BT Chairman Hails Financial Transformation

Addressing shareholders at its annual general meeting in London, Sir Christopher Bland, BT's chairman said the company has undergone a complete transformation over the past 2 years because it was able to make tough financial decisions early on. He pointed out that just two years ago the company's debt had reached £28 billion; it had forgotten how to generate free cash flow; its strategy was unclear; and the morale of customers, employees and shareholders was low. Since then, BT has cut its net debt to £9.6 billion, two years ahead of schedule....

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Marconi Cites Tough market for Reduced Sales

Citing tough market conditions and generally weaker demand, Marconi reported group sales of £367 million for the three months ending 30-June-2003. On a sequential basis, sales of network equipment and services fell by 14%. Network equipment represented 62% of the companies revenues and network services accounted for the balance of 38%. Sales fell in all major regions: EMEA was down 17% and North America was down 5%.The company's cost savings program is on track to achieve its run-rate targets, but operational performance was hindered by lower...

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Yahoo! selected Convergys for Customer Relation Management

Yahoo! selected Convergys to manage general inquiries and billing-related questions for many of its online premium products and services. Additionally, Convergys will help support Yahoo!'s e-mail and inbound calls. Financial terms were not disclosed. Convergys said its customer service agents working in 46 contact centers currently manage more than 1.7 million customer interactions over the phone or the Internet per day. http://www.convergys....

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EU Approves 3G Network sharing in Germany

The European Commission decided to approve 3G mobile network sharing in Germany, paving the way for national roaming between licensed network operators. T-Mobile and mmO2 entered into agreements to share 3G site infrastructure ('site sharing') and to roam on their 3G networks in the UK and Germany. In February 2002, the parties asked the EC for clearance or, alternatively, an exemption of their agreements under the antitrust rules.http://europa.eu.intIn April 2003, the European Commission approved 3G mobile network infrastructure sharing in the...

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EU Fines Wanadoo for Preditory ADSL Pricing

The European Commission has fined Wanadoo Interactive, a subsidiary of France Telecom, EUR 10.35 million for abuse of its dominant market position by charging predatory prices for its ADSL-based Internet access services. The EC found that, up to October 2002, the retail prices charged by Wanadoo were below cost and thereby created a barrier to market entry for potential competitors. The EC also found that the effects of Wanadoo's conduct were not confined to ADSL competitors, but extended to cable operators offering high-speed Internet access....

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SpectraLink Announces Another Hospital WiFi Phone Deployment

The Sint-Annendael Hospital of Diest, Belgium has equipped 70 of its doctors, nurses and staff with SpectraLink's NetLink Wi-Fi telephones for use through the entire facility. Sint-Annendael's medical staff was previously limited to using beepers and returning pages on wired telephones at nurses' stations. SpectraLink's NetLink phones are integrated with the hospital's newly purchased Avaya Definity PBX and their network of Avaya Wi-Fi wireless LAN access points. Sint-Annendael partnered with A2Z Solutions, a system integrator based in Belgium....

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SMC Prices Managed 10/100 Switches at $16 per Port

SMC Networks added new security and management features to its 24-port, 10/100 Mbps TigerSwitch and reduced pricing to MSRP of $399.99, the equivalent of $16.67 per port. The switch offers two slots for optional Gigabit or 100Mbps fiber expansion. http://www.smc....

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EarthLink Expands Broadband Footprint to Cover 8 Million Households

EarthLink has expanded its high-speed access footprint to potentially serve upwards of 7 million additional households across the U.S. The expansion is a result of agreements signed with SBC in 2002 and BellSouth earlier this year. These agreements, slated for full deployment by early 2004, will ultimately give EarthLink the ability to reach more than 8 million additional households. http://www.earthlink.netEarthLink currently claims more than 891,000 high-speed subscribers, served over a combination of cable modem, DSL and two-way satellite...

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Cable & Wireless Partners with France's Completel

Cable & Wireless announced a bilateral traffic collection and termination deal with Completel, a leading national infrastructure-based carrier serving medium and large businesses in France. Under the agreement, Completel will provide its network to connect Cable & Wireless customers' sites, particularly through direct fiber connection, and to collect and carry these customers' traffic to Cable & Wireless' international PoP in Paris. The British operator will carry a significant proportion of Completel's customers' international voice...

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CWA Members Threaten Strike if Verizon Contract Talks Falter

Members of the Communications Workers of America working at Verizon Communications voted overwhelmingly to give CWA leaders authorization to call a strike if they deem it necessary. The CWA said 92% of its Verizon members voted in favor of the strike authorization. Negotiations with Verizon are underway. The current collective bargaining agreement expires at midnight on 02-August-03. For a strike to take place, the next step would be for CWA's 20-member executive board to authorize President Morton Bahr to set a strike date.In a press statement,...

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Groups Develop 1394b-Ethernet PHY for A/V Transport

The IEEE is working with the the 1394 Trade Association to develop a combination 1394b-Ethernet PHY for short range audio/video transport. The goal is to allow IEEE 1394b links of up to 100 meters over Category 5 wiring using existing Gigabit Ethernet (1000base T) physical layer technology. Leading semiconductors companies are planning to develop a combined Ethernet/1394b PHY chip that could be used in a hub for connecting either Ethernet or IEEE 1394 end points automatically. http://www.1394ta....

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Broadwing Communications Hires Founder of Vyvx

Broadwing Communications hired Delwin L. Bothof as a strategic consultant to help the company expand its video distribution business with cable and broadcast networks, sports leagues, and other programming sources. Bothof was the founder and first president of Vyvx, a provider of integrated fiber-optic, satellite, and teleport video transmission services. He later served as President of Domestic Strategic Investments for Williams Communications. http://www.broadwing.comIn June 2003, Corvis and Cequel III, a St. Louis-based telecommunications...

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UTStarcom Reports Q2 Sales of $406 Million, up 23% Sequentially

UTStarcom reported Q2 net sales of $405.8 million, a sequential increase of 23% over the $330.5 million in net sales reported in the previous quarter and a 75 percent increase over the $231.5 million in net sales reported in the second quarter of 2002. Net income for Q2 2003 increased 53% year-over-year to $39.4 million, or $0.33 per share, compared to net income of $25.7 million, or $0.22 per share, for Q1 2003. The quarter marked UTStarcomm's best financial performance to date. The company announced more than $240 million of contracts in Q2....

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PMC-Sierra Reports Q2 Revenue of $60.4 Million

PMC-Sierra reported Q2 revenue of $60.4 million compared to $55.4 million in the first quarter of 2003 and $54.5 million in the same period one year ago. GAAP net loss in Q2 was $9.2 million (GAAP net loss per share of $0.05), compared to a GAAP net loss of $11.5 million in Q1 2003 (GAAP net loss per share of $0.07). PMC-Sierra said sales activity in the service provider sector during Q2 improved modestly in both Asia and North America. The company will continue investing in next-generation metro transport, MIPS-based microprocessors, and storage...

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Ixia Revenues Increase 7% Sequentially to $20 Million

Ixia's Q2 revenues increased 16% on a year-over-year basis to $20.0 million compared to $17.3 million for the second quarter of 2002. Compared to the preceding quarter, Q2 revenue was up 7%. Net income on a GAAP basis for the second quarter of 2003, including stock-based compensation, was $2.5 million or $0.04 per diluted sharehttp://www.ixiacom....

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