In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of acquisition activity with three optical component companies being purchased by non-traditional kinds of acquirers, particularly players in the short distance, communications market including data centers. These…
While on the surface, it is commendable that a large player such as AT&T is taking on the US government on net neutrality, its response is totally self-serving. The carrier knows that it will make…
On the landline side, the incumbent service providers have been notoriously lousy at record keeping. There are still in place very antiquated inventory systems along with a high level of ignorance about whether a large…
The notion of neutrality in general is a myth. Nations that claim to be neutral in inter-state conflicts are hardly impartial. If country A has a major advantage in its conflict with country B, the…
One should hardly rule out the risk of the Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute (IPMI) morphing into an all-encompassing and permanent industrial policy for the US. The term “integrated photonics” is so ambiguous and nebulous as…
Where will the money come from to fund R&D for next generations of fiber optic equipment in the telecommunications and data communications markets? Clearly, the vendors will have enough trouble just keeping up with the…
This past July, OpSIS announced that the program funding its core operations for silicon photonic Multi-Project Wafers (MPWs) had ended and that it would cease operations. Evidently, the US government around that time was uninterested…
The US government did not call it a “silicon photonics contest.” Perhaps the federal funding for this new Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IMI) would permit Intel and others to gradually shift to more of a generic…
Concerning the recent $35 million announcement by Kaiam of equity funding, our intelligence indicates that one of the two strategic partners is Google. We also think the other partner is Microsoft. In addition, we believe that…
Although it was 50 years ago that AT&T introduced the Picturephone at the World’s Fair, the company is still striving to “encourage the adoption of videoconferencing” at major corporations today. There has just not been…
When it comes to technology development, some of the leading analysts in the financial community have a tendency to blindly follow a template of conventional wisdom. One of the most egregious examples was during the…
While the amount of industry chatter about silicon photonics rose substantially in 2014, partially because of certain market research firms looking to sell more reports, the technological hurdles, especially with insertion loss, make extensive use…
For the next generation of 100G coherent line interface form factor CFP2, will it be a split implementation — analog CFP2 and separate digital DSP ASIC for the card? Can both parts be integrated into…
We have been told that there is going to be a worldwide shortage of 25G lasers in the coming two years, supposedly due to not enough capacity having been planned by the industry as a…
At the service providers across the globe, the most widespread and native selection is MPLS and not MPLS-TP. The former has broader acceptance, superior interoperability, and operational intimacy for the engineering folks. In Asia, particularly…
What happens to Tail-f and to all of its customers after the acquisition by Cisco? Do those customers have to find a new partner? Will Cisco keep it open to all vendors and competitors? Does…
