Paul Allen Completes Acquisition of Comcast's Joint Venture Interest for $728M

Paul G. Allen, the Chairman of Charter Communications and one of the founders of Microsoft, completed his acquisition of Comcast's interest in CC VIII, LLC, a joint cable venture with Charter Communications, for approximately $728 million in cash, consistent with an original put agreement. Comcast said it will use the proceeds to pay down debt incurred in connection with the acquisition of AT&T Broadband in November 2002. http://www.comcast....

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U.S. Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Mobile Number Portability

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld FCC rules allowing for number portability for mobile telephone subscribers. The ruling, which rejected the arguments of Verizon Wireless and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, would allow consumers to keep the mobile number when switching providers.http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/docs/common/opinions/200306/02-1264a....

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AT&T Ties WorldCom Fraud to Internet Traffic Myth

In comments filed with the U.S. District Court handling the WorldCom case, AT&T described the proposed settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and WorldCom as "a completely inadequate response to a level of corporate malfeasance never before witnessed in the history of America." AT&T is arguing that a $500 million payment is not commensurate with the scale and scope of the fraud.In addition, AT&T argues that the ramifications of WorldCom's falsely reported Internet traffic numbers have had "a devastating impact...

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IPeria Names New CEO

IPeria, a developer of messaging applications, named Rob Scott as its new president and CEO. Scott joins IPeria from Octave Communications, Inc. where he was chairman and co-founder. He co-founded Octave in April 1998. Octave was acquired by Voyant Technologies in January 2003. Previously, Scott served as President of MultiLink, which was acquired by PictureTel. IPeria offers network-based voice messaging applications based upon SIP, VoiceXML, and other open standards. The company is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts. http://www....

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Nigeria's Operator Expands Deployment of Airspan's Wireless DSL

Mobitel, a Lagos, Nigeria-based private telephone operator (PTO), issued US$1.2 million in new orders for Airspan Networks AS4000 systems. Mobitel launched the wireless local loop service in Lagos in March 2003 using Airspan AS4000. It is now launching the same service in Port Harcourt, the largest oil operations city in Nigeria. A large proportion of deployed lines are utilized by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited. http://www.airspan....

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Union Presses Federal Court on WorldCom Settlement Issue

The Communications Workers of America filed comments urging the U.S. District Court that is handling the WorldCom case to impose a civil penalty in the multi-billion-dollar range, instead of the prosposed $500 million partial settlement sought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The CWA described the proposed settlement as "a slap on the wrist for a company that committed the largest case of corporate fraud in U.S. history by misstating its earnings by at least $11 billion."http://www.cwa-union.org On 19-May-2003, the Securities and Exchange...

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Thomson Rolls Out SPEEDTOUCH DSL Wireless Office Gateway

Thomson introduced a business office wireless gateway targeted at connecting branch and remote facilities as well as telecommuters with corporate headquarters. The rack-mounted, SpeedTouch 670 gateway allows enterprises to create and enhance their data network using IP VPN and firewall capabilities. The gateway ensures reliability with RIP, ISDN backup, supports Wireless LAN functionality and is VoIP capable. Thompson is also planning to offer a similar product targeted at hotspot deployments. http://www.speedtouch.com/press....

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Larscom and VINA Technologies, Target Access Market

Larscom and VINA Technologies completed their previously announced merger. The company targets enterprise WAN access solutions. The merged company will retain the "Larscom" name and its NASDAQ symbol and will relocate from Milpitas, CA to VINA Technologies' headquarters in Newark, CA at some time in the future.In May 2003, Larscom introduced a next generation SONET multi-service access platform supporting the new Generic Framing Procedure (GFP)-based Ethernet over SONET (EoS) standards – including both Low- (VT 1.5) and High- (STS-1) order Virtual...

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Cogent Targets Promotion at Cable & Wireless Customers

Following Cable & Wireless' decision to exit the US market, Cogent Communications announced that it will offer service delivery guarantees of 5 business days or less to all Cable & Wireless ISP customers in danger of losing Internet connectivity. Cogent launched a similar promotion in February to stranded customers of Genuity. http://www.cogentco....

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AMC-9 Satellite Successfully Launched

The AMERICOM-9 (AMC-9) satellite of SES AMERICOM was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by the U.S.-Russian joint venture International Launch Services (ILS) aboard a Proton rocket. The hybrid C/Ku-band satellite is based on Alcatel's Spacebus 3000B3 platform. The C-band payload features 24 - 36 MHz transponders, while the Ku-band payload features 24 - 36 MHz transponders. AMC-9 will become the sixteenth satellite in the AMERICOM fleet and is planned for operation from 85 degrees West orbital position, pending FCC...

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Thuraya-2 Satellite Set for Launch this Week

An international Sea Launch team, now positioned on the Equator, is preparing to launch a Boeing GEM (GEO-mobile) satellite for Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company of Abu Dhabi on 10-June-2003. This will be the second satellite for the Thuraya network, which provides mobile voice and data communication services to a region of more than 100 countries in Europe, the Middle East, North and Central Africa, and Central and South Asia. Boeing said the new satellite carries a digital signal processor capable of trillions of operations per second,...

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New National Cyber Security Division Sets Charter

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has created a new National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) to provide 24 x7 national cyberspace analysis and emergency warnings. Specifically, the mission of the NCSD is to:identify risks and help reduce the vulnerabilities to government's cyber assets and coordinate with the private sector to identify and help protect America's critical cyber assets; oversee a consolidated Cyber Security Tracking, Analysis, & Response Center (CSTARC), which will detect and respond to Internet events; track potential...

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