FlexLight Raises $17 Million for Gigabit PONs

FlexLight Networks, a start-up based in Atlanta, Georgia and Kfar Saba, Israel, secured $17 million in third round funding for its development of a Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) solution for the last mile. FlexLight's Optimate suite of GPON products is currently in trials and deployment with large service provider customers around the world. The products, which are based on the new ITU-T GPON standards known as G.984.x, deliver Ethernet and TDM access solutions for Fiber To The Building (FTTB) networks. The new funding round included...

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MathStar Secures $6 Million for its Field Programmable Object Arrays

MathStar, a start-up based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, secured $6 million in new funding for its Field Programmable Object Array (FPOAs), which are positioned as an alternative to 130nm ASICs and conventional FPGAs. The new funding will be used to manufacture and market a family of FPOA chips that are both faster (2 -- 20 times faster) and less costly than conventional FPGAs from Xilinx and Altera. As part of the terms of the offering, investors in the $6 million funding round may invest an additional $3.75 million as MathStar achieves certain...

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Ericsson awarded US$500 million by T-Mobile USA

T-Mobile USA awarded a contract valued at up to $500 million to Ericsson to expand and upgrade its wireless network to support customer growth and demand for GPRS and higher-speed EDGE data services. Ericsson will deploy GSM, GPRS, and EDGE 1900 MHz network radio access equipment and associated services in two new markets: Western Virginia and certain uncovered areas of New England, where T-Mobile's footprint is expanding. Additionally, Ericsson will upgrade and expand T-Mobile USA's core network infrastructure, radio access equipment and associated...

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Silicon Developers Test ADSL2 Interoperability

The DSL Forum completed its second multi-vendor ADSL2 "plugfest" interoperability event conducted at the end of June in conjunction with the University of New Hampshire's InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) in Durham, NH. Ten ADSL2 chipset developers performed three basic physical layer tests, defined in the DSL Forum's internal "Proposed Draft 013 - Interoperability Test Plan for ADSL2 Plugfests" (PD-013). ADSL2 (also known as ITU Recommendation G.992.3) provides numerous improvements over existing ADSL standards including line diagnostics,...

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GlobespanVirata to Acquire Intersil's Wireless Group for $365M

GlobespanVirata agreed to acquire Intersil's Wireless Networking Product Group for $365 million in cash and common stock. Intersil's Wireless Networking Product Group focuses on the WLAN semiconductor market. GlobespanVirata is a developer of DSL chipsets. The companies cited the synergies of their respective product lines in home networking, consumer electronic networking and wireless data segments. GlobespanVirata said WLAN capabilities are becoming integral to DSL CPE designs. http://www.globespanvirata.com http://www.intersil.comIntersil's...

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Charter Orders 100,000 Motorola Broadband Media Centers with Moxi

Charter Communications has ordered 100,000 units of the new Motorola Broadband Media Centers (BMCs) powered by Digeo's Moxi Service. Motorola said the announcement marks the first widescale deployment by a cable operator of a digital cable media center with advanced features such as dual-tuner "watch and record" personal video recording (PVR), high-definition television (HDTV), and a progressive-scan DVD player. Charter is planning for commercial rollout in the Rochester, Minnesota area during Q4 of 2003. The Rochester market currently serves...

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CWA Urges SEC to Delay Chunghwa Telecom's Planned US Listing

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) issued a public statement urging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to delay action on the registration statement submitted by Chunghwa Telecom, the incumbent telecom operator in Taiwan. Chunghwa Telecom's largest shareholder, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of the Republic of China (Taiwan), is seeking to privatize a large percentage of the shares it currently holds. The Communications Workers of America noted reports of intense political conflict over this offering, including...

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Hong Kong Broadband Network Deploys Nortel's Succession

Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd. is using Nortel Networks' Succession VoIP solution for delivery of new multimedia and packet voice service bundles, including special packages of fixed-line, IDD (International Direct Dial) and broadband Internet services for Hong Kong residential customers. Nortel Networks describes the project as one of the largest VoIP networks in the world. Hong Kong Broadband Network is currently serving over 120,000 subscribers with packet-based telephony services. Nortel Networks solution for Hong Kong Broadband Network also...

