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Date: Monday, November 01, 1999, 3:03 PM -0500
From: Faulkner Information Services <flash@faulkner.com>
To: ???
Subject: Faulkner Comm Flash 11/01/99 - (Part 1 of 3)

TOP OF THE NEWS

	 * SBC Announces $6-Billion Broadband Initiative	
	 * Mannesmann Acquires Orange for $32.93 Billion	 
	 * Qwest Cited for 30 Counts of Slamming by FCC	
	 * MCI WorldCom in Dispute Over Embratel Taxes	 

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Agreements/Joint Ventures 
	 Despite reports that BT would be willing to increase its stake in Viag
Interkom if its other partners are willing to lower their holdings, Viag
announced that it has no plans of bowing out of the mobile joint venture.
Viag was forced to sell its stake in one of its other wireless interests,
E-Plus, to France Telecom in order to complete its merger with Veba. Since
some estimate that as many as 25 percent of all Germans will own a mobile
phone by the end of 1999, it is logical that Viag would want to retain its
stake in Interkom. Viag and BT each hold 45-percent stakes in the venture,
while Telenor owns the other 10 percent.
	 Electronic Data Systems and MCI WorldCom finalized outsourcing agreements
with each other worth $12.4 billion combined. MCI WorldCom will outsource
portions of its IT operations to EDS, including systems at more than a dozen
MCI data processing centers around the world. EDS, in turn, will outsource
some of its global network needs to MCI, including network operations,
management, and engineering.
	 Efficient Networks teamed with Ericsson and Jetstream Communications to
demonstrate the latest integrated voice/data access services. The companies
displayed simultaneous voice/data applications over a single copper pair.
Efficient is also developing an integrated access device (IAD) designed to
interoperate with voice gateway products as well as the existing DSL and ATM
infrastructure.
	 GTE Corporation agreed to sell its 27 telephone exchanges and 120,092
customer access lines in Oklahoma to dba Communications, formed in September
1999 to acquire local access lines being sold by GTE. In September, dba
agreed to purchase wireline properties from GTE in Texas and Mexico. The
deals are valued at $1.7 billion. As part of the Oklahoma deal, dba will
also acquire 140 GTE employees. The transactions still require review by the
Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the FCC, and the US Department of Justice.
The sales are expected to close by midyear 2000.
	 A deal cut between GTE Internetworking and Silicon Valley-based
	 Dialpad.com made free PC-to-phone call service a reality in the US. Using
GTE's new VoIP network, Dialpad.com is making Internet telephony possible.
What's interesting about the connection over GTE's telephony network is
that the network is built on the company's Global Network Infrastructure,
not the public Internet.
	 IBM and Cisco Systems plan to team up to help ASPs deliver the latest in
corporate software that is accessed over the Web. ASPs typically rent the
software to customers on a per-user basis and the software resides on
powerful computer servers.
	 MCI WorldCom's unit, MCI Telecommunications, was awarded a 10-year
	 contract that could be worth as much as $4 billion. Under terms of the
deal, MCI will be providing communications services to the Defense
Department for Asia and the Pacific Region. The first period of the
contract is five years, and there are five one-year options. The entire
area the company will serve include Southeast Asia, the Pacific region,
Central and South America, Antarctica, and the Caribbean.
	 Motorola signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in
short-range connectivity specialist Digianswer from Olicom A/S. This move
advances Motorola's strategy for delivering Bluetooth and HomeRF wireless
products to the mobile and wireless networking markets.
	 N.E.T. signed a global service agreement with Ericsson Enterprise Systems
to support N.E.T. products within the base of Ericsson accounts. This
agreement provides Ericsson with rapid resolution of high-level product
issues for N.E.T.'s releases of operating software and firmware. It also
provides Ericsson staff with worldwide access to N.E.T.'s comprehensive
documentation through N.E.T.'s Web-based electronic support center.
	 Polycom and Cisco Systems entered into a joint venture to develop, license
and sell IP telephony products. This agreement combines Polycom's
audioconferencing technologies and Cisco's IP networking and IP telephony.
Cisco will incorporate Polycom's ACT with the next generation of Cisco's IP
telephony handsets. 
	 SBC Communications and E*TRADE formed an alliance to provide DSL Internet
access to E*TRADE's most active investors with future plans for a series of
initiatives to enable to companies to jointly market their services. The
initial service is expected to be offered within the next few months.
E*TRADE services will be promoted through SBC advertising initiatives,
including direct mail, print, and TV advertising. SBC also contracted
Alcatel to supply all the Internet equipment for its new $6 billion Internet
access initiative. Although the deal is not yet exclusive, Alcatel sources
estimate that it will receive the bulk of the money for the supply of its
Litespan digital loop carrier and its ADSL for high-speed transmission. SBC
sources predict that it will spend about $4.5 billion on the data
transmission system.
	 Toshiba America Information Systems and Artisoft signed a non-binding
letter of intent to pursue opportunities in the communications server and
software-PBX markets. Under terms of the agreement, Toshiba will base its
product offering on Artisoft's TeleVantage product, with significant initial
volume purchase of licenses, and a right to purchase common stock in
Artisoft.

