IDT Acquires Zettacom for Advanced Switching

IDT announced plans to acquire ZettaCom, a start-up based in Santa Clara, California that developed a terabit-class hybrid switching fabric and companion OC-192 traffic manager silicon. The deal was valued at approximately $35 million in cash and is expected to close by the end of April. ZettaCom will form the basis of a new serial switching division at IDT which will develop standards-based products based on Advanced Switching and PCI Express architectures. Daryn Lau, former ZettaCom CEO and president, will head up the new serial switching division...

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Fujitsu Supplies Optical Core for Verizon's Enterprise Advance

Verizon is using Fujitsu's FLASHWAVE 7600 regional WDM system, FLASHWAVE 7200 transponders, and FLASHWAVE 4500 core transport MSPP system for the nine regional rings in the national network serving its Enterprise Advance initiative. Fujitsu's FLASHWAVE 4500 MSPP platform was also used extensively throughout the network as a Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) to provide advanced services, like Ethernet over SONET, and aggregate traffic generated from Enterprise Advance business. Verizon is also using Fujitsu's FLASHWAVE 4500 core transport...

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Alcatel Introduces Open Media Suite for Triple Play

Alcatel introduced its Open Media Suite for delivery of rich media in a triple play service mix (voice, data, video). The Alcatel Open Media Suite is an end-to-end portfolio of products and professional services, encompassing user interface customization, integration with third party equipment such as set top boxes and digital video head ends, as well as facilitating negotiations with content owners and suppliers. The portfolio includes the 5950 Open Media Platform, the 5950 Open Media Applications and the 5959 Open Media Content Management and...

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MCI and Qwest Set Framework for UNE Negotiations

MCI and Qwest Communications have agreed to hold transparent and mediated negotiations regarding access to the public telephone network. These open negotiations will be monitored by Cheryl Parrino, former Chair of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission and former CEO of the Universal Service Administrative Company. http://www.mci.comhttp://www.qwest....

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Covad and Qwest Sign Commercial Line-Sharing Agreement

Qwest Communications and Covad Communications announced the completion of a three-year commercial line sharing agreement that provides Covad with access to local lines in the seven states within the Qwest region. Line sharing allows communications providers to deploy DSL on the same line customers use for their voice phone services. The deal takes effect in October of 2004 when current federal line-sharing unbundling obligations are phased out. Financial terms were not disclosed. "Today's agreement demonstrates that the economics of line sharing...

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Qwest to Expand Web Hosting Facilities in California and Ohio

Citing growing customer demand, Qwest Communications is expanding its web hosting facility in Sunnyvale, California and re-opening its web hosting center in Columbus, Ohio. The expanded Qwest CyberCenter in Sunnyvale will be adjacent to the existing Qwest facility, creating one large complex for Qwest Web hosting in Northern California. The Columbus, Ohio CyberCenter is reopening to meet growing customer demand in the Midwest and required minimal capital investment because Qwest is using its existing facility. http://www.qwest....

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FCC Proposes Rules for 3650 MHz Wireless Broadband

The FCC initiated a proceeding to foster the introduction of wireless broadband operations in the 3650-3700 MHz band. In response to requests by wireless internet service providers (WISPs), the FCC proposed to allow unlicensed devices to operate in some or all of the 3650 MHz band with higher power than currently authorized. The FCC is proposing that unlicensed devices be allowed to operate in all, or part, of the 3650 MHz band at higher power levels than usually permitted for unlicensed services, which should enhance the utility of unlicensed...

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FCC Adopts New Rules for RFIDs

The FCC adopted new rules that allow for the operation of improved radio frequency identification (RFID) systems for use in conjunction with commercial shipping containers. The FCC's rules permit RFID systems to be operated on a number of frequency bands, subject to limitations on their maximum signal level and transmission duration. The new order increases the maximum signal level permitted for RFID systems operating in the 433.5-434.5 MHz band to facilitate more reliable transmissions with greater range than the rules previously allowed. ...

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TTI Telecom and T-Systems Join Forces on OSS

TTI Team Telecom International, a supplier of OSS and Business Support Systems (BSS) for telecom service providers and T-Systems, today announced the signing of a cooperation agreement whereby both companies will offer a joint solution to service providers in Europe and pursue joint sales and marketing activities. T-Systems is Europe's second largest IT service provider and a group division of Deutsche Telekom. http://www.tti-telecom....

