BT Announces Further Wholesale ADSL Price Cuts

BT cut the price for its wholesale, consumer IPStream ADSL service from £14.75 to £13.00. Wholesale business ADSL services were cut by more than 50%. Nearly 20 service providers, including Demon, Zen internet and Nildram, have already passed savings on to their customers. BT said there are currently more than 100 ISPs using its IPStream service to provide ADSL to more than 800,000 customers. The pricing changes were first announced in early April.
http://www.bt.com

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Optinel Launches Optical Transport System for MSOs

Optinel Systems, based in Elkridge, Maryland, launched its PLEXiS MFX Transport System for cable MSOs. The company said its system is capable of supporting from just a few to more than 60,000 video streams over distances of greater than 300 miles (500 km). The optical transport system accommodates multiple traffic formats, including Gigabit Ethernet, SONET, QAM and analog video. Both CWDM and DWDM are offered in the single-chassis system.
http://www.optinel.com

• In December 2002, Optinel raised $22.4 million in second round venture funding. Investors include Court Square Ventures, Teknoinvest, Birchmere Ventures, SilverHaze Partners, Four Seasons Ventures, the Dinner Club, Isis Capital, OCG Ventures and Novak Biddle Venture Partners.
• 
  
  In October 2002, Optinel announced that Adelphia Communications had successfully completed its field trial of Optinel's PLEXiS MFX Transport System. The field trial demonstrated a drop and forward network architecture utilizing Optinel's Fractional Optical Multiplexer, which enables all-optical sharing of traffic among several sites.

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UTStarcom Signs $20 Million with Jiangsu China Telecom

UTStarcom announced a $20 million expansion contract with China Telecom in Jiangsu province. The contract covers further deployment of UTStarcom's IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) platform in the city of Suzhou. This expansion contract comes just four months after the initial launch of iPAS service in January 2003 in Suzhou, where subscriber numbers have already topped 200,000 customers.
http://www.utstar.com

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Tyco Global Network Interconnects at telx in NYC

Tyco Telecommunications is interconnecting its global fiber network at the telx "SuperNode" facility at 60 Hudson Street in New York City. Telx's carrier-neutral interconnectivity service provides direct access to over 100 network providers. The Tyco Global Network encompasses some of the world's largest undersea cable systems. Telx, which operates more than 40,000 square feet of secure facilities at 60 Hudson Street, describes its SuperNode as akin to a "seat on the exchange," the world's largest marketplace for communications services.
http://www.telx.com

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Motorola Introduces 900MHz Instant Messaging Appliance

Motorola introduced an instant messaging appliance that operates on the 900MHz ISM band, the same technology as used in many cordless telephones. Motorola's handheld IMfree device, which is about the size of a CD case, is equipped with a large display and full QWERTY keyboard (similar in appearance to a Blackberry 2-way pager). Initially compatible with AOL Instant Messenger and AIM Buddy Lists, the device allows instant messaging addicts to roam throughout the house much like they would with a cordless phone. An IMfree base station connects with the stationary home PC or notebook. Each IMfree base station can accommodate up to seven IMfree handheld units at one time. There are no monthly service fees other than the existing Internet connection. Motorola announced an estimated street price of $99 for the IMfree handheld unit, an IMfree base station with attached USB cable, rechargeable NiMH Battery Pack and an AC power adapter.http://promo.motorola.com/imfree/index.html

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Calypso Wireless Files Application for NASDAQ Listing

Calypso Wireless, which offers a video phone capable of switching back and forth between cellular networks and Wi-Fi networks, plans to file an application to become listed on the NASDAQ Market by the end of 2003. Calypso Wireless (OTC:CLYW) is currently traded over the counter. Calypso Wireless has previously disclosed plans to supply its mobile phones and network systems to China Telecom.
http://www.calypsowireless.com

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Qwest Pays $6.5 Million Fine for Violating Long Distance Ban

Qwest Communications admitted to violating a federal ban on providing long distance services in its local service region prior to receiving FCC authorization. Qwest has agreed to make a $6.5 million payment to the United States Treasury.
http://www.fcc.gov

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Telstra Selects Marconi's SmartPhotoniX and 10Gbps SDH

Telstra has selected Marconi's SmartPhotoniX and 10Gbps SDH products for its inter-capital, metropolitan and regional networks across Australia. Marconi will supply hardware as well as commissioning and support services to Telstra when the carrier upgrades its transmission network to 10Gbps capacity. Telstra's existing 2.5Gbps transmission network already includes a large portion of Marconi platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.marconi.com
http://www.telstra.com

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Marconi Reports Core Sales of £426 million, Restructuring Almost Complete

Marconi reported core sales of £426 million for the three month period ending 31-March-2003, down 7% from the previous quarter and 4% lower excluding the impact of core business disposals and closures. Some highlights from the quarter:

