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Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (00:07):
Hi, I am Tony Poulos and I'm here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Today I have me, Bruce McClelland, who is the CEO and President of Ribbon Communications. Bruce, welcome. Thank you. You've come off a tremendous quarter and congratulations. I think it's the highest revenue earnings in the company's history. What is doing this? What is driving this fantastic growth at the moment?
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (00:30):
Yeah, well, thanks Tony. Yeah, we had a really good finish to 2024. I think one of the key things around our strategy is diversification, and we really saw that come through in the fourth quarter. In addition to really strong improvements with our service provider customers, we a really strong quarter with enterprise, enterprise and federal agencies and governments. And so that whole combination really helped us with a really strong finish to the year. In fact, the US service provider piece of our business doubled year over year, and the enterprise was probably up about 60%. So that diversification really helps improve the financials for the company.
Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (01:10):
And what's driving this growth at the moment?
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (01:12):
Yeah, so there's a number of, I think, industry things going on today, and you see a lot of it going on here at Mobile World Congress. One of the big themes for us is around network modernization. So what does that mean? Well, it means how do you transition your network to operate it more efficiently? How do you pull the cost out of the network to really improve the operation? And that's a real key strength for us, in fact, both from a product and technology perspective and a core capability, the people that we have, that's a real specialty for us. So that's probably the biggest thing that really has been helping us, and that's both with carriers as well as with enterprises. The other big theme is around obviously densification of fiber, driving fiber deeper. Our portfolio really fits that segment of the market for very efficient transport of capacity across metro networks. Those are the two big themes that have really been driving our business over the last couple of years.
Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:07):
Just going to come back to the network modernization point, how is that benefiting your customers? What are the big benefits for them?
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (02:13):
Yeah, so there's a really immediate ROI from a cost perspective. You're driving down the amount of power, the amount of cooling, the amount of real estate that's required, makes a huge difference in the economics of how they run their network. And then there's a bunch of additional more intangible benefits around the cost of operating the network, the number of people, the number of spares, all those sorts of things goes directly into an ROI model, and that's why our customers are investing. There's a good business case for them.
Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:42):
So what are the key highlights for Ribbon at MWC and what are you highlighting at this particular event?
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (02:47):
Yeah, so I think the couple of things we're really focused on around that network transformation theme is automation. So we've got a great set of products that focus on automating all of the steps across the network, whether it's a complex, highly reliable voice infrastructure or a high speed data network, and you're looking to optimize traffic flows. I mean, we've got a great suite of products around automation. And then the other big theme we're focused on is some next generation routing platforms that we've just introduced that really improve the efficiency. It's a platform that's really a pay as you grow type model, and again, it really helps our customers operate their networks more efficiently, drive down the cost.
Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (03:28):
Well, judging from the number of people that have been flocking to your stand here, I'd say you're doing the right thing. It looks like it's going to be a great year for you. Thanks very much, Bruce.
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (03:36):
Thanks very much Tony. Appreciate it.
Hi, I am Tony Poulos and I'm here at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Today I have me, Bruce McClelland, who is the CEO and President of Ribbon Communications. Bruce, welcome. Thank you. You've come off a tremendous quarter and congratulations. I think it's the highest revenue earnings in the company's history. What is doing this? What is driving this fantastic growth at the moment?
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (00:30):
Yeah, well, thanks Tony. Yeah, we had a really good finish to 2024. I think one of the key things around our strategy is diversification, and we really saw that come through in the fourth quarter. In addition to really strong improvements with our service provider customers, we a really strong quarter with enterprise, enterprise and federal agencies and governments. And so that whole combination really helped us with a really strong finish to the year. In fact, the US service provider piece of our business doubled year over year, and the enterprise was probably up about 60%. So that diversification really helps improve the financials for the company.
Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (01:10):
And what's driving this growth at the moment?
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (01:12):
Yeah, so there's a number of, I think, industry things going on today, and you see a lot of it going on here at Mobile World Congress. One of the big themes for us is around network modernization. So what does that mean? Well, it means how do you transition your network to operate it more efficiently? How do you pull the cost out of the network to really improve the operation? And that's a real key strength for us, in fact, both from a product and technology perspective and a core capability, the people that we have, that's a real specialty for us. So that's probably the biggest thing that really has been helping us, and that's both with carriers as well as with enterprises. The other big theme is around obviously densification of fiber, driving fiber deeper. Our portfolio really fits that segment of the market for very efficient transport of capacity across metro networks. Those are the two big themes that have really been driving our business over the last couple of years.
Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:07):
Just going to come back to the network modernization point, how is that benefiting your customers? What are the big benefits for them?
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (02:13):
Yeah, so there's a really immediate ROI from a cost perspective. You're driving down the amount of power, the amount of cooling, the amount of real estate that's required, makes a huge difference in the economics of how they run their network. And then there's a bunch of additional more intangible benefits around the cost of operating the network, the number of people, the number of spares, all those sorts of things goes directly into an ROI model, and that's why our customers are investing. There's a good business case for them.
Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (02:42):
So what are the key highlights for Ribbon at MWC and what are you highlighting at this particular event?
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (02:47):
Yeah, so I think the couple of things we're really focused on around that network transformation theme is automation. So we've got a great set of products that focus on automating all of the steps across the network, whether it's a complex, highly reliable voice infrastructure or a high speed data network, and you're looking to optimize traffic flows. I mean, we've got a great suite of products around automation. And then the other big theme we're focused on is some next generation routing platforms that we've just introduced that really improve the efficiency. It's a platform that's really a pay as you grow type model, and again, it really helps our customers operate their networks more efficiently, drive down the cost.
Tony Poulos, TelecomTV (03:28):
Well, judging from the number of people that have been flocking to your stand here, I'd say you're doing the right thing. It looks like it's going to be a great year for you. Thanks very much, Bruce.
Bruce McClelland, Ribbon Communications (03:36):
Thanks very much Tony. Appreciate it.
Please note that video transcripts are provided for reference only – content may vary from the published video or contain inaccuracies.
Bruce McClelland, CEO & President, Ribbon Communications
Ribbon Communications’ CEO, Bruce McClelland, knows all about accelerating network transformation. In this interview he outlines how customers have benefitted from such transformations and the drivers behind his company’s record earnings.
Recorded: March 2025
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