LUCENT TO SPIN-OFF ENTERPRISE NETWORKING INTO A NEW COMPANY
Lucent Technologies announced plans to spin-off its PBX, SYSTIMAX structured cabling and LAN-based data businesses into a separate company focused on the enterprise networking market.  The new company's product portfolio will include Lucent's DEFINITY IP solutions, the IP Exchange System for IP networks, call center solutions, Octel enterprise voice messaging platforms, the Cajun campus LAN switches, conferencing and collaboration systems and SYSTIMAX structured cabling systems.  These products represent annual revenues of $8 billion.  A name has not yet been chosen for the new company. Donald Peterson, currently Lucent executive vice president and chief financial officer, will become president and chief executive officer of the new company.  Lucent Technologies will focus on optical networking, Internet infrastructure, wireless, semiconductors, optoelectronics, Web-based enterprise solutions linking private to public networks, and professional design and consulting services for service providers and enterprises. The new Lucent will have approximately 116,000 employees around the world and generated approximately $30 billion.  http://www.lucent.com/press/0300/000301.coa.html
Lucent Technologies, March 1, 2000

WILLIAMS AND TELIA ANNOUNCE MAJOR FIBER SWAP OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN FACILITIES
Williams Communications will acquire dark fibers on Telia’s Europe backbone, reaching major cities in Scandinavia, Western Europe, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.  It will also acquire significant capacity on the forthcoming TAT-14 transatlantic cable system.  In return, Telia will receive 11,000 route miles of fiber on Williams Communications' US fiber network.  The carriers will also exchange co-location space and ongoing network maintenance services.  The 20-year deal represents a market value of more than $440 million.  Williams said the deal complements its recent fiber swap with Teleglobe.  http://www.williams.com/news/newsreleases/rel478.html
Williams, March 1, 2000

WILLIAMS SIGNS $270 MILLION WAVELENGTH DEAL WITH ETECH GLOBAL
Williams Communications signed a 10-year, $270 million contract with eTech Global Communications, a start-up based in New Jersey that intends to provide business-to-business gigabit class connectivity nationwide.  eTech Global said it chose Williams Optical Wave Service over dark fiber in order to be competitive immediately.  http://www.williamscommunications.com
Williams Communications, March 1, 2000

CISCO SYSTEMS TO ACQUIRE ATLANTECH TECHNOLOGIES
Cisco Systems will acquire Atlantech, a privately held developer of network element management software, for $180 million in stock.  Atlantech software framework provides a platform for service providers to develop element management applications to support heterogeneous networks. Atlantech's software is designed to interact with other existing management systems such as legacy OSS (Operation Support Systems) and billing software.  The company has 120 employees and is based in Glasgow, Scotland.  http://www.atl.co.uk/
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/feb00/corp_030100.htm
Cisco Systems, March 1, 2000

CHORUM DEBUTS ITS ALL-OPTICAL SWITCHES BASED ON LIQUID CRYSTAL TECHNOLOGY
Chorum Technologies, a start-up based in Richardson, Texas introduced three optical devices based on its liquid-crystal technologies:  a non-mechanical, all-optical, Fast Add/Drop switch; an optical switch designed for optical restoration, protection, test, and provisioning applications; and a voltage-controlled solid-state optical variable attenuator for broadband or single-channel applications.  Chorum said its all optical switches will offer millisecond switching with performance comparable to mechanical optical switching technologies, but without requiring the use of temperature control or electronics.  Product shipments will begin in Q2.  Chorum is also developing "Optical Slicers",  which are ultra dense optical interleave filters for use in either long-haul or metro networks. Chorum’s DWDM router components, which will use the Optical Slicers, are being designed for passive optical multiplexing and demultiplexing systems that support hundreds of channels at data rates of 10 Gbps and higher.  http://www.chorumtech.com/
Chorum, March 1, 2000

• In December, Chorum received $42 million in a round of venture financing led by Bowman Capital Management.  Scott Grout, Chorum's CEO, previously served as vice president of Lucent's optical networking group.  Other investors in the firm include J. & W. Seligman Co., Amerindo Investment Advisors, CenterPoint Ventures, InterWest Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Austin Ventures and Sycamore Ventures. 

