CISCO PLANS ITS FIRST 10 GBPS ETHERNET PRODUCTS FOR SECOND HALF OF 2000
Cisco Systems announced plans to deliver its first 10 Gbps Ethernet products in the second half of the year.  Product specifics were not disclosed.  The company said it anticipates that 10 Gbps Ethernet will be used first in data centers and for backbone applications to aggregate the growing use Gigabit Ethernet connections.  Cisco also expects enterprise customers to use 10 Gbps Ethernet over metropolitan dark fiber to support services such as server less buildings, remote backup and disaster recovery.  Other applications will include MAN service providers using 10 Gbps backbones to support Gigabit services.  Cisco also announced several Gigabit over copper (1000BASE-T) solutions for its Catalyst 6000, 4000 and 2900 series XL switching families.
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/may00/ent_050800c.htm
Cisco Systems, May 8, 2000

NEWPORT PREVIEWS SERIAL 10GBPS CMOS TRANSCEIVER
NewPort Communications announced an OC-192 SONET/SDH transceiver fabricated in CMOS, rather than specialty silicon germanium, gallium arsenide or bipolar processes.  The company said the mainstream CMOS production process results in more functions on-chip, much lower power consumption and a more cost-effective solution that can readily be manufactured in high volume. Applications include ATM switches, SONET/SDH modules, OC-192/STM-64 transmission equipment, add/drop multiplexers, digital cross connect switches, SONET/SDH test equipment, terabit routers and other OC-192/STM-64 (9.95328Gbps) networking equipment.  The company said its transceiver solutions would be a key enabler of 10Gbps Ethernet optical transmission as well.  The first working samples are currently being released to selected partners.  http://www.NewPortCom.com
NewPort Communications, May 8, 2000

• NewPort Communications named Dr. Armond Hairapetian as its new CEO.  Hairapetian is a co-founder of the company and most recently served as VP of mixed signal engineering.  In January, NewPort received $23 million in venture funding from Integral Capital Partners, Bessemer, Lucent Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund, Vertex, Cisco Systems and Sumitomo.

SPRINT INTRODUCES MMDS SERVICE IN PHOENIX, $40/MONTH FOR 1 –2 MBPS ACCESS
Sprint launched commercial MMDS fixed access service in Phoenix, its first broadband wireless market.  Sprint Broadband Direct is priced at $39.95 per month, including EarthLink Sprint ISP service, for "always on" connectivity.  The service is capable of downstream burst rates of up to 5 Mbps, but Sprint said most customers would commonly experience download speeds of up to 1-2 Mbps.  Upstream service bursts up to 256 Kbps.  Coverage is currently available to over 85% of the homes and offices in the Phoenix area that are within 35 miles of South Mountain or Shaw Butte (line of sight to the Sprint Broadband Direct transmission tower).  Customers need to install an outside transceiver that is roughly half the size of a digital satellite dish.  Sprint also offers MMDS business connectivity with 5 IP addresses for $89.95. Sprint is currently waiving installation charges and offering the MMDS modem/transceiver for $99 with a two-year contract, $199 for a one-year contract or $299 for month-to-month customers.  http://www.sprintbroadband.com
Sprint, May 8, 2000

• Last month, MCI WorldCom began conducting MMDS service trials in 5 states.  The proposed MCI WorldCom / Sprint merger would give the combined company the spectrum to offer the fixed wireless access service in more than 100 US markets. 

GLOBAL CROSSING TO DOUBLE ITS PRIVATE PEERING FACILITIES TO 25 GBPS
Global Crossing is undertaking an extensive expansion of private peering capacity, with plans to add 13 Gbps of capacity by the end of this year.  The company noted that the vast majority of its egress traffic already occurs over private peers, while less than 10% occurs at public exchange points.  Global Crossing estimates Internet traffic growth to be between 2 and 2.5% each week.
http://www.globalcrossing.com
Global Crossing, May 8, 2000

VERIO SELECTS CISCO FOR $200 MILLION WEB HOSTING CENTER EXPANSION
Verio selected Cisco Systems to be a key supplier for a $200 million web hosting center infrastructure expansion this year.  Verio's new hosting centers will use Cisco's Catalyst 6500 switches for managing customer network connectivity with Cisco's 12000 GSR series routers operating at the edge of its national backbone.  Plans include 21 hosting facilities across the US.
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/may00/ent_050800b.htm
Cisco Systems, May 8, 2000

• Verio is the largest web hosting company with more than 400,000 hosted sites.  Earlier this week, NTT Communications announced plans to acquire Verio for $5 billion.

