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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: grinder965 who wrote (6628)	1/27/2001 12:14:54 PM
From: quartersawyer	Respond to of 196578

Operators must restructure to survive - Yankee report By Ray Le Maistre, Total Telecom 26 January 2001 European carriers that stand still and do not revamp their operations and strategy will lose out and even go out of business, according to a Yankee Group Europe report released Friday. "The carriers who survive through 2001 will be those who spin off under-performing businesses, or restructure to maximize revenue growth and profitability," says Camille Mendler, director of the Convergent Communications Europe service at Yankee Group in London. "They will have to demonstrate clear and focused strategies, both for growing existing business and reducing debt to improve EBITDA. They will probably be carriers that do not try to be all things to all customers," she adds. Those non-incumbent carriers that have already restructured are in the best position. These include Viatel, which has refocused on mostly corporate and wholesale customers, and Interoute, which has shed its retail voice line of business in favor of wholesale business. The report lays some of the blame for the current crisis being experienced by operators with analysts and advisers. "Only a year or two ago many carriers, incumbent and start-up alike, were being encouraged by investors and financial analysts to spend, spend, spend to build out, bulk up, and grow at all costs. Profit be damned (or at least postponed)," writes report author Audrey Mandela, an independent telecoms consultant who often manages Yankee report projects. "What a difference a year makes. Today, some carriers see their very survival threatened by a newly hostile equity market that demands profitability, high revenue growth, and service specialization - now." But the report warns that not all carriers will successfully reinvent themselves, and that the decision to focus on wholesale service provision "may emerge as a knee-jerk reaction with its own dangers." What of the future though? Mandela believes that equipment vendors will come under greater pressure to help fund further network build-out, and that those carriers that cannot secure vendor finance may have to rein back or halt their build-out plans for the time being. "I think more carriers will look for vendor financing, but I'm not sure there are many that would be able to provide much in the way of funding," Mandela told Total Telecom. "Cisco is probably in the best position to offer funding, as it has cash in the bank. And maybe Nortel - its strategy is a bit all over the place at the moment but it is not suffering like some of the other [equipment manufacturers]. Nokia and Siemens are also possibilities. It is possible that operators' choice of equipment [supplier] may be influenced by whether the vendor can also provide finance," said Mandela. She added that it would probably be easier to determine which companies would survive the current conditions, and which would be bought or go out of business, by the middle of 2001. Copies of the report can be requested by e-mailing nfroud@yankeegroup.com.

To: grinder965 who wrote (6628)	1/27/2001 4:32:08 PM
From: cfoe	Respond to of 196578

On the subject of the problems facing the telecom industry, I recommend listening to Leo Hindrey, recently ex-CEO of GX speaking at the CIBC World Markets conference on 1/17/01. It can be found by going to www.ON24.com, click on the conferences tab and scroll down to that conference link. I think it relates to our favorite stock in the following ways: 1 - It addresses the larger industry QCOM participates in; and some of its "customers," the SPs. 2 - Hindrey mentions wireless a few times as one of the important parts of the future of telecommunications. Even though I am sure his references to wireless must relate a lot to fixed wireless, with an improving HDR QCOM will be playing here too. 3 - Finally, he is a compelling speaker, and provides strong evidence for his views - they are worth hearing.