v7n036, 22-Feb-00

GENERAL BANDWIDTH RAISES $24 MILLION FOR PACKET VOICE GATEWAY
General Bandwidth, a start-up developing a packetized-voice gateway, received $24 million in second-round venture funding from Oak Investment Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Venrock Associates, Sequoia Capital and Trellis Partners. The company's gateway will support Voice over ATM (VoATM), Voice over IP, Voice over Frame Relay (VoFR), and standard time division multiplexing (TDM). The gateway packetizes and compresses circuit-switched voice from the PSTN and delivers it over broadband data networks. The platform will scale 96,192 simultaneous calls in a single system. General Bandwidth will offer a patent-pending Packetized Residential Lifeline (PRL) technology to offer emergency voice lifeline service in VoDSL deployments: the system utilizes an analog POTS module to switch the customer�s phones to a backup, line-powered POTS circuit. The company was founded by Brendon Mills, who most recently served as a National DSL Sales Manager for Cisco Systems/NetSpeed; Paul Carew, formerly Manager of Embedded Software for Cisco Systems/NetSpeed; and Steve Raich, formerly Sales Controller for the Carrier operation at Cisco Systems/NetSpeed. The company is based in Austin, Texas.
http://www.genband.com/
General Bandwidth, February 21, 2000

Cisco acquired NetSpeed in March 1998 for its DSLAMs and DSL modems.

MAINSAIL UNVEILS ITS INTEGRATED MULTISERVICE ACCESS PLATFORM FOR ATM/SONET
Mainsail Networks, a start-up based in Fremont, California unveiled a multiservice platform combining the functions of a TDM multiplexer, DSL access multiplexer, ATM switch and SONET add/drop multiplexer with an integrated TDM/ATM voice gateway. MainSail's ATM-over-SONET architecture is designed to support rates from 64 Kbps and up. The 18-slot chassis platform uses a non-blocking, 2.4 Gbps ATM switching fabric to provide multiple classes of service, connection admission control, traffic policing and shaping. MainSail investors include Crosspoint Venture Partners, Newbury Ventures, Worldview Technology Partners, Lucent Venture Partners and Nokia Ventures. http://www.mainsailnet.com/
MainSail Networks, February 18, 2000

HELIOSS SIGNS CALIFORNIA ISP FOR ITS OC-3 SONET WIRELESS
Worldwide Wireless Networks will deploy a point-to-point, 155Mbps wireless SDH/SONET system from HeliOss Communications in its Los Angeles network rollout. The equipment operates at 23GHz. HeliOss is a venture backed start-up with offices in Waltham, MA. and Israel. http://www.helioss.com
HeliOss Communications, February 18, 2000

HeliOss has previously disclosed a contract with Global Crossing in which its radios will be used to provide emergency OC-3 microwave links between a fiber point of presence in central Phoenix and Global Crossing's new switching office near Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. The company has a strategic alliance with P-Com covering SONET/SDH radio equipment with Capacities to 622 Mbps and frequency bands to 38 GHz.

AGILITI SECURES FUNDING FOR INTERNET-DELIVERED APPLICATIONS
Agiliti, a start-up targeting Internet-delivered applications, business tools and services, received $16 million in a second round of equity financing led by Norwest Equity Partners, Delphi Ventures, Affinity Capital Management, The Rahn Group, and individual investor Bill Cadogan, chairman and CEO of ADC Telecommunications. Agiliti's suite of web-based applications currently includes a rentable email, messaging and groupware calendar. The new funds will be used to expand the portfolio. Agiliti is based in Minneapolis, Minn. http://www.agiliti.com/
Agiliti, February 18, 2000

WILLIAMS INTRODUCES INTERNATIONAL PRIVATE LINE SERVICE TO OC-3
Williams Communications will begin offering private line services to more than 100 countries at rates from T1 to OC-3/STM-1 (155Mbps) and above. The International Private Line is the first of several international services to be launched by Williams. http://www.williamscommunications.com/newsroom/index.html
Williams, February 21, 2000

ETSI APPROVES HIPERLAN/2 AT 54 MBPS
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) approved the core technical specifications for High Performance Radio Local Area Networks type 2 (HIPERLAN/2) networks. HIPERLAN/2 provides wireless LAN connections at up to 54 Mbps using 5 GHz spectrum. HiperLAN2 wireless connections are time-division multiplexed and can be assigned specific QoS. The technology was developed as part of ETSI's Broadband Radio Access Networks (BRAN) project. ETSI is developing specifications for an access interface between HIPERLAN/2 and UMTS. It is also developing conformance test specifications for the core HIPERLAN/2 standards to assure the interoperability of devices and products produced by different vendors. The test specifications will include both radio and protocol testing. The technology will be promoted by the HiperLAN2 Global Forum, whose founding members included Bosch, Dell, Ericsson, Nokia, Telia, and Texas Instruments. Allocated 5 GHz spectrum in Europe, the US and Japan is overlapping, which means the same HIPERLAN/2 equipment can be used in different parts of the world. http://www.hiperlan2.com http://www.etsi.org/
ETSI, February 11, 2000

GLOBAL CROSSING SELECTS ALCATEL FROM OPERATION OF SUBSEA CABLES
Global Crossing awarded a five-year contract to Alcatel for operation and maintenance of cable stations for the MAC (Mid-Atlantic Crossing), PC-1 (Pacific Crossing), PAC (Pan-American Crossing) and PEC (Pan-European Crossing) sea link cable stations. http://www.alcatel.com
Alcatel, February 21, 2000