Tom, what WDM products does ORTL sell? I know they have a joint venture R&D project,but no products scheduled until late 1998. ORTL is selling linear laser repeaters,a very good product,with high demand for PCS.
As far as HLIT,the 21st Century install in Chicago in not only a WDM instllation,splitting analog and digital signals,allowing 110 channels of analog T.V,and 20 channels of digital data. This is already in production and is a digital installation. It seems that the smaller,less leveraged companies,that want a state of the art distributed star topology,will go to HLIT.
21st Century is building a distributed ring-star (DRS) network based on
a state-of-the-art fiber architecture. This architecture, incorporating
Harmonic Lightwaves' transmission and element management equipment, will
provide advanced network capabilities for delivering high quality video,
voice and data services to customers along Chicago's lakefront from
Evanston to Hyde Park.
This new build represents the first deployment of a full duplex wave
division multiplexed approach to voice, data and video services. By
using Harmonic's product line, the 21st Century network will be able to
provide narrowcasting to node service areas, allowing delivery of
targeted services such as high speed Internet access.
biz.yahoo.com
The problem is there are not many cable companies in the U.S. willing to step up and spend the money. HLIT is selling the digital products,and integrating the New Media product line this quarter. Remember they are one of the few companies that have been tested for interoperability by Cable Labs,and are MCNS approved.
The strength in ORTL,is due mainly to 2 things. Fidelity bought a huge stake in ORTL around 6 months ago,at about 11. The other is the hype around WDM,especially DWDM. IF you have that acronym associated with your companies name it is worth at least a 50% premium.
Both companies are excellent small fiber optic concerns,will ORTL slip this quarter like HLIT? Is this a long term problem for either company? I don't personally think so,will ORTL knowif they are going to miss this quarter? I don't think they even know,as most tech companies back end load the quarters.
Tim |
