Ciena wins Nortel divisions bidding

US network equipment manufacturer Ciena has won the right to buy Nortel's optical networking and carrier Ethernet businesses, reports Computing.co.uk.

Ciena's $769 million offer trumped a bid from main rival Nokia Siemens Networks. A minimum of 2000 employees, around 85% of the original workforce, will be offered the opportunity to work at Ciena, the firm said.

The deal will more than double Ciena's turnover, but some commentators have suggested it could hurt the company's shares by weighing down its operations.

Xhead = AT&T offers prepaid wireless broadband

AT&T has unveiled a prepaid wireless broadband service, following the lead of competitor Verizon Wireless, says CNET News.

Pricing for the AT&T DataConnect Pass plans are the same as what Verizon Wireless is charging. Customers can pay $15 for a daily pass with a data usage cap of 75MB. A weekly plan costs $30 and allows for 250MB of data usage. And the monthly plan is $50 and offers 500MB of usage.

While AT&T and Verizon Wireless have offered prepaid cellphone service for years, up until now the companies have required customers to sign a contract for their wireless broadband services.

Anticipating increased demand for mobile data services, and perhaps seeking to offset criticism over congestion, O2 UK has announced plans build out 1 500 network sites in 2010, states Telecoms.com.

The nationwide upgrade plan will increase capacity across the country, with 200 sites planned for London alone, 40 of which will be live by Christmas 2009.

Derek McManus, chief technology officer for O2 UK, says the investment will cost hundreds of millions of pounds and follows a £500 million (R6 billion) investment over the last two years in order to meet demand for data services from hungry handsets like the Apple iPhone and Palm Pre.