All-optical switches begin to reach customers 
CRTC wants input on telecom monitoring task 
Prepaid patent portends wireless battle 
Pagoo teams with Oblivion Technologies to deliver VoB service 
Orbital Software unit's UK patent application granted 
SBC stumbling in 
Wireless web video rapidly becoming the new hot thing 
Getting the home fibers burning 
Fast PCs: Can disk drives keep up? 
Oracle ships new IFS-On 
360networks’ fiber-optics cable hits Venezuela 
FTC approves AOL-Time Warner merger 
W3C releases XHTML basic spec for mobile devices 

All-optical switches begin to reach customers
Source:  Comsoc

While Lucent Technologies and Corvis began a debate in September over which was the first to introduce an all-optical switch, the more important development is that an all-optical switch was introduced at all.  A great number of the switches currently being deployed use optics, but they are not entirely optical.  Optical switches must conduct OEO conversions, which are expensive and cause congestion.  But all-optical switches keep the signal in the optical domain for the entire transmission, lowering power consumption and operating costs.  

Lucent's shipments of its all-optical switches, dubbed LambdaRouter, began on July 31.  It shipped the product to Global Crossing, which has deployed three of the switches on its transatlantic route.  Broadwing has installed Corvis' CorWave all-optical switch in six areas on its network. The tough competition in the optical market has led Corvis and Lucent to keep quiet about details of their hardware. However, the most important issue is whether the development of all-optical switching has reached the point where products may be installed in the network for live traffic. 

CRTC wants input on telecom monitoring task 
Source: Angustel

Public Notice 2000-175 announces a public consultation April 18-19 to determine what information the Commission needs in order to monitor the telecom industry.  To participate, notify the Commission by January 29.  Interested parties will receive an initial report in March, prepared by a consultant still to be engaged.

Prepaid patent portends wireless battle
Source: Cnet

Freedom Wireless, a privately held Phoenix, Ariz.-based wireless technology company, was granted a U.S. patent earlier this month for its methods of completing prepaid wireless phone calls, a service that allows a customer to pay a certain amount in advance then make wireless calls until the amount of credit is used up.

The patent--and a pending lawsuit--could have implications for wireless carriers, such as AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Alltel Communications and Western Wireless, and for Boston Communications Group, a prepaid technology provider that serves many carriers.  The prepaid market, although a small percentage of most carriers' subscriber totals, has grown in popularity in recent years. Prepaid wireless plans are particularly popular with parents of teens, customers with poor credit histories, and other subscribers who want to ensure they are not surprised by a larger-than-expected monthly bill.

Freedom Wireless has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts seeking damages and an injunction preventing most of the major wireless carriers from infringing upon its patents. The company also is seeking licensing deals with the carriers and Boston Communications.  Freedom Wireless representatives said they are "confident" of their position, but declined to comment further. Representatives for Verizon Wireless, Alltel and Boston Communications could not immediately be reached for comment.

Freedom Wireless says it developed a simple system for completing prepaid wireless calls in the mid-1990s when it operated as a cellular service reseller. The company first sought a patent in December 1994.

Pagoo teams with Oblivion Technologies to deliver VoB service
Source: iLocus

Pagoo, a provider of IP-based voice application software and solutions, and Oblivion Technologies, a custom broadband solutions provider, have formed an agreement to offer Oblivion customers broadband phone services.  Starting this month, Oblivion will conduct a technical trial of Pagoo's hosted solution that enables traditional and enhanced phone services to be delivered over a broadband connection.

With Pagoo's solution, Oblivion's customers will have access to phone service with additional features not available through the Public Switched Telephone Network. Customers can receive a phone number online, then plug their regular phone into a residential gateway (a device about the size of a small answering machine), which converts analog phone signals into IP data signals.

Oblivion's principal product and service is called "Homes That Think", futuristic homes complete with both structured internal wiring to accommodate all current and future Internet, entertainment, security, and telephony services plus the infrastructure within their subdivision for high-speed delivery.

