Kenneth,
I'd guess that it will be similar to the At&T / LU relationship although maybe slightly stronger. T is inclined to buy from LU due to the past, however they are going to buy from whomever provides the best solution. That is why NT is now in the running. I think SBC/Ameritech will have special influence on NT's direction and so may be more inclined to do business with NT.
The bottom line from my perspective is this:
Five years ago it was pretty clear that networking was going to be growing substantially and businesses would be installing plenty of networking equipment. But at that time, there was no clear "killer app" that would steepen the adoption curve. Today things have radically changed. The WWW/Internet have become the catalyst for the "killer app" and it is easy to see what not only businesses will adopt networking but why entire countries and continents will adopt networking in *all* of its forms. i.e. LAN, WAN, Wireless, Fiber Optics, Switches, Routers, PBXs, Cellular, Cable Modems, xDSL, Etherloop, etc... anything and everything that will provide communication via voice, video, or data. ... in other words it is:
C O M E ... T O G E T H E R
R I G H T ... N O W
O V E R ... NT
We are at the brink of a massive world wide upgrade cycle where countries and businesses will be competing with each other for e-commerce and Business-to-Business opportunities. These require fast internet access which in turn require a completely new infrastructure. NT is right in the middle of all of this and has the technologies RIGHT NOW to provide this infrastructure. We also have global recognition at the product level. From a stock price point of view, we need to translate that into global recognition at the company level. In other words make Nortel Networks a household name.
Cruiser |
