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Ericsson offers $1.4 billion bid for Tandberg

Tandberg Television has another suitor after Ericsson bid $1.4 billion for the video-processing company in a move designed, at least in part, to help Ericsson better compete as telecom and video converge. Ericsson's bid tops a Jan. 15 offer by Atlanta-based Arris.  Bloomberg/ClipSyndicate (2/26) Bloomberg (2/26) The Wall Street Journal (2/26)

Business & Industry Watch

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AT&T plans to ramp up U-verse rollouts
AT&T said it was on track to reach 8 million homes by the close of 2007, saying it plans to make significant deployments this year. U-verse enables AT&T to be a triple-play operator, offering voice, video and Internet. San Francisco Chronicle (2/26)

• AT&T bringing wireless broadband to southern Illinois: AT&T is upgrading its systems to bring wireless broadband service to Springfield and Bloomington, Ill., by midsummer. Verizon Wireless is also in the process of upgrading its wireless network in areas outside of Chicago. The State Journal-Register (Springfield, Ill.) (2/25)

CBS to syndicate Showtime programs
Showtime shows such as "The L Word" are headed to basic cable and could wind up on broadcast as well due to CBS' efforts to roll programming into one syndication division. CBS Television Distribution will handle the first-run and off-network syndication and compete with HBO's cable syndication. Broadcasting & Cable (2/26)

T-Mobile to focus on U.S., EU
Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile unit has not ruled out future acquisitions in emerging markets, although the company will initially place focus on the EU and U.S., according to CEO Hamid Akhavan. Forbes/AFX News Limited (2/25)

Google making moves as video-content syndicator
Google is seeking to expand its Web dominance by teaming with Dow Jones & Company, Conde Nast, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other major content providers to distribute their videos to other sites. Under the deals, Google syndicates the videos to sites with relevant content and shares ad revenue with both the video provider and the host site for the video. NYTimes.com (2/26)

Hollywood embraces BitTorrent
As a peer-to-peer pioneer, BitTorrent was a thorn in Hollywood's side with its free file-sharing, but now BitTorrent is teaming up with Hollywood studios to provide content on a new Web site. Movies and TV shows from programming studios such as Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros., as well as new partner Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, will be featured on BitTorrent Entertainment Network. International Herald Tribune (2/25)

Finding a bigger bang for ads key for industry
Broadcast and cable networks are in search of ways to keep viewers from wandering during commercials. One method is to get advertisers and their agencies more involved in the process of creating ad campaigns. InsideBrandedEntertainment.com/Mediaweek (2/26)

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by USTelecom dailyLead® readers in the past week.

• AT&T sells BellSouth spectrum (StreetInsider.com)

• Microsoft ordered to pay $1.52 billion to Alcatel-Lucent (Bloomberg)

• Apple, Cisco reach terms over iPhone name (Bloomberg)

• Alltel may attract several suitors, analysts say (CNNMoney.com)

• A guide to IMS (America's Network)

Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Technology Trends

VoIP over Wi-Fi market on pace to top $82 billion
Revenue from worldwide VoIP over Wi-Fi equipment is expected to exceed $82 billion by 2012, according to market firm Juniper Research. North America is expected to lead the charge with $35 billion in revenue, followed closely by Europe, Middle East & Africa with a combined $23 billion. cellular-news (U.K.) (2/26)

Businesses take do-it-yourself approach to convergence
Although telecoms are still upgrading their networks to fully support fixed-mobile convergence, businesses are already gaining access to FMC through the use of newly introduced appliances. DiVitas Networks is now offering a solution, while Siemens Communications is set to unveil its appliance later this week. Yahoo!/InformationWeek (2/24)

NHL to offer live games via broadband
The National Hockey League is beta testing a broadband version of its NHL Center Ice on the Internet. The out-of-market package currently available to cable and satellite customers could be available to all interested high-speed Internet subscribers before the season is over. Multichannel News (2/26)

Survey says one-third of Net users on wireless
The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that about one-third of Internet subscribers in the U.S. have used wireless to access e-mail or surf the Internet. The survey said that 34% of Internet users have used a Wi-Fi or cell-phone network to go online. The Denver Post/Associated Press (2/25)

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