Investors are clearly believers in large part because of the track record of Corvis' founder, David Huber, who also started Ciena (nasdaq: CIEN - news - people), a pioneer in new optical technology now used in nearly every telecommunications network.

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He told Sorenson about a colleague there named Michael Holloway who had notions of using Internet Protocol technology to build a powerful, low-cost telecommunications network.

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T-Mobile's 3G data network will use a technology called UMTS, or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System.

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