DuPont formed DuPont Photonics Technologies LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary located in the Boston suburb of Wilmington, MA. The new business is part of DuPont Ventures, an externally facing venturing group focused on emerging technologies. Photonics Technologies will develop, manufacture, and market planar integrated photonic devices for use in optical networks for the telecommunications industry. Drew Weber has been named general manager of Photonics Technologies.
·Long Beach Energy, working with Sempra Fiber Links (San Diego), a subsidiary of Sempra Energy, completed the installation of a fiber-optic telecommunications network in a portion of its natural gas pipeline. This network links Long Beach Energy headquarters on East Spring Street with the city's Temple Avenue and Willow Street facility and is now fully operational. The installation used the patented fiber-in-gas technology developed by Sempra. The new fiber-optic system is linked to the city's microwave system and used to transmit and exchange data between the facilities.
·NeoPhotonics (San Jose, CA), a developer of nanomaterials-based photonics technologies and products, purchased Lightwave Microsystems (San Jose), which ceased operations last September. Lightwave Microsystems' product portfolio consists of standard and specialized ICs for advanced optical communications systems, recording sales nearing $10 million in 2002. Financial details of the purchase were not released, but the two privately held companies completed all actions in merging operations. All of Lightwave Microsystems' intellectual property was acquired in the sale, and many of the company's more than 200 employees joined NeoPhotonics.
·Ciena announced that release 2.1.1 of its CoreDirector core-switching product completed the Telcordia Technolgies (Morristown, NJ) operations system modifications for the integration of network elements (OSMINE) services process for the Telcordia trunk inventory record-keeping system (TIRKS), network monitoring and analysis (NMA), and transport element activation manager systems.
·Broadwing (Cincinnati) agreed to sell the assets of its broadband business, Broadwing Communications Services, including the Broadwing name, to privately held C III Communications LLC (St. Louis) for $129 million in cash. Under terms of the agreement, C III will assume certain long-term operating liabilities of Broadwing Communications, continue to provide services to customers, and retain current employees. The asset purchase agreement was signed but is subject to customary closing conditions, including Federal Communications Commission approval and the approval of relevant public-utility commissions. C III investors include Cequel III LLC (St. Louis), an investment and management company, and Corvis (Columbia, MD), a telecommunications equipment provider. Broadwing will retain a minority interest in C III, and the new company will continue doing business under the Broadwing name.
·Looking Glass Networks (Oak Brook, IL), a facilities-based provider of metropolitan telecommunications transport services, is deploying the Cisco Systems (San Jose, CA) ONS 15600 multiservice switching platform in five MANs, including Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, DC. Deployment is already underway in Los Angeles.
·kSaria (Wilmington, MA) will apply its patented manufacturing automation technology and design techniques to become a fully automated on-demand manufacturer of custom fiber pigtails, fiber assemblies, and connectorization. kSaria's proprietary automation handles all the processes required in fiber assemblies, including fiber de-spooling, stripping, cleaning, ferrule attachment, metallization, meta- or glass-ferrule soldering, polishing, and connector attachment.
·Sprint (Overland Park, KS) selected the Tellabs (Naperville, IL) 7100 optical transport system to deploy wavelength-based services to local, long-distance, and wireless customers. The DWDM systems will be deployed in Sprint's North Carolina and Florida networks. Sprint uses several Tellabs systems in its network, including the Tellabs 3000 voice-quality enhancement system, Tellabs 5000 digital-crossconnect series, Tellabs 6340 switch node, and Tellabs 6500 transport switch.
·General Bandwidth (Austin, TX) has been selected by Rochester Telephone Co. (RTC—Rochester, IN) to help deliver voice services to customers in northern Indiana that are being served by RTC's fiber-to-the-home service offering. General Bandwidth's G6 platform will be deployed in Indiana as part of RTC's initiative to upgrade its entire access network to a fiber-based architecture. The G6 platform enables mass deployments and meets requirements for central-office environments. RTC is deploying the G6 platform with a new Gigabit Ethernet module that connects directly to RTC's IP-based access network.
