Telecom Valley
Encyclopedia
Telecom Valley was an area located in Sonoma County, California
specifically the Redwood Business Park of Petaluma, California
.
. In 1969, Don Green, later nicknamed the "Father of Telecom Valley", founded Digital Telephone Systems (DTS) in San Rafael, CA. It is considered the original seed for Telecom Valley which developed farther north in Sonoma County driven by lower cost facilities and housing. Digital Telephone Systems was an early innovator in the Telecom Equipment arena developing a Digital loop carrier
(DLC) and digital Private Branch Exchange systems. Bell Labs
and Western Electric
, the R&D and manufacturing arms of the original AT&T
Bell System
dominated the DLC markets with the SLC-96 and SLC series 5 systems prior to the 1984 Bell System divestiture
. Digital Telephone Systems was purchased by Farinon Corporation which was subsequently acquired by Harris Corporation of Melbourne, Florida in 1980.
Don Green along with a management and the key technical team from Harris Digital Telephone Systems founded Optilink in Petaluma, California in 1987. Optilink is viewed as the main branch which led to the many subsequent telecom equipment suppliers that was part of the genesis of term Telecom Valley. In 1984, the Bell System divestiture
created the 7 Regional Bell Operating Company
(RBOC) structure that no longer desired the domination by AT&T's Bell Labs
and Western Electric
products in their networks. This created a multi-billion dollar market opportunity for new equipment suppliers including DLCs. It was this opportunity that was the underlying impetus for the formation of Optilink. The divestiture created a new common RBOC sponsored R&D laboratory known as Bellcore that began defining its views on a the next generation of network technologies including DLCs through its TR-303 interface specification.
This interface decoupled Telephone Exchange
or Switching Systems such as the AT&T 5ESS and Northern Telecom DMS-100 from a slave subtending DLC. That meant the switching equipment suppliers could not monopolize the DLC due to the opening of the interface to other equipment suppliers. This made the nearly $2B DLC market a key telecom equipment product target. In the same mid-1990s time frame, the ANSI T1 standards body began defining a new fiber optic interface standard that came to be known as SONET or Synchronous Optical Networking
in the US. Optilink was formed to develop a Next Generation Digital Loop Carrier (NGDLC) targeted at the Bell System and was partly based on the combination of Bellcore's TR-303 and SONET integrated into a more advanced DLC. The Optilink architecture that combined Bellcore's TR-303 and the ANSI standard SONET then became the de facto
definition of the NGDLC. This in turn led to acceptance and deployment of the Optilink NGDLC by all 7 RBOCs plus the large independent GTE
.
Optilink was acquired by the mid sized DSC Communications of Plano, Texas in 1990, which was later purchased by the large French multinational telecom supplier Alcatel who then merged in 2006 with the Bell Labs child Lucent forming Alcatel-Lucent
. DSC and Alcatel
together drove Optilink's Litespan 2000 NGDLC sales to one of the largest deployments in telecom system's history with its telephone lines served crossing the 50 million mark in 2000 according to Alcatel in 2003. Telecom Valley might also be referred to as DLC Valley since its lineage began the market assault on the Bell System
SLC-96 DLC market dominance in 1969 at DTS, then won a dominant position through Optilink and Advanced Fibre Communications (now Tellabs
) and now the reigns are being passed to Calix
and their series of broadband DLCs. Telecom Valley has dominated the Digital loop carrier
marketplace in the US as few other areas in the world have dominated a major telecom system. Telecom Valley is closing in on having provided one fourth of the US population (over 300 million) with 75 million telephone lines. This achievemnet will assure the Optilink/DSC/Acatel Litespan families 50 million telephone lines in 2000 plus another 9 years of Litespan sales, sill at 34% of the market in 2003, plus the highly successful AFC/Tellabs
UMC family and now the Calix
very advanced broadband family combined will never be surpassed by another area.
