Cisco Reports Slight Revenue Decline to $4.6 billion, Net Income Grows

Cisco Systems reported quarterly income of $4.6 billion, down by 4.2% compared with $4.8 billion for the same period last year and compared with $4.7 billion for the preceding quarter. Despite the decrease in overall revenue, Cisco described the quarter as "solid" in profit, net income and gross margins. Operating cash flow was $1.26 billion and earnings per share were $0.14 GAAP or $0.15 pro forma. Regarding overall market conditions, Cisco CEO John Chambers said he is "slightly more optimistic" than he was three months ago. Some highlights for the quarter include:

• pro forma gross margins continued to improve to 70.8%, compared to 63.1% last year
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  geographically, the U.S. accounted for 45% of total product orders, EMEA was 32% and Asia-Pacific was 10%.
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  revenue guidance for the next quarter was given as "flat," compared with "flat to down slightly" three months ago
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  Cash and total investments were over $20.3 billion at the end of the quarter
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  During the quarter, Cisco repurchased approximately $2.0 billion of common stock
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  In the service provider segment, Cisco noted continued caution and the prospect of further CAPEX cuts
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  regarding the expensing of stock options, John Chambers said he feels very strongly that employee ownership is a vital principle for the vitality of the IT industry. Without stock options, he predicts a major job loss in the US, as the industry competitiveness flows to Asia. He said 80% of Cisco stock grants go to rank-and-file employees.

An archived webcast of the company's quarterly conference call is online.
http://www.cisco.com

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Citizens Communications Generates Q1 Revenue of $652 Million, up 1% Annually

Citizens Communications reported Q1 revenue of $651.9 million; consolidated operating income of $164.3 million; and consolidated net income of $127.4 million, or $0.45 per share. The company produced free cash flow of $146.8 million for the quarter. Revenue from the company's ILEC operations was $513.6 million, up $5.6 million or 1.1% year-over-year. Revenue from its Electric Lightwave division totaled $41.1 million. Citizens is divesting its interests in municipal utilities in Arizona, Hawaii and Vermont as part of its debt reduction program.
http://www.czn.net

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Equator Raises $11 million for Video Streaming Processors

Equator Technologies, a start-up based on Campbell, California, secured $11 million in financing for its development of system-on-a-chip (SoC) processors for video streaming and image processing applications. Equator's processors are aimed at video conferencing, surveillance, video on demand, and next generation set-top box and DVD applications. Investors include CIBC World Markets, i-Hatch Ventures, L.P., Ironside Venture Partners II LLC, JAFCO America Ventures, Inc., MMC Capital, Inc., Orix USA Corporation, Polycom, Inc., Rogers Communications and Sojecci Ltd.
http://www.equator.com

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Marconi to Provide DSL Test Solution to Puerto Rico Telephone

Puerto Rico Telephone will deploy a $1.6 million Marconi solution for the testing and pre-qualification of its copper lines in advance of Puerto Rico Telephone's planned network upgrade to offer DSL. Marconi is providing the hardware and software required for the testing, as well as a standards-based interface to Puerto Rico Telephone's network management platform.
http://www.marconi.com
http://www.telefonicapr.com

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Canoga Perkins Releases OADM Modules for its CWDM

Canoga Perkins introduced a new line of low cost Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (OADM) modules to provide drop-and-continue, and drop-and-insert applications with its CWDM system. Drop-and-continue applications are those requiring virtual point-to-point access from a central location to a remote location with limited fiber access. This is especially favorable in the metro networks where fiber to the CPE or fiber to the building is scarce. Drop-and-insert applications are similar to drop-and-continue applications but Drop-and-insert allows any site to access not only the central location, but also a different site.
http://www.canoga.com

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Global Crossing Opens Partner Support Center

Global Crossing launched a two-tier agent program and inaugurated a state-of-the-art partner support center. The agent program serves as a strategic distribution channel for Global Crossing's core network services in the US. Global Crossing said it is looking to partners to help deepen its market penetration. Global Crossing will assign a sales engineer and an account manager who function as a full-service inbound help desk team for each of its master agents. The support team will provide network design services, solution sales, and market intelligence.
http://www.globalcrossing.com

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Hughes Software Systems and AudioCodes Test for VoIP Interoperability

