AERIE NETWORKS SELECTS NORTEL NETWORKS FOR OPTICAL BACKBONE
Aerie Networks, a new national bandwidth carrier backed by major US energy companies, selected Nortel Networks to supply an US$1billion of optical networking equipment over four years.   The contract covers Nortel's OPTera Long Haul, and OPTera Connect DX and OPTera Connect HDX Connection Managers for multi-terabit managed networks.  Aerie Networks plans to offer dark fiber leases and managed wavelength services, aiming to become of the industry's lowest cost providers of bandwidth. The maximum amount of financing expected to be provided by Nortel Networks will not exceed 50%.  http://www.aerienetworks.com/
http://www.nortelnetworks.com/corporate/news/newsreleases/2000c/10_17_0000579_aerie.html
Nortel Networks, October 17, 2000

• Aeerie has already secured access to 14,958 miles of rights of way across the continental US from 12 energy pipeline and communications companies.  Its network architecture calls for 432-fiber count cable to be installed throughout its planned long-haul routes.  Construction is already underway on routes between Chicago and St. Louis, St. Louis and Kansas City, Kansas City and Dallas, and Dallas and Houston. Network completion is slated for early 2004.
  

• Aeerie investors include BP Amoco, Buckeye Partners, CMS Energy, Explorer Pipeline, Kinder Morgan, Marathon Ashland Pipe Line, National Fuel Gas, Plantation Pipe Line, PG&E, Sempra, Sun Pipe Line and TEPPCO, among others.  Aeerie is based in Denver, Colorado and led by Peter Geddis (CEO), formerly COO of Qwest.
  

• In June, Aeerie also agreed to purchase 8.9 million miles (14.24 million kms) of Corning's LEAF fiber.  That deal was also valued in excess of $1 billion over four years. 

WINFIRST SELECTS LUCENT FOR $800 MILLION FTTH RESIDENTIAL NETWORK
WinFirst (formerly Western Integrated Networks), a start-up carrier focusing on local access networks, awarded a five-year, $800 million agreement to Lucent Technologies for equipment, software and services.  An additional five-year, $200 million contract was awarded to Avaya for data switching equipment.  WinFirst is planning to build fiber-to-the-home residential networks in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Portland, San Diego and Sacramento.  In addition, WinFirst has franchise applications are pending in Los Angles, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., Las Vegas and Seattle.  Lucent's contract covers key data and IP technologies, including its NX64000 Multi-Terabit Switch/Router, GX 550 Multiservice Wide Area Network Switch, SpringTide 5000 IP Service Switch, the 7R/E Packet solutions and optical components that will be used to enable the fiber-to-the-home connection.  The companies said that will be able to deliver 100 Mbps of symmetric bandwidth to each home.  http://www.lucent.com/press/1000/001017.nsa.html
Lucent Technologies, October 17, 2000

• In July, WinFirst raised $830 million from prominent investors in a second round of equity financing.   Investors include J.P. Morgan, Madison Dearborn, Columbia Capital, First Union Capital and others.  The company is led by Jim Vaughn, the former co-founder of FrontierVision, which grew into the 15th largest US cable operator before its sale to Adelphia Communications for $2.1 billion in 1999.  WinFirst is based in Denver, Colorado.

EDGIX INTRODUCES PRIORITIZED NETWORK CACHING SERVICE, SIGNS CHELLO AND EVEREST
Edgix, a venture-backed start-up positioning itself as an Edge Services Provider (ESP), introduced a network caching service that delivers popular web content at high speeds to Internet access providers' edge nodes (points of presence, cable head ends and DSL hubs).  The service uses adaptive heuristic algorithms to prioritize and refresh web content, so that only the content that is relevant to and popular with an access provider's end users is delivered to the edge of the network. Edgix will offer service level agreements (SLA) to guarantee a minimum 30% Web traffic offload from an access provider's network. Customers include Everest Broadband Networks and Chello broadband, which will use the caching service in its cable head ends in Europe and Latin America.  Edgix recently closed $50 million in second round funding led by Chase Capital Partners.  Additional investors include Battery Ventures, Venrock Associates and Novell Ventures.  Edgix is based in New York City.  http://www.edgix.com
Edgix, October 17, 2000

• Edgix was co-founded by Mark Hurst, an early contributor to Novell's NetWare OS, where he was responsible for the architectural design and implementation of network device drivers and NetWare system administration utilities.  The company is led by Rangu Salgame, formerly a senior executive in Bell Atlantic and the founder and President of Bell Atlantic Internetworking, a business unit focusing on enterprise Internet services.

