Ribbon Communications Inc (RBBN) 2025 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Ribbon Communications second-quarter 2025 financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

大家好，歡迎參加 Ribbon Communications 2025 年第二季財務業績電話會議。 （操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。

It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Fahad Najam, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在，我很高興將電話轉給投資者關係高級副總裁法哈德·納賈姆 (Fahad Najam)。請您發言。

Good afternoon, and welcome to Ribbon's Second Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. I am Fahad Najam, SVP, Corporate Strategy and Investor Relations at Ribbon Communications. Also on the call today are Bruce McClelland, Ribbon's CEO; and John Townsend, Ribbon's CFO.

下午好，歡迎參加 Ribbon 2025 年第二季財務業績電話會議。我是 Ribbon Communications 企業策略與投資者關係資深副總裁 Fahad Najam。今天參加電話會議的還有 Ribbon 執行長 Bruce McClelland 和財務長 John Townsend。

Today's call is being webcast live and will be archived on the Investor Relations section of our website at rbbn.com, where both our press release and supplemental slides are currently available. Certain matters we will be discussing today, including the business outlook and financial projections for the third quarter of 2025 and beyond are forward-looking statements.

今天的電話會議將進行網路直播，並將存檔於我們網站 rbbn.com 的「投資者關係」版塊。我們的新聞稿和補充投影片目前均可在該版塊取得。我們今天將討論的某些事項，包括 2025 年第三季及以後的業務展望和財務預測，均為前瞻性陳述。

Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in our documents filed with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K. I refer you to our safe harbor statement included in the supplemental financial information posted on our website.

此類陳述受風險和不確定性因素影響，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中的結果有重大差異。這些風險和不確定性已在我們提交給美國證券交易委員會（SEC）的文件中進行了討論，包括我們最新的10-K表格。請參閱我們網站上發布的補充財務資訊中包含的安全港聲明。

In addition, we will also present non-GAAP financial information on this call. Reconciliations to the applicable GAAP measures are included in the earnings press release we issued earlier today as well as in the supplemental financial information we prepared for this call, which again, are both available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

此外，我們還將在本次電話會議上提供非公認會計準則 (GAAP) 財務資訊。與適用 GAAP 指標的對帳表已包含在我們今天稍早發布的收益新聞稿以及我們為本次電話會議準備的補充財務資訊中，這些資訊均可在我們網站的「投資者關係」部分查閱。

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Bruce. Bruce?

現在我想把電話轉給布魯斯。布魯斯？

Great. Thanks, Fahad, and welcome to the Ribbon team. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today to discuss our Q2 results and outlook for the rest of the year. I'm very pleased with our strong financial performance in the second quarter with revenue reaching a new all-time high for the quarter.

太好了！謝謝，Fahad，歡迎加入Ribbon團隊。大家下午好，感謝您今天加入我們，共同討論我們第二季的業績以及今年剩餘時間的展望。我對我們第二季強勁的財務表現感到非常滿意，收入創下了本季的歷史新高。

We're tracking well in the first half of the year against the growth objectives we set with revenue year to date increasing 8% year over year and adjusted EBITDA growth year to date of 13% year over year.

今年上半年，我們按照設定的成長目標取得了良好的進展，年初至今的營收年增 8%，調整後 EBITDA 年成長 13%。

Demand in the North American market is very strong across both service provider and enterprise market verticals, including US federal agencies as we continue to win some of the largest and most challenging voice transformation opportunities in the industry, resulting in significant growth year over year in our Cloud & Edge business.

北美市場對服務供應商和企業市場垂直領域（包括美國聯邦機構）的需求非常強勁，因為我們繼續贏得業內一些最大、最具挑戰性的語音轉型機會，導致我們的雲端和邊緣業務逐年顯著成長。

Our portfolio is the broadest in the market and supports an extensive number of use cases with a particular focus on elimination of legacy copper networks with modern cloud-centric unified communication systems that can be deployed either on-premise or in the cloud. Ribbon's innovation in cloud-native voice and edge routing solutions is winning customers and gaining momentum.

我們的產品組合是市場上最廣泛的，支援廣泛的用例，尤其註重透過可在本地或雲端部署的現代雲端中心統一通訊系統來取代傳統的銅纜網路。 Ribbon 在雲端原生語音和邊緣路由解決方案方面的創新正在贏得客戶並持續成長。

Building on the first quarter activity, we continue to see strong investment in next-generation fiber broadband networks, resulting in very good growth in Asia Pac and North American markets. Excluding sales to Eastern Europe, our IP optical business grew by 25% year over year in the first quarter, and we continued that momentum with sales increasing another 14% sequentially in the second quarter.

