ON JANUARY 7-11, 2001, SSB HELD ITS 11TH MEDIA AND TELECOM CONFERENCE IN
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA.
This event drew strong attendance from telecom industry executives, providing
a unique opportunity to discuss many of the issues weighing on the telecom
industry. As we listened to the battery of presentations and also engaged
senior managers of the telecom services community, a number of themes became
evident. First, despite the adverse macro-economic environment and the tight
capital markets, most of the prominent carriers seem to have secured enough
funding to allow them to survive and execute their business plans. Secondly,
it is also evident that this difficult period has chastened carrier
management teams, resulting in a focus on more success based capital
deployment. Lastly, most management teams appeared committed to driving new
services and improved network economics through the use of cutting edge
technology. This supports our thesis that while aggregate carrier spending
growth is likely to decelerate, the mix of spending is likely to shift toward
next generation equipment, made by vendors like Juniper, Ciena, ONI Systems
and Nortel. In turn, this helps support the long-term demand outlook for
component companies like JDSU, SDLI, and GLW.
-Own |
