Good News for Nortel

Mike Zafirovski can do all kinds of smart things to re-invent Nortel but it won’t matter much if customers aren’t shopping. Fortunately for Mike Z. and Nortel, Infonetics believes publicly-traded service providers will boost capital expenditures by 4% in 2006 to $65-billion after an 8% increase in 2005. So where is this spending taking place? Infonetics said the three leading aeas are voice (broadband, next-generation voice, wireless networks and IP/MPLS/Ethernet), mobile RAN and optical equipment. Mind you, it’s not all good news for equipment makers. Infonetics said the consolidation among ILECs means 56% of capex is controlled by AT&T and Verizon.