Cisco aquires V-Bits
Cisco moves past Intel
iBasis takes big leap
Motorola announces two new Vanguard Multiservice Routers
Flights, Weather, and Sport Scores in your Pocket
Congestion due to Infrastructure, not Technology
DSL Internet Access for everyone
The Canadian Wireless Market explodes
DSL Service Providers await decision from the FCC
Lucent's Bell Labs goes vertical
Sony licences Palm

Cisco aquires V-Bits
Source: C/Net

Cisco Systems made further moves into the cable networking equipment market today, acquiring start-up V-Bits for $128 million in stock.  V-Bits makes a set of hardware technology that allows cable companies to deliver digital video services over their networks. The company's technology is currently in trials with several cable firms, according to a Cisco spokeswoman.  The acquisition has been approved by the boards of both companies, and is expected to close in Cisco's second quarter in fiscal year 2000.   V-Bits will allow Cisco to develop technology based on Internet protocol (IP) so cable operators can offer combined voice, Net, and video services to their customers.  "We believe that the digital video marketplace, combined with data services, will be delivered over a single infrastructure in the future," said Ammar Hanafi, director of business development at Cisco.   Companies such as MediaOne, AT&T, and Comcast, are increasingly looking to use their sprawling cable networks as a means to deliver a variety of interactive services. AT&T is currently waiting for federal approval for its purchase of MediaOne.  V-Bits will be incorporated into Cisco's cable products and solutions group, part of its service provider line.  Hanafi said the V-Bits technology will initially be offered in separate equipment, but would eventually be combined with Cisco's current cable gear, sometimes called "head-end" equipment. 

Cisco moves past Intel
Source: C/Net

Cisco Systems, the largest maker of computer networking equipment, today became the most valuable company in Silicon Valley, nudging aside Intel, the world's largest semiconductor firm.  Fifteen-year-old Cisco ended the day with a stock market value of $278.3 billion, based on 3.5 billion shares outstanding. That eclipses the $274.3 billion market value of venerable 31-year-old chipmaker Intel's 3.472 billion shares. Cisco's strong first-quarter sales and profits, reported yesterday, propelled its shares up 5.25 to a record 79.5 on the Nasdaq.

More than just an arcane detail, Cisco's newly minted status as the richest kid on the block in one of the densest concentrations of wealth on the planet underscores the sea change underway in high technology and, more broadly, in the global economy. Just as Intel secured a place on the roster of the most important companies ever with its invention of the microprocessor, the brains of personal computers, so too does Cisco stand to be included on that list as the dominant provider of equipment that powers the Internet and global communications.  San Jose, California-based Cisco has come a long way since its founding by two Stanford University computer science professors, Sandy Lerner and Len Bosack, in 1984, when there were a mere 1,000 host computers on the Internet. In 1987, it had 10 employees and issued its first coffee mug.

If you had bought $2,000 worth of Cisco stock at the end of its first day of trading when it closed at a split-adjusted price of 12 cents a share, you'd now have more than 16,600 shares now worth $1.33 million.  Analyst Cristinziano said that in 1998, Cisco had 50 percent of what he figured was a $20 billion market for the routers and switches it has traditionally sold. But by 2002 that market will swell to $150 billion because of the convergence of networking and telecommunications, he said.  "All Cisco needs is 20 percent of that to have $30 billion in sales," Cristinziano said.  Even Intel is getting the religion, with aggressive moves to beef up its networking business by targeting small and medium-sized businesses. It's also seeking to sell microprocessors to Cisco and others that help to power the routers and switches they themselves sell.  "Intel's own activities are suggesting the real growth in technology has shifted into networking and communications technology," said Paul Sagawa, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein in New York. "The name of the game here is communications and Cisco is the hot company in the hot market.  Will the Cisco freight train ever run out of steam? "Eventually all good things must come to and end but I think we're at least a decade away from that," Cristinziano said."

