Cisco Introduces New Catalyst Switches for Access and Aggregation

Cisco Systems introduced new versions of its Catalyst 3750 and Catalyst 2970 switch families aimed at access and aggregation applications.The new Catalyst 3750G-12S switch offers 12 SFP Gigabit ports and delivers 32 Gbps of performance. It also features Cisco's StackWise technology. List price is $7,995.The new Catalyst 2970G-24TS Series switch is aimed at small and medium businesses and enterprise branch offices. It features 24 10/100/1000 ports and four small form-factor pluggable (SFP) uplinks. List price is $5,495To date, Cisco has shipped...

Read More

Optical Solutions Launches BPON and GPON Compliant FTTP

Optical Solutions introduced a new FiberPath 500 fiber to the premises (FTTP) system that uses either BPON (ITU G.983, 622 Mbps downstream/155 Mbps upstream) or GPON (ITU G.984, 1.2 Gbps downstream/622 Mbps upstream) standards. The network protocol is software selectable.Optical Solutions' FiberPath 500 architecture is based on a central office (CO) FiberDrive Optical Line Terminal (OLT), and features an integrated GR-303/TR-08 voice gateway for interface directly to all the commonly deployed Class 5 switches. The FiberDrive OLT has an aggregate...

Read More

Mexico's Avantel Selects Alcatel's Softswitch Solution

Avantel, an independent Mexican telecom carrier owned by Grupo Financiero Banamex and MCI, selected the Alcatel 5020 NGN Softswitch solution, the Alcatel 7505 Media Gateway and Alcatel's network management to enhance its current IP network. The equipment will be used for new IP telephony, video telephony, IP Centrex, voice VPN and other such premium services. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.alcatel....

Read More

Loral Confirms EchoStar Acquisition Offer

EchoStar Communications has submitted a bid to acquire Loral's six North American satellites, as well as the balance of Loral's FSS fleet and its satellite manufacturing assets. In a press statement, Loral confirmed that it had received the EchoStar offer and that it would evaluate the bid consistent with the procedures of the U.S. bankruptcy court overseeing its Chapter 11 proceedings. http://www.loral.comIn July, Loral Space & Communications and certain of its subsidiaries filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions. In a related transaction, Loral...

Read More

Lucent Awarded $80 Million CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Contract in Korea

KTF, a leading Korean wireless service provider with over ten million subscribers, awarded a US$80 million contract to Lucent Technologies to supply a 1xEV-DO network that will cover Korea's second largest metropolitan area, Busan, and most of Kyungnam province including Ulsan city. This network will enable KTF to offer enhanced voice services and super-fast data services to businesses and consumers at speeds of up to 2.4 Mbps. Under the contract, Lucent will provide Flexent Modular Cell 4.0 base stations, mobile switching centers and related...

Read More

TeliaSonera Deploys BroadVision Customer Support Portal

TeliaSonera is using BroadVision's commerce solution to provide personalized sales, marketing, service and support to its customers. BroadVision's portal helps reduce call center customer support costs. BroadVision claims 40 other telco service provider customers. http://www.broadvision....

Read More

Aegis Announces Multi-Cavity Tunable Thin Film Filter Chip

Aegis Semiconductor announced a low-cost, multi-cavity tunable thin film filter chip that could be used in reconfigurable networks. The filter, tunable over the 35 nm of the C-band, was built using the Active Thin Films technology platform developed by Aegis -- a platform that enables the manufacturing of tunable components at the size, reliability, and price of passive components. Aegis predicts that equipment vendors will be able to use the technology to build a reconfiguarable, optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) at a price similar to that...

Read More

Sage Telecom, a CLEC, Reaches 500,000 UNE-P Residential Lines

Sage Telecom, a CLEC based in Allen, Texas, surpassed the milestone of 500,000 access lines in service. Sage is focused entirely on the residential and small business market in rural and suburban communities outside major metropolitan areas. Sage provisions service through a combination of proprietary operations support systems (OSS), electronic data interfaces (EDI bonding) and unbundled network elements (UNEs). The CLEC, which is privately-held, said it is profitable. http://www.sagetelecom....

