Japan's Yahoo! BB Tops 2 Million ADSL Users, VoIP Reaches 1.8 Million

Softbank and Yahoo Japan reported continued strong growth for their jointly owned Yahoo! BB broadband service.

Yahoo! BB Subscribers (in Thousands)
	Feb-03	Jan-03	Dec-02	Nov-02	Oct-02	Sep-02
Yahoo! BB lines installed	2,181,000	1,972,000	1,691,000	1,461,000	1,208,000	1,011,000
Yahoo! BB phone users	1,806,000	1,585,000	1,294,000	1,028,000	773,000	520,000
Central offices	2,135	2,098	2,045	1,822	1,549	1,300

http://bbpromo.yahoo.co.jp

• In January, 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 will launch streaming video services beginning this quarter using the UTStarcom IP-DSLAMs.
  

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Hatteras Networks Names New CEO

Hatteras Networks, a start-up developing last mile Ethernet access solutions, named Peter Savage as its new CEO, replacing Thomas McPherson, who has stepped down for personal reasons. Savage has served as the company's vice president of business development for the last two years. Previously, Savage was president and CEO of Applied Digital Access, a provider of network performance management products.
http://www.hatterasnetworks.com

• Hatteras Networks is developing a carrier-class Ethernet access platform for existing fiber and copper infrastructure. The Hatteras platform is designed to operate in central offices, controlled environmental vaults, remote terminals (RTs) and on poles. Its technical team is led by Matt Squire, who has previously worked for IBM, Bay Networks, Nortel Networks, as well as start-ups WindWire and Extreme Networks. While at IBM, Squire led the development of LAN emulation services and ATM development on IBM's ATM switch and IP router products.
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  In August 2002, Hatteras announced the closing of an additional $45 million in venture capital funding for its last-mile carrier access platform, bringing its total funding to $73 million.
  

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3Com Lowers Financial Guidance Citing Weak Enterprise Sales in North America

3Com lowered its financial outlook for the quarter ended 28-February-2003, saying it now anticipates revenues to be in the range of $240 million to $245 million. Enterprise Networking sales are expected to be approximately 13 to 14% below the prior quarter due largely to weakness in the North American market. Connectivity sales are anticipated to decline sequentially by slightly more than the previous guidance of 20%, after setting aside the $15 million in royalties received in the previous quarter. CommWorks sales are expected to be down approximately 7% compared to the company's guidance for roughly flat sales sequentially. Gross margins are expected to be within the 45 to 47 percent range provided in previous guidance.
http://www.3com.com

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Fifty Vendors Complete SIP Interoperability Test Round

Fifty companies participated in the 12th SIP Interoperability Test event held from 24-28 February 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden. The event was organized by the SIP Forum in co-operation with Hotsip AB, Cisco Systems, Tele2, and Intertex. The next SIPit test event will be hosted by Mitel Networks in August in Kanata, Canada.
http://www.sipforum.org

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EANTC Announces Emulation Test Solution for Voice Over DSL Gateways

The European Advanced Network Test Center (EANTC) released a Voice over Broadband (VoB) Emulator for verifying standards compliance and performance of DSL voice gateways. EANTC's software-based VoB emulator uses Broadband Loop Emulation Signalling (BLES) and V5.x voice signaling protocols. Features include the test of signaling protocol behavior and speech quality, as well as bulk call generation to verify robustness. The first release of the software provides the ability to emulate hundreds of IADs and local exchanges. EANTC will demonstrate the VoB Emulator at CeBIT.
http://www.eantc.com/research/vob

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Bookham Develops Uncooled Directly Modulated Laser

Engineers from Bookham Technology and Cambridge University are developing a directly modulated DFB laser that combines ultrawide bandwidth with very high linearity over the wide temperature range of 25°C - 85°C, but without cooling. Key advantages of uncooled directly modulated lasers are that they are cheaper, more compact and more power efficient. Potential applications include direct transport of analog microwave/RF signals over fiber for in building distributed antenna systems in cellular networks and WLANs.
http://www.bookham.com

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Lightbit to Debut Pure-Optical Processor Chip Technology

Lightbit, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, will introduce a pure-optical chip with the ability to process multiple DWDM channels simultaneously without requiring electronic conversion. The Lightbit technology harnesses the parallel processing power of light and could significantly reduce the per-channel cost of DWDM. The all-optical device is bit-rate and protocol independent. Additional characteristics include a wide operating bandwidth that can be tuned to C, L or S bands. Lightbit said a single one of its optical processors could replace multiple Optical-Electrical-Optical (OEO) transponders, typically the most expensive equipment in today's fiber-optic networks. Applications supported by Lightbit subsystems include optical regeneration and multi-channel wavelength (band) conversion. The optical device will be manufactured in a silicon fabrication process.
http://www.lightbit.com

• Lightbit is headed by Larry Marshall, who previously was VP of Iridex, where he created the product that enabled the company's IPO, and co-founded spin-offs Iriderm, and Iridex OEM Group.
  

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Swisscom Eurospot Builds Network of 400 Hotspots

Swisscom has founded a new company named Swisscom EURspot to focus on the opportunity of public wireless LAN access. The new company will build upon the early WLAN deployments of Swisscom Mobile, and has acquired Megabeam Networks Ltd (based in London) and WLAN AG (based in Munich). Through the acquisitions and organic growth, Swisscom EURspot will have more than 400 hotspots under contract. Approximately 100 are currently operational. The company will also offer service through 400 hotspots of roaming partners. Swisscom EURspot is operating in UK, Germany, Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy and four additional countries, including Switzerland, via roaming partners.
http://www.swisscom.com/eurospot/

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Researchers Set Data Transfer Speed Record Across Internet2

A team of international researchers set a new data transfer speed record by transmitting 6.7 GB of data across a distance of 10,880 km (6,800 miles) in 58 seconds. The researchers transferred un-compressed data at 923 Mbps from Sunnyvale, California to Amsterdam using the Internet2 backbone. The transmission also used the advanced networking capabilities of TeraGrid, StarLight, SURFnet, NetherLight, Cisco and Level 3 Communications. Cisco loaned $1 million of equipment for several months, and Level 3 provided the network and bandwidth supporting the research. The research team consisted of staff from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Caltech, the National Institute for Nuclear Physics and High Energy Physics (NIKHEF) in Amsterdam and the Faculty of Science of the Universiteit van Amsterdam.
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/slac/media-info/20030207/

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