Plans to change criteria for measuring computer power 
CRTC refuses to unbundle T-1 network access 
IBM, Siebel, Mercury and Intentia team to land new airline business 
Amber Networks unveils advanced optical internet edge router 
Akamai sells telcos on Web conferencing 
New standard could help make home networks a reality 
Vitesse and Infineon offer OC-192 links for short reach applications 
Marconi launches Solstis venture targeting optical soliton technology 
Federal regulators clear major cable deal 
New Compaq "skinny" servers take aim at Sun and IBM 
Lucent introduces clearinghouse solution 
Natural MicroSystems announces analog station solution 
U.S. throws Microsoft a bone 
A phone for the space age 

Plans to change criteria for measuring computer power
Source: Newsbytes

Currently, companies exporting high-performance computers (HPCs) that exceed a particular threshold of computing power - measured in MTOPs (millions of theoretical operations per second) - must be approved and licensed by the Federal Government.  The policy places destination countries on a four tier system under which exports to Tier One countries - such as those in Western Europe - are lightly restricted. Exports to Tier Three countries - most notably Russia and China - require a license for computers clocked at more than 2,000 MTOPs.

Reinsch conceded that the plan has its downsides, namely that there are companies out there that market HPCs with a large number of microprocessors which are all very slow. He also said the plan was still in its formative stages, and would need to be run past the hi-tech industry and US allies.

CRTC refuses to unbundle T-1 network access 
Source:  Angustel

CRTC Order 2000-503 refuses to tell NewTel to lease unbundled elements of the telco's Digital Exchange Access service to a competitor. Cable Atlantic wanted to provide digital service from a customer to the telco Central Office, then terminate it on NewTel's switching equipment under the "PSTN Connectivity" part of the DEA tariff.

IBM, Siebel, Mercury and Intentia team to land new airline business
Source:  Businesswire

Four information technology leaders announced on June 6th an alliance to develop and market a comprehensive set of integrated e-business airline applications and services.  Under the "IBM ConnectEdge for Airlines" banner, IBM, Siebel Systems, Intentia International, and Mercury Systems will together market and sell applications that help airlines build strong bonds with customers, auction airline seats over the Internet, create e-tickets that can be transferred from one airline to another, maintain their aircraft, and match pilots, flight attendants and aircraft with a particular route.
    
This new e-business initiative encompasses a highly flexible, streamlined approach to meeting the e-business needs and IT challenges of the world's airlines, which spend over $10 billion a year on IT.  In addition, for the first time, the applications are being offered in a flexible manner either outsourced to an IBM hosted facility or licensed to run in an airline's own data center.  IBM plans to announce further alliance agreements with additional Business Partners in areas such as revenue management and revenue accounting, e-commerce and airline operations to ensure a comprehensive range of business applications will be available through the ConnectEdge family of solutions. These "best-of-breed" solutions can be implemented individually or as a package.

Amber Networks unveils advanced optical internet edge router
Source:  Businesswire

Amber Networks unveiled on June 6th the industry's first Aggregation Service Router; a super-scalable carrier infrastructure platform that directs multiple service feeds (T3 TDM, frame relay, ATM, IP, etc.) onto core IP/Optical networks.   Amber's new ASR2000(TM) supports this vast array of services with true carrier class fault tolerance and manageability, as well as wireline processing performance, port and logical subscriber densities that are as much as an order of magnitude better than any other edge product. Amber's ASR2000 enables service providers to create an optical service edge that addresses the entire $75 billion services market.
   
The ASR2000 is a new class of carrier equipment designed to concentrate multi-service access feeds and convert, multiplex, and encapsulate this traffic for transport over high-speed IP/Optical backbones. Amber Networks' patented Service Transformer technology enables service providers to make IP/MPLS a unifying service carriage for TDM private line, Frame Relay, ATM and IP traffic. This not only caps carrier investments in legacy networks, it allows them to shift all service revenues to the Optical Internet to quickly recoup investments in this next-generation infrastructure.  Amber's ASR2000 is also distinguished by multiple technological breakthroughs in fault tolerant operating system design, processing performance and subscriber density. The resulting edge platform drives connection capabilities so far beyond existing edge routers that service providers are assured of meeting any foreseeable access requirements.
    
The ASR2000's operating system, Amber's AmbOS(TM), is the first fault tolerant router OS, ensuring full route state resiliency (without service interruption) for the most popular routing protocols, such as BGP-4, IS-IS, and OSPF. Coupled with the ASR2000's fully redundant hardware implementation, the combination is the first to deliver true carrier-class resiliency to the Optical Internet edge. Amber's implementation ensures sub-50 millisecond service healing and non-service affecting upgrades, making the ASR2000 the first Optical Internet edge device to meet the same non-stop requirements as a carrier's traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) equipment.

