Bell Canada to invest CDN$170-M in Nortel Networks Optical

Bell Canada confirmed plans to invest CDN$170-million over two years in Nortel Network's optical network equipment. Bell Canada and Nortel Networks will also create an Optical Innovation
Centre in Montreal aimed at accelerating deployment of new IP-oriented optical solutions. It is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2004.


Under the agreement, Bell Canada will use products in Nortel Networks end-to-end optical portfolio. Specific products include Nortel Networks OPTera Connect HDX optical switch and its Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 platform.
http://www.bell.ca

• In September 2003, Bell Canada announced plans to invest CDN$200 million (approximately US$146 million) over three years in Nortel Networks' IP and multimedia messaging platforms to provide new services to its large enterprise customers. Bell Canada is pursuing a "One Network" approach to the development and delivery of services." http://www.convergedigest.com/Bandwidth/newnetworksarticle.asp?ID=8640

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Global DSL Deployments Reach 55 Million in Q3

Service providers worldwide added over 8.3 million new DSL subscriber in Q3 bringing the installed DSL base to over 55 million lines, according to the latest figures from The DSL Forum and Point Topic. Over 25 million new DSL subscribers have been added globally in the past 12 months, exceeding industry projections by three million subscribers. At the current rate, the installed DSL base is likely to pass 62 million by year's end.


"These figures demonstrate the sustained growth in global DSL uptake all over the world as various countries move towards a mass market status of 20% of phone lines delivering the benefits of DSL broadband to homes and businesses worldwide," said Tom Starr, president of the DSL Forum.


Some highlights of the report:

• Japan continues to lead the world with most installed DSL lines at 9.2 million, followed by the U.S. at 8.2 million and China at 7.8 million.



• China added 2.2 million DSL subscribers in Q3, more than double the next fastest growing market, Japan at 971,400 and the U.S. at 667,700. At this rate, China is expected to overtake Japan soon as the country with the most DSL subscribers.



• Eleven countries had more than a million subscribers at the end of September 2003, five of them in Europe.



• In terms of market penetration, South Korea remains the leading country in the world with more than 30% of the country's telephone lines now proving the benefits of broadband DSL. More than 20% of South Korea's subscribers have now upgraded to VDSL services, demonstrating demand for even greater bandwidth services as the market matures.



• Taiwan, Iceland and Hong Kong, all relatively small markets, are each likely to achieve 20% phone line penetration by the end of 2003.



• Latin America now has 1.393 million DSL subscribers - dominated by Brazil, which has 60% of the region's DSL subscribers at 837,700. However, DSL penetration in Brazil is at 2.16%, ranking it 40th in the world.

http://www.dslforum.org

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China Netcom Selects Alcatel for Beijing Metro Optical Network

Beijing Communications, a subsidiary of China Netcom, awarded a US$20 million contract to Alcatel Shanghai Bell to build a multiservice metro optical network in Beijing. Under the contract, Alcatel will supply its Optical Multi-Service Node, a next generation cross connect and network
management platform. Alcatel will also provide special support to this strategic project by setting up a technical support center in Beijing.
http://www.alcatel.com

• In November 2003, Lucent Technologies announced a contract to supply its LambdaUnite Multi-Service Switch (MSS) and the Metropolis ADM MultiService Mux to Beijing Communication Corporation (BCC), a subsidiary of China Netcom. In June 2003, Beijing Communication Corporation awarded a contract valued at tens of millions of dollars to Lucent Technologies to build an optical network connecting the suburbs of Beijing.

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Nexsan Raises $17 Million for its Storage Solutions

Nexsan Technologies, a start-up based in Woodland Hills, California secured $17 million in venture capital funding for its storage solutions. The company's product line includes an enterprise-class RAID array combining its own ATA technology and high capacity ATA disk drives. Nexsan also recently delivered the "ATAbaby Twins", which offer the flexibility of deploying a system as a local disk-to-disk backup device or at a remote site to support long-distance backup or remote data replication over IP connections. The new funding was led by VantagePoint Venture Partners and included RRE Ventures, Gesfid First Gen-e and a syndicate of individual investors formed by Beechtree Capital.
http://www.nexsan.com

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ITXC Quarterly VoIP Traffic Exceeds Billion Minutes

ITXC has carried its billionth minute of international voice traffic for this fiscal quarter, which ends on 31-Dec-2003. The company's previous high quarter was 999 million minutes in Q2 2003, with total quarterly traffic decreasing during Q3 in part due to the company's tightening of its credit policy and shutting off or restricting traffic from some of its carrier customers. Since the first minute carried in April 1998, ITXC has delivered nearly 10 billion minutes of voice service to carrier customers over its global VoIP network, ITXC.net.


