SBC Acquires Callisma, a Network Consulting Company

SBC Communications has acquired Callisma, a Palo Alto, California-based network consulting company serving enterprise customers. Callisma, which has 125 employees, specializes in operations management, VoIP, internetworking, security, and storage solutions. Callisma consultants will augment the existing SBC consulting organization, and an SBC sales and service workforce that already has attained more than 4,300 advanced data services certifications. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.sbc.com

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KT Acquire Transpacific Capacity from Tyco

Tyco Telecommunications announced a multi-million dollar contract to supply diverse, 10 Gbps, transpacific wavelengths to KT, Korea's incumbent operator. Under the terms of the Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) contract, Tyco Telecommunications will provide full circuit, high quality connectivity to carry large volumes of voice, data and Internet traffic between Korea and the U.S. West Coast. http://www.tycotelecom.com

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XO Concludes $200 Million Rights Offering

XO Communications concluded its $200 million rights offering of 40 million shares of common stock at $5.00 per share. Preliminary figures show that approximately 39.7 million shares were purchased in the offering, yielding gross proceeds to XO of approximately $198.6 million. As stated in the offering materials, all of the proceeds will be used to reduce XO's outstanding debt.


Carl Icahn, the company's chairman and its largest shareholder, purchased over 7 million shares for over $35 million. http://www.xo.com

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SBC Highlights 2004 Growth Opportunities

SBC Communications is looking for growth in long distance, DSL, wireless and the large-business market in 2004, said SBC Chairman and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr., speaking at Smith Barney Citigroup's Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix. He believes SBC is better positioned than it was a year ago and that the outlook for 2004 is positive. Whitacre expects to see tangible benefits at from the nation's overall economic growth. He also hailed a decision earlier this week by the state of Indiana to raise UNE-p rates by 30%, saying this trend would bode well for SBC. The company's first priority is to stabilize its wireline business. To this end, Whitacre said service bundling remains the cornerstone of SBC's consumer marketing strategy. Some highlights of the presentation:

• At the beginning of 2003, 19% of SBC's consumer retail lines had a bundle with one of its key services - long distance, DSL or wireless. By the end of the year, that penetration had more than doubled.



• Within the next month, SBC is expected to add video to its consumer bundles.



• SBC expects its retail consumer access line losses to decline about 30 percent from third-quarter levels, reflecting the launch of SBC long distance services in the Midwest.



• In DSL, SBC added 378,000 net lines in Q4 - its eighth straight quarter of increasing net adds in broadband. Whitacre claimed that SBC has now reached parity with cable modem competitors across its network footprint.



• In long distance, SBC added 1.7 million net new lines in Q3 and it expects to exceed that figure by at least 1 million in Q4.
  
  
• SBC expects 2004 capital expenditures, excluding Cingular Wireless, will total $5 billion to $5.5 billion.



• Full financial results will be reported on 27-January-2004.

http://www.sbc.com

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Level 3 Files VoIP Petition With FCC

Level 3 Communications filed a petition asking the FCC to reaffirm that legacy switched access charges do not apply to VoIP. Under current rules, VoIP is generally classified as an "information service." As such, it is exempted from the access charges imposed on traditional long distance telecommunications services. Some industry participants have argued that access charges should be imposed on VoIP traffic when traffic is exchanged between carriers. Level 3 maintains that such a move would be ill conceived and not in the public interest. However, Level 3's petition would, if granted, maintain the current access charge regime for rural carriers.


Level 3 said it supports FCC proposals to move to a unified intercarrier compensation regime that eliminates non-cost-based carrier-to-carrier payments, and that governs the exchange of traffic among carriers under a single set of rules. In addition, the company supports industry development of guidelines and standards to achieve a number of social policies that would enhance VoIP as the technology continues to proliferate. They include:

• development of appropriate 911 and E911 interconnection and deployment standards for IP-originated VoIP;



• development of packet-based standards for the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA);



• a universal service contribution mechanism that is "application neutral" but that ensures that IP-based communications contribute to universal service funding.

"The existing intercarrier compensation regime is based on implicit subsidies and obsolete conceptions of network architecture and technology... it simply does not make sense to compound that system's complexity by forcing VoIP into an already illogical regulatory framework," said James Crowe, Level 3's CEO. http://www.Level3.com

• In December 2003, FCC held its first public VoIP forum. http://www.convergedigest.com/regulatory/regulatoryarticle.asp?ID=9551

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SkyBitz Secures $16 for Satellite-based Global Locating System

SkyBitz, a start-up based in Dulles, Virginia, secured $16 million in a Series C round for its satellite-based asset tracking and information management service. SkyBitz's Global Locating System (GLS) gives customers the ability to track powered and un-powered assets by utilizing a unique wireless satellite technology and centralized position calculations. The platform is designed to provide asset visibility within a global supply chain. For each asset to be tracked, a compact "GLS mobile communicator" featuring a multiyear battery life is used. The company claims its system is more cost-effective and outperforms GPS-based tracking systems.


