EchoStar's DISH Network Surpasses 9 Million

EchoStar Communications passed the 9 million customer milestone for its DISH Network satellite TV service. DISH Network is focusing on offering a low-price as well as technical innovations, such as its recently announced DVR service. DISH Network plans to begin offering a high-definition TV system this fall, complete with HD monitor and HD receiver. The DVR service will also be able to record HD programming.


DISH Network passed the 8 million customer milestone about 10 months ago.
http://www.dishnetwork.com

• 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.



• In July 2003, SBC Communications announced a partnership with EchoStar Communications to offer a co-Branded satellite TV service as part of its integrated local, long distance, wireless and DSL bundle.



• Also in July 2003, Qwest signed a strategic marketing agreement with EchoStar Communications under which it will offer the DISH Network satellite TV services available to its customers in single family homes in Colorado and Nebraska.

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Merger of Vivendi Universal and NBC to Create New Media Giant

Vivendi Universal and General Electric's NBC division agreed to merge, creating one of the world's largest media companies. Assets of the new company would include: the NBC television network and 14 broadcast stations in major U.S. cities; a portfolio of leading cable channels (USA Network, Sci-Fi Channel, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, and Trio); Universal Pictures; Universal Television; and Spanish-language TV broadcaster Telemundo. The proposed transaction would result in GE, NBC's parent company, owning 80% of the new company and Vivendi Universal owning 20%.


GE said the merger offers "a unique opportunity to extend NBC's legacy as the nation's first broadcast company well into the coming age of digital media."http://www.ge.com

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McLeodUSA Names Cisco as Primary CPE Provider

McLeodUSA, one of the largest CLECs in the U.S., named Cisco Systems as its primary customer premises equipment (CPE) provider. The companies are planning a suite of value-added services utilizing Cisco's products operating with the McLeodUSA integrated communications network.
http://www.mcleodusa.com

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Vocera Secures New Funding for Wi-Fi Voice

Vocera Communications, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, has secured additional funding from corporate investors, including Cisco Systems and the Intel Communications Fund. Vocera offers a line of voice "badges" that mobile workers can clip to a shirt pocket or collar and use to communicate over an 802.11b WLAN. Since its inception in March 2002, Vocera has raised $31.3 million in funding. The Vocera systems has been deployed by a number of hospitals and retail companies.
http://www.vocera.com

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Trusted Media Networks Offers Alternative to Streaming

Trusted Media Networks, a start-up founded by Dr. Alan Lippman, the former Chief Engineer for RealNetworks and one of the creators of the Real Player, unveiled its plans for a new form of digital content distribution. The company promises "instant-on, television-quality multimedia that operates independently of network connectivity, throughput or congestion." Trusted Media Networks uses a proprietary architecture to deliver content in the background of any Web-enabled device, without streaming. In effect, its proprietary "TrustCast DNA" (Delivery, Notification and Access) technology "pre- delivers" the audio and video content to any IP enabled application. The company will formally announce its product offering in late September.
http://www.trustedmedianetworks.com .

• In July 2003, the Walt Disney Internet Group announced an expansion of its use of a proprietary DIG Motion video technology to the Movies.com and ABC.com sites. After a one-time activation process, DIG Motion technology automatically launches full-motion video clips, typically lasting one to three minutes, when a consumer visits a participating site. Video is pre-downloaded directly to users' computers so there is no buffering, streaming or waiting. The technology first debuted on ESPN.com in February 2003



• Walt Disney Internet Group's DIG Motion video technology pushes Windows Media Encoder 9 Series content down to a viewer's PC several times daily. The video will play automatically when logging on to ABC.com, ESPN.com, or Movies.com.

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Covad Enters New Line Splitting Partnership with MCI

Covad Communications will provide DSL access for MCI's Neighborhood HiSpeed and Business Complete HiSpeed service. Under a new wholesale agreement, MCI will have access to Covad's nationwide network, which covers over 1,800 central offices. The partnership utilizes a process called line splitting in conjunction with the unbundled network element platform (UNE-P). For line splitting, access to the residential line is "split" between Covad and a competitive voice provider.
http://www.covad.com

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IDT Acquires IBM's Network Search Engine Product Designs

IDT (Integrated Device Technology) agreed to acquire IBM's Network Search Engine (NSE) product designs for an undisclosed sum. IBM had been developing full-ternary content addressable memory-based NSEs targeting next-generation platforms. As part of the agreement, IBM will serve as the foundry and will manufacture these NSEs in a 0.13-micron, copper process. Initial products are sampling now.
http://www.idt.com

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China Telecom Awards New $80 Million Contract for UTStarcom's I-PAS

China Telecom awarded a US$80 million contract to UTStarcom for continued deployments of its IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) equipment in Jiangsu province. After completion of this expansion, UTStarcom's PAS networks will have a capacity of more than three million lines. The contract also includes the sale of approximately 500,000 handset units for use in the region.
http://www.utstar.com

