Brasil Telecom Chooses RADVISION

Brasil Telecom has chosen RADVISION's viaIP platform as a major component in its new converged voice, Web, and video conferencing and communication offering for enterprises and broadband residential customers throughout Brazil. Specifically, Brasil Telecom is using the RADVISION solution with a third party Web and voice conferencing solution to offer enterprise broadband customers with managed multimedia conferencing and communications services. In addition, Brasil Telecom will also offer video telephony services to its residential broadband customers. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.radvision.com

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Broadcom Expects GigE to Exceed 10/100 Shipments this Year

Broadcom introduced the first devices in a new family of Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controllers positioned for driving Gigabit Ethernet into the mainstream for consumers and small businesses. Broadcom said it expects Gigabit Ethernet shipments to exceed 10/100 Mbps this year -- a cross-over point for the networking industry. Its newly developed, single-chip NetLink GbE controllers are implemented using 0.13 micron process technology, providing them with better heat characteristics and lower power usage than many existing 10/100 Mbps devices. Applications include desktops, notebooks and even handheld devices.



Broadcom named a number of OEM/ODM customers, including AOpen, Asustek, Epox, MSI, Wistron and Zidam that are adopting the new NetLink GbE controllers. Production is underway. Broadcom's new NetLink family of consumer and SMB controllers complement the company's Gigabit Ethernet networking product portfolio that includes switching solutions, security processors, transceivers, and integrated controllers for servers, workstations, desktops and mobile PCshttp://www.broadcom.com

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Foundry Prices 10GigE at $3,250 per Port

Foundry Networks announced significant price drops aimed at accelerating the adoption of 10 Gigabit Ethernet in enterprises and service provider networks. The company introduced new models in its line of FastIron Edge Layer 2/3 Ethernet switches. Foundry's new FES X-series delivers Layer 2/Base Layer 3 switching, full Layer 3 routing and the company's sFlow traffic monitoring in a compact form-factor with support for hot-swappable redundant power supplies. Pricing starts at $5,495 (U.S. list) for a base model with 24 10/100/1000 Mbps RJ-45 copper (1000Base-T) ports, with the ability to add up to two 10-GbE uplink ports at $3,250 per port.



In addition to enterprise backbones, Foundry Networks said its X-series switches could also be used for delivering Gigabit Ethernet services in metropolitan networking environments. The X-series feature a number of self-healing capabilities that support sub-second service protection in event of a network fault. In particular, Foundry Networks Metro Ring Protocol and Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol are optimized for Metro service access and Metro backbone ring topologies and are supported on all Foundry edge and backbone switcheshttp://www.foundrynetworks.com

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Extreme Networks Broadens its Edge Strategy

Extreme Networks announced a broadening of its Unified Access (UA) enterprise edge strategy to address emerging wired, wireless and telephony services. The expanded focus includes Power over Ethernet (PoE) options, real-world security with flexible authentication and Extreme RF Manager, a tool for site prediction and deployment. The company is also extending its Unified Access (UA) capabilities to include its high-density Alpine switch. http://www.extremenetworks.com

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Italy's FastWeb Selects Optibase

Italy's FastWeb, an alternative service provider, has selected Optibase's system for the streaming of some of its channels. The content is delivered in multicast mode over FastWeb's fiber and DSL network to a set top box located in the premises of approximately 110,000 residential end users. http://www.optibase.comhttp://www.ebiscom.it

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Telica and MaiSoft Integrate Softswitch with Unified Messaging

Telica and MaiSoft have pre-integrated Telica's Plexus 9000 softswitch with MaiSoft's unified messaging server. The companies have completed field interoperability and are jointly deployed in two customer networks: CP Telcom and Florida Multi-Media Services -- both of which are using the joint solution to deliver local Class 5 voice and advanced messaging services to businesses. http://www.telica.comhttp://www.maisoft.com

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Skype Raises Funding for its Free VoIP, Downloads Reach 8.8M

Skype, the free VoIP service from the developers of KaZaA, raised US$18.8 million in second round funding for its consumer voice offering. Skype uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to provide free worldwide phone calls to other Skype users. The company is building a global user directory. It is also offering headsets and handsets that work with its service. The venture money will be used to expand global operations and enhance its consumer offering.



Since its beta release in August 2003, individuals from more than 165 countries have downloaded Skype's free VoIP software 8.8 million times. Skype P2P software features conference calling, multiple call hold, the global directory, instant messaging, call history, personal ring tones, call alert options, and free calling to users around the globe. The software is now available in 15 languages.



The investment round was led by the venture capital firms, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Index Ventures. http://www.skype.com

• Skype is currenty based in Luxembourg with personnel in Copenhagen, London, Stockholm, and Tallinn.

