Juniper creates $50m venture fund

Juniper Networks is establishing a $50 million venture capital initiative to further the company's efforts to create an ecosystem around its Junos networking software platform, reports eWeek.

The Junos Innovation Fund will target early and growth-stage venture-backed companies, the vendor said in a statement announcing the two-year project. The money will be invested in such areas as networking technologies, applications and services that dovetail with Juniper's Junos efforts.

The funded companies will be working in such areas as security infrastructure, advanced mobility and video offerings, virtualisation, network automation, optical technology, and green networking.

The US communications regulators will unveil on 17 March a blueprint aimed at bringing fast, affordable Internet access to more than 90 million Americans being held back by fees and technology, writes Reuters.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says the long-awaited National Broadband Plan will try to help connect 93 million Americans to high-speed Internet to find jobs, access educational and healthcare services, and reduce household energy costs.

"In the 21st century, a digital divide is an opportunity divide," says FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, highlighting that various roadblocks are stopping one-third of the US from subscribing to broadband.

The fact that the government would rely on a single 'part-time minister' to drive through the provision of next-generation broadband has been criticised in a report from an all-party commons committee, states Computing.co.uk.

It follows the resignation of former communications, technology and broadcasting minister, Lord Carter, leaving the task entirely in the hands of Stephen Timms, a senior treasury minister as well as a minister in the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Department.

BIS committee chairman Peter Luff issued the warning following publication of a report raising a series of concerns about the policy, saying: "We are also worried about the current arrangements for delivering the policy, with a part-time minister also serving in the Treasury.