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Wednesday, September 11, 2002 |
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• WorldCom searches for new CEO • S-A caters to Europe/Asia iTV markets • Cox sees brighter days in 2003 • EarthLink, consumer
advocates want
September 11: The one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America is upon us. While many companies across the nation are pausing to remember those lost, these same companies are standing proud that they have continued on in the face of the threat of terror. Since the attacks last year, the broadband industry is marching forward. The cable sector ended the second quarter with 16.8 million digital cable subs, 9.2 million high-speed data customers and 2.1 million residential cable telephony customers, according to a recently released study from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). The DSL sector also has pumped up its numbers. DSL use has jumped to 25.58 million households and small businesses around the world, according to industry analyst firm Point Topic. In the last six months alone, 6 million DSL customers have been acquired worldwide, the U.S. accounts for 1 million of those new adds. In remembrance Several cable and satellite companies will carry a thirty-second public service announcement as a tribute to the American spirit following the Sept. 11 tragedy. The spot, which will run at 8 p.m. EDT, was commissioned by the NCTA. The announcement also will air in Spanish. Scripps Networks-owned networks went dark for two hours today to commemorate the one-year anniversary -- in the 24-hours following last year's attack, the company's network was dark. Between 8:30 a.m. EDT and 10:30 a.m. EDT today, the network's channels showed images, words and music to inspire quiet reflection. Verizon Communications and Advanced Fibre Communications are encouraging their employees to give a little of themselves today. Verizon is supporting the First Annual United Day of Service, in part through a $250,000 donation to the Freedom Readers Program, which will attempt to collect 911,000 books for youths through Sept. 11, 2003. AFC is participating in the United Way Day of Caring event that is cleaning up local communities. BellSouth Corp. said it will not run any print, radio or television ads today. The company also will honor local firefighters and law enforcement officers. This evening, BellSouth will light the BellSouth Center tower in Atlanta in red, white and blue lights. Convergys has initiated a campaign, dubbed "Affirming Our Freedom," to encourage its employees to register to vote. AT&T Corp. is staging a network disaster recovery drill in New Jersey to play out what needs to be done to recover data and voice services during a simulated disaster. One in four companies do not have disaster recovery plans in place, according to a recent survey commissioned by AT&T. Today marks the end America's year of grief. After a delayed opening, Wall Street sent a message to the world that America is alive and kicking. The Nasdaq gained some ground after its delayed opening, up 27 points to 1,347.12 as of noon EDT.
Less than five months after stepping in as WorldCom Inc.'s president and CEO, John Sidgmore will step aside once a replacement is found. Sidgmore took the reins at WorldCom after its former head honcho Bernard Ebbers resigned under pressure in April. In June, the company revealed that it had misreported nearly $4 billion in expenses, but later revised that number to $7.7 billion. WorldCom filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors in July, marking the largest bankruptcy filing in US history. "I have concluded that having moved WorldCom through the initial phase of the bankruptcy process now is the appropriate time for the company to initiate a search for a long-term CEO," Sidgmore said in a statement. He has said that his appointment was never meant to be permanent, although the Washington Post reported last month that Sidgmore was at risk of being fired. Once a replacement CEO is found, Sidgmore will return to his post as vice chairman of the company. WorldCom has set a goal to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-2003. Related stories:
S-A caters to Europe/Asia iTV markets Why should the North Americans have all the interactive fun? Scientific-Atlanta Inc. has unveiled an interactive DVB system to assist cable operators outside of North America in rolling out digital broadcast and interactive TV services. The interactive system, dubbed EyeQ, is designed to enable the rollout of interactive services such as on-demand applications, set-top- and network-based personal video recording, e-mail, Internet access and subscription-based games. EyeQ will include DVB headend equipment, a DVB-compliant conditional access system, interactive control computer, interactive DVB set-top boxes, middleware and an interactive program guide. The EyeQ system will support open standards and published interfaces, which will enable the system to be compatible with several billing systems and to support third-party application developers and middleware systems such as Liberate Technologies, OpenTV and MHP, S-A said. Based in part on a system installed in more than 270 cities in Japan and North and South America, the EyeQ system is scheduled to launch in December. Related stories:
Cox sees brighter days in 2003 Cox Communications Inc. will be seeing black a little sooner than it had expected. The MSO plans to reduce capital expenditures to achieve free cash flow positive for the entire year 2003. The company expects to slash capital expenditures from $2 billion in 2002 to $1.6 billion in 2003, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Hayes said Monday during a Morgan Stanley 7th Annual Global Communications Conference. The $400 million reduction in expenditures is mostly attributed to the fact that the company's network upgrades are nearly complete. Eighty nine percent of the company's network will be upgraded to at least 750 MHz by the end of this year, Hayes said. Of Cox's network footprint, 95 percentof homes passed are able to order Cox Digital Cable and Cox High Speed Internet services. Originally, Cox had expected to achieve free cash flow positive in the fourth quarter 2003. Brokerage firm First Albany has reiterated Cox as a "strong buy." Cox also expects to expand operating margins above 35 percent in the "coming years" as it shifts its focus from network upgrades to "a concentration on the accelerated delivery of additional advanced broadband services and products more efficiently." Related stories:
