Verizon Cites Gains in Enterprise Data Services

Five months after announcing an ambitious plan to expand its high-speed data network nationally, Verizon Communications reported that 150 of the company's largest business customers have signed contracts for advanced services provided over the network. In the first phase of the expansion, Verizon built out infrastructure throughout the Northeastern US, specifically to connect states such as New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, among others. In Q1, Verizon added long-distance connections in the Northeast for its Regional Frame Relay, SONET and ATM services. These long distance services are now available across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, and the District of Columbia. In the coming months, Verizon plans to extend its services to more cities along the I-95 corridor and add MPLS support. Additional regional offerings will include Transparent Local Area Networking Service (TLS)/Ethernet, IP and optical networking services.
http://www.verizon.com

• In November 2002, Verizon launched an initiative to deliver long distance data services to large enterprises and government agencies. The company had recently been granted FCC permission to offer long-distance voice and data service to roughly 90% of its customers. Verizon said its Enterprise Advance initiative will create a network with national reach. The new enterprise services arsenal will include transparent LAN, fast packet and IP services, optical networking and voice switching enhancements. The service will be based on an optical and IP backbone providing "any-to-any" transmission. Verizon initially is targeting business and government customers in the Northeast's I-95 corridor, reaching from Boston to Virginia. Verizon will then build out its IP backbone to further connect its national service territory in locations such as Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle and Tampa. Verizon's Enterprise Advance will extend to 56 key US markets.
• 
  
  In July 2002, Verizon Communications decided not to reintegrate Genuity as part of the company. Genuity was created in 2000 when GTE Internetworking spun-off into an independent company as a condition for the approval of the merger between GTE and Bell Atlantic (now Verizon).

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Net to Net Technologies Offers a 2-port Loop Bonding ADSL Modem

Net to Net Technologies introduced ADSL Loop Bonding technology that could be used for offering "Triple Play" services, especially IP TV. Net to Net's ANE8420-S modem allows telcos to bond two copper pairs together to deliver 21 Mbps out to 10,000 feet from the central office or remote terminal. At 15,000 feet, the technology supports 12 to 15 Mbps rates. The Loop Bonding is based on Net to Net's Ethernet-based IP DSL technologies,http://www.nettonet.com

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Gilat to Provide Large-Scale Satellite Rural Telephony Network in Tibet

China Telecom selected Gilat Satellite Networks to provide a large-scale, satellite-based rural telephony network in Tibet. China Telecom initially will purchase a DialAway hub, 14 gateways and 1,300 VSAT terminals for public call offices to serve the region's remote villages. The tender indicates that the contract can be extended to a total of 5,000 VSATs. Each DialAway remote site supports up to six toll-quality voice channels on the network, providing as many as 4-5,000 voice lines. Gilat has already supplied such a satellite telephony system for China's remote Xinjiang region, as well as to Telkom South Africa, Peru's FITEL, Colombia's Compartel and India's TATA Teleservices.
http://www.gilat.com

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BT Chooses CIENA as a Strategic Partner

BT has selected CIENA's LightWorks product portfolio as part of its new, next-generation network. The global three-year deal will place CIENA in the role of a strategic supplier of optical transport and switching equipment and network management software. Products covered by the contract include CIENA's CoreDirector, CoreStream, ONLINE Metro, ONLINE Edge and MetroDirector K2. Also, BT will use CIENA's ON-Center Management system, which combines element, network and service management capabilities, along with simple point-and-click provisioning.
http://www.ciena.com
http://www.bt.com

• In April 2003, ADVA Optical Networking was awarded an additional three-year contract from BT for its Fiber Service Platform (FSP) 500 systems. This adds to a previous four-year deal, during which time BT standardized the FSP 500 as its multi-protocol platform for deployment of all LAN extension services. ADVA said its FSP 500 has enabled BT to sell more than 10,000 short-haul data circuits into approximately 1,600 enterprises in the U.K. over the past four years.

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Deutsche Telekom Tests "Basic" Public Telephones

In response to the declining use of public telephones in many locations, Deutsche Telekom is carrying out a national pilot test involving the implementation of "basic" public telephones until the end of 2005. The basic phones would allow emergency calls to be made, calling cards to be used or reverse charge calls to be initiated. However, they would not have coin and telephone card slots, which are susceptible to vandalism and represent an on-going cost to the company.
http://www.telekom.de

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Remote Alaska Town Builds Satellite-Connected Wi-Fi Network

Coffman Cove, Alaska, a small town of 240 people that is accessible only by ferry or air, will install a municipal wireless hotspot with a 2-mile radius from its center. The community voted for SkyFrames' Satellite Broadband Services to install the 802.11 equipment with omni-directional antennas and provide a T1-equivalent network backhaul to the Internet. The city-run ISP has 55 customers willing to pay for the service.
http://www.skyframes.com

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Sprint North Supply to Distribute SanteraOne Platform

Sprint North Supply was selected as the first nationwide wholesale distributor for Santera Systems' SanteraOne integrated voice and data switching platform. Sprint North Supply is a supply chain solution provider serving network service providers, manufacturers and resellers throughout North America.
http://www.santera.com
http://www.sprintnorthsupply.com

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SureWest Turns a Profit, Cites Triple Play Success

SureWest Communications, an integrated communications provider based in Roseville, California, reported Q1 net revenues of $47.4 million and net income of $0.7 million, or $0.05 per share. The company has nearly 17,000 DSL subscribers and over 15,000 'triple-play' revenue generating units (RGUs). SureWest, which has 100% DSL availability in its service area, has a DSL penetration density of 17.8% of primary residential lines and 12.3% of ILEC access lines.


Consolidated capital expenditures related to operations totaled $11.3 million in the first quarter of 2003, compared to $10.8 million in the first quarter of 2002. Capital expenditures for the remainder of 2003 are expected to total about $50 million, including approximately $21 million for triple-play capital expenditures.
http://www.surewest.com

• SureWest serves in excess of 135,000 access lines in its 83-square mile territory near Sacramento, California.

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IDT Terminates Bid to Acquire ITXC, Comments on Global Crossing

IDT Corporation terminated its proposal to acquire all outstanding shares of ITXC and said it will enter into negotiations with the company. IDT said it would not take any action to acquire the shares of ITXC for the next thirty days without ITXC's consent. It gave no assurance that a deal would be reached.


Separately, IDT reiterated its desire to purchase Global Crossing following Hutchison's decision to drop its bid. IDT has long been a vocal critic of the proposed Asian investment in Global Crossing, arguing that it poses "grave and unnecessary national security risks." IDT urged members of Congress and other governmental bodies to continue their scrutiny of Singapore Technologies and its continued bid for Global Crossing.
http://www.idttelecom.com
http://www.itxc.com

• On 10-April-2003, IDT publicly announced a proposal to acquire ITXC Corp. in a stock-for-stock transaction that would provide a 15% premium to the stockholders of ITXC, based on the closing price of ITXC's stock on the previous day. ITXC rejected the offer.
• 
  
  On 25-February-2003, IDT publicly announced a bid to acquire Global Crossing that would “at least�? match the offer submitted last August by the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchinson Whampoa Ltd and state-controlled Singapore Technology Pte Ltd. The offer was rejected.

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SMC to Support Wi-Fi Protected Access by June

SMC Networks announced that its portfolio of wireless networking products will include support for the new Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) by June. WPA is an extension of the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) technology.
http://www.smc.com

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Cable & Wireless and CODETEL Deploy Nortel Networks' Passport

Cable & Wireless Jamaica and CODETEL (the Dominican Republic's main telecommunications services provider) have each deployed Nortel Networks' Passport 20000 Multiservice Switches. Both carriers will use the Passport 20000 as a core switching platform for voice and data traffic. The Passport 20000 also positions CODETEL to increase capacity for ATM, Frame Relay, private line and other existing services, while introducing IP VPNs and Layer 2 VPNs. Financial terms were not disclosed. Nortel Networks said the installations mark the first deployment of Passport 20000s in the Caribbean or Latin America.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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Canada's Microcell Emerges from Chapter 11, Eliminates C$1.6 Billion in Debt

Microcell Telecommunications, a Canadian wireless service provider, completed the bankruptcy reorganization process, reducing its total debt obligations by approximately C$1.6 billion and its annual interest obligations by a range of C$160 million to C$200 million. The company emerges with approximately C$125 million in cash and C$25 million in credit. Microcell operates a GSM network and serves one million customers across Canada.
http://www.microcell.ca

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RealNetworks Reaches One Million Internet Media Subscribers

RealNetworks became the first company to reach one million subscribers for a paid Internet media content subscription service. The company said its RealOne SuperPass, which featured live video of the war in Iraq, became one of the most popular news sources during April. News content delivered grew five fold in the first several days of the conflict.
http://www.realnetworks.com

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Microsoft Targets Web Services, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for Cars

At the second annual Microsoft European Automotive & Telematics Conference held this week in Munich, Microsoft outlined plans for Web services, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity in cars. The Windows Automotive software platform is already being used in the BMW 7 Series for controlling the GPS-enabled navigation system, electronic and entertainment systems, mobile phones and vehicle diagnostics. The Windows operating system will appear in new cars from Honda, Volvo, Fiat and Citroën. In Japan, Toyota is using Microsoft's Windows Automotive for its G-BOOK telematics system, which will be a standard feature even for cars priced at about US$10,000. Microsoft predicts three trends that will drive telematics to mass adoption. First, interoperability between consumer electronics system and Bluetooth connectivity will enable the car to automatically detect mobile phones and share information with PDAs and Pocket PCs. Tablet PCs could be used in the car as a "no compromise" navigation screen. Wi-Fi connected gas stations or a home garage might download music to the stereo. The second need for telematics that Microsoft sees is safety -- potentially, speech recognition applications could aid the driver without causing too much of a distraction. The third trend is cost reduction. Microsoft argues that a common OS for all the vehicle systems will eventually lower the cost of the whole car.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2003/apr03/04-30telematics.asp

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Tekelec and Santera Combine their Next Gen Switching Businesses

Tekelec and Santera Systems agreed to combine their next-generation switching businesses. Tekelec is a developer of telecommunications signaling solutions, packet-telephony infrastructure, network monitoring technology, and value-added applications. Santera Systems offers an integrated voice and data switching platform for delivering Class 4/5 services, PRI offload, packet/cell switching and voice over broadband services. The SanterOne platform features both TDM and packet switching fabrics. The combined company's product portfolio will also include media gateways, media gateway controllers, signaling gateways and element management systems for migrating from circuit to packet networks. Under the deal, Tekelec will contribute $28 million in cash and its existing packet telephony business. Santera's current investors will contribute its assets and an additional $12 million in cash. Initially, the division will be 52% owned by Tekelec. Tekelec will also have the ability to increase its ownership percentage in the new subsidiary up to 62.5% and has the option to purchase the entire remaining interest from 01-July-2005 through 31-December-2007. The new business will be called Santera, a Tekelec company. David Heard, CEO of Santera Systems will serve as president of the new subsidiary. The transaction is expected to close before the end of Q2.
http://www.tekelec.com
http://www.santera.com

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Nortel Networks, Redback Networks Settle Lawsuit

Nortel Networks and Redback Networks reached a settlement in their pending lawsuits. The case goes back to December 2001, when Redback sued Nortel Networks seeking to invalidate five patents. As part of the settlement, Nortel Networks and Redback entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement and Redback agreed to pay Nortel an undisclosed fee.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com
http://www.redback.com

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Hutchison Withdraws its Proposed Global Crossing Acquisition

In light of a new probe by the U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment, Hutchison Telecommunications decided to withdraw its proposed acquisition of a 30.75% stake in Global Crossing. Singapore Technologies Telemedia will exercise its rights to acquire Hutchison Telecommunications' planned stake in a newly constituted Global Crossing. Specifically, ST Telemedia will increase its original investment from $125 million to a total $250 million for 61.5% ownership interest in the reorganized Global Crossing upon its emergence from Chapter 11. Global Crossing said the new arrangement would not change distributions to creditors under its existing Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization filed with the courts.


