Picolight Closes $10M Funding Round

Picolight, a start-up based in Boulder, Colorado, closed raised $10 million in new venture funding for its high-speed opto-electronic sub-components and fiber optic transceivers. Picolight supplies a 1310nm vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) to metro access applications. It also supplies fiber optic transceivers for enterprise and storage applications. The new funding was led by St. Paul Venture Capital and BA Venture Partners (Bank of America). http://www.picolight.com

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Lucent Reports its Second Sequential Quarterly Profit

Lucent Technologies reported quarterly revenues of $2.26 billion, an increase of 11% sequentially and 9% from the year-ago quarter. Lucent reported a profit for the quarter, with net income of $338 million or 7 cents per diluted share -- this represents the company's second sequential quarterly profit.


"We are clearly seeing evidence that the market is stabilizing," said Lucent Technologies Chairman and CEO Patricia Russo. "While we remain cautious, we are encouraged by the recent news we have seen from some of our customers."


Some highlights for the quarter:

• gross margin of 41% as compared to 43% in the prior quarter.



• operating expenses were $648 million as compared with $524 million in the preceding quarter



• as of Dec. 31, 2003, Lucent had $4.3 billion in cash and short-term investments, representing a decrease of $230 million in the quarter



• revenues in the U.S. increased 12% sequentially to $1.35 billion, and international revenues increased 11% to $909 million. Compared with the year-ago quarter, U.S. and international revenues increased by 4% and 16%, respectively.



• Integrated Network Solutions (INS) revenues were $790 million, a decrease of 8% sequentially and a decrease of 7% compared with the year-ago quarter.



• Mobility Solutions revenues were $960 million, an increase of 51% sequentially and an increase of 32% compared with the year-ago quarter. The revenue for the quarter includes about $150 million related to the resolution of a prior network acceptance delay on a significant Mobility project outside the U.S.



• Lucent Worldwide Services (LWS) revenues were $466 million, a decrease of 1% sequentially and a decrease of 4%t compared with the year-ago quarter.

http://www.lucent.com

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Qwest Sharply Cuts Prices for Outbound International Voice

Qwest Communications introduced new international voice plans for business customers. The company said that improvements to its global network infrastructure enable it to significantly reduce prices. Qwest new international long-distance voice services include:

• Direct-dial switched and dedicated long-distance calls from the U.S to more than 250 destinations around the world. Rates start as low as $.02 cents per minute to calling destinations such as Canada and Mexico.



• lower pricing for the Qwest "worldcard" calling card



• International toll-free service from more than 50 countries. Businesses can chose to have different, localized toll-free numbers from different countries, or the same number.

http://www.qwest.com

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Nestle Adopts Alcatel's VoIP

Nestle awarded a global supply agreement to Alcatel for deployment of VoIP equipment in its facilities worldwide. Specifically, Nestle will install Alcatel IP communication solutions at many of its 1,500+ locations, replacing some of its 200,000 voice lines over five years. The new network will leverage the Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise IP communications solution. Nestle plans to continue using existing TDM voice services while it migrates to the IP platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.


Switzerland-based Nestle SA is the world's largest food company and has 254,000 employees and 508 factories in 85 countries. http://www.alcatel.com

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eircom Selects Netopia's CPE

eircom, Ireland's incumbent service provider, is exclusively deploying Netopia's residential product portfolio to ADSL broadband households. For mass-market deployment, eircom has selected the Netopia 3341 ADSL Smart Modem, which supports both the universal connection options of Ethernet and USB for LAN connectivity. In the near future, eircom's will also offer Netopia's ADSL Wi-Fi Gateway to residential power users. The Netopia wireless gateway comes equipped with both a 4-port 10/100 Ethernet switch for wired applications and a fully integrated 802.11b Wi-Fi access point for wireless home networking.


eircom broadband service is targetting 100,000 broadband customers by December 2004. The up-take of eircom broadband service is expected to further accelerate over the next two years, as eircom delivers on plans to supply ADSL service to 100% of the towns in Ireland by 2005. http://www.netopia.com

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Harmonic Selected for Video over DSL in UK

Video Networks Limited (VNL), a video-over-DSL provider in the U.K., is deploying Harmonic's DiviCom MV 100 real-time video encoder to add broadcast and time-shifted television to its HomeChoice service and extend geographical reach. VNL's Harmonic-based service is expected to be fully operational by mid-2004. Harmonic's DiviCom MV 100 encoder supports ultra-low bit rate encoding for MPEG-2 and next generation video compression, such as MPEG-4/AVC. VNL's new digital video infrastructure will be monitored and controlled by Harmonic's NMX Digital Service Manager, which will enable an automated, error-free installation of the MPEG-4/AVC technology in the MV 100s deployed in their network. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.harmonicinc.com

• Video Networks' HomeChoice service offers subscribers access to almost 5,000 films, TV programmes and music videos, in addition to Internet access at up to 1 Mbps.



• In September 2003, Video Networks Limited (VNL) selected Alcatel for a video-over-DSL deployment that will be launching in Q2 2004. Under the contract, Alcatel will provide VNL with DSLAMs and support services enabling VNL to provide a full suite of broadband entertainment services including video on demand, broadcast TV and broadband internet data services. Specifically, VNL will use the Alcatel 7301 Advanced Services Access Manager (ASAM) and the Alcatel 5523 New Generation ADSL Work Station (NG AWS) Element Management System. The service initially will be available in London. The deal was valued at EUR 15 million.

