Verizon Reaches Agreements with its Unions

Verizon Communications, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) reached a tentative agreement on new five-year contracts covering nearly 79,000 employees in 13 Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. Some key points of the new contracts include:an immediate 3% lump-sum payment to union-represented employees in lieu of a base wage increase in the first year of the contract. Beginning in the second year, base wages will increase 2% annually, for a total of 8% over the five-year term...

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AFC Introduces its FiberDirect FTTP Solution

AFC introduced its Full Service Access Network (FSAN) compliant B-PON solution based on its widely-deployed AccessMAX multiservice access platform. AFC's FiberDirect rollout is aimed squarely at the Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) request for proposal (RVP) issued recently by Verizon, SBC Communications and BellSouth. It also targets the many independent operating companies (IOCs), such as ALLTEL, Century, Frontier and others, that have deployed the AFC AccessMAX. AFC has an installed base of more than 100,000 AccessMAX shelves that are upgradeable...

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Level 3 Provides European Circuits to WaveCrest

Level 3 Communications will supply high-speed private line circuits linking London, Paris and Frankfurt to WaveCrest UK Ltd., which operates a pan-European switched voice network. WaveCrest purchased Interoute's wholesale voice business in November 2002, and First National Telecom Services retail calling card business in May. http://www.wavecrestcom.comWavecrest is headed by Phil Anderson (CEO), who previously was founder, Chairman and CEO of The GTX (Global Exchange), an early A...

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Lucent Supplies DWDM Backbone for Telekomunikacja Polska

Telekomunikacja Polska, the incumbent carrier in Poland, selected Lucent Technologies for expansion of its long-haul DWDM backbone. The existing network is based on Lucent's WaveStar OLS 400/800G and connects 19 cities across the country. The extended agreement will allow TP to add more 2.5G and 10G channels and significantly increase overall network capacity. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.lucent.com http://www.telekomunikacja.plIn June 2003, Telekomunikacja Polska selected Lucent to supply its switching and access solutions...

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Boeing Selects Sprint for Long Distance Voice

Boeing selected Sprint as its primary long-distance voice carrier serving corporate, field, branch and manufacturing locations. Specific terms of the deal are not being disclosed. In January 2003, Boeing also extended its contract with Sprint for nationwide Frame Relay and ATM services. http://www.sprint....

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Ixia Announces IPSec Test Suite

Ixia introduced a suite of IPSEC test tools for developers of secure network equipment, carriers rolling out VPN services, and enterprises interested in validating the security and performance of their networks. The IPSec test tools leverage the company's Ethernet traffic generators and Real World Traffic Software Suite. Specifically, Ixia's Automated Network Validation Library (ANVL) has been enhanced with over 500 test cases for AH, ESP, and IKE. Manufacturers of IPSEC-enabled devices use ANVL to validate conformance to relevant RFCs, while...

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Corning Estimates FTTP Potential at 100 Million Homes in 20 Years

Fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) deployments have the potential to reach up to 100 million homes in the U.S. over the next ten to 20 years, said Wendell P. Weeks, president and chief operating officer of Corning, speaking at the Smith Barney Citigroup 2003 Technology Conference in New York City. Corning believes the new FCC rules with regard to broadband favor fiber deployments. However, Corning does not expect any significant revenue impact from FTTP this year. As deployments occur, Weeks believes that the cable, hardware and equipment opportunities...

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Vonage Signs Broadband Phone Deal with Public Cable Utility

The Coldwater Board of Public Utilities (CBPU), which provides cable TV services to several thousand homes in Michigan, will offer Vonage's broadband phone services to its customers. The Vonage service will be provided under a co-branded partnership. CBPU will also offer the Vonage service to small businesses in the area. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.vonage.comVonage has previously announced a similar outsourced broadband phone partnership with Armstrong, the 17th largest cable television provider in the U.S....

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Wyoming's ACT Selects Zhone

Advanced Communications Technology (ACT), an independent operating company located in Sheridan, Wyoming, selected Zhone Technologies' Single Line Multi-Service architecture to provide DSL and voice services. Zhone's Multi-Access Line Concentrator (MALC) will be used for unified aggregation, provisioning, and management of POTS, T1, DSL, and ATM connections . http://www.zhone....

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Telefónica de España Taps nCUBE for VOD

Telefónica de España has selected nCUBE's nABLE interactive management software and n4x video server for the delivery of VOD services over its ADSL network in Spain. Telefónica's VOD service, imagenio, will initially be available in the Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante regions of Spain and is expected to expand to cities across Spain over the next two years. nCUBE's n4x video server can store more than 200,000 hours of unique video content. nCUBE's platform is designed to support communities of 5,000 to 500,000 homes with a single piece of content....

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Charter Sells 235K Cable Subs to Atlantic Broadband

Charter Communications has sold cable systems serving 235,000 subscribers to Atlantic Broadband, a new company formed by ABRY Partners, David J. Keefe and Edward T. Holleran, Jr.. The deal was valued at $765 million and includes cable networks in Miami Beach, Florida, and in certain towns in Delaware, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania. Approximately 79% of the homes in the clusters are passed by two-way active plant and over 70% of the homes are passed by plant upgraded to 750 MHz or higher bandwidth. The acquisition makes Atlantic Broadband...

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DSL.net Deploys Broadsoft for Integrated Voice/Data Service

DSL.net has deployed BroadSoft's BroadWorks platform to provide applications, including IP Centrex, Hosted PBX and Voice VPN, over its new NETgain One T-1 integrated voice and data service. As previously announced, DSL.net will use a portion of the $30 million in new financing that it closed this summer from Deutsche Bank and VantagePoint Venture Partners to expand the roll out of DSL.net's integrated voice and data services to the New York City region, Northern New Jersey, the Boston metro area and parts of Connecticut. DSL.net is using infrastructure...

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Infonet Chooses CIENA's CoreDirector, MetroDirector K2

Infonet Services Corporation selected CIENA's CoreDirector intelligent core switch and MetroDirector K2 multiservice platform for deployment across multiple U.S. and European network sites. Specifically, Infonet's deployment plans call for more than 30 CoreDirector systems across the network, in addition to MetroDirector K2 switches in more than 40 cities. Deployment is already underway. Financial terms were not disclosed. Infonet is implementing a mesh-based architecture with automated bandwidth provisioning and management across the network...

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