Approximately one third of ITXC's current traffic is originated or terminated through a direct VoIP interconnect.
http://www.itxc.com

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T-Mobile and iPass Sign Roaming Agreement

T-Mobile USA and iPass announced a distribution agreement providing iPass corporate customers with broadband access through the 3,900 Wi-Fi hotspots in the T-Mobile network. The iPass Global Broadband Roaming (GBR) network, the largest virtual network in the world, spans 24 countries with nearly 3,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in 16 countries as well as over 1,200 Ethernet-enabled venues. The deal represents T-Mobile's first Wi-Fi inbound roaming agreement.
http://www.t-mobile.com
http://www.ipass.com

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Equant Managed DSL Access Now Available in 13 Countries

Equant has expanded its Managed DSL Access service to five additional European countries, bringing its total country availability to 13. The managed service is targeted at major multinational corporations interested in extending their corporate IP VPNs to branch offices and retail locations. The service uses IP switches from CoSine Communications and managed Cisco customer premise routers. Equant plans to expand its DSL access to additional countries in 2004.
http://www.equant.com

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Lucent to Resell Salira's EPON in Asia-Pac

Lucent Technologies will resell Salira Optical Network Systems' line of Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) solutions in the Asia-Pacific region. Under the arrangement, Lucent Worldwide Services will provide network design, deployment, maintenance and post-sale services to carrier customers. The companies have completed thorough systems and services integration, and Salira's products are scheduled for live customer trials to begin in 2004.


The Lucent-Salira EPON solution could be used for to deliver broadband services. Salira's optical access platform also provides integrated support for legacy TDM services such as PBX-based voice and T1/E1 leased line access.
http://www.salira.com
http://www.lucent.com

• In October 2003, Salira Optical Network Systems named Ross Bernard Lau as its new president and CEO. Prior to joining Salira, Lau was president and CEO of Qwest Asia. Before that, he was president and COO of Nortel Networks (Asia) Ltd.'s service provider solutions group. Salira has its major operations in Santa Clara, California and Shanghai, China.
• 
  
  Salira has previously disclosed a number of optical access contracts in China, including with GuangZhou Pantong Information Broadband Network (Panyu Cable) and units of China Netcom.

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SBC Selects Alcatel for FTTP Initiative

SBC Communications announced a four-year primary supplier agreement with Alcatel for the SBC Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) initiative. SBC is currently planning further lab testing, followed by field trials in the first half of 2004 that will include single-family residences, apartment and condominium complexes, and small business locations. However, SBC said that actual FTTP deployment depends on results of the final lab testing and field trials, as well as clarification of any regulatory guidelines that would apply to FTTP networks.


Alcatel's designation as a primary FTTP vendor comes after a six-month evaluation process conducted in conjunction with other major telecommunications carriers. The agreement is non-exclusive and financial terms were not disclosed.


"The potential of Fiber to the Premises is enormous, and we are very encouraged by the progress that has been made in development of this technology over the past six months," said Ross Ireland, Chief Technology Officer, SBC Communications.


SBC is currently running Alcatel FTTP solutions in Mission Bay, a mixed-use business/residential community in San Francisco, which will include nearly 6,000 residential units.
http://www.sbc.com

• Speaking at the UBS conference in November 2003, Randall Stephenson, Senior Executive VP & CFO of SBC Communications, said his company does not believe FTTP makes economic sense as an overbuild solution. However, he said SBC would be opportunistic about deploying FTTP in new builds and to existing apartment buildings where it does not need to dig trenches.
• 
  
  In May 2003, BellSouth, SBC Communications and Verizon agreed on a common set of specifications for fiber to the premises (FTTP) local access networks. The common technical requirements is based on the existing ITU BPON standard.

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PCTEL and Broadcom Settle Patent Dispute

PCTEL, a provider of 802.11 mobility software and software-defined radio products, has settled a patent infringement lawsuit with Broadcom. The dispute concerned "soft modems," a technology pioneered by PCTEL in the 1990s, and other voice band modem technology.


Under the agreement, Broadcom will receive a license to all of PCTEL's modem patents, including those related to V.92 technology, and other patent applications recently acquired from Conexant Systems, as well as a conditional covenant not to sue under PCTEL's remaining patents. Additionally, PCTEL will assign to Broadcom two key patents relating to Ethernet technology. Finally, Broadcom has agreed to become a PCTEL Segue Roaming Client customer.
http://www.pctel.com

• In May 2003, PCTEL, a provider of 802.11 mobility software and software-defined radio products, filed patent infringement lawsuits against modem manufacturers Agere Systems, Broadcom, Lucent, and U.S. Robotics Corporation. The suits allege infringement of modem technology developed or acquired by PCTEL. A similar complaint was filed against 3Com in March 2003.
• 
  
  Earlier, PCTEL divested its modem product line to Conexant Systems. In addition to cash consideration, Conexant granted PCTEL ownership of approximately 50 modem related patents.