CORNING INTRODUCES NEW FIBER FOR METRO NETWORKS
Corning introduced a next generation, single-mode, non-zero dispersion-shifted optical fiber designed for metropolitan area networks.  The Corning MetroCor fiber operates across the entire usable bandwidth from 1280nm to 1625nm and is compatible with existing single-mode fibers.  Corning said the new fiber carries an optical signal longer distances, using less expensive transmission lasers without the need for dispersion compensation, thereby reducing the amount of compensation and amplification equipment needed along the network path. http://www.corning.com/news/news_update1/index.html
Corning, March 1, 2000

AVANEX TO LAUNCH ADD/DROP AND DISPERSION SLOPE OPTICAL PROCESSORS
Avanex plans to launch two of its photonic processor designs at next week's Optical Fiber Communications conference:

• PowerExchanger Reconfigurable and Fixed Optical Add/Drop Multiplexing Processor, which can selectively add or drop any number of optical channels off the main trunk of a network

• SuperPowerShaper Dispersion Slope Processor, which contributes to longer optical transmission distances by combating the tendency of fiber optic signals to drift horizontally and distort as they travel over longer distances.  http://www.avanex.com/

Avanex, March 1, 2000

LIGHTWAVE MICROSYSTEMS OFFERS 40-CHANNEL 100 GHZ DWDM MUX
Lightwave Microsystems introduced a 40-Channel 100 GHz AWG DWDM Multiplexer/DeMultiplexer device based on planar silica waveguide technology.  Lightwave's 40-Channel Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWG) performs all functions in parallel in one optical integrated circuit.  The product uses patented integrated planar optical star coupler technology licensed from Polaroid Corporation.  Lightwave Microsystems is based in San Jose, California. http://www.lightwavemicro.com/
Lightwave Microsystems, March 1, 2000

PAIRGAIN TO ACQUIRE ABL CANADA'S OPTICAL FIBER PRODUCTS GROUP
PairGain Technologies announced plans to acquire the Optical Products Group from ABL Canada for US$10.4 million in cash.  ABL offers optical fiber multiplexers and inverse multiplexers that will allow PairGain's HiGain family of HDSL and HDSL2 products to directly connect to SONET networks.  ABL's Video Express and enterprise video networking products and related software are not included in the deal.  http://www.abl.ca
http://www.pairgain.com/WHATS_NEW/nw000301.html
PairGain Technologies, March 1, 2000

• Last month, ADC announced plans to acquire PairGain Technologies

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS REPORTS Q1 ADSL SHIPMENTS UP 5X OVER Q4 99
Texas Instruments said it would ship 300,000 ADSL modem ports in Q1, up 5X over Q4 1999.  The company projects one million ADSL port shipments by mid-year.  http://www.ti.com/sc/docs/news/2000/00030.htm
TI, March 1, 2000

NET2PHONE RECORDS 103 MILLION MINUTES OF VOIP TRAFFIC, UP 21% SEQUENTIALLY
During its most recently fiscal quarter, Net2Phone transported 103 million minutes of voice traffic over its IP network, up 21% over the previous quarter.  The company claims to be the industry leader for Internet telephony minutes of use, based on a Frost&Sullivan survey.  As of January 31, 2000, Net2Phone had over 575,000 active customers.  The company now offers VOIP service in the UK, Canada, France, and Germany, and intends to expand its retail offering to 20 additional countries.  http://www.net2phone.com
Net2Phone, March 1, 2000

• Net2Phone recently signed a deal with Panasonic to offer a phone with one-touch connection to Internet transport.

IBASIS TO DELIVER HOSTED UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS USING SOFTWARE.COM
iBasis, which provides Internet-based telephony to long distance carriers, will offer a unified messaging system from Software.com to service providers worldwide. Software.com has a strategic alliance with Cisco Systems.  iBasis operates the largest Internet telephony network based on Cisco equipment.   The iBasis outsourced Unified Communications service will be based on IP, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME), Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).  Introduction is expected in Q2.  http://www.software.com/
http://www.ibasis.net
Sortware.com, March 1, 2000

SONY RELEASES H.323 VIDEO CONFERENCING UNIT
Sony Electronics released a plug-and-play, H.323 Internet-capable videoconferencing system supporting speeds of up to 768 kbps over LANs or WANs.  Key features include dockable pan/tilt/zoom camera, built-in microphone, auto-tracking motion detection, wireless document stand for presentations and SNMP management.  http://www.sony.com
Sony, March 1, 2000

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