: anniversary / technology special

Make it Orange

Since 2002 Orange has been building a broadband leadership position in Europe, where it also leads the way in mobile telephony and in broadband Internet and mobile telephony. Thus making Orange a natural provider of content.
This leader position began to take hold as the company began introducing such products as video on demand on PCs, TV on demand (catch-up TV) and video on demand via ADSL, personal video recorders via ADSL, high-definition TV via ADSL, subscription video on demand, and the current and future Orange channels.
And it must be doing great with customers and providers because for the second consecutive year, Orange won the Best Global Operator award at the World Communications Awards 2007.
Orange currently has 12 million ADSL customers and 14.8 million mobile broadband customers in the world. As of July 3, 2008, 24 million French households (98.3 percent of the mainland population) are able to enjoy the full Orange triple play offer thanks to the recently announced possibility of extending Orange TV coverage with combined ADSL-satellite technology.

Doing business with Orange
In the Business to Business market, Orange offers a wide range of convergent voice, data and mobile products and services that simplify and speed up complex tasks, with the goals of increased efficiency and productivity, higher revenue and sustainable growth for every business, large and small.
And SoHo (Small Office and Home Office) companies have not been forgotten by Orange, which offers solutions for their specific needs.
Orange's capabilities cover all communications-related needs, including networks, security, telephony, mobility, critical ap-plications, engineering, machine to machine and management of large projects.
With a presence in 166 countries, Orange serves 3,750 multinational companies in 220 countries and territories, offering both global and local solutions.
It has the world's largest seamless voice-data network and provides assistance in 166 countries.
Orange manages access for 300,000 IPVPNs (Internet protocol virtual private networks) worldwide, and its Business Everywhere solution already has 1 million users.
It also serves 8 million business customers worldwide for mobile services. And, for all types of businesses, big or small, Orange can supply consulting and integration services, with turnkey or customized solutions.
By their very nature, these services contribute to sustainable development, helping businesses improve the environment and working conditions of their employees and customers by developing collaborative work that reduces the need to travel, optimizing transportfleet management, consolidating infrastructure, dematerializing communications, postponing the need for new computer equipment while making life easier for everyone involved.

Developing content
Orange's Content Division, created in 2004, is devoted to defining the group's content strategy for music, film, TV and games, and to developing innovative, high-performance products and services.
This strategy is implemented alongside with partners who are leaders in the domains of television, cinema, music, games, information and sports, such as Warner Bros.-HBO, Gaumont, France Télévisions, the CNOSF (French National Olympic Committee), the professional French Football League, Universal Music, Sony BMG, etc.
These products and services make the best possible use of Orange's networks, taking advantage of multiple platforms to totally merge content and technology and to offer users new interactive, personalized TV-viewing experiences.
Orange's offers respond to new ways of using technology, giving users individual control over their consumption, constantly increasing quality with high definition and improved networks, and introducing interactivity so that the consumer becomes an active viewer.
The market for paid digital content (fixed and mobile) – digital pay TV and video on demand, music, games and infotainment – in Orange's major European markets is expected to be worth €23.5 billion by 2011, an increase of 170 percent over 2007.
Orange is expecting to take a large share of that market by offering sports channels like Orange sport and Orange football, are truly tuning in to consumers' desires.
The first of its kind, Orange sport provides exhaustive information on sports available in real time on a choice of three screens (TV, PC and mobile) at any time, along with broadcasts and rebroadcasts of major sporting events.
Since September 2007, 'Oran-ge sport' has had 4.5 million mobile connections per month, with 540,000 households watching the channel on TV via ADSL. |||

HD Video Conferencing Service

Special to The Journal

Global Crossing announced in mid October high-definition enhancements to its flagship IP Videoconferencing service, offering crystal clear, face-to-face collaboration between dispersed business locations around the world.
Global Crossing's IP Videoconferencing service is one of the most powerful, versatile and cost-effective solutions available today, delivered through Global Crossing IP VPN Service™. This enhanced service, made possible through significant upgrades to the company's next-generation videoconferencing bridge platform, leverages Global Crossing's unique video assets via its highly reliable global IP-based network.
The latest enhancements support end-to-end high-definition video quality that is comparable to watching high-definition television programming, enriching the visual and auditory meeting experience.
It enables enterprises to maximize their resources, accelerate decision-making, reduce travel and operational expenses, increase productivity, and create a fully integrated, interactive and efficient environment.
The latest high-definition enhancements are generally available to customers worldwide via Global Crossing's globally distributed bridging architecture and network footprint.
"This high-definition enhancement to our IP Videoconferencing service demonstrates our commitment to delivering cutting-edge, next-generation converged IP services that optimize our unique, highly reliable, resilient, global IP network," said Gary Breauninger, chief marketing officer.
"With this improved service, customers enjoy remarkably clear picture quality and audio sound comparable to high-definition television transmission. The result is an increasing trend of videoconferencing usage as a highly cost-effective alternative to business travel."
Global Crossing's video network features leading-edge bridging technology that ensures end-to-end quality of service without compromise.
As a converged IP service, Global Crossing's IP Videoconferencing service also makes it easy for enterprises to transition at their own pace to IP convergence, which is a consolidated network that runs voice, video and data on a single connection. |||

