Deutsche Telekom: Revenues and Net Income Up, Debt Levels Down

Deutsche Telekom reported half-year revenues of EUR 27.2 billion, up by EUR 5.0 billion compared to last year. Net income also rose by EUR 5.0 billion to a positive EUR 1.1 billion.


Deutsche Telekom's Group debt stood at EUR 53 billion at the end of the quarter, down by approximately EUR 8.1 billion since the start of the first quarter and by EUR 11.3 billion since the end of September 2002. The company generated EUR 4.0 billion in free cash flow for the first half of the year. Some other highlights:

• T-Com's domestic fixed line business grew 13% in terms of access revenues, while call revenues declined 8%.


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  T-Mobile revenues increased to EUR 10.9 billion, up 19% compared to the first half of last year. T-Mobile USA now has 11 million subscribers, up by 652,000 this year. ARPU is $53, up by $3 compared to the previous quarter.


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  T-Systems recorded a 0.9% growth in revenues over last year to EUR 5.127 billion.


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  T-Online continued to focus on profitability, with gross margins now reaching 57.5% compared to 47% at this time last year. About 25% of T-Online subscribers are now using DSL.


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  T-DSL contracts sold reached a total of 3.7 million, up 48% from 2.5 million one year ago.

http://www.telekom.de

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Hanaro Loses Broadband Subscribers in Q2

The total number of broadband subscribers served by South Korea's Hanaro Telecom declined by 10,407 at the end of Q2 2003 to 2,963,514, compared to three months earlier. The company cited the discontinuation of promotional initiatives as the reason for the drop. Meanwhile, overall revenues increased 4.7% quarter-over-quarter to KRW 344.4 billion (US$289 million), while operating costs decreased slightly by 2.7% to KRW 326.4 billion (US$274 million). Some other highlights from Q2:

• the proportion of subscribers for broadband services such as VDSL, Pro, Mid and Lite were 3.62%, 16.92%, 3.77%, and 75.69%, respectively.


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  CAPEX increased by 99.4% quarter-over-quarter to KRW 139.6 billion from KRW 70.0 billion in Q1 due to a major buildout of VDSL.


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  Mr. Chang-Bun Yoon was named as the new CEO of Hanaro, following the resignation of its previous CEO in May. Yoon previously served as the President of the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI), a leading think-tank and government research institute for policy development for the information technology sector in Korea.


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  Hanaro noted that aggressive broadband promotional campaigns in Korea, such as discounts and free trials, have been discontinued, in order "to promote healthy competition among the service providers, positively contributing to increased revenue generation."

http://www.hanaro.com

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Lucent Signs 5ESS Switch Contract with China's Shandong Netcom

Shandong Netcom, a subsidiary of China Netcom, awarded contracts valued at over US$50 million to Lucent Technologies to expand the carrier's 5ESS Switch-based personal handyphone system (PHS) network. The contracts cover four cities, Qingdao, Jinan, Weifang, and Yantai. These expansions bring the total capacity for these four cities to 2.7 million subscribers.
http://www.lucent.com

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Sprint Expands Global IP Network to Taiwan

Sprint announced the expansion of its global IP network to Taiwan. The company has secured a telecommunications business license in Taiwan and begun offering network-based and CPE-based VPNs, IP VPNs, Frame Relay, ATM, Private Lines, Security and Managed Network Services. Sprint also provides SprintLink Frame Relay, Packet Private Line and Virtual LAN services based on L2TPv3 technology. Sprint's regional headquarters is in Hong Kong. It also has a presence in Tokyo, Seoul, mainland China, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.
http://www.sprint.com

• In January 2003, Sprint introduced three new services based on Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol Version 3 (L2TPv3): SprintLink Frame Relay, SprintLink Packet Private Line and SprintLink Virtual LAN Services. L2TPv3 supports IP encapsulation of numerous Layer 2 protocols and provides authenticated tunneling to allow Layer 2 traffic to securely traverse a native IP core. Sprint has implemented L2TPv3 across its entire IP network without having to re-engineer the network or change its architecture. The capability is supported in Cisco IOS. In the new Frame Relay service the packets ride over the SprintLink native IP core, versus a statically switched ATM network.

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MCI Holds Revenue Steady in June

MCI recorded $2.075 billion in revenue in June 2003, versus $2.034 billion in May 2003. Operating income in June was $146 million versus $116 million in May. MCI had net income in June of $84 million compared to net income of $46 million in May. The company ended the month with $4.6 billion in cash on hand, an increase of approximately $400 million from the beginning of the month.
http://www.mci.com

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ITXC Activates Cisco's Multiservice IP-to-IP Gateway

ITXC, which claims to operate the world's largest international VoIP network, has begun using Cisco Systems' new Multiservice IP-to-IP Gateway to provide the demarcation between VoIP networks for media, control, and management. The demarcation is required for the high-volume bilateral exchange of VoIP traffic between carriers. The new Cisco Multiservice IP-to-IP Gateway has enabled ITXC.net to quickly establish over a dozen new direct carrier-class VoIP connections between ITXC's wholesale VoIP network and wholesale and retail carriers worldwide. It provides support for each carrier's independent call accounting and secure settlement, network privacy and routing. ITXC.net is now exchanging approximately 85 million minutes per month with internetworked VoIP carriers, including earlier generation VoIP connections that are currently being upgraded to this new carrier-class model.


