Andrew Closes $160 million Bank Credit Agreement

Andrew Corporation, a supplier of wireless, fixed-line and satellite broadband equipment, completed the renewal of a $160 million unsecured bank credit agreement. The three-year agreement with nine lenders was oversubscribed.
http://www.andrew.com

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Comcast Issues $1.5 Billion in Notes

Comcast sold $600 million aggregate principal amount of its 5.85% Notes due 2010 and $900 million aggregate principal amount of its 6.50% Notes due 2015. Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay short-term indebtedness associated with the recent merger with AT&T's broadband business.
http://www.comcast.com

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Foundry Announces Preliminary Q4 Financials, Increased Revenue and Profits

Foundry Networks announced that its Q4 2002 net revenue is expected to be in the range of $84.0 million to $87.0 million, compared to $76.6 million for the previous quarter and $65.4 million in Q4 2001. The company expects to post increased profits compared to the prior quarter and complete its fourth consecutive year of profitability and positive cash flows. Foundry Networks also noted that business was strong in its core vertical markets during the quarter. The book-to-bill ratio was greater than one during the quarter.
http://www.foundrynetworks.com

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Wintegra Cites 50 Design Wins for its Access Packet Processor

Wintegra, a fabless semiconductor company based in Austin, Texas, 50 design wins for its WinPath access packet processor family. The design wins include Tier 1 network equipment suppliers.
http://www.wintegra.com/pr_010603.html

• Wintegra's access packet processors provide a combination of ATM and IP feature sets, high-speed SAR functionality, large ATM and IP queues, and an “any service any port�? capability. More specifically, the design provides more than 20 data path protocols resident in RAM on a single chip, including IPv4 Full Routing, AAL0, AAL1, AAL2, AAL5, ATM Circuit Emulation, IMA, ATM Cell Switching, AAL2 CPS switching, HDLC, PPP, MLPPP, Ethernet MAC, Ethernet L2 switching, Ethernet VLAN Tagging, Ethernet-to-ATM Bridging, MPLS, RFC1483/2684, and IP over ATM, PPP and Ethernet. Additional IP functionality includes classification of L2 to L7 headers or payload and mapping into policies or QoS.

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OEpic Offers Front-end Chipset for 10 Gbps Transceivers

OEpic, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, introduced an 850 nm optical front-end (OFE) chipset solution designed for low cost, next generation 10 Gbps optical transceivers, such as XENPAK, X2, XPAK and XFP. The chipset is designed for very short reach (VSR) 10 Gbps Ethernet and Fibre Channel fiber optic links in enterprise SANs and LANs. OEpic said its intent is to enable transceiver manufacturers to achieve full 10 Gbps performance at a 1 Gbps cost target.
http://www.oepic.com

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Spirent to Provide Service Quality Management for Zhone's Local Access Architecture

Spirent Communications and Zhone Technologies announced a strategic interoperability agreement designed to ensure service quality management (SQM) in the access network. Spirent's REACT remote test operations support system (OSS) is matched with Zhone's ARCA-DACS 100 and SECHTOR 300 products, two digital access, cross-connect (DCS) and universal gateway systems for grooming and concentrating voice and data traffic before it hits the transport network. Last year, Spirent significantly expanded its interoperability partnership program, which now includes optical edge devices, DSLAMs, digital cross-connects, ADMs, Frame Relay switches, ATM switches, ISDN switches, voice switches, routers, and voice/media gateways from nearly two dozen manufacturers.
http://www.spirentcom.com

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Foundry Networks Supplies 10 GigE for Japan's Largest Internet Exchange

Japan's largest Internet exchange, WIDE (Widely Integrated Distributed Environments), has deployed Foundry Networks' 10-Gigabit Ethernet solution to significantly boost its capacity. The WIDE Project operates a number of Japan's major Internet exchanges including NSPIXP-2, which interconnects more than 60 Japanese service providers. The installation uses Foundry's BigIron 15000 Layer 3 Backbone Switch and 10-Gigabit Ethernet modules. Bussan Networks K.K. is Foundry Networks' distributor for the project. Financial terms were not disclosed. Foundry has previously announced 10-Gigabit Ethernet deployments by The University Health Network in Toronto, the London Internet Exchange (LINX), Walter Reed Hospital, Amsterdam Internet Exchange, and The University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute (USC-ISI).
http://www.foundrynetworks.com/

