Re: Brain/Brawn- International Fibercom Q4 2000 CC Notes
Thread- Well that was one interesting CC. Now I understand a little more why they have had a recent run. Believe it or not, the reason being may have had to do with our recently discussed subject, mobile wireless data. Hard to believe one of my brain/brawn companies had any positioning in the mobile wireless sector not as an engineering/construction outfit, but from a products perspective.
In some ways I don't feel so ignorant because I have to say, IFCI has about the worst website one can imagine. So the information about their wireless data capabilities was obtainable only from their CC. They are totally dropping the ball on getting the message out. Yet it's somewhat of an ironic statement on my part because the stock did run up 400%.<g>
One or two analysts on the CC were astute enough to realize that this wireless apsect may be a big driver for IFCI and asked the most questions about it.
Apparently IFCI has some patentable products (three or four in the patent pending stage) to allow wireless cellular providers to boost the data capacity of their current networks, among other things. Certainly not to broadband capabilities, but a significant increase none-the-less. It wasn't specified as to what market, CDMA, TDMA, Analog, etc, this product addressed. In doing further DD, I pretty much narrowed it to be a spread spectrum technology so that leads me to believe it may be CDMA, PCS related.
Much to my surprise, apparently it's for real because the CEO was certain that it would generate revenues for them in 2000. I wasn't quite sure if Kealy(CEO) was referring to the product generating revenues via it's capability to prevent dropped calls in tunnels or it's ability to boost data rates over a mobile connection.
Their wireless products fall under a recently purchased company, Aerocom. The product breaks down into three purposes/products. Ultra-Q Filter, Bi-Directional Amplifier, and a Rolling Booster Amplifier. Each with it's own purpose. My intepretation is as follows.
Ultra-Q Filter- This pushes out external signals and purifies the main signal. So this results in fewer dropped calls and more data capability. What was especially interesting was they are pursuing use of this product in HFC networks. Apparently in the C(coaxial) segment of transmission.
Bi-directional- This aspect of their product was unclear to me. Apparently the CLECs and REITs(I'm pretty sure he said REITs. Maybe he meant residential/office buildings) have a need for it. The bi-directional ability of the Aerocomm products makes it possible to create wireless LANs. Sorry to be so vague in this aspect, but it's the part I really didn't follow. I'll do another listen to the CC to clarify.
Rolling Booster Amplifiers- Now this one was easy. It makes it possible to avoid dropped calls, and apparently data connections. While on a high speed transport device. Such as a high speed train.
Well from what I gather there are some claims to fame for this Aerocomm product. First and probably foremost to wireless SPs, it's cheap. Second is it does more because it is programmable. Programmability was emphasized. Third is it's size. They can provide these solutions in a package the size of a cigarette box.
So the information above, may explain IFCI's recent dominance over other brain/brawn companies I follow? I posted a ton of info on IFCI upstream and the CC, although slightly confusing (Three to Five divisions), contained a great deal of information.
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Except for the above, the rest of the CC could have been a Dycom broadcast or a Mastec. Just the same optimism I've seen in other brain/brawn companies. IFCI felt the demand was so strong that there is plenty of opportunity for other players, such as the, "well run," Dycom and Mastec. Kealy also made statements as if IFCI was the one to be able to pick and choose it's contracts. Which I've heard before from other companies in the same space.
Another note of interest, the division that caused their stock price to get spanked in October 99, was shut down. They said they didn't need any low margin utility business when the telecom business was so strong. I made reference to their warning in a post I did back in October.
Other items of note not available in the press release. Their top 6 customer list. Again a nice break between copper and coaxial. The icing on the cake may be the wireless SPs. Mobile wireless to be precise:
AT&T
PF.Net
Cox Communications
Level Three
Cablevision
Adelphia
IFCI has a backlog today that surpasses all their revenues for 1999. Dycom, being a $1 billion revenue company, also maintains a backlog today greater than there one year run rate. I am not sure what Mastec's is.
One more footnote. PF.Net is quite an interesting company. It's a carrier's carrier that is in direct partnership with AT&T and has some big players behind it. It's creating a nationwide parallel network (T's RoW) to AT&Ts. I don?t quite understand the deal between PF.Net and T, but what's important is PF.Net is turning into IFCI's largest customer.
Well I was going to post the stats from the CC, but the above information is really the only important stuff. The rest of the information can be taken off the Q4 press release. -MikeM(From Florida) |