Akamai sells telcos on Web conferencing
Source: Cnet

Akamai Technologies will announce on June 6th that it will offer online conference call services to several of the biggest phone companies in the United States.  The move marks yet another new slice of business for the young Net infrastructure firm, this time using its speedy Web network to offer outsourced conference calls and videoconferencing online.  Akamai has managed to attract brand name customers directly out of the box. AT&T, MCI WorldCom, Global Crossing and ACT Teleconferencing all will be the initial customers, the company said.

The technology underlying the conference calling feature is based on the streaming media system acquired from Intervu in February, combined with the widely distributed network of Akamai servers. The service may also take advantage of speedy downloads from satellites offered by Loral Cyberstar and Cidera.

New standard could help make home networks a reality
Source: Cnet

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance has chosen a technology by a little-known firm called Intellon that will allow consumers to use their homes' internal electrical networks as the medium to share Internet access, play video games, talk on the phone, and enjoy movies and music throughout the house.  The Intellon technology was one of six proposals considered by the nonprofit consortium. The HomePlug group will now work to improve the technology and start testing it in homes. It hopes to release a final standard by the end of the year.

At issue is the noise and interference that come with sending data, voice and video over powerlines. Powerline is considered "noisy" because electric signals from appliances can use the same frequencies as data, voice and video.  HomePlug president Alberto Mantovani said Intellon's technology will solve the noise issues and predicts that the technology will work in 98 percent of homes.  Analysts say the decision is a setback for start-up Enikia, which helped create the powerline alliance and had been working on its own technology for more than a year.  By winning, Intellon product marketing manager Elliott Newcombe said the company benefits two ways: It receives small royalty payments from licensees of the technology, and it has a head start in building the chips that will power powerline networking devices.

The powerline technology will feature data transfer speeds at 10 mbps (megabits per second), a rate fast enough to handle music and video downloads. Companies have marketed visions of people turning on a stereo in the living room and sending music to a PC in another room, while a computer in a bedroom could program the video cassette recorder.

Vitesse and Infineon offer OC-192 links for short reach applications
Source: Convergedigest

Vitesse Semiconductor and Infineon Technologies introduced an OC-192 fiber optic link solution for Very Short Reach (VSR) applications, such as interconnects between co-located networking equipment within a CO or POP.  The VSR solution uses low-cost Infineon VCSEL-based parallel optics technology combined with a Vitesse transceiver IC that maps OC-192 SONET frames onto parallel optical links.  It supports distances of up to 300m.  

The companies said their solution combines the benefits of SONET framing with an optical layer based on Gigabit Ethernet standards.  It also meets the specifications for a VSR data transmission scheme proposed by Cisco Systems in the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF). 

Marconi launches Solstis venture targeting optical soliton technology
Source: Convergedigest

Marconi is launching a start-up company to develop ultra high-speed optical networks based on soliton technology.  The Solstis venture, which will be based in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK, aims to develop systems capable of transmission speeds in excess of 1 Tbps over thousands of kilometers.  The project will use dispersion-managed solitons, leading-edge optical amplifiers and WDM techniques.  Solstis will include members formerly with the Photonics Research Group at Aston University. 

Federal regulators clear major cable deal
Source: Digitalmass

Federal regulators gave conditional clearance to AT&T Corp.'s proposed purchase of MediaOne on Monday, a deal that makes the nation's top long-distance carrier also the top cable company.  The Federal Communications Commission conditioned its approval on AT&T shedding some assets so that it would comply with federal rules that limit how many customers a single cable company can reach. AT&T has one year to complete the necessary divesture.  FCC approval is the final regulatory hurdle. The Justice Department signed off on the deal -- originally valued at $58 billion -- two weeks ago.

The merger will further AT&T's plan to offer high-speed Internet access, local phone service and television programming directly into homes using cable TV lines. That allows them to bypass the phone networks owned by the Bell companies to bring these services to consumers.

New Compaq "skinny" servers take aim at Sun and IBM
Source: Cnet

Compaq has released its long-awaited "Photon" server, putting new pressure on IBM, Sun Microsystems, Network Engines and VA Linux Systems in the race to cram as many processors into the thinnest server possible.  The Photon server, officially called the ProLiant DL 360, holds two 800-MHz Pentium III chips in a server just 1.75 inches thick, a measurement called 1U among those who spend their time bolting hundreds of such servers into racks in air-conditioned rooms.

