Global DSL Subscriber Base Hits 85 Million

The worldwide installed base of DSL now tops 85 million -- a 39% expansion so far in 2004 -- according to data produced for the DSL Forum by industry analyst Point Topic. This gain of 24 million DSL subscribers in the first nine months of the year represents a pace of more than half a million new subscribers each week. According to the data, DSL gaining market share in countries with high cable penetration rates.

Some highlights of the report:

• China has the world's largest DSL population with a total of 13.7 million subscribers



• South Korea has a the highest penetration rate at 28.88%, while Taiwan is second at 22.14%.



• European Union (EU) countries currently make up the largest regional DSL population worldwide, adding more than 9.25 million subscribers in the first three quarters of this year, to reach 26.5 million.



• Latin America is now emerging as a DSL market, adding 1.2 million subscribers from January to September 2004, a growth in subscribers of more than 72%. Brazil is leading the way, gaining over 620,000 DSL subscribers, and three countries, Mexico, Argentina and Peru, have experienced more than 50% growth since the beginning of the year.

http://www.dslforum.org

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France Telecom and Fujitsu Announce R&D Partnership

France Telecom and Fujitsu Limited announced an R&D partnership focused on data mining and grid computing technology. The first phase of the project aims to dramatically facilitate analysis of the huge volume of data, such as for data mining and customer billing, generated by France Telecom. In the second phase, the project will generate value-added external services based on grid computing that can be offered to other enterprises. This partnership will enable France Telecom and Fujitsu to offer innovative value-added services to their customers with greater speed and efficiency through shared resources.



For the first phase of this project, Fujitsu will contribute its grid computing technology, specifically its CyberGRIP middleware and organic resource management systems. France Telecom R&D's division will bring to the partnership data-oriented and computation-intensive applications such as data mining, along with a number of enabling middleware components, particularly for persistent data and telecommunications application servers. http://www.francetelecom.comhttp://www.fujitsu.com

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France Telecom Signs Clients for International IPv6 Transit

France Telecom has signed up the first three commercial clients for an international IPv6 transit service for international carriers and ISPs. France Telecom has developed native IPv6 transit on its international Tier-1 IP backbone at speeds of up to 155 Mbps. Its offering is accessible from nine PoPs on three continents, with 40 peering agreements. The service provides a single interface for both IPv6 and IPv4 traffic. The first IPv6 customers include Belnet and Renater, and Probe Networks.



Probe Networks is a Germany-based ISP providing hosting, collocation and IP transit services in Germany, Holland and the US. Their one-year international IP transit deal with France Telecom includes a 20 Mbps IPv6 access link, which will allow the company to meet the evolving needs of its customers by enabling services such as Internet relay chat.



Belnet and Renater manage the national research and education networks in Belgium and France respectively. Belnet, a customer acquired through France Telecom's wholesale distribution partner, Mobistar, has renewed a 1-year contract which includes IPv6 capacity of up to 155 Mbps dual stacks.



As part of a broader contract for international IP transit with Renater, France Telecom has put in place a 155 Mbps IPv6 access link; this complements the IPv4/IPv6 (dual-stack) capacity already available on Renater's national network (currently 2.5 Gbps). http://www.francetelecom.com

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Marconi Names CTIO

Marconi named Andy Evans as Chief Technology and Information Officer (CTIO). Evans previously spent five years as a senior executive at FLAG Telecom. http://www.marconi.com

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MCI Rolls Out Managed LAN Services

MCI rolled out a new suite of Managed LAN services for businesses of all sizes. Previously offered as custom solutions to its largest customers, MCI is standardizing its managed LAN capabilities to give companies the flexibility to fully or partially outsource the management of their local area networks. MCI is offering a choice of three levels of LAN management, including Premium (where the local area network is fully managed by MCI), Basic (shared LAN management between the customer and MCI), and Monitoring & Notification, (MCI monitors the network only).



MCI said it currently manages more than 2,700 customer networks in 120 countries for companies such as NASDAQ, DaimlerChrysler, Amer Sports, Viewpointe, and Resun Corporation. http://www.mci.com

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AT&T Wins $9.5 Million Contract From Meredith Corp.

AT&T was awarded a $9.5 million, three-year contract to design and implement a networking solution for Meredith Corp., one of the nation's leading media companies. AT&T will provide an MPLS-based IP VPN integrating Meredith's 19 locations around the country, plus local, long-distance, teleconference, Internet access and high-speed data networking services. The VPN also will provide Meredith's 2,700 employees with secure access to the company's applications and databases. http://www.att.com

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AboveNet and Equinix Announce Data Center / Fiber Connectivity Deal

AboveNet will provide fiber connectivity to link Equinix's three Internet Business Exchange data centers in the Silicon Valley. In addition, Equinix will assume AboveNet's lease for 103,000 square feet of data center space in San Jose, with AboveNet retaining some of the data center space for existing customers. Further, AboveNet has entered into an agreement with Equinix enabling AboveNet to offer hosting services in Equinix data centers. Financial terms were not disclosed.



AboveNet said it is pursuing a strategy to create nationwide access to its optical network. AboveNet continues to extend its network by creating lit fiber links to major data centers, carrier hotels, high-traffic POPS, enterprises and office buildings in major markets throughout North America. http://www.above.net/http://www.equinix.com/

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UTStarcom Unveils "MovingMedia" TD-CDMA Wireless Broadband Platform

UTStarcom introduced its MovingMedia 6000 wireless broadband solution for delivering data services at up to 3Mbps per subscriber using a range of licensed frequency bands -- 1900- 1920MHz, 2010-2025MHz, 2500-2700MHz, and 3400-3600MHz.



UMTS license holders with allocated spectrum could use the MovingMedia 6000 solution to offer portable, always-on broadband service to compete with DSL and cable modem services. The wireless mobile data services could also complement existing Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) data service. Future upgrades to the MovingMedia 6000 solution will support wireless VoIP and high-mobility data services.



UTStarcom said its new MovingMedia 6000 platform offers operators the opportunity to use low-cost, unused spectrum to offer high-value, portable broadband services. Because the MovingMedia 6000 complies with the UMTS standard, it can be co-located with UMTS FDD base stations and share cell site equipment, including antennas. The MovingMedia 6000 architecture supports both centralized and distributed deployments.



UTStarcom's platform is based on the UMTS Time Division Duplexing (UMTS TDD) standard for 3G mobile networks, which utilizes Time Division-Code Division Multiple Access (TD-CDMA) technology. UTStarcom is using IP Wireless' TD-CDMA core technology for the new product line. The end-to-end MovingMedia 6000 solution includes Radio Access Network (RAN) products, core network products, and customer premise equipment (CPE), including a PCMCIA card that provides a mobile broadband interface between a mobile computer and a wireless TD-CDMA network. UTStarcom will also offer a MovingMedia 6000 Desktop Modem.



UTStarcom's MovingMedia 6000 solution is currently being deployed by UK Broadband, a subsidiary of PCCW Communications (UK) Ltd. UK Broadband's NETVIGATOR service offers subscribers plug-and-play wireless broadband, with an initial choice of a 512 kbps or 1 Mbps connection. The carrier also plans to introduce VoIP and mobile broadband data in 2005. UTStarcom said the MovingMedia 6000 is also currently being trialed and evaluated by several operators in other regions of the world. Optus, the second largest GSM operator in Australia, has also announced it will evaluate the UTStarcom solution as part of its ongoing strategy to tap into new and emergent technologies that open up growth opportunities.http/utstar.com/Solutions/Wireless/TD-CDMA/

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nLayers Raises $6 Million for Discovery Appliance

nLayers, a start-up based in San Jose, California, closed a $6 million Series B round in financing for its appliance for real-time network discovery and resource optimization. nLayers' InSight is an agentless appliance that provides organizations with "self-funding" discovery and optimization solutions for IT cost savings and operational risk mitigation. Customers use nLayers InSight to optimize applications resources to reduce the risk and cost involved in strategic IT initiatives such as resource consolidation, license realization, M&A and contract auditing. In addition, nLayers helps customers maintain application optimization by continuously monitoring for changes, conducting impact analysis, and fine-tuning the application environment.



