Monday, May 12, 2003

NTT Sees Revenues Decline, but Returns to Profitability with Broadband Growth

The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Group posted a profit of 233.4 billion yen (US$2 billion) for its recently completed fiscal year, reversing a loss of 835 billion yen for the prior year. The improved performance was largely attributed to cost cutting measures, while the company acknowledged continued fixed line losses and declining voice revenues in a new era of broadband competition. Highlights from some of NTT's major divisions include:


NTT East returned to profitability, reporting operating revenues of 2,352.2 billion yen (down 8.6% from the previous year). Recurring profit amounted to 63.3 billion yen (up 743.2% from the previous year). Net profit came to 3.0 billion yen (compared to a net loss of 186.7 billion yen in the previous year).


NTT East observed that the telecom market structure in Japan has dramatically changed over the past year with the wider adoption of broadband Internet access and a rapid shift from fixed lines to mobile and IP communications. Telecom carriers compete for subscriptions by lowering ADSL rates, IP telephones are increasing in number, and electric power companies continue to enter the fiber optics broadband-access business.


IPv6 trial services were launched targeting B FLET'S optical access customers


NTT East has established a new subsidiary, NTT BroadbandPlatform, to provide wireless LAN access service.


NTT East has purchased an equity interest in JSAT Corporation and transferred its satellite assets to JSAT to provide a number of new services, especially to outlying islands.


NTT East is continuing its "management rationalization" efforts and expanding the outsourcing of work to various subsidiaries or outside parties. Under this approach, NTT Service Prefecture Co. is responsible for sales and customer service work, NTT-ME Prefecture Co. is responsible for facilities operation, and NTT Business Associe Prefecture Co. is responsible for shared support issues.


NTT West also returned to profitability, reporting operating revenues of 2,215.0 billion yen (down 8.0% from the previous year), and ordinary income of 44.9 billion yen (compared to 170.4 billion yen in ordinary losses in the previous year). Net profit totaled 19.3 billion yen (compared to 355.3 billion yen in net losses in the previous year).


NTT West noted that the pace of competition in its markets has accelerated with the rapid growth of subscribers to ADSL, CATV and optical access services. In response, NTT West has lowered the price and boosted the throughput rates for its ADSL and B-FLET optical access services. The company has also launched a flat-rate WLAN access service ("FLET'S SPOT").


NTT West helped establish NTT SOLMARE Corp., which offers a content distribution service using terminals connected to optical networks and installed in public places.


NTT West is teaming with Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co. to distribute a broadband-only "web cinema" service


Under its ongoing restructuring, NTT West will focus only on basic operations and strategy, while outsourcing other operations -- including day-to-day customer service, facilities operations, SOHO and mass marketing, and shared operations -- to newly-established group companies.


NTT Communications reported operating revenues of 1,152.0 billion yen, down 9.7% or 123.0 billion yen year on year, recurring profit of 143.2 billion yen, up 90.6% or 68.1 billion yen, and net income of 13.6 billion yen, compared with a net loss of 410.7 billion yen a year earlier.


NTT Communications said it has attained its goal of becoming a full-fledged "Global IP Company," as its ratio of revenues from data/IP services versus voice services (known as the benchmark D/V ratio) passed the 1:1 mark.


Overall data revenues declined 6.7% to 637.3 billion yen, as demand for IP-based services steadily grew, mainly among the company's "OCN" ISP services, but revenues for leased-circuit and packet-transmission services decreased.


