DSL Growth Continues to Accelerate Worldwide, Tops 64 Million

The total number of DSL subscribers around the world reached 63.84 million at year end 2003, according to new figures released by the DSL Forum and Point Topic, representing a gain of 9.26 million in the three months -- the biggest ever growth in numbers of subscribers in any quarter. China (even excluding Hong Kong) now has the most DSL lines in service, overtaking Japan, the U.S. and South Korea.



North America added more than three million new DSL subscribers during 2003, 2.66 million of them in the USA, making it the third leading growth country in the world last year. Growth in the USA was fastest in the last six months of 2003, when 1.9 million homes and businesses signed up to broadband DSL - 75% of the total annual growth. Canada, with more than 440,000 new DSL subscribers in the year was the eleventh largest growth country in the world.

Most DSL Subscribers by Country 31-Dec-2003
Country	Previous Rank	DSL Subscribers
China	3	10,950,000
Japan	1	10,272,052
USA	2	9,119,000
South Korea	4	6,435,955
Germany	5	4,500,000
France	6	3,262,700
Taiwan	7	2,800,000
Italy	9	2,280,000
Canada	8	2,170,243
UK	-	1,820,230
Source: The DSL Forum and Point Topic http://www.point-topic.co.uk

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AMCC to Acquire 3ware for SATA RAID

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC) agreed to acquire 3ware, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, California for approximately $150 million in cash. 3ware develops high capacity Serial ATA (SATA) storage solutions for emerging storage applications such as disk-to-disk backup, near-line storage, network-attached storage (NAS), video, and high-performance computing. 3ware currently employs approximately 70 people. http://www.amcc.com

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Ex-WorldCom CEO Indicted on Fraud Charges

Bernard Ebbers, the former WorldCom CEO, was formally indicted on federal charges of fraud, conspiracy and making false statements about the financial health of WorldCom. The high-profile indictment announced by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in New York

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Reaction to Court Decision

SBC Communications welcomed the decision, describing it as "a victory for consumers." SBC also said the decision was "a victory for those who support markets free of rules that have repeatedly been judged illegal and which have eliminated jobs, shrunk investment and hurt fair competition."



Qwest Communications applauded the decision, saying the court's action would "soon free customers of mandates that force them to subsidize the operations of Qwest's competitors."



AT&T warned that "the right of all Americans to choose their local telephone service provider is at stake, and the advancement of competitive broadband services is at risk. Consumers across the nation should be outraged at the prospect of being unplugged and underserved if the D.C. Circuit decision is left unchallenged."



Sprint predicted that the decision would "prolong the regulatory uncertainty that has existed since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law more than eight years ago. The court's decision will make it more difficult to foster local competition -- particularly in the mass market -- through the use of incumbent local carrier network elements at cost-based prices, contrary to what Sprint believes Congress intended in the '96 Act."



MCI warned that the court's decision sharply restricts its ability to offer local phone service to residential customers by denying competitors the right to lease the facilities still controlled by local Bell monopolies. MCI said it was left "with little choice but to seek an emergency stay and full review from the U.S. Supreme Court. "



The Voices For Choices coalition said the action was "a blow to the Bush Administration's pro- competition, pro-consumer policies. As a result, this decision puts the Administration on the hot seat, as its only way to solve this problem is with a swift, aggressive appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court."



Covad Communications described the DC Circuit Court of Appeals' decision as "misguided and flawed, but not unexpected". Covad asserted that the FCC's pro-competition policies have already allowed 20 million customers to choose competitive local service providers other than the Bell monopoly.



Californians for Telecommunications Choice (CTC), a consumer and business advocacy group, said the decision was "an irresponsible setback to local phone competition and state's rights. Without swift appeal, hundreds of thousands of local phone customers in California who have chosen to leave the Bell monopolies for a competing provider could see that choice stripped away.

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Federal Court Overturns FCC's Triennial Review Order on UNE-p

A three-judge panel in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the FCC's Triennial Review Order with regard to network unbundling rules. The FCC rules, which were announced in February 2003 but actually issued in August 2003, empowered state public utility commissions as the decision makers on issues regarding UNE-P unbundling and local competition. The Court of Appeals said the FCC erred by not providing unified, federal guidelines and by pushing many FCC decisions to the states. The court also upheld the Triennial Review Order's exemption provided to incumbent carriers from unbundling for certain fiber-fed loops and for line sharing.



FCC Commissioners Michael Copps, Kevin Martin and Jonathan Adelstein expressed disappointment "in the Court's decision to eliminate the Commission's rules requiring incumbent carriers to open their legacy voice networks to competition." The three Commissioners are seeking a court-ordered stay and plan to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.



FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who dissented from the majority's decision on local telephone competition, hailed the court ruling, predicting it would "spur the development and deployment of vital broadband services to all Americans." Powell said the FCC now needs "to expeditiously get to work to produce a set of judicially sound rules, once and for all."http://www.fcc.gov

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Cinergy to offer Broadband over Power Lines in Ohio

Cinergy Broadband and Current Communications Group will begin offering broadband over power line (BPL) services in the greater Cincinnati, Ohio area. A subsequent expansion is planned for Northern Kentucky and Indiana. A trial, consisting of 100 residential customers and several business customers in the Hyde Park area of Cincinnati, has already been conducted.



The new broadband services, which will be marketed under the brand Current Communications, will consist of high-speed internet and will eventually be bundled with VoIP. Consumers can access the network using off-the-shelf HomePlug power line modems. Current will manage the venture, which will build and operate the BPL network and provide marketing, customer support and back office functionality. The BPL network will be deployed on electric distribution infrastructure using proprietary BPL equipment and technology from Current's subsidiary, Current Technologies, LLC.



