Fire sale

ATLANTA--As more carriers look to sell off assets that don’t contribute to the bottom line, infrastructure provider Somera Communications hopes to capitalize on that trend with a new program designed to help carriers maximize their network investments.

"It’s not a phenomenon that’s been a flash in the pan," said Jeffrey Miller, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Somera. "We have a very good pulse of what’s used in our customers’ networks."

The company used Supercomm to highlight its Strategic Telecom Asset Recovery, or STAR, program. The program helps service providers reallocate excess telecom infrastructure where it’s needed and includes the procurement, integration and testing of network equipment.

Somera combines packages of new and "de-installed" telecom infrastructure in several sectors, including wireless, DSL and optical. To identify excess equipment in a network, Somera gathers information from the service provider and compiles it into a database. If necessary, the company will even send teams of employees to warehouses to take inventory.

Some of Somera’s customers include Alltel, SBC Communications and Time Warner Telecom. Verizon, with the combined assets of GTE, Bell Atlantic and Nynex, accounts for more than 10% of Somera’s business and is the company’s single largest account.

Especially in today’s economic downturn, part of the opportunity lies in the number of bankrupt service providers that have flooded the market with a glut of equipment available at bargain-basement prices, Miller said. But the STAR program is also designed to help carriers "find the assets that can be redeployed in their own network," Miller said. "There is this need with carriers who have all this equipment [that they’re not using]."

Roughly 40% of the equipment Somera sells is new, and it purchases that equipment from partners such as Nortel Networks on a "co-opetition" basis, Miller said.

"Our business is all about customer service," Miller added. "Our window into their market is often better than [that of] the carrier itself."
Michael Hanley is Managing Editor for Telephony. He can be reached at michael_hanley@intertec.com.