AT&T (NYSE: T), after days of speculation, confirmed late last week that Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Juniper (NYSE: JNPR) have a seat at the their IP-based network table as "domain suppliers." News of Juniper being awarded a spot on AT&T's domain supplier list broke late last Wednesday.
While the domain supplier status gives these vendors a fighting chance for new business with the carrier, none of these vendors are strangers to AT&T's network. The new contracts, which span its equipment needs for both wireline-based triple play services and wireless backhaul, include IP, MPLS, Ethernet and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) equipment.
Gaining "domain supplier" status for wireless backhaul is obviously a big win for Alcatel-Lucent, for one, which previously was named as one its LTE mobile broadband technology and as one of two suppliers for its Radio Access Domain.
But just because these vendors have been named domain suppliers, AT&T maintains "there is no guarantee of any business award."
The announcement of these three vendors as AT&T's new domain suppliers is obviously another blow to Tellabs (Nasdaq: TLAB), a major supplier of wireless backhaul equipment to AT&T. Even though Tellabs reported a solid Q2 earnings statement, company shares were down on fears of losing a piece of its wireless backhaul business to Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco.
J.P. Morgan analyst Rod Hall said in a Reuters article that the impact of AT&T signing deals with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Juniper could be a big blow to Tellabs "considering that around 40 percent of Tellabs' broadband data sales come from AT&T's wireless backhaul network."
For more:
- Reuters has this article
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