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fibertoday.com

The consolidation in the fiber optics industry continues. Yesterday, Aeigs Lightwave announced it has acquired AOFR, a subsidiary of Arasor International. Both are strong fiber optics companies.

Aegis, located in Woburn, Mass., is directly involved with optical monitoring, including DWDM monitoring. AOFR is well known for its fused fiber couplers, which make a market in communications, test equipment, industrial, sensing, military and aerospace. AOFR is located in Canberra, Australia.

The AOFR acquisition is the second for Aegis in a year's time. Last spring it acquired CardinalPoint, which makes optical channel monitors.

Aegis and AOFR say they will combine their global sales and marketing channels.

AOFR was established in 1984 to develop and commercialize fiber-optic component technology and has developed and sold fused fiber devices since 1988. During this period, AOFR developed automated workstations for manufacturing fused biconic taper couplers, wavelength division multiplexers, laser combiners and fiber Bragg gratings.

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It now appears as though the recession has claimed another fiber optics company, little Tenvera, located in Tennessee.

Led by fiber optics veteran Brent Ware, the company focused on the fiber in the home market and included Neal Zumovitch, whose extensive career in installing fiber has included a fiber installation in Bill and Melinda Gates' home in the Seattle area.

When we went to visit the company, Ware was concerned that Tenvera may have too hastily anticipated the market. While fiber in the home undoubtedly will be a growth opportunity as more devices are manufactured with direct fiber plug ins, it is still early innings for FTTH and the recession has had an impact on individual in-home home installations.

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Alcatel-Lucent has been awarded a multi-million euro contract by Munich-based regional operator M-Net to install an FTTH network in the German city. Additional Bavarian cities will be connected in the future, according to Alcatel-Lucent.

The installation is beginning this month and is considered to be the largest German FTTH build to this time. Alcatel-Lucent says the network initially will support data rates up to 100 Mbps, with even higher rates possible going forward.

M-net says it intends to provide cable TV services over its fiber infrastructure, as well, according to Alcatel-Lucent.

“Optical fiber is capable of delivering bandwidths that copper wire simply cannot match, giving us a significant competitive advantage. In future, speeds of 1 Gbps and more will not be out of reach,” said Hans Konle, managing director of M-net Telekommunikations GmbH.

Alcatel-Lucent says it will be providing its GPON access platform, complemented by its 5520 AMS and 5529 OAD management products.

For FTTB, Alcatel-Lucent says it will rely on existing copper wiring in buildings, using so-called multi-dwelling unit ONTs to translate the optical signal into VDSL2. The use of existing wiring helps reduce costs and will speed up connecting end-users to the network.

The network will be open access.

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The Ethernet Switch market experienced a mid-single digit revenue decline in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Dell'Oro Group.

Dell'Oro also forecasts a decline in excess of 10 percent in the first quarter of 2009, as the market is poised to lose over $1 billion dollars in its quarterly run rate over the course of two quarters.

“Although this is the most significant first quarter forecasted decline in Ethernet Switch history, it is important to note that first quarter is typically seasonally weak,” said Dell'Oro's Alan Weckel.

“Businesses are canceling or delaying projects and distributors are lowering inventory levels. In addition, deteriorating macroeconomic conditions have coincided with what is usually the market’s weakest quarter of the year, exacerbating the decline in the first quarter of this year,”

The report also indicates that 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) will be the only segment to show sequential port and revenue growth in 2009, as purpose-built fixed 10 GE boxes for the datacenter begin to contribute significantly to 10 GE growth in 2009.

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The nightmare at Nortel continues.

The vendor yesterday reported financial results which included revenues down 15 percent from the prior year and a loss of $2.13 billion. Most of the loss was in special charges, including a write down of goodwill.

The company currently is in bankruptcy and as such did not have a financial call or offer guidance of any kind.

“The fourth quarter revenues decreased 15 percent as the market continued to deteriorate and customers either reduced or deferred spending,” observed Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski.  "As Nortel continues to work through a complex global restructuring of its business, our focus remains firmly on maintaining high customer service levels for on time delivery, network stability and responsiveness.  In parallel, appropriate investments continue to be made in order to deliver the R&D and technology leadership that our customers require."

Nortel also announced the appointment of Pavi Binning as Chief Restructuring Officer, a position he will hold in addition to his existing duties as CFO.

NOTES: Embarq Logistics has begun deploying Optelian's LightGAIN's optical transport and LightPRO optical test and turn up products, Optelian reports. Optelian will be working with EMBARQ Logistics to focus on promoting WDM, CWDM, FTTx and PON products into Tier 2, 3 and 4 telecommunications companies...Elmer “Ace' Goodwin passed away late last month. Goodwin worked with the US Army Electronics Command Research and Development Labs at Fprt Monmouth, N.J. Upon his retirement, he became CEO/Director of the International Wire & Cable Symposium in 1979, a position he held for 23 years. Raised by his grandparents in rural Virginia, and subject to segregation, Goodwin rose to become a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the all-black 223^{rd Fighter Squadron. He was awarded the Good Conduct Medal and the Distinguished Unit Badge while serving in Italy. He ultimately won the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor. Goodwin was deeply involved in church and community work.}

Sincerely,

C. David Chaffee