Ericsson has struck a managed services deal valued at $1 billion with India’s Reliance Communications, covering the management of both fixed-line and mobile networks in the north and west of the country.

The contract is for an eight-year period and will see the Swedish vendor take over responsibility for the field maintenance, network operations and operational planning of Reliance Communications’ 2G, CDMA and 3G mobile networks.

First generation Carrier Ethernet already dominates WAN equipment revenue, and now Carrier Ethernet 2.0 is making it easier for Carriers to meet and exploit the demand that Carrier Ethernet has already fuelled

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Ten years ago The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) was founded to develop and promote a new generation of Ethernet called Carrier Ethernet. Since then Carrier Ethernet has transformed WAN and enterprise connectivity as well as providing an infrastructure to fuel soaring user expectations for mobile applications.

Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent SA has won an eight-year contract valued at more than $1 billion to manage Reliance Communications Ltd's mobile and fixed networks in the east and south of India.

The network outsourcing contract, intended to cut costs for India's No. 3 carrier, builds on a previous joint venture between Alcatel (Paris, France) and Reliance Communications (Mumbai, India) under which the gear maker managed the nationwide mobile network in a five-year $750 million deal.

An international telecommunications treaty signed by 89 countries out of a possible 144 on Friday will have little impact on how carriers operate or how consumers surf the web or make calls around the world when it comes into effect in 2015.

But the acrimonious debate over the treaty - and refusal of so many countries, including the United States and much of Europe, to sign up immediately - have exposed a deep split in the international community.

A Russia-led coalition on Monday withdrew a proposal to give governments new powers over the Internet, a plan opposed by Western countries in talks on a new global telecom treaty.

Negotiations on the treaty mark the most sustained effort so far by governments from around the world to agree on how - or whether - to regulate cyberspace.

The United States, Europe, Canada and other advocates of a hands-off approach to Internet regulation want to limit the new treaty's scope to telecom companies.

A landmark attempt to set global rules for overseeing the Internet threatened to fall apart on Friday as a rift pitting the United States and some Western countries against the rest of the world widened, participants in the talks said.

A 12-day conference of the International Telecommunications Union, taking place in Dubai, is supposed to result in the adoption of a new international treaty governing trans-border communications.

British telecoms incumbent BT (London, UK) has announced that Luis Alvarez will replace Jeff Kelly as chief executive of the company’s Global Services business.

Having previously served as president of BT Global Services Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, Alvarez will take over from Kelly on October 1.

According to BT, Kelly has decided to return to the US, where he will continue to work for the group in a part-time capacity as a senior executive advisor.

Cisco Systems Inc, the world's biggest network equipment maker, and EMC Corp, the leading data storage company, are increasingly encroaching on each other's turfs, in a sign their long partnership may be unraveling.

Cisco and EMC have for years collaborated on designing, marketing and cross-selling their products, choosing to go after corporate customers as allies instead of competitors.

Network storage equipment maker Brocade Communication Systems Inc's third-quarter results beat Wall Street estimates, boosted by a 13 percent rise in storage equipment sales, and the company said its chief executive intends to resign.

Shares of the company rose 11 percent after the market-topping results but lost all of their gains on news of the CEO's resignation.

A faltering recovery in the United States and weakness in Europe has hit network equipment makers as telecom service providers, their biggest customers, cut spending and delay purchases of new equipment.