Transmode Systems (Stockholm) and Lumentis (Stockholm) merged to form a new company under the Transmode name, focused solely on optical-networking equipment. Leveraging each company’s product portfolio, customer base, financial resources, and cultural compatibility, the combined entity sees becoming a top 5 player in the worldwide metro WDM market within three years. Independently, each company has grown its revenue more than 100% each year over the past two years. The companies posted combined revenues of $18 million last year. The combined company expects to double that sum this year.
Alcatel(Paris) awarded Avanex(Fremont, CA) a contract to supply optical components to be deployed in connection with Alcatel’s recently announced contracts for major submarine fiber networks. Avanex’s range of optical products for submarine applications includes its PowerBragg gain-flattening filter and PowerDeep family of pump-laser modules.
Bell Canada (Montreal) purchased VPIsystems’ (Holmdel, NJ) network resource planning and engineering software. The carrier will use the software to optimize capacity usage on its existing network as well as optimize the design of ring and mesh networks.
Looking Glass Networks (Oak Brook, IL) selected Acterna’s (Germantown, MD) transport module for that company’s T-BERD and MTS-8000 field test platforms. The module will enable the service provider, which owns physically diverse metro fiber networks, to efficiently deploy its 10-Gbit/sec and SONET/SDH services.
Metro-network services provider OnFiber Communications (Austin, TX) announced the expansion of its service offerings into the Austin market, making the company’s AdaptiveBuild enterprise platform and managed transport services available in a total of 17 U.S. metro markets. Passing through the downtown business corridor, the provider’s Austin network will serve all major Internet access points, providing SONET and Ethernet transport services for data, voice, and video.
Benton Cooperative Telephone of central Minnesota chose Optical Solutions’ (Minneapolis) FiberPath GPON platform to deliver triple play FTTP services to several greenfield sites in Rice and Milaca, MN.
NanoOpto (Somerset, NJ) closed on $12 million in Series C round venture financing, raising the company’s total financing to $42.3 million. First Analysis, a private growth-equity investor, led the round, which also included existing equity partners Morgenthaler Ventures, the Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) network, Harris & Harris Group, and U.S. Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners III. The company’s product offerings this year have included IR cutoff filters for digital imaging applications, waveplates for optical data storage applications, and optical isolators for communications transceivers.
Science Applications International Corp.(SAIC-San Diego), a research and engineering firm, completed the sale of its subsidiary, Telcordia Technologies (Piscataway, NJ), to an affiliate of Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus for about $1.35 billion in cash, subject to certain adjustments. SAIC purchased Telcordia from the RBOCs in 1997.
Polatis (Cambridge, UK) announced a global sales distribution agreement with JDS Uniphase (San Jose, CA). Polatis’s optical-crossconnect switches will now be available through JDSU’s network of resellers, direct sales, and distribution channels.
NetCologne (Bonn, Germany), a large regional telecom carrier, selected OFS (Norcross, GA) to upgrade the carrier’s network in Germany’s Rhein-Erft region. OFS will supply 80 km of its AllWave zero water peak optical fiber as well as mini- and micro-cables to be blown into narrow previously loaded ducts. New pathways accessing the carrier’s customer base in Cologne include several running through the sewer network in the city of Kerpen, where tubes and fiber-optic cable were laid without disrupting the environment.
Telecom and IT services carrier Elion Enterprises (Estonia) paired with Alcatel(Paris) to mount the latter’s FTTU field trial delivering triple play bandwidth services to greenfield subscribers in Merirahu province, near Tallinn, Estonia. For the trial, Alcatel supplied residential PON equipment, including its 7340 FTTU platform.
Atrica (Santa Clara, CA) and systems integratorIntellicom(Skopje, Macedonia) formed a strategic reseller relationship. Macedonia’s national telecom operator, Makedonski Telekomunikacii, has already deployed Atrica’s carrier platform with Intellicom’s help.
Avanex (Fremont, CA), developer of photonic devices for optical networks, opened an operations center near Bangkok, Thailand. The facility is part of a plan to cost-effectively centralize the company’s global manufacturing and operational overhead functions. When fully implemented, the operations center is expected to reduce the company’s cost structure by $8-$12 million a year.
China’s Customs General Administration selected Nortel’s (Ottawa, CA) Optical Metro 5200, Optical Multiservice Edge 6110, and Optical Metro 1200 devices to upgrade the subhead’s storage-network infrastructure. China Customs will extend its networked storage capabilities from the main data center in Beijing to multiple sites across major metro areas. The deployment will also support China’s state-owned Golden Customs initiative, a nationwide project developed to connect the information networks of the subhead’s customs and foreign trade sectors.