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Surviving the Storm
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The economic hurricane that's soaking participants and turning
umbrellas inside out in the optical industry shows no signs of letting up between now and the
end of the year.
--July 23, 2001
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ITV Market Ripens for Consolidation
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iTV suppliers focused on the U.S. cable market bear all the
markings of an industry sector poised to consolidate, regroup yet again, or quietly exit the
scene. It wouldn't be the first time...
--July 23, 2001
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Cable's Top Two MSOs Retrench on iTV
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Three summers ago, AT&T Broadband--then Tele-Communications Inc.--
wanted to get advanced digital set-tops into its subscribers' homes by summer of 1999. Last summer,
Time Warner Cable wanted nearly half of its 34 divisions to launch video-on-demand this year...
--July 23, 2001
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Brownback Pushes Senate Broadband Plan
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Sen. Sam Brownback is working to keep what he calls "the phone wars"
out of the U.S. Senate so that he can forge a bi-partisan agreement to combine competing ideas about
the best way to spur broadband deployment.
--July 23, 2001
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Buyout Questions For AT&T Broadband
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If Comcast Corp. president Brian Roberts succeeds in his
unsolicited bid to buy AT&T Broadband, his broadband vision - bullish on VOD and cable
modems, bearish on telephony - will rule the day.
--July 23, 2001
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Bad Times, Good Bargains
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Bad times are sending some technology providers to the
clearance racks, and C-COR.net is among the more eager bargain shoppers these days.
--July 23, 2001
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AOL Earnings Rise, Revenues Rust
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AOL-Time Warner Inc. last week did something rare in the
current media and telecom world--posting a largely positive quarterly report. But industry
watchers nevertheless are pointing to a possible rust spot on the media giant's business
armor.
--July 23, 2001
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Celox Snares New Money
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Celox Networks, a Boston-based maker of IP service switches,
got another strong affirmation of its product and business plan earlier this month when the
company secured a third round of funding of $80 million.
--July 23, 2001
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Collocation Ruling Not The End of Story
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The CLEC community won a victory with the Federal
Communications Commission's recent collocation decision, but determining the extent
of the spoils will take some time.
--July 23, 2001
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The Business of Optical Fiber
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For the first time in the 17-year history of the National
Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC), business took center stage.
--July 23, 2001
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World Stage
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Wireline and wireless operators in Asia, Africa, Latin America
and western Europe, hungry for high-speed Internet connectivity, are pushing global sales of
fixed wireless broadband systems even as U.S. providers slow rollouts because of the
capital crunch.
--July 23, 2001
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The Question of 'Net Measurements
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The emergence of the Internet as a powerful new medium may have
changed how the business world works, but the new rules are still very much a work in progress.
For now, different interest groups still are debating everything from fundamental terminology -
what's a "unique visitor" for instance - to what should be the benchmarks for compiling a panel
to measure audience responses.
--July 23, 2001
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Sonus Lands RBOC Deal
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If telecom equipment company Sonus Networks didn't know
better, it might have a hard time understanding all the fuss about the current market
downturn.
--July 23, 2001
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Too Much of a Good Thing?
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In the world of semiconductor chips, too much of a good thing
isn't good. The makers of integrated circuits have been hurting since November, when the
cyclical chip world began experiencing an oversupply of inventory as orders slowed because
of the decelerating economy.
--July 23, 2001
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PVR Driving Set-Top Silicon
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Cable TV set-top box development encompasses a sweeping range of
functionality - and driving the constantly moving target of set-top functionality are complex silicon
chips that include the latest must-have feature - personal video recording (PVR).
--July 23, 2001
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OpenTV Expands into Interactive Services with Static
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Multimedia gaming via the television set may be moving closer
to the mainstream in the U.S. market with the buyout of U.K.-based Static by interactive TV
software provider OpenTV Inc.
--July 23, 2001
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Cable, Web Blended Via Adult Content Providers
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As content providers of all types struggle to pinpoint the
best way of making money with online material, the adult entertainment industry might be
one model that shows how to successfully do so.
--July 23, 2001
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Knowing the Network
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Sprint's backbone IP network is not exactly screaming
for a chiropractor these days. After more than a year of study sampling the
performance of three routers round-the-clock, Sprint researchers are finding some
surprising results - namely that the network is running better and with less packet
loss than expected.
--July 23, 2001
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Fiber to the New Home
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Some new homeowners in American Canyon, Calif., won't have to
wait to experience the future of broadband. A new partnership between integrated utility company
Competisys and equipment vendor World Wide Packets will be making it happen.
--July 23, 2001
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Ready-Made Solutions
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As service provider spending continues slowing this year, times
would figure to be especially difficult for the network systems integration and value-added
resellers delivering next-generation infrastructure to carriers. That might be true, but hold
your sympathy...
