Japan's Yahoo! BB Tops 2 Million ADSL Users, VoIP Reaches 1.8 Million

Softbank and Yahoo Japan reported continued strong growth for their jointly owned Yahoo! BB broadband service.

Yahoo! BB Subscribers (in Thousands)
	Feb-03	Jan-03	Dec-02	Nov-02	Oct-02	Sep-02
Yahoo! BB lines installed	2,181,000	1,972,000	1,691,000	1,461,000	1,208,000	1,011,000
Yahoo! BB phone users	1,806,000	1,585,000	1,294,000	1,028,000	773,000	520,000
Central offices	2,135	2,098	2,045	1,822	1,549	1,300

http://bbpromo.yahoo.co.jp

• In January, UTStarcom announced new contracts valued at more than $100 million to supply its AN-2000 IP-DSLAM in support of Yahoo! BB ADSL service. To date, Yahoo! BB has already deployed more than $130 million worth of UTStarcom IP-DSLAM equipment to support its 12 Mbps ADSL service. Yahoo! BB will launch streaming video services beginning this quarter using the UTStarcom IP-DSLAMs.
  

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Hatteras Networks Names New CEO

Hatteras Networks, a start-up developing last mile Ethernet access solutions, named Peter Savage as its new CEO, replacing Thomas McPherson, who has stepped down for personal reasons. Savage has served as the company's vice president of business development for the last two years. Previously, Savage was president and CEO of Applied Digital Access, a provider of network performance management products.
http://www.hatterasnetworks.com

• Hatteras Networks is developing a carrier-class Ethernet access platform for existing fiber and copper infrastructure. The Hatteras platform is designed to operate in central offices, controlled environmental vaults, remote terminals (RTs) and on poles. Its technical team is led by Matt Squire, who has previously worked for IBM, Bay Networks, Nortel Networks, as well as start-ups WindWire and Extreme Networks. While at IBM, Squire led the development of LAN emulation services and ATM development on IBM's ATM switch and IP router products.
• 
  In August 2002, Hatteras announced the closing of an additional $45 million in venture capital funding for its last-mile carrier access platform, bringing its total funding to $73 million.
  

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3Com Lowers Financial Guidance Citing Weak Enterprise Sales in North America

3Com lowered its financial outlook for the quarter ended 28-February-2003, saying it now anticipates revenues to be in the range of $240 million to $245 million. Enterprise Networking sales are expected to be approximately 13 to 14% below the prior quarter due largely to weakness in the North American market. Connectivity sales are anticipated to decline sequentially by slightly more than the previous guidance of 20%, after setting aside the $15 million in royalties received in the previous quarter. CommWorks sales are expected to be down approximately 7% compared to the company's guidance for roughly flat sales sequentially. Gross margins are expected to be within the 45 to 47 percent range provided in previous guidance.
http://www.3com.com

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Fifty Vendors Complete SIP Interoperability Test Round

Fifty companies participated in the 12th SIP Interoperability Test event held from 24-28 February 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden. The event was organized by the SIP Forum in co-operation with Hotsip AB, Cisco Systems, Tele2, and Intertex. The next SIPit test event will be hosted by Mitel Networks in August in Kanata, Canada.
http://www.sipforum.org

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EANTC Announces Emulation Test Solution for Voice Over DSL Gateways

The European Advanced Network Test Center (EANTC) released a Voice over Broadband (VoB) Emulator for verifying standards compliance and performance of DSL voice gateways. EANTC's software-based VoB emulator uses Broadband Loop Emulation Signalling (BLES) and V5.x voice signaling protocols. Features include the test of signaling protocol behavior and speech quality, as well as bulk call generation to verify robustness. The first release of the software provides the ability to emulate hundreds of IADs and local exchanges. EANTC will demonstrate the VoB Emulator at CeBIT.
http://www.eantc.com/research/vob

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Bookham Develops Uncooled Directly Modulated Laser

