PALM INTRODUCES TWO NEW HANDHELDS
Palm Inc. has released two new hand-held computers designed for business and higher-end customers. The Palm Tungsten T, priced at $499, is based on the company's latest operating system, Palm OS 5. It replaces the company's Palm V and Palm m500 series. "It's about data, not the desktop," Todd Bradley, president and chief executive officer of Palm Solutions, said in a statement. "We don't put unnecessary PC capabilities into a smaller box; we adapt technology to what matters most to people." The Palm Tungsten W handheld is a data-centric handheld providing a sophisticated combination of wireless e-mail, SMS messaging, phone functionality, business applications, and Palm's Personal Information Management software. The Palm Tungsten W is priced at $549 without wireless service and is scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2003. The Milpitas, Calif., company also announced business alliances with four carriers from around the world: AT&T Wireless, Rogers AT&T Wireless, Vodafone and SingTel.
VERIZON SETTLES ANTI-SPAM LAWSUIT
Verizon Communications has settled its anti-spam lawsuit against Additional Benefits LLC and its owner Alan Ralsky. Verizon Online, a division of Verizon, sued the Detroit company and Ralsky in federal court in Virginia in March 2001, alleging the defendants flooded its subscribers with unsolicited commercial e-mail messages in late 2000. Under the terms of the settlement, Additional Benefits and Ralsky have agreed to a permanent injunction barring them from transmitting unsolicited bulk e-mail messages of any kind through Verizon Online's network or to its subscribers. They also have agreed to make a monetary payment to Verizon. The injunction covers Verizon's most popular e-mail domains, including verizon.net, verizon.com, vzw.com and others. "No one likes to open their mail and see it full of spam," said Thomas M. Dailey, general counsel for Verizon Online. "This permanent injunction ensures that our subscribers never have to receive another piece of unwanted e-mail from these defendants." Ralsky's lawyer could not be reached for comment on the settlement. Under Virginia law, an Internet service provider can recover as much as $10 per illegal e-mail or $25,000 for every day a spam message is transmitted.
TEKTRONIX SELLS VIDEOTELE.COM
Tektronix Inc. is selling its VideoTele.com subsidiary to Tut Systems Inc. for approximately $7 million. The combined company will deliver digital video services and products to telecommunication service providers. Tut also said it will capitalize on VideoTele.com's video trunking solutions and its own broadband data transport products for government, education and private campus environments. "This acquisition provides significant market leverage for both parties," said Douglas Shafer, chief executive officer of VideoTele.com. Shafer added the deal represents "a new economic equation for delivering high-quality video services over broadband access networks." Located in Lake Oswego, Ore., VideoTele.com offers digital headend solutions enabling home entertainment delivery via the broadband Internet. In the sale, expected to close in November, Tektronix will receive 19.9 percent of Tut Systems' common stock and a five-year note as total consideration for VideoTele.com. For the fiscal year ended May 31, VideoTele.com had unaudited revenue of approximately $24.7 million. For the fiscal quarter ended Aug. 31, unaudited revenue was approximately $4.9 million.
COX TO USE LEVEL 3 NETWOK SERVICES IN SELECT MARKETS
Level 3 Communications Inc. has signed an agreement to provide its new IP broadband service to Cox Communications in select markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cox is purchasing Level 3's Packet MPLS Private Network service to exchange traffic with service providers of Level 3's IP network. Cox also will purchase Internet access, colocation, private line and metropolitan dark fiber services from Level 3. "The new Level 3 private network service performed very reliably during trials," said Jay Rolls, vice president of Data Engineering for Cox. "We believe that the ... service will enable us to cost-effectively peer with MSN and other content and service providers using Level 3's MPLS-based IP backbone as the facilitator."
GLOBAL CROSSING SEES INCREASE IN IP PLATFORM
Bankrupt phone company Global Crossing Ltd. said the number of minutes carried over its seamless, global Voice of Internet Protocol grew to more than 2.3 billion minutes during the third quarter of 2002. The 255 percent growth in traffic came from new and existing customers across the Americas and in Europe. "Our IP network, connecting over 200 cities in 27 countries, is truly an exceptional asset, and we continue to reap its benefits, as do our consumers," said John Legere, chief executive officer of Global Crossing. Voice traffic is routed over Global Crossing's worldwide fiber optic network using either packet-based VoIP or conventional Time Division Multiplexing technology. Both platforms are fully interoperable.
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