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MEXICAN BROADBAND CONCESSION GRANTED

CORONADO - USA Broadband, Inc. has completed its acquisition of a 49% stake in Cable California, SA de C.V. Dick Clark International Cable Ventures, Ltd. According to a recent press release, USA Broadband will form a Mexican entity following its award of a 30-year advanced telecommunications broadband concession from the Mexican government to construct and operate a 870-MHz fiber-optic network providing high-speed Internet, telephone, data and multi-channel cable television to residents and businesses in the greater Tijuana, Mexico metropolitan area. Cable California is constructing a 1,300- mile broadband network and has completed the first phase of this cable build, including its programming head end, central operations center and over 100 miles of cable plant now serving approximately 2,000 customers.

NEW SILICON SOLAR CELL DEVELOPED
 
SUNNYVALE - SunPower Corporation, a manufacturer of solar-cell performance leader, has unveiled its new A-300, silicon solar cell. Based on a unique rear-contact design--which maximizes the working cell area, the company says the new cell hides unsightly wires and makes automated production easier and achieves over 20% efficiency compared with currently available cells in the 12% - 15% range. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has verified 20.4% conversion efficiency for the A-300. The 125-mm, single-crystal A-300 cell generates three watts of electricity providing the most efficient cost-per-watt solution in the photovoltaic (PV) industry. Additionally, the A-300 silicon solar cell delivers 3-kW in less than 17 square meters and was specifically designed for rooftop systems, communications, building integrated PV systems, and consumer applications.
 
INDIA LAUNCHES NEW TELECOMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE

MADRAS - India has launched its heaviest communications satellite into orbit , two years after a similar mission had mixed success, officials said. The 160-foot rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota, about 60 miles north of Madras, in southern India. The 3,900-pound experimental GSAT-2 satellite - the the heaviest India has tried to launch - was fired into orbit by a rocket propelled with a Russian-made cryogenic engine. The first such launch in early 2001 ended in failure when the launch was aborted after one of the rocket's engines failed to ignite. While another launch on April 18, 2001, was a success, the Russian-made engine put the GSAT-1 satellite on an orbit 2,230 miles lower than planned. Previously, India had depended on agencies such as Europe's Arianespace to launch its communications satellites.

MEXICAN DATA NETWORK DEAL SIGNED
 
SANTA CLARA - MetroNet, one of Mexico's leading telecommunications companies, has reached an agreement with Santa Clara-based Riverstone Networks Inc. for the company to provide its multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology to build one of the most advanced metropolitan networks in Mexico. The network, the Mexican carrier said, will allow it to create virtual private networks (VPNs) for its telecommunications carrier customers, enabling them to deliver advanced voice, video and data services. Riverstone also announced that MVS Communicaciones, one of Mexico's largest media and telecommunications conglomerates, deployed Riverstone's RS family of routers in a nationwide wireless network to provide broadband access and VPN services to business and residential customers throughout Mexico. Most recently, Riverstone signed a similar deal with Optynex, Panama's first integrated telecommunications provider, to use its MPLS technology to deliver Ethernet services to that country's largest metropolitan areas.

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