Orbital Software unit's UK patent application granted
Source: iLocus

Orbital Software Holdings PLC said its Orbital Software Group Ltd was notified yesterday that its UK patent application was granted on Dec 12.  Accordingly Orbital Software Group now owns a UK patent in respect of certain aspects of the technology used in its Organik product.

Orbital's Organik software brings people and information together, creating an environment in which users can ask questions, find experts and share knowledge.  

SBC stumbling in
Source: Teledotcom

SBC Communications Inc. has said that a slowing economy and delays in offering long-distance services will dampen its financial results next year, putting its earnings and revenue growth at the low end of expectations.  SBC (stock: SBC) stock dropped sharply in early trading Tuesday, Dec 19th, falling 7 1/16, or more than 13 percent, to 46 1/4 on the New York Stock Exchange, where it was the most active issue as well as one of the biggest percentage losers. The shares have traded at a 52-week high of 59 and a 52-week low of 34 13/16.

The company said delays in getting regulatory approval for long-distance services have shifted the timing of expected revenue from and investments in its wireline business.  It also said it expects consumer service problems at its Ameritech unit, which operates in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, to have an impact on its business next year.

Consumers have leveled numerous complaints about delays in repairing service, an inability to reach the company and difficulties in dealing with Ameritech representatives, according to consumer group Citizens Utility Board (Chicago).  SBC said the service issues, combined with a later-than-expected start in the installation of neighborhood high-speed broadband gateways, have affected the deployment of digital subscriber line (DSL) in the Ameritech region.

Wireless web video rapidly becoming the new hot thing
Source: Comsoc

Several high-tech companies are developing technology that brings wireless Web video to handhelds and mobile phones.  PacketVideo will debut a Web site that sends video to Microsoft PocketPC handhelds over a wireless network.   PacketVideo's main business is helping wireless carriers provide video-based services such as videoconferencing. 

However, the technology could also be used for surveillance, for example, by providing wireless links to traffic cameras.  SolidStreaming will release a wireless video player that works on all currently available personal digital assistants.  SolidStreaming's player will provide access to Web-based feeds from various sites, allowing users to view traffic cameras and tourist attractions or send video email.   The quality of wireless Web video is still imperfect because of limited capacity and the instability of wireless connections, but companies entering the market say consumers should understand that the technology is still maturing. 

Getting the home fibers burning
Source: Comsoc

Although fiber to the home is still viewed as an expensive prospect, it is becoming reasonable to lay optical fiber into new homes since trenches are being dug for services anyway.   Pricing and consumer demand have reached levels that may prompt large CLECs to provide extensive amounts of optical fiber to a significant number of customers, according to Bob Lund, Optical Solutions' chief technology officer.  Lund believes consumers should select optical fiber over cable modem service because fiber's scalability makes it more valuable. 

Optical Solutions will introduce a product that will offer 100 Mbps by this time next year, Lund says.  It will be able to do so without any contact with the infrastructure, he added. Fiber to the home will most likely attract rural incumbent telcos seeking to handle the demand for higher-speed networks. Additional users may be competitive telcos seeking to attract customers in new, high-end subdivisions. 

Fast PCs: Can disk drives keep up?
Source: ZDnet

Serial ATA, the new interface standard for fast-talking disk drives, received a considerable boost this week.  The Serial ATA Working Group has published a draft of the 1.0 specification for the new interface for disk drives--ranging from hard drives to CD-rewriteables--that would double the bandwidth of the interface between these drives and other PC components.

Serial ATA 1.0 is intended primarily to make sure that the hard-drive interface used by a PC can keep up with the data rates for the drives. However, Serial ATA will also help assure that disk drives can keep up with the performance of the new gigahertz-plus PCs.

Serial ATA offers about twice as much bandwidth as the current Parallel ATA standard, known as ATA 100. Serial ATA's first incarnation, dubbed Ultra Serial ATA 1500, would offer a peak bandwidth or transfer rate of 1.5Gbps, which basically equates to about 150MB of data per second.  Additionally, Serial ATA offers point-to-point communications between individual drives and the PC's motherboard, instead of forcing them to share a single interface.

