NEC Wins DSLAM Contract with SingTel

NEC Australia has won a contract to supply xDSL systems to Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) . Specifically, NEC supplied its AM31 Multi-Service Access platform to SingTel in February 2003. The order was valued at US$10 million.
http://www.nec.co.jp/press/en/0305/2201.html

• As of December 2002, SingTel was serving 129,000 DSL customers in Singapore.

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Time Warner Cable Deploys Cisco's VoIP for Triple Play

Time Warner Cable began delivering VoIP cable primary-line residential telephone service in Portland, Maine using Cisco Systems' IP voice solution. The new "Digital Phone" service is part of a "triple play" bundle of services using standards-based technologies and intelligent networking based on Cisco products, including voice, video and Internet access. The deployment uses the Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch, uBR7246VXR cable modem termination system, and MGX 8850 voice gateway products. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cisco.com

• In March 2003, Time Warner Telecom, a facilities-based carrier with operations in 44 US markets, unveiled a range of transparent LAN and metro Ethernet services. The Ethernet service is delivered using Cisco Catalyst switches at the customer site, coupled with the Cisco 7600 platform to aggregate service delivery. Time Warner Telecom is one of Cisco's largest ONS customers. The Time Warner Telecom network currently connects 3,500 commercial buildings over a national fiber footprint of 17,000 local and regional fiber miles. Its network also includes 41 Class 5 voice switches. Media gateways and softswitches have been deployed in 12 markets.

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Global Crossing Announces MPLS-based IP VPN Service

Global Crossing announced an MPLS-based IP VPN Service featuring three classes of service and multiple access options in more than 300 cities in 52 countries. Global Crossing has offered both IPSec-based and an MPLS-based IP VPN services since October 2001. The new service integrates the two in a single management platform. Three classes of service -- Basic, Enhanced or Premium -- are backed by Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that include latency, packet loss, jitter and availability. In addition, Global Crossing IP VPN Service provides users with integrated Layer-2 and Layer-3 capabilities supporting High Level Data Link Control (HDLC), Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), frame relay, ATM and Ethernet encapsulations. Global Crossing IP VPN Service can be combined with the Global Crossing Remote Access Service using the tunnel or gateway reservation model, single loop Dedicated Internet Access or Secure Internet Access. The network supports the ability to exchange routes using Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and static over connections at speeds from 64 Kbps up to OC48/STM 16.
http://www.globalcrossing.com

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CompTel: RBOCs are Making a Profit on UNE-P Lines

The Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel) published the results of a new study that finds that UNE-P leasing is actually a profitable business for the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) at current rates. CompTel claims that the four Bell companies were earning wholesale profits of at least $605 million a year on the unbundled network element platform (UNE-P) lines as of Q1 2003. According to the CompTel's study:

• SBC Communications was earning $275 million in annualized profits on some 5.78 million UNE-P lines as of 31-March-2003.
• 
  
  Verizon Communications was earning annualized UNE-P profits of $149 million on the 3.5 million UNE-P lines it had as of 31-March-2003.

While noting a wide range in profitability from RBOC to RBOC primarily because of disparities in the authorized wholesale rates from state to state, CompTel argues that UNE-P prices are not "below cost" and that margins in fact range from 16% to 33%. SBC allegedly earns nearly a 20% profit on average for each UNE-P line its provides to a competitor.
http://www.comptel.org

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Analog Devices Introduces its Seventh Generation ADSL Silicon

Analog Devices expanded its broadband access portfolio with four new products for ADSL central office (CO) and customer premises equipment (CPE) applications. The new silicon includes a highly-integrated chipset for ADSL bridges, routers and WLAN access points; a 16-point central office solution supporting the emerging high-speed ADSL2+ standard; a chipset for cost-sensitive routers; and an analog front end (AFE) component of ADI's CPE chipsets The new 16-port central office chipset represents Analog Devices seventh generation of DSL silicon. The chip is fully ADSL2+ (ITU standard G.992.5) compliant, thus supporting data rates of up to 24 Mbps. ADSL2+ is backward-compatible with existing ADSL technology.
http://www.analog.com

