Venture capital firms invested $359 million in 51 telecommunications start-ups during the second quarter of 2006. All but four of the deals were in the wireless area, while the rest involved telephone communications.

Overall, venture firms invested $3 billion in network hardware, software and services companies, with 423 deals closed during the quarter. The telecommunications segment - including service providers and their equipment suppliers - represented 12% of the deals and the dollars funded in networking.

These statistics are from the quarterly MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, which is based on data by Thomson Financial. Network World receives a special cut of the MoneyTree data that is focused on the network industry.

Below is a list of the top 10 telecommunications deals of the quarter:

[Rank: Company: Amount: Description:]

1: Amp’d Mobile, Los Angeles: $42 million: Broadband wireless service

2: Motricity,Durham, N.C.: $37 million: Mobile content

3: Wavestream: San Dimas, Calif.: $28 million: Solid state amplifiers for wireless

4: Wireless Services Corp., Bellview, Wash.: $27 million: Outsourced wireless services

5: Tropos Networks, Sunnyvale, Calif.: $13million: Metro-scale Wi-Fi mesh network systems

6: Ember Corp., Boston: $12 million: Wireless embedded network platform

7: MobileAccess Networks, Vienna, Va.: $11 million: In-building wireless systems

8: Firetide, Los Gatos, Calif.: $10.2 million: Wireless networking equipment

9: Sandbridge Technologies, White Plains, N.Y.: $10 million: Software-defined radio chipsets

10: Kineto Wireless, Milpitas, Calif.: $10 million: Wireless infrastructure for cell phones