TollBridge Technologies’ VoCable TB300 IP Gateway landed multivendor interoperability approval with five cable equipment manufacturers. The gateway now “interoperates” with equipment from ADC Telecommunications, Arris, Cadant, Motorola and Tellabs, the company says. …
Eumitcom Technology and Samsung Electronics used Conexant Systems Inc.’s InfoSurge cable modem platform in their Euro-DOCSIS- 1.0-certified cable modems, Conexant says. …
Motive Communications Inc. partnered with Mentis Broadband Solutions on systems for online ordering and activation, “retail initiatives” and customer service for cable modem service, the duo say. The new system lets MSOs integrate front-end ordering systems with billing systems. The two say the system has built-in customer service capabilities automating parts of set-up and service. …
Williams Communications closed the sale of its 15-story, 750,000-square-foot headquarters in Tulsa, Okla. The company sold the facility to parent The Williams Companies, picking up $276 million in the deal, and then signed a long-term lease on the building. …
Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. landed another financing extension for its $150 million note led by Citicorp. The new deadline: Oct. 1. New contingencies include assurances that MFN’s systems and business will see no “material” adverse effects from last week’s terrorist attacks. …
Lucent Technologies will expand NETs’ pan-European optical network into Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Eastern Europe. Lucent previously installed the company’s optical networks in Northern Europe, and between France and the United Kingdom. Terms were undisclosed, but Lucent will upgrade NETs’ current 400 Gbps DWDM system to Lucent’s WaveStar OLS 800G, doubling the throughput. …
Under a separate multiyear contract, Lucent will supply France Telecom with WaveStar TDM 10G, which allows carriers to transmit across a single wavelength of light on a fiber at 10 Gbps. No word on the terms. …
ExciteAtHome continues to shed its international operations with the sale of its interest in ExciteAtHome Australia to Optus. Excite has agreed to supply Excite Australia with core broadband technologies and brand licensing under new terms, it says. …
A mere two weeks after acquiring Broadband Services Inc.’s equipment repair business for $8 million, A Novo Group bought the U.K.-based service and repair business of Pace Micro Technology. Pace’s product repair team will move to A Novo’s U.K. subsidiary, General Electronique UK Ltd. The sale is part of Pace’s strategy to outsource noncore activities and refocus on R&D and customer support, it says. Terms were undisclosed. …
Several more companies joined others touting stock repurchase plans. Following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s emergency action to relax rules on repurchases, a slew of companies jumped into action. On the heels of Lucent’s and Cisco Systems’ buybacks come announcements from 3Com Corp., SRS Labs Inc. (250,000 shares), Openwave Systems Inc. (5 million shares) and Convergys Corp. (5 million shares).
