GPU Telcom to build fiber network linking six major northeast citiesGPU Telcom Services, Inc. (Morristown, NJ), has announced an agreement with Amtrak that gives GPU right-of-way to construct a 375-mile fiberoptic installation along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor rail line between New York City and Washington D.C., and along Amtrak's Keystone line between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, PA. In addition to these sites, the GPU Telcom fiberoptic system will include Newark, NJ, and Baltimore, MD, for a total of six Tier 1 cities. "This arrangement with Amtrak offers GPU Telcom the opportunity to execute our strategic plan of becoming one of the telecommunications infrastructure providers of choice in the Eastern United States," said GPU Telcom president David C. Brauer. "This agreement allows us to complete a larger plan that utilizes other rights-of-way to extend our fiberoptic network westward, beyond the Amtrak-owned roads, which end in Harrisburg."Calient Networks secures $225 million in third-round financingCalient Networks (San Jose, CA), an innovator of intelligent, all-photonic switching systems, has closed a total of $225 million in financing. The financing includes equity investments of over $195 million and lease commitments of up to $30 million. Proceeds from this round will be used to fund Calient's move into commercial release and volume production of a MEMS-based photonic switching system, with first deliveries scheduled for early 2001. KVH Industries completes $5 million private equity placementKVH Industries (Middletown, RI) announced today the completion of a private placement of 800,000 common shares priced at $6.25 per share. The State of Wisconsin Investment Board, a current KVH shareholder, purchased the entire placement, which will be used to fund the company's photonic fiber and mobile broadband R&D projects. The photonic fiber project is focused on developing a new class of products for high-speed optical-networking applications. These products will combine the company's proprietary D-fiber with newly developed electro-optic polymers. Optical amplifier market to grow to over $7 billion by 2004The worldwide market for optical amplifiers for telecommunications applications is forecast to grow from over $3 billion in 2000 to over $7 billion in 2004, a compounded growth of 22% per year, according to a report just released by Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, CA). The report, entitled "Optical Amplifiers: Raman, EDFA, EDWA, and SOA, Market Review and Forecast-2001," analyzes the market for optical amplifiers and their associated pump lasers for different applications, device types, wavelengths, and data rates. North America currently leads the world in both supply and consumption of optical amplifiers for telecommunications applications, with over 75% of both revenues and purchases.Also in the news . . .Aeroflex Inc. (Plainview, NY) has been awarded contracts totaling more than $12 million for microelectronic thin-film assemblies utilized in advanced OC-48 and OC-192 receivers, transmitters and lithium niobate modulators. . . . Fiber Optic Technologies of the Northwest Inc. (Austin, TX), an Oregon corporation, legally changed its name to "ACS Dataline of the Northwest Inc.". . . . Marconi Ventures (Waltham, MA) has invested $5 million in IPG Photonics Corp. (Sturbridge, MA). . . . OMM Inc. (San Diego, CA), a supplier of photonic switching subsystems based on MEMS technology, has opened sales offices in Boston, MA and Munich, Germany. . . . HEI Inc. (Minneapolis, MN) has received a $4.8-million order from Lucent Technologies for 2.5-Gbit and faster fiberoptic laser modules, typically used in dense wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) applications. . . . Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) announced that it has opened five new Bell Labs facilities—in Australia, China, Greece, India and Italy—within the past eight months. . . . RateXchange Corp. (San Francisco, CA) and The London Satellite Exchange announced the first global alliance that provides bandwidth users the ability to fulfill both satellite and fiberoptic bandwidth requirements at the same time.
Paula Noaker Powell