Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Merrill Lynch Selects Avaya for Corporate VoIP Network

Merrill Lynch selected Avaya IP telephony solutions for its three-year-old corporate campus in Hopewell, New Jersey and its new regional headquarters building in Tokyo, Japan. The deployment will include Avaya Communication Manager IP telephony software and Avaya Media Servers. Merrill Lynch will use a mix of IP and digital handsets to serve its 5800 employees in New Jersey and 1800 employees in Japan -- routing IP calls over its data network and digital calls over its new voice network. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.avaya.comMerrill...

AFC Reports Revenue of $83 Million

Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC) announced Q2 revenue of $83.0 million on a GAAP basis, compared with $80.5 million in the preceding quarter and $86.3 million for Q2 2002. Net income for Q2 2003 was $3.3 million, or $0.04 per share, compared with $8.3 million, or $0.10 per share, in Q1 2003. ALLTEL and Sprint were each 10% customers in the quarter. AFC said service providers will remain cautious about spending in the near term, but that investment in the access network will be a key focus for carriers in the future as they roll out DSL and...

Avaya Reports Relatively Flat Quarterly Revenue of $1.072 billion

Avaya reported quarterly revenue of $1.072 billion, slightly below revenue of $1.081 billion for the preceding quarter. The company reported net income of $8 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.02 per share. Avaya noted its cash balance increased for the fourth straight quarter to $843 million. Net debt decreased to $150 million and is at the lowest level it has been since the company became an independent business. http://www.avaya....

Nortel Networks Sees Revenue Decline 3% from Q1

Citing cautious spending by service providers, Nortel Networks reported quarterly revenue of US$2.33 billion, down sequentially approximately 3%. This compares to US$2.77 billion in revenue for Q2 2002. There was a net loss in the second quarter of 2003 of US$14 million, or US$0.00 per common share, compared to net earnings of US$54 million, or US$0.01 per common share, in Q1 2003. Some highlights:Compared to Q1 2003, Wireless Networks revenues increased 4%, Enterprise Networks revenues decreased 11%, Wireline Networks revenues decreased 12%...

Universal Access Closes $16 Million Investment

Universal Access Global Holdings, a communications and network integrator based in Chicago, received a $16 million equity investment from CityNet Telecommunications, a carrier that has pioneered deployment of last-mile fiber optic networks through in-city sewer systems. Under the deal, CityNet has invested $16 million in cash in Universal Access. CityNet has also contributed fiber optic network assets in exchange for a 55% fully-diluted stake in Universal Access. CityNet originally funded $5 million of its total investment in April in the form...

Level 3 Sees General Price Stability Trend, Positions for Upturn

Level 3 Communications reported Q2 revenue of $941 million compared to $1.23 billion for the previous quarter, which excludes $17 million and $20 million of revenue, respectively, from Software Spectrum's contact services business which is included in discontinued operations. Level 3's Q1 figures also reflected one-time settlement revenues. The net loss for Q2 was $0.95 per share, or $462 million. This includes a $190 million charge associated with the premium that was paid for the full conversion of the company's 9% Junior Convertible Subordinated...

Kabira Enhances Messaging Gateway New Services

Kabira Technologies released commercial grade enhancements for its Convergent Message Gateway that enables customizable business rules for services, rapid service deployment, intelligent push for messages, network initiated messaging, and very-high volumes exceeding thousands of messages per second. Kabira's platform serves as a mobile message gateway supporting MMS and packet message services. Kabira said examples of new messaging services include buddy-list messaging; mobile gaming; photo, music and video-clip downloads; location aware messages;...

AOL Names New CTO

America Online named John McKinley as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and President, AOL Technologies. He will serve as the company's chief technology strategist as it moves into areas like broadband, wireless and premium services. In addition to technology strategy, McKinley will also oversee the teams in charge of product engineering, network infrastructure and data centers, and internal business systems and computing. McKinley previously was CTO for Merrill Lynch and GE Capital. http://www.aol....

CableLabs Issues More DOCSIS Certifications

CableLabs certified four more DOCSIS 2.0 cable modems from Terayon, Texas Instruments and Thomson. There are now 22 cable modems with DOCSIS 2.0 certification.CableLabs also announced that eight companies gained certified status for DOCSIS 1.1 products and two companies gained DOCSIS 1.0 certification. Two companies obtained DOCSIS 1.1 qualified status for headend equipment. http://www.cablelabs....

AT&T Reports Revenue of $8.8 Billion, Down 8.2% from Q2 2002

Despite an overall weak telecom market, AT&T said it continues to take market share and outpace its competitors for high-end enterprise communications. The company's continued focus on cost management yielded significant free cash flow of $1.4 billion for Q2. AT&T plans to further reduce its overall debt, increase its dividend to shareholders, and continue to out-invest its competitors in building the network of the future, an all-IP, seamless global network. Highlights of the financial report include:Q2 revenue of $8.8 billion, which...

Service Bundling Slows UNE-P Losses at SBC

SBC Communications reported record net adds in both long distance and DSL service for Q2, however overall revenues declined, margins for voice services were down and the overall number of local access lines in service continued to fall. SBC credited service bundling, especially its promotion of unlimited, all-distance calling plans, for a 37% sequential decline in UNE-P line losses to competitors. Q2 revenues totaled $10.2 billion, compared with $10.8 billion in the year-ago period. Reported earnings per diluted share were $0.42, compared with...