• Suddenlink hires Spoelman as operations VP
By Mike Robuck
Suddenlink today announced that it has hired Dan Spoelman as VP of operations. Spoelman, a 22-year cable industry veteran, will report to COO Tom McMillin and will focus on enhancing Suddenlink’s operational excellence, coordinating closely with the company’s regional operating teams.
For the past five years, Spoelman was VP and GM for Charter Communications, overseeing the company’s operations in western Michigan, prior to which he held other positions with Charter in Michigan and Texas. Spoelman started his cable career in 1986 with TCA Communications, where he worked in two of the Texas markets now served by Suddenlink: Tyler and Amarillo.
St. Louis, Mo.-based Suddenlink is the nation’s seventh-largest cable operator, with approximately 1.3 million subscribers.
• Verizon’s FiOS TV service wins in Md.
By Traci Patterson
Rockville, Md., consumers will soon have access to Verizon’s FiOS TV service, thanks to a newly approved 15-year franchise agreement authorizing the telco to offer its video service to the 23,000 households in the area.
Verizon expects to begin construction on its all-fiber network this fall, and the telco will make the service available to city households and businesses within two years. The company plans to begin offering FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services in Rockville later this year. To date, Verizon has placed more than 57 million feet of fiber in its Maryland service territory.
Additionally, Verizon has been phasing out a small number of duplicate analog channels on its FiOS TV service – on a regional basis – in preparation for the digital transition, and the telco announced that FiOS TV customers in Florida will see the transition starting Aug. 18.
• Motorola to buy AirDefense
By Traci Patterson
Motorola is set to acquire AirDefense, a wireless LAN (WLAN) security provider. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Upon completion of the transaction, AirDefense will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola and will be integrated into Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility business.
Privately held AirDefense develops Wireless Intrusion Prevention Solutions (WIPS) and premium software applications that enable corporations to secure their networks against wireless security threats, as well as comply with regulatory and industry standards.
“As wireless security remains a leading concern for enterprises, we are excited to announce this transaction with AirDefense, which enables Motorola to deliver a common platform solution for greater indoor and outdoor protection to wireless LAN networks in support of our all-wireless enterprise vision,” said Kathy Paladino, president of Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility business.
• Sandvine increases presence in Middle East
By Traci Patterson
Sandvine has announced two new customer wins and the opening of a new sales and support office in the Middle Eastern region. The new office will be located in Dubai.
Sandvine’s unnamed customers, located in Qatar and Kuwait, represent more than one million fixed subscribers and two million mobile subscribers in more than 16 countries in the region, according to Sandvine. The operators are deploying Sandvine’s Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) platform and various applications from Sandvine’s service creation, network integrity and traffic optimization suite of solutions. The solutions help service providers offer subscribers new value-added services, protect subscribers from malicious traffic and optimally share network resources, the company said.
“Broadband networks are experiencing rapid growth as millions of new subscribers around the world connect to the Internet,” said Tom Donnelly, EVP of sales and marketing for Sandvine. “Service providers are responding by evolving their networks from a best-efforts model to a policy management model – and Sandvine is the lead vendor for this evolution. We offer the broadest set of solutions and the most proven, flexible and high-performance platform available today.”
More Broadband Briefs:
• Cox touts operational advances in Q2
• CMC, Motorola implement upgrades to support DTAs
• Cable sales push Harmonic to Q2 profit of $25.5M
• Juniper upgrades NTT network, names sales VP
• Northland Cable Television picks SinglePipe for digital phone service
• Ailing Alcatel-Lucent sheds chairman, CEO
• Rogers sees revenue increase in Q2
• Ixia, Fanfare integrating testing solutions
• Rentrak’s report says VOD orders increased 43 percent
• 2008 Mark Awards finalists announced