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EZchip Releases 10 Gbps Traffic Manager, Matching its 10 Gbps Network Processor

EZchip Technologies announced availability of its QX-1 10-Gigabit traffic manager, which can be matched to the company's recently launched NP-1 10-Gigabit network processor. EZchip's QX-1 is a single-chip traffic manager device providing advanced queuing, scalable frame memory, congestion management and hierarchical scheduling of network traffic consisting of thousands and millions of flows. It can be used to deliver QoS in 10-Gigabit interfaces, multi 1-Gigabit Ethernet line-cards with twelve or more ports, as well as OC-192, 4 x OC-48 and 16 x OC-12 Packet over SONET (POS) applications. The QX-1 traffic manager and NP-1 network processor are targeted at core networking equipment with stringent requirements for QoS, reduced overall system cost, power dissipation and chip-count. EZchip is offering the QX-1 traffic manager to its customers as an ASIC or as a core for an FPGA.
http://www.ezchip.com

• In December 2002, EZchip Technologies, a subsidiary of LanOptics, announced up to $24.5 million in new funding for development of its high-speed network processors. The funding consists of an initial investment of $13.5 million with an option to invest another $8 million in the future plus a $3 million credit line facility.



• In August 2002, EZchip Technologies announced that ZTE, one of China's largest telecom equipment manufacturers, had selected its 10-Gigabit 7-layer full-duplex network processor for use in a next generation metro switch.

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Agere Announces $150 Million Agreement to Supply Samsung With Chipsets

Agere Systems announced a one-year agreement valued at $150 million to supply Samsung with wireless data chipsets and software for use in Samsung's new generation of advanced mobile phones. The chipsets incorporate Agere's Global Packet Radio System (GPRS) technology for GSM networks.
http://www.agere.com

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TranSwitch and RAD Data Partner on TDM over IP Silicon

TranSwitchand RAD Data Communications announced a technology partnership and OEM agreement to introduce a new family of TDM over IP (TDMoIP) VLSI products that can be used to develop TDMoIP-capable network equipment. The devices would enable transparent transport of legacy TDM and serial data over IP/MPLS networks. TDMoIP was originally developed by RAD and introduced at Telecom Geneva in 1999. The company is working in the IETF and MPLS Forums to promote TDMoIP as a standard.
http://www.tdmoip.com
http://www.transwitch.com

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CompactTCA Announces New Telecom Computing Architecture

An industry group that includes Force Computers, Motorola Computer Group, Performance Technologies and others announced an initiative called Compact Telecommunications Computing Architecture, or "CompactTCA," that aims to define an embedded system platform specification based on several existing CompactPCI specifications. The single standard would ensure interoperability and the high availability and scalability attributes of packet-switched technology in the proven, lower-cost CompactPCI/PICMG 2.16 form factor. The group said its CompactTCA architecture complements AdvancedTCA by featuring PICMG 2.16 packet switching as the primary interconnect, mandatory system management, and elimination of the PCI bus for data transfer. The group will propose several enhancements that maintain backward compatibility with existing CompactPCI/PICMG 2.16 products. Other companies participating in the initiative include Pigeon Point Systems, StarGen and ZNYX Networks.
http://www.pt.com

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Philips and Accton Merge Wireless Activities into New Joint Venture

Royal Philips Electronics and Accton Technology of Taiwan merged their respective wireless connectivity module activities into a new joint venture company. The new venture will provide wireless technology based on Wi-Fi (802.11), Bluetooth and other standards to OEMs in the consumer electronics, enterprise, PC and mobile phone industries. Products will include a full line of access points and gateways including a Powerline Communication/802.11b bridge, worldwide-approved 802.11a/b/g solutions, emerging consumer applications like the recently launched Home Wireless A/V Platform and Bluetooth data and audio modules. The new company will be based in Hsinchu, Taiwan and manufacturing will remain in Asia. Philips and Accton will have approximately equal stakes in the joint venture and share the board seats. The management team will consist of key Accton and Philips managers.
http://www.philips.com
http://www.accton.com

• In December 2002, Royal Philips Electronics agreed to acquire Systemonic, a privately-held developer of 802.11a/b and g wireless LAN silicon based in Dresden, Germany. Financial terms were not disclosed. Systemonic provides technology for a two-chip 802.11a/b and g solution. It claims its design offers better range of up to 70 meters, higher throughput of up to 72 Mbps, and lower power usage than most other products currently available.

