BT ANNOUNCES RESTRUCTURING, NEW WHOLESALE SERVICES CARRIER
BT announced a radical restructuring of its business in an effort to maximize shareholder value and focus on key growth opportunities in wireless, broadband and IP.  Plans include the creation of a new whole network company (NetCo), a tightening of the company's primary in-country geographic focus to within Western Europe and Japan, a public listing of up to 25% in BT Wireless and 25% in Yell (directory services), and the possible public listing of BT Ignite.  The new entities will be:

• Netco, which will offer a range of wholesale services including ADSL, audio conferencing, IP access, bulk delivery of private circuits, Frame Relay and standard interconnect, high bandwidth private circuits, international conveyance, international facilities access, ISDN connection for service providers, operator services and value added voice services.   
  
• Concert, the international joint venture with AT&T.  
  
• BT Wireless, with 17.9 million mobile telephony customers, of which more than 9 million outside UK  
  
• BTopenworld will bring together the company's existing ISPs and portals, including BT’s retail broadband DSL service and Genie, a new mobile centric portal.   
  
• BT Retail will provide telephony service to the UK’s 19.5 million residential and 3 million small office/home office (SOHO) customers.  
  
• BT Ignite will provide fixed voice, IP and e-commerce solutions to business customers. 
  
• Yell, which publishes Yellow Pages directories and online directories.

http://www.bt.com
BT, November 9, 2000  

FCC SEEKS SECONDARY MARKET FOR RADIO SPECTRUM
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is planning new rules that would allow radio spectrum licensees to freely trade or lease their unused or unneeded spectrum capacity.  The FCC believes a secondary market for could increase the amount of spectrum actually being used to deliver wireless services.  The Commission seeks comment on a basic proposal that applies to a large set of the Wireless Radio Services licenses, including both mobile and fixed services.  This would include cellular, Personal Communications Services (PCS), Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR), Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS), fixed microwave, 24 GHz, and 39 GHz, among others.
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/News_Releases/2000/nret0012.html
FCC, November 9, 2000

PLURIS RAISES $100 MILLION FOR ITS IP CORE ROUTER
Pluris, a start-up based in Cupertino, California, secured $100 million in a fourth round of funding for development of its IP core router.  Pluris' Teraplex 20 router will feature up to 150 Gbps of I/O and 1.44 Tbps of switching capacity linked via an optical backplane and interconnect.  The optical backplane design could be used to link up to 128 chassis, several hundreds of meters apart, yet maintain the system as a single router.  The company anticipates commercial shipments in Q1 2001.  Investors include Sands Brothers & Co., Lightspeed Venture Partners (formerly Weiss, Peck & Greer), ComVentures, Crescendo Ventures, Bay Partners, Chase Capital Partners, Worldview Technology Partners, Deutsche Bank, Global Crossing Ventures, RWI Group, Brad Peery Capital, ABN AMRO, Alliance Capital, Bank of America Securities, Credit Suisse First Boston, Dain Rauscher Wessels, Carlo de Benedetti, Stephen Garofalo, PB Ventures, PCG Ventures, Rana Investment Company, Samsung, Special Opportunities Group and Vulcan Ventures.  http://www.pluris.com/newsEventspress40.cfm
Pluris, November 9, 2000

• Pluris is led by Joseph Kennedy, who previously was founder, chairman and CEO of Rapid City Communications, an early vendor in the Gigabit Ethernet and routing switch market (acquired by Bay Networks).

