Alvarion Halts interWAVE Acquisition

Alvarion called a halt to its acquisition of interWAVE, a provider of compact mobile GSM and CDMA network equipment and services, citing interWave's recent financial results as well as anticipated results going forward. Alvarion said it would be willing to discuss with interWAVE concluding a transaction on different terms.



Alvarion said it is expecting to report third quarter results in line with guidance and that its own outlook remains strong.



For its part, interWAVE issued an announcement stating that it believes there is no material adverse effect or any other basis, legal or otherwise, for Alvarion to not comply with its
obligations under the merger agreement. http://www.alvarion.com

• In July, Alvarion agreed to acquire interWAVE Communications International in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $56 million.
  
  
• interWAVE is a provider of compact mobile GSM and CDMA network equipment and services, primarily aimed at low density markets in developing regions, as well as specialty vertical applications. The company's solutions are deployed in over 50 countries by more than 100 operators, mainly local and regional cellular operators. interWAVE, which is based in Mountain View, California with engineering facilities in China and Ireland , had 12-month trailing revenues of about $39.4 million.



• Alvarion is a leading supplier of wireless broadband solutions and is actively involved in WiMAX initiatives. The company said interWAVE's fixed and mobile cellular solution complements its own eMGW residential voice and data solution serving regions of the world where wireline infrastructure is missing or inadequate.

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DenseLight Offers G.984 compliant GPON-ONU Transceiver

DenseLight Semiconductors released new GPON transceivers for the ONU side in Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON). The new ITU-T G.984 compliant GPON transceiver is capable of achieving 2.5Gbps downstream & 1.25Gbps (burst mode) upstream transmissions. It is designed to operate at the Optical Network Unit (ONU) side, supporting FTTB/C/Cab (fiber to the building/curb/cabinet) network configurations.



DenseLight said it provides a complete implementation of the G.984 physical media dependent (PMD) specifications in the transceiver. For instance, the G.984 defined power-leveling function has been implemented to enable a reliable burst mode operation between the ONU and the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) side operating in a Class B optical distribution network (ODN) environment. http://www.denselight.com

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Newly Reorganized Siemens Communications Group Begins Operations

The newly reorganized Siemens Communications Group started operations on October 1. Siemens Communications Group was created through the merger of the former Siemens fixed and mobile communications units -- IC Networks and IC Mobile -- making it one of the world's largest suppliers in the telecommunications sector. In terms of sales, Siemens Communications rank third with Motorola, behind Nokia and Cisco.



The new Group, which is currently represented in more than 160 countries, is headed by Lothar Pauly and subdivided into the three segments Carrier Networks, Enterprise Networks and Devices, with a total of eight divisions. Its Group Executive Management has five members: Lothar Pauly is the Group President and is also in charge of fixed and mobile networks in the carrier segment; Michael Kutschenreuter is responsible for finances; Anton Hendrik Schaaf holds the post of Chief Technology Officer and also oversees the Group's carrier service business; Andy W. Mattes is responsible for enterprise business; and Thorsten Heins heads the Devices unit.



Devices


The Devices segment is subdivided into the three divisions Mobile Devices, Customer Premises Equipment and Wireless Modules, which offer a portfolio of multifunctional devices for fixed networks, mobile networks and wireless access, thus enabling a wide range of mobile solutions. The Devices portfolio includes mobile, cordless and system telephones, broadband modems and radio modules.



Carrier Networks

The Carrier Networks segment consists of the three divisions Mobile Networks, Fixed Networks and Carrier Services. Carrier Networks provides the complete infrastructure, applications, turnkey solutions (including broadband) and a full portfolio of professional services for mobile network and fixed network operators. On the basis of its fixed/mobile convergence concept, Siemens offers operators of hybrid networks common platforms, applications and broadband solutions for all access types and services.



Enterprise Networks

This segment comprises the two divisions Enterprise Systems and Enterprise Services. Enterprise Networks provides enterprise customers with real-time communications systems and applications, solutions (including security) and a full range of professional services designed to help them improve their business processes. With presence-based applications such as HiPath OpenScape, the common HiPath 8000/ SURPASS softswitch platform bridges carrier and corporate networks and supports enterprises in boosting their productivity. http://www.siemens.com/communications

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Siemens to Resell Huawei's Enterprise Gear

Siemens Communications signed a cooperation contract with Huawei. The deal covers Huawei's network infrastructure products for enterprise customers, and will primarily cover the Huawei portfolio for Quidway routers and switches. Siemens Communications said this cooperation pact with Huawei reinforces its multivendor strategy for Enterprise network infrastructure. http://www.siemens.de/hipath

• In February 2004, Siemens Information and Communication Mobile (Siemens mobile) and Huawei Technologies have formed a joint venture company to develop, manufacture and market TD-SCDMA technology. The companies are investing a combined US$100 million in the new venture, which will be based in Beijing. Siemens mobile will hold 51% in the new company and Huawei will hold 49%.



• Huawei has a joint venture with 3Com that supplies enterprise networking solutions, including routers and LAN switches.

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CompTel/ASCENT Speaks Out Against AT&T Wireless + Cingular Merger

The CompTel/ASCENT Alliance, which lobbies on behalf of CLECs, said consumers should expect to see the cost of wireless and landline phone services rise by $3 billion annually if the merger of Cingular and AT&T Wireless is approved. CompTel/ASCENT predicts that prices of both wireless and landline telephony services to rise because of the enhanced market power that will be wielded by the combined wireless company and its majority owners, BellSouth and SBC Communications.



CompTel/ASCENT noted that Cingular and AT&T Wireless are the second- and third-largest mobile telecom carriers, respectively, and together serve 40% of the U.S. mobile market. This is 10 percentage points more than the current largest mobile carrier, Verizon Wireless. Post-merger, a total of 70% of all wireless subscribers in the U.S. will be in the hands of monopoly landline carriers Verizon, BellSouth and SBC.



CompTel/ASCENT is urging the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice to impose conditions on the proposed merger in order to mitigate some of the "anticompetitive" effects. http://www.comptelascent.org

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Hitachi and NEC Launch "ALAXALA Networks" Targeting Core Routing/Switching

Hitachi and NEC launched ALAXALA Networks Corporation, their new joint venture routing/switching company. ALAXALA Networks will specialize in backbone routers/switches for telecommunications carriers, government/public sectors and large corporations. ALAXALA's activities will cover development, design, manufacturing, sales/marketing to maintenance and services.



ALAXALA inherits core technologies from both Hitachi and NEC. The company is launching sales of its "AX series" router/switch through business partners. Hitachi and NEC will both promote ALAXALA products through their own integratedhttp://www.alaxala.comIn June 2004, Hitachi and NEC first announced plans to establish a new company specializing in core backbone routers and switches for telecommunications carriers, government and public sectors and large corporations.

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Terayon's President and CTO Steps Down

Shlomo Rakib has resigned his position as Terayon's President and Chief Technical Officer but will continue to serve as a member of the company's Board of Directors. http://www.terayon.comIn May 2004, company co-founder Dr. Zaki Rakib stepped down as CEO of Terayon Communication Systems to spend more time with his family.

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Level 3 Acquires Sprint's Wholesale Dial Internet Access Business

Level 3 Communications has acquired Sprint's wholesale dial Internet access business for $34 million in cash. The acquired business provides dial-up Internet access to leading ISPs throughout the U.S. The companies have entered into a transition services agreement for the migration of customers onto the Level 3 network, which Level 3 expects to complete in mid-2005. During the migration period, a portion of the cash collected from these customers will be treated by Level 3 as a reduction in purchase price, as opposed to revenue.



Sprint plans to continue providing dial IP services to its enterprise and small-business customers as part of its remote access service product offering. Under a separate agreement, Level 3 will provide Sprint with wholesale dial IP network services in support of this service. http://www.sprint.comhttp://www.Level3.com

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Redback Trims Q3 Revenue Outlook

Redback Networks trimmed its financial expectations for Q3, saying it now expects revenue for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2004 to be between $20 million to $22 million. The company said that while it has seen momentum for its next-generation SmartEdge platform by some of the top telecommunications carriers and service providers in the world, it also experienced a delay in customer orders and, in particular, a softness in orders for its SMS family of products and in North America. http://www.redback.com

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CoManage Enhances its TrueSource to Address Access Line Revenue Leakage

CoManage has enhanced its TrueSource data integrity management system with a new solution for addressing access line costs and associated revenue leakage. The CoManage TrueSource solution for Cost & Revenue Assurance Data Integrity Management helps identify discrepancies between how services are billed and how they actually are configured in the network.



CoManage said service providers often lease circuits from numerous carrier partners to provide out-of-region connectivity. But it is often difficult to confirm that in-bound access bills for these circuits accurately match the actual configuration of the circuits, which can lead to overcharges for access circuits. Additionally, revenue leakage can occur when on-net end-customer services are underbilled because it is difficult to compare the actual provisioned circuit with the end-customer billing records.



Both of these problems are data integrity issues, caused by poor visibility into the actual configuration of the network and services. It is compounded by the fact that business and operations support system (BSS/OSS) databases often must be updated manually. As a result, the systems used to confirm billing can be greatly out of sync with the network itself.



CoManage's TrueSource discovery and reconciliation technology identifies leased circuits as they actually are provisioned, updates circuit inventory, and automatically compares circuits to carrier access bills. This enables line grooming and optimization, with cost reductions amounting to an estimated 8 percent or more of a service provider's access cost. TrueSource also addresses underbilled end-customer private line services by identifying service configurations in the network and validating end-customer bills. This enables carriers to find unbilled or underbilled circuits, permitting a typical carrier to recover an estimated 7% of its private line revenue stream previously lost to revenue leakage. http://www.comanage.net

• CoManage's TrueSource has been selected for data integrity management by AT&T Wireless, British Telecom, Sprint and Verizon, among others.

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Esmertec Partners with Korea's ETRI for Digital Home R&D

Esmertec, a supplier of software solutions for mobile phones and embedded devices, will partner with Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to jointly research and develop technologies for the digital home and next-gen personal communications devices.



In the first joint project, ETRI will be implementing Esmertec's leading runtime platform, Jbed, on their home-networking reference solution. This reference solution will be provided to home networking device manufacturers.



