In brief: Phonom taps Lucent for VoIP

Also: MCI revenue headed south

•  Phonom, a privately held provider of digital IP telephony services, is deploying Lucent’s Accelerate products to provide VoIP calls to customers in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Phonom also will use the Lucent  equipment to support Web voice mail and a Web portal to manage communications and business tools. Phonom began offering VoIP services Jan. 6. The Lucent products being deployed include VoIP switching platforms, Web-enabled voice mail and a unifying Web portal that lets consumers manage phone calls, e-mails, voice mail, calendars and address books from a computer or PDA.

• MCI recently released financial guidance for 2004 that indicates further revenue decline is on the way. The company, which is expected to emerge from bankruptcy this month, says it expects revenue between $21 billion and $22 billion this year. The carrier’s predicted revenue will be 10% to 12% lower than expected year-end 2003 revenue, which has not been finalized. The figure is also lower than MCI’s last revised three-year plan estimates filed with the bankruptcy court, which estimated revenue for 2004 at $24.6 billion. MCI attributes the further decline to falling consumer voice revenue and a struggling telecom market.