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Juniper Networks, Inc., has announced definitive agreements to acquire Peribit Networks, Inc., and Redline Networks, Inc., for approximately $469 million. The Peribit Networks acquisition is valued at approximately $337 million in cash, stock and assumed stock options. The Redline Networks acquisition is valued at approximately $132 million in cash and assumed stock options.

And the once acquired shall begin to acquire on their own, and thus all shall be assimilated...

In March of 2003, Computer Reseller called Cisco's $500 million (stock) acquisition of Linksys "...the most ambitious in its history..." With that move, Cisco took serious aim at the small office/home office (SOHO) market -- a move that seems to be paying off in droves.

Two years on, in March of 2005, Cisco announced that Linksys had shipped over a million VoIP ports in the preceding six months. As they say in this business, that's not too shabby.

Today, Linksys, acquired by Cisco, announced an acquisition of their own: Sipura. According to Cisco PR, Sipura will provide Linksys with valuable technology, IP, customers, and an experienced team with extensive VoIP expertise, as well as provide the foundation for building Linksys internal R&D capabilities in voice, video and other markets.

It seems that Cisco is on a binge again.

The Session Border Control market continues its metamorphosis. The recent acquisition of Kagoor by Juniper was just the first step in what I believe will be an ongoing process changing the landscape.

Data Connection announced a software solution for OEMs that would enable them to add Session Border Control functionality to routers and softswitches.

I knew this day would come. I’d been speaking to vendors about the possibility of this happening for some time now, and while reaction to this concept was mixed, the general trend was acceptance. And so, it’s finally here.

A recent report from ABI Research entitled “Fiber to the Premises” takes a look at the current state of Fiber to the “X” where X = curb, home, premises, what have you…

The report focuses in on technology issues involved with the FTTX platforms as well as the market conditions in terms of subscribers, cost, services, and the like.

In a world where the United States lags far behind a number of other developed nations in terms of broadband penetration, any deployment of high-speed fiber is welcome news. And the applications we write about at Internet Telephony can certainly thrive in a bandwidth-abundant environment. 

Here’s the release from ABI Research:

Qwest Goes Deeper with Deep Fiber

Oyster Bay, NY - April 19, 2005 - Qwest Communications announced last week that it had started the deployment of a fiber-based residential network in a community outside Denver, Colorado. Coupled with two prior deep-fiber-community deployments, this initiative appears to put Qwest on track to join Verizon and SBC (and to a lesser degree, BellSouth) in the FTTX club. These initial deep-fiber deployments may be an effort by Qwest to catch up to its competitors in building out a network to support high-bandwidth services, including video.

Verizon and SBC have continued aggressive deployment of their fiber build-outs, and BellSouth has sustained its slower-paced rollout of fiber to selected neighborhoods.

Economic commentator Nina Kulikova of The Russian Information Agency (Novosti) reported today on the legalization of IP Telephony in Russia.

According to the news item, the Information Technologies Ministry is currently formulating a legal basis for IP telephony. According to the new regulations, operators may receive a license for voice transmission and develop appropriate networks, including intercity ones, and to provide services on the same terms as traditional operators.

The IP operators have responded by saying they fear the licenses will be too expensive. But the authorities believe that, although small companies will really find it hard to comply with all the requirements, the new regulations for IP telephony will allow operators to capitalize their business and improve their positions.

I’m including the complete release below.

2005-04-08 16:52 

IP TELEPHONY MARKET LEGALIZED IN RUSSIA

The Russian government has approved Regulations on Connecting Electric Communication Networks and Their Interaction.

Earlier this month, XConnect, which interconnects Voice over Broadband operators (VoBBs) with the goal of providing free calls and rich IP multimedia services to more end users, officially launched in North America. The release announcing that launch can be found here. 

Eli Katz, founder and CEO at XConnect was kind enough to answer several questions I had regarding the launch of the new peering service.

GG: How does your organization compare to others in the VoIP peering space, such as Telx or The VPF?
EK: In technical terms, we are the only company providing layer 4–7 peering services. In addition we actively support the commercial layer as well (layer 8!?).

This means we are a “VoIP-aware” peering service: providing a more comprehensive solution and service encompassing the most crucial issues affecting VoIP Peering between VoBBs.

Most of the companies which offer “VoIP Peering” do not address these issues, which are demanded by VoBBs. (As far as I know, VPF does not address Interoperability, Security, Commercial, but only supports a basic Number discovery.)

Number Discovery
XConnect has an advanced and highly optimized carrier ENUM service, with security and privacy features (to safeguard the commercially sensitive information pertinent to each VoBB).

Interoperability Management
Multi-Protocol (H.323, SIP, IAX) and multi-variant.

As mentioned earlier this week, Juniper Networks has agreed to acquire Kagoor in a $67.5 million deal. This move has been described variously as Juniper “buying their way into VoIP” or as a “security play.”

Juniper Networks describes their strategy as a combination of their networking solutions and Kagoor's session border control (SBC) technology, for network operators looking to deploy VoIP and other rich media services.

I asked James Greenway, vice president of marketing at Kagoor what the acquisition means and how the addition of Kagoor will impact Juniper’s position.

GG: How will the acquisition of Kagoor help Juniper compete in the VoIP space?
JG: After thorough evaluation, they decided Kagoor could help them with their VoIP strategy for a number of key reasons including:

Best in class technology.

Expertise of the Kagoor team.

Very high overlap with strategic partners including Siemens, Lucent, NEC, and others as well as a high degree of overlap with Kagoor’s 100+ service provider customers.

Establishment of an R&D center of VoIP excellence in Israel and ability to tap the excellent technical talent pool there.

GG: What specific technology benefits does Kagoor bring to Juniper?
JG: Juniper sees SBCs as providing a strategic ingredient in their stated strategy of providing assured and secure networking which includes VoIP. VoIP is still an emerging technology with complex characteristics. Kagoor provides technology for its customers to process interactive packet traffic comprehensively and intelligently by providing levels of security, QoS, reliability, interoperability and thus providing a secure and assured user experience.