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Tuesday, May 14, 2002 |
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• Lucent outlines ratios for Agere shares • FTC approves AOL-TW ISP partners • IPWireless, Axcera team for 3G • Satellite service for mid-sized businesses rolls • D-Link to adopt TI WLAN silicon • Study: Cable modem market is healthy • Major Adelphia shareholder to seek three seats on board • Blonder Tongue sees small sales boost in Q1 • CED Broadband Direct news briefs Lucent outlines ratios for Agere shares After several months of delay, Lucent Technologies Inc. finally has set the ratios for Agere Systems, the optical components unit it spun off last March. One share of Agere Class A common stock will be issued for every 92.768991 shares of Lucent common stock, and one share of Agere Class B common stock will be issued for every 3.779818 shares of Lucent common stock, Lucent said in statement. The telecom equipment giant spun off Agere in March of last year, but held on to a 58 percent equity stake. To pare down its mounting debt, Lucent moved forward with the March initial public offering despite the economic turmoil in the telecom industry. The IPO was delayed three times, and finally was priced at the bargain basement price of $6 a share. The offering brought in roughly $3.6 billion, a far cry from the original projection of $6.5 million. A and B Agere shares will be distributed to Lucent shareholders as a tax-free dividend, Lucent said in a statement. Fractional shares will be distributed in the form of cash, which may be considered taxable income. The stock distribution is set for June, and will be available to Lucent common stock holders as of the end of business on May 3.
FTC approves AOL-TW ISP partners The Federal Trade Commission has given AOL Time Warner Inc. to add three more names to its list of unaffiliated ISPs. When the mega merger between America Online and Time Warner was approved, the FTC stipulated that the combined company must open access to its high-speed cable systems to at least three rival ISPs before AOL could launch its high-speed Internet access service over Time Warner Cable systems. Athena Services Inc., Web One Inc. and Internet Nebraska Corp. are the latest ISPs to be added by AOL Time Warner. The areas covered in the ISP partnership will include Appleton, Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wis.; Kansas City, Kan.; and Lincoln, Neb. Yesterday, AOL High-Speed Broadband service was launched over Time Warner Cable systems in Detroit, Mich. EarthLink Inc. also launched its high-speed service. The Detroit division serves cities such as Farmington, Farmington Hills, Novi, Redford and Livonia.
IPWireless, Axcera team for 3G IPWireless Inc. has sealed a manufacturing and distribution partnership with Axcera to accelerate the worldwide deployment of IPWireless' 3G broadband wireless system. Under the terms, Axcera will be a certified systems integrator and manufacturer of the IPWireless Advanced 3G Broadband system. Axcera will offer the product to its customers under the brand name Axity3G Broadband. IPWireless intends to leverage Axcera's global resources and relationships to grow its sales channel with multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS) spectrum owners. The IPWireless system's non-line-of-sight architecture gives subscribers access to broadband through a pocket-sized, battery-operated modem. The signal processing technique is patent-pending. IPWireless recently announced customer deployments in the United
States, New Zealand and Vancouver, Canada.
Satellite service for mid-sized businesses rolls Getting sufficient broadband if you're a small or medium-sized business today is not easy, especially if your only option is expensive dedicated access. And if you're an enterprise business with a bunch of rural outlets ... forget it. But satellite technologies are growing to be a more viable alternative to the business connectivity quandary, and VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) technology from provider Gilat Satellite Networks is becoming more widely available. Gilat announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Spacenet Inc., has signed a series of new contracts for its Connexstar broadband service. So far, Spacenet claims more than a dozen customers and three resellers for the business-class broadband service, and they have announced that they have commitments to deploy at more than 2,000 sites over the coming year. Most of the contracts for the Connexstar service are for three years, the company said. So far, other VSAT providers have neglected the market for small to medium-sized businesses, as several hundred locations are required to cost-justify a custom VSAT WAN network. Spacenet targets networks on a smaller scale, with from 50 to 300 sites incorporated in the network. Gilat is behind another broadband satellite offering, StarBand,
which brings basic two-way satellite connectivity to consumers.
Despite being backed by heavyweights like DBS provider EchoStar
Communications and Microsoft Corp., the StarBand system so far
has signed up only a nominal number of subscribers - roughly 40,000--
and has been plagued with reports of poor service, distribution
and performance. Whether the Connexstar service can overcome similar
issues will be key to its future success or failure.
D-Link to adopt TI WLAN silicon One of the real retail surprises to surface over the past year or so has been the market for simple consumer Ethernet networking products. More and more consumers are becoming comfortable setting up basic wireless LANs to split their single broadband connection, and one of the early market leaders at retail has been D-Link. Under a new agreement with chipmaker Texas Instruments, future iterations of D-Link 802.11b routing gear will have improved speed and performance through the incorporation of TI's ACX100 chipset technology. D-Link will integrate the TI 802.11 chipset into upcoming wireless products for the D-LinkAir series of IEEE 802.11b wireless gear. While TI's ACX100 chipset works on the 802.11b platform, in the
relatively noisy 2.4 GHz frequency, TI has proven that the ACX100
can achieve higher-data rates and wider coverage areas when connected
to other TI-based networking products. Both sides are hopeful
that TI-enabled D-Link routing gear can improve throughput at
least 30 percent at 11 Mbps, at even greater distances that currently
realized.
