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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Hughes touts service trio
August 2, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsHughes Network Systems launched a trio of products and services, including surround sound in its set-top boxes. The company licensed TruSurround from SRS Labs Inc. and will include the surround sound feature in Hughes' Director Pack and Executive Director Pack services. Using TruSurround in its DirecTV set-top boxes allows virtual surround sound through the two speakers of any stereo TV set, SR...
Agilent/Corning to market parallel optics
August 2, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsAgilent Technologies Inc. and Corning Cable Systems will jointly market and support parallel-optics solutions with their other products, the two report. The companies' mutual customers will get access to Corning's passive optical technologies and Agilet's active parallel-optics modules. Parallel optics targets high-density interconnects for terabit switches and routers, server-to-server backpla...
Siemens/Proxim finish HomeRF voice demo
August 2, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsSiemens and Proxim Inc. just finished tests on a public HomeRF voice call demo. HomeRF 2.0 intends to allow Internet access and phone call ability over a broadband connection. The duo says the calls can sound as good as those on traditional phone lines, and can be done at a reasonable price for consumers.
Winstar plan cuts 950 jobs, thinks sale
August 1, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsWinstar Communications Inc. crafted a two-part plan to pull itself out of bankruptcy sooner than expected. The plans include cutting 950 jobs and a potential sale or merger. The company says part one entails refocusing its sales efforts on small- and medium-size customers in its markets, including 17 branches, 200 national accounts and government business in 11 markets.
Study: CMTS/optical transport plunge to reverse … later(2)
August 1, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsTry to look past that 36 percent dive in CMTS and other cable equipment sales this year, not to mention the 23 percent drop in this year's worldwide optical transport market. Two Dell'Oro Group studies say both markets will turn around — CMTS in 2002 and optical transport in 2003. "Access concentrator — cable modem equipment" sales should grow 85 percent, year-over-year, next year, ...
Lucent tots up $1.75 B from convertible stock
August 1, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsLucent got a boost from an unexpected $1.75 billion in its convertible preferred stock offering yesterday. The stock, priced at $1,000 a share, drew about $750 million more than targeted, despite Lucent's lowered ratings from Standard & Poor's, and Moody's. Observers say buyers include mutual fund managers, pension funds and other institutions, who will get an annual dividend rate of 8 perc...
Comcast turns out strong Q2 results; ups guidance
August 1, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsIn a show that it might put its money where its mouth is, AT&T Broadband bidder Comcast Corp. turned out some strong second-quarter results. It also upped its guidance on its digital cable and high-speed data products. Comcast's pro forma cable revenue for the period ending June 30 rose to $1.29 billion, compared to $1.
Study: CMTS/optical transport plunge to reverse … later
August 1, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsTry to look past that 36 percent dive in CMTS and other cable equipment sales this year, not to mention the 23 percent drop in this year's worldwide optical transport market. Two Dell'Oro Group studies say both markets will turn around — CMTS in 2002 and optical transport in 2003. "Access concentrator — cable modem equipment" sales should grow 85 percent, year-over-year, next year, ...
Metromedia lands credit extension … sort of
July 31, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsNo pressure here. Metromedia Fiber Netwok Inc. landed a $62.5 million credit extension from Citicorp, contingent on pulling in another $487.5 million from other sources, including $200 million in vendor financing. Metromedia says affiliates have committed to $180 million of the $287.5 million needed from "other sources," but it's contingent on closing ongoing talks of $200 million in vendor fin...
ADC to cut 2,500 more jobs; lower guidance
July 31, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsADC lowered its Q3 guidance and said it would lay off an additional 2,500 workers. It will close several facilities and sell two of its units for an undisclosed sum. Chair and CEO Rick Roscitt said the company doesn't expect to reach its stated $600 million, low-end guidance. ADC also announced its anticipated pro forma loss of 5 cents a share.
Charter bids $73 M for waffling HSA
July 31, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsCharter Communications Inc. made a $73 million cash pitch for certain High Speed Access Corp. assets, but HSA isn't sure yet what it wants to do. HSA had just announced a 26 percent jump in subscribers since March and in May, an open access agreement with Time Warner Cable. An FTC comment period on the deal ended yesterday.
Metromedia lands credit extension … sort of(2)
July 31, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsNo pressure here. Metromedia Fiber Netwok Inc. landed a $62.5 million credit extension from Citicorp, contingent on pulling in another $487.5 million from other sources, including $200 million in vendor financing. Metromedia says affiliates have committed to $180 million of the $287.5 million needed from "other sources," but it's contingent on closing ongoing talks of $200 million in vendor fin...
OpenTV and BigBand Team to Provide Bandwidth-Efficient iTV Content
July 31, 2001 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsBigBand Networks and OpenTV are partnering to create a strategic technology integration and cooperative marketing agreement to provide cable operators with an integrated, cost-effective solution to deliver interactive TV content. Using the combined product offering, cable operators can insert interactive TV content at master or local headends, while minimizing capital equipment costs, and opti...
Mixed Signals Technologies Working to Integrate TiVo Technology into Product Line
July 31, 2001 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsMixed Signals Technologies and TiVo Inc. are partnering to integrate TiVo's Ipreview technology into Mixed Signals' ITV Networking Solutions product line. Under the terms of the agreement, Mixed Signals' ITVauto interactive television broadcast data automation interface would be upgraded with the ability to schedule, manage, and encode TiVo Ipreview data into the video signal of participating n...
Lucent to Supply Optical Network System for TyCom
July 31, 2001 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsLucent Technologies will supply long-haul optical network equipment and services for Morristown, N.J.-based TyCom Ltd., in a one-year $90 million agreement. The agreement includes deployment of the Lucent WaveStar OLS 1.6T optical networking system in the Tycom Global Network (TGN), with potential upgrades of more than $50 million.
