NanoOpto Corp.(www.nanoopto.com), which uses its design and nanofabrication skills to produce optical components, has announced the initial closing of $5 million of its Series D-round venture financing. The funding by the full team of NanoOpto’s venture investors brings to $51 million the total investment in NanoOpto to date. Existing equity investors include Morgenthaler Ventures, First Analysis, the Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) network (including DFJ Gotham Ventures and DFJ New England Ventures), Harris & Harris Group, U.S. Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners III LLC, Masters Capital Nanotechnology LLC, Nanostart AG, and Itochu of Japan.
Telco Systems(www.telco.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of BATM Advanced Communications, has agreed to acquire Metrobility Optical Systems. The acquisition will integrate Metrobility’s intelligent Ethernet service demarcation devices with Telco Systems’ metro Ethernet access offerings to provide service providers a wider range of carrier Ethernet demarcation options, as well as augment Telco Systems’ cable provider customer base. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
AT&T Inc. (www.att.com) has announced an agreement with General Growth Properties to build an FTTP network to deliver the AT&T U-verse suite of services — which includes integrated digital TV, high-speed Internet, and voice services-to the Bridgeland 20,000-home master-planned community near Houston. The agreement is AT&T’s largest such contract to date.
Arcapita Ventures, the venture capital arm of Arcapita Bank BSC, has committed to an $8 million equity investment in GEPON vendor Alloptic Inc.(www.alloptic.com). As part of the financing, John Huntz and Tom Hawkins of Arcapita Ventures have joined Alloptic’s board of directors.
Scintera Inc.(www.scintera.com), a developer of electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) technology, has closed its Series C financing and added three new executives. The Series C funding netted $12 million. New investor Ridgewood Capital led the round, which included all of Scintera’s current investors: August Capital; Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers; and Sevin Rosen Funds. Elton B. Sherwin, senior managing director of Ridgewood Capital, will join Scintera’s board of directors. The other new executives include Scott Gibson, chief financial officer, and former Broadcom CEO Alan E. “Lanny” Ross, who joins Sherwin on the board of directors.
CoreOptics (www.coreoptics.com), designer and manufacturer of 10- and 40-Gbit/sec optical networking subsystems, has closed a $28 million round of financing from new and existing investors, bringing the company’s total funding to over $68 million to date. New investors included GIMV ICT Group and Quest for Growth, both based in Europe. The company’s previous investors — Crescendo Ventures, TVM Capital, High Tech Private Equity, and Atila Ventures — all participated as well.
LightSand Communications Inc. (www.lightsand.com), a SAN connectivity equipment company, and OpVista Inc. (www.opvista.com), which provides intelligent optical network equipment, have announced an agreement to provide joint offerings. OpVista will now be able to provide LightSand’s SAN extension equipment as part of its optical transport offering in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Separately, OpVista has closed what it expects will be its last round of funding. The round, led by Doll Capital Management, was worth $28 million. Existing investors Sevin Rosen Funds, Incubic, and US Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners also participated.
Allen’s TV Cable Service Inc. (ATVC; www.atvc.net), a regional cable operator serving south central Louisiana, deployed Ciena Corp.’s (www.ciena.com) CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform to fortify its services infrastructure that was threatened by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In the immediate aftermath of the storms, ATVC ordered the CN 4200 and within 8 days established point-to-point communications links for its affected business customers along the Gulf Coast.
Optical systems vendor Meriton Networks(www.meriton.com) has announced a pair of new customers for its 6400 Optical Transport Platform (OTP). One is with Telepak Networks Inc.(www.telepaknetworks.com), a provider of voice, video, and data telecommunications and network services, in Mississippi; the other is with Buckeye TeleSystem(www.buckeye-telesystem.com), a facilities-based provider of telecommunications services with 1,700 route miles of fiber in Ohio.
