Juniper Reports Revenue of $430 Million, up 108%

Juniper Networks reported Q4 revenue $430.1 million, compared to $207.0 million for the same period last year, an increase of 108%.



Net income (GAAP) for Q4 was $66.0 million or $0.11 per share, compared to $14.7 million or $0.03 per share in the fourth quarter of 2003. Non-GAAP net income was $85.9 million or $0.15 per share, compared to $27.7 million or $0.06 per share in the fourth quarter of 2003.



Net revenues for the full year 2004 were $1.336 billion, compared to $701.4 million during calendar year 2003, an increase of 90%.



"The fourth quarter was strong in every dimension, which completed a year of record performance," said Scott Kriens, CEO of Juniper Networks. "We are in the sweet spot of the new networking industry, with both opportunities and capabilities to extend our growth and leadership strengths in an expanding marketplace."http://www.juniper.net

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Westell to Supply "Verizon One" Integrated Appliance

Verizon awarded a multi-year contract to Westell Technologies to manufacture its new "Verizon One" appliance for integrating voice, video and data services. The device is configured for Verizon's "iobi Home" service that brings together telephone and online communications into one user interface. The company plans to offer Verizon One to its consumer broadband customers during the first half of 2005.



Verizon One integrates a DSL modem, 802.11g wireless router, 5.8 Ghz cordless telephone and color touch screen in a desktop appliance. The feature set includes one-touch dialing, visual voice mail, on-screen memo pad, e-mail previews, scheduled call-forwarding, real-time call management, personal calendar and address book and easily accessed updates on weather, news, sports and entertainment highlights.



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

• In September 2004, Verizon announced the market launch of "iobi Home" (pronounced eye-OH'-bee), a new control panel service that lets residential customers manage their home PSTN line, call lists, directories, calendars, email, and voice mail using web tools. Iobi can be accessed in any one of three ways - by software downloaded on a personal computer; by logging on to the iobi Web site; or by telephone using a voice-recognition portal. The computer-based software provides the most robust functionality, including on-screen caller ID, online call direction and tracking of calls and voice messages. Using their mouse, consumers can answer, forward or send a call to voice mail in real time; find out where the caller is on a pop-up map; store the number in an address book; play a voice message; and forward voice messages as sound files via e-mail. Pricing is set at $7.95 per month. Verizon Home Voice Mail is recommended for full product functionality.

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BroadVoice Adds VoIP Toll Free for $1.95 per month

BroadVoice began offering its residential and small business customers the option of a toll-free number for $1.95 per month. Each Toll Free Alternate Number includes 60 minutes of free inbound calling with each additional minute billing at $ 0.02 thereafter.



The announcement follows on a distribution agreement announced last week between BroadVoice and catalog retailer Hello Direct.



BroadVoice offers service plans starting at $9.95 for unlimited in state calling. The $19.95 Unlimited World plan offers free calls to the United States and 20 other countries, including most of Western Europe and China. For $24.95 the Unlimited World Plus plan provides free calls to 35 countries, including Brazil, Japan and Israel. A small business BroadVoice plan costs $29.95 per month.
http://www.broadvoice.com

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Motorola Acquires Ucentric for Home Networking

Motorola has acquired privately-held Ucentric Systems, a provider of media networking software for the connected home. Financial terms were not disclosed. The Ucentric software solution provides access to stored digital entertainment -- such as high-definition video on a DVR, music on a computer hard drive, or pictures on a laptop -- from any connected device in the home. The software is designed to operate with electronic program guides from multiple vendors, and service providers can customize the interface with applications that personalize the subscriber experience.



Motorola said the acquisition enables it to actively market connected home software solutions to third party service providers and consumer electronics manufacturers. Additionally, Motorola will make the software available as part of its Home Media Architecture solution for the company's advanced and basic digital set-top platforms.
http://www.motorola.com/

• Earlier this month, Ucentric Systems announced a licensing agreement with DIRECTV to deploy its Home Media Center software platform.



• Ucentric Systems is headed by Michael Collette, who previously was senior vice president of marketing and business development for OpenTV. Previously he was senior vice president of marketing and business development for ICTV.



• Ucentric is based in Maynard, Massachusetts.



• In November 2004, Motorola agreed to acquire privately-held MeshNetworks, a developer of mobile mesh networking and position location technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Taiwan's Chunghwa Launches Phase 2 Multimedia On Demand (MOD)

Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), the incumbent operator in Taiwan, has gone live with phase 2 of its Multimedia On Demand (MOD) service, extending geographic availability to the northern part of the island including Tao Yuan, I Ilan and Hsinchu areas. Chunghwa Telecom currently has approximately three million DSL subscribers.



