Alcatel Optronics Launches SDH/SONET DWDM Receiver

Alcatel Optronics introduced a new SDH/ SONET DWDM 2R receiver for metro and long haul networks. The Alcatel 1926 SDH Rx 2R is a 2R (Re-amplification/Re-shaping) receiver that contains an in-house detector integrated with a preamplifier ASIC. It operates at rates from 100 Mbps to 2.7 Gbps and complies with the STM-16/OC-48 transmitter and receiver multi-source agreement.
http://www.alcatel.com

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Wind River and Motion Media Develop Internet Videophone

Wind River supplied its VxWorks real time operating system for an Internet videophone developed by UK-based Motion Media Technology. The companies said the new IP-based videophone has more processing power than a PC, and will initially support data rates of between 128 kbps and 2 Mbps, extending to 10 Mbps in the future. The processing power reduces the delays normally associated with compressing, transmitting and decompressing video and audio streams. Motion Media claims its device can set-up video calls in only ten seconds, taking less time than making a 384K ISDN call where the typical call set-up time is around 30 seconds. The videophone is compatible with other H.323-based videoconferencing equipment, multi-point conferencing systems and network hardware like gateways and gatekeepers.
http://www.windriver.com
http://www.motion-media.com/

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Mexico's Iusacell Launches CDMA2000 1X Voice/Data Service with Lucent

Grupo Iusacell launched the first CDMA2000 1X voice and data network in Mexico. Lucent Technologies delivered a CDMA2000 1X network upgrade that significantly increased the voice capacity of the network while enabling data access at speeds of up to 144 kbps. Lucent upgraded Iusacell's existing Lucent-supplied base stations with CDMA2000 1X channel cards and software, and also provided software upgrades for Iusacell's mobile switching centers. It also supplied its NavisRadius authentication, authorization and accounting server.
http://www.lucent.com
http://www.iusacell.com.mx/

• Grupo Iusacell is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications. In November 2002, Iusacell retained Morgan Stanley in an effort to restructure its existing debt.

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India's VSNL to Deploy Alcatel 1000 MM Switching Systems

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL), an Indian service provider, will deploy Alcatel 1000 MM switching systems and associated network management solutions. In the first phase, Alcatel's switching systems will be deployed in seven locations across the country, enabling 60,000 additional trunk lines, thereby doubling the existing capacity of its network. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.alcatel.com

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PMC-Sierra Reports Q4 Revenue of $52.6 million, Cost Cuts

PMC-Sierra announced net revenues of $52.6 million and a pro forma net loss per share of $0.06 for the fourth quarter of 2002. Net revenues decreased 12% compared to $59.6 million recorded in the preceding quarter but increased 11% compared to Q4 2001. PMC-Sierra is undertaking a corporate restructuring that will reduce its employee headcount by 16%. The company had 1,099 employees at the end of 2002. PMC-Sierra said it planned to increase its investments in enterprise, storage, MIPS-based processors, and system-on-a-chip design capabilities.
http://www.pmc-sierra.com

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Agere Reports Flat Revenues and Flat Outlook for 2003

Agere Systems reported quarterly revenue of $436 million, down 2% compared with revenues of $445 million in the year-ago quarter and down from $491 million in the preceding quarter. The reported net loss for the December quarter was $146 million or $0.09 per share. Agere said its major restructuring efforts are either completed or well underway. The company has now completed the disposition of its optoelectronic components business. The outlook for the current quarter is also for flat revenues. For fiscal year 2003, the Agere expects revenues to be about $1.85 billion, consistent with the guidance provided in October.
http://www.agere.com

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Nortel Networks Says Business has Stabilized, Expensing of Stock Options to Begin

Nortel Networks said its overall revenues were up sequentially across all of its lines of business and geographic regions during Q4. The company said its fundamental business model has stabilized and that it ended the year with a cash balance of approximately US$4.1 billion. It expects to achieve pro forma profitability by Q2 2003. Nortel also expects to have 36,000 employees at the end of Q1 2003 and believes its series of staff reductions is nearing an end. Overall, Q4 revenues from continuing operations were US$2.52 billion, compared to US$3.46 billion in the same period in 2001. There was a net loss for Q4 of US$248 million, or US$0.06 per common share. As for its outlook in 2003, Nortel Networks expects the overall telecommunications equipment market to be down modestly compared to 2002. In addition, Nortel Network has adopted a policy of fair value accounting for stock options. As a result, all stock option grants in 2003 and beyond will be expensed over the stock option vesting period based on the fair value at the date the options are granted.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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Broadcom Reports Sixth Quarter of Revenue Growth

Broadcom reported its sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth. Net revenue for Q4 2002 was $295.9 million, up 2.1% over the previous quarter and up 30.5% from Q4 2001. Net loss for the quarter (GAAP) was $1.76 billion, or $6.40 per share. Pro forma non-GAAP net loss for the fourth quarter of 2002 was $6.6 million, or $.02 per share. The GAAP results included a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $1.24 billion. Broadcom also recorded restructuring charges of $87.8 million to cover the costs of reduction of facilities and employee severance arrangements.
http://www.broadcom.com

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Broadcom Announces Resignation of Nicholas as CEO

Dr. Henry T. Nicholas III resigned his positions as President and CEO of Broadcom. He agreed to serve out his current term as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors. After more than a decade at Broadcom, Nicholas said he would take time off to attend to serious family matters. He also noted that Broadcom had weathered "the worst economic downturn in the history of our industry." Alan E. "Lanny" Ross, the company's current COO, will assume Nicholas' positions until a permanent replacement is named.

