Moody's upgrade SBI's deposit rating
London: Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the long-term local currency deposit rating of State Bank of India to A2 from A3.

The upgrade was triggered by an improved operating environment in India thanks to robust economic growth and abundant liquidity.

The rating also reflects Moody's assessment of the government's capacity to avoid a sustained interruption in the banking payment system or a freeze on local currency deposits. The rating outlook is stable, Moody's Investors service said in a statement.

State Bank of India's D plus financial strength rating is currently the highest among Indian rated banks. Moody's regard SBI as "too big to fail", the statement said.
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AOpen's new 16X DL DVD burners - 16X Speed with 8.5GB Storage
San Jose, USA: AOpen Inc., an award-winning, global leader in PC component design and manufacturing, is now shipping its new 16X DL (Double-Layer) DVD+/-RW burners in North America. AOpen is one of the world's first manufacturers to deliver this fast new type of optical drive this year.

The new 16X DL DVD burners from AOpen make it quick and easy to burn movies, video, digital photos, audio, MP3 and other multimedia formats - even data back-ups. The state-of-the-art drive offers a wide range of disc compatibility and serves as a diverse all-in-one DVD/CD writing device with DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, CD-R and CD-RW formats.

The new AOpen DUW1608/ARR 16X DL DVD Burner includes:

• AOpen's Chameleon feature with 3 interchangeable color faceplates
• Comprehensive software bundle with a wide variety of applications
• Optimal writing speed technologies for maximum speeds
• Auto laser beam adjustment/alignment for accurate reading
• Virtually fool-proof burns with buffer under-run protection
• Super-quiet operation with silent technology features
• Limited one-year warranty

Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, with AOpen America's headquarters in San Jose, California, AOpen Inc. is the world's largest total PC component solutions manufacturer and a member of an $18-billion technology group. Leveraging more than 28 years of technology manufacturing experience and more than 1,000 Group patents, AOpen designs, manufactures and markets high-quality, state-of-the-art motherboards, housings, small-form-factor bare systems, VGA cards, white-box notebooks, optical drives, multimedia headsets and headphones, multimedia and network solutions as well as numerous other PC component products.
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EDO awarded torpedo sonar contracts
New York, USA: EDO corporation has been awarded two contracts worth $1.5 million to produce new torpedo sonar technology by the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Newport Division, Newport, R.I.

Under these contracts, EDO will fabricate sonar arrays consisting of broadband projectors and hydrophones with the associated receive-signal conditioning and digital multiplexing electronics. In addition, EDO will support higher-level integration and testing by NUWC.

The company says that it will utilize an innovative EDO broadband sensor array with integrated digital electronics, developed in conjunction with NUWC and the University of Rhode Island. EDO Corporation was founded in 1925, and is headquartered in New York City. EDO provides military and commercial products and professional services, with core competencies in a wide range of critical defense areas, including: Aircraft Armament, Defense Electronics, Undersea Warfare, C4I - Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence, Integrated Composite Structures.
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Zinc-air hybrid bus to be commercially available quicker
New York, USA: Arotech Corporation has announced that its Electric Vehicle unit has developed technology that will allow its zinc-air batteries to use commercially available zinc, eliminating the need for the special dendritic zinc used to date. Arotech's technological breakthrough for utilizing readily available zinc will boost commercialization plans for the zinc-air hybrid bus, which until now required heavy investments in zinc producing infrastructure.

Eliminating costly infrastructure will allow transit bus operators to achieve reasonable economies even when deploying small or medium fleets. Furthermore, the new technology will enable small scale tests, which otherwise would have required a significant investment in zinc regeneration infrastructure. Zinc supplier and recycler will be able to supply zinc fuel using existing commercial production technology and capacity -- removing a major market entry barrier.

This technological breakthrough is a result of optimizing the hybrid bus propulsion system during the first three phases of an FTA-funded development and demonstration program. A prototype bus using Electric Fuel's refuelable zinc-air batteries and a hybrid electric drive system attained an inner-city driving range of up to 145 miles on a single charge - enough for a full day of transit service.

As the new technology has been proven in laboratory testing, Electric Fuel plans to conduct field tests of the alternative commercial zinc during an upcoming performance test of the zinc-air all-electrical bus.

According to the company, independently commissioned studies have shown that zinc-air bus fleets can reach per-mile operating costs comparable to those of diesel-hybrid buses. Moreover, zinc-air buses would cost significantly less, overall, than current projections for hydrogen fuel-cell buses, thus providing a cheaper alternative to the competing zero-emission solution.

