Alcatel to Trim 20,000 Jobs
In lean times, a company can't be lean enough as the huge optical and telecommunications outfit pares 25 percent of its work force. (more)

Ciena Trimming, Too
Ciena will pink slip 450 of its workers, or about 17 percent of its work force. The Maryland-based optical networker also said it would take a charge of between $75 million and $80 million in the fourth quarter. (more)

IDT Acquires Nationwide Fiber Network
IDT found a great deal on fiber, buying up the network capacity of bankrupt Star Communications. The deal opens the door to customers in fiber-starved major metropolitan areas. (more)

Internet Cable Corp. Buys Clearview Comms.
Internet Cable Corp., a provider of broadband infrastructure services to the North American communications industry, said it has acquired Clearview Communications Ltd. for an undetermined amount of cash and stock. Clearview Communications Ltd. provides Major Canadian communications operators with services ranging from project management, headend data and fiber wiring to full turnkey construction projects. (more)

Venture Capital News

Overture Gains $14.5M
Overture Networks, a developer of products that let carriers deliver voice and data services over a metropolitan IP network, will close $14.5 million in a third extension of its Series A round, VentureWire reported. Further details were not immediately available.

Broadlogic Secures $10.8M Broadlogic Network Technologies Inc., a fabless semiconductor supplier, has gained $10.8 million in Series B funding from August Capital, Cisco Systems, Intel Capital, Levensohn Capital Management, Presidio Venture Partners, and Walden International. Broadlogic said it will use the new capital to develop and market broadband system-on-chip solutions, which enable operators to deliver fiber class services over existing physical infrastructures.

Product News

Vitesse Launches New Crosspoint Switches
Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. announced the latest additions to the industry's largest crosspoint switch product family, the VSC3138 (40x40) and the VSC3139 (72x72). These fully, non-blocking, asynchronous crosspoint switches carry broadband data streams at rates up to 3.6 Gb/s.

The VSC3138 and VSC3139 are designed to meet the demands of cost effective Enterprise, Metro and Core infrastructure network equipment. System use includes SONET-based and DWDM core, metro optical networking equipment, SAN switches and digital video equipment.

These crosspoint switches are built upon the same core technology as the VSC3140 (144x144), and feature multiple programming ports (parallel, serial, and a secondary serial port) with multicast, broadcast, and striping programming modes. The striping mode is enhanced to enable a rate that is four times faster than current solutions for switch programming of 10 Gb/s switching applications using 4x2.5 Gb/s signals or XAUI applications using 4x3.125 signals. The 3.6 Gb/s data rate per channel capability enables O-E-O switching of 40 Gb/s VSR data rates when routed as 12x3.6 Gb/s signals.

Gigabit Optics Unveils MicroMux
Gigabit Optics, a provider of integrated photonics components, said it has released its first product, MicroMux -- what it calls the smallest and least expensive Course Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) multiplexer/demultiplexer in the world.

MicroMux, which incorporates Gigabit Optics' packaging technology for OEMs in the telecom and cable TV industries, is one-sixth the size of the closest announced competitor and 1/200 the size of currently available products, officials said.

MicroMux is designed to address the most significant remaining opportunity in optical networking today -- upgrading Metro Area Networks (MANs) to effectively and continually accommodate large increases in packet based data traffic. With continued increase in demand for data of 70-100% per year, Metro carriers are increasingly relying on CWDM as essential, cost-effective, transport architecture. Unlike Dense WDM, (DWDM), which is used primarily in long haul networks, systems based on CWDM technology employ uncooled distributed-feedback (DFB) lasers and wideband optical filters. These technologies provide several advantages to CWDM systems, including lower power dissipation, smaller size and less cost.

MicroMux prototypes are currently undergoing Telecordia testing and evaluation by major optical networking OEMs. Gigabit Optics expects to ship MicroMux in Q4 2002. MicroMux is the first in a series of products based on Gigabit Optics' unique technology platform scheduled for release over the next six to nine months.

Other News

Fiberspace TrueLock Nears Telcordia Qualification
Fiberspace has neared completion of Telcordia's GR-1221 Long Term Reliability for Passive Optical Components Compliance Program with its TrueLock External Wavelength Locker (EWL), at Garwood Laboratories, Inc., in Pico Rivera, CA.

To attain such standing, the product had to pass numerous tests, including long term high and low temperature tests, mechanical shock and vibration, thermal shock, and other rigorous testing in keeping with Telcordia's stringent reliability standards. The TrueLock EWL, featuring patent-pending, thermally-controlled etalon technology, is expected to complete Telcordia qualification by October 14, 2002.

Network integrators seeking an external locker replacement can easily adopt the TrueLock EWL as a component for DWDM optical transport systems, as it is pin-to-pin compatible and an exact form/fit match with industry-standard alternatives. The TrueLock EWL is available in 25, 50 and 100 GHz FSR (free spectral range) versions. Multi-wavelength capability and superior accuracy lead the list of performance advantages of the product, which is slated for general availability in October 2002.

Bacardi Drinks Up NAP of the Americas' Access
Terremark Worldwide Inc., which operates Tier-1 NAPs and is a provider of Internet infrastructure and managed services, said that Bacardi Limited's Bacardi USA subsidiary has decided to centralize its technology infrastructure at Terremark's NAP of the Americas. Bacardi chose the NAP of the Americas after a competitive Request For Proposal (RFP) process that compared the Terremark's facility and services with those of other companies in the region.

Bacardi USA issued an RFP to centralize all of its Enterprise Resource Planning system for the North American region into one single site in order to increase operational efficiencies and improve customer service. The company's stringent requirements included redundancy in communications and electrical systems, a secure facility resistant to natural and man-made catastrophes, state-of-art technology, the ability to leverage the aggregation of carriers and expand its presence within the facility for additional consolidation - all within a competitive cost scheme. Bacardi also sought the technical support to provide the managed services necessary for its constant up-time requirements.