Today, Zhone Technologies, Inc. announced that its MALC multi-service access platform (MSAP) has been selected by Birch Communications to boost network performance and cut ownership costs. Birch Communications, one of the largest local exchange carriers in the 31-state Southeast, Southwest and Midwest regions, anticipates offering all of its access offerings, including EFM, ADSL2+, T1 and voice over Internet Protocol, via one integrated platform.

“There is a race to help carriers realize the inherent efficiency gains by migrating to IP networks and MSAP provisioning,” stated Steven Glapa, Zhone’s VP of product management and marketing. “The Birch network strategy is a model for fast-growth service providers adapting to escalating demands for ultra high efficiency IP networks. By selecting Zhone’s MSAP, Birch can provision higher profit, higher performance access services while cutting ownership costs by up to 50 percent.”

Tom Stachowiak, VP of Engineering for Birch Communications, commented, “We selected Zhone because it is recognized

I’m writing this from a hotel room in Santa Monica in California. I’m on holiday here with my lovely wife Lynn and our two equally gorgeous daughters, Eilish and Maddie, and am about to embark on an RV trip across America to Orlando in Florida.

Lynn will attend a conference on digital scrapbooking at Disneyland in Orlando in a fortnight if we make it. I’ll tell her story about how she came to be a digital design exporter (earning a lot more than me…) in this blog at a later date.  Suffice to say, this trip will more than pay for itself in US dollar earnings.

I’ll try to blog about the trip and what I learn from an economic and business point of view as often as I can. It should turn out a lot easier to do than in New Zealand. Free cable broadband or WiFi access

Headquartered in Longview, Washington, Nettel Holdings Corporation is a holding company owning subsidiaries engaged in diverse business activities. Their mission is to produce successful subsidiaries that are financially viable and freestanding. Their main subsidiaries are in telecommunications and software. Founded in 1999, the Company’s subsidiaries work to develop new and innovative technologies.

Nettel Holdings focuses on nurturing high-growth, high-tech businesses into profitable industry leaders. They provide the necessary financing and business support services that speed the development of their subsidiaries by providing them with targeted resources and services.

Nettel’s telecommunications services business includes advanced voice order processing direct. This handles routing management, settlements, billing, and administration activities for carriers. It also includes voice over Internet protocol services. This consists of residential and commercial long distance, prepaid calling card, PC to phone, unified messaging, and teleconferencing services. The Company’s computer equipment business exports computer electronics equipment.

The Company’s AVOP subsidiary delivers toll quality international

Elephant Talk seeks to become a supplier of choice for Business-to-Business telecommunications and content services. By combining fixed line and wireless access services through contractual arrangements with an unrestricted number of first/last mile telecom providers, Elephant Talk is able to offer innovative Mobile, Content, VoIP and Media Streaming as well as more traditional telecom services including: Carrier (Pre) Select, Premium Rate, Shared Cost and Toll Free Services.

Such contracts have expanded the company’s footprint into sophisticated networks in over a dozen markets in Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. Partners like KPN in the Netherlands, Telefonica in Spain, Swisscom in Switzerland, Telecom Italia in Italy, and Belgacom in Belgium have laid the groundwork for exciting partnerships to come; notably an upcoming definitive contract with T-Mobile in the near future.

Recently, Elephant Talk announced that its first Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) platform using the antenna network of T-Mobile became operational in

Founded in February of 2002 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, i2 Telecom International Inc. provides telecommunications services employing voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology. i2Telecom’s switching centers in Atlanta, Georgia provide full access to global telecommunications carriers. This enables micro-gateway users to complete calls to any phone around the globe inexpensively and with great quality. The Company provides high quality international and domestic long-distance voice, video, and data services at a fraction of the cost of traditional carriers’ rates.