In addition, Broadcom named four new vice presidents to serve as general managers. The appointments include three vice presidents whose businesses address distinct market segments, plus a new vice president to lead the company's Broadband Communications Business Unit. The appointments are:

Client Server Networking Business Unit, Thomas F. Lagatta
Network Infrastructure Business Unit, Robert A. Rango
Switching and Security Business Unit, Ford G. Tamer
Broadband Communications Business Unit, Daniel A. Marottahttp://www.broadcom.com

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MFN Sells Single Phoenix Conduit to AGL Networks

Metromedia Fiber Network sold a single conduit in portions of its Phoenix, Arizona network to AGL Networks. A remaining conduit will stay under the ownership and operation of MFN and the company will continue it business of leasing dark fiber to enterprise and carrier customers. MFN said that despite the sale, it remains the only licensed dark fiber provider in the Phoenix area. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.mfn.com

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MFN Sells its Operations in France and the Netherlands

Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN) has sold its operations in France and the Netherlands to management buyout teams, and its metropolitan fiber network in four Dutch cities to Global Voice Network Limited. MFN and its Dutch subsidiary will retain ownership of the IP network and continue to provide IP services to the management buy-out teams for resale to their customers, as well as to the Company's global customers with a presence in France and the Netherlands. Financial terms were not disclosed. As part of its ongoing European strategy, MFN will continue to operate its data centers in London, Frankfurt and Vienna, and its metropolitan area networks in London and Germany.
http://www.mfn.com

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Vonage Signs its 10,000th Digital Telephone Subscriber

Vonage, a provider of digital telephone service, signed on its 10,000th customer. Vonage said it has completed over seven million calls across its SIP network since launching the service ten months ago. The service connects standard telephones via a broadband connection. Several flat rate pricing plans are offered.
http://www.vonage.com

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3Com and Infineon Settle Ethernet-over-DSL Dispute

3Com and Infineon Technologies AG announced a settlement in their intellectual property dispute concerning Ethernet over DSL. Under the agreement, 3Com assigns rights to certain patents to Infineon in exchange for an undisclosed fee and a portion of future royalties earned through licensing the patents. Infineon's Packet-over-VDSL (PoVDSL) and 10BaseS chips incorporate the technology protected by these patents. Engineers from Savan, an Israeli start-up acquired by Infineon, were assisted by 3Com engineers when they developed the technology protected by these patents.
http://www.3com.com
http://www.infineon.com

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Nortel Networks and CIENA Reach Settlement

Nortel Networks and CIENA reached a settlement in the pending lawsuit originally brought by Nortel Networks in March 2000 against ONI Systems alleging patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. Ciena subsequently acquired ONI. As part of the settlement, Nortel Networks grants CIENA a license under certain patents in exchange for a $25 million one-time payment. The companies further agreed not to sue each other for patent infringement for two years, during which time they will seek to negotiate a cross-license arrangement.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com
http://www.ciena.com

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BellSouth Passes 1 Million DSL Subscribers, But Reports 3.2% Access Line Loss in 2002

Citing weak demand for communications services, both in the United States and Latin America, BellSouth reported Q4 consolidated revenues (excluding Cingular Wireless) of $5.69 billion, compared to $6.21 billion in Q4 2001. The company's reported earnings per share were $0.32. Operating free cash flow (defined as cash flow from operations less capital expenditures) was $791 million in Q4. BellSouth said bankruptcies continued to affect retail and wholesale demand, as well as bad debt expense. Other negative factors included retail access line market share loss in the US, as well as currency devaluations in Argentina and Venezuela. Some other highlights of the report:

• Free cash flow generated through operations, a reduction in capital expenditures and asset sales enabled BellSouth to reduce its debt by 23.6% in 2002 to $14.9 billion, compared to $19.5 billion a year earlier.




• Capital expenditures for 2002 were $3.8 billion, a reduction of 36.9% compared to $6.0 billion in 2001.




• BellSouth added 97,000 DSL accounts in Q4, giving it a total of 1,021,000 broadband customers.




• As of 31-December-2002, BellSouth had 24.6 million access lines in service, a decline of 3.2% compared to a year earlier.




• UNE-P access lines served by competitors increased by 190,000 in Q4.




