JDSU (www.jdsu.com) has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Picolight Inc.(www.picolight.com), designer and manufacturer of optical pluggable transceivers. The transaction is expected to close June 30, subject to regulatory approvals. JDSU will acquire Picolight for approximately $115 million in JDSU stock, plus up to an additional $10 million in cash subject to the achievement of certain revenue targets during calendar year 2007. Picolight has been an active player in the development of 850- and 1,310-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs).
Carrier Access Corp. (www.carrieraccess.com) has completed the acquisition of IP networking product assets from Mangrove Systems Inc. (www.mangrovesystems.com) in a cash transaction valued at approximately $8 million. Carrier Access says it has hired 30 former employees of Mangrove to sell, support, and continue R&D of the newly acquired Mangrove products. The acquisition is anticipated to be accretive to Carrier Access earnings in 1Q08.
Enablence Technologies Inc. (www.enablence.com) has completed a private placement of 25 million common shares at a price of $0.60 per share for gross proceeds of $15 million. The syndicate behind the funding round was led by Paradigm Capital Inc. and included Wellington West Capital Markets Inc. and Raymond James Ltd. as syndicate partners. According to Enablence chief executive Arvind Chhatbar, the company needs more money to strengthen its position as it enters volume production. In particular, he says the company wants to be in a position to expand its product line or production resources, or enter new “partnerships,” without being restrained financially.
Ceterus Networks (www.ceterusnetworks.com) has announced a $20 million funding round led by Intel Capital. Sevin Rosen and ComVentures, both investors since inception, and Aldus Equity, a new investor, also participated in the funding. Ceterus Networks has aimed to create a platform for versatile, cost-effective Ethernet service delivery platforms supporting both wireline and wireless service providers in their delivery of new data and voice services. The new funding will help with large customer infrastructure rollouts and market expansion, the company says.
Transceiver supplier OE Solutions Co. Ltd. (www.oesolution.com) has closed a $4.3 million Series C round of funding, led by two Korean venture capitalists, Korean Development Bank Capital and Kibo Technology Advancing Capital. The round brings the company’s total funding to date to $16 million. OE Solutions says it will use the funds to expand its global marketing and sales efforts and to accelerate future product development to meet growing customer demand worldwide.
Alchemy Communications Inc., provider of colocation and managed data center services, has chosen MRV Communications’ Fiber Driver to increase the bandwidth of its backbone network. Incorporating the DWDM-capable Fiber Driver also will increase the redundancy and efficiency of Alchemy’s Los Angeles-based fiber-optic network, resulting in a greater return on investment, say MRV representatives.
Tyco Telecommunications (www.tycotelecom.com) has chosen Bookham Inc. (www.bookham.com) to be the lead supplier of 980-nm pump laser modules. Bookham’s OceanBright pump lasers will be used in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), which in turn are incorporated into repeaters that form a critical element of undersea cable systems around the world.
Fujikura Ltd. (www.fujikura.co.jp) and Nistica (www.nistica.com), optical subsystems supplier to telecom system OEMs, have announced a broad cooperative agreement whereby Fujikura will provide full production manufacturing facilities and processes for the volume delivery of Nistica’s FLEDGE series of tunable filters and ROADM modules, as well as future Nistica products. In addition, Fujikura will act as a strategic partner for field, warranty, and sales channel support in selected markets. Moreover, Nistica and Fujikura say they will explore jointly developing products in the ROADM market based on Nistica’s technology and platform.
TXP Corp.(www.texasprototypes.com), an original design manufacturer (ODM) for the electronics and telecommunications industries, has entered into an agreement to supply its ONT equipment to an unnamed provider of communications technology and infrastructure equipment. This agreement comes just 2 months after TXP officially acquired the ONT business unit of Siemens. The acquisition brought to TXP’s portfolio BPON ONTs for single-family units (SFUs), multidwelling units (MDUs), and small business units (SBU); and GPON ONTs for SFUs, Ethernet-only SFUs, and SBUs.