Hutchison Telecommunications is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, a multinational conglomerate based in Hong Kong. ST Telemedia is a major shareholder in Singapore's second largest telecommunications company, StarHub; Indonesia's second largest telecommunications operator, PT Indosat; and Equinix, which provides Internet exchange and infrastructure services in the US and the Asia-Pacific region.


The Committee on Foreign Investment is managed by the Treasury Department and includes input from a number of Defense Department and Justice Department agencies.
http://www.hutchison-whampoa.com

• In February, IDT, a multinational carrier, announced a bid to acquire Global Crossing, arguing that national security issues were raised by the proposed deal with Hutchinson and Singapore Telemedia.
• 
  
  On 17 December 2002, a U.S. bankruptcy court confirmed Global Crossing's Chapter 11 plan of reorganization. Global Crossing said that it expected to emerge from Chapter 11 as a reorganized company during the first half of 2003. Various regulatory agencies need to review and approve the transaction for it to take effect.
• 
  
  In August 2002, Hutchison Telecommunications (Hutchison) and Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte. Ltd. (ST Telemedia) announced plans to invest a total of $250 million for a 61.5% majority interest in a newly constituted Global Crossing. The agreement was approved by the bankruptcy court in New York and has the support of Global Crossing's major creditor groups. Global Crossing's banks and creditors would receive 38.5% of the common equity in the newly constituted Global Crossing, $300 million in cash and $200 million of new debt in the form of senior notes. In January 2002, Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore Technologies Telemedia had initially bid a total of $750 million cash for a joint majority stake in Global Crossing's equity.

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Alcatel Integrates iMagicTV for TV over DSL

Alcatel completed its acquisition of iMagicTV, a developer of software for delivering multi-channel digital television over broadband networks. Alcatel said the acquisition provides it with a ready-to-deploy solution for triple play (TV, Internet and Telephone) broadband services. iMagic also provides back-end service provisioning capabilities. iMagicTV will be marketed under the name Alcatel 5950 Media Manager. The final exchange ratio used to exchange iMagicTV shares for Alcatel ADS shares was 0.158517 which equates to a value of US$1.30 per iMagicTV share. Alcatel acquired 20,826,362 of common shares, representing 84% of the capital. It now holds 100% of the company.
http://www.alcatel.com

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EC Approves Some Network Sharing for 3G Licensees

The European Commission approved 3G mobile network infrastructure sharing in the UK, ruling that site sharing in itself does not raise competition concerns. More specifically, 3G site sharing between operators does not restrict competition if such agreements are limited to sharing basic network infrastructure such as masts, power supply, racking and cooling. The EC investigation into the infrastructure sharing also found that national roaming between licensed network operators benefits consumers by allowing the operators involved to offer better and quicker coverage, especially in less built-up and more remote areas. Roaming will not include the top ten cities in the UK and is limited to smaller cities and rural areas. National roaming in smaller cities can benefit from an exemption form the antitrust rules until 31-December-2007. For rural areas the exemption expires on 31-December-2008. The case arose following an infrastructure sharing agreement between T-Mobile and mmO2.http://europa.eu.int

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MCI Adds Windows Messenger to its Converged Communications Service

MCI is adding Microsoft Windows Messenger to its MCI Advantage (formerly known as the WorldCom Connection) converged communications service. Both Windows Messenger and the MCI Advantage support SIP. With the new Windows Messenger capability, MCI Advantage business users can complete and receive voice calls, participate in real-time chat sessions and share information with colleagues directly from their desktop or any SIP enabled device. Users can also take their MCI Advantage service and calling features with them to any location by connecting to an MCI IP network.
http://www.mci.com

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AOL Blocks 2.37 Billion Spam Messages per Day

America Online blocked 2.37 billion spam emails in one day this week. At this rate, AOL's anti-spam filters are preventing more than 24,000 spam emails from going to each of its members' accounts each year. Only one week ago, AOL announced it was preventing over 1 billion spam emails from getting into its members' email inboxes daily. AOL attributed the surge in its spam blocking to a variety of factors: members systematically reporting more spam; the tightening and strengthening of AOL's spam blocking filters; the continuing surge of spam sent across the Internet using fraudulent, evasive and egregious methods; and the fact that AOL is actively working with other providers to target and block specific ranges of IP addresses known to be used by spammers. This last point has successfully resulted in a direct reduction of spam from specific providers by over 99% through provider-to-provider cooperation.
http://www.aol.com

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Sprint Expands its Metro Network Presence to 20 Cities

Sprint completed construction of three large metropolitan area network (MAN) rings in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region. The rings connect the Sprint network to several local telecom exchange facilities and a Sprint mobile switching center (MSC) in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. The MSC routes wireless calls for local PCS customers of Sprint. The company has now deployed metro networks in 20 markets and intends to drive its fiber-optic network deeper into the metro areas of 30 U.S. cities before mid- 2004.
http://www.sprint.com

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America Online Offers Premium Virus Protection Service

America Online and Network Associates announced a premium virus protection service for AOL members. The service is provided through a desktop client that is constantly updated on new threats. The virus protection guards against infection from peer-to-peer file sharing, Web site downloads, infected CD-ROMs and disks, multi-media files, and other modes of attack. AOL will charge $2.95 a month for the service.
http://www.aol.com

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New Edge Networks to Provide Local FR and ATM for WilTel

New Edge Networks signed an agreement to provide local Frame Relay and ATM services to WilTel Communications at competitive price points. New Edge Networks has more than 600 central office locations with multi-services switches in small and midsize cities across the US. To support this agreement, New Edge Networks and WilTel will establish multiple broadband interconnection points across the country.
http://www.newedgenetworks.com
http://www.wiltelcommunications.com

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Network Processing Forum Completes IPv4 Software Agreement

The Network Processing Forum (NPF) released an IPv4 Unicast Forwarding Service Application Programming Interface (API) Implementation Agreement (IA) intended to help enable the development of IPv4 forwarding software solutions from independent software and network processor vendors. The specification will also simplify the task System OEMs face in migrating their existing control-plane software to network processor-based systems. The IPv4 Unicast Forwarding Service API Implementation Agreement is available for free online.
http://www.npforum.org/techinfo/approved.shtml

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Broadcom Supplies Transceiver Chipset for Foundry's Terabit Switch

Broadcom is supplying a custom three-chip serial backplane transceiver chipset for Foundry Networks' new terabit-capacity enterprise switch and metro/service provider router architecture. The custom serial backplane transceiver chipset was developed using Broadcom's third generation of low-power, mixed-signal CMOS SerDes technology. Broadcom said a key advantage of the technology is multi-rate operation, which allows cores to transmit serial data from 622-Mbps up through 5-Gbps and 10-Gbps over a variety of links including fiber optics, copper cables, backplanes, and chip- to-chip printed circuit board (PCB) connections.
http://www.broadcom.com

• Earlier this week, Foundry Networks introduced a new 10 Gigabit Ethernet Router with up to four Terabits of switching capacity and 1.5 billion packets per second of routing performance per rack. Read our story at: http://www.convergedigest.com/PacketSystems/packetsysarticle.asp?ID=7250
  

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TiVo Names an NBC Executive as President

TiVo named Martin J. Yudkovitz as its new president. Yudkovitz previously was Executive Vice President at NBC, where he played leading roles in the creation of CNBC, MSNBC Cable and MSNBC.com. He also led the business side of NBC's two largest television endeavors, the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. TiVo said it plans to focus on aggressively deploying its digital video recorder service through industry partnerships with satellite and cable companies and other licensing opportunities.
http://www.tivo.com

• TiVo has a subscription base of approximately 624,000 users.

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Zarlink Develops 3.125 Gbps Optical Receiver

Zarlink announced an optical receiver operating at up to 3.125 Gbps. Traditionally, discrete photodiodes and amplifiers, linked by complex circuitry, have been required to reliably detect and pre-amplify high-speed optical pulses. Zarlink said its optical receiver integrates a highly sensitive PIN (positive- intrinsic-negative) photodiode in InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), a low-noise transimpedance and limiting amplifier in SiGe (silicon germanium), and a photo current monitor. The device could be used for 2.5 Gbps SONET/SDH equipment, as well as Fiber Channel and Gigabit Ethernet applications.
http://www.zarlink.com

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JDS Uniphase Launches New CWDM Solutions

JDS Uniphase introduced a new WaveReady series of optical access products, including a coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) solution aimed at enterprise and metro networking applications. The new CWDM line cards for the WaveReady series include a bi-directional 1310 nm input / 15xx nm output regenerator, a bi-directional 850 nm input / 15xx nm output regenerator, and an 8-channel mux/demux. Other new line cards for WaveReady include a DWDM bi-directional ITU 1310 nm input / 15xx nm output regenerator and an optical protection switch. In addition to CWDM and DWDM, the WaveReady Series fits a variety of applications including wavelength services, amplification, protection switching, reach extension, 1310/1550 overlay and Gigabit Ethernet services. JDS Uniphase offers several WaveReady platforms, including a chassis that can be configured with up to 14 line cards, a smaller, 1U-sized, two line-card platform, and a fixed model optimized for Gigabit Ethernet extension, path protection switching or optical demarcation applications.
http://www.jdsu.com

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Allegiance Telecom Negotiates with Creditors on Recapitalization Plan

Allegiance Telecom, a facilities-based national CLEC headquartered in Dallas, Texas, is continuing negotiations with its creditors on a recapitalization plan. The creditors have agreed to forbear from accelerating their loans or exercising their remedies until 15-May-2003. In return, Allegiance will make a principal payment of $5 million to the consortium of banks that have loaned the Company approximately $471 million of senior secured credit facilities. Allegiance said it would continue business as usual in the 36 markets it servers across the US.
http://www.algx.com

• For Q4 200, Allegiance Telecom reported revenues of $204.9 million, a decrease of 6.7% compared with Q3 2002 and an increase of 35.0% compared with Q4 2001. There was a consolidated EBITDA loss of $15.7 million for Q4 2002.
• 
  
  In its quarterly financial report, Allegiance said it was pursuing financial and strategic negotiated alternatives to reduce its total indebtedness, which under the terms of the interim amendment must be reduced from the current $1.2 billion level to $645 million by 30-April-2003.
• 
  
  The company's capital expenditures for 2002 totaled $129.4 million versus $364.4 million in 2001, a reduction of 64.5%.
• 
  
  Allegiance Telecom is headed by company co-founder Royce Holland, who previously was president and one of several co-founders of MFS Communications (acquired by WorldCom).

