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Hello Board,
I have not posted in quite some time. Does not appear that much has changed.
Interesting note: I received a pamphlet in the mail recently at my office. Sprint is introducing a new technology that is wireless that will be used to improve network communications. The company's spokesperson for the technology is Ervin "Magic" Johnson, and the technology is being called
"EMBARQ".
Have a great weekend everyone. Ed
Otherwise, if you are out there taking the risks in a naked state and are claiming to be both a realist and hopeful, you need some help, IMHO, my articulate correspondent.
I appreciate your concern to be helpful. Although it is not needed.
Your novice interpretation of this situation has thoroughly missed its proverbial target. Although your verbose nature is quite entertaining.
When this ship sinks I won't be on board. Good luck with your endeavors.
LOY,
I can only speak of the 7 years that I have been involved in NEW WHEEL, that being said the company has been in a consistent state of dilution. It is an OTC company, that never had earnings, never had a marketable product. Anyone who invested in this company, ANYONE, invested on pure speculation of what the supposed technology could bring to market. And speculation of potential value of that said technology.
To understate it, the company lacks ethical communication. The RIM website leaves much to be desired. But does this mean that potentially they do not have some technology that could raise shareholder value? Don't know. But at this point I have absolutely nothing to lose by being realistically hopeful.
I am a realist who remains hopeful.
You Know I still bleed "BLUE", things are good. Best year ever in business. Lookin to make a small change with the Native American Indians. Its good to hear from you. I will be around.
Wolfy, Nice to see you posting. Hope all is well. Is there hope for the Y this year. Have a good one.
LY
I have lurked for several years to answer your ?.
I continue to own shares.
If I made such statements, I would have factual evidence to back my claim. I am asking for proof. I may use this proof either way. I am on middle ground.
If you do not have the weapons in your arsenal, buddy, better zip it back up and go back to the safer pursuit of lurking
I never realized asking for accountability of a statement could be dangerous to my health.
Just a firm believer in "Any way you slice it there is two sides to the toast". I will not let someone else's perspective sway the way I make decisions.
Halston, may I ask if you have independent third party statistics to support your claim?
Hello boys, something old maybe new enjoy reading. Seemed interesting enough Intel Says Chip Speed Breakthrough Will Alter Cyberworld
By JOHN MARKOFF
AN FRANCISCO, Feb. 11 — Intel scientists say that they have made silicon chips that can switch light like electricity, blurring the line between computing and communications and presenting a vision of the digital future that will allow computers themselves to span cities or even the entire globe.
The invention demonstrates for the first time, Intel researchers said, that ultrahigh-speed fiberoptic equipment can be produced at personal computer industry prices. As the costs of communicating between computers and chips falls, the barrier to building fundamentally new kinds of computers not limited by physical distance should become a reality, experts said.
The advance, described in a paper to be published on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature, also suggests that Intel, as the world's largest chipmaker, may be able to develop the technology to move into new telecommunications markets.
It will free computer designers to think about the systems they create in new ways, making it possible to conceive of machines that are not located in a single physical place, according to scientists and industry executives. It will also make possible a new class of computing applications based on the possibility of transmitting high-definition video and images hundreds or even thousands of times faster than possible on today's Internet.
"Before, there were two worlds — computing and communications," said Alan Huang, a former Bell Labs physicist, who has founded the Terabit Corporation, an optical networking company in Menlo Park, Calif. "Now they will be the same and we will have powerful computers everywhere."
One potential application, he said, would be an interactive digital television system allowing viewers to watch a sporting event from multiple angles, moving the point of view at will while the game is being played. With only a limited number of digital cameras, it might be possible to synthesize a virtual moveable seat any place in the stadium. Such a feature exists currently in video games, but it is far beyond the capacity of today's digital television transmission systems.
Intel said the technical advance, in which the researchers use a component made from pure silicon to send data at speeds as much as 50 times faster than the previous switching record, is the first step toward building low-cost networks that will move data seamlessly between computers and within large computer systems.
"This opens up whole new areas for Intel," said Mario Paniccia, a an Intel physicist, who started the previously secret Intel research program to explore the possibility of using standard semiconductor parts to build optical networks. "We're trying to siliconize photonics."