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Extreme Networks Cuts Expectations for Current Quarter

Extreme Networks expects revenue for the quarter ending 28-Dec-03 to be in the range of $80 to $85 million, a slight decrease as compared to $87.4 million in the previous quarter. The company attributed its lower than expected results, in part, to product constraints. Extreme Networks expects that new orders in the December quarter will increase from the previous quarter and that its book to bill ratio will exceed 1:1. Extreme Networks cited strong early customer response to its recently introduced BlackDiamond 10 Gigabit Ethernet modular switch products and said it expects revenues to increase sequentially in the March quarter.
http://www.extremenetworks.com

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N2 Broadband Closes $10 Million for Cable VOD

N2 Broadband, a start-up based in Duluth, Georgia today announced the completion of a $10 million Series C of expansion financing. N2 Broadband is a supplier of VOD solutions to cable operators. The company claims more than 700 commercial deployments. N2 Broadband plans to use the new funding to expand its "OpenStream" digital services platform for the next generation of capabilities such as on-demand and ITV services; instant provisioning of digital services; and expanded tools for the creation of on-demand content.


The funding round was led by Tudor Ventures with lead existing investor Highland Capital Partners also participating. N2 Broadband has raised a total of $27 million to date. The company said it achieved cash-flow break-even status in 2003.
http://www.n2bb.com

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Toshiba Release SoftPhone

Toshiba America released a softphone for its family of Strata CTX digital business telephone systems. The application extends the features and functionality of Toshiba desktop telephones to laptops or PCs running Windows XP. The SoftIPT SoftPhone, which can be used anywhere users have access to wired or wireless connectivity, is the first integrated product from Toshiba's newly created Digital Solutions Division. Software programmable key enable users to operate the extended feature sets of their desktop telephones, including voice mail access, voice mail broadcasting, message indicator light, call forwarding, call transferring, outbound calling, etc.
End user system pricing for the Toshiba SoftIPT starts under $200 per software license, depending upon system configuration and quantity.
http://www.telecom.toshiba.com

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AFC's TelcoVideo Selected for Idaho Deployment

Project Mutual Telephone Cooperative (PMT) has deployed Advanced Fibre Communications' (AFC's) TelcoVideo and UniversalDSL solutions in key locations within south central Idaho. The non-profit, community-based co-op can now integrate IP video with voice and high-speed Internet services to offer PMT customers a triple-play package in significant parts of its service area. PMT has more than 11,200 access lines, including 3,000 cable TV customers who receive 70 channels of programming over PMT's analog video network. PMT is currently installing a new switched digital headend that is capable of delivering approximately 100 TV channels. This new video network will offer music channels, pay-per-view, network events calendars, local content insertions, video-on-demand, as well as other advanced entertainment services. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.afc.com

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Tyco to Upgrade Telefonica's South American Undersea Cable

Tyco Telecommunications will provide a network upgrade for the Emergia Cable System, Telefonica's undersea fiber optic ring network that connects Central, North, and South America. The network, which Tyco Telecommunications constructed for Telefonica in 2001, is comprised of twelve landing stations connecting the United States, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Brazil, and Argentina on the East Coast of South America, and Chile, Peru, and Guatemala along the West Coast of South America.


The Emergia ring is the first South American network using 10 Gbps technology to be upgraded. Upon completion, the upgrade will double the existing capacity of the Emergia network to 80 Gbps. The network will be operating at less than 10% of its maximum design capacity of 1.92 Tbps, providing additional upgrade capability to support future growth. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.tycotelecom.com

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UTStarcom Selected for 3G W-CDMA with China Netcom

China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has selected UTStarcom to conduct official field trials of its 3G W-CDMA solution in the capital city of Beijing with China Netcom. The selection follows MII's MTNet lab testing from June 2001 to August 2003. The outdoor field trials, conducted by the MII's Research Institute of Telecommunications Transmission (RITT) and 3G Technical Trial Expert Group (3GTEG), were officially announced in November 2003, with testing slated to begin in February 2004. The trial requires each participating vendor to provide a 3GPP-compliant commercial system, including a Radio Access Network with wide geographic coverage, and a Core Network with a full complement of commercial network features.


A total of twelve W-CDMA system vendors/partnerships will participate in the field trials. The outdoor trials are open to all operators, which must provide base station sites and backhaul transport facilities.
http://www.utstar.com

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MCI Signs Hotspot Roaming Deal with Boingo

MCI announced a roaming agreement with Boingo Wireless that provides its customers with remote access via some 2,000 global wireless hot spot access points in addition to its existing 600 U.S. Wi-Fi locations. MCI said it plans to add an additional 3,000 wired and wireless hotspot locations in 2004.
http://www.mci.com
http://www.boingo.com.

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ECI Telecom Launches New Branding Campaign

ECI Telecom launched a new corporate branding campaign to mark the end of a three year restructuring process and its reorganization into a single, unified and focused company.
ECI is now focused on three specific areas in which it offers added-value: Broadband Access, Optical Networking and IP Telephony (through its strategic holding in Veraz Networks).
http://www.ecitele.com

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