Engineers from Bookham Technology and Cambridge University are developing a directly modulated DFB laser that combines ultrawide bandwidth with very high linearity over the wide temperature range of 25°C - 85°C, but without cooling. Key advantages of uncooled directly modulated lasers are that they are cheaper, more compact and more power efficient. Potential applications include direct transport of analog microwave/RF signals over fiber for in building distributed antenna systems in cellular networks and WLANs.
http://www.bookham.com

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Lightbit to Debut Pure-Optical Processor Chip Technology

Lightbit, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, will introduce a pure-optical chip with the ability to process multiple DWDM channels simultaneously without requiring electronic conversion. The Lightbit technology harnesses the parallel processing power of light and could significantly reduce the per-channel cost of DWDM. The all-optical device is bit-rate and protocol independent. Additional characteristics include a wide operating bandwidth that can be tuned to C, L or S bands. Lightbit said a single one of its optical processors could replace multiple Optical-Electrical-Optical (OEO) transponders, typically the most expensive equipment in today's fiber-optic networks. Applications supported by Lightbit subsystems include optical regeneration and multi-channel wavelength (band) conversion. The optical device will be manufactured in a silicon fabrication process.
http://www.lightbit.com

• Lightbit is headed by Larry Marshall, who previously was VP of Iridex, where he created the product that enabled the company's IPO, and co-founded spin-offs Iriderm, and Iridex OEM Group.
  

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Swisscom Eurospot Builds Network of 400 Hotspots

Swisscom has founded a new company named Swisscom EURspot to focus on the opportunity of public wireless LAN access. The new company will build upon the early WLAN deployments of Swisscom Mobile, and has acquired Megabeam Networks Ltd (based in London) and WLAN AG (based in Munich). Through the acquisitions and organic growth, Swisscom EURspot will have more than 400 hotspots under contract. Approximately 100 are currently operational. The company will also offer service through 400 hotspots of roaming partners. Swisscom EURspot is operating in UK, Germany, Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy and four additional countries, including Switzerland, via roaming partners.
http://www.swisscom.com/eurospot/

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Researchers Set Data Transfer Speed Record Across Internet2

A team of international researchers set a new data transfer speed record by transmitting 6.7 GB of data across a distance of 10,880 km (6,800 miles) in 58 seconds. The researchers transferred un-compressed data at 923 Mbps from Sunnyvale, California to Amsterdam using the Internet2 backbone. The transmission also used the advanced networking capabilities of TeraGrid, StarLight, SURFnet, NetherLight, Cisco and Level 3 Communications. Cisco loaned $1 million of equipment for several months, and Level 3 provided the network and bandwidth supporting the research. The research team consisted of staff from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Caltech, the National Institute for Nuclear Physics and High Energy Physics (NIKHEF) in Amsterdam and the Faculty of Science of the Universiteit van Amsterdam.
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/slac/media-info/20030207/

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Global Crossing Releases 2002 Operational Data

Global Crossing reported operational, network, customer and service data for 2002, saying its financial position had improved since it launched restructuring measures in the wake of its bankruptcy filing last year. Key points include:

• Service revenue of $2,878 million in 2002, $160 million above the operating plan.
• 
  Global Crossing ended 2002 with $782 million of cash in bank accounts, well above the $611 million targeted in its operating plan.
• 
  CAPEX spending declined to $89 million in 2002, compared to $3.2 billion in 2001.
• 
  Global Crossing ended the year with approximately 4,300 employees, compared to approximately 8,000 employees in January 2002.
• 
  Global Crossing's VoIP network carried 8.2 billion minutes for the year.
• 
  The amount of traffic running over Global Crossing's IP network, excluding VoIP, grew 200% for 2002.
• 
  IP traffic volume increased from 10 Gbps to 30 Gbps
• 
  More than 2,000 new and renewal customer contracts were signed in 2002 totaling nearly $1 billion of total revenue over the lives of the contracts.
• 
  The company is planning to write-off remaining goodwill and other intangible assets totaling approximately $8 billion.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

