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Technology Stocks : Nortel Networks (NT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bosco who wrote (5084)	3/21/2000 10:14:00 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Respond to of 14638

Excerpts from Bloomberg "Closely held CoreTek makes lasers that can be tuned like a radio to change the color of light they generate. Each color represents a wavelength that carries information on fiber-optic networks. The devices are an improvement over today's lasers, which are limited to a single color. Tunable lasers, part of a new breed of optical components, are becoming important as Nortel and rivals seek to boost the capacity of transmission systems. CoreTek lets Nortel streamline manufacturing by reducing the number of different lasers it makes to a handful from 160. Customers benefit from cheaper systems. ``Tunable lasers give you a big cost advantage,' said Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Paul Sagawa, who rates Nortel stock an ``outperform.' ``Reducing the cost of an optical system is a pretty big deal.' ...In fiber-optic networks, beams of different lasers are combined into a single stream using a technology known as dense wave-division multiplexing, or DWDM. The number of lasers in DWDM systems has risen to 96 today from 16 three years ago, boosting the capacity of each strand of glass fiber. Nortel plans to sell a system with 160 colors later this year. Nortel may be seeking to reduce its dependence on component suppliers like JDS Uniphase Corp., which is developing tunable lasers, Sagawa said. Nortel's sales of fiber-optic equipment rose 80 percent last year to more than $5 billion. By using tunable lasers, Nortel will be able to ship transmission systems faster. Previously, the company held up shipments because ran short on one of the lasers it needed for a DWDM system. ``Nortel has suffered from unavailability of parts before,' Sagawa said. ``They're savvy. They understand that there's going to be a lot of pressure on them.' Tunable lasers also promise to reduce the cost of maintaining a fiber-optic transmission system. Instead of having to stock dozens of different lasers as replacements, phone companies would only need a few on hand. Instantly Tunable Because CoreTek's lasers are instantly tunable, customers using them in optical systems will be able to add or replace colors as needed, CoreTek Chief Executive Parviz Tayebati said. He said tunable lasers being developed by rivals such as Sweden's Altitun AB can't be adjusted as fast. Nortel will sell CoreTek's lasers to other companies, including rivals, as well as use them in its own systems, Mumford said. quote.bloomberg.com