Telecommunications Americas articles from May 2002

Telecommunications Americas archives from May 2002

Model behavior? (Commentary).(Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a business plan)
May 1, 2002... As more and more carriers struggle in this tough telecom market, a new financial model is emerging: Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a business plan. It's scaring the heck out of a lot of folks--and not just those going through the debt restructuring...

You have one voice mail message: run! (Global News).(emergency communicaitons)
May 1, 2002... BOULDER, Colo.--The phone rings during supper. This time it's not another telemarketer promising a fast way to reduce credit card debt or refinance a mortgage. A recorded message from the town government warns of a nearby forest fire and orders...

Presidential advice. (News Briefs).(National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio was named chairman of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, a group of 30 executives that advises the U.S. president on national security and emergency preparedness communications policy. Members...

Kansas 3G. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... As wireless carriers get ready to offer mass-market 3G services, isolated trials of the services are cropping up around the world, Islands of 3G connectivity include Singapore, Hong Kong, the Isle of Man and now Manhattan--Manhattan, Kan., that...

2015: a network Odyssey. (Global News).
May 1, 2002... AUSTIN, Texas -- It's the year 2015: 88 percent of households in North America have Internet access. Many people watch streaming video and about two-thirds own a high-definition TV. Internet access, cable TV service and wire-line voice--most...

Cellular hits the stratosphere. (Global News).(Space Data to use National Weather Service balloons called SkySites)
May 1, 2002... PHOENIX, Ariz.--The world is becoming increasingly wireless, but what good is it if the customer's session gets dropped due to lack of coverage? Phoenix, Ariz.-based Space Data, working in conjunction with National Weather Service balloons...

BellSouth hits jackpot. (News Briefs).(VPNs for connecting the South Carolina state lottery's computers with lottery ticket retailers)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... BellSouth says it signed a deal to provide VPNs for connecting the South Carolina state lottery's. central computer and lottery ticket retailers. The VPN solution, which includes firewalls, encryption and intrusion detection systems, offers...

11 digits in N.Y.C. (News Briefs).(11-digit dialing)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... New York City is the latest area to get hit with 11-digit dialing, thanks to the growing use of pagers, cell phones, second phone lines, modems and more. Even those with the prized 212 area code must now dial 1 + area code + phone number to...

Branching out. (News Briefs).(telecommunication carriers' multiple services)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Looking to broaden their appeal with customers, carriers are introducing everything from new managed services to IP VPNs. Targeting midsize businesses, Sprint said it now offers preconfigured boundles of managed services, including managed or...

Shock waves. (News Briefs).(GPS technology to monitor structures)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Applications for GPS technology include not just locating people or automobiles, but monitoring the structural integrity of buildings or the movements of landslides and other natural hazards. GPS equipment maker Trimble and software developer...

The numbers game. (Global News).(FCC's proposal for lifting ban on segregating phone numbers for service- or technology-specific applications)
May 1, 2002... How valuable is having a local area code and phone number for services such as wireless, fax, paging and unified messaging? Not surprisingly, a number of service providers are up in arms over the FCC's recent proposal to consider lifting an...

Trade shows: return to glory days.(Industry Trend or Event)
May 1, 2002... There has been a lot of buzz over the past year blaming the Internet and the proliferation of vendor Web sites for the recent decline of industry trade shows. Another noted cause is the number of trade shows in general and the increasing creep...

Supercomm: creating winning network strategies. (Special Supercomm Preview Issue: New World Order).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The very word strikes fear in the hearts of even the staunchest trade show goers and conjures up thoughts of sore feet and cell phone hell. Fortunately, many also consider it the best place on the planet to pack in byte after byte of...

Is it prime time for softswitches? It's a long road to VoIP, but the technology is on the move. (Supercomm Preview).
May 1, 2002... It's a compelling proposition at least in theory: replace the hierarchy of Glass 4 and 5 switches with softswitch technology to begin the transformation of the PSTN to VoIP. But as persuasive as this argument sounds and as many vendors you'll...

