European Commission Sees Active Role in Shaping Telecom Competition

The European Commission will continue to take an active role in shaping the relationship between regulation and competition in the electronic communications sector, said Mario Monti, European Commissioner for Competition Policy, speaking at the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA) conference last week in Brussels.While acknowledging that electronic communications are increasingly the engine for overall economic growth, Monti highlighted two areas in telecom where competition has not taken hold. First, local loop unbundling...

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UK Broadband Continues at 40,000 Sign-Ups per Week

The number of UK households and small businesses with broadband connections has passed the 3 million milestone, according to Oftel, the official telecom regulator -- double the number from this time last year. Broadband adoption rates are now running at record levels and ahead of previous predictions, with more than 40,000 households and businesses a week installing a broadband connection. Approximately one in five of all UK homes with Internet access now have a broadband connection.ADSL connections continue to exceed cable modem connections...

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SBC Launches Metro Ethernet, EoS and SAN Services

SBC Communications announced a major expansion of its metro optical portfolio with the launch of switched Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and enhanced Storage Area Networking (SAN) services. The new services are aimed at medium and large-sized enterprises, as well as government, education and medical organizations that need substantial network bandwidth in metropolitan areas. The rollout includes:"OPT-E-MAN" -- a new carrier-class switched metro Ethernet service offered at speeds ranging from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps. SBC initially is offering it in 14...

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CIENA Posts Revenue of $70.6 million, up 3% Sequentially

CIENA reported quarterly revenue of $70.6 million, a 3% sequential increase and an increase of 14% from the same period a year ago. CIENA's reported net loss for the quarter was $115.0 million, or a net loss of $0.24 per share. For the full fiscal year ending 31-October-2003, revenue totaled $283.1 million, a 22% decrease from fiscal 2002. On a GAAP basis, CIENA's net loss for the fiscal year was $386.5 million, or a net loss of $0.87 per share, compared to the previous year's GAAP net loss of $1.6 billion, or $4.37 per share.The company said...

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Covad and AT&T Bundle DSL in 3 More States

Covad Communications and AT&T have extended their bundle of DSL + local/LD voice to residential customers in 3 more states: Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin. AT&T said it plans to offer Covad's DSL service in all 24 states where it provides bundled local and long distance residential services. http://www.att....

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Deutsche Telekom's GSN Project Tests ADVA's Metro Optical

Deutsche Telekom has tested ADVA's FSP 3000 metro optical platform as part of its Global Seamless Network (GSN) Project in Darmstadt and Berlin, Germany. ADVA Optical Networking, in conjunction with Extreme Networks, showcased next-generation Metro Ethernet applications. ADVA's FSP 3000 systems are deployed in a three-node ring configuration together with a remote FSP 3000 Slimline network element, which is connected to the ring through an Automatically Switched Transport Network (ASTN). http://www.advaoptical....

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MCI's John W. Sidgmore Dies at Age 52

John W. Sidgmore, former WorldCom chairman and CEO, passed away at age of 52 of complications associated with acute pancreatitis.Sidgmore was known for his leadership of UUNET Technologies, which was acquired by MCI. He became President and CEO of WorldCom in April 2002, following the resignation of Bernie J. Ebbers and revelations of the accounting scandal at the company. He led WorldCom through subsequent congressional investigations and set the course for a "New WorldCom" through a Chapter 11 restructuring. He stepped down in November 2002,...

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AT&T Readies its Consumer Voice Launch

AT&T will launch a new set of VoIP services to business customers and consumers beginning in Q1 2004. For consumers, AT&T has been running a customer trial of VoIP services over broadband connections since October in three states. Due to the success of the trial, AT&T said it would move ahead aggressively to offer the service in the top 100 markets across the country. The service will be run from data centers on each coast, and will provide unlimited local and long-distance services. Key features will include online voicemail, do...

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"We're on the verge of a VoIP revolution..." AT&T's David Dorman

The telecom industry is undergoing a radical transformation that is "like rebuilding an airplane in flight," said AT&T Chairman and CEO David Dorman at the Credit Suisse First Boston Media and Telecom Week conference in New York. Dorman argued that AT&T is best positioned as provider of choice in this new environment due to its scale, financial strength and industry leading brand, customer base and product portfolio.Regarding the company's newly announced VoIP strategy for businesses and consumers, Dorman observed that "convergence is...

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ECI Telecom and Nortel Networks Team on Broadband Access Solutions

ECI Telecom has entered into a strategic relationship with Nortel Networks to deliver broadband access networking solutions capable of triple play services (voice, video and data). The agreement provides a framework for the two companies to cooperatively engage in sales and marketing activities that leverage Nortel Networks' global experience with ECI's broadband access products and market presence. http://www.ecitele....

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ST Sees Momentum in UK's Free-to-View Digital Terrestrial TV

STMicroelectronics has shipped a total of more than 2.5 million chipsets for the Digital TV Receivers, or Digital Converter Boxes (DCBs) as they are also known, that allow consumers in the UK to receive Freeview digital terrestrial TV channels on their analog TV receivers. The Freeview service offers UK consumers free digital TV and radio channels, as well as a range of interactive services and a sophisticated Electronic Program Guide, all via a standard TV aerial. Over 20 manufacturers are currently supplying digital converter boxes to the UK...

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RADVISION Announces New H.323 Toolkit

RADVISION introduced a new H.323 Protocol Toolkit for use in developing products supporting both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols. H.323 uses H.245 as the call control protocol. This functionality, which is similar to the use of SDP in SIP-based communication, enables communicating devices to establish multimedia channels based on common capabilities. What differentiates H.245 from SDP is its support of multi-party session operation for voice, video, and data collaboration between multiple end points. These include support of a high ranked terminal (called...

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O2 UK Selects Cisco 12000 GSRs

O2 UK, the British subsidiary of the European mobile operator mmO2, is deploying an MPLSbackbone based on Cisco 12000 Series Routers. O2 UK currently runs several IP networks to manage systems such as billing, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and the company intranet, all of which will be converged over the common MPLS backbone. In addition, O2 is evaluating Any Transport over MPLS (AToM), a Cisco innovation, which could help enable it to overlay its existing ATM and Frame Relay networks together with its Ethernet and IP-based networks over...

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EZchip Announces Production of its Latest 10 G Processor

EZchip Technologies has commenced commercial production of its second generation NP-1c 10-Gigabit 7-Layer network processor. The device has been sampling since May 2003, and has undergone comprehensive testing at EZchip's facilitates and by select customers. EZchip claims 30 customers worldwide for the device, half of which are large system vendors. NP-1c is a single-chip 10-Gigabit 7-layer full-duplex network processor providing fully programmable packet classification, modification, forwarding and policing at wire speed. The device integrates...

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