• the company said market conditions "remained tough" across all major geographic regions and worsened considerably in the Middle East. Relative stability in Marconi's core European markets - UK, Germany and Italy - was offset by a substantially reduced level of sales in the Middle East, partly due to the completion of a major contract in Saudi Arabia. Sales in the US were down 8%, where an increase in sales of Broadband Routing and Switching (BBRS) equipment was more than offset mainly by lower service revenues in outside plant and power due to continued CAPEX reductions from US service providers.
• 
  
  overall Broadband Routing and Switching (BBRS) sales increased to £37 million, compared to £32 million in the prior quarter
• 
  
  Marconi's ten largest customers for the quarter were BellSouth, BT, Telecom Italia, Telkom South Africa, US Federal Government, UK Government, Verizon, Viag Interkom (Germany), Vodafone Group and Wind (Italy). In aggregate, these customers accounted for 59% of sales, a similar level as in each of the 3 previous quarters
• 
  
  it was the second consecutive quarter of positive cash flow
• 
  
  gross margins improved to 24% from 22% despite the lower sales volume
• 
  
  the company's core operating cost annual run-rate (before exceptional items) has been reduced to around £490 million from the previous run-rate target of £520 million
• 
  
  the company's financial restructuring is almost complete
• 
  
  Marconi Corporation plc shares, warrants and notes are expected to start trading on the London Stock Exchange on 19 May 2003

http://www.marconi.com

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Broadcom Develops "TCP/IP Chimney Offload" for Enterprise Servers

Broadcom is working with Microsoft on a "Chimney Offload" technology for enterprise servers equipped with next-generation high-speed Ethernet adapters. Microsoft's Chimney Offload architecture would redirect most of the tasks related to TCP/IP processing to the network controller, reducing networking-related CPU overhead. The companies said other approaches to TCP/IP offload technology have not addressed the issue of seamless integration with the operating system's TCP/IP networking stack. The result is two or more independent and different TCP/IP implementations running on a single server. Broadcom will offer an adapter optimized to interoperate with Microsoft's Chimney architecture.
http://www.broadcom.com
http://www.microsoft.com

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IEEE Focuses on 10 GigE over Copper

A new IEEE task force has been established to develop the standard for 10-Gigabit copper Ethernet. The goal is to provide a lower-cost option for interconnecting equipment located within roughly 15 meters of twin axial cable, typically within a stack or between equipment racks. Work began in November 2002 and the initial study group has been turned into the new IEEE P802.3ak 10GBASE-CX4 Task Force. More than 30 companies have participated in the development work so far. The group is led by Dan Dove of the HP ProCurve Networking Business.
http://www.standards.ieee.org/http://www.hp.com/go/hpprocurve

• The IEEE P802.3ak 10GBASE-CX4 Task Force:
  http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/3/ak/index.html

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PCTEL Offers Software for Turning Wi-Fi Clients into Access Points/Routers

PCTEL announced a software package that permits a Wi-Fi enabled notebook or desktop PC to function as a Wi-Fi access point and router using a wired Ethernet connection to the Internet. PCTEL will offer is software as a bundled solution from manufacturers of retail 802.11 client adapters. It also hopes to license the technology to 802.11 chipset suppliers and motherboard manufacturers as a value added option, or to license the software to wire line broadband service providers as part of their home networking solution.
http://www.pctel.com

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Internap Japan Names NTT Veteran as New CEO

Internap Japan Co., a joint venture between Internap and Japan's NTT Group, named Mitsuo Yoshida as its new CEO. Yoshida recently completed a five-year assignment in Singapore as Director of Group strategy for NTT Communications Corporation, where he was NTT's chief representative at StarHub Pte Ltd., a joint venture established by the NTT Group, Singapore Technologies Group and British Telecom, together with other Singapore-based businesses. Internap Japan provides managed, high-performance connectivity services to major Japanese and multinational enterprises, financial and content provider clients in Japan, including Compaq, Global Ex, Polycom, Adobe, Bristol Pharmaceutical, Fuji Zerox, Reuters Japan and ORIX Corporation.
http://www.internap.com

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Ixia Enhances Hardware Platform with Seven New Products

Ixia introduced seven new products that address performance validation requirements for Ethernet, ATM, wireless and security testing. New hardware products include an Ethernet Load Module with Layer 2-7 testing capabilities, a two-port ATM Load Module for validation of broadband access devices and routers, and a 10 Gigabit Ethernet UniPHY Load Module that combines the test functions for OC-192 POS, OC-192 Bit Error Rate Testing (BERT), 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet WAN. Ixia also introduced four new software test suites that run on its TXS series of Ethernet Load Modules. These new software products include: IxSAN, an iSCSI performance validation tool; IxGGSN, which validates the performance and scalability of Gateway GPRS Switching Nodes; IxAuthenticate, which helps switch manufacturers validate the operation of 802.1x port-based authentication; and a Virtual Network Interface Card, which makes it possible to send traffic created by any Linux PC through any Ixia Load Module port with a port-CPU.
http://www.ixiacom.com

