McDATA Agrees to Acquire Nishan Systems and Sanera Systems

McData announced separate agreements to acquire Nishan Systems and Sanera Systems, both start-ups targeting storage area networks (SANs). McDATA said that as a result of these acquisitions its expanded portfolio would allow its customers to seamlessly build and grow their storage services infrastructure in several dimensions simultaneously.Nishan Systems, which is based in San Jose, California, offers a line of IP storage switching products that enable enterprises to leverage their Fibre Channel storage network infrastructure and their IP networks...

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California Town Plans Municipal FTTH Network

The town of Truckee, California, plans to begin construction this Fall of a municipal FTTH network serving 12,000 subscribers. The Truckee Donner Public Utility District ("TDPUD") recently sold a 16.5 mile conduit that runs through the town to Sierra Pacific Communications (SPC). Proceeds will be used for construction of the new FTTH network. The conduit will assist SPC in completing its Salt Lake City to Sacramento fiber optic network. The deal also provides TDPUD with the rights to four strands of dark fiber running from Reno to Sacramento....

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Lucent Selected for Telecom Rebuilding in Iraq

Bechtel has awarded a $25 million subcontract to Lucent Technologies to carry out emergency repair and rehabilitation of the communications network in Iraq. Under the contract, Lucent will provide 13 5ESS and 5ESS Very Compact Digital Exchange (VCDX) central office switches, the Lucent Metropolis ADM Multiservice Mux, and its Navis Network management system. Deployment will begin next month. Prior to the war, approximately 1.1 million Iraqis subscribed to the Iraqi Telephone and Post Company (ITPC) for landline telephone service. Much of the communications...

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General Bandwidth Adds SIP-Based IP Centrex to G6 Gateway

General Bandwidth has added full SIP and PRI support within its G6 Packet Telephony Migration Platform. The G6 platform can now be used in conjunction with a SIP feature server to provide a wide range of traditional Centrex and other messaging capabilities. New features can include advanced call screening, single number service, click-to-call, dial from directories, voice & email integration, as well as legacy Class 5 and other new services.General Bandwidth's G6 platform already offered support for derived voice services from legacy Class...

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Alaska's Matanuska Telephone Deploys Minerva's IP Headend

Matanuska Telephone Association (MTA), an independent operating company (IOC) serving 38,000 member-owners in Alaska, has deployed Minerva Networks IP television headend for its triple play network. This fall, MTA will begin offering live next-generation digital television, video on demand (VOD) and pay-per-view bundled with voice and data services over an ADSL network. The MTA service includes 195 channels of high-quality digital TV including local channels, VOD, pay-per-view and later this fall, MTA will offer TV-based Caller-ID bundled together...

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Optibase Encoding Selected for Live TV over DSL

Venus Telephone Corporation, an independent operator serving rural Pennsylvania, selected Optibase's TV streaming platform to deliver over 130 live TV and music channels over telephone lines to its subscribers over ADSL. Located in the digital head-end, a single Optibase MGW 5100 unit can transmit up to 64 video channels received from various live or pre-encoded sources. The TV content is encoded in low bitrate MPEG-2 format. The platform is designed to support MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) and Windows Media video formats. Venus Telephone...

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SBC Extends its Dial-Up Internet Contract with Level 3

SBC Communications has extended an existing agreement with Level 3 for dial-up Internet access service for an additional two years. The contract will now run through 2006. The agreement also includes an increased revenue commitment of approximately $11 million from SBC over the contract's duration. http://www.Level3....

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T-Systems Partners with VocalTec for VoIP in Africa

Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems is partnering with VocalTec Communications in a series of joint sales and marketing initiatives in Africa aimed at offering competitive carriers new service opportunities. T-Systems' International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS) division aims to secure new bilateral agreements with incumbent African carriers for connection to the Jules Platform, which is T-Systems' wholesale VoIP network. The Jules Platform is based on VocalTec's technology. http://www.t-systems.com/icsshttp://www.vocaltec.comIn March 2003, VocalTec...

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PingTone Releases Real-Time IP Telephony Call Quality System

PingTone Communications introduced a proactive, IP telephony call quality monitoring system. PingTone's CADIUS system pulls information from the real-time transport protocol (RTP) information packet of the call and uses this information to score calls. If the call's score is outside PingTone predetermined acceptable limits, proactive measures can be taken to improve call quality before any loss of performance is detected by a listener. http://www.pingtone....

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Agere Acquires Massana for Gigabit Ethernet PHYs

Agere Systems has acquired Massana, a start-up developing Gigabit Ethernet-over-copper physical layer device (PHY) technologies, for approximately 9.1 million shares of Agere Class A common stock, valued at about $26.2 million, based on the closing price on 22-August-2003. Agere said the acquisition enables it to deliver GbE PHYs to Ethernet switch providers as well as PC and server OEMs. With the acquisition, Agere plans to deliver a next-generation 0.13 micron single PHY product in early 2004 and an octal in mid-2004. Approximately 45 Massana...

