Quantum Bridge Communications Inc. (Andover, MA), a developer of optical-access networking solutions, announced the activation of a large deployment of a passive optical network architecture. Through the use of the Quantum Bridge optical access system, Comcast Business Communications (Philadelphia) has enhanced its existing fiber infrastructure to support the economical delivery of fiber-based services to business customers. The activation of live customer traffic in the Baltimore market is the first in a series of deployments, which will include similar build-outs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Michigan later this year.
Alcatel (Plano, TX), Corning Inc. (Corning, NY), and Optical Solutions (Minneapolis) announced the formation of the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council. The FTTH Council's charter is educating, promoting, and accelerating the deployment of fiber-to-the-home in North America. The FTTH Council will comprise members from the telecommunications, computing, networking, system integration, and content-provider business industries. Other members in the Council will include traditional telecommunications service providers, utilities, municipalities, and real estate developers.
Network USA (Lafayette, LA), an integrated service provider of voice, high-speed data, and video services, will deploy Metro-Optix's (Santa Clara, CA) next-generation CityStream bandwidth manager in its fiber-optic network. Network USA will use the CityStream bandwidth manager in its network to offer traditional telephony services and a range of enhanced services to its carrier customers. Metro-Optix is an optical-networking equipment provider.
Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) announced a one-year, $90-million agreement with TyCom Ltd. (Morristown, NJ) for optical-networking systems and services. The agreement includes deployment of the Lucent WaveStar OLS 1.6T optical-networking system in the TyCom Global Network (TGN). Initially, Lucent will deliver the WaveStar OLS 800G system that will be incorporated in TGN's West Coast routes in the U.S. and in routes in Japan and southern Europe, extending to more than 6,000 km (3,728 mi).
IntelliSpace (New York City), an Ethernet IP broadband services provider, and LuxN Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA), a multiservice optical transport solutions provider, will team up to develop and deliver fiber-optic-based broadband applications to metro customers throughout the U.S. and Europe. IntelliSpace is using LuxN's optical service level management platform, which allows IntelliSpace to detect signal degradation at the physical layer and respond before customers are adversely affected.
Corvis Corp. (Columbia, MD), an intelligent optical-networking solutions provider, and EPIK Communications Inc. (Orlando, FL), the telecommunications subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries Inc., have signed a field trial agreement under which EPIK will be the first customer of Corvis's CorWave optical convergence switch (OCS), a multiband networking product. After successful completion of the field trial, scheduled to start later this year, EPIK intends to deploy the CorWave OCS at major metro aggregation points in its network.
VPI Virtual Photonics (Holmdel, NJ), the developer of professional tools and productivity systems for next-generation products and networks, has changed its name to VPIsystems. The new name marks the company's extension to comprehensive software platforms from specialized tools. The VPI product range has expanded from detailed tools for photonic design to technical knowledge management systems that power the development of next-generation networks.
Celox Networks (Southborough, MA), a designer and developer of scalable edge aggregation and IP service switches for large service providers, has closed an $80-million third round of financing led by Putnam Investments and Firsthand Capital Management Inc. This round brings the company's total funding since its founding in January 1999 to $155 million. Other new investors in this round include Dain Rauscher Wessels, J.P. Morgan Capital, Pacesetter Capital, SG Cowen, and Thomas Weisel Partners.
OnePath Networks (Princeton, NJ), a broadband access equipment producer, and NWS Communications Corp. (Westfield, MA), a network integrator, have formed an alliance to deliver converged broadband Internet and entertainment video over fiber-based access networks to multiple-dwelling unit (MDU) subscribers. Under terms of their agreement, NWS will integrate OnePath Networks' iPath system into the private, fiber-based broadband networks it builds for residential, education, and hospitality MDUs.
Fluke Networks (Everett, WA) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Microtest Inc. (Phoenix), a test and connectivity products producer. Under the terms of the agreement, Fluke Networks will acquire Microtest in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $74 million, or approximately $8.15 per share. The announcement to acquire Microtest follows Fluke Networks' recent acquisition of Fotec Inc.
Zolo Technologies Inc. (Louisville, CO), an optical-networking subsystems developer and manufacturer, has completed its acquisition of optical gratings manufacturer Hyperfine Inc. (Boulder, CO). Zolo has also announced that it has raised $32.5 million in Series B financing, which it will use to expand its production capacity, product development, and marketing programs for the company's Zmux line of DWDM products.
Excite@Home (Redwood City, CA), a residential and business broadband services provider, has renegotiated its optical-fiber backbone capacity contract with AT&T. The new arrangement will provide Excite@Home $85 million in cash and will leave intact Excite@Home's backbone operations and upgrade and expansion capabilities.
