Fast Forward: Bob Levine

Bob Levine, the primary investor behind Pannaway Technologies, easily could be enjoying a well-funded retirement. But the man who founded Cabletron doesn't exactly have the personality suited to that lifestyle. Instead, he's looking to expand Pannaway's role among independent telcos, including a recently signed deal with Nortel Networks. Levine recently spoke with Telephony's Vince Vittore about expansion, consolidation and whale hunting.

On his decision to fund Pannaway from his personal fortune: It was really similar to the enterprise. We saw a transition about to happen for the phone companies to go from the TDM world to IP. At some point, pretty much every phone company in the world, in order to compete, is going to have to transform. We came in with a unique product line. I also was very impressed with the independents' level of innovation and their reaction to protecting their turf. I was overwhelmed with their awareness that they knew they needed to make the transition.

On consolidation in the access market: I think two things will happen. There probably will be some consolidation, like Zhone buying Paradyne. The other type of consolidation is when you win market share. At Cabletron, we didn't buy our competitors. I don't know who the other strong vendors will be. Certainly we have a significant lead in technology. Once you have that lead, it's tough to catch people in that lead. At the same time, when you've got the lead, you've got to work your tail off to keep it.

On Pannaway's current financial condition after $55.6 million in funding: The plan right now is we should be cash flow positive in the next 12 months. We have sufficient cash to do that. The nice thing is we have zero debt. No debt is a beautiful thing. If we need to do another round, I wouldn't see that as an issue. Now with 40 customers, based on line counts, they're expected to spend $75 million in the next three years.

On not targeting RBOCs: I do not have the desire to sell to Verizon. I look at a lot of the companies that failed in the 1990s, and a lot of them were depending on one company. What I like about the independents is there are thousands of them. As soon as you get into the RBOC model, you become dependent. At Cabletron, we were always proud of the fact that no one company was more then 5% of our revenue. All these companies that are venture-backed want the 100x return. I don't need to go whale hunting. If we do a good job in this space, we'll do great.