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D-Link Ships Multimode A/B/G Wireless Router

D-Link began shipping 802.11a/b/g compliant routers, PC cards and cardbus adapters. The company will also begin shipping a multimode a/b/g access point later this month.
http://www.dlink.com

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sentitO Raises $14 Million for Local Loop, Converged Switching Platform

sentitO Networks, a start-up based in Rockville, Maryland, secured $14 million in new financing for its New End Office - a converged switching solution. sentitO offers an IP-based local loop solution to provide access, switching, and service creation to carriers in a single platform. New investors TELUS Ventures and Core Capital Partners joined the round, which also included previous investors Kodiak Venture Partners, Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds, Technology Venture Partners and Inflection Point Ventures. This new financing brings sentitO's total capital investment to $25 million.
http://www.sentito.com

• sentitO's New End Office is comprised of three elements: an environmentally hardened switch that combines line gateway, trunk gateway, SMS, VoDSL gateway, DSLAM, and broadband DLC functionality; a SIP-based proxy for next-generation signaling, including full SS7 services; and a service management system delivering full FCAPS, pre-provisioning capabilities, and integration with third party operational support systems. sentitO said its platform offers an extensive CLASS feature set, complete E911, CALEA, and Emergency Standalone (ESA) capabilities to comply with current and future regulatory requirements. In addition to its built-in CLASS 5 switching capabilities, the system will also provide interfaces to existing CLASS 5 switches.
• 
  sentitO Networks was founded in September of 2000.
• 
  sentitO Networks is headed by Terry Wolters, who previously was responsible for worldwide sales and customer support of next-generation switching products at SALIX/Tellabs. Previously, Mr. Wolters served as Vice President of Sales for ECI Telecom.

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Cedar Point Secures $25 Million for its Packet-Cable Voice

Cedar Point Communications, a start-up based in Derry, New Hampshire, secured $25 million in new funding for its PacketCable-based, SAFARI C³ Media Switching System. The Cedar Point equipment is an open, standards based, next generation voice switching system for cable system operators. The new funding was led by STAR Ventures and included the participation of first round investors Charles River Ventures, Battery Ventures, Comcast Interactive Capital and Ascent Ventures. The company has raised $44 million to date.
http://www.cedarpointcom.com

• Cedar Point's SAFARI C³ Media Switching System is a packet cable telephony system that combines attributes of Class 5 voice switches with the elements of distributed VoIP networks. The Cedar Point platform combines a Call Management Server, Media Gateway, Media Gateway Controller, Announcement Server and Signaling Gateway into a single chassis capable of serving up to 100,000 lines.
• 
  In December 2002, Cedar Point Communications introduced “reverse gateway�? functionality into its single-chassis SAFARI C³ Media Switching System. Reverse gateway functionality enables the handling of both VoIP and circuit switched calls simultaneously on the same packet switch fabric. Al calls, including circuit-to-circuit, circuit-to-packet, packet-to-circuit and packet-to-packet traffic, are handled in the same Cedar Point box. The capability provides a migration strategy for cable operators currently delivering voice services using circuit switched architectures. Cedar Point estimates that there are more than 5 million cable telephony subscribers worldwide currently served by legacy circuit switches.
• 
  Comcast Interactive Capital made an equity investment in Cedar Point Communications' first round of funding.

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Masergy Secures $31 Million for MPLS VPN Services

Masergy Communications, a provider of private network services, closed its second round of equity funding for $31 million. Masergy has deployed an MPLS network throughout the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK that enables its corporate customers to run multiple applications at different priorities. The new funding came from Meritage Private Equity Funds and Centennial Ventures. In total, Masergy has raised nearly $100 million in funding since it was founded two and a half years ago. The company said it has no debt.
http://www.masergy.com

• In August 2001, Masergy acquired the infrastructure of Zephion Networks, including IP hardware assets deployed in 29 Zephion hubs across the US.