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NTT DoCoMo Sells More than 10 Million Camera Phones

NTT DoCoMo has sold more than 10 million camera phones since launching the first model on 01-June-2002. The company currently offers 11 different handset models with integrated cameras. Users between the ages of 20 and 30 account for about 60% of total sales. DoCoMo recently announced new handset models offering higher resolution cameras of up to 1.3 megapixels.
http://www.nttdocomo.com

• According to a recent NTT DoCoMo report, Japan now has 78 million mobile phone subscribers, a figure equivalent to 58% of the nation's population.
• 
  
  DoCoMo's i-mode service has 38 million uses.
• 
  
  DoCoMo's network operations center processes up to 75,000 data transmissions per second for i-mode mail and web accesses . That translates to an average of 800 million i-mode transmissions every day.
• 
  
  Out of the 25.3 million mobile phones sold by DoCoMo in fiscal 2002, approximately 15.2 million, or 60%, were replacements.

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TIA Publishes Measurement Standard for Multimode Fiber

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) published a new test procedure standard (TIA-455-220-A) for characterizing the modal structure of a graded index multimode fiber. Differential Mode Delay (DMD) is the transmission delay between different modes of energy propagation in a multimode fiber. DMD contributes to the total dispersion (spreading) of a transmitted pulse and therefore can affect the system throughput. TIA said its new test method is commonly used in production and research facilities and is not easily accomplished in the field.
http://www.tiaonline.org

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Regulator Publishes Review of Broadband Market in the UK

Pending parliamentary approval, a new regulatory framework for electronic communications networks in the UK will go into effect on 25-July-2003. The new policies are based on five EU Communications directives and are designed to harmonize regulations across Europe, reduce barriers to entry, and stimulate market competition. In advance of the new framework, Oftel, the official telecoms regulator for the UK, published a 151-page review of current market conditions. The report is available online.
http://www.oftel.gov.uk/publications/eu_directives/2003/eu_dsl/dsl.pdf

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Accenture and Microsoft Build .NET Services for Carriers

Accenture is developing a new set of Web Service-enabled solutions for wireless and wireline carriers built on Microsoft's .NET framework. The applications support key operations including customer care, sales, billing, service delivery, enterprise management and business intelligence. Accenture said the .NET-connectivity would introduce a higher level of agility and real-time transactional capability through the use of Web services. By using repeatable processes, middleware and configuration, the .NET-connected version of the joint solutions significantly reduces the time it takes to deploy new services.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/apr03/04-29TelecomProviderspr.asphttp://www.accenture.com

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France Telecom Sees Revenue Stabilizing, Targets 2.8M ADSL Users this Year

France Telecom reported Q1 revenues of EUR 11.376, an increase of 7.3% compared to the year-earlier period. There was an increase in operating free cash flow to EUR 3.1 billion in Q1, compared to EUR 1.9 billion in Q1 2002. On a comparable basis, France Telecom's consolidated revenues increased 3.3% annually. Some highlights for the quarter:

• The number of broadband lines for retail customers (including Wanadoo's ADSL access) was 1,777,000 at the end of the quarter, more than triple the year earlier count. FT is targeting 2.8 million ADSL customers by the end of 2003. While describing DSL as a principle growth driver, FT noted that Minitel revenues continued their downward trend.
• 
  
  Fixed line, voice and data services in France decreased 6.6% for Q1, compared to the year-earlier period, related in part to the sale of some network assets. Without the sale, the comparative decline would have been 3.4%. For Q4 2002, the annual rate of decline was at 5.7%. As a result, FT believes the impact of the opening of the local communications market to competition is slowing. France Telecom's market share in local traffic in March 2003 amounted to 79.1% compared to 86.0% in March 2002. In comparison, France Telecom's market share in local traffic in December 2002 amounted to 80.9% compared to 96.8% in December 2001.
• 
  
  France Telecom's market share in long distance traffic (domestic and international) remained stable at 63.3% in March 2003 compared to 63.7% in March 2002.
• 
  
  Contributive revenues from Equant decreased 22.6% on a historical basis and 5.1% on a comparable basis compared to the year-earlier period. For the most part, the decrease reflected the impact of the transfer of Equant's customers in France to Transpac SA in accordance with the contractual provisions put in place in June 2001 at the time of Equant's consolidation into the France Telecom group. Sales in network services, which represented more than half of Equant's revenues, increased 3.7%.
• 
  
  The FT group reduced its CAPEX in Q1 by EUR 350 million. Most of the reductions came from fixed line operations in France (47%), Orange (32%), Wanadoo (10%) and fixed line operations outside of France (11%). The company plans a 19% increase in investment expenditures in ADSL to double the number of lines in France in 2003.

http://www.francetelecom.com

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Openwave Introduces New Email/Messaging Platform for Carrier Services

Openwave Systems released a major upgrade to its email/messaging platform designed for large-scale, carrier email services. Openwave Email Mx Version 6.0 (Mx 6) features new anti-spam and anti-virus capabilities, a new web mail interface, a new "extensions" technology to allow third party applications to run on the message server, and lower cost due to architecture changes. Anti-spam features include the ability to block "Receipt to" messages that spammers harvest to steal email addresses. Performance enhancements have resulted in a decrease in CPU utilization by 40% and an increase in capacity by up to 400% in heavy usage broadband environments. Mx 6 also adds a choice in database technology, which can eliminate the need for an Oracle database if the customers chooses to use the integrated OEM database. The Openwave Mx 6 Extensions technology provides interfaces into message processing to allow value added, third party applications such as anti-virus, anti-spam (Brightmail or Postini) or lawful mail interceptions (CALEA).
http://www.openwave.com

• Openwave noted that conventional IP blocking tools are no longer effective in stopping spammers because new tools have enabled spammers to change their IP addresses on they fly -- sometimes after every few emails sent. Openwave estimates the average lifetime of an IP address is now only 20 minutes.
• 
  
  Openwave's carrier customers currently have licensed nearly 150 million email boxes.
• 
  
  Openwave's customer list includes 150 email service providers and 85 mobile operators, such as BellSouth, RoadRunner, Verizon, AT&T Broadband, BT, Beijing Telecom and others.

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Deutsche Telekom Extends IP MPLS Service to North America

Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems division has extended its IP-VPN MPLS network services into North America. T-Systems is offering custom-build MPLS solutions that address and adapt to specific requirements at each site in terms of availability, class of service mix, service level agreement and support parameters. Four "application-aware" classes of service are available. The service runs entirely over an IP backbone.
http://www.t-systemsus.com

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UTStarcom Announces First Contracts with India's Tata Teleservices

UTStarcom has signed its first contracts to deploy 56,000 lines of its AN-2000 platform with Tata Teleservices, the largest private basic service operator in India. Financial terms were not disclosed. UTStarcom has signed five other basic service operators in India as customers and had over 600,000 lines of its AN-2000 multi-service access platform deployed as of the end of 2002. UTStarcom also cited a strong interest for its Personal Access System (PAS) in India. MTNL, the incumbent PTT operator in New Delhi, has deployed and commercialized a 5,000 line PAS trial system in three areas in south Delhi. In addition, trials of the PAS system are being conducted with two large private basic service operators.
http://www.utstar.com
http://www.tataindicom.com

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NEC America to Resell SpectraLink's Systems

NEC America agreed to resell SpectraLink's new NetLink e340 and i640 Wireless Telephones utilizing NEC's proprietary IP protocol. This WLAN solution will incorporate NEC's Dterm desktop features to provide a migration path to a wireless communications infrastructure for new and existing enterprise customers. The wireless handsets will utilize the IEEE 802.11b (Wi-Fi) WLAN standard, allowing users to share a single wireless infrastructure with mobile data devices.
http://www.cng.nec.com
http://www.spectralink.com

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McLeodUSA Links 538 Walgreens Stores

Walgreens, the largest drugstore chain in the US, selected McLeodUSA to be the primary local telecommunications services provider to 538 Walgreens stores, with nearly 5,000 business lines, in its 25-state footprint. McLeodUSA aims to install local services in all 538 stores in approximately three weeks.
http://www.mcleodusa.com

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GDC Reenters Service Business for its Products

General DataComm (GDC) will once again begin offering support services for its products beginning 01-May-2003 and has selected Telsource Corporation to deliver on-site services for its contract customers via a custom outsourcing partnership. Telsource will provide maintenance and support for all of GDC's products in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.
http://www.gdc.com

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PMC-Sierra Introduces Multi-Rate PHY/Framers

PMC-Sierra introduced two new devices that offer a physical layer solution for simultaneously aggregating, transporting and terminating OC-3/STM-1, OC-12/STM-4, and OC-48/STM-16 Packet-over-SONET (POS) and ATM traffic on a single line card. The S/UNI MULTI devices are designed for use in physical interfaces to connect network elements that demand rapid bandwidth expansion like DSLAMs, CMTSs, and wireless base-station controllers, edge routers and multi-service switches. PMC-Sierra said a single multi-rate line card powered by one S/UNI MULTI-48 device, in conjunction with available multi-rate or pluggable optics modules, could replace up to three line card designs. Marconi is utilizing PMC-Sierra's S/UNI MULTI-48 in its BXR-48000 multiservice switch router.http;//www.pmcsierra.com

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Zhone Announces Smaller Multi-Access Line Concentrators

Zhone Technologies announced the newest addition to its Multi-Access Line Concentrator line, which supports both traditional voice and broadband data services over a common loop infrastructure. The new MALC 300 measures 3U in height and uses the same line cards and components as the company's existing MALC 700 models. The MALC supports software selectable service ports, integrated cross-connect, integrated loop qualification with internal splitters, and flow-through provisioning capabilities to clearly differentiate the platform from traditional DLC platforms. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service has granted "RUS Acceptance" status to the MALC family of products, enabling rural telephone and utilities companies to purchase and deploy MALC with funds obtained through low-interest RUS loans.
http://www.zhone.com

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Yahoo! Platinum Expands its Broadband Content Line-up

Yahoo! is expanding its recently launched premium broadband content service to include video and audio content from Showtime, the National Hockey League, National Geographic, Major League Soccer, and Warren Miller Entertainment. In coming weeks, Yahoo! Platinum plans to add financial news from CNBC, in addition to a mix of entertainment and news programming from the BBC . Content already available on the service includes CBS' Survivor Insider, FOX's American Idol, ABC News, CBS MarketWatch, and NASCAR.com. Pricing remains at $9.95 per month. Access to some sports content is extra.
http://www.platinum.com

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Spirent Unveils Avalanche AfterBurner for Gigabit L4-7 Testing

Spirent Communications introduced a new "Avalanche AfterBurner" that boosts the performance of its Avalanche SmartBits product line for testing Layer 4-7 systems. Spirent's Avalanche AfterBurner enables in excess of 400,000 TCP connections per second on a single Gigabit link. Foundry Networks is using the solution for testing its high-performance ServerIron systems.
http://www.spirentcom.com/avalanche

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Alcatel to Resell General Bandwidth for VoATM in FTTU

Alcatel signed an OEM agreement to resell General Bandwidth's G6 Packet Telephony Migration Platform for providing Voice over ATM in fiber to the user (FTTU) networks. Alcatel will integrate, resell, and support General Bandwidth's carrier-class platform to selected customers and engage in joint marketing activities as appropriate. The G6 features a scalable 60 Gbps backplane, supports IP, ATM and TDM in the same platform, and offers an element management system that is Telcordia OSMINE certified.
http://www.genband.com
http://www.alcatel.com

• In July, 2002, Alcatel announced a multi-million dollar agreement under which SBC had agreed to deploy the Alcatel 7340 Fiber-to-the-User (FTTU) solution for residential customers in SBC Pacific Bell's Mission Bay project in San Francisco. General Bandwidth was selected to provide the voice component of the project.