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Malaysian University Deploys 10GigE Backbone with Cisco

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), one of Malaysia's top universities, is deploying a 10GigE backbone using Cisco Systems' equipment. The network serves 86,000 students and 8,000 staff in a main campus in Shah Alam and 14 branch campuses nationwide. The installation includes Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches with 1-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet modules and the Supervisor Engine 720 processor. A total of 5.5 Tbps of switching capacity is delivered through the Catalyst 6500 Series switches. The university's data center server farms are also equipped...

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Covad Tops 453,000 DSL Lines

Covad added over 36,000 net DSL lines in Q2, giving it a total of more than 453,000 lines, a 9% increase over Q1 2003. Net customer disconnections, or churn, averaged approximately 3.4% in the second quarter compared to approximately 3.3% in Q1. The company said the results demonstrate that it is able to execute on its business plan. Full financial results are expected in late July or early August. http://www.covad.comIn June 2003, Covad Communications announced a deal to acquire approximately 23,000 out-of-region business DSL customer from...

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China Netcom Selects Salira's Optical Access

China Netcom Corporation will deploy Salira Optical Network Systems' optical access platforms in Beijing and in Changsha City (Hunan province) to deliver advanced voice, video and data services to business customers in a variety of Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) deployments. More specifically, China Network will use the Salira 2000 Platform to connect customers to existing SDH rings in order to deliver traditional E1 TDM services. China Netcom will also use the optical network for Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) for VPN services, Video-on-Demand...

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Convergys Signs First Contract in China

Convergys announced its first contract in China. China Unicom Guangdong, the second largest wireless carrier in the country, has licensed the Convergys Activation Manager. Convergys will integrate its provisioning module with China Unicom Guangdong's incumbent billing platform and support convergent service offerings across 17 different network element types in multiple cities throughout the province. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.convergys....

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Verizon Introduces Another Unlimited Usage Calling Plan

Verizon introduced another unlimited usage local plus long distance calling plan, this time aimed at small business in Virginia and Maryland. The package also provides additional discounts for DSL. http://www.verizon....

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Argonne National Lab Deploys Force10's 10GigE

Argonne National Laboratory has deployed Force10 Networks' E-Series switch/routers to connect to the TeraGrid, the world's largest supercomputing grid, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF TeraGrid project will initially use a dedicated 40 Gbps wide area "backplane" to connect computers, storage facilities, visualization systems and applications at Argonne and other TeraGrid sites. Clusters connecting to the grid use 10-Gigabit Ethernet interconnections between Gigabit Ethernet-attached Linux servers. Other members of the...

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DirecTV US Adds 181,000 Subscribers in Q2, ARPU at $61

DirecTV U.S. added 633,000 gross subscribers in Q2, and after accounting for churn, 181,000 net subscribers, giving it a total of 11.56 million total subscribers. Hughes said the monthly ARPU at DIRECTV U.S. increased by $2.80 to nearly $61. Increased sales of set-top boxes at HNS, were partially offset by higher DIRECTV Latin America costs and further devaluations in 2003 to several Latin American currencies. In its quarterly financial statement, Hughes noted that DIRECTV U.S. achieved revenue growth of over 16% in Q2 to reach $1.8 billion and...

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net.com Posts Eighth Consecutive Quarter of Revenue Growth

net.com reported quarterly revenue of $34.1 million, compared to $27.2 million for the same period last year, an increase of 25%, and $33.8 million in the prior quarter. Net income for the quarter was $1.6 million, or $0.07 per share. The company increased its cash position by $4.2 million during the period, ending the first quarter with cash balances and investments of $98.8 million. The period marked the eight consecutive quarter of revenue growth for net.com. The company said government sales were strong, especially in defense, across the federal...

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