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Technology Stocks : Alcatel (ALA) and France -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (3671)	10/30/2001 9:42:30 PM
From: zbyslaw owczarczyk	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3891

Varizon and DSL: biz.yahoo.com DSL: * Verizon added 135,000 DSL lines in the third quarter and ended the period with approximately 975,000 lines in service -- a 625,000-line year-over-year increase. Average installation intervals have been cut in half, resulting in improved customer satisfaction. * On Oct. 17, Verizon announced it had surpassed a total of 1 million DSL customers, representing 85 percent year-to-date growth, and the company is targeting 1.2 to 1.3 million DSL subscribers by year-end. * Approximately 32.8 million of Verizon's 62.0 million access lines nationwide are DSL-qualified. Verizon recently extended the reach of its DSL service to an additional 3.5 million lines, as the company continues to add capacity in its central offices to meet continued strong demand. Approximately 2,050 central offices are equipped to provide DSL. * Also on Oct. 17, Verizon Online, the company's Internet service provider, unveiled a fourth-quarter sales promotion for DSL service, including a three-month introductory rate of $29.95 per month. The promotion also includes a free modem, installation kit and digital camera.

To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (3671)	11/1/2001 3:39:52 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 3891

"Looking at Alcatel in the US, the market there is frankly bad," he said. "It looks like it will be down at the start of next year." news.ft.com

To: zbyslaw owczarczyk who wrote (3671)	11/1/2001 3:53:18 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3891

While Lucent and Nortel have halved their workforces, Alcatel has lagged behind in its efforts to bring costs into line COMMENTS: Exactly as I wrote in myposting: This is how it should be done: Message 16513379 with the shrinking market for telecommunications equipment. That reluctance has been justified in part by Alcatel's geographical weighting in Europe, where sales have held up better than in the US. Now it has acknowledged the need to go much further: another 10,000 jobs to go, on top of the 22,500 announced, all in Europe, where its excess capacity is most marked. This round of job cuts will be more expensive than those Alcatel has undertaken in the US, and may not feed through until well into the second half of next year. Still, by targeting a cost base that will enable it to break even on sales running at E5bn a quarter, Alcatel is showing a new realism. It sets the clock back to 1997 sales levels, where its old break-even target of E5.5bn a quarter rolled it back only to 1999. This is not all good news. If the axe is falling in Europe, that shows the downturn in capital expenditure is spreading to telecoms service providers there, too. This is not something one would detect from Alcatel's commentary on the third quarter, which attributes most of its woes to the US. Even with further dramatic improvements in working capital - Alcatel is expecting a drop of almost E1.2bn in the current quarter - it is not clear how the company will reduce its debt from E5.5bn to its target of E4bn by year end without asset sales. Alcatel Published: October 31 2001 20:16 \| Last Updated: October 31 2001 20:20 news.ft.com