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To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (16864)	2/4/2000 8:45:00 PM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

Dropped circuits, session timeouts hit Qwest frame relay net By David Rohde Network World, 02/04/00 Qwest has confirmed that its frame relay and ATM users suffered numerous dropped circuits and other disruptions over an 11-day period ending last weekend. The problem was caused by a combination of an apparently overloaded transport circuit in Qwest's intercity network and processing speeds on Qwest's Lucent frame/ATM switches that were too slow for the amount of user traffic coming in. As a result, between Jan. 18 and 29, some users saw individual permanent virtual circuits (PVC) go down for up to several hours at a time when rerouting routines failed to kick in quickly enough. Others saw time-sensitive applications, such as SNA traffic, time out even though their PVCs were technically still up and running. To fix the problem, Qwest confirms that it literally forklifted out its Lucent frame/ATM switch in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 22, and replaced it with a newer model. It then changed out the processing cards on the rest of its switches, and also lit three new OC-12 segments for use by frame and ATM customers. No users have reported to Network World that they saw their entire WANs go down. And it appears many Qwest customers got by totally unscathed. But the incident comes on the heels of complaints that Qwest has fallen behind on installation intervals and customer service as its sales force generates loads of new customer traffic. Some users say Qwest's response again followed this pattern. One user based in the Northeast who asked not to be identified says that at one point he kept losing connectivity with three of his frame relay sites for "five to 20 minutes out of every hour." Several days into the incident, the user says, Qwest reps told him to stop reporting trouble because the company had opened a master ticket for all the complaints they were receiving. "They told us not to call anymore when it happened, because there was nothing they could do for us," he says. The incident began Jan. 18 when Qwest engineers isolated several reported failures of frame PVCs to an OC-12 link between Atlanta and Fort Worth, Qwest spokesman Tyler Gronbach says. Because the traffic was not being rerouted properly, the carrier added the three additional OC-12 links, but then it noticed an unusual number of errors coming out the Los Angeles switch, again relating to attempts to move traffic to alternate routes. It was not immediately clear whether the problem in that switch was triggered by the network slowdown in the East or was coincidental. Gronbach concedes that Qwest had been due to upgrade to faster processor units for all its Lucent switches later in the year. Analysts took that cue to absolve Lucent of blame for the incident, instead noting that Qwest will probably have to install many new switches to meet its sizzling growth rate. Fourth-quarter voice and data service sales reached $1.16 billion, a 73% increase over the previous year. Many of Qwest's frame/ATM switches have been using older versions of Lucent's hardware and software, and such problems can happen to any carrier "whenever they are having to roll out the switches so quickly," says Steven Taylor, president of Distributed Networking Associates in Greensboro, N.C. Other analysts had a harsher reaction, charging that Qwest continues to sell more services than its network rollout and back-office support can handle. "If there was ever an award for marketing, it would have to go to Qwest," says Bob Morrison, president of the Morrison Group, a telecom user consultancy in Thousand Oaks, Calif. "But they should also get the biggest loser award for not looking ahead to all the capacity they're going to need." Southern California remains a hotbed of Qwest problems, he charges, citing one recent T-1 order that took up to 120 days and another that has not even received an installation date after 30 days. In any case, the recent frame and ATM problems were not limited to these areas. For example, one user cited dropped circuits for sites in Oregon, South Dakota, West Virginia and Ohio. Qwest officials decline to state how many frame relay switches they now have. A Lucent spokeswoman declined comment other than to say that the switches and processing units involved are "the same hardware that is used in many of the world's largest service-provider networks." Qwest's Gronbach says the company will honor the terms of its frame relay service-level agreement, conceding that a number of users' guarantees for network availability and latency were broken by the incident. networkworld.com

To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (16864)	2/4/2000 9:04:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

Companies News / Telecoms ALCATEL: Strong figures lift shares By David Owen in Paris Shares in Alcatel climbed sharply on Thursday after the French telecommunications equipment group announced a strong increase in 1999 operating income. Income from operations increased by 28 per cent in all to E1.28bn ($1.24bn) on revenues ahead more than 8 per cent to E23bn. Net income weighed in at E644m, or E3.44 a share, against E2.34bn in 1998 - a figure particularly affected by one-off items. The latest figures included other revenue of E925m, versus E2.21bn in the year-earlier period. This 1999 item, in turn, included a one-time pre-tax gain of E386m on the sale of a stake in Framatome, the French nuclear construction and connectors company. The shares in Paris closed ahead more than 12 per cent at E247.40. Alcatel, whose name has once again been linked in recent days with a possible takeover of Newbridge Networks, the Canadian telecoms equipment manufacturer, also said it was maintaining its operating margin target of 6.5 per cent for 2000. This implied "around a 30 per cent growth in operating income". One well-placed industry observer said Newbridge's core ATM switching technology was "finally finding its day in the sun" as more residential, as opposed to corporate, customers sought to access the internet via ADSL technology. "Anyone who is a big telecoms player - except Nortel, Cisco and Lucent - would have to be interested in Newbridge," the observer said. Serge Tchuruk, chairman, said that 1999 sales of the company, which has devoted much energy in recent quarters to its attempt to reposition itself as a force in the fast-growing internet market, were driven by strong advances in optical and data networking activities. He said the company anticipated "revenue growth in the mid-teens for our four telecoms segments in 2000". Softness in energy cables markets might, however, reduce overall growth to "the lower teens". The board is to submit for shareholder approval distribution of a net dividend of E2.20 a share and a five-for-one stock split. The divisional breakdown was as follows: networking - operating income of E389m on sales of E7.13bn; internet and optics - income of E402m on sales of E5.6bn; enterprise and consumer - income of E39m on sales of E3.74bn; telecom components - income of E330m on sales of E3.36bn; and energy cables - income of E110m on sales of E3.64bn.

To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (16864)	2/4/2000 10:54:00 PM
From: paulk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

ZO "Alcatel SA of France says it plans to make more investments in North America so that it can take business away from its key competitors," Here they say they're buying co's in north america----important point here. this includes Canada. "Alcatel has been trying to make a serious foray into the lucrative U.S. market"---- in this statement they identify the U.S. I thought these two statements where they on one hand speak of North America and then the U.S. Lead me to believe They're eyeing something in Canada. paul