Telecoms Vendor Announces Record Profits; MetaSwitch and Data Connection Buck Industry Trend, Highlighting Core Company and Product Strengths

 Telecoms Vendor Announces Record Profits; MetaSwitch and Data Connection Buck Industry Trend, Highlighting Core Company and Product Strengths 

 

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 2002--In the midst of bankruptcies and revenue restatements throughout the telecommunications industry, vendor MetaSwitch, and parent company Data Connection (DCL), today announced the closure of their most profitable year ever. For the financial year to August 31, 2002, earnings were $11M on revenues of $35M, representing the company's 21st straight year of rising profitability supplying telecoms technology to OEM and carrier customers.

 How, in an industry currently experiencing the most challenging market conditions in living memory, was this possible? Ian Ferguson, the company's founder and chairman, attributes its success story to "our ability to leverage our engineering excellence and management expertise to deliver best-in-breed advanced telecoms solutions". Ferguson added: "In the current market conditions, our customers are looking more closely than ever at their vendors' financial stability and ability to deliver: MetaSwitch and Data Connection have an unrivalled track record on both counts."

 All three of the company's divisions saw increases in their business performance.

 --  MetaSwitch, supplier of the VP3500 Next Generation Class 5 Switch, enjoyed strong market traction among service providers in North America and Europe. Highlights for this division include announcements of deployments in New Jersey, Washington and Massachusetts, and installations in each of the Competitive, Rural/Independent, Cable MSO and ILEC carrier communities. These customers are turning to the VP3500 for its ease of deployment, and best-in-breed support for a wide range of Class 5 subscriber services over IP, ATM and legacy TDM networks.

 --  The Internet Applications Group (IAG) enjoyed strong interest

 for its flagship conferencing solution, DC-MeetingServer, as a

 direct result of the reduction in travel following the events

 of September 11. Just as important to the group, its

 carrier-class Unified Messaging technology continues to gain

 deployments by major service providers. Highlights for the

 year include recognition by SBC with their prestigious

 Supplier Award, and the deployment by British Telecom of an

 integrated Web and audio conferencing solution based on

 DC-MeetingServer.


   --  DCL's Network Protocols Group (NPG), reinforced its position
        as the leading independent supplier of portable protocol
        software, with new or repeat business from customers including
        Lucent, Nortel, Siemens, Cisco, IBM, Foundry Networks, CIENA
        and NEC. The key product introduction was a suite of IP
        routing protocols, including OSPF, ISIS and BGP, in addition
        to upgrade releases for the group's established products: ATM,
        MPLS, SIP, MGCP and Megaco/H.248.



Looking ahead, Data Connection's CEO Phil McConnell sees a bright future:
"We are witnessing a steady evolution to next generation network (NGN)
technologies, and the days of legacy TDM switching and traditional subscriber
services are numbered. While current market conditions are undeniably tough,
MetaSwitch and Data Connection have the financial security, the engineering
strength, the products and the sales and support capability to weather the
current storm and emerge as a major players in the NGN space."