Closing the Digital Divide: rural providers are the shining stars of next-gen broadband deployment. (Supercomm Preview).
May 1, 2002... The locations rural telcos serve may be remote, but the rural landscape is one of the hottest areas in telecom right now. Like urban telcos, rural telcos are seeing declines in traditional voice revenues and competition from cable MSOs and...

Open sesame: what's the key to unlocking the open access value proposition? (Supercomm Preview).(Interview)
May 1, 2002... While open access--opening an MSO's cable lines to multiple ISPs--certainly has its benefits, including customer choice and possible new revenue streams, it's not going to happen overnight. There are a number of complex network engineering and...

Down to a trickle: contracts are still coming in at the network edge, but when will this market really find its legs again? (Supercomm Preview).(Industry Overview)
May 1, 2002... Carrier budgets are slashed to virtually nothing, and new infrastructure projects are out of the question to jittery investors. But as with any rule there are exceptions, and in network access there have been some rewards for vendors with the...

Regulatory rumble: aftermath of 1996 Telecom Act pits carrier vs. carrier. (Supercomm Preview).
May 1, 2002... A few years ago, when Washington, D.C., was casting around for a less violent name for the Bullets, the local NBA team, people in town joked that the name should alternate between "Democrats" and "Republicans," depending on who was in power at...

One-track minds: providers are integrating software to manage service delivery. (Supercomm Preview).(Interview)
May 1, 2002... Managing networks has gotten much more complicated since the days when customers received only the most basic phone service, and providers needed to program only a few switches to deliver it. Today's network management is just one piece of a...

Going global with IPsec: with $75 million in funding, Virtela communications believes its IPsec-based VPN service is on the money. Chairman Vab Goel explains why. (Supercomm Preview).
May 1, 2002... Q. Can you describe Virtela in a nutshell? A. What AOL did for Internet access for home users, Virtela is doing for VPNs for the business customer. We've got intelligent switches all over the world that provide VPN, firewall, virus...

Breaking the bandwidth barrier: there's a strong case for optional Ethernet in the MAN. (Ethernet Takes Charge).
May 1, 2002... Optical Ethernet is poised to bring down the MAN--the last barrier to cost-effective, high-speed networking. Enterprise offices are connected internally with 100-Mbps and Gigabit Ethernet connections and data rides between cities at terabit...

The perfect marriage: binding Ethernet and SONET can answer the clamor for new revenue sources. (Ethernet Takes Charge).
May 1, 2002... The argument for combining Ethernet and SONET in multiservice metro networks is compelling. Ethernet is ubiquitous, simple to manage and relatively inexpensive. SONET benefits from a ubiquitous infrastructure, carrier-class resiliency and...

The missing link: MPLS takes Ethernet out on the town. (Ethernet Takes Charge).
May 1, 2002... Perhaps the most pressing challenge facing metro-area service providers today is how to convert break-even data transport services into value-added, profit-making offerings. Many are looking to Ethernet services for the answer. Designed to...

The new business models.
May 1, 2002... THE ENGINE ACCESS EQUATION In an increasingly challenging marketplace, network operators need to focus on the strategic exploitation of assets and resources. Nowhere is this more true than at the access level -- the ultimate point of customer...

KPN International Network Services: the wholesale plus dimension.
May 1, 2002... In an uncertain market, the search for new business models by telecom operators is a strategic necessity. New services can deliver new revenues or protect old ones. In some cases, a new business model can take advantage of gaps in a value chain...

KingCom: a new gigabit network.
May 1, 2002... Emerging regional telecom operators provide intriguing, if controversial (in the current environment) business models. Observers question if they have the right economies of scale and can achieve the right mix of technologies and new revenues...

Tele Danmark: a DSL business.
May 1, 2002... A DSL represents arguably the most complex market development in mass market fixed line telecom since the deployment of PSTN networks. The economics, implementation, rollout, marketing, and customer services all present challenges that operator...

Skanova: the cost effective wholesale model.
May 1, 2002... Wholesale telecom operators have their own special challenges: the need to build infrastructure that is effective in countering the ferocious price competition that exists everywhere in the market. Where markets are extremely liberalized, the...

