Telecommunications Americas articles from January 2002

Telecommunications Americas archives from January 2002

Reality Rules. (Commentary).(Editorial)
January 1, 2002... Some of the most exciting things about writing for a magazine that covers the telecom industry are the bleeding-edge technologies and spin-offs on technologies that we become privy to, many times under strict NDA until an official announcement...

Can the MSPP market survive? (Global News).
January 1, 2002... SAN JOSE, Calif.--MSPPs (multiservice provisioning platforms) burst on the scene in 1999, tempting carriers with the ability--in one box--to switch and/or transport nearly every form of traffic across nearly any infrastructure. Two types of...

New funding. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Optivation, developer of advanced fiber optical modules, completed a second round of funding worth $20 million for a total of $34 million. AcceLight Networks says it received $60 million in new equity and debt financing to continue its work on...

Merging interests. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The acquisition market continues to simmer, SS8 Networks paid $45 million in cash for ADC's Enhanced Services Division which offers platforms for services such as unified messaging, SS7 signaling and others. Combined, the companies will offer a...

Year of the horse. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Western telecom firms expect many new deals with China during 2002, as the country moves quickly to build its communications infrastructure. Siemens signed a $40 million contract to provide China Mobile with its TransXpress MTS optical network,...

The county line. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... ILECs operating in two Ohio and New York counties are using cutting-edge technology to provide advanced services. In Ohio's Butler County, Normap Telecommunications will deploy optical networking equipment from Quartum Bridge to give Hamilton,...

Beleagured satellite industry looks to 2002. (Global News).
January 1, 2002... KIRKLAND, Wash.-- Industry analysts expect 2002 to be a better year than last for satellite operators but remain skeptical of any major short-term growth. Bankruptcy filings from Globalstar, an end to the planned merger between ICO and...

Check, please. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Service providers around the world are signing up for new billing software from a number of vendors. U.K. utility vendor Npower plans to use Lucent Technologies' Kenan Arbor/BP billing platform for new telephony services. Both Vodacom in South...

Rising from the ashes. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Many DLECs (data LECs) may have died, but customers still want DSL. Helping those left in the lurch are companies such as Interquest Communications, which has acquired the assets of bankrupt Darwin Networks, Reflex Communications and...

U. S. private line bandwidth on rise. (Industry Outlook).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... Steady as she goes. Private line bandwidth in the United States is on the rise despite a decline in the volume of circuits, according to ENS 2001, a Web-based service offered by Vertical Systems Group. Based on DSO equivalents for all U.S....

OSS remains linchpin to local competition. (Global News).
January 1, 2002... WASHINGTON, D.C.--CLECs depending on the Telecom Act of 1996 to open up local phone markets to competition continue to find that the devil is in the detail. At least, that's the case in Georgia and Louisiana, where BellSouth and competing...

Lighting the way. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Growth in the long-haul optical networking market is flat right now, as a result of heavy prior spending on backbone networks, a recent focus on metropolitan networks and a soft economy, according to Pioneer Consulting. But carriers in the...

Worldly phones. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Service providers should see a sharp increase in demand for world phones over the next five years, as more and more businesspeople travel internationally. World phone subscribers will number about 91 million by 2005, according to Cahners...

Ethernet: Just another piece of the puzzle.
January 1, 2002... The safety net of service providers and equipment vendors has been the slow transition of enterprise networks to the next generation of IP- and Ethernet-based services, which was hindered by the economic slowdown of 2001. For the past two...

Utilities go the last mile: Utility companies, aided by emerging optical access technologies and new construction methods, can solve the last-mile problem.
January 1, 2002... Today's access network is a bottleneck limiting delivery of broadband network services. The networks most of us use at home and at work employ twisted copper pairs for access to voice, Internet and private data services. At best they deliver a...

Broadwing: Building the all-optical network: by moving the electronics to the network edge, broadwing's strategy is to deliver the lowest cost-per-bit transport.
January 1, 2002... Last October, Broadwing announced an agreement to provide 2.5-Gbps wavelength services to connect eight of Allegiance Telecom's major markets. But an earlier deal sealed last summer with Teleglobe was even more impressive, calling for an...

DSL comes to Armstrong Telephone remote customers: The search for a DSLAM becomes a next-gen path.
January 1, 2002... In the residential broadband face-off between cable TV and telecom, The Armstrong Group is part of a rare breed--a service provider that operates both local exchange telecom and cable TV networks. On one side is Armstrong's cable business, a...

Crafting an IP migration strategy: KMC telecom carves a niche in tier 3 markets.
January 1, 2002... If anything can be said about the strategy of Bedminster, N.J.-based CLEC KMG Telecom, it would be hit 'em where they ain't. Unlike other CLECs that touted a "build it and they will come" mantra with offerings in the same RBOC markets, KMC is...

Telus Mobility switches off the meter: Gives web customers pay-per-use billing.
January 1, 2002... Businesses often charge customers for services based on the time it takes to deliver them, whether the services involve lawyers, taxi drivers or wireless carriers. Rather than keep one eye on the clock and the other on the worker, however,...

