Marconi Provides Quarterly Update

Marconi released financial results for the quarter ended 31-December-2002, noting progress towards key operational goals in its restructuring program. Marconi's group operating loss for the quarter was £130 million, down from £256 million a year earlier. The Core networking business lost £41 million for the period, down from £90 million in the previous quarter. Core gross margin improved by almost three points over the same period a year ago despite lower volumes.
http://www.marconi.com

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Cisco Enhances its PIX Firewall Line

Cisco Systems announced several enhancements to its PIX line of firewalls, including new software that boosts performance by up to six times while increasing VPN security performance for Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Cisco also introduced two mid-range firewalls: the PIX 515E-6FE offers six ports of Fast Ethernet along with 190 Mbps firewall and 140 Mbps VPN for enhanced protection of multiple De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) and server environments requiring physical network separation, and a new PIX 525-2GE that delivers integrated dual Gigabit Ethernet and dual Fast Ethernet ports.
http://www.cisco.com

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Broadcom Introduces Single-Chip Security Processor

Broadcom announced its new low-power, small footprint, 80 Gbps IPsec processor. The new chip features built-in PCI and support for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The device is designed to eliminate bottlenecks and degradation across the entire network infrastructure for such equipment as residential gateways, firewalls, and SOHO routers and switches.
http://www.broadcom.com

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VocalTec and Telica Enter Alliance

VocalTec Communications and Telica announced a partnership that offers carriers a solution for packet voice services over softswitch-based networks. The alliance builds on Telica's North American market penetration and VocalTec's international footprint. Telica's Plexus 9000 Class 4/5 switching platform has been implemented in over 35 carrier networks, including Verizon's. The Plexus 9000 includes a media gateway, media gateway controller and signaling gateway to provide Class 4/5 switching for the PSTN as well as ATM and IP networks. VocalTec's Packet Tandem Switching solution combines features of a traditional Class 4 switch with the enhanced services of VoIP. Essentially, VocalTec's packet tandem switching bypasses (replaces) the circuit trunks between the Class 5 switches and the Class 4 switches. VocalTec's SS7 capabilities include full SS7 tunneling over IP and support for over 50 SS7 signaling variants. VocalTec estimates its solutions power 25% of the world's revenue-generating international VoIP minutes, including Deutsche Telekom's International Carrier Services and Sales Division Jules VoIP platform. The joint VocalTec-Telica solution is being lab tested.
http://www.telica.com
http://www.vocaltec.com

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Comverse and Microsoft Provide Instant Voicemail Notifications with .NET Alerts

Microsoft and Comverse announced a solution to deliver instant voicemail notifications through Microsoft's .NET Alerts service. The .NET Alerts service enables service providers to send alerts to their subscribers who use Windows Messenger as well as their mobile devices (Smartphones, cell phones, PDAs and pagers) and email. Voicemail users will have the option to have voicemail alerts delivered to their messenger clients, wireless handsets or email in-boxes, and then retrieve and play back their voice messages over the Internet. The service will be integrated with Comverse's open-standards-based InSight environment for next-generation enhanced services.
http://www.comverse.com

• Microsoft has more than 80 million Windows Messenger and MSN Messenger users.

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Verizon Wireless to Launch 1xEV-DO Service in Washington, D.C.

Verizon Wireless plans to launch a CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network service in the Washington D.C. area supporting data rates up to 2.4 Mbps. Most users can expect average data speeds of 300-800 kbps. The planned launch this summer follows a trial of 1xEV-DO technology completed by Verizon and Lucent in November 2002.
http://www.verizonwireless.com
http://www.lucent.com

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BRECIS Tunes is Processors for Wireless Access Points

BRECIS Communications, a start-up based in San Jose, California, introduced a multiservice processor for secure wireless access points and routers. The device includes an IPSec engine and 802. 11a, b, and g support. Separately, BRECIS launched a new VoIP software suite supporting H.323, SIP, and MGCP and packet cable requirements.
http://www.brecis.com

• In February 2003, BRECIS announced $20 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to date to $72 million.