Alcatel has recently announced a series of OEM and technology partnership agreements, including:

• fSONA, for its Free Space Optics (FSO) as a subsystem of the Alcatel high capacity wireless solution. Alcatel's high-capacity urban wireless systems are being integrated with FSO technology. Free space optics delivers point-to-point, fiber-like services over the air using lasers.
• 
  
  RADVISION, for its new viaIP gw-P20/M Gateway, which supports real time video telephony sessions between 3G-324M enabled cell phones/PDAs and multiple IP and ISDN-based videoconferencing systems. The system is based on the 3G-324M standard for real-time multimedia communications over WCDMA and CDMA2000 3G/UMTS networks. The RADVISION product will be matched with the Alcatel 5020 Softswitch acting as an H.323 gatekeeper, which manages the fixed IP videophones or PCs with an embedded Webcam and a broadband connection to the Internet (xDSL, cable modem or corporate).
• 
  
  Adjungo Networks, for its wireless LAN security & management systems, which offers several secure authentication mechanisms for WLAN users, such as SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) based and Virtual SIM authentication, which leverages the mobile network capabilities supporting 802.1x hot spots and Web-based hot spots. The offer also includes an SMS (Short Message System) based authentication feature.
• 
  
  Native Networks, for its technology for metro Ethernet over SDH in its Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) equipment. Alcatel's Optical Multi-Service Nodes aggregate multiprotocol traffic onto SDH. Although configurable as ADMs (Add-Drop-Multiplexers), OMSNs have cross-connect capability and already support point-to-point Ethernet connections. Under the new partnership, Alcatel is leveraging Native Networks' Metro Ethernet technology to introduce enhanced transport and aggregation of Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet services, along with Packet Ring functionality.
• 
  
  IP Wireless, for its TD-CDMA (TDD) mobile broadband technology. The TDD solution, which will support Alcatel's portfolio of UMTS/3G and WLAN networks and services, is aimed at mobile operators wishing to complement their GSM/GPRS and WCDMA services with enhanced TDD coverage in dense business areas.

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Extreme Announces 4th Generation Networking Silicon for 10-GigE Core

Extreme Networks unveiled its for fourth generation silicon, designed for scalable core networks with dense, wire-speed 10-Gigabit Ethernet performance. Extreme's 4GNSS silicon architecture promises wire-speed IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, HVPLS and NAT services for metro and regional networks. The new silicon also includes a new feature, called T-Flex, that uses ASIC-based programmable packet parsers and editors to allow new protocols and services to be deployed without hardware upgrades. Extreme's first incarnation of the new 4GNSS architecture, code named "Mariner," delivers six 10 Gigabit ports or 60 Gigabit Ethernet ports per blade for a total of 48 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 480 Gigabit Ethernet ports in a single chassis. Additionally, the "Mariner" switch provides hitless failover, hitless upgrades and self-healing capabilities. Extreme Networks is demonstrating the "Mariner" switch at NetWorld+Interop this week in Las Vegas. Product availability is slated for Q3. Pricing is listed at under $50,000 for an entry-level system, with 10 Gigabit Ethernet pricing at less than $8,000 per port.
http://www.extremenetworks.com

• Earlier this month, Extreme Networks launched its third-generation “Triumph�? switching chipset, which increases the port density of Extreme BlackDiamond chassis-based switches by up to 275% while maintaining the performance and line-rate throughput with Layer 3 services. The new chipset is being delivered in two new BlackDiamond modules that can be used to scale a single BlackDiamond 6816 chassis switch to up to 360 Gigabit Ethernet connections. The module options are for either 24-port auto-sensing 10/100/1000 copper ports ($12,995 list) or 16 port fiber 10/100/1000 ports ($13,995). In addition to increased density, the new silicon provides ingress and egress rate shaping for traffic management, along with port-based management and flow control for traffic protection. With the new switching modules, the BlackDiamond switch can support eight ingress, eight egress queues and one egress super-queue per port so that each port can be individually configured to rate shape traffic. Extreme said the new modules maintain line-rate forwarding performance, even while supporting QoS, full Layer 3 routing services, and security services such as ACLs, Intrusion Detection and Network Login. Extreme's chipset also provides advanced Denial of Service (DoS) attack protection through hardware classification, processing and acceleration of common IP control traffic functions.

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Cisco Announces Intelligent Processor Engine for the WAN Edge

Cisco Systems introduced a new Network Processing Engine for handling IP/MPLS services on its Cisco 7300 routers, which can be deployed by enterprise customers as an Internet gateway application, or used by service providers as a high-end customer-premise-equipment (CPE) router for managed service offerings. The Cisco 7304 NPE-G100 processor supports advanced IP features, including multicast; Any Transport over MPLS (AToM); and Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF)-Select, which enables network operators to provide the appearance of multiple network topologies on a single interface. It also supports IPv6 and network-based application recognition (NBAR) services that allow customers to support a variety of connection types tightly coupled with advanced packet inspection for intelligent networking. Additionally, the NPE-G100 offers three built-in 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet ports (copper or optical). The Cisco 7304 router with the NPE-G100 Network Processing Engine will be available in May and list priced at $22,000.
http://www.cisco.com

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Portal Software and SAP Team on Telecom Solutions

Portal Software and SAP AG signed a global strategic alliance and software development agreement to deliver an integrated management solution for the telecom industry. The solution from Portal and SAP seamlessly integrates key billing system processes with financial business processes, enabling telecommunications providers to more effectively deal with revenue assurance issues by providing complete, real-time visibility into customer transactions.
http://www.portal.com
http://www.sap.com

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Alcatel Reports Q1 Sales of EUR 2.96 Billion, Soft Markets

Alcatel reported Q1 sales of EUR 2.961 billion, down 31.1% year over year and down sequentially by 34.3%. Loss from operations was registered at EUR 161 million and net loss at EUR 461 million, or a diluted loss of EUR 0.39 per share ($0.43 per ADS). Alcatel cited seasonality and currency exchange issues for the weaker performance. It also noted that carrier markets continue to be soft, and the economic and geopolitical environmental may add a few points to the 15% degradation it had previously predicted for 2003. The non-carrier market is better but for the same reasons may be a few points off from the expected stagnation. Overall Alcatel still expects the market in the second half of 2003 to be comparable to last year, at a constant exchange rate. Nevertheless, Alcatel anticipates that its restructuring programs will enable it to reach an operating breakeven target for the full year. Some highlights for the quarter:

• Revenue for fixed communications equipment decreased sequentially by 34.5% to EUR 1.317 billion. DSL sales were strong worldwide, but were offset by the weakness in the carrier data market. Optical networks decreased substantially, particularly terrestrial transmission where the good performance in traditional cross connects was offset by the continuing depressed WDM long-haul market, especially in the US.
• 
  
  Revenue for mobile communications decreased sequentially by 37.8% to EUR 798 million. Sales were hit by the temporary unavailability of color screens coupled with pricing pressures on mature monochrome models.
• 
  
  Revenues for private communications decreased sequentially by 28.4% to EUR 952 million, primarily due to declining space revenues in light of delivery schedules and soft underlying market conditions.
• 
  
  Gross margin improved to 29.7%, compared to 27.3% for Q4 2002.
• 
  
  Alcatel ended the quarter with 76,000 employees, down from 119,000 in Q4 2000. The company estimates it will have 60,000 employees at the end of this year.
• 
  
  Alcatel is targeting a breakeven point at quarterly sales of around EUR 3 billion per quarter at year end.

http://www.alcatel.com

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SpectraLink Offers 802.11b Wireless Phones

SpectraLink announced an 802.11b NetLink Wireless Deskset priced at $499 and incorporating a speakerphone, large display, and special feature keys. A docking station version will be priced at $299. In the docking station configuration, the user has the option of using the NetLink Wireless Deskset's traditional wired handset or the NetLink Wireless Telephone handset to roam throughout the enterprise.
http://www.spectralink.com

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Transparent Networks Ceases Operations

Transparent Networks, a start-up that was developing a 3D MOEMS (micro-opto-electronic-mechanical-system) mirror array switch, is ceasing operations and will liquidate its assets. The company's intellectual property includes optical signal processing and MEMS-based technology. A buyer is being sought. Transparent Networks was based in Milpitas, California.
http://www.transparentnetworks.com

• In March 2002, Transparent Networks previewed its 3D MOEMS mirror array integrated with high-voltage high-density VLSI electronics. The single chip array includes 1200 mirrors and could be scaled for use in optical switches with up to 18,000 ports. Transparent Networks' first product implementation allows field scalability of the optical switch from 8 to 1,024 bi-directional protected ports. The design would allow carriers to deploy the switch with a small number of active ports and then add more ports based on demand.
• 
  
  In February 2002, Transparent Networks secured $20 million in second round venture funding for its work in intelligent photonic switching systems. The company raised $30.2 million since its inception in June 2000. Transparent Networks is headed by Dr. Janusz Bryzek, who is considered one of the pioneers of the MEMS industry.

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Marvell Targets Gigabit Ethernet Switching for SMBs and SOHOs

Marvell is extending its Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch silicon to target the Small-to-Medium Size Business (SMB) and SOHO market segments. Marvell is introducing a single-chip Prestera-DX GbE packet processor solution for 24-, 16- and 8-port Gigabit Ethernet switches. The Prestera-DX devices achieve non-blocking performance and high integration by combining all of the Gigabit MACs, the packet buffer memory, a powerful switch engine, and SERDES in each port into a single chip. The Prestera chip supports enterprise-class QoS features as well as a Virtual Cable Tester technology that can detect cable problems. Marvell estimates that an unmanaged, 24-port Gigabit Ethernet built with its Prestera chip could have a street price of $600, placing the per-port cost of Gigabit Ethernet switching at around $25. The company noted that many PC motherboards and even notebooks now include Gigabit Ethernet as a standard feature.