There have been numerous spin offs, acquisitions, startups and even IPOs that either directly or indirectly derived from DTS or Optilink in Telecom Valley's ever branching history. They have included: Telenetworks, Diamond Lane Communications, Advanced Fibre Communications, Next Level Communications, Fibex Systems, Fiberlane/Cerent, Mahi Networks
, Calix
, Turin Networks (now Dell
), Dilithium Networks, Teknovus (now Broadcom
), Cyan Optics along with many others. They collectively led to the coining of the term Telecom Valley due to the high density of telecom equipment suppliers in one small 10 mile corridor in Sonoma County. Nearly all the telecom startups in Telecom Valley were acquired by larger companies with life cycles similar to the original DTS->Farinon->Harris and Optilink->DSC->Alcatel acquisition legacies. In fairly recent times, even the successful Turin Networks has merged with Force10
Networks in 2009 while Mahi Networks
was acquired by Meriton Networks in 2005. Only a few of the Telecom Valley startups remain independent by 2009. They include Cyan and Calix
who has taken over the reign of the DLC in Telecom Valley after being started by DTS in 1969 and taken to dominance by Optilink/DSC/Alcatel-Lucent
and then Advanced Fibre Communications/Tellabs
in the early 1990s through the new millennium. The list of parents reads like a who's who in the telecom equipment supplier world and includes Cisco
, Alcatel, Alcatel-Lucent
, Nokia, Motorola, DSC, Tellabs
, General Instrument, Force10, Meriton and others. The term has now fallen out of common use in Sonoma County after the market, and specifically high tech or dot-com bubble
collapse of early 2000.
According to the market research firm RHK in 2003, Alcatel continued to hold the top ranking of 34% with Litespan-2000 sales after 20 years since Optilink's founding. This is a testament to the people and opportunity that led from the legendary DTS then Optilink and eventually over 50 years to all of Telecom Valley. Only the few companies survived while most slowly closed down or moved away after the numerous repeated acquisitions. The legacy of Telecom Valley and its many individuals and companies have now become lore in Sonoma County which lives on today with Don Green viewed as its father.
Sonoma County, California
Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....
specifically the Redwood Business Park of Petaluma, California
Petaluma, California
Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. In the 2010 Census the population was 57,941.Located in Petaluma is the Rancho Petaluma Adobe, a National Historic Landmark. It was built beginning in 1836 by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then Commandant of the San...
.
History
Telecom Valley is the term coined for the North San Francisco Bay Area Highway 101 corridor between Petaluma and Santa Rosa in Northern California. It was derived from its South Bay Area cousin Silicon ValleySilicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
. In 1969, Don Green, later nicknamed the "Father of Telecom Valley", founded Digital Telephone Systems (DTS) in San Rafael, CA. It is considered the original seed for Telecom Valley which developed farther north in Sonoma County driven by lower cost facilities and housing. Digital Telephone Systems was an early innovator in the Telecom Equipment arena developing a Digital loop carrier
Digital loop carrier
A digital loop carrier is a system which uses digital transmission to extend the range of the local loop farther than would be possible using only twisted pair copper wires...
(DLC) and digital Private Branch Exchange systems. Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
and Western Electric
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
, the R&D and manufacturing arms of the original AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
Bell System
Bell System
The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
dominated the DLC markets with the SLC-96 and SLC series 5 systems prior to the 1984 Bell System divestiture
Bell System divestiture
The Bell System divestiture, or the breakup of AT&T, was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. The case, United States v...
. Digital Telephone Systems was purchased by Farinon Corporation which was subsequently acquired by Harris Corporation of Melbourne, Florida in 1980.
Don Green along with a management and the key technical team from Harris Digital Telephone Systems founded Optilink in Petaluma, California in 1987. Optilink is viewed as the main branch which led to the many subsequent telecom equipment suppliers that was part of the genesis of term Telecom Valley. In 1984, the Bell System divestiture
Bell System divestiture
The Bell System divestiture, or the breakup of AT&T, was initiated by the filing in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Justice of an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T. The case, United States v...
created the 7 Regional Bell Operating Company
Regional Bell Operating Company
The Regional Bell Operating Companies are the result of United States v. AT&T, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company . On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating...
(RBOC) structure that no longer desired the domination by AT&T's Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
and Western Electric
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
products in their networks. This created a multi-billion dollar market opportunity for new equipment suppliers including DLCs. It was this opportunity that was the underlying impetus for the formation of Optilink. The divestiture created a new common RBOC sponsored R&D laboratory known as Bellcore that began defining its views on a the next generation of network technologies including DLCs through its TR-303 interface specification.