ETRI is a non-profit government-funded research organization. Esmertec is based in Zurich. http://www.esmertec.comhttp://www.etri.re.kr

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NETGEAR Offers Home Powerline, Wireless 802.11g Combination

NETGEAR introduced a 54 Mbps Wall-Plugged Wireless Range Extender Kit that could be used to extend an existing wireless network to the back yard, pool house, or a former "dead" zone in the house. The first step is for the user to connect the NETGEAR Wall-Plugged Ethernet Bridge to an existing router, from any vendor, to activate all of the home's wall outlets with Internet connectivity. To complete the network extension, the user needs to plug the NETGEAR Wall-Plugged Wireless Range Extender into an electrical outlet near where the wireless network previously did not reach.



NETGEAR is using Intellon's powerline chips. http://www.netgear.com

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Sprint and SUNET Set Internet Data Speed Record

Sprint and the Swedish National Research and Education Network (SUNET) were awarded a new Internet Land Speed Record for bulk data transfer over the public Internet.



The new record of 4.31 Gbps was set on 12-September-2004 when 1,830 gigabytes of data took about 60 minutes to travel 18,013 miles/28,983 km without data loss over Sprint and SUNET networks between California and Sweden. The data path spanned two continents and traveled three times across the Atlantic Ocean. An IPv4 single stream transmission record of 124.935 Terabit-meters per second was set. Further details are online. http://proj.sunet.se/LSR3/

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QUALCOMM to Acquire Spike Technologies

QUALCOMM agreed to acquire Spike Technologies, a start-up based in Milpitas, California with facilities in Bangalore, for $19 million in cash. Spike Technologies, founded in 1994 by Nikhil Modi and Pradeep Vajram, specializes in physical design for deep submicron process technologies, circuit development, and design and verification engineering for pre-silicon design debug and analysis. The company will be integrated into QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies (QCT) and help QUALCOMM further address the increasing demand for faster time to market of more feature-rich products in 90 nanometer (nm) and below process technologies. http://www.qualcomm.com

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AT&T and Vonage Cut Price of Broadband Phone Services

AT&T cut the price of its CallVantage residential VoIP service from $34.99 to $29.99 per month. The price includes unlimited local and long distance calling in the U.S. and to Canada.



Separately, Vonage said that it would cut the price of its unlimited VoIP service to $24.99 a month. http://www.att.comhttp://www.vonage.com

• In May, Vonage trimmed the price of its Residential Premium Unlimited Plan from $34.99 per month to $29.99 per month.

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NetCentrex Exceeds 1 Million Residential VoIP Lines

NetCentrex has exceeded 1 million Class 5 end-to-end VoIP CPE-based lines. The company said its carrier customers are currently activating over 3,000 lines per day. This figure includes Fastweb, the largest residential triple play VoIP deployment worldwide.



Citing figures from the Quarterly Broadband Residential Market Analysis from Dataxis, NetCentrex said there are already over 4.6 million VoIP subscribers worldwide, meaning that NetCentrex softswitch technology is managing over 20% of the current subscriber base. http://www.netcentrex.com

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8x8 Adds Virtual and Toll Free Numbers to Business VoIP

8x8 added several new optional features for its Virtual Office Internet-based PBX service including
virtual phone numbers, toll free numbers, and switchboard operator console.



Virtual Phone Numbers allow subscribers to provide local inbound telephone numbers from areas outside of their main number or extension DIDs. The Operator Software Console Application, available for $19.95 per month with a $9.95 activation fee, providing a receptionist with a graphical overview of the users on the virtual office service and a simple way to manage an organization's telecommunication activity. Switchboard works on a PC in conjunction with the Internet and the Virtual Office telephones. Additionally, Switchboard enables operators to have:

• Direct status view of extension's status: DND, On-line, idle



• Click to call, click to transfer call control



• Direct transfer to extension and voice mail



• Supervised transfers



• The Packet8 Virtual Office service costs $39.95 per extension, per month.

http://www.8x8.com

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Voiceglo to Offer its VoIP Service Through Friendster Site

Friendster, a popular, free online community website, will begin offering a privately-labeled broadband phone service powered by Voiceglo. Users are assigned a U.S. phone number that can be used through any Internet-enabled computer anywhere in the world for peer-to-peer calling.



Friendster currently has over 9 million members. http://www.voiceglo.com

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Telefónica Selects Metro Ethernet from Lucent / Riverstone

Telefónica de España selected the combined Ethernet solution from Riverstone Networks and Lucent Technologies for the next phase of its multimedia broadband service deployment. The project will integrate Riverstone's carrier Ethernet routers with Lucent DSL access concentrators to aggregate broadband traffic onto a converged Ethernet infrastructure. This includes Riverstone's RS 8000 and RS 38000 carrier Ethernet routers and Lucent's Stinger FS+ DSLAMs. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.lucent.comhttp://www.riverstonenet.com,

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Lucent and Riverstone Enter Ethernet Alliance

Lucent Technologies and Riverstone Networks have formed a partnership to deliver Ethernet solutions for new and existing carrier networks. Specifically, Lucent will integrate Riverstone's MPLS-based Ethernet routing equipment with Lucent systems, software and professional services. Riverstone's equipment also complements Lucent's access and metro optical networking solutions. The agreement is non-exclusive.



The companies said the combination of Lucent optical, data and access systems and Riverstone Ethernet routers could be used by carriers to offer converged DSL-based multimedia services, Ethernet-based corporate VPNs, and enhance the value of existing ATM and Frame Relay services with high-bandwidth Ethernet. http://www.lucent.comhttp://www.riverstonet.com

• In June 2004, Riverstone Networks introduced an "Ethernet Edge Router" that combines the standard elements of a multiservice edge router - an IP/MPLS control plane, multiple interface types, and the ability to converge traffic over MPLS. The new ASIC-driven Riverstone 15008 Ethernet Edge Router employs a distributed and modular operating system architecture that allows the router to detect and restart errant protocols without affecting the rest of the system. Riverstone said router software outages and reboots currently account for nearly half of all network failures. The Riverstone 15008 hardware also provides redundant control modules and switch fabrics. It also supports resilient network designs with technologies like MPLS Fast Reroute and Service loop detection and prevention.

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SIPphone Files False Advertising Suit against Vonage

SIPphone filed a false advertising suit against Vonage saying that it is both "anti-competitive and harmful to consumers to sell otherwise SIP-standard hardware that has been intentionally locked to their service without clearly communicating to consumers prior to purchase." SIPphone alleges Vonage has paid the manufacturer of phone adapters used for its service to implement software that cripples the Internet phone adapter from working with other SIP services. SIPphone complains that this practice of "locking hardware" is an exception in the industry and that consumers are hurt by this practice.



SIPphone is asking the courts to require Vonage and its retail partners to disclose on all product advertisements, catalog listings, in store promotional material and displays, and product packaging that the phone adapter they are purchasing can not be used with a competing service, out of the box and at no time in the future. http://sipphone.com/legal/

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Ember Closes $25 Million for ZigBee Wireless Mesh

Ember, a start-up based in Boston, closed an additional $25 million in funding for its ZigBee wireless semiconductor solutions. Ember also announced that Bob Metcalfe, father of Ethernet, founder of 3Com, and now Polaris Ventures partner, will become its new chairman.



Ember uses ZigBee technology to create a wireless mesh network linking devices that previously couldn't communicate. Its chip architecture is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 specification.



The new funding was led by Vulcan Capital, which was joined by new strategic investors ChevronTexaco Technology Ventures, Hitachi Ltd. and WestAM. Existing investors Polaris Venture Partners, DFJ New England, GrandBanks Capital, RRE Ventures and DFJ ePlanet Ventures also participated in the round, bringing the total capital Ember has raised to $53 million. CIBC World Markets served as financial advisor to the company for this round. http://www.ember.com

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Nortel Networks to Trim 3,250 Jobs

Nortel Networks announced workforce reductions of approximately 3,250 employees as part of its previously announced plan to reduce research and development expenses, selling, general and administrative expenses, and cost of sales. About 1,400 of the job cuts will be in the U.S,. 950 will be in Canada, 650 in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). And 250 elsewhere.



The company now estimates charges against income of approximately US$450 million comprised of approximately US$220 million with respect to the workforce reductions and approximately US$230 million with respect to the real estate actions. The workforce reductions are expected to yield cost savings of approximately US$500 million in 2005. http://www.nortelnetworls.com

• On August 19, Nortel Networks first announced plans for a 10% workforce reduction resulting in the loss of 3,500 jobs by year end.

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Linksys Rolls Out New Home Networking Product

Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, rolled out home networking products, including a line of Dual-Band Wireless A+G routers and adapters, a Wireless-G Internet Video Camera, and VoIP phone adapters. Linksys also announced that it was selected to supply a 2-port phone adapter (below) for Verizon's VoiceWing Broadband Phone Service.



http://www.linksys.com

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Corvis to Change Name to Broadwing

Corvis is changing its name to Broadwing Corporation and will trade under the (BWNG) ticker symbol on the NASDAQ National market beginning October 8, 2004. The company also said that it would initiate a reverse stock split and subsequent stock dividend to bring its stock price and capital structure more in line with its peers in the telecommunications service provider marketplace. The company's primary focus is as an all-optical service provider of voice, data and media. Broadwing Corporation will also continue to operate its advanced optical communications equipment business based in Columbia, Maryland under the Corvis name, selling primarily to the U.S. government. http://www.corvis.com/

• Ealier this month, Broadwing Communications (a division of Corvis Corp.) completed its acquisition of Focal Communications , a Chicago-based CLEC. Broadwing will gain approximately 4,000 enterprise and wholesale customers in 23 Tier-One markets throughout the U.S. The company estimates cost savings in the range of $20 million to $30 million dollars, net of integration costs, over the next 12 to 18 months.

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Azaire Secures $9 Million for its Cellular/Wi-Fi Convergence

Azaire Networks, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California, raised $9 million in Series B financing for its Cellular/Wi-Fi convergence network solutions. Azaire's Converged Network Platform provides multi-authentication, integrated billing, secure roaming, delivering common data services and providing the end users with a unified user interface. The platform has been deployed by Rogers Wireless, Canada's largest GSM operator, and Mobilkom Austria, Austria's leading mobile carrier. Several other trials are underway. The new funding was led by Rustic Canyon Partners and Woodside Fund. Existing Series A investors, including Convergence Partners, also participated in the round. http://www.azairenet.com

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AT&T Expands Retail Distribution of Consumer VoIP Service

Circuit City will begin selling the AT&T CallVantage consumer VoIP services in stores across the country. AT&T CallVantage Service is now available to consumers in more than 170 markets in 39 states and Washington, D.C., which covers 80% of Circuit City's existing retail footprint. http://www.att.com

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Zarlink Launches Lower Density Circuit Emulation Chips for Packet Networks

Zarlink Semiconductor launched three low-density CES (Circuit Emulation Services)-over- Packet processors designed to "tunnel" one, two or four streams of TDM voice, video and data traffic, with associated timing and signaling, across Ethernet, IP and MPLS networks. Zarlink already offers a line of higher-density CES-over-Packet processors that handle from one to 32 streams of TDM traffic.



