New Global Telecom Selects NexTone

New Global Telecom (NGT), a provider of utsourced TDM and IP network management services to carriers and service providers, has deployed NexTone's Multiprotocol Session Controller (MSC) as the basis of its new IPartition service. The platform provides stateful any-to-any protocol conversion and termination of International and domestic IP traffic, enabling NGT's carrier customers to interconnect to any global carrier network regardless of their network infrastructure. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.nextone.comhttp://www.ngt.com

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Conexant Sets Up Design Center in Taiwan

Conexant Systems plans to open a design center in Taipei, Taiwan to support its engineering hardware and software support services, including board design verification and testing for the company's wireless, DSL and dial-up products for Taiwan equipment suppliers. Geographically, shipments to the Asia-Pacific region represent approximately 80 percent of Conexant's revenues, the majority of which are generated in Taiwan. http://www.conexant.com

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Digital Evolution Raises $10 Million for Web Services Security

Digital Evolution, a start-up based in Santa Monica, California, closed its Series C financing with $15 million in new capital for its Web Services Security and Management software. The new funding came from Redpoint Ventures, Mellon Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, and Palisades Ventures. Digital Evolution has raised over $30 million in total equity financing to date since its founding.



Digital Evolution's flagship product, its Digital Evolution Service Manager (DESM), enables monitoring and management of distributed, Web services-enabled applications and modules. The company recently launched an Identity-Based Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Management platform and has signed partnerships with Netegrity and IBM. http://www.digev.com

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MCI Introduces Virtual Peering Across MAE Facilities

MCI is launching a Virtual Peering Service to help ISPs and other large bandwidth users to interconnect networks at any of its MAE switching facilities across the U.S.



Unlike the traditional model of peering which is only with companies physically located at the same location or within the same region, organizations can now virtually "connect" across MCI's three major U.S. regions, including MAE East (Washington, D.C. metro, New York City), MAE Central (Dallas, Chicago), and MAE West (San Jose and Los Angeles). The new MAE Extended Services use virtual private connections to exchange traffic over MCI's global IP network without the regional or physical limitations traditionally associated with peering. MCI said this results in better network utilization and expanded geographic reach for its customers.



MCI also plans to expand its suite of services to additional U.S. and global locations beginning this fall. All MAE services support IPv6.

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Nortel to Resell PacketHop's Mobile Mesh Technology

Nortel Networks will resell PacketHop's secure mobile mesh solution as a homeland security communications solution for law enforcement and public safety agencies. The PacketHop system consists of client software that is loaded onto IP radio-equipped devices along with real-time multimedia applications specifically designed for server-less operations. Nortel Networks's Wireless Mesh Network portfolio consists of its Wireless Access Point 7220, Wireless Gateway 7250 and Optivity Network Management system. Joint solutions from PacketHop and Nortel Networks are targeted for availability in Q4 2004. http://www.nortelnetworks.comhttp://www.packethop.com

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PacketHop Secures $10 Million for Mobile Mesh Technology

PacketHop, a start-up based in Belmont, California, secured $10 million in a Series B round of financing for its secure mobile mesh software. PacketHop's software, which can be loaded onto standard IP radio-equipped devices such as commercial off-the-shelf laptops, tablets and PDAs, enables the devices to form a secure, scaleable and robust mobile broadband network. PacketHop's mobile mesh network does not require fixed network infrastructure such as base stations or access points to provide communications between devices. When fixed infrastructure is available, it is an additional resource utilized by the mobile mesh network to connect to a network backbone when necessary.



PacketHop is initially targeting the homeland security market.



The new funding was led by ComVentures and included existing investors U.S. Venture Partners and Mayfield. http://www.packethop.com

• PacketHop was founded in January 2003. Its core technology was developed in the SRI International lab.

