Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Telecom In Brief

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2003 15:42:23 -0500

Telecom In Brief

Moody's Cuts DT

Moody's Investors Service on Friday downgraded the credit
rating on Deutsche Telekom AG [NYSE: DT] to "Baa3" from
"Baa1"--just a notch above "junk" status-- because it doesn't
expect the company to meet debt reduction targets. Moody's
expects DT to fall short of its goal of reducing net debt to around
50 billion euros ($52.5 billion) by the end of this year. The credit
ratings firm acknowledged the commitment of DT's management to
cut its debt, but indicated that poor conditions in the equity
market would likely hamper planned asset sales, making debt
reduction targets more difficult to meet. Moody's estimated DT's
net debt at the end of 2002 at 66 billion euros ($69.2 billion).

Moody's downgrade of DT was widely expected, but the depth of
its cut was not. Most speculation had Moody's inflicting a more
modest wound, such as a reduction to Baa2. The agency's action
is a "put-up-or-shut-up" challenge to new DT CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke,
who has promised to cut the company's debt to between 49 billion
euros ($48.5 billion) and 52 billion euros ($51.5 billion) by the end
of this year.

C&W Names Lapthorne Chairman

Global telecom giant Cable & Wireless PLC [NYSE: CWP] Friday
appointed Richard Lapthorne as its new chairman. Lapthorne is the
former chairman of the healthcare group Amersham Plc and a
former finance director at aerospace group BAE Systems plc. His
appointment comes a day after C&W put 1.5 billion pounds ($2.4
billion) into escrow to cover a tax liability from the sale of its stake
in mobile phone firm One2One to Deutsche Telekom AG [NYSE:
DT].

Lapthorne, who has some telecom experience as a non-executive
director of mobile phone group Orange SA [NYSE: OGE], has his
work cut out for him in his new job. C&W's shares have lost 87
percent of their value over the past year, and Moody's Investors
Service recently cut the company's long-term debt rating to junk
status. Lapthorne's first order of business could be to replace
current CEO Graham Wallace, a man who has drawn the ire of
shareholders.

NTIA To Host VoIP Meeting

The National Telecommunications and Information
Association will hold a roundtable discussion next month to
analyze Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and the convergence
of the Internet and the public switched telephone network. The
meeting is scheduled Feb. 12, 1-5 p.m., at the U.S. Department
of Commerce in Washington, D.C. The roundtable will include an
overview of VoIP technology, including a brief demonstration of the
Commerce Department's new VoIP telephone system. The
discussion is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
For more information, contact Jennifer Guy at 202/482-5836, or by
email at [email-masked] .

Are Access Charges Excess Charges?

The FCC is once again examining the issue of "access charges,"
i.e., fees that interstate long distance carriers must pay to local
telephone companies for the privilege of initiating and terminating
traffic on the local telcos' networks. AT&T and other long distance
carriers contend these access fees are much too high, and that,
among other things, they encourage and enable the incumbent
telcos to retain their monopoly status.

Has the time come for the FCC to take a serious look at these
fees? And in view of the movement to open competition in the U.S.
telecommunications marketplace, should these fees exist at all?
Communications Today and its affiliate web site
http://www.TelecomWeb.com invite your comments on the topic.
To sound off, visit
http://www.telecomweb.com/forum/messages/19.html.

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Wireless In Brief

Mobility Network Has Malta's Wi-Fi

Mobility Network Systems will help bring Wi-Fi service to Malta.
Mobility Network (San Jose, Calif.) this month will start delivering
Wi-Fi technology to enable MobIsle Communications to connect
customers on its go mobile GSM/GPRS operation, provided by
Nortel Networks [NYSE: NT], to a public local area network.
Mobility Network's technology, which will integrate with MobIsle's
planned migration to wideband-CDMA service on its footprint,
allows go mobile to connect its subscribers to MobIsle's Internet
service assets.

Wi-Fi access is considered important for mobile telecom users in
Malta because of the island's popularity as a business conference
and tourist venue. With Mobility Networks' Wi-Fi offering, go mobile
will allow business conference participants and tourists as well as
residents to use high-speed wireless Internet service. For more on
hot topics within the wireless sector, be sure to read the latest
edition of Wireless Data News. For subscription information, visit
the "newsstand" at http://www.TelecomWeb.com.

