Zayo still on acquisition prowl
By Carol Wilson
Tight capital markets may have slowed telecom consolidation in 2008, but Zayo Bandwidth is not deterred. The company went public last summer with its strategy of acquiring fiber assets in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and has lived up to that plan, with a total of six acquisitions...
Verizon strives to automate fiber patch panels
By Ed Gubbins
Verizon Business is testing various ways to remotely reconfigure patch panels--the thousands of short fiber connections between transport, switching and outside plant equipment in every central office. And a small group of innovative equipment vendors are offering a range of options for doing just that...
Verizon Business certifies Overture gear
By Carol Wilson
Ethernet access gear-maker Overture Networks today announced that its equipment has been certified by Verizon Business, enabling Overture gear to be installed at customer premises and Verizon co-location sites in order to deliver Ethernet services over copper and fiber lines...
Cisco unveils compact new edge router
By Ed Gubbins
Cisco Systems today unveiled a new edge router powered by its own silicon designs, trumpeting the new product’s compact form factor and built-in functionality...
New CEO Gerke vows to build on Embarq’s innovations
By Carol Wilson
As the newly named CEO of Embarq, Tom Gerke plans to focus on continuing the momentum Embarq has built selling new products, such as 10 Mb/s Internet access, a video sales portal and fixed-mobile convergence, and continue the company’s recent history as an innovator...
OFC: 40G, 100G debates die down
By Ed Gubbins
SAN DIEGO--Like last year, the evolution of 40-Gb/s and 100-Gb/s optical technology was a prominent topic at the OFC NFOEC show. But unlike last year, there is more agreement today about the timing of those technologies’ deployment in carrier networks....
OFC: Why optical components are ripe for recovery (really)
By Ed Gubbins
SAN DIEGO--At the OFC NFOEC show, familiar lamentations of an overcrowded and unprofitable components and modules sector dampened the mood among attendees. But to at least one Wall Street analyst, this dour sector suddenly seems ripe for investment...
OFC: Verizon details plans to bring fiber to larger MDUs
By Ed Gubbins
SAN DIEGO--Verizon Communications is planning a major push of its fiber-to-the-home service into multidwelling units (MDUs) this year. Despite passing 2.1 million MDUs at the end of last year’s third quarter, Verizon’s FTTH network was only capable of serving 400,000 of them. The company’s technology director, Vincent O’Byrne, spoke with Telephony’s Ed Gubbins at the OFC show in San Diego this week about Verizon’s plans for MDUs this year....
OFC: Terabit Ethernet requires network overhaul
By Ed Gubbins
SAN DIEGO--Terabit Ethernet networks are coming, said Bob Metcalfe, a partner at Polaris Ventures who is credited with having invented Ethernet more than 35 years ago. But it’s not clear exactly when, he said. And it’s less clear what network architectures will be needed to enable them...
OFC: Qwest CTO maps optical’s future
By Ed Gubbins
SAN DIEGO--Pieter Poll, Qwest Communications’ chief technology officer, described some of the innovations critical to the future of optical networks, but he also identified hurdles to the commercial implementation of those innovations in a speech at the OFC NFOEC show today...
Qwest seeks wireless partner
By Sarah Reedy
Qwest Communications is in need of new strategy for its wireless business, but the answer will not come from a physical investment, Qwest CEO Ed Mueller told investors today...
Comptel: Verizon to wholesale Integrated Optical Service
By Carol Wilson
NASHVILLE--Verizon Partner Solutions, the company’s wholesale arm, today announced a new Verizon Integrated Optical Service that incorporates ROADM capabilities into nodes or access points to enable a much wider variety of service offerings from a single point...
The fiber trough is over
By Ed Gubbins
The amount of cabled fiber shipped last year topped even that in the heady days of 2001, according to CRU Analysis...
What comes after GPON?
By Ed Gubbins
With Verizon ramping up deployment of gigabit passive optical networks this year, work is already well under way to develop successors to GPON. David Foote, chief technology officer for Hitachi Telecom USA, gave Telephony a view into that process...
Occam GPON gear coming in Q2
By Ed Gubbins
Occam Networks plans to start shipping its first gigabit passive optical networking (GPON) gear in the second quarter, benefiting from an acquisition it made last year...
Ekinops adds GigE rings to optical transport
By Ed Gubbins
Ekinops is beefing up its optical transport platform with ring-based Ethernet capabilities as the French vendor works toward a larger presence in the United States...
Amedia Networks ceases operations
By Ed Gubbins
Amedia Networks ceased all operations last week, the company has disclosed in regulatory filings...
New box brings open IPTV home
By Carol Wilson
A Dutch company is trying to bring IPTV to the masses over the Internet via a business model that uses corporate sponsorships to subsidize distribution of a key piece of hardware that ties together Internet video with existing video products...
Mushroom Networks launches broadband-bonding CPE
By Ed Gubbins
A new broadband access equipment vendor making its public launch today promises to boost broadband speeds by bonding access lines of various types—including T-1, DSL, cable broadband and satellite...
Bell Labs: Reviving an icon
By Kevin Fitchard
As the research arm of a monopoly, Bell Labs invented the communications world as we know it. But in today's competitive market, this venerable institution must redefine itself to survive...
What's in a node?
By Carol Wilson
In building fiber-to-the-node networks, telecom service providers are relying extensively on their experience with outside plant engineering while future-proofing their networks for what they know will be bandwidth-intensive applications...
Mixing satellite TV into the wireline triple-play
By Sarah Reedy
Where terrestrial triple-play services are not economical (in rural areas, for example), the lingering question for telcos becomes: How can they seamlessly integrate a partner’s satellite TV service with their own terrestrial services such as video-on-demand (VOD)?...
Calient doubles down
By Ed Gubbins
With a new chief executive officer and new funding, Calient Networks isn’t adopting a new strategy—it’s just promising a more aggressive pursuit of its previous plans....
U-verse comes to Chicago suburbs
By Sarah Reedy
Residents in most Chicago suburbs now have another option for video, as AT&T today announced it will begin installing its IPTV service, U-verse, in parts of 175 northeastern suburbs. This Illinois launch marks the largest U-verse rollout to date in any AT&T market...
Verizon sees no slowdown
By Carol Wilson
Verizon today confirmed what AT&T said last week -- if there is an economic slowdown taking place, it isn’t having a major impact on the telecom business...
