EXCITE@HOME AND UPC TO MERGE INTERNATIONAL BROADBAND ACCESS
United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC) agreed to combine its chello broadband subsidiary with Excite@Home’s international operations in a merger of equals.  Excite Chello will have the largest cable modem subscriber base and cable network footprint outside of North America.  The "Excite" brand will appear on all of the new company's portal services and the chello brand will be the broadband access service.  Excite Chello will develop cable modem, DSL, wireless, satellite and other delivery platforms, as well as offer services for PCs, TVs, mobile phones and other end-user devices. Liberty Media agreed to invest 200 million Euros (US$187 million) in the new company; United Globalcom will commit 100 million Euros, and Excite@Home 100 million Euros. An IPO is planned for later this year or early 2001. The deal is expected to close in Q3. http://www.upccorp.com/upc/upccorp/default.htm?2#5  http://www.home.com
Excite Chello, July 18, 2000

At formation, Excite Chello will have:

• operations in 15 countries on 4 continents (chello broadband has cable operations in 10 countries in Europe plus New Zealand, Japan, China and Chile, as well as an MMDS network in Australia).
  
• the exclusive rights to deliver broadband Internet services to over 30 million cable homes

• the exclusive rights to deliver set-top box services to over 10.5 million cable homes

• over 300,000 broadband subscribers

• Roger Lynch, currently President and CEO of chello broadband, will serve as President & CEO

EQUANT BEGINS CORPORATE VOIP SERVICE TO 54 COUNTRIES
Equant began offering corporate voice over IP (VoIP) service to 54 countries.  Equant's gateways in each country handoff traffic to the local PSTN.  http://www.equant.com/home.html
Equant, July 18, 2000

CHINA TELECOM TURNS UP DOMESTIC VOIP NETWORK
China Telecom completed rollout of phase 2 of its domestic VoIP network, migrating to a new phone-to-phone IP platform from Clarent Corp.  Network deployment began in May and was completed on July 1 with 17 city nodes.  http://www.clarent.com/news/pressreleases/pr_2000-07-18.html
Clarent, July 18, 2000

LUCENT INTRODUCES PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORKING CHIPS
Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group introduced three new low-power integrated circuits for access over passive optical networks (PONs).  The devices, which include a laser driver, receiver and clock data recovery IC, are designed for use in central office of cable headend optical line terminals (OLTs) and customer premise optical networking units (ONUs).  One OLT can route signals to as many as 32 ONUs.  For upstream connections, the laser driver transmits signals from the ONU to the OLT. The optical receiver IC contains its own preamplifier and postamplifier circuitry. Both chips are optimized for burst-mode operation at up to 155 Mbps. The clock data recovery IC located in the OLT has a burst-mode "first bit recovery" capability called QLOC™ recovery (for "quick lock on clock") to support the ultra-fast clock recovery specification in the PON full services access network (FSAN) standards.  The devices are currently sampling.  http://www.lucent.com/press/0700/000718.mea.html
Lucent Technologies, July 18, 2000

NORTEL NETWORKS EXTENDS OPTICAL CONTRACT WITH WILLIAMS
Williams Communications signed a contract extension to purchase up to US$1.0 billion in optical networking equipment from Nortel Networks over the next two year.  Williams Communications has already purchased approximately US$500 million worth of equipment.  The contract extension covers Nortel Networks OPTera Long Haul 1600 Optical Line System and other equipment.  http://www.nortelnetworks.com/
Nortel Networks, July 18, 2000

FIRSTMARK SELECTS ALCATEL FOR LMDS NETWORK IN FRANCE
FirstMark Communications awarded a 100 million Euros frame-contract to Alcatel for LMDS and IP infrastructure.  FirstMark recently was granted a national license by the French Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ART) for services in the 26 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum.  The contract covers Alcatel equipment, network design, site searches and installation of base stations. A pilot network is in operation in Lyons.  http://www.alcatel.com/vpr/index.htm?body=/latestnews/18072000_1uk
Alcatel, July 18, 2000

ASTRAL POINT RAISES $80 MILLION FOR ITS OPTICAL ACCESS
Astral Point Communications, a start-up developing metropolitan optical equipment, raised $80 million in third round financing.  Investors include KMC Investment Partners, E-TEK Dynamics, GE Capital, Bowman Capital, Essex Investment, The Sprout Group, New Enterprise Associates and OneLiberty Ventures.  Astral Point was founded in November 1998 and is based in Chelmsford, MA.  http://www.astralpoint.com
Astral Point, July 18, 2000

• Astral Point's ON 5000 platform integrates SONET protection, frame and cell switching, Optical ADM at unique network-wide, distributed DCS.  Astral Point also features a fully distributed, mesh network topology discovery and bandwidth-management system, which the company says will reduce provisioning time to one tenth that of standard SONET provisioning. The platform leverages a "Self-Healing Mesh" algorithm to enable SONET-quality protection and restoration in mesh networks.

FLARION DEVELOPS OFDM FOR MOBILE DATA ACCESS
Flarion Technologies, a start-up based in Bedminster, New Jersey, raised $12.5 million for its development of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) wireless technology.  Flarion's flash-OFDM wireless data technology, which was originally developed by Lucent's Bell Labs, will leverage an improved signal-processing scheme suitable for mobile wireless data access.  Lucent Technologies' New Ventures Group provided seed funding.  Other investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures and Pequot Capital.  http://www.flarion.com
Flarion Technologies, July 18, 2000

• Flarion Technologies is led by Ray Dolan, formerly COO of NextWave and EVP of Marketing at Bell Atlantic Mobile.  The company was founded by Rajiv Laroia, formerly head of Digital Communications Research Dept. at Bell Labs.

VOYAN DEVELOPS PHYSICAL LAYER OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE FOR LAST MILE ACCESS
Voyan Technology, a start-up developing physical layer optimization technology for improving last miles connections, raised $5.5 million in new funding.  Voyan's adaptive estimation and signal processing techniques are designed to manage interference over DSL and wireless connections.  Investors include Redwood Venture Partners, Spring Creek Partners, Crosslink Capital, Sony Computer Entertainment, Fuji Bank, and Venture Law Group.  The company is based in Santa Clara, California.  http://www.voyan.com/
Voyan, July 18, 2000

EFFICIENT NETWORKS REPORTS 65% JUMP IN REVENUES OVER PRECEDING QUARTER
Efficient Networks reported quarterly revenue of $101.9 million, an increase of 65% over the preceding quarter. Operating loss for the quarter was approximately $1.8 million, or -$0.03 per share, excluding acquisition-related charges.  Sales to customers outside of the US represented 24% of net revenues.  SBC Communications, Covad and Hanaro Telecom in Korea each represented more than 10% of the company's net revenue.  http://www.efficient.com/news/200007181.html
Efficient Networks, July 18, 2000

• Consensus estimates for EFNT were -0.21 p/s