基於第一季業績，我們持續看到對下一代光纖寬頻網路的強勁投資，從而在亞太和北美市場實現了非常可觀的成長。不包括東歐地區的銷售額，我們的IP光纖業務在第一季同比增長了25%，並延續了這一增長勢頭，第二季度銷售額環比增長了14%。

In particular, Tier 1 operators in India, such as Bharti Airtel, continue to invest in transforming their IP services network with new advanced routing platforms and adding fiber capacity to support their growing mobile networks.

特別是，印度的一級營運商，例如 Bharti Airtel，繼續投資採用新的先進路由平台改造其 IP 服務網絡，並增加光纖容量以支援其不斷增長的行動網路。

And in North America, we continue to expand our IP networking footprint with expanded deployments with regional service providers and critical infrastructure networks such as AEP. So the demand picture remains strong, and we continue to expect good growth this year.

在北美，我們持續擴大IP網路覆蓋範圍，與區域服務供應商和AEP等關鍵基礎設施網路擴大部署。因此，需求前景依然強勁，我們預計今年仍將實現良好成長。

In the second quarter, we delivered revenue and earnings at the high end of our expectations. Revenue was up 15% year over year and 22% sequentially, above the high end of our guidance. Sales to service providers increased 18% year over year and 17% sequentially, driven by a record quarter with Verizon and strong sales to Bharti in India as well as a new logo win with a Tier 1 telecommunications operator in Southeast Asia.

第二季度，我們的營收和獲利均超出預期上限。營收年增15%，季增22%，高於我們預期上限。面向服務供應商的銷售額年增18%，季增17%，這得益於Verizon創紀錄的季度業績、印度Bharti的強勁銷售業績，以及與東南亞一家一級電信業者合作推出的新標誌。

Enterprise revenue also increased 7% year over year and 34% sequentially as a result of strong sales to US federal agencies and new critical infrastructure wins, including several deals that were delayed from the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 47% year over year, an increase of $26 million sequentially, right at the high end of our guidance. These results align with the plan we laid out at the beginning of the year.

企業營收年增7%，季增34%，這得益於對美國聯邦機構的強勁銷售以及新的關鍵基礎設施訂單，其中包括幾筆在第一季被推遲的交易。調整後EBITDA年增47%，季增2600萬美元，正處於我們預期的高點。這些業績與我們年初制定的計劃一致。

Our visibility into the second half of the year is solid with book-to-bill in the second quarter above 1.0x, similar to the last several quarters. As we anticipated, gross margin improved substantially in the quarter with a stronger mix of software and better regional profile. This was modestly below our guidance range with additional hardware shipments and professional services in the quarter.

我們對下半年業績的預期穩健，第二季訂單出貨比超過1.0倍，與過去幾季持平。正如我們預期，本季毛利率大幅提升，得益於軟體產品組合的增強和區域佈局的改善。由於本季硬體出貨量和專業服務的增加，此數據略低於我們的預期範圍。

Now a little more detail on each of our operating segments. We had a great quarter in our Cloud & Edge business with sales growing 24% year over year and 27% sequentially. Excluding maintenance revenue, product and service sales increased 48% year over year. The strong growth in sales resulted in a 43% increase in adjusted EBITDA.

現在，我們來更詳細地介紹我們各個營運部門。我們的雲端與邊緣運算業務本季表現出色，銷售額年增24%，季增27%。不包括維護收入，產品和服務銷售額較去年同期成長48%。強勁的銷售成長使調整後息稅折舊攤提前利潤（EBITDA）成長了43%。

The increased revenue in the quarter was primarily a result of higher sales to global service providers, increasing 28% year over year, highlighting the broad base of interest that we have in network modernization and improving efficiency. This includes our multiyear voice transformation program with Verizon, which continues to progress very well and is focused on replacing hundreds of legacy central office switches.