ZettaCom Inc. (Santa Clara, CA), a supplier of high-performance and configurable optical silicon solutions, has completed the closing of its Series B equity round of financing with a total amount of $47.5 million. The company's recent infusion of funds will accelerate the build-out of ZettaCom's communication ICs, expand its national operations, further development initiatives, and continue growth of the company's professional teams.
Sanmina Corp. (San Jose, CA), an electronics contract manufacturer, and Alcatel (Dallas, TX), a supplier of next-generation networks, have signed a letter of intent for Sanmina to acquire Alcatel's manufacturing operations in Richardson, TX. Alcatel's manufacturing operation is ISO 9001 and TL 9000 certified.
Luminous Networks (Cupertino, CA), an optical-networking company, completed an $80-million equity financing round. This financing provides Luminous with working capital for manufacturing its PacketWave products. Luminous will also use the money to expand its sales and customer service resources and to accelerate product development.
CloudShield Technologies Inc. (San Jose) introduced a new packet-processing technology that allows network applications to run at optical speed. According to the company, CloudShield has created a 10-Gbit/sec, integrated hardware and software system that runs applications without degrading network performance.
Williams Communications, (Tulsa, OK), a provider of broadband services, has entered into a strategic partnership with iBEAM Broadcasting Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA), a streaming communications solutions provider. The alliance will drive traffic to Williams Communications' 33,000-mi fiber-optic network. Williams Communications will provide iBEAM with an expanded set of telecommunications and broadband media services and become the latter's preferred provider of IP transit services.
Onetta Inc. (San Jose), a developer and manufacturer of intelligent optical engines, has selected Datasweep's (San Jose) solution to manage its manufacturing operations. Datasweep develops and markets real-time collaborative manufacturing solutions for OEMs, electronic manufacturing service pro viders, and component suppliers.
Rye Telephone Co. (Colorado City, CO) will deploy Optical Solutions' (Minneapolis) next-generation fiber-to-the-community system, FiberPath 400. Rye Telephone, an existing Optical Solutions customer, will deploy the new system to approximately 2,000 homes in Rye and Colorado City. The new optical technology will replace existing copper lines.
Valiant Networks Inc. (San Jose), a managed network services company, announced a partnership with BrightLink Networks Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) to test and evaluate BrightLink's BOSS 1000 optical switch. The BOSS 1000 is a scalable optical switch that supports grooming and switching at the STS-1 level.
CableLAN Products Inc. (Norfolk, MA), a distributor of premises and specialty copper and fiber cabling products, has delivered a large order of fiber-optic cables to Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant. CableLAN Products distributes fiber-optic cables for nuclear power plants used for communication links, data networks, video broadcasting, and emergency system repairs.
OMM (San Diego) announced that its photonic switching subsystems conform to Telcordia Technologies' (Morristown, NJ) environmental and reliability requirements for carrier-class equipment. Telcordia conformance is a requirement for commercial deployment of MEMS-based photonic switching subsystems within telecommunications networks. Telcordia is a telecommunications training services provider.
Velio Communications Inc. (San Jose), a provider of silicon devices that solve communications challenges of optical carrier equipment, announced that Altamar Networks (Mountain View, CA) is deploying Velio's VC3003 140x140 crosspoint switch in the Titanium optical-network system. The Titanium optical-network system is being developed to integrate switching, transport, and network management into a single system that offers carriers switching scalability. Altamar Networks designs, develops, and markets communications equipment for the core optical network.
Progress Telecom (St. Petersburg, FL), a telecommunications services carrier, has completed its broadband metro fiber-optic network in Miami. Progress Telecom's new metro fiber network provides carriers, data centers, Internet service providers, and businesses in greater Miami with connectivity.
EuropeAlcatel (Paris) announced a three-year deal with Deutsche Telekom AG (Bonn, Germany), a telecommunications operator. Alcatel will supply Deutsche Telekom with 1.2 million km of cabled optical fiber through 2003, with the first deliveries starting in the middle of this year. Deutsche Telekom will deploy Alcatel's singlemode optical fiber cables as part of the company's ongoing plans to upgrade and expand its optical-networking capabilities. Alcatel has also signed a 33-month agreement to provide maintenance for all submarine networks laid in the North Sea. This agreement, the North Sea Cable Maintenance Agreement, is the collaboration of a group of cable-owning carriers who agree to share the cost of maintenance. The contract will be effective from April 2002 until the end of 2004. Two vessels from Alcatel's maintenance fleet will be posted in the North Sea region to repair any eventual undersea system damage in the region.
Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) announced that Thus plc (London), a voice, data, Internet, and interactive services provider, has selected the Agilent accessFIBER optical-network management system to maintain and improve its service quality. Agilent accessFIBER will provide Thus with remote monitoring of its optical network, enabling Thus access to early warning of fiber degradation and reducing the time required to locate and repair either suspect or broken fiber cables.