Alcatel said the installation is one of the largest production deployments using the Alcatel Open Media Suite and the biggest commercial IPTV deployment for broadcast TV and Video on Demand in the Asia Pacific region using a commercial application platform. Chunghwa is using Alcatel's IPTV Open Media Platform and Open Video Server, integrated with a leading edge MPEG-2/MPEG-4 set top box from Acer and Foxconn together with an ANT Fresco browser, as well as an integrated Widevine security solution. Acer and Alcatel are doing the end-to-end system integration. Phase 2 of the MOD service is expected to add 300,000 more subscribers in 2005.



Chunghwa plans to gradually extend the service to the central and southern part of Taiwan in the first half year.
http://www.alcatel.com

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SS8 Networks Appoints President and CEO

SS8 Networks named Dennis Haar as its president and CEO. He also will serve as a member of the SS8 Board of Directors. Most recently, Haar was president and CEO of GoDigital, a provider of broadband network access products. Before GoDigital, he was president and COO at Aspect Communications, a provider of contact center solutions.
http://www.ss8.com/

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Chelsio Raises $25 Million for its 10GbE Adapters

Chelsio Communications, a start-up offering 10-Gigabit Ethernet server adapters and protocol acceleration technology, has completed its third round of private venture funding, raising $25 million. Chelsio said it has seen a steep revenue ramp of over 300% quarter-to-quarter growth since introducing the industry's first 10Gb Ethernet adapters with protocol offload capability in early 2004.



Chelsio's third round was led by INVESCO Private Capital and includes new investor Hotung Capital Management. Existing venture partners Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Global Catalyst Partners, Pacesetter Capital Group, Horizon Ventures and Abacus Capital are all participating in the new round. The latest round of funding raises the total investment in Chelsio to $55 million.
http://www.chelsio.com

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Verizon Extends FTTP in New England

Verizon has begun deploying its FTTP network in Rhode Island and in 19 communities in Middlesex and Essex Counties of Massachusetts. Verizon began building its FTTP network last year in parts of California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. To help build the network across the country, Verizon plans to hire between 3,000 and 5,000 new employees by the end of this year, including hundreds in Massachusetts.



Verizon also said the early customer feedback to its new fiber-based Internet access service called FiOS has been "very positive," with broadband subscribers more than doubling in the company's inaugural FiOS market of Keller, Texas, just outside Dallas/Fort Worth.
http://www.verizon.comThere are three tiers of Verizon FiOS Internet Service for consumers:

• 5 Mbps (megabits per second) downstream and 2 Mbps upstream. $34.95 a month as part of a calling package, or $39.95 a month stand-alone.



• 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream. $44.95 a month as part of a calling package, or $49.95 a month stand-alone.



• 30 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream. Designed for communications-intensive power users with significant bandwidth needs such as telecommuters or work-at-home households and avid online gamers. $199.95 a month.

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Comcast to Boost Cable Modem Speed to 4 Mbps

Comcast's current 3Mbps downstream / 256kbps upstream tier will be upgraded to 4Mbps / 384kbps, and its 4Mbps downstream / 384kbps upstream tier will jump to a faster 6Mbps/768kbps.



Comcast said the bandwidth boost would help several key applications tied into its "broadband lifestyle", including Comcast Video Mail - which enables customers to create video messages up to 45 seconds in length, Comcast PhotoShow Deluxe - which allows users to create multimedia slideshows as a special way to share their digital photo, EA SPORTS Fantasy Football Internet -
which goes beyond traditional Fantasy Football by packaging the service with Comcast Video Mail and its online Sports Channel, Games on Demand - which offers gamers over 100 titles.
http://www.comcast.com

• In Q3 2004, Comcast added over 549,000 high-speed Internet customers.

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Telewest Deploys World Wide Packets for Ethernet Services

Telewest Business will use World Wide Packets equipment for its National Ethernet service across the UK. Telewest Business is already [providing advanced Ethernet services in metropolitan areas. Telewest Business' National Ethernet service will rely on dedicated VLANs for each customer. World Wide Packets' LightningEdge Network Supervisor (LE-NS) also provides end-to-end management and provisioning, while working with the existing MPLS backbone. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.worldwidepackets.com

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Charter Communications' CEO Resigns

Carl Vogel resigned as president, CEO and a director of Charter Communications. Vogel's employment contract with Charter was due to expire at the end of 2005.