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Lucent and McData Team on SAN Solutions

Lucent Technologies will partner with McData Corporation to offer comprehensive solutions for storage networking both in and between data centers. The joint solutions will integrate Lucent's OptiStar EdgeSwitch 2.0 with McDATA's suite of Intrepid Directors and Sphereon Fabric Switches. Lucent's OptiStar EdgeSwitch is an optical IP and storage router that extends Fibre Channel traffic, along with Ethernet-based LAN and network-attached storage traffic, over network backbones. An upcoming update to the OptiStar EdgeSwitch will add Domain Virtualization technology to provide advanced inter-fabric routing and firewall capabilities for distributed SAN operations. McData's Sphereon 4500 is a flexible SAN fabric switch for small to medium-sized enterprises. Additional areas of focus for the partnership include storage extension over DWDM using the Metropolis Enhanced Optical Networking (EON) platform, integrated security offerings with the VPN Firewall Brick family of products and McDATA's SANtegrity security suite, and end-to-end storage network management combining products such as McDATA's SANavigator and Lucent's VitalSuite offerings.
http://www.lucent.com
http://www.mcdata.com

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Marconi to Offer Fuel Cells as Power Backup for Telecom Gear

Marconi announced a partnership with Metallic Power, a developer of zinc regenerative fuel cells, to provide backup power sources for the telecommunications industry. Marconi will also combine Metallic Power's unique regenerative fuel cells with its own equipment enclosures and DC power supplies. The turnkey power systems would provide an alternative and redundant power backup for wireless and wireline networks in North America. Metallic Power's zinc fuel cells are capable of powering loads from 1 to 5 kW for up to 24-hours, or more. When power is restored, the system will automatically regenerate without the need to refuel.
http://www.marconi.com
http://www.metallicpower.com.

• Metallic Power is based in Carlsbad, California.
  

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Alcatel Shows Optical Interconnection between 3G Base Stations

In a trial demonstration, Alcatel's data-aware SDH systems transported 3G mobile traffic between NTT DoCoMo's FOMA 3G commercial systems located in Japan and its base station modem at KPN Mobile's premises in the Netherlands. The traffic traversed the network at speeds 40 times greater than conventional GSM traffic. NTT DoCoMo's 3G wireless systems employ Alcatel's metro Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) products equipped with Integrated Service Adapter (ISA) plug-in cards to bridge ATM traffic. The integration of ISA plug-in cards transforms the OMSN products into highly efficient multi-service provisioning platforms, supporting traditional voice and leased-line traffic along with Ethernet, ATM and IP.
http://www.alcatel.com
http://www.nttdocomo.com

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BT Reports Strong Results, Profitability Rises 61%

BT posted annual revenues of £18,727 million for the fiscal year ending 31-March-2003, up by 2%. Earnings per share rose to 14.2 pence, up 61% compared to the prior year. BT said the substantial growth in earnings and cash flow reflects an improved operational efficiency of its business. Some key points:

• BT had 936,000 broadband end users as of 16-May-2003. The company is adding about 25,000 new DSL accounts per week and says that "broadband is at the heart of BT." The DSL footprint currently covers 69% of UK households.
• 
  
  orders for MPLS-based services rose 94% in the quarter ended 31-March-2003, compared to the prior period.
• 
  
  the company's net debt was reduced from £13.7 billion to £9.6 billion. Net debt is now at about one-third of its all-time peak level in 2001.
• 
  
  during the year, BT generated free cash flow of £1.7 billion. The free cash flow rate is 2 years ahead of the company's operating plan.
• 
  
  BT said strength in its "new wave businesses" and a strong defense of market share in its existing businesses was offset by price deflation.
• 
  
  CAPEX for the year was reduced by 21% to £2.45 billion. Over the next 2 years, BT is forecasting CAPEX in the range of £2.6 to £3.0 billion per annum.
  

http://www.bt.com

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Broadband Reaches 2 Million Users in the UK

There are now more than 2 million broadband subscribers in the UK, according to Oftel, the nation's official telecom regulator. New broadband sign-ups are running at about 35,000 per week.
http://www.oftel.gov.uk