本季營收的成長主要得益於面向全球服務供應商的銷售額成長，年增28%，凸顯了我們對網路現代化和提升效率的廣泛興趣。這包括我們與Verizon合作的多年語音轉型項目，該項目進展順利，重點是更換數百台傳統的局端交換機。

In addition, we're working with Verizon to virtualize their existing wireline voice softswitch cores. Our solution includes our virtual C20 call controller and our Neptune router for IP traffic aggregation, resulting in significant cost savings as compared to traditional architectures. Cloud & Edge sales to enterprise customers also increased in the second quarter by 13% year over year and 32% sequentially, driven by strong sales to several US federal agencies, including a deal that was delayed from the first quarter.

此外，我們正在與Verizon合作，對其現有的有線語音軟交換核心進行虛擬化。我們的解決方案包括虛擬C20呼叫控制器和用於IP流量聚合的Neptune路由器，與傳統架構相比，顯著節省了成本。第二季企業客戶的雲端和邊緣運算銷售額年增13%，季增32%，這得益於對多家美國聯邦機構的強勁銷售，其中包括一筆從第一季推遲的交易。

As expected, Cloud & Edge gross margins declined year over year and were down 60 basis points sequentially due to the higher mix of professional services and hardware shipments. This included a significant number of media gateways to support the replacement of legacy TDM switches and a higher demand for enterprise edge gateways.

如預期，雲端與邊緣運算業務的毛利率年減，季減60個基點，原因是專業服務和硬體出貨量佔比上升。這包括大量媒體網關用於支援替換傳統TDM交換機，以及企業邊緣網關需求的增加。

We expect an improvement in gross margin in the second half to the more typical mid-60s for the segment with a higher mix of software and continued improved service margins.

我們預計，隨著軟體組合的增加和服務利潤率的持續提高，該部門下半年的毛利率將提高至較為典型的 60% 左右。

In our IP Optical segment, we had a number of notable wins in the second quarter, which drove sales up 13% sequentially and up 2% year over year. Excluding Eastern Europe, IP Optical sales to all other customers increased 5% year over year.

在IP光模組業務方面，我們在第二季度取得了多項顯著的成果，銷售額環比成長13%，較去年同期成長2%。除東歐地區外，面向所有其他客戶的IP光模組銷售額年增5%。

Our footprint and presence in India continues to grow with sales up more than 40% year over year in this region in the second quarter. In addition to expanding the footprint of our IP routing solutions at Bharti, Tata and Vodafone Idea, we have a new win supporting the deployment of broadband Internet access in rural India.

我們在印度的業務版圖和影響力持續成長，第二季該地區的銷售額年增超過40%。除了擴大我們在Bharti、Tata和Vodafone Idea的IP路由解決方案覆蓋範圍外，我們還贏得了一項新合同，支持在印度農村地區部署寬頻互聯網接入。

Sales in Southeast Asia were also strong with multiple new projects across the region, including a new win with a Tier 1 service provider that validates the competitiveness of our optical portfolio. We continue to see new opportunities across the region, partially due to vendor consolidation as well as the need to build networks that have no Chinese OEM equipment.

東南亞地區的銷售也表現強勁，該地區贏得了多個新項目，其中包括與一級服務提供商的新合作，證明了我們光網絡產品組合的競爭力。我們繼續在該地區看到新的機遇，部分原因是供應商整合以及建立沒有中國OEM設備的網路的需求。

IP Optical sales in North America were also a standout this quarter, growing over 45% year over year. We're supporting a number of market segments and use cases, including regional and rural broadband Internet expansion, critical infrastructure private secure networks for utility companies such as AEP and TDM voice network modernization and IP traffic aggregation with telecom service providers. Sales in the EMEA region were solid, up 42% sequentially and essentially flat year over year, mostly offsetting the loss of sales from Eastern Europe.

本季度，北美地區的 IP 光網路銷售同樣表現亮眼，較去年同期成長超過 45%。我們支援眾多細分市場和用例，包括區域和農村寬頻網路擴展、公用事業公司的關鍵基礎設施專用安全網路（例如 AEP 和 TDM 語音網路現代化），以及與電信服務供應商的 IP 流量聚合。歐洲、中東和非洲地區的銷售額穩健成長，季增 42%，年比基本持平，基本上抵消了東歐地區的銷售額損失。

As expected, gross margins for the IP Optical segment improved significantly in the second quarter, increasing over 700 basis points sequentially. The improvement was tied to several factors, including higher North American sales, improved product mix and margins in Asia Pac and better fixed cost absorption related to higher volume.