For the SOHO market, Marvell is also introducing 5-port and 8-port integrated GbE switch silicon solutions. Marvell's new Link Street devices enable construction of a complete three-chip 5-port/8-port GbE switch with triple-speed 10/100/1000 Mbps support. The company said the advance of technology and the increase in the number of multiple-PC households and small offices would drive GbE into the SOHO market.
http://www.marvell.com/

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Project MESA to Define Standards for Wireless Public Safety Networks

Project MESA, an international partnership project between the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), adopted an accelerated work plan to complete technical specifications for public emergency response networks by as early as the end of 2004. Project MESA said it recognized that completely new thinking in the field of radio technology and wireless networking is required to meet the advanced needs of users. The Project's work to date has involved the definition by the public safety organizations of their initial user requirements for future networks. These requirements include a self-establishing, self-healing broadband network operating in excess of 2 Mbps. A typical network of this sort would enable, for example, remote patient monitoring, the sending of a video shot from a helicopter to fire services personnel on the ground, or the use of robots to assist in the rescue of people from hazardous or inaccessible areas, or in the defusing of explosive devices.
http://www.projectmesa.org/http://www.tiaonline.org/

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Apple Launches the iTunes Music Store

Hoping to create the next great consumer application, Apple launched its iTunes Music store, an online service that lets customers download music for $0.99 per song, including the rights to burn songs onto an unlimited number of CDs for personal use, listening to songs on an unlimited number of iPods, playing songs on up to three Macs and using songs in any application on the Mac. The iTunes Music Store features over 200,000 songs from music companies including BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner. Apple also introduced its third generation iPods, which hold up to 7,500 songs on a 30GB drive. A version of iTunes for Windows is expected by year's end.
http://www.apple.com

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Wanadoo tops 1.6 million broadband customers

As of 31-March-2003, Wanadoo had 8.786 million Internet access customers in Europe, including 1.613 million subscribers to ADSL and cable broadband service. Wanadoo added 251,000 new customers during Q1, of whom 239,000 signed up for broadband service. Broadband users represented 18.4% of the total Wanadoo user base. The Wanadoo portal service delivered 2.408 billion Web pages in March 2003, up 60% compared to a year earlier. Wanadoo, a subsidiary of France Telecom, is expecting revenue growth of 25 to 30% for 2003.
http://www.wanadoo.com

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Marconi Launches Multiservice IP VPN Solution

Marconi introduced a new multiservice IP VPN solution that uses Ethernet over MPLS with the IETF "Martini" draft standard on its ASX and TNX line of multiservice switch-routers. Marconi's solution supports multiple differentiated Ethernet services, such as VoIP, packetized video and real-time data transport simultaneously over the same Ethernet port. At the same time, Marconi's multiservice switch-router platform could also concurrently support Frame Relay, private line and ATM services. The solution is provided using a new four-port 10/100 Ethernet port card that plugs into Marconi's ASX and TNX multiservice switch-routers, either directly or through a network module carrier card for the ASX-4000 40 Gbps multiservice switch-router. Marconi's multiservice IP port card solution offers QoS guarantees using a standards-based implementation of IETF 802.1Q VLAN mapping and IETF 802.1p priority mapping on an MPLS Label Switch Path (LSP) or ATM Virtual Circuit (VC). Marconi said its solution is targeted for service provider deployment in multi-tenant, resale or Managed Network Services (MNS) markets.
http://www.marconi.com

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IDT Builds Octal Transceiver for High-Density Line Cards

IDT (Integrated Device Technology) introduced its new SuperJET family of J1/E1/T1 transceivers, including a monolithic octal density device designed for next-generation universal line-card designs in communications systems. IDT's new SuperJET transceivers, which integrate and expand upon its universal line interface unit and framer functionality, provide configuration flexibility, jitter performance and signaling support across octal, quad, dual and single densities. The IDT SuperJET devices target J1/E1/T1 interfaces in access concentrators, wireless base stations, integrated MSPPs, synchronization networks and broadband access equipment.
http://www.idt.com

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TI's Single-Chip ADSL Integrates Line Driver

Texas Instruments announce the integration of a complete ADSL router, including the 12V line driver, on a single chip. The chip is implemented in a 130nm copper CMOS process. By including the line driver, communications processor, power management and hundreds of passive components on a single device, TI estimates that it reduces the total system chip and passives count by up to 50% over competitive solutions. TI said its advanced process technology allows it to mix and match digital, analog, RF and memory components on a single device.
http://www.ti.com/dsl

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Occam and VocalData partner on IP Centrex Solution

Occam Networks and VocalData have created a joint solution enabling carriers to offer hosted IP telephony services. Occam's Ethernet & IP-based broadband loop carrier, which streamlines the access network by integrating the functionality of several types of network equipment, resides in the service provider network and acts as a voice gateway for VocalData's VOISS solution. VocalData's VOISS system can be configured to deliver hosted PBX, IP Centrex, business trunking, residential services, and enhanced applications such as conferencing, unified messaging and a Web portal.
http://www.occamnetworks.com
http://www.vocaldata.com

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Court Approves ICO's Globalstar Acquisition

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the sale of Globalstar's assets to ICO Global Communications for an investment of $55 million. ICO will receive a 54% equity stake in the new operating company. The remaining equity will be distributed to Globalstar's creditors, which include Loral Space & Communications, Qualcomm Incorporated and holders of Globalstar L.P. bonds. It is estimated that $4 billion has been spent thus far on Globalstar and its mobile satellite communications network. ICO Chairman Craig O. McCaw said he believes that Globalstar can deliver useful services for governments, corporations and communities around the world. Most recently due to demand, Globalstar has expanded its service coverage in the Middle East. ICO is also currently deploying its own medium earth orbit MSS constellation (at 10,000 kilometers vs. Globalstar's 1,400 kilometer orbit) to provide global voice and data communications. ICO has contracted with Boeing and Lockheed/ILS to construct and launch its satellites.
http://www.ico.com

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Celite Introduces DSL Headend for In-building Ethernet

Celite Systems, a start-up based in Austin, Texas, introduced its DSL Headend technology for multi-dwelling units. The Celite box would enable local exchange carriers and building owners to deliver broadband services to an entire apartment or condominium complex, office high rise, hotel or other multi-dwelling unit with one installation process at the telephone equipment room. Celite runs Ethernet over existing building wiring, without requiring line splitters or filters. DSL lines are multiplexed for the trunk back to the network.
http://www.celitesystems.com

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Agere Offers Two New Integrated VoIP Phone Chips

Agere Systems introduced two new VoIP chips for residential and enterprise IP phones. The new devices include both dual and single Ethernet-port system-on-a-chip solutions. The VoIP chips support wide-band codecs for enhanced voice quality, three-way teleconferencing, and full-duplex speakerphone capability with self-adaptive Acoustic Echo Cancellation. Both single-chip solutions couple Agere's DSP 1600 core with an ARM940T microcontroller, allowing manufacturers to use the same software for a range of IP phone designs. Agere said its IP Phone chips are also compatible with its WaveLAN wireless networking components. The single port device is offered at approximately $12 in quantities of 50,000. The dual-port device is priced at approximately $18 in production quantities of 50,000.
http://www.agere.com

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Nortel Networks Announces Visitor-Based Networking for Hotels, Convention Centers

Nortel Networks introduced a package of integrated network solutions for hotels, convention centers, airports and other enterprises looking to provide travelers and mobile PC workers with temporary connectivity needs. Nortel Networks said its Visitor-Based Networking could help hotels turn their IT costs into a profit center. The line-up includes elements from Nortel Networks Passport, Shasta and Baystack product lines, as well as its new wireless LAN portfolio. A special visitor-based Internet portal enables users to access the service and create member accounts without loading software clients.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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Sprint and Nortel Chosen for Mandalay Resort Network

The Mandalay Resort Group, which owns 16 hotels and casinos -- including the Mandalay Bay, Excalibur and Circus Circus, selected Nortel Networks and Sprint to build a seamless network across four states. Sprint has deployed Nortel Networks' Optical Ethernet solution, including Passport 8600 Routing Switches, as well as its Shasta 5000 Broadband Service Node, the Passport 8000 Ethernet Switch series, WLAN-Access Point 2220, WLAN-Security Switch 2250 and the Baystack portfolio of Ethernet switches. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com
http://www.sprint.com

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MCI Issues Monthly Operating Results, Comments on CAPEX Trend

MCI recorded $2.03 billion in revenue for February and $2.1 billion for March. Operating income was $44 million in February and $84 million in March. MCI's capital expenditures for February were $36 million, including $18 million for PP&E and $18 million for related software. Capital expenditures for March were $51 million, including $18 million for PP&E and $33 million for related software. The company said it is comfortable with the projected capital spending levels on its core IP backbone, and that it would try to gain efficiencies by consolidating legacy networks, eliminating redundant systems and standardizing its billing systems.
http://www.mci.com

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Jury Rules in Favor of CIENA in Patent Case vs. Corvis

A jury of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware issued its verdict in favor of CIENA in its litigation against Corvis Corporation for patent infringement. Corvis' CorWave system was found to infringe on CIENA's patent titled "WDM Optical Communication System With Remodulators." CIENA plans to move for an injunction prohibiting sales of infringing products.
http://www.ciena.com

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IPv6 Forum Creates Acceptance Standard With 'IPv6 Ready' Logo

The IPv6 Forum launched a logo branding program called "IPv6 Ready" to designate products that have passed a set level of interoperability. The IPv6 test and conformance bodies providing the certification include the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab, the TAHI Test Event, the ETSI IPv6 Plugtest, IRISIA and Connectathon. IPv6 products have been shipping for some time and the new logo program is expected to reinforce that message in the market.

http://www.ipv6forum.com

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Air Force Command and Control Network Expands with net.com's Promina

Network Equipment Technologies was awarded a $5 million contract by General Dynamics Decision Systems for expansion of the United States Air Force's voice, video and data command and control network. The USAF's Theater Deployable Communications (TDC) Integrated Communications Access Packages (ICAP) Program network, which is currently composed of net.com's Promina 400 platforms, is being expanded by another 40 Promina 400 nodes and will additionally incorporate a Promina 800 node at each of five larger sites. The TDC ICAP network nodes are all transit-case mounted for easy mobility. Within 30 minutes of landing in deployed areas, USAF technicians are able to establish communications with Internet gateway, secure IP, and voice (NAPR, SIPR and DSN) services.
http://www.net.com

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Multiservice Switching Forum Plans Interoperability Events

The Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF) announced plans for a global interoperability event to take place next year. Global MSF Interoperability (GMI) 2004, which will be conducted simultaneously in Europe, North America and Asia, will demonstrate a deployable and operationally ready IP telephony network with Network Management, enhanced QoS and security features. The Forum plans to unveil physical architecture scenarios for GMI 2004 later this year. The MSF also elected its new leadership for two year terms. The new board of directors includes Mark Carroll of Cisco Systems, Chris Daniel of Leapstone Systems, Brian Down of Marconi Communications, Ken Rambo of Qwest Communications and Roger Ward of BT. Rich Seager of NG Technologies and Avri Doria of ETRI were elected chair and vice chair, respectively, of the Technical Committee. Neil Anderson of Spirent Communications was elected chair of the Marketing, Awareness and Education (MAE) Committee and Scott Yagel was elected vice chair.
http://www.msforum.org

• The Multiservice Switching Forum (MSF) is a global association of service providers and system suppliers committed to developing and promoting open-architecture, multiservice switching systems. A Multiservice Switching System (MSS) is a distributed switching method -- frame, cell or packet-based -- designed to support voice, video, private line and data such as ATM, Frame Relay and IP services using all types of access technologies. The MSF Implementation Agreements (IAs) define the requirements of the interfaces between components of a MSS.

