• The core set of IPv6 protocols were made an IETF draft standard in August 1998.  Updated technical information is available at http://playground.sun.com/ipng/
• The IPv6 Forum works to build market and user awareness of IPv6. http://www.ipv6forum.com/
• 6bone is a global testbed for IPv6.  http://www.6bone.net

CABLE & WIRELESS ACQUIRES DIGITAL ISLAND FOR ITS CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK
Cable & Wireless agreed to acquire Digital Island and its content delivery network for approximately US$340 million, including approximately US$49 million of net debt.  Digital Island’s corporate customers include E*TRADE, UBS Warburg, FT.com, SONY, Cisco and Microsoft.  Revenues from large corporate customers account for some 70% of Digital Island’s total revenues, with the balance coming from small and medium enterprises.  Once the acquisition is completed, Digital Island will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, headquartered in San Francisco and led by the current Digital Island management team.  The combined company will have approximately 1 million square feet of web hosting center space across North America, Europe and Asia.  The facilities would be connected by the global Cable & Wireless IP backbone.  http://www.cw.com/th_05.asp?ID=mc_363may1401
Cable & Wireless, May 14, 2001

• Last week, The Microsoft Network (MSN) selected Digital Island to deliver all of its online advertisements.  The agreement covers more than 860 million ads per day worldwide, including ads on MSN eShop, Search and Hotmail, as well as on the MSNBC.com Web sites and MSN's Instant Messenger service.  Digital Island was already providing Microsoft with Internet infrastructure services including content delivery, application services and live and on-demand streaming services.

OPTICAL INTERNETWORKING FORUM BROADENS ITS WORK AGENDA TO 40 GBPS
The Optical Internetworking Forum announced several new technical initiatives, including the development of different electrical interfaces for System Packet Interface-5 (SPI-5), SERDES-Framer Interface-5 (SFI-5) and Very Short Reach (VSR) for the OC-768/STM-256 technical specifications. These technical specifications are aimed at different interfaces within a system reaching speeds of 40 Gbps. The specifications are expected to move forward to ballot this year.  The OIF noted continued progress in its efforts to define a User Network Interface (UNI) 1.0 specification and is now targeting August for completion of a straw ballot on the specification.  The OIF also announced the appointment of Rick Barry, CTO of Sycamore Networks, and John McDonough, technology standards manager of Cisco Systems, as OIF board members.  http://www.oiforum.com
OIF, May 14, 2001

ALLOPTIC ANNOUNCES 23 FIELD TRIALS FOR ITS ETHERNET PON
Alloptic’s IP Ethernet passive optical network (PON) is undergoing field trials with twenty-three carriers and service providers, including Shaw - Big Pipe, IP Networks, Fiberhood, Aexis Telecom, Changzhou Broadcast and TV Information Networks and Dynamic Systems Integration.  The company said its burst-mode optical transceiver technology delivers 1.25 Gbps of symmetrical bandwidth over a PON.  http://www.alloptic.com/
Alloptic, May 14, 2001

PACKETLIGHT OUTLINES ITS LAYER 1-2 METRO OPTICAL PLATFORM
PacketLight, a start-up based in Kfar Saba, Israel, introduced a metro optical architecture based on a multifunction optical node that combines a packet switch and a wavelength switch while supporting current SONET restoration schemes and future non-SONET-based protection.  The platform is being developed to offer any service on any wavelength, including combinations of GigE, channelized TDM, storage or ATM services, all while maintaining full support of SONET protection mechanisms.  The protocol-agnostic system would keep all inputs in their native format while allowing multiple services types to share a wavelength.  PacketLight said these services could be cross-connected between different wavelengths, and different logical topologies could be mapped by using wavelengths on existing physical fiber infrastructure to achieve a flexible service delivery scheme.  http://www.packetlight.com/
PacketLight, May 14, 2001

• PacketLight has raised nearly $30 million in venture funding.  Investors include ADC Telecommunications, Polaris Venture Capital and Portview Communications.  The company was founded in January 2000 and is headed by Meir Kollmann, formerly VP Marketing at ADC Teledata.