What do a wireless telecom product provider and a wireless fiber optic connectivity product developer have in common? Plenty, say the CEOs of P-Com Inc. and Telaxis Communications Corp. So much so in fact that the two companies have agreed to merge their operations. Working as one, the combined company will be able to offer a wider range of telecom products to meet the bandwidth needs of carriers and network owners, P-Com's products include point-to-multipoint, point-to-point and spread spectrum wireless access systems. Telaxis brings its FiberLeap products, which are designed to provide wireless extensions of fiber networks, to the table. The new company will focus its efforts in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. "The merger of P-Com and Telaxis creates a powerful combination that unites P-Com's millimeter-wave wireless networks with Telaxis' millimeter-wave technology and its demonstrated capabilities for development of low-cost radio frequency equipment," said Telaxis CEO John Youngblood. Under the terms of the deal, Telaxis shareholders will receive 1.117 shares of P-Com common stock for each share of Telaxis common stock. Once the deal is closed, P-Com shareholders would own roughly 62.5 percent of the new entity and Telaxis shareholders would own roughly 37.5 percent. The company will be headquartered in Campbell, Calif. and will employ roughly 250 people. The newly merged company will be run by P-Com executives. George Roberts, P-Com's interim CEO, will become chairman, and Leighton Stephenson, P-Com's chief financial officer, will assume the responsibility of CFO. Related story:
EarthLink, consumer advocates
want
PHILADELPHIA -- Consumer advocates and at least one large Internet provider, fearing Comcast Corp.'s growing influence over the Internet, are demanding that the Philadelphia-based company divulge details of a complex agreement it reached last month with AT&T Corp. and AOL Time Warner Inc. The Federal Communications Commission has made public reams of documents related to Comcast's pending $53.1 billion purchase of AT&T's cable division, AT&T Broadband. But Comcast so far has kept secret parts of last month's related three-way deal with AT&T and AOL Time Warner. The consumer advocates are up in arms because they say the agreement could shut competitors out of the high-speed Internet market, reducing consumers' choices and limiting Internet content. And they say it shows the kind of anticompetitive muscle Comcast could flex once it buys AT&T Broadband and becomes the undisputed king of cable, with 22 million subscribers nationwide. The missing information "is obviously highly material" to the larger acquisition, said Andrew J. Schwartzman, president and chief executive officer of the Media Access Project, a media watchdog. "We were actually quite surprised that it hadn't been submitted." Joining the consumer groups in demanding that the FCC make the material public is EarthLink Inc., the national Internet service provider based in Atlanta, which fears it may get locked out of the biggest market for broadband customers if the merged AT&T Comcast Corp. is not ordered by the government to open its high-speed Internet network to competitors. Comcast said allegations that it was planning to monopolize broadband service were "wildly speculative and inaccurate." The beginnings of the brouhaha can be traced to last month, when AT&T, Comcast and AOL Time Warner agreed on a way for Comcast and AT&T to dispose of AT&T's 27.6 percent stake in Time Warner Entertainment _ a division of AOL Time Warner Inc. that includes cable-TV systems, the HBO cable network and the Warner Bros. film studio. Comcast was to inherit that stake as part of its December agreement to buy AT&T Broadband. As part of last month's deal, AOL Time Warner bought future access to the merged AT&T Comcast's fast-Internet system. The consumer advocates and rival Internet providers turned to the FCC last week, asking it to order Comcast to disclose the high-speed Internet portion of its deal with AOL. Comcast, however, said the deal was proprietary and had not provided details. Michelle Russo, an FCC spokeswoman, said the commission was reviewing the requests to obtain the fast-Internet exhibit from Comcast. She said that if FCC staffers deemed the information necessary, they would ask for it. The FCC will decide later this year whether the merger is in the public's interest and whether it can proceed. The Department of Justice is also looking at the transaction. Analysts expect the deal to be approved before year's end. Among the consumer groups' fears is that the Comcast-AOL agreement signals the start of an era in which the openness of the Internet will be supplanted by a pay-to-play model, in which content not affiliated with network providers such as Comcast will get shunted aside by the online offerings of corporate partners. Comcast, however, said the opposite was true: The agreement with rival AOL Time Warner, it said, proved it was willing to open its lines to competitors. "We absolutely cannot understand their arguments about the (Internet service provider) agreement with AOL. This is one of several negotiated agreements between independent ISPs and our two companies," said Joe Waz, vice president of external affairs for Comcast. "The FCC has consistently encouraged such agreements," he said, "and this proves yet again that we are committed to offering consumers a choice of ISPs." Related story:
• Alopa appoints new vice president of operations Andrew White has been named vice president of operations at Alopa Networks. White, who comes to Alopa from Adelphia Communications Corp., will be responsible for the company's pre and post sales activities as well as channel partner support. • Pace Micro demos gateway Pace Micro Technology will introduce the Earlybird compatible home gateway developed by Tandberg Television and Irdeto Access at IBC 2002. The set-top, which uses Pace's CDTV.410 or DTVA, is designed to enable satellite operators to deliver television services to residential customers. The CDTV.410 is MPEG2/DVB compliant and features single and multiple conditional access facilities. The DTVA is designed for use with free to air or conditional access television. It is DVB compliant and includes multilingual support. • BT delivers security solutions BT has inked a deal with McAfee.com to deliver McAfee.com's personal firewall, anti-virus and privacy services to its residential broadband customers. Customers can access trial versions of the software via the BT Broadband home page. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
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