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Intel Plans Centrino Brand for its Wireless Mobile Initiative

Intel will use the "Centrino" brand name for its upcoming wireless mobile computing technology, which it plans to introduce in the first half of this year. The technologies represented by the Centrino brand will include a microprocessor (formerly code-named "Banias"), related chipsets and 802.11 (Wi-Fi) wireless networking capability. The branding includes a new logo designed to suggest "flight, mobility, and forward movement. "http://www.intel.com

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Extend America, a New Carrier, Enters Market for Rural Telecom Services

Extend America, a new telecommunications company based in Bismarck, North Dakota, announced the opening of its business and the securing of first stage financing from investors Ignition Partners, Cascade Investments, and the Greenspun Group. Extend America will begin deploying fixed and mobile digital wireless service to homes and businesses throughout rural America as well as offer service in mid-sized and urban markets through arrangements with a carrier partner. The company will initially focus on North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska.
http://www.extendamerica.com

• Extend America's Board of Directors includes Michael Larson, chief investment adviser to Microsoft's Bill Gates; Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes Magazine; and Greg Rohde, former head of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration and founder of e-Copernicus.com.

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Mpower Reshapes its Business by Exiting Certain Markets

Mpower Communications, a facilities-based competitive carrier that recently emerged from Chapter 11, announced plans to exit several markets and focus its operations on California, Nevada and Illinois. As part of the new geographic concentration, Mpower will transition its customers and assets in Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan and Texas to other service providers. The company would be left with a base of 75,000 customers in its three core states. Mpower anticipates a cash infusion for each of these transactions, as well as a reduction in ongoing costs. In July of 2002, Mpower completed a financial recapitalization that retired approximately $600 million in long-term debt and preferred stock. As of January 3, 2003, the company's remaining $50 million in long-term debt was also retired.
http://www.mpowercom.com

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AT&T Latin America Considers its Options

AT&T Latin America (ATTL), a facilities-based provider of business communications in five Latin American countries, is continuing an ongoing restructuring process that may include a sale of the company or a reorganization under bankruptcy protection. The statement comes after this week's announcement that AT&T will divest its equity stake in ATTL. AT&T has disclosed that it has entered into a non-binding letter of intent with Southern Cross Group, LLC, a telecommunications holding company, to sell 8,000,000 shares of Class A common stock of ATTL and 73,081,595 shares of Class B common stock of ATTL for $1,000.00 in a transaction within the next twelve months. ATTL said it currently provides services to over 140,000 total customers, including 5,400 data/Internet business customers and approximately 800 multi-national corporations.
http://www.attla.com/

• AT&T Latin America operates a fiber network spanning 7,650 route km and an IP/ATM backbone reaching 17 major cities. The company has connected more than 7,300 corporate buildings to its advanced ATM/IP fiber optic network and has nearly 40,000 corporate offices on-net. It has activated more than 20,000 data/Internet ports serving over 5,300 business customers and continues to expand its service portfolio, which includes local telephony and long distance, data/Internet, web hosting and value added services.



• In November 2002, AT&T Latin America reported Q3 revenue of $39.9 million, a 1.7% increase from the same period in 2001 and a 4.9% percent decline from Q2 2002. Consolidated data/Internet services revenue increased 10.3% compared to the year-ago period to $24.7 million. Compared to Q2, consolidated data/Internet services revenue dropped 9.1% due primarily to foreign currency fluctuations. Voice services revenue totaled $15.2 million, a 9.8% decline compared to the year-ago period and a 2.8% increase compared to the second quarter. ATTL also announced an anticipated funding gap commencing in Q4 and running through 2003 of up to approximately $40 million, assuming continued access to its senior secured vendor financing facility. The company also reported that it was out of compliance with Q3 revenue targets under terms of its senior secured vendor financing facilities



• As of September 30, 2002, ATTL's total debt amounted to $849.1 million versus $662.1 million as of December 31, 2001.



• In August 2002, AT&T Latin America announced a major restructuring to move it from a country-oriented model to a regional, customer-centric organization. The company will consolidate management functions to its new headquarters in Washington, D.C. It also planned to establish its regional service center in Chile to consolidate engineering, operations, customer care, IT and human resources.