The device Intel has built is the prototype of a high-speed silicon optical modulator that the company has now pushed above two billion bits per second at a lab near its headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. The modulator makes it possible to switch off and on a tiny laser beam and direct it into an ultrathin glass fiber. Although the technical report in Nature focuses on the modulator, which is only one component of a networking system, Intel plans on demonstrating a working system transmitting a movie in high-definition television over a five-mile coil of fiberoptic cable next week at its annual Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.
"If Intel and other semiconductor technology companies can develop silicon optically as successfully as they have electronically, then silicon is certainly set to grow in stature as an optical material," Graham Reed, a physicist at the University of Surrey, wrote in a commentary on the Intel paper in Nature. Dr. Reed is the holder of the previous 20-megabit silicon optical switching speed record that Intel shattered.
With this breakthrough, Intel researchers said, they have shown that it should be possible to build optical fiber communications systems using Intel's conventional chipmaking process without resorting to either the exotic materials or hand-assembly techniques that are now the standard in the fiberoptics networking industry.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company / Home / Privacy Policy / Search / Corrections / Help / Back to Top
JeffP, "shady", how about "complete eclipse".
A question for the board. Why has Infineons share price remained similiar in light of such ground breaking news? It would seem that the market would be very interested in such recent news.
Scott and in what would those who invested expect in terms of ROI?
MWL, if I didnt know any better, there is an odor of a pen.....a pig pen.......
Eagles, I believe Tom stated he was on the board of a couple of companies and he was there to meet with clients, and potential clients. Hope this helps.
Believe me, this is not a news flash. The market potential, for our potential technology, is quite large. I found it very interesting that wireless and broadband offer lower profit margins, not to even mention fiber. I can't quite recall what MR. Ketch offered as a profit margin, but if we ever got to market the value of the company could become quite an interesting topic for debate.
Bottomless pit threatens future
Commentary: Things can't get any worse - but they do
By Jeffry Bartash, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:59 AM ET Sept. 21, 2002
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Two years into an industry free-fall, beleaguered telecommunications executives are desperate just to hear a thud.
!
That's how bad things are. With no end in sight to the industry's worst-ever slump, companies are anxious for something, anything, to latch onto. Finding the elusive bottom would put them on sturdier ground and at least allow them to start thinking about the future again.
Instead, the ground continues to shift below their feet. Companies continue to slash and burn. That's put tens of thousands out of work and threatens to hamper innovative research into new technologies.
In the past week alone, bellwethers such as Ciena (CIEN: news, chart, profile), Alcatel (ALA: news, chart, profile) and Lucent Technologies have unveiled fresh job cuts. More industry layoffs are almost certain to come.
"The bar keeps moving lower -- and we keep having to squeeze underneath it," said Lucent (LU: news, chart, profile) spokesman Bill Price. He might as well be speaking for the whole industry.
Crash and burn
By now, the telecom industry's problems are well known. Lured by looser government regulations and the promise of the Internet, hundreds of new companies jumped into the business in the late 1990s. Many expanded rapidly, aided by generous Wall Street funding.
When the U.S. boom ended, the industry found itself awash in too much competition. Companies slashed prices, but that drove down sales and profits and ignited a rash of bankruptcies.
The fear now is that some of the industry's biggest players are on the verge of toppling, including WorldCom, Qwest Communications (Q: news, chart, profile), Nortel Networks and Lucent. Some say a worst-case scenario could devastate the industry and set back its recovery for years.
If WorldCom and Global Crossing emerge from bankruptcy protection largely debt free, for instance, they could cut prices to attract customers. That would put more financial stress on other big carriers that are carrying heavy debts.
"The consequences have been severe, and the damage isn't confined to the companies now marching over the cliff of bankruptcy," asserted Verizon (VZ: news, chart, profile) Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg. He said companies like a newly recapitalized WorldCom could "fuel an irrational price structure that will drain more money from the telecom sector."
Barely hanging on
Still, big local-phone companies like Verizon still have the revenue and resources to ride out the slump. The same can't necessarily be said for equipment vendors such as Lucent and Nortel.
