Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) has selected the CoreDirector Multiservice Switch from Ciena Corp. (www.ciena.com) for use in the organization’s production and research networking efforts. The CoreDirector will support MAX’s operation and management of the Next Generation Internet Exchange (NGIX) and Dynamic Resource Allocation over GMPLS Optical Network (DRAGON) research test bed to further collaboration between networks in the metropolitan Washington, DC, area and national and international research and education initiatives.
Telepak Networks (www.telepaknetworks.com), a service provider of Internet, telecommunications, and network services in Jackson, MS, has selected the Netstender 2060 platform from BTI Photonic Systems (www.btiphotonics.com) to increase the capacity of existing fiber to deliver multiple streams of 10-Gigabit Ethernet traffic between major Telepak Networks sites.
OpVista (www.opvista.com) has secured $15 million in additional funding to further support the company’s global sales and marketing efforts of the OpVista2000 and its recently released optical networking approach for Carrier Ethernet transport services. This latest internal round of investment was led by ComVentures, with existing investors also participating. The round brings the total company funding to date to $90 million.
Stratos International (www.stratosinternational.com) announced that it has agreed to be acquired by Emerson (www.gotoemerson.com). Under the terms of the agreement, the holders of Stratos International common stock will receive $8.00 per share in cash for their shares, for a total consideration of approximately $118 million, or an aggregate consideration of approximately $85 million, net of acquired cash. The proposed transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals, approval by Stratos International’s stockholders, and satisfaction of other customary conditions.
UBTA-UBET Communications (www.ubta-ubet.com), Utah’s largest independent telecommunications service provider, has selected Occam Networks Inc. (www.occamnetworks.com) to assist with building out services to new homes under construction in UBTA-UBET’s service area. The carrier has purchased Occam’s 6312 Optical Line Termination (OLT) blades, 6252-02 ADSL2Plus and POTS with Gigabit Ethernet blades, 6440-01 Gigabit Optical Ethernet Transport blades, and 6640-01 Subscriber Trunk Gateway blades….Also, Local Internet Service Co. (LISCO), a CLEC serving in the Fairfield, IA, area has begun purchasing Occam Networks’ BLC 6000 Fiber products as part of a strategy to overbuild Fairfield with fiber to the home. LISCO has purchased Occam’s 6312 OLT blades and 6314s 10-Gigabit Ethernet Optical Packet Transport and OLT blades.
NTELOS (www.ntelos.com), a communications provider serving portions of seven states, will deploy the new GPON features on the Tellabs (www.tellabs.com) 1150 multiservice access platform to deliver increased bandwidth to its customers. This additional bandwidth will enable NTELOS to deliver high-definition video services and faster data services.
ERF Wireless (www.erfwireless.com) has entered into an agreement with the El Dorado Golf and Beach Club of San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, to provide a complete FTTH voice, video, and data system for the entire development, including the private club and multimillion dollar homes in this exclusive, gated community. ERF Wireless has had an operational FTTH group since late last year.
Digital Streets (www.digitalstreets.tv), a California-based services company that provides enhanced television, telephone, Internet, and community portal services over state-of-the-art networks to residential communities, has deployed an FTTH network using PacketFront (www.packetfront.com) technology and expertise.
Motorola Inc. (www.motorola.com) and ECI Telecom (www.ecitele.com) have announced a strategic relationship pairing ECI’s IP DSLAM portfolio with Motorola’s fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) and fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) platforms.
Corning Inc. (www.corning.com) has announced plans to reopen a portion of its Concord, NC, optical fiber manufacturing facility. The company expects it will take approximately six to nine months to restart fiber manufacturing. Production will be paced to meet market demand.
Iowa Health System (IHS), Iowa’s first and largest integrated healthcare system, has deployedWorld Wide Packets’ (www.worldwidepackets.com) LightningEdge platform in the recently completed first phase of its privately owned fiber-optic medical health network. According to Dave Curry, chief executive officer of World Wide Packets, the IHS network will use both the LightningEdge 427 platform as an aggregation switch and the LightningEdge 311 as a customer premises device. The network includes 2,100 miles of fiber.