Charter named Robert P. May, currently a director of Charter and Chairman of the Board of HealthSouth Corporation, as its interim president and CEO until a permanent replacement is found.



"Charter's goal is to be the premier provider of in-home entertainment and communications in every market we serve," said Paul G. Allen, Chairman of Charter's Board of Directors. "We are pleased that Bob May will share his knowledge and experience as our Interim President and CEO, and lead Charter through this period of change.:http://www.charter.com

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Enterasys Settles Shareholder Suit Against Cabletron Systems

Enterasys Networks reached an agreement in principle to settle shareholder litigation filed in 1997 against its predecessor, Cabletron Systems, and certain Cabletron directors and officers. Under the deal, Enterasys has agreed to pay $10.5 million. The company expects all but approximately $500,000 of this amount to be recovered from proceeds of certain company insurance policies.



Enterasys said the settlement, which is subject to execution of a final settlement agreement and subsequent court approval, does not reflect any admission of wrongdoing by the defendants.



"We are very pleased to be putting this matter behind the company with minimal financial impact," said William K. O'Brien, chief executive officer of Enterasys Networks. "Our current management team inherited a significant number of legacy issues that needed to be dealt with. In settling the last pending shareholder lawsuit, we are closing a difficult chapter in the company's history."http://www.enterasys.com

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Metrobility Expands E-Service Network Interface Device

Metrobility Optical Systems has expanded its E-Services Network Interface Device (NID) product line to include 10/100Mbps support as well as the ability to support rate limiting, Q-in-Q tagging and four service classes for traffic prioritization.



Metrobility's new R821 10/100 E-Services NID consists of a 10/100BASE-T user port and 100Mbps optical network port to create a secure customer premise equipment (CPE) demarcation point for point-to-point optical Ethernet services in metro area networks. The device offers an extensive set of operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) management options through a multi-level management approach for complete, end-to-end management of Ethernet services.



The management and trouble shooting capabilities include the following:

• a multiple-level management approach that enables service providers to manage the device as an independent network interface device with its own IP address using IP PING or SNMP, without an IP address using another IEEE802.3ah-compliant device, or in a back-to-back configuration without an IP address with Metrobility's NetBeacon Element Manager Software.



• as a Layer 2 device, service providers can adjust bandwidth and assign VLANS and up to four service classes on a per port basis to simplify installation and reduce start-up costs.
  
  
• intelligent management access controls make the device impervious to denial of service attacks under all traffic conditions and traffic patterns.



• a unique logical services loopback feature provides end-to-end service level verification across multiple providers to support individual service level agreements.



• troubleshooting tools include optical power monitoring, quality of equipment monitoring, and quality of line monitoring to enable fast fault identification and minimize the need for expensive truck rolls.



• the ability to test the copper line quality between the NID and the customer equipment to locate any link problems to the subscriber's network.

The E-Services NID consists of a NEBS Level 3 certified E-Services Line Card which is housed in a Metrobility chassis. Metrobility offers a choice of chassis options ranging from a 17-slot, 2-slot and 1-slot units with optional redundant AC or DC power. Fiber optic connectivity is provided with small form-factor pluggable (SFP) optics on the network port which offers flexible multimode, singlemode, single-strand and CWDM connectivity options.
http://www.metrobility.com

• Early in 2004, Metrobility Optical Systems introduced an Ethernet Network Interface Device (NID) that adheres to the IEEE 802.3ah draft standard for Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) and conforms to the Metro Ethernet Forum's Services Model for E-Line or point-to-point services. Metrobility said its new E-Services NID enables service providers to utilize existing Ethernet switches and routers at the customer site to offer Metro Ethernet services.

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Lucent to Resell BelAir Wireless Switch Routers

Lucent Technologies will resell wide-area Wi-Fi solutions from BelAir Networks, a la start-up based in Kanata, Ontario. Lucent Worldwide Services will also enhance BelAir's offer by providing a full suite of services including deployment, maintenance, professional and managed services.



The companies have already collaborated on a deployment in St. Maarten, where a Wi-Fi network built on BelAir200 units provides wireless Internet and email access to island residents and the more than 2 million tourists that visit annually. The initial phase of the network covers Frontstreet, the main street in the downtown area in Philipsburg, the Dutch capital of the Caribbean island, and the Boardwalk at the beach.



