U.S. Bancorp First to Deploy Lucent RPR Metro Optical Card

U.S. Bancorp will deploy Lucent Technologies' Metropolis DMX portfolio of metro optical networking products and VitalSuite Integrated Network Controller software, to create a high-capacity, fully redundant carrier grade backbone network in five cities. The project market the first deployment of Lucent's standards-based Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) card, which enables service providers to double the amount of bandwidth on their network by using both sides of rings for transporting traffic. The RPR card also supports fast restoration of packet traffic in the event of a network failure, offering exceptional reliability.



Lucent Worldwide Services will provide professional services, including engineering, network integration, testing, and program management for the project. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.lucent.com

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Tokyo Electron to Launch Silicon Valley Venture Program

Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL), a supplier of semiconductor and FPD production equipment, had formed a new subsidiary to make strategic seed and early stage investments focusing on promising technological innovations. TEL Venture Capital plans to invest up to $10 million annually and will tap into Silicon Valley venture resources.

http://www.tel.com

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NETGEAR Launches SSL VPN Concentrator

NETGEAR introduced an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) VPN solution for small- and mid-sized businesses under 100 users. The ProSafe SSL312 provides remote access to mobile users, enabling them to connect securely to the corporate network using any computer, from locations such as an authorized partner location, a home, or even a kiosk, using a standard Web browser. The SSL312, which ensures data privacy with SSLv3 and TLSv1.0 with AES-256, supports 25 concurrent SSL VPN sessions, enabling remote users to securely access resources using standard web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari. In addition to integrating with a broad range of user repositories, such as Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP, and RADIUS, for user authentication, the SSL312 interoperates with third party firewalls and works seamlessly with NETGEAR's ProSafe line of VPN Firewall Routers. The unit has a list price of $545. http://www.netgear.com

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Telstra's "BigPond" ADSL Breaks Million Subscriber Milestone

Telstra's "BigPond" ADSL service activated its 1,000,000th customers -- roughly doubling its subscriber base in the past year. The first 500,000 ADSL services took almost six years to achieve.

http://www.telstra.com

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Airport Authority Hong Kong Builds Huge WLAN with Cisco

The Airport Authority Hong Kong has deployed Cisco Systems' Unified Wireless Network equipment to create one of the world's largest airport WLANs in terms of coverage and number of access points.



Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), the world's busiest international cargo and fifth busiest international passenger airport, now provides WLAN coverage in all indoor areas including the passenger terminal and the baggage sortation hall, as well as all aircraft parking bays on the apron. The infrastructure now comprises over 200 Cisco 1000 Series Lightweight Access Points and eight Cisco 4100 Series Wireless LAN Controllers. By the end of this year, there will be 300 Cisco Access Points and 12 Cisco Controllers in operation.

http://www.cisco.com

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Tekelec Sells its IEX Group to NICE Systems for $200 Million

Tekelec agreed to sell its wholly owned subsidiary, IEX Corporation, a global provider of workforce management and optimization technology for contact centers, to NICE Systems for $200 million in cash.



Commenting on the sale, Frank Plastina, President and CEO of Tekelec said, "We are very pleased with this transaction because it converts a non-telecom business unit into cash at an attractive valuation and under favorable terms. IEX has been an important contributor to our financial performance for the last several years, but it was not a component of our long-term telecom systems growth strategy. This deal will significantly strengthen our balance sheet and enhance our ability to consider complementary strategic opportunities in our core business. The price and terms of this transaction confirm IEX's position as a leading solution provider in a rapidly consolidating industry. We believe that NICE Systems is best suited for the IEX acquisition, due to the clear synergies in market leadership, technology innovation, engineering expertise, and management experience."



Tekelec also noted that it has no immediate plans for the proceeds.



Separately, NICE Systems also signed a definitive agreement to acquire Performix, a pioneer of contact center performance management, for $13.2 million in cash.

http://www.tekelec.comhttp://www.nice.com

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Quake Surpasses 300,000th 10 Gigabit PHY Shipment

Quake Technologies has shipped more than 300,000 10 Gigabit Ethernet Physical Layer ICs (PHYs) to date. The company first entered the 10GE PHY market in 2001 with a serial-to-XAUI device. Quake supports all PMDs covered by the IEEE 802.3ae and IEEE 802.3ak standards. Its products are used both within pluggable modules as well as directly on system cards. http://www.quaketech.com

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Deutsche Telekom Selects Cisco IP NGN for IPTV Service

Deutsche Telekom's T-Com and T-Online divisions selected Cisco Systems' IP NGN architecture and its IP set-top boxes for the "T-Home" broadband service. Specifically, T-Com's video delivery network is based on the Cisco IP NGN architecture and incorporates Cisco 12000 Series routers at the provider edge, Cisco 10008 Series routers as Broadband Remote Access Server (BRAS) platforms and Cisco Catalyst 6509 Series switches.



