Nitronex Raises $6 Million for Gallium Nitride RF Devices

Nitronex, a start-up based in Raleigh, North Carolina raised $6 million in new funding for its development of gallium nitride (GaN) based radio frequency (RF) power transistors. The company claims its GaN on silicon technology provides significant performance and cost advantages for a number of important markets, including next generation wireless and LED applications, military communications, and automotive electronics. Nitronex expects to introduce new power transistor products for power amplifier and base station equipment manufacturers later this year.



Investors include Alliance Technology Ventures, TPG Ventures, and VantagePoint Venture Partners. Nitronex has raised $50 million to date.



Nitronex also named Charles E. Shalvoy as its Executive Chairman and acting CEO. Shalvoy was most recently President and CEO of Conductus Inc., a manufacturer of superconducting products for wireless networks. Prior to Conductus, he was President and COO of Therma-Wave. http://www.nitronex.com

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NTT DoCoMo to Separate Voice / Data During Disasters

NTT DoCoMo announced plans that would separately manage voice calls and data packet transmissions for some handsets in order to avoid network congestion during major natural disasters. The move is expected to increase the ability to successfully transmit text messages to DoCoMo's i-mode Disaster Message Board service, even if network traffic should rise sharply during a major disaster. DoCoMo users making calls during major disasters would also hear an announcement encouraging them to use the i-mode Disaster Message Board service or NTT's disaster message service instead of calling individuals directly, which will also help to reduce network traffic.



Presently, if network traffic were to become exceedingly heavy during a disaster, DoCoMo could be forced to block traffic in selected areas on a temporary basis to prevent serious degradation of network performance. In some instances, urgent messages sent to the Disaster Message Board could be blocked inadvertently. http://www.nttdocomo.com

• In January 2004, NTT DoCoMo launched an i-mode Disaster Message Board service that allows subscribers in Japan to post personal messages for friends and relatives who might not otherwise be able to contact them in the immediate aftermath of a national disaster, such as a high-magnitude earthquake. NTT DoCoMo said that should a major disaster occur, its network will undoubtedly be extremely busy as — in addition to the heavy traffic among administrative and relief agencies, ordinary users in the affected locale typically attempt outside contact to worried relatives and friends. In the event of severe network congestion, the new packet-based i-mode Disaster Message Board will be given sufficient priority to ensure that it continues to function. Each i-mode user in the disaster area would be able to click an on-screen menu enabling him or her to post up to 10 messages of 100 Japanese characters each. Someone wishing to check for a message left by a person in the disaster area would connect to the Disaster Message Board site, and input that person's cell phone number to display any registered messages.



• There are currently more than 45 million DoCoMo cellular phone users in Japan.

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Gemfire Acquires NovaCrystals for Photo Diode Technology

Gemfire Corporation has acquired NovaCrystals, a start-up in San Jose, California, for its Avalanche Photo Diode (APD) technology that can be manufactured using planar silicon processes.. Gemfire said the acquisition enhances its ability to provide integrated planar WDM solutions to the optical networking systems market in addition to supporting several immediate space and defense related opportunities. The NovaCrystals wafer bonding technology combines the speed and low noise advantages of silicon with the high detection sensitivity of InGaAs to achieve PIN and APD detectors at telecom wavelengths. The APD technology can also be designed to operate in Geiger Mode, with state-of-the-art noise and sensitivity performance for single photon counting applications.



Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.gemfire.com

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Union Threatens Strike at SBC, Cites Call Center Off shoring to India

The Communications Workers of America issued a 30-day notice that its union members working at SBC Communications may go on strike if a new contract is not reached. CWA's local unions at SBC will begin the strike authorization vote among their members, with the results to be announced on April 29. If members vote to strike, the next step would be for CWA's executive board to authorize CWA's president to set the strike date.



The union alleges that SBC is not addressing workers' concerns about employment security, noting that CWA members are seeking limits on excessive subcontracting as well as gaining access for workers to jobs in growth areas of the company. SBC is outsourcing thousands of jobs in such areas as call centers, DSL tech support and others. Much of this work is being sent by contractors offshore to India and other countries. Health care is another issue.