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Senior Citizens Oppose Government Contracts for WorldCom

The Gray Panthers, a senior citizens pressure group, began running advertisements in The Washington Post and other national newspapers criticizing the federal government for awarding lucrative telecommunications contracts to MCI WorldCom in the wake of the $11 billion accounting fraud that has negatively impacted so many people's retirement accounts. The Gray Panthers ads claim that since the massive fraud was uncovered, MCI WorldCom has become the government's biggest telecom provider with over $750 million in federal government revenues in 2002 -- over three times as much as runner-up AT&T. The Gray Panthers argue that it is particularly outrageous for the U.S. government to award MCI WorldCom a contract to rebuild the Iraqi phone system without even taking bids from other competitors. The group also noted the irony of the Securities and Exchange Commission issuing a $500 million fine to WorldCom for its criminal activities, when on the very next day the federal government awarded a multi-million-dollar weather satellite contract to WorldCom.
http://www.graypanthers.org

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NEC Licenses DCL's Optical Control Plane Software

NEC has licensed optical control plane software from Data Connection Limited (DCL) to provide OIF-compliant network-to-network interface (NNI) functionality. Financial terms were not disclosed. DCL's integrated optical control plane includes source code components for MPLS (UNI, NNI, GMPLS and RSVP), IP Routing (OSPF-TE, IS-IS-TE and DDRP) and LMP.
http://www.dataconnection.com

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CIENA Reports Revenue of $73.5 million

CIENA reported quarterly revenues of $73.5 million, representing sequential growth of 4% from the prior fiscal quarter. On a GAAP basis, CIENA's reported net loss for the period was $75.5 million, or a net loss of $0.17 per share. Without special charges, the company's net loss in the quarter would be $0.10 per share. CIENA said that carriers continue to exercise extreme spending caution, perpetuating the challenging telecom equipment environment. Some highlights of the quarter:

• there were 65 customers in the quarter, including 7 new, unannounced customers. Three customers accounted for about 43% of total revenue in the quarter.
• 
  
  Domestic sales represented 68% of revenue
• 
  
  CIENA ended the quarter with $1.8 billion in cash, short- and long-term securities
• 
  
  Headcount at the end of the quarter was 2,005, a decrease of 56 since January
• 
  
  BT plans to deploy a full range of CIENA's LightWorks products. The contract represents a significant win for CIENA among large incumbent carriers.
• 
  
  CIENA is transforming itself from an optical equipment provider to a network solutions company. The acquisition of WaveSmith its expected to open up a $2 billion market opportunity for CIENA in ATM, Frame Relay and MPLS solutions. After the acquisition closes in mid-June, WaveSmith will be CIENA's data networking group.
• 
  
  CIENA's LightWorks Services initiative, announced last week, is the next step in CIENA's efforts to help carriers launch new services without completely rebuilding their network architectures.
• 
  
  Revenue for the current quarter is expected to be in a range of $65 to $75 million.
  

An investor webcast is available online.
http://www.ciena.com

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BT and Toshiba Launch "Hotspot in a Box"

BT and Toshiba have launched a "hotsot in a box" initiative designed to appeal to thousands of local businesses in the UK - like small hotels, bookshops and golf clubs - who want to offer Wi-Fi to their customers. Toshiba will manufacture the hotspot technology and BT will be the wireless ISP. Roaming agreements between the two companies are designed to link up BT's Openzone network with Toshiba's global hotspots. The local hotspots created using the product from BT and Toshiba will be in addition to the BT Openzone access points that will be available in 1,300 pubs and clubs by the end of the year, as a result of a deal with The Cloud. BT said it is now committed to deliver 4,000 hotspots by the summer 2004, rather than 2005.
http://www.bt.com

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Tropos Networks Unveils Cellular Wi-Fi Architecture

