Avanex and SHF Develop 40 Gbps Line Card Technology

Avanex and SHF Communication Technologies AG announced a 40 Gbps duobinary modulator-driver assembly aimed at simplifying the manufacturing of 40 Gbps line cards. The device combines an optimized SHF driver amplifier and the Avanex PowerBit 40 Gbps Intensity Modulator to enable at least five times longer transmission distances compared to the traditional intensity-modulated NRZ approach, and without dispersion compensation. The companies said the new 40 Gbps duobinary transmitter sub-assembly reduces the bandwidth requirements of electronics and modulators because of its higher spectral efficiency. http://www.avanex.com/http://www.shf.biz/

Read More

Vodafone Awards Global Framework to Portal Software

Vodafone Group signed a new global framework agreement establishing Portal Software as a preferred strategic billing solutions provider. The companies have agreed on a global billing development program to standardize the creation and implementation of billing solutions for Vodafone Group Companies. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.portal.com/

Read More

Marconi Completes Repayment of Restructuring Debt

Marconi completed the full repayment, within 16 months, of the $1.2 billion of debt that it assumed upon completion of its financial restructuring on 19 May 2003. This debt was originally due for repayment by 2008.



Mike Parton, Marconi's CEO, said "The re-emergence of Marconi has been completed with the repayment of the last of the debt that we took on as part of our restructuring. An anticipated annual interest charge of over $100m per annum has been eliminated through the prompt repayment of the debt."http://www.marconi.com

Read More

SingTel Deploys Kagoor's Session Border Controllers

Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has deployed Kagoor's VoiceFlow series of session border controllers to deliver its i-PhoneNet, an advanced IP Centrex service. Kagoor's session border controllers are being used to provide advanced security and Network Address Translation (NAT) features. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.kagoor.com

Read More

Broadwing Completes Acquisition of Focal Communications

Broadwing Communications (a division of Corvis Corp.) completed its acquisition of Focal Communications , a Chicago-based CLEC. Broadwing will gain approximately 4,000 enterprise and wholesale customers in 23 Tier-One markets throughout the U.S. The company estimates cost savings in the range of $20 million to $30 million dollars, net of integration costs, over the next 12 to 18 months.



Corvis acquired Focal for a total consideration of approximately $189 million, comprised of approximately $88 million in equity that was issued to Focal's existing equity holders and the assumption or payment of approximately $101 million of Focal's debt and other long-term capital lease obligations. For fiscal 2003, Focal reported approximately $320 million in revenue. http://www.corvis.com

Read More

Taiwan's Chunghwa Implements Orca for IPTV

Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom has purchased an additional 10,000 licenses of Orca's RiGHTv IPTV middleware solution as it continues to roll out Multimedia on Demand (MOD) services to its DSL customers.



In April 2003, CHT awarded Orca the contract to provide the end-to-end solution and deploy MOD services. The services offered to the initial 20,000 subscribers included Video on Demand (VOD), Near VOD (NVOD), Karaoke-on-Demand (KOD) and live TV services. The new contract expands this number to 30,000.



Additionally, Orca has recently integrated with Widevine Technologies' Cypher) Suite optimized security solution for iTV systems to provide CHT with one of the few TV over IP deployments with secure delivery of premium content. http://www.orcainteractive.com

Read More

Case Western Builds Visual Network with RADVISION

Case Western Reserve University is building a campus-wide group and desktop videoconferencing service that rides over its Gigabit Ethernet fiber network. During the fall semester, Case expects that 200 classrooms, meeting rooms, and student end points will be online and communicating in a live video network. By mid-2005, when the service is fully deployed, Case plans to support thousands of devices. Case also plans to offer video services to the city of Cleveland through the nationally acclaimed OneCleveland initiative.