BANDWIDTH9 RAISES $80 MILLION FOR TUNABLE "WAVELENGTH-ON-DEMAND" COMPONENTS
Bandwidth9, a start-up based in Fremont, California, raised $80 million in equity financing for its development of vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) technology that incorporates both tuning and direct modulation functions.  The funds will be used for launching the company's new products, as well as continue its expansion of production capacity.  Investors include Van Wagoner Capital Management, BlueStream Ventures, American Express, Merrill Lynch Ventures, Munder Technology Fund, Sands Brother Venture Capital, Accel Partners, Institutional Venture Partners, Oak Investment Partners, Lucent Ventures, Hook Partners and others.  http://www.bandwidth9.com
Bandwidth9, November 9, 2000

• Bandwidth 9 recently introduced tunable "Wavelength-on-Demand" components capable of covering either the C band (1530-1564nm) or the L band (1580-1620nm) using a laser source that is directly modulated at speeds up to SONET/SDH OC-48/STM-16.  Bandwidth9 accomplishes its wavelength tuning by integrating a MEMS mirror with a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) to provide a wide (32-80nm) tuning range. 
  
• Bandwidth 9's technologies were originally developed at UC Berkeley.  The company has demonstrated the suitability of these VCSELs for WDM transmission over 50 km of single mode fiber.
  
• Bandwidth9 was founded in November 1997 by Dr. Connie Chang-Hasnain, a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California (Berkeley), and Gabriel Li and Wupen Yuen, two of her former doctoral students. 
  
• Potential applications for tunable lasers include dynamic Wavelength-on-Demand optical architectures in which the devices might replace as many as 60 fixed wavelength lasers.  Tunable lasers might also be used as "Hot Standby" spares in DWDM boxes. 

RELIACAST GARNERS $35 MILLION FOR ITS CONTENT DELIVERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Reliacast, a start-up developing Internet software for audience management over content delivery networks (CDNs), raised $35 million in second round financing.  Reliacast's software enables ISPs and CDNs to manage, measure and control large audiences during the delivery of live, interactive content and entertainment.  Investors include Sun Microsystems, SCP Private Equity Partners, Generation Partners, Viridian Capital Partners, Main Street Advisors, Thomas Weisel Partners, executives of Thomas H. Lee & Co. and First Union Capital Partners.  Reliacast is based in Herndon, Virginia.  http://www.reliacast.com/
November 2000

• The Reliacast system uses a Solaris-based ReliaServer to deliver live events over the Web.  Net Agent software installed on servers at the edge of a network or in a POP act as conduits between the ReliaServer and the end users.  Virtual Turnstile and R-Ticket software components running on the end user's PC are used to uniquely identify each end user for access to a specific event and to check for minimum software requirements. A unique LEAP (Live Event Access Protocol) control level protocol runs on all Reliacast components to provide auto configuration as well as monitoring of traffic and network components.

GLOBAL CROSSING TO TEST LANTERN'S RESILIENT OPTICAL PACKET RINGS
Global Crossing agreed to beta test Lantern Communications' Metro Packet Switch product line, which is based on Resilient Optical Packet Ring technology running over 10 Gbps Ethernet.  The trails are expected to begin in Q2 2001.  http://www.lanterncom.com
Lantern Communications, November 9, 2000

• Lantern's metro Resilient Optical Packet Ring paradigm will use the equivalent of a packet add-drop mux featuring ring-awareness, congestion management, and support for deterministic qualities of service.  The design would scale with DWDM.   The Resilient Packet Ring architecture is being standardized by the IEEE.  http://www.ieee802.org/rpsg
  
• Lantern Communications was founded in early 1999 by Nasser Hiekali, a co-founder of CellAccess Technology, an ATM company acquired by FORE Systems in 1995; and Nader Vijeh, formerly a Director of Engineering and Principal Architect at FORE Systems.
  
• In October, Lantern raised $59 million in its second round of financing. 

AMCC SUPPLIES SILICON FOR ALCATEL'S NEW CORE ROUTER
Alcatel’s new IP core router (7770) will use Applied Micro Circuits Corp.'s (AMCC's) framer and PHY silicon solutions.  AMCC's Rhine, Indus, and Ganges clock data recovery and mux/demux devices will enable multiple line-cards on one device family supporting OC-3, OC-12, OC-48 and OC-192 rates.  Alcatel will use AMCC's clock data recovery and mux/demux devices for their line cards.  http://www.amcc.com/Compinfo/PressReleases/alcatel110900pr.htm
AMCC, November 9, 2000