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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (8078)	8/21/2000 5:57:23 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

SBC warns on broadband Could that be part of a "Embrace and destroy" campaign from SBC? Picture that: With news such as those, these CLECS will start finding hard to get money to build. By association, they start being negatively affected by SBC's problems. (OK, you can call me Machiavellian) SBC warns on broadband By Richard Waters in New York Published: August 20 2000 22:48GMT \| Last Updated: August 21 2000 04:11GMT SBC Communications alerted Wall Street analysts and key investors late on Friday to a sharp slow-down in the growth of its important broadband communications business, though it did not issue a public statement. The US telecommunications company's decision to limit the distribution of the news came only a week after the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a rule intended to force companies to share important news with all investors. In a note sent only to analysts and investors, the company warned that take-up of its broadband DSL service had slowed since the beginning of June, said one analyst who received the information. The note added that SBC still expected to reach its target of 1m customers by the end of the year. "It just went out to investors; I don't know that it's necessarily newsworthy," said an SBC spokesman. However, the progress of the DSL business, where SBC has been the most aggressive of the US local carriers, has become a matter of concern on Wall Street with signs that a number of companies have failed to grow as fast as expected. Rumours of problems in SBC's DSL business had contributed to a fall of more than 5 per cent in the company's shares on Friday. The note to analysts, issued after the market closed on Friday, was intended to clarify these rumours, the company said. According to one analyst who spoke to SBC officials, since the beginning of July the company has been attracting new DSL customers at only a third of the rate it managed in the previous three months. It blamed the decline on problems with equipment and hitches associated with transfering the business into a new subsidiary. The losses would make it difficult for SBC to hit the original target of 1m DSL customers by year-end, this analyst said. "There has been a slow-down but we're not changing our guidance [for the full-year target]," said the SBC spokesman. SBC also pointed in its guidance to a surprisingly fast start in its long-distance business. Since being allowed by regulators to sell long-distance services in its home state of Texas five weeks ago, SBC has signed up more than 500,000 customers, or around 7 per cent of that market. That compares with the three months that it took Verizon, another Baby Bell, to sell the same number of lines in its home state of New York. more from ft.com Lex: US telecoms Verizon sees further woe ahead August 8 2000