Broadband Networking 
	 CableLabs reported that 16 companies responded to the its OpenCable
software request for proposal for development of a middleware product for
advanced digital set-top devices. This software will allow national
portability and will facilitate the retail sale of advanced digital devices
that will deliver interactive services.
	 BTI Telecom selected Lucent Technologies and Copper Mountain Networks to
expand its DLS services to 50 tier II and tier III metro areas in the
Southeastern US. BTI is currently installing Lucent 5ESS Switches and will
purchase 20 additional B-STDX 9000 WAN switches from Lucent. The company
will also purchase Copper Mountain equipment from Lucent Technologies under
an OEM agreement signed in 1998.
	 Lucent Technologies signed a contract with AT&T Canada to supply its CBX
500 Multiservice WAN switches to build Canada's first nationwide ATM
Switched Virtual Circuit (SVC). The Lucent switches will enable AT&T Canada
to manage and deliver ATM, frame relay, and IP services from a single ATM
core network infrastructure. Lucent will also provide AT&T Canada with its
NavisCore Network Management System.
	 Broadcom Corporation, a provider of integrated circuits enabling broadband
communications to and throughout the home and business, entered into a joint
development program with Cisco Systems to develop a high performance ASIC
for the broadband fixed-wireless market that incorporates VOFDM technology.
	 General DataComm launched the creation of a fully integrated large scale
broadband multimedia product to serve the needs of both service providers
and end-users over next generation Internet and ATM networks. To complete
this product, GDC formed a strategic technology and joint marketing alliance
with TODD Communications that will provide for integration of TODD's TC
Reliance web-based video management and control software with the GDC
broadband multimedia platform, including the MAC 500 ATM MPEG-2 access
concentrator.
	 SBC Communications introduced a $6 billion initiative, named Project
Pronto, designed to transform to company into the largest single provider of
advanced broadband services in America. Since the completion of its
acquisition of Ameritech earlier this month, SBC serves about one-third of
the nation's access lines. By 2002, SBC plans to provide 80 percent of its
Ameritech, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Nevada Bell, and SNET customers
with DSL services, with an ultimate goal to make broadband services
available to all of its customers. Making good on an announcement released
earlier this year to deploy DSL service in more than 500 central offices,
DSL service will be available to customers in Texas, California, Nevada,
Missouri, and Arkansas by November. The DSL enables regular copper phone
lines to carry much more data at far greater speeds. SBC will dig up old
copper cables and install fiber optic lines everywhere they introduce the
service because DSL cannot travel more than a few miles without fading on
copper lines.

Carriers and Carrier Services 
	 Sprint decreased the cost of phone calls to Canada to $0.05 a minute from
	 7 pm to 7 am. The rate, a 50 percent cut, is accompanied by a $6.95
monthly fee. AT&T recently slashed its rate to Canada to an
around-the-clock $0.07 per minute. That rate carries a $3 monthly fee.
Sprint also will extend its $0.05 per minute rate to calling-card and
toll-free service customers. That rate includes a $12.95 monthly fee. The
price reductions are part of a rate war as well as reflective of the fact
that big carriers are banking on revenue from data, wireless, and Internet
access fees while long distance revenues are dwindling.
	 France Telecom will begin a flat-rate, pre-paid pricing plan for customers
of the Wanadoo Internet-access services on November 1, 1999. Customers will
be able to choose from three pricing packages, based on the number of hours
they wish to use the Internet each month. Three hours of connection time are
available at $6.25 per month, 10 hours are available at $15.88 per month,
and 18 hours per month can be purchased for $25.50.