Both stocks have temporarily sunk below $1 a share and now trade at historic lows. Each has cut tens of thousands of jobs, sold or spun off entire divisions and scaled back their vaunted research and development programs.
What's worse, Lucent and Nortel rely on equipment sales to the large phone companies, but they've been buying less and less new gear. Capital spending in 2002 could fall as much as two-third below the level of spending ($90 billion) just two years ago.
Indeed, Lucent last week said fourth-quarter sales could fall as much as 25 percent below third-quarter levels. The extent of the shortfall even surprised Wall Street, triggering another round of bloodletting.
Lucent executives maintain a brave face, saying they can hurdle the latest obstacles strewn in their path.
Others are less sure. Precursor Group CEO Scott Cleland, citing high levels of "short" stock sales, said: "Wall Street and hedge funds are betting that those two companies will die."
His concern: that the failure of one or both will set back innovation in the telecom industry for years. Traditionally, Lucent and Nortel have been the primary developers of new telecom technology in North America.
Of course, smaller rivals such as Ciena (CIEN: news, chart, profile), Tellabs (TLAB: news, chart, profile) and Juniper Networks (JNPR: news, chart, profile) believe they can fill in the gap. Yet even if they're right, it would take years for those companies to achieve the same kind of size and scope.
Besides, those companies aren't exactly prospering. Earlier this month, Tellabs announced it would cut 800 jobs. On Friday, Ciena said it would cut 17 percent of its work force.
What next?
So what's going to rejuvenate the moribund industry? Seidenberg, who's agitating for regulatory relief, said it'll be the sale of wireless and broadband services. Even Lucent and Nortel have a bright future if they can concentrate on selling products into those markets, particularly at the retail level, he said.
Yet Blair Levin, principal regulatory strategist at Legg Mason, sees a problem with that approach. He notes that wireless and broadband offer lower profit margins than older services such as local and long-distance voice. At the same time, both require intensive capital investments.
To recover, he believes the industry has to marry profitable new services to wireless phones and broadband access, much like the Bells generate robust profits now from products like "call waiting."
"Where's the growth going to come from? That's the big question," he said.
Bret Swanson, editor of the Gilder Technology Report, also wonders where telecom companies will get the money to invest. He argues that Wall Street has shifted massive amounts of cash to unregulated industries from regulated ones.
One example: wi-fi networks. The unlicensed wireless protocol used to connect high-speed users in homes and neighborhoods is the recipient of tremendous investment and is the hottest technology in Silicon Valley, he said.
Of course, the best thing that could happen is for the U.S. economy to bounce back strongly. When the recession hit, many consumers and companies cut back on telecom services to save money. Surely they'll spend more if their own incomes improve.
With rising sales and finances, the largest companies would then be able to pay down their debts and even make acquisitions. A new wave of mergers, in turn, would eliminate excessive competition, lift sales and profits and enable companies to boost research.
"This really has to happen for the industry to get better," said Ciena CEO Gary Smith.
It really does. But for now, telecom companies are still falling in a bottomless pit.
Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in Washington.
More TELECOM REPORT
•AT&T, WorldCom claim Internet crown 4:50am ET 08/17/02
•Discounting Verizon's discount plan 5:18pm ET 08/07/02
Should there be a mandate the requires all equities traded to list stock options as an operating expense on the balance sheet?
Does anyone have an idea as to what the assets are that were given back to Blevins and Shepperd?
This conversation probably has already been posted. Sorry in advance. Interesting comments none the less.
JUNE 28, 2002
Telecom's Bright Spot: Broadband
That's where Bill Rouhana, founder and former CEO of bankrupt Winstar before its sale to IDT, spies long-term opportunities
Bill Rouhana, former CEO of Winstar Communications, knows the ups-and-downs of the telecommunications industry as well as anyone. In 1994, he founded the fixed wireless broadband industry, to provide an alternative to costly underground fiber. The idea took off, and so did his company, recording $759 million in sales in 2000. However, it burned through $175 million a month that year to feed its rapid expansion.
