TeraXion (Quebec City) announced acquisition of the intellectual property of Phaethon Communications (Fremont, CA). According to the transaction, TeraXion will receive Phaethon's patents and trademarks as well as technological know-how. Phaethon's expertise lies in optical dispersion compensation, and products include a range of fixed and tunable chromatic dispersion compensators. TeraXion plans to use Phaethon's technology to complement its manufacturing approach using holographic phase masks to offer high-performance dispersion compensators.
·Qwest Communications International (Denver) completed its self-healing fiber ring connecting eastern Oregon communities. The eastern Oregon ring is the third of five fiber rings currently under construction in the state. The self-healing fiber-ring infrastructure allows voice and data traffic to be instantly rerouted in the event of a service interruption, ensuring that no information is lost. Qwest completed construction of a southern Oregon ring last July and a central Oregon ring in November. The projects are a result of Senate Bill 622, passed by the Oregon legislature in 1999 to establish a fund that made financial support available to applying communities for increased bandwidth, route diversity, and access to advanced telecommunications services for residents.
·Emerson Network Power (St. Louis) announced it is merging its Fiber-Conn Assemblies division and the optical division of LoDan International to form a consolidated optical interconnect assembly group. The new Optical Connectivity division, which will provide high-quality optical fiber cable TV transmission, is headquartered near Baltimore, with manufacturing operations in Maryland and New Jersey as well as Casablanca, Morocco. The new unit is also developing European operations with sales offices in France and the United Kingdom.
·360networks (Vancouver, British Columbia) announced a contract with Videotron Telecom (VTL—Montreal) for the sale of dark fiber and the lease of network capacity. VTL will use the dark fiber and network capacity to enhance its network in Ontario, Quebec, and cross-border routes to the United States. The sale adds about 1,200 km of fiber-optic network to VTL's route footprint. The contract is one of several to be finalized since 360networks emerged from its restructuring in November. Exact terms of the contract were not released.
·Tyco Telecommunications (Morristown, NJ) completed the Tyco Global Network Pacific Ring, with connectivity between North America and the Pacific Rim. The ring is about 18,000 km long and includes two direct transpacific cables from Oregon to Japan, with extensions to California and Guam. The cable was designed for a total capacity exceeding 5 Tbits/sec per cable across the ring when fully equipped.
·Optical Solutions (Minneapolis) began work with Montana's Vivid Networks and Big Sky Communication to deploy the first fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network in Montana. The new network will deliver converged voice, high-speed data, and video services to more than 1,000 residents and businesses in the Baxter Meadows development in Bozeman, MT. Vivid is partnering with Big Sky, an FTTH integrator, to oversee and implement the project using Optical Solutions' FiberPath 400 passive-optical-network architecture. The first phase is scheduled for completion in first quarter of this year.
·SENKO Advanced Components (Marlboro, MA) secured global distribution rights for the full line of E-2000 fiber-optic connectors and adapters manufactured by the Swiss firm, Reichle & De-Massari. The agreement also names SENKO as the master distributor for North America. The E-2000 line includes the E-2000 compact and standard fiber-optic connectors, connector levers, housing clips, adapters, adapter frames, and mount supports. The compact series is designed for secure transmission of high-bit-rate protocols used in a wide range of applications, including WANs, LANs, and fiber-to-the-desk.
·RSoft Design Group (Ossining, NY) acquired the intellectual property assets and key employees of ARTIS (Turin, Italy). ARTIS assets include OptSim, a software product for the simulation of optical communications systems, and Artifex, a modeling and simulation environment for the design and validation of network technologies. RSoft has hired key personnel in sales, technical support, and development from ARTIS and will continue to support the company's products.
·Turin Networks (Petaluma, CA), a developer of multiservice optical transport platforms, announced that the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) deployed Turin's Traverse platform as part of a major upgrade to its local infrastructure. Turin's flagship products provide the critical link connecting the PSC gigabit point of presence (GigaPoP) with the Terascale Computing System (TCS) housed at Westinghouse over leased dark fiber. The newly installed network infrastructure, which began carrying production traffic last November, is critical in the support of high-bandwidth applications for the TCS.