Oracle ships new IFS-On
Source: Commweb

Oracle has released a new version of its Internet File System, a key component of its database for storing and manipulating nonrelational data such as documents, spreadsheets, and images. The new software is designed to improve security capabilities and also provides enhanced XML features and extensions to its development environment.

The new IFS includes a multilevel security model for controlling access to stored material.  Oracle says Symantec Corp. will integrate its upcoming CarrierScan Server 2.0 antivirus software into IFS.  The new release also provides improved XML features, and supports Web-distributed author and version standards that let developers collaboratively edit and manage files across the Internet.  IFS is compatible with the Oracle8i release 3 database for Solaris, Windows NT, and Linux systems.  The new software is bundled with the Oracle database and is available for free download at http://otn.oracle.com.

360networks’ fiber-optics cable hits Venezuela
Source:  ispworld

On Dec 18th, 360networks said it touched the wall first in the race to bring fiber optics to South America.  360networks said that it has just landed the 360americas cable near Caracas, Venezuela, which it said marks the first direct fiber optic-connection between the United States and Venezuela.  This section of 360americas connects Venezuela with Boca Raton, Florida and Tuckerton, New Jersey with a 2,900 mile undersea fiber optic cable. It is scheduled to enter commercial service by mid-March 2001.

When the project is finished in 2002, 360americas will span 18,000 miles and provide direct connectivity between major cities in the United States, Bermuda, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. The total capacity of the network will be 1.28 terabits per second, which is sufficient capacity to handle 16 million simultaneous telephone calls or send 1.3 million digital photographs per second.

FTC approves AOL-Time Warner merger
Source: ispworld

After 11 months of often contentious wrangling with federal regulators, the proposed $109 billion merger between America Online Inc. and Time Warner Inc. took a giant step forward on Thursday when the Federal Trade Commission voted 5-0 to a consent decree that the FTC said would limit the anti-competitive effects of the merger.

The FTC’s tentative approval came on the heels of some last minute wrangling.  According to The Journal, both AOL CEO Steve Case and Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin signed an agreement that said they would open up Time Warner’s cable network to competitors across the country. With those assurances in hand, the FTC made its unanimous vote.  While the actual consent order wasn’t made immediately available following the vote, the FTC did issue a press release that contained some of the conditions:

- Prohibiting AOL-Time Warner from interfering with content passed along the bandwidth contracted for by non-affiliated ISPs, or discriminating on the basis of affiliation in the transmission of content that AOL-Time Warner has contracted to deliver to subscribers over their cable system, including the transmission of interactive triggers or other content in conjunction with ITV services.

- Requiring AOL-Time Warner to market and offer AOL's DSL services to subscribers in Time Warner cable areas where affiliated cable broadband service is available in the same manner and at the same retail pricing as they do in those areas where affiliated cable broadband.

W3C releases XHTML basic spec for mobile devices
Source: itworldcanada

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) has released its XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) Basic specification as a W3C recommendation.   XHTML Basic is a simpler version of XHTML 1.0 — a blending of HTML (hypertext markup language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) — that allows for the delivery of Web content using advanced technology to smaller non-PC devices such as mobile phones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), pagers and television-based Web browsers, said Ian Jacobs, the spokesman for W3C.

Specifically, the W3C combined its XHTML 1.0 Recommendation, which was originally published in January with aspects of another specification entitled "Modularization of XHTML" to create XHTML Basic as a markup language that works better on mobile Web devices, Jacobs said.

The W3C HTML Working Group and the W3C Mobile Access Interest Group will work together to find common ground for future markup languages aimed at content for small information appliances, though the idea isn't for XHTML Basic to grow, Jacobs said. "XHTML Basic is a return to simplicity, because there are fewer features," Jacobs said.

The W3C was founded in 1994 by Web technology pioneer and current W3C director Tim Berners-Lee.