Cox Communications Inc. is looking to electronically accept access service requests (ASR) from companies wanting to lease high-speed data links, and is turning to DSET Corp. to make it happen. The cabler has purchased the ezAccess Receive gateway from DSET. Financial terms were not disclosed. The send and receive capabilities of the gateway automate the ASR process for service provides, including ILECs, IXCs, CLECs and carriers that provide wholesale transmission facilities to other providers. Cox also will use the gateways to interconnect with trading partners, including BellSouth Corp., Verizon East and West, Pacific Bell and SBC Communications. "As Cox continues to build efficiencies in our telephony OSS environment, the DSET ASR send/receive gateways provide another effective integration point to our external trading partners," Cox's Executive Direct of telephony OSS Ron Whited said in a statement. This is not the first order Cox has placed with DSET. Last year, the MSO purchased gateways and services to automate the pre-order process and port telephone numbers from ILECs for customers.
Study: Cable modem market is healthy The worldwide cable modem and cable modem termination system markets are expected to generate $2.5 billion in revenue in 2004, one analysis says. The outlook: healthy. Last year, the markets reported a 28 percent year-over-year increase in revenue to $1.61 billion in 2001, according to a new report from research firm Frost & Sullivan. At present, the cable modem segment is the primary revenue generator in the cable modem equipment market, but the "World Cable Modem and Head-End Equipment Markets" report predicts that by 2005 the CMTS sector will take the lead. The North American market will lead the growth trend in the short-term, but Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America are all poised for growth spurts through 2005. "Cable operators are undergoing a strong wave of consolidation that started in the U.S. and is expanding to Europe. Mergers will permit massive network upgrades," says Jean-Christophe Deverines, a Frost & Sullivan analyst. Consolidation will define the cable modem equipment market's competitive landscape, says Deverines.
Major Adelphia shareholder to seek three seats on board Copyright 2002 / Los Angeles Times Derek Caney, Reuters Adelphia Communications Corp.'s largest shareholder outside its founding family said Monday he will seek representation on the board, six weeks after the company incurred the wrath of Wall Street with the disclosure of $2.3 billion in off-balance-sheet loans. Leonard Tow, who, along with his family trusts, owns 12 percent of Adelphia's Class A shares, said he will exercise his right to appoint himself and two other directors to the debt-laden company's board. Adelphia executives were not immediately available for comment. Adelphia's stock lost 8 cents to close at $6.06 in Nasdaq trading. Since the deals were disclosed, the shares have lost nearly 70 percent of their value. Investors have become wary of off-balance-sheet items since the spectacular collapse of energy trading company Enron Corp. - the company's off-balance-sheet deals are believed to have been used to hide debt and enhance earnings. Tow, chief executive of telecommunications firm Citizens Communications, said in a statement that he has the right to appoint the directors as part of Adelphia's 1999 agreement to buy Tow's Century Communications Corp., which operates cable systems in the Los Angeles area. Adelphia bought the company for $3.6 billion in cash and stock. Adelphia, the No. 6 U.S. cable company, is the target of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe after the company disclosed it guaranteed $2.3 billion in loans to partnerships controlled by its founders, the Rigas family. The family has said it used some of the money from the loans to buy an undisclosed amount of Adelphia shares. Such information is expected to be disclosed in its delayed annual report filing. "Tow's move does very little for Adelphia's fundamentals," said Joseph Galzerano, debt analyst with CIBC World Markets. "We're still looking for what the company has to say in its annual report. Until then, the slow trickle of news is unlikely to be positive for the company." In April, Gordon Crawford, portfolio manager at Capital Research & Management and one of the most influential media investors, began rounding up disgruntled shareholders to support Tow's appointment to run Adelphia's day-to-day operations, replacing the Rigas family. The effort was largely symbolic, however, as the Rigas family has voting control of the company. "To protect my family's substantial investment in Adelphia, as well as the interests of other minority shareholders, I have determined that I must now enforce my family's right to be represented on Adelphia's board of directors," Tow wrote in a letter to Adelphia's board that was released to the media. In addition to himself, Tow is seeking the appointment of Rudy Graf, president of Citizens Communications, and Scott Scheider to Adelphia's board. Adelphia said last week that it would sell a number of cable systems representing nearly half of its subscriber base in an effort to pare down its debt, which totaled $14.7 billion, according to its preliminary balance sheet issued in March.
Blonder Tongue sees small sales boost in Q1 Blonder Tongue Laboratories Inc. said net sales for the first quarter grew 1.3 percent to roughly $10.9 million. The company said the increase was attributable to sales of the Motorola QAM decoder, which was introduced in the fourth quarter of last year. That product offset a reduction in Q1 cable interdiction equipment sales, which notched just north of $1 million during the first quarter, compared to $2.9 million in the year-ago period. Blonder Tongue also reported diluted earnings per share before cumulative effect of change in accounting principle, net of tax of 2 cents per share, versus a loss 3 cents per share in the prior year period. Though "business activity is brisk," Blonder Tongue
modified previously issued guidance, anticipating second quarter
sales of between $13 million and $14 million, with diluted earnings
per share of 8 cents to 11 cents per share.
• FCC certifies SPEEDLAN 9000 GCT-Allwell enhances gateway with Jungo software With OpenRG, Allwell's RG600 residential gateway will support virtual private network functions to enable telecommuters to securely access their corporate networks, the companies said. OpenRG supports a variety of wired and wireless home networking protocols, including HomePNA, 802.11b and Bluetooth. • EarthLink launches high-speed service in
Detroit • Michigan ISPs merge When the deal closes, the combined company will employ more than 50 employees in offices located in Grand Rapids and Holland. Customers served by Iserv and EagleNet will continue to use their same e-mail addresses and dial-up numbers, the companies said. • AT&T to offer local phone in Ohio
AT&T, which already offers local service in the state to businesses in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati, started marketing local phone service in Michigan earlier this year. There, AT&T serves more than 100,000 residential customers. AT&T also plans to launch local phone service in Illinois next month. The company's cable division, AT&T Broadband, already offers competitive local phone service in the Chicagoland area.
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