Stories by David Rohde

Aspect hits the comeback trail

A venerable vendor of telephone switching systems for call centres is trying to recover from operating losses and a severe stock slide by pushing into the market for customer relationship management software.

Lucent buys Xedia to boost VPN routing

Lucent Technologies last week reaffirmed its strategy of buying enterprise product companies only in the fastest-growing markets by purchasing Xedia Corp, maker of the AccessPoint line of IP virtual private network routers.
The acquisition gives Lucent a new type of box that is expected to be deployed on customer premises, but is usually sold through internet service providers (ISPs) or other service providers. The Xedia boxes have been employed by UUNET, PSINet, Concentric Network and other ISPs to build VPN offerings.

Global One readies international VPN

Following through on a promise to forge ahead despite ownership chaos, international carrier Global One has introduced its first IP-based virtual private network.

AT&T Wins Cable Battle, War with RBOCs Continues

AT&T Corp. this week won a key battle in its all-fronts war to keep regulators from forcing open its cable network facilities to all ISPs.
But AT&T's rivals, the regional Bell operating companies, took advantage of AT&T's win to step up their own demands for deregulation of their data and Internet services so they, too, can become bigger Internet players.
In the cable arena, AT&T finally won the approval of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for the transfer of its cable licenses from the former Tele-Communications, Inc. without an explicit open-access requirement. The board voted 9-2 in favor of the transfer, but said it would reconsider open access when the license comes up for renewal under AT&T's name in December.

DSL Explosion Ready to Rip

Incumbent telephone companies are getting ready to climb higher up the bandwidth ladder with their asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) offerings.
And their new rivals -- the data-oriented competitive local exchange carriers, or data CLECs -- are preparing to match them step-for-step by offering symmetrical DSL (SDSL) at higher-than-T-1 speeds.
In what's likely to make the biggest splash, Network World has confirmed that BellSouth will announce five new flavors of DSL as early as this week. The services will include three industrial-strength multimegabit services that take ADSL out of the individual telecommuter arena and deeper into the enterprise.

Motorola: another nail in Iridium's coffin?

You know you've got problems when your own parents are getting ready to disinherit you.

Rivals Slam SBC/Ameritech Proposals

New local carriers say they've found a giant devil in the details in a proposed set of conditions for the pending merger of SBC and Ameritech.
Rivals of the two Bell giants on Monday are expected to protest to the Federal Communications Commission that the merger conditions -- announced three weeks ago -- are riddled with loopholes and are unlikely to give users many new local service options.

Qwest-backed Wireless Player Wins Building Access

A wireless local loop provider partially owned by broadband carrier Qwest has won an agreement to serve business customers in 254 office buildings around the country.
Advanced Radio Telecom (ART), which bypasses telco local loops to provide wireless broadband Internet access, won the deal on Monday from CarrAmerica Realty Corp.

Global One Swimming Upstream

Two or three management layers down from the chaotic top tier of Sprint's Global One venture, company officials are continuing to work hard to improve processes, systems and services.
The operations officials are rolling out Global One's frame relay, ATM and IP services to an increasing number of countries even as the company's ownership -- Sprint plus two European carriers -- continues to roil in controversy.

Ownership changes predicted at Global One

In his most explicit statement about Global One's troubles to date, Sprint CEO William Esrey told NBC last week that Global One will soon experience "changes in its ownership structure".
That followed two other upsetting developments for the international carrier. One was the recent resignation of Global One CEO Gary Forsee, a long-time Sprint executive. The other was legal turmoil among Global One's two other owners - France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom - resulting in a lawsuit in The Hague's international court over a related tangle of partnership obligations.