Manufacturing and Quality Execution System created to integrate quality into the manufacturing process and track and manage all production activity. Camstar provides global enterprises with the flexibility to meet individual plant requirements without software modifications, so each plant can maintain the required level of autonomy while leveraging a common manufacturing system supported across the entire production network.

Through SAP xApps Certified status, Camstar delivers on the promise of enterprise SOA following the principles and standards of SAP’s composite architectural guidelines. Composite applications that are certified by the SAP Integration and Certification Center reuse, integrate and orchestrate functionalities from existing application assets in the context of an enterprise SOA, with only selective development of new functionality where needed to fill gaps. A composite application provides new application functionality, supports analysis followed by action (other than mere read-only views), and enables the execution of business processes from start to finish. It has the potential of repeatable deliveries to multiple customers.

via Camstar

Cary, North Carolina based R.H. Donnelly (RHD) has reportedly purchased Business.com for $350 Million. This deal has been in the works since June, with Dow Jones and News Corp and the New York Times in the running. According to a recent Wall Street Journal story, the property had an EBITDA of around $15 million/year. The final sale price is about 47 times the $7.5 million entrepreneurs spent in 1999 to acquire the property. At that time, it was reported to be the largest amount ever spent for a domain name and analysts (and bloggers) seemed to see no clear path to profitability for the website. Entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton started as a business portal, nearly busted in the bubble, then rebuilt as a directory and vertical search business. The company raised $10 million in 2004 and has been on the block since June.

R. H. Donnelly has a scheduled call to announce Q2 earnings this morning, so this deal is expected to be announced there.