Qwest Communications International(www.qwest.com) has signed a five-year, multimillion dollar deal with U.S. Bancorp for Qwest Qwave, an optical wavelength private-line product that uses DWDM technology at speeds up to 10 Gbits/sec. U.S. Bancorp is using bank-owned SONET multiplexers to create a nationwide optical backbone connecting its major communications centers. The Qwest service will connect five U.S. Bancorp locations.
The City of Klamath Falls, OR, has approved Lightspeed Networks’(www.lsnetworks.net) franchise ordinance, allowing the carrier to expand its fiber network reach in another southern Oregon city.
Pannaway Technologies(www.pannaway.com) has announced that Warwick Valley Telephone Co. has selected and deployed its Service Convergence Network (SCN) IP access platform for the delivery of next-generation triple-play services to residential and municipal broadband subscribers in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Tularosa Basin Telephone Co. Inc. (TBTC; www.tbtc.net) has selected the BLC 6000 System from Occam Networks Inc. (www.occamnetworks.com) to upgrade its outside plant facilities with fiber to the premises (FTTP) and fiber to the node (FTTN). The new active Ethernet fiber network will enable TBTC to provide all of its subscribers with a full range of triple-play services with up to 1 Gbit/sec of bandwidth.
Optovia Corp. (www.optovia.com) has inked an OEM agreement with ADVA Optical Networking(www.advaoptical.com). Under the agreement, ADVA will expand the reach of its Fiber Service Platform (FSP) 3000 scalable optical transport offering by integrating Optovia’s Raman-enabled Hut Skip and SpanExpress line systems.
FASTWEB SpA (www.fastweb.it) has deployed the Fiber Service Platform (FSP) 2000 and FSP 3000 from ADVA Optical Networking (www.advaoptical.com) in its network. FASTWEB offers a range of services — including triple-play offerings — over a fiber-optic, all-IP network that now reaches more than 794,000 business and residential customers across Italy.
Nokia (www.nokia.com) and Siemens (www.siemens.com) intend to merge the Networks Business Group of Nokia and the carrier-related operations of Siemens into a new company, to be called Nokia Siemens Networks. The two companies expect the resultant 50/50 joint venture will have strong positions in fixed and mobile network infrastructure and services. Nokia Siemens Networks will have its operational headquarters in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland, and a regional headquarters in Munich, Germany, where three of the future five divisions of the new company will be based. Nokia Siemens Networks will be registered in the Netherlands. The transaction is expected to close before the start of next year.
Swedish communications equipment provider Fiberdata AB(www.fiberdata.se) has announced that its subsidiary, Fiberdata Integration AB, has received a new order for a high-speed broadband system based on GPON technology. The new order, awarded by the Swedish municipality of Vannas, covers delivery, installation, operation, and maintenance. The value of the order was not disclosed.
Alcatel(www.alcatel.com) has signed a contract withMaroc Telecom(www.iam.ma), a telecommunications operator in Morocco, for a submarine cable network linking Morocco and France. The project, dubbed Atlas Offshore, is valued at €26 million and will help Maroc Telecom enhance its network capacity in support of new broadband service delivery. Once completed in early 2007, the submarine network will span more than 1,600 km between Marseille in France and Asilah in Morocco.
Tyco Telecommunications (www.tycotelecom.com), a business unit of Tyco Electronics, has been selected by TransTelecom Co. (TTC), a Russian backbone operator, as the sole provider of the first undersea communications system connecting the Sakhalin Islands to TTC’s digital mainland backbone. The network, to be laid across the Tatarsky Strait, will eliminate the region’s dependence on satellite channels.
Siemens Communications Group (www.siemens.com/communications) has won a contract from TeliaSonera (www.teliasonera.com) to build a universal DWDM transport backbone for the complete TeliaSonera group. Based on Siemens’ Surpass Transparent Optical Networks portfolio, the new network will accommodate the Nordic carrier’s growing volume of traffic by boosting existing transmission capacities.