• In long distance, BellSouth continued to make gains. As of year-end, it was serving more than 1 million consumer and business long distance customers.




• BellSouth also announced it will expense stock options granted to employees after January 1, 2003

http://www.bellsouth.com

• In December 2002, Verizon Communications announced that it would expense of employee stock options granted on or after January 1, 2003.

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Microsoft to Acquire PlaceWare, a Web Conferencing Service Provider

Microsoft plans to acquire PlaceWare, a provider of Web conferencing services. The PlaceWare service is aimed at businesses wishing to conduct real-time, interactive presentations and meetings over the Internet. The service currently supports large-scale meetings with up to thousands of attendees. Financial terms were not disclosed. Microsoft said it intends to make PlaceWare a part of its new Real Time Collaboration Group, which will offer online business communication tools and services. The newly formed group will be led by Anoop Gupta, who has been part of Microsoft Research for five years and has recently been serving as Bill Gates' technical advisor.
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.placeware.com

• PlaceWare got its start in 1990 at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) initially as a multi-user game known as LambdaMOO. The technology later became the foundation for a collaborative computing system for the U.S. Department of Defense.

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AT&T Sees Continued LD Decline, No Turn Around Yet

AT&T said it has yet to see a turn around in overall corporate telecommunications spending and does not expect a significant improvement this year. The company reported Q4 2002 revenue of $9.3 billion, a decline of 8.6% from the year-ago quarter. There was a loss per diluted share from continuing operations of $0.79. AT&T attributed the revenue decline to continued pricing pressure in long distance voice services. Other negative factors included charges for its past investment in AT&T Latin America, special charges for layoffs, and a write-down of its DSL network due to the recent outsourcing agreement with Covad. These declines were partially offset by the disposition of AT&T Broadband and growth in local voice as well as data/IP and managed services. Some highlights of the report:

• Full-year 2002 revenue was $37.8 billion, a decline of 10.4% from the previous year. AT&T Business recorded Q4 revenue of $6.6 billion, down 3.0%. Long distance volume growth of 7% was offset by price declines, leading to an overall decline in long distance voice revenue of 10% in the quarter. Local voice revenue grew more than 25% in the quarter.




• AT&T said UNE-P remains an important means of reaching small business customers and now accounts for more than 15% of its total access lines. The company added more than 180,000 local access lines in Q4, for a total of 3.6 million business local access lines at year-end.




• Ten of AT&T's all-time highest traffic days for long distance voice occurred in 2002 (excluding the week of 11-September-2001).




• Data/IP/Managed services revenue, including customer premises equipment sales, grew about 3% in the quarter. Packet service revenues (Frame Relay, ATM and IP) increased 16% in Q4 compared to the same quarter in 2001 - this was led by roughly 20% growth in IP. Managed services felt the effect of weak IT spending and grew by 6% in the quarter. Managed hosting grew by more than 20% for the year. AT&T said it is seeing stabilized pricing trends in its data business, particularly with Frame Relay, where price increases held during the quarter.




• Earlier this week, AT&T crossed over the 1,000 Terabyte per day traffic threshold on its IP network




• AT&T Business expects a slower rate of revenue decline in 2003 compared to 2002.




• AT&T Consumer recorded Q4 revenue $2.7 billion, down 20% from a year ago. AT&T Consumer expects the 2003 rate of revenue decline to be slightly less than the decline in 2002.




• AT&T said it is hopeful that UNE-P will remain available as a vehicle to kick start local competition.




• AT&T expects capital expenditures for 2003 to be approximately $3.3 to $3.5 billion. CAPEX spending was $3.9 billion in 2002, down 31% compared to $5.6 billion in 2001.



Separately, AT&T offered to repurchase for cash up to $4.3 billion of debt (6.375% Notes due March 15, 2004 and 6.50% Notes due March 15, 2013).

A webcast of AT&T's quarterly conference call is archived online.
http://www.att.com/
• Earlier this month, AT&T announced $1.1 billion in special charges for Q4 2002 associated with its past investment in AT&T Latin America. The company also announced a pre-tax restructuring charge of approximately $240 million in its Q4 2002 financial results to cover the costs of approximately 3,500 planned employee separations.

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Cisco Files Lawsuit Against Huawei Technologies

Cisco Systems filed a lawsuit against Huawei Technologies and its subsidiaries Huawei America and FutureWei Technologies alleging unlawful copying of Cisco's intellectual property. In particular, the suit alleges that Huawei unlawfully copied and misappropriated Cisco's IOS software, including source code, copied Cisco documentation and other copyrighted materials, and infringed numerous Cisco patents. Cisco claims that Huawei's operating system contains a number of text strings, file names, and even bugs that are identical to those found in Cisco's IOS source code. The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Cisco also served a cease and desist letter on Spot Distribution, a Huawei distributor located in the UK. A copy of the complaint is posted online.
http://www.cisco.com
http://www.huawei.com/

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