Ciena Reports 16% Sequential Revenue Growth

Ciena reported first quarter revenue of $94.7 million, representing a 16% sequential increase, and an increase of 43% over the same period a year ago. On a GAAP basis, Ciena's reported net loss for the fiscal first quarter was $57.0 million, or a net loss of $0.10 per share. This loss compares to a GAAP net loss of $76.7 million, or a net loss of $0.16 per share, in the same period a year ago. Ciena recognized revenue from two customers that each contributed more than 10% of the fiscal first quarter's total revenue. Combined, the two ten percent...

Read More

Rogers Cable Selects Nortel Cable Telephony Solution

Rogers Cable, Canada's largest cable television company, has selected Nortel as its primary softswitch vendor to support digital phone service, which it plans to begin launching Digital Phone service in mid-2005. Rogers passes 3.3 million homes in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and has 69% basic cable penetration of its homes passed. Financial terms were not disclosed. Rogers Digital Phone service will leverage the company's DOCSIS broadband cable network combined with Nortel's Communication Server (CS) 2000 - Compact -- a softswitch that...

Read More

Telecom Italia Integrates Avici into Testbed

Telecom Italia Lab has integrated Avici Systems' SSR carrier class routing platform in its hybrid IP/optical network test bed that leverages open standards signaling across the optical and IP domains. Telecom Italia Lab is building an advanced multi-layer network based on IP/MPLS and optical technologies to evaluate the advantages of an intelligent architecture utilizing standards-based interworking between the optical transport network and client devices (IP routers). Leveraging the unified IP/Optical control plane, this IP/optical test bed will...

Read More

FCC Rules Against AT&T on Prepaid Calling Card USF Fees

The FCC ruled that AT&T unlawfully avoided paying millions of dollars of universal service contributions and other fees related to pre-paid long-distance calling card services. The FCC ordered AT&T to file revised universal service contributions forms for the entire period that AT&T has provided its calling card service. In its November 2004 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, AT&T reported that it had avoided $160 million in universal service contributions on the card since 1999.The Commission rejected an assertion...

Read More

Iridium Cites Favorable Trends for Mobile Satellite Service

Iridium Satellite announced that it had more than 114,000 subscribers as of December 31, 2004, a 22.5% increase over its total number of subscribers at the end of 2003. The company's revenue for the full-year 2004 increased by 23.2% over total revenue for the prior year. In the general aviation market, the company surpassed a milestone in October of 2,500 aircraft using Iridium-based equipment -- roughly double the number equipped in 2003. In the maritime industry, Iridium announced four significant agreements in 2004 resulting in more than 300...

Read More

Time Warner Telecom Launches VoIP Over Metro Ethernet

Time Warner Telecom is launching its business-class VoIP solution suite in 21 initial markets across the U.S.. The first phase of VoIP-based products offered under TW Telecom ONE SOLUTION, provides solutions for PBX customers. These products include: TW Telecom ONE CONNECT, a VoIP trunking solution; TW Telecom ONE REACH, an IP FX virtual numbering service; and TW Telecom ONE FORUM, a conferencing solution. In concert with this VoIP-based business strategy launch, Time Warner Telecom is offering free VoIP VPN service to all its site-to-site customers...

Read More

Space Systems/Loral Completes DIRECTV 8 Satellite

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) completed all assembly, integration and tests of the DIRECTV 8 satellite, more than two months ahead of the contracted schedule.The DIRECTV 8 satellite will provide selectable medium and high power Ku- band broadcast services to the U.S. on up to 32 transponders. The service is optimized to support the current and next generation higher coding rate services that DIRECTV provides. The Ka-band payload will use the full 1,000 MHz of Ka-band communications bandwidth available to link DIRECTV facilities as part of DIRECTV's...

Read More

Peleton Offers Multi-wavelength Laser Source

Peleton, a start-up based in Ottawa, Canada, unveiled its flagship multi-wavelength laser source. Peleton also announced an optical channel controller, a companion module to the multi-wavelength laser source. The products are designed for use in the test and measurement of advanced optical networking equipment. The laser source generates 40 wavelengths simultaneously on a single output fiber. All of the wavelengths produced by the device are internally locked to the IUT-T grid at a variety of channel spacings. The Peleton multi-wavelength technology...

Read More

DIRECTV Expands Networking Contract with AT&T

DIRECTV awarded a new three-year networking contract valued at more than $69 million to AT&T. The deal will provide DIRECTV with the ability to roll out new IP-based technologies, like VoIP, in its call center support networks and enterprise networks. DIRECTV provides digital multichannel television service to more than 13.9 million customers nationwide.http://www.att....

Read More

Brooktrout and BayPackets Announce Prepaid Offering

Brooktrout Technology and BayPackets have jointly developed an IP-based network prepaid calling card solution for service providers with circuit-switched, hybrid or packet-based networks. The IP-based prepaid application runs on BayPackets' Agility Network Services Platform (NSP), which has been designed to scale to support millions of subscribers. Brooktrout's SnowShore Media Server, an open carrier- class IP media server, provides media processing for the BayPackets platform. The Agility Prepaid application includes real-time call rating, support...

Read More

China Netcom Builds GPON with Flexlight

China Netcom (CNC), China's second largest service provider, completed the first stage of its GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network: ITU-T G.984.x) deployment linking 15 cities in the north of the country. The deployment uses FlexLight Networks' modular Optimate suite of products. CNC's GPON will be expanded to a further six cities in the coming months.Michael Camp, President and CEO of FlexLight Networks, Inc., explains, "The successful completion of the first stage of CNC's deployment is a huge endorsement of the technology as a reliable and...

Read More

Marconi and Operax Team on QoS Systems

Marconi signed an agreement with Operax, an independent Swedish software vendor, to jointly develop a carrier-class bandwidth management solution. This bandwidth management solution will guarantee QoS across the core and access network. The new solution, which has open interfaces, brings together Marconi's network and service provider expertise and Operax's bandwidth management knowledge and skills. It is based on Operax's established Bandwidth Manager, a network resource control system for IP networks that enables guaranteed end-to-end QoS and...

Read More

Cisco Delivers 1 Gbps over HFC with Wideband DOCSIS

Cisco Systems announced "Wideband Protocol for DOCSIS", a new technology able to deliver up to 1 Gbps broadband speeds over existing hybrid fiber coax (HFC) networks. The protocol augments HFC network bandwidth by adding one of more additional downstream to the standard broadband DOCSIS system. This new set of downstream channels is grouped into one larger channel, and is known as a Wideband channel. Cisco said its Wideband Protocol for DOCSIS is compatible with existing DOCSIS 1.x and 2.0 specifications.Himawari Network, a Japanese cable operator...

Read More