Alcatel and Draka to Combine Optical Fiber Businesses

Alcatel and Draka agreed to combine their global optical fiber and communication cable businesses into a jointly owned company. Through the combination of Alcatel's assets with Draka's interest in YOFC, the leading Chinese optical fiber and fiber cable manufacturer, the new company would hold the leading market position for optical fiber and fiber cables in the Chinese market. The new company would also be a leader in Europe and a major player in North America. Draka would own 50.1% of the new company and Alcatel 49.9%.The new company would...

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NYC's Microwave Satellite Launches Vonage Service

Microwave Satellite Technologies (MST) has launched a private-label version of the Vonage broadband phone service to its broadband Internet subscribers within New York City and across the U.S.. MST's NuVisions Digital Voice service powered by Vonage provides an alternative to traditional phone service. MST's NuVisions Broadband services offer cable television, cable modem Internet access, and telephone services to multi-family residences, commercial buildings, and institution owners throughout the United States. MST delivers its services using...

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Westell Introduces New TriLink Portfolio of VoIP Products

In a strategic step beyond its core DSL modem technology roots, Westell Technologies unveiled a new family of VoIP products targeted at both the residential and small-to-medium size enterprise markets. Westell's TriLink portfolio will initially include two product offerings, TriLink DSL and TriLink Ethernet. TriLink DSL supports a built-in ADSL router with two VoIP enabled analog voice ports. TriLink Ethernet also offers two voice ports and is designed to support Ethernet WAN interface devices. TriLink offers a software programmable codec to ensure...

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EarthLink and Verizon Sign DSL Access Agreement

EarthLink signed a joint marketing agreement with Verizon that enables it to expand its broadband footprint to an additional 6.5 million households, extending its market presence to 73 cities within Verizon's territory. Verizon will provide IP access into its local DSL networks, enabling Earthlink to utilize Verizon's broadband infrastructure to offer its own high-speed service. EarthLink expects to begin widening its coverage in existing markets such as New York, Boston and Washington, DC, and introducing service in new markets including Buffalo...

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MetaSwitch Displaces Legacy Class 5 Switches for Two IOCs

MetaSwitch announced two new independent telephone customers for its next generation Class 5 switch. Idaho' Project Mutual Telephone selected the MetaSwitch VP3500 to avoid the cost of ongoing maintenance and required software upgrades for its existing Nortel DMS-100 Class 5 switch and enable expansion of its service area. Similarly, Wyoming's Tri-County Telephone will use the MetaSwitch VP3500 as a replacement for its Lucent 5ESS central office Class 5 switch. Instead of pursuing a "cap and grow" strategy, Tri-County wanted to decommission...

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Flow-Based Routing Tested by NTT Labs, Univ. of Tokyo and Univ. of Illinois

NTT Network Innovation Laboratories, in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the University of Tokyo, has tested flow-based routing technology from Caspian Networks. In a workshop hosted by the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL), NTT showed its MaXimal Queuing (MXQ) algorithm to leading network academics, and demonstrated its effectiveness at preventing congestion in highly-utilized networks. EVL's TeraVision was used to send three high-resolution video streams to a super-high-definition tiled display,...

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Broadcom Unveils Chips for Residential and SOHO IP Phones

Broadcom introduced two new IP phone engine chips that could be used to build feature-rich IP phones for the residential, small office home office (SOHO), and small-to-medium sized business (SMB) markets. The two devices (BCM1113R and BCM1115R) are highly integrated IP phone chips supporting advanced features, such as high fidelity voice quality; the integration of voice, instant messaging, email and video; the integration of landline, wireless LAN and cellular; on-line gaming with voice; etc. Both chips feature an 87 MHz MIPS32 RISC processor...

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UTStarcom Reports Further Contracts in China

China Netcom Corporation (CNC) awarded a contract to UTStarcom to deploy 110,000 lines of its AN 2000 IB IP-DSLAM solution. This contract is part of China Netcom's aggressive plans to extend broadband services to five million subscribers in 2004. Separately, UTStarcom announced a contract with China Netcom Group (CNC) valued at $32 million to expand the carrier's IP-based PAS platform in nine cities in China's Henan province. http://www.utstar....

