DSL equipment maker Celite Systems Inc. has ceased operations, Light Reading has learned.

It may seem amazing that an equipment company could go sneakers up at a time when broadband access is so hot, but Celite's approach was a bit left of the average DSL vendor.

Rather than embracing ADSL and its kin, Celite competed with it. Celite offered proprietary access systems that were supposed to combine the best attributes of cable modems and DSL. The pitch: Operators could provision entire neighborhoods for broadband access, like a cable operator, and they could use the standing copper infrastructure, as you can with DSL (see Celite Provisions DSL to MDUs).

Celite's approach, called "broadcast DSL" would have required a specially made modem for each subscriber on the system, a trait that immediately put Celite in competition, not only with DSLAM and cable headend vendors, but with consumer electronics giants that manufacture DSL and cable modems.

While Celite didn't announce its closure, its founder and CEO took a job at another company last week, a sign the company was not having good times (see Navini Nabs Celite CEO). Sources close to Light Reading say the company's final day of business was July 16, less than a year after the company raised its final $10 million round (see Celite Scores $10M More).

Celite was founded in July 2001 and raised more than $26 million during its lifetime from Austin Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, and Comerica.

Executives from Celite did not return calls seeking comment.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading