Telecom Italia Adds 200,000 ADSL Subscribers in Q4

Telecom Italia added 200,000 ADSL subscribers in Q4, a number significantly higher than the 132,000 new customers in Q3. Telecom Italia ended 2002 with a total of 850,000 ADSL subscribers, compared to 390,000 at the end of 2001. Telecom Italia also said Q4 was characterized by significant growth in unbundling of the local loop, with 55,000 customers connected to networks belonging to other carriers, compared with 31,000 during Q3. At year-end 2002, the total number of unbundled lines in Italy stood at 131,000, the second highest unbundled line total in Europe.
http://www.telecomitalia.it

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Licensing Begins for Blu-ray Lasers for 27 GB Rewritable Discs

A group of nine leading consumer electronics companies set licensing terms for a next generation large capacity optical disc video recording format called "Blu-ray Disc." The Blu-ray Disc format can be used for recording extended video material and High Definition broadcasts. Supporters of the format include Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Pioneer, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony and Thomson Multimedia.
http://www.panasonic.com

• The Blu-ray Disc enables the recording, rewriting and play back of up to 27 gigabytes (GB) of data on a single sided single layer 12cm CD/DVD size disc using a 405nm blue-violet laser.
  

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Telefonica and Terra Lycos Enter Long-Term Strategic Alliance

Terra Lycos has become Telefonica's portal and exclusive provider of value-added Internet services under a new six-year, strategic alliance announced by the companies. Terra Lycos, which is guaranteed at least 78.5 million EURs per year under the contract, will continue to offer its ISP access services both in narrowband and ADSL.
http://www.telefonica.eshttp://www.lycos.com

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Corning to Discontinue Wavelength Switching and Blocking Product Lines

Corning will discontinue commercialization of its wavelength switch and wavelength blocker product lines. The company said the market for these products is smaller and further out than it had anticipated. Due to the decision to drop these products, Corning will close its facility in Fountain Valley, California.
http://www.corning.com

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Gigabit Optics Launches Eight CWDM Components

Gigabit Optics introduced a series of new passive optical components designed as lower-cost, drop-in replacements for existing devices. The new products include:

• The Macro Mux/Demux-4, which combines or separates up to four optical channels on a CWDM ITU-grid for metro core, metro access and enterprise CWDM systems
  


• The Macro Mux/Demux-4 with express channel for systems needing a monitor channel or expansion upgrade


• The Macro Mux/Demux-8, which combines or separates up to eight optical channels on a CWDM ITU-grid


• The Macro Mux/Demux-8 with express channel


• Four Macro OADM devices, which allow add/drops of between one and four channels on a CWDM ITU-grid

http://www.gigabitoptics.com

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New MSA Approved for 10 Gbps Pluggable Optical Transceivers

The X2 multi-source agreement (MSA) group completed work on Revision 1.0 of its technical specifications for smaller form factor 10 Gbps pluggable optical transceivers. Revision 1.0 builds on the initial multisource agreement (MSA) announced in July 2002 that defines a versatile smaller form factor pluggable package based on XENPAK technology. X2 transceivers are expected to begin shipping imminently. The MSA group includes Agilent Technologies, Ignis Optics, JDS Uniphase, Mitsubishi Electric, Molex, Multiplex, NEC, NTT, Opnext, Optillion, Pine Photonics, TriQuint Optoelectronics and Tyco Electronics.
http://www.x2msa.org

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Alcatel Launches New 3G/UMTS Backhaul Terminal

Alcatel introduced a "Quad E1 Multi-mode" backhaul terminal for 3G/UMTS networks. The terminal uses Inverse Multiplexing of ATM (IMA) to combine up to four E1 connections into a virtual trunk. It also can simultaneously handle 2G BTS traffic using ATM Circuit Emulation Service or TDM.
http://www.alcatel.com

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Alcatel to Resell Adjungo's WLAN Security to Mobile Operators

Alcatel signed an OEM agreement to resell Adjungo Networks' wireless LAN security & management systems to mobile operators. Alcatel and Adjungo's solution 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.
http://www.adjungonet.com
http://www.alcatel.com

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Belgacom Selects SupportSoft Software