Hughes Software Systems and AudioCodes have successfully completed full interoperability testing of HSS' Softswitch, SIP Server and Gatekeeper Network Infrastructure Frameworks with AudioCodes' Analog Media Gateways and Digital Media Gateways. The products interoperate using MGCP, MEGACO, SIP and H.323.
http://www.audiocodes.com
http://www.hssworld.com

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Nortel Networks Offers News BayStack 24 port 10/100 switch

Nortel Networks introduced a new Layer 2, stackable, 24-port 10/100 switch and an enhanced operating system. Offering 24 ports with fast Ethernet connectivity, BayStack 470-24T is equipped with two Gigabit uplink ports and two dedicated stacking ports to eliminate the need for cascade modules. Up to eight, 24-port units can be stacked, providing an aggregate 192 ports and up to 16 gigabit uplink ports.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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Trebia Networks Appoints Infineon Exec as CEO

Trebia Networks, a start-up developing system-on-silicon solutions for storage networking applications, appointed Ruediger Stroh as president and CEO. Stroh most recently was CEO of Systemonic, a WLAN silicon developer, and previously served as senior vice president and general manager for Infineon Technologies' Worldwide Network & Computer Storage business.


Concurrently, Trebia announced it has secured new financing from existing investors, including Kodiak Venture Partners, Raza Foundries, and Atlas Venture, among others. The company has raised just under $50 million to date. Trebia is based in Acton, Massachusetts.
http://www.trebia.com

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Motorola Broadband Unveils Enhanced Digital Cable HDTV/PVR Set-Top

Motorola Broadband Communications Sector introduced its latest line-up of digital set-top boxes designed for interactive and entertainment services, such as personal video recording (PVR), HDTV, and other processing intensive applications delivered over cable networks. The new DCT6000 platform builds on the existing Motorola DCT5100 and DCT5200 set-tops by offering increased processing power, digital interfaces to digital television (DTV) and related consumer electronics, an integrated DOCSIS-compatible cable modem, and features such as pausing live TV and recording programs via the electronic program guide (EPG) interface. Motorola's DCT6000 line-up includes:

• The DCT6200, which upgrades the widely-deployed DCT5100 platform with an 800 MIPS internal processor (150% performance boost) and adds 1394-DTV and DVI interfaces. It also includes an MPEG encoder, which makes possible PVR capabilities by adding a 1394-connected external hard disk.
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  The DCT6208, which has an internal 80 GB hard disk, making it a fully integrated solution for HDTV, PVR, and advanced interactive features

Both set-tops feature a smart-card reader, Ethernet and Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Y-Pb-Pr video output, S/PDIF optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, and baseband and RF audio-video I/Os. Both will also run software from a variety of developers, including Concurrent Computer Corp., Gemstar-TV Guide International, Liberate, Microsoft TV, Pioneer Digital Technologies, and SeaChange International.
http://www.motorola.com

• To date, Motorola has shipped more than 26 million digital set-tops and over 2,000 digital headends serving more than 75 million homes

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Metro Ethernet Forum Reports Progress, Adds New Members

The Metro Ethernet Forum reported progress from its recently concluded 2nd quarterly meeting in Vancouver. Among the items are:

• completed eight straw ballots for technical documents, including: "Ethernet Services Definitions - Phase I" specification, "Traffic / Performance Parameters for Service Level Specifications (SLS)" specification, Transport Multiplexing Function draft 1.1
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  twelve new drafts were also approved which included: CES Requirements, EMS-NMS Information Model, Ethernet Service Definitions, Ethernet Services Model - Phase 1, Ethernet Services OAM Specification, Framework for Metro Ethernet Protection, MEN Architecture Framework - Part I Generic Framework, Requirements for Protection in Metro Ethernets, TMF Specification, Traffic and Performance Parameters for Ethernet Service Level Specifications, UNI Framework, UNI Requirements
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  eight new members joined the MEF, including KT (Korea Telecom), MetNet, JDS Uniphase, and Siemens AG. The MEF now has 64 member companies.
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  new membership categories were created for Business Enterprises and for Auditing Members.

http://www.MetroEthernetForum.org

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Madrid Autonomous Region Deploys Nortel's Metro DWDM