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Swissvoice to Launch New Line of IP Phones

Swissvoice selected Texas Instruments' silicon and software for a new line of IP phones. The new Swissvoice phones will run MGCP, H.323 and SIP signaling protocols. The company is targeting IP-Centrex, hosted-PBX and LAN-PBX applications in hospitals, factories and offices. The phones will be shown at CeBIT.
http://www.swissvoice.nethttp://www.ti.com

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Axerra and Ericsson Demonstrate Circuit Emulation Service over IP

Axerra Networks completed interoperability testing between its multiservice IP concentrator and Ericsson's Multi-Service Access Device (MSED) HL950 using Circuit Emulation Service over Packet Switched Network (CESoPSN). CESoPSN, also known as CESoIP, is used to emulate the characteristics of circuit-switched connections while utilizing an IP or Ethernet-based infrastructure. CESoPSN emulates both the payload and timing characteristics of a circuit. The interoperability tests simulated an IP Metro network with multiple HL950s situated at various customer premises. Each HL950 furnished a legacy T1/E1 at the customer side and an Ethernet port on the network side. The HL950s performed service adaptation to emulate leased lines over an IP broadband access network. Axerra's IP concentrator served as the central office gateway to the PSTN.
http://www.axerra.com

• In March 2002, Ericsson agreed to distribute, integrate and support Axerra Networks' Multiservice IP Concentrators as part of the Ericsson Packet Backbone Network (PBN) solutions portfolio. As part of the OEM agreement, the two companies said that they would also explore cooperative technology opportunities to develop integrated MSoIP solutions. One of the services supported by Axerra's MSoIP technology is Circuit Emulation Service over IP, which has been submitted as an Internet Draft to the Pseudo-Wire Emulation Edge-to-Edge (PWE3) working group in the IETF.

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Ample Communications Samples 40 Gbps Frame Processor

Ample Communications, a start-up based in Fremont, California, is now sampling single chip 40 Gbps packet over SONET framer targeted for single port STS-768/STM-256 and four port STS-192/STM-64 SONET/SDH applications. The device combines multiple functional blocks including framer, overhead processor, pointer processor and data link logic. The company said the new "Blackbird Frame Processor" could be used for multi-port 10 Gbps and single 40 Gbps interfaces on gigabit and terabit routers, multi-service switches, aggregation routers and test equipment.
http://www.amplecomm.com

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Wind Selects Marconi's Access Hub for UMTS Trial

Wind, the Italian telecommunications operator, selected Marconi's Access Hub platform for UMTS pilot networks in Rome and Milan. The AXH2500 equipment will aggregate UMTS traffic from Wind's metropolitan network to its SDH national network. Wind is also using Marconi's Access Hub equipment for its ADSL network. The platform combines the functionality of DSLAMs with the ability to aggregate all traffic types.
http://www.marconi.com

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iDial Launches Broadband Telephony Service over SIP Network

iDial Networks introduced a Broadband Telephony service that runs over its newly upgraded SIP VoIP network. iDial will allow clients to have a traditional US based phone number that will ring directly at a customer's Internet connection anywhere in the world, bypassing international PSTN tariffs. The service also includes voicemail, online phone book, caller identification, and a stand-alone conference calling system. iDial will offer broadband telephony as both a retail service and as a wholesale service to other carriers and ISPs.
http://www.idialnetworks.com

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Infineon Acquires MorphICs for its 3G Programmable Signal Chips

Infineon Technologies has acquired MorphICs Technology Inc., a start-up based in Campbell, California developing programmable signal processor semiconductors and software solutions for use in 3G infrastructure and terminals. Financial terms were not disclosed. Infineon said the acquisition would broaden its product range for digital baseband signal processing. MorphICs was founded in 1998 and has 30 employees. The company is currently sampling its basestation signal processor product, which is entering trials in commercial networks, and is developing technology that enables efficient multi-network operation of terminals.
http://www.infineon.com

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