GENUITY UPGRADES ITS EUROPEAN BACKBONE TO IP/DWDM
Genuity completed an upgrade of its core pan-European IP backbone to an IP-over-DWDM design based on 2.5 Gbps wavelengths.  The IP backbone uses Cisco 12000 Series Internet routers connected directly via DWDM without SONET/SDH.  http://www.genuity.com
Genuity, October 17, 2000

CONVERGENT NETWORKS ADDS NEW OPTICAL INTERFACES TO BROADBAND VOICE SWITCH
Convergent Networks added OC-12 and enhanced OC-3 interfaces to its ICS2000 broadband voice switch, which provides interworking and adaptation between traditional TDM and packet switched networks.  The platform serves as an alternative to traditional circuit switches and as a solution for offloading Internet dial-up traffic.  The OC-12 interfaces would enable fully redundant virtual switch configurations scaling to as many as 320,000 DS-0s.  In this configuration, the switch's advanced "super hunt group" capabilities roll incoming calls past busy ports until a connection is made.  The enhanced OC-3 interfaces, which feature support for both VT1.5 as well as M13 mapping protocols, enable carriers to seamlessly transport voice calls to a SONET ring.
http://www.convergentnetworks.com/rel101700.html
Convergent Networks, October 17, 2000

• Convergent Networks recently filed SEC papers for an initial public offering.

BROADCOM TO ACQUIRE ALLAYER FOR ITS 10 GBPS SILICON DESIGNS
Broadcom agreed to acquire Allayer Communications, a developer of switch processors, for $275 million (1.23 million BRCM shares), with an option for an additional $67 million based on performance goals (300,000 shares).  Broadcom said Allayer's switching processor technology is complementary to its Content Aware packet classification technology deployed in LANs.  The company plans to combine Allayer's 10 Gbps switch processor technology with its Ethernet and SONET physical layer and Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) technologies.  http://www.broadcom.com  http://www.allayer.com
Broadcom, October 17, 2000

• Allayer Communications recently began sampling a 10 Gigabit Ethernet switching processor designed for connecting LANs to Internet backbones via OC-192 optical links.  The device will integrate a 10-Gigabit port with 12 ports for 1 Gbps Ethernet operating at full-duplex, wire speed for an aggregated bandwidth of 44 Gbps.  Allayer will support IP Layer 2-7 functions, Quality-of-Service and trunking capabilities.
• In August, Allayer Communications raised $12.4 million in funding from several corporate investors.  Allayer Communications was founded in 1997 and is based in San Jose, California.
• The company is led by Dr. Cheng-chung Shih (formerly with Allied Telesyn).

SPIRENT ACQUIRES NET-HOPPER FOR ITS NETWORK TEST ACCESS SYSTEMS
Spirent plc will acquire Net-HOPPER Systems, a privately-held developer of Network Test Access Systems, for $85 million in stock, with a further potential performance-related consideration of up to $10 million.  Net-HOPPER Systems (formerly known as LAN-hopper Systems) offers network test solutions for local or remote monitoring and troubleshooting of copper, digital and fiber optic networks.  The company is based in Norcross, GA.
http://www.lanhopper.com/Home_Page.html
http://www.spirent.com/news/773.html
Spirent, October 17, 2000

• Net-HOPPER's product leader is the "CRYSTAL-hopper" fiber switch, an, SNMP-controlled switches with non-intrusive testing capabilities for fiber-optic networks that run at up to OC-192.  America Online (AOL) is using the system to distribute and share their network analysis and monitoring resources. The system can be used in conjunction with Spirent's AX/4000 performance analyzer.