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RouteScience Releases Version 3.0

RouteScience released version 3.0 for its PathControl platform, which optimizes a company's multiple ISP links by providing real-time performance measurements of paths across the Internet to end users. Using these performance metrics and customer preferences for ISP link costs, RouteScience's PathControl platform determines the best ISP path for end-users and can then automatically update the organization's edge routers with the best path routing information. The new software can dynamically discover and measure performance from end to end, or from the data center to intermediate points near end users whenever full end-to-end performance measurement is not possible. Its PathControl platform can now show per prefix bandwidth utilization as well as generate detailed billing cycle reports for month to date usage, projected billing tiers, and total cost savings. The company said this extension of its measurement technology will accelerates the deployment of IP route optimization for all IP application traffic.
http://www.routescience.com

• In July 2002, Google selected RouteScience's PathControl platform to enhance the performance and lower the bandwidth costs of its popular search engine. The companies said the RouteScience platform would help avoid Internet brownouts that result from excessive latency and loss.
• 
  
  RouteScience is led by Herb Madan, who previously was Vice President and General Manager, Service Provider Line of Business at Cisco Systems, and CEO and Co-Founder of Netsys Technologies (acquired by Cisco in 1996). The company's founding team also includes Jim McGuire, previously Senior Director of Engineering, Service Provider Line of Business at Cisco Systems and Co-Founder of Netsys, and Joel Evanier, previously Director of Enterprise Sales at Cisco Systems and Vice President of Sales at Netsys. The company's technical team also includes Mike Lloyd, who was the principal architect for the MPLS VPN provisioning system at Cisco Systems, and a senior engineer on BGP and other routing simulations.

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Xelerated Demonstrates 4x10Gpbs Network Processor

Xelerated, a start-up based in Burlington, Massachusetts, announced the availability of its X10q-e Network Processor, a high-performance processor aimed at switches for enterprise backbones and metro Ethernet. The company describes its core technology as a "data flow processor" built in a .13 micron process. The chip architecture is optimized for the efficient movement of data, eliminating the need for complex inter-processor interconnects as well as redundant data and instruction storage. This allows 200 data flow processors and ten I/O processors to fit on a single, low-cost chip providing unparalleled cost/performance. The 200 data flow processors are organized in a synchronous pipeline with each processor executing a single instruction. This makes them appear to the programmer as a single 80 BOPs processor with a fully deterministic execution time. An X10q reference design system running at 4*10 Gbps is being demonstrated this week at NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas.
http://www.xelerated.com

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Net2Phone and HNS Announce VoIP via Satellite Service

Net2Phone and Hughes Network Systems (HNS) have jointly developed an integrated capability to deliver Net2Phone's VoIP service over HNS' DIRECWAY broadband by satellite service. The companies said this is the first integrated satellite VoIP solution with bandwidth prioritization to be offered to enterprises and consumers globally. HNS has integrated Net2Phone's VoIP telephony interface into its Voice Appliance terminal, which will operate over the DIRECWAY satellite service worldwide. HNS will market the integrated Net2Phone capability through its value-added reseller distribution channels.
http://www.hns.com
http://www.net2phone.com

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Broadcom Introduces Multiprotocol Mapper

Broadcom introduced a low- power, variable-rate transceiver/mapper device for developing single linecard solutions that feature a host of transmission protocols and speeds from the same physical link. The chip provides interfaces at data rates ranging from 155 Mbps up through 2.666 Gbps. The services supported by the device include telecom services at OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48; datacom services at Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps); and Fibre Channel services (1- and 2- Gbps). Broadcom said the multi-protocol capabilities make its new mapper well-suited for Multi-Service Provisioning and Switching Platformshttp://www.broadcom.com

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Cisco Introduces Wireless IP Phone

Cisco Systems introduced three new IP phones, including a model that operates over 802.11b WLANs. The Cisco Wireless IP Phone 7920 is targeted for use by employees in hospitals, warehouses, retail stores, universities and other highly mobile work environments. The phone is priced at $595 and is expected to ship next month. Cisco also introduced two entry-level, wireline IP phones priced on par with digital PBX phone sets ($165 and $130).
http://www.cisco.com

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Foundry Networks Announces Next Generation, 10GbE Enterprise Switch

Foundry Networks introduced its BigIron MG8 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) switch, one of the first in a series of 10-Gigabit Ethernet products powered by its fourth generation Terathon ASIC chipset. The BigIron MG8 is a high performance Layer 3 backbone switch optimized for high-density Gigabit Ethernet and 10GbE deployments, including enterprise backbones, converged campus networks, supercomputing clusters, grid computing and storage networks. The platform offers 1.28 Tbps of total non-blocking switching capacity and wire-speed forwarding in all thirty-two (32) 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports for a total of up to 480 million packets per second of Layer 2/3 switching performance per system. It also features a 40-Gigabit capacity per slot, allowing for higher density modules and a path to 40 Gigabit connections in the future. Three BigIron MG8 systems fit in a standard seven-foot rack, for up to 96 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. Foundry's Terathon ASICs includes an implementation of RFC 3176 to enable wire-speed traffic monitoring on every port. Pricing is as follows: AC system $54,995; management module $14,995; 4-port 10GbE modules $64,995; Long Reach (LR or 10 km) XENPAK optic $4,995; Extended Reach (ER or 50km) XENPAK optic $11,995.
http://www.foundrynetworks.com

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Foundry Debuts Terabit-Capacity 10 Gigabit Ethernet Router for Metro and ISP Nets

Foundry Networks introduced a new 10 Gigabit Ethernet Router with up to four Terabits of switching capacity and 1.5 billion packets per second of routing performance per rack. The new NetIron 40G router offers 40-Gigabits of capacity per slot, allowing for higher density modules and a path to 40 Gbps connections in the future. The NetIron 40G provides a density of up to 256 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 32 10GbE ports in each 13 rack unit high system; and 768 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 96 10GbE ports per 7 foot rack. Route processors perform hardware based low latency routing for up to 512,000 IP routes in each interface module. Foundry claims the platform is capable of 1.5 billion packets per second of IP routing performance per rack. Additional capabilities include:

• Internet-grade BGP scalability features such as confederations and route reflection clusters
• 
  
  Support for 4,000,000 BGP routes and 500 BGP peers
• 
  
  BGP route flap dampening for network stability
• 
  
  MBGP extensions for multicast support
• 
  
  Route filtering capabilities including Cooperative Filtering for efficient BGP route distribution
• 
  
  OSPF route summarization for internal and external routes to improve scalability
• 
  
  MD5 authentication to secure the routing domain and block bogus route advertisements
• 
  
  A complete IS-IS implementation including support for Level 1 and Level 2 adjacencies, and integration with other routing protocols for best route selection and route redistribution
• 
  
  Foundry's Metro Ring Protocol (MRP) and Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol (VSRP) for SONET-like protection in high-speed 10 GbE based metro networks
• 
  
  Support for Super VLAN aggregation and up to 2,000,000 system MAC addresses
• 
  
  Product availability is slated for Q3. Pricing is as follows: DC system $44,995; Management module $19,995; 4-port 10GbE modules $94,995; Long Reach (LR or 10 km) Xenpak optic $4,995; Extended Reach (ER or 50km) Xenpak optic $11,995.

http://www.foundrynetworks.com

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XO Names Grivner as CEO

XO Communications named Carl J. Grivner as its new CEO, replacing Daniel Akerson, who resigned in January. Grivner most recently served as Chief Operating Officer at Global Crossing. Prior to joining Global Crossing in June 2000, Grivner served as CEO of Worldport Communications and before that he served as CEO, Western Hemisphere, of Cable & Wireless PLC. He has also worked for AFC and Ameritech.
http://www.xo.com

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Alcatel Announces Frame Relay-to-Ethernet VPN Service Interworking

Alcatel introduced Frame Relay to Metro Ethernet Service Interworking capability, enabling service providers to offer Ethernet access through their widely-deployed Frame Relay networks. The capability allows carriers to offer switched VPN services to their customers with the choice of
mixing Frame or cell relay with Ethernet access to the same VPN. For example, a corporate head office might wish to upgrade to metro Ethernet access at 200 Mbps rates while preserving its existing Frame Relay VPN to all its remote locations. The Alcatel Service Interworking is delivered as a software upgrade feature on the Alcatel 7670 Routing Switch Platform (RSP). The new software maps the Ethernet VLAN IDs into Frame Relay DLCI / ATM VCI parameters. While recommending its own OmniSwitch metro Ethernet solution, Alcatel said the new Service Interworking capability would be able to support any standard Ethernet VLAN implementation. The metro Ethernet equipment could use any type of underlying optical transport infrastructure.
http://www.alcatel.com

• In Q4 2002, Alcatel shipped its 1,000th 7670 Routing Switch Platform unit. The Alcatel 7670 RSP is currently deployed by over 80 service providers worldwide. Alcatel has announced 22 carrier customers for the 7670 including, SBC, Bell Canada, Telus, Cable & Wireless, British Telecom, France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Telecom Austria, Belgacom, Hanaro, One-Net, China Telecom (Guangdong, Anhui, Hubei, Guangxi provinces) and others.