·Alloptic (Livermore, CA) started the OSMINE (operations systems modification of intelligent network elements) compliance process. The OSMINE process is the final step in guaranteeing a true "carrier class" product and is required by many major telecommunications companies, including the RBOCs. The Alloptic GigaForce system was designed and engineered as a carrier class system that offers RBOCs full integration with their current operating system for test and turn-up as well as provisioning and maintenance functionality to deploy voice, video, and data services.
·Calgary, Alberta, purchased the first links using free-space optics and millimeter-wave systems from Terabeam (Seattle) toward an estimated 20 links to connect offices and staff across the city. Following the linking of two buildings with Terabeam Magnas, the Calgary decided to add new links. Three of the new connections will be made with six Terabeam Ellipticas, small free-space optics transceivers that provide fiber-optic-like connectivity to various municipal locations. Two more links will use four more Magnas. The city will also deploy two Terabeam Gigalink millimeter-wave systems to route the signals from Calgary's digital network of traffic cameras, which may lead to further deployment of these systems.
·ADC Telecommunications (Minneapolis) announced the three-year extension of an agreement to supply connectivity equipment to SBC Services, an SBC Communications (Washington, DC) company. The new extension provides for multimillions of dollars in purchases and makes ADC a preferred supplier of connectivity products to SBC. The agreement calls for ADC to supply copper and fiber connectivity products, including digital-signal crossconnect systems, fiber-optic panels and frames, and FiberGuide fiber-optic cable-raceway systems.
·Fujitsu Microelectronics America (San Jose, CA) completed a set of seven powerful ASICs for Chiaro Networks (Richardson, TX) that formed the engine for the industry's first infrastructure class routing platform. Chiaro's Enstara routing system is being deployed in high-performance networks. Fujitsu and Chiaro engineers collaborated throughout the project and shared the physical design tasks for all seven devices. Last November, Chiaro formally announced its Enstara routing platform, which uses transforming technologies to reduce IP network complexity.
·3M (St. Paul, MN) and Advanced Interconnect (AI—Franklin, MA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Woodhead Industries, signed a licensing agreement that will enable AI to independently manufacture and sell the Optical Gateway Interface (OGI) multifiber connection system developed by 3M. This patented, high-density panel-mount and backplane feed-through system offers technological improvements over existing parallel optic solutions. The agreement makes the OGI system more accessible by providing a second source of supply for telecommunications, networking, and high-speed-computing OEMs and high-end industrial controls, test equipment, medical, and military customers.
·Metrobility Optical Systems (Merrimack, NH) announced that Local Access Communications, a competitive local-exchange carrier in Lewis County, WA, is using Metrobility's Radiance technology to deliver optical Ethernet for high-speed Internet access and metropolitan virtual LANs to local businesses in the Centralia, WA, area. Local Access is using fiber deployed in its telephony network to provide broadband Ethernet services for Centralia's city government offices. The Local Access network has installed Metrobility's Radiance R5000 shelf that connects to the ATM network through a Cisco 8500. Individual sites use either the R5000 or Metrobility's standalone R400s for point-to-point connections.
·BTI Photonics (Ottawa, Ontario), a provider of optical transport link systems, closed its series B financing round, raising $10.4 million. The round was led by VenGrowth Capital Partners and included existing investors BCE Capital, Kodiak Venture Partners, Lucent Venture Partners, and Primaxis Technology Ventures. That brings BTI's total funds raised to date to $20.4 million. Funds from this round will support the commercial launch of the company's Optical Link System (OLS) technology and accelerate its sales and marketing presence in North America, Europe, and Asia.
·SiGe Semiconductor (Boston), a supplier of high-speed optical systems, announced it has raised $42.8 million in series B funding. The investment is the third highest round of financing closed by a fabless semiconductor company during the last year, according to the Fabless Semiconductor Association. The funds will support new-product developments. The lead investor was Boston-based TD Capital Technology Ventures, joined by 3i US and Prism Venture Partners, along with returning investors VenGrowth Capital Partners, CDP Capital, Business Development Bank of Canada, Capital Alliance Ventures, and Canadian Science & Technology Growth Fund.
·Independent micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) manufacturer Colibrys SA (Neuchatel, Switzerland) successfully completed a $10-million second round of venture capital (VC) funding. All existing VC investors participated in the round, including aventic, Banexi Ventures, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Intel Capital, and TAT Investments as well as new investor Innoventure Capital, an associate of Credit Suisse.
