* Reports: RCN considering sale
Overbuilder RCN Corp. has hired Blackstone Group to help the overbuilder decide whether to put itself up for sale, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter, and noting that Bloomberg News first reported the matter.
* Blonder Tongue sheds some patent rights**
Blonder Tongue Laboratories said an investment subsidiary has sold off a batch of patent rights to Moonbeam LLC for roughly $2 million.
Blonder Tongue said it will retain a non-exclusive, royalty-free, global license for those patents, which are tied to the company’s lines of interdiction and addressable subscriber equipment. Blonder Tongue said it will continue to build and distribute those products under the protection of the patent rights being sold to Moonbeam.
**Editor’s note: This item is a reposting of a brief that originally appeared in this space on Sept. 13, 2006. The revised item removes some information that was incorrectly associated to Moonbeam.
* Lindsay nets bulk purchase deal
Lindsay Broadband Inc. has scored a bulk purchase master agreement for its one-way and two-way subscriber amplifiers with the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA).
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but CCSA represents 93 members, which together have a subscriber base of approximately 1 million.
* Sonus, Whaleback team
Whaleback Systems will run its managed IP PBX services on network equipment provided by Sonus Networks.
Whaleback Systems is deploying Sonus switches, routing servers, signaling gateways and the Sonus Insight Management System to support its CrystalBlue Voice Service, a voice over broadband service aimed at small and medium size businesses (SMBs).
* Verizon pushing for TV franchise in Maryland county
Verizon’s hardball tactics in Montgomery County are helping the company progress toward a possible cable franchise there. The company sued the county, accusing it of negotiating in bad faith. A court-appointed mediator has brokered a deal that stays the Verizon lawsuit pending a county council vote on the franchise. The vote will not take place until after a period of public comment.
Verizon has been installing fiber in the area all along. It says it will pass about half the households in the county by the end of this year, and could begin offering FiOS service by the beginning of 2007.