Previously, carriers with VoIP networks have generally converted back to circuit-switched for inter-carrier connections. Earlier generation VoIP to VoIP interconnections required case-by-case custom engineering because of equipment vendor and call control differences and also involved an ongoing technical interdependency that limited independent and secure evolution of each individual network.


The companies said that ITXC is also exploring how to use the Cisco Multiservice IP-to-IP Gateway for its ability to enable packet-based interconnection between ITXC.net and the broad installed base of Cisco AVVID enterprise networkshttp://www.cisco.com
http://www.itxc.net

• During Q2 2003, ITXC carried a total of 999 million minutes of IP telephony traffic, up from 778 million minutes in the second quarter a year ago and 884 million minutes in Q1 2003. Revenue per minute decreased from 9.2 cents in the first quarter to 8.4 cents in Q2 2003.

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CIENA Adds Ethernet multiplexing to ONLINE Edge CWDM

CIENA has added Ethernet multiplexing (EMUX) capabilities to its ONLINE Edge CWDM platform. New EMUX cards enable the ONLINE Edge to multiplex up to eight 10/100 Ethernet signals and a Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel signal into one OC-48/STM-16 wavelength. CIENA said the new capabilities make it more cost-effective for carriers to offer Ethernet Private Line, Ethernet Virtual Private Line and Fibre Channel services on a single network. It also overcomes the inherent distance limitations of Fibre Channel with a distance extension technology that enables service providers to support Fibre Channel services up to hundreds of kilometers without loss in throughput.
http://www.ciena.com

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Hong Kong Broadband Launches its Triple Play

Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited, a subsidiary of City Telecom, launched a pay-TV service, forming the third pillar of its triple-play strategy. The carrier already offers broadband Internet access and local telephony on the same network. The pay-TV service initially is carrying 11 interactive channels, but has the capacity for up to 200 channels. HKBN said the visual quality is comparable to DVD quality. The service is priced at HK$98 monthly and the company is waving the cost of the set-top box and installation during a promotional period.
http://www.ctihk.com/http://www.hkbn.net/

• In July 2003, Nortel Networks announced that Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd. is using its Succession VoIP solution for delivery of new multimedia and packet voice service bundles, including special packages of fixed-line, IDD (International Direct Dial) and broadband Internet services for Hong Kong residential customers. Nortel Networks describes the project as one of the largest VoIP networks in the world. Hong Kong Broadband Network is currently serving over 120,000 subscribers with packet-based telephony services. Nortel Networks solution for Hong Kong Broadband Network also includes the Nortel Networks Passport Packet Voice Gateway (PVG).

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SMC Prices Gigabit Ethernet Adapters at $30

SMC Networks began shipping a Gigabit Ethernet PCI network card with an MSRP of $29.99. Earlier in the month, SMC began shipping its new five and eight port EZ Switch 10/100/1000 switches, which carry MSRPs of $129.99 and $179.99, respectively.
http://www.smc.com

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Mahi Networks Hires VP of Worldwide Sales

Mahi Networks, a start-up based in Petaluma, California, named Terry White as vice president of worldwide sales. White previously was VP of global sales for Turnstone Systems. Prior to Turnstone, White spent nine years at ADC Telecommunications.
http://www.mahinetworks.com

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XO Reports Q2 Revenue of $286 Million

XO Communications reported Q2 revenue of $283.9 million, compared to $286.1 million reported for Q1 2003, and $325.5 million reported in Q2 2002. Of the Q2 revenue total, approximately $150.0 million was generated from voice services, which includes revenue from local, long distance and other enhanced voice services, $97.3 million was attributable to data services, which includes Internet access, network access and web hosting and $36.6 million resulted from integrated voice and data services. The company said it has increased its direct sales force by 46% since the beginning of the year to pursue new sales opportunities.
http://www.xo.com

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Moscow Cellular Communications Chooses Lucent's CDMA2000

Moscow Cellular Communications will deploy Lucent Technologies' Flexent CDMA2000 1X base stations, PacketStar PSAX Multiservice Media Gateways, and Metropolis next-generation SDH optical products in Moscow and surrounding suburbs. The equipment for this network expansion will be delivered by Verysell Telecom of Verysell group, a Lucent business partner. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.lucent.com

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