The new devices could be use in a CES-over-Packet-enabled remote concentrator located at the customer site or a roadside pedestal. TDM traffic would be emulated across a converged packet network. Zarlink said mobile service operators ,who previously relied on expensive T1/E1 leased lines to backhaul traffic from the cell site, could also use the technology to emulate TDM traffic over a more cost-effective fiber or microwave Ethernet link.



Zarlink recently announced that four equipment manufacturers in the U.S. and Korea - Comtec Systems, Eagle Telephonics, Intronics Inc. and Rivertree Networks - are responding to user demand by designing Zarlink CES-over-Packet processors into new media gateways, Central Office and Ethernet switching products that transport TDM services over packet networks. http://cesop.zarlink.com

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8x8 Raises $12 Million in Sale of Common Stock

8x8, a provider of VoIP and videophone service, has agreed to sell 3,508,772 shares of common stock to an institutional investor at $3.42 per share for aggregate proceeds of $12 million before placement fees and other offering expenses. The investor will also receive a warrant to purchase an additional 1,403,509 8x8 common shares at an exercise price of $4.10 per share. http://www.8x8.com

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3Com Dismisses VP of Worldwide Sales

3Com dismissed Nick Ganio, its executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. In a statement, Bruce Claflin, 3Com's president and CEO, said the company was disappointed with its revenue performance from the last few quarters and was looking for a change in sales leadership. http://www.3com.com

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Intrado Provides Hosted E9-1-1 Services for Rural Carriers

Intrado announced new contracts with five rural wireless carriers: UBET Wireless, 3 Rivers Communications, Snake River PCS, Lyrix Wireless and Cellular 29 Plus. Intrado will provide the carriers with a combination of E9-1-1 Phase I and II services and Position Determination Equipment (PDE) services, enabling them to provide life-saving E9-1-1 services to their wireless subscribers. Each will use Intrado's hosted service facility, which will reduce technology obsolescence concerns, alleviate the need for large capital expenditures and accelerate deployments. http://www.intrado.com

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Brazil's VIVO Selects Lucent for CDMA2000 Upgrades

Lucent Technologies was selected to expand and enhance VIVO's CDMA2000 network in Brazil. Under the agreement, Lucent will supply its new Flexent Modular Cell 4.0 base stations and increase the capacity of VIVO's existing Lucent-supplied mobile switching centers (MSCs) and base stations in the Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo regions. The network will support data rates of up to 144 kbps. Lucent Worldwide Services will provide network installation, deployment, maintenance, RF (radio frequency) optimization and consulting services. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.lucent.com

• VIVO, a company under the control of the Portugal Telecom and Telefonica Moviles groups, is the largest mobile service operator in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the 10 largest in the world, with more than 24 million subscribers in the Brazilian market.

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mPhase and Bell Labs Test 'Nanograss' Power Storage

mPhase Technologies and Lucent's Bell Labs announced a major milestone for future commercialization of a nanotechnology-based battery. The tests confirm that it is possible to fabricate nanotech-based batteries, which can store and generate electric current. The prototype battery is based on a Bell Labs discovery that liquid droplets of electrolyte will stay in a dormant state atop microscopic structures called "nanograss" until stimulated to flow, thereby triggering a reaction producing electricity. The experiment proved that this super-hydrophobic effect of liquids can permit precise control and activation of the batteries on demand.



The companies said future batteries based on this technology have the potential to deliver far longer shelf life and better storage capacity than existing battery technology. Potential initial applications for this technology may include defense, industrial, healthcare and consumer electronics. mPhase is also targeting the nanobattery for use in a technically-improved, lighter weight battery design. http://www.mPhaseTech.comhttp://www.bell-labs.com

• mPhase and Lucent announced an agreement in March 2004, under which mPhase plans to commercialize the nanobattery under license from Lucent. mPhase projects its nanobattery to be commercially available in 12-15 months, and plans to produce the technology packaged in various configurations. A primary development goal is to create a battery that could have a shelf life lasting decades, yet can be activated instantaneously.

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The Cavalier Group Tests Airspans Broadband Wireless Access

The Cavalier Group, which holds 51 lower 700 MHz C Block licenses covering approximately 40 million POPs, is testing Airspan Networks' WipLL 700 MHz Broadband Wireless Access systems . A trial is underway in Jackson, Mississippi.



Cavalier's FCC licenses include major markets such as New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. http://www.airspan.com

• Airspan has announced a product evolution roadmap that includes offerings compliant with the new 802.16-2004 standard, and with built-in 802.16e capability. Airspan is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida with its main operations center in Uxbridge, United Kingdom.

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Agere Announces Layoffs, Reaffirms Q4 Outlook

Agere Systems is reducing its workforce by 500 employees across the business, including administrative functions, sales, marketing and product development. The company said it expects to reduce its quarterly R&D and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses to approximately $170 million to $175 million by the third quarter of fiscal 2005, beginning in April. In the quarter ended June 30, the company had reported $195 million in these expenses.



In addition, Agere announced that it would cease operations in its wafer manufacturing facility in Orlando, Florida, by the end of December 2005, if a sale of the facility cannot be arranged by that time.



Agere also reaffirmed that revenues in the September quarter are still expected to be in the range of $420 million to $445 million, which was the guidance provided in July.



The company expects revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2005, ending December 31, 2004, to be sequentially lower by approximately 5 percent. This decline is due to inventory adjustments by customers of 2.5G/GPRS mobile phone and telecommunications products, as well as a seasonal decline in IP revenues and shipments of chips for satellite radio. Gross margin is expected to decrease sequentially due to lower utilization of capacity and lower revenue levels. http://www.agere.com

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Nortel Networks & CSC Supply IP Telephony to New South Wales

New South Wales (NSW) will deploy A$1 million dollars in IP telephony upgrades from Nortel Networks for its Department of Primary Industries. Computer Sciences Corporation, a member of Nortel Networks Global Solutions Partner program, won the tender to design and install the new telephony and data network. http://www.nortelnetworks.comhttp://www.csc.com

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Level 3 Provides Wholesale Global VoIP Termination for OnInstant

OnInstant, a UK-based provider of VoIP and business communications tools, will rely on Level 3's (3)Voice(R) Termination service to support the latest version of its peer-to-peer business voice offering. OnInstant now allows business subscribers to make VoIP calls from their computer work stations to any phone worldwide. The service, which is targeted at small and medium-sized businesses, provides seamless interconnection to the PSTN at a rate of 2 pence or less per minute to 30 countries. It also offers a FollowMe capability.



Level 3 sells voice termination, toll free and local inbound VoIP services directly to its wholesale customers. The company also offers a suite of business and residential VoIP services, which are sold through channel partners and value-added resellers. http://www.level3.com

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CipherOptics Secures $10 Million for Network Security Appliances

CipherOptics, a start-up based in Raleigh, North Carolina, raised $10.3 million in Series C round of venture funding for its high-speed network security appliances. CipherOptics offers a government-certified solution that encrypts data at full Gigabit line-rates with minimal latency for transmission over non-secure wired or wireless networks.



The financing, led by Adams Capital Management, was supported by existing investors, including Kodiak Venture Partners, Origin Partners L.P., and Axiom Venture Partners. http://www.cipheroptics.com

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Covad Sees Lower UNE T-1s Rates in California

Commenting on the decision by the California Public Utilities Commission last week to specify permanent rates for certain unbundled network elements (UNE), Covad Communications noted that while the rates for most UNE-L and UNE-P elements was increased, the rate for UNE T-1 was decreased. The order substantially decreased average monthly recurring charges for UNE T-1s, from $93.91 to $57.42. In the most densely populated areas, where most of Covad's subscriber base resides, the T-1 rate dropped from $89.68 to $49.49 a month.



In a statement, Jim Kirkland, senior vice president and general counsel for Covad, said "Lower T1 rates will help us meet the growing demand for reasonably priced business-class VoIP services. In addition, the rate increases for UNE-L loops are at or below the rates Covad typically pays for UNE-L loops nationwide. Since Covad is a facilities-based provider, we do not rely on unbundled switching from the ILECs or UNE-P, where the rate increases were more substantial. The increase in some rates for Covad is offset by the significant decrease in other loop rates."http://www.covad.com

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Viola Raises $11 Million for VoIP Performance Management Software

Viola Networks has secured an additional $11.1 million in venture funding for its has secured an additional $11.1 million. Viola's NetAlly RealTime software can be used by service providers for pre-service network readiness assessment, post deployment voice quality and VoIP capacity management, as well as on-demand network troubleshooting, as required by real-time VoIP applications. Participating in this latest round are Evergreen Partners, M/C Venture Partners and Concord Ventures. http://www.ViolaNetworks.comViola Networks has offices in Yoqneam, Israel & King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

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Motorola Makes Investment in Bluefire Security Technologies

Motorola Venture has made an equity investment in Bluefire Security Technologies, a start-up that addresses wireless security threats with centrally managed, multi- layered software. The company's flagship product, Bluefire Mobile Firewall Plus, is a handheld security solution that protects lost and stolen devices, prevents attacks and unauthorized access, enforces security policies and monitors activity on devices. The Bluefire Mobile Firewall Plus provides authentication (user password enforcement), encryption (of the data on the device) and an integrated mobile VPN and firewall, without consuming significant processor resources or memory on the device. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed. http://www.bluefiresecurity.com

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Axiowave and Veraz Partner on ATM-Grade SLAs for VOIP

Axiowave Networks and Veraz Networks announced a marketing partnership targeting ATM-Grade SLAs for VOIP services. The joint solution combines the Veraz ControlSwitch, a programmable softswitch platform, with Axiowave's new line of core/metro network routers. http://www.axiowave.comhttp://www.Veraznetworks.com

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Song Networks Tests Optillion's 10 Gbps XENPAK

Song Networks, a major Pan-Nordic telecom operator, completed a fist round of interoperability testing of 10 Gbps WAN PHY XENPAK modules from Optillion.