Arotech Corporation provides quality defense and security products for the military, law enforcement and homeland security markets, including advanced zinc-air and lithium batteries and chargers, multimedia interactive simulators/trainers and lightweight armoring. Arotech is incorporated in Delaware, with corporate offices in New York, and research, development and production subsidiaries in Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, California and Israel.
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3G Mobile Wireless: Evolutionary step in mobile wireless networks
Dublin, Ireland: A Research and Markets report provides an exhaustive analysis of network evolution to 2.5/3G. It evaluates 2.5/3G mobile wireless technologies and standards and recommends strategies for upgrading from 2G to 3G networks cost effectively.

3G mobile wireless is the next evolutionary step in mobile wireless networks. 3G networks will exploit the efficiency of packet switching to offer substantially enhanced capacity, quality, and data rates, all of which will enable the provision of advanced services seamlessly to the end-user.

Thus, 3G networks will replace the existing circuit-switched mode of 2G networks with all IP-based packet networks capable of efficiently and cost-effectively supporting real-time video, high-speed multimedia, and mobile Internet access. The two 3G technology standards that are being widely adopted by network operators are:

• Wcdma (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access). Etsi selected this technology in early 1998 as the European 3G standard for the evolution of GSM (initially a French acronym for Groupe Speciale Mobile, and subsequently, for Global System for Mobile Communications). Essentially, a Code Division Multiple Access (Cdma) solution was selected over a Time Division Multiple Access (Tdma) solution, even though GSM is based on Tdma, because Cdma is recognized to offer conceptually greater capacity than Tdma schemes. With Wcdma, users can expect to achieve data rates of up to 2Mbps.
• Cdma2000 (Code Division Multiple Access 2000). Supported by the CDG (Cdma Development Group), this technology is being adopted by operators currently running cdmaOne (IS-95A and IS-95B). Cdma2000 represents a series of technologies requiring 1.25MHz to 5MHz of spectrum for both forward and reverse links. The technology dramatically increases voice capacity. Speeds are expected to range from 130Kbps to 2.4Mbps depending on the technology deployed.

Wcdma, which is the basis of Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (Umts), is supported by the 3G Partnership Project (3GPP) and Cdma2000, is supported by the 3G Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2). Of the five air interface standards adopted by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) for terrestrial (non-satellite based) services for the International Mobile Telecommunications - 2000 (Imt-2000) or 3G mobile wireless, Wcdma and Cdma2000 are the clear leaders.

The basic requirements for 3G systems are the support of voice, data, and multimedia services in indoor, handheld and mobile environments.

The specified transmission speeds for 3G mobile wireless are:

• 144Kbps at mobile or vehicular speeds
• 384Kbps at pedestrian speeds
• 2Mbps when stationary

Most incumbent network operators are currently overlaying existing 2G networks with next generation technologies.

• GSM to General Packet Radio Service (Gprs) to Enhanced Data-rates for Gprs Evolution (Edge), to eventual migration to Wcdma/Umts
• cdmaOne to Cdma2000 family of technologies
  In examining the evolution of 2G technologies to 3G, the report explores the options for IS-136 Tdma operators. Tdma is a technology that has reached its limits with little evolutionary possibility, and IS-136 network operators are now faced with a choice of migrating their networks to either GSM/Gprs/Edge/Umts or cdmaOne/Cdma2000. The analysis discusses the pros and cons of evolving an IS-136 Tdma network towards GSM/Gprs/Edge/Umts or cdmaOne/Cdma2000. The implications are presented from the points of view of both the infrastructure and the handsets.

The following are the major findings of the study:

• Globally, Wcdma/Umts has about 53 percent of deployments/contracts versus 47 percent for Cdma2000.
• Europe-Russia region has about 47 percent of the global 3G deployments/contracts, followed by the North America and Asia-Pacific region
• Cdma2000 networks have been rolling out faster worldwide than Wcdma/Umts networks.
• Ericsson is the leader in global 3G (Cdma2000 and Wcdma/Umts) market share, followed by Nortel Networks.
• When 2.5G technology Gprs and Edge deployments are included in the analysis, Ericsson increases its lead marginally but there is no change in the rankings.
• Lucent Technologies is the world leader in Cdma2000 technology followed closely followed by Nortel Networks
• Ericsson is the top Wcdma/Umts infrastructure vendor followed by Nokia and Siemens/NEC.
• In terms of regional market shares, Nortel Networks is the leader in North America and Africa/Middle East, Nokia is the leader in Asia-Pacific, Lucent is the leader in Caribbean and Latin America, Ericsson is the leader in Europe/Russia.
• The North America region has the highest number of Cdma2000 deployments/contracts, followed by the Asia-Pacific region.
• The Europe-Russia region has the highest number of Umts deployments/contracts, followed by the Asia-Pacific region.
• By 2007, base stations supporting 2.5/3G networks will number 1.8 million.