This interface decoupled Telephone Exchange
Telephone exchange
In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls...
or Switching Systems such as the AT&T 5ESS and Northern Telecom DMS-100 from a slave subtending DLC. That meant the switching equipment suppliers could not monopolize the DLC due to the opening of the interface to other equipment suppliers. This made the nearly $2B DLC market a key telecom equipment product target. In the same mid-1990s time frame, the ANSI T1 standards body began defining a new fiber optic interface standard that came to be known as SONET or Synchronous Optical Networking
Synchronous optical networking
Synchronous Optical Networking and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy are standardized multiplexing protocols that transfer multiple digital bit streams over optical fiber using lasers or highly coherent light from light-emitting diodes . At low transmission rates data can also be transferred via an...
in the US. Optilink was formed to develop a Next Generation Digital Loop Carrier (NGDLC) targeted at the Bell System and was partly based on the combination of Bellcore's TR-303 and SONET integrated into a more advanced DLC. The Optilink architecture that combined Bellcore's TR-303 and the ANSI standard SONET then became the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
definition of the NGDLC. This in turn led to acceptance and deployment of the Optilink NGDLC by all 7 RBOCs plus the large independent GTE
GTE
GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System....
.
Optilink was acquired by the mid sized DSC Communications of Plano, Texas in 1990, which was later purchased by the large French multinational telecom supplier Alcatel who then merged in 2006 with the Bell Labs child Lucent forming Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
. DSC and Alcatel
Alcatel
Alcatel Mobile Phones is a brand of mobile handsets. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between Alcatel-Lucent of France and TCL Communication of China....
together drove Optilink's Litespan 2000 NGDLC sales to one of the largest deployments in telecom system's history with its telephone lines served crossing the 50 million mark in 2000 according to Alcatel in 2003. Telecom Valley might also be referred to as DLC Valley since its lineage began the market assault on the Bell System
Bell System
The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...
SLC-96 DLC market dominance in 1969 at DTS, then won a dominant position through Optilink and Advanced Fibre Communications (now Tellabs
Tellabs
Tellabs, Inc. is a telecommunications company that designs and manufactures equipment for service providers.Ranked among the BusinessWeek InfoTech 100, Tellabs is part of the NASDAQ-100 Index, NASDAQ Global Select Market, Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index and the S&P 500...
) and now the reigns are being passed to Calix
Calix
Calix is a supplier of telecommunications access equipment for service providers. The company was incorporated in 1999.Calix is a North American provider of broadband communications access systems and software for fiber- and copper-based network architectures that enable communications service...
and their series of broadband DLCs. Telecom Valley has dominated the Digital loop carrier
Digital loop carrier
A digital loop carrier is a system which uses digital transmission to extend the range of the local loop farther than would be possible using only twisted pair copper wires...
marketplace in the US as few other areas in the world have dominated a major telecom system. Telecom Valley is closing in on having provided one fourth of the US population (over 300 million) with 75 million telephone lines. This achievemnet will assure the Optilink/DSC/Acatel Litespan families 50 million telephone lines in 2000 plus another 9 years of Litespan sales, sill at 34% of the market in 2003, plus the highly successful AFC/Tellabs
Tellabs
Tellabs, Inc. is a telecommunications company that designs and manufactures equipment for service providers.Ranked among the BusinessWeek InfoTech 100, Tellabs is part of the NASDAQ-100 Index, NASDAQ Global Select Market, Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index and the S&P 500...
UMC family and now the Calix
Calix
Calix is a supplier of telecommunications access equipment for service providers. The company was incorporated in 1999.Calix is a North American provider of broadband communications access systems and software for fiber- and copper-based network architectures that enable communications service...
very advanced broadband family combined will never be surpassed by another area.
There have been numerous spin offs, acquisitions, startups and even IPOs that either directly or indirectly derived from DTS or Optilink in Telecom Valley's ever branching history. They have included: Telenetworks, Diamond Lane Communications, Advanced Fibre Communications, Next Level Communications, Fibex Systems, Fiberlane/Cerent, Mahi Networks
Mahi Networks
Petaluma, California-based Mahi Networks was a venture-funded network equipment startup company. It was created in 1999 and acquired by in 2005. Meriton Networks is now a part of . Mahi's flagship product, the Mahi Mi7, was a 320 Gbit multi-service switching system. The Mi7 supported both...