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Cox Joins Equinix's Internet Business Exchange

Cox Communications will extend its network into Equinix's Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles area Internet Business Exchange centers, with possible expansions to other IBX centers in major markets. Cox is the fourth largest US cable provider, serving 6.3 million customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.equinix.com

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Alcatel, BT, HP and Brocade Establish 300 km City-to-City SAN Link

Alcatel, BT, HP and Brocade successfully established a native SAN connection over a DWDM/SDH network. The link carried synchronous storage data replication services live over a distance of 300 km from Madrid to Albacete in Spain. The transmission used BT's network, Alcatel's metro DWDM and SDH systems, Brocade SAN infrastructure and HP StorageWorks storage systems. The companies said that before this test native SAN data could be replicated in a synchronous way over a distance of only about 100 km depending on the network topology.
http://www.alcatel.com

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LDCOM Names Marconi as Broadband Access Partner

LDCOM has named Marconi as a key partner for its xDSL rollout in France. Marconi's Access Hub will be deployed throughout major cities in France. The company has already supplied 85 units and LDCOM is currently enhancing its capacity to respond to the expected growing customer demand. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.marconi.com

• Marconi's Access Hub features a 32-line xDSL line card enabling up to 576 xDSL lines in a single shelf. The Access Hub, which supports up to 40 Gbps of bandwidth on the backplane, could also act as a wireless or fiber aggregation point.



• The Louis Dreyfus Communications Group (LDCOM) is a competitive carrier to France Telecom and operates an 11,000 km national fiber backbone. http://www.ldcom.fr



• In October 2002, LDCOM selected Cisco Metro Ethernet Switching to deliver Ethernet-based connectivity services to both businesses and service providers across France. LDCOM is offering Ethernet last mile connectivity to businesses directly on fiber, coupled with Ethernet and MPLS VPNs in the core network backbone.

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Telecom Italia Selects Marconi Optical Switch

Telecom Italia awarded a EUR 15 million contract to Marconi for a new backbone network architecture based on high capacity optical switching. Marconi's MSH2K optical switching platform would enable Telecom Italia to migrate to an Automatic Switched Optical Network (ASON) in the future based on GMPLS. The technology is being developed at Marconi's Genoa laboratories.
http://www.marconi.com

• In September 2002, Marconi announced plans for its MSH2K platform, which combines ADM and crossconnect functionality and has a capacity of 320Gbps. The platform, which is designed for the metro core, features embedded DWDM with simultaneous support of SDH protection and network restoration. It supports STM-1 to STM-64 electrical interfaces and is capable of an upgrade to the Multi-Layer Switch (MLS), providing seamless migration.



• At the time, Marconi also disclosed plans for the MSH64C, which is based on the MSH2K platform. The MSH64C is a core 10 Gbps ADM/XC and is designed for consolidating and grooming traffic. The 80 Gbps switch has a capacity of 32 x STM-64 interfaces. It also has Gigabit Ethernet interfaces for data transport and embedded DWDM interfaces.

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UTStarcom Inks $100 Million Additional Contracts with Yahoo! BB in Japan

UTStarcom announced new contracts valued at more than $100 million to supply its AN-2000 IP-DSLAM in support of Yahoo! BB ADSL service. To date, Yahoo! BB has already deployed more than $130 million worth of UTStarcom IP-DSLAM equipment to support its 12 Mbps ADSL service. Yahoo! BB reached more than one million subscribers in September 2002, less than 13 months after the service was introduced. Yahoo! BB will launch streaming video services beginning this quarter using the UTStarcom IP-DSLAMs.
http://www.utstar.com

• UTStarcom's AN-2000 IB combines access, aggregation, transmission, cross-connect, and protocol conversion functions in a single, integrated platform that supports a total throughput of up to 1 Gbps. System operators can use the platform to offer both broadband data and traditional voice services over copper, fiber, or wireless transmission facilities.



• As of 07-January-2003, SOFTBANK BB Corp. completed the merger of four of its subsidiaries (BB Technologies Corporation, SOFTBANK Networks Inc., SOFTBANK EC HOLDINGS CORP. and SOFTBANK COMMERCE CORP.) The new SOFTBANK BB plans to capitalize on its predominant speed advantage (12 Mbps) to deliver a range of new broadband services. The company is headed by Masayoshi Son. http://www.softbank.co.jp



• As of December 5, 2002, the number of “Yahoo! BB�? ADSL lines installed broke the 1.5 million mark. The company exceeded more than one million BB Phone (VoIP service) users in November 2002. At the end of November, the network had 1,822 central offices wired for DSL, up by 273 central office installations from the end of October.



• SOFTBANK BB also unveiled its new logo:

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