Focal Deploys General Bandwidth's G6 Platform

Focal Communications, a CLEC serving 23 U.S. metro markets, is deploying General Bandwidth's G6 platform to launch an enhanced Integrated Voice and Data (IVAD) service that delivers up to 32 voice channels while allowing up to 1.5 Mbps of data over a single T1 access line. Financial terms were not disclosed.



General Bandwidth's G6 Packet Telephony Migration Platform supports VoIP and Voice over ATM over a variety of packet architectures, including T1, DSL, hybrid fiber coax (HFC) and fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP). It supports voice services from existing Class 5 switches as well as next generation packet switches. http://www.genband.com/http://www.focal.com

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Quebec's Videotron to Boost Cable Modem Speeds

Videotron, which serves 1,423,000 million cable customers in Quebec, plans to boost its cable modem speeds as of 01-Apr-2004. For the basic residential Internet service, the speed of downloads will increase more than 32%, from 3.1 mbps to 4.1 mbps, and upload speeds will more than double, from 350 kbps to 820 kbps. For the "Extreme High-Speed Internet service," download speeds will be boosted more than 12%, from 4 mbps to 4.5 mbps, and upload speeds will increase more than 40%, from 640 kbps to 900 kbps.



Videotron plans to invest nearly $40 million (Canadian) in its broadband network and Internet infrastructure this year. The monthly download limit will be increased from 15 to 20 gigabytes and the upload limit from 5 to 10 gigabytes, for a total of 30 gigabytes.



Videotron currently serves some 430,000 Internet customers by cable modem and dial-up modem. http://www.videotron.com

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SBC Reports Improved Retail Access Line Trends

Growth in long distance and DSL, as well as improving retail access line trends, were the top positive trends reported by SBC Communications for Q4 2003. However, SBC's revenues and net income fell during the quarter and during the full 2003 overall. Revenues for Q4 totaled $10.1 billion, compared with $11.2 billion in the year-earlier period. For the full year 2003, revenues were $40.8 billion, compared with $43.1 billion in 2002. Net income for Q4 was $905 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, compared with $2.4 billion, or $0.71 per diluted share in Q4 of 2002.



Some highlights of the quarterly report:

• a gain of 2.9 million long distance lines companywide, including 1.7 million from Midwest launch, giving SBC a total of 14.4 million LD customers at year end.



• a gain of 377,000 DSL lines, marking the 8th consecutive quarter of accelerated DSL growth, giving the company a total of 3.5 million DSL customers, up 60% from fourth-quarter 2002 levels. For comparison, in Q3 2003 the company added 365,000 net DSL customers. SBC hopes to have 5 million DSL customers by year-end 2004. The DSL network currently reaches 75% of SBC customers and the company expects to reach 80% by year end 2004.



• a loss of 243,00 consumer primary access lines, marking the smallest sequential decline in nine quarters. SBC attributed the trend to its entrance in the LD market in the Midwest. For comparison, SBC lost 671,000 consumer primary access lines in Q4 2002.



• a gain of 120,000 wholesale lines (resale and UNE-P), down 63% from the increase in wholesale lines last quarter. SBC said its expects to benefit from a ruling early this year by Indiana regulators that increases by $3.57 per line the wholesale rate that competitor resellers in that state must pay SBC to lease its network.



• a 9.3% rise in quarterly data revenues by 9.3% to $2.6 billion, SBC's best year-over-year growth in more than two years. Data revenues represented 29% of SBC's total wireline revenues in the quarter. For the full year, SBC's data revenues totaled $10.2 billion, up 5.3% from 2002.



• a gain of 642,000 Cingular Wireless lines, ending the year with a total of 24 million. In addition to its ongoing GSM network conversion and the pending acquisition of additional spectrum, Cingular is launching a major construction and engineering effort to add cell sites, further strengthening its nationwide network. The company also launched a major customer service initiative during the quarter.



• Retail penetration of consumer bundles that combine local voice access with at least one other service grew to 44%, roughly double the penetration rate at the beginning of the year.



• For 2004, SBC's capital expenditures are expected to be $5.0 billion to $5.5 billion, excluding Cingular Wireless capital outlays - in line with 2003 spending. Cingular Wireless' capital spending is expected to be consistent with its 2003 total of $3.4 billion.

http://www.sbc.com

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Deutsche Telekom Reaches 4 Million DSL Subscribers

Deutsche Telekom surpassed the 4.0 million subscriber milestone for DSL, up 40% for 2003. In Q4 alone, Deutsche Telekom's T-Com division added more than 300,000 net DSL customers. The company also serves an additional 110,000 DSL customers in Eastern Europe.



