From this week's Telephony Magazine's "Hotheads" Section, there is a host of news items often discussed here:
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GTE Internetworking is introducing a new service for business Internet customers
who need greater than T-1 access but can't cost-justify a full T-3.
The new service, called Multi-T-1, is initially being offered in 27 cities. It allows a
user to aggregate up to six T-1 lines, garnering up to 9 Mb/s. GTE is using Cisco
Systems hardware and software to implement the service.
Bay Networks acquires NetServe
Hoping to capitalize on renewed interest in Internet protocol-based voice services
over cable television, Bay Networks last week acquired NetServe, a Berlin-based
IP telephony vendor.
Although financial terms were not disclosed, NetServe will become part of Bay's
broadband division. Bay will integrate NetServe's VoiceHub and VoiceServer into
its cable modem system as part of a three-phase approach, the first of which will
market the voice gateways to cable operators, said Jerry White, chief technology
officer for Bay's broadband unit.
U S West VP sees future in Covad
In part of a growing trend of carrier executives moving from Bell regional holding
companies to head start-ups, Covad Communications last week welcomed former U
S West executive Robert Knowling Jr. as its new president and CEO.
Covad, which describes itself as a packet competitive local exchange carrier, hired
Knowling to replace Co-founder and former Chief Executive Chuck McMinn, who
has moved into the newly created chairman of the board post. Knowling was
executive vice president of operations and technologies for U S West, a position he
held since mid-1997. Knowling joined U S West in 1996 as network operations vice
president, the same post he had at Ameritech.
STIS hotwires Florida after PSC ruling
Competitive local exchange carrier Supra Telecommunications & Information
Systems said last week that it is rolling out Paradyne's Hotwire digital subscriber line
technologies in South Florida, after several months of problematic dealings with
BellSouth.
Starting in January, STIS filed complaints with the Florida Public Service
Commission charging that BellSouth was engaging in anticompetitive behavior. STIS
claimed that BellSouth refused to give it billing and telephone number access and
failed to provide timely line maintenance services. At one point, said Fabio Galoppi,
STIS vice president of marketing, "we could barely bill our clients."
Siemens begins IP voice integration
Siemens Telecom Networks anounced last week that it has begun integrating
NetSpeak's Internet protocol telephony applications into its InterXpress 2000
carrier-grade IP telephony platform.
Included as part of the deal is NetSpeak's WebPhone client software, as well as
subscriber management modules that let carriers register users and authorize service
via the Web. In addition, the deal will include several interworking units, routing,
rating, billing and management systems.
U S West buys into Internet-hosted apps
U S West announced last week that it has invested $3.5 million in USinternetworking
Inc. with the goal of bringing network-hosted applications to the residential and
business markets by the third quarter. USi will provide the infrastructure for U S
West's Web-hosted application services such as virtual private network, firewall and
e-mail services. Start-up service provider USi is building an international Internet
protocol infrastructure by linking four Internet data centers in North America, Europe
and Asia.
USi's base business provides mid-market companies and government agencies with
Web-enabled business process software. The company's goal is to make it easy to
provide smaller businesses with software that is typically hard for them to acquire,
install and maintain, said USi founder and CEO Christopher McCleary. "We are
going to supply the application software and implement it with our own professional
service unit for a flat monthly fee," he said.
InterDigital chases U.S. CLEC market
InterDigital's proprietary fixed broadband code division multiple access system hit
Iowa last week as part of a trial with Pioneer Holdings and North West Rural
Electric Cooperative. TrueLink, the wireless local loop product, will operate in the
PCS spectrum to offer fixed voice services to residential users.
"We hope it becomes a solution for a commercial product," said Mike Thompson,
president of Pioneer Holdings, a company formed to offer a local choice in rural
areas. "If it does, that puts us in the position where we don't have to negotiate
interconnection agreements."
Guided by voices
T-Netix and Peak Network Communications announced last week that they have
formed a joint venture to pursue Internet security solutions based on voice
recognition technology.
The new entity, Sentry Systems, will develop products based on T-Netix's SpeakEZ
Voice Print and VeriNet WEB technologies and Peak's Web server security
software. The driver behind the formation of Sentry is to add a layer of security more
specific than things such as firewalls or passwords, said Pat Flannery, vice president
of marketing at T-Netix.
HP moves into ADSL testing niche
Hewlett-Packard Co. announced last week that it is addressing the low-cost local
loop service test market with a new business unit and a product line aimed at
asymmetrical digital subscriber line deployment test needs.
The mission of HP's new service test division is to develop low-cost, small-format
test tools designed specifically for carriers installing and maintaining services such as
ADSL, cable modems, asynchronous transfer mode, frame relay and ISDN. The
new unit evolved from the company's Cerjac unit, which focused on developing
portable T-carrier and Sonet testers.
IXC builds optical networks with Nortel
IXC Communications announced last week that it will use Northern Telecom's
optical networking for a coast-to-coast network buildout and southeastern route.
The new routes comprise phases two and three of IXC's buildout plan and are
valued at $100 million.
The coast-to-coast route will link San Francisco, Los Angeles, Fort Worth, Texas,
and New York. The 1500-mile fiber route in the southeast will connect New York,
Washington, Atlanta and Houston.
IXC is deploying Nortel's multiwave optical repeater system with dense wavelength
division multiplexing. Nortel's S/DMS TransportNode OC-192 will be used to
deliver up to 80 Gb/s of multimedia, data and voice traffic.
Nortel demos CDMA high speed data
Northern Telecom demonstrated 57.6 kb/s data services via Bell Mobility's
commercial code division multiple access network last week at Canada's Comdex
exposition. Using its own technology developed as part of a $60 million research
program with Bell Mobility, Nortel achieved the high-speed data rates by combining
four 14.4 kb/s channels.
Rather than wait for the IS-95B specification, which outlines the migration to
higher-speed data and has yet to be released, Nortel developed its own solution.
The company will decide whether to offer an IS-95B solution, release its own
solution for commercial use or not offer a 2.5 Gb/s solution at all, depending on
customer demands, said Lino DeFacendis, manager of strategic marketing for
Nortel.
Wireless cable at crossroads
To outside observers at last week's Wireless Communications Association show in
Philadelphia, the industry is being torn in two directions. On one side are operators
such as BellSouth that are pouring most of their effort and money into using their
spectrum for digital video services. On the other side are operators looking to
Internet access to pull them out of a market that has been losing customers.
Not surprisingly, which side of the video/Internet issue that operators take often
depends on history and the ability to raise cash. |