Read More

Level 3 to Sell Midwest Fiber to CenturyTel

Level 3 Communications agreed to sell the Midwest Fiber Optic Network (MFON), a regional communications system it acquired through its recent transaction with Genuity, to CenturyTel. MFONserves as a regional backbone for a number of carriers, including CenturyTel itself, in Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois. The purchase price is approximately $17 million in cash. Level 3 said there was no practical way to integrate the MFON operations into the Level 3 network.CenturyTel ranks as the 8th largest local exchange telephone company in the U.S. based...

Read More

Paradyne Receives Spectral Approval for ReachDSL in Japan

Paradyne Networks' ReachDSL system received classification by the Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC) in Japan for the JJ100 Spectrum Management Specification. Paradyne's ReachDSL is designed for long or impaired copper loops. The TTC's classification of ReachDSL for deployments will allow Paradyne's Japanese service provider customers to continue their deployment of ReachDSL V2 implementations. Paradyne said its ReachDSL is already in use with multiple service providers in Japan, including Softbank BB with its Yahoo! BB service. The...

Read More

TRICOM Replaces Existing DSLAMs with AFC's Telliant

TRICOM, the Dominican Republic's largest alternative full-service provider, has replaced several of its existing central office DSLAMs with Advanced Fibre Communications' (AFC's) Telliant platform. TRICOM said the upgrade to the Telliant platform enabled it to alleviate traffic congestion caused by the rapid growth of DSL services in Santo Domingo. Beyond the initial deployment, TRICOM can migrate additional data traffic onto its Telliant systems, as well as move IP capabilities into the central office -- closer to their subscribers. Specifically,...

Read More

General Bandwidth Provides Voice Services in FTTP Network

Dalton Utilities, a public utility serving small cities in the state of Georgia, selected General Bandwidth's G6 platform to deliver full feature voice services over their new Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) network. Dalton Utilities' OptiLink service delivers voice, video and high-speed data over an all-fiber access network. Financial terms were not disclosed. The General Bandwidth G6 platform is a carrier class, VoATM and VoIP access/media gateway supporting multiple signaling protocols such as GR-303/TR-08, TGCP/MGCP and SIP/PRI. http://www.g...

Read More

ECtel Receives Order for its Packet Data Legal Intercept Solution

ECtel announced that a major U.S. carrier has ordered its new lawful interception solution for packet data networks. ECtel did not disclosed the carrier's name, but said the contract was a strategic win. http://www.ectel....

Read More

Bell Canada, BellSouth, SBC and Verizon Support DSLHome Iniative

Bell Canada, BellSouth, SBC Communications and Verizon announced their support for the DSLHome initiative, an industry effort to spur the adoption of DSL-based home networks that will deliver advanced voice, video and data services. The DSLHome initiative, which is being led by the DSL Forum, aims to provide an industry accepted networking architecture that will support fast, reliable and secure connections to the Web and/or virtual private networks by multiple users inside the home. Bell Canada, BellSouth, SBC and Verizon will work with global...

Read More

DIRECTV Takes Top Ranking in J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction

For the second consecutive year, DIRECTV ranked "#1 in Customer Satisfaction Among Satellite/Cable TV Subscribers" according to J.D. Power and Associates. DIRECTV received a customer satisfaction score of 118, while the average for cable television providers was 94. http://www.DIRECTV....

Read More

Spirent Communications Rolls out 10 New Products

Spirent Communications rolled out a host of new products, upgrades and enhancements for its performance analysis platforms. Among these are the following:For broadband access, a new PPPoX Emulation capability for RPT lets uses define 32,000 subscribers on a single AX/4000 port or 256,000 subscribers on a single chassis. Users also can emulate real-world traffic loads as subscribers log-in and log-out as well as test session capacity and rates to determine the performance limits of an aggregation device.Also for broadband access, a new SmartBits...

Read More

LSI Logic Offers New HomeBASE ADSL Chipset

LSI Logic announced enhancements to its line of HomeBASE ADSL Ethernet chipsets for the customer premise equipment (CPE) market. The new offering features LSI Logic's fifth-generation SpeedREACH ADSL analog front-end (AFE), a network processor with glueless interface to 802.11 WLAN and a combination USB/Ethernet 10/100 PHY chip that supports the simultaneous operation of both functions. The three chips are incorporated into a HomeBASE modem that is available as a manufacturing kit to CPE manufacturers. LSI Logic's HomeBASE solution includes all...

Read More