Metro networks have phone gear like digital cross-connects, which manage high-and low-speed traffic, and synchronous optical network (Sonet) systems, which come from fiber-optic phone networks.
Cooper's plans for the company call for it to look a lot like Qualcomm (nasdaq: QCOM - news - people ), which licenses its CDMA wireless phone technology to phone and telecom gear manufacturers.
Carroll's boats are crammed with electronic gear, from satellite phone systems to stereos that can be controlled from each stateroom.
"Phone companies don't buy your gear unless you are born and bred" to the business, says Pearse.
The content zooms and clatters over an array of archaic and futuristic gear, from aging copper phone lines to light-bending optical switches.
He joined Cyras in July after Menlo Partners, Cyras' biggest backer, decided the startup needed someone who could sell newfangled switching gear to old-fashioned phone companies.
The company offers gear designed to help cable and phone companies squeeze more video capacity out of a limited amount of bandwidth as consumers watch video clips on their computers, demand more channels from their cable companies, and even start to watch television on their wireless phones.
It will doubtless prove to be a capable phone and a worthy competitor to the latest Android gear.
FORBES: The iPhone 5 Suggests That Without Steve Jobs, Apple Is Becoming A Normal Tech Company
It guaranteed that telecom startups could "co-locate" their new high-speed gear at the facilities of big, old phone companies.
With Asterisk loaded onto a computer, a decent-size company can rip out its traditional phone switch, even some of its newfangled Internet telephone gear, and say good-bye to 80% of its telecom equipment costs.
Were it to be imposed, such a ban could have implications for a range of companies, including automakers, mobile phone makers and makers of after-market hands-free calling gear.
Roth counters that the deal catapults Nortel ahead of its chief competitors -- number one phone equipment maker Lucent Technologies, and Cisco Systems, the largest Internet switching gear manufacturer.
Telecom gear maker UTStarcom grew tenfold in four years by selling low-cost phone systems in China, then suddenly stumbled.
With this gear workers can gain access to their computer files and messages from any phone set in the company network.
As U.S. cable and phone companies scramble to one up each other by adding voice, video and data services, BigBand is selling gear to both camps.
应用推荐