Nortel Networks has supplied its OPTera Metro 5200 multiservice platform for a Research Telematics Network serving the Madrid Autonomous Region. The network, which is part Spain's national academic and research network (Red Interconexion de los Recursos InformaticoS -- RedIRIS), is based on three independent fiber rings covering three main geographic areas in the region. It will connect seven universities with the National Institute of Aerospace Technique (INTA), the Superior Center for Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Internet. Nortel Networks said the installation would be compatible with SDH, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, ESCON, FICON, Fiber Channel, and legacy asynchronous fiber optics systems (FOTS/PDH), and operate at up to 10 Gbps. The OPTera Metro 5200 has a capacity of up to 32 protected wavelengths, or 64 unprotected. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.nortelnetworks.com

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ADVA Optical Reports Stable Revenue of EUR 21 Million for Q1

ADVA Optical Networking reported Q1 revenue of EUR 21.3 million, compared to revenues of EUR 21.6 million in the first quarter of 2002. Pro forma operating income increased to EUR 2.2 million in the first quarter 2003. ADVA posted actual net income of EUR 0.6 million for the quarter, compared to an actual net loss of EUR 1.5 million for Q1 last year.
http://www.advaoptical.com

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EchoStar Adds 305K DBS Subscribers in Q1

EchoStar Communications' DISH Network satellite service added 350,000 net new subscribers in the first quarter, giving the company a total base of 8.53 million subscribers. During Q1, EchoStar reported total revenue of $1.36 billion, a 23% increase over Q1 2002. EBITDA totaled $277 million, an improvement of $100 million compared to $177 million for the corresponding period in 2002. Free cash flow from operations totaled $125 million for the quarter.
http://www.echostar.com

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ITXC Expands in Asia-Pac, Appoints Execs

ITXC opened new sales offices and appointed two new regional sales directors in Sydney, Australia and Tokyo, Japan. Within the past year, ITXC has also opened Asia sales offices in Hong Kong and India. Gregg Marshall has been appointed Regional Director of Sales, based in Singapore. He is responsible for ITXC's carrier sales throughout the sub-continent and ASEAN, overseeing the sales initiatives in India, as well as managing sales personnel in Singapore. Before joining ITXC, Marshall was Country Manager for Lucent Technologies in the Philippines and prior to that held several senior sales roles within AT&T in Asia Pacific. Craig Kesby has been appointed as the Regional Sales Director in Sydney. Before joining ITXC, Kesby served as Manager of IP Development at Optus Communications in Sydney. Ryuichi Suguro has been appointed the Country Sales Manager for Japan. Prior to ITXC, Suguro served as Regional Senior Data Sales Manager for Japan and Korea at Sprint Internationalhttp://www.itxc.net

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Acterna Files for Chapter 11

Acterna voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection after negotiating a term sheet with its key lenders. Under the pre-negotiated reorganization, Acterna would significantly reduce its debt by more than $750 million, or 78% of the company's existing debt, while continuing normal business operations. Acterna also announced that it has arranged debtor-in-possession financing of $30 million from a group of banks led by JPMorgan Chase Bank and General Electric Capital Corporation.
http://www.acterna.com

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Zhejiang Telecom Adopts Portal's Convergent Billing Platform

Zhejiang Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom, has selected Portal's convergent billing software for its operations. Portal's Infranet software will be used for Zhejiang Telecom's broadband and narrowband businesses, including high-speed Internet access, dial-up, traditional calling service, and leased lines. The Portal billing platform will also support multiple payment methods for Zhejiang Telecom's customers including pre-paid and post-paid plans. Financial terms were not disclosed. Portal Software said its billing software has been adopted by numerous service providers in China, including China Telecom, China Mobile, Jitong Communications, Liaoning Telecom, Chongqing Telecom, Hubei Telecom, Xinjiang Telecom, Inner Mongolia Telecom, Jilin Telecom, and China Railway Communications.
http://www.portal.com

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Bill Gates Shows Off PC with Integrated Telephony

Bill Gates unveiled a prototype PC co-developed by Microsoft and HP featuring integrated telephony functionality. The flat panel PC, which is code-named "Athens," is designed as a central communications box for office workers, offering video conferencing and voice mail in addition to standard telephony integration. Athens provides a variety of telephony interfaces, including PSTN, PBX and cellular interfaces. A Bluetooth wireless handset is attached to one side of the monitor.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/winhec/docs/AthensPCWP.doc

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