• In its quarterly conference call, WorldCom executives said they are confident in meeting 12-15% growth targets for the rest of the year.  Despite the slowing economy, they do not see further storms on the horizon that would hurt their business.  WorldCom will continue to focus on high-growth services, while MCI (which will be spun off) will focus on generating cash.
• Voice price floors introduced in October are having an effect – business voice rates have remained stable since Q3 2000.  Consumer rates per minute actually improved this quarter.  MCI experienced no significant pricing pressures from the RBOCs entering into long distance.  Consumer voice services are mostly being impacted by wireless substitution.
• WorldCom’s revenue growth in data services for the quarter (19%) was its best in a year. Data growth continues from all geographical regions and service types, including local and long-haul service, ATM, Frame Relay and private circuit connections.
• Internet services grew 35% year-over-year despite the well publicized implosion of dot-coms.  The company recently introduced IP VPNs and expects to see revenue growth here.
• Margins continue to improve, driven by new technologies that deliver reductions in operating costs and capital expenditures.  For Q1, capital expenditures of $2.1 billion were down in all areas of the network except data, where spending was flat.  The largest ongoing projects include OC-192 upgrades, expanding DWDM capacity, and overbuilds of OC-192 and OC-48 rings.  Total CAPEX spending forecasted for the whole year is $7.5-8.0 billion
• Regarding its fiber infrastructure, WorldCom said it is currently focused on adding wavelengths to its existing facilities.  Future build/buy decisions will be based on economics.

A replay of the conference call is available online  http://www.worldcom.com/investor_relations/events/

iBASIS REPORTS 291 MILLION MINUTES OF VOIP TRAFFIC IN Q1, UP 241%
iBasis carried 290.5 million minutes of VoIP traffic in Q1, up 241% over Q1 last year.  Revenue per minute declined slightly from 8.84 cents per minute in Q4 2000 to 8.52 cents in Q1 2001.  Approximately 82% of iBasis traffic originates in the US and terminates overseas.  The total number of PoPs in the iBasis Network rose to 540 compared to 426 at the end of Q4.  Overall Q1 revenue was $27.05 million and the company reported a net loss of $26.15 million, or $0.69 per share, prior to acquisition related costs.  The company announced a 15% workforce reduction to reduce its expenses.  http://www.ibasis.net/ 
iBasis, April 26, 2001

• iBasis operates the largest Cisco-powered IP telephony network

XO REVENUES UP 10% SEQUENTIALLY, COMPANY TRIMS EXPANSION PLANS, CAPEX SPENDING
XO Communications, which was formed through the merger of NEXTLINK and Concentric, reported quarterly revenue of $277.3 million, up 10% over Q4 and up 162% over Q1 2000.  There was a net loss of $77.1 million, or $1.31 per share.  XO plans to reduce its capital expenditure plans by approximately $2 billion over the next five years by unwinding its European expansion plans; delaying the lighting of its North American inter-city network; restructuring two previously announced agreements with Level 3 Communications; and by slowing a number of its planned expansions in its existing U.S. metro fiber networks.  More specifically, XO will cancel its planned purchase of metro and inter-city fiber networks in Europe from Level 3, sell certain transmission equipment it has purchased to Level 3 in exchange for a credit for lit wavelengths of inter-city capacity and give up certain rights to purchase a portion of the fibers installed in certain additional conduits in the Level 3 North American network.  Additionally, XO announced that Forstmann Little & Co., a leading private equity firm, has agreed to invest an additional $250 million in XO.  http://www.xo.com/news/66.html
XO Communications, April 26, 2001

• In July 1998, Level 3 Communications and INTERNEXT (now XO) announced a $700 million agreement covering the purchase 24 fibers and an empty conduit in Level 3’s 16,000-mile North American inter-city fiber network.  To date, more than 60 percent of this commitment has been purchased and paid for by XO.  As part of the new agreement, XO will become a broadband transport customer of Level 3 and will purchase $30 million worth of wavelength services on Level 3’s inter-city network.  XO’s existing leased network capacity will be migrated onto the new wavelength capacity obtained from Level 3 as soon as possible.

GENUITY TIGHTENS ITS SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS, OFFERS OC-48 INTERNET ACCESS
Genuity tightened the latency and packet loss provisions in its current Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for its dedicated US Internet backbone as follows:

• Packet loss measurement is reduced from 1 percent to 0.5 percent (average per month),
• Network latency measure is reduced from 65msecs to 55msecs (average per month).

