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Date: Friday, July 14, 2000, 10:47 AM -0400
From: Faulkner Information Services <mailserver@faulknerinfo.com>
To: ???
Subject: Faulkner Comm Flash 07/13/00 - (Part 1 of 2)




com flash




Publication Date: July 13, 2000


Preview
Com-Flash is a biweekly news summary covering computer systems and
software, and vendors. This flash covers the period June 27, 2000 to July
13, 2000. 


Top of the News
In other DT news, Disney is shedding its 25-percent interest in German
Internet search engine Infoseek, which may be purchased by Deutsche
Telekom. DT already owns a 25 percent ownership interest in Infoseek;
another 25 percent would give the company a strong hold on Germany's
number-two search engine. If the deal goes through, Telekom's Internet
subsidiary, T-Online, would control the stake.






Mergers/Acquisitions
ADC Telecommunications completed its acquisition of PairGain Technologies
for $1.6 billion. The purchase gives ADC access to PairGain's DSL
networking systems, which are used for high-speed Internet, remote LAN
access, and enterprise LAN extension. 

SpartaCom Technologies completed its acquisition of the Artisoft
Communications Software Group division of Artisoft. Artisoft's
communications software products are now property of Prologue Software
Group, the parent company of SpartaCom Technologies.

AT&T Wireless acquired remaining interests in the Bay Area Cellular
Telephone company from Vodafone AirTouch. The Bay Area Cellular Telephone
company, which served around 1 million subscribers under Cellular One, will
be renamed AT&T Wireless. 

Blackstone, a New York-based investment bank, announced the purchase of
12.5 percent of GTE's Argentine Unit, CTI Holdings, for $150 million. GTE
currently owns 58 percent of CTI, a company that is one of Argentina's
leading mobile phone companies with over 950,000 international clients.
This acquisition marks Blackstone's third Latin American telecommunication
investment, the other two being Universo Online and Telefonica Inalambrica
del Norte. 

Cable &Wireless HKT shareholders approved the pending acquisition by
Pacific Century CyberWorks. Parent company Cable &Wireless, which owns 54
percent of HKT, already approved the deal. A Hong Kong court still needs to
clear the purchase. 

Cisco Systems signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held
Netiverse in a $210 million stock deal. Netiverse is a provider of content
acceleration technology. The purchase is part of Cisco's "New World"
strategy to offer its customers a portfolio of content networking offerings
for the delivery of Web content. 

Citizens Communications completed the acquisition of 61,000 local telephone
lines in Nebraska from GTE. In addition, Citizens acquired 1.1 million
access lines from Global Crossing for $3.65 billion in cash. The two
companies also entered a strategic agreement whereby Global Crossing will
provide long distance services. 

Deutsche Telekom is reportedly preparing a $99-billion bid for Sprint.
There are also rumors that MCI WorldCom could be an acquisition target, but
Sprint's wireless assets make it more attractive to DT's strategy. The
German company will trade its 24.5 percent stake in Wind, an Italian telco,
to France Telecom in exchange for the French company's 10 percent holding
in Sprint. Some analysts are speculating that DT, if it successfully buys
Sprint, would be in an excellent position to turn around and launch another
bid for Telecom Italia, which it lost out to Olivetti. In other rumors, DT
is said to be looking to acquire Cable &

Wireless for about $48.52 billion. 

In other DT news, Disney is shedding its 25-percent interest in German
Internet search engine Infoseek, which may be purchased by Deutsche
Telekom. DT already owns a 25 percent ownership interest in Infoseek;
another 25 percent would give the company a strong hold on Germany's
number-two search engine. If the deal goes through, Telekom's Internet
subsidiary, T-Online, would control the stake. 

ECI Telecom agreed to sell its Business Systems division to ELCO Holdings.
The firm's Business Systems unit develops PBX systems for businesses. The
sale is part of ECI's strategy to divest itself of certain assets and focus
on what the company has dubbed to be growing markets. ECI intends to
concentrate on Broadband Access services, Transport and Core Network
services, and Gateway services for VoIP and VoATM. 

JDS Uniphase agreed to purchase SDL, a developer of fiber optic network
equipment, for $41 billion in stock. The purchase will give JDS access to
SDL's optic amplifiers, as well as broader access to the Internet network
market. SDL will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of JDS. 

Lucent Technologies completed its acquisition of private optical networking
company Chromatis Networks. Chromatis will be merged with Lucent's Optical
Networking Group. The Chromatis Metropolis system integrates data, voice,
and video services on metropolitan networks, and combines this traffic onto
a WDM system. 