The funding was co-led by Inverness Capital Partners and Motorola Ventures, with original investors AIG Highstar Capital and Cordova Ventures participating as well. SkyBitz has raised $41 million to date. http://www.skybitz.com

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Cogent Acquires LambdaNet Spain & LambdaNet France

Cogent Communications has acquired LambdaNet Communications France and LambdaNet España. Financial terms were not disclosed. LambdaNet is the current trade name for what was previously Firstmark Communications, a large pan-European carrier's carrier offering point-to-point and Internet connectivity solutions to businesses. Immediately preceding Cogent's acquisition, LambdaNet Spain and LambdaNet France both received new equity investments from a group of private equity investors based in Europe and the U.S.. These investors will become shareholders of the combined company.


Cogent will continue to support LambdaNet's product suite including point- to-point transport and transit services in over 40 markets and almost 30 Cogent-owned data centers across Europe. Cogent will also introduce in Europe a new set of "radically priced" products and services based on Cogent's current North American product set.


As a result of the acquisition, Cogent's North American network now extends across the Atlantic to France, Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland. http://www.cogent-sp.comhttp://www.lambdanet.net

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GlobespanVirata Unveils WLAN Chipset for 140 Mbps

GlobespanVirata unveiled a new "PRISM Nitro XM Xtreme Multimedia" solution that is claims will deliver WLAN throughput rates of up to 140 Mbps -- or 40 times faster than 802.11b -- while being compatible with all 802.11g and 802.11a/g products. The company described the technology as both standards-compliant and non-proprietary -- "a turbo solution that is not only fully compatible with existing systems and future standards, but also does not cause interference to other networks in the area."


In a typical wireless network access point (AP) configuration, throughput rates decline as more clients associate with the AP. PRISM Nitro XM reduces overhead throughput loss by creating an automatic, secure, high-speed link directly between wireless clients when they are within communication range of each other. This allows clients to communicate directly with each other at speeds of up to 140 Mbps while maintaining a simultaneous network connection with the AP. The company is targeting the technology at advanced home networking applications such as multi-channel CD-quality audio and DVD-quality video. http://www.globespanvirata.com

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IP Infusion Adds Layer 2 Capabilities to Routing Suite

IP Infusion released an upgrade to its ZebOS Advanced Routing Suite (ARS) featuring enhancements to its Layer 2 protocol capabilities and management interface offerings. ZebOS ARS now includes support for Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (802.1s), Link Aggregation (802.3ad), GARP Multicast Registration Protocol (GMRP), and IGMP Snooping; enhancements to VLAN support with Port and Protocol VLAN classification (802.1v) and GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP) as well as Independent VLAN Learning. Also available in ARS 6.1 are basic access and IPv6 tunneling and transition management interface modules. http://www.ipinfusion.com

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8x8 and Leadtek Unveil SIP Videophone

8x8 and Leadtek unveiled a desktop SIP videophone that includes an integrated camera and LCD display. The phone enables plug-and-play, instant-on video communications at up to 30 frames per second when used in conjunction with the Packet8 service. The device includes audio/video IN/OUT ports and an external microphone IN port for expanded video conferencing capabilities. Also included are 2 Ethernet pass-through ports to assist in boardroom, office and home LAN set- ups. With the Packet8 service, the device also provides voice mail, caller ID, call forwarding, call waiting, call waiting ID, 3-way calling and other voice broadband features. Other compliant videophones can be dialed using a regular 10-digit telephone number. Pricing details have not yet been disclosed. http://www.8x8.com

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America Online Adds Spyware Protection

America Online will would make spyware protection available as a standard feature to both narrowband and broadband members. The spyware software helps users identify and disable potential types of surveillance and advertising software (also known as spyware or adware). http://www.aol.com

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Cable & Wireless Selects Nortel for VoIP in the Caymans

Cable & Wireless Cayman Islands will deploy products from Nortel Networks' Succession VoIP and Multimedia Communications portfolios for its next generation network. The two year, US$17 million agreement includes Nortel Networks' Multimedia Communication Server 5200, which uses open standards-based software and commercially available hardware to deliver multimedia and collaboration services that can be integrated with existing telephone services. It will also include the latest IP enhancements to Nortel Networks Succession Media Gateway 9000, a leading-edge access gateway designed to transition revenue-generating telephony services onto a packet infrastructure. Cable & Wireless Cayman Islands is expected to be the second service provider worldwide to deploy these enhancements. Cable & Wireless will also deploy Nortel Networks Succession Communication Server 2000-Compact superclass softswitches, and products from the Nortel Networks Passport and Nortel Networks OPTera portfolios. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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Sprint Expresses Optimism on 2004

Although challenges remain, the "perfect storm" affecting the telecom industry is giving way to new growth opportunities, said Gary Forsee, Sprint's chairman and CEO, speaking at Smith Barney Citigroup's Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Phoenix. From Sprint's perspective, 2003 was characterized by big strides in financial restructuring and debt reduction, new product growth, operational improvements, leadership changes and product rationalization (write off of MMDS spectrum, exiting from the hosting business, exiting from the publishing business). Some highlights of the presentation:

• PCS Group expects to add 390,000 net direct subscribers and 1 million net total subscribers in Q4. Customer churn is expected to be 2.7 percent, which includes five weeks of local number portability impact. Gross additions are expected to be slightly better than 1.65 million.



• Sprint FON Group expects just over 300,000 DSL subscribers at year end.



• Total subscribers for Sprint Complete Sense, Sprint's competitive local service initiative, are expected to be approximately 280,000.

http://www.sprint.com

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