The new funding was led by Walden Israel and Gemini Israel Funds. nLayers plans to use the funding to ramp up sales and marketing. The company also plans significant expansion of its OEM channel through key partnerships with multiple System Management vendors. http://www.nlayers.com/

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Foundry Networks Offers New Optical Ethernet Interfaces

Foundry Networks expanded its portfolio of modular Gigabit and 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) optical interfaces to include the recently ratified Ethernet-in-the-First-Mile (802.3AH EFM) standard and a 10-Gigabit Ethernet interface standard (10Gbase-ZR/10Gbase-ZRD) which enables 10-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity of up to 80 Kilometers. These new modular media transceivers are in addition to three new transceivers announced last month: a modular 10-GbE WAN PHY optical transceiver (10Gbase-LW) which enables seamless connectivity between 10-GbE and a DWDM or SONET/SDH wide area network infrastructure, a 10-GbE modular 10Gbase-LX4 optical transceiver for legacy FDDI grade cable and a 10-GbE 10GBase-CX4 copper transceiver for short distance data center applications.



The Ethernet-in-the-First-Mile (802.3AH EFM) Modular GbE Optical Interface integrates the optical combiner and splitter into the SFP transceiver. The enables a single strand of fiber is able to transmit bi-directionally. The devices work in a pair, with an upstream device and a downstream device connected at each end of the fiber. List price for the 802.3AH EFM transceiver is $1,495. http://www.foundrynetworks.com/

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Huawei Marks First CDMA2000 Deployment in U.S.

Clear Talk has commercially launched Huawei's next-generation CDMA 1X system for its approximately 358,000 POPs in El Centro, California and Yuma, Arizona. The system consists of a complete Huawei Airbridge CDMA2000 wireless network, including a Mobile Switching Center, Base Station Controller, Base Transceiver Station, Home Location Register, Packet Data Serving Node and fixed terminals. Short Messaging Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and 1X data services will also be supported. Financial terms were not disclosed.



The launch represents Huawei's first commercial deployment in the U.S. Huawei's CDMA equipment is installed in 36 other countries. http://www.huawei.com/

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D-Link Unveils First Gigabit Gaming Router

D-Link introduced a "GamerLounge" wireless router that uses an integrated packet processing engine to give priority to gaming traffic over all other Internet applications, email and FTP transfers. The home router is optimized for PC, Xbox and PlayStation2 games so as to provide a "no lag" gaming experience. The D-Link GamerLounge wireless router features four 1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet ports and 108Mbps 802.11g wireless AP functionality. The router features a high performance CPU to support advanced management features such as MAC address authentication, Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) and Content Filtering. MSRP is $150. http://games.dlink.com/.

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RCN Set to Emerge from Chapter 11

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York confirmed a plan of reorganization agreed to by RCN and its creditors, enabling the company to emerge from Chapter 11 by the end of the year. Under the plan, a total of $1.19 billion in debt will be converted into new equity of RCN. New credit facilities will be established by year end, led by Deutsche Bank, of up to $480 million under favorable terms to be used to pay off the previous senior secured lenders led by JP Morgan Chase. Upon emergence from Chapter 11, RCN will also have over $100 million in unrestricted cash to support its strategy.



Peter D. Aquino has been selected as RCN's new CEO. Aquino has been Senior Managing Director of Capital & Technology Advisors LLC (CTA), a telecommunications advisory firm, since 2001. A new Board of Directors has also been named. http://www.rcntomorrow.com/

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Hancock Telephone Selects Motorola for Telco TV

Hancock Telephone, an independent telephone company serving communities in upstate New York and Pennsylvania, has selected the Motorola Multi-Service Access Platform for the delivery of voice, video and data services to residential and business customers over twisted pair wiring. In addition, Motorola said its platform will provide Hancock Telephone, parent company to Hancock Cable TV and Pronet ISP, with the ability to execute on its long term strategy of collapsing all three network types into a single, fully-integrated solution. http://www.motorola.com

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