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The networking company is investigating whether a security breach has led to some of its source code appearing on the Internet. An unspecified amount of the proprietary source code that drives Cisco Systems' networking hardware has appeared on the Internet, the technology giant acknowledged early on Monday. While the company was investigating whether a breach had lead to the leak, a representative could not confirm whether that network intruders had made off with the software equivalent of the crown jewels: some 800 megabytes of the networking giant's source code. "Cisco is aware that a potential compromise of its proprietary information...

Qwest Posts Fourth-Quarter Loss of $307 Million Feb 19, 2004 By Catherine Tsai / The Associated Press DENVER (AP) - Qwest Communications International Inc. reported a fourth-quarter loss of $307 million on Thursday, blaming competition from wireless and local phone service providers. The loss, which amounts to 17 cents per share, contrasts with a profit of $2.7 billion, or $1.61 per share, in the last three months of 2002, when the sale of Qwest's phone directory unit boosted results. Revenue was $3.5 billion, down 5.6 percent from $3.7 billion in the same quarter in 2002. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First...

Every few years, economists identify another mutant variation of inflation to keep them awake at night. In the 1980's, it was stagflation. Three years ago, it was deflation. And now, meet the economic specter of the new millennium: stealth inflation. That's when phone companies and just about anybody else who sends you a bill manages to extract more money from you without actually raising their rates. Phase 1 of this program was the proliferation of miscellaneous fees -- for "regulatory assessment," "handling," "restocking," and so on. According to Business Week, newly concocted fees will generate $100 million for hotels this...

A KIRO Team 7 Investigation has uncovered disturbing details of a plot to disrupt all telephone, computer and cell service to the North Sound. Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne proves our most precious infrastructures are still vulnerable to attack. The FBI won't tell you this, but we will: For the past two years, federal investigators have been trying to catch a criminal who has repeatedly tapped into a major fiber optics cable north of Seattle. This person hasn't been randomly chopping entire bundles of cables, but rather he or she is using surgical precision to black out one particular 911 emergency...

Vonage said Thursday it intends to fight the first-ever decision by a U.S. state to regulate companies that provide Internet-based phone services. Minnesota's Public Utilities Commission unanimously decided two weeks ago that the New Jersey-based voice over IP (VoIP) provider is subject to the rules and regulations that cover traditional phone companies. The state has ordered Vonage to get the proper telephone company business licenses and to immediately pay fees to the state's Department of Administration to support 911 services, according to a representative for the Minnesota PUC. Bill Wilhelm, an attorney for Vonage, called the decision into question Thursday,...

DENVER - Qwest Communications says it plans to add 500 customer service and sales jobs in several states, including Washington. The new jobs are aimed at improving the company's customer service. The Denver-based company says it's seeking college graduates with sales or customer service experience for full-time positions in Colorado and 10 other states. The jobs are in addition to 600 representative positions filled last year. Qwest had nearly 50,000 employees nationwide as of March 31.

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A divided Federal Communications Commission is still struggling to complete before the end of the month key telephone competition rules adopted in concept on Feb. 20. While some in the agency are optimistic the job will be completed by next week, others aren't so sure. The commissioners are scheduled to vote on a major rewrite of media ownership rules by June 2, possibly making completion of the phone rules difficult before then. Meanwhile, a trade association representing the dominant local telephone companies said investment is on hold until the FCC releases the new phone rules. The delay...

What should be done with, or for, the Bells? Investors, lawmakers, regulators and, increasingly, consumers, are engrossed with that question as the large local phone carriers known as the Baby Bells struggle with their first decline in customers since the Depression. The erosion is fueling talk of whether the government should step in to strengthen these companies to protect a vital public service. At the heart of the debate is an arcane but crucial regulation that requires Verizon Communications, SBC Communications, BellSouth and Qwest Communications International to sell access on their networks to competitors at prices that can be...

