Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (22451)	2/11/1999 8:01:00 PM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 77397

Don't tell Jach but: WIC Unit Axes Big Contract With Newbridge By Sarah Edmonds TORONTO (Reuters) - WIC Western International Communications Ltd. unit WIC Connexus has axed a lucrative contract it awarded to Newbridge Networks Ltd. for wireless communications equipment, sources close to the deal said. WIC awarded Newbridge and France's Alcatel Alsthom contracts for the wireless infrastructure equipment worth a total of C$450 million to C$500 million in August of last year. The source said the deal was worth roughly C$250 million to Newbridge. Newbridge confirmed that there had been changes to the deal but said that it had not factored in a significant revenue flow from the deal in its forecasts. ''WIC Connexus has communicated to us that our agreement with them is changing,'' said John Lawlor, spokesman for Kanata, Ontario-based Newbridge. ''It is early business. It's an early business and in our forecasting I can say that there's been virtually no dollars put into our forecasts for this specific piece of business.'' WIC Connexus had planned to use the equipment to provide communications, including local and long-distance telephone service, Internet connections and data links, to customers who could not afford sophisticated communications services. The technology is known as local multipoint distribution system communications. ''Essentially it gives you, using those microwave frequencies, the ability to have a large-bandwidth communication path between buildings or between buildings and a cell site and the content of that could be telephony, it could be Internet, it could be e-commerce, it could be video,'' said Mike Connolly, Industry Canada director of spectrum management. But according to a source close to the agreement, WIC Connexus' plans for a nation-wide roll-out of local multipoint communications services have been significantly scaled back since parent WIC Western was taken over by Shaw Communications Inc. (NYSE:SJR - news) WIC Connexus executives were unavailable for comment. ''First of all, the definition of the build-out at least in the immediate timeframe, the foreseeable future, has changed quite significantly,'' the source said. Shaw may also be looking to award some of WIC Connexus equipment contracts to the preferred Shaw vendor, U.S.-based Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news), the source said. An analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity said that he had heard rumors that clients were having trouble making the technology fit the bill. ''(It runs at) 1.5 megabits per second. The problem apparently is that they could not get down to lower speeds than that. And if you as a client can lease a T-1 (trunk telephone) line from Bell Canada for next to nothing, why would you pay to have a wireless one?'' the analyst said. He said that ideally the customer would ''chop'' the bandwidth into sections or channels, allowing a number of contiguous systems to be run at the same time. Newbridge shares finished down 40 cents Canadian at C$40 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and up 12.5 cents at $27.125 on the New York Stock Exchange despite a rally which lifted many technology shares on both sides of the border. dailynews.yahoo.com