Tellabs

Tellabs, Inc. (NASDAQ: TLAB) — a telecom start-up before that term was coined —came to life in 1975 to design, manufacture and sell telecom equipment for a number of niche telecom applications. A decade later, Tellabs seized opportunities created by the break-up of Ma Bell.

By the late 1980s, Tellabs introduced its version of digital-cross connect (DCS) technology to the RBOCs. The company would soon channel its blooming DCS efforts into its flagship Tellabs 5500 digital cross-connect (neé TITAN 5500) in 1991. “This dog is gonna hunt,” predicted company founder Mike Birck. And hunt it did for Tellabs. The Tellabs 5500 is on one of the most impressive runs of any product in telecom. Almost 15 years later, the big-iron Tellabs 5500 system plays a key role in about 4,500 telecom central offices in North America. In fact, most of today’s U.S. voice and Internet traffic passes through a Tellabs 5500 system. In Europe, Latin America and Asia, Tellabs is known for the Tellabs 8100 managed access system (neé MartisDXX), which delivers business services and provides transport for wireless networks.

In 2003, Tellabs acquired data start-up Vivace Networks. Tellabs has faced Goliath-like competitors as it plays its part as the David with multiservice routers for telecom networks. Telecom veteran Krish Prabhu took the CEO reigns from founder Mike Birck in 2004. After the closely watched acquisition of Advanced Fiber Communications (AFC) in November of 2004 and the acquisition of optical networking terminal start-up Vinci Systems in December 2004.

In 2005, Tellabs emerged as the North America leader in fiber-based access to the home. Today, Tellabs offers a suite of solutions to telecom service providers, MSOs and wireless companies, that includes: Ethernet IP/MPLS Fiber access Video Mobile DSL Voice Services