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Agilent Offers 10 Gbps Clock Recovery Module

Agilent Technologies introduced a single-module clock recovery test product for all 10 Gbps rates from 9.953 Gbps to 11.32 Gbps. The Agilent device provides both electrical and optical clock recovery, which allows R&D designers and manufacturing test engineers to use a single product for designing and testing multi-protocol transceivers and components for emerging standards such as 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE), 10x Fibre Channel (10xFC) with FEC, as well as existing standards for SONET/SDH and Optical Transport Network.
http://www.agilent.com

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Ceterus Unveils its Multi-transport Bonding for Metro Ethernet

Ceterus Networks, a start-up based in Allen, Texas, unveiled its Universal Transport System for Metro Ethernet services using existing infrastructure. Ceterus creates a "single virtual pipe" by bonding line-side facilities from DS1/E1 to OcN. The company said its multi-transport bonding architecture (MTBA) enables service providers to utilize existing copper/fiber infrastructure to form a single point-to-point virtual fat pipe with the ability to transport multiple 10/100 or GigE clients simultaneously. The product is currently in trial with interexchange carriers (IXCs) and has successfully completed lab test certification with Global Crossing.
http://www.ceterusnetworks.com

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AT&T Files Federal Civil-Racketeering Lawsuit Against MCI/Worldcom

AT&T filed a lawsuit in federal district court against MCI/WorldCom and ONVOY seeking damages for, among other things, violations of the civil provisions of the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act and other laws. AT&T accuses MCI/WorldCom and ONVOY of orchestrating a scheme called the "Canadian Gateway Project," in which they worked with other telecommunications companies to reroute MCI customers' domestic phone calls through Canada to deceive and defraud AT&T into paying hefty termination fees for terminating calls to high-cost independent telephone companies in the U.S. AT&T said MCI/WorldCom should have properly kept the telephone traffic on its own network and been responsible for terminating access fees, if any, via intra-company transfers.


Separately, AT&T filed an objection to the MCI/WorldCom Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors' request for discovery in the bankruptcy court proceeding. AT&T called the Committee's request "to produce millions of pages of documents" an "effort to punish" AT&T for asserting its legitimate fraud claims.
http://www.att.com

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Tellium to Expand it Switching Line Beyond Core of Long-Haul Nets

Tellium announced a series of new multi-service transport switches that will address carrier needs beyond the core of long-haul networks, eliminating the need for separate broadband and wideband DCSs, ADMs and Ethernet switches. Tellium aims to provide unified transport and switching for both legacy TDM and data services over both ring and mesh topologies. The new switches will aggregate a full array of services from 1.5 Mbps to 10Gbps, including support for Gigabit Ethernet. Tellium is leveraging its existing Aurora optical switches and Starnet software in the development of these new devices. Further product announcements are expected in the coming weeks.
http://www.tellium.com

• In July 2003, Zhone Technologies agreed to merge with Tellium, a developer of core optical switching systems. Tellium would contribute its $149.8 million in cash to the combined company, which would retain the name Zhone Technologies. Mory Ejabat, current chairman and CEO of Zhone Technologies, would continue as chairman and CEO of the combined operation. In the long term, the combined company plans to offer access and transport solutions that bridge existing copper-based loops and fiber optics. Zhone has acquired eight companies over the past four years.



• Tellium's Aurora Optical Switch and StarNet Wavelength Management System is a core optical transport and switching platform. It scales up to 512 OC-48/STM-16 ports or 128 OC-192/STM-64 ports for a total capacity 1.28 Tbps. Tellium is based in Oceanport, New Jersey.

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Scintera Ships 10 Gbps Electronic Compensation Chip for LANs

Scintera Networks, a start-up based in San Jose, California, introduced a CMOS device that compensates for impairments and dispersion when transmitting data up to 10.5Gbps over 300 meters of existing legacy fiber-optic cable. Scintera's single-chip Electronic Dispersion Compensation Engine, which is based on its Advanced Signal-Processing Platform, is aimed at enterprise 10 Gbps LAN and SAN applications that suffer from impairments and dispersion challenges due to legacy fiber problems. Scintera said its solution requires no changes to protocols, no training sequence, and no transmission changes.
http://www.scintera.com

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Xtera Acquires Metro-OptiX Assets

Xtera Communications, a start-up based in Allen, Texas, has acquired the assets of privately-held Metro-OptiX, another start-up located in the same region. Metro-OptiX had developed a bandwidth manager for optical edge TDM, ATM, IP and MPLS services. The company had garnered 15 customers and 18 lab trials prior to the acquisition. Xtera's Nu-Wave DWDM system is aimed at regional, long-haul and ultra-long-haul networks. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.xtera.com

• In August 2003, Xtera Communications closed on $30 million of new financing for its Raman-based DWDM system.

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