LUCENT ACQUIRES CHROMATIS FOR METRO TDM/IP/ATM OVER WAVELENGTH 
Lucent Technologies confirmed plans to acquire Chromatis Networks, a start-up developing metropolitan optical networking systems, for approximately $4.5 billion (78 million LU shares).  Lucent Venture Partners previously held a 7% equity share in the company.

Chromatis recently launched its "Metropolis" system, a metropolitan area platform that multiplexes TDM, ATM, and IP services over a single wavelength while offering unified operations and management control.  Two versions of the platform have been announced.  A high-density Metropolis system, which is designed for large central offices, provides the transport capacity for 32 fully configured SONET rings, the switching capacity of a 70 Gbps core ATM switch, and the grooming capabilities of a 70 Gbps broadband cross-connect.  A smaller version will serve as an aggregation platform with integrated ATM switching, broadband SONET cross-connect functionality, and multi-wavelength optical transport. Chromatis also features a Selective Wave Division Multiplexing (SWDM) architecture that 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. Chromatis technology manages the two separate wavelength regions to make them appear as a single network. All sites can communicate at a variety of speeds using the 1310nm-shared ring, while only the sites that need very high bandwidth tap into one or more of the 1550nm DWDM wavelengths.  The company is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, with R&D in Tel Aviv, Israel.  http://www.lucent.com/press/0500/000531.coa.html  http://www.chromatis.com/
Lucent Technologies, May 31, 2000

• Chromatis, which was founded in 1997, received $50 million in funding from Crosspoint, ComVentures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, Soros Private Equity, Chase Capital, Lucent Venture Partners, and Eucalyptus Ventures. 
  

• Lucent's optical portfolio includes the WaveStar AllMetro OLS platform, which transmits up to 40 wavelengths in 2-fiber ring, 2-fiber linear add/drop, or 2-fiber point-to-point configurations in regional networks.  http://www.lucent-optical.com/solutions/products/allmetro/

CIELO AND SANDIA NATIONAL LABS DEMONSTRATE ELECTRICALLY-PUMPED VCSEL
Cielo Communications and Sandia National Laboratories announced the first electrically pumped long-wavelength vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) at the 1.3um window.  The new laser design is seen as a technology milestone with the potential to significantly decrease the cost of lasers used in optical interconnects.  Current 1.3um lasers are edge-emitting devices that must be completely fabricated prior to operational testing. Cielo said VCSELs would offer significantly lower manufacturing, packaging, alignment and testing costs; plus lower power dissipation and higher reliability.  http://www.cieloinc.com/
Cielo Communications, May 31, 2000

SHAW COMMUNICATIONS SELECTS MARCONI'S ATM FOR ITS BROADBAND INTERNET SERVICES
Shaw Communications, a leading provider of broadband cable television and Internet services in Canada, will deploy Marconi's ASX-4000, the ASX-1200 and ASX-200 BX ATM switches broadband Internet services.  The Marconi platform will also be used to interconnect Shaw's high-capacity video servers locally and across Canada to deliver new services.  Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.marconi.com/news_events/press_releases/current/4474.html
Marconi, May 31, 2000

APOGEE AND CACHEFLOW TO INTEGRATE BILLING AND CONTENT DELIVERY
Apogee Networks will integrate its IP usage-based billing solutions with CacheFlow's Internet caching appliances.  The joint solution will support usage-based pricing models based on content type.  Billing services will be tied into the caching appliances using Apogee Networks'Content Flow Messaging Protocol (CFMP).  The companies said their joint work could overcome the industry's current limitations of flat rate pricing for content services.  http://www.apogeenetworks.com
Apogee Networks, May 31, 2000

MEDITERRANEAN NAUTILUS PLANS 4 TBPS UNDERSEA CABLE
Mediterranean Nautilus, a company being funded by Telecom Italia and several Israeli partners, selected Alcatel to build a high-capacity undersea network serving the eastern Mediterranean.  The MED Nautilus 1 (MN1) system will extend approximately 7,000 km and link major cities in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt.  The 6-fiber pair network will use Alcatel's latest DWDM, offering 64 wavelengths at 10 Gbps per fiber pair, and an overall capacity of nearly 4 Tbps.  http://www.alcatel.com
Alcatel, May 31, 2000

