Colin C. Haley

Borrowing from the consumer telecom playbook, Avaya and Extreme Networks are teaming to provide businesses with one-stop shopping for converged voice, video and data communications equipment and services. The alliance combines Avaya’s Internet protcol telephony applications with Extreme’s IP data network gear. Avaya will resell Extreme’s products and provide planning, installation and management through its […]

Ask Jeeves will start the new year with a new CEO. The Emeryville, Calif., company said president Steve Berkowitz will succeed “Skip” Battle in the top job. “Steve is steeped in the intricacies of search,” Battle said in a conference call. “More of the credit for our progress is due to him than to me […]

Are Microsoft’s recent moves toward developing its own search technology merely plan B? Could be. According to a report in this morning’s New York Times, the software giant recently approached search giant Google about a partnership or buyout, even as that company prepares for an initial public offering early next year. Neither company will comment […]

Microsoft’s move to cleave MSN in two — one unit focusing on communications services, the other on information offerings — comes as the division notches its first profitable quarter, but there are other factors driving the timing of the reorganization, one analyst says. During the 2000 holiday season, Microsoft , and many of its competitors, […]

Comcast , which is nearing the anniversary of its AT&T Broadband acquisition, said its high-speed Internet subscriber base is growing faster than expected. The Philadelphia cable giant added 470,000 subscribers during the third quarter, a 39 percent bump from the same period last year, and a 35 percent increase over the second quarter. In the […]

Content delivery specialist Akamai Technologies is seeing hopeful signs that enterprises and government agencies are starting to spend again.

Despite legal challenges to do-not-call registries, MCI is teaming with Call Compliance and VeriSign to help its telemarketing customers abide by state and federal regulations. “We’re connecting back to VeriSign’s databases using Call Compliance software,” MCI spokeswoman Natasha Haubold told internetnews.com. When tied together, the system automatically blocks calls to restricted telephone numbers. The deal […]

Regional telecom operator BellSouth has quit merger talks with long-distance provider AT&T after less than a week at the negotiating table. It’s the second time in a year that executives came away without an agreement. Officials from both companies wouldn’t comment on “rumor and speculation,” but the Wall Street Journal reported that BellSouth wasn’t willing […]

Digital subscriber line gains helped Verizon offset slipping traditional wireline business during the third quarter, the regional telecom said this morning. The New York company netted 185,000 new broadband subscribers during the three-month period, bringing its total to 2.1 million, a 27 percent increase since January 1. Many new consumer and small business DSL customers […]

A week after posting an unexpected third-quarter profit, Lucent has won a three-year contract to supply fiber-optic networking equipment to Verizon . Specifically, the deal includes the company’s Metropolis DMX product portfolio and its LambdaUnite Multiservice Switch, which manages traffic from many access networks. Mark Marchand, a Verizon spokesman, declined to release financial terms. In […]

Expanding its relationship with a key customer, Broomfield, Colo.-based Level 3 will provide additional network services to America Online in the United States and Europe. The new deal include: increased use of Level 3’s colocation services; the use of 10 gigabit-per-second wavelength circuits that will be integrated into AOL’s Ineternet protocol network; the purchase of […]

Broadband cable manufacturer CommScope today announced an acquisition that should push its annual revenues past $1 billion. The Hickory, N.C., company will pay $263 million in cash and securities for Connectivity Solutions, a unit of telecom equipment maker Avaya . As part of the deal, CommScope will assume $75 million for underfunded pension plans and […]