CABLELABS ISSUES FINAL FEATURE SET FOR PACKETCABLE IP VOICE
Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs) released the final feature set for PacketCable residential IP voice service.  CableLabs is dividing the desired features for PacketCable residential IP voice service into two categories: basic features, which should be supported by all PacketCable IP voice equipment, and advanced features, which some cable operators may wish to implement when feasible.  The basic residential feature list will be published as a final Technical Report later this month.  http://www.packetcable.com/
CableLabs, May 8, 2000

CISCO OUTLINES ITS CABLE ARCHITECTURE SUPPORTING DIGITAL SET-TOPS AND CABLE MODEMS
Cisco Systems announced a digital set-top infrastructure solution supporting DOCSIS, EuroDOCSIS, Digital Video Broadcasting Project/Digital Audio Video Council (DVB/DAVIC), Digital Video System-167 (DVS-167) and CableLabs' OpenCable initiative.  The solution encompasses Cisco's uBR7200 Universal Broadband Routers, cable modem termination system (CMTS), an Interactive Network Adapter for cable headends, a statistical re-multiplexing solution for digital video management, the Cisco ONS 15454 (Cerent) optical transport platform, its GSR 12000 gigabit switch router, a Subscriber Registration Center application and cable manager.  Cisco said its architecture would allow cable service providers to deploy digital set-top boxes over the same network as cable modems.  http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/may00/sp_050800c.htm
Cisco Systems, May 8, 2000

ADC INTRODUCES ITS HOMEWORX CABLE TELEPHONY SYSTEM
ADC introduced its carrier-class hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) telephony platform.  Key features of the ADC Homeworx cable telephony system will include specialized technology for operating over noisy cable plants, in-service software upgrade capability and complete head-end redundancy.  The Homeworx system consists of a host digital terminal (HDT) at the headend, integrated services units (ISUs) at the customer premises and network management software.  ADC will offer a choice in modulation schemes and FEC (QAM-32 or QAM-4) in its cable telephony products.  http://www.adc.com
ADC, May 8, 2000

LUCENT NAMES JANET DAVIDSON TO HEAD INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE UNIT
Lucent Technologies named Janet Davidson as group president, InterNetworking Systems (INS) Group, the unit focused on Internet infrastructure equipment, replacing Curt Sanford, who left the company.  Davidson previously was headed the Lucent sales group responsible for accounts with Sprint, MCI WorldCom and all emerging service providers in North America.  http://www.lucent.com/press/0500/000508.cob.html
Lucent Technologies, May 8, 2000

CONVERGENT NETWORKS SHIPS FIRST 250,000 PORTS, NAMES NEW CEO
Convergent Networks has shipped the first 250,000 subscriber ports on its Integrated Convergence Switch, a next generation packet switch that serves as an alternative to traditional CLASS 4/5 circuit switches.  A leading application for the product is to handle the "Internet Offload" of dial-up traffic onto ISDN Primary Rate Interfaces.  GlobalNAPs, which carries large volumes of Internet dial-up modem traffic for the state of Massachusetts, has agreed to purchase 75 of Convergent Networks' ICS2000 platform just for this application.

Separately, Convergent Networks named John C. Thibault as its Chairman, President and CEO.  Thibault previously was President and CEO of GeoTel Communications, a provider of customer interaction software solutions for call centers that was acquired by Cisco Systems last year.  The company also named Pamela F. Lenehan as its new CFO.  Lenehan previously served as Senior Vice President of Oak Industries Inc., a component manufacturer that was acquired by Corning.
http://www.convergentnet.com/rel050800_ports.html
Convergent Networks, May 8, 2000

ITC^DELTACOM DEPLOYS UNISPHERE SOLUTIONS' VOICE-DATA MEDIATION SWITCHES
ITC^DeltaCom, a facilities-based telecom provider with a fiber network in the southeastern US, has deployed Unisphere Solutions' voice-data mediation switches to decrease network congestion caused by Internet dial-up traffic.  The project was valued at approximately $15 million.  ITC^DeltaCom said it typically takes up to 6 to 12 months to deploy traditional voice switches, whereas the new switches can be brought up in several weeks.  http://www.unispheresolutions.com
Unisphere Solutions, May 8, 2000

GENERAL BANDWIDTH DEMOS VOICE CALLS THROUGH DSL AND CABLE NETWORKS
General Bandwidth is demonstrating packetized voice phone calls across multiple broadband access networks (DSL and Cable) through its G6 voice gateway.  The demonstration features a telephone plugged into an integrated access device (IAD) with transmitting VoATM across a DSL access network to the General Bandwidth G6. The call is then passed across the cable network, consisting of a media terminal adaptor (MTA) attached to a telephone, transmitting VoIP through a cable modem termination system (CMTS) to the G6.  http://www.generalbandwidth.com
General Bandwidth, May 8, 2000

TROPIAN SECURES $25 MILLION FOR ITS RF TRANSMITTER TECHNOLOGY
Tropian, a late stage start-up based in Cupertino, California closed $25 million in third-round financing to support its development of advanced wireless semiconductor products.  Tropian is developing a multi-mode RF platform that incorporates TDMA, EDGE, GSM, CDMA and AMPS. The company's silicon is designed for multi-mode platforms for global wireless handsets and base stations.  Investors include Infineon Technologies AG and TriQuint Semiconductor, as well as three venture capital firms.  http://www.tropian.com
Tropian, May 8, 2000