* Verizon spices up services in N.C., N.Y., R.I.
By Traci Patterson

Verizon has introduced its FiOS TV service to more Rhode Island households, has launched its high-speed Internet service in Durham, N.C., and is now offering its interactive media guide to New York customers.

Some 90,000 more Rhode Island homes – in cities including Charlestown, Providence and Richmond – now have access to Verizon’s video service, which is already available to more than 80,000 homes in the Ocean State. In Durham, Verizon’s high-speed Internet service offers a downstream connection speed of up to 7 Mbps for as low as $39.99 per month with an annual service plan.

And Verizon’s interactive media guide has trickled into New York, helping consumers search through TV listings, VOD catalogs and DVR recordings, as well as personal music and photos from the home network. Future versions of the guide will include Internet radio, videos, podcasts and games.

* AT&T extends contract with Amdocs
By Brian Santo

Amdocs has signed a follow-on agreement with AT&T Services. Amdocs will provide application management services in support of AT&T's legacy customer care and billing platforms beginning later this year.

The agreement is an expansion of an existing seven-year agreement signed in April, under which Amdocs manages the provider's legacy ordering and wholesale platforms. The AT&T agreement is one of the significant deals anticipated by Amdocs for fiscal 2008.

* Thai operator picks OpenTV for PVR service
By Mike Robuck

OpenTV Corp. announced today that TrueVisions UBC, a digital pay-TV operator in Thailand, has selected OpenTV's middleware technology to enable and power its new personal video recorder (PVR) services.

TrueVisions UBC will be offering SD by Humax, integrated with OpenTV’s Core2 and OpenTV PVR2 platforms, in combination with Irdeto's content security for digital TV.

* Redline chosen by African telecom for WiMAX buildout
By Traci Patterson

Redline Communications Group Inc., a provider of standards-based WiMAX and broadband wireless infrastructure products, announced that Divona Telecom, a satellite and WiMAX telecom operator in Tunisia, has chosen Redline's RedMax products for its five-city WiMAX network.

Redline's high-capacity RedMax AN100U base stations and indoor and outdoor subscriber units were chosen after a three-month trial period that involved several WiMAX vendors. The $1 million network buildout will take place in several phases over the next two years and will connect five major cities in the North African country – including Tunis, Nabeul, Souse, Monastir and Sfax, Redline said.

* CommScope revises business services partner program 
By Brian Santo

CommScope Enterprise Solutions has organized its 2008 around three levels of partners – Authorized, Prestige and Elite – that represent different levels of expertise and options targeted to meet customers’ specific needs and requirements. The Elite tier is new.

More Broadband Direct

• Comcast-TiVo debuts; Rollout of DOCSIS 3.0 will be phased 

• Arris rolls out wideband VoIP modems 

• ViaSat deploys products from Harmonic, Pharos 

• Verizon does not foresee slowdown 

• Matsushita unifies under Panasonic brand 

• Verizon’s New England spin-off gets FCC’s OK 

• Broadband Briefs for 1/10/08