Everything old is new again: Reltec emerges under new ownership

The suddenly omnipresent image of a ghostly-yet-hip looking Guglielmo Marconi is not the result of some kind of millennium glitch that has created a warp in the telecom timeline. On the contrary, it is intended to signify the future of Reltec.

The face of one of the earliest wireless pioneers is the marketing icon of choice for Marconi Communications, the U.K.-based company that officially absorbed Reltec's operations last week. The intent is to position the combined company as a provider of access, transport, management and data switching solutions with a global wingspan, broad product reach and solid industry experience.

"As we saw the companies coming together, we decided that from the standpoint of what our customers wanted, we needed to integrate the products and technologies and also the names," said Dudley Sheffler, president of North American operations for Marconi and former president and CEO of Reltec.

Reltec was acquired in March by Marconi parent General Electric Corp., which also recently acquired Fore Systems. The Fore deal has not closed yet, but its carrier-centric gear will be sold through Marconi. The combination of GEC holdings results in a vendor capable of supplying carriers with Sonet, digital subscriber line, element management, asynchronous transfer mode and Internet protocol solutions, among other technologies.

"This gives us a much greater product range, and we'll be able to accelerate the time to market of new products," said Mike Parton, managing director of Marconi.

Part of the aim in unifying the company's offerings under one name was to avoid carrier confusion, particularly among those with multinational operations that might interface with both the U.S. and European entities, Parton said.

One analyst said that while the Marconi name may connote legacy to some, it is a recognized entity among U.S. carriers and also represents longevity.

"Marconi as a brand has enjoyed fairly high brand recognition for probably 50 years and is really the only one associated with GEC that has any recognition in the U.S.," said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp.

Some carriers may shun suppliers' new flash and prefer to deal with established entities of known experience, Nolle said, citing Lucent Technologies' connection to the Bell Labs identity as an example.

"Buyers are becoming more conservative," he said. "In the U.S. market, if you're going to provide equipment to the service providers, you'd better have a long history."