iBasis takes big leap
Source: C/Net

iBasis, a provider of technology that allows telephone calls to be routed over the Internet, jumped more than 150 percent in its first day of trading.  iBasis rose 24.25 to 40.25, after peaking early at 45, on 10.4 million shares today.  Yesterday the company priced at $16 per share, above its expected range, reflecting investor demand for technology shares particularly within the intersection of the telecommunications and Internet industries.  

iBasis, formerly VIP Calling, provides the technology needed by telephone companies to route calls over the Internet. According to International Data Corporation, sales in the Internet telephony industry will reach $500 million this year and soar to $12 billion by 2003.  However, the growth won't be free of static. iBasis noted in its regulatory filing that "a number of countries currently prohibit or limit competition in the provision of traditional voice telephony services. Some countries prohibit, limit, or regulate how companies provide Internet telephony [and] some countries have indicated they will evaluate proposed Internet telephony service on a case-by-case basis and determine whether to regulate it as a voice service or another telecommunications service."  The company, according to its prospectus, was contacted by the Israel Ministry of Communications last month. The officials accused the company of providing unauthorized telecommunications services.  iBasis is not alone. Other Internet protocol (IP) telephony companies, such as Net2Phone, also have had their share of red tape in overseas markets.  Net2Phone, which  allows PC users to place phone calls via the Internet, had its PC2Phone services blocked by some government-controlled telephone companies in Asia and the Middle East, according to its secondary offering filing.  The blockages cost the company as much as $250,000 in revenue in the first quarter in 2000. The company noted that 69 percent of its customers are located outside the United States, making entanglements with foreign governments a potentially serious issue.  Meanwhile, iBasis could stand to lose a sizable chunk of revenue from its Israel operations. During the nine-month period ended September 30, iBasis generated $1.5 million in revenue from Israel.  iBasis, which is in discussions with government officials, will continue to terminate calls in Israel until a final decision is reached, according to the filing. A spokesman for iBasis could not comment on the issue, noting the company is in an SEC-mandated quiet period due to the IPO.

Motorola announces two new Vanguard Multiservice Routers
Source: iLocus

Motorola's Internet and Networking Group, announced on Monday the new Vanguard 6435 and Vanguard 6455 multiservice access routers.  Both VoIP and Voice over Frame Relay are supported on the new routers, which provide customers with the ability to inter-operate these technologies as well as change between technologies without reinvesting in new equipment.  Motorola VoIP product has enjoyed success in enterprise markets. As part of the Vanguard 6400 series of networking solutions, the Vanguard 6435 and 6455 are designed to handle the consolidation of multiple serial protocols with voice and LAN traffic over dedicated or switched connections.  Hardware-based compression and encryption are available features on the Vanguard 6435 and 6455. By utilizing the power of a separate processor, the two new products can perform both compression and encryption without a performance degradation that is often found with software-based solutions.  The Vanguard 6435 offers the small branch office the ability to connect to a 10 or 100BaseT Ethernet network with up to six serial applications, multiple LANs, or aggregate analog voice ports.

Flights, Weather, and Sport Scores in your Pocket
Source: Comsoc

The Wireless Application Protocol is making it possible for mobile phone operators to roll out new Internet applications. BellSouth has teamed up with Saraide to develop travel services that allow users to access airline flight schedules and to be notified of flight delays. Other applications being development by various carriers include online banking and wireless data access services that allow salespeople check product prices and delivery dates, place orders, and receive payments. Push technology, which can download data to phones, is expected to be added to the second version of WAP. Datacomm Research analyst Ira Brodsky believes that in a few years a significant amount of wireless handsets will be WAP-enabled.

Congestion due to Infrastructure, not Technology
Source: Comsoc

A high-speed Internet connection may not be the ultimate solution to bandwidth issues. ISPs are also using quality of service and service-level agreements to speed transmission. Cisco Systems offers QoS, which prioritizes traffic, via its differential service. ISPs will begin targeting corporate customers for these types of services by year's end, and may eventually provide users with a selection of QoS levels, according to Cisco product line manager Mark Milinkovich. According to R.W. Rushing, marketing director of ISP Jump.net, insufficient infrastructure is causing traffic congestion, not the technology. QoS should only become an issue if ISPs do not maintain sufficient capacity, Rushing says. Users could also opt for a service-level guarantee, which promises a certain level of service from the ISP.

