Colin C. Haley

The Department of Justice (DoJ) today announced that it would approve Cingular’s $41 billion dollar acquisition of AT&T Wireless , provided the mobile carrier sells assets, such as spectrum and customer contracts, in 11 states. Without the divestitures, some customers could face higher prices, reduced innovation and a delay in rolling out new broadband data […]

Taking a page from IBM’s and HP’s on-demand model, Avaya announced a new offering today to help service providers sell IP telephony and contact center applications to businesses for a monthly, usage-based fee. The communications software and systems specialist said its Service Provider Delivered Solutions will help carriers collect recurring revenues from mid-sized businesses and […]

Qwest Communications International will pay $250 million to settle fraud charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company and the agency announced. The pact ends a two-and-a-half year investigation that recalls a time when pressure to meet unrealistic expectations and lax internal oversight triggered a string of high-profile accounting and securities […]

Verizon today announced the next six states in its aggressive fiber-to-the-premises rollout. The carrier will deploy the infrastructure — which can deliver high-speed data, voice and video — in communities in Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. It’s already offered to consumers and small and medium businesses in parts of California, Florida and […]

In a move further underlining the convergence of networking and security, Cisco said it will buy Perfigo for $74 million in cash. Perfigo’s network admission control products are designed to keep worms and viruses from wriggling into networks and wreaking havoc. Its CleanMachines offering recognizes users and their devices and roles; evaluates the security posture […]

BOSTON — Verizon today offered additional details about its plan to fend off VoIP competition from the likes of Vonage, Time Warner and AT&T . The strategy centers on its Iobi platform, which helps subscribers manage calls and messaging across multiple devices. Users set preferences through Iobi’s portal, which can be accessed through any Internet-connected […]

BOSTON — Don’t violate Anthony Marino’s 20-minute rule. “In the first 15 or 20 minutes of a presentation, I figure out if I can trust the CEO,” said Marino, a principal at Venrock Associates, and one of four investors on a venture capital panel at the VON trade show here. “If not, I don’t even […]

BOSTON — The federal government must have regulatory authority over VoIP if the technology is to develop quickly and uniformly in the United States, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell said today. “The first step is to establish federal jurisdiction,” Powell said in his keynote at the VON 2004 trade show here, adding that […]

Symbol Technologies will unveil a new product line today aimed at filling the gap between its own “ruggedized” handhelds and off-the-shelf consumer PDAs. The MC50 enterprise digital assistants (EDA) are designed for workers who need to be out of the office, but can’t afford to be out of touch with the company’s data. For example, […]

Seeking an edge over cable rivals, SBC Communications today announced $1.99-per-month Wi-Fi service for customers who subscribe to SBC Yahoo DSL. The reduced rate — which comes in under $29 for both — requires a one-year commitment. The San Antonio, Texas, telecom carrier will continue offering its FreedomLink Wi-Fi to non-SBC Yahoo DSL members for […]

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — The IT economy is vastly improved from the depths of the downturn, but there are concerns that the recovery is stalling in some sectors, executives said at the Future Forward conference here today. “Our business started picking up at the end of 2003,” Mary Puma, CEO of semiconductor equipment firm Axcelis Technologies […]

WebEx Communications has acquired five Web conferencing patents from NCR . Terms were not disclosed. The patents, which were filed between 1993 and 1997, relate to collaboration technologies that allow the image or text changes made by one conference member to appear on the screens of others in the online group. As part of the […]