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Wipro to provide Home Gateway solution for Intel Net Processor

Wipro Technologies announced a Home Gateway software solution optimized for and integrated with Intel's IXP425 network processor. The Wipro Home Gateway middleware solution could be used in a home CPE for sharing a broadband Internet connection, home files and device sharing, in-home wireless LAN connectivity, IP Telephony (VoIP), VPN connectivity, video on demand, and for home security and home video surveillance applications. Wipro is also working on multimedia streaming capabilities that would let home users enjoy music or video files on various devices throughout the home. For instance, video files stored on a PC might be wirelessly streamed to a TV set in another room. The multimedia streaming capabilities would be supported by industry standard quality of service mechanisms in the home gateway. The Wipro Home Gateway software, currently ported to the Intel IXP425 network processor platform, is in line with Wipro's strategy to make available its Home Gateway middleware over multiple silicon platforms, including those from Motorola, Toshiba, IDT and others. Wipro also plans to support the newly announced Intel IXP420, Intel IXP421 and Intel IXP422 network processors, offering OEM solutions for DSL routers, CableHome gateways, IADs, wireless access points and Home and SOHO gateways.
http://www.wipro.com/homenet

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MPLS/Frame Relay Alliance Plans Interoperability Demo

The MPLS/Frame Relay Alliance will conduct a live demonstration of Frame Relay and ATM over MPLS and Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS) interoperability at SUPERCOMM 2003, scheduled for June 3rd to 5th in Atlanta. In addition, the MPLS/Frame Relay Alliance members will demonstrate multi-vendor interoperability of Fast Re-Route (FRR), Layer 2 pt-to-pt Ethernet Services, and Layer 3 RFC 2547-bis VPN operation.
http://www.mplsforum.org

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Sprint Announces Frame Relay over DSL Services

Sprint introduced a Frame Relay over DSL (FRoDSL) service aimed at enterprise customers. Sprint FRoDSL is an end-to-end connection-oriented layer 2 protocol utilizing DSL as a way of gaining inexpensive access from the customer's premise to Sprint's Frame Relay network. In addition, Sprint FRoDSL leverages the service delivery and trouble resolution processes associated with Frame Relay.
http://www.sprint.com

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Schlumberger Selects Sprint for Enhance Wireless and Wireline

Sprint will deliver a multisite Frame Relay network to carry internal and external communications for SchlumbergerSema in the U.S. Under a three-year, multimillion-dollar contract, SchlumbergerSema is also using a system of wireless data Air Cards and Sprint PCS Vision data services to connect employees and data facilities across the country.
http://www.sprint.com

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NTL selects Cable & Wireless for International IP Traffic

NTL selected Cable & Wireless to carry its international IP traffic. The UK cable operator currently has over 650,000 broadband customers. Cable & Wireless joins three other premium IP transit providers for NTL. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cw.com
http://www.ntl.com

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Verizon Shareholders Limit Executive Severance Deals, Reject Executive Salary Caps

At its annual company meeting, Verizon shareholders voted 59% in favor of a resolution, which the company had opposed, requesting shareholder approval of executive severance agreements that provide benefits exceeding 2.99 times the sum of an executive's base salary plus bonus. However, only 18% voted in favor of a proposal to cap CEO compensation; just 13% favored a proposal to prohibit stock options; and only 21% were in favor of an indexed stock option proposal.


Verizon's CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, told shareholders that by focusing on basics, the company has been able to improve its competitive position in all segments of its business.http://investor.verizon.com/news/VZ/2003-04-23_X354176.html

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Riverstone Networks Receives SEC Request

Riverstone Networks received a request from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the voluntary production of certain information in connection with the company's accounting practices. The company has been informed that the SEC may open a formal investigation on the same topic. Riverstone said it intends to cooperate fully.
http://www.riverstonenet.com

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Cedar Point Builds its Partner Program for Cable Telephony

Cedar Point Communications named seven new member companies in its partnership program for end-to-end cable telephony solutions: IP Unity, Lemur Networks, Liberate, Lucent Technologies, Tellabs, and Toshiba. Cedar Point previously had announced relationships with ADC, Alopa, ARRIS, Broadband Access Networking Group (BANG), Broadcom, C-COR, Ceon, Core Networks, Motorola and Terayon. Cedar Point's SAFARI C3 platform is based on CableLabs' PacketCable specifications.
http://www.cedarpointcom.com

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SBC Shareowners Reject Proposal to Eliminate Executive Bonuses

At SBC Communications' annual company meeting, shareowners rejected a proposal to eliminate all bonuses and other incentive compensation for executives. The vote was 87% against the proposal. The following issues were also voted on by SBC shareowners:

• shareowners approved a proposal to require a shareholder vote on the adoption of any shareholder rights plans
• 
  
  shareowners rejected a proposal to require stock options and other stock-based compensation to be subject to performance "hurdles" or "indexing" features, that stock earned by executives be subject to undetermined holding periods and that executives be subject to downside financial risk
• 
  
  shareowners re-elected seven SBC board members to three-year terms: Gilbert F. Amelio, Clarence C. Barksdale, Martin K. Eby Jr., Charles F. Knight, Toni Rembe, Carlos Slim Helu, and Patricia P. Upton
• 
  
  shareowners ratified the re-appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as SBC's independent auditor
• 
  
  SBC chairman and CEO, Edward E. Whitacre Jr, told shareholders that the company is "fundamentally solid" and that growth in DSL and long distance give the company momentum

http://www.sbc.com

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MetaSwitch and Occam Networks Partner on All-Packet Access Network

MetaSwitch and Occam Networks announced the availability of a joint solution enabling the delivery of analog (POTS) telephone lines over a broadband access network. The partnership combines MetaSwitch's VP3500 Next Generation Class 5 Switch and the Occam Broadband Loop Carrier system, allowing carriers to converge their access networks without intermediate IP/TDM gateways. The MetaSwitch/Occam solution terminates traditional analog voice and DSL lines in the service providers' network, requiring no changes to the last-mile network or customer premises equipment. The solution also differs from a traditional digital loop carrier architecture in that it converges voice and data in the access network using the MGCP and RTP protocols for VoIP. The companies have completed interoperability testing and are starting trials with a number of service providers.
http://www.metaswitch.com
http://www.occamnetworks.com

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SBC Posts Growth in DSL and Long Distance

SBC Communications reported Q1 revenues of $10.3 billion, compared with $10.5 billion in the year-ago period. SBC reported earnings per diluted share of $0.74 before the cumulative effects of accounting changes and $1.50 after the cumulative effects of accounting changes. This compares with first-quarter 2002 results of earnings per diluted share of $0.48 before the effects of accounting changes. SBC said first-quarter results reflect robust growth in DSL and long-distance subscribers despite continued revenue pressure and access line loss due to the economic and competitive environments. Some highlights:

• Added 270,000 DSL subscribers, bringing its total to 2.5 million. Q1 represented its 5th consecutive quarter of sequential DSL subscriber growth and the largest quarterly subscriber gain so far. The addressable DSL footprint now covers 66% of SBC's consumer and small business lines. SBC expects DSL to be EBITDA positive on a total product basis in early 2004.
• 
  
  Added 1.5 million long-distance lines, bringing its total to 7.6 million. In the first three weeks of April, SBC added approximately 450,000 long-distance lines. In California, SBC now has a long-distance retail line penetration of 13% for the consumer segment and 10% overall.
• 
  
  SBC's interLATA revenues were up 38% compared to Q1 2002, because of the increased number of LD subscribers, especially in California, where average monthly revenues per line are more than 50% higher than in SBC's southwestern states.
• 
  
  Local voice revenues declined 9.2% year-over-year and 3.1% sequentially, reflecting declines in retail access lines. Total access lines declined by 405,000 in Q1, compared with a decline of 545,000 in Q4 2002 and a decline of 496,000 in Q1 2002. Retail access lines declined by 1.05 million, 70% of which were for consumers. SBC lost 770,000 retail access lines to UNE-P competitors, compared with a loss of 810,000 UNE-P lines in Q4 2002. At the end of Q1, SBC was serving 5.784 million UNE-P lines and 1.754 million UNE-L loops.
• 
  
  Data revenues for the quarter were $2.5 billion, up 3.7% from Q1 2002. High-capacity transport revenues increased 1.4% over Q4 2002. DSL/Internet revenues were up 12% over Q4.
• 
  
  CAPEX was $897 million, compared with $1.8 billion in both Q1 and Q4 2002.
• 
  
  Total debt, net of cash, was reduced by $3.1 billion during the quarter and by $11.3 billion, or 42%, from the end of Q1 2002. Total debt net of cash at the end of the first quarter was $15.4 billion.
• 
  
  Cingular Wireless added 189,000 net subscribers, giving it a total of 22.1 million.

http://www.sbc.com

• As of 31-March-03, SBC was serving 56.7 million total switched access lines.
• 
  
  Total minutes of use for Q1, including interstate, intrastate, and wireless switched access minutes of use, was 64.2 billion minutes, down 3.9% from the prior quarter.

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Sprint Rolls Out VoIP Evolution Strategy for PBX Family

Sprint announced a VoIP migration strategy for its Sprint-branded Coral PBX product line. VoIP enhancements enable the PBX to provide transparent voice networking to link multiple PBXs over managed IP networks regionally, nationally or internationally using the QSIG standard. The Coral system also provides IP telephony to the desktop and allows remote locations to connect to the main PBX using IP telephones. Sprint plans to introduce the Flex IP Softphone, which is a Microsoft Windows client software application that allows any desktop or laptop PC on the LAN or WAN to become an IP station terminal. The IP softphone integrates with Microsoft Outlook. Near year's end, Sprint expects to roll out a server-based Coral IP system with voice, data and video support, network connectivity to existing Coral systems, gateways to the PSTN and support for H.323, SIP, and MGCP IP protocols.
http://www.sprint.com

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Lucent's Chief Operating Officer Steps Down

Bob Holder, who has served as chief operating officer (COO) of Lucent since October 2001, will leave the company. As chief operating officer, Holder, 56, had responsibility for Lucent's major units -- Mobility Solutions, Integrated Network Solutions, Lucent Worldwide Services, Supply Chain Networks and Information Technology. His responsibilities will be assumed by Lucent's CEO, Patricia Russo.
http://www.lucent.com/

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FCC Sets New Rules for Satellite Broadband Services

The FCC adopted a new licensing process aimed at accelerating the rollout of satellite Internet services. The new rules create a queue for satellite applications whereby each application will be considered under the Commission's public interest standard in the order in which it is filed. The new framework also establishes different procedures for licensing nongeostationary-like satellite systems (NGSOs) and geostationary--like systems (GSOs). In order to discourage companies from speculating in the market by acquiring licenses and then holding them indefinitely, the FCC is including a requirement that licensees post a $5 million to $7.5 million bond within 30 days after receiving a license, payable upon revocation of the license for missing a milestone; a limit of five pending GSO applications and unbuilt GSO satellites and one pending NGSO application or unbuilt NGSO system in a particular frequency band; an attribution rule so that licensees cannot evade these limits; and additional implementation milestones and stronger enforcement of milestones. Finally, to prevent a "land rush," the Commission imposed a freeze on satellite applications (except for next-generation replacement satellites) effective immediately. The new rules do not apply to Direct Broadcast Satellite Service or the Digital Audio Radio Satellite Service.
http://www.fcc.gov

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FCC Launches Inquiry into Broadband over Power Line

The FCC is seeking public comment on using existing electrical power lines to provide Internet and broadband services to homes and offices. Broadband over Power Line (BPL) could be used by electric utility companies to deliver last mile Internet access as an alternative to DSL or cable modem. A new FCC inquiry seeks information, comment, and technical data on issues concerning Broadband over Power Line. In particular, the FCC is interested in two types of BPL: Access and In-House. Access BPL uses medium voltage (1,000 to 40,000 volts) power lines to bring Internet and other broadband applications to homes and offices. In-House BPL uses existing electric utility wiring to network computers and printers, as well as smart appliances, within a building. FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the commission is ready to amend policies to facilitate the development of new facilities-based platforms.
http://www.fcc.gov

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TelePacific Raises $30M to Expand, Explore Acquisitions

TelePacific Communications, a CLEC based in Los Angeles, received a $30 million equity investment led by affiliates of Investcorp, a global investment firm that is the company's largest shareholder. TelePacific is opening a new switching center in Orange County. The company is also exploring acquisitions possibilities as it enters new markets.
http://www.telepacific.com

• TelePacific provides broadband and telecommunications services to business customers in markets including Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Las Vegas.