Overall voice revenues came to 514.7 billion yen, down 13.1% or 77.5 billion yen. The main factors for the decline included the fixed-line market's continuing shrinkage, paralleled by a decrease in general telephone subscribers, as well as the migration of traffic from fixed to mobile and fierce price competition.
http://www.ntt.co.jp

Cablevision Reaches 22% Penetration for Cable Modem Subscriptions

Cablevision added 83,700 high-speed data (HSD) cable modem customers in Q1 2003, giving it a total of 852,800 customers. This represents a 22% penetration rate for its high-speed data service, compared to 17% in the same period a year earlier. Cablevision added nearly 185,000 digital video customers in Q1, giving it a total of 401,400 such subscribers, a 14% penetration rate. However, there was a loss of 11,600 cable customers in the quarter, although figures for March, April and May indicate a return to subscriber gains.
http://www.cablevision.com
  • Cablevision is deploying Internet Photonics' LightStack MX and LightHandler optical Ethernet and WDM transport platform as key elements of its video on-demand network rollout. The LightStack MX is a 10 Gbps platform that can multiplex up to eight GbE services onto a single 10 Gbps wavelength. The LightHandler is an all-optical, passive DWDM management platform that can be added to existing SONET networks to add up to 320 Gbps of capacity. The equipment is used to provide a 10 Gbps DWDM optical transport infrastructure between Cablevision's content headend and the remote distribution hubs that connect to customers.

Cablevision Selects Siemens for Cable VoIP Solution

Cablevision, which serves 3 million households located in the New York metropolitan area, selected Siemens' SURPASS platform to support its new "Optimum Voice" IP telephony service. Cablevision aims to begin deployment of a true voice-over-cable, IP-based solution over its HFC network. The Siemens' solution consists of the SURPASS hiQ softswitch as a call management server, the SURPASS hiG trunking gateway, and the SURPASS media server, all of which are compliant with CableLabs' PacketCable standard. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.icn.siemens.com

Avanex to Acquire Alcatel's and Corning's Optical Components Divisions

Avanex will acquire Alcatel's and Corning's optical components businesses in combined transactions valued at approximately $63.5 million. The deal brings together the optical businesses of three of the industry's leading providers of optical components, modules and subsystems for fiber optic transmission networks. After the mergers, the new Avanex would offer products that address optical wavelength generation and modulation, multiplexing and demultiplexing, signal amplification, wavelength routing and dispersion compensation. Alcatel and Corning will assign approximately 1,400 patents to Avanex and additionally license several thousand patents to Avanex as part of the transaction. In return, Alcatel and Corning will receive as consideration 28% and 17% respectively of Avanex's outstanding common stock of the post-transaction company.


Alcatel will contribute its key optical component operations in France and the UK. Alcatel's optical component division had sales of EUR 7.3 million for Q1 2003. The division has 950 employees. Key products include lasers, photodetectors, optical amplifiers, transponders and key passive devices such as arrayed waveguide gratings and Fiber Bragg grating filters. As part of the deal, Alcatel would also contribute over $110 million in cash and Avanex will be designated a key supplier to Alcatel for a 3 year period.


Assets to be purchased from Corning include optical amplifier, dispersion compensation, and micro optics operations located in New York and Corning modulator operations located in Italy. These businesses have 490 employees. Key products include optical amplifiers, dispersion compensation modules, Lithium Niobate and electro-absorptive modulators, and micro optics products. Quarterly sales amounted to approximately $11 million in Q1 2003.


The new Avanex expects to have over $250 million in cash and 1,600 employees on the closing date.
http://www.avanex.com

Nortel Networks Teams with Ubiquity for Open VoIP Environments

Nortel Networks announced several key initiatives in its Succession Interactive Multimedia Server (IMS) programmability plan designed to create an open application environment for packet voice and multimedia applications. The initiatives include a joint marketing and customer engagement partnership with Ubiquity Software Corporation. The two companies will conduct session initiation protocol (SIP) interoperability testing between Ubiquity's SIP Application Server (SAS) and Nortel Networks Succession Interactive Multimedia Server (IMS). Nortel Networks will also support JAIN SIP Servlets as a means to give application developers access to IMS resources "without needing a detailed understanding of all the underlying technology."http://www.nortelnetworks.com

