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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Lucent cutting 5,000 more jobs
April 11, 2002 8:00 pm | by Ben Klayman | CommentsCopyright 2002 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd. Toronto Star…04/12/2002 Telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies Inc. plans to cut about 5,000 more jobs than previously expected by the end of June because of the slowdown in the telecom sector, says a source close to the firm. "It's not like a whole new program of restructuring.
Growth for the router market … On the Edge(2)
April 11, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsThe market for routing and switching equipment is suffering from saturation, a lack of capital spending from carriers, and an overall cratering of network spending in general. Yet amid all the telecom carnage, one area of the carrier's network-routing gear for the network edge-is growing at a quick pace.
Israel's Golden-Channels flips switch on NVOD
April 10, 2002 8:00 pm | by Jeff Baumgartner | CommentsGolden-Channels, Israel's largest cable television company, has launched near video-on-demand services in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv metro area via a video server system supplied by SeaChange International. The MSO's NVOD service is comprised of 12 channels of Hollywood, Israeli and European movies, offering them up through SeaChange's MediaCluster system and Thomson Multimedia-built digital se...
Cable firms try to cage Net 'hogs'
April 10, 2002 8:00 pm | by Shelley Emling | CommentsCopyright 2002 The Atlanta Constitution The Atlanta Journal and Constitution…04/11/2002 New York — The bandwidth buffet is closing down. Cable companies, including AT&T Broadband, which serves Atlanta, are moving toward charging their Internet subscribers different monthly fees based on connection speeds.
SoftNet shuts down Intellicom
April 10, 2002 8:00 pm | by Jeff Baumgartner | CommentsSoftNet Systems Inc. shed another asset late Thursday, this time shuttering its Intellicom Communications satellite subsidiary. SoftNet said Intellicom, which used two-way satellite technology to deliver Internet services to schools and businesses, will cease operations "following the disposition of certain assets.
ITV XML crowd growing
April 10, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsThe effort to develop and standardize common specifications for interactive television applications and content continues moving forward, and the playing field is growing more crowded by the day. The NCTA Show in New Orleans is the target launch site for a new industry forum established to promote TV Extensible Markup Language, or TVXML, a TV-specific markup language based on XML for interactiv...
Ma Bell proposes reverse stock split
April 10, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsAT&T Corp. is looking to immediately raise the value of its shares, with a one-for-five reverse stock split. Ma Bell proposed the reverse stock split in a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. In the filing, the company said the reverse split would "adjust the trading prices of AT&T common stock following the various transactions to effect AT&T...
Dominion closes Telergy deal
April 10, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsDominion Telecom continues to swallow long-haul networks from bankrupt Telergy. The latest: the acquisition of Telergy's network in upstate New York. A New York Bankruptcy Court approved Dominion Telecom's bid for the long-haul and metro fiber network. The facilities-based broadband service provider will fork over $7.
iVAST wins ClearStar MPEG-4 contract
April 9, 2002 8:00 pm | by Jeff Baumgartner | CommentsiVAST said it won a multi-million dollar contract to provide MPEG-4 set-top technology via a deal with ClearStar USA, a telecom and entertainment company headquartered in El Dorado Hills, Calif. Under terms of the deal, iVAST will supply a set of MPEG-4 software and systems aimed at cable operators that plan to deploy interactive broadband services.
Trace outlines digital STB roadmap
April 9, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsThe digital set-top box market is poised to grow its installed base by 62 percent this year, one analysis says. An analysis of the 12-largest cable operators in North America by Trace Strategies Inc. found that by the end of 2002, this group of 12 cablecos will deploy a combined 9.39 million digital STBs.
Optical Solutions snags FTTH deal
April 9, 2002 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsWamego Telecommunications Co., a Kansas-based incumbent local exchange carrier, has tapped Optical Solutions Inc. to bring fiber-to-the-home capability to the Kansas River Valley. The ILEC selected Optical Solutions' FTTH FiberPath 400 to meet the bandwidth needs of its customers. The FiberPath 400, which is based on a passive optical network architecture, will replace Wamego's existing copper ...
Comcast wraps up Detroit VoIP trial
April 9, 2002 8:00 pm | by Jeff Baumgartner | CommentsComcast Cable Communications Inc. said it has completed a six-month Voice-over-IP technology trial in the Detroit area. Instead of a pure-IP set-up, Comcast tested packet voice services in the access network (home to headend) by leveraging TollBridge's TB300 gateway, Arris' DOCSIS 1.1-qualified C4 cable modem termination system and a Class 5 switch the MSO inherited via a system swap with AT&am...
Home networks move beyond early adopters
April 9, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsThe chance to share a home's broadband connection is the leading driver in the adoption of new home networking technologies, and the rise in the sale of residential cable/DSL routers is happening across nearly all segments of the market, according to a new report from high-tech research firm Cahners In-Stat/MDR.
Additional broadband bills under construction in Senate
April 9, 2002 8:00 pm | by Steve Peacock | CommentsCopyright 2002 Warren Publishing, Inc. Communications Daily…04/10/2002 From LexisNexis The communications industry can expect additional broadband bills to be introduced in the Senate before the close of the 107th Congress, industry insiders say. A bill by Sen. Breaux (D-La.) is being drafted that sources say will parallel the Tauzin-Dingell bill (HR-1542) passed by the House earlier this...
Rural English areas to get broadband via satellite
April 9, 2002 8:00 pm | by Duffy Hayes | CommentsThough broadband satellite services have been slow to roll out on any great scale worldwide, pockets in the European market continue to turn to satellite as a broadband alternative, especially in rural areas where general connectivity is limited. Hughes Network Systems Europe, which offers broadband satellite services under the DIRECWAY brand, announced that U.


