Hibernia Atlantic, a transatlantic high-bandwidth connectivity provider, has selected 3Com's H3C S7500E modular switches to deliver Ethernet services across its transatlantic submarine cable network. Hibernia Atlantic owns and operates a fast, direct connection between North America and the U.K., Ireland, and mainland Europe.

Much as it conducted field trials of 100-Gbps technology before this week’s announcement of commercial deployment, Verizon has embarked on trials of 10-Gbps GPON FTTP technology. The carrier announced yesterday that it conducted the tests in southern Massachusetts using equipment from Huawei.

IPITEK, a designer, developer, manufacturer, and supplier of video-optimized intelligent broadband networks, has announced that its Internet Media Transport (IMTRAN) division has unveiled a new software release for its MSP-1GE and MSP-10G transporter platforms. The new System 3.2 software, which the company says improves operational performance of Ethernet-based business services and features the Node Wizard Network Management System, recently successfully completed a field trial in an 80-node  multisystem operator's (MSO) metro network.

Lightower Fiber Networks, a metro fiber network and bandwidth service provider serving the northeast United States, has successfully tested the use of 100-Gbps (100G) technology on its existing optical network. Conducted over a period of four days using Nortel's (OTC: NRTLQ) commercially available 100G technology, Lightower sent production network traffic error-free over a 100G link spanning 600 km from New York to Boston.

HP and 3Com Corp. have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase 3Com at a price of $7.90 per share in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $2.7 billion. The terms of the transaction have been approved by the HP and 3Com boards of directors.

Foxconn Technology Group and Finisar Corp. have announced a strategic partnership agreement through which Foxconn will manufacture and sell Laserwire connectors, adapters, and cable assemblies. Laserwire is a family of 10-Gbps active optical and active copper cables designed to accelerate and support 10G Ethernet server connectivity.

Introduced by Finisar in 2007, the extended Laserwire family consists of active cables, a high-density electrical connector, and 10G Ethernet adapter modules to facilitate adoption into legacy transceiver ports.

"Laserwire enables us to provide low power and low cost 10GbE connectivity in the data center," said Barry Cioe, vice president of product management at Enterasys. "Its flexibility to connect to our XFP and SFP+ ports allows us to offer true plug and play across our entire product portfolio. Adding a second source to Laserwire will help drive the 10GbE ecosystem to adopt active cables into next-generation network architectures."

A new date for the auction has not been released. Nortel says it expects to provide “a further update on the auction process and sale of these businesses” at an unspecified time next week.

The bankruptcy sales procedures give Nortel the right to postpone the auction three business days, which would mean until no later than next Wednesday, November 18. However, Ciena -- which submitted a stalking horse bid of approximately $521 million -- also has the right to postpone the auction for 48 hours, potentially in addition to Nortel’s postponement. The bankruptcy judges have discretionary power to push back the auction date as well.