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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
ANT browser to power Internet appliances
April 8, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsIn a deluge of announcements, ANT Ltd. has released its embedded browser software for Internet appliances, licensed it to a customer and will demonstrate the product in a variety of appliances at the Embedded Systems Conference West in San Francisco. The ANT Fresco browser includes HTML 4.01, JavaScript 1.
Mitel launches decoders for digital TV
April 8, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsOttawa-based Mitel Corp. released its MT312 and MT351 decoder chips, which, it reports, are designed to boost satellite and terrestrial digital TV performance. Both allow systems to detect and tune digital TV channels delivered by satellite and terrestrial links, and include the digital functionality needed for interactive services.
PlayLink/Triveni team on games with ads
April 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsNewgold's PlayLink Corp. and Triveni Digital have teamed on delivering interactive games over a standard digital TV signal. Arguably an added benefit: The games can include advertisements. ATVEF-enabled digital TV set-top boxes already offer interaction with TV programs in certain areas, the company reports.
TiVo cuts 25 jobs in new plan
April 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsTiVo will lay off 25 workers, reduce spending on noncritical IT costs by nearly 50 percent this year, and dramatically reduce customer-service support costs per subscriber as part of its new operating plan. The personal TV company reports strong growth in its subscriber base, however, and a new leveraged marketing plan with such partners as AOL and DirecTV.
Study: Consumers want ITV and will pay
April 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsA study commissioned by interactive technology companies shows consumers want ITV service and are willing to trade up to get it. The study was conducted by Palm Desert, Calif.-based Boyd Consulting at the behest of ACTV Inc., Liberty Livewire Corp., Motorola Inc., OpenTV and Universal Electronics Inc.
Agilent cuts employee pay 10%
April 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsDeparting from the industry's well-publicized layoffs, Agilent Technologies opted for a 10-percent reduction in its 48,000-member, global workforce's pay. The cuts stem from a slower-than-expected second quarter and prompted a nearly 8.1-percent fall in Agilent's shares in Germany. Pay cuts started April 1 for the company's senior managers and will begin May 1 for everyone else, Agilent reports.
AirFiber technology lands $50 M in funding
April 4, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsAnother one. San Diego-based AirFiber Inc. just won $50 million in its third round of financing. The funds will go to operations, and continued product development, sales and marketing, said Geoff Mordock, who manages AirFiber's PR. AirFiber's equipment connects buildings within a 200- to 500-meter range with a "tremendous" amount of broadband service via equipment that shoots lasers between tw...
Cable Center offering to fund education
April 4, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsThis tech stock's a whopping $100 a share. Don't even try to trade it or accumulate it, and don't count on any voting rights. And as to profits? Don't even go there. Still intrigued? What you will get with shares in Denver-based Cable Center's Third Millennium Fund is a per-share shot at helping to raise funds for the nonprofit's educational and research programs, and their documentation.
Rockwell cancels, but not with contractor
April 4, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsTalk about out of the loop. Rockwell International Corp. halted investments in the In-Flight Networks joint venture, but no one gave contractor Datron Systems Inc. a heads up. The developer and builder of antenna systems for the project heard the news when it was released yesterday. And as of this morning, Vista, Calif.
Lucent: Bankruptcy rumors 'irresponsible'
April 4, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsA harassed Lucent Technologies Inc. yesterday stated it was not filing for bankruptcy, regardless of rumors it called "baseless and irresponsible." The company also announced it was restructuring a $425 million loan agreement with TeleCorp PCS Inc. that extends Lucent's time commitment. "Let me be very clear — our $6.
RiverDelta's European foray; new products
April 3, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsListen up, small MSOs. You're the target. Germany's Siemens AG's effort to "target small cable MSOs worldwide with a professional end-to-end solution that will allow operators to quickly and efficiently upgrade their networks" just snapped up RiverDelta Networks' BSR1000, RiverDelta reports. The Tewksbury, Mass.
PSINet faces bankruptcy; keeps stadium rights
April 3, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsInternet access provider PSINet Inc. likely will file for bankruptcy, thanks to a cash shortage, and told the SEC it may miss the deadline for filing its 2000 annual report because of rapidly changing circumstances. It will not, however, sell the naming rights to the stadium of the Baltimore Ravens. The bankruptcy is intended to help restructure the company's $3.
ANT/Quiero TV team on ITV
April 3, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsANT Ltd.'s Internet software was picked up by Spanish broadcaster Quiero TV, which will use the software maker's Fresco browser and SimplEmail e-mail client in its 200,000-strong ITV market. Quiero uses four set-top box manufacturers, each of whom licenses ANT's software. ANT reports its software is designed to work with any hardware platform and uses a three-layer architecture, "which allows t...
SBC pays up. Again.
April 3, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsTalk about irony. "This merger puts consumers first," said SBC Communications Inc. Chair and CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. in a 1999 statement announcing SBC's agreement to performance terms in its merger with Ameritech. But last month, the FCC collected another $4.6 million in penalties from SBC. The payment, made public yesterday, brings the company's total fines to $23 million, including $88,00...
Calif. PUC ponders NorthPoint today
April 2, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsIt probably isn't the best time to tick off California's utilities officials. NorthPoint's decision to ditch its network and cut off its 100,000 DSL customers — 40 percent of whom are in California — appears to have scraped a nerve with California's already harried PUC entities. "We've been very busy lately with this electricity crisis that we've had in California," says spokeswoman...