RADVISION components chosen by Case in the deployment include its MCU v3.2 with H.264 support, its MVP (multimedia video processing) for advanced transcoding and layouts, ECS gatekeeper for easy dialing plans and management of all end points, the RADVISION viaIP IP/ISDN gateway, its DCS (Data Collaboration Server) for T.120-based real-time application and document sharing, and RADVISION's VCS for end user scheduling of calls. While the initial implementation is H.323 based, Case plans to introduce SIP in 2005http://www.radvision.comhttp://www.case.edu

Read More

Lumera Creates High Efficiency Nano-tech Electro-Optic Polymer

Lumera Corporation has developed an electro-optic polymer that it claims has five times the efficiency of the inorganic material currently used to fabricate active optical devices.



The electro-optic polymer breakthrough resulted from a partnership between Lumera and the University of Washington. University of Washington professors, Larry Dalton and Alex Jen, have used "nano-tailoring" to increase electro- optic activity that produces substantially more efficiency than that of existing materials. For their part of the partnership, Lumera's team of scientists adapted internally developed materials to achieve electro-optic coefficients of 160 pm/V at telecom operating wavelengths, a number that is approximately 20% higher than existing materials.



Lumera said it is using the technology and materials to develop a number of new products that will allow the company to expand in, or enter new markets. For example, the company is developing modulators that have highly linear responses for cable TV (CATV) optical links and hybrid wireless/fiber optic networks. Additionally, external modulators that can operate at 10-40 GHz in metro applications, transponders, and long-haul fiber optic network build-outs are being evaluated by potential customers. http://www.lumera.com/

Read More

Star38 Offers CallerID Spoofing Service

Star38, a privately-held company in Newport Beach, California, has begun offering a service that lets the calling party manipulate the CallerID information that is seen by the call recipient. The company claims its service lets the calling party (such as collection agencies, government officers other businesses) legally pretend to be anyone at any area code -- thereby increasing the chance that the call will be answered. http://star38.com

Read More

Belgacom's Interactive TV Project Tests Siemens, nCube

Siemens has selected nCUBE's On Demand platform to power Video On Demand in an interactive digital television (iDTV) pilot of Siemens' SURPASS Home Entertainment turnkey solution for Belgacom. Customers will be able to access a variety of online content and services on their television sets using DSL.



The project, which is the first order for Siemens' SURPASS home entertainment solution, is expected to begin this fall.



In addition to nCUBE, Siemens is working with a number of partners for its SURPASS home entertainment solution including Myrio for the middleware to enable the application, Verimatrix for content protection system, and Tandberg Television for the video broadcast equipment. http://www.ncube.com

Read More

Chile's Smartcom Deploys CDMA 1xEV-DO with Nortel

Smartcom has deployed CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology from Nortel Networks to boost its wireless network capacity and expand its service offerings in Santiago, Chile. Smartcom's network can provide speeds bursting in excess of 2 Mbps and 1xEV-DO users can expect more than 600 kbps average throughput - equivalent to and in some cases better than fixed broadband. http://www.nortelnetworks.com

Read More

White Rock Ships Small-Office DCS Plus Ethernet in SONET Box

White Rock Networks began shipping a newly enhanced VLX2020 OC-48/192 SONET Transport Platform that provides both a small-office DCS (Digital Cross-Connect System) and an edge Ethernet aggregation platform in a single package. The platform can now pre-groom both packet and TDM broadband and wideband traffic "at the edge" reducing backhaul bandwidth and the port costs associated with large centralized DCS systems, as well as providing an integrated SONET transport and DCS system for smaller central offices. It offers a non-blocking broadband STS-n matrix and optional wideband (VT1.5) matrices together with integrated Ethernet Layer 2 aggregation plus support for multiple subtended UPSR and BLSR rings.



The VLX2020 also allows multiple remote Ethernet-based data-streams to be aggregated into a single GbE "pipe.



White Rock noted that its VLX2020 supports SONET-compliant alarms, performance monitoring, and loop backs, as well as capabilities typically only found in major DCS systems, such as PRBS pattern generation and BER calculation. http://www.whiterock.com

Read More