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Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Moonray who wrote (15913)	6/8/1998 12:06:00 AM
From: Scrapps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

''A 'Silicon Valley teenager culture' has spread through much of the Web. It's quick, efficient, often brutal and gets its own way almost everywhere.'' Just acting it's age I'd say.

To: Moonray who wrote (15913)	6/8/1998 4:22:00 PM
From: Moonray	Respond to of 22053

Ascend Upgrades Switches to Make Phone Networks More Efficient Alameda, California, June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Ascend Communications Inc. said it added a new feature to the computer switches it sells to phone companies that will sharply cut the cost of building and operating telecommunications networks. Some of the Baby Bells and newer Internet providers such as Williams Cos.' Wiltel communications unit and GTE Corp.'s networking group already use Ascend's switches, which transfer incoming Internet calls onto phone networks. Ascend now is selling hardware and software that connect the switches directly to the fiber-optic cables that carry most long- distance phone traffic. The new products eliminate the need for a part of the network that was designed to carry voice calls. As telecom providers expand their networks to handle growing Internet traffic, they are looking for new gear from Ascend, Cisco Systems Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and others to reduce costs and offer new data services. ''The telcos want this stuff to make their networks more efficient,'' said Tom Nolle, an analyst with the consulting group CIMI Corp. in Voorhees, New Jersey, whose clients include Cisco and Ascend. The new products will make networks cheaper to build and existing networks easier to manage by eliminating the need for separate ''synchronous optical networking,'' or SONET, equipment. That equipment does not manage Internet-related data traffic efficiently, Nolle said. Ascend said the new modules for its GX-550 switches, which have been tested in Williams' and GTE's networks, could save as much as 75 percent of the cost of building a new phone network. Increased Capacity The modules will link switches using asynchronous transfer mode, or ATM, technology with so-called wavelength division multiplexers, or WDMs. That equipment splits beams of light on fiber-optic cable into different wavelengths, increasing its capacity. In April, Cisco said it would develop similar modules wth Ciena Corp., the leading maker of WDMs, which last week agreed to be bought by phone equipment maker Tellabs Inc. Last week, Sprint Corp., the No. 3 long-distance company, said it was building a new high-speed network that would combine voice, video and Internet traffic using ATM and WDM technology. The market for equipment that combines Internet traffic with the public phone network is expected to reach more than $20 billion annually by 2002. ''Ascend could charge a lot more for these things and people would still buy them,'' said Hilary Mine, an analyst with market researchers Probe Research Inc. in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey. The new products improve the reliability of networks by reducing the number of connection points where it could fail, Mine said. Ascend did not provide pricing information and Mine could not comment, citing a confidentiality agreement with the company. o~~~ O