Despite the strong uptake for DSL, demand for the Deutsche Telekom's T-ISDN service continues to grow. The number of ISDN channels operated by T-Com in Germany increased year-on-year from 20.7 to 21.5 million. However, Deutsche Telekom posted a slight decline in the number of standard analog lines it serves, which now stands at 27.2 million, down from 28.6 million a year earlier. The company attributed this loss to the migration from analog to T-Com's more advanced lines as well as to growing competition and regulatory action.



Some additional 2003 operational statistics for Deutsche Telekom:

• the number of mobile customers in the Group increased by 13% to 66.2 million



• T-Mobile USA added a record number of new subscribers in Q4 with 1.02 million. It now has more than 13.1 million subscribers



• T-Mobile Deutschland remains Germany's mobile market leader with 26.3 million subscribers



• T-Mobile UK added 1.2 million new subscribers in Q4



• T-Online increased its European customer base to 13.1 million

http://www.telekom.de

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Marconi's Group Sales Rise 5%

Marconi reported its fifth consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flow (before special charges). For the three months ending 31-December-2003, Marconi's Group sales rose 5% to £408 million compared to £389 million in the previous quarter.



Marconi said sales in Europe/Rest of World were driven by growth in Fixed Wireless Access and Value-Added Services. It also noted strong growth in Outside Plant & Power and North American Access sales, which were offset by an expected reduction in sales by the U.S. federal government.



Excluding the North American Access (NAA) division (which is being sold to AFC), Marconi's top ten customers for the quarter were (alphabetical order): AT&T, BT, E-plus (Germany), Metro City Carriers (Germany), O2, Telecom Italia, U.S. federal government, Verizon, Vodafone and Wind (Italy). These customer represented 47% of sales.



Group headcount was reduced to 13,025 at year's end, compared with 14,100 at 30-Sept-2003.



Marconi said it is maintaining a cautious market outlook and expects the current quarter's sales to be flat to slightly up. http://www.marconi.com

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AFC Reports Q4 Revenues of $84.8 million

AFC reported Q4 revenues of $84.8 million, compared to $85.2 million in Q3 2003 and $85.7 million in Q4 2002. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2003 was $5.7 million, or $0.06 per share, compared with $9.3 million, or $0.11 per share, in Q3 2003. Net income for Q4 2002 was $17.6 million, or $0.21 per share.



"In spite of the modest decline in annual revenues due to a challenging industry environment, we increased core business net income by 39% to $34.0 million in 2003 from $24.4 million in 2002," said John Schofield, chairman, president and chief executive officer at AFC. "Over the year we experienced growing demand for our broadband solutions. Our shipments of DSL lines in the fourth quarter were the largest ever, with 105,000 lines shipped. This gives us approximately 250,000 DSL lines shipped in 2003, another record for AFC."http://www.afc.com

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Broadcom Reports Q4 Revenue fo $479 Million, up 13% Sequentially

Broadcom reported record Q4 revenue of $479.1 million, an increase of 12.6% from the $425.6 million reported for the third quarter of 2003 and an increase of 61.9% from the $295.9 million for Q4 2002. Net income (GAAP) was $6.1 million, or $.02 per share (diluted).



Broadcom said the strong financial results were driven by gains across all its business groups. http://www.broadcom.com

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TiVo Acquires Strangeberry for Broadband TV Technology

TiVo has acquired Strangeberry, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California specializing in using home network and broadband technologies to create new entertainment experiences on television. TiVo said the acquisition would help it extend the TiVo service beyond digital video recording to include a much broader, richer entertainment experience for subscribers.



The deal includes Strangeberry's intellectual property assets and engineering staff in exchange for equity. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.tivo.comAt the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2004, TiVo announced development partnerships with digital photo and music companies XM Satellite Radio, Adobe, MoodLogic and Picasa to expand the features and capabilities of the TiVo service through its Home Media Option.

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Avaya Reports Revenues of $971 Million, up 3%

Avaya reported quarterly revenues of $971 million, up 3% over the year ago period. Income from continuing operations was $30 million, o $0.07 per diluted share. These results compare to a loss of $125 million or a loss of $0.34 per share for the same period last year.



