@FierceTelecom RT ZDNet Australia via @fiberactive - Pictures from NBN Co.'s visit to the Prysmian fiber factory. Story | Follow @FierceTelecom
> And now for part two of net neutrality: the inevitable court battles and efforts in Congress to repeal the new rules. Story.
> North Carolina-based Bandwidth.com has signed a commercial deal with Verizon's wireline companies to terminate each other's VoIP traffic at a rate of $0.0007 per minute. News release.
> Vodacom Business, the Internet division of South Africa's Vodacom, is rolling out fiber optic services to several towns on the Western Cape. Story.
> Crossbeam says it had a "milestone year" as a security infrastructure provider, with deployments to several international carriers including Telefonica S.A.'s O2, NTT Communications and Portugal Telecom. News release.
> Belgacom, IDT and Telefonica took honors for their billing services in ATLANTIC-ACM's 2011 Awards for Global Wholesale Excellence at PTC 2011 in Honolulu yesterday. Orange, Level 3, KDDI and Sprint also received awards in a number of categories. News release.
And finally ... Is this the end of POTS? The number of traditional phone lines dropped 10 percent in 2009, from 141 million to 127 million lines, V2M reports, while VoIP subscriptions rose 22 percent in the same period from 21 million to 26 million. Story.