Agilent Begins Shipping First Hot-Pluggable DWDM Transceivers

Agilent Technologies began commercial shipments of the industry's first hot-pluggable DWDM transceivers, enabling network service providers to plug in a DWDM transceiver exactly when and where it's needed, and at any wavelength, thereby reducing inventory costs. Agilent is offering two such hot-pluggable transceivers to provide transmit and receive interfaces for DWDM switch and router equipment, multi-service provisioning, and optical transmission platforms. Agilent's hot-pluggable DWDM transceivers provide SONET/SDH-compliant links at 2.488 Gbps and are compatible with other standard data rates such as Gigabit Ethernet. The transceivers are mountable either through the front panel or directly on the host line card.
http://www.agilent.com

Sycamore Reports Quarterly Revenue of $10.6 Million

Sycamore Networks reported quarterly revenue of $10.6 million, compared with $13.6 million for the same period last year. Net loss for the quarter was $11.9 million or $(0.04) per share, compared with a net loss of $22.8 million last year. Sycamore said it continues to focus on technology innovation and customer relationships. It recently signed an outsourced manufacturing contract with Plexus for its optical switches.
http://www.sycamorenet.com

Nuera Raises $20 Million for its VoIP Gateways

Nuera Communications raised $20 million in new funding to support is VoIP infrastructure solutions for cable television, broadband, and telecommunications service providers. Nuera manufactures carrier-grade VoIP gateways and softswitches. Its media gateway has been deployed by Comcast, Eastern Broadband Telecom (Taiwan), StarHub (Singapore), and Liberty Media (Puerto Rico). The investment was led by Comcast Interactive Capital, Cox Communications, Sandler Capital Management, and Argo Global Capital. Existing Nuera investors HarbourVest Partners, Bay Partners, Gleacher & Co., Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, SAIC Venture Capital, and J.F. Shea also participated in this round.
http://www.nuera.com

Howard Janzen Joins Sprint to head Global Markets Group

Howard E. Janzen has been named president of Sprint's Global Markets Group (GMG), responsible for leading the division's domestic and international marketing, product development, sales, and support services. Janzen recently served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Williams Communications, where he led the company in completing its next-generation fiber network.
Sprint also announced two other key appointments. Michael W. Stout has been named executive vice president and chief information officer, responsible for providing strategic vision to the Information Technology Services organization. His primary focus will be on the development and deployment of the company's information technology resources. Stout previously served as vice president and chief technology and information officer for GE Capital.


In addition, Bruce N. Hawthorne has been named executive vice president and chief staff officer, responsible for the management and functional integration of all Sprint staff operations. Hawthorne previously was a senior partner in King & Spalding, where he served as Sprint's lead outside counsel for virtually all of its significant transactions since the early 1990s.
http://www.sprint.com

Gary Forsee Outlines Sprint's Top 5 Priorities for 2003

In a shareholder meeting, Sprint's new chairman, president and CEO, Gary Forsee, outlined his top 5 management priorities:


  1. Grow top line revenues faster than peers in the market

  2. Improve customer service and satisfaction

  3. Protect and improve Sprint's bottom-line results

  4. Nurture and develop a culture of winning at Sprint

  5. Build on the company's strong brand



Bundled service offers will play a key role in future plans. Currently, 49% of Sprint's residential local customers subscribe to Sprint long distance, around 30% of Sprint's residential long distance customers also buy Sprint's PCS service, and about 18% of Sprint's PCS consumer customers also buy long distance from Sprint.