For the field trial, the Optillion TOP 4010 WAN PHY transceiver along with Nortel's Optera LH OC-192 DWDM transmission equipment and Extreme Network's Black Diamond 6800 10 Gbps Ethernet switch were used. One 10 GbE traffic pipe was carried between two points extending a distance of more than 600 km. For the Ethernet data rate, it was adapted to 9.95 Gbps to match the OC-192 requirement and then transparently SONET/SDH framed by the Optillion XENPAK module. http://www.optillion.com

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China Telecom Selects Nortel Networks' LH Optical Gear

China Telecom will deploy Nortel Networks Optical Long Haul 1600 Optical Line Systems to expand its optical backbone networks in the cities of Wuhan, Guangzhou, Changsha, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hefei, Chongqing, and Chengdu. The expansion, scheduled for completion by the end of 2004, will boost transmission capacity to approximately 10 Gbps x 30 wavelengths.



In addition, China Telecom's Shanghai Telecom and Zhejiang Telecom branches will use Nortel Networks Services Edge Router (SER) 5500 to expand their data networks. The expansions will enable the two branches to serve an additional 500,000 and 1.8 million broadband subscribers, respectively, with enhanced delivery of advanced IP broadband services like high-speed Internet access, IP VPNs and "Green Internet," a special content filtering and blocking service for parents to monitor children's activities on the Internet.



Financial terms were not disclosed.



According to China's Ministry of Information Industries, for the nine months ending June 30, 2004, the number of China's fixed line and mobile users combined increased from 500 million to 600 million, while broadband Internet subscribers hit 17 million with a monthly growth rate of eight percent. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

• As of the end of 2003, China Telecom's broadband Internet subscribers reached 5.63 million, and its fixed line subscribers hit 118 million.

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Telekomunikacja Polska Extends DSL Contract with Lucent

Telekomunikacja Polska (TP) has extended an existing frame contact under Lucent Technologies supplies its Stinger DSL equipment. The extended frame agreement, which is valued at EUR 100 million, covers continued installation of the Stinger xDSL broadband access concentrators throughout TP's network. These form the basis of TP's neostrada tp and internet DSL tp broadband access offers for enterprise and residential customers, enabling Internet access as well as new services such as video over DSL or VoIP for broadband subscribers in the future. http://www.lucent.com

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Infonet Builds Global IP MPLS Network for Munich Re Group

Infonet Services Corporation announced the completion of a new global MPLS IP VPN for the Munich Re Group, one of the world's largest reinsurers. The new network replaces Munich Re's previous Frame Relay network and connects more than 60 sites in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. http://www.infonet.com

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Tropos Networks Cites Momentum for its Metro-Scale Wi-Fi Mesh

Philadelphia is further expanding its free Internet access metro-scale Wi-Fi network to cover some of the city's most famous landmarks using Tropos Networks' Wi-Fi System. The Philadelphia Wi-Fi network utilizes Tropos 5110 Wi-Fi cells, an outdoor-optimized and ruggedized wireless mesh router based on the 802.11 standard. The Tropos Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP) routes traffic wirelessly, eliminating up to 95% of the wired backhaul associated with traditional access point deployments. Syndeo Communications of Lafayette, Louisiana, provides the planning and installation of the metro-scale Wi-Fi network.



Separately, Tropos Networks announced that Oklahoma City had selected its open-standard metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh architecture to provide secure and reliable mobile broadband to public safety officers throughout the entire 400 square mile footprint of the city. The Oklahoma City network will utilize a combination of Tropos fixed and newly-announced mobile Wi-Fi cells.



Oklahoma City voters approved a $78 million bond issue to complete the replacement of their existing 20 year old communications system. The city is deploying an advanced end-to-end communications system incorporating the latest technology in computer aided dispatch, in-field reporting systems, records management, GPS tracking systems, Web-based crime databases, mapping systems, and video monitoring. Police officers in the field will have access to high-resolution photos, incident video feeds, and detailed crime databases through their in-vehicle computer systems. Fire officials will have access to detailed mapping and GPS systems, as well as detailed structure plan databases, in their vehicles and mobile command centers. http://www.tropos.com

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Tropos Unveils Mobile Wi-Fi Cell for In-Vehicle Deployment

Tropos Networks introduced a high powered and flexible mobile Wi-Fi cell for in-vehicle deployment. The platform could be used in public safety vehicles (police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, etc) to extend tactical networks into uncovered areas on a temporary basis. The new product incorporates the Tropos Sphere Network Operating System (NOS) and the company's Predictive Wireless Routing Protocol (PWRP). It transmits at the maximum FCC allowable EIRP of 36 dBm, overcoming the transmission power limitations of most Wi-Fi clients (which typically transmit at 20 dBm or less). http://www.tropos.com

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China Netcom Selects Alvarion/Siemens for Broadband Wireless Expansion

China Netcom is expanding its deployment of the Alvarion 3.5GHz Broadband Wireless solution to additional sites in four provinces with its strategic partner, Siemens Communication Networks Ltd., Beijing (SCNB), a joint venture of Siemens AG and Chinese enterprises. The sites targeted for deployment are in the provinces of Sichuan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Hunan. Financial terms were not disclosed.



China Netcom recently secured part of the 3.5GHz licenses awarded in the third round of China's frequency allocation process. China Netcom plans to use broadband wireless to provide small-and medium-sized customers with a variety of services and applications, including IP-based access , VoIP, high-speed Internet access and leased lines (E1 and Fractional E1). http://www.alvarion.comhttp://www.bisc.com.cn

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NEC Achieve 10-Fold Increase in Quantum Cryptography Key Generation Rate

Researchers in Japan succeeded in realizing the world's fastest 100 kbps 40-km-long quantum cryptography key generation, surpassing previous records. Achieved through a newly developed quantum cryptography system adopting a novel method, this key generation enables secure network communication supported by the principles of quantum mechanical physics. The technology could be used for quantum cryptography transmissions in optical networks in metropolitan areas.



The research was conducted by NEC, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NiCT), and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). http://www.nec.co.jp

• In June 2004, BBN Technologies announced what it describes as "the world's first quantum cryptography network." The DARPA Quantum Network, which links BBN's campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Harvard University and soon Boston University, uses quantum cryptography to provide extremely high-levels of security for Internet traffic.



• Quantum cryptography, invented by Charles Bennett and Giles Brassard in the 1980s, prepares and transmits single photons of light, through either fiber optic cable or the atmosphere, to distribute cryptographic keys that are used to encrypt and decrypt messages. BBN said this method of securing information is radically different from methods based on mathematical complexity, relying instead on fundamental physical laws. Because very small (quantum) particles are changed by any observation or measurement, eavesdropping on a quantum cryptography system is always detectable.
  BBN is developing protocols to pave the way for robust quantum networks on a larger scale by providing "any to any" networking of quantum cryptography through a mesh of passive optical switches and cryptographic key relays.



• In March 2004, NEC claimed a new distance record of 150 km for a single photon transmission -- a feat that might enable secure network communication based on principles of quantum mechanical physics. The result was achieved through a newly developed quantum cryptography system consisting of optical planar circuits based on Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) technology. NEC said quantum cryptography transmissions in optical networks could some day to used metropolitan areas for truly secure communications.

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Thomson Signs Set-Top Box Deal with BSkyB

BSkyB selected Thomson for the production of its newest version of the Sky+ digital satellite receiver and integrated digital video recorder (DVR). The Sky+ 160 box will feature a 160 GB hard disk delivering an average of 80 hours recording capacity. It also features USB 2.0 connectivity for future applications and is based on xTV, the DVR and extended conditional access system from NDS. The DVR functionality will be identical to that of the existing leading Sky+ product line. The units are expected to cost GBP 399 when they launch in October. http://www.thomson.net

• As of June 2004 there were 397,000 Sky+ subscribers in the UK and Ireland.



• Sky digital launched in October 1998 and is now available in 7.4 million homes in the UK and Ireland.

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Zhone Adds IP Video Decoder to PON ONU

Zhone Technologies has added optional IP Video decoders to its line of residential gateways for PONs. By integrating the IP video decoder, the Zhone Residential Gateways (ZRGs), which may be installed either inside or outside the home, allow carriers to deliver multiple video streams to televisions throughout the home using existing in-home coax wiring. Use of in-home wiring not only eliminates costly, disruptive and time consuming recabling, but also eliminates the need for external set top boxes or modems. Video delivery over Ethernet using third-party set-top boxes is also available as an option. The gateways are available with either RF or IP video distribution .RF video employs B-PON (ITU-T G.983.3 Enhancement Band RF) signals, demodulated at the ZRG for delivery over coax to subscriber TVs.



The gateways also feature integrated voice functions with up to four lines of POTS service using either VoATM or VoIP, with standard SIP or MGCP signaling. A 2-port 10/100B-T Ethernet interface with advanced IP features provides direct access to Internet and private data services on one port, with a separate port providing IP video services to high-end external set top boxes. The gateways are available as PON Optical Network Terminal/Units (ONT/ONU) for use in fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) or copper based units for fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) networks.



http://www.zhone.com

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Colubris Introduces Wi-Fi QoS Based on 802.11e and WMM

Colubris Networks introduced "Service Aware Wi-Fi QoS" software for its Multiservice Wireless LAN System. The new software, which is compliant with 802.11e and WMM (Wi-Fi MultiMedia), provides service (SSID) defined QoS for legacy and next generation voice, data and video services and applications. Colubris said his enables QoS for differentiated data, 802.11e/SIP/H.323 and other voice devices, video, retail handhelds and also non-protocol devices - such as lifeline and video surveillance devices - simultaneously over a shared, centrally managed WLAN.



The Colubris Networks WLAN System provides Centralized WLAN Management, WLAN Services Controllers and Intelligent Access Devices. http://www.colubris.com

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Leucadia Sells Stake in MCI

Leucadia National Corporation has sold its interest in MCI stock for an aggregate pre-tax gain of
approximately $20 million (inclusive of dividends received). Leucadia said the sale of MCI stock should not be interpreted to mean that it is no longer interested in acquiring control of MCI, but that no assurance could be given that it would pursue the issue either. http://www.leucadia.com

• In July 2004, Leucadia National Corporation, a holding company involved in a variety of businesses, is seeking clearance from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) to acquire at least 50% of MCI's common stock.
  
  
• Last year, Leucadia National Corporation acquired full control of WilTel Communications following its emergence from bankruptcy protection.

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Defense Contracts form Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium

A new Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium has been established by leading global companies in aerospace, communications, defense, and information systems in order to develop a common network centric environment, allow for technical interoperability, and provide guidance to develop common standards for the departments or ministries of defense and the intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement agencies of allied nations. The group noted that some of the most advanced defense systems in the world have been developed over the past decade, yet many of these complex systems exist as standalone islands that were not designed to be interoperable.