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Adelphia Expands Deployment of nCUBE Video Servers

Adelphia Communications, the fifth largest cable provider in the U.S., has selected nCUBE to expand its On Demand services. Adelphia is now using nCUBE in six markets. In addition to nCUBE's On Demand system, Adelphia has also deployed nCUBE's digital advertising insertion systems in select markets. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.ncube.com

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Cox Boosts Cable Modem Speed

Cox Communications, the nation's third-largest cable television provider, is boosting the speed of its cable modem services. Cox Communications began offering three different Internet service tiers last fall. Going forward, the new performance levels are:

• Fast -- 256 Kbps symmetrical service for $24.95 (no cable TV bundle required).



• Faster -- 4.0 Mbps/512 Kbps for $29.95 (Cox Combo bundle required)



• Fastest -- 5.0 Mbps/768 Kbps for $44.95 (Cox Combo bundle required).

http://www.cox.com

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Level 3 Signs Callipso for Ethernet Service

Callipso, a leading provider of enhanced IP services, will use Level 3 Communications' (3)Flex Ethernet service to manage voice traffic over its nationwide IP network. In addition to (3)Flex Ethernet service, Callipso, a Level 3 customer since 1999, also uses Level 3's voice termination, private line, high-speed Internet access, and colocation services. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Level 3's (3)Flex Ethernet service offers Class of Service (CoS) capabilities. http://www.level3.comhttp://www.callipso.com

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AT&T to Launch Advertising Campaign during Olympics

AT&T will launch a new campaign of television, print and online advertisements during the upcoming Olympic Games. The new ads build on a $200 million advertising program that was launched in February. http://www.att.com

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Covad Expands its Business-Class VoIP Across U.S.

Covad Communications announced the availability of its hosted, business-class VoIP service in 42 markets across the U.S. The VoIP services, which are aimed at small and medium-sized businesses, are managed end-to-end. Two versions are offered -- Covad vPBX and Covad PBXi. Covad PBXi is designed to work seamlessly with existing PBX equipment. Covad vPBX is designed as a full PBX alternative. Covad and Covad's dealer network install the service, train users and provide complete customer support. Covad provides a "Dashboard" user interface for the local and long-distance service, visual fax and voice mail, Instant Messaging, audio and web conferencing, call logs, directory services, "Find me/Follow me" and other features.



Covad expects to offer the VoIP service in all 113 major metropolitan statistical areas served by its nationwide broadband network by the end of 2004. http://www.covad.com

• Earlier this year, Covad acquired GoBeam, a privately-owned provider of VoIP, for $48 million in stock. GoBeam, which was based is Pleasanton, California, had more than 13,000 VoIP stations (telephones) serving business customers throughout California and in the Chicago, Illinois area. The company offered a full-feature hosted PBX solution with online management tools.

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Global Crossing Integrates Microsoft Office Live Meeting

Global Crossing is integrating Microsoft Office Live Meeting into its collaboration services portfolio. Live Meeting is a Web conferencing service that enables conference participants to broadcast visuals, applications, Web pages, files, or software in real-time.



Global Crossing said Microsoft's Live Meeting complements its existing set of collaboration tools, which include audio, video and Web conferencing solutions. The carrier has already integrated the scheduling capabilities of Microsoft Outlook directly with its Ready-Access Web Meeting -- an integrated audio and Web conferencing service. Plans are also underway for integrating Global Crossing's Ready-Access audio conferencing service with Microsoft Office Live Meeting.



For more than three years, Global Crossing has been a key network provider of global telecom services to Microsoft, including serving as the primary backbone in Europe over Global Crossing's fiber network. http://www.globalcrossing.com

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Teleglobe Grows its IPv6 Global Transit

Teleglobe's IPv6 global IP Transit service has grown to successfully serve ten customers in nine countries--Algeria, Bahrain, France, Germany, Malaysia, Netherlands, Qatar, Senegal, and South Africa -- over the past six months. A number of additional IPv6 customers in these and additional countries are expected as the pilot service expands to become a standard production offering over the next few months. http://www.teleglobe.com

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Pulse~LINK Develops UWB for HFC Networks

Pulse~LINK, a start-up based in San Diego, is developing an Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology for cable television networks. The company said its UWB innovations are capable of providing up to 1 Gigabit of new bandwidth downstream and up to hundreds of megabits of new bandwidth upstream without changes to the existing cable network infrastructure. A demonstration for cable operators is being conducted this week at the annual CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, Colorado.