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TELMEX to Acquire MCI's Share in Embratel

Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex) agreed to acquire MCI's 19% equity stake in Embratel for $360 million in cash. Completion of the sale is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and Brazilian regulatory authorities with filings to antitrust and securities authorities.



MCI's share in Embratel is a 19.26% economic interest and a 51.79% voting interest. Embratel offers a full range of telecom services across Brazil, including local and long distance telephony, advanced voice, high-speed data transmission, Internet, satellite data communications, and corporate networks. Its nationwide fiber network extends approximately 29,000 km. http://www.embratel.net.br

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BCD Forum Forms European Consensus Group

The BCD Forum has formed a European based consensus group to develop, standardize and support an open model for interactive entertainment services over broadband DSL. The group, which was officially launched in March 2003 and which later merged into the BCD Forum, includes service providers such as Telecom Italia, FastWeb, BT and Swisscom along with content industry heavyweights Disney, BBC and Movielink. The European group's service delivery architecture has been adopted by the BCD Forum as a portion of the working text toward the "Content-to-Network Signaling" Technology Working Group. http://www.bcdforum.org

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Atheros' Adaptive WLAN Leverages Spectrum in Adjacent Channels

Atheros Communications announced the first commercial deployment of adaptive bandwidth technology that provides performance-on-demand based on channel availability. The variable-bandwidth radio system monitors the entire 802.11g band and automatically increase the throughput when channels are available.



Atheros said its "Super G" technology operates in two modes to increase bandwidth. The base mode uses standards-based data compression, large frames and bursting features to deliver real-world network throughput in excess of 40 Mbps for typical data files, an increase of up to two times over traditional 802.11g networks. The enhanced mode, called Dynamic Turbo, further increases throughput by extending the bandwidth of the signal to provide a total throughput of over 60 Mbps for typical data, up to three times greater than traditional 802.11g networks. http://www.atheros.com

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Airespace Appoints Former Cisco Exec to Japanese Subsidiary

Airespace, a start-up offering enterprise WLAN solutions, named Hidesuke Kawata to head its new Japanese subsidiary. Prior to joining Airespace, Kawata was country manager and president of Atrica Japan K.K, where he delivered Optical Ethernet Systems to local service providers. Before joining Atrica Japan K.K., Kawata led Cisco's service provider business in Japan. http://www.airespace.com

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Linksys Partners with Netopia on Parental Control Service

Linksys is partnering with Netopia to offer a Parental Control Service to select Linksys home networking customers. The service, which will be offered in Linksys' flagship Wireless-G Broadband Router, uses a thin-client model to serve as the "choke point" of Internet access going into a home, including web browsing, email and IM applications. http://www.linksys.comhttp://www.netopia.com

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Polycom Introduces Carrier Conferencing Solution

Polycom introduced a carrier-grade unified voice, video and web conferencing solution designed for service providers. The "Convene" platform combines Polycom's existing OCI voice conferencing systems, its MGC video conferencing multipoint control units and its WebOffice personal conferencing portal. Users can access Convene through traditional personal meeting numbers (for voice and/or video conferences) or WebOffice, a personal conferencing portal that includes a desktop interface with enterprise instant messaging and presence for launching ad hoc voice, video and web conferences. The Convene solution supports all conference types: reservationless, scheduled, operator-assisted voice and video conferencing; web conferencing and events. Users can connect in any combination -- IP (SIP and H.323) and PSTN voice conferencing, and IP (H.323) and ISDN (H.320) video conferencing. http://www.polycom.com

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EZchip Introduces its NP-2 Network Processor

EZchip Technologies disclosed NP-2 family of network processors. The first two models of the NP-2 family consist of NP-2s, a 10-Gigabit Ethernet/SONET/SDH device, and NP-2e, a 10-Gigabit Ethernet-only device. Both NP-2 devices integrate a 10-Gigabit duplex NPU (network processor), classification engines, two traffic managers, ten 1-Gigabit MACs and one 10-Gigabit MAC in a single chip. The NP-2s also features two SPI4.2 interfaces with up to 192 channels. Both devices provide the lowest system cost and power for high-density Metro Ethernet and Ethernet over SONET/SDH applications. Sampling is expected in Q4. The devices will be manufactured by TSMC using the 0.13 micron process. http://www.ezchip.com

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China Netcom Selects Juniper for Zhejiang province

Zhejiang Communication, a subsidiary of national carrier China Netcom, has selected Juniper Networks' E- and M-series routers for its provincial network. The platforms will enable the company to offer high-quality, value-added broadband services in seven cities across the Zhejiang province. Zhejiang Communication will also offer Layer 2 and Layer 3 MPLS VPN services through the M-series platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.juniper.net

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Chiaro's IP/MPLS Platform Selected by CERN for DataTAG

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has selected Chiaro Networks' "Enstara" router for its DataTAG project, a large-scale intercontinental Grid test bed. CERN is testing the Enstara platform for its ability to provide consistent and sustained ultra reliability for high-performance data replication and guaranteed real-time traffic delivery over long-distance, high-bandwidth connections. The Enstara router will also provide the long-distance connectivity between CERN and the OptIPuter Project at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), as well as provide large Internet Border-Gateway-Protocol (BGP) route connectivity with France's next-generation Internet test bed, the VTHD (Vraiment Tres Haut Debit) network.



