Occam in the News
More PONdering
By Raymond McConville, Light Reading
April 3, 2008
9:20 AM -- Looks as if the North American Tier 2/3 GPON market is about to get a lot more crowded. Adtran Inc. (Nasdaq: ADTN - message board) declared itself GPON-ready today and will look to deploy across the board in North America, while Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB - message board; Frankfurt: BTLA) said it will turn its attention away from Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ - message board) and also focus on the smaller carriers. (See Adtran Adds GPON and Tellabs Kills Its Verizon GPON Efforts.)
That means more friendly competition for Occam Networks Inc. (OTC: OCNW - message board). What does Occam think of all that? "I think Adtran can have a business model that allows them to sell at an aggressive price point, but I'll be curious to see how they hold up from a performance perspective," says Occam's VP of marketing, Russ "Welcome to 2006" Sharer.
On Tellabs looking to refocus its attention on smaller carriers, Sharer was more his colorful self, saying it'd be hard to get back into that market after ignoring it for so long in favor of Verizon and BellSouth: "It's hard to go back to the old girlfriend you dumped after your current girlfriend just dumped you."