Genuity also introduced an OC-48 Internet access service designed for both enterprise and wholesale customers.  The OC-48 offering includes a Direct Optical Cross-connect (DOC) process that provides customers direct access to Genuity's SONET infrastructure.
http://www.genuity.com/announcements/news/press_release_20010426-01.xml
Genuity, April 26, 2001

• In December, Genuity activated a 10 Gbps (OC-192c) IP/ DWDM network segment between Atlanta and Washington DC using Juniper Networks’ M160 routers and Nortel Networks' OPTera LH-4000 ultra-long-reach optics.  At the time, Genuity said it would shift its network architecture away from IP/SONET rings to an optically protected IP/DWDM mesh network.  In November, Genuity selected CIENA's MultiWave CoreDirector optical switches for its nationwide network.

QWEST TO BUILD NATIONAL ALL-OPTICAL EXPRESS NETWORK WITH CORVIS
Qwest Communications will deploy Corvis' CorWave ON products for a nationwide all-optical express network.  The deployment would eliminate electronic conversions in long-haul connections through the network, thereby driving down costs.  The announcement expands on an earlier contract under which Corvis will supply its CorWave LR DWDM system to Qwest.  The companies also agreed to an R&D partnership focused on OC-768 technologies based on Corvis’ 40-Gbps soliton transmission and Raman amplification products.  Financial terms were not disclosed.  http://www.corvis.com/news/release.cfm?num=128
Corvis, April 26, 2001

• Separately, Corvis reported Q1 revenue of $84 million, up from $46 million for the previous fiscal quarter ended December 30, 2000.  There was a net loss of $23 million, or $0.07 loss per share.  Revenues were generated by Corvis’ two-year contract with Broadwing Communications, and the completion of a successful field trial deployment with Williams Communications.
• Last year, Corvis acquired Algety Telecom, a start-up developing ultra high capacity, long-haul optical transport technology.  Algety Telecom, which is based in Lannion, France, is pioneering the first commercial soliton optical transmission system.  Solitons are specially shaped lightwave pulses that balance the effects of fiber dispersion and fiber non-linearity to allow higher bit rate transmission over longer distances than conventional systems.  Algety was founded in 1999 by a team of engineers out of CNET, the R&D arm of France Telecom.

MICROSOFT TO DELIVER MSN BROADBAND CONTENT OVER QWEST’S NETWORK
Microsoft and Qwest formed a strategic alliance to combine premium MSN Internet Access, content and services, with Qwest’s broadband Internet network and telecommunications services.  Under the deal, Qwest will exclusively market MSN Internet Access and services to new and existing customers in its 14-state local service area.  Beginning this summer, 500,000 existing Qwest.net subscribers and new customers will receive the MSN Internet Access solution.  http://www.qwest.com/about/media/pressroom/1,1720,623_archive,00.html
Qwest, April 26, 2001

ASIA GLOBAL CROSSING LIGHTS 310 MBPS IP BACKBONE
Asia Global Crossing activated its 310 Mbps IP services backbone between Hong Kong and Japan through its pan-Asian East Asia Crossing cable.  The backbone provides onward connections to US and Europe.  http://www.asiaglobalcrossing.com
Asia Global Crossing, April 26, 2001

TIME WARNER CABLE SIGNS ITS SECOND NATIONAL ISP
Time Warner Cable signed an agreement enabling Juno to provide its high-speed Internet access service over AOL Time Warner's cable systems.  Both companies will be free to market the service independently.  An initial rollout is slated for the second half of this year.  Time Warner Cable has previously signed a similar national ISP agreement with Earthlink.  http://www.juno.com/corp/news/twc.html
Time Warner Cable, April 26, 2001

• Juno Online Services has 15.9 million total registered subscribers as of March 31, 2001, and 4.1 million active subscribers during that month.

SPRINT NAMES NEW PRESIDENT FOR INTERNATIONAL IP EXPANSION
Sprint named Yousef B. Javadi as president of Sprint International, where he will drive the expansion of Sprint's Tier 1 Internet backbone throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.  Javadi previously served as chief operating officer of PRIMUS Telecommunications North America, which operates networks in 12 countries.  http://144.226.116.29/PR/CDA/PR_CDA_Press_Releases_Detail/1,1579,2380,00.html
Sprint, April 26, 2001

• In February, Sprint unveiled plans to build a 10 Gbps backbone connecting key business centers in Europe.  It subsequently awarded a multi-year, multimillion-dollar contract to Telia International Carrier for a 2.5 Gbps / 10 Gbps IP backbone that will link 11 European cities this year.  The contract also allows Sprint the option to purchase dark fiber in order to further extend its network infrastructure in the region.

A Daily Journal For Broadband Networking
Copyright 2001 Converge! Media Ventures Inc.
All Rights Reserved. ISSN 1084-2438
News sources are listed for your reference.
Sunnyvale, California USA