NetManage acquired Aqueduct Software. The acquisition allows users to
analyze and manage performance of software applications deployed throughout
corporate intranets and extranets. 

Qwest Communications completed the acquisition of US WEST, creating a
broadband communications company with a market capitalization of $85
billion. The following were named to the new Qwest's board of directors:
Philip F. Anschutz, Joseph P. Nacchio, Jordan L. Haines, Cannon Y. Harvey,
Vinod Khosla, Craig D. Slater, W. Thomas Stephens, Linda G. Alvarado, Craig
R. Barrett, Hank Brown, George J. Harad, Peter S. Hellman, Marilyn C.
Nelson, and Frank Popoff. Qwest will be added to Standard and Poor's 500
list, replacing US WEST. Qwest also completed the sale of its long distance
assets in US WEST's 14-state region to Touch America. 

SBC is acquiring wireless properties from GTE in Austin, TX, and in Seattle
and Spokane, WA. The company will also buy minority interests in wireless
license partnerships in Dallas and San Antonio. SBC expanded its wireless
footprint to 20 wireless markets through these purchases. 

Texas Instruments announced the acquisition of Dot Wireless, a third
generation CDMA wireless technology company. The company reports that the
purchase will expand its offering of DSP and analog-enabled wireless
services across 2.5G and 3G wireless standards and markets (including the
IS-2000). 

VALOR Telecom purchased 120,000 local access lines in Oklahoma that were
previously owned by GTE. Valor, as of July 1, 2000, began to operate the 27
local phone exchanges in Oklahoma.






Alliances/Joint Ventures
Artisoft and Hall-Mark Integrated Solutions (HMIS) formed a marketing
alliance with Dialogic and Compaq to deliver an integrated, channel-ready
CTI service for SMBs and corporate branch offices. This service combines
Artisoft's TeleVantage, open system hardware components from Dialogic, and
Compaq's ProLiant servers, enabling a turnkey computer telephony service. 

The AT&T Wireless and  BT Wireless venture called Advance launched its
first solutions, WorldConnect and WorldView. WorldConnect provides global
coverage with the same phone number in 100 countries and 7000 cities in
North America, and WorldView provides international wireless service
management for corporations. 

BellSouth selected Telcordia to provide upgraded operations support systems
(OSS) in BellSouth's Regional Operations Centers, making it easier for
competition to thrive in BellSouth's service region. 

In other news, BellSouth formed a partnership with Snapfish to deploy
e-Interaction services to its customers. BellSouth authorized its customers
to use Snapfish services in conjunction with existing BellSouth Internet
Services offerings. 

Ben, a wireless joint venture between Belgacom and Tele Danmark, and
T-Mobil, the wireless arm of Deutsche Telekom, agreed to form an alliance
to bid on third-generation wireless licenses. The two firms will bid on the
licenses through a venture called 3G Blue. Ben will own 50 percent plus one
share in the company, while T-Mobil will hold the remaining stake. 

Interland and BMC Software signed an agreement to deliver business-critical
applications and high-powered e-services for Interland's SMB customers.
Under the agreement, Interland will integrate BMC Software's PATROL
services at each of its data centers. PATROL will help monitor Interland's
enterprise network and identify bottlenecks before they affect
mission-critical applications. 

JNI and Hewlett-Packard signed a three-year, global value-added reseller
agreement to supply JNI's FibreStar host bus adapters for HP servers and
storage subsystems. Included is JNI's line of FibreStar PCI and SBus HBAs.
The JNI PCI HBAs support all Fibre Channel topologies on operating systems
such as HP-UX, Microsoft Windows 2000/NT, Sun Microsystems Solaris, and
Novell NetWare. 

Cadence Design Systems and Hewlett-Packard reported a business alliance in
which the companies will jointly develop, market, and sell services for the
electronic design automation (EDA) market. Under the terms of the
agreement, Cadence will adopt HP-UX as a preferred product development and
support platform and OS. In addition, HP selected Cadence as a provider of
EDA design tools for HP's R&D groups. 

Compaq and IBM reported a strategic agreement to accelerate the sales of
open storage networking services. Under the agreement, both companies will
sell significant products from each other's storage portfolios. Both
companies also plan to create new standards for the SAN market, making it
more flexible and easier to manage. The total of investments currently
planned could exceed $1 billion. 