The BelAir200 is a four-radio, wireless switch router that enables wireless networks with the highest network capacity and broadest reach especially in challenging deployments such as high-density metro centers. The BelAir200 access radio modules use the 2.4 GHz band to support Wi-Fi client access. Separate 5 GHz backhaul radio modules create the point-to-point links that form the wireless backhaul mesh that interconnects all of the BelAir nodes.
http://www.belairnetworks.com

• BelAir Networks is based in Kanata, Ontario.

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Revivio Secures $25 Million for Data Protection Application

Revivio, a start-up based in Lexington, Mass., secured $25 million in its Series C funding round for its continuous data protection solution. The Revivio Continuous Protection System (CPS) uses a fully fault-tolerant appliance to allow companies to restore data instantly to any point in time and recover business applications. Revivio's technology allows access to data at infinitely variable points in time.



The new funding brings the company's total equity funding to date to $55 million. Leading the round was new investor Nomura International plc, who was joined by existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, Flagship Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, and Eastward Capital Partners, as well as an additional new investor, Lighthouse Capital Partners.
http://www.revivio.com

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Cox Expands Deployment of Juniper Gear

Cox Communications has expanded deployment of Juniper Networks' networking and security solutions. Cox previously deployed Juniper Networks M- and T-series routing platforms to support multiple applications including peering, CMTS aggregation, high-speed Internet and video in metro core networks, transparent LAN services, VoIP, video transport and internal IT transport.



Building on this base, Cox is now deploying Juniper's M320 multiservice edge routing platform in 14 regional data centers. The Cox national IP/MPLS network runs mission-critical applications, such as long distance voice traffic and signalling and provides the foundation for the company's future advanced services. Additionally, Cox is deploying the Juniper Networks NetScreen ISG-2000 system. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.juniper.net

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Telstra Launches Service Provider Solutions in the US Market

Telstra announced new wholesale service offerings for carriers, service providers (SPs), resellers and system integrators (SIs) in the U.S. market. Telstra is providing customized service level agreements (SLAs) and global technical support, 24x7, with in-country support at major destinations in the Asia Pacific region.
http://www.telstra-usa.com

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Speedera Notes Record Web Traffic Spikes

Speedera Networks, a global provider of on-demand distributed application hosting and content delivery services, delivered more than 15 billion Web requests during a 24-hour period in December 2004. For comparison, the company delivered 17 billion hits to the NASA Web portal for the entire year of 2004, at one point handling peak loads of nearly seven gigabits per second for NASA.



Speedera executives point to a confluence of events and long-term trends for the ongoing surge in Web traffic. The December spike, they pointed out, was due largely to the holiday shopping season and the use of rich media to entice visitors to stay longer at sites and make repeat visits. The recent Asia tsunami cataclysm and subsequent international relief efforts have also sharply driven Internet traffic in general and Speedera's network traffic in particular. For example, Speedera is currently working with UNICEF to deliver content and keep its Web sites running.



In addition, on January 11, one of Speedera's global customers reached 10 Gbps in content delivery traffic.
http://www.speedera.com

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CyOptics Appoints Coringrato as President & CEO

CyOptics announced the appointment of Ed Coringrato as President, CEO and board member, replacing John Pilitsis, who is retiring. Pilitsis will continue to serve on the CyOptics Board. Coringrato previously served as CyOptics' Vice President of Business Development since joining the company in February of 2003 through the acquisition of CENiX. He was a co-founder of CENiX, Inc., an optical start-up that was formed in 2000 to develop high-speed optical transponders, where he served as the company's Chief Financial Officer. His professional career also includes a diverse set of positions at AT&T/Lucent Technologies in engineering, marketing & sales, strategic planning and product management. Most recently he was Director of Strategic Planning & Business Development for Lucent's Optoelectronics Group.
http://www.cyoptics.com

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Ciena Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Nortel

Ciena filed a legal complaint in a U.S. District Court charging Nortel Networks with infringing on six patents related to Ciena's communications networking systems and technology.
http://www.ciena.com

• In January 2003, Nortel Networks and CIENA reached a settlement in the pending lawsuit originally brought by Nortel Networks in March 2000 against ONI Systems alleging patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. Ciena subsequently acquired ONI. As part of the settlement, Nortel Networks grants CIENA a license under certain patents in exchange for a $25 million one-time payment. The companies further agreed not to sue each other for patent infringement for two years, during which time they sought to negotiate a cross-license arrangement.

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