The Street . COM ===========
For companies like Cisco(CSCO), VMware(VMW) and EMC(EMC), and Aviat Networks(AVNW), smartphones will likely equal dollar signs in the very near future.
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Aviat Networks Stock price: $6.62
12-month stock performance: Up 50%
Wireless specialist Aviat recently told TheStreet that smartphones and next-generation networks are helping drive its business.
Among its portfolio of products, Aviat provides managed network services, which aim to ease the pressure on services providers' infrastructures. With a limited amount of spectrum available for wireless services, firms in the telecom sector are looking for ways to boost bandwidth and data services -- ideally without breaking the bank.
Network Operations Centers, or NOCS, are key to this effort. RIM, for example, uses its own NOCs to maintain high service levels for BlackBerry users, and Motorola(MOT) has also been ramping up its NOC efforts.
Creating a NOC from scratch, however, is something that most companies would rather avoid says Matt Thornton, an analyst at Avian Securities. "You're not going to build out your own NOC because it's massively capital intensive," he told TheStreet.
With its own NOC in North Carolina, Aviat says that it can offload the burden of operating and managing service provider networks, something that could prove crucial in the smartphone explosion. |