Leap Wireless increased the amount of wireless phone equipment and services
it intends to purchase from Lucent Technologies. The deal between the
companies is now worth $900 million. Lucent will sell the equipment to
Cricket, a Leap Unit, in order to enhance its coverage and network capacity
in the US. The deal was originally struck in September 1999, when Leap
agreed to buy $330 million in Lucent equipment. 

Nokia's infrastructure unit, Nokia Networks, entered an agreement with
Cable &

Wireless to develop a complete, global mobile Internet platform. Cable
&Wireless will host the platform, which will be created by integrating
Nokia's services platform, applications, and systems with Cable &Wireless'
Internet systems. The platform will provide ASP and Internet services to
customers, including operators of second and third generation networks,
ISPs, fixed operators, and corporations. These companies can then offer
Internet content, m-commerce, and business applications to their own
wireless Internet customers.

ASG Technologies and Nortel Networks penned a software and services
contract. ASG will incorporate Passwerks software into Nortel Networks'
SuperNode Data Manager (SDM) service. ASG's Passwerks will provide Nortel's
network management service with authentication capabilities, increased
security, and administration capabilities.

In addition, Nortel agreed to sell Juniper Networks' routing equipment
designed to manage heavy Internet traffic. The companies inked a three-year
deal, which gives Nortel access to the high-end router market. The
agreement gives both companies a market boost that will allow them to
better compete with mutual rival Cisco Systems. 

NTT DoCoMo and KPN Telecom, its European ally, created a three-way
strategic alliance with Hutchison Whampoa to pursue third-generation
wireless licenses across Europe. NTT DoCoMo would acquire a 20 percent
stake in a British wireless joint venture between Hutchison and TIW for
$1.52 billion. The Hutchison/TIW venture was one of five companies that
secured a 3G license in the UK this spring. 

Also, NTT DoCoMo, DreamArt and Compaq Computer announced a partnership to
jointly offer services geared for businesses on DoCoMo's wireless Internet
service, i-mode. The venture, called Business Mobile Initiative, will
combine the DoCoMo i-mode offering, DreamArt software, and Compaq servers
and sales channels. 

Rhythms NetConnections and Mitsui formed a joint venture called Garnet
Connections to offer DSL services to customers in Japan. The two companies
will each own one third of the venture, with the remaining stake being
split between 12 other telcos and ISPs , including C&W IDC, AOL Japan, and
France Telecom. 

RSA Security inked a licensing agreement with Cisco Systems that will allow
Cisco to offer RSA's software in conjunction with its products. The deal
includes RSA's BSAFE SSL-J, BSAFE SSL-C, and BSAFE CERT-C security software
products. 

Telefonica, IBM, and Cisco Systems teamed to creating e-ducavia, an online
business school that will provide a range of multimedia training services
through the Internet, 3G mobile telephony, and interactive television, for
Spanish and Portuguese speakers. The three companies will spend an initial
100 million euros ($95.42 million) on the education initiative, which is
expected to begin offering courses in January 2001.






Electronic Business
ACCPAC International, a division of Computer Associates' interBiz group,
and Sterling Commerce, a completely owned subsidiary of SBC Communications,
formed an alliance to provide e-services for small and medium-sized
business (SMB). The agreement combines ACCPAC's accounting and e-business
management services with Sterling Commerce's E-Marketplace Enabling
services, to maintain business transactions via the Internet. The companies
report that the marketplace is designed to provide a cost-effective,
integrated process for ACCPAC customers to interact and exchange
information with other enterprises individually or in e-marketplaces around
the world. 

Documentum, a provider of Internet-scale content management solutions for
e-business applications, announced that its Professional Services Group
formed a Web-based contract management solution for BellSouth
Interconnection Services. The browser-based contract is designed to
simplify the process of contract transactions. 

J.D. Edwards and telecommunications software vendor CPqD reported a
partnership intended to provide customers with a fully Web-enabled
Operations Support System (OSS) for the telecom industry. CPqD will
integrate its OSS with J.D. Edwards' OneWorld ERP and role-based corporate
portal package. Slated for launch during the first quarter of next year,
the combined industry-specific suite is expected to include applications
for convergent billing, customer care, outside plant management/GIS, and
network resource management. 

Siebel Systems and Sprint reported an alliance to market and sell jointly
nationwide access to Siebel eBusiness Applications through the Sprint PCS
Wireless Web for Business. The deal is designed to enable business users to
review and update sales opportunities, respond to service requests and
time-critical activities, and inquire real-time about products, services,
and order status via remote wireless access. 