Forsee believes a recombination of the Sprint PCS and Sprint FON stocks is likely at some point, although the company has not made any firm decisions yet to do so.
http://www.sprint.com

Spirent Adds Web Services Testing to Avalanche Product Line

Spirent Communications has added Web Services testing features to its Avalanche 2200 product, allowing enterprises to more fully stress test and validate their Web applications under realistic network and user scenarios. The new features include the ability to test SOAP messaging, trace files sent and received, and monitor correlations between response time and server CPU utilization or server memory utilization.
http://www.spirentcom.com/avalanche

Equant Offers GPRS Access for VPN Customers

Equant began offering General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) access for its corporate VPN customers. The service allows traveling employees to connect securely to their networks when a phone line is not available. Equant will provide the 2.5G connectivity in partnership with mobile service providers, including Orange, in Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and Russia.
http://www.equant.com

Verizon to Deploy 1,000 Wi-Fi Hotspots in NYC, Free Access for DSL Subscribers

Verizon confirmed plans to activate 1,000 Wi-Fi HotSpots by year-end in New York City. More than 150 HotSpots are already up and running. The hotspots are at public phone locations across the city. Verizon Online's DSL and dial-up subscribers will have free access to the Wi-Fi high-speed Internet connectivity. The service is currently not available to people who are not Verizon customers. Verizon said it is evaluating future deployment of its Wi-Fi network in other cities. A map of Verizon HotSpot locations can be found online.
http://www.verizon.net/wifi/

BellSouth Moves to interLATA MPLS backbone

BellSouth said it is the first RBOC to utilize a region-wide, interLATA MPLS backbone. The BellSouth Regional IP Backbone (BRIB), which has POPs in all major areas of the BellSouth territory, uses RFC 2547 compliant MPLS-architecture and other MPLS mechanisms to provide control of end-to-end services, traffic redundancy and immediate expansion capabilities. The BRIB also allows BellSouth to offer and improve advanced end-to-end information services such as recently announced BellSouth Managed Network VPN Service and upcoming VoIP solutions. Currently, BellSouth is routing all of its Dedicated Internet Access and DSL-based Internet services traffic over the new backbone. BellSouth is using Juniper Networks' T640 and M160 platforms at the network core to manage the flow of customer IP traffic throughout BellSouth's region, with three central hubs located in Miami, Atlanta and New Orleans. In addition, BellSouth has adopted the Cisco 10000 and 12000 Series IP/MPLS platforms to aggregate customer traffic and ensure each customer receives required service attributes such as QoS, security, accounting, routing policies and VPN policy.
http://www.bellsouth.com

Conexant to Complete Mindspeed Spin-Off Ahead of Schedule

Conexant Systems plans to complete the tax-free spin-off to shareholders of Mindspeed Technologies, Internet infrastructure business, ahead of schedule on 27-June-03. Mindspeed's three key product families include multiservice access solutions designed to support voice and data services across wireline and wireless networks, T/E carrier physical- and link-layer solutions, and ATM/MPLS network processors, complemented by a family of high performance analog transmission devices and switching solutions. Conexant will focus on silicon for digital entertainment and information networks for the home and small office. Conexant product lines include DSL and cable modem silicon, home network processors, broadcast video encoders and decoders, digital set-top box components and systems solutions, and its foundation dial-up modem business.
http://www.conexant.com
http://www.mindspeed.com

Verizon Online Moves to MSN 8 Broadband Service, Plans Voice Call Portal

Verizon Online debuted MSN 8 Internet service for its DSL subscribers. The service results from an agreement between Verizon and MSN to deliver co-branded high-speed DSL Internet access and services. The companies are planning a Verizon Central member services portal with a set of tools that allows customers to fully integrate their e-mail, address books, to-do lists and more with online call tracking, call dialing, voice mail, call forwarding and short messaging. Other highlighted features in MSN 8 include junk e-mail filters, parental controls, e-mail virus protection service, shared browser functionality and online storage.
http://www.verizon.net

Nortel Networks Advances VoIP Interoperability

Nortel Networks launched an interoperability program focused on end-to-end VoIP solutions and SIP-based multimedia applications for enterprises and residential subscribers. The new program will focus on enabling interoperability of Nortel Networks Succession Interactive Multimedia Server (IMS), Succession MX and Succession Communication Server 2000 superclass softswitches with key third-party products. The program provides access to state-of-the-art laboratory facilities configured to represent `real-world' carrier networks.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