Is your business information safe?

||| Nowadays, according to an investigation prepared by PandaLabs in 2007, over 70% of the companies are infected with malware (malicious software), being particularly exposed to situations such as the loss of important data, which can be translated into suspending the businesses or pushing a company towards bankruptcy.

Marcelo Giménez | Corporate Security Manager, Global Crossing Latin America & Caribbean

In our countries, a vast majority of the companies recognizes the importance and advantages of relying on high-level computer security in their business. Therefore, they usually delegate their technology safeties on hi-tech partners, dedicating 100% of their efforts to its core business.
However, a few companies still think that taking measures such as installing an anti-virus or firewall, plus avoiding some Internet sites, will keep them safe from viruses, attacks or loss of vital records.
Adding the lack of information to this false sensation of security, we can explain why the risk of being attacked by a virus, spyware or any other digital threat has increased. Actually, in some cases, the menace comes from its same internal network, enfolding serious consequences.
This basis expresses that the generation of consciousness becomes an essential matter into the integrity and security of the data in businesses. It is known that only 30% of the leading corporations have a division dedicated to information security, while others barely care about it.
However, the other 70% is represented by those companies that do not stipulate a defense subdivision or depend on inadequate management that is not allowed to provide the necessary investment (training, definition and processes instrumentation).
An additional factor to consider is that the increase of threats seems to be directly proportional to the advances of security, giving the attacker higher possibilities of achieving the desired damages.
A representative example would be focused attacks like Phreaking (telephony oriented threats) and Vishing (when hackers use social engineering and VoIP to obtain private, personal and financial information from the public for the purpose of financial reward and obtain financial information).
Moreover, the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) exploits have duplicated themselves over the last year. For the explained reasons, the security specialists care about controlling the peripheral security services.
In consequence, they have the opportunity to actively manage all the events that occur on their networks; analyzing and reporting, among other things, its vulnerabilities.

Global Crossing Limited provides telecommunications solutions over the world’s first integrated global IP-based network.

A recommendation that we, as a security specialized corporation, can give you, is to do security audits and proactively supervise any abnormal behavior in the network; an essential matter these days, due to the great activity existing in the underground world.
In conclusion, security is not a game and requires the necessary attention, hiring an expert or even a company dedicated to it, which will avoid the increase of operative costs, loss of produc-tivity/information and money, assuring continuity in business with maximum security.

About Global Crossing
Global Crossing's Latin American business has operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Pana-ma, Peru, Mexico, Venezuela and the United States (Florida).
In addition to its IP-based fiber-optic network, Global Crossing's regional infrastructure includes 15 metropolitan networks and 15 world-class data centers located in the main business centers of Latin America.
Besides its reach and experience in Latin America will allow it to address the particularities of the region and deliver the solutions each company needs. The company provides services to a variety of customers, including medium and large companies and corporations, institutions and government entities, and telecommunications operators.
Global Crossing Limited provides telecommunications solutions over the world's first integrated global IP-based network. Its core network connects approximately 390 cities in more than 30 countries worldwide, and delivers services to approximately 690 cities in more than 60 countries and 6 continents around the globe. The company's global sales and support model matches the network footprint and, like the network, delivers a consistent customer experience worldwide.
Global Crossing IP services are global in scale, linking the world's enterprises, governments and carriers with customers, employees and partners worldwide in a secure environment that is ideally suited for IP-based business applications, allowing e-commerce to thrive.
The company offers a full range of data, voice and security products to approximately 40 percent of the Fortune 500, as well as 700 carriers, mobile operators and ISPs.
Its Professional Services and Managed Solutions provide VoIP, security and network consulting and management services to support its Global Crossing IP VPN service and Global Crossing VoIP services.
Global Crossing was the first global communications provider with IPv6 natively deployed in both its private and public backbone networks. |||