Telecommunications Americas articles from February 2002

Telecommunications Americas archives from February 2002

A True Believer. (Commentary).(Column)
February 1, 2002... Almost every time I travel it's to attend an industry conference. But I recently made a trip specifically to meet with a couple of service providers, one a still young but successful VoIP carrier and the other a telecom Goliath. Sorry, no...

Mobile technologies penetrate wireless broadband market. (Global News).
February 1, 2002... RICHARDSON, Texas/SAN BRUNO, Calif.--Anyone who has followed the fixed broadband wireless arena in the past year knows that the industry was mired in a holy war over single carrier QAM vs. multicarrier OFDM and its various flavors. In the...

Hope Springs Eternal. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Spending by North American service providers won't match the industry's recent glory years for some time, according to new market research. Wireline service providers spent $92 billion in 2000, then cut spending a drastic 28 percent during...

Sowing the Seeds. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Several companies announced new funding. Internet Photonics has raised $31 million to continue development of optical Ethernet solutions it says will cost up to 70 percent less than SONET-based technology. The location technology company...

Trading Places. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Marconi will sell its optical components business to Bookham Technology for stock worth more than $30 million. NexVerse Networks paid $15 million for the ipVerse Control Switch product and related assets of ipVerse. Cable & Wireless' Cable &...

Back From the Dead. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... More than a year after purchasing the assets of bankrupt satellite communications provider Iridium, Iridium Satellite is still trying to clear up lingering confusion about its financial status. Free of the debt and legal problems of its...

Super-fast academic internet keeps growing. (Global News).
February 1, 2002... WASHINGTON, D.C.--Students and professors at laboratories around the world remain hard at work on sophisticated high-tech applications only hinted at in ad campaigns by telecom companies during the now dissipated high-tech frenzy. As...

Optical Milestones. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Alcatel says it set a world record in submarine optical transmission, using a single fiber to carry 3.65 Tbps over 6850 km Nortel Networks, SBC Communicaitons and Northwestern University have created an experimental network called OMNInet...

Wireless: The Next Generation. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Centennial Communications says it has begun offering digital wireless service in Jamaica over a CDMA network that will be able to provide 3G service next year. Centennial says its network already covers Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and...

Improving Customer Relations. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Helping customers help themselves, thereby cutting costs and improving customer service, CLEC ITC DeltaCom deployed software from edocs that allows customers to view their bills online. With other service providers recognizing the efficiencies...

Does Scale Matter?
February 1, 2002... One of the Internet's many paradoxes is that scaling-- cost-effective accommodation of traffic growth--still matters. This is particularly true for core routers that switch and route traffic on the Internet backbone. Faulty Internet business...

Back Talk: A Conversation with Steve Merrill of CityNet Telecommunications.(Interview)
February 1, 2002... Steve Merrill is senior dice president of network engineering and operations for CityNet. He spent nearly 14 years with New England Telephone/NYNEX as operations manager and engineer. Following his tenure with New England Telephone. Merrill...

Cable's Blind Spot: Untapped SMB market hovers beyond MSOs' grasp.
February 1, 2002... Like oil fields below the Earth's surface that energy companies cannot yet reach, millions of SMBs (small to midsize businesses) today remain unserved by cable networks that pass their doors. For the most part, MSOs simply lack the technology...

Triple Threat: MSOs have multiple options for next-gen voice. Will this finally make them true ILEC competitors?
February 1, 2002... If you look at potential killer applications for MSOs, look no further than voice. The addition of IP-based voice will enhance the MSOs' status as a triple threat: a one-stop shop for voice, video and data. Goldman Sachs forecasts that by 2007,...

VoDSL still looking for a foothold: With CLEC and ILEC markets running cold, vendors target IXCs and independents. (Focus on: Voice over Broadband).
February 1, 2002... As with many telecom sectors, the fate of VoDSL (voice over DSL) is inextricably linked to the ups and downs of ILEC product planning cycles. So when none announced VoDSL plans during 2001, the market was immediately left in a bit of a rut....

Decomposing Enhanced Services: Packet voice networks gain value through open, Internet-like model of service development. (Focus on: Voice over Broadband).
February 1, 2002... The commoditization of voice has led to one indisputable fact: Voice margins, the industry's bread and butter, are being squeezed to unprecedented levels. Economics teaches us that lower margins are not necessarily bad and can be offset when a...

Challenging the IP-PBX Grip: Providers can create future-proof IP telephony solutions using IP centrex services. (Focus on: Voice over Broadband).
February 1, 2002... IP-PBXs have gained respectable market share in recent system shipments, according to Phillips Infotech, landing major enterprises such as Dow Corning and Household International. The precipitous rise of the IP-PBX is and should be of great...

