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Technology Stocks : Newbridge Networks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nord who wrote (9548)	2/12/1999 6:14:00 AM
From: Glenn McDougall	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18016

Newbridge loses bulk of multimillion-dollar contract Friday, February 12, 1999 TYLER HAMILTON Technology Reporter Newbridge Networks Corp. has lost most of an estimated $333-million contract with WIC Connexus that was to be its springboard into a lucrative U.S. market and a major plank in its push to diversify its product line. Industry sources say Cisco Systems Inc. has won most, if not all, of the contract to supply equipment for Connexus' high-capacity wireless network. Newbridge was awarded its estimated two-thirds share of the four-year, $500-million contract -- one of two in that product line -- last August. San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco supplies telecommunications networking equipment to Shaw Communications Inc., which owns 52 per cent of WIC Western International Communications Ltd., the parent company of Connexus. Newbridge spokesman Paul Goyette acknowledged that his company's relationship with Connexus is changing. But he said Kanata, Ont.-based Newbridge will still supply a portion of the equipment and will bid for future contracts as Connexus builds its network. Another Newbridge spokesman said the company had not calculated the contract's value into its revenue forecast. At the time of the Connexus deal in August, Newbridge announced a similar contract with MaxLink Communications Inc. worth $400-million, although Newbridge was to receive only about two-thirds of that amount. The Connexus contract would be worth about 5 per cent of Newbridge's total revenue, based on its latest quarter. While Newbridge still has the MaxLink deal in hand, analysts say the loss of the Connexus business is a serious blow for the company, which has been looking for ways to diversify its product line, primarily equipment for land-based communication networks. Richard Woo, a telecommunications analyst with Thomson Kernaghan & Co. in Montreal, said letting such a large contract slip through Newbridge's fingers takes credibility away from its business strategy. "They relied on those two deals as a credibility booster." The loss also raises questions about Newbridge's future revenue growth. Sales of its earliest product lines have slowed considerably. The company issued a surprise earnings warning earlier this month, blaming sluggish sales in Asia and Latin America. Connexus officials did not return calls yesterday. Connexus selected Newbridge, along with Alcatel SA, in August as its leading provider of equipment for its high-capacity wireless network -- which, when up and running, will be capable of providing telephone, data and Internet services over the same wireless link. Newbridge was going to use the Connexus and MaxLink deals to showcase its technology in the U.S., which recently licenced companies to roll out similar networks. Joel Bell, deputy chairman of MaxLink, said his company's arrangement with Newbridge is still solid and that the roll-out of MaxLink's national wireless network is right on schedule. "No one is in a mature state here, but we're quite happy," he said. Another analyst, who wished to remain nameless, said Connexus may have chosen Cisco over Newbridge because of problems with the Canadian company's technology. He said Connexus spent about $30-million trying to get the Newbridge technology to work, but scrapped everything because engineers couldn't find a way to break down the wireless "pipe" into smaller channels that carry their own streams of data. Mr. Goyette denied that there was a problem with Newbridge's technology and said the capability to "channelize" the wireless links is available. He added that MaxLink, however, does not have that capability currently built into its network. The Connexus and MaxLink networks -- dubbed LMCS (Local Multipoint Communications Systems) -- together have been touted as the third lane on the information highway. LMCS uses high-frequency radio waves to replace fibre-optic lines and has been touted as a future alternative to both local telephone and cable television companies. But some industry experts say LMCS -- and the companies that have been licenced by Industry Canada to roll it out -- just hasn't fulfilled its promises. "They've taken so long to get it off the ground," said Liz Anglus, an analyst with Angus TeleManagement in Ajax, Ont. "The head start they thought they had is rapidly dwindling." Newbridge shares were buoyant most of the day, but fell sharply in the last hour of trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock dropped to $40 at the close from $41.95 at 3 p.m., with nearly a million shares changing hands during that time.

To: nord who wrote (9548)	2/12/1999 10:29:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18016

Nord -- Another key piece to the puzzle fits into place. Sorry if this was posted during my absence, but I just now had it brought to my attention: >>> TeleHub Technologies Launches Ground-Breaking Service Creation Software For ATM Switches GURNEE, IL, Jan. 20, 1999 - To meet the growing demand for high- bandwidth, switched voice and data over a single network architecture, TeleHub Technologies Corporation (TTC) today announced the commercial availability of a sophisticated new software signaling management and control product designed for ATM switch vendors and multi-service network access providers. Marketed under the name PathMinder™, the control software will be provided to Siemens Information and Communications Networks to enhance the company's MainStreetXpress ATM line under a three-year, multi-million dollar contract. PathMinder™ is a first-to-market industry solution that controls and manages voice communications over ATM within the public switched telephone network, with the service quality and reliability of traditional voice networks. The software is client-server based and designed to automate the provisioning of services and signaling connections normally performed by intelligence based in network hardware. The software collects the necessary information from Signaling System 7 (SS7) and ATM standard interfaces to setup calls across an ATM network, as well as send necessary provisioning and connection commands to various network elements. This enables network customers to provision services quickly, gain competitive advantages by reducing their time to market, and provide multiple services transparently, while network managers monitor, track and complete billing records of all transactions in millisecond increments. In addition, TeleHub's PathMinder™ software was developed to offer major switch vendors and service providers with a migration path to provide next generation, on-demand voice/data switching and service capabilities through data-base technology rather than having to rely on existing network-based solutions or local legacy networks, according to TeleHub. "TeleHub created PathMinder™ to empower carriers to create specialized voice services that complement traditional telephony services, while also offering flexibility and speed-to-market for creating and provisioning the future data applications the market is demanding today," said John Strand, president of TeleHub Technologies Corporation. "Our software will help switch vendors, and ultimately, carriers, reduce their time-to-market for customized software creation from 12 months to 12 minutes." "Our contract with Siemens is the first, in what we hope will be a series of many agreements, that represent the classic case of next-generation software meets cutting-edge hardware," said Strand. "Siemens is the leading ATM switch vendor in the market today and we are very pleased they have chosen to work with TeleHub. We look forward to the opportunity to help others in the industry deliver the emerging voice and data services that businesses and competitive providers are going to require," said Strand. TeleHub's software was developed and tested over the company's ATM backbone network, with the vision of providing carriers an efficient way to provide on-demand voice and data services -- with real-time network monitoring, management and billing capabilities -- over a single, high-speed network capable of handling multimedia services. Based on TeleHub's Virtual Access Services Platform (VASP) technology, PathMinder™ was developed by the company to demonstratethe feasibility of using advanced signaling concepts in a switched, broadband network, while maintaining high levels of reliability and service quality. Future software enhancements are planned to include adapting the software for other customer product lines who have unique ATM switches and are looking for data and voice technology and service provisioning functionality for carrying multi-services over a single network architecture. Pricing for PathMinder™ is based on a two-tier system--the initial operating system and the number of network transactions it must support, according to TeleHub. Pricing will range from a little under $2 million to approximately $10 million, which includes the basic operations system, customization and required features, network transactions, installation and testing. ______________________________________________________ >>>>