TELUS LIGHTS CANADIAN FIBER BACKBONE
TELUS, the leading service provider in western Canada, activated its national fiber backbone and announced contracts to carry the voice, data and Internet traffic of Worldcom Canada (UUNet), Cable & Wireless and Genuity Solutions Inc.  The TELUS backbone connects Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.  It extends into the US via POPs in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo and Albany.   http://about.telus.com/cgi-bin/news_viewer.cgi?news_id=223&mode=2
Telus, March 27, 2001

• TELUS uses Nortel Networks' OPTera LH backbone networking equipment and OPTera Connect DX optical cross-connects in its networks.
• Last October, TELUS, in partnership with MFN, began construction of a 225 km network in the City of Toronto that initially will have 864 fiber strands.
• Last July, TELUS named Darren Entwistle as its new president and CEO.  Entwistle previously served as president, Cable & Wireless UK and Ireland.

BROADWING AND INTERTAINER LAUNCH COMMERCIAL VOD VIA DSL
Broadwing's ZoomTown DSL service in Cincinnati, Ohio is set to launch the nation's first commercial, broadband video on-demand service featuring full-screen Hollywood content.  The service will be streamed using Microsoft's new high-quality Windows Media Video 8 with integrated Digital Rights Management technology over connections as low as 500 Kbps.  The companies are promising "near-DVD quality."  The service will be launched on April 3.  Intertainer has licensing rights to more than 65,000 hours of programming from more than 70 content providers, with 500 hours available on the service at any given time.  Broadwing's ZoomTown has 40,000 DSL subscribers in the greater Cincinnati area.  http://www.broadwing.com/
Broadwing, March 27, 2001

• In addition to its premium partnership with ZoomTown, Intertainer.com offers free access to over 200 hours a week of full-motion music videos, short films, television favorites, lifestyle programs, and kids shows.  The free service requires a 384 kbps or better connection.

REALNETWORKS TO STREAM MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TO SUBSCRIBERS
RealNetworks signed a three year agreement to stream audio and video web content of Major League Baseball (MLB) over the Internet to paid subscribers.  In what is described as the largest Internet deal in the history of professional sports, RealNetworks secured the exclusive distribution and format rights for all regular season MLB games. On a subscription basis, RealNetworks will provide audio webcasts enhanced with synchronized game statistics and pitch-by-pitch animation.  Subscribers will also have the ability to search for and create customizable video highlights of daily game coverage.  The service will start in April.  http://www.realnetworks.com/company/pressroom/pr/2001/mlb.html?src=010322realhome_1,rnhmpg_020701,rnhmhl
RealNetworks, March 27, 2001

• Over the past 12 months, users of RealPlayer and RealJukebox have downloaded more than 185 million software packages/upgrades and third-party plug-ins.  The most popular third-party download was an MPEG plug-in by EMC Corp. that recorded 6.4 million downloads from March 12, 2000 through March 11, 2001.

ADC LAUNCHES BROADBAND SERVICES PLATFORM
ADC launched a Broadband Services Platform that enables service providers to integrate multiple media sources and disparate voice mail systems, all while allowing subscribers to view different message types simultaneously from virtually any device. The modular platform is targeted at wireless, wireline and ISP customers.  Key capabilities include:

• A Unified Message Portal enabling subscribers to access voice and text messages, including faxes, in one single mail box through an Internet connection
• An Internet Call Manager that allows dialup Internet users to monitor and control their telephone calls while actively connected to the Internet
• A Voice Profile over Internet Mail capability for connecting voice mail platforms from multiple vendors seamlessly over the Internet
• Short Message Service capabilities 
• A Mobile Message Portal that enables customers to view the contents of their voicemail box on the screen of their WAP-enabled handsets

http://www.adc.com/main_template/1,1034,138,00.html
ADC, March 27, 2001

TELIA'S SPEEDY TOMATO OFFERS MOBILE SERVICES PORTAL
Speedy Tomato AB, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telia, is now offering advanced mobile services through its operator-independent portal.  Capabilities include the sending of specialized content, such as email, SMS, calendars, news reports, games, etc., to mobile phones, WAP phones, PDAs or other mobile devices.  Speedy Tomato named Erik Hallberg as its new president.  The company was founded in September 2000.  http://www.speedytomato.com
Telia, March 27, 2001

CHECK POINT SOFTWARE UNVEILS NEW SECURITY PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURE
Check Point Software Technologies introduced a new security architecture that it claims will enable a 10-fold increase in VPN and firewall performance.  Check Point's new design offloads computationally intensive security processes -- such as firewall, encryption, compression, and public key operations -- to a variety of specialized third-party hardware.  Its partners include Broadcom, Intel, Nokia, Compaq, Intrusion.com and Rapidstream.  http://www.checkpoint.com/ 
Check Point Software, March 27, 2001