Getting from circuit to packet without losing quality: Providers must begin now to prepare their networks to meet the challenges of the data-driven future. (Focus on: Voice over Broadband).
February 1, 2002... Carriers worldwide are reshaping their long-held ideas about network architecture. Traditional TDM-based circuit switching is highly capable of supporting a variety of services including toll free dialing, calling cards, advanced caller ID and...

LNP Boosts Competition: Contrary to being a burden, local number portability gives carriers the opportunity to offer enhanced services and attract new customers. (Focus on: Voice over Broadband).
February 1, 2002... The benefits of operating a converged, packet-based network using IP as the core transport protocol are well documented: lower operational costs, enhanced administration, faster time to market, and the ability to offer a new class of customized...

IPv6: Enabling True Mobile Convergence; Are always-on, fixed, 3G mobile services close to reality? (Wireless).
February 1, 2002... Next-gen network architectures will overturn the traditional concepts of fixed, mobile, voice and data communications. They will be based on multiservice backbones capable of carrying any type of service over any infrastructure, enabling true...

Metro Networks reach an Optical Crossroad: Cross-connecting services or switching lambdas? (Optical Networking).
February 1, 2002... The emergence of optical switching, be it OEO (optical-electrical-optical) or all optical, has changed the way service providers plan and operate long-haul networks. Some carriers have replaced the standard SONET model for capacity upgrade...

Unisphere's MRX: An edge platform for IP/ATM Networks. (Telecommunications: 2002 Product of the Month).(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... The IP and ATM camps have been shooting it out for a while and will continue for some time. But reality demands that many service providers support both IP and ATM even as they march toward the holy grail of an all-IP world. With the...

Broadband Service Node: Nortel Networks. (New Products).(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Nortel Networks is taking an "out of the box" approach with the latest version of its Shasta 5000 BSN (broadband service node). By integrating SDI (service delivery interfaces), service providers can provision third-party services from a Shasta...

Business Workflow: Alopa Networks. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... For cable operators ramping up their back offices to support deployment of more sophisticated services, Alopa Networks has introduced MetaServ 2.0. The new version of Alopa's flagship product, with all of its attendant rules and policies, is...

Managing UNEs: Turnstone Systems. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Much of the trouble between CLECs and ILECs has centered on management of UNEs (unbundled network elements). Looking to help ILECs better provide wholesale copper loops to CLECs, Turnstone Systems has introduced the MX500 Copper CrossConnect...

Broadband Loop Carrier: Occam Networks. (Product Spot).(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... As DSL and broadband deployments migrate toward RT (remote terminal), Occam Networks has launched its second-gen BLC product--Broadband Loop Carrier System II. Consisting of a BLC 1200 RT, BLC 1240 CO terminal, integrated loop transport...

First-Mile Ethernet: Cisco Systems. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Cisco Systems has introduced new switches supporting Ethernet access to metropolitan area networks. The new Catalyst 4000 EFM (Ethernet in the First Mile) switches let service provider offer Gigabit Ethernet connections to residential homes,...

Softswitching: Sonus Networks. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Sonus Networks says its new Insignus softswitch represents a step forward for softswitch technology in general. The product lets users deliver residential Class 5 and enterprise Centrex services and supports SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)....

Softswitch Testing: NetTest. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... NetTest has announced new software for softswitch performance testing. The MGCP (Media Gateway Control Protocol) Functional and Performance Test Suite emulates multiple residential gateways or individual IP phones, so that softswitch makers and...

Optical Multiplexer: Adtran. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Adtran says its new Total Access OPTI-3 product is an OC-3 SONET multiplexer that takes up less space than competing products, yet is a genuine carrier-class system compliant with SONET GR-253. With the Total Access OPTI-3, carriers can deploy...

Automated Service Activation: Connexn Technologies. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... Connexn Technologies says it has just the thing to help smaller service providers hoping to gain an edge over larger rivals through greater automation of their service activation process. Its new Quick Capture software package lets users...

Intelligent Edge Switch: Lucent Technologies. (Product Spot).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2002... With much of the long-haul backbone and metro networks built out, the focus is now on the network edge where an increasingly robust service set is calling for switches that can aggregate multiple traffic types. Rounding out its multiservice...

Off-Line: Industry leaders share their opinions, philosophies of life and off-hours interests.
February 1, 2002... Like most entrepreneurs faced with starting a company from scratch, Bob Dalias coped with the challenge of attracting talent. Not only did his lieutenants need strong backgrounds in their areas of expertise they had to demonstrate initiative,...

Router Rollouts. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2002... Several telecom carriers announced router deployments worth millions of dollars. Cox Communications will deploy hundreds of Riverstone RS metropolitan routers throughtout all 28 of its U.S. cable systems as part of its effort to create a...

Big TETRA infrastructure deals in pipeline. (Global News).
February 1, 2002... LONDON--The European TETRA (terrestrial trunked radio) supplier community is in line for a much-needed boost. Due largely to a greater government urgency for national emergency organizations to communicate with each other at the scenes of major...