Belgacom selected software from SupportSoft to automate its ISP customer support operations, from installation of broadband service through ongoing customer service. SupportSoft's software includes its SmartAccess product for the automated installation of broadband service, and the Service Automation Suite for ongoing support. Once installed, customers can use an online self-service portal to resolve common problems.
http://www.support.com/http://www.belgacom.be

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TATA Selects Marconi for SDH in India

TATA Teleservices selected Marconi's SDH equipment for a broadband network build in India. Marconi will supply a range of optical equipment, including its STM1/4 and 16 platforms. The three-year contract was valued at £10 million ($16 million).
http://www.marconi.com
http://www.tatateleservices.com

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Intel Announces its “Wireless-Internet-On-A-Chip�?

Intel introduced its Wireless-Internet-On-A-Chip processor designed for handheld, GSM/GPRS devices that combine voice communications and Internet access capabilities. The Intel PXA800F cellular processor is built using a single process to place all key components onto one chip using 0.13-micron technology. The 312 MHz processor comes with four megabytes of integrated Intel On-Chip Flash memory and 512 KB of SRAM. It also includes a 104 MHz signal processor with 512 KB of integrated Intel On-Chip Flash memory and 64 KB of SRAM.
http://www.intel.com

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Sprint Provides L2TPv3 Frame Relay Service to Burlington Resources

Sprint named Burlington Resources, a large oil and gas company, as a customer for its recently launched SprintLink Frame Relay service, which uses Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol Version 3 (L2TPv3) to carry Frame Relay traffic over an MPLS backbone rather than ATM. Sprint said the L2TPv3 tunneling technology would enable customers to maximize existing investments in Frame Relay and ATM while tapping into its global IP network.
http://www.sprint.com

• In January, Sprint announced three new services based on Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol Version 3 (L2TPv3): SprintLink Frame Relay, SprintLink Packet Private Line and SprintLink Virtual LAN Services. L2TPv3 supports IP encapsulation of numerous Layer 2 protocols and provides authenticated tunneling to allow Layer 2 traffic to securely traverse a native IP core. The capability is supported in Cisco IOS.
  

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ITXC Chooses Cisco AS5000 Gateways and Softswitch VoIP for Upgrade

ITXC, one of the world's largest carriers in terms of minutes of international voice traffic carried over IP, selected the Cisco AS5000 Universal Gateway and the Cisco PGW 2200 Softswitch VoIP platform to upgrade its existing network. ITXC's legacy switches and older equipment from other vendors currently part of the existing network footprint are being taken out of service and replaced with equipment from Cisco. ITXC.net will originate and terminate voice and fax traffic using the Cisco AS5000 Universal Gateways. The Cisco Softswitch enables SS7 interconnect worldwide. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cisco.com
http://www.itxc.net

• ITXC.net connects over 175 countries. It has three SuperPoPs, located in London, Los Angeles, and Jersey City, NJ, that serve as call traffic aggregation hubs with switches, hundreds of IP telephony gateways, and connections to multiple IP backbones and PSTNs. ITXC collocates its equipment on the premises of major carrier customers to connect them to ITXC.net. The network also features a dynamic routing and quality monitoring mechanism that can automatically detect problems such as congestion and reroute traffic across the public Internet in mid-call. ITXC's capital expenditures for 2002 was expected to be in the $25 to $30 million range.



• For comparison, iBasis reported carrying 748 million minutes of voice traffic over its international IP network during Q4 2002.



• In December 2002, Global Crossing said it is now carrying one billion minutes per month on its VoIP network. For all of Q3 2002, Global Crossing carried 2.3 billion minutes of VoIP.
  

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France Telecom's Orange Names Former US West Exec as CEO

Solomon Trujillo, the former president, CEO and Chairman of US West, was appointed CEO of Orange SA to replace Jean François Pontal, who announced his intention to retire last December. Orange SA is France Telecom's wireless business. Trujillo left US West in June 2000, following the merger with Qwest Communications. He also serves of the boards of Alcatel, Pepsi, Target Stores and Gannet.
http://www.francetelecom.com

• In October 2002, France Telecom named Thierry Breton to serve as its new Chairman and CEO. Breton previously was the Chairman and CEO of Thomson, S.A. From 1993 to 1997, Breton was CEO of BULL Group.
  

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