Today in Telecom

TOP STORIES

--Lucent to layoff 900 employees

BUSINESS

--Photon Dynamics to layoff 15% of its workforce

--Nortel wins $300 million VoiceStream contract

FINANCIAL REPORTS

--Sonus Networks warns its revenue will fall 25% short of forecasts, will take $466 million charge

--Lycos Europe to cut costs and 300 jobs to see 2002 profit

INTERNET

--Amazon and Expedia join to open online travel store

NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE

--Juniper wins Fusion Communications contract to supply its M-series router

WIRELESS

--Verizon plans to reduce Telecom NZ stake to 19.9%

INDIA

--India Invites Brazil for Joint Ventures in Telecom

--India to Establish Communication Commission

TOP STORIES

--Lucent to layoff 900 employees

Lucent announced plans to eliminate 900 of the 3,700 remaining jobs at its North Andover plant through a package of enhanced severance benefits. The benefits, in some cases, could net workers over $100,000 in added severance pay, plus a pension and health benefits.

Depending on how many workers accept the voluntary package, Lucent will move to involuntary layoffs. Lucent's stock has dropped over 80% in the past year, and the company has been pursuing restructuring efforts and spin-offs that are expected to cut its global employment from 123,000 to under 60,000.

BUSINESS

--Photon Dynamics to layoff 15% of its workforce

Photon Dynamics, an electronics technology company, announced that it plans to layoff 15% percent, or 60 employees, from its workforce. It said the cuts are due to a weak market for electronics manufacturing equipment. The cuts will affect employees in San Jose, California, Austin, Texas, and Markham, Ontario.

Executives said they will make more efforts to cut costs and plan to outsource some services.

--Nortel wins $300 million VoiceStream contract

Nortel won a $300 million contract for three years to supply equipment for the VoiceStream Wireless cellular telephone network. Nortel will provide radio base station equipment, switching and professional services to the network, which is based on the GSM standard.

FINANCIAL REPORTS

--Sonus Networks warns its revenue will fall 25% short of forecasts, will take $466 million charge

Sonus Networks, maker of advanced telecommunications switching gear, warned that this quarter's revenue may fall up to 25% short of forecasts and reported that it will take a charge of up to $466 million.

The company has lowered its full-year revenue estimates to $170 million to $180 million, from an earlier $190 million to $210 million.

Lycos Europe, owned by Bertelsmann and Lycos, said it expects to cut costs and 300 jobs to see profit by December 2002. The company said it had lost $186.8 million for the year that ended in June. In the same year, it lost $36.7 million in its fourth quarter, and $48.6 million in the third quarter.

Amazon has opened an online travel store featuring flight, hotel, car and cruise bookings provided by Web developments like Expedia.

With its new online travel, Amazon hopes to expand its books, music and video business into more profitable services by using its online shopping platform to sell goods from other companies.

Juniper Networks won a contract from Fusion Communications, a Japanese service provider, to supply its M-series router.

Fusion operates an IP network that connects Osaka to Shinjuko, Tokyo. The company launched VoIP services in April this year.

Verizon plans to reduce its stake in Telecom Corp. in New Zealand to 19.9%. Verizon recently reduced its stake in Telecom NZ to 22.5% from 25%.

Robert Varettoni, Verizon's spokesman, said that the company was considering its options regarding investment in Telecom NZ due to changes in securities regulations in New Zealand that would make it more difficult for Verizon to sell its shares in the future.

Regulations of new takeovers introduced in July, have made changes in shareholdings between 20 and 50 percent more difficult.

India has invited Brazil to form joint ventures in areas such as telecom to further bilateral trade, which has registered a two-fold increase since 1996. "There has been a two-fold increase in Indian exports to Brazil which, in fact, is our biggest trading partner in the Latin American region," minister of state for commerce and industry Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

Rudy said that India would cooperate with Brazil in exports and joint ventures in telecom, railways, civil construction and IT. He added that the Indian government, as part of its focus on Latin American Countries (LAC) in 1997, has taken a number of initiatives to enhance the level of trade with the countries in South America.

The Indian government will establish Indian Communication Commission in order to regulate telecommunications, entertainment, broadcasting and information technology. A Bill to this effect has already been introduced in Parliament on August 31.

The Commission will expand telecommunications, data processing and other information technology facilities in rural areas at a comparatively nominal rate. Complaints related to Information technology can also be brought before the Commission.