·Midlands Photonics Cluster and the U.K. Laser and Electro-Optics Association (UKLEO) joined forces, integrating all members of the UKLEO into one unified Photonics Cluster. The merger is expected to provide excellent opportunities for respective members to work together to create a stronger single U.K.-wide business network for companies within the optoelectronics and photonics sectors. The merger brings together 50 nationally recognized companies.
·Transmode Systems AB (Stockholm) delivered its coarse WDM systems to SL Infrateknik (Stockholm), the network owner of Stockholm Underground. SL Infrateknik is building a network that will connect all the underground stations and key centers in the Stockholm public transport system. About 115 underground stations and train stations will be connected to the network for data communications, including video surveillance, the speaker system, and IP telephony.
·Retecal (Madrid), the cable telecommunications operator in Spain's Castilla-Leon region, upgraded its data network to an open IP-based system and increased its overall DWDM infrastructure capacity by deploying routing switches and optical equipment from Nortel Networks (Brampton, Ontario). The solution includes an IP backbone network based on Nortel's Passport 8600 routing switches, integrated with the Alteon Layer 4-7 Web switching module. Retecal also deployed Nortel's OpTera Long Haul 1600 optical line system, a DWDM platform that maximizes capacity in each fiber—up to 320 Gbits/sec per fiber pair.
·Marconi plc (Milan, Italy) selected the Xilinx (San Jose, CA) Virtex-II platform field-programmable gate arrays for Gigabit Ethernet traffic over its SONET/SDH products for optical-network applications. The new generation of products is designed to offer service providers immediate improvements in core and metropolitan networks as well as a flexible evolution path toward integrated optical networking. Marconi's choice of the Virtex-II was based on time-to-market and flexibility over a typical ASIC solution.
·Opto Speed (Ruschlikon, Switzerland) signed a distribution agreement with Unistand Technology (Taichung City, Taiwan) to sell and support Opto Speed's suite of products in the Taiwan market. Opto Speed manufactures and markets indium phosphide-based optoelectronic components.
·Chiaro Networks (Richardson, TX) announced a marketing services agreement with Korea-based P&H Telecom (Seoul) to market Chiaro's IP routing platform, Enstara, to Korean service providers. Enstara is an IP routing platform with an all-optical switch fabric. The Korean government plans to attain 100% broadband coverage on the peninsula.
·Zhejiang Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom (Beijing), announced it will deploy the Cisco Systems (San Jose, CA) metro Ethernet switching products throughout Zhejiang province in eastern China. The Cisco Catalyst 6509, Catalyst 4006, and Catalyst 3550 switches were selected to further expand the province-wide fiber-optic backbone network. Cisco was previously contracted to provide networking solutions for the expansion first stage. This second stage covers 10 major cities in Zhejiang province.
·Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies, the third largest DWDM systems manufacturer in China, selected Highwave Optical Technologies (Lannion, France) as its supplier of next-generation intelligent amplifiers. Under the contract, Highwave amplifiers will be deployed in interprovince long-haul networks covering China's northwest and southwest areas. The products will be integrated in Fiberhome's 1,600-Gbit/sec all-optical DWDM platform, FONST 1600. The network initially will be operated with 32 channels and is upgradable to 160 channels. The contract is worth several hundred thousand dollars to Highwave.
·Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) signed contracts with China's Jiangsu Unicom and its subsidiary, Unicom Horizon Mobile Telecommunications, to build advanced optical transmission networks. Under the agreements, Lucent will provide Jiangsu Unicom with the tools to create and maintain its own high-capacity fiber-optic networks to connect base stations and mobile switching centers with long-distance networks. Jiangsu Unicom will deploy the Metropolis AM, an Ethernet/SDH metro/access multiplexer, and the Metropolis ADM MultiService Mux, Lucent's next-generation metro/access multiplexer, in five cities across Jiangsu province.
·Luminous Networks (Cupertino, CA) announced plans to double its staff in China and expand its Chinese presence beyond its current Shanghai facility by opening an office in Beijing this year. The company has been shipping its metro optical access systems to major Chinese carriers for more than two years. Luminous will add customer service, sales support, marketing, channel management, and general management staff to its existing Chinese team. Luminous has already signed agreements with seven reseller and systems integration partners to represent the company with key Chinese service providers.