Telstra Plants Wi-Fi Flag

Australian telecom market leader Telstra [Nasdaq: TLSR] isn't
waiting for one of its challengers to be the first to plant a flag in
the country's Wi-Fi operation space. Telstra on Friday completed
its $3.3 million acquisition of the network assets of Australian
public Wi-Fi operator, SkyNetGlobal.

Telstra plans to use SkyNetGlobal's footprint to provide its
customers with online services through broadband wireless access
at hotspots in Rydges Hotel sites in Australia and New Zealand and
at Qantas Club venues. Telstra will upgrade security and network
performance at the sites and expects to announce further Wi-Fi
moves this year. The cash deal enables SkyNetGlobal (Sydney) to
get out of the infrastructure business and focus on being a service
provider.

Champion Gains Vietnam License

Champion Communication Services'[OTC: CCMS] subsidiary
Champion Vietnam Wireless has received a 20-year license from
the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to establish a wholly
foreign owned enterprise, Champion Wireless Solutions
(Vietnam), in the Southeast Asian market.

Champion Vietnam's operations will include consulting, design,
assembly, installation, repair and maintenance of wireless local loop
equipment and systems. Its products will be sold in the Vietnamese
market and exported to additional markets. Champion
Communication (The Woodlands, Texas) reported that Champion
Vietnam is the first foreign-owned subsidiary of a U.S. company in
the telecom industry to receive such a license.

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Broadband In Brief

Sony Rolls Out 1 Gigabyte Memory Stick for Broadband
Apps

As the range of broadband applications expands, data storage
requirements are becoming more intense all the time. And since it
makes so many of the data collection devices-- cameras, audio
recorders, etc.--that form the very first link in the broadband
content chain, Sony [NYSE: SNE] is apparently feeling the burn as
data requirements stretch. Sony and partner SanDisk have
responded with a next-generation version of its proprietary Memory
Stick data storage device used with various Sony devices.

Memory Stick PRO promises up to a theoretical 32 gigabytes of
storage (although Sony isn't going anywhere near that just yet),
extremely fast data transfer and improved security. Current
Memory Stick sixes run from 16 to 128 MB. The PRO version starts
at 256 MB, with 512 MB and 1 GB versions. Transfer speeds have
been improved as well with a new minimum of 15 mbps. The 1 GB
Memory Stick PRO can handle about 16 CDs worth of audio, 24
minutes of DVD-quality video or six hours of MPEG 4 video at 384
kbps. Sony will begin shipping devices compatible with the new
format this spring but, since the form factor remains the same,
some existing memory stick devices will be able to accept the new
version with a software upgrade. For more about this and other
broadband industry-related news, read the latest edition of
Communications Today's sister publication, Broadband Business
Report. For subscription details, visit the "newsstand" at
http://www.TelecomWeb.com.

USC Demonstrates Broadband Internet Broadcast to
Theater

A technology from the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC)
at the University of Southern California has the potential to turn
theaters into broadband powerhouses. IMSC calls the system
Remote Media Immersion, and demonstrated the concept at a
recent event at USC's Bing Theater in Los Angeles. Using 45 mbps
video transmission and several channels of uncompressed audio,
IMSC transmitted a recorded performance by Miami's New World
Symphony via Internet to a 30 by 17 foot screen in the Bing
theater. The screen size, multichannel audio and specialized
recording techniques created what attendees called a remarkably
realistic experience.

Apart from the quality of the sound and image though, what's
interesting to the broadband world is the potential for connecting
theaters to the net. Using technologies like Remote Media
Immersion, theaters could become much more flexible in what they
show. Instead of simply getting a print of a film and running it
several times a day, theaters could also become venues for special
events, or even more efficiently schedule a more diverse range of
films. This kind of flexibility could help revive the struggling theater
business, while at the same time building another broadband
demand vector.

AOL Time Warner To Spin Off Cable TV Unit

AOL Time Warner [NYSE: AOL] plans to spin off its cable
television operations during the second quarter as part of the
company's efforts to pare its debt load. The public offering is
expected to give the company much-needed cash and the ability
to acquire other cable rivals or take stakes in them. AOL Time
Warner plans to close this month its agreement to buy Comcast's
[Nasdaq: CMCZK] 27.6 percent stake in Time Warner
Entertainment for about $9 billion. Later this month, AOL Time
Warner is expected to book a charge against earnings of at least
$10 billion due to continued deterioration in the value of its poor
performing America Online Internet unit.