· The Metro Ethernet Forum announced two new members, raising the total membership to 63 companies. Verizon Communications (New York City) and Rockefeller Group Telecommunications Services (NYC) are the latest to join the ranks of telecom carriers and equipment vendors dedicated to accelerating the adoption of metro Ethernet as the technology of choice in global networks. Verizon has begun deploying metro Ethernet services into select markets across the United States.
· Two Maryland fiber-optic startup companies merged and closed $17 million in new funding from a set of eight venture capital firms. Codeon (Columbia, MD) and Quantum Photonics (Jessup, MD) joined forces to form Covega, which will be based in Jessup. Both companies manufactured optical components for equipment. The combined company boasts more than 30 customers.
·Princeton Optronics (Princeton, NJ), a manufacturer of tunable lasers for fiber-optic networks, announced its partnership with Agility Communications (Santa Barbara, CA), Alcatel Optronics (Paris), and Bookham Technology (Oxfordshire, UK) in a multisource agreement (MSA) to provide equipment manufacturers with standardized tunable-laser modules. The MSA defines a small-form-factor plug-in module consisting of a tunable continuous wave laser and embedded electronics that provide automatic wavelength acquisition and locking. Supporting both C- and L-bands, these standardized products are dedicated to core DWDM applications.
·SMC Networks (Irvine, CA) reported that its managed and unmanaged switches were selected by the Portland Public School District to deliver Fast Ethernet connectivity to classrooms and offices in the district's 107 facilities. TigerSwitch 6+2-port gigabit fiber switches manage connections from the multifacility backbone to intermediate distribution frame closets in the district's schools. From there, they connect to the gigabit uplinks on stacks of 24+2-port SMC TigerStack II 10/100 managed switches and 48+1-port TigerSwitch 10/100 switches. The connection is then relayed to classrooms and offices where connectivity is distributed to the desktop.
·OMM (San Diego), a supplier of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)-based optical-switch array modules, plans to cease operations. The company released all of its 85 employees and assigned the assets to the benefit of the company's creditors. It was unable to raise the total amount of additional private funding deemed necessary to continue operations through the current downturn in the global telecom market. The company was started in 1997 and funded by a combination of venture capital and strategic customer investments.
·Grande Communications (San Marcos, TX) purchased about 3,000 route-mi of fiber throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana from C3 Communications (Austin, TX). The fiber-network architecture consists of three SONET rings that serve south Texas; central Texas and Houston; and Dallas/Fort Worth, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. The C3 fiber network complements Grande's MAN that connects large broadband users such as schools and major employers to other large users. This network will enable Grande to provide new services to its wholesale customers who are looking for long-haul and metro-area bandwidth in the South.
· The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA—Arlington, VA) published four new fiber-optic test procedures (FOTPs). FOTP-4, Fiber Optic Component Temperature Life Test, is for determining the effects on the optical and mechanical characteristics of fiber-optic components resulting from exposure to an elevated temperature for a specific length of time. The intent of FOTP-5, Humidity Test Procedure for Fiber-Optic Components, is to evaluate the optical and material properties of fiber-optic components as they are influenced or deteriorated by the effects of high humidity and heat conditions. FOTP-11, Vibration Test Procedure for Fiber-Optic Components and Cables, determines the effects of vibration within the sinusoidal and random vibration environments that may be encountered during the life of the fiber-optic component. FOTP-122, Polarization Mode Dispersion Measurement for Singlemode Optical Fibers by Stokes Parameter Evaluation, describes a procedure for measuring the polarization-mode dispersion of singlemode optical fibers.
·Sorrento Networks (San Diego) announced that ING BHF-BANK, one of Germany's leading commercial banks, deployed Sorrento's SideStreet Channel technology to implement an eight-node DWDM system on an existing SDH network. ING BHF-BANK has been using Sorrento's GigaMux system since January 2001 for disaster recovery and disk mirroring in a large ground data processing system environment.
· Satellite broadcast provider GlobeCast (Paris) extended its transworld ATM fiber network to Asia with the inauguration of a 45-Mbit/sec transparent fiber trunk between Singapore and Los Angeles, offering fiber connectivity between Europe, America, and Asia. Globecast, a subsidiary of France Telecom, supports ad hoc and full-time video, audio, and IP content connectivity over its network. The transpacific ATM link follows recent network upgrades to full-duplex OC-3 (155-Mbit/sec) broadband on existing links between America and Europe.