--July 23, 2001
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Broadband Down Under
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Many domestic incumbent carriers might envy the situation of
Australian carrier Telstra Corp., which claims 95 percent of the local telecom access market
and 80 percent of its cable TV market. It has one regulator to deal with, not several as is
the case with incumbent carriers in the United States, and it doesn't have to worry about
competing technologies, because, in Australia, it owns networks in all of them...
--July 23, 2001
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Carriers Moving to Free Space Optics
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The slowdown in telecom spending and drying up of capital
availability in recent months hasn't been bad news for one sector. The makers of free
space optics, a technology that uses lasers for last mile connectivity, say they're finally
attracting some attention amid the mayhem.
--July 23, 2001
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Laser Carrier Targets Customer Service, Loyalty
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In February, Seattle-based Terabeam Corp. launched the first
point-to-multipoint commercial high-speed connectivity service in the United States using free
space optics (FSO), and opened its second major market in Denver last month. Dan Hesse, Terabeam's
chairman and CEO, recently spoke with Broadband Week editor Bill Menezes and senior editor
Jeanie Stokes about the company's business model and how it is marketing its last-mile connectivity
to business customers.
--July 23, 2001
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Unlicensed And Unnoticed In Wireless?
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Deployment of fixed wireless broadband access in unlicensed spectrum
is moving faster than in the licensed bands because inexpensive equipment is available and license
fees are not a barrier to entry.
--July 23, 2001
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DRM and How to Manage It
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Napster has taught Hollywood the importance a secure, digital
delivery system. Studios are digitizing much of their content for eventual Internet delivery.
But secure streaming and downloads, better known as digital rights management, starts with core
digital asset management technology.
--July 23, 2001
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Real vs. Microsoft, Round 8
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The fight in the media player space between Microsoft and
RealNetworks is rapidly shifting into the digital rights management space.
--July 23, 2001
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Video View
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BBC Technology, a newly formed subsidiary of the venerable
British Broadcasting Corp., BBC Technology was formed to convert the broadcasting giant's
engineering skills in broadcast, communications and Internet-related technologies into a
service business aimed at content providers. CEO Philip Langsdale recently took some time
to talk with Broadband Week senior editor Karen Brown about America's digital state
and the forces he sees in the multimedia world.
--July 23, 2001
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Microsoft In Online Music Deal
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Microsoft landed major content partners in its new foray into
online music, joining the planned Pressplay service backed by major record labels Vivendi
Universal and Sony.
--July 23, 2001
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Sound and Fury
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3D animation provider Pulse Entertainment has snapped up Web
audio outfit Sonicopia for an undisclosed price to beef up its multimedia technology lineup.
Combining the two San Francisco operations is a move aimed at gaining a better position in
the Web rich media market.
--July 23, 2001
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Moving Products
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Yahoo! is tapping in to what it thinks will be a
growing market--Webcasts used as marketing tools. Unveiled last month, Yahoo!'s
Marketing Webcast Solutions offers companies a way to funnel video and audio
promotional content onto Webcast events to promote new product launches via their
own corporate Web sites.
--July 23, 2001
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A Pervasive Problem
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They ship data between home and office, own multiple
Internet devices and use combinations of wireless and wired platforms. And for Daedalus
Venture Group LLC, they are an emerging consumer segment for which the broadband
telecommunications industry will have to pay attention and adapt.
--July 23, 2001
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Broadside:
Let the Games Begin!
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Bill Menezes: It's kind of nice to see a good old-fashioned
takeover tussle emerge from the grindingly slow evolution of AT&T into four supposedly better
companies. But is the whole bidding contest that's emerged from the Comcast offer to buy AT&T
Broadband really the ultimate result of a failed AT&T strategy to build a cohesive, modern
communications services provider?
--July 23, 2001
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Always On:
Tightening the Digital Purse Strings
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Gary Arlen: Although it's a testament to the appetite for
connectivity, Americans' willingness to pay $200 or more per month for voice-video-data services
may come under scrutiny in a tightening economy. Data services, in particular, may not be
"recession proof" or price-insensitive, as avid promoters believe. Network providers have coasted
for a decade by introducing attractive new features to willing users. But sticker shock looms as
a barrier to near-term growth.
--July 23, 2001
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Through the Pipe:
Surviving the Telecom Brush Fire
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Brendon Mills: Industry pundits have done a thorough job
of examining the events that resulted in the worst ever decline in the telecom market in an
effort to explain 'why we are where we are.' But companies planning to survive the brush fire
need to be looking to the future not the past...
--July 23, 2001
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