Redfern Integrated Optics Inc.(www.rio-inc.com), developer and manufacturer of optical transmitters, has successfully completed reliability qualification of its PLANEX technology platform, in accordance with the requirements of Telcordia GR468-CORE. PLANEX is a planar-based external cavity laser (ECL) packaged in an MSA-compliant transmitter optical subassembly (TOSA) form factor for XFP, SFP, and SFP+ transceiver modules.
Privately held American Fiber Systems Inc. (AFS; www.afsnetworks.com) has completed a $10 million transaction to acquire IDACOMM (www.idacomm.com), the communications subsidiary of IDACORP. IDACOMM is a fiber facilities-based competitive metro network provider, with operations focused in Nevada and Idaho, specializing in fiber-based transport services to both carrier and enterprise customers. IDACOMM’s network includes more than 45,000 local and long-haul fiber-strand miles with approximately 150 buildings on net and includes the cities of Las Vegas, Reno, and Carson City, NV, as well as Boise, ID, opening up new regional transport business for AFS.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a patent entitled “Method and Apparatus for Testing Optical Networks” (US patent no. 7,187,861) to EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (www.exfo.com). The patent serves as the basis of EXFO’s series of PON power meters, which are widely used by technicians to characterize FTTH networks, particularly near the ONT at the customer premises where triple-play services need to be activated. EXFO’s patented technology enables pass-through measurements of both downstream and upstream optical power at different wavelengths, including those of “bursty” upstream signals.
ADVA Optical Networking(www.advaoptical.com) has been named a supplier of Ethernet last-mile access products in British Telecom’s 21st Century Network. The carrier will deploy the ADVA FSP 150 as the Network Termination Equipment (NTE) to interconnect all end customers, carriers’ carriers, and BT facilities. The ADVA FSP 150 portfolio, featuring Etherjack technology, provides Ethernet demarcation, extension, and aggregation.
The Neuf Cegetel Group(www.groupeneufcegetel.fr) plans to offer fiber-based broadband services beginning this month in Paris. The carrier expects to pass a million homes by the end of 2009 and to connect a total of 250,000 customers. Coverage areas will include Paris and its suburbs, districts of other major cities, and other areas selected on the basis of rollout costs and opportunities to increase market share. The target might be raised if investments can be “mutualized with other partner operators.” To start the rollout of its program, Neuf Cegetel acquired in early 2007 Mediafiber, which serves around 3,000 FTTH customers in the city of Pau (among around 40,000 homes passed). On February 20, 2007, the group announced an agreement to take a controlling stake in Paris-based Erenis, which has more than 55,000 homes passed and more than 10,000 customers connected.
Avanex Corp. (www.avanex.com) has entered into a definitive agreement to sell a 90% interest in its French subsidiary, Avanex France S.A., including its indium phosphide (InP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor fabs, to Global Research Co., a société à responsibilité limitée, owned by Alexandre Krivine, and to the current management of Avanex France S.A., Didier Sauvage. In addition to the semiconductor III-V fabs, the divested business includes the laser, terrestrial pump, submarine pump, and fiber Bragg grating product lines. Avanex plans to maintain a core development group of about 20 employees in France focused on transmission products. Jo Major, Avanex’s chairman, president, and chief executive officer, confirms that the company expects to realize between $12 million and $16 million in annual financial improvements as a result of this divestiture beginning in fiscal 4Q07.
Irish ISP Digiweb has deployed an advanced Ethernet-over-optical network within its Dublin Metro network using equipment from both Transmode (www.transmode.com) and Overture Networks (www.overturenetworks.com). The joint Transmode/Overture network provides Digiweb with a new Ethernet-over-WDM backbone network and Ethernet-over-fiber/copper access network to support growing demand for the carrier’s business-to-business and consumer ISP services.
ColorChip (www.color-chip.com), manufacturer of glass-based planar lightwave circuit chips and modules for FTTH networks, has completed a $7.4 million funding led by Vertex Venture Capital. Vertex joined existing investors including Bessemer, Eurofund, Motorola, Polytechnos, and Walden Israel Venture Capital. According to Moshe Price, chief executive officer of ColorChip, the proceeds will enable the company to move from product qualification to mass manufacturing to accommodate the strong FTTH market demands in the US, Japan, Asia Pacific, and Europe.