The NCOI consortium said it would work with government agencies to complete an analysis of pertinent network architectures, capability needs and mandated open standards to identify commonalities, synergies, conflicts, gaps and potential areas for improvement. The goal would be to develop a secure information management overarching architectural framework / reference model. The initial will be on the GIG, NCOW, ForceNet, C2CNet, LandWarNet, and DCGS projects.



Founding members include BAE Systems, Boeing, CACI, CBT, Cisco Systems, EADS, EMC Corporation, Ericsson, Factiva, Finmeccanica, General Dynamics, HP, Honeywell, IBM, Innerwall, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems Sector, Oracle, Raytheon Company, Rockwell Collins, Saab, SAIC, Smiths Aerospace, Sun Microsystems, Thales and Themis. The Open Group serves as the consortium's management firm. http://www.ncoic.org/

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Bank of America Deploys Cisco IP Telephony to 180,000 Desktops

Bank of America will deploy 180,000 Cisco IP telephones throughout 5,800 banking centers and enterprise locations across the U.S. The deployment, which will eliminate a disparate collection of 362 PBXs in favor of a converged Cisco IP Communications system, will occur in phases over the next three years. Cisco said the move to IP telephony would yield productivity gains by:

• unifying more than 100,000 employee voice-mail boxes installed on a variety of voice messaging platforms with a single Cisco Unity voice messaging system



• providing Integrated access to data from enterprise business applications



• Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based applications customized for specific bank departments and lines of business



• enabling greater employee mobility through increased telephony features and improved access to communication tools



• provide the ability to extend contact center resources to multiple locations.

http://www.cisco.com

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AT&T Expands Global IP Capabilities

AT&T announced a series of enhancements to its global IP network, including:

• expansion into markets such as China, Thailand, India and Costa Rica, as well as integration with Alestra's network in Mexico;



• a growing volume of live customer traffic over recently deployed long-haul Optical Carrier (OC)-768-ready fiber from San Francisco to Seattle, transmitting data up to 40 Gbps on a single fiber strand;



• expanding broadband remote access options by increasing global WiFi access from 2,900 to 4,000 hot spots, wired Ethernet from 600 U.S. locations to 1,200 globally, and DSL from 6,300 U.S. central offices to 8,000;



• extension of its network disaster recovery capabilities into Europe; and



• opening of four new Internet Data Centers in Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo and London, expanding its footprint to 25 centers on four continents.

http://www.att.com

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Verilink to Introduce SDH-Version of Orion 7400

Verilink announced plans to extend its Orion 7400 Optical Multiservice Access Transport Platform for SDH-based Optical Ethernet transport services. The Orion 7400, which currently supports Ethernet over SONET (EoS), can be used for fiber extension beyond the reach of existing metro rings for the delivery of Ethernet-based services as well as traditional TDM services. The Orion 7400 can also be used for upgrading legacy SONET and SDH Add/Drop Multiplexers (ADMs) to enable the delivery of Ethernet services.

The 1RU high Orion 7400 incorporates standard Generic Framing Procedure (GFP)-based Ethernet over SONET technology, including LCAS and both Low-order (VT1.5/VC-12) and High-order (STS-1/VC-n) Virtual Concatenation (VCAT), enabling the provisioning and delivery of flexible bandwidth levels in small 1.5/2Mbps or large 34/45 Mbps increments.

In the U.S., the SONET version of the Orion 7400 is undergoing customer trials at several major domestic carriers, including an RBOC, an IXC, and several CLECs. The company plans to introduce the SDH version of its Orion 7400 product line in the first half of 2005. http://www.verilink.com

• Verilink acquired Larscom earlier this year. Larscom offers a range of metro access products, including optical edge access multiplexers for both TDM and Ethernet over SONET, integrated access devices (IADs), inverse multiplexers and CSU/DSUs.

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Mitsubishi Electric Uses Passave's EPON Devices

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation is using Passave's EPON devices for its line of access network equipment for FTTH services in Japan. The selection includes Passave's optical line terminal (OLT) and optical networking unit (ONU) devices. http://www.passave.comhttp://global.mitsubishielectric.com

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Palmetto Rural Telephone Selects Occam Broadband Loop Carrier

Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative, an independent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in South Carolina, selected Occam Networks' BLC 6000 System to upgrade its existing access network and to build the network for its new CLEC division. Palmetto is using the BLC 6000 System to build redundant Gigabit Ethernet rings that will provide more than 16,000 new ports providing POTS and ADSL services to its subscribers. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The ILEC will replace its existing SONET network, which had run out of capacity, with a self-healing Gigabit Ethernet ring that will provide an additional 8,000 ports. Palmetto will upgrade 15 to 20 sites in Colleton County with the Occam BLC 6000 System to add redundant Gigabit Ethernet capabilities to these remote locations. All traffic from the company's older digital loop carriers (DLCs) will be transported over the new Gigabit Ethernet ring, which uses the BLC platform's Ethernet Protection Switching (EPS) for failover protection.

Additionally, the company is installing an identical self-healing Gigabit Ethernet ring in the CLEC that will provide a capacity of up to 8,000 new POTS and DSL ports. Palmetto will deploy approximately 10 BLC 6000 Broadband Loop Carriers in the CLEC network. The new CLEC will expand Palmetto's service area to provide high-speed data and POTS service to Walterboro, S.C., and surrounding areas. The CLEC network is currently under construction, and the company expects to begin delivering services from the BLC 6000 in mid-winter 2005. http://www.occamnetworks.com

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Metalink Cuts Q3 Outlook Citing Prolonged VDSL Trials in Japan

Metalink trimmed its third quarter revenue estimates and now expects revenue to be in the range of $4.7 million to $5.0 million, an increase of about 40% compared to Q3 2003, but an approximate 19% decrease compared to Q2 2004. The company attributed the lower than expected revenue to a continuation of trials by Japanese carriers beyond previous indications from our customers, and to a lesser extent, a greater than anticipated seasonality effect in Europe. Metalink said it still views Japan's VDSL market as a very important growth opportunity in 2004 and beyond. http://www.MetalinkBB.com

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Comcast to Reduce Interest in Time Warner Cable, Mulls Adelphia Acquisition

Comcast reached an agreement with Time Warner that provides Comcast with an option to reduce its effective overall interest in Time Warner Cable Inc. from approximately 21% to 17% in exchange for stock of a subsidiary that will hold cable systems and cash. The companies are said to be exploring a joint proposal to acquire all of Adelphia's assets. Comcast is the largest cable operator in the U.S. and Time Warner is the second largest. http://www.comcast.com

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BridgePort Networks Secures $25 Million for Mobile-to-VoIP Roaming

BridgePort Networks, a start-up headquartered in Chicago, with an R&D facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, raised $25 million in Series B funding for its work in mobile-to-VoIP roaming network convergence. BridgePort Networks offers a software-based Network Convergence Gateway (NCG) that enables the convergence of mobile and IP voice and data services. With BridgePort Networks' software and emerging mobile phones that have both mobile and WiFi modes, phone calls to mobile phone numbers can be seamlessly handled as VoIP calls when in range of a Wi-Fi network. The product also permits low cost SIP-based voice terminals to place and receive calls between Internet and mobile phone numbers.

New investors TD Capital Ventures, which led the round, and BCE Capital (an affiliate of Bell Canada Enterprises), joined existing investors Polaris Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners, who also participated in this round. http://www.bridgeport-networks.com

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China Netcom and China Telecom Achieve SMS Interconnectivity for Nationwide PAS

China's two fixed-line operators, China Telecom and China Netcom, have established Short Message Service (SMS) interconnectivity enabling users to send/receive messages nationwide regardless of whether they signed up for PAS service with China Telecom or China Netcom. Previously, users could only send messages to other subscribers on the same service provider's system. UTStarcom collaborated on the intergration.

Last month, China Telecom and China Mobile, one of China's two cellular operators, signed a similar interoperability agreement that could potentially speed up network connectivity negotiations between the remaining fixed-line and mobile operators.

Approximately 33.2 million people currently subscribe for PAS service in China on UTStarcom-powered networks.

UTStarcom noted that despite a slowdown on spending on new network construction as operators expand and optimize existing systems, PAS subscriber growth in China continues to be strong with expectations that the service will reach the 100-million-subscriber milestone at the end of 2005. Eight cities in China have recently surpassed the one-million-subscriber mark, including Beijing, which rolled out PAS service a little more than a year ago. Beijing's approximately one million PAS subscribers currently account for approximately 10-15% of the city's mobile market share. http://www.utstar.com

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Fiber Optic Communities Form New Advocacy Group

Fiber Optic Communities of the United States (FOCUS), a new not-for-profit advocacy group, has been established to educate consumers on the benefits of optical access networks. As of April 2004 there were 128 fiber communities in the United States, according to market research firm Render, Vanderslice and Associates. The new group is based in Washington, D.C. http://www.communitiesinfocus.org/

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Nortel Networks Appoints Clent Richardson as Chief Marketing Officer

Nortel
Networks announced the appointment of Clent Richardson as chief
marketing officer. Richardson, 43, will lead a newly formed
global marketing organization responsible for the company's
brand development. Richardson has been with the company for the
past six months. He joined Nortel Networks from T-Mobile, where
he was chief sales and marketing officer. Previously at Apple
Computer, he reported directly to co-founder Steve Jobs as vice
president, worldwide developer relations and worldwide solutions
marketing. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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UNH InterOperability Laboratory Completes GMPLS Tests

The UNH InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) completed a week-long series of Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) tests designed to demonstrate some of the technology's newest features in a multi-vendor network. The testing focused on optical signaling, routing and management (OSRM). It probed the functionality of various aspects of hierarchical LSP Setup and Teardown (graceful), Traffic Engineering capabilities in GMPLS such as OSPF-TE, Constrained Shortest Path First (CSPF), LSP re-optimization, Bandwidth on Demand and Multi-layer Cut Through. During several hours of the test event, the participants accessed the public Internet across a provisioned Layer 1 VPN using e-mail and Web browsing. The testing involved both IPv4 and IPv6.



Participants included NTT and optical equipment and IP routing companies Agilent Technologies, Juniper Networks, Lambda Optical Systems, Navtel Communications, Sycamore Networks, and Tellabs. http://www.iol.unh.edu/consortiums/osrm/

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Alcatel Enhances Metro and Regional Optical Transport Platforms

Alcatel announced several enhancements to its metro optical portfolio to help service providers simplify network planning, accelerate wavelength provisioning and ease overall maintenance activities.



