One of my favorite Colorado startups of the last decade came to a quiet and inglorious end in mid-April. Boulder-based Network Photonics Inc. had developed its own manufacturing line to produce optical-switching subassemblies. To better serve the changing telecom industry, the company had attempted to subtly shift its target products to metro switches and reconfigurable optical add-drop muxes. But, in the end, Network Photonics had to bow to the inevitable.

The company's chief executive officer, Steve Georgis, did not specify how much of the $50 million banked last year would be returned to investors, but it's clearly well over $10 million. Network Photonics did not declare bankruptcy. Instead the executives looked at the public networking market and decided that carrier spending would not return until 2005 or later, eliminating any reasons for continued existence. They simply closed doors and sent the employees home.

Just because Network Photonics' tidy wrapping up of business had a certain nobility to it didn't make it hurt any less for those involved. In fact, this may represent the most painful type of hara-kari in the industry. More than sudden implosion, more than death by a thousand small cuts, the decision to close up shop because a market will not exist for the foreseeable future is an ultimate sign of defeat.

Yet I still found Network Photonics' decision preferable to the willful denial of reality that seemed prevalent in many corners of NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas at the end of April. It's one thing to remain optimistic about nascent markets that could develop in a forlorn economy. It's quite another to mistake a few immature shoots poking through the ground for a lush field of alfalfa that could feed multitudes.

The defining reality check for 2003 will come at Supercomm in June. Many network equipment vendors have honed the list of shows at which to exhibit down to Supercomm alone, so the conference may look bigger than most this year. Yet the newly expanded convention center in Atlanta is mighty big. Even if two of the three halls are filled, how many will be occupied by companies in a position akin to Network Photonics, which simply aren't honest enough to admit the state they are in?

Loring Wirbel is Communications editorial director for EE Times and its network publications.

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