AAPT: a technology agnostic strategy.(interview with Dave Marsh, Director of Infrastructure Solutions)(Interview)
May 1, 2002... There probably is no working day that I don't use the phrase 'EBIT' (Earnings Before Interest and Tax) twenty times. We are obsessed with it." So speaks Dave Marsh, Director of Infrastructure Solutions for AAPT, a "hunter" operator, based in...

Altitude: a regional local loop.(interview with CEO, Jean-Paul Riviere)(Interview)
May 1, 2002... Access strategies can enable new operators to build market share and add new services if they can target specific markets appropriately. For Altitude, a regional operator based in Normandy, France, fixed wireless access by LMDS technologies has...

Banda 26: the last mile.(interview with CEO, Juan de Sala O'Shea)(Interview)
May 1, 2002... All competitive operators face a similar problem: the fast set up, and rapid time to market that initiating a new business demands. Where that operator has designs on national coverage, the implementation challenges are significant. For...

In brief: Ericsson's new engine solutions or broadband access.
May 1, 2002... Ericsson is continuing to expand its own broadband access portfolio to align with evolving operator needs. Home Access Alongside the existing DSL business. Ericsson is now introducing a new fibre Ethernet Home Access solution developed...

Hopping on the bus: Ethernet leaps into the backplane with CompactPCI. (Ethernet Takes Charge).
May 1, 2002... Ethernet is everywhere, primarily because of its ease of use, global familiarity and ongoing ability to evolve technically. As a result, Ethernet has become dominant in enterprise LAN networks and has caused the PSTN to begin a migration from...

Convedia: entry-level IP migration. (2002 Telecommunications: Product of the Month).(Convedia CMS-6000)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... www.convedia.com Whereas the media gateway enabled interworking between the PSTN and IP, the media server will serve as the engine to power IP applications. Media server vendor Convedia made an early move in 2001 with its high-density...

SentitO Networks. (Hardened Next-Gen Switch).(SentitO Networks New End Office)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... www.sentito.com Start-up sentitO Networks has released a next-gen switch called the New End Office (NEO). The company claims the NEO is the first SIP/IP-based solution that combines access switching and service creation in one platform....

Winphoria Networks. (Next-Gen MSC).(Winphoria Networks WMS-5000 mobile switching center)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... www.winphoria.com Looking to break the bond of traditional mobile switching vendors, Tewksbury, Mass.-based Winphoria Networks has emerged with its WMS-5000, a full-featured mobile switching center that can meet the current capacity...

Quarry Technologies. (Service Edge Switches).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... www.quarrytech.com Quarry Technologies has released two service edge switches that provide network-based IPsec VPNs and Internet firewall services. The switches are available as the eight-slot iQ4000 and the 16-slot iQ8000. The company...

Brix networks. (Performance Verifier).(Brix Networks Brix 2500 network management device and BrixWorx 2.0 network management software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... www.brixnet.com The Brix 2500 is the newest addition to Brix's family of IP service assurance appliances. Simultaneously, the vendor has released BrixWorx 2.0, the latest version of its performance management software. The Brix 2500...

LongBoard. (SDK Release).(Realtime Developer SDK suite)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... www.lboard.com IP Centrex and advanced applications vendor LongBoard has released a suite of five SDKs that are available separately. Called Realtime Developer, the SDKs enable service providers and systems integrators to create new...

AFC. (Multiservice Access/Edge).(Advanced Fibre Communications Telliant 5000 jointly developed with AccessLan)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... www.afc.com The multiservice access/edge market continues to flourish with an approach of collapsing multiple functions in one box. With its feet entrenched in the remote terminal market, Advanced Fibre Communications is moving to find a...

Atreus Systems. (Service Fufillment).(xAuthority 2.3 network management device)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... www.atreussystems.com Atreus Systems says its xAuthority 2.3 Service Fulfillment Solution lets carriers use their existing network infrastructures to deliver advanced IP services and applications. The latest platform release offers...

Mirapoint. (Internet Message Server).(4-Series)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... www.mirapoint.com Rather than supporting a mishmash of messaging components assembled over time to cope with the crazy growth of Internet communications, vendor Mirapoint says service providers and enterprises must find a comprehensive...

Business Objects. (Business Intelligence).(WebIntelligence 2.7)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... www. businessobjects.com For service providers wanting to understand their corporate data better, Business Objects offers WebIntelligence 2.7, which provides Web access to all major relational and OLAP (online analytical processing)...

ADVA optical. (Metro Access Upgrade).(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... www.advaoptical.com ADVA has increased support for a DWDM ring by adding add/drop capabilities to its FSP 1000 metro optical access product. The upgrade to the FSP is available and enables carriers to transport both low- and high-data-rate...

GL Communications. (SS7 Emulator Upgraded).(Digital Central Office Switch Simulator)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... www.gl.com GL Communications has enhanced its PC-based DCOSS (Digital CO Switch Simulator) tester for SS7 networks with the addition of TCAP (transaction capabilities application part), SCCP (signaling connection control part) layers and...

Off-line: industry leaders share their opinions, philosphies of life and off-hours interests.(Interview)
May 1, 2002... My best advice," says Unisphere Networks President and CEO Jim Dolce, "is to think globally early. At Unisphere, we continue to open new offices worldwide and are developing new markets, such as in Latin America. Our global reach has enabled us...

Managing the total technology life cycle.
May 1, 2002... What a difference a year makes. Twelve to 18 months ago, it is very unlikely that there would have been much demand for analysis on how to better manage the full range of assets that go into deploying a network. If ignorance was bliss, then the...

Q&A with Dennis DeSousa.(Graybar Senior VP of Sales and Marketing)
May 1, 2002... Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Graybar As the telecommunications industry wrestles with how to establish or expand profit margins in an uncertain economy, companies are looking for every opportunity to iron out operational...

In for the long haul: there's no lack of challenges--from the core to the customer--for optical equipment vendors.(fiber optic communications)
May 15, 2002... There are signs that optical technology is ready to take on challenges beyond simply providing plentiful capacity in long-haul networks. Across the board vendors are talking about the need to drive optical technology beyond the core to...

(Not) Seeing is believing: optically transparent networks are the new panacea.
May 15, 2002... Today's core optical networks usually are configured in a mesh topology with point-to-point DWDM optical links and OEO (optical-electrical-optical) switching at the junction nodes. Although this architecture is far more efficient than previous...

Driving without amps: umamplified networks could be DWDM's metro breakthrough.(Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing)
May 15, 2002... DWDM-based systems have been used in national and international long-haul networks for a long time because of their inherent capacity, scalability and transparency. This unmatched performance also is becoming essential in city networks, but the...

Time for a tune-up: transparency plus tunability solves the bandwidth forecasting dilemma.
May 15, 2002... The long-haul marketplace isn't dead; it's just beginning the recovery process that resulted from hyper-competition where certain markets saw 20+ competitors. The next series of capacity adds will begin in six to 18 months, initially driven by...

The new metro math: next-gen optical transport unlocks the metro core economics quandry.
May 15, 2002... As service providers focus more than ever on service acceleration and revenues, the metro has become the most important segment of the public network. Functioning as the bridge between the access and long-haul segments, the metro is challenged...

New lease on life; RPR: more than a SONET facelift.(Resilient packet ring expands SONET capabilities)
May 15, 2002... Many an industry prophet has predicted the imminent demise of SONET. The obituary lists causes of death as lack of efficient support for bursty data traffic, SONET's inflexibilty to changing traffic patterns, and, most critically, the inherent...

Best of all worlds: intelligent hybrid platforms offer reliability of legacy, flexibility of next-gen systems.
May 15, 2002... The latest buzz is that the faint pulse of telecom is beating in the metro networking market. Telecom managers know that long-haul fiber capacity is abundant and high-speed, last-mile access solutions are already being deployed at breakneck...