The companies have also created a second joint venture to pursue the deployment of BPL to targeted municipal-owned power companies and rural electric cooperatives across the United States. This joint venture will be managed by Cinergy Broadband and will market Current's BPL technology to its target customer utilities.



In addition to the joint ventures, Cinergy has made an investment in Current as part of a larger round of financing. In the financing, Current's existing investors, Liberty Associated Partners, LP and EnerTech Capital, LP, have each contributed additional capital. The aggregate amount of financial commitment to Current and the BPL ventures by all parties in these transactions exceeds $70 million.



Cinergy said its BPL technology can also enable a variety of enhanced power distribution applications, including: automated outage detection and restoration confirmation; remote monitoring and operation of switches and transformers; remote capability to connect and disconnect electric service; more efficient demand-side management programs; and automated meter reading. http://www.cinergy.com

• Cinergy is a diversified energy utility serving 1.5 million electric customers and about 500,000 gas customers in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.



• Current Communications Group, a start-up based in Germantown, Maryland, develops power line equipment and technology for delivering broadband services over power lines. Current is backed by Liberty Associated Partners, LP, Enertech Capital and Cinergy.

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Telefonica Puerto Rico Select Nortel for Convergence

Puerto Rico and TLD (Telefonica Larga Distancia) selected Nortel Networks to converge their local, long-distance and data services onto a next generation VoIP network. The agreement includes Nortel Networks Succession Communication Server (CS) 2000, a superclass softswitch. Also included are Nortel Networks Passport Packet Voice Gateway (PVG), designed to help switch voice calls more cost-effectively; Nortel Networks Preside network management systems; and professional services ranging from network design to network operation and maintenance. Financial terms were not disclosed.



TLD and TData will also use Vero Systems AcuRoute automated optimal routing software. AcuRoute is an integrated call routing and cost management software application that enables service providers to significantly improve their margins by delivering least cost, best quality routing on their voice services.



Besides offering IP-centric business applications to corporate customers, TData will also resell and deploy Nortel Networks IP solutions, including Nortel Networks Succession 1000 IP PBX, designed to help increase productivity and mobility by optimizing business-critical applications and features. http://www.nortelnetworks.comhttp://www.verosystems.com

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Venture Firms to Acquire Dominion Telecom

Elantic Networks, a new company backed by MC Venture Partners, Bank of America Capital Investors and BB&T Capital Partners, has agreed to acquire Dominion Telecom for an undisclosed sum. After closing, the Dominion Telecom name will be changed to Elantic Networks.



Dominion Telecom provides wholesale fiber bandwidth and carrier services to long-distance, international, wireless carriers, competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and large enterprises across its extensive fiber optic network.



Elantic Networks has entered into an agreement with Cavalier Telephone, LLC to operate and manage the network on Elantic's behalf. Cavalier Telephone currently has over 850 employees and operates one of the largest telecommunications networks in the Mid-Atlantic area serving over 150,000 business and residential customers.

• Dominion Telecom is a facilities-based, inter-exchange and emerging local carrier with 346,000 fiber miles (6,500 route miles) currently. The company is an affiliate of Dominion, one of the largest producers of energy in the US with extensive assets in oil, natural gas and electricity.

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STMicroelectronics Reaches DSL Milestone: 76 Million Total Ports Shipped

STMicroelectronics has shipped a total of 76 million DSL ports to the worldwide market since 1998, representing a 35% share of the total xDSL market, according to the company. The total includes 43 million central office (CO) and 33 million customer premises (CPE) ports. ST shipped 25.1 million ports in 2003, which signifies a large number of the total market shipments that year. http://www.st.com

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SupportSoft Boosts BellSouth Customer Advantage with Knowledge-Enabled Self-Service

BellSouth has deployed the SupportSoft Knowledge Center Suite, enabling its customer service representatives to streamline resolution of billing issues for more than one million BellSouth broadband subscribers. The SupportSoft Knowledge Center Suite leverages patented personalization technology to automatically present only the most relevant answers to questions based on the customer's account type. Financial terms were not disclosed. BellSouth already uses the SupportSoft Service Automation Suite to automate both self-service and assisted technical support for its high-speed data subscribers.www.supportsoft.com

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SpectraLink and Alcatel Forge OEM Agreement

Alcatel signed an OEM agreement to sell SpectraLink's Wi-Fi-based Wireless Telephones along with its OmniPCX family of IP-PBXs. Two models of wireless telephones will be offered: the Alcatel Mobile IP Touch 300 and 600. SpectraLink Voice Priority (SVP), a QoS mechanism, is employed on the wireless LAN to ensure voice quality with minimal impact on data throughput. http://www.spectralink.com

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Nortel to OEM SpectraLink's VoIP Wireless Telephones

Nortel Networks signed an OEM agreement sell SpectraLink's NetLink Wireless Telephones as components of its enterprise VoIP product suite. Specifically, SpectraLink will manufacture wireless handsets that will be incorporated into Nortel's Succession Internet Telephone portfolio for enterprises. SpectraLink has developed support for Nortel's Unistim VoIP protocol, giving the wireless handsets most of the features and capabilities of Nortel's IP desktop telephones. Two handset models will be available: the 2210 is targeted at general enterprise applications, and the 2211 is designed for healthcare, retail, and industrial markets. http://www.spectralink.com

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