FLAG Telecom (London), a network services provider and independent carrier, announced that its FLAG Atlantic-1 (FA-1) cable is now carrying commercial traffic. With FA-1, FLAG Telecom can now offer customers direct connectivity between New York, London, and Paris, with seamless connections to other cities in the U.S. and Europe and to countries in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions. The final splice of the South cable is currently underway and the ready-for-service date for the full loop system is expected to be in the third quarter of this year.
Télécom Développement (TD-Paris), a long-distance service provider, has extended its relationship with CIENA (Linthicum, MD) as its supplier of optical transport systems to help increase the capacity of its long-haul network that spans 30 French cities. TD is deploying CIENA's MultiWave CoreStream 96-channel, intelligent optical transport platform, which provides high-capacity network transmission for voice, data, Internet, and video services over fiber-optic networks.
A subsidiary of Verizon Communications Inc. sold 15 million of its shares in FLAG Telecom (London) to TGN Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of Tyco International Ltd. Verizon retains approximately 18.6% and Tyco owns approximately 11.2% of FLAG Telecom's outstanding common stock as a result of the deal. Verizon and FLAG Telecom have an agreement to jointly develop a pan-European terrestrial network linking the major business centers in continental Europe. FLAG Telecom also remains a primary supplier of international subsea capacity to Verizon.
Acterna (Germantown, MD), a provider of test and management solutions, announced that Alcatel (Paris) has deployed the Acterna TestPad SONET field services module (2310) throughout its SONET networks in the U.S. Acterna's TestPad SONET field services module is a field services testing device that enables providers to efficiently provision, install, and maintain data.
ADVA Optical Networking (Ramsey, NJ), a provider of optical-networking solutions, has raised funding from one of its largest shareholders, the EGORA-Group (Munich, Germany), through a capital increase. The management and supervisory boards of ADVA resolved to increase the share capital of the company from approved capital in an amount of 1,076,923 shares against a total cash contribution of EUR 7 million.
Intense Photonics (Glasgow, Scotland), a manufacturer of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), has secured £7.75 million (approximately $11 million) of equity financing. The funding comes from 3i and ACT Capital Partners. The company has already announced its first PIC, which exploits quantum well intermixing integration capability to create a high-yield chip for DWDM markets.
MEMSCAP S.A. (Grenoble, France), a provider of MEMS-based products for fiber-optic and wireless communications markets, has established a Japanese subsidiary located in Tokyo. The company has also set up relationships with three additional software distributors in China, Korea, and Australia and plans to offer software-training seminars throughout the region.
KPNQwest (Prague, Czech Republic), a European data communications and hosting company, connected two more of the OC-192 self-healing rings in its EuroRings fiber-optic network. The two new rings connect 13 cities (of which four are new additions to its network) across 3,900 km.
Dominion Telecom (Richmond, VA), a facilities-based interexchange and emerging local carrier, has selected Alcatel (Paris), an optical-networking provider, as the primary supplier for a North American optical network. Alcatel will provide long-haul optical solutions, including DWDM systems, SONET multiservice systems, optical-fiber cables, and connectivity elements. Dominion Telecom's new network, connecting Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Washington, DC, will be complete this year.
STMicroelectronics (Geneva, Switzerland), an independent semiconductor company, and Onix Microsystems Inc. (Richmond, CA), a MEMS-based telecommunications equipment supplier, have signed an agreement to co-develop and manufacture chipsets containing MEMS devices and ASICs for use in Onix's TRANSPORT optical-switching engines. These switches will be used for dynamic cross connects, add/drop modules, network pro visioning, and network restoration.
South AmericaGlobal Crossing Ltd. (Hamilton, Bermuda), an integrated telecommunications solutions provider, has completed its core network linking 27 countries and more than 200 major cities in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. The final connection was between Lima, Peru and South American Crossing, which is already operational in major markets throughout the region, including Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, and Panama.
Lightscape Networks (Petah Tikva, Israel), a provider of optical networking and a member of the ECI Telecom group, announced that Cable & Wireless (Panama) has successfully transmitted live global traffic from Panama using the XDM optical platform from Lightscape Networks. Cable & Wireless chose Lightscape Networks' XDM hybrid optical-networking platform to consolidate voice and data traffic across local, national, and international networks.
AsiaK2 Optronics, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA), a de veloper of components and modules for the optical-networking industry, and Flextronics (Singapore), an operational services provider, announced the signing of a strategic agreement to manufacture metro DWDM laser-diode modules based on an external-cavity configuration.