Pulse~LINK's UWB cable demonstration replicates an entire Hybrid Fiber Coax infrastructure featuring multiple streams of standard cable television feeds operating simultaneously in the presence of UWB enabled HDTV content. The demo uses off-the-shelf CATV equipment beginning at the cable head-end, where the UWB signal is injected into a standard RF combiner, then modulated onto a fiber optic cable for transmission to a "fiber field node" where the RF content is demodulated for transmission through more than 1000 feet of coax cable and two "field amplifiers." The signal is then sent through multiple RF splitters and into a "digital living room" where both the UWB HDTV broadcasts and standard cable broadcasts are displayed simultaneously. Demonstrations of UWB HDTV content over existing power lines are also being conducted at the event.



Pulse~LINK's wireless UWB technology could also be used for in-home networks. The company is demonstrating the simultaneous transmissions of two HDTV programs from one UWB wireless radio into separate HDTVs.



A virtual demonstration of Pulse~LINK's UWB cable, power line, and wireless communications can be viewed on the company's website. http://www.pulselink.net

• In Septermber 2003, Pulse~LINK and Fujitsu Microelectronics America will jointly develop a digital baseband processor for Ultra Wideband (UWB) WLAN applications using Fujitsu's 0.11-micron CMOS SoC ASIC technology. Pulse~LINK has demonstrated 400 Mbps UWB transmission and is developing an FCC-compliant solution with about a 100-meter range. Under the agreement, Fujitsu Microelectronics will provide design and manufacturing services for the digital baseband processor, one of two SoC ASICs that form Pulse~LINK's high-speed secure WLAN solution.



• Pulse~LINK was founded in June 2000. It claims almost eighty issued and pending patents pertaining to Ultra Wideband wired and wireless communications technology. In May, 2001, Pulse~LINK acquired the assets and intellectual property of another Ultra Wideband technology company, Fantasma Networks, which was located in Silicon Valley.



• Ultra-wideband operates without using an RF Carrier for its signal. Instead, data is transmitted using time and amplitude modulated pulses of less than one nanosecond in duration. Proponents argue that UWB can peacefully co-exist with carrier frequency uses without interference.

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Cisco Reports Record Quarter

Cisco Systems reported quarterly revenue of $5.9 billion, compared with $4.7 billion for same period last year, an increase of 26.0%, and compared with $5.6 billion in the preceding quarter, an increase of 5.4%. Net income (GAAP) was $1.4 billion or $0.20 per share, compared with $982 million or $0.14 per share for the same period last year, and compared with $1.2 billion or $0.17 per share for the preceding quarter.



For its full fiscal 2004, Cisco's net sales were $22.0 billion, compared with $18.9 billion for fiscal 2003, an increase of 16.8%.



"This was a record-breaking quarter for Cisco on a number of financial and operational levels, including generating the highest GAAP and pro forma net income and earnings per share in the company's history," said John Chambers, Cisco president and CEO.



Some highlights:

• Revenue breakdowns by product catergories were as follows: 24% for routers, 41% for switches, 16% for advanced technologies, 3% for other, and 16% for services.



• Revenue breakdown by geography was: 48% for the U.S. market, 30% for EMEA, 11% for Asia/Pacific, 7% for Japan, and 4% for Americas International.



• IP telephony revenues were up 15% sequentially. Cisco shipped 470,000 IP phones in the quarter



• Sales of Modular and fixed switches experienced sequential order growth in the mid-teens



• GSR revenue grew 40% sequentially



• Gross margins were 68.4% compared to 68.8% in the preceding quarter



• At the end of the quarter, the company held $19.3 billion in cash and investments



• Revenue guidance for Q1 2005 (the quarter currently underway) is "flat to up slightly (0% to 2%)". John Chambers said many customers appeared to be more cautious than they were a quarter ago.

http://www.cisco.com

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