· Pan-European carrier's carrier LambdaNet Communications GmbH (Hannover, Germany) deployed the ADVA Optical Networking (Mahwah, NJ) Fiber Service Platform (FSP) products in metro core network infrastructure in five German cities. The FSP 2000 and 3000 are marketed and sold to LambdaNet under the Siemens (Munich, Germany) WaveLine label by Siemens IC Networks. LambdaNet operates an optical transmission and IP network throughout Europe, measuring 22,000 km and connecting more than 100 cities in 11 countries. During the second half of 2002, the carrier installed about 40 STM-4 (622-Mbit/sec) and STM-16 (2.5-Gbit/sec) links in point-to-point and linear-add/drop configurations in five German cities.
· U.K. service provider THUS plc (London) plans to deploy optical Ethernet equipment from Nortel Networks (Brampton, Ontario) into its network. Under an extension to an existing supply agreement, THUS will upgrade its existing Nortel OPTera Connect DX optical switches to directly carry Gigabit Ethernet traffic over DWDM channels. The THUS upgrade, which involves adding a single network card to each OPTera Connect DX switch, is designed to provide end-to-end optical-network performance by standardizing on a single Ethernet transport mechanism for LANs, MANs, and WANs.
·Transmode Systems AB (Stockholm), together with German system integrator Pan Dacom, sold its CWDM system to German service provider TelemaxX. TelemaxX offers a range of customer-oriented services to enterprise customers in and around the Karlsruhe technology region in Germany. It is currently building a new ring network with protected infrastructure to serve an enterprise customer. The network will be realized through the deployment of CWDM equipment.
·Czech Telecom started providing international telecommunications services to its business and service-provider customers using DWDM equipment from Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ). Czech Telecom and Lucent have constructed an international optical network with access points in the Slovak Republic, Austria, and Germany. Czech Telecom is using the optical infrastructure technology to offer high-speed connections between locations in the Czech Republic and abroad as well as transit services to several countries.
·Polatis (Cambridge, UK) has been awarded a core patent relating to its photonic-switching platform. The patent, GB2372834, covers the company's micro-actuation and sensor technology and its application in photonic M×N switches. The technology described in this patent underpins the company's 16×16 photonic-switch module.
· A U.S. subsidiary of one of Japan's leading general trading companies, Tomen (Tokyo), signed a sales and distribution agreement with Ample Communications (Fremont, CA) to represent and sell Ample's entire line of highly integrated multispeed SONET/SDH and Ethernet solutions in Japan and China. Tomen America (New York City) is expected to boost Ample's relationships with major system vendors and OEMs in Japan and China. Ample's frame processing technology incorporates multiple functions into a single-chip merchant silicon device.
·Highwave Optical Technologies (Lannion, France), a European provider of DWDM subsystems, announced that its optical amplifiers will be purchased by Mitsubishi Electric (Tokyo). Highwave will supply its latest generation of amplifiers, including erbium-doped fiber and gain-flattening filters. Mitsubishi plans to deploy the amplifiers in intercity metro ring networks in Japan. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
·NEC (Tokyo) integrated Genoa's (Fremont, CA) new second-generation single-chip linear optical amplifier into a 10-Gbit/sec optical-transponder module for network applications. The new EML-based optical transponder allows long-reach applications to 80 km.
·DenseLight Semiconductors Private Ltd. (Singapore), a provider of indium phophide-based photonics products has incorporated in the United States and opened a new office in Campbell, CA. Bill Diamond, DenseLight's CEO, will direct U.S. operations out of the new location. The U.S. office will allow DenseLight to better serve its customer base in North American and Europe. With Sunil Phatak, vice president of technical marketing, already based in the eastern United States, DenseLight now has a direct market presence on the East and West coasts as well as in Asia.
·Brasil Telecom (Brasilia) agreed to purchase 19.9% of MetroRed (Buenos Aires), a Brazilian data transmission firm, for $68 million. The agreement includes an option to take over the remaining 80.1%. MetroRed, owned by Fidelity and Boston Ventures US investment funds, has metro fiber-optic networks in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte, linked by a 1,486-km fiber backbone network. The acquisition follows Brasil Telecom's acquisition of the Globenet undersea fiber-optic system that links Brazil to North America.