ECI Telecom Ltd.(www.ecitele.com) has completed the first stage of the construction of a metro optical network for Ukrtelecom JSC, a national telecommunication operator in Ukraine. This first stage covers Ukraine’s nine largest regions and will include the deployment of ECI’s XDM optical platform to enable Ukrtelecom to meet increasing subscriber demand for next-generation services.
ECI Telecom also has demonstrated what it claims is the industry’s first successful 43-Gbit/sec transmission over 1,000 km via a 10-degree, 50-GHz channel-spaced wavelength-selective switch (WSS) reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM). According to the company, the demonstration illustrates how bandwidth-tolerant 43-Gbit/sec modulation formats enable signal transmission up to 1,000 km through 50-GHz spaced WSS ROADMs, while maintaining high noise tolerance similar to that of 10-Gbit/sec signals. The company says its XDM offering allows carriers to build reconfigurable ROADM-based networks with maximum capacity of 80 channels × 40 Gbits/sec (or 3.2 Tbits/sec) and distances suitable for metro, regional, and long-haul applications.
Ericsson(www.ericsson.com) has signed a turnkey contract with the city of Trikala as equipment provider and prime integrator to implement the city’s pioneering plans for the creation of the first Greek Digital City. Per the contract, Ericsson is the sole supplier of switching, Wi-Fi systems, and a 15-km fiber-optic metro network, as well as related telecom services, such as consulting, deployment, systems integration, and customer support, until 2008.
Alcatel-Lucent (www.alcatel-lucent.com) has signed a turnkey contract with the East Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) consortium to lay the first ever optical submarine cable network landing in East Africa, scheduled for completion by the end of 2008. Based on Alcatel-Lucent’s submarine and terrestrial optical systems, the EASSy submarine network will deliver a regional capacity of nearly 320 Gbits/sec and span nearly 10,000 km, linking eight countries from Sudan to South Africa, via Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Mozambique. Governments, public administrations, and businesses will be able to leverage the network to support new applications such as remote medical diagnosis and international call centers. By interconnecting with Sea-Me-We 3, Sea-Me-We 4, SAS1, Falcon, and SAT3/WASC/SAFE, the EASSy submarine cable system also will serve as a supporting infrastructure for these networks.
Independent Indonesian telecommunications provider PT NAP Info Lintas Nusa and Tyco Telecommunications have announced the signing of a contract between NAP Singapore-based affiliate Matrix Networks and Tyco Telecommunications to construct an undersea fiber-optic system. The system will comprise a four-fiber-pair trunk between Singapore and Jakarta with branches to Batam in the Riau Islands Province and Pontianak in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The design also facilitates a future connection to Perth, Australia, via an undersea branching unit. Using DWDM, the system will be able to transmit 64 10-Gbit/sec wavelengths on each fiber pair for a total bandwidth of nearly 2.6 Tbits/sec.Cortina Systems(www.cortina-systems.com) has acquired Immenstar (www.immenstar.com), a privately held semiconductor company that specializes in PON system-on-chip (SoC) technology. According to Cortina, the Immenstar acquisition simultaneously builds on the strength of its existing technology and expands its reach into the access network; the company confirms plans to play in both the EPON and GPON markets with a portfolio of products that combine intelligent bandwidth, high density, and low power. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
TriAccess Technologies (www.triaccesstech.com) has signed a multiyear supply agreement with LuminentOIC Inc. (www.luminentoic.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of MRV Communications (www.mrv.com), to supply the latest version of its TAT6254 Series RF integrated circuit for use in GPON networks. LuminentOIC plans to incorporate the TriAccess 6254 RFIC in triplexer transceivers installed within optical network terminals (ONTs). Luminent-OIC will be the lead customer for the next product release in the TriAccess TAT6254 series for GPON applications and has committed to purchasing significant volumes of this device, say TriAccess representatives. In addition, as part of this agreement, LuminentOIC has attained exclusive rights to the TAT6254 product series for all BPON applications.