Tropos Networks (formerly FHP Wireless), a start-up based in San Mateo, California, unveiled a cellular Wi-Fi mesh networking system designed to provide city-sized coverage at a fraction of the cost of current hot-spot architectures. Rather than having wireline backhaul at each Wi-Fi node, Tropos creates an intelligent, switch mesh among overlapping Wi-Fi cells. Routing intelligence embedded into each node enables the Wi-Fi cells to self-organize and, using wireless backhaul, forward data to each other along the optimal path to a wired network connection. The concept has been field-proven by Coastside Net, a wireless ISP that is operating a Tropos network in Half Moon Bay, California. Tropos said its Wi-Fi cellular concept is also being adopted by several U.S. municipalities, which are building city-wide Wi-Fi to provide wireless data to police cars and for public access. Tropos' product line includes both indoor and outdoor (telephone pole or light pole mounted) access points with the embedded mesh networking software. Tropos estimates that a typical network cost will range from $20,000 to $50,000 per square mile, depending on the geography and RF environment.
http://www.troposnetworks.com

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D-Link Offers Outdoor Wireless Access Points and Bridges

D-Link introduced two Wi-Fi products designed specifically for outside use, the AirPremier Outdoor Wireless Access Point and the AirPremier Outdoor Wireless Bridge/Router. Both devices feature a die-cast watertight housing with built-in lightning protection, Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) functionality, extended range, advanced firewall features and compatibly with existing 802.11b compliant devices. The D-Link AirPremier Outdoor Wireless Access Point has a range of up to 600 meters. When paired with a D-Link High-Gain Directional Antenna, the D-Link AirPremier Outdoor Wireless Bridge/Router can connect two networks from up to 40 km (25 miles) away.
http://www.dlink.com

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CIRPACK Softswitches Deployed in Belgium

IRISnet, the Region of Brussels' high speed network jointly operated by Mobistar and Telindus on behalf of the regional government, is deploying CIRPACK's softswitches to provide packet telephony over broadband local loops. Cirpack switches are now replacing existing voice infrastructure equipment to connect users' ISDN PBXs to the IRISnet IP/ATM backbone, and later provide voice services directly over IP or ATM networks. Cirpack's equipment manages all voice services and provides the link to Mobistar's network. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.cirpack.com
http://www.irisnet.be

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U.S. Army Awards $50M Network Upgrade Contract to Lucent

The U.S. Army awarded a multi-year, $50 million contract to Lucent Technologies for a major data infrastructure upgrade at Army installations in North America and Asia. Lucent will provide a range of professional services, including planning, design, implementation and operations in support of the upgrade, as well as on-going maintenance, program management and engineering services throughout the duration of the contracts. Lucent also is working to integrate the upgraded network into the existing multi-vendor Army environment.
http://www.lucent.com

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Canada's SaskTel First to Deploy Nortel's Succession VoIP

SaskTel, the incumbent service provider in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, signed a US$5 million contract for the supply of Nortel Networks Multimedia Communications Portfolio and Succession VoIP equipment. SaskTel is expected to be the first service provider worldwide to offer new revenue-generating multimedia and packet voice services using Nortel Networks Succession equipment. SaskTel is evolving its Nortel DMS circuit switched network to the Succession Communication Server 2000 platform. In addition, SaskTel will deploy Nortel Networks Passport Packet Voice Gateways (PVGs) to expand its network reach and Nortel Networks Universal Signaling Point to interface between classic SS7 signaling and next generation IP and ATM packet networks. SaskTel will use the network for SIP-based hosted multimedia and packet voice services for both residential and business customers.
http://www.sasktel.com
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

• SaskTel serves more than 425,000 customers in over 50 communities throughout Saskatchewan.

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Sweden's Tele 2 Selects Tellabs' Next Gen SDH

Tele 2 Sverige AB, a competitive service provider, is deploying the Tellabs 6300 managed transport series to integrate Ethernet into its existing network. Specifically, Tele2 is using the new Tellabs 6350 switch node, a digital cross-connect, and the Tellabs 6310, an edge node platform for access and customer premise installations Applications supported by the Tellabs 6310 include 2 Mbps, 34/45 Mbps, Fast Ethernet and ATM services. All of the Tellabs 6300 managed transport system elements are monitored and managed end-to-end from a single network management platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.tellabs.com

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