DSL Internet Access for everyone
Source: Comsoc

Manufacturers are preparing to introduce the widespread delivery of DSL, which will provide faster and more efficient access to the Internet than modems, ISDN, and copper-based connections. Companies such as America Online will soon make these products available; and as prices drop and installation is made easier, DSL could become common in home offices and for families with Internet connections. Most of consumer-based asymmetrical DSL systems offered by the Baby Bells are able to share lines with phones or faxes, and they may soon offer digital television and other data forms as well. DSL can also be added to the existing wires of a home, and the cost is low enough to be comparable to that of an analog line. The one major roadblock is that servicing can require a technician. Based on tests by PC Computing, Pacific Bell's FasTrack ADSL was rated as the best high-speed Net access for home offices, followed by Flashcom SoloSurfer SDSL, Rhythms RADSL, Telocity InterchangeDSL, and Brainstorm Networks IDSL. 

The Canadian Wireless Market explodes
Source: Comsoc

Boosted by a deregulated market and the emergence of new players, the Canadian wireless phone market has reached the 20 percent penetration rate touted by the industry as the point at which the market develops its own momentum. According to industry watchers, half of the population in the country will own a mobile phone in the next ten years. The market received a push from prepaid wireless, which comprises 40 percent to 50 percent of all new wireless customers. Yankee Group expects the number of prepaid customers in Canada to climb from 400,000 in 1998 to nearly 1.5 million in 2002. All of Canada's major service providers--Clearnet, BCE Mobility, Microcell Telecommunications, Rogers Cantel, and Telus Mobility--offer prepaid wireless. Although analysts note that the carriers have not initiated a price war, service providers interested in gaining more customers in the $40-plus segment of the market are offering more minutes of airtime at no additional cost. Service bundling has not yet taken off, but it is expected to generate more demand since the offerings now include dual-mode CDMA digital phones.  The Canadian market has recently seen its players shift. The BCE Mobility consortium split, with Telus Mobility emerging as a competitor and Bell Canada buying the remaining part of the alliance.  AT&T and British Telecommunications acquired a 33.3 percent stake in Rogers Cantel.  The deal gives them the right of negotiation if Rogers Communications decides to sell the unit.  BCE Mobility President and CEO Randy Reynolds identifies customer service, rate plans, technology, and footprint as differentiating factors between carriers. E-mail access via mobile phones, unified messaging, and text-to-speech are gaining popularity.

Currently, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) carriers must rent a local loop from the regional Bell operating company to bring service to home and business customers. Many in the industry expect the FCC will rule Thursday that such rentals are no longer necessary and that the DSL providers and RBOCs can share a single line into the customer premises. If the Nov. 18 ruling goes their way, DSL providers will see about $20 dropped from their cost of delivering access.

"There will be almost immediate impact for consumers," said Jim Monroe, a spokesman for NorthPoint Communications in San Francisco.  DSL executives are optimistic because the FCC ruled last March that line sharing is technically feasible. Even incumbent telephone company officials fear the decision will likely go against them.  "There should be no sharing the loop such that [competitors] could strip off the lucrative DSL piece" and leave the voice portion of the spectrum for the incumbent carriers, said Lawrence Sargeant, vice president of regulatory affairs at the U.S. Telecom Association. "It seems entirely unfair."   In Sargeant's view, such a ruling would run contrary to the FCC's hands-off approach toward opening access to high-speed cable services. "There is a question of competitive equity," he said.