The company introduced MyGlobalTalk™ in January of this year. This product received the 2007 Product of the Year by Internet Telephony Magazine. This product provides Internet telephone usage to every cell phone user, independent of wireless carrier technology, handset manufacturer, or type of wireless carrier voice/data plan they have. MyGlobalTalk™ provides the benefits of a dual-mode phone for less cost using a customer’s existing mobile handset. The Company is engaging in

Headquartered in Oakland, California, Zhone Technologies Inc. is a provider of advanced telecommunications equipment. They offer their customers a wide variety of access and transport networking solutions. These solutions enable services such as residential and commercial broadband, VoIP, IPTV, and Ethernet. Trading on the NASDAQ Global Market, Zhone Technologies has over 700 customers on six continents. Senior executives of Ascend Communications founded Zhone Technologies Inc. in 1999 and the Company incorporated in Delaware in June of that year.

Zhone Technologies’ converged access platform improves network capabilities and reduces costs. Their platform allows operators to deploy premium services quickly on their existing copper and fiber infrastructure. It also provides operators a smooth path to an all Internet Protocol (IP) network. The Company achieves this with their MALC Broadband Loop Carrier. The MALC delivers voice, data, and video services over a pure packet access network. The MALC also gives carriers the flexibility to

Datameg Corporation (DTMG.OB) is a holding company committed to positioning itself to deliver the next-generation network services and environmentally-conscious plastics to help the environment. At this time, the company is working to roll-out customers’ Internet voice, data and video services while continuing to evaluate technological advances for development or advancement. Datameg has such a diverse group of subsidiaries making up its framework and expects its subsidiaries, NetSymphony, QoVox, and American Marketing & Sales, to contribute to its profitability and cashflows.

QoVox is on a mission to become a leading provider of network monitoring and fault isolation tools for telecom networks. QoVox is working to partner with leading communications companies to deliver verifying connectivity, voice-quality measuring tools that isolate and troubleshoot issues. The subsidiary’s solutions will enable service providers to maintain optimal service levels and increase customer satisfaction.

The team at NetSymphony has developed a unique active testing and monitoring solution

Internap Network Services Corporation (INAP) offers a suite of network optimization solutions that allow companies to transfer business-critical applications to the Internet. It offers products and services that optimize Internet applications for e-commerce, customer relationship management (CRM), multimedia streaming, voice-over Internet-protocol (VoIP), virtual private networks (VPNs), and supply chain management.

Being a small player in a competitive industry, Internap has a relatively low revenue growth rate. Although the company has been gaining traction in its data colocation services, it is witnessing softness in its content delivery network business. Much of this has been caused by the weakening economy, which has forced INAP to trim its 2008 guidance twice.

Though the company has been making important upgrades to its CDN product, there has been a lackluster performance in the segment in the last few quarters. As such, we are initiating our coverage on INAP with a Sell rating and a price

Finisar Corp. (FNSR) has gained a strong position in the short-distance, low-cost portion of the Ethernet market. FNSR's acquisition of Optium Corporation further compliments its product portfolio and should be accretive to its earnings in 2009.

Although some recent data points indicate that spending on network equipment may be slowing, FNSR has reported strong results and given good guidance. As such, we maintain our Hold rating with our $1.50 target price.

On September 8, Finisar announced financial results for fiscal 2009 first quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $128.7 million, exceeding the company's guidance of $120 million to $125 million. This represents a 21.7% increase in revenue from the $128.7 million reported in the year-ago quarter and a 6.4% increase over the $121.0 million reported in the previous quarter.

The company has been targeting the telecommunications industry and has been deeply involved in re-tooling its legacy infrastructure. As per IDC, the worldwide

Trading on NASDAQ as part of the Internet Software and Services industry, iBasis Inc. is a leading wholesale carrier of international long-distance telephone calls and a provider of retail prepaid calling services. Founded in 1996, iBasis also provides enhanced services for mobile operators. With corporate headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, the company is one of the largest carriers of international voice traffic in the world today. This is due to their acquisition, last October, of KPN Global Carrier Services. KPN is now a majority stockholder of iBasis Inc.

With the acquisition of KPN, iBasis expanded their product portfolio to include guaranteed CLI and roaming capabilities and mobile data services. Over 1,000 fixed and mobile carriers worldwide use their scale and global network to further their international voice operations. The company’s client base includes KPN, KPN Mobile, E-Plus, BASE, Verizon, Vodafone, China Mobile, China Unicom, IDT, Qwest, Skype, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, and Yahoo.