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T-Mobile USA Awards $300 Million Network Upgrade to Nortel Networks

T-Mobile USA awarded a four year contract valued at US$300 million to Nortel Networks for GSM, GPRS, EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) and packet core Wireless Data Network upgrades and associated professional services. The contract covers core and radio access products from Nortel Networks' Univity portfolio across existing T-Mobile USA network footprints, including the New York, Chicago, Dallas, Milwaukee, Denver, Detroit, and Salt Lake City markets. Nortel Networks has been a supplier to T-Mobile since the company's inception as VoiceStream Wireless in 1995.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com
http://www.t-mobile.com

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Alcatel Builds Network for Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro

Alcatel was awarded a $10 million contract by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro for the East-West Coast Interconnect Project, the final phase of the deployment of a digital microwave radio network for the Canadian utility. The East-West Coast Interconnect Project will complete a province-wide network rollout of high speed data and voice links between the utility company's Energy Control Center, generating stations and remote locations monitoring power delivery to customers. The network uses the Alcatel Microwave Digital Radio (MDR)-8000, the Alcatel 1603 SONET multiplexer products along with third party equipment. Alcatel also provided network planning and design, site construction, equipment installation and testing, and customer training.
http://www.alcatel.com

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Charter Communications Adds Cable Modem Users, Loses Video Subscribers

Charter Communications, the third largest US cable operator, reported Q1 revenue of $1.178 billion, an increase of 9.7% over last year's first quarter. Net loss applicable to common stock and loss per share were $182 million and $0.62, respectively. Charter said it made "steady progress operationally" during Q1 principally as the result of aggressive efforts to build its cable modem customer base while also increasing service and package prices for video and data offerings. Other highlights from Q1:

• Charter added 134,200 cable modem customers in Q1, giving it a total of 1,272,300 subscribers as of 31-March-2003, up from 657,900 a year ago.
• 
  
  Charter lost approximately 50,600 analog video customers, as compared to a loss of approximately 157,500 analog video customers in Q1 2002, and 68,800 analog video customers in Q4 2002. The loss includes 13,000 customers previously served by Charter's transitional satellite service outside its network footprint. Charter has discontinued this satellite service.
• 
  
  Charter lost 31,700 digital customers during Q1 2003 but experienced a 2% increase in the average revenue for digital service. The company said its strategy is to focus on customers that are more likely to buy higher revenue and margin digital services.
• 
  
  Revenue generating units (RGUs) totaled approximately 10,474,400 at the end of Q1, up by 51,900 for the quarter.
• 
  
  Due to a substantial reduction in CAPEX, cash required for all operating and investing activities totaled $69 million in Q1 2003 as compared to $502 million for the same period a year ago. The company said it is moving to a "just in time" philosophy with regard to network equipment deployments.
• 
  
  There was a 10% reduction in workforce carried out in Q1.
• 
  
  Charter said it remains committed addressing the heavy debt load on its balance sheet but did not disclose any corporate restructuring plans.

http://www.charter.com

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Vocera Raises $8 Million for its Wi-Fi Voice Badges

Vocera Communications, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, raised $8 million in a fourth round of funding for its enterprise voice communications system combining 802.11b wireless , VoIP and speech recognition. Vocera's system is designed to enable mobile workers within networked buildings or campuses to instantly connect and communicate with one another using simple voice commands. The system consists of Vocera Server Software residing on a premise server, and Vocera Communications Badges, which can be clipped to a shirt pocket or collar, or worn on a lanyard. The new funding was led by Granite Global Ventures and included participation by all current investors, including Venrock Associates, RRE Ventures, Vanguard Ventures, and Avalon Ventures.
http://www.vocera.com

• Vocera is headed by Dr. Julie Shimer, who previously was Vice President and General Manager of 3Com's Residential Connectivity Group. Prior to 3Com, Shimer spent three years as Vice President and General Manager of Motorola's Paging Division.

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Lockheed Martin and Spectrum Astro Set Sights on Next Gen GPS

Lockheed Martin and Spectrum Astro formed a partnership to pursue the development of GPS III, a next generation global positioning satellite system. The mission requirements for GPS III would be to provide "hyper-accurate" positioning, anti-jam capabilities, velocity and timing data with a high level of security. The system would serve both military and civilian applications.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com
http://www.spectrumastro.com

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AT&T Offers Unlimited Local/LD Calling in California

AT&T began promoting an unlimited local and long distance residential voice service in California priced at $48.95 per month. In addition, consumers can select four calling features at no extra charge from a list that includes Caller ID, Call Waiting, and 3-Way Calling features. As a sign-up incentive, AT&T is offering a $5 credit on each monthly statement for the first 12 months.
http://www.att.com

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