Qwest CEO Shown The Door
Joseph Nacchio is shown the door and Qwest turns its reins over to Ameritech chief Richard Notebaert. (more)

XO Files for Bankruptcy Protection
Internet backbone firm submits two alternative plans of reorganization to court. (more)

Court Approves Final PSINet Breakup Pioneering Internet backbone company will have $440 million to pay off almost $4 billion owed to unsecured creditors. (more)

Sycamore: Out for the Long Haul The Chelmsford, Mass., optical networker exits the long haul business and lays off 235 employees as it tries to "navigate through the current downturn in the telecommunications industry." Now, Sycamore will focus on its software-drive optical switching products. It also hopes a new reseller pact with Siemens will produce new business. (more)

Ciena, ONI Merger Moving Forward
Both companies begin cutting employees with 335 people scheduled to depart within 90 days. (more)

802.3ae Spec Ratified by IEEE
The 10 Gigabit Ethernet Alliance (10GEA) said that the final milestone in the IEEE standards approval process was reached last week when the IEEE 802.3ae specification for 10 Gigabit Ethernet was unanimously approved as an IEEE standard by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board. With the ratification of the IEEE 802.3ae specification, enterprises can now deploy 10 Gigabit Ethernet in their corporate backbones, data centers and server farms to support mission-critical applications, officials with the group said. Service providers and carriers can take advantage of Ethernet's cost effectiveness and deliver metro Ethernet services over SONET/SDH, dark fiber, or DWDM wavelengths or lambdas.

Ratification took place during an IEEE Standards Board meeting June 11-13 in Piscataway, New Jersey. The ballot resulted in 100 percent approval and no ballot comments. The ratification is the result of a review by RevCom (the IEEE -SA Standards Board Standards Review Committee) and the IEEE-SA Standards Board, the two bodies responsible for ensuring that IEEE procedures were followed in developing the standard.

For specific information about the IEEE P802.3ae visit the IEEE 802 Web site.

Venture Capital News

Neo Photonics Completes $35M Funding Round
NeoPhotonics Corp. said it has completed the final tranche of a financing round totaling in whole approximately $35 million. NeoPhotonics' nano-based technology is being commercialized in planar components. Company officials say the technology will "dramatically" decrease the cost of integration and has tremendous additional applications as a broad- based platform in the optical components sector.

New equity investors CDP Capital - Technology Ventures (formerly CDP Sofinov), Rockport Capital Partners, Small-Technology Venture Capital (Harris & Harris Group), Linkmore Capital joined existing investors Bay Partners, Venrock Associates, Institutional Venture Partners, SBV Venture Partners, Nth Power Technologies, Hydro Quebec CapiTech, Sands Brothers, Groupe Siparex, XR Ventures, and Dow Corning Corp. and existing debt financier Dominion Ventures in completing the round, which was over-subscribed. In conjunction with this equity round, GE Capital Technology Finance is providing lease financing for business critical assets.

Product News

Agilent, Nortel and Agere Enter into MSA for OC-48 Transceivers
Agilent Technologies Inc. (Quote), Nortel Networks (Quote) and Agere Systems announced a multi-source agreement (MSA) for hot-pluggable 2.5 gigabit-per-second (OC-48) transceiver modules used in metro dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical networking systems. Transceivers developed using this new specification can help improve network planning, commissioning and maintenance of optical networks and reduce system downtime.

The DWDM Pluggable Transceiver MSA establishes a standard that specifies uniformity for 2.5Gb/s DWDM transceiver package outlines, pin function definitions, software interface and electrical characteristics. Transceivers based on this MSA will provide transmit and receive interfaces for metro DWDM multi-service routers, multi-service provisioning, optical transmission platforms and digital cross-connects.

Agilent, Nortel Networks and Agere will independently develop and market the compact, DWDM transceivers based on the new standard, ensuring that optical systems manufacturers have a choice among compatible sources.

Pirelli Expands Drop-Cable Family Pirelli Communications Cables and Systems North America announced the expansion of its drop-cable family with the introduction of ResiLink LT Aerial Drop Cable for fiber-to-the- home (FTTH) applications. ResiLink LT cables are composed of a loose tube buffer containing up to four optical fibers and a stainless steel messenger to enable cost-effective, self-supporting aerial applications up to 200 feet. Because the messenger is made of stranded stainless steel wire, costly repairs because of corrosion are virtually eliminated. Installation is simplified because the messenger can be inserted into a vise-like device made for wire and adjusted to the proper tension, officials said.

The cable design also stresses durability and convenient access to the optical fibers for splicing. The tube and the messenger are connected in a zipcord-style construction that allows separation of the two components at the point were the messenger is anchored. This feature also allows the optical fibers to be fully protected up to the point of termination.

Other News

Digital Teleport Back Up Across Arkansas River
Digital Teleport Inc., a fiber optics communications carrier in secondary and tertiary markets in the Midwest, has completed work to restore full network redundancy after the collapse of the Interstate 40 bridge over the Arkansas River. The bridge collapse on May 26 severed a Digital Teleport fiber optic cable that carried voice and data traffic for a number of major telecommunications providers.

Digital Teleport's "self-healing" ringed network design instantly re-routed the traffic around the break preventing any interruption in service, officials said. Now, Digital Teleport has installed 2.5 miles of temporary fiber to reach another river-crossing point upstream from the collapsed bridge. Permanent network restoration may take several months after the bridge is reopened. Digital Teleport is currently exploring the possibility of boring under the Arkansas River to permanently restore its fiber optic cable.

Comunitel Selects Alcatel for Broadband Rollout
Alcatel (Quote) said it has been selected by Comunitel, the business services operation of Spanish carrier ONI, to construct a broadband network based on digital subscriber line (DSL) technology. The agreement is worth 12 million Euros over two years. The carrier will deliver services for small and medium sized enterprises (SME) across Spain and Portugal from a total of 115 exchanges; 35 exchanges are already broadband-enabled, with the remainder to follow over the next two years.