Financial/Legal News 
	 ACT Networks' first quarter 2000 revenues were $12.4 million, compared to
$13.9 million in the previous year. Net loss $2.5 million, or $0.25 per
share, compared to a net loss of $966,000 or $0.10 per share the year
before. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2000, ended September 30, 1999,
Artisoft reported an increase in net sales to $6.4 million from $5.09
million in 1998. Net loss for the quarter was $482,000, or a loss of $0.03
per diluted common share, compared to a net loss of $322,000, or a loss of
$0.02 per diluted common share.
	 For the three months ending September 30, 1999, Aspect Communications
reported revenues of $129.9 million, down from $138.0 million for the same
period in 1998. Net loss was $114 thousand, or $0.00 diluted earnings per
share, compared to a net gain of $15.1 million, or $0.28 diluted earnings
per share.
	 AT&T's pro- forma revenues for the third quarter 1999 went up by 5.6
percent to $16.306 billion. Operational profits for the AT&T common stock
group were $1.754 billion or $0.54 per share on a diluted basis. These
results are compared to last year's $0.68 per share or $1.836 billion. The
decline is reflective of the impact of the TCI merger.
	 For the quarter ending September 30, 1999, AT&T Canada revenues leaped to
$331.3 million compared to results from the same quarter last year of $29.0
million. Net loss was $201.8 million, or a loss of $4.33 per share, compared
to a net loss of $76.2 million, or $1.75 per share. These figures reflect a
charge of $157.8 million for merging its long distance division with ACC
TelEnterprises and MetroNet Communications. The company added over 30,000
local access lines in the quarter.
	 For the third quarter ending September 30, 1999, Bell Atlantic reported a
five percent increase in revenues to $8.3 billion from $7.9 billion in 1998.
Net income was $1.17 billion, or $0.74 diluted earnings per share, compared
to a net loss of $7 million, or a loss of $0.01 diluted earnings per share,
the previous year.
	 For the third quarter, Bell Canada reported that revenues increased by
about two percent compared to the results for the same quarter a year ago to
$209 million. Net loss was $140 million, or $1.78 per share, compared to $72
million, or $0.91 per share.
	 For the third quarter ending September 30, 1999, BellSouth reported
operating revenues of $6.42 billion, a 9.5 percent increase over the same
period in 1998. Net income rose 24.7 percent to $1.01 billion, or $0.53 per
share, compared to $814 million, or $0.41 per share.
	 Third quarter revenues for Cincinnati Bell increased 18 percent to $262.4
million over the figures recorded from the same period last year. Net income
fell to $29.8 million, or $0.22 a diluted share, compared to $48.4 million,
or $0.35 a diluted share, from the third quarter 1998. The results from the
third quarter 1998 include a $27.4 million gain from discontinued
operations, which included the spinoff of the company's billing business,
Convergys.
	 COMSAT's third quarter figures show a $18.4 million net loss, or a $0.35
loss per share, resulting from the write-off of its direct investment of ICO
Global Communications (Holdings) Limited. Without this transaction, the
company's income after taxes total $5 million, or $0.09 per fully diluted
share, compared to last year's income of $6.6 million, or $0.12 per fully
diluted share.
	 Covad Communications reported that revenues for the third quarter
	 increased by 77 percent over the same period last year to $19.1 million.
Net loss for the quarter was $54.1 million, or $0.70 per share, compared to
a loss of $16.5 million, or $1.84 per share. Covad aggressively expanded
both its network and customer base during the third quarter. It opened 346
additional offices, and it increased its number of subscriber lines by 86
percent to 31,000.
	 For the third quarter of 1999, Cox Communications reported a 41 percent
increase in consolidated revenues over the same period last year to $587.9
million. Net income fell to $11.9 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, from
$1.06 billion, or $1.95 per diluted share in 1998.
	 Deutsche Telekom reported net income for the nine months ending September
30, 1999 was 1.25 billion euros compared to results from the same period a
year ago of $1.63 billion. Sales dropped three percent to $28.02 billion.
The company reported that the number of phone lines, online users, and
subscribers to the D1 digital cellular service all increased. The number of
phone lines grew three percent to 47.4 million, online users increases 46
percent to 3.6 million, and D1 subscribers jumped 62 percent to 7.7 million.
DT said it will release more comprehensive financial results on November 30.
 	 For the quarter ending September 30, 1999, Embratel's revenues increased
16.4 percent to $645.2 million compared with results from the same period a
year ago. The majority of these revenues, $529.7 million, came from domestic
long distance voice services. International long distance remained at $117.4
million. Data revenues continued to experience the largest gain out of any
service for the quarter, with a 36.5 percent leap to $157.3 million. Net
