• Earlier this week, OnFiber launched its portfolio of metro optical access services serving San Jose/Silicon Valley, Seattle, Dallas, Houston and Philadelphia.  OnFiber’s optical grid architecture provides a diversely routed fiber optic ring connecting the business subscriber to the OnFiber Hub, which is the equivalent of a central office with all the necessary electronics to deliver SONET, Optical Ethernet, and Optical Wavelength services.

CISCO DEVELOPS APPLIANCE FOR DELIVERING CONTENT TO WIRELESS DEVICES & IP PHONES
Cisco Systems introduced a new single rack-unit appliance designed to convert HTML and XML data formats appropriate for client devices with special display requirements, including WAP phones, PDAs and IP phones.  The Cisco CTE 1400 Series Content Transformation Engine would work within existing Content Networking infrastructures, including content switches and caching devices, to extend enterprise content and applications in the mobile world.  After accepting requests from client devices, such as mobile phones, PDAs or IP phones, the Cisco CTE requests the content from back-end servers.  The Cisco CTE functions as a reverse-proxy, acting as a Web server to the client device and as a client device to the Web server.  The appliance is priced at $69,995 and will be released this month.  Customers include Stanford Law School, which is using the appliance to deliver administrative and academic content to all wireless net-enabled devices, including PDAs, Pocket PCs, WAP and IP phones, for faculty and students.  http://www.cisco.com
Cisco Systems, August 1, 2001

WAP FORUM RELEASES WAP 2.0 SPECIFICATIONS, ALIGNS WITH XHTML
The WAP Forum released its next generation specification for developing richer mobile Internet services.  Key highlights of WAP 2.0 include support for XHTML, which will let developers write applications for both PC and WAP clients using a common subset of language elements and development tools.  XHTML's modular architecture also enables developers to quickly and easily build applications that can adapt to changes in the hardware environment.  http://www.wapforum.org/
The WAP Forum, August 1, 2001

COGENT DEPLOYS VERY SHORT REACH OPTICS ON OC-192 NETWORK
Cogent Communications began deploying 10 Gbps Very Short Reach Optics (VSR) within its national IP backbone.  The VSR protocol is a 10 Gbps SONET/SDH interface that provides a low-cost intra-POP interconnection (less than 300m) between routers, switches, and DWDM systems.  Instead of higher cost long-range lasers, VSR uses a low-cost, 12-element array of 850-nanometer lasers, each operating at 1.25 Gbps with parallel optic interconnect cable technology.  Cogent Communications is using Cisco's 12400 Internet Routers in its network.  Cogent is currently in the process of increasing the capacity of its existing OC-192 network to 80 Gbps by lighting an additional 7 wavelengths.  http://www.cogentco.com  http://www.cisco.com
Cisco Systems, August 1, 2001

EUROPEAN RESEARCH NETWORKS DEPLOY 10 GBPS CISCO 12000 ROUTERS
Cisco Systems announced $30 million in contracts to supply 10 Gbps routers to three European research networks, including the UK’s SuperJANET4, Holland's SURFnet5 and Sweden's national education network (SUNET).  The academic networks are being used for applications such as distance learning, sharing of high capacity applications and real-time collaboration, in addition to providing a test environment for new applications and network capabilities.  http://www.cisco.com
Cisco Systems, August 1, 2001

OPTIMIGHT EMPLOYS OPTICAL TDM TO ACHIEVE 40 GBPS USING 10 GBPS PARTS
OptiMight Communications, a start-up based in San Jose, California, announced a unique approach to achieve capacity equal to 40 Gbps systems while using 10 Gbps components and infrastructure.  The performance is achieved via the bi-directional transmission of signals that are interleaved using standard Optical Time Division Multiplexing (2 x 10 Gbps on each optical channel).  OptiMight's OMC 1600 is the company’s baseline 10Gbs platform that transports 1.6Tbs (160 x OC-192) up to 3200km without electronic regeneration or Raman amplification.  The OTDM would enable the platform to transmit and receive 320 channels of OC-192 signals on each strand of fiber optic cable. The 10 Gbps and OTDM 2x10 Gbps transponders could be intermixed, allowing the carrier to expand capacity only as needed.  The platform’s design would also enable a migration to straight 40 Gbps technology with an in service transponder upgrade.  http://www.optimight.com/
OptiMight Communications, August 1, 2001

