Equinix Announces New Customers in Asia

Following the recent acquisition of data centers in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney through its merger with i-STT and Pihana Pacific, Equinix announced several new enterprise customers. The list includes Fidelity, University of California Berkeley (Singapore), Standard Life Asia, HypoVereinsbank, Tuline Online, HKNet and IBASE. Additionally, U.S. customers extending their services to Asia include Electronic Arts, iBasis and Virtela. Existing Asian customers adding new services include Fujitsu Asia and Qwest International. Equinix also announced several new and expanded network provider customer agreements, including Telekom Malaysia, NTT, REACH and Japan Telecom. Existing telecom customers in the region include Hutchison Global Communications, PCCW, Asia Netcom, SingTel, StarHub and Internet Initiative Japan .
http://www.equinix.com

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Equinix Adds Customers for IPv6 Exchanges

Japan Telecom Co., and Hurricane Electric, a provider of business web hosting and colocation services, have selected Equinix's Internet hubs as exchange points for their IPv6 operations. The Equinix IPv6 Exchange service, which is currently operational at the Equinix facilities near Washington, D.C. and in Silicon Valley, is offered as a unicast IPv6 peering virtual local area network (VLAN).
http://www.equinix.com

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Scientific-Atlanta and SupportSoft Collaborate on Cable Solutions

Scientific-Atlanta and SupportSoft will jointly develop and market a solution to streamline customer service and improve overall customer satisfaction by automating the diagnosis and resolution of common problems associated with the video delivery and use of digital cable service. The solution will be based on SupportSoft's forthcoming Video Service Automation Suite software, along with Scientific-Atlanta's SciCare data analysis engine. It will support Scientific-Atlanta set-top boxes, as well as those from other selected set-top manufacturers.
http://www.scientificatlanta.com
http://www.supportsoft.com

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Intersil Ships its 2nd Generation 802.11g Chipset

Intersil began shipping its second generation PRISM GT 802.11g draft-compliant chip set to its leading customers. The chipset uses Intersil's new "PRISM Nitro" technology to provide up to a 3x improvement in performance for 802.11g clients operating in mixed-mode wireless networks and up to 50% greater throughput performance in 802.11g only networks. It features lower power utilization in both active and standby modes and is compliant with revision 8.1 of the 802.11g draft standard. The second generation 802.11g chipset is also lower cost due to Improved integration and a reduction in total bill of materials.
http://www.intersil.com

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Lucent Unveils Enhanced Version of its Pre-Paid Services Suite

Lucent Technologies announced a set of enhancements to its suite of pre-paid solutions for wireless and wireline operators. Lucent's MiLife SurePay Version 8 offers flexible account spending and support for data services, such as SMS, and for transactions, including online purchases and content charging. For instance, mobile operators could use the Lucent MiLife suite to generate revenue from both person-to-person messaging and the delivery of premium information requested by customers. The suite also provides end customers with payment options, including mobile pre-paid, pre-paid calling card and post-pay capabilities. It supports both voice and data services for CDMA, CDMA2000, GSM, GPRS and Wideband-CDMA/UMTS networks.
http://www.lucent.com

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MFN Launches New "Skilled Response" Support

Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN) announced a new Skilled Response bundled service that combines technical infrastructure with expert system management. MFN said it sees a trend toward outsourced expert system management to complement a company's in-house networking expertise.
http://www.mfn.com

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United Telesystems Selects Alcatel Fiber-to-the-User Solution

United Telesystems (UTI), a competitive communications provider and consulting company specializing in broadband systems, will deploy the Alcatel 7340 Fiber-to-the-User (FTTU) solution in a single fiber, passive optical network access plant in Georgia. UTI will use the Alcatel FTTU solution to provide video and data services to residential and commercial customers in the City of Acworth and Cobb County, Georgia. UTI is also using Scientific Atlanta's content distribution solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.alcatel.com

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Coaxys Develops Ethernet-over-Coax Home Networks

Coaxsys, a start-up based in San Jose, California, introduced a home networking system that uses common cable TV-style coax wiring that is widely installed in many homes. The company said the distribution of video between various devices and rooms inside a home necessitates a network capable of QoS and speeds in excess of 20 Mbps in order to handle HDTV. The primary contenders for in-home networking have been new Category-5 wiring pulled throughout the home, using existing phone lines (the Home Phone Line Network Alliance), using existing electrical powerlines (the HomePlug initiative), or various wireless alternatives (802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g). Coaxsys argues that these approaches suffer from either from high cost (new wiring), low performance (throughput and latency), or potential interference/sensitivity issues (wireless). The Coaxsys approach is to run Ethernet over existing, in-wall coax cabling. Data rates across the coax initially would be 10/100 Mbps but potentially could scale to gigabit speed. Coaxsys will offer an Ethernet hub for deployment at the first point where cable TV enters the home. A Coaxsys Ethernet-to-coax adapter would be used to connect PCs, analog TVs, PVRs, game consoles, video cameras, MP3 jukeboxes or other digital consumer electronic devices to the network. The system will be introduced next month.
http://www.coaxsys.com

• Coaxsys is headed by John Morelli, who previously founded Nuron, a company that developed hardware encryption for the ecommerce industry.