"T-Home" is delivered through a Cisco STB from the KiSS series called the T-Home X 300T Media Receiver which supports Microsoft IPTV Edition. The T-Home X 300T Media Receiver enables high-definition (HD) IPTV and features personal video recorder (PVR) functionality. Its 80-gigabyte hard disk stores up to 70 hours of programming with "time shifting" capabilities that enable users to record preset programs, and even interrupt running programs and continue them later. The T-Home X 300T supports the Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T) standard and features a dual DVB-T tuner as well as and can be controlled remotely over the Internet. It is HD-capable via an HDMI interface and offers Ethernet and SCART ports for additional connectivity and functionality.

http://www.cisco.com

• Cisco acquired KiSS Technology in September 2005.



• In April, Juniper Networks announced that T-Com, the fixed network division of Deutsche Telekom AG, is deploying Juniper Networks' E-series Broadband Services Routers and T-series core routing platforms to expand and scale its IP network to support its advanced service offerings over VDSL. The Juniper Networks routing platforms will be added to T-Com's existing installed base of Juniper Networks E-, M- and T-series routing platforms, and will provide the scalability and advanced service management capabilities necessary to deliver IP-based video services to a large number of subscribers. Financial terms were not disclosed.



• T-Com is upgrading its network to VDSL2 (Very Fast Digital Subscriber Line), with the first stage of deployment covering 10 cities throughout Germany.



• In March, Alcatel announced that Deutsche Telekom's T-Com division is deploying its IP/MPLS-based portfolio to support its launch of IPTV and interactive consumer services in 10 major German cities including Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, and Stuttgart. Specifically, Deutsche Telekom will deploy the Alcatel 7750 Service Router to provide DSL/IP aggregation network for the 10 cities.

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Ikanos Makes Management Appointments

Ikanos Communications named Dean Westman as General Manager and Rakinder Grover as Vice President of Business Development. Prior to joining Ikanos, Mr. Westman served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Mathstar, where he was responsible for creating and executing a global product strategy. Previously, Mr. Westman served as Vice President of Marketing at C-Cube Microsystems, where he managed the product roadmap of the Broadband Networks Division.



Prior to joining Ikanos as Vice President of Business Development, Mr. Grover had been a business development consultant at the company and was instrumental in Ikanos' acquisition of the broadband product lines from Analog Devices. Previously Mr. Grover was a General Partner at the venture capital firm of Walden International, where he invested in telecom, semiconductor and IT infrastructure startups. http://www.ikanos.com

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U.S. General Services Administration Buys VoIP

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Technology Service has made VoIP available to federal agencies under the MCI Contract. Federal customers subscribing to the MCI's VoIP service can now place voice calls over their data network using a new or existing MCI provided data circuit.



GSA is the centralized, federal procurement, property management, policy development and information provision agency.

http://www.gsa.gov

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Nortel Files 2005 Financial Statements

Nortel Networks reported Q4 2005 revenues of US$3.0 billion and a net loss of US$2.3 billion, including a US$2.5 billion expense to settle shareholder class action litigation.



2005 revenues were US$10.5 billion and there was a net loss for the year of US$2.6 billion.



The company's financial restatements have also been completed. Revisions to the Company's previously reported 2003 and 2004 financial results reflect negative impacts on revenue of US$261 million and US$312 million and on net earnings/loss of US$141 million and US$156 million, respectively, as well as revisions to the Company's previously reported 2005 nine month results reflecting negative impacts on revenue of US$520 million and on net earnings/loss of US$164 million in the aggregate. With respect to financial results prior to 2003, the revisions reflect negative impacts on revenue of US$384 million and on net earnings/loss of US$70 million in the aggregate. These revenue adjustments resulted in the deferral to later periods of revenue that was previously recognized in prior periods.

http://www.nortel.com

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France Telecom Reaches 8.1 million ADSL customers in Europe

As of 31-March-2006, France Telecom was serving 8.1 million ADSL customers in Europe, representing an increase of 10% since 31-Dec-2005. This includes 4.9 million ADSL customers in France, representing a consumer ADSL market share of 49.8% in France.



The number of ADSL TV subscribers reached 229,000 at quarter's end, up from 102,000 a year earlier.



France Telecom also reached 1.2 million VoIP customers in France, up by 377,000 for the quarter.



The number of LiveBox gateways marketed in Europe surged to 2.4 million (2.1 million in France), up from 489,000 a year earlier.



Revenues for consumer services in France were down 1.0% due to a decline in the price of phone calls primarily to mobile phones.



The total number of France Telecom Group customers reached 147 million, up 16.8% year over year (+8.5% on a comparable basis).



CAPEX in Q1 was EUR 1.390 billion, up 12% from the previous year on a comparable basis.

http://www.francetelecom.com

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