Chiaro said its STateful Assured Routing (STAR) technology enables five nines availability with seamless, transparent protection of hardware and software during switchover following failures and maintenance activities, including "hitless" upgrades. Its router features a modular distributed software architecture that provides automatic fault detection and recovery, intelligent fault monitoring and network stability, with software modules added or upgraded as needed. http://www.chiaro.com

• In May 2003, Chiaro Networks introduced its network core, multi-chassis, IP routing platform. Chiaro's design leverages a gallium arsenide (GaAs) optical switch fabric for scalability from 10 slots to a multi-chassis with 315 slots. The company claims that the scalability and flexibility provided by its optical backplane, along with network-processor based line-cards, will lead to a 7 to 10 year lifecycle for the platform. Key features of the Chiaro platform include an Optical Phased Array (OPA) switch fabric coupled with a Global Scheduler providing a single-hop optical crossbar architecture.



• Chiaro has secured $210 million to date from backers such as Intel Capital, Siemens Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds, and STAR Ventures.



• Chiaro Networks is based in Richardson, Texas. The company is headed by Ken Lewis, who previously served as Alcatel's senior vice-president of strategic planning and senior vice-president of the Transmission Products division. Chiaro was founded by Dr. Eyal Shekel, who formerly served as a project manager in the Space and Imaging division of EL-OP Electro-optical Industries in Israel.

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T-Systems Partners with Level 3 to Extend MPLS Reach

T-Systems announced a strategic partnership with Level 3 Communications that enables it to provide its MPLS-based service portfolio to customers across the entire Level 3 fiber-optic network, which spans approximately 19,000 miles in North America and includes Points of Presence in 68 U.S. markets. T-Systems' MPLS data service provides corporate customers with an integrated solution for a variety of applications, including corporate wide area networking, voice applications, disaster recovery networks, data overflow networks, video distribution networks and IP backbones. http://www.t-systems.comhttp://www.Level3.com

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Vitesse Debuts Quad 6.5 Gbps Transceiver with FEC

Vitesse Semiconductor introduced a quad 6.5 Gbps backplane transceiver with integrated transcoding technology and Forward Error Correction (FEC). The device is capable of transmitting 12.5 Gbps XAUI-based signals over two channels running at just over 5 Gbps each. Vitesse said its design provides up to a 6x increase in effective data throughput across the installed base of chassis and associated backplane hardware. With this strategy, existing backplanes typically designed for 1 Gbps could be increased to channel rates as high as 6.5 Gbps for a broad range of applications, including high-speed networking, enterprise computing, storage area networking, and metropolitan area networks. http://www.vitesse.com

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Nortel Networks Unveils CDMA 450 Portfolio

Nortel Networks introduced a set of products for the CDMA 450 MHz radio spectrum. CDMA 450 is a standard for use in countries transitioning to digital wireless service from Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) 450 analogue service. Because of the lower radio spectrum, CDMA 450 has the advantage of covering a significantly larger geographical footprint compared to traditional cellular systems.



Separately, Nortel Networks announced a CDMA2000 450 MHz contract with Telekom Baltija in Latvia. In addition, Nortel Networks is conducting CDMA 450 trials with a number of operators across Eastern Europe, and has just completed a CDMA 450 trial with UralWestcom, a joint venture between Russian Telecommunications Development Corporation (RTDC) and Ural Svyaz Inform. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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Nortel Networks Places CFO and Controller on Leave

Nortel Networks has placed Douglas Beatty, its incumbent Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Michael Gollogly, its incumbent Controller, on paid leave of absence pending completion of an independent review being undertaken by the Nortel Networks Audit Committee. Two interim officers have named in the meantime.



The independent review is examining the circumstances leading to the restatement of Nortel Networks financial statements, which was announced in October 2003. The company announced on 10-March-2004 that as a result of the work done to date in connection with the independent review, Nortel Networks believes it is likely that it will need to revise its previously announced unaudited results for the year ended 31-December-2003, and the results reported in certain of its quarterly reports for 2003, and to restate its previously filed financial results for one or more earlier periods. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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