Kineto Wireless made its name from unlicensed mobile access (UMA), the protocol that routes WiFi calls over the Internet to a carrier’s mobile core. But Kineto’s newly appointed CEO Jeff Brown is trying to dispel the notion that Kineto only dabbles in one small niche of the wireless industry. Rather, Brown pointed out on his official first day on the job, Kineto is evolving into a company with the grander scheme of enabling wireless communication over any IP network. more

IBM (NYSE:IBM) has identified mobile communications as a new pillar in its near-term research efforts, announcing today that it plans to invest $100 million over the next five years in wireless R&D projects focusing on enterprise applications and platforms as well as the unique needs of customers in emerging markets. more

The IEEE ratified an industry standard for PBB-TE (Provider Backbone Bridges - Traffic Engineering) technology yesterday at a meeting of the engineers’ organization in Tokyo.

The approval of 802.1Qay is good news for vendors like Fujitsu Network Communications and Ciena (NasdaqGS: CIEN), whose optical networking platforms include support for the connection-oriented carrier Ethernet transport technology, and for Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT), which first championed it back in 2006, when it was called PBT.

PBB-TE’s standardization also potentially gives it a leg up against its rival, MPLS-TP, which is based on Layer 3 routing technology rather than carrier Ethernet. Backed by big names such as Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco Systems, MPLS-TP was proposed only last year as compatibility concerns grew over T-MPLS, a transport technology being standardized by the ITU-T. So with MPLS-TP not yet standardized, PBB-TE supporters can at least brag about their status for a while.

In a sad twist of irony, perhaps, the IEEE ratified PBB-TE just one day after Soapstone Networks, a long-struggling software startup focused primarily on PBB-TE, announced that its board had okayed a liquidation of the company and that it had dismissed 50 remaining employees.

For more on this subject, read “PBB-TE: What now?”

UPDATE [6/22/09]: Here is the official release.