The Alcatel 1696 Metro Span uses Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) technology, which allows service providers to remotely provision and reconfigure wavelengths while adding "any-wavelength-to- anywhere" flexibility to their network infrastructure.



The Alcatel 1696 Metro Span also features "Wavelength Tracker", an integrated capability that monitors and traces each wavelength at any point in the network. In addition to simplifying remote provisioning and reconfiguration, Wavelength Tracker provides visibility into the activity of individual wavelengths.



The enhancements also include optical gain equalization capabilities. As new wavelengths are added, optical gain equalization ensures that a high-quality signal is maintained by automatically adjusting the transmitted power of all wavelengths along the fiber. Alcatel said this feature, which is embedded in the ROADM, enables enhanced performance from metro to regional distances over 600 km. http://www.alcatel.com

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CyOptics Raises $10 Million

CyOptics, a start-up based in Lehigh Valley, PA, secured $10 million in new financing for its optical engine technology for broadband metro and access communications solutions. CyOptics has developed "nano-tech" capable robotic manufacturing that delivers high uniformity and low cost for component modules for manufacturers of transceivers, transponders and line cards. The new funding round was led by JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners) and joined by existing investors including Soros Private Equity Partners. http://www.cyoptics.com

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Thomson Claims Leading Share in Worldwide DSL CPE

For the first half of 2004, Thomson shipped 3.3 million DSL customer premise equipment (CPE) units, givin the company the number one market share position worldwide for such products, according to research from Dell'Oro Group cited by Thomson. The shipment volume represented 16.7 percent of the market share worldwide and 37 percent market share in Europe/Middle East/Asia (EMEA) for the first half of 2004. The Thomson range of DSL products include USB, Ethernet and wireless modems, routers and gateways. http://www.thomson.net

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Atlantic Telephone Deploys Ciena's Broadband Loop Carrier

Atlantic Telephone, a member-owned telephone cooperative in North Carolina with 43,000 access lines, has deployed CIENA's CN 1000 Broadband Loop Carrier (BLC) platform. The CN 1000 provides POTS, DSL and Packet Voice capability on every line, enabling carriers to software-provision these services to any subscriber - remotely, without manual intervention. The platform integrates the functions of a next-generation DLC (NGDLC), a video-enabled DSLAM, a fiber multiplexer and a packet-ready media gateway. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.ciena.com

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LongBoard Licenses Global IP Sound

LongBoard, a developer of SIP-based applications for carriers, will license technology from Global IP Sound (GIPS) for its OnePhone Application, which currently in trials with large service providers.



LongBoard said its OnePhone Application allows a user to seamlessly roam between Wi-Fi and Cellular networks. This roaming is transparent to the end user, without dropping or interrupting their voice call. Additionally, the LongBoard OnePhone application extends the same set of business telephony features, with the same phone number and same handset, to the end-user whether they are in their enterprise in WiFi mode, using Voice over WiFi technology, or outdoors in cellular mode, via a standard cellular network.



The GIPS VoiceEngine handles all voice-related tasks for VoIP and offers improved voice quality.ttp://www.longboard.comhttp://www.globalipsound.com

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Centillium Names New VP of Worldwide Sales

Centillium Communications named Wayne Gartin as Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Prior to joining Centillium, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Bandwidth9, Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Agility Communications and Director, OEM Sales at Lucent Technologies, Microelectronics Group. http://www.centillium.com

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AT&T Wireless Launches "Ogo" - a Wireless Messaging Device

AT&T
Wireless launched a mobile messaging device -- called "Ogo"
-- aimed at teenagers and young adults. The unit carries a price
tag of $99 (after $30 mail-in rebate) and provides unlimited
messaging plans starting at only $17.99 per month. The device
enables unlimited instant messaging (IM) and email from all
three leading providers -- AOL, MSN, and Yahoo! The clamshell
design includes a color screen and full keypad with "hot
keys" to all major messaging functions
http://www.attwireless.com

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Passave Unveils EPON System-on-Chip

Passave introduced its third generation, highly integrated chip for Ethernet passive optical networking (EPON) optimized for low-cost, high-bandwidth customer-premise installations on FTTH networks. The new device incorporates a CPU, MAC (media access controller), SERDES (serializer/deserializer), Layer-2+ switch and packet buffer on a single chip. The device also includes an advanced packet-classification engine for auto-provisioning of network resources.

Passave said its new product could be used for low-cost residential gateways that deliver services such as HDTV, VoIP, interactive gaming and other high-bandwidth services over a single connection. Like its predecessor, the new chip conforms to the recently ratified IEEE 802.3ah standard for Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM). Passave also provides a central-office (CO) chip, which works in tandem with the CPE device.

Passave's previous PON chipsets have been adopted by more than 20 global networking OEMs for PON systems currently in mass deployment, and have shipped in hundreds of thousands. http://www.passave.com

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iBasis Raises $31.5 Million in Private Placement

iBasis announced the closing of a private placement, resulting in gross proceeds to iBasis of approximately $31.5 million. In the private placement, iBasis sold 15.0 million shares of common stock to a group comprising new and existing accredited individual and institutional investors at $2.10 per share. The company said it intends to use the funds for working capital requirements and general corporate purposes. http://www.ibasis.net

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Qwest Extends Business VoIP to Ten Additional Markets

Qwest has extended its "OneFlex" VoIP service to small, medium and enterprise business customers in 10 additional markets throughout its territory. Qwest is also planning an out-of-region business VoIP expansion to other major U.S. cities by the end of the year. These new markets will include: Baltimore; Boston; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Los Angeles; New York City; Orange County, Calif.; Philadelphia; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose, Calif.; and Washington, D.C. http://www.qwest.com

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BellSouth Trims DSL Price

BellSouth is cutting the price of its FastAccess DSL Ultra, which features downstream connection speeds of up to 1.5Mbps and upstream speeds up to 256Kbps, by $7 per month for both new and existing customers. The service is now available for $17.95 per month for the first six months with the BellSouth Unlimited long distance plan for new subscribers. Existing customers will pay $32.95 per month. http://www.bellsouth.com

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AT&T Selects Avici for IP/MPLS Backbone Extension

AT&T
selected Avici Systems to provide core routing equipment for the
extension of its IP/MPLS backbone. Avici has been a supplier of
core routing equipment to AT&T since 2000. AT&T, which
operates one of the largest IP backbones in the world, plans to
accelerate its network transformation by converging services
across a single IP/MPLS infrastructure. Financial terms were not
disclosed.



Avici said its platforms "dramatically simplify the PoP by
matching the longevity and the reliability of the Class 4/5
switch with attributes such as 99.999% availability, in-service
upgrades, multi-generational investment protection, and modular
scalability built in from the beginning."



Separately, Avici trimmed its Q3 financial expectations, saying
it now expects Q3 gross revenues to be in the range of $3.0
million to $4.0 million. As a result, the company said it does
not expect to achieve its target of 20-30% annual revenue growth
in 2004.



Avici attributed the revenue shortfall to delays in anticipated
network build outs and timing of expected orders.
http://www.avici.com

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Telstra announces Share Buy Back

Telstra announced plans to pay between A$4.05 and A$4.65 a share to buy back its own shares. The share buy back program was valued at up to A$750 million,http://www.telstra.com

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BT Confirms 60% Lower Local Loop Unbundling Prices

By investing in new automated processes, BT has been able to reduce shared local loop unbundling (LLU) prices by a total of 60% since May 31 this year. Effective from September 30 the connection charge for the shared access service will go down to £37 (in May 2004 this had been £117), and annual rental will remain at £27.12 (was £53 in May 2004). BT said further price cuts are anticipated. http://www.btplc.com

• Earlier this month, Cable & Wireless announced its intention to pursue the broadband market in the U.K. via local unbundling from BT. Cable & Wireless said its initial plans include a target to unbundle up to 400 exchanges by the second half of 2005 which will give Cable & Wireless access to approximately 30% of sites in the UK . The company's local loop unbundling capital investment is expected to be £40-50 million in the year to 31 March 2005. An additional £15 - 35 million will be required in the year to 31 March 2006, subject to the speed of subscriber growth.

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Chelsio Hires Former Sun, Intel Executives

Chelsio Communications, a start-up offering 10-Gigabit Ethernet server adapters and protocol acceleration technology, announced the appointments of John Brennan, former Sun Microsystems engineering vice president, and Eric Taborek, former sales and marketing executive with Intel Corporation, to senior staff positions at the company, both reporting to Kianoosh Naghshineh, president and CEO.


Brennan comes to Chelsio from Sun Microsystems, where he was vice president of hardware engineering for Sun's midrange and high-end servers. He will oversee the hardware and software engineering teams at Chelsio.


Taborek joins Chelsio from Intel, where he most recently managed Intel's worldwide relationships with key industry partners, including Cisco Systems. Taborek joined Intel following its acquisition of VxTel, where he was vice president of sales and marketing. http://www.chelsio.com

• In August, Chelsio Communications, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California, introduced a 10 Gbps Ethernet NIC priced at $1,995. The new half-size PCI-X card is a streamlined version of Chelsio's T110 host bus adapter, which achieves high-performance and low-latency by providing protocol off-load in silicon. Chelsio also leverages a VLIW (very long instruction word) "Terminator" ASIC that can handle more than one million concurrent sessions, enabling the T110 cards to support up to 64,000 simultaneous connections.

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Paid Movie Downloads Follow Digital Music's Lead

Through the first half of 2004, paid movie downloads accounted for only 0.35 of video units that were purchased or rented, including traditional channels and pay-per-view (PPV) and video-on-demand (VOD) services, like Movielink and CinemaNow, according to a new study from The NPD Group. From a demographic standpoint, 80% of those paying to rent downloaded movies during this time were male.


The NPD Group said its survey found that as with digital music, the young adult (18- to 24-year-old) age group is taking the lead in paid movie downloading. For January through June 2004, young adults represented 26% of all download rentals. By comparison, this age group represents only 16% of overall video/DVD buyers or renters. Just over half of those downloading movie rentals were younger than 35, while over 80% were younger than 45.


NPD data show that digital music customers tend to be heavier buyers of music CDs, and that pattern is echoed in digital movie rentals. Those consumers paying to rent digital movies from the Web are twice as likely to be heavy movie buyers (i.e., they purchased seven or more movies in the past three months) relative to consumers who acquire movies though PPV or VOD. In addition, 34% also reported being heavy renters (i.e., they rented seven or more movies in the past three months), which is significantly higher than those who used PPV or VOD.