To reduce costs, Spirent Communications (www.spirent.com) will restructure its communications businesses. Over the next year, the company will “manage significant product transitions” within its Performance Analysis Broadband Division, as sales of older platforms decrease and are replaced by new products, and within its Service Assurance Division, as legacy product revenues continue to decline and the company increases investment in new monitoring equipment for voice, video, and data networks. Once the company completes the restructuring, it expects to save approximately £9 million annually.
Net Insight(www.netinsight.net) has received a first order from Norkring for delivery of equipment to the Norwegian digital terrestrial TV network. The order has a value of approximately 20 million SEK (approximately US$2.8 million), and deliveries will start during the fourth quarter.
Anritsu (www.anritsu.com) has announced the strengthening of its service assurance operations with the establishment of a new Service Assurance Division. This group will operate under the Anritsu A/S company (formerly NetTest). Using existing protocol analysis and network monitoring offerings — including MasterClaw, NetClaw, and Compass — as a backbone, the Service Assurance Division will offer network monitoring, troubleshooting, and optimization capabilities in test equipment targeted at the global network market. Anritsu says it plans to invest in excess of $10 million per year to grow this business segment. The new division is headquartered in Brondy, Denmark. An additional development site is located in Rome.
PMC-Sierra Inc.(www.pmc-sierra.com) and Dasan Networks Inc.(www.dasannetworks.com), a Korean supplier of broadband access equipment, have announced that PMC-Sierra’s EPON FTTH semiconductors are designed into Dasan’s FTTH equipment. Korea Telecom (KT) has selected the equipment for volume deployment in Korea’s FTTH network rollout that will deliver triple-play services.
China Telecomhas selected Cisco Systems’(www.cisco.com) IP Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture as the foundation of its 2006 ChinaNet network expansion and has named Cisco as the primary equipment provider for the project. Cisco equipment that will be deployed in ChinaNet’s network include the CRS-1 Carrier Routing System and significant upgrades to its existing Cisco 12000 Series Routers, which will expand the ChinaNet network’s capabilities, reliability, and scalability, say Cisco representatives.
Tata Grouphas selected Alcatel (www.alcatel.com) to supply equipment to expand its existing optical multiservice network. The $20 million project will enable Tata to enhance the roll out of CDMA mobile services, as well as support new broadband services and Ethernet applications throughout the Indian states of Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Alcatel will supply its Optical Multi-Service Node and 1696 MS DWDM equipment, both managed by the 1350 management suite. Alcatel also will be responsible for complete project management, engineering, installation, service activation, and commissioning.
Dreamline Co. Ltd., a cellular and broadband service provider in South Korea, has selected optical systems from ECI Telecom (www.ecitele.com) for the upgrade and expansion of its nationwide network to support next-generation services. ECI will provide its XDM-50 optical platform.
Asia Netcom (www.asianetcom.com) has signed an agreement with NEC (www.nec.jp.co) to double the capacity on the southern segment of its Pan-Asian submarine cable system, EAC. The upgrade on the EAC2 ring of the system, which spans Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, and Taiwan, will raise the bandwidth capacity on those routes to 160 Gbits/sec. This will be the third incremental capacity expansion this year for Asia Netcom. Previous upgrades have already more than doubled the capacity on the northern segment of the EAC system.Verizon(www.verizon.com) has selected the Tellabs(www.tellabs.com) 7100 optical transport system for deployment in the backbone of its metro networks. Initially Verizon will deploy the Tellabs 7100 system to provide enhanced reliability and efficiency in its FiOS FTTP triple-play network, says Tellabs. Later, Verizon will use the system to converge all of its core metro services onto a dynamic DWDM infrastructure.
NeoPhotonics (www.neophotonics.com) has acquiredLightConnect Inc.and OpTun Inc. LightConnect manufactured MEMS-based components and modules for optical communications, with products including variable optical attenuators (VOAs), blockers, dynamic gain equalizers (DGEs), and dynamic channel equalizers (DCEs). OpTun developed reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) based on planar lightwave circuits. Terms of the acquisitions, based on a combination of cash and stock, were not announced. The new assets will enable NeoPhotonics to expand its ROADM subsystem offerings.