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Corning Provides Overview of Access Network Market Opportunity; Company to Benefit From FTTx GrowthCORNING, N.Y. --(Business Wire)-- Feb. 4, 2005 -- While the overall telecommunications industry is showing some signs of improvement, Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) believes that a sustainable industry recovery will ultimately be led by strong customer demand for new service capabilities that systems such as fiber-to-the-premises enable, Larry Aiello, president and chief executive officer of Corning Cable Systems, will tell investors today. Aiello and other Corning executives will address an audience of more than 300 financial analysts and investors at the company's annual investors' meeting beginning at 9 a.m. at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York. Corning expects any telecom recovery to be led eventually by development in the access segment of the network. "By recovery, we mean a broad-based market improvement involving sustained construction by many customers in many regions," Aiello will say. "Throughout the world we expect broadband use to continue to grow as increased capability, combined with speed, drive system requirements." In North America in particular, the access segment network growth is being driven largely by the bundling of telephony, broadband access and video. Corning asserts that optical is the best medium to provide this bundling of services, commonly referred to as "triple play," over a common delivery platform. "Optical communications' inherent and demonstrable bandwidth far outstrips copper-based or wireless media. This means faster access speeds for customers and 'future proofed' networks for carriers," Aiello will note. Aiello will also outline key metrics for gauging FTTx progress and prospects, including deployment progress and announcements by Verizon, SBC and BellSouth, as well as advancements on public policy fronts. Corning considers its own telecommunications product innovations to be an important contributor to the company's continued success in this market. Aiello will add, "The only end-to-end passive plant provider, Corning's innovation efforts in this market will be targeted at capital and operational cost reduction for the service provider, with some of our innovations resulting in reductions in installation cost of as much as $100 per user." About Corning Incorporated Corning Incorporated (www.corning.com) is a diversified technology company that concentrates its efforts on high-impact growth opportunities. Corning combines its expertise in specialty glass, ceramic materials, polymers and the manipulation of the properties of light, with strong process and manufacturing capabilities to develop, engineer and commercialize significant innovative products for the telecommunications, flat panel display, environmental, semiconductor, and life sciences industries. Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a variety of business risks and other uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the possibility of changes or fluctuations in global economic and political conditions; tariffs, import duties and currency fluctuations; product demand and industry capacity; competitive products and pricing; manufacturing efficiencies; cost reductions; availability and costs of critical components and materials; new product development and commercialization; order activity and demand from major customers; capital spending by larger customers in the liquid crystal display industry and other businesses; changes in the mix of sales between premium and non-premium products; facility expansions and new plant start-up costs; possible disruption in commercial activities due to terrorist activity, armed conflict, political instability or major health concerns; ability to obtain financing and capital on commercially reasonable terms; adequacy and availability of insurance; capital resource and cash flow activities; capital spending; equity company activities; interest costs; acquisition and divestiture activities; the level of excess or obsolete inventory; the rate of technology change; the ability to enforce patents; product and components performance issues; changes in key personnel; stock price fluctuations; and adverse litigation or regulatory developments. These and other risk factors are identified in Corning's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the day that they are made, and Corning undertakes no obligation to update them in light of new information or future events. |