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Fiber Optics In Brief

ADVA, IBM Complete Data Storage Interop Tests

Data storage has become increasing important to companies
post-9/11, and many are implementing backup plans to make sure
vital documents remain in the system. Germany's ADVA Optical
Networking [ADVOF.PK], a provider of optical networking
solutions, has wrapped interoperability testing of its Fiber Service
Platform (FSP) systems with IBM's [NYSE: IBM] TotalStorage
Enterprise Storage Server, which has been code-named "Shark."
The companies used IBM's Peer-to-Peer Remote Copy Extended
Distance (PPRC-XD) advance function capabilities at IBM's labs.
The results, according to ADVA, say ADVA's FSP 2000 and 3000
systems and the IBM Shark running PPRC-XD work well together;
IBM's PPRC-XD copies mission-critical data in real time to dedicated
remote storage sites.

Says Brian McCann, chief marketing & strategy officer at ADVA,
"We have witnessed the growing deployments of PPRC for disk
mirroring applications in large enterprise storage environments
around the world. Completion of this interoperability testing with
IBM demonstrates to our current and future customers a high level
of system performance and technical capability for the replication
and back-up of our customers' mission-critical data." For more on
this and other hot topics within the fiber-optics sector, be sure to
read the latest edition of Fiber Optics News. For subscription
information, visit the "newsstand" at
http://www.TelecomWeb.com.

Wanted By Corning: New Photonics Partners

Fiber giant Corning [NYSE: GLW] wants to bolster its flagging
photonics business by partnering with others as soon as it can.
The company says it will consider anything from technology sharing
and manufacturing outsourcing to product co-development. In the
meantime, Corning plans to eliminate certain photonics products
while slowing the production of others, slashing materials costs
wherever it can.

According to CFO Jim Flaws, Corning is so intent on getting back
into the black that more job cuts also could take place.

Kyocera Unveils 10 Gbps Multilayer Ceramic Package

Kyocera [NYSE: KYO] is marketing two new TO-header-style,
surface-mountable 10 Gbps packages for Vertical-Cavity
Surface-Emitting Laser, laser diode and photo diode applications.
The multilayer ceramic package features 3D wiring using stacked
vias, which Kyocera says allows for "an intricate electrical path
within a small footprint." No per- unit pricing has been released.
The Japanese company's fiber-optic packaging products are
marketed in North America by Kyocera Industrial Ceramics
Corp.(Vancouver, Washington).

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Noteworthy

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Feel Like Sounding Off? Visit The 'Forum'

Communications Today's affiliate web site, TelecomWeb.com, is
sporting a brand new interactive feature--the Forum. This is a
special place for telecom professionals to discuss important issues
of the day with their colleagues and our team of experts. The
Forum is a great place where you can expand your personal
network and exchange ideas on the global telecom industry. Feel
free to begin a discussion or comment on any previous postings. Go
to http://www.telecomweb.com/forum/.

Get Satellite News Coverage in 'Satellite Today'

Communications Today has gained a sister with the relaunch of
the Satellite Today daily email newsletter. This will allow
Communications Today to increase its coverage of broadband,
fiber and wireless news, and defer to the Satellite Today e-letter
for the latest news and developments in the satellite industry. Sign
up for your free subscription at
http://www.telecomweb.com/cgi/catalog/info?ST

SATELLITE 2003 Set for Feb. 26- 28 in Washington, DC

SATELLITE 2003 is the industry event where you can receive the
most-up-to-date information and intelligence on where the global,
commercial satellite industry is moving. Come for three days filled
with conference sessions, one-day forums, networking with top
satellite professionals, and an exhibit hall filled with 450 satellite
related booths.

For more information or to register visit,
http://www.satellite2003.com or call + 1-301-354-1669.
Interested in exhibiting at SATELLITE 2003? Contact Rick Felperin,
Exhibits Manager, at 1-888-340-5072 ext. 2 or +1-301-354-1691
(outside the US) or e-mail [email-masked] .

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