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Vivato's Outdoor Wi-Fi Switch Extends Hot Spots Up to 4 Km

Vivato, a start-up based in San Francisco, introduced its 2.4 GHz Outdoor Wi-Fi Switch capable of extending outdoor coverage for up to 4 km. The Vivato switch can penetrate exterior and interior walls to provide Wi-Fi coverage throughout an entire structure. Designed to support standard 802.11b Wi-Fi devices, the Vivato 2.4 GHz Outdoor Wi-Fi Switch provides three simultaneous beams of Wi-Fi throughout the coverage area. Its unique PacketSteering technology directs up to 33 Mbps of Wi-Fi capacity to active clients through an electronically controlled phased array antenna that creates high gain beams of Wi-Fi. The U.S. list price for the Vivato 2.4 GHz Outdoor Wi-Fi Switch is $13,995.
http://www.vivato.net

• In February 2003, Vivato introduced a 2.4 GHz Indoor Wi-Fi Switch that provides an indoor range of up to 300 meters with standard Wi-Fi clients. The Vivato switch is a flat panel unit, which resembles a plasma television screen, operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency band and delivers three simultaneous beams of Wi-Fi. Designed to be wall-mounted, the panel employs Vivato's PacketSteering technology to dynamically shape very narrow beams, about nine degrees each. The list price is $8,995.

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NYC's Con Edison to Launch Small Business Services

Con Edison Communications, a subsidiary of one of the nation's largest electrical utilities, will expand its CLEC business to offer PowerNet Internet and PowerCall Voice Services to small businesses in New York City. PowerNet Internet Service provides access at rates from 1.5 Mbps to 1 Gbps. PowerCall Voice Service provides T1 or PRI access, local calling and toll-free service. It also includes both domestic and international long distance services. Con Edison already offers business co-location services, DS-1, Ethernet LAN, SONET and wavelength service.
http://www.electricfiber.com

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WorldCom Continues to Deliver on its 100-Day Plan

WorldCom noted two milestones in its 100-day restructuring plan. MCI's The Neighborhood, an "any-distance" local + long distance residential calling plan, is now available in all 48 contiguous states plus Washington, D.C. The WorldCom Connection, which consolidates local and long distance voice and data services for small businesses over one connection, is now available in all 94 metropolitan service areas where WorldCom owns local service facilities. WorldCom also announced today that it has expanded its bundled Connection offering to support PBX systems and a choice of IP phones.
http://www.worldcom.com

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Sprint PCS Launches Telemetry Service

Sprint announced nationwide availability of PCS Telemetry Services, providing machine-to-machine wireless connectivity for vertical applications such as fleet management, wireless point of sale transactions, and utility service applications. The new machine-to-machine services will be supported over Sprint's nationwide CDMA packet data 3G network at speeds averaging 50 to 70 Kbps, with peak speeds of 144 Kbps. Sprint is targeting such vertical markets as point of sale and ATMs, transportation, utilities, energy, security, asset and building management, as well as field sales and service industries. Sprint has signed contracts with American Trash Management, Commerciant (wireless payment-processing services for retail merchants), NCR, TransData (energy meters and power transducers for the electric Utilities) and Trimble (GPS asset and inventory tracking).
http://www.sprint.com

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Telia Selects Riverstone Networks

Telia has deployed Riverstone Networks' RS family of routers to extend Ethernet services across is Scandinavian ATM network. The installation uses Riverstone's ATM circuit extension technology to map multiple virtual LANs into single virtual circuit (VC) or multiple VCs to a single VLAN. The combination of Riverstone's RS routers and ATM circuit extension technology gives Telia the ability to deliver full LAN-to-LAN services across the ATM backbone. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.riverstonenet.com

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Yahoo! Launches Premium Audio/Video Service

Yahoo! Introduced a premium online video and audio service featuring branded programming from leading entertainment, sports and news providers for both broadband and narrowband consumers. Yahoo! Platinum rich media content is delivered in 56K, 100K and 300K bit rate streams. At launch, for $9.95 per month, Yahoo! Platinum programming includes: CBS' Survivor Insider, Fox's "American Idol," ABC News, CBS MarketWatch, The Weather Channel, "NASCAR Races to Go," "NASCAR Race Day Audio," and "Best of NASCAR" audio and video. A $16.95 per month package with additional sports programming is also available.
http://www.yahoo.com

• In Q4 2002, RealNetworks' consumer subscription audio/video service reached over 900,000 paying subscribers.

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NTT Communications Announces Global IP Strategy

NTT Communications outlined the next phase of its strategy to become a "Global IP Solution Company." NTT Communications will offer a full portfolio of government, corporate and individual services based on its global IP network. Part of the strategy includes a new business alliance with EDS to offer IT and communications services to businesses in Japan and across the globe.
http://www.ntt.com

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Optical Internetworking Forum Tests UNI and NNI Interoperability

Twenty-four vendor companies participated in the initial round of the Optical Internetworking Forum's User Network Interface (UNI), Network-to-Network Interface (NNI) and Physical and Link Layer (PLL) interoperability tests. All vendors that participated were able to successfully demonstrate interoperability. At next week's OFC 2003 conference in Atlanta, the OIF will sponsor a demonstration of the Physical and Link Layer (PLL) Interoperability. The demonstration will highlight the dynamic, end-to-end connection establishment between client devices and optical network elements in the control plane. Specific implementation agreements (IAs) include:

• SPI-4.2: System Packet Interface Level 4, Phase 2: System Interface for Physical and Link Layer Devices




• SFI-4.1: Serdes Framer Interface for a common electrical interface between SONET framer and serial/deserializer parts for OC-192 interfaces




• SFI-5: Serdes Framer Interface Level 5: 40Gbps Interface for Physical Layer Devices




• VSR-4: OC-192 Very Short Reach Interface




• Tunable Laser IA




• TFI-5 work in-progress: TDM switch Fabric to Framer Interface.

http://www.oiforum.com

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Switch and Data Acquires PAIX.net

Switch and Data Inc. acquired the assets of PAIX.net, a leading Internet peering exchange provider with facilities in Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Palo Alto, Seattle, and Vienna, Virginia. Switch and Data's acquisition is inclusive of all PAIX sites. Financial terms were not disclosed. Switch and Data also provides neutral interconnection and colocation services in the US. Switch and Data, founded in 1997, is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.
http://www.switchanddata.com

• Switch and Data is headed by Patricia L. Higgins, who has previously served as Chairman and CEO of The Research Board and as Executive Vice President of The Gartner Group. Previously, Higgins was CIO and Corporate Vice President of ALCOA.



• In March 2002, due to its impending Chapter 11 filing, MFN announced its intent to sell its PAIX facilities for $50 million to an unnamed buyer.



• PAIX, the Palo Alto Internet Exchange, was originally opened by Digital Equipment Corporation in July 1996. AboveNet acquired PAIX in May 1999 from Digital/Compaq for $75 million. Metromedia Fiber Network agreed to acquire AboveNet Communications in June 1999 in a stock swap valued at about $1.55 billion at the time. AboveNet had co-location facilities in operation in San Jose, California and Vienna, Virginia at the time.

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Intel Introduces First 10GbE Server Adapter

Intel introduced the first 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) server adapter, a move it believes will accelerated the proliferation of 10GbE in enterprise data centers. The Intel PRO/10GbE LR Server Adapter is priced at $7,995 and will be available in April. Sandia National Laboratories is currently evaluating the Intel PRO/10GbE Server Adapter to support a 10GbE file system and I/O services infrastructure. Intel also announced a PRO/1000 CT Desktop Connection controller chip that works in tandem with its soon-to-be-released Springdale and Canterwood chipsets to double the performance attainable on desktop-PC GbE-network connections. The Gigabit Ethernet controller chip utilizes Intel's new Communications Streaming Architecture (CSA), which is a dedicated bus that connects to the memory controller hub on the chipsets, bypassing the PCI bus on the I/O controller hub, freeing its bandwidth for other I/O operations. The CSA connection provides bi-directional bandwidth of 2 Gbps, twice that of the 32-bit PCI bus. Finally, Intel also introduced a 10 Gbps XFP Transceiver for OC-192, 10GbE and 10-Gigabit Fibre Channel connections. The device is priced at $500 in volume.
http://www.intel.com

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Movaz Networks Launches CWDM Platform

Movaz Networks introduced a CWDM optical edge device for high bandwidth data, storage and TDM services. The new RAYexpress offers a range of native, transparent and aggregated interfaces, including OC3/12/48/192, STM1/4/16/64, GigE, and IBM tested ESCON, and integrates with Movaz's OADM and RAYstar transport and switching platforms. The RAYexpress CWDM supports Small Form factor Pluggable (SFP) optics on its tributaries, thus enabling flexible plug and play for instantaneous adaptability to specific customer interfacing requirements. The platform can reach 120 km of transmission distance without amplification. Movaz also features a GMPLS network management system for provisioning optical services from the customer premise to the metro core across its CWDM and DWDM systems.
http://www.movaz.com

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VeriSign Offers Service Bureau for Lawful, Packet Data Wireless Taps

VeriSign unveiled a "NetDiscovery" service for accomplishing lawful intercepts of packet data on GPRS and CDMA 1x wireless network technologies. The company had introduced a similar service last year for helping landline carriers and packet cable operators meet federally-mandated obligations to provide lawfully authorized electronic surveillance of call content and call data to law enforcement agencies. Wireless data network operators can now use the service to ensure appropriate handling and records management of the requisite legal orders involved in legally authorized surveillance.
http://www.verisign.com

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AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless Sign GSM Roaming Alliance

AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless signed a major joint roaming agreement covering their GSM /GPRS networks in the US. Customers of Cingular and AT&T Wireless will continue to have access to the companies' combined GSM/GPRS footprint at roaming rates significantly lower than previous agreements. AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless have also formed a joint venture to build out GSM/GPRS infrastructure covering 4,000 miles of rural highways in the US.
http://www.cingular.com
http://www.attwireless.com

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Ericsson forms new Executive Management Team

Ericsson named Per-Arne Sandstrom as its new Executive Vice President and Deputy CEO. Karl-Henrik Sundstrom was appointed Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President. Sandstrom and Sundstrom will together with Ericsson's new President and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg form the new Executive Management Team for the Ericsson Group. Sandstrom has 15 years of experience from Ericsson including the position as President of Market Area North America and as Head of former Business Unit GSM Systems. Sundstrom has 18 years of experience from different leading capacities within Ericsson, most recently as Vice President and General Manager Business Unit Global Services.
http://www.ericsson.com

• In February 2003, Ericsson appointed Carl-Henric Svanberg as its new President and CEO, replacing Kurt Hellström. Svanberg previously served as CEO for Assa Abloy, an international manufacturer of locks for a variety of industries.

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PRIMUS Raises $13 Million in New Debt Financing

PRIMUS Telecommunications obtained $13 million in new debt financing and completed the restructuring of an existing major vendor facility. The company said the developments reflect improvement in its financial condition.
http://www.primustel.com

• In December 2002, Primus Telecommunications raised $42 million through the sale of newly-issued shares of its Series C Convertible Preferred Stock.



• In September 2002, Cable & Wireless agreed to sell its US retail voice customer base to Primus Telecommunications for US$32 million in cash, payable over two years. The customer base consists of about 31,000 small- and medium-sized enterprise customers.

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LeftHand Networks Raises $20 million for IP SAN Solutions

LeftHand Networks, a start-up based in Boulder, Colorado, raised $20 million in Series B financing for its IP-based SAN solutions. LeftHand's Distributed Storage Matrix includes storage virtualization and management capabilities giving customers critical storage features such as pooling, replication, hot failover and snapshot capability. The new funding was led by The Sprout Group and include existing investors Boulder Ventures, Garage Technology Ventures, Ironside Ventures, William Blair New World Ventures, Portage Venture Partners, Sequel Venture Partners, Vista Ventures, and Wasatch Ventures.
http://www.lefthandnetworks.com

• In March 2002, LeftHand Networks Acquired North Fork Networks, another start-up that developed storage management software enabling SAN fault tolerance, unlimited clustering, 2-16 way replication and dynamic “volume morphing�? capabilities.

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NanoOpto and SpectraSwitch Introduce Variable Optical Attenuator

NanoOpto and SpectraSwitch have begun sampling a jointly-developed Lambda Processor Free Space Variable Optical Attenuator (FSVOA) initially targeted at optical transceivers, transponders and tunable lasers. The electronically controlled variable optical attenuator and shutter is designed for free-space integration into a broad range of optical components. The initial release of the Lambda Processor FSVOA supports either C-band or C+L-band wavelength ranges, provides up to 35dB of tunable attenuation, and has less than 0.4dB of insertion loss in a device 1.4 millimeters in thickness. The liquid crystal device is produced using nano-optic and nano-manufacturing technology.
http://www.spectraswitch.com
http://www.nanoopto.com

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BTexact Confirms Marconi BXR-48000 Performance

BTexact Technologies, BT's advanced research and technology business, completed performance evaluation of Marconi's BXR- 48000 multiservice switch router. BTexact tested the BXR-48000 over a three-month period to determine that it meets the requirements for deployment in carrier ATM networks. The tests focused on system scalability, redundancy and reliability. Results are posted online. The companies also announced an agreement for BTexact to help Marconi deliver systems integration, consultancy and additional testing services for the BXR-48000, as well as other products in Marconi's Broadband Routing & Switching group.
http://www.marconi.com/html/products/independenttestresultsbxr.htm

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Lumentis Delivers Single-Slot, Single-Card SONET/SDH System

Lumentis AB, a start-up based in Stockholm, introduced an add-drop and terminal SDH/SONET network solution over CWDM or DWDM wavelengths. The compact device provides a standards-compliant SDH/SONET VC-4 switching system with G.703 standard physical interfaces, standard G.781 synchronization, standard G.813 jitter and wander, and performance monitoring according to G.826. With a line rate of STM-16/OC-48, each wavelength can carry a logical SDH/SONET point-to-point, bus, or ring network with STM-1/OC-3 and STM-4/OC-12 add-drops.
http://www.lumentis.se

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