Inlec: Converged voice/data in the last mile: A small Philadelphia CLEC sets out to build a converged IP network to deliver voice/data services over the same wire to the residential market.
January 1, 2002... Think of Inlec Communications as a different kind of CLEC. For starters, look at the prices for services advertised on its Web site: $20 a month for unlimited local calling, including popular services such as call waiting and call forwarding....

Making the most of a mandate: SNET builds new business with Tekelec's LNP solution.
January 1, 2002... When carriers were first required to meet LNP (local number portability) requirements in 1998, many dreaded the thought because of the high price tag associated with installing the required databases and processors system-wide. But for...

You can't measure what you can't capture: A good revenue assurance program plugs the OSS leaks. (Service Provisioning).
January 1, 2002... Investment financing has dropped almost 90 percent; loans and high-yield debt are coming due; margins are shrinking and operating costs continue to rise. Service providers are looking at all options for maximizing their revenues and remaining...

Service edge routers can smooth the ragged edge: Solutions need IP intelligence and must be capable of enabling new growth services while supporting existing ones.
January 1, 2002... To meet the insatiable demand for bandwidth and achieve economies of scale, service providers have added fiber capacity and equipment to their networks at a frenzied pace. Rapid infrastructure build-out has produced a high-capacity backbone...

Putting the "R" back in ROI: Intelligent provisioning breaks through the bandwidth bottleneck. (Service Provisioning).
January 1, 2002... The telecom industry faces a daunting reality: On one hand, backbone networks have a glut of unused bandwidth; on the other, demand is voracious for next-gen voice and data services through broadband access technologies. Yet service providers...

The little guy fights back: Outsourcing firewall management makes economic sense for smaller companies. (Service Providers).
January 1, 2002... Companies, branch offices and telecommuters are increasingly using always-on Internet access that provides the high-capacity bandwidth necessary to fully realize the benefits of the networked economy. However, the benefits of always-on access...

Terayon Communications a Future-Proof CMTS solution. (2002 Product of the Month).(BW-3000)
January 1, 2002... Although it may be a few years before the true benefits of DOCSIS 2.0 are realized, Terayon is making an early move with its BW 3000 CMTS. By incorporating not only DOCSIS 1.1, but also both advanced PHY layer implementations set by Cable Labs...

VoIP/data router: Vpacket communications. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Vpacket Communications has added a dual T1/MLPPP (Multilink Point-to-Point Protocol) capability to its 6100 Flex series voice/data access router. The enhancement, which also integrates CSU/DSU functionality, doubles the device's upstream...

Metro OADM: Centerpoint Broadband Technologies.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Centerpoint Broadband Technologies has released an OADM for metro regional networks. The vendor said the Celerity CP 3200 was purpose-built to reduce carriers' operating expenditures by offering a small footprint, single wavelength granularity...

Media server: Snowshore Networks. (Product Spot-New Products).
January 1, 2002... As the new generation of telecom turns its focus on profitability, service differentiation above commodity will be the modus operandi for success. One key enabler of this service-ready network will be the media server and application server...

Tester for core/metro networks: Agilent Technologies. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Agilent Technologies claims that its new RouterTester 900 offers a tenfold increase in key aspects of protocol and traffic testing. The tester, which occupies two rack units, features an easier to use card-and-chassis design. In a 40-RU bay the...

Revenue manager: Convergys Corp. (Product Spot).(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Convergys has released Geneva 5.0, its active revenue management software for content, commerce and communications services. This new edition is specifically tailored to the needs of the vendor's Tier 1 operators, particularly those that want...

Integrated IP/optical MPLS: NetPlane Systems. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... NetPlane Systems has released LTCS (label traffic control system) 4.0, which offers a common code-based solution for MPLS classical IP and optical solutions. It is intended for classical IP applications such as traffic engineering and...

Banded optics: AstralPoint Communications. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... AstralPoint Communications is now shipping the OA 500 modular optical system for its ON 7000, a platform that combines the capabilities of a SONET ADM, DCS and DWDM system. The OA 500 can be used by service providers to add/drop light on and...

Layer 3 VPN tester: Spirent. (New Products).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Spirent is now shipping a solution for functional and performance testing of provider edge routers supporting Layer 3 VPNs. The solution, which runs on the Adtech AX/4000 broadband test system, supports RFC 2547bis, an IETF draft standard that...

Off-Line: Industry leaders share their opinions, philosophies of life and off-hours interests.
January 1, 2002... In the early '80s, Ray Dolan landed fighter planes on aircraft carriers. Not much room for error. Today, as president and CEO of Flarion, a Spinoff from Lucent's New Ventures Group, Dolan knows how crucial good communication is. He knows his...

From the Publisher.
January 1, 2002... I am sure you noticed our brand new logo, which kicks off an exciting year for Telecommunications[R] magazine and our loyal readers. This latest and biggest change to our logo replaces our old faithful typeface and comes in the wake of a series...

WorldCom leads the world. (Industry Outlook).
January 1, 2002... Topples AT&T. WorldCom is the largest international long-distance carrier in the world, bumping AT&T from the top spot in 2000, according to the latest TeleGeography research report. In the United States, WorldCom carried 12.4 billion...