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Motive Introduces Broadband Usage Policy Manager

Motive introduced a Usage Policy Manager designed to help DSL and cable operators model the network-subscriber-bandwidth capacity ratio of their networks, correlate bandwidth consumption with specific subscriber services, and automate service policies. Motive said it developed the software to address business issues such as subscriber churn and excessive use or misuse of bandwidth. With access to network data only, traditional management vendors lack context of the service at the subscriber and application level, making their solutions unable...

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3Com Teams with Aspect for IP PBX Contact Center Solutions

3Com is teaming with Aspect Communications, a provider of enterprise customer contact solutions, to jointly develop and market IP-based telephony solutions for enterprise and contact center communications worldwide. The joint solution will combine an IP-private branch exchange (PBX) with contact center functionality, such as advanced call routing, multichannel support and centralized workflow development. More specifically, the 3Com-Aspect solution will combine the 3Com IP-PBX with Aspect's Uniphi solution suite for contact centers. http://www.3com.com...

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Rural Carrier Selects Motorola and Quantum Bridge for FTTP

QCOL, an independent cable TV operator serving rural communities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia, selected Motorola Broadband Communications Sector and Quantum Bridge Communications to provide an FTTP network for triple play services. The companies said their FTTP solution was selected for the economics of their full ATM switching capabilities, the video return path, and the fact that they are compliant with the international APON standards. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.motorola.com http://www.quantumbridge....

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NRTC to Offer WildBlue Satellite Broadband Services

The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) signed a distribution agreement whereby its members will be able to offer WildBlue's two-way satellite broadband service in the continental United States. NRTC membership includes over 1,100 rural telephone and electric companies. http://www.wildblue.com http://www.nrtc....

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Alereon to Develop UWB Chipsets

Alereon, a start-up based in Austin, Texas, unveiled plans to develop Ultra wideband (UWB) semiconductors for personal area networks. Alereon's first product, in development for commercial availability in late 2004, will be compatible with the emerging IEEE 802.15.3a standard for PAN communications. Eric Broockman, formerly with Austin-based semiconductor company Legerity, joins the company as CEO. Jim Baker and Jeff Ross, both former executives at UWB developer Time Domain Corporation, will serve as chief operating officer and executive vice...

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Westell Selects TI's ADSL Router-on-a-Chip

Westell Technologies is using Texas Instruments' (TI's) DSL router-on-a-chip to support the recently announced expansion of its family of WireSpeed modems. These two new distinct Westell WireSpeed modem product lines are based on the new ITU standards for ADSL2, ADSL2+ and Reach Extended ADSL2 (READSL). http://www.ti....

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FTTH Council Applauds FCC's UNE Triennial Review Order

The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council praised the FCC's UNE Triennial Review Order as the "most significant and important regulatory document in the country's telecommunications history," according to Mike DiMauro, the FTTH Council's president. He predicts that "without a doubt, 2004 will be the year for FTTH."http://www.ftthcouncil.orgThe Fiber-to-the-Home Council will host its FTTH Conference in New Orleans from 07-October-2003 through 09-October-20...

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Comcast Names Steve Silva to Head New Broadband Initiatives

Comcast Cable named Steve Silva to the newly created position of Executive Vice President, New Business Development, where he will be responsible for new initiatives that leverage Comcast's broadband infrastructure. In this role, he will work closely with the company's engineering, marketing and operating teams across all product lines, including video, data and telephone. Silva most recently served as Chief Technology Officer for Charter Communicationshttp://www.comcast....

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PMC-Sierra Extends SERDES for Gigabit Ethernet Backplane

PMC-Sierra introduced 6-channel HexPHY 1GR and 4-channel QuadPHY 1GR serializer/deserializer (SERDES) devices for high-speed serial backplanes and Gigabit Ethernet (GE) transceivers. The HexPHY 1GR and QuadPHY 1GR features support for the RGMII v2.0 industry standard parallel interface to enable low power, low cost and compact Ethernet-based system designs. RGMII (Reduced Gigabit Media Independent Interface) v2.0 simplifies board design by reducing the number of routing layers required which also lowers board manufacturing costs. PMC-Sierra said...

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Mike McGrail Named President and CEO of ICTV

ICTV, a start-up offering a centralized platform for the delivery of interactive television services, announced the appointment of Mike McGrail as president and CEO. He replaces Wes Hoffman who is becoming COO of OpenTV, a strategic investor in ICTV. McGrail previously served as president of CableData, a global supplier of subscriber management and transaction-based billing software for the broadband cable industry.ICTV's HeadendWare application servers enables interactive, revenue-generating programming to be accessed by any digital set-top....

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