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SBC Selects Siemens to Build Platform for Hosted VoIP Service

SBC Communications awarded a five year contract to Siemens Information and Communication Networks (Siemens ICN) to provide the next-generation delivery platform for the recently announced SBC PremierSERV Hosted IP Communication Service. Financial terms were not disclosed.Siemens is providing an integrated solution which includes Siemens Surpass Softswitch, Sylantro's feature server and elements provided by other major name providers in the industry. The platform will enable multimedia communications, multiparty collaboration, unified voice-to-text...

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AT&T Invested $1.9 Billion in New Jersey over 4 Years

AT&T calculates that it has invested $1.9 billion in New Jersey over the past four years. This includes significant investment since 2002, when the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) lowered the wholesale rates that Verizon can charge competing local phone companies to serve local New Jersey phone lines. Since then, according to FCC and BPU estimates, well over half a million New Jersey homes and small businesses have taken advantage of phone service options provided by companies other than Verizon. AT&T said it continues to invest...

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Alcatel Targets Unified Interaction Management Software

Alcatel launched a Unified Interaction Management strategic initiative aimed at leveraging technology from its enterprise communications offerings and Genesys subsidiary. The UIM initiative will deliver a new suite of software products - including applications and middleware - with ability to operate in TDM, IP-only and 'dual' network environments. Alcatel said its UIM products will be based on open standards, such as SIP, SOAP, VXML, J2EE and .NET. In 2004, the UIM initiative is focused on software designed to transfer attached...

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New Edge Networks Gets Broadband Access to BellSouth Region

New Edge Networks announced a deal with BellSouth enabling it to provide multi-site managed network services using Frame Relay and DSL throughout BellSouth's network in nine southern states. Under the deal, New Edge Networks gains access to about 1,325 BellSouth central office locations, including more than 1,065 sites where New Edge Networks or affiliate carriers had no prior presence. Financial terms were not disclosed.New Edge Networks already has completed installation of network interfaces into most of BellSouth's 38 telephone calling areas...

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ECI Telecom Sell Government Surveillance Business to Verint

ECtel Ltd., a company in which ECI Telecom holds 58%, agreed to sell its Government Surveillance business to Verint Systems for approximately $35 million in cash. Most of the employees of the transferred business are expected to join Verint at closing.Mr. Doron Inbar, Director of ECtel and CEO of ECI Telecom, said "Following the transaction, ECtel will be able to refocus on its core telecom business."http://www.ecitele....

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Telecom Industry Association Predicts Uptick in IP Market

Despite a decline in IP revenues over the past two years due to rapid price declines, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) predicts that total IP revenues will grow in 2004 by 7.8%, achieving a total of $13.9 billion.TIA's newly released 2004 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast notes that in 2003, IP accounted for the majority (58%) of network traffic for the first time. The study predicts that the U.S. IP traffic will rise by a factor of more than six, increasing to 1,633 petabytes per month in 2007, a 58.3% compound annual...

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IBM and Eagle Broadband Collaborate on FTTU Networks

IBM and Eagle Broadband signed a joint marketing agreement to design, build and operate fiber-based broadband networks and deliver an "four-play" bundled digital services (voice, video, data and security), video content and multimedia set-top box technology to communities across the U.S.. The companies will work together to help municipalities lower costs and accelerate the delivery of bundled digital services that can improve competitiveness, stimulate economic growth and development, attract businesses and residents, create jobs and improve quality...

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World Wide Packets Supplies Active Ethernet Access Net for Danville, Virginia

The City of Danville, Virginia is using World Wide Packets' "LightningEdge" platform to provide fiber access to some 100 local government, public school and utility locations throughout the city. The network architecture employs World Wide Packets' Active Ethernet technology. The current deployment is capable of growing into a network to ultimately serve over 50,000 residents and 8,000 businesses. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.worldwidepackets.comIn January 2004, World Wide Packets, a start-up based in Spokane, Washington raised...

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