IP Telephony needs a hero: Hosted IP continues to face challenges, particularly in gaining the loyalty of the masses. A recent Research and Markets report points out that “Despite the promises of lower capital expenditures, ease of use, and flexibility, hosted IP telephony has failed to gain mass adoption so far.” News release.

Cable gains favor with SMBs: Despite their lousy reputation for customer service and a closed-off corporate culture, U.S. cable operators are gaining traction with SMBs, a study from ATLANTIC-ACM reports. “Cable operators have done a good job of changing their image from low-service, consumer-oriented behemoths to being able to deliver value in small business services,” said CEO Dr. Judy Reed Smith. Their results may be bearing out; Cox Communications and Cablevision’s commercial customer service recently got high marks from J.D. Power and Associates. The research firm sees CAGR in this segment growing 5.1 percent through 2015. News release.

Broadband ascendant: Broadband subscriptions worldwide will reach one billion by 2015, a Strategy Analytics report says, with the Asia-Pacific region–already making up 45 percent of current subscribers–continuing to dominate growth. APAC will see an 18 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. Of course, much of the broadband available will be DSL, but the research firm sees fiber moving in steadily enough that a quarter of all subscribers will be connected by fiber. News release.

Change is a constant for service providers: Transformation to next-generation networks has to happen in multiple layers, a new study offered through Reportlinker says, and IP transformation has particular challenges. Details and case studies are presented in the Service Provider Transformation Update. News release.

Video in the retail space: Online video continues to grow, but one area that needs more attention, according to SundaySky (not coincidentally, a producer of SEO-optimized video), is e-commerce video. These are typically short videos posted by retailers, like Amazon or Overstock, on their consumer sites to inform customers about their products. However, despite widespread adoption–65 percent of online retailers use videos to increase conversion rates–less than 10 percent have more than 10 videos indexed. Download the report at the company’s website here.

Related articles:
Exploring Hosted VoIP for the SMB in the new Economy
Cablevision and Cox score high in business customer satisfaction survey
MMA: Users ages 18-to-34 driving m-commerce adoption

Source:Fierce Telecom

Solid earnings in Alcatel-Lucent’s (NYSE: ALU) IP and wireless segments and strong growth in North America helped to partially offset a decline in fixed access revenues for the second quarter of 2010, the operator reports. Alcatel-Lucent’s overall revenues were down 2.4 percent compared to last year, at EUR3.8 billion.

However, CEO Ben Verwaayen maintained the company is optimistic about the remainder of the year. Revenues rose 17.4 percent sequentially and ALU saw encouraging gains in its gross margin.

“Revenues for the quarter reflect the on-going and expected overall improvement in market conditions and the good traction of our product portfolio,” Verwaayen said in a release. “This is notably highlighted by the good performance in IP and wireless and, from a geographic standpoint, by strong growth in North America.”

The company’s adjusted gross margin rose three percentage points, coming in at 36.1 percent of revenue for the quarter compared to 33.1 percent in Q1 2009–an encouraging indicator for Alcatel-Lucent’s profits according to Marketwatch.

Second quarter results continued to reflect ongoing industry trends, with wireline revenues declining slowly but steadily while demand for next-generation solutions and wireless offerings (in ALU’s case, its WCDMA business, particularly in North America) rose reliably. Alcatel-Lucent’s optics division saw revenues decline 14.6 percent to EUR622 million compared to the same period last year, while earnings in its wireline division likewise dipped 13.7 percent year-on-year to EUR366 million.

However, the company’s IP division saw an 11.2 percent increase in revenue to EUR318 million, and particularly strong growth of 30 percent in its IP/MPLS segment, particularly in North America and EMEA.

“If you look to IP, the journey that the industry is making is full IP. End-to-end IP,” Verwaayen said during a conference discussing the results. “Doesn’t matter what service, doesn’t matter what screen, I want my service capability wherever I want, in the format that I want… IP is no longer a technology as such, it’s the underlying technology throughout.”

Its wireless division grew revenues by 5 percent to EUR1.02 billion, with its WCDMA business the key driver, climbing 50 percent year over year.

Alcatel-Lucent maintained its outlook for the rest of 2010.