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Spirent Unveils CDMA2000 Test Platform

Spirent Communications introduced a carrier-scale CDMA2000 performance benchmarking tool, co-developed with Scientific Software Engineering Inc. The new CDMA2000 Performance Test System builds upon existing test tools for GPRS, WCDMA and WLAN.


Spirent's CDMA2000 Performance Test System can be used by network equipment manufacturers to benchmark their systems before carrier trials. The system includes all of the key emulation and performance elements for benchmarking both current and next-generation Mobile IP and Simple IP core infrastructure, including both home agents and foreign agents alone and in combination. It scales to evaluate 200,000 mobile systems per test server and six million mobile systems per application.


Service providers could also use the CDMA2000 Performance Test System to determine whether their CDMA2000 equipment can sustain a rapidly growing customer base with increasingly demanding applications. http://www.spirentcom.com

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HNS Supplies LMDS for Italy's Wind

Italy's Wind Telecomunicazioni selected Hughes Network Systems (HNS) to deploy its AIReach Broadband 9000 wireless access system nationwide. Wind will use the AIReach 26 GHz system in both point-to-point and point-to- multipoint configurations for the backhauling of 2G and 3G networks and for small/medium Enterprise (SME) last-mile access. In addition to the provision of AIReach broadband base stations and terminal stations, the contract also includes network planning, implementation, project management, and other network services. These will be provided by Sirti, a leading Italian company in the area of professional network services.


The AIReach Broadband 9000 hub/base station supports multiple E1, E3 ATM, STM-1 ATM, and 10/100BaseT interfaces, while the remote terminals collocated with cellular base stations support multiple E1, 10/100BaseT and ATM ports at speeds up to 30 Mbps, configurable for both dedicated and bandwidth-on-demand traffic.


Wind currently serves more than 30 million customers (9.2 million cellular users, 7.5 million landline clients, and 13.9 million Internet subscribers). http://www.hns.com

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AOL and with Movielink Partner on 99Cent Movie Downloads

America Online in conjunction with Movielink, a broadband video-on-demand (VOD) service, launched a five week "Winter Movie Special" promotion period in which it will offer downloadable movies to AOL for Broadband members for 99 cents. The movie library includes major Hollywood releases. Regular prices for selected the selected titles range from $3.95 to $4.99.


The service uses Movielink's "Movie in Minutes" feature, which enables users with broadband connections to begin viewing the film within two to 10 minutes from the start of the download. The download process is not interrupted and continues while a customer is watching the film. http://www.aol.comhttp://www.movielink.com

• Movielink is a joint venture of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. Studios.

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SeaChange, Net Insight and Kreatel Partner for Triple Play

SeaChange, Net Insight and Kreatel announced a partnership targeting end-to-end Video on Demand (VOD) via xDSL or fiber for telcos. The joint solution combines IP set-top boxes from Kreatel with support for MPEG-2 and advanced codecs, SeaChange's scalable, fault-resilient VOD server platform , and Net Insight's Nimbra transport platform, which provides 100% QoS multicast and high network utilization efficiency. The companies are demonstrating their solution for telecommunications service providers at the TV over DSL show in Paris this week. http://www.schange.comhttp://www.netinsight.net

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McLeodUSA to Deploy VoIP in 2004

McLeodUSA, one of the nation's largest CLECs, announced plans to launch business VoIP services that will include new features for local, long distance and Internet connectivity. In 2003, McLeodUSA deployed VoIP technology for internal company use and has extensively tested its platform. A VoIP deployment across its national network is underway. Initial services are expected to launch in Q2 in selected markets. Key customer benefits will include dynamic selection and management of calling packages, features, rate plans, and service characteristics along with the ability to add or change a service profile in real-time through a web interface. Specific product and pricing information will be made available at the time of actual market introduction. http://www.mcleodusa.com

• As of 30-Sept-2003, McLeodUSA's network included 38 ATM switches, 44 voice switches, 604 collocations and 435 DSLAMs.

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Xilinx Revenues Increase 16% Sequentially

Xilinx reported revenues of $365.6 million and a net income of $69.4 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, including a $3.4 million building impairment charge. This compares to revenues of $315.5 million and a net income of $56.4 million or $0.16 per share in the previous quarter.


"During the December quarter, Xilinx continued to benefit from solid customer adoption of new products as well as improving economic conditions, particularly in the communications sector," said Wim Roelandts, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.


The company said sales into the communications sector, which had been essentially flat in the prior three quarters, increased 20% sequentially due to strength in both telecom and networking applications. http://www.xilinx.com

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City of Provo Votes to Approve Public FTTH Project

The Provo Municipal Council voted 6 to 1 to authorize the issuance of $39.5 million in bonds to build iProvo, a city-wide fiber-to-the-home project. iProvo is following a public/private partnership model in which the city will build and operate the basic fiber network infrastructure, which will then to be leased by private companies who will provide the retail voice, data and video services.


Comcast, Qwest and the Utah Taxpayers Association had opposed the municipal project. http://www.telecomchoices.org

• Wide Packets is a key supplier for the iProvo network.

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