SBC Sees Progress over Peers in Broadband

SBC Communications is making progress over its U.S. peers in broadband, said Randall Stephenson, SBC's Senior Executive Vice President & CFO, speaking at the Merrill Lynch Global Communications Investor Conference.



At the end of 2003, SBC had 3.5 million DSL customers, compared to 2.5 million for Verizon. Comcast had 5.3 million cable modem customers at the end of 2003, but its net adds dropped off significantly in Q4. Meanwhile, SBC has completed 8 consecutive quarters of growing DSL net additions. DSL coverage is now about 80% of its national footprint.



Thanks to consumer service bundles, local access line losses have slowed significantly.
SBC added 2.9 million long distance customers in Q4 and 8.3 million LD lines for all of 2003.



Stephenson also reviewed the reasoning for the Cingular bid for AT&T Wireless: greater scale, compatible GSM/GPRS networks, additional spectrum for emerging services, and access to AT&T Wireless' corporate customers. http://www.sbc.com

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Verizon Seeks Growth in New Services

The telecommunications market is getting bigger, at least for companies on the right side of the technology, said Lawrence T. Babbio Jr., Vice Chairman & President of Verizon, speaking at the Merrill Lynch Global Communications Investor Conference in New York. Babbio said the Verizon continues to deliver on its business plan and will move aggressively to establish a leadership position in key growth areas. These include:

• Broadband -- where there has been "good" subscriber growth in January and February. The company is upgrading the MSN service it provides to its users. It also getting ready to launch a VoIP service for its DSL customers in Q2.the trend of consumer service bundling continues to build.



• FTTP -- where fiber access could enable a whole range of new services, such as videoconferencing at 2 Mbps; file sharing at 3 Mbps; multiplayer gaming at 5 Mbps; telemedicine at 8 Mbps; real-time video at 10 Mbps; Hi-def video at 19 Mbps; and network hosted software at 25 Mbps.



• Packet Voice technology -- in addition to the consumer broadband VoIP service coming in Q2, Verizon will launch a premium QoS-enabled Voice over DSL service in Q4. The company is eventually planning for local switch replacements using packet technology.



• Wireless Broadband -- Verizon is committed to a "first-mover advantage" using EV-DO and its CDMA network to delivers 300- 500 kbps services.

On the regulatory front, Babbio said Verizon is pleased with the recent DC Court ruling, especially with regard to broadband rules. He said the FCC should not appeal the UNE-p to the Supreme Court, arguing that this would only hamper investment in network facilities. He also restated Verizon's plea for the FCC to act quickly to clarify that there will be no unbundling obligations for FTTP deployments.



Verizon's CAPEX for 2004 is estimated at $12 to 13 billion, compared to $11.9 billion in 2003. Spending for wireline initiatives will be flat at $6.5 to $7.0 billion, while wireless spending will rise to the $5.0 to $5.5 billion range due to the EV-DO rollout.



Verizon's workforce numbered 138,000 at the end of 2003, compared with 195,000 at the end of 2000. http://www.verizon.com

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Lucent Looks to Next-Gen Opportunities

Lucent's return to profitability has been all about improved productivity and a focus on next-gen market opportunities, said Patricia F. Russo, Chairman & CEO of Lucent Technologies, speaking at the Merrill Lynch Global Communications Investor Conference in New York. For instance, Lucent's gross margins have risen from 16% in Q1 2001 to 41% in Q1 2004 and quarterly operating expenses have been reduced by 78% over the same period. Russo observed that the "the tone in our industry has improved in recent months," and she expects the market will ultimately return to "pre-bubble" growth rates. The new momentum, said Russo, is attributable to a core set of next-gen opportunities:

• Metro optical networks -- including next-gen SONET/SDH, optical crossconnects, and metro DWDM



• Mobile high-speed data -- using spread spectrum technology, UMTS/W-CDMA, and 3G CDMA



• Broadband access -- encompassing DSL, FTTX, PON and wireless broadband



• VoIP -- including media gateways, softswitch, IP Centrex and feature servers. Russo said the very large embedded base of TDM provides a strategic advantage during the transition.

