Ribbon Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:RBBN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Bruce McClelland: Yes. So, obviously, I’m trying to provide some level of forward indicators of future success here and the engagements with what I call Tier 1s. These are major operators in different regions of the world. And so obviously Bharti we’re able to announce here in India. I mentioned a few others like Eastern Telephone and InfiniVAN who are major, major operators in their part of the region of the world or MTN GlobalConnect operating out of Africa. So, those are all the types of examples that maybe aren’t top of top names known in North America but they’re clearly major, major operators internationally. So that pipeline is still very active of additional opportunities that we’re working on either from an RFP or a proof-of-concept perspective several in North America several in Europe and several in Asia-Pacific.

So, it’s pretty well-balanced. And a real key part of our strategy obviously to grow that business provide a more stable source of revenue more predictable allows us to be more predictable from a supply chain perspective improve cost all those things that I think are really required to have enough scale to be a really strong competitor in the space. And they span both Optical and IP both our key focus areas for us to find those entry points and kind of land-and-expand once we’re inside these major accounts.

Tim Savageaux: Great. Thanks very much.

Bruce McClelland: Yes, thanks Tim.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Greg Mesniaeff with WestPark Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Greg Mesniaeff: Yes, thank you. and congrats on the results.

Bruce McClelland: Thanks Greg.

Greg Mesniaeff: First question I wanted to ask you was the business — the IP Optical business in Europe, particularly the UK, can you give us some indication as to what percentage of that business is Huawei replacement?

Bruce McClelland: It’s a little hard to put our finger on it and I can’t comment specifically on the UK. I would say just to give you a sense though Greg the — I think the majority of our business is more in Continental Europe than it is in the UK today from an IP Optical perspective. We mentioned before BT is one of our customers more on the access side of more traditional portion of the network for ECI that we continue. But a lot of our business in Europe is either with the regional telecom providers and/or a lot with the critical infrastructure. And I mentioned a few names where we’re very active there today. So I would say that’s the stronger part. Just to comment on your Huawei replacement question. Certainly there are countries like the UK, which have been pretty aggressive in their position around Huawei as part of their infrastructure.

As you get into other countries in Europe it’s less a stringent requirement at this point whether it’s in Italy or Spain or Germany there isn’t quite as strong a mandate. And so we do face Huawei in many of the countries that we compete in today. And we don’t win them all, but we definitely have to compete against them and many of the cases we’re winning in an environment where we’re competing directly with them.

Greg Mesniaeff: Got you. And turning to the Cloud and Edge business. It seems to me the session border controller market when you subdivided by carrier and enterprise has kind of gone through some shifts in the last couple of quarters in terms of both market share and relevant — relative importance. What are you seeing from kind of a macro view of that market in terms of carrier versus enterprise? Are you gaining an enterprise? Are you holding steady in carrier? I mean what are the competitive dynamics you’re seeing there? Thanks.