Avaya said the quarterly revenues were essentially unchanged from revenues in the preceding quarter, which reflected a seasonal revenue ramp-up associated with the end of the company's fiscal year. Avaya noted IP line shipments and IP revenues increased globally from the fourth quarter across large and small customers.



Gross margin in the quarter increased substantially to 46.1% from 41.9% a year ago. http://www.avaya.com

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Terayon Sees Q4 Revenue Rise 14% Sequentially, Announces Restructuring

Terayon Communication Systems reported $43.0 million, a 70% increase compared to $25.3 million for the same quarter a year ago, and a 14% increase compared to $37.6 million for Q3 2004. Net loss for the quarter was $6.0 million, or $0.08 per share.



Terayon also announced a corporate restructuring that involves a reduction in workforce of approximately 17%, or 70 employees; the consolidation of certain facilities; a write-off of certain assets; and a reduction in spending. Terayon said it is targeting profitability beginning in Q2 2004. http://www.terayon.com

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Procket Selected by Australia's National Research and Education Network

Australia's Research and Education Network (AARNet) selected Procket Networks' PRO/8812 and PRO/8801 routers for a backbone build-out supporting 37 Australian universities and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). AARNet offers core internet transport as well as Voice and Video services over IP. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.procket.comhttp://www.aarnet.edu.au

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Zhone Introduces Line-Powered DSLAM

Zhone Technologies introduced a line powered DSLAM that enables carriers to extend ADSL services up to 38,000 feet from a central office using power supplied over the uplink's twisted pair. Zhone's compact Raptor 100 LP provides support for central office, remote terminal and non-powered wiring cabinet deployments. It is offered in a range of environmentally hardened shelf sizes including 7U, 3U and 1U, with a variety of line interfaces and uplinks from 10/100baseT to DS1 IMA and OC-12. http://www.zhone.com

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EarthLink Adds 248,000 Subscribers in Q4

EarthLink added 248,000 net subscribers in Q4 2003 and ended the year with approximately 5.2 million paying subscribers, an increase of 219,000 subscribers, or 4.4%, from a year ago. During the quarter, the company added 108,000 broadband subscribers, giving it a total of approximately 1.1 million broadband customers, up 36.2% from a year ago.



EarthLink also added 143,000 total narrowband subscribers in the quarter, which included 129,000 net new subscribers from PeoplePC Online, the company's value-priced narrowband service. EarthLink ended the year with approximately 4.0 million total narrowband subscribers, a decrease of 1.3% from a year ago. Total narrowband subscribers included 424,000 PeoplePC Online subscribers, up from 68,000 at the beginning of the year.



Monthly subscriber churn was 4.1% in the quarter, up from the prior year quarter's rate of 3.6%. The higher churn rate was attributed primarily to the continued migration of premium narrowband subscribers to other providers' broadband access services and the significant increase during the quarter in the number of new subscribers, which typically have high early-life churn.



EarthLink reported total revenues of $348.6 million in the quarter, an increase of 0.2% from Q4 2002. Net income for the quarter was $10.7 million, or $0.07 per share, an improvement from a net loss of ($36.9) million, or ($0.24) per share, in the prior year quarter. http://www.earthlink.net

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Agere Posts Quarterly Revenue of $516 Million, up 2% Sequentially

Agere Systems reported quarterly revenue of $516 million, up 18% from revenues in the year-ago quarter, and up 2% sequentially, exceeding the company's guidance. The company reported a GAAP net loss of $39 million, or $0.02 per share, which included a restructuring charge of $47 million, a majority of which was related to the decommissioning of Agere's former manufacturing facilities, and a purchased in-process R&D charge of $13 million related to the company's recent acquisition of TeraBlaze.



The company was profitable on a pro forma net income basis, with earnings of $22 million, or $0.01 per share.



Agere said the increase over the year-ago quarter was driven by a 33% growth in the company's Client Systems business, with strength in sales of chips for mobile phones, hard disk drives and other PC-related applications.



The Infrastructure Systems Group reported revenues of $118 million, down 13% from the year-ago quarter and 4% sequentially. The sequential decline was due to a decrease in revenues from intellectual property licensing and mature telephony products, partially offset by an increase in sales of the company's wireline and wireless infrastructure products. http://www.agere.com

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XACCT Releases Fifth-Generation Mediation Platform

XACCT released its fifth-generation mediation platform.Key features of XACCTusage 5.0 include:

• support for real-time and file-based modes of operations for traditional circuit-switch voice as well as packet data networks.