Russo also emphasized the importance of expanding the customer base. In its most recent quarter, non-U.S. revenue represented 40% of the company's total. Already, one-third of Lucent employees are located outside the U.S. (3,000 in China and 1,000 in India). http://www.lucent.com

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Callipso Launches Prepaid, Wholesale Conferencing Service

Callipso announced the availability of two new platform service offerings:



"ProConferencer," a web-based, on-demand conferencing application that enables prepaid service providers to offer prepaid hosted audio conferencing services to Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) and small-to-medium size businesses. The new voice conferencing application allows businesses to initiate conference calls from any phone or PC without making reservations or relying on operator assistance.



"ProCaller", a turnkey prepaid phone card platform for service providers. It includes interactive voice response (IVR) logic, web-based service management, a real-time rating engine, and self-contained billing and reporting. ProCaller's private-label, web-based administration allows prepaid service providers to create, manage and administer individual reseller service offerings. Resellers can then assign agents and manage the agents via the web interface. http://www.callipso.com

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ITU Counts 1.35 billion Mobile Subscribers Worldwide

At the end of 2003, there were over 1.35 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, compared with only 1.2 billion fixed-line users, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).



The ITU recently convened a global meeting to examine the social and human considerations relating to the rapid development of mobile technology. Two background papers were prepared for discussion at the workshop: "Broadband mobile communications towards a converged world" and "Social and human considerations for a more mobile world". http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/Workshop_Highlights.html

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Level 3 Readies Wholesale Consumer VoIP Service

Level 3 Communications will rollout two new residential VoIP services later this month aimed at broadband users. Level 3 plans to offer the service in more than 300 markets across the U.S. by year's end. The services will be sold through U.S. cable operators, ISPs and enhanced service providers. The company said its service will offer national coverage, enable local number portability, and will meet 911 and E911 interconnection standards across the U.S.

As part of the announcement, Level 3 reiterated a VoIP strategy spanning three key areas:

• Wholesale services sold directly to carriers and other voice service providers;



• Enterprise services designed for small and medium sized businesses, sold through local phone companies, value-added resellers and other distribution channels, and;



• Consumer services aimed at the residential market, sold through cable operators, ISPs and other communications companies in a position to sell voice services to the home.

Level 3 also announced plans to introduce voice services in Europe during the second half of 2004. http://www.level3.com

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DIRECTV Renews NDS Conditional Access Contract

DIRECTV signed a six-year agreement for NDS to provide its VideoGuard conditional access system and services to support the DIRECTV pay-TV service. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.nds.com NDS is a News Corporation company.

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Global Crossing Supplies Wavelength Service to Limelight

Global Crossing was awarded a contract extension to supply a seven-location wavelength delivery network to support Limelight Networks, which provides digital delivery for leading media, entertainment and Internet companies, including IFILM, BuyMusic.com, Musicmatch, Real Networks, RadioFree Virgin, Valve Software, and Quepasa.com. Global Crossing's Wavelength Service is an alternative to dark fiber and traditional capacity services. Limelight Networks has been using Global Crossing's IP Transit for content transport since 2001. Financial terms were not disclosed. http://www.globalcrossing.comhttp://www.llnw.com

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ARRIS Adds Hitless Software Update to CMTS

ARRIS announced a new software release for its Cadant C4 cable modem termination system (CMTS) that enables the installation of maintenance software updates on a non service effecting basis. In addition to the new hitless update capability, the software also provides for increased cable modem and multimedia terminal adapter (MTA) scalability, additional denial-of-service (DOS) attack counter-measures which provide significant additional system security, and numerous Layer 3 router extensions. http://www.arrisi.com

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TI Introduces 10GE (XAUI) Backplane SERDES

Texas Instruments (TI) announced a new discrete serializer/deserializer (SERDES) capable of error-free transmission over 80 inches of standard backplane trace. The device, which could be used to enable higher density systems, is a redundant XAUI serial transceiver compliant with the IEEE 802.3ae specification for 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The device performs the parallel-to-serial conversion, serial-to-parallel conversion and clock extraction functions for a physical layer interface. http://www.ti.com