• OptiMight’s full-spectrum WDM manipulates optical signals in time and frequency, compared to existing optical transmission platforms that manipulate signals only in the time domain.  Manipulating the signal in both domains spectrally enriches the pulses, yielding a more robust optical signal that travels further over fiber.
• OptiMight’s OMC 1600 DWDM transmission system is capable of transmitting and receiving up to 160 channels of OC192 signals per fiber strand in the C and L bands.  Eighty of these channels propagate in one direction, and another 80 channels propagate in the opposite direction within each fiber.  This bi-directional format of optical transport is accomplished by interleaving the counter-propagating optical signals.  In this manner, 50GHz spacing is effectively achieved in this format while relying only on 100GHz components and technology.
• OptiMight was founded by Mr. Wu-Fu Chen and Dr. Ilya Fishman, who previously served as Research Scientist at Stanford University and as Engineering Manager at Spectra-Physics.

IBM INTEGRATES WI-FI WIRELESS INTO NOTEBOOKS
IBM will embed Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b) wireless capabilities into its new ThinkPad T23 Series notebook computers.  The company is using Intersil's PRISM 2.5 Mini-PCI with a built-in antenna.  http://www.intersil.com
Intersil, August 1, 2001

ADC ANNOUNCES RESTRUCTURING, INCLUDING SALE OF ACCESS PRODUCTS DIVISION AND BROADBAND WIRELESS GROUP
In response to continued weakness in spending on equipment and services for broadband communications networks, ADC announced a corporate restructuring that includes the elimination of 2,500 jobs and the divestiture of additional non-strategic product lines.  ADC will sell its Access Products Division and Broadband Wireless Group to Platinum Equity, LLC, a privately held firm specializing in mission critical technology companies.  The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.  Products covered by the sale include ATM access concentrators and multiplexers, service delivery units (ServicePoint), and data service units/channel service units (DataSMART/FrameVision) as well as broadband wireless access systems (Axity) and broadcast television transmission systems.  http://www.adc.com
ADC, August 1, 2001

• By October 31, 2001, ADC estimates its worldwide employment will have been reduced by approximately 40% since November 2000.

METROMEDIA NEGOTIATES FOR MORE TIME, VENDOR FINANCING
Citicorp granted a two week extension to Metromedia Fiber Network for a key financial commitment letter under which Citicorp is obliged to provide $62.5 million subject to several conditions, including commitments from other sources in the amount of $287.5 million and the receipt of $200 million of vendor financing.  MFN has received commitments from affiliates for $180 million of the $287.5 million.  The affiliates' commitments are subject to the closing of $200 million of vendor financing, the negotiations for which are on going.  Metromedia did not provide any assurance that it will obtain the financing it seeks.  http://www.mmfn.com
Metromedia Fiber Network, August 1, 2001

MCLEODUSA REPORTS REVENUE, TARGETS, NETWORK STATISTICS
McLeodUSA, one of the largest CLECs, reported Q2 revenue of $473.6 million, up 43% over the $331.8 million for the same time last year.  EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the quarter was a positive $34.2 million, excluding one-time events, up from $1.1 million for second quarter 2000.  McLeodUSA announced that Forstmann Little agreed to invest an additional $100 million in the company in the form of 36.4 million shares of common stock issued at a price of $2.75 per share, a 12% premium over the last five-day average share price.  The company also announced several management changes, including the appointment of Steve Gray, who has served as President since 1997 and Co-CEO since early this year, to be President and CEO. Clark McLeod will continue as Chairman.  http://www.mcleodusa.com
McLeodUSA, August 1, 2001

• On May 2, McLeodUSA announced that it had sold two of its PCS licenses and entered into agreements to sell the remainder of its PCS licenses by year end.  As of August 1, McLeodUSA had received over $125 million in cash for the sale of its PCS licenses.
• Last October, McLeodUSA signed a three year, $600 million contract to purchase wholesale voice and data services from Qwest.  In November, it agreed to purchase additional network infrastructure from Level 3 covering 25 US states.
• During 2000, McLeodUSA acquired CapRock Communications Corp., a CLEC serving the southwestern US with 95,000 lines in service and 5,400 fiber route miles, and Splitrock Services Inc., which operated a nationwide data network with ATM switches in over 325 POPs in all 50 states.