Compaq is a little late to the game with the two-way 1U server. But McDowell argues that Compaq will win out because of its thin server design and expertise in manufacturing large quantities of servers, which are often customized for a particular task.  Compaq's Photon machine holds 4GB of memory, twice Network Engines' 2GB. The Photon also supports disk drives that can be swapped without shutting the machine down and has room for higher-performance 64-bit, 66-MHz PCI slots. In addition, it runs cooler, requiring only four fans to Network Engines' seven and therefore consuming less electricity.  The Photon uses Intel's new "flip-chip" packaging, a design well-suited to thin servers. Prices begin at $3,580 for a one-processor model and $4,200 for a two-processor model.

Lucent introduces clearinghouse solution
Source: iLocus

Lucent has introduced a VoIP clearinghouse platform, the MultiVoice Settlement Engine. It is new software module for the Lucent gatekeeper MultiVoice Access Manager (MVAM)and is based on Open Settlement Protocol (OSP).  The clearinghouse architecture interfaces with OSP and billing servers to allow service providers to authenticate, route, bill and settle payments on calls made between its network of partners.  Athens, Georgia based United Telesis is the first company to adopt the Lucent solution. United Telesis has signed up STSI.net, USA Talks and SkyWay as its first partners for its clearinghouse service.

Other vendors with specific clearinghouse offering include TransNexus, Clarent, and VocalTec.  With the launch of this solution Lucent is offering a special "clearinghouse-in-a-box" promotion for customers of its MultiVoice gateways from June 5 through July 31, 2000 and is priced at US $44,900.

Natural MicroSystems announces analog station solution
Source: iLocus

Natural MicroSystems has announced the availability of the CX 2000 Series high-density analog station solution.  The CX 2000 Series is appropriate for use in call center applications, PC-based PBX systems, communications servers, IP telephony gateways and IP-based PBX solutions using analog telephones. It delivers the high-density analog station interface in the industry for PCI and CompactPCI.

The new series couples with other platforms from NMS, such as the Alliance Generation and Convergence Generation family of digital signal processing resource platform products to deliver voice, fax and IP processing.

U.S. throws Microsoft a bone
Source: Wired

The government on Monday accepted minor changes offered by Microsoft to a plan to split the company in two, but rejected significant alterations to the proposal aimed at preventing future antitrust violations.  The government agreed to call the break-up a "divestiture" instead of a "reorganization," for example, but rejected the software giant's request that it be free to delete its email.  "Version 3.0 of the government's plan would still damage consumers and the economy," Microsoft spokesman Vivek Varma said, referring to the latest revision of the plan, which was filed with the federal court on Monday.

Messages from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates were used as evidence in the trial and the government said Microsoft should be forced to keep its email for four years, citing testimony by Gates that he deletes most of his.  The government said many changes proposed by Microsoft would undermine or frustrate the purpose and effectiveness of the proposed remedy to break up the company. It rejected other changes as unnecessary.  District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson is expected to rule on an appropriate remedy within days of receiving Microsoft's reply brief on June 7th.

The judge ruled April 3 that the company broke U.S. antitrust law by abusing its monopoly in personal computer operating systems to the detriment of consumers and other companies. Microsoft has already said it will appeal Jackson's decision.  Last week, Microsoft offered 44 pages of major and minor changes to the government's proposal, and the U.S. Justice Department and 17 states asked for time to consider them.

A phone for the space age
Source: Comsoc

Qualcomm has introduced the GSP-1600 Tri-Mode satellite phone. The phone was designed to work in conjunction with Globalstar's low-Earth-orbiting (LEO) satellite communications system. However, the phone can also be used outside of Globalstar's network. Before linking to the satellite network, its AutoMode feature finds available analog or digital services. The cost savings provided by the AutoMode function may appeal to customers. 

The phone's design follows the current trend of handhelds becoming smaller, but adding more features. The GSP-1600 weighs 13.1 ounces and measures 7.0 inches by 2.0 inches by 1.9 inches. In addition, the phone is equipped with two antennae for either earth-based communication systems or orbiting communication systems. The antennae for orbiting communications systems is retractable for added convenience, and must be extended to link to a satellite network. But a user must have an unobstructed view of the sky to connect to a satellite. The phone costs $1500, without service charges. Globalstar has three pricing plans for the United States. The least expensive is the Beyond Basic, which charges a flat rate of $30 a month with additional charges of $1.69 per minute for satellite calls.