For more:
– see the earnings release
– Marketwatch has this story

Related articles:
Alcatel-Lucent lands major deal with Portugal Telecom for IP infrastucture
Alcatel-Lucent lights up China Telecom’s, China Mobile’s FTTH networks
Alcatel-Lucent rolls out compact-IPTV solution targeted at Tier 2, Tier 3 telcos
AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent identify throttling defect
Alcatel-Lucent hit by component shortage, slumps to wider loss

Source:Fierce Telecom

Neutral Tandem (Nasdaq: TNDM) has selected 10 service providers to participate in its Ethernet eXchange Charter Customer Program, and is ready to start deploying the interconnect solution in six U.S. markets including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York.

The named providers include RCN Metro Optical Networks, Tinet, PAETEC, Deltacom, US Signal, Mosaic NetworX, Wilshire Connection and ION Holding Co.

Ethernet exchanges are a more efficient way to interconnect multiple service providers. The Charter program was put together with the idea of a collaborative product development process that would allow eXchange customers to have input all the way through the creation and deployment of the technology.

Since jumping into the Ethernet exchange market in February, Neutral Tandem has moved quickly to establish its neutral interexchange business. In addition to the initial six-city rollout, the company plans to deploy the Ethernet eXchange switch (a Cisco ASR 9000) in eight additional markets before the end of 2010.

For more:
– see the release

Related articles:
Neutral Tandem enters the Ethernet exchange fray
Ethernet exchange: Another tool in the Ethernet service toolkit
Vertical Systems cites Ethernet exchanges as new trend to watch

Source:Fierce Telecom

Technicolor (NYSE: TCH) may enter the U.S. broadband market soon with a deal to provide routers for Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) FiOS service. The companies are negotiating a three-year strategic agreement and signed a memorandum of understanding this week.

If the deal goes through, Technicolor broadband routers would be deployed within the FiOS subscriber footprint beginning sometime in 2011. The routers, a news release explains, will accelerate data transmissions over the in-home coaxial wiring FiOS uses.

The 95-year-old Technicolor has added quite a bit more to its portfolio besides color film processing, including equipment manufacturing like set-top boxes, gateways, and Blu-Ray Discs.

For more:
– see the release

Related articles:
Clearleap TV technology integrated with Verizon’s FiOS
Liberty’s Malone trash talks Verizon’s FiOS business as ‘atrociously bad’
Verizon brings long awaited VoIP to FiOS

Source:Fierce Telecom

SureWest Communications (Nasdaq: SURW) took advantage of its established broadband networks to continue reducing capital expenditures in the second quarter of 2010, a factor that president and CEO Steve Oldham cited in reporting a 7 percent year-over-year growth in its broadband segment.

The carrier’s telecom segment did not fare so well, falling 17 percent compared to the same period last year. However, SureWest held the line for the first half of 2010 with telecom revenue coming in just 1 percent below Q1.

“Our second quarter results demonstrated our ability to create growth in both business and residential markets with reduced year-to-date capital expenditures. We remain focused on growing revenues, margins and free cash flow through increases in our commercial service offerings and residential triple-play growth while continuing our cost-saving initiatives,” Oldham said in a prepared release.

He added, “Expanding our fiber-to-the-home network over the last five years has provided us a significant performance advantage over our competitors. We have a large inventory of marketable homes and therefore do not require further capital expenditures to extend the network. “

Not mentioned were other cost-cutting measures SureWest–like many cash-strapped telcos–took to maintain its outlook, including laying off 60 employees in the Sacramento and Kansas City markets.

For more:
– see the release here

Related articles:
SureWest: Q1 2010 revenues remain flat
SureWest tightens its workforce belt
SureWest employs Accedian Networks to ensure wireless backhaul performance

Source:Fierce Telecom

Things are tough all over for telecoms as the economic slump continues, but BT (NYSE: BT) saw some bright glimmers of hope in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 that ended June 30. While the company’s revenues decreased 4 percent year over year, a focus on tightening the operating budget and knocking down its net debt meant BT’s net profits climbed 33 percent to £284 million ($444 million).

The operator held steady on its fiber to the home (FTTH) deployments in the UK as well.