When the capital markets began to lock down, Winstar's luck ran out. The company defaulted on its debt and went bankrupt in 2001. Its core assets were sold last December to international long-distance company IDT (IDT ) for just $42.5 million.
That failure was one of many to rock the telecommunications industry in the past year. A number of companies are struggling with price competition and the overcapacity that resulted from the fast growth of prior years. Rouhana says such problems can't be solved easily, and the industry could continue to suffer for the next several years.
He recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online Correspondent Olga Kharif about the problems plaguing the industry. Edited excerpts from their conversation follow.
Q: Do you think the worst is over for the telecommunications sector?
A: I don't. There are still some very high-profile companies that have big issues that they need to deal with, [such as high debt].
Q: Why are big debts more of a problem now than before?
A: These companies don't necessarily have a way of repaying their debt. And if the financial markets stay the way they are, I believe you'll have the requirement of further consolidation among the remaining players, and/or further default by them. That's why I think it's going to be some time before the impact of what's happening is over.
Q: What are the worst sectors to be in?
A: The long-distance business and the mobile wireless business. Long-distance pricing is continuing to be pressured by this glut of capacity and, now, by the entry of the regional Bell operating companies into the long-distance business.
In the mobile wireless business, customer-acquisition costs and churn [remain too high]. So long as there are six mobile carriers that are aggressively competing for people's business, it's just going to be too many companies to effectively operate, given the costs inherent in that business.
Q: Do you see any bright spots in telecommunications?
A: One really big bright spot that underlies all of this -- on a very long-term basis -- is demand for delivery of data over telecom networks. People are increasingly dependent on their computers, and computers are increasingly dependent on the network.... That underlying trend is still there.
Q: Before founding Winstar Communications, you were a venture capitalist. Would telecommunications be an area you'd even look at today?
A: Yes. I'd focus on places where there's still a huge scarcity, which is in the local broadband network. The other place where, I think, there are opportunities is in the use of the existing broadband networks to deliver services like easy-to-use, cost-effective video-conferencing and collaboration.
By developing these services, you take advantage of the glut of capacity. Implicit in your success is the low cost of obtaining that broadband connection.
Q: You are essentially talking of the business that Winstar was in.
A: Clearly, since we ran into problems just like everybody else, we didn't get it quite right. But I still believe the basic concepts that drove our business plan [providing fixed wireless access to businesses as a cheaper alternative to fiber connections] are the right ones. And if you look at today's landscape, there really is an absence of local broadband service.
Q: Do you like IDT's strategy with the Winstar business?
A: I think IDT made an incredible buy when they bought what was the last part of Winstar. By integrating it into their business and trying to drive it to profitability, they are trying to take what is a good, long-term value and to begin to recognize something out of it as quickly as possible. They want to put as little stress as possible on their balance sheet and income statement...so I think they're doing the right thing.
Q: Do you think the analysts are doing the right thing by starting to recommend some telecommunications stocks?
A: My guess is analysts who make [those] recommendations think we may be near a bottom, but I don't believe that we are. However, I do think there are good investment opportunities in the telecom industry, on the service side in particular.
The kind of companies where I see opportunities are the biggest ones, the regional Bell operating companies, because I think they're undervalued as a result of the dismal series of events that happened to the industry and everybody else. I think they're going to reemerge, effectively, as monopolies, with less competition than they've had since the breakup of AT&T. Their earnings power is going to be enormous in the future.
The job of analysts is to look into the future and to make an educated guess about what's likely to happen, and then to articulate for those who read their reports the basis of that guess. Can they give us facts? Yes. Can they do reasoning for us? Yes.
Can they add some value? I think absolutely, because they're thinking about the issues involved in the industry, they're asking good questions. But we all have to be realistic about what it is that we look at.
Q: What about your own future?
A: Most of my activities today focus on the not-for-profit organizations that I was involved with over the past couple of years, the biggest one being the Humpty Dumpty Institute, which I co-founded with several other people. It's very heavily involved in land-mine removal, as well as the relationship between the U.S. and the U.N. It's good stuff to do while I'm looking around for another business to be in. I don't know when that will come, exactly what form it will take, but I'm looking at lots of things. There are many opportunities out there.