<p>Former Global Crossing Ltd. Vice President of Finance Roy Olofson and other Global Crossing and Qwest Communications International Inc. executives might provide new details on transactions between the companies that are the focus of U.S. probes.</p> <p>The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hear from Olofson and other people who raised questions about agreements to trade long-distance capacity, boosting revenue at both companies. The companies are under investigation by Congress, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department.</p>

A House panel has issued a subpoena for testimony by the chairman of the bankrupt Global Crossing and expanded its investigation to include Western phone company Qwest Communications and other companies. The House Energy and Commerce Committee served the subpoena Thursday on Global Crossing Chairman Gary Winnick to appear at a Sept. 24 hearing, committee spokesman Ken Johnson said. Also subpoenaed were Jim Gorton, former general counsel of Global Crossing, and Greg Casey, a former executive vice president of Qwest, according to Johnson. The three men have refused to be interviewed by committee investigators, he said. In addition, Johnson said,...

UPDATE 1-Qwest weighs restating 2001 results - WSJ.com7/12/2002 5:29:51 PM (Adds analysts comments, background, stock action) CHICAGO, July 12 (Reuters) - Qwest Communications International Inc.'s (Q) new chief executive, Richard Notebaert, is considering restating the telephone company's 2001 financial results, erasing more than $1 billion in revenue, in a bid to restore the company's credibility, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday on its Web site. The Denver-based telecommunications company's new management hasn't yet made a final decision on the restatement, The Journal said, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Company officials were not available to comment to Reuters,...

<p>The telecommunications industry truly ought to be made into a soap opera. Maybe we could call it General Telecom. No? How about As the WorldCom Turns?</p> <p>The Young and the Bankrupt?</p> <p>Monday, super investor Warren Buffett ( news - web sites) jolted the nearly prostrate telecom industry by leading an investment of $500 million in Level 3 Communications. Telecom companies now are so reviled, and Buffett is so worshiped, the investment is like the prom queen deciding to dance with the greasy kid who broke both legs of the star quarterback by accidentally running him over in the school parking lot before the first game.</p>

WASHINGTON, July 1 (UPI) -- "There is nothing new in the world," President Harry S. Truman liked to say, "Except the history you don't already know." He must have been reading United Press International analysis on "The decline and fall of the American economy." Ten months ago, on Aug. 30, 2001 -- less than two weeks before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center and mangled the Pentagon -- this column said, "The continued slide of the U.S. economy into serious recession and the failure of the Bush administration to either recognize the fact or...

<p>Deals last year with Qwest and Global Crossing raise red flags over possible use of accounting tricks.</p> <p>Federal officials are stepping up their investigation of Enron's deals to swap fiber-optic network capacity with Qwest Communications and Global Crossing, according to people familiar with the inquiries.</p>

hanks to a star-quality cast, the Enron (news/quote) wreck has been riveting theater. Greedy executives concocting transactions to inflate company earnings, grasping Wall Street bankers eager to assist, pliant accountants and analysts looking the other way — Broadway's finest could not have come up with a better script. Yet while all eyes remain on Enron, a tragedy of identical plot but with far more damaging implications has been playing out on another stage. Unlike Enron's saga, this drama is not about a single, rogue company operating to enrich its executives. This tale is about an entire industry — telecommunications —...

AP - Qwest Communications International Inc. repaid $608 million of its $4 billion unsecured bank credit and amended the bank loan agreement. The announcement Monday helped lift the company's stock by 9 percent. As part of the amendment, the Denver-based Baby Bell agreed to use a portion of net proceeds from future sales of assets and capital market transactions, including the issuance of debt and equity securities, to prepay the bank loan until the outstanding loan is $2 billion or less. The telecommunications company said the money for the loan repayment came from proceeds from a recently completed sale of...

Global Crossing's sudden implosion has done more than sting shareholders, creditors and employees. It's burdened the suffering telecom industry with new worries about solvency and accounting irregularities while prompting some investors to flee the sector. "Global Crossing was a wake-up call for a lot of people that didn't realize how bad the telecom sector had become," said Scott Cleland of the Precursor Group, a Washington, D.C. research firm. The $300 billion-a-year industry has been staggering under excess capacity, falling prices and mounting debt since the technology market bubble burst in March 2000. In the process, some 500,000 telecom jobs have...