In Q2 2004, Movielink, a broadband VOD service, boasted the largest share of the digital movie rental market with a 33% unit share, followed by MovieFlix with 13%. Compared to the average mix of genres that are rented or purchased, these consumers were much more likely to obtain videos from the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre. The most popular video downloaded during this quarter was "Independence Day," followed closely by "Matrix Revolutions," "Matchstick Men," "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone," and "Star Trek Wrath of Khan."


The NPD Group said its VideoWatch report collects video acquisition information on a continuous basis from members of NPD's consumer panel of more than 2.5 million registered members. Detailed purchase information is collected from an average of 3,000 video buyers and renters each week. http://www.npd.com/videowatch.html

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SBC Declares Third-Quarter Dividend

The board of directors of SBC Communications declared a quarterly dividend of 31.25 cents a share on the company's common shares. The third-quarter dividend is payable on Nov. 1, 2004, to stockholders of record at the close of business on Oct. 8, 2004. http://www.sbc.com

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Avvio Extends 10 Gbps to 200km w/o Dispersion Compensation

Avvio Networks, a start-up based in Lowell, Massachusetts, announced that its "A1020G-X" extended reach OC192 SONET / 10GbEthernet regenerator with FEC encoding can now cover spans of up to 200 km of SMF-28 fiber without external dispersion compensation. It is available with fixed or widely tunable DWDM interfaces.


The A1020G is a 1RU device that can be configured as a network edge device or as an in-line regenerator. It can be used with Avvio's A1040 quad OC-48 to OC-192 multiplexer for a complete OC-48 to OC-192 network upgrade. http://www.avvionetworks.com

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Alcatel Cites Gains in Satellite Broadband

Alcatel Space announced the selection of its "DSL in the Sky" broadband satellite system by a major Mid-East operator, as well as the launch of commercial service by Satlynx S.A., a supplier of high-speed two-way network services via satellite for Europe. The system has already been chosen by Divona Télécom in Tunisia, and by other operators in Asia.


Alcatel Space's "DSL in the Sky" solution comprises the Alcatel 9780 DVB-RCS platform plus associated terminals. It is based on the DVB-RCS standard (digital video broadcasting-return channel via satellite) and can be integrated in terrestrial DSL networks. The system supports downlinks of up to 45 Mbps and uplinks of up to 2 Mbps. http://www.alcatel.com

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Mexico's Iusacell Selects Lucent for CDMA2000 Expansion

Mexico's Grupo Iusacell selected Lucent Technologies to expand its CDMA2000 1X network nationwide. Under the contract, Lucent will supply equipment, software and services for the network expansion, and will deploy new capabilities for Iusacell's Intelligent Network platform, enabling the introduction of prepaid voice and data services. Iusacell will continue to offer data services at up to 153 Kbps. Lucent Worldwide Services will provide network installation and maintenance. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.lucent.com

• Earlier this month, Nortel Networks announced that Grupo Iusacell had migrated its circuit switches to a packet infrastructure using the Nortel Networks Succession Communication Server (CS) 2000 Superclass softswitch. Iusacell has also deployed Nortel Networks Passport 15000 and Passport Packet Voice Gateways in Mexico's main cities as the basis for its new IP-based core data infrastructure. The core VoIP network support the operator's long-distance traffic, and positions the carrier to expand and deploy 3G services. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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AT&T Declares Quarterly Dividend

AT&T's Board of Directors today declared a regular dividend of $0.2375 (23.75 cents) per share, payable November 1, 2004, to AT&T common shareowners of record on September 30, 2004. http://www.att.com

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Azul Systems Debuts Network Attached Processing

Azul Systems, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, introduced its "network attached processing compute solution" designed to provide grid-like power computing for Java and J2EE platform-based enterprise applications. The company is expected to unveil a new appliance that transparently redirects application workload to a "compute pool" of resources across a corporate network. The technology does not require any change to applications, or the existing infrastructure configuration. Compute pool appliances are simply connected to the network and Azul software is installed on the application hosts. Azul's technology is expected to work with J2EE platform products, including BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere application servers. http://www.azulsystems.com

• Azul Systems is led by Stephen W. DeWitt, who previously was the Vice President and General Manager of Content Delivery and Edge Computing for Sun Microsystems, where he joined following the acquisition of Cobalt Networks. Prior to joining Cobalt, DeWitt served at Cisco Systems as Vice President and General Manager of the Enterprise Network Management Business Unit and Vice President of Enterprise Marketing.

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Lockheed Martin to Build Navy's Next Gen Satellite System

Lockheed Martin was selected to lead a team to build the U.S. Navy's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), a next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system. The new satellites, which will deliver simultaneous voice, data and video in real time to mobile terminals around the globe, will replace the current narrowband tactical satellite communications system known as the Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UFO) system. Anticipated launch date for the first MUOS satellite is planned for 2010.


Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the MUOS program, and its A2100 bus will serve as the MUOS spacecraft platform. General Dynamics C4 Systems will lead the user-entry and integrated ground segments of the MUOS program, supplying a secure ground network, satellite control and network management, and a JTRS-compliant terminal solution. Work will begin to build to produce the first two satellites and associated ground control elements. The contract also provides for options on three additional spacecraft. With all options exercised, the contract for up to five satellites has a total potential value of $ 3.26 billion. http://www.lmco.com

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Cisco to Invest US $32 Million in China R&D

Cisco Systems will invest US$32 million over the next five years to open a research and development center in Shanghai, China. The company expects to hire approximately 100 employees over the next 18 months to focus on research and development. http://www.cisco.com

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AMCC Trims Financial Expectations

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) trimmed its financial forecast for the quarter ending September 2004 and now expects quarterly revenue to be in the range of $61 million to $62 million. This range represents a sequential decline of approximately 9% from the previous quarter's revenues of $67.4 million.



"We believe that the revenue decline is due to two primary factors. First, we've experienced lower-than-expected orders from several of our key customers who are adjusting their own inventories. Secondly, we've seen some softness in our Asia revenue primarily due to reduced demand in China's end markets," said Tom Tullie, AMCC's chief operating officer. http://www.amcc.com

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Altitude Telecom to Build WiMax Network in France

Altitude Telecom, a private and independent telecommunications operator, selected Alvarion to build a nationwide network across France using licensed 3.5GHz spectrum. Altitude Telecom will deploy Alvarion's BreezeMAX platform, which is based on WiMax Forum profiles. Initially Altitude Telecom's BreezeMAX network will be rolled out in four counties, the first to be Vendee (Vendee department) with plans for additional counties within a year. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.altitudetelecom.fr

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Matsushita and Comcast Agree to License OCAP Middleware

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Comcast have agreed to license Panasonic's Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP) compliant middleware for the U.S. cable market. This middleware was developed by Panasonic and will be installed in digital cable set top boxes (STBs) to be built for Comcast, and also used in consumer devices that will be available at retail. Financial terms were not disclosed.



The two companies also have an existing agreement for Comcast to purchase Panasonic-designed and -made OCAP-compliant STBs. Panasonic and Comcast are also working on a certification system for OCAP-ready devices and digital TV. Panasonic plans to introduce an OCAP-compliant set-top cable box to the U.S. market in 2005.



Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP) ensures interoperability with digital interactive cable-ready digital TVs and cable STBs. An OCAP-ready digital television application that works with one cable operator in one area can also work with another cable operator in another area. Until now, cable operators have determined their own proprietary delivery systems, requiring different cable set-top boxes to receive and decode signals from their propriety systems. http://www.panasonic.co.jp/

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NETGEAR Ships Low-Cost 48 Port Gigabit Smart Switch

NETGEAR launched its first 48 Port Gigabit Smart Switch aimed at small to medium sized businesses. The switch provides 48 10/100/1000 ports in a 1U package, and offers optional fiber connectivity through four hot-swappable SFP GBIC slots. It includes performance monitoring, port configuration, VLANs, port trunking, and Class of Service (CoS) capabilities. The product has a list price of $1750, equating to just over $36 per port. http://www.netgear.com

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IDT Provides International LC for Cablevision's VoIP

IDT Telecom signed an agreement to provide international long distance phone service to Cablevision Optimum Voice digital voice-over-cable customers. The new service also includes a remote calling feature that allows customers to make international calls from any location in the U.S., Puerto Rico or U.S. Virgin Islands.



To activate international calling, Optimum Voice customers must visit the web portal and register using either a credit or debit card with a minimum initial payment of $10. http://www.idt.net/

• In August, Cablevision Systems reported 115,050 cable VoIP customers, up 44,235 from March 2004.



• In November 2003, Cablevision announced the availability of its digital voice-over-cable telephony across its footprint of nearly 4 million homes in the New York metropolitan area.

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Marconi to re-sell Newport Networks' Session Controller

Marconi agreed to resell Newport Networks' carrier-class Session Border Controller (SBC) as part of its next-generation SoftSwitch platform. Newport Networks' 1460 Session Controller is designed for Tier 1 service providers and can handle around 70,000 simultaneous calls, corresponding to around 700,000 subscribers. SBCs can be located at two areas within the Next-Generation Network (NGN): between the user and the SoftSwitch; and between different service providers' networks. http://www.marconi.com/http://www.newport-networks.com/

• Newport Networks was founded in September 2000 by Terry Matthews, Chairman, and John Everard, CEO.

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QUALCOMM Licenses Microsoft's Windows Media Streaming Codec

QUALCOMM has licensed Microsoft Windows Media technology and will integrate the Windows Media Audio and Video codecs into QUALCOMM's Qtv video decoder solution. Handset manufacturers will be able to leverage this capability to offer consumers access to Windows Media content. Support for this Windows streaming capability will be available starting in Q1 2005 beginning with QUALCOMM's MSM6250, MSM6500 and MSM6550 Mobile Station Modem wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and CDMA2000 1x EV-DO chipset solutions.



"The goal of this agreement between Microsoft and QUALCOMM is that high-quality video on mobile phones will soon provide the streaming video experience consumers get with their high-speed wired connections at home," said John Stratton, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. http://www.qualcomm.comhttp://www.microsoft.com

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California Public Utilities Commission Raises UNE Rates by 20%

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a proposal that will increase wholesale rates for SBC's California service territory by 20 percent. The newly adopted rates for the most frequently discussed UNEs are:

• Average 2-wire Loop: $11.93



• Average DS-1 Loop: $57.42



• Average DS-3 Loop: $573.20



• 2-wire port: $3.35



• UNE-Platform: $16.53

The Commission said SBC must adjust, or "true-up" the interim rates it charged for its UNEs to the new rates adopted today. In other words, SBC must calculate whether the previous interim rates were higher or lower than these newly adopted rates, and whether it has over or under-collected the appropriate revenues for any UNE it sold at interim rates.



