AT&T
OFFERS TO PURCHASE EXCITE@HOME BROADBAND ACCESS
AT&T
agreed to purchase essentially all of Excite@Home's
broadband access business assets for $307 million in cash
as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding filed by
Excite@Home. The deal requires the approval of the
bankruptcy court and is still subject to higher and better
offers. Excite@Home said it has sufficient cash to
continue operating during the sale approval process. http://www.home.net/
http://www.att.com
Excite@Home, September 28, 2001
- As of June 30,
Excite@Home was serving 3,674,000 broadband
subscribers worldwide, representing an addition of
474,000 subscribers for Q2. North American
subscribers totaled 3,271,000 at June 30, 2001, an
increase of 101% from a year ago. Service
penetration in North America was 9.3% in the second
quarter, up from 6.1% a year ago.
COMCAST
AND AT&T CONTINUE DISCUSSIONS ON CABLE MERGER
Comcast
confirmed that it was continuing discussions about a
possible merger with AT&T Broadband. Comcast Cable is
the third largest cable company in the United States
serving more than 8.4 million cable subscribers. http://www.comcast.com
Comcast, September 28, 2001
- In
July, Comcast made public a proposal to merge
its cable networks with those of AT&T Broadband.
The Comcast bid, which was valued at $58 billion at
the time, represented a value of over $4,000 per
subscriber. AT&T’s Board of Directors
subsequently rejected the bid.
CHINA
NETCOM BUYS FOUR 2.5 GBPS WAVELENGTHS FROM ASIA GLOBAL
CROSSING
China
Netcom will purchase four 2.5 Gbps transpacific
wavelengths from Asia Global Crossing connecting Hong Kong
and Los Angeles. China Netcom anticipates a surge of
traffic as China gains entry to the WTO and prepares for
the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Separately, China
Netcom also agreed to allow Asia Global Crossing to
interconnect 2.5 Gbps of capacity with the China Netcom
domestic network. The deal provides Asia Global
Crossing with access to the major business centers of
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, enabling it to offer its
full suite of data services, including International
Private Line Circuits (IPLC), IPTransit and last-mile
provisioning. Connectivity to these POPs will be via CNC's
terrestrial network.
http://www.asiaglobalcrossing.com/media/press_releases/pr_092801.htm
Asia Global Crossing, September 28, 2001
KOREA
THRUNET LAUNCHES METRO ETHERNET SERVICE IN SEOUL
Korea
Thrunet began offering a metro Ethernet service in
high-density business districts of Seoul. The
service is provided over fiber rings using only LAN-type
Ethernet switches. Thrunet already claims fifteen
corporate customers and aims to have 50 customers by
year’s end. http://english.thrunet.com/
Korea
Thrunet, September 28, 2001
- As
of August 30, Korea Thrunet had 1,133,318 broadband
Internet subscribers. The company recently
submitted a bid to acquire a 30% controlling stake in
Powercomm, an operator of a nationwide fiber optic and
HFC network whose majority owner is Korea Electric
Power.
TELICA
ANNOUNCES THREE NEW CUSTOMERS, INTERCONNECTS SOFTSWITCH
WITH RBOC NETWORKS
Telica,
a start-up based in Marlboro, Massachusetts, announced
three new customers for its Plexus 9000 switching system
as well as the interconnection of those customer networks
with all four RBOCs and Sprint Local networks. The
new customers, which include Lucre (Michigan), Western
Pacific Telecom (Nevada), and Telepak Networks
(Mississippi), deployed the softswitching-based platform
for Class 4 and Class 5 applications and Voice over Packet
(VoP) capabilities. Telica’s Plexus 9000
integrates switching, termination and gateway functions
into a single box. http://www.telica.com
Telica, October 1, 2001
- Key
features of the Telica Plexus 9000 include a 15 Gbps
switching fabric (with a latency of only 1.2 ms);
integrated SS7 signaling, call control and switching;
Class 4/5 baseline features; transport and protocol
transparency (IMT, SS7, ISDN PRI, ATM and IP);
hot-swappable components and fault-tolerant software
and firmware; and a high-density footprint (180,000+
protected DS-0's per rack). In ILEC networks, the
platform could be located beside or behind a Class 5
switch within an end office to perform voice and data
service optimization. CLECs could place it in a
central office co-location cage to serve as a Class 5
substitute, performing full termination and switching
of data calls. The platform recently completed the
Telcordia Technologies OSMINE (Operations Systems
Modification of Intelligent Network Elements) process
for the TIRKS Operations Support Systems (OSSs).
- Telica
was co-founded by John
St. Amand and Charles (Chuck) Bates, both formerly
with Dynamics Research Corporation (DRC).
CONVEDIA
SECURES US$20 MILLION FOR NEXT GEN MEDIA SERVER
Convedia,
a start-up based in Vancouver, Canada, secured US$20
million in third round funding for its next-generation
media servers. Designed for Tier-1 carriers,
Convedia's servers could be used alongside softswitches to
deliver traditional and emerging telecommunications
services such as those requiring voice and video
conferencing, speech recognition, voice messaging and
network announcements capabilities. The company has
raised approximately US$50 million since its inception.
Investors include Mayfield, Ventures West, Entrepia as
well as existing investors Wesley Clover, Ontario Teachers
Pension Plan and Altamira. http://www.convedia.com
Convedia, October 1, 2001
-
Convedia
also announced that that Mayfield's Janice Roberts,
and Sam Znaimer, Senior Vice President with Ventures
West, have joined its Board of Directors, which also
includes Dr. Terry Matthews, founder of Mitel,
Newbridge Networks and March Networks, Greg Aasen,
co-founder of PMC-Sierra, and Convedia’s Peter
Briscoe.