MARCONI COMPLETES NASDAQ LISTING: MONI
Share in Marconi began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker "MONI".  Marconi’s ticker on the London Stock Exchange has also changed to MONI.  http://www.marconi.com
October 17, 2000

SHAW@HOME REPORTS 282,000 CABLE MODEM USERS, 16% PENETRATION RATE
As of August 30, Shaw Communications, Canada's largest cable operator, had 282,578 connected and scheduled installations for its @Home cable modem service.  The company posted 39,000 new customers over the quarter.  Shaw's two-way cable infrastructure currently passes 1.7 million homes, giving the Shaw@Home service a 16% penetration rate.  http://www.shaw.ca
Shaw, October 17, 2000

NETOCTAVE RAISES $15.6 MILLION FOR ITS SILICON-BASED INTERNET SECURITY
NetOctave, a developer of silicon-based Internet security solutions for IPSec and SSL, secured $15.6 million in first round venture funding.  NetOctave's products in development include a 4.8 Gbps-rate IPSec subsystem and a board-level SSL solution targeting 7,600 SSL transactions/second.  The products are designed for integration into OEM partners' equipment and for coexistence with other high-performance, silicon- based networking products.  Investors include Intel Communications Fund, Intersouth Partners, Kitty Hawk Capital, MCNC, North Carolina Enterprise Corporation and Wakefield Group. http://www.netoctave.com
NetOctave, October 17, 2000

• In July 2000, NetOctave spun off from Celotek Corporation, an early developer of ATM network cryptographic systems.  Cylink later acquired Celotek.

MDV INVESTS $12 MILLION IN QUAKE TECHNOLOGIES FOR ITS PHYSICAL LAYER ICS
Quake Technologies, a fabless semiconductor startup developing physical layer chips for optical networking, received a $12 million investment from Mohr, Davidow Ventures (MDV).  The company is working on mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) for 10 Gbps and above speeds for Ethernet, Infiniband, Fibre Channel and SONET/SDH. Quake has offices in Ottawa, Canada and San Jose, CA.  http://www.quaketech.com
Quake Technologies, October 17, 2000

HYPERCHIP SELECTS VIRATA'S MPLS AND OSPF SOFTWARE FOR PETABIT ROUTING
Hyperchip, a start-up developing petabit-class routing based on massively parallel semiconductor technology, selected Virata Corporation's MPLS and OSPF-TE (Open Shortest Path First) software for its forthcoming products. Hyperchip is also partnering with Nortel Networks, IBM Microelectronics and Xilinx to combine its architecture with their respective technologies.
http://www.hyperchip.com
http://www.virata.com/cgi-bin/frame.pl?URL=/news/pr/hyperchip.htm
Virata, October 17, 2000

• In Marc h, Virata Systems acquired Inverness Systems, a developer of software source code for ATM, IP and MPLS, for about $105 million in stock (March 22 prices).
  
• Hyperchip has raised more than U.S. $100 million in venture capital financing. The company is based in Montreal, Canada.

QUALCOMM INVESTS IN SKYBRIDGE FOR TWO-WAY SATELLITE BROADBAND
QUALCOMM has become a shareholder and limited partner in Skybridge, the broadband satellite venture backed by Alcatel, Boeing, Loral Space & Communication and others.  Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.qualcomm.com   http://www.skybridgesatellite.com
QUALCOMM, October 17, 2000

• SkyBridge will use a constellation of 80 satellites operating in the Ku-band (10-18 GHz), orbiting at an altitude of 913 miles (1,469 km). The satellites will provide "bent pipe" connections, meaning no onboard processing or switching will occur. The company said the low-earth-orbit would allow for short signal propagation time of 30 milliseconds, which would be sufficient for interactive services. Over 200 gateway stations worldwide will relay traffic from the satellites to terrestrial fiber networks. Localized traffic processing will occur within the gateway to guarantees the network evolves with IP and ATM technology.