, Calix
Calix
Calix is a supplier of telecommunications access equipment for service providers. The company was incorporated in 1999.Calix is a North American provider of broadband communications access systems and software for fiber- and copper-based network architectures that enable communications service...
, Turin Networks (now Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
), Dilithium Networks, Teknovus (now Broadcom
Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los...
), Cyan Optics along with many others. They collectively led to the coining of the term Telecom Valley due to the high density of telecom equipment suppliers in one small 10 mile corridor in Sonoma County. Nearly all the telecom startups in Telecom Valley were acquired by larger companies with life cycles similar to the original DTS->Farinon->Harris and Optilink->DSC->Alcatel acquisition legacies. In fairly recent times, even the successful Turin Networks has merged with Force10
Force10
Force10 Networks , is a United States company which develops and markets 10 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit Ethernet switches for computer networking to corporate, educational, and governmental customers. It has offices in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region.In 2011 Dell announced that they...
Networks in 2009 while Mahi Networks
Mahi Networks
Petaluma, California-based Mahi Networks was a venture-funded network equipment startup company. It was created in 1999 and acquired by in 2005. Meriton Networks is now a part of . Mahi's flagship product, the Mahi Mi7, was a 320 Gbit multi-service switching system. The Mi7 supported both...
was acquired by Meriton Networks in 2005. Only a few of the Telecom Valley startups remain independent by 2009. They include Cyan and Calix
Calix
Calix is a supplier of telecommunications access equipment for service providers. The company was incorporated in 1999.Calix is a North American provider of broadband communications access systems and software for fiber- and copper-based network architectures that enable communications service...
who has taken over the reign of the DLC in Telecom Valley after being started by DTS in 1969 and taken to dominance by Optilink/DSC/Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
and then Advanced Fibre Communications/Tellabs
Tellabs
Tellabs, Inc. is a telecommunications company that designs and manufactures equipment for service providers.Ranked among the BusinessWeek InfoTech 100, Tellabs is part of the NASDAQ-100 Index, NASDAQ Global Select Market, Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index and the S&P 500...
in the early 1990s through the new millennium. The list of parents reads like a who's who in the telecom equipment supplier world and includes Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
, Alcatel, Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...
, Nokia, Motorola, DSC, Tellabs
Tellabs
Tellabs, Inc. is a telecommunications company that designs and manufactures equipment for service providers.Ranked among the BusinessWeek InfoTech 100, Tellabs is part of the NASDAQ-100 Index, NASDAQ Global Select Market, Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index and the S&P 500...
, General Instrument, Force10, Meriton and others. The term has now fallen out of common use in Sonoma County after the market, and specifically high tech or dot-com bubble
Dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
collapse of early 2000.
According to the market research firm RHK in 2003, Alcatel continued to hold the top ranking of 34% with Litespan-2000 sales after 20 years since Optilink's founding. This is a testament to the people and opportunity that led from the legendary DTS then Optilink and eventually over 50 years to all of Telecom Valley. Only the few companies survived while most slowly closed down or moved away after the numerous repeated acquisitions. The legacy of Telecom Valley and its many individuals and companies have now become lore in Sonoma County which lives on today with Don Green viewed as its father.
External links
- Harris Corporation History
- Alcatel Litespan 2000 Datasheet
- Litespan 2000/12 NGDLC most widely deployed with 51M lines by 2000
- Alcatel Tops DLC Ranking -2003
- The Evolution of the DLC - OCCAM Networks
- Sonoma County Technology Sector: Poised for recovery - 2003
- Telecom Valley Website
- Honoring a tech pioneer
- Low-key end for Next level
- Turin Networks, Inc.
- http://www.sonoma.edu/pubs/release/2001/089.html
- http://cityofpetaluma.net
- http://www.downtownpetaluma.com
- Petaluma 2004/05 General Plan
- Turin Networks
- Teknovus
- Calix
- Cyan