-
The
CMS-6000 Media Server scales up to 18,000 ports in a
single shelf and provides the processing power for
network announcements, IVR, conferencing,
text-to-speech, speech recognition, video
voice-command information services and other
applications delivered through softswitch compliant
protocols like MGCP, SIP, and MEGACO.
TOLLGRADE
TO ACQUIRE LUCENT’S POTS TEST SYSTEM FOR $60M
Tollgrade
Communications agreed to acquire the software assets of
the MLT/LoopCare test system business from Lucent
Technologies for approximately $60 million in cash.
Lucent’s LoopCare, also known as Mechanized Loop Testing
(MLT), is the Plain Old Telephone Services (POTS) test
system used by the RBOCs. Tollgrade plans to combine
the software with its own test hardware. The
companies also announced a supply agreement to provide
LoopCare solutions for DSL and AnyMedia markets.
Tollgrade is headquartered in a suburb of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. http://www.tollgrade.com
Tollgrade,
September 28, 2001
AASTRA
TO ACQUIRE LUCENT’S DIGITAL VIDEO COMPRESSION BUSINESS
Aastra
Technologies Limited agreed to purchase Lucent
Technologies' Digital Video business for an undisclosed
sum. The unit provides high-quality video
compression technology, including designs and delivers
digital video encoders, decoders and gateways for the
broadcast television, cable, and telecommunications
markets. Aastra, which is headquartered in Concord,
Ontario, Canada, specializes in residential and business
telephone terminals, including basic corded, multi-line
and cordless telephones, with a variety of call display
features. http://www.aastra.com
http://www.lucent.com/press/0901/010928.coa.html
Aastra, September 28, 2001
CHORUM
DEBUTS OPTICAL MULTIPLEXERS
Chorum
Technologies, a start-up based in Richardson, Texas,
announced a new series of optical mux/demuxes featuring
very low insertion loss. The products are designed
for DWDM applications where very narrow channel spacings
of 100 GHz or narrower are required. http://www.chorumtech.com
Chorum
Technologies, September 28, 2001
- In
March, Chorum introduced a liquid-crystal based
Optical Harmonic Equalizer (OHE) that dynamically
adjusts the gain profile of an optical amplifier to
ensure that the power levels of DWDM optical signals
are equalized without requiring a conversion from
optical-to-electrical-to-optical. It also introduced a
liquid crystal based Dynamic Variable Attenuator (DVA)
Array that regulates the power of optical signals to
maintain consistent high signal quality during optical
transmission.
- Chorum
has also introduced several optical devices based on
liquid-crystal technologies: a non-mechanical,
all-optical, Fast Add/Drop switch; an optical switch
designed for optical restoration, protection, test,
and provisioning applications; and a
voltage-controlled solid-state optical variable
attenuator for broadband or single-channel
applications.
ADELPHIA CLOSES $2
BILLION IN BANK FINANCING
Adelphia
Communications, the sixth largest US cable company, closed
a new $2.03 billion secured revolving/term credit
facility. Proceeds will be used to repay four credit
agreements of Adelphia subsidiaries and affiliates as well
as for general corporate purposes. The facility also
provides for additional borrowing facilities of up to $750
million, all of which would be discretionary with the
lenders if requested by the borrowers. http://www.adelphia.com
Adelphia Communications, September 28, 2001
Guest
Column
MPLS
to CYA…Converge Your Assets
Jim
Guillet
AVP,
Broadband Networking Division, Alcatel
October 1, 2001
Flashback
to early 2000. You’re a service provider operating
an ATM network and enjoying stable and growing revenues
from services such as cell relay (CR), Frame Relay (FR)
and private lines. Based on popular wisdom at that time
you decide to start migrating these services in earnest
towards a new IP network. In other words, move the
ATM to the network edge and grow the IP core based on your
understanding that maintaining QoS would not be a problem
by next year (i.e. by now). Reasonable assumption
and you may yet be right – just not yet. Emerging
standards for MPLS and DiffServ are still, well, emerging
(though impressive progress is being made with the
cooperation of leading service providers and vendors) and
next-generation router technology is not yet broadly
available.
So, now,
like many service providers, you are operating two
separate and distinct packet networks each with its own
technologies, organizations, and mandates:
connection-oriented (i.e. ATM/FR using switches) and
connectionless (i.e. IP using routers). So much for
operational and capital savings!
This
column will look at solutions to address this network
dilemma through a migration strategy that focuses on the
current and future roles of MPLS in your network. As
per Figure 1, areas addressed will include:
Figure
1
Read
the full column
http://www.convergedigest.com/Bandwidth/archive/011001GUEST-jimguillet1.htm
Conference
Announcement
Next
Generation Networks 2001:
Where the Net Is Going Next
The
15th annual Next Generation Networks Conference (NGN),
the premier annual event in broadband networking,
is scheduled for November 5-9 in Boston,
Massachusetts.
This year’s
conference will focus on:
- Upgrades in
optical networking
- The continuing
migration of services and applications to an
IP substrate
- The business
challenges broadband service providers,
vendors and users will face
Industry leaders
from dozens of companies who define broadband
networks and the Internet will once again deliver
top quality information in an intense five-day
program. Keynote
speakers include Mike Volpi, senior vice president
of Cisco Systems, Ted Leonsis, vice chairman of
America Online, and Richard Simpson, senior vice
president of Bank of America.
NGN 2001 is chaired
by Dr. John M. McQuillan, president of McQuillan
Ventures, and David Passmore, research director of
The Burton Group.
Registration
information is available at http://www.bcr.com/ngn/reginfo.asp
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