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PMC-Sierra Sees Revenues Rise 11% Sequentially

PMC-Sierra reported Q1 revenue of $78.7 million compared with $70.6 million for Q4 of 2003 and $55.4 million for the same period a year ago. This represented an increase in revenues of 11.4 percent sequentially and 42.1 percent on a year-over-year basis. Networking revenues in the first quarter of 2004 increased 12.6 percent compared with networking revenues in the prior quarter. The Company did not have any non-networking revenue in the first quarter of 2004 compared with $0.8 million in non-networking revenue in the fourth quarter of 2003. "PMC-Sierra...

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Hong Kong's City Telecom Leverages Cisco Optical Core

Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd, a subsidiary of the City Telecom Group, has deployed a Cisco Optical Core network as the foundation for new digital pay-TV service. The deployment includes the Cisco ONS 15454 SONET/SDH Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP); Cisco Catalyst 6500, Catalyst 4500, Catalyst 3350, and Catalyst 2950 series switches; and Cisco 2600XM Series routers. Cisco's ONS 15454 MSPP enables the carrier to converge its legacy voice and data services and its new pay-TV service into a single platform, and at the same time offer Layer...

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Intel Announces Next-Generation Audio Final Spec

Intel released its High Definition Audio specification (version1.0) for PCs, handhelds and other consumer electronics. Intel High Definition Audio is expected to replace the aging AC'97 specification developed nearly a decade ago. Higher-quality is made possible by an upgraded architecture and increased bandwidth that allows for 192 kHz, 32-bit, multi-channel audio. Audio input is enhanced with increased support for multi-channel array microphones, dynamically allocated bandwidth, and audio device configuration flexibility. The HD Audio architecture...

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Western Iowa Telephone Deploys MetaSwitch

The Western Iowa Telephone Association has selected the MetaSwitch VP3500 to augment and eventually replace its existing legacy switches in eight exchanges serving residential and business customers in western Iowa. The MetaSwitch VP3500 is a next generation class 5 switch that offers support for VoIP, VoATM and GR-303, as well as advanced Web-based subscriber services. The platform scales from 400 to over 250,000 subscribers in a single rack. Vantage Point Solutions, Inc., a telecommunications engineering and consulting firm, provided engineering...

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C-COR to Acquire Lantern for 10 GigE and RPR Transport

C-COR.net announced plans to acquire all of the assets of Lantern Communications, a start-up developing metro optical packet-based transport solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed. C-COR anticipates that in fiscal year 2005 the Lantern acquisition will add approximately $20 million in net sales and contribute to earnings. Lantern Communications, which is based in Sunnyvale, California, offers a Metro Packet Switch (MSP) system that incorporates advanced bandwidth management and QoS techniques to enable the delivery of deterministic services...

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BelAir Offers Optical Feed for Metro Scale Wi-Fi Networks

BelAir Networks, a start-up based in Kanata, Ontario, announced an optical line interface for feeding into a metro-scale Wi-Fi networks. BelAir Networks will offer two intermediate reach optical LIM interfaces compliant to the IEEE 802.3u 100BaseFX fast Ethernet standard. The BelAir200 is a four-radio, modular platform available in multiple configurations that can be used to build Wi-Fi networks for a single private building or scale up to carrier grade, city-wide networks. The BelAir100 is a two-radio cellular LAN platform that accepts the...

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Sovereign Bank Selects Lucent's Management Software

Sovereign Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S., has installed Lucent's network management software to support its network linking approximately 535 community-banking offices, nearly 1,000 ATMs, and about 8,300 employees throughout the northeast. The bank is using Lucent's VitalSuite Performance Management software system, to manage network and application performance for the multi-vendor network. The bank is also using Lucent's VitalQIP for Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and IP address management....

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PRIMUS Acquires Magma, a Canadian ISP

PRIMUS Telecommunications has acquired Magma Communications, an ISP serving corporate, government and residential customers in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. PRIMUS is paying approximately C$16 million (half in cash and half in stock) for 100% of the issued stock of Magma. The acquisition adds approximately 30,000 customers to PRIMUS Canada's existing Internet customer base of over 70,000. http://www.primustel.comIn January 2004, PRIMUS Canada introduced a consumer VoIP service for broadband users in Canada. Customers can select from Toronto,...

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DSL.net Names Buddy Pickle as CEO

DSL.net named Kirby G. "Buddy" Pickle as its new CEO, replacing company founder David F. Struwas who is resigning to pursue other interests. Pickle comes to DSL.net having completed the financial restructuring of Velocita Corporation, where he served as president and chief executive officer. Pickle also is a former president and chief operating officer for business-to-business data and telecommunications providers Teligent and UUNet Technologies. In addition, Pickle was one of the original senior leaders at MFS Communications, prior to its sale...

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