EXTANT GOES LIVE WITH TELLIUM'S OPTICAL CROSSCONNECT
Extant, a national network operator providing carrier transport services, placed in service the first three of approximately fifty Tellium Aurora series optical switches.  Extant said the deployment allows it to transmit optical signals (up to OC-192) while bypassing the SONET/DCS layer.  Extant hopes to have the Tellium switches in 50 US cities by mid-2001.  The company already has 27 Lucent ATM switches in service throughout major cities in the US and will continue to deploy ATM switches as edge devices in these fifty POPs.   http://www.extant.net  http://www.tellium.com/
Tellium, April 11, 2000

• Tellium’s Aurora optical switch provides wavelength grooming and wavelength interchange, as well as optical restoration in the event of a fiber cut.  The Tellium platform allows service providers to cross-connect optical signals up to OC-48 while bypassing the SONET/DCS layer.  Tellium recently disclosed plans for larger optical cross connect with the capacity of 512 OC-48s -- a total switching capacity of 1.28 Tbps.   The platform features a fully redundant switch architecture with I/O port protection (1:N user programmable), dynamic wavelength management, optical line protection switching of less than 50 msec, SONET performance monitoring, optical ring restoration and optical mesh restoration software.  Tellium has also disclosed plans to couple of its open StarNet optical signaling protocol to Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) based routing and Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) based signaling.
• In December, Lucent agreed to resell Tellium's optical switching products StarNet Restoration Software, and other software modules under a two-year OEM agreement.  In January, Tellium named Harry J. Carr as its new Chairman and CEO.  Carr most recently served as President of Lucent's Broadband Carrier Networks unit and was previously President and COO of Yurie Systems. 
• Telstra holds a 20% equity stake in Extant, which was founded by former LCI executives.

TELEFONICA'S EMERGIA 1.92 TBPS FIBER NETWORK TO LINK THE AMERICAS
Telefonica announced plans for a new 23,000 km, undersea cable system linking South America, Central America and the United States. The high-capacity network would be operated by Emergia, a new company within the Telefonica group which will seek an IPO by mid-year.  The network will use eight fibers.  It is expected to have an initial capacity of 40 Gbps when it enters service next year and then scale to 1.92 Tbps.  Landing points include major cities on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.  http://www.e-mergia.com/
Telefonica, April 11, 2000

BOOKHAM TECHNOLOGY SOARS IN IPO – SILICON OPTICAL CHIPS
Shares of Bookham Technology (NasdaqNM:BKHMV), a developer of Active Silicon integrated Optical Circuit (ASOC) technology, soared 219% in an initial public offering (IPO).  The company offered 19,360,000 ordinary shares at a price of £10.00 per ordinary shares (or $15.83 per American Depositary Share).  Trading on Tuesday closed at 47.875.  The company is based in Oxford, UK.  http://www.bookham.com
Bookham, April 11, 2000

• Bookham's ASOC technology is a combination of passive component alignment techniques and standard silicon fabrication technology that enables complex optical circuits to be put onto a silicon chip. The company's product line includes a range of single- and dual-wavelength transceivers with electronic amplifier circuitry, a family of electronic transceiver modules, and 2.5 Gbps receivers. Bookham is also developing capabilities aimed at DWDM applications, including Variable Optical Attenuators (VOA) and Demultiplexers and Multiplexers.

CISCO SYSTEMS TO ACQUIRE PENTACOM FOR METRO IP/OPTICAL TECHNOLOGIES
Cisco Systems will acquire Pentacom, a developer of IP/optical networking technology, for approximately $118 million in stock.  Cisco already held an 11% state in the Pentacom, which is based in Herzliya, Israel.  Pentacom is developing products based on Spatial Reuse Protocol (SRP), which is a media-independent (supporting SONET, SDH, PoS - Packet over SONET/SDH, dark fiber, etc.) MAC layer protocol that operates over a dual, counter-rotating ring network topology.  Pentacom has 48 employees and was founded in late 1998.  http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/apr00/corp_041100.htm
Cisco Systems, April 11, 2000

• Pentacom's RingStar8000 is a layer one intelligent concentrator that integrates WDM with POS and SRP to support up to 8 metro optical rings simultaneously.  The platform enables the definition of logical rings over physical star topologies in SRP environments at speeds ranging from OC-12c/STM-4 to OC-192/STM-64.  Pentacom says the system complements Cisco's Dynamic Packet Transport (DPT) family of products.  http://www.penta-com.com/
  
• Cisco Systems announced its Dynamic Packet Transport (DPT) architecture for packet optimized metropolitan area optical networks in February 1999.  Instead of the timeslots and provisioned connections used in TDM structures, DPT employs statistical multiplexing to maximize the ring's carrying capacity.  DPT creates a dual, bidirectional ring topology with both fibers concurrently transporting working traffic (unlike SONET rings, which provision dedicated protection bandwidth). 

