OFC Service Provider Summit: BellSouth Highlights Network Evolution

BellSouth does not look at the optical part of its network in a vacuum. It is just one part of an interconnected network, said Bill Smith, Chief Product Development and Technical Officer of Bell South, speaking at OFC's Service Provider Summit in Atlanta this week. While it would be nice to create an all-new network on a fresh sheet of paper, reality requires a mix of solutions that integrate old and new, DSL, fiber and wireless. In addition, Smith said the ongoing operation of all network elements is more difficult than the initial rollout...

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Atheros Names New CEO

Atheros Communications named Dr. Craig Barratt as its new president and CEO, replacing Rich Redelfs, who will take on the new role of vice chairman of the board of directors. Barratt previously was vice president of technology for Atheros, and before that, he served as executive vice president and general manager at ArrayComm. http://www.atheros....

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Packet Design Raises $14.25 Million for IP Routing Control Plane Product

Packet Design Inc., a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, raised $14.25 million in Series B venture funding for its IP routing control plane developments. Packet Design's initial product, Route Explorer, was introduced in May 2002 as the first product to look into the IP "cloud" and leverage the routing protocols to gather, display and analyze routing-path information -- both in real time and historically -- enabling network managers to detect IP anomalies early and resolve them more quickly. Route Explorer has been shipping since mid-2002....

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MeshNetworks Targets is P2P Wireless Architecture at Municipal Transport

MeshNetworks, a start-up based in Maitland, Florida, announced a VAR agreement with Viasys, a leading provider of infrastructure development and maintenance services for the transportation and power utility industries. The companies will position MeshNetworks' ad hoc, peer-to-peer mobile broadband architecture to help municipalities, counties and Departments of Transportation overcome the challenges of rolling out fixed and mobile wireless data networks. MeshNetworks also provides geo-location data without using GPS. Viasys installs and maintains...

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MetaSolv Enhances its Service Activation Software

MetaSolv Software announced a set of enhancements to its service activation capabilities, including:IP services device support for Alcatel 7670 MPLS switches to activate MPLS VPNs and QoS; IP services device support for Cisco Catalyst layer 2 switches, including VLAN discovery and enabling activation of VLANs, QoS, and other CatOS features; IP services device support for Cisco Modular QoS CLI for policy driven activation of rich QoS features to enable delivery of VoIP, video and other multimedia services; Full support for the OSS Through Java...

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SMC's High Power Wi-Fi Adapter Offers 4X Transmit Power

SMC Networks introduced the first product in a new series of "EliteConnect High Power" wireless networking products: an 802.11b High Power Wireless PC Card. with up to 200 milliWatts (mW) of transmit power -- nearly four times the power of standard PC cards and twice the power offered by any other PC card on the market. SMC said its new Wi-Fi adapter has an operating range of up to 2,700 feet -- almost three times greater than standard 802.11b wireless clients. It can also overcome significant indoor multipath distortion to provide improvements...

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NetCentrex Supplies Softswitch for Lyse Tele's Triple-Play Service

Lyse Tele, a telecom company in the Southwest region of Norway, selected NetCentrex's MyCall platform for residential broadband IP telephony services. The NetCentrex softswitch solution provides self-service provisioning through the web and a voice portal, multiple call forward and voicemail. Lyse Tele, which is a subsidiary of the local power utility company, is building a fiber network to provide "triple-play" voice, video and data service. During the initial phase, Lyse Tele is providing flat rate Internet access (10 mbps), 40 channels of...

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Japan's ACCA Networks Deploys Juniper E-series

ACCA Networks, a Japanese DSL provider, is deploying Juniper Networks' E-series edge routers to support its consumer ADSL and premium enterprise DSL services. ACCA provides ADSL to major ISPs and premium DSL to carriers offering wide area Ethernet and IP VPN services. ACCA plans to expand by extending services to smaller ISPs and enterprise customers using the E-series platform's virtual routing capabilities. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.juniper....

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Unaxis Chooses Equant to Provide Global IP Data Network

Equant has built a 22-country IP VPN for the Unaxis Group, a Swiss information technology company. Equant said its MPLS backbone allows data traffic to be routed directly between Unaxis branch offices without having to pass through a server in Europe. The performance gain is especially notable between the company's Asian offices. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.equant....

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Level 3 Provides Packet Ethernet for Sony's EverQuest Multiplayer Game

Level 3 Communications is providing (3)Packet Ethernet service to Sony Online Entertainment to support the online game "EverQuest" and its future releases. Sony's "EverQuest" is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that potentially involves thousands of individual players who participate by taking on the roles of characters known as "avatars." The (3)Packet service is carried over Level 3's MPLS network. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.Level3.comLevel 3 is the major provider of network services in North America and...

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Essient Extends Reach of XFP Capabilities to 40 Km

Essient Photonics, a start-up based in Scotland, announced that its Electro Absorption Modulator (EAM) technology could enable support of 40 km transmission within the constraints of the XFP specification. Essient has developed indium phosphide (InP)-based technology that enables integrated modulation, detection, and amplification components for 10 Gbps systems. Essient said its first product, an ultra-low power Electro Absorption Modulator at 10 Gbps, enables the overall module power characteristics to be reduced by more than 70% and the size...

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AT&T Signs National Agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield

AT&T announced a new two-year, multi-million dollar national agreement to provide networking services to Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) and its 42 member organizations. Included for the first time in the national agreement are AT&T Business local services, managed and professional services, and ATM connectivity. In total, the Blue Plans spend more than $200 million a year on telecommunications services. http://www.att....

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America Online Launches Voicemail Service

America Online is launching a new premium service that enables its members to listen to their home voice messages online and their AOL e-mails over the telephone. Customers will hear a "You've Got Voicemail" message whenever a new message arrives or when they log-on. Dial-up users will be able to receive voicemail for the telephone number they are using to connect to AOL. They are also able to retrieve home voicemail messages and e-mail messages by phone. The service also provides a caller log tracking the last 100 messages received. Separate...

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WorldCom Says January Operating Results Indicate Profit

In it monthly financial update to the bankruptcy court, WorldCom reported $2.16 billion in revenue versus $2.20 billion in December 2002 and income from continuing operations of $188 million versus a loss of $47 million in December. Net income for January was $155 million versus a net loss of $580 million in December. January reorganization items were $37 million versus $514 million in December. WorldCom ended January with $2.8 billion in cash on hand, an increase of approximately $300 million for the month. Michael Capellas, WorldCom chairman...

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