France Telecom's Orange (www.orange.com) and SFR (originally Société Française de Radiotéléphone) have broadened their recent cooperation agreement by planning to implement a new engineering approach to the deployment of fibre in the 15th arrondissement of Paris and another area to be determined outside the Paris region.
Transmode (www.transmode.com) says it has been selected by the Metro de Madrid for a network improvement project to increase network reliability and to ensure that communications services continue in a disaster recovery situation. Metro de Madrid is the company that runs the Madrid Metro, which provides service for commuters across 218 stations. In the first phase of the project, Transmode improved the communications network by providing Alto del Arenal and Puerta del Sur stations with a redundant, high–capacity link. Meanwhile, Transmode and its Czech Republic–based VAR partner RLC say that Sloane Park Property Trust, a Czech wholesale operator, has deployed Transmode TS–Series CWDM access networks across the Czech Republic.
Covage has selected the Infinera (www.infinera.com) DTN optical system for a nationwide network across France. Covage, which is involved in the acquisition, development, and operation of "Open Access Next Generation Networks" in France, provides wholesale bandwidth services to telecom operators, enabling communities to reduce the costs for communication services for enterprises and households, while extending broadband to a larger portion of the population and making new digital services available more widely. Covage is jointly owned by Axia Networks France, a wholly owned subsidiary of Axia NetMedia Corp., and VINCI Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary of VINCI Construction France. It currently has interests in 12 regional networks and is building a national optical backbone to interconnect its regional networks and offer cost–effective carrier services to its customers nationwide.
SMART Comp., a Czech metropolitan optical networks operator, plans to build an FTTH network in Brno based on Cisco's (www.cisco.com) IP networking architecture. Construction is expected to begin in January 2009. In the first quarter of 2009, 1,600 flats are planned to be connected with optical technology in newly built areas around Brno, with a further 5,000 flats to be networked in the second quarter of 2009.
NEC Europe (www.neceurope.com) is providing optical equipment for Swedish network operator Svenska Fibernt AB. Specifically, Svenska Fibernt has selected NEC's AM3100 series multi–service access nodes, which support GPON, where the individual user can access broadband speeds up to 1 Gbit/sec. The resultant network will provide 10Ã� faster broadband than the current network and will enable Swedish property owners to offer their tenants access to high–speed broadband, says NEC Europe.
KPN (www.kpn.com) and partner Reggefiber say they now have "further clarity" on how FTTH networks will be regulated in the Netherlands. But while the two carriers have submitted a proposal for their proposed joint FTTH rollout, including access tariffs, to the Dutch competition authority NMa, "KPN does not yet have the intention to roll out FTTH on a large scale in the Netherlands," the company stated. For now, KPN says it will continue with its FTTH plans announced earlier this year.
JDSU (www.jdsu.com) has acquired Circadiant (www.circadiant.com), a provider of SFP+, 10–Gigabit Ethernet, and other stressed signal test equipment. JDSU says that Circadiant expands its product portfolio for the lab and production test market by capitalizing on several assets, including Circadiant's Hydra and OST product platforms, established test expertise, and close customer relationships with network equipment manufacturers, optical module vendors, and semiconductor companies. Terms of the acquisition were not released.
BTI Systems (www.btisystems.com) has secured US$15 million in financing. The round included new investor Export Development Canada (EDC), as well as existing investors. BTI will use the funding to expand its global position as a provider of packet optical network edge and access equipment.
GigOptix LLC (www.gigoptix.com), provider of electronic engines for the optically connected digital world, has signed a purchase agreement with a North American investor to invest US$1 million in the company.
JDSU (www.jdsu.com) filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that seeks to halt the import of certain tunable laser chips from its competitors. Citing patent infringements, JDSU filed the complaint against three primary defendants: Bookham (www.bookham.com), Syntune (www.syntune.com), and Cyoptics (www.cyoptics.com), which manufacture and sell the tunable chips at issue in the ITC 39–page complaint.
The Optical Society of America (OSA) and SPIE have announced that the Asia Optical Fiber Communication and Optoelectronic Exposition and Conference (AOE) and Asia–Pacific Optical Communications (APOC) will combine to form a single conference and tradeshow exhibition next year. The combined event will take place November 1–6, 2009, in Shanghai, China. The APOC and AOE 2009 conference will be co–sponsored by IEEE/LEOS, OSA, SPIE, the Chinese Optical Society, and the Chinese Institute of Communications. Wen Global Solutions will manage the conference and own the exposition.
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (www.huawei.com) says it has helped Telefónica de España successfully deploy its first 40G transmission network worldwide. The network's WDM optical rings are designed to enable high–bandwidth and intelligent transmission and more flexible dispatch.Netherlands–based broadband service provider UNET plans to deliver ultra high–speed Internet for homes and businesses across the Netherlands using a new Nortel (www.nortel.com) Ethernet Access system based on WDM–PON technology. UNET says it will use the Nortel equipment to deliver advanced Ethernet services for triple– or multi–play business customers and services for broadcast media and security such as camera and sound recording.