If the FCC approves line sharing, Internet service providers supplying home access would suddenly become more competitive against the RBOCs, which thus far have been able to offer lower-priced DSL services.  "We are very enthusiastic about competing with the incumbent carriers," said Dhruv Khanna, executive vice president and general counsel at Covad Communications. "We don't want to be [just] a niche business-oriented provider. That is not a good strategy long-term."  Profit margins in the consumer DSL arena are currently razor-thin, from zero to about $20, depending on the wholesale supplier. The cheapest wholesale DSL price runs about $39 per user per month. U S West is offering DSL at $37.90 per month, because it doesn't have to charge itself full price for the local loop.  There will ultimately be some sort of fee set for line sharing, but that is likely to be finalized by state public utility commissions, according to Frank Paganelli, assistant general counsel at Rhythms NetConnections.  "What we argued [to the FCC] as being the most reasonable is to charge us for data what the ILECs [incumbent local exchange carriers] are currently charging themselves, which is zero," Paganelli said.

Lucent's Bell Labs goes vertical
Source: Wired

In a breakthrough that may lead to high-rise processors, Lucent's Bell Labs claims to have found a way to build a chip's components vertically instead of horizontally.  The ability to manufacture chips vertically may give current chip-making technology a new lease on life, Bell Labs said.  The chip industry is widely believed to be approaching the physical limits of how small chips can be manufactured.  Thanks to the laws of physics, the ability to make ever-smaller processors will likely hit a brick wall in the first decades of the next century, industry watchers say.  As a result, some of the world's top research labs are looking at building processors at the molecular level, an endeavor that is only just now getting started.  However, new manufacturing techniques, like Bell Labs', that allow components to be built on top of each other may give today's semiconductor manufacturing technology some breathing space.  Using current manufacturing technology, the Bell Labs researchers have developed techniques for building a chip's components -- the transistors -- to allow many more to be crammed onto a chip.  As well as building transistors upward instead of outward -- a research goal pursued for the last 25 years -- the researchers figured out how to create two logic gates per transistor instead of one, a development that may double the processing power of future chips.  In addition, the lab has found a new way to insulate stacked components from each other, a problem that has bedeviled previous designs.  Dubbing it "the world's smallest," the transistor's gates measure just 50 nanometers, which is about 2,000 times smaller than a human hair, the company said.  Future refinements should shrink transistor gates to less than 30 nanometers, Bell Labs said. By contrast, today's transistors measure about 180 nanometers.

Sony licences Palm
Source: Wired

In a deal that may put the Palm in the hands of millions of people's consumer electronic devices, Sony has licensed the popular handheld operating system.  In return, Palm Computing will incorporate Sony's Memory Stick technology into the platform, the companies said at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas.  The alliance has the potential to vastly increase the number of Palm OS devices, positioning Palm as the Microsoft of the handheld era.  "Sony is the premier consumer brand in the world and they are now a Palm OS licensee," said Marc Berkow, Palm's vice president of Strategic Alliances and Platform Development. "We are very excited about that... The platform is on a tremendous roll."  The Sony announcement comes just weeks after Nokia said it will use Palm's handheld operating system to run the next generation of smart cell phones.

The announcement comes as a blow to Microsoft, which is making a lot of noise about its competing Windows CE operating system. Bill Gates himself demostrated a wireless Windows CE device during his keynote on Sunday.  Sony will put the Palm OS "into an entirely new line of handheld electronics products that will not be limited to electronic organizers but are expected to include a wide range of mobile wireless telecommunications-enabled AV/IT consumer electronics products," the company said in a statement.  "This cooperation is the first step toward establishing a powerful new consumer electronics platform for accessing a broad range of wireless based network services and content," said Kunitake Ando, president and COO of Sony’s Personal IT Network Company in the statement.  In addition, the partnership will add Memory Stick and audio-visual technologies to the Palm OS that will be available to Palm OS licensees.  Bercow said Palm may or may not add Memory Stick capabilites to its handhelds but other hardware manufacturers such as Handspring or TRG were free to.  Sony's self-explanatory Memory Stick allows information to be stored and exchanged between compatible devices. About three quarters the size of a stick of gum, Memory Sticks can store up to 120 minutes of compressed music.