“We have made an acceptable start to the year, delivering improved financial results while investing in the future of the business,” said Ian Livingston, Chief Executive of BT. “…We hit the first major milestone in our fibre roll out, passing over 1.5m premises, and we are now running at an average rate of around 100,000 premises passed every week.”

Key points of today’s results included:

• Revenue of £5,006m, down 4%
• Operating costs reduced by £291m
• Adjusted EBITDA of £1,399m, up 6% 
• Adjusted profit before tax of £446m, up 17%
• Adjusted earnings per share of 4.4p, up 16%, reported earnings per share of 3.7p, up 32%
• Free cash flow of £415m, up £537m
• Net debt of £8.9bn, down by more than £1.6bn
• Fibre roll out passes over 1.5m UK premises in July
• Full year outlook remains unchanged

“Despite the challenging environment, these financial results underpin our outlook for the full year,” Livingston said.

BT stocks rose on the news and remained up through Thursday’s trading.

For more:
– Wall Street Journal has this story
– AP details BT’s results here
– see the earnings release

Related articles:
BT comes out swinging with a profit; reveals FTTX expansion plans
More on the BT, Cisco Hosted UC deal
BT unveils unlimited WiFi access plan
BT shuns GPRS for UK-wide smart meter bid

Source:Fierce Telecom

Bell Aliant (Toronto: BA-UN.TO) once again is feeling the industry-wide impact of landline loss in the second quarter, but the service provider remains confident that its ongoing investments in Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and IP will pay off.

During the quarter, Bell Aliant’s operating revenues declined $31 million compared to Q2 2009. The service provider attributes the revenue dip to declines in local and long distance voice revenues associated with lower network access services (NAS), lower data revenue and lower information technology (IT) service revenues. However, these declines were offset partially by increases in Internet revenues.

Here’s a breakdown of other key metrics:

• Local Services: Bell Aliant’s local service revenue declined $16 million (4.7 percent) in Q2 2020 vs. Q2 2009 as a result of NAS declines and a $6 million decrease in competitor contribution subsidies. At the same time, residential and business NAS were 6.1 percent and 2.1 percent lower because of increased competition. However, Bell Aliant’s total NAS declines improved by about 8,000 over Q2 09 and by 15,000 compared to Q1 2010.
• Long Distance: The service provider’s long distance revenue also dropped $7 million (6.9 percent) versus Q2 09. Bell Aliant attributes the long distance revenue dip to NAS declines and the migration to flat rate long distance plans.
• Internet Services: While local and long distance services declined in Q2, Internet revenue were up 7 percent ($7 million) in Q2 2010 over Q2 2009. During the quarter, Internet services were 6 percent higher than in 2009, while Bell Aliant TV subscribership was also up. These factors drove up the average revenue per customer (ARPC) for residential high speed users by 4.5 percent over Q2 2009 due to pricing action and customer migration to higher value services.

Along with increased broadband growth, Bell Aliant continues to grow its FTTH rollout to compete with a strong set of cable operators, including Quebec’s Videotron and Rogers Communications Inc. in Atlantic Canada as well as in Ontario and Quebec. In May, Bell Aliant announced that its FTTH footprint will reach more than 600,000 households and businesses by the end of 2012.

Thus far, Karen Sheriff, Bell Aliant’s President and CEO reports that it is seeing decent customer adoption of its FibreOP FTTH service in the areas it is currently offered. “The rollout of our FibreOP services is proceeding well and I am very pleased with the results we are experiencing to date, particularly the take-up of our FibreOP Bundles which include TV, Internet and home phone,” she said.

Of course, the rest of 2010 is going to be challenging for Bell Aliant. The service provider announced earlier this month that it will have to conduct more cost cutting measures throughout 2010 after union employees decided to reject a tentative collective agreement in June. What those measures will include won’t be revealed until this fall.

For more:
- see the release here

Related articles:
2010 Top Women in Wireline
Canadian telco Bell Aliant looks to IPTV, FTTH for growth through 2015
Bell Aliant Q1 revenue dips, but stays course with FTTH buildout
Bell Aliant expands broadband network to chase TV subscribers
Bell Aliant expands its cost cutting measures

Source:Fierce Telecom