Copper Mountain MTU DSL Concentrators Support Quantum Bridge's Optical Access Solution  Wayne Kawamoto
[November 9, 2000] Interoperability between Copper Mountain's MTU concentrators and Quantum Bridge's optical access system may enable providers to leverage last-mile copper with first-mile fiber for high-bandwidth in-building service.

Turnstone To Launch Smart Splitter  Wayne Kawamoto
[November 6, 2000] Turnstone Systems will be introducing its Smart Splitter SX500, a patent-pending product that is supposed to dramatically reduce costs of deploying loop management for residential DSL services.

Copper Mountain Announces Full-Rate ADSL Line Card 
Wayne Kawamoto
[November 2, 2000] New ADSL line card may enable carriers to deliver DSL service to European customers served by integrated services digital network phone lines.

Report Says that Free Space Optics Will Change the Broadband Landscape Wayne Kawamoto
[October 24, 2000] A new report projects that Free Space Optics (FSO), an emerging technology that transports data from point-to-point and multipoint via laser technology, will grow from its current nascent state to a strong niche player in the next five years.

Convergent Enhances Its Broadband Voice Switch Wayne Kawamoto
[October 20, 2000] Convergent Networks announced the general availability of several new optical interfaces for its carrier-class ICS2000 broadband switch.

New Cross-Connect Systems CLEC-Planet staff
[October 17, 2000] NHC's new integrated cross-connect system, the ControlPoint 5400, is specifically designed for use by the central office locations of ILECs and CLECs.

DataZen PreQualifies DSL Prospects CLEC-Planet staff
[October 10, 2000] DataZen announced the availability of DataZen Service Finder for DSL, the company's solution that determines whether a DSL service provider can provision service at a particular address.

ADC Enhances Integration Capabilities CLEC-Planet staff
[October 5, 2000] CBP promises providers easy integration with other OSS systems, along with configured bundles of products and services and more billing detail.

New  Remote Terminal DSL Concentrator CLEC-Planet staff
[September 19, 2000] Copper Mountain  announced a new DSL concentrator that should enable  ILECs and CLECs to offer a full range of services to business and residential customers who cannot be reached from phone company central offices (COs). 

NightFire Automates Voice Services CLEC-Planet staff
[September 12, 2000] For CLECs offering DSL and other access technologies, NightFire claims that its NightFire Voice will offer a cost-effective way to add revenue-generating, value-added voice services to basic access service.

Telica Launches Multiservice Switching System CLEC-Planet staff
[August 29, 2000] Telica announced Plexus 9000, the company's integrated hardware, software and network management system, which is designed to deliver carrier-class and intelligent multiservice switching to incumbent and new carriers. 

SBC Grants Service-Bureau Status to NightFire CLEC-Planet staff
[August 29, 2000] NightFire Software announced that it has entered into a service-bureau provider agreement with SBC Communications. 

New Product Increases DSL Reliability  CLEC-Planet staff
[August 25, 2000] LMKI announced the availability of its redundant connectivity solutions that are designed to increase the reliability of DSL for business customers.

NightFire Supports Automated DSL Loop Qualification and Line Sharing   Wayne Kawamoto
[August 22, 2000] NightFire Software announced support for line sharing and DSL loop qualification through its NightFire SupplierExpress software. The functions promise to let CLECs deliver broadband more efficiently by automating the ordering of shared lines and the retrieval of detailed information.

Pliant Announces GR-303 Certification  Wayne Kawamoto
[August 3, 2000]  Pliant Systems announced that it successfully completed GR-303 interoperability testing of its Pliant 3000 Integrated Access Platform with Lucent Technologies' 5ESS AnyMedia Class 5 switch.

CLECs: Growth Market for Billing Service Bureaus and ASPs 
Lisa Phifer 
[August 1, 2000]  Should your firm offload its billing to a third party? Columnist Lisa Phifer discusses how third party services can support your firm, and why your decision to use them may depend on the size of your business. 

Speed Has Its Price Jim Thompson
For many ISPs, the accelerated deployment of DSL has meant increased revenue and explosive growth, but it's also exposed weakness in the basic infrastructure of the Internet. 

Aggregate and Expand DSL  Wayne Kawamoto
Netopia allows service providers to aggregate multiple 
DSL lines into a single, high-speed, virtual pipe. The bonding technology may also extend the reach of DSL. 

Technology Promises to Extend ADSL CLEC Planet Staff
ymmetricom recently unveiled a product that promises extend the range of ADSL-up to double the distance. 

Advanced SLA and Reporting for DSL Networks CLEC Planet Staff
A new solution feeds statistics gathered by Copper Mountain's CopperEdge DSL concentrators into DeskTalk's TREND performance management solution, and generates capacity planning, performance monitoring, and Service Level Agreement (SLA) reports.

DSL Prime  Dave Burstein
Covad's $200-325M Bluestar Buy, Interoperability, Japan finally opening, Universal Broadband Initiative, and more. 

Wireless Access For CLECs  CLEC Planet Staff
USURF America announced plans to license its proprietary "Quick-Cell" wireless Internet access system to CLECs. The company says that its Quick-Cells can help CLECs meet the demand from customers who are unable to get DSL and other high-speed Internet access services.

Netopia Demonstrates R6000 ADSL CLEC Planet Staff
Netopia recently announced that its new R6000 series ADSL routers are demonstrating full interoperability with popular central office equipment. 

Softswitch Network for Carriers and Service Providers 
CLEC Planet Staff
Carrier Access and ArelNet announced a new softswitch network that will let service providers originate VoIP calls from customer premises, and route them anywhere in the world.

DSL Line Sharing: Ready, Set, Go  Lisa Phifer 
Line sharing grants CLECs access to the same access enjoyed by ILECs. Columnist Lisa Phifer discusses benefits and some disadvantages, and the current state of line sharing. 

Avail Announces Integrated Concentration Devices CLEC Planet Staff
Avail's Frontera ICD 2000 promises to integrate subscriber voice and data CPE concentration with ATM switching and IP routing, to enable deployment options for QoS-intensive, media-rich communications like packet voice and video services.

All-Optical Wavelength Switching Router CLEC Planet Staff
Sorrento Networks introduced its TeraMatrix, an optical wavelength switching router that lets carriers build reliable, proactive metropolitan optical networks.

Teligent/REMEC Announce New Antenna Technology 
Wayne Kawamoto
 Teligent and REMEC announced the development of a new antenna technology that may significantly extend the reach of fixed wireless networks.

Why CLECs Need Convergent Billing  Lisa Phifer 
Billing is at the heart of your company's business operations, but efficiently billing for disparate services is difficult.  Columnist Lisa Phifer describes the ins and outs of convergent billing and why CLECs should think seriously of moving toward it.

The Clearinghouse Approach For Interconnect Gateways Lisa Phifer
Connecting your operational systems to those of a incumbent carrier is complicated enough.  But when you must connect to multiple incumbents, the difficulty becomes magnified.  OSS expert and CLEC-Planet columnist Lisa Phifer describes what, for many CLECs, may be the best approach.

Interconnect Gateways: Connecting To The Incumbents' Systems 
Lisa Phifer 
The law says that incumbents must give access to their backoffice operations support systems (OSS). However, that can be a complicated task. Columnist Lisa Phifer tells you how to do it.

CLECs Must Become Proactive On Security David M. Piscitello
ISPs have been called on to help prevent distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks on Internet sites. However, CLECs also should take a proactive role in ensuring network security, columnist David M. Piscitello says. He tells you how.