Qwest Wins Federal Contract for Frame Relay Network

Qwest Communications was awarded a new contract to provide a Department of Labor (DOL) agency with Frame Relay service under the new Multi-Tiered Security Profile (MTSP) program. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.qwest.com

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SBC Urges Consumers to Maintain Landline Phones for Safety

In the wake of last week's blackout affecting 50 million people in the U.S. and Canada, SBC Communications is urging consumers to maintain at least one corded landline phone in their homes and businesses to ensure reliable voice and data communications during a disaster. Additionally, SBC pointed out that its DSL and dial-up Internet services continued to be available during the blackout for users with battery-powered notebook computers.
http://www.sbc.com

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Cisco Teams with Taiwan on National IPv6 Laboratory

Cisco Systems is collaborating with Taiwan's National Information and Communications Initiative Committee (NICI) on IPv6 research. NICI is establishing a national standards laboratory for testing IPv6-compatible products. Cisco is supplying its Cisco 7609 Router and providing consulting expertise.
http://www.cisco.com

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ADC Reports Sales of $189M, Outlines Four-Part Strategy

ADC reported quarterly sales of $189 million, compared to $192 million in the prior quarter and $235 million for the same period last year. There was a net loss of $1.2 million, or $0.02 GAAP and $0.00 Pro Forma. Some other highlights: 36% of quarterly sales were from outside the U.S., and gross margin was 39%, compared with 14% for the same quarter last year.


ADC also outlined a growth strategy with four objectives: (1) improve organic growth through market share gains, new product development and expansion into adjacent and related markets; (2) develop partnerships and alliances to penetrate new channels and market opportunities; (3) continue to drive cost-efficient operations to improve profit margins and cash flow; and (4) evaluate ADC's portfolio to identify and pursue opportunities for higher growth and profitability. This may include acquisitions in areas of core strengths, as well as placing less emphasis and possibly divesting product lines in areas that are not central to ADC's long-term strategy and core business.
http://www.adc.com

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Riverstone Names Nortel Exec as its New CEO

Riverstone Networks named Oscar Rodriguez as its new president and CEO, replacing Romulus Pereira, who will continue to serve as chairman of the company. Rodriguez previously served as president of Nortel Networks' Enterprise Solutions and Intelligent Internet divisions. Formerly, Rodriguez served as president and COO of Arris Interactive, an equipment supplier for the cable industry.
http://www.riverstonenet.com

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SAVVIS Builds VPN for Lions Gate Entertainment

SAVVIS was selected to provide managed private IP VPN and Internet services to Lions Gate Entertainment, a producer and distributor of motion pictures, home entertainment, television programming, animation and video-on-demand content. The network will be used to link the company's U.S. and Canadian facilities, and for videoconferencing, corporate e-mail, digital asset management, and viewing of "digital dailies," the day-by-day progress being made on a particular film.
http://www.savvis.net

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Larscom and TANDBERG Television Announce MPEG Partnership

Larscom and TANDBERG Television announced a co-marketing agreement targeting MPEG transport solutions. Under the deal, TANDBERG Television can bundle its MPEG-2 Encoders and Integrated Receiver Decoders with Larscom's Orion 2000 Inverse Multiplexing (IMUX) solution over ATM to transport high-definition MPEG contribution video from remote sites to network distribution hubs. Larscom's IMUX solution can be used to combine multiple T1 or E1 lines into a larger trunk.
http://www.larscom.com
http://www.tandbergtv.com

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Juniper Supplies MPLS Network for China's Jiangxi Government

Juniper Networks was selected by the Government Information Centre in China's Jiangxi Province to supply an advanced network for delivering MPLS-based VPN services. The network will be based on Juniper's M-series router portfolio, including its M5 and M20 models. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.juniper.net

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DBS Now Accounts for 20% of U.S. TV Market

One in five television households in the U.S. now receive their television programming through the direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service of either DIRECTV or EchoStar's DISH Network. DIRECTV's July second-quarter subscriber count was 11.56 million, up by 181,000 in three months. DISH Network currently has 8.8 million subscribers, up by 270,000 net new subscribers in the last quarter. The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association said that in the first six months of 2003 the DBS industry had net additions of 1.01 million subscribers, while the top ten cable operators showed net losses of about 80,000 net basic subscribers.
http://www.sbca.com

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Edgewater Launches SOHO Appliance supporting SIP or MGCP VoIP

Edgewater Networks introduced a customer premise appliance for the SOHO market that is designed to resolve NAT/Firewall traversal problems and provides QoS for voice and data traffic over xDSL and cable modem links. It supports up to 5 concurrent SIP, MGCP or SCCP VoIP calls, PPPoE, WAN DHCP and can manage bandwidth using different upstream and downstream link speeds as required by ADSL. It is also remotely manageable and automates the configuration of IP phones through an integrated DHCP server.
http://www.edgewaternetworks.com

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Birch Telecom Selects CIENA's DN 7100 Multiservice Switches

Birch Telecom selected CIENA's DN 7100 Multiservice Switches to converge Frame Relay, ATM and CES (Circuit Emulation Service) traffic onto a single backbone. Initial deployments are planned across Texas and Oklahoma. Financial terms were not disclosed. Birch Telecom serves 50 metro markets across 11 states.
http://www.ciena.com

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Metro Ethernet Forum Cites Progress on is Services Model

The Metro Ethernet Forum announced technical progress resulting from its quarterly meeting last week in Denver. The organization's Metro Ethernet Services Model document advanced to the letter ballot stage. Once a document reaches the letter ballot stage it is essentially complete, needing only a final vote to make it officially approved. Also, the Ethernet Services Definitions specification is expected to move to letter ballot at the October 2003 MEF Technical Committee meeting; and the Ethernet Traffic Management specification could move to letter ballot by the January 2004 MEF Technical Committee meeting.


The Metro Ethernet Forum announced the addition of eight new members: Tellabs, Foundry Networks, Scientific-Atlanta, Marconi Communications, Ensemble, Transwitch, Axerra Networks, and ADVA Optical.


Also, the Metro Ethernet Forum appointed a new board of directors, headed by Board Chairman Mark Fishburn, vice president of technical strategy at Spirent Communications. Nan Chen, vice president of corporate/product marketing for Atrica, will continue serving as MEF President.
http://www.metroethernetforum.org

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Westell Launches ADSL2, ADSL2+ and Reach Extended ADSL2 Modems

Westell Technologies expanded its family of WireSpeed modems with two new distinct product lines based on the new ITU standards for ADSL2, ADSL2+ and Reach Extended ADSL2 (READSL). The rollout includes a "ProLine" of modems featuring Westell's patent-pending Dynamic Multi-Hybrid and Power Spectral Density technologies, which help service providers overcome troublesome issues associated with in-home wiring and bridged taps that may affect service delivery and performance. A "WireSpeed LiteLine" is a lower cost option. The new products are currently undergoing testing in customer labs and will be available for volume shipment in October. ADSL2, ADSL2+ and Reach Extended ADSL2 (READSL) will be available via a software upgrade in January 2004.
http://www.westell.com

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