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

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (9003)	12/6/2000 5:06:35 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14638

Record debt deal for British Telecom By Rachel Koning, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 1:52 PM ET Dec 5, 2000 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- British Telecommunications PLC sold $10 billion in bonds on Tuesday, the largest dollar-denominated offering to ever hit the corporate debt market. The sale of the bonds, with maturities running five, 10 and 30 years, is second only in size to the $14.6 billion multi-denominational offering launched earlier this year by Deutsche Telekom (DT: news, msgs) . Proceeds will go to pay off short-term debt held by the United Kingdom's largest phone company and to buy third-generation mobile phone licenses -- the reason that telecom operators have been busy flooding the corporates market this year. Traders said the British Telecom deal was well-subscribed -- particularly so since the company fattened up yields in order to lure investors in light of the default-blemished state of the corporate bond market. Agreeable terms Against this backdrop, British Telecom (BTY: news, msgs) offered as much as 25 basis points more in yield should its debt be downgraded two or more notches. The heavily indebted company announced its total paper outstanding will reach $43.3 billion by March, up from $27 billion at the end of September, before slipping to just under $29 billion the end of 2001. The company sold $3.1 billion of 7.625 percent 5-year notes yielding 7.664 percent, $3 billion of 8.125 percent 10-year notes yielding 8.149 percent, and $2.8 billion of 8.625 percent 30-year bonds yielding 8.687 percent. The respective yields were 225, 265 and 300 basis points above those on U.S. Treasurys with similar maturities, traders said. British Telecom also sold $1.1 billion of three-year floating-rate notes. Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's have this year cut the telecom carrier's senior unsecured debt ratings to "A2" and "single-A," respectively. Both are considered medium investment grades, with Moody's outlook for the company's debt "stable" and S&P's "negative." Rachel Koning is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (9003)	12/6/2000 11:32:31 PM
From: jack bittner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14638

not i, ken. i'm worried that wireless is a trojan horse. i have somewhere a brief article from the NY Times that the Feds and some national wireless carriers' organization will come out with a study some time next year on the effect of that old bugaboo: microwaves on the brain. i know, that's been bruited about for years and never even close to proved. but the report's coming is inevitable and scientists love caveats. of course Bush and company will do their but to muffle it, and the worries of a professional worrier like me can generally be disregarded. i do hold fon and wcom, but not enough to be hurt by a report-caused downdraft.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (9003)	12/7/2000 9:33:10 PM
From: WiseGuy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14638

>> Does anybody else agree with me that wireless is the big sleeper for Nortel. I notice Verizon and British Telecom are floating big bond issues. Both companies are big wireless customers of Nortel. << Absolutely agree. Also very wise for John Roth to be emphasizing wireless on CBC NewsWorld, especially there's so much 'perceived' cloud now over optical. People now have another strong reason to buy NT today and that is wireless. Soon, the optical cloud will clear up and NT will be seen as a two-headed monster. CSCO will once again try to catch up like it is doing so in optical. NT leading the way. Now, if only the stock starts to lead the way up, then all of us would feel much better.