The action also suspends further review of SBC's UNE prices by the California PUC until February 2007.



*** Some Reaction ***



Ken McNeely, President, AT&T California: "Today's action will not help create new jobs or spur investment in the state, but rather, simply signals the end of local phone competition and choice for Californians and higher prices for phone service. As the now uncontested and largest provider of local, long distance, wireless and DSL services in the state, this vote gives SBC the green light to re-monopolize telecommunications and provide less service at higher rates."

Paul Fadelli, Executive Director of Californians for Telecommunications Choice (CTC), said "The CPUC has also doomed all California consumers to a return to the monopoly era where we have no choices, higher rates, and poor service."http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/

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France's Completel Selects Nortel for VoIP Migration

Completel, an alternative carrier serving the enterprise market in France, selected Nortel Networks to transition its network to VoIP. The network roll-out will start in Q4 2004 so that new service offers will be available at the beginning of 2005. The network will deliver basic voice, along with value-added IP Centrex-type services (PBX outsourcing), virtual call centers, video conferencing, etc. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Completel is using fiber access for main sites and on DSL access for the other sites on a national scale. http://www.nortelnetworks.comhttp://www.completel.com

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Nortel Supplies Equipment for Verizon's EV-DO Expansion

Nortel Networks was one of the CDMA2000 1xEV-DO suppliers contributing to the upcoming launch of Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess network in 14 major metropolitan areas and 24 airports in the United States.



Nortel Networks was the primary wireless infrastructure supplier in San Diego for Verizon Wireless' initial commercial deployment of BroadbandAccess in October 2003. In March 2004, the companies signed a two-year agreement under which Verizon Wireless expects to spend US$167 million with Nortel Networks on wireless equipment for BroadbandAccess through 2005. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

• Verizon Wireless will launch its CDMA2000 1xEV-DO "BroadbandAccess" service in 14 major metropolitan areas beginning next week.



• In July 2004, Verizon Wireless awarded a contract valued at least $5 billion to Lucent Technologies for supplying a wide variety of network equipment, software and services for Verizon Wireless' national next-generation voice and data network based on CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology.

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Xten Partners with Plantronics for Softphone + Headset

Xten and Plantronics announced a partnership combining Xten's softphones with Plantronics full line of PC headsets. Xten has a FREE SIP softphone dubbed X-Lite, in addition to the fully featured X-PRO commercial softphone. The softphones are RFC3261 (SIP), RTP/RTCP (RFC 1889) and SDP (RFC 3264) compliant. http://www.xten.com

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Net2Phone Shuffles Management and Board

Net2Phone announced the reorganization of its Board of Directors along with management changes and the formation of a cable advisory committee. The company has appointed Liore Alroy as its new CEO, with Stephen Greenberg assuming the position of Chairman of the Board, and Howard Jonas becoming Vice Chairman. The Board changes reduced the number of directors from 13 to 9.



Tony Werner, Chief Technology Officer of Liberty Media, will continue to be integrally involved in the company through his leadership of the Net2Phone Cable Advisory Committee. http://www.net2phone.com

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AT&T Wins Major Networking Contract From DHL

AT&T was awarded a substantial three-year contract to provide DHL locations around the world with high-speed, secure, online access to key business applications. In the U.S., the network cover 650 locations. The contract renews and expands a long- standing relationship under which DHL has its long-distance telephone, toll- free, private-line, domestic and international data services with AT&T. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.att.com

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Verizon Promotes DSL + VoIP Bundle

Verizon launched a promotion that combines its new consumer broadband VoIP service with DSL. Customers who subscribe to VoiceWing can get Verizon Online's lowest price for DSL service -- $29.95 a month for 1.5 Mbps downstream connectivity. The "VoiceWing" VoIP service costs $29.95 a month for the first six months and offers unlimited U.S. calling. Verizon is currently offering local VoIP numbers for more than 160 area codes in 35 states and the District of Columbia. http://www.verizon.com

• Verizon first launched its "VoiceWing" consumer VoIP service in July 2004 with pricing set at $39.95 per month.

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SOFTBANK Signs $20 Million Contract with UTStarcom for Optical Products

UTStarcom was awarded a new contract valued at approximately $20 million to supply its NetRing 10000 STM-64 multiservice optical transport product to the SOFTBANK Group. SOFTBANK intends to deploy the equipment in the construction of a new network with Japan Telecom.



UTStarcom NetRing platform provides aggregation, grooming, cross-connect, and transport functionality to deliver high-density, highly efficient STM-1 to STM-64, PDH (E1/DS1, E3/DS3), Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and ATM services in SDH-based carrier networks. In terms of functionally, the NetRing product line combines Add-Drop Multiplexing (ADM), Digital Cross-Connect System (DCS), Ethernet switching, ATM multiplexing and RPR functionality into an integrated, "pay-as-you-grow" multi-service system. http://www.utstar.com

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Azimuth Systems Raises $10.5 Million for Wi-Fi Test Platform

Azimuth Systems, a start-up based in Acton, Massachusetts, closed $10.5 million for its automated wireless network test platforms. Azimuth's W-Series Test Platform provides system level testing of 802.11 wireless access points, clients and other devices. Azimuth's announced customer relationships include leading Wi-Fi silicon vendor Broadcom and equipment vendor Symbol Technologies, as well as industry test labs UNH's IOL, Network World's "Real-Labs" at Syracuse University, PC Magazine Labs, Miercom Labs, Tolly Group, Iometrix and NBL Taiwan.



The newest funding round was co-led by current investors North Bridge Venture Partners and Kodiak Venture Partners. The company has raised $23.5 million to date. http://www.azimuthsystems.com

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Propagate Raises $8 Million for Cognitive Radio Software

Propagate Networks, a start-up based in Acton, Massachusetts, raised $8 million in Series C venture funding for its embedded cognitive radio software. The technology can be embedded in wireless access points and clients (desktops, laptops, PDAs, cordless phones, home entertainment systems) to provides maximum WLAN performance in high density and high interference deployments. The software creates self-configuring wireless networks that automatically avoid radio frequency interference. Current Propagate partners include many Wi-Fi industry leaders such as Netgear, Atheros Communications, Chantry Networks and others.



Strategic investors in this third round include Motorola Ventures, an additional unnamed corporate investor and Thomas Weisel Venture Partners. The company has raised approximately $14 million in venture funding to date. http://www.propagatenet.com

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Centillium and Uniden Partner on VoIP

Centillium Communications and Uniden America Corporation, a leading manufacturer of cordless phones, a strategic relationship for the development and retail delivery of consumer and SOHO VoIP products. Uniden will develop and distribute a variety of VoIP products powered by Centillium's newly announced Voice Services Platform. Uniden's consumer-based VoIP products will complement its current line-up of three business-class VoIP phones. http://www.centillium.comhttp://www.uniden.com

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Centillium Unveils Voice Services Platform for Consumer and SOHO Devices

Centillium Communications unveiled a Voice Services Platform (VSP) for the development and deployment of VoIP products aimed at consumer and small-office/home-office (SOHO) applications.



The VSP combines all of the silicon and software building blocks needed to develop a VoIP phone system into a single platform. This includes support for several real-time operating systems (VxWorks, RTEMS and Linux), the latest SIP, MGCP and H.323 protocols, a full range of CODEC support, support for WiFi (802.11a/b/g), auto provisioning and management options and easy-to-use Web-based configuration tools.



Centillium is working with AT&T to guide the VSP through the certification process for use with the carrier's CallVantage service.



The first products based on the VSP are expected to enter retail channels in Q4. http://www.centillium.com

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MeshNetworks Granted Experimental License for 4.9Ghz Mobile Mesh

MeshNetworks, a start-up based in Maitland, Florida, granted a new experimental license by the FCC to conduct nationwide trials of new products and technologies using its mesh networking technologies at 2.5 GHz and in the newly created 4.9 GHz public safety band. Specifically, the grant allows MeshNetworks to deploy a total of 1000 nodes, with a maximum of 200 per demonstration network.



MeshNetworks solutions leverage battlefield networking technology originally developed for the US military under DARPA directed programs. Key characteristics of the MeshNetworks technology include a layer 2 routing engine, ultra-fast route acquisition, dynamic bandwidth allocation (fairness), real-time congestion management, QoS, assignable user priority, mobile handovers, infrastructureless peer to peer capability and scalability.



In response to September 11 and the subsequent advent of the Department of Homeland Security, the FCC dedicated the 4.9 GHz band exclusively for use by the public safety community. http://www.meshnetworks.com

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Internet Innovation Alliance Seeks to Spur U.S. Broadband Adoption

A new Internet Innovation Alliance has been formed to promote policies that encourage online innovation and broadband adoption. The group said it will focus on creating and disseminating useful information for consumers and non-expert policy leaders.



The new Internet Innovation Alliance, whose founding members include AT&T, CapNet, Comptel/ASCENT, Covad, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and Pulver.com among others, issued the following principles to guide lawmakers:

• First, do no harm. From the FCC's Computer I & II decisions to the policy of non-regulation of e-mail, decision-makers have best served innovation and competition through regulatory restraint. The growth in broadband availability has made it even more imperative that policy makers continue the policy of low taxation and limited regulation of Internet technology.



• Second, consider that new technologies might not fit into traditional regulatory or taxation regimes. Just as e-business, e-learning and e-government offer new ways of serving customers, new Internet-based applications often demand new and more flexible regulations. For example, VoIP promises great consumer benefits provided it remains unburdened by legacy regulations such as
  local telephone company access subsidy charges.



• Third, consider ways to make new technologies part of the solution in achieving critical public policy objectives such as universal telephone service and law enforcement objectives, instead of viewing them as part of the problem. Technological innovations may help us realize our goals at lower cost and higher quality, and we must be open to achieving timeless policy needs in new ways.

http://www.internetinnovation.org

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mPhase and Bell Labs Collaborate on Telco TV

mPhase and Lucent Technologies announced an extension to an agreement to collaborate on enhancements to its mPhase TV+ System. Bell Labs is designing software and hardware, including an enhanced IP set top box, for the mPhase TV+ System.



The current version of the TV+ System for DSL networks delivers 255 channels of broadcast television and broadband data and enables subscribers to surf channels though an electronic programming guide. The system supports more than 1000 subscribers from a single Lucent Stinger DSL Access Concentrator chassis. Further enhancements are expected in the near term as the companies continue their development efforts. The companies are currently working on the third release of the mPhase TV+ System.



mPhase and Lucent have been collaborating for over a year. http://www.mPhaseTech.com

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