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Today's report from Web Editor
Susan Rush
• Shareholders Sue AT&T
• Verizon Gets A Boost In Q3
• Baby Bell Invests In VoB
• C&W Supports New Fiber Network
• Broadband Briefs
Shareholders Sue AT&T A
group of hopping mad AT&T shareholders
are taking their gripes to a judge. The class-action lawsuit
filed in federal court in New Jersey on Friday claims that AT&T and its
chairman C. Michael Armstrong misled investors about the financial stability
of the company. The suit alleges that AT&T did not disclose that
business-services revenue was lagging last year, violating securities laws
to protect its ultra-hyped wireless IPO in May and close its June purchase
of MediaOne Group. AT&T’s contract with MediaOne included a nearly $4
billion cash payment if AT&T stock fell below $57.
As
of this morning, AT&T had not seen the lawsuit and was unable to comment
specifically. "We carefully adhere to all of our disclosure
obligations," says Jim McGann, an AT&T spokesperson. The lawsuit
comes on the heels of AT&T's decision last week to spin off into four
separate units: AT&T Broadband, AT&T Wireless, AT&T Business and
AT&T Consumer.
Related Stories:
AT&T:
Split Personalities; Earnings Drop Off, BroadbandWeek Direct, 10/25/00
Merge, Then
Divest, Multichannel News, 5/1/00
Verizon Gets A Boost In Q3
Boosts in DSL and wireless voice and data customers lead Verizon
Communications to a 39 percent increase in net income during the third
quarter. The communications provider reported net income of $3.5 billion, or
$12.7 per share for the quarter, up from $2.5 billion, or 91 cents a share
during the same period a year ago. Adjusted income totaled $2.0 billion, or
73 cents a share, a number in line with analysts' estimates.
Verizon added 130,000 DSL subscribers during the quarter,
bringing its subscriber base to more than 350,000. The company believes it
is on target to reach its year-end goal of 500,000 DSL subscribers. Verizon
Wireless posted 806,000 net additions during the quarter.
Related Stories:
Verizon
Cuts DSL Prices, Multichannel News, 9/5/00
Verizon-NorthPoint Could Juice DSL, Multichannel News, 8/14/00
Baby Bell Invests In VoB
SBC Communications invests
in General Bandwidth, giving
the voice-over-broadband gateway manufacturer a shot in the arm. General
Bandwidth has secured $47 million in third round financing from Thomas
Weisel Partners and SBC Venture Capital Corp.., a SBC company. The funding
enables General Bandwidth to continue development of its VoB
technology.
The Baby Bell's investment could be just what the doctor
ordered for the 250-employee company; the financial tie may well open the
door for SBC to use General Bandwidth's gear in its regional local-phone
network in the future. That's nothing to sneeze at considering General
Bandwidth is competing with CopperCom,
TollBridge Technologies
and Accelerated Networks.
Even though SBC has been concentrating its efforts on
attracting new DSL subscribers through its Project Pronto initiative, the
company has been a supporter of VoB technology since its inception.
Earlier this year, General Bandwidth released the G6, a
carrier-class VoB gateway to enable toll-quality packetized voice services
over DSL, cable and wireless access networks via ATM or IP. The company
hopes to begin deployment of the technology to the general public next year.
Related Stories:
OpenVoiceoverBroadband:
Another Interop Group Arises, Multichannel News, 9/4/00
Voice-Over-Broadband
Group Surfaces, Multichannel News, 8/28/00
C&W Supports New Fiber
Network
Cable &
Wireless invests $1.4 billion in Japan's high-speed future. The money,
which represents the largest investment in Japan by a U.K.-based company,
will be used to create a national fiber optic network in Japan by 2005. The
business IP and data services market in Japan is expected to grow to a $28
billion industry over the next five years, according to research from Bain
& Co.
Once complete, the network will span the country, connecting
80 cities in all 47 prefectures. and will include 65 Points of Presence and
75 Points of Interconnect. Japan's major corporate and small- to
medium-sized businesses will have access to the high-speed network. Tokyo
and Osaka have been pegged for the construction of metropolitan networks
that will combine fiber, DSL and LMDS technologies.
Related Story:
IP-Phone-Service
Rollouts Still Have Some Issues Left, Multichannel News, 5/15/00
Broadband Briefs:
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