World Wide Packets, of Spokane, found itself within the fallout radius of the technology-industry meltdown last year, and since then has been trying to wait out what founder and CEO Bernard Daines describes as a nuclear winter.


He remains supremely confident, though, in the companys lineup of fiber-optic networking products and says he expects the global market for them to continue to grow, perhaps strongly beginning next year.


Were convinced its still going to happen. Its just not going to happen as fast, Daines says.


He declines to disclose sales or production figuresIts just slow, compared to where we need it to be, he saysor to estimate when the 2 1/2-year-old company might become profitable.


Far from being visibly discouraged, though, he seems buoyant as he talks about various segments of the telecommunications market that he believes hold big potential for the company.


We see it (demand for the companys products) increasing. We dont see it getting really big until next year, Daines says. We remain very excited and optimistic and are just waiting for the world to catch up to us.


World Wide Packets launched operations in January 2000 and said in February 2001 that it expected to employ 300 people by year-end, then eliminated some jobs last summer and fall as the economy softened, and recently has been hovering at around 190 employees. Most of that work force is here, although the company also has operations in Portland, an office in Europe, and scattered salespeople in the U.S. Its headquarters at 115 N. Sullivan houses engineering, finance, human resources, information systems, and marketing functions, as well as a research-and-development lab.


Despite the technology slowdown, the company hasnt been idle. In recent months, it has hired a different contract manufacturer to produce some of its networking equipment, announced agreements to provide its equipment to customers in three states, and expanded one of its product lines.


Daines says the company expects to announce additional funding shortly. To date, World Wide Packets has raised $64 million in equity funding, including $20 million in a founders round in 2000 and $44 million in venture capital in early 2001 from a group led by San Francisco-based Azure Capital Partners.


World Wide Packets main focus is to provide the hardware and supporting software needed to deliver integrated voice, video, and data transmissions to business and residential end-users at extremely fast speeds through gigabit Ethernet cabling.


Practically speaking, its technology is designed to make versatile broadband accessfor activities ranging from video conferencing and telecommuting to extreme Internet gaming and other leisure pursuitsmore of an everyday reality.


The companys hardware products, all branded with the LightningEdge name, include what are called access portals, access concentrators, and access distributors.


Access portals, about the size of a hardback book, essentially distribute the signals that arrive at a users house or office via fiber-optic cable. The portals house multiple ports, into which a number of devices, such as a computer, a television, a (voice-over-Internet-Protocol) phone, and a digital entertainment system, can be connected.


Theyre available in indoor versions, which can be mounted in a closet or cabinet, and hardened versions for outdoor installation.


Access concentrators are larger, but similar-looking devices that are equipped with more ports and designed for multi-tenant or multi-dwelling applications.


Access distributors are larger yet, about the size of a small file cabinet, and are used to connect a number of access portals or concentrators to an Internet backbone or a public telephone network.


The companys software, called LightningEdge Network Supervisor, enables public utilities, cable companies, and others to gather usage-based statistics and to provide billing information for the various services that end users would pay for after receiving through the system.


World Wide Packets earlier this month introduced a new piece of hardware, called the LightningEdge 410 Access Concentrator, that expands customers ability to integrate large numbers of subscribers. Also, it announced that it will provide the new device to Hudson Valley DataNet, a New York-based provider of fiber-optic communications, for a phased build out, the value of which wasnt disclosed.


Separately, World Wide Packets has announced the following new pieces of business in recent months:


It was selected by Mason County Public Utility District No. 3, which serves customers on the east side of Washingtons Olympic Peninsula, to connect businesses and residences there to a high-speed broadband network that the district is installing. The initial connections are to provide automated meter-reading services to PUD customers, but the PUD plans later to offer Internet access, broadcast and cable television channels, video-on-demand, and local and long-distance telephone service via its fiber-optic system.


It was awarded a contract by the city of Provo, Utah, to provide the necessary equipment to create a first-phase metro backbone, connecting government buildings, schools, and power stations for delivery of high-speed data.


It landed a contract to supply 1,000 access portals to the Grant County Public Utility District for use within that PUDs broadband fiber-communications network. That network, which already uses a number of World Wide Packets products, currently supports 2,000 subscribers, with 2,000 more to be connected during the next stage of deployment.


The Grant County system, called the Zipp Network, has proven popular, with 6,400 businesses and residents petitioning for connection to the network during a recent campaign designed to track interest.


World Wide Packets says it hopes to secure additional work from those and other clients as they expand their networks in phases over extended periods.


Internally, World Wide Packets says it has contracted with Plexus Corp., of Neenah, Wis., to manufacture its products.


Plexus is a $1 billion-a-year company that provides design, manufacturing, and testing services, and has operations throughout the U.S. and abroad. Earlier this year it acquired the assets of MPMS Inc., a global electronics manufacturing services provider, including manufacturing operations in China, Malaysia, and Nampa, Idaho.