• support for Concurrent File-based and Real-time processing modes on the same system



• enhanced integrated Error Management System, which streamlines the recovery of the rejected and suspended CDRs to ensure the accuracy of billable data while minimizing manual processing and delays.


• new User configurable, generic CDR Parser and Formatter. The operator canconfigure new parsing rules to enable integration with downstream applications and a quick adaptation of the mediation interfaces to the BSS/OSS.



• task and Process Monitoring capabilities have been enhanced with new and dedicated visual screens.



• additional performance enhancements of up to 300% leveraging the system's distributed architecture and multi-threaded design. The system has been optimized to run on mid-frame, enterprise HP-UX and Sun Solaris operating systems.

XACCTusage 5.0 has already been deployed by LDCOM to unify its IP mediation functions onto a single system. http://www.xacct.com

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AT&T Selects Intrado's 9-1-1 for Residential VoIP

AT&T selected Intrado to develop an emergency calling solution for its soon-to-be-launched residential broadband VoIP service. Intrado's 9-1-1 infrastructure will provide AT&T's VoIP customers access to emergency services, will be available when AT&T launches its new residential VoIP service this spring. The Intrado solution allows AT&T to route 9-1-1-dialed calls from the AT&T IP network to public safety answering points (PSAPs), which handle emergency calls and dispatch services such as police, fire or medical personnel.



The companies said they are working with industry groups like the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) to standardize emergency response services for VoIP. http://www.intrado.comwww.att.com/voip

• AT&T has been running a trial of VoIP services since October in three states to test market a residential VoIP offering that promises to provide a rich array of new, enhanced information services, including advanced call-management capabilities and unique web-based features.

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New York's WRNN-TV Carrier Broadcast Video over IP Trunks

WRNN-TV, an independent regional television station and news network reaching approximately 5 million cable and satellite subscribers in the New York, has deployed Tut Systems' M2-400 video trunking system to encode and distribute video broadcast footage between its studio and broadcast TV facilities. The station is transporting MPEG-2 4:2:2 broadcast video between multiple locations. At the same time, it required the capability to utilize MPEG-2 4:2:0 in a low-latency mode for real-time interview capabilities between the studio anchors and reporters in the field. Tut System's M2-400 platform ensures low latency and fully synchronized audio/video channels over the IP network. In addition, the M2-400 eliminates the jitter and delay often associated with IP delivery platforms.



Tut Systems' M2-400 chassis is capable of holding multiple encoders, decoders, and DVB-ASI satellite interfaces over both IP and ATM networks. The M2-400 utilizes MPEG-2 video and MPEG-1 audio streams and processes both analog and digital content. http://www.tutsys.com

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Riverstone Unveils New VPLS / MPLS Solutions

Riverstone Networks introduced a new hardware module, upgraded MPLS routers and a software release all aimed at helping carrier's transition toward MPLS/VPLS-based Ethernet networks.



The rollout includes three new access routers -- the RS 1100, 3100 and 3200 -- that are positioned as small, cost-effective VPLS platforms that build upon Riverstone's existing RS 1000 and 3000 routers. The new platforms offer additional intelligence to deliver granular QoS with rate limiting and shaping. Available interfaces including ATM, Packet over SONET/SDH and TDM, enabling a transition of existing services to Ethernet services based on MPLS/VPLS. The RS 1100 and 3100 are targeted at Ethernet-over-copper deployments with standard 10/100BaseT interfaces, while the RS 3200 is targeted at Ethernet-over-fiber deployments with SFP interfaces for 100BaseFX or 100BaseBX.



The new Advanced Services Module (ASM) for the RS routers provides bandwidth control, allowing Ethernet to emulate the service capabilities of Frame Relay and ATM. The ASM's traffic shaping and advanced MPLS capabilities allow service providers to offer their customers services like E-Line and E-LAN (defined by the Metro Ethernet Forum) as well as a choice in how much service they want to pay for.



A new release of RapidOS software adds MPLS OAM and SNMP support for Ethernet OAM. The new MPLS OAM capability helps troubleshoot problems at a specific layer of an MPLS network. The new SNMP support helps network operators to integrate Ethernet OAM functionality directly into their management platforms for improved fault isolationhttp://www.riverstonenet.com

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