BLUEARC UNVEILS ITS FAST, SCALABLE NETWORK STORAGE SOLUTION
BlueArc, a start-up based in Mountain View, California, introduced its network storage system capable of multi-gigabit (2,000 Mbps) throughput, scalable to thousands of concurrent user connections and 250 Terabytes (TB) of storage capacity behind a single server.  BlueArc's Si7500 Storage System leverages hardware-based RAID technology and programmable logic devices from Altera Corporation.  The company said its unique server architecture addresses the gap in server throughput as network throughput speeds have risen to gigabit levels.  http://www.bluearc.com/html/news/press_releases/pr_introducing_032701.shtml
BlueArc, March 27, 2001

• BlueArc is led by Enrico Pesatori, who previously served as Senior Vice President and Group General Manager of Compaq's enterprise solutions and services group.  The company was founded in 1998 by Dr. Geoff Barrall.  Investors include Celtic House, Apax Partners and Patricof.

PIRUS NETWORKS RAISES $27 MILLION IN NEW FUNDING FOR IP STORAGE
Pirus Networks, a start-up developing carrier-class storage and IP networking systems, closed over $27 million through its Series B financing round. This brings the total funding to over $45 million.  The company's product plans have not yet been disclosed.  Investors include StorageNetworks, VERITAS Software, BlueStream Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Charles River Venture Partners, Comdisco Ventures, GATX Ventures, Morgan Keegan and Silicon Valley Bank.  The company is based in Acton, Massachusetts.  http://www.pirus.com/ 
Pirus Networks, March 27, 2001

• Pirus Networks announced the acquisition of Blue Spruce Networks of Wichita, Kansas, which has an engineering team with expertise in storage architecture design, Fibre Channel, storage software development and OS platform integration.  Financial terms were not disclosed.
• In September, Pirus named Richard Napolitano as chairman, chief executive officer and president.  Napolitano formerly was co-founder and CEO of Data Kinesis (acquired by Adaptec in 1996) and served as general manager of Adaptec's RAID business until 1999. Pirus' founder, Richard Corley, assumes the role of executive vice president of technology.

TELENOR ACQUIRES COMSAT MOBILE FOR $116.5 MILLION
Telenor of Norway will acquire Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications' (LMGT's) COMSAT Mobile Communications operations for US$116.5 million in cash.  COMSAT Mobile offers data, voice, fax, telex and video capabilities via the Inmarsat satellite constellation to the maritime, land, mobile and aeronautical markets.  The company has annual revenues in excess of US$100 million.  The purchase also includes two earth station facilities in Southbury, Connecticut, and Santa Paula, California.  The deal requires regulatory approvals.  http://www.telenor.com/ 
Lockheed Martin, March 27, 2001

• In September 2000, Telenor purchased a portion of LMGT's Inmarsat shares to become the largest owner of Inmarsat, holding the maximum permitted stake of 15%.

ERICSSON SELLS ITS REMAINING HOLDING IN JUNIPER NETWORKS
Ericsson has sold its remaining holding in Juniper Networks.  The company says that it continues to work closely with Juniper Networks.  http://www.ericsson.com/  http://www.juniper.net/
Ericsson, March 27, 2001

LUCENT SPINS-OFF LUMETA, TARGETS ENTERPRISE SECURITY
Lucent Technologies formed a new venture called Lumeta Corporation to offer enterprise network management and security services.  Lumeta will offer a firewall analyzer that queries the network at the IP layer to discover and explore the topology of the network.  The product tests all possible combinations of addresses, services and policies to discover misconfigurations and/or vulnerabilities in the network.  Lumeta received its first-round funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and the meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund I.  Lucent retains a minority ownership position.  Lumeta is based in Somerset, New Jersey.  http://www.lumeta.com
Lumeta, March 27, 2001

NORTEL NETWORKS AGAIN TRIMS REVENUE FORECASTS, ANNOUNCES FURTHER LAYOFFS
Nortel Networks said its revenues for Q1 are anticipated to be below previously stated expectations.  The company issued a similar profit warning on February 15, forecasting US$6.3 billion of revenue and loss per share from operations of US$0.04.  The new guidance predicts revenues in the range of US$6.1 billion to US$6.2 billion and a loss per share from operations in the range of US$0.10 to US$0.12.  Nortel Networks attributed the shortfall to reduced and/or deferred capital spending and increased pricing pressure as customers globally begin to feel the economic downturn in the US.  A second round of layoffs is planned, and the company now expects an aggregate net reduction, by mid-year 2001, of approximately 15,000 from the number of employees at December 31, 2000.  http://www.nortelnetworks.com
Nortel Networks, March 27, 2001