CWA President Morton Bahr said the union has a two-prong strategy. Having given notice to SBC, CWA will be in a position to strike at the end of the 30-day period. In the meantime, the union will prepare for other tactics that potentially could affect the company's revenue but which don't rely on a strike. This would include gathering pledges from unions and union families in SBC territory to switch local and long distance service if CWA determined that it was necessary. CWA has used this strategy successfully in the past, Bahr said. http://www.cwa-union.org

• CWA represents 100,000 workers at SBC West (formerly Pacific Bell), SBC Midwest (Ameritech), SBC Southwest (Southwestern Bell) and SBC East (Southern New England Telephone.)

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Adesso Secures $8 Million for Enterprise Mobile

Adesso Systems, a start-up based in Boston, secured $8 million in funding for its enterprise mobile application solutions. Adesso's product family, announced in 2003, lets Pocket PCs, Tablet PCs, laptops and smartphones perform a variety of mobile applications even without always-on network connections. The product employs client and server application development and implementation software, and can works with either an Adesso-hosted or enterprise-resident server.



Carlyle Venture Partners led this investment round, with participation from Adesso's existing investors. http://www.adessosystems.com

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Verizon Wireless Prepared to Bid $5 Billion for Spectrum

Verizon Wireless announced that it is prepared to open bidding at $5 billion for 10 MHz of nationwide PCS spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band should the FCC determine to make spectrum in that band available for auction to the highest bidder.



Nextel has been petitioning the FCC to let it exchange some of its existing 800-megahertz spectrum for potentially more valuable spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band. Nextel argues that the FCC has full legal authority to approve the radio spectrum realignment.



Verizon Wireless argues that any such swap would violate FCC rules, federal law and more than a decade of U.S. spectrum policy. The company said Nextel's "interference with public safety channels can be resolved within the 800 MHz band, without grabbing at valuable spectrum that should be put to best public use in an auction."http://www.verizonwireless.comhttp://www.nextel.com

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Telstra Tests Alcatel's FTTP

Telstra selected Alcatel for a commercial Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) pilot in Queensland, Australia. Alcatel said it has been involved in several operator FTTP field trials in the Asia Pacific region and has multiple FTTP deployments in North America as well.



Last December, SBC Communications, signed a four-year primary supplier agreement with Alcatel for its FTTP network. http://www.alcatel.com

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Cingular Wireless and NextWave Telecom Close Transaction

Cingular Wireless closed its transaction of 34 PCS licenses from NextWave Telecom. The licenses, covering approximately 83 million potential customers, are for spectrum primarily in markets where Cingular currently has voice and data operations.



Under terms of the deal, Cingular paid $1.4 billion in cash, and obtained FCC licenses to operate on 10 MHz of broadband PCS (1900 MHz) spectrum in 32 of the markets and of spectrum of 20 MHz in the 1900 MHz band in Tampa and El Paso (Texas).



All claims of the FCC and third parties related to these 34 licenses have been satisfied, including $714 million owed by NextWave to the FCC for these licenses, which was paid directly to the FCC out of the $1.4 billion total. http://www.cingular.com

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Aurora Appoints Gary Testa Vice President, Worldwide Sales

Aurora Networks named Gary Testa as Vice President, Worldwide Sales. Testa was most recently Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing for Gluon Networks, a start-up that developed next-generation CLASS 5 switching and access products. He previously held VP sales positions with venture-backed technology startups including Quintessent Communications and ObjectStream.



Founded in November 1999, Aurora Networks designs, develops, and markets advanced optical communications systems for traditional hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks and advanced, fiber-deep broadband networks. http://www.aurora.com

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ADC Ships DOCSIS 2.0 CMTS

ADC began shipping a DOCSIS 2.0 CMTS module for its Cuda 12000 Next-Generation cable modem termination system (CMTS). This new CMTS module, based on Broadcom's DOCSIS 2.0 chipset, is capable of providing throughput of nearly 500 Mbps. ADC said the increased data rates would enable multiple system operators (MSOs) to compete more effectively with existing providers to deliver symmetrical broadband applications such as voice, business grade high-speed data services and peer-to-peer functionality.



ADC said there are now more than 1,000 units of its Cuda CMTS platform deployed. http://www.adc.com

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