On a day when the Dow dropped to its lowest level since 1997, exhibitors at the opening night of the COMPTEL PLUS Spring show sipped bottles of Budweiser and talked about how glad they were to be in the telecom business.
"We've been waiting for our business to fall off a cliff," said Jim Dalton, of Atlanta-based TransNexus, "but we've been OK."
Many of the most successful companies in the current landscape, Dalton added, "are not phone companies. They're application guys, like Voxeo and ClearVoIP Calling, that have SIP-based applications with a low cost structure. They're making unbelievable margins."
"Most people have realized that telecom is not down like other sectors," said Scott Sumner, of wireless backhaul provider Accedian Networks. But 2009 will be the year that network infrastructure gets tested – and could be found wanting.
"If you look at 50 million iPhones sold last year, and the incredible amount of data they're using, the demand for wireless backhaul is growing incredibly fast," said Sumner. "If you've got a slow iPhone, it's just a stupid device."
That means large carriers will "live and die by their 3G networks," Sumner added, at a time when most are still running SONET in the core. "It's a tough time to be selling network infrastructure. But it's a great time to be a wireless backhaul provider."
Jerry James, CEO of COMPTEL, cut the ribbon cutting ceremony short and let the exhibitors do all the talking. Once on the show floor, he said the event was off to a good start. “People are upbeat,” he said, and said participation earlier in the acquisition workshop was solid.
“We had 75 people there to hear what it takes to do an acquisition in this environment,” James said. “Some people are well positioned to buy and they have a war chest.”
He expects to have between 2,000 to 2,400 people by show’s end and said there were more than 100 companies exhibiting. “This industry has been through its nuclear winter. We are less adversely [affected] by these kinds of conditions and take it more in stride,” he said.
Other vendors were optimistic about the turnout on opening night. “We are pleasantly surprised,” said Mike Brigman, director of business development at the Missouri Network Alliance. “Given market conditions we figured people would be hunkered down.”
John Adams, national account executive at Allison Payment Systems agreed, “The economy has brought some people to the table,” he said.