income was $105.3 million, or $0.63 per 1000 shares, compared to a loss of
$119.5 million, or a loss of $0.36 per 1000 shares.
	 Ericsson completed a $100 million 3-year fixed rate bond issue with a
coupon of 4.20 percent and an issue price of 99.91 percent. The issue was
met with strong demand from a variety of local investors, including
insurance companies, fund managers, and corporations.
	 General DataComm Industries reported revenues for the fourth fiscal
	 quarter of 1999 were $47.5 million, versus $49.7 million reported in the
fourth quarter of fiscal 1998. There was a net loss for the current quarter
of $3.9 million, or $0.20 per share, as compared to a net loss of $6.2
million, or $0.31 per share, in the same period one year ago. For the
fiscal year ended September 30, 1999, revenues were $171.0 million versus
$194.3 million reported for fiscal year 1998. There was a net loss of $22.6
million, or $1.12 per share, as compared to a net loss of $33.4 million, or
$1.64 per share, for fiscal year 1998.
Global Crossing's third quarter 1999 pro forma revenues climbed eight
percent to $929 million over results in the same period last year. The
figures consider Global Marine Systems and Frontier. Pro forma recurring
adjusted EBITDA for three months were $290 million, which is up more than 16
percent. Pro forma recurring income per share was ($0.04) compared to last
year's $0.02. The quarter's events included the completion the Global Marine
Systems and Frontier acquisitions. The company, including the newly folded
in units, has a $2 billion sales backlog.
	 For the third quarter, GST's revenues increased 222 percent over results
from the same period a year ago to $97.3 million. Revenues from
telecommunications services accounted for the majority of the company's
total revenues: they increased 29 percent to $50.4 million. Total expenses
increased 48 percent to $104.6 million. Net loss was $5.3 million, a
per-share loss of $0.14, compared to a loss of $63.3 million, or $1.76 per
share. In this quarter, the company entered two new cities and increased its
total amount of fiber miles in its network 27 percent to 389,162. Its
customer base dropped two percent to 96,527, reflecting the divestment of
GST Home and its operations in Guam.
	 For the third quarter 1999, GTE reported consolidated sales and revenues
	 of $6.43 billion, a 7.8 percent increase over the 1998 results. Net
income was $952 million, or $0.97 diluted earnings per common share, a 14.1
percent increase over a net income of $822 million, or $0.85 diluted
earnings per common share the prior year.
	 Larscom released its third quarter financial results ended September 30,
1999. The Company reported revenues of $13.265 million and break-even
results for the third quarter of 1999. For the third quarter of 1998, the
Company reported revenues of $18.212 million and a net loss of $2.287
million, or $0.13 per share, which included an after-tax reserve for excess
inventory of $2.132 million, or $0.12 per share.
	 Lockheed Martin reported sales for the third quarter 1999 at 6.2 billion,
down one percent from the same quarter of 1998. The company experienced net
earnings of $217 million, or $0.57 per share, compared to last year's net
earnings of $318 million, or $0.83 per share.
	 Loral Space & Communications reported results for the third quarter 1999,
citing revenues of $347 million, a 20 percent increase over last year's
third quarter. Loral reported a net loss of $24 million for the quarter, or
a loss of $0.08 per share, which includes a nonrecurring tax benefit of
$33.6 million, resulting from a recent change in the tax code. Last year's
net loss for the quarter was $22 million or an $0.08 per share loss, which
included a one-time gain of $35 million on the sale by Loral of Globalstar
common stock.
	 For the fourth fiscal quarter ended September 30, 1999, Lucent
	 Technologies reported record revenues of $10.575 billion, a 23 percent
increase over the same period in 1998. Excluding one-time events, net
income increased 50 percent to $972 million, or $0.31 per share, compared
to $647 million, or $0.21 per share.
  For the fiscal year ending September 30, 1999, revenues increased 20
percent over 1998 results to $38.303 billion. Net income rose 46 percent to
$3.833 billion, or $1.22 a share, excluding one-time events, compared to a
net income of $2.619 billion, or $0.86 per share. 
	 Madge Networks N.V. reported revenues of $42.2 million for the third
	 fiscal quarter 1999, a decrease of $17.9 million, or 30 percent, compared
to revenues of $60.1 million for the third quarter of 1998. The net loss was
$16.4 million, or $0.41 per share, compared to a net profit from continuing
operations of $1.9 million, or $0.04 per share, for the third quarter of
fiscal 1998. Results for the 1999 quarter include a nonrecurring charge of
$1.2 million, and the balance sheet reflects an initial cash payment of $13
million in connection with the company's acquisition of the Token Ring
business of Olicom A/S on August 31, 1999. 
Faulkner Information Service
Flash Account
flash@faulkner.com
114 Cooper Center
Pennsauken, N.J. 08109
(609) 662 2070
http://www.faulkner.com



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