MARCONI OUTLINES ITS OPTICAL PORTFOLIO FOR NORTH AMERICA, PLANS NASDAQ LISTING
Marconi introduced three new optical products for the North American market, including a long-haul transport platform, a metropolitan DWDM platform and a optical network management system.  Both the long haul and the metro platforms are currently available for point-to-point configurations.  A ring-based metro solution is expected in 2Q 01.  Marconi's SmartPhotoniX PLT solution for long haul transport carries 2.5 or 10 Gbps signals over 40 or 80 wavelengths.  The platform can be further scaled to 1.6 Tbps. Marconi is also working on a "Soltis" ultra long haul initiative that would cut network costs by enabling optical transport over thousands of kilometers without regeneration.  Marconi's SmartPhotoniX PMM solution for metropolitan DWDM features dynamic, remotely-reconfigurable multi-rate transponders, allowing new services to be added, remotely, in a matter of seconds without disrupting other traffic.  Depending on the configuration, the metro platform has a capacity of up to 32 protected wavelengths.  Marconi's ServiceOn OverView 3000 management system uses a client-server architecture (Windows or Solaris) to provide provisioning across the company's line of SONET and DWDM network elements, as well as their packet- and-cell-based traffic.

Separately, Marconi announced plans to list its shares on Nasdaq, possibly during the week of October 16^th.  Marconi also announced plans to acquire the transmission business of Splice do Brasil for US$64 million and additional payments of up to US$105 million over three years subject to certain performance targets.  The company has been a long-term contract manufacturer and distributor of Marconi SDH and access solutions to network operators in Brazil. http://www.marconi.com
Marconi, October 9, 2000

• In June, Marconi launched a start-up company to develop ultra long-haul optical networks based on soliton technology.  The SOLSTIS venture, which will be based in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK, aims to develop systems capable of transmission speeds in excess of 1 Tbps over thousands of kilometers.  The project will use dispersion-managed solitons, leading-edge optical amplifiers and WDM techniques.  SOLSTIS will include members formerly with the Photonics Research Group at Aston University.  http://www.solstiscomms.com/

FOUR OPTICAL START-UPS FORM ALLIANCE
Metera Networks, Latus Lightworks, Coree Networks and Iris Labs, formed an alliance chartered to develop a common optical architecture.  The four start-ups will share a design laboratory and a common network management strategy.  Each of the companies will be free to choose their own strategic partners and to plot their own financial courses.  The four companies hope to raise $100 million in venture funding by the end of the year.  http://www.irislabs.com/profile.htm
Iris Group, October 9, 2000

• Iris Labs will be responsible for developing the common network architecture.  The company specializes in intellectual property licensing and network management software.  Iris Labs was founded in January 2000 and is based in Plano, Texas.  http://www.irislabs.com/
  
• Metera Networks is developing a metropolitan reach optical platform for delivering differentiated optical data services.  Specific plans have not been disclosed.  The company was founded in January 2000 by Hamid Rezaie and Ross Jamieson, both formerly senior directors at Fujitsu Network Communications.  Metera is led by Zareh Baghdasarian, a former co-founder of Monterey Networks, which pioneered the concept of wavelength routing and was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1999.  The company is based in Richardson, Texas and has an engineering facility in Ottawa, Canada initially focused on management and control software.  Investors include Mayfield Fund, Sevin Rosen Funds, Weiss, Peck and Greer Venture Partners, and Hook Partners.  http://www.metera.com
  
• Latus Lightworks is developing optical transmission systems for packet-optimized, differentiated long-haul transport networks.  Its first products will be introduced next year.  The company was founded in March 2000 by Michael Zadikian, a former co-founder of Monterey Networks; J. Michael Dugan, formerly a Senior Director of WDM Systems Development at Alcatel USA; and Todd Nordby, formerly a Director of a Product Development for broadband crossconnect products at Alcatel USA.  http://www.latuslightworks.com
  
• Coree Networks is led by Dr. Hyeon Lee, formerly with Lucent's Optical Networking Group.  The company was founded July 2000 and is located in Tinton Falls, NJ.  http://www.coreenetworks.com