Sybase and Ericsson formed an alliance, whereby Sybase will establish a
test center in Sweden for joint development of mobile business applications
powered by Sybase's iAnywhere Wireless Server targeting Ericsson
Epoch-based mobile phones. The companies plan to combine their expertise in
mobile Internet, financial markets, and wireless technologies to co-develop
and deliver WAP-based mobile banking and trading applications.






Internet
To avoid a referendum on the November ballot that would have sought to
force AT&T to allow rivals to access its cable lines, the company has
agreed to open its Massachusetts network to other Internet providers. The
company agreed in principle to open its networks to America Online,
MindSpring, and Shore.Net by mid-2002. 

AT&T researchers introduced a Web software technology that is designed to
divide computer files into pieces and hide them on participating Web sites
on the Internet. The technology, Publius, will allow uncensored speech on
the Web and make authors untraceable. Beginning with a July trial,
consumers can download the software from the Publius Web site for free. The
100K size limitation is designed to prevent pirated audio, video, and
high-quality images from being transmitted; opponents of the software,
however, believe that Publius could be used to hide child pornography and
other illegal activities. Publius is the pen name Alexander Hamilton, John
Jay, and James Madison used to anonymously publish the Federalist papers. 

Bell Atlantic released its new SmartTouch technology that allows customers
to buy long distance time in advance with their credit card eliminating the
need for confusing monthly long distance bills. The company reports that
the new service is designed to help callers, currently in Tennessee, New
Mexico, Missouri, South Carolina, and Arizona, understand their long
distance bill. The company also says that SmartTouch does not feature any
hidden charges or the need to dial any extra digits; customers know exactly
what they are paying for with each long distance call. 

BellSouth and IBM announced that they will be working together on a
personal Internet device designed to make home-based Internet access faster
and easier. Trials for the product begin in July where select BellSouth
customers will be given the device. The companies then will periodically
test the overall effectiveness of the device by getting feedback.  

GTE and Intuit announced a service that allows GTE local, long distance,
and wireless customers to view, track, and pay their bills online through
Intuit's electronic bill presentment and payment service in Quicken and
Quicken.com.






Messaging and Groupware
Novell launched the Novell Content Exchange, a Web content acceleration
service. Novell Content Exchange prepares Web content for distribution to
Web users over content delivery networks. Novell Content Exchange addresses
the bottlenecks by accelerating Internet content delivery between the Web
server and the Internet backbone.






Carriers and Carrier Services
AT&T and MCI WorldCom, trying to compete in a long distance market ruled by
price wars, are mulling a divestiture of their consumer long distance
units. As more Baby Bell telephone companies break into the market and
prices continue to fall - 15 percent over the past four years - the
traditional long distance carriers are placing less value on their long
distance assets. In light of its failed merger with Sprint, WorldCom is not
saying what its next move will be. AT&T refused to comment on any such
spin-off. 

Bell Atlantic introduced its new Easy 0 service that instantly connects
Washington DC and Northern Virginia area callers to services most often
offered from operators. When dialing 0, callers hear a recorded greeting
followed by seven choices: traditional operator services of placing collect
calls, verification and interruption of a busy line, assistance for callers
with special needs, Bell Atlantic local and national 411, telephone repair
service, business or residence service centers for ordering services or
discussing billing, and automatic connection to the appropriate emergency
police, fire, or ambulance agency. 

In an effort to notify its customers of possible telemarketers and other
related callers, BellSouth wants to offer a service that will screen
callers that appear as "unknown" or "out of area" on a Caller ID box.
Already introduced in Florida and Georgia, BellSouth's "Privacy Director"
would force callers with a privacy setting to reveal themselves or be
disconnected - all this before the phone rings. 

Japan Telecom is considering spreading its wings by entering the local
telephony market in Japan, competing against NTT. The company said that if
it decides to enter the market, it will begin offering local calling across
the country next May at a rate of eight yen for three minutes, a rate that
is lower than ones offered by NTT. The merging KDD, IDO, and DDI also are
pondering a foray into the Japanese local market. 

SBC Communications, set to commence long distance services in Texas on
Monday July 10, said that it would offer the service with basic rates of
$0.09 per minute for in-state and state-to-state calls, with no monthly
service fee. To promote its bundled services, the company is offering rates
of $0.06 per minute for customers that sign up for a package plan, such as
local, wireless, Internet access, and cable television.