Xelerated (www.xelerated.com), a developer of network processors, has closed a $23 million financing round led by the Sixth Swedish National Pension Fund. Xelerated’s existing investors Atlas Venture, Alta Partners, Accel Partners, and Amadeus Capital Partners also participated in the financing round. The company says the new funding mainly will be used to expand sales and support as well as in the development of new products.
Home Telephone Co., an independent telecommunications company in Moncks Corner, SC, has selected ADC’s (www.adc.com) LoopStar 1600 SONET system to provide additional services to customers in the Berkeley County area. Home Telephone is using the LoopStar 1600 platform to provide full-service telecommunications throughout Berkeley County and part of Dorchester County.
foreThought.net (foreThought.net), a telecommunications service provider for home and business throughout the Denver metro area, has announced the completion of a wholly owned fiber-optic network. The network currently links several buildings in downtown Denver, but expansion plans are in place to complete a redundant fiber ring serving twice the current number of buildings.
Internet2 FiberCo (www.FiberCo.org), a fiber holding company formed to support dark fiber initiatives for U.S. research and higher education, and Ciena Corp. (www.ciena.com) have teamed to provide a suite of customized professional services and optical networking equipment to assist Internet2 members with planning, installing, and managing their advanced network infrastructures. Per the agreement, Internet2 members will be able to choose Ciena’s products and services to support the development of regional optical infrastructures to deliver leading-edge network applications and services.
OpTek Systems (www.opteksystems.com), the U.K.-based manufacturer of laser processing tools for the fiber-optic and micromachining markets, has announced the formation of OpTek Systems Inc. (OSI) in Greenville, SC. The company says the expansion is in direct response to the rising demand for laser processing of optical fibers, including lensing, cleaving, and buffer stripping. OSI will provide contract manufacturing services and serve as the headquarters for North American equipment sales.
Ciena Corp. says that the Swedish University Network (SUNET) has successfully rolled out its new 10-Gigabit Ethernet network, OptoSUNET, using Ciena’s FlexSelect Architecture that includes optical transmission, multiservice transport, Ethernet services, and network management offerings. Ciena’s platforms were deployed as part of a turnkey project by Imtech N.V., a pan-European systems integrator and Ciena Platinum partner… In other news, THUS plc has chosen Ciena’s CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform to support the delivery of a new high-capacity, next-generation network to the London Metropolitan Network. The network will connect 137 education sites across Greater London and offer 20-Gbit/sec capacity.
Bayanat Al-oula (www.bayanat.com.sa), a new service provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has selectedJuniper Networks Inc. (www.juniper.net) to build its IP/MPLS-based next-generation network based upon Juniper Networks M- and T-series multiservice edge and core routers. The new network is designed to enable premium multiplay services such as voice, data, video, and IPTV services throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for both residential and business users. Juniper is also providing professional services to support the design and implementation of Bayanat’s network.
euNetworks (www.euNetworks.com), owner and operator of one of Europe’s highest capacity fiber networks, has concluded an agreement with UNET, one of the Netherlands’ largest FTTX providers to deploy priva|nex, a highly redundant, high-capacity private fiber ring for the rollout of bandwidth-hungry voice, video, and data services in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht.
Ericsson (www.ericsson.com) has been selected by Telecom Egypt to expand its transport network in the Nile delta area. The contract includes the delivery of Marconi MHL 3000 for DWDM transport and Marconi OMS 1600 for multiservice aggregation.
Ukraine’s Ukrtelecom says it has completed the second phase of a national DWDM network based on Cisco Systems’ (www.cisco.com) IP Next-Generation Network architecture to help enable the growth of advanced residential and business services. The expansion involves deployment of the Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform at core points of presence.