EQUINIX SIGNS CHARLES SCHWAB FOR ITS INTERNET BUSINESS EXCHANGE CENTERS
Charles Schwab, the fourth largest financial services company in the US, will outsource a portion of its global financial online service facilities and network operations in Equinix's Internet Business Exchange (IBX) centers located in the Washington, D.C. and the Silicon Valley areas.  Equinix's list of customers also includes AT&T, Cable & Wireless, EYT (formerly Ernst & Young Technologies), IBM, InterNAP, Loudcloud, NorthPoint Communications, Ogilvy & Mather, StorageNetworks, and WorldCom.  http://www.equinix.com/press/2000/10-09-00.htm
Equinix, October 9, 2000

YIPES RAISES $139 MILLION FOR NETWORK EXPANSION
Yipes Communications, a start-up service provider offering metropolitan Ethernet, attracted $139 million in new funding in September, bringing its total raised to date to over $230 million.  Yipes has announced service in 15 US cities so far, and will add five more cities by the end of the year.
http://www.yipes.com
Yipes, October 9, 2000

• In March, Yipes signed a 20-year, $125 million dark fiber lease agreement for Metromedia Fiber Network's facilities into downtown and suburban areas of Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.  Its network uses Extreme Networks' switches and Juniper's M40 routers at the core and Juniper’s M20 routers at the edge. 

GLOBAL CROSSING COMPLETES MEXICAN FIBER NETWORK
Global Crossing completed its 3,500 km Mexican Crossing network, linking Mexico City, Guadalajara, Mazatlan and Monterrey into its global network.  Global Crossing initially is operating a 10 Gbps service across the optical ring.  The network equipment in place could scale to 320 Gbps per fiber.  http://www.globalcrossing.com/pressreleases/pr_100900.htm
Global Crossing, October 9, 2000

EXCITE@HOME OFFERS PERSONAL VIDEO EDITING AND STORAGE
Excite@Home introduced a "My Videos" feature that allows users to import up to 10 MB of video from a webcam, camcorder or other existing digital files and store them in an online folder.  The video can be edited online and then incorporated in an email greeting card.  http://www.excite.com
Excite@Home, October 9, 2000

IBM INTRODUCES ITS NEXT GENERATION, THIN WEB SERVER
IBM rolled out its stackable, thin Web application server featuring up to a 1 GHz Intel processor and a new cable chaining design that eliminates 70% of connections and more than 53 cables per rack.  The server also incorporates an Advanced Server Processor on the system board, allowing an administrator to manage an entire rack of forty-two servers from single remote connection.  IBM said its expects to price the servers at one third less than a comparable Sun server.  http://www.ibm.com/news/2000/10/09.phtml
IBM, October 9, 2000

TELSTRA AWARDS A$100 MILLION CABLE MODEM UPGRADE CONTRACT TO CISCO
Telstra awarded an $A100 million-plus project to Cisco Systems to upgrade its cable modem services to a DOCSIS-standard platform.  Telstra plans to provide DOCSIS-enable services to 500,000 customers within five years. The company's cable network passes 2.1 million homes in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney. Expansions to Adelaide and Perth are planned for 2001. http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/oct00/sp_100900.htm
Cisco Systems, October 9, 2000

CISCO SCALES ITS 6400 BROADBAND AGGREGATION PLATFORM
A new processor blade for Cisco 6400 Carrier-Class Broadband Aggregator will be capable of supporting up to 16,000 subscribers.  The Cisco 6400 chassis takes data streams from multiple narrowband and broadband subscribers, grooms the traffic and terminates it at the edge of the service providers' or wholesalers' network.  The system supports up to eight blades, making it suitable for provisioning broadband Internet access in large DSL networks.  Cisco also introduced a Broadband-subscriber User Services (BUS) License that enables its Cisco 7200 router to deliver scaled PPP, RBE, and L2TP sessions and tunnels as well as other IP services, in combination with the Cisco 6400 aggregator. http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/oct00/sp_100900c.htm
Cisco Systems, October 9, 2000

