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Technology Stocks : Stratex Networks, Inc. (STXN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rob Preuss who wrote (1192)	10/31/2000 5:45:36 PM
From: Luke	Respond to of 1762

I have a problem listen to it also. Thanks for the brief. Which the new products are coming next year and the market is coming back. I hope for a new high in 6 months. Luke.

To: Rob Preuss who wrote (1192)	11/2/2000 5:50:34 PM
From: Rob Preuss	Respond to of 1762

I just got off the phone with Shawn McFall, VP Marketing for DMC Stratex Networks... I had a number of questions pertaining to new product plans and he took some time to try and answer them for me. 1. I asked about the rumored 3 Gbps (500 MHz) product. This rumor was started by "fun_da_mental_man" on the Yahoo! thread where he reported on what he heard while listening to the recent Prudential Securities telecom conference. I've been unable to find an audio replay of the conference so I can't confirm/deny anything re: what was/wasn't said. Shawn didn't make an outright denial that such a product was being developed or planned... but his remarks were certainly intended to let me believe that no such product was on the horizon at this time. I guess I'm content to believe (for now) that no such product is being developed. 2. I asked about their new 311 Mbps and 622 Mbps products which they intend to roll-out starting in March 2001. The roll-out of these products is expected to be much faster than the Altium roll-out. Initially, they'll introduce the 311 Mbps product at high "millimeter-wave" frequencies (26 Ghz, 28 GHz, 38 GHz) because the market demand for these ultra-high-capacity products is at these higher frequencies. They may never roll-out ultra-high capacity products at the lowest frequencies simply because, even with spectral efficiency, these products need quite a lot of bandwidth (56 MHz for the 311 Mbps product) and operators/customers usually don't own enough bandwidth at these lowest frequencies. Overall, the full-range of 311 Mbps products should be available within 6-9 months after they are introduced in March 2001. The 622 Mbps products should be introduced around June-Sept 2001 and should follow a similar roll-out... beginning with the higher frequencies and the full product line being available 6-9 months after they are introduced. Shawn easily confirmed that these would be introduced as P-P products but he did not so easily confirm that a P-MP version of the 622 Mbps product would be forthcoming. While he made no outright denial, I could not get him to tell me anything specific about their P-MP plans. I would be greatly disappointed if they did not introduce their own P-MP product (or acquire a company, such as Ensemble Communications, that has a good P-MP product) by the end of calendar year 2001. Shawn confirmed that these new products would be based upon their velocity chip set. He also mentioned that they will be introducing a new version of their popular DX-R radio, which offers DS3 (45 Mbps) capacity, based upon the velocity chip set... these DS3 products are their hottest selling products right now and, looking into the future, the demand trend is toward higher capacity products like their Altium products, which offer OC3 (155 Mbps) capacity. He mentioned that their are two reasons to design their products with the velocity chip set: (1) lower manufacturing cost, which helps them maintain or increase their product margins, and (2) more rapid development of new solutions/products. Shawn believes the velocity chip set helps them reduce their time-to-market which, in turn, helps them maintain or increase their competitive edge. Its not clear at this time how long they'll be using the velocity chip set... that is, whether in future years they'll be developing enhanced versions of this chip set... that will depend on what chip sets are commercially available at the time - its a "make or buy" sort of decision. Shawn confirmed for me that these ultra-high-capacity products will likely have higher margins than Altium. Moreover, he felt that the sale of these new products would NOT cannibalize their Altium sales... they are more-or-less complementary to the Altium products... For example: a customer using several Altium or DX-R radios (e.g., to reach a client's building) might need 1 or 2 of these higher-capacity products to carry all that data back to a fiber facility. So my guess is that, 12-15 months from now, they'll sell 15 OC12 (622 Mbps) radios and 30 OC6 (311 Mbps) radios for every 100 OC3 (155 Mbps) radios they sell. That's about it... Rob