MSN Messenger Tops 100 Million Users, Enhancements Planned

Microsoft's MSN Messenger service recently topped 100 million active users per month worldwide. A new version planned for this summer will add a new user interface, personalization options, integrated games and video chatting capabilities. For Windows XP users, video conferencing, or synchronized video and audio will be provided in the new version.
http://www.microsoft.com

Microsoft Positions Xbox for Digital Entertainment Lifestyle

At this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Microsoft unveiled its lineup of new games and enhancements for its online service, saying its vision is to expand the definition of video game entertainment by driving the convergence of content and services. Microsoft is also planning to launch an Xbox "Music Mixer" device to enable DVD playback, CD playback, photo viewing, gaming, music storage, online gameplay, enhanced party visualizers and even karaoke on Xbox. The device will debut this holiday in the United States for an estimated retail price of $39.99.


The online enhancements include: Xbox Live Alerts, which issues instant messages such as invitations to play to gamers via MSN Messenger, cell phone, PDA or pager; Xbox Live Web, a website with stats and friends lists; Xbox Live Aware Games; more games that allow players to be logged onto the network even if they are in single player mode; Teams and Competition, which makes it easier for gamers to form teams and hold tournaments online; and Xbox Live Now, a voice chat room for gamers.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/may03/05-12E3OverallPR.asp

Tellabs to Acquire Vivace for its Multiservice Edge Switches

Tellabs announced plans to acquire Vivace Networks, a start-up building multiservice edge switches, for $135 million in cash and employee stock options.


The acquisition enables Tellabs to expand into the global service provider edge router and switch market, estimated at $3 billion in 2003 and growing to $5 billion by 2005, according the companies. Vivace is currently shipping two multiservice IP edge switches that combine native Layer 2 switching and Layer 3 routing capabilities, enabling Frame Relay, ATM, Ethernet and IP services to be transported over an MPLS core backbone. The Vivace platforms will be matched with the Tellabs 5000, 6000 and 7000 series of transport and access systems.


The acquisition is expected to close in Q3. Tellabs plans to retain Vivace Networks' employees and offices in San Jose. Vivace CEO Ken Koenig will become Tellabs senior vice president, advanced data products, and report to Ed Kennedy, president of Tellabs North America.
http://www.tellabs.com
http://www.vivacenetworks.com
  • Vivace Networks' Multiservice IP switches are designed for delivering native Frame Relay, ATM, Ethernet and IP services. The Vivace platform, which is already in deployment by a Tier 1 US carrier, uses five custom ASICs to provide deterministic Layer 2 switching and “hard�? QoS with Layer 3 routing at 10 Gbps rates. The system's deep packet processing tracks millions of carrier-defined customer flows and provides service differentiation down to the application layer.


  • The Vivace platform is currently deployed by a Tier 1 IXC in the US for carrying Frame Relay and ATM traffic, as well as by a Tier 1 PTT in Asia for carrying Ethernet.


  • Vivace's flagship Viva5100 switch scales to 320 Gbps of full-duplex switching in half of a 7 foot rack. A multi-chassis system could scale up to 256 customer ports at 10 Gbps. The company is also shipping a Viva1050 model with 16 Gbps of port density and measuring 3 rack units in height.


  • Vivace Networks has raised $120 million in venture funding since its inception in July 1999. Principle investors include Brentwood Venture Capital, Foundation Capital, IVP, JP Morgan, Meritech Capital Partners, Putnam Investments, Redpoint Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, and USBancorp Piper Jaffray.


  • Vivace was founded by Ken Koenig (CEO) and Mitri Halabi (VP Engineering), both formerly of OnStream Networks, a developer of ATM WAN access products that was acquired by 3Com. Its technical team also includes Andrew G. Malis (CTO), who formerly served with Lucent Technologies / Ascend / Cascade, where he helped shape MPLS, IP, Frame Relay and ATM technology.