LUXN SIGNS DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT WITH MITSUBISHI
Mitsubishi Corporation has agreed to distribute the LuxN WavSystem optical platform in Japan.  http://www.luxn.com
LuxN, May 14, 2001

• The LuxN WavSystem platform supports metropolitan Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel over point-to-point, cascaded multi-drop, access ring, and redundant star network configurations.  The system extends to 70 km without amplification and supports fixed optical add/drop multiplexing, optical path protection switching, enhanced remote provisioning and graphical interfaces for element management.  LuxN offers three WavSystem product configurations: a NEBS Level 3 compliant, central office (or POP) platform that aggregates and manages up to 16 separate channels of optical traffic; a smaller, 8 channel central office product that can be used for buildings with multiple tenants or services and a modem-sized, single-channel device for individual customer premises.

NEW FOCUS INTRODUCES L-BAND OPTICAL CIRCULATORS
New Focus introduced a new generation of optical circulators optimized for use in DWDM L-band (1565-1605 nanometers) network systems.  Applications could include optical add/drop multiplexing (OADM), dispersion compensation modules (DCMs), tight channel spacing multiplexing/demultiplexing and bi-directional fiber amplifiers.  New Focus already offered optical circulators for C-band systems.  http://www.newfocus.com/
New Focus, May 14, 2001

• In February, New Focus introduced a widely tunable laser that delivers 20 Milliwatts of optical power across the entire C-band, enabling tunability in long-haul and ultra-long-haul networks.
• New Focus was founded by Dr. Milton Chang, formerly CEO of Newport Corp., Dr. Timothy Day, and Dr. Bob Ma, formerly with IBM’s Microelectronics Division.

NOKIA PROMOTES OPEN STANDARD FOR IP-BASED HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Nokia will make source code and other tools available to developers supporting an IP Open Standards Terminal (OST) platform for home entertainment applications.  The OST platform is based on open source technologies such as Linux, Xfree86 and Mozilla and would support a variety of applications and electronic devices including: broadcast and digital TV, digital video recording, web browsing, and gaming.  Nokia's first OST-based product is the Media Terminal; an infotainment device that combines digital video broadcast service, full Internet access, and personal video recorder (PVR) technology.  A demonstration is planned for this week’s E3 exhibition in Los Angeles.  http://press.nokia.com/PR/200105/820830_5.html
Nokia, May 14, 2001

TI INTRODUCES TCP/IP STACK FOR DSP-BASED INTERNET APPLIANCES
Texas Instruments introduced a royalty-free TCP/IP protocol stack for its digital signal processor (DSP) platform targeted at Internet-connected devices.  The solution eliminates the need for a separate network processor for embedded applications, such as digital imaging and audio.  http://www.ti.com/sc/docs/news/2001/01090.htm
Texas Instruments, May 14, 2001

MSN HOTMAIL TOPS 100 MILLION USER MILESTONE
The MSN Hotmail service, Microsoft’s Web-based e-mail service, now has over 100 million users worldwide.  The MSN Messenger Service has more than 31.9 million unique users.  http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/May01/05-14Hotmail100PR.asp
Microsoft, May 14, 2001

KOREA’S HANARO TELECOM TOPS 1.3 MILLION BROADBAND SUBSCRIBERS
Hanaro Telecom, one of Korea's largest broadband Internet access and local call service providers, was serving 1,278,410 broadband subscribers at the end of Q1.  In terms of net additions, the subscriber increase in the first quarter slowed compared to the fourth quarter of 2000, which the company attributed to bad weather, fewer business days, and a discontinuation of sales promotion packages.  The sales promotions were reinstated in April and there were 107,455 net broadband subscriber additions for the month, bringing its total to 1,385,865 broadband subscribers.  Hanaro’s proportion of ADSL Pro customers (up to 8 Mbps) and Lite (up to 1 Mbps) was 14.0% and 86.0% respectively, with 32.5% of ADSL customers subscribing to Hanaro’s telephony service bundled with ADSL (uses one line for ADSL and another line for voice).  The company said it is now focusing on increasing subscriber penetration within its existing service area, rather than expanding its footprint, in order to reach profitability sooner.  http://www.hanaro.com/english/main.html
Hanaro Telecom, May 15, 2001
 

Hanaro Telecom's Number of Subscribers
	April 2001	Q1 2001	Q4 2000	Q3 2000
ADSL	776,252	729,218	651,814	478,373
Cable Modem	590,381	532,628	441,458	257,564
LMDS	19,232	16,564	11,151	3,872
Total	1,385,865	1,278,410	1,104,423	739,809