CORECOMM (A CLEC) TARGETS FIBER TO THE HOME
CoreComm, a CLEC with operations in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit and New York, will begin providing fiber directly to multiple dwelling units (MDUs).  The company's fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) offering will include local and long distance telephone service bundled with 10 Mbps Ethernet access and a full Internet service.  CoreComm expects to offer a bundled price roughly equivalent to telephone and DSL or cable modem service from separate vendors.  Corning will provide the fiber cable and hardware, as well as assist in financing the project.
http://www.core.com/
CoreComm, May 31, 2000

LUXN SECURES $50 MILLION FOR ITS OPTICAL ACCESS PLATFORM
LuxN, a start-up developing a metropolitan optical access platform, secured over $50 million in third round venture financing.  LuxN’s WavSystem supports metropolitan Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel over point-to-point, cascaded multi-drop, access ring and redundant star network configurations.  The system can scale to 70 km without amplification, and support 16-channel WDM, fixed optical add/drop multiplexing, optical path protection switching (detect in less than 3 ms, switch in less than 25 ms), enhanced remote provisioning and graphical interfaces for element management.  The company said its architecture could serve as an overlay to SONET, ATM and private fiber networks.  Investors include Azure Capital Partners, Credit Suisse First Boston Merchant Bank, JDS Uniphase, CommVest, Storm Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, US Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Siemens.  The company is based in Sunnyvale, California.  http://www.luxn.com/
LuxN, May 31, 2000

OPTIMIGHT RAISES $32 MILLION FOR ITS ULTRA-LONG REACH OPTICAL
OptiMight Communications, a start-up developing ultra-long reach optical transport systems, received $32 million in second round financing.  The company is developing technology to eliminate electronic conversion and regeneration.  Specific product plans have not been disclosed.  Investors include Worldview Technology Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Vertex Management, Lucent Venture Partners, Hook Partners and Thomas Weisel Partners, Brentwood Venture Capital and Venrock Associates.  The company is based in Mountain View, California.  http://www.optimight.com/
OptiMight, May 31, 2000

• OptiMight was co-founded by Wu-Fu Chen, whose previous start-ups have included Cascade Communications, Arris Networks, Ardent Communications, and Shasta Networks.  The company's technical team is led by co-founder Ilya Fishman, who previously held research positions at Stanford University and consulted for Sprint Advanced Technology in the National Transparent Optical Network Consortium (NTONC).

MAPLE NETWORKS SETS SIGHTS ON MPLS OPTICAL SWITCHES
Maple Networks, a start-up based in San Jose, California, received $9 million in seed funding from Raza Foundries to support its development of optical networking systems.  Maple Networks said its DWDM optical switches would encapsulate multiservice traffic into industry-standard frames and switch the traffic based on MPLS.  The company's MPLS switch fabric will carry out tag lookups and switching at speeds of OC-192 and above.  http://www.maplenetworks.com/  http://www.razafoundries.com/
Maple Networks, May 31, 2000

AVICI AND CORVIS TEST INTEROPERABILITY
Avici Systems and Corvis are testing the interoperability, just-in-time provisioning, coordinated protection and restoration capabilities of their platforms.  Avici is developing a terabit switch router and Corvis offers a long haul, all-optical transmission platform.  Williams Communications plans to include Avici and Corvis in its Terabit Test Bed project along 2,000-mile segment of its nationwide network.  http://www.avici.com/
Avici, May 31, 2000

JETSTREAM RELEASES VERSION 2.0 OF ITS VODSL PLATFORM
Jetstream Communications announced availability of Release 2.0 of its CPX-1000 broadband voice services platform, supporting call capacity in excess of 1,000 calls per shelf and offering new system redundancy features.  The company also introduced new software for provisioning VoDSL services and an Element Management System (EMS) providing fault, configuration, administration and security management capabilities for its CPX-1000 gateways and all of their subtended Integrated Access Devices (IADs).  http://www.jetstream.com/
Jetstream Communications, May 31, 2000