AFC to Acquire Marconi's North American Access Business

Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC) agreed to acquire Marconi's North American Access (NAA) business for $240 million in cash. Marconi NAA's major products include a fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) platform and DLCs. The acquisition would also provide AFC with a greater ability to penetrate major RBOC accounts. Notably, Marconi's fiber-to-the-curb platform is deployed extensively at BellSouth, which has been pursuing a fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) architecture since 1995. Nearly one million homes have been fiber-passed out of a market of 14 million homes...

Read More

Entropic Unveils Chipset for In-house Coax Networks

Entropic Communications, a start-up based in San Diego, introduced a chipset capable of transforming existing coaxial cabling inside a home into a high-performance home network. Entropic's c.LINK-270 chipset delivers a maximum data rate of 270Mbps. The company said its waveform technology can traverse, or jump, cable splitters from output to output while co-existing with all the content (cable, satellite, etc.) currently on the coax. The Entropic chipset consists of two ICs: an RF front-end, and baseband controller with an embedded Media Access...

Read More

Multimedia Over Coax Alliance Targets In-Home Networking

A new Multimedia Over Coax Alliance (MoCA), founded by Cisco Systems, Comcast, EchoStar, Entropic Communications, Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), Motorola, RadioShack and Toshiba, has been formed to develop specifications for home networks connected via existing, in-house coaxial cabling. The technology supported by the alliance would enable DVD quality entertainment throughout the home -- high speed (270 mbps), high QoS, and packet-level encryption. The MoCA network could also be used as a backbone for multiple wireless access points. A MoCA...

Read More

TiVo Files Patent Suit Against EchoStar

TiVo filed a patent infringement suit against EchoStar Communications alleging the satellite television service provider is violating its "Time Warp" patent. TiVo said key inventions protected by the Time Warp patent include a method for recording one program while playing back another, watching a program as it is recording, and a storage format that supports advanced TrickPlay) capabilities (i.e. pausing live television broadcast, fast-forwarding, rewinding, instant replays, and slow motion). TiVo filed for the patent in July 1998. http://ww...

Read More

CLEC Industry Association Names New Leadership

Jim Geiger, Founder and CEO of Cbeyond Communications, has been named Chairman of the Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), an industry organization whose mission is to promote facilities-based local telecommunications competition.Geiger said "ALTS' strategy is simple....we want to preserve the pro-competitive landscape in place today to ensure all carriers can continue to compete in local markets in order that customers have a choice for local telephone service. We want to ensure non-discriminatory access to the last mile bottleneck...

Read More

Equinix Sees Strength in Network-Neutral Model

The network-neutral colocation model is gaining traction, said Peter Van Camp, CEO of Equinix, speaking at Citigroup's 14th Annual Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix. Colocation and hosting have been difficult businesses for a number of companies and recent withdrawals from this market have included Sprint and Cable & Wireless USA (the old Exodus business). Equinix now sees competition from Level 3 and AT&T, but Van Camp pointed out that Equinix does not own a network and does not plan to acquire one....

Read More

Level 3 Looks to New Services in 2004

New services will be the drivers of revenue growth in 2004, said James Crowe, speaking at Citigroup's 14th Annual Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix. Over the past few months, Level 3 has more than doubled the size its addressable market by introducing new offerings including its MPLS-based (3)Flex Ethernet service, (3)VoIP Marketplace for call center operators, an enhanced (3)Flex IP voice termination service, and a new wholesale (3)Tone hosted IP telephony service. Crowe said Level 3 is planning other new service...

Read More

Motorola Rolls Out Consumer Broadband Products

Motorola will be showcasing a number of new wireless home networking products at next week's Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, including the Motorola SBG900 wireless cable modem gateway. The device integrates an 802.11g wireless access point, a DOCSIS 2.0-certified cable modem, and advanced security options. Motorola Broadband has shipped over 14 million cable modems to date, encompassing four generations of technology.Motorola will also introduce a 802.11g USB adapter and a wireless print server. The company will also display 802.11g-based...

Read More

Wave7 Optics Announces FTTP Customer in Kansas

Wave7 Optics will supply its FTTP solution to Columbus Telephone Company (Kansas), a customer-owned and operated utility in the southeast corner of Kansas. When completed later this year, the FTTP will reach all of the company's almost 3,400 subscribers. http://www.wave7optics....

Read More

WildBlue Selects ViaSat to Supply Consumer CPE

WildBlue Communications selected ViaSat to supply satellite broadband equipment and ground systems for the WildBlue consumer and small office/home office broadband satellite service. The contract is valued at over $33 million and includes final development and production of consumer premises equipment (CPE) and gateway equipment to support WildBlue's initial service launch. Customer equipment includes a ViaSat Ka-band satellite modem and outdoor Ka-band transceiver electronics from ViaSat subsidiary US Monolithics . CPE deliveries are scheduled...

Read More

Roland Acra Named President and CEO of Procket Networks

Procket Networks, a start-up based in Milpitas, California, named Roland Acra as its new president and CEO. Most recently, Acra served as Senior Vice President and CTO at Cisco Systems, focusing on its Service Provider market. Prior to this, as Group Vice President and General Manager of the Public Carrier IP Group, he led Cisco's recovery in its multi-billion dollar high-end routing business. http://www.procket.comIn November 2003, Procket announced significant new performance and feature enhancements to its PRO/8801 and PRO/8812 routers, including...

Read More

Redback Emerges from Chapter 11, Gains New Funding

Redback Networks exited from Chapter 11 status and announced $30 million in equity funding from Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). Redback Networks filed its financial restructuring plan on November 3, as a "pre-packaged" plan for "fast track" approval by the court. Redback has also undergone a reverse stock split to meet NASDAQ's listing requirements and to create new shares for the debt holders. The restructuring eliminated approximately $467 million of existing debt and $44 million in annual expenses.Redback said its financial restructuring...

Read More

NETGEAR Selects Marvell Libertas 802.11g 54Mbps Chipset

NETGEAR will use Marvell's "Libertas" 802.11g Wireless LAN chipset for its new 802.11g home networking solutions, including DSL and cable modem routers. http://www.marvell....

Read More

Westell Acquires VoIP License from Hughes

Westell Technologies acquired a license for DIRECTV Broadband's VoIP from Hughes Electronics. The agreement includes a two-year exclusive license for hardware and software for the DSL VoIP customer premises equipment and, back office subscriber management systems, as well as a non-exclusive license under two-dozen patent-pending innovations. The agreement excludes satellite applications. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.westell.comHughes closed its DIRECTV Broadband operations in 2003. The DSL network served approximately 160,000...

Read More

Parama Networks Introduces SONET/SDH ADM-on-a-Chip

Parama Networks, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California introduced its "ADM-on-a-Chip," an integrated device for SONET/SDH transport equipment. Parama said ADM-on-a-Chip, which is designed for next generation network equipment, leverages advances in silicon VLSI technology over the last few years to enable an entire ADM implementations on a single piece of silicon. Its solution includes a companion SONET/SDH overhead processor, a data transport processor, a hardware reference design, and software development kit. The ADM-on-a-Chip is manufactured...

Read More