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iBasis Expands to Russia with Rostelecom Interconnection

Rostelecom, Russia's national long-distance telecommunications operator, is interconnecting with iBasis for international voice services. Rostelecom will be able to route international voice traffic over the iBasis network, and iBasis will be able to complete calls over Rostelecom's extensive network throughout Russia. iBasis said it now had 170 carriers worldwide exchanging traffic with its network. iBasis claims to operate the world's largest Cisco Powered Network for Internet telephony.
http://www.ibasis.net

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Hanaro Sees Broadband Subscriber Growth Slow, ADSL to VDSL Upgrades

Citing both strategic and operational challenges, Hanaro Telecom reported that Q1 revenues decreased by 5.6% to KRW 329.1 billion (US$ 262.3 million) compared to the prior quarter. Hanaro recorded an operating loss amounting to KRW 6.4 billion for the quarter, following two consecutive quarters of profits. Some highlights:


The decline in revenue was attributed to a slowdown of subscriber growth since Q4 2002, and a relatively high monthly average churn rate of 2.9% during the first quarter.


In order to combat "an extremely comptetive" broadband environment, Hanaro is adopting a number of measures, including elevated salesperson performance incentives, increases in long-term contracts with disincentive termination penalties, and a differentiating focus on service.


The total broadband subscriber base at the end of 1Q03 was 2,973,921, representing an increase of 3.3% over Q4 2002. (figures listed below)


Approximately 40% of the VDSL subscribers are former Hanaro ADSL subscribers.


Broadband access services (cable modem, ADSL, VDSL, LMDS and WLAN) together accounted for 73% of oveall revenues, while voice services represented 17%, leased lines 6% and Internet data centers 2%.


CAPEX for Q1 decreased by 33.1% to KRW 70.0 billion from KRW 104.7 billion in Q4 2002. Further reductions in CAPEX are planned.


Following the recent resignation of its CEO, Hanaro Telecom has launched a major restructuring aimed at cost cutting. A new CEO is expected to be named before July.
http://www.hanaro.com

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AOL Demos Broadband Entertainment to Sony Playstation 2

At the E3 conference in Los Angeles, America Online demonstrated the ability to deliver games, music, movies, television, radio and instant messaging to a Sony Playstation 2 terminal equipped with a 40 GB hard drive and a broadband connection.
http://www.aol.com

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AOL Names VP for its Push into Premium Services

America Online named Ned Brody to head its pursuit of premium, subscription based services. During Q1, AOL launched two new premium services, MusicNet on AOL and AOL Voicemail. Its third such premium service, McAfee VirusScan Online, debuted at the end of April. Brody previously served as the CFO of LookSmart, a search engine with paid listings.
http://www.aol.com

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IBM and Avaya Expand Alliance for Voice-enabled Services

IBM and Avaya are expanding their alliance targetting voice enabled solutions for corporate clients. The companies will combine resources, systems and offerings to deliver best-in-class, complete voice services solutions on multi-vendor platforms in the US. Specifically, Avaya Global Services will deliver maintenance and management services for IP telephony, traditional voice-enabled PBX systems and voice messaging systems to IBM's clients. IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology services and consulting provider.
http://www.avaya.com
http://www.ibm.com

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Sprint to Build out Metro Network in Phoenix

Sprint announced an agreement with AGL Networks to deploy a large metro fiber ring in Phoenix later this year. AGL will lease fiber on the ring to Sprint within its 60-mile metro network. The ring will connect the Sprint network to several local telecom exchange facilities -- two points of presence and several end offices -- as well as to a Sprint mobile switching center (MSC) in Phoenix. The MSC routes wireless calls for local PCS customers of Sprint.
http://www.sprint.com
http://www.aglnetworks.com

• In December 2002, Sprint agreed to lease dark fiber from AGL to expand its network in Atlanta.
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  In January 2003, Metromedia Fiber Network sold a single conduit in portions of its Phoenix, Arizona network to AGL Networks. A remaining conduit will stay under the ownership and operation of MFN and the company will continue it business of leasing dark fiber to enterprise and carrier customers.

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