NN equipment has great inter-operability and the RBOC's can buy it without feeling that they are helping a potential competitor.
The other side of the argument says the giants who can offer an end-to-end solution will pad one part of a contract in order to squeeze a competitor in another. Not a game for shallow pockets. Cisco's notorious and yet, quickly changing sides, I know they've ended up with egg on their face when they couldn't deliver --- case in point their DSL with USWest.
NN has a respectable war chest and I trust the management knows how to use it.
Here's an announcement that will have positive repercussions if the SBC/Ameritech merger goes through:
<<<
January 13, 1999 12:45
Ameritech to Invest $3 Billion in Capital Expenditures for Communications Networks During 1999
Infrastructure Investments, Impact on Midwestern Economy Detailed
CHICAGO, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on its record as the Midwest's leading investor, Ameritech (NYSE: AIT) plans to invest $3 billion in capital in its communications networks in 1999. Customers' needs for communications services are at an all-time high, and these investments will enable Ameritech to meet rising demand for all types of communications services.
"No company invests more to bring leading-edge communications services to customers in the Midwest," said Tom Richards, Ameritech executive vice president. "Our $3 billion investment represents a 50 percent increase compared with just five years ago, as we deepen our commitment to the Midwest."
About $2 billion will be targeted at enhancing the company's core communications networks with half of the total supporting data networks. An additional $1 billion will be devoted to infrastructure to provide wireless communications, cable TV, security monitoring, advanced data and Internet services.
"The days when a customer relied on the communications network only to make a phone call are over," Richards added. "Today, customers want and expect to make calls from phones without wires, receive TV programming from cable, send e-mail messages around the world and access the Internet -- and they want these services in the blink of an eye."
Joining Richards to announce the company's 1999 investment plans was Ameritech Network Services President Zie Rivers. Rivers noted that Ameritech deployed more than 200,000 miles of fiber-optic cable in 1998 to bring it closer to customers' homes. The company also constructed hundreds of self- healing, highly reliable fiber Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) rings in major metropolitan areas and between communities, and it invested $600 million in new digital central office switches to transfer phone calls.
"We're committed to meeting the needs of customers -- fast speeds, additional lines and secure, reliable connections," Rivers said. "In a very real sense, we're the construction crew that's building and maintaining the information superhighway."
Ameritech's core communications network now includes:
-- more than 1.7 million miles of fiber-optic cable, with an additional
300,000 miles of fiber expected to be deployed in 1999. Fiber optics
now reach within two miles of 95 percent of customers' homes and
businesses in Ameritech's service areas, which provides customers
higher speeds and more reliable service;
-- digital central office switches that now handle more than 90
percent of phone traffic;
-- more than 1,000 SONET rings to improve reliability;
-- 40 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switches, which process
high-speed data and voice calls as part of a family of 200
high-speed switches, some of which transmit messages by breaking the
information into data packets to then send it along the network via
different routes before re-assembling for the end user;
-- 40 points of presence where business customers can connect to the
high-speed network that Ameritech's advanced data services operates.
"Customers are using high-speed data connections as fast as we can build them," Rivers said. "Internet and overall data traffic has doubled every year the past few years." Rivers also said that Ameritech will separate some data traffic away from voice traffic as early as the second quarter of 1999, in order to improve network efficiency and reliability.
"We've also boosted the capability of our NAP -- the Internet Network Access Point -- to handle even faster speeds. By mid-year, the NAP will likely be to the Internet as what O'Hare is to airports -- the busiest in the world," Rivers predicted.
Richards pointed out that capital expenditures are only one part of Ameritech's $9 billion economic commitment to Midwestern communities. He noted that:
-- company payroll is one of the largest in the region at $2.7 billion;
-- purchases, including network equipment, totaled $5.5 billion;
-- Ameritech paid more than $1 billion in property, sales use, gross receipts, franchise and state income taxes in 1998;
-- contributions from the Ameritech Foundation in 1998 were more than $26 million to 5,026 educational, civic, cultural, and health and human services groups;
-- more than 13,000 Ameritech employees and retirees contributed over 300,000 volunteer hours to more than 3,200 projects.
"When you add it all up," Richards emphasized, "Ameritech's annual economic contribution in the Midwest is more than $9 billion. That's a substantial commitment and a standard we expect to continue."
Ameritech (NYSE: AIT) serves millions of customers in 50 states and 40 countries. Ameritech provides a full range of communications services including local and long-distance telephone and data, cellular, paging, security, cable TV, Internet and more. One of the world's 100 largest companies, Ameritech (www.ameritech.com) has 71,000 employees, 1 million shareowners and more than $29 billion in assets.
SOURCE Ameritech
/CONTACT: Frank Mitchell of Ameritech, 847-248-6155, or pager,
800-800-9725, or e-mail, frank.v.mitchell@ameritech.com/
>>>> |