Ciena Corp. (Hong Kong), an intelligent optical-networking systems and software provider, announced the launch of its Asia-Pacific regional headquarters in Hong Kong. The new full-service office provides sales, training, testing, and support facilities to staff and customers across the Asia Pacific region. Ciena also announced a sales agreement with Beijing IDN (CEC/IDN). CEC/IDN plans to deploy CIENA's MultiWave CoreDirector and MetroDirector K2 products and has placed purchase orders with Ciena. Beijing IDN is the joint venture formed by China Electronic Corp. (CEC), an electronic enterprise in China, and IDN Telecom Inc., a privately held broadband and metro access solution company.
TyCom Ltd. (Pembroke, Bermuda) has been granted a Type 1 license to own and operate network facilities in Japan. This license will allow TyCom to provide capacity and collocation services as part of the deployment of the TyCom Global Network. TyCom also opened a new office in Tokyo to manage its Japanese operations.
Level 3 Communications Ltd. (Hong Kong), a communications and information services company, has activated the first leg of the company's new multiterabit North Asian undersea cable system connecting Hong Kong and Japan. The Hong Kong-to-Japan segment is part of the north Asian cable system, which is jointly owned by Level 3 and FLAG Telecom. Following the activation of services in Hong Kong and Japan, Level 3 expects to extend service into Taiwan in the first quarter of 2002 and in Korea in the second quarter of 2002. Cable landings in Taiwan at Toucheng and Pusan, Korea, are expected to take place later this year.
Corning International Corp. (Hickory, NC) has completed a transaction to acquire shares in an equity company with Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation (VNPT-Vietnam), Vietnam's primary telecommunications operator. Under the arrangement, Corning and VNPT will each own 50% of the company, which will manufacture fiber-optic cable under its existing name, Fibre Optic Cable and Accessories Ltd.
Juniper Networks Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA), a provider of next-generation IP infrastructure systems, announced that China Cable Network Company Ltd. (China Cable-Beijing, China,) is using Juniper Networks' M-series Internet backbone routers as the infrastructure supporting delivery of its national cable TV backbone network. The initial phase includes deployment in 14 cities throughout China including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan. The network will expand to include an additional 23 cities, covering more than 30 Chinese provinces by early 2002.
Nanoptics Inc. (Gainesville, FL), a re searcher and manufacturer of specialty plastic optical fiber, announced the formation of a joint venture with Samyang Corp (Seoul, Korea), a manufacturer and holding company of the Samyang Group of Companies. The new company, Digital Optronics Corp., will further develop Nanoptics' new method for mass production of graded-index plastic optical fiber for use in digital communications.
Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) has entered into an agreement to sell its Optical Fiber Solutions business (OFS) for $2.75 billion to Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. (Tokyo) and Corning Inc. (Corning, NY). Lucent will receive $2.525 billion from Furukawa for the major portion of the business. Corning will pay $225 million for Lucent's interests in two joint ventures in China-Lucent Technologies Shanghai Fiber Optic Co. Ltd. and Lucent Technologies Beijing Fiber Optic Cable Co. Ltd. In addition, Furukawa and CommScope (Hickory, NC) have agreed to enter into one or more joint ventures that will be formed to operate the OFS business. Up to $250 million of Furukawa's payment to Lucent may be in CommScope securities.
C-COR.net (State College, PA) is part of a successful consortium bid to develop a broadband network in Indonesia for Pt. Indosat Mega Media (IMM-Jakarta, Indonesia). During the first phase of the contract, C-COR.net will supply equipment for the construction of a hybrid fiber/coax system passing 15,000 Indonesian homes from two headends-one in Jakarta and one in Surabaya. The network will offer video and cable modem service to subscribers. The winning consortium includes Fujikura Ltd. of Japan, serving as the optical-fiber manufacturer; Pt. Sumitomo Indonesia of Indonesia; Sumitomo Corp. of Japan, serving as the main contractor to IMM and total project coordinator; and Pan Asian Systems of Hong Kong, supplying signal distribution equipment.
Africa/Middle East/AustraliaPacketLight Networks (Kfar-Saba, Is rael), a developer of advanced optical service transport systems, has signed a strategic manufacturing agreement with Flextronics (Singapore), a provider of electronics manufacturing services to OEMs. Under the agreement, Flextronics will produce, assemble, and test PacketLight products. PacketLight's all-packet optical multiple-service transport system supports SONET systems while accommodating emerging data and storage-area-network services.
Civcom (Petach-Tikva, Israel) introduced its Free-X family of high-speed all-optical switches, which are designed to eliminate the need to convert optical-to-electrical signals at junctions of long-haul, metropolitan, and access networks. New investors added in this round were Mercator Broadband, Formula Ventures, and Omninet Capital.
FLAG Telecom (London), a network services provider and independent carrier, announced that the Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (Etisalat) signed an STM-1 (155-Mbit/sec) capacity agreement between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and San Francisco with IP transit via Japan.
Clarification: In the July 2001 issue of Lightwave, p.134, Pioneer Consulting was erroneously called Pioneer Communications.