Alcatel-Lucent (www.alcatel-lucent.com) has been selected by RTE, the French public power transmission network operator, to deploy an additional several-thousand-kilometer fiber-optic network on RTE’s high-voltage transmission grid. The multimillion euro agreement includes project management, engineering, supply, network installation and commissioning, as well as maintenance for the majority of the network.
U.K.-based Emtelle (www.emtelle.com) recently completed an aerial blown fiber installation in Queanbeyan, Australia, just outside Canberra. According to the company, the project highlights the benefits of aerial blown fiber, including its speed, flexibility, and ease-of-use. Emtelle installed approximately 4,000 m of aerial blown fiber for County Energy, an Australian energy utility that serves 870,000 customers in the New South Wales region.
As part of a network expansion based on customer requirements, LambdaNet Communications Deutschland AG (www.lambdanet.net) is connecting the cities of Coburg and Neustadt (near Coburg) to its European fiber-optic backbone network.
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (www.huawei.com) and subsea cable installation and maintenance company Global Marine Systems Ltd. (www.globalmarinesystems.com) have entered into a memorandum of understanding for a joint venture (JV) to deliver end-to-end competitive submarine network offerings. The JV combines Huawei’s optical expertise and Global Marine’s submarine engineering capability.
XO Communications (www.xo.com) says it has signed a multiyear agreement to provide wavelength transport services to PCCW Global, a business unit of PCCW Ltd., the largest provider of communications services in Hong Kong. XO will provide multiple wavelength circuits to PCCW Global, supplementing existing connectivity across PCCW Global’s network in the United States.
Fujitsu Ltd. (www.fujitsu.com) has signed a contract for the upgrade of the Japan-US Cable Network, a submarine fiber-optic cable system, with a consortium of seven telecommunications carriers, including AT&T Corp, KDDI Corp., NTT Communications Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc., Reach Global Networks Ltd, Softbank Telecom Corp., and Verizon Business. The contract calls for Fujitsu’s FLASHWAVE S650 submarine line terminal equipment to be implemented at three landing points each in Japan and the U.S. The upgrade will more than double the network’s original design capacity to beyond 1.28 Tbits/sec.
The Telecoms Infrastructure Corporation of the Philippines (TelicPhil), a consortium of seven franchised telecom operators, has again selected ECI Telecom’s optical equipment to expand the National Digital Transmission Network (NDTN). This third phase of the network expansion includes a 16-channel, 10-Gbit/sec DWDM backbone. TelicPhil will deploy ECI’s XDM Converged Multi-Service Provision Platform and All-Range ROADM for this network expansion.
Teknovus (www.teknovus.com) says that Fiberhome’s FTTH system is being used as a benchmark for testing and deployment by China Telecom. Fiberhome has designed its equipment based on Teknovus’s chipsets.
Alcatel-Lucent and NEC Corp. (www.nec.com) say they will jointly deploy the Asia America Gateway (AAG), the first direct terabit submarine cable network between Southeast Asia and the United States. Spanning over 20,000 km, AAG will link Malaysia to the US via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii, and the West Coast of the US. Worth approximately $500 million, the contract will deliver a cable network spanning almost half the length of the equator, say the companies.JDSU (www.jdsu.com) has agreed to purchase Ottawa, Canada-based Innocor (www.innocor.com), a provider of broadband test gear for network equipment manufacturers. JDSU says that Innocor’s products will complement JDSU’s existing lab and production test offerings and will be integrated with JDSU’s Communications Test and Measurement (CommTest) business. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Alloptic Inc. (www.alloptic.com), developer of passive optical network (PON) technology, has been granted patents for “Point-To-Multipoint Passive Optical Network That Utilizes Variable-Length Packets” in the United States (U.S. Pat. 7,031,343), Taiwan (#90128223), and China (#ZL01821736.2)… Meanwhile, Benton Telephone Co. has chosen Minneapolis-based DF headlineman, value-added distributor of broadband and fiber-optic products, to supply Alloptic’s “Micronode” line of fiber transceivers in its latest project in Rice, MN.