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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Thomson makes a play for Alcatel's DSL unit
June 6, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsThomson Multimedia will acquire Alcatel SA's DSL modem business unit for $386.6 million, Alcatel reports. In the stock transaction, Thomson will buy the unit in exchange for 9.5 million new shares at $40.68 a share, or 48 euros per share. The deal will give Alcatel a 9.1 percent stake in Thomson. The companies expect definitive agreements by the end of June and a closed deal by the end of the y...
Traffic 'burstiness' doesn't reach Internet core
June 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsDon't be dissing their terms. If scientists confirm Internet edge "burstiness," then burstiness it is. A team of Bell Labs researchers say that the extreme swings in traffic at edges of the Internet smooth out at the core, and "point the way to more efficient system and network designs with better performance at lower cost," Bell reports.
BB Gateways/Navini team on wireless local loops
June 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsBroadBand Gateways Inc. will partner with Navini Networks on a network-to-premises wireless broadband local loop. The result is intended to be a consumer- self-installable, wireless broadband, residential gateway solution, Broadband Gateway says. The project will entail Navini's WLL transport and Broadband's next-generation premises gateway.
CableLabs makes key appointments
June 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsCableLabs appointed Paul Whitehead VP of strategic assessment. Whitehead will oversee assessments of new technologies, including technical, economic, public policy and strategic issues, CableLabs says. The organization also hired Bernd Lutz as director of the CableHome project and Perry O'Neil as director of the Cable Industry B2B Interface Program.
Former broadband exec jumps to Qwest
June 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsFormer AT&T Broadband CTO Tony Werner was appointed executive VP of strategic technology at Qwest, the telecom announced. Werner will oversee strategic technology planning and development for the 14 states where Qwest provides service, as well as other Qwest markets. Werner was CTO at AT&T Broadband and at TCI, its predecessor.
Excite OKs cable deadline; shuts overseas offices
June 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsExciteAtHome extended an exclusivity deadline with Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications; has shut down its media operations in Germany, France and Spain; and has appointed a new COO. The company said yesterday it's in talks with Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. to "explore a restructuring of its commercial relationships with these companies.
Software tests pre-prototype cable modems
June 5, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsHold off on that cable modem prototype. A new product from Opnet Technologies Inc. and CableLabs' Bandwidth Modeling and Management Vendor Forum is designed to let manufacturers test different product configurations and architectures before the prototype is built. The DOCSIS 1.1 model software also allows cable operators to create virtual representations of proposed cable modem networks when ev...
Liberate opens PopTV lab
June 4, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsWant to see how all those new, interactive applications will work on set-top boxes? Liberate Technologies just opened its PopTV Lab, designed to let the company's PopTV content and application partners develop, refine and test new ITV products. PopTV partners previously used Liberate's TV Emulator, a product that runs on a PC but gives them a look at what their content or application would look...
Lucent affirms Q3 guidance
June 4, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsLucent Technologies's third quarter will show modest sequential growth over its $5.915 billion, second-quarter numbers, Chair and CEO Henry Schacht said today at the Supercomm Show in Atlanta. Schacht reaffirmed the company's financial guidance in a meeting with financial analysts. "Our turnaround plan envisions quarter-to-quarter progress, and we continue on that path," he says.
WINfirst selects Harmonic digital headends
June 4, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsHarmonic Inc. will supply WINfirst with "open" system solutions for digital headends in Sacramento and Dallas, Harmonic reports. WINfirst is building a new fiber-to-the-home network in both cities. The deployment will use Harmonic's digital TV headend systems, including its DiviCom line of encoders, MN20 multiplexers, SimulCrypt conditional access interfaces, the Narrowcast Services Gateway for...
Vyyo ups upstream offerings
June 3, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsVyyo aims to lend more symmetry to asymmetric systems. The company just made upstream 16 QAM and upstream QPSK available in its broadband fixed wireless modulation schemes. Vyyo says its three current downstream modulation schemes — 64 QAM, 16 QAM and QPSK — are designed to let carriers optimize networks for different customer applications.
PVR survey to study viewer habits, impact
June 3, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsSo who's using Personal Video Recorders, how, when and exactly what are they doing to those commercials? A curious NextResearch Inc. says it's developing a study to find the answers. Questionnaires go out this week and results should be available in about a month. "The main issue is time shifting, particularly for content providers," Chief Strategic Officer Leenie Ruben tells CEDaily.
Global lands $37 M ACCA contract
June 3, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsGlobal Crossing Ltd.'s Carrier Services Division signed a three-year, $37 million contract with Associated Communications Companies of America to provide ACCA members with voice and data, including carrier termination, toll-free service, dedicated voice, private line and IP transit. The agreement gives ACCA's 10 member companies significant purchasing power, while Global can reach multiple whol...
Study: Optical DWDM market to fall 11% in '01
June 3, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsMaybe you sensed it, but now it's official: The global market for optical components used in terrestrial DWDM and optical networking will fall 11 percent this year thanks to excess inventory and less network building. On the upside, growth will return in 2002, but at a more conservative rate, says a study from RHK Inc.
Cisco talks up 'Net phone technology
May 31, 2001 8:00 pm | by Staff | CommentsCisco Systems recently jazzed up its Internet-based phone technology with new Web surfing and speech recognition features, the latest effort by the networking giant to make old phone systems obsolete. Cisco competes against 3Com, Nortel Networks, Lucent Technologies, and others in the emerging market for 'Net-based phone systems, which are a cheaper alternative and offer more features to busine...