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Qwest CEO Named to Presidential Advisory Committee

Richard C. Notebaert, Qwest chairman and CEO, has been appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC). The CEO-only group of up to 30 telecommunications and technology industry executives advises the president and other White House leaders in meetings held several times annually.
http://www.qwest.com

• Former Qwest chairman and CEO Joseph P. Nacchio was named chairman of NSTAC in March 2002.
• 
  
  Nacchio resigned from Qwest in June 2002.

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AT&T Responds to S&P Rating Action

Standard & Poor's placed AT&T's "BBB+" long-term corporate credit on CreditWatch with negative implications, however it affirmed AT&T's short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings at A-2. In response, AT&T said it continues to take market share while growing key areas of its business during difficult times for the telecom industry. AT&T believes it has "one of the strongest balance sheets in the telecom industry, with net debt of $12 billion, net of $4.9 billion in cash."http://www.att.com

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Level 3 Maps Out Integration of Genuity's Network

Level 3 Communications reported quarterly revenue of $1.25 billion, up from $945 million in Q4 2002, primarily due to settlement revenue recognized in the quarter and the inclusion of results generated from the acquisition of Genuity. Net income for the quarter was $119 million, or $0.26 basic earnings per share and $0.22 diluted earnings per share, versus previously announced projections of a net loss of $0.65 basic loss per share. Included in net income was $326 million of revenue associated with customer terminations and settlements, of which $294 million relates to a non-cash settlement with XO Communications and a $70 million gain on the sale of the company's interest in its toll road operations. These two items contributed a net gain of $396 million, or $0.88 basic earnings per share. Some additional points:

• Level 3 generated positive operating cash flow for the first time.
• 
  
  The company noted progress in the integration of Genuity's operations, saying it had begun to close duplicative network capacity and facilities, combine network operating centers, and migrate customer traffic onto the Level 3 network. The Level 3 transport network will remain in place, augmented by 4,000 route fiber miles from Genuity. All of Genuity's IP traffic will be migrated onto the Level 3 backbone; major Genuity POPs will be reduced from 70 to 10; a substantial percentage of Genuity's modem ports will be mapped to the Level 3 softswitch platform; Genuity data centers will be reduced from 8 to 2; redundant metro access links will be eliminated as traffic moves onto local Level 3 fiber. Level 3 anticipates integration costs of $75 to $100 million, but anticipates significant costs saving once the network is integration is complete.
• 
  
  Level 3 has hired 1,400 Genuity employees, but will continue to evaluate its staffing needs.
• 
  
  CAPEX for property, plant and equipment was $25 million for Q1, including $3 million for information services and other businesses.
• 
  
  Based on current sales trends, the company said it is cautiously optimistic that it hit bottom in mid-year 2002.

http://www.level3.com

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Equant Awarded 5 Year Contract with Compania Argentina de Levaduras

Equant was awarded a five-year contract to expand its services to the Compania Argentina de Levaduras S.A. (CALSA), a Burns Philip Group company. The network will use Frame Relay to connect Burns Philip facilities in Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. Equant also provides managed firewall, Internet dial remote access and professional services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.equant.com

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Alcatel and NetScreen Form Strategic Alliance

Alcatel has joined NetScreen's Global Security Alliance and in return NetScreen has joined the Alcatel Application Partner Program. Alcatel products submitted for testing with NetScreen solutions include: the Alcatel Omni switches, notably the OmniSwitch 8800, OmniSwitch 7000 and OmniSwitch 6600. NetScreen products submitted for testing under the Alcatel program include: NetScreen-500 systems, NetScreen-204, -208, -50, -25, -5XP, and -5XT appliances, and NetScreen Remote.
http://www.netscreen.com
http://www.alcatel.com

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McLeodUSA Reports Revenue of $225.9 million, Net Loss Improves

McLeodUSA, one of the nation's largest CLECs, reported quarterly revenue of $225.9 million, compared to $259.4 million in Q1 2002 and $230.0 million in Q4 2002. Reported net loss for the quarter was $84.1 million, compared to a net loss of $186.4 million for the same period last year. The company said the slightly lower quarterly revenue was due to efforts to eliminate unprofitable customers. Some highlights:

• McLeodUSA ended the quarter with $115.5 million of cash on hand. Total capital expenditures for the first quarter of 2003 were $14 million.
• 
  
  Gross margin in the first quarter of 2003 was $88.5 million or 39.2% of revenue, as compared to $93.2 million or 40.5% of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2002.
• 
  
  UNE-L platform mix increased to 56% versus 52% at the end of the prior quarter as the company continued to migrate customers on-switch in order to further reduce cost and streamline operations.
• 
  
  At the end of the quarter, McLeod's network consisted of 38 ATM switches, 46 voice switches, 567 collocations and 433 DSLAMs. It had 3,720 employees.

http://www.mcleodusa.com

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Earthlink Selects DQ's DSL Modems

Earthlink will deploy DQ's VisionNet ADSL Modems in its nationwide deployment of ADSL service. The VisionNet200ER is an ADSL to Ethernet bridge/router modem based on Conexant's ADSL chipset. Earthlink currently has 780,000 broadband subscribers served via DSL, cable and satellite.
http://www.dqusa.com
http://www.conexant.com

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Nokia Wideband Speech Coding Proposal Selected as CDMA2000 Standard

The 3GPP2 Alliance selected Nokia's proposal for standardizing a CDMA2000 wideband speech codec from a field of five such proposals. Nokia said the new Variable-Rate Multi-Mode Wideband speech codec (VMR-WB) offers superior wideband speech quality at data rates comparable to current narrowband speech codecs, resulting in highly intelligible and natural speech that represents a quantum leap over the quality of both today's wireless and wireline networks. The VMR-WB standard is not only fully compliant with the CDMA2000 rate-set II but is also interoperable with the AMR-WB standard selected by the 3GPP for use in GSM/WCDMA networkshttp://www.nokia.com

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Nortel Returns to Profitability, Revenues Decline 5% Sequentially

Nortel Networks reported quarterly revenues of US$2.40 billion, down sequentially by approximately 5%. Net earnings in Q1 2003 were US$54 million, or US$0.01 per common share, compared to a net loss of US$841 million, or US$0.26 per common share, in Q1 2002. Gross margin was 42.9% in the first quarter of 2003, up from 39.3% in Q4 2002. On a sequential quarterly basis, revenues declined 3% in the US, 9% in Canada, flat for EMEA, and down 16% elsewhere. The company continues to expect the overall telecommunications equipment market to be down modestly in 2003 compared to 2002.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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Judge Orders Verizon to Disclose Identity of Internet Subscriber

U.S. District Court Judge John Bates ordered Verizon Communications to reveal the identity of an Internet subscriber accused of music piracy. In response, Verizon vowed to seek a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals, saying the ruling goes beyond the interests of the music industry and "exposes anyone who uses the Internet to potential predators, scam artists and crooks, including identity thieves and stalkers." The case stems from a subpoena filed last summer by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) demanding that Verizon Online turn over the name of a customer whom the RIAA alleges possesses illegal copies of copyrighted music files. Verizon has argued that such a demand is not supported by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and that a court ruling in favor of the RIAA would enable anyone who makes a mere allegation of copyright infringement to gain complete access to private subscriber information without the due process protections afforded by the courts.http://newscenter.verizon.com/proactive/newsroom/release.vtml?id=80021

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NTT Outlines Three-Year Business Plan

Japan's NTT Group outlined its three-year business plan (FY2003-2005), including its vision for a new optical generation of broadband services. Some key trends and strategies highlighted in the announcement include:

• with the proliferation of competition and increased penetration of various DSL services, Japan is poised to enter "the full scale broadband era"
• 
  
  the expansion of flat-rate access services and the full-fledged penetration of IP telephones and IP-VPN are accelerating the shift in traffic from fixed-line telephones to IP networks
• 
  
  growth in mobile communications has slowed given that there were 80 million subscribers in Japan at the end of 2002. Competition is expected to become even more intense with the continued slashing of rates and the introduction of high-performance applications.
• 
  
  The Asian markets are gaining greater importance as demand for IP solutions grows, primarily among Japanese-affiliated companies in the region, and as markets for mobile phones continue to grow rapidly in China and elsewhere in Asia. NTT Communications will especially focus on the Asian region.
• 
  
  The NTT Group is dedicated to developing "total services" that integrate everything from terminals and access to platforms and applications. The NTT Group will pursue partnerships and alliances in various fields to deliver this vision. The company is targeting the spring of 2005 to rollout new business services in major metro areas that deliver this new, integrated collaborative communication environment.
• 
  
  The NTT Group has identified optical access as the mainstay of its broadband services and NTT will concentrate its marketing efforts in this field. The company is working to shorten significantly the installation time for direct fiber connections. It will also continue marketing ADSL aggressively by engaging in competition while identifying potential users for optical access.
• 
  
  Best-effort IP telephone services will be offered as an option to ADSL, to respond to competition and user needs.
• 
  
  NTT DoCoMo will continue to expand the service area of FOMA, its 3G service, including in underground areas and inside buildings.
• 
  
  NTT is committed to R&D activities with both 3-to-5 year and 10-year time horizons.
• 
  
  The NTT Group will accelerate the pace of business and financial reform, especially in terms of outsourcing many functions to other firms.
• 
  
  The NTT Group is calling on government authorities to review regulations so as to provide incentives for capital investment, especially related to optical infrastructure and broadband services. The company warns that the accelerated shift to IP means that it will become increasingly difficult to maintain the current fixed-line telephone network. Regulations must take into account the requirements of maintaining universal services amidst today's competition.

http://www.ntt.co.jp/news/news03e/0304/030423.html

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Ample Communications and Big Bear Test 40 Gbps Technology

Ample Communications, a start-up based in Fremont, California, completed interoperability testing of its Blackbird 40 Gbps frame processor and Big Bear Networks' Kodiak 40 Gbps transponder. Ample Communications' Blackbird 40 Gbps frame processor is a single-chip 40 Gbps packet over SONET framer targeted for single port STS-768/STM-256 and four port STS-192/STM-64 SONET/SDH applications. It combines multiple functional blocks including framer, overhead processor, pointer processor and data link logic into a chip. Big Bear Network's Kodiak 40 Gbps transponder is an MSA standard 300-pin module supporting OC-768 SONET and STM-256 SDH transport, as well as 43 Gbps OTU-3 digital wrapper applications. The transponder incorporates several Silicon Germanium (SiGe) chipsets developed by Big Bear. The companies described the interoperability as an important step forward for 40 Gbps applications.
http://www.amplecomm.com

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