MRV SUPPLIES EIGHT-CHANNEL, COARSE WDM TO EXTREME NETWORKS
MRV Communications will supply its eight-channel, Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing (CWDM) technology to Extreme Networks for use in its multilayer Ethernet switches.  MRV said its Coarse WDM supports transmission distances in excess of 40 km.  Extreme Networks could use the technology to deliver eight channels of Gigabit Ethernet data streams over one fiber.  http://www.mrv.com/press_releases/press_frame_041100.html
MRV Communications, April 11, 2000

CABLETRON'S RIVERSTONE NETWORKS TARGETS 10 GBPS ETHERNET
Riverstone Networks, one of the four companies emerging from the break-up of Cabletron Systems, announced plans to provide standards-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet products.  The company has joined the new 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance.  http://www.riverstonenet.com
Riverstone, April 11,2000

EQUINIX OPENS FIRST SILICON VALLEY INTERNET BUSINESS EXCHANGE
Equinix opened its Silicon Valley Internet Business Exchange (IBX), a neutral facility hosting Internet content providers, eCommerce companies and application service providers.  Security features include 24x7 guards, biometric hand-geometry scanners on all doors and cages, disaster protection and tightly controlled and monitored customer access.  Cable & Wireless will provide Internet service to Equinix IBX participants; Enron will provide its broadband services for the delivery of rich media content; and Excite@Home will use the facility to interconnect with content providing partners for its @Work service.  StorageNetworks will provide real-time, managed data storage at Equinix facilities nationwide. http://www.equinix.com/press/2000/04-11-00_5.htm
Equinix, April 11, 2000

LUCENT TO RESELL ARTEL'S VIDEO OPTICAL TRANSPORT EQUIPMENT
Lucent Technologies signed an OEM agreement covering the resale of Artel's line of video optical transport equipment under the name LAMBDARunner.  The products transmit and receive non-compressed HD, serial digital (SDI) and analog composite (TV1) video across optical networks.  http://www.artel.com
Artel, April 11, 2000

EIRCOM SELECTS ERICSSON'S CONVERGENCE ENGINE
eircom selected Ericsson's ENGINE voice/data convergence solution, including is latest AXE switches and ENGINE media gateways, which are based on Ericsson's AXD 301 ATM switch.  Ericsson said its ENGINE customer list now includes BT, Telefonica, Diginet Americas, KPN International and Telia Denmark.  http://www.ericsson.se/pressroom
Ericsson, April 11, 2000

BBCOM PRICES ATM-BASED VIDEO CALLS OVER US NETWORK
Backbone Communications (BBCOM), an integrated communications provider targeting corporate accounts, announced full-motion on-net video calls over its nationwide ATM network for 25 cents a minute.  The video calls are delivered at 768 kbps over T1 lines. All calls require a call set-up fee of $1 per call and monthly service fee of $100/month per account.  Off-net calls are $0.50 per minute.  BBCOM operates a network of Lucent CBX 500/550 series ATM switches, Cisco GSR 12000 IP routers as well as Class 4/5 telephony switches in 26 US cities.  http://www.bbcominc.com
BBCOM, April 11, 2000

SS8 NETWORKS TARGETS NEXT-GENERATION IP AIN SERVICES
SS8 Networks, a start-up based in San Jose, California announced plans for an IP signaling and service solution for delivering IP telephony, video and integrated data and voice services.  The company will develop scalable signaling and service infrastructure based on a Universal Signaling Model for next-generation IP Advanced Intelligent Network (IP AIN) Services.  Investors include Woodside Fund, ONSET Ventures, CIT Financial Group and Sofinov.  http://www.ss8networks.com
SS8 Networks, April 11, 2000

• SS8 Networks is led by Henry H. Wong, who previously was co-founder and CEO of XaQti Corp. (a network processor designer acquired by Vitesse in May 99), and as co-founder of Cnet Technology Inc. and founder of Combinet (ISDN access routers, acquired by Cisco Systems in Aug 95).

CHROMATIS NETWORKS APPOINTS ROBERT BARRON AS CEO
Chromatis Networks, a start-up developing metro optical solutions, named Robert Barron as its new CEO.  Barron previously served as the company's chief operating officer and president since last year.  Chromatis co-founders Rafi Gidron and Orni Petruschka will share the roles of chairman and president.  The company is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, and maintains a research and development facility in Tel Aviv, Israel.  http://www.chromatis.com/
Chromatis Networks, April 11, 2000

• Last month, Chromatis Networks introduced its Metropolis platform, which multiplexes TDM, ATM, and IP services over a single wavelength, while offering unified operations and management control.  The Metropolis system incorporates Chromatis' Selective Wave Division Multiplexing (SWDM) architecture, which allows delivery of one or more wavelengths to those sites on a metropolitan fiber ring that require multi-gigabit capacities, while allowing other sites on the same ring to share less-expensive bandwidth that is not based on DWDM. The Chromatis SWDM platform creates two rings on the same fiber: one is an inexpensive single- channel ring that is shared by all network elements and runs at 1310 nanometers, and the second is a multi-channel DWDM ring running at 1550 nanometers.