Wireless Communications
ALLTEL completed the final stage of its wireless property exchange with GTE
and Bell Atlantic, making it the fifth largest wireless carrier in the US.
The company reports that it began operating the former GTE wireless markets
in Cleveland and Tampa and other markets in Ohio, Florida, and Alabama. The
wireless exchange involved 13 states and was announced by the three
companies back on February 1, 2000. 

BellSouth and Neomar introduced a microbrowser for wireless handhelds
developed for the BellSouth Intelligent Wireless Network. The companies
report that the microbrowser is designed to give customers, using
BellSouth-enabled wireless handhelds, comprehensive access to lifestyle and
other value-added content. Also, the browser will allow BellSouth to
deliver wireless e-commerce applications to end-users and give businesses
access to Web-based enterprise applications in a secure, end-to-end
solution. 

Nine of Japan's J-Phone companies, owned partially by British
Telecommunications, Japan Telecom, and Vodafone AirTouch, won licenses for
third generation mobile services, which the nine companies can launch in
their respective regions in December 2001. BT and its partners will invest
over 4.2 billion pounds in the J-Phone companies. 

Cox Communications selected Wireless Knowledge's Workstyle Server to
provide its employees with wireless access to critical corporate
applications. The Workstyle Server is designed to provide real-time
wireless access to corporate information including e-mail, calendar, and
contacts using any wireless web-ready device. 

Hewlett-Packard announced a mobile e-services support program designed to
help service providers, application developers, and enterprise customers
speed up and support wireless access. The company plans to initially launch
the program in Europe where the wireless data market is expected to reach
$39 billion by 2003. 

MCI WorldCom dropped out of the German auction for 3G mobile licenses. The
20-year licenses, set to go on the auction block July 21, are expected to
rake in $4.7 billion each. Without Sprint PCS' business in the US, WorldCom
is not likely to build a mobile business in Europe. 

Motorola's Network Solutions Sector signed 10 network expansions contracts
worth $300 million with China Unicom. In eight provinces, Motorola will
expand the GSM 900 networks for China Unicom, which will be able to serve
10.5 million subscribers after the expansion. 

Nogenta Swedish Acquisitions and Hutchison 3G Netherlands became the first
casualties in the auction for third-generation wireless licenses being held
in the Netherlands. By exiting the bidding on the first day, the two
companies leave six companies competing for five licenses. Nogenta Swedish
Acquisitions exited the bidding because it is owned by NTL, which is backed
by France Telecom. France Telecom also owns 80 percent of Dutchtone,
another company involved in the bidding. Hutchison 3G Netherland's decision
to exit the bidding serves as further evidence to support rumors that
Hutchison Whampoa is going to team up in a joint venture with KPN Telecom
and NTT DoCoMo. 

Opening bids on a Dutch UMTS cellular auction were less than a quarter of
the opening prices set by the government. The offers for the Dutch mobile
telephone licenses totaled 101.1 million guilders, compared to the required
offer for all UMTS licenses of 470 million guilders. 

The French government is deciding on whether to award 54 radiophone
licenses for local radio loop technology. Siris, FirstMark Communications
Europe, and 26 other companies are planning to bid on the licenses, which
include 52 regional licenses and two national. The companies will use the
licenses to chip away at France Telecom's control of the local markets. 

Sprint PCS made its service available over Motorola's V8162 and V2267 CDMA
phones. The V. Series phones are Internet-ready and will allow Sprint PCS
customers to access the Wireless Web. The V. Series joins Motorola's
Timeport and TalkAbout series phones in carrying Sprint PCS service. 

Telus Mobility, the wireless unit of British-Columbia's Telus, will be
bidding along with other Canadian wireless carriers in a November auction
of 2GHz spectrum licenses that can be used for PCS services. Telus Mobility
would use the licenses to expand its network and services nationally, and
other companies such as Bell Mobility, Rogers AT&T Wireless, and Clearnet
Communications seek to do the same thing. Canada's Industry Ministry will
auction four blocks of 10MHz of spectrum; licenses will cover all regions
of Canada. This auction follows Canada's first broadband wireless spectrum
auction conducted last fall. That auction raised over $200 million. 

In Harrisburg, Erie, Scranton, and Altoona, PA, Verizon Wireless took over
wireless properties from GTE wireless and ALLTEL. Customers of the two
companies can continue using their products and services but now they have
an option to choose Verizon Wireless offerings, including its SingleRate
calling plans. Verizon also extended its SingleRate plans with a 2000
minute plan for $200 and by offering service in the Southeastern US,
including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Washington DC.  Should you have any
questions, concerns or problems with your flash, please contact us at:
mailto:flash@faulkner.com 

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