AT&T ITALIA TO DEPLOY NET.COM'S SCREAM SERVICE CREATION MANAGER
AT&T Italia will deploy net.com's SCREAM 200 Service Creation Manager platform at multiple sites to provide broadband aggregation in its Frame Relay, ATM and IP transport network.  The platform's design separates the network control plane (NCP) from the network data plane (NDP), enabling individual units to be co-located or geographically separate.  This allows for one-to-many and many-to-one configurations of control systems and switching fabrics.  http://www.net.com/company/releases/pr00/pr2300.shtml
net.com, October 6, 2000

CISCO INTRODUCES IPSEC VPN SOLUTION FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS
Cisco Systems introduced a network-based IPsec VPN solution designed to securely connect remote users and branches to their corporate networks and business partners across the Internet.  The new Cisco VPN 5000 concentrator and client support a range of tunnel mapping methods, including IPsec, L2TP LNS, 802.1Q VLANs and Frame Relay PVCs.  The platform uses hardware acceleration to scale up to 40,000 simultaneous remote access or site-to-site VPN tunnels, with 760 Mbps 3DES throughput.  http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/146/pressroom/2000/oct00/sp_100900b.htm
Cisco Systems, October 9, 2000

• In January 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Altiga Networks and Compatible Systems for their VPN technologies.

ERICSSON ROLLS OUT WIRELESS LAN PRODUCTS
Ericsson introduced IEEE 802.11b compliant, Direct Sequence (DSSS) wireless LAN products for enterprises and vertical markets.  Products include 11 Mbps access points (hubs) and client PCMCIA cards, which can be enhanced for security with the PKI Certificates or Pre-Shared Keys, and 128-448 bit IPsec encryption using Blowfish, DES or 3DES algorithms.  Ericsson said it would make its wireless LAN products interoperable with its Bluetooth offerings. Next year, Ericsson plans to deliver HiperLAN/2 WLAN products operating at 54Mbps in the 5GHz license free frequency band.
http://www.ericsson.com
Ericsson, October 9, 2000

WIND RIVER TO ACQUIRE RAPID LOGIC FOR EMBEDDED DEVICE SOFTWARE
Wind River Systems will acquire Rapid Logic, a developer of embedded network device management software, for $57.4 million (1.4 million WIND shares). Rapid Logic's device management suite includes http servers, TCP/IP stacks, web-browser applets for real-time, Java-based management applications, and a method for SNMP control of embedded devices.  Wind River provides software development tools and embedded real-time operating systems.  http://www.rapidlogic.com/  http://www.windriver.com
Wind River, October 9, 2000

OPTCOM RAISES $23.8 MILLION FOR ITS OPTICAL FILTER TECHNOLOGY
OptCom, a start-up developing a proprietary thin film coating system for making optical filters, raised $23.8 million in private equity financing.  The company said its thin film technology could simultaneously coat up to twelve wafers at a time, far more cost-effectively than the labor intensive, single wafer deposition technologies now in use.  Investors include Thomas Weisel Partners, E-TEK Dynamics, Asian Pacific Ventures and Trans Atlantic Technology.  OptCom was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.  http://www.optcom.net
OptCom, October 2, 2000

ZENFINITY GARNERS $9 MILLION FROM COMSTELLAR FOR ITS NETWORK DESIGN SERVICES
Zenfinity, a start-up providing infrastructure design services for core, access, and operations networks, received $9 million in Series A financing from Comstellar Technologies. Zenfinity is targeting its services to next-generation networks.  The company is based in Iselin, New Jersey.  http://www.zenfinityinc.com/   http://www.comstellar.com
Zenfinity, October 9, 2000

iPHOTONICS SECURES $23.9 MILLION FOR OPTICAL INTEGRATION SERVICES
iPhotonics, a provider of optical component integration services, secured $23.9 million in third round venture funding.  The company provides OEMs with custom passive, active, and hybrid optical module assembly from rapid prototypes to high volume production.  Investors include Bowman Capital, Cisco Systems, Weiss, Peck & Greer Venture Partners, eMedia Club and Avansis Partners.  IPhotonics is based in Glen Burnie, Maryland.  http://www.iphotonics.com/
iPhotonics, October 9, 2000