BTI Photonic Systems (www.btiphotonics.com), supplier of packet optical edge networking equipment for the delivery of gigabit services, has changed its company name to BTI Systems. The company is also opening a design center in Marlborough, MA, that will focus on expanding its next generation of packet optical networking products.
Standards development and technical planning organization ATIS (www.atis.org) has formed an Optical Access Network Subcommittee (OAN) to develop and maintain standards, implementation agreements, and technical reports for systems and associated interfaces for optical access to telecommunications networks such as GPONs. OAN will serve as a subcommittee to the ATIS Network Interface, Power, and Protection Committee.
Wave7 Optics (www.wave7optics.com) announced a string of new customers, including the Tullahoma (Tennessee) Utilities Board, Orlando Business Telephone Services and its sister company Orlando Telephone Co. in Florida, and SPIE Communications in Paris.
Alcatel-Lucent has signed a turnkey contract with Orascom Telecom to lay the Mediterranean Sea segment of a new 3,850-km submarine cable network, named Middle East North Africa (MENA). The network will link Egypt, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, delivering an ultimate capacity of 5.76 Tbits/sec. It is scheduled to be completed by the first quarter of 2009.
PacketFront (www.packetfront.com) has announced a new deal withWien Energie Wienstrom (www.wienenergie.at), an Austrian utility company owned by the city of Vienna. Using PacketFront equipment, Wien Energie will operate a fully automated open access FTTH network. During the next two years, Wien Energie plans to connect 50,000 households in Vienna to the network, dubbed “blizznet.”
Ekinops says it has raised $20 million of additional capital. This second round of financing was led by Odyssee Venture and included OTC Asset Management as well as existing investors Auriga Partners, Equitis, Siparex, Societe Generale Asset Management, and Ventech.
Transmode (www.transmode.com) and Overture Networks (www.overturenetworks.com) have entered into a strategic business partnership that will enable them to jointly provide enhanced offerings for existing and prospective customers through the deployment of combined metro optical plus multiservice Ethernet access equipment.
Pirelli Broadband Solutions (www.pirellibroadband.com) and Intracom Telecom (www.intracom-telecom.com) will deploy Pirelli’s City8 CWDM Multiservice Platform in Hellas Online’s transport network in Athens, Salonika, and rural areas throughout Greece.
nLIGHT Corp. (www.nlight.net), a manufacturer of high-power semiconductor lasers, has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire specialty fiber manufacturer LIEKKI Corp. (www.liekki.com) based in Lohja, Finland. Further terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Nortel (www.nortel.com) has landed a pair of contracts with European carriers for its metro Ethernet equipment. The new customers include Sapphire of Gibraltar and Banverket Information and Communication Technology (ICT) of Sweden. Sapphire plans to bring affordable communications services to businesses, as well as VoIP and multimedia services, in Gibraltar. Banverket ICT, a supplier of network capacity, plans to use Nortel optical networking systems to enable the Sweden’s cable-TV and other service providers to deliver new multimedia services across the country.
Sterlite Optical Technologies Ltd. (www.sterlitetechnologies.com) will drop “optical” from its name. The name change comes in the wake of the acquisition of a power transmission conductors business and the further expansion of the company’s activities beyond optical technologies. All of its products and services will be offered under the common brand “Sterlite,” and the name change takes effect November 20.
UTStarcom Inc. (www.utstarcom.com) will supply its Metro Ethernet Forum-certified NetRing 10000i STM-64 optical transport equipment to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., the incumbent and largest telecommunications operator in India.
Neuf Cegetel (www.neufcegetel.fr), a French alternative service provider, has selected Alcatel-Lucent (www.alcatel-lucent.com) to deploy a GPON for very high-speed services. Alcatel-Lucent will also be responsible for project management, installation, and maintenance services and will provide its 7342 ISAM Fiber to the User (FTTU) equipment, including the new optical network terminal (ONT) in the home. First deployments began this past summer.
Mintera Corp. (www.mintera.com) has raised a $19 million Series C round of venture capital financing. The round included participation of the company’s new partner, JDSU (www.jdsu.com). The two companies recently announced a co-development partnership, the first results of which will be a 300-pin transponder for 40-Gbit/sec applications based on Mintera’s adaptive differential phase-shift keying (ADPSK) modulation technology.