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Laurel Adds 12-port Clear Channel and Channelized DS-3/E3 Cards

Laurel Networks announced the availability of 12-port channelized and clear channel DS-3/E3 electrical physical interface (PHY) cards for its ST200 Service Edge Router. The 12-port channelized DS-3 card provides physical DS-3 connectivity and supports a combination of up to 1,024 NxDS-0, 336 T1 and 12 DS-3 channels. The 12-port clear channel DS-3/E3 card supports 12 clear channel DS-3 or E3 ports. Both new cards feature Laurel's QoS capabilities and the flexibility to configure AnyService on each channel, including Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), High-level Data Link Control (HDLC), Frame Relay, ATM, Multilink PPP (RFC 1990), Multilink Frame Relay (FRF.16), Inverse Multiplexing over ATM (IMA), Bridging Control Protocol (BCP) and broadband (PPPoX).

The new electrical PHYs complement an existing line of optical interfaces for the ST200 Service Edge Router. http://www.laurelnetworks.com

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MeshNetworks Offers Embedded Software Suite for WLAN Developers

MeshNetworks, a start-up based in Maitland, Florida introduced its "MeshConnex" embedded software solution targeted at wireless OEMs. The ad hoc networking software suite is a cross-platform, radio agnostic implementation of the company's high-performance MeshNetworks Enabled Architecture (MEA) technology. Developers and OEMs could use the software to integrate MeshNetworks' Multi-Hopping routing techniques into new and existing wireless devices. The company is currently demonstrating the technology running on the Atheros chipset and reference platform.



MeshNetworks products leverage self-forming, self-healing networking technology originally developed for the US military under DARPA directed programs. http://www.meshnetworks.com

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Connexion to Connect with T-Systems' WLAN Roaming Platform

The Connexion by Boeing is planning to connect its in-flight broadband service to T-Systems' WLAN Roaming Platform. T-Systems' WLAN Roaming Platform acts as a single interface from one connected provider to all of the other carriers and wireless ISPs connected to the platform. http://www.t-systems.com

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USDTV Launches 'Over-The-Air' Subscription TV Service

U.S. Digital Television, Inc. (USDTV) has launched a low-cost, digital TV subscription service in Salt Lake City as an alternative to cable and satellite TV offerings. USDTV delivers its subscription television service as an over the air signal in partnership with local broadcast entities. USDTV has a $19.95 charge per month and requires a $99 set-top box. The company is planning to expand its service to Albuquerque, N.M., and Las Vegas in the next 30 days.

USDTV's initial channel offering includes local stations, as well as the Disney Channel and Toon Disney, ESPN, ESPN 2, Discovery Channel and TLC, Food Network and Home & Garden Television, Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network, and FOX News. http://www.usdtv.com

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MCI Separates Chairman and CEO Roles

As part of its corporate governance reforms, MCI has separated the chairman and CEO roles at the company. Michael Capellas, who has been MCI chairman and CEO since December 2002, will become MCI president and CEO. Nicholas Katzenbach, the former U.S. Attorney General, will become non-executive Chairman of the Board, effective upon MCI's emergence from Chapter 11 protection. Katzenbach has been an MCI Board member since July 2002.



MCI also announced the following organizational changes:



Wayne Huyard, president of U.S. Sales and Service
Cindy Andreotti, president of Enterprise Markets
Jonathan Crane, president of International and Wholesale Markets

As a result of these organizational changes, Rick Roscitt, president and chief operating officer, has elected to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. http://www.mci.com

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Acterna Releases Analyzer for Ethernet, WAN, ATM and POS

Acterna released an IP analyzer Ethernet, WAN, ATM and Packet-Over-SONET networks
operating at up to 2.4 Gbps. Acterna's new DA-3600A is a consolidated platform that adds all of the features currently available for the company's DA-3400 and DA-3600 IP network troubleshooting and data analysis platforms. In addition, the DA-3600A has the capability of supporting MPLS over Ethernet. http://www.acterna.com

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