FCC Takes Major Step Towards Deregulating Broadband
New cable modem classification frees broadband cable industry from previous regulatory obligations. Wireline broadband reclassification next on agenda. (more)

SEC Opens Informal Inquiry into Qwest
Regulators have request documents related to Qwest's accounting policies, practices and procedures in 2000 and 2001. (more)

AT&T Finally Set To Open Network
It took two years, but AT&T Broadband is finally set to open up its cable network to competing ISPs, days before a FCC hearing on the industry's fate. (more)

XO Rejects Bondholders' Restructuring Plan
XO to continue with Forstmann deal, declining senior note holder offer to invest $600 million in the troubled broadband carrier. (more)

WINfirst Files for Bankruptcy
The Denver-based fiber optic networker blamed the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on the 'collapse of the equity and debt financial markets. (more)

Venture Capital News

Aegis Semi Gains $16M
Aegis Semiconductor, a developer of solutions for embedded monitoring of advanced optical networks, announced today the completion of its second round of venture financing for $16 million. The capital will be used to accelerate the delivery of the company's monitoring products, officials said. St. Paul Venture Capital, YankeeTek Ventures, Alta Partners, Technology Venture Partners, Stata Venture Partners and Megunticook Management contributed to the round.

AOptix Technologies Lands $18M
AOptix Technologies, a provider of Free Space Optics (FSO) communications systems, announced the closing of an $18 million Series B round of financing, co-led by Lehman Brothers and 3i. The round also included participation from existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Clearstone Venture Partners. AOptix Technologies designs and builds carrier-class FSO systems used by telecommunications service providers to deliver high-speed communications to business customers. FSO systems transmit optical signals over a laser beam sent through the air (or "free space") at a fraction of the cost and time needed to trench and install fiber optic cables.

Product News

Intel Extends 10 Gigabit Optical Product Line
Intel Corp. has introduced five new optical networking components that give equipment manufacturers increased flexibility when building 10 Gigabit per second optical networking equipment. These new products span the range of optical networking applications from the enterprise, to the metro, to the long-haul market segments.

The new products include the Intel IXF18101 multi-rate capable 10 Gigabit Ethernet MAC and OC-192 SONET Framer that manage multi-protocol data transmissions over optical networks. Single-rate versions of the device are also available supporting SONET/SDH and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Since the four components in this family are both pin and software compatible, equipment designers can design a single line card for applications such as core switches and routers, multi-service provisioning platforms and edge and enterprise switch platforms that support multiple protocols without having to redesign the line card, all while preserving the customers' investment in software. The IXF18101/2/3/4 family has been designed to operate with the Intel TXN13303 multi-rate Optical Transceiver announced last year to produce a complete line card solution supporting multiple networking protocols.

Lumentis Adds Dual Gigabit Ethernet Transponder For Metro Networks
Lumentis AB, a provider of metro DWDM systems that maximize network utilization, introduces its one-slot Dual GigE Transponder, capable of aggregating two Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) signals on a single wavelength. The Lumentis Dual GigE Transponder allows for more efficient use of the metro network and provides substantial cost savings when introducing new IP-based services in city networks. This product introduction is an example of the Lumentis Multi-Dimensional Scalability (MDS) platform that enables carriers to scale from small, static networks to dynamic networks with high wavelength flexibility and carrier class characteristics.

Schott Unveils New Optical Fiber For Use in EDFA
Schott, the international technology company based in Germany, announces a new broadband erbium-doped fiber based on its newly developed compact oxide glass, which will provide up to 50% more bandwidth. With this new amplifier medium, Schott expands its successful product range of Erbium doped phosphate glasses for planar waveguide amplifiers. Furthermore, the fiber requires significantly less space, enabling more compact designs for amplifiers and telecom equipment, officials said.

Sierra Monolithics Intros Family Silicon Germanium Transimpedance Amplifiers
Sierra Monolithics Inc. (SMI) has announced the availability of a family of 10 Gbps transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs) that support applications in short-reach, metro-access and long-haul SONET OC-192 / SDH STM-64 or 10-Gigabit Ethernet applications.

Sierra Monolithics' family of amplifiers provides module and transponder manufacturers with cost-effective, high-performance solutions. They exploit SMI's industry-leading expertise as one of the first companies designing 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps circuits using IBM's advanced silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology, officials said.

Ignis Optics Intros OC48/STM-16 SFP Transceivers
Ignis Optics today announced early release of its new OC-48/SDH STM-16 transceiver using its new IO-PKG optical packaging technology. These hot pluggable modules are both SONET/SDH and Small Form Factor Package (SFP) Multi Source Agreement (MSA) compliant. Ignis is currently shipping OC-48/SDH STM-16 beta products in the SFP footprint and plans to be in full production in Q2 2002. Since the IO-PKG optical packaging technology is data-rate scalable, the Ignis Optics design team is already developing 10 Gbps pluggable transceivers for Ethernet and SONET/SDH, which it plans to launch later this year.

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