如預期，IP 光模組業務第二季毛利率顯著提升，季增超過 700 個基點。這項提升得益於多種因素，包括北美銷售成長、亞太地區產品結構改善和利潤率提升，以及銷售成長帶來的固定成本吸收能力增強。

With that, I'll turn it over to John to provide additional financial details on our second quarter results and then come back on to discuss outlook for the second half of the year. John?

接下來，我將把時間交給約翰，讓他提供有關我們第二季業績的更多財務細節，然後再討論下半年的前景。約翰？

Thanks, Bruce, and good afternoon, everyone. Let's begin with Q2 financial results at the consolidated level. We had an exceptional quarter, generating revenues of $221 million, an increase of 15% from the prior year and above the top end of the guidance we gave during our Q1 earnings call. Our financials clearly reflecting the operational momentum that we have built within the business.

謝謝，布魯斯，大家下午好。我們先來報告第二季的合併財務表現。我們本季表現優異，營收達到2.21億美元，年增15%，並且超過了我們在第一季財報電話會議上給出的預期上限。我們的財務狀況清晰地反映了我們業務內部建構的營運動能。

Second quarter non-GAAP gross margin was 52.1%, marginally lower than we guided due to the mix of services and higher hardware in cloud and edge and the very strong performance once again from our India team, where margins are usually a little lower.

第二季非公認會計準則毛利率為 52.1%，略低於我們的預期，原因是服務組合和雲端及邊緣的硬體更高，以及我們的印度團隊再次表現非常強勁，而印度團隊的利潤率通常略低。

Non-GAAP operating expenses were $87 million in the quarter, reflecting the seasonality in expenses such as sales commissions and variable employee compensation, which we expect to increase in the second half. Second quarter adjusted EBITDA was $32 million, again at the top end of our guidance and an increase of $10 million or 47% year over year.

本季度非公認會計準則營運費用為8,700萬美元，反映了銷售佣金和可變員工薪資等費用的季節性影響，我們預計這些費用在下半年將有所增加。第二季調整後息稅折舊攤提前利潤（EBITDA）為3,200萬美元，再次達到我們預期的最高水平，年增1000萬美元，增幅達47%。

Our non-GAAP tax rate for the quarter was 34%, and our interest expense was $11 million, including amortization of debt issuance costs. Both of these were in line with our expectations. Quarterly non-GAAP net income was $10 million compared to $9 million in the prior year.

本季度，我們的非公認會計準則稅率為34%，利息支出為1,100萬美元（包括債務發行成本攤提）。這兩項數據均符合我們的預期。季度非公認會計準則淨利潤為1000萬美元，而去年同期為900萬美元。

This generated a non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.05, which was the same as the prior year. Our basic share count was 177 million shares, and our fully diluted share count was 180 million shares for the quarter.

非公認會計準則每股攤薄收益為0.05美元，與前一年持平。本季度，我們的基本股本為1.77億股，完全稀釋股本為1.8億股。

Now let's look at the results of our two business segments. Our Cloud & Edge business continued to deliver impressive growth in the second quarter as we executed strongly with our service provider and US federal agency customers, maintaining the network transformation momentum that we've created.

現在，我們來看看我們兩個業務部門的業績。我們的雲端和邊緣業務在第二季度繼續實現了令人矚目的成長，這得益於我們與服務供應商和美國聯邦機構客戶的強強聯手，保持了我們創造的網路轉型勢頭。

We generated revenues of $137 million, an increase of 24% year over year and up $29 million from Q1. Non-GAAP gross profit of $85 million was up 16% year over year, although the higher proportion of both hardware and professional services resulted in non-GAAP gross margin of 61.9%, which is down from the prior year.

我們實現了1.37億美元的營收，年增24%，較第一季增加2,900萬美元。非公認會計準則下的毛利為8,500萬美元，較去年同期成長16%。但由於硬體和專業服務佔比較高，導致非公認會計準則下的毛利率為61.9%，較上年下降。

Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $37 million or 27% of revenue in the quarter, a 43% improvement year over year. Now on to our IP Optical Networks results. We recorded second quarter revenue of $84 million, a 2% increase versus the prior year.

該部門本季調整後息稅折舊攤銷前利潤 (EBITDA) 為 3,700 萬美元，佔營收的 27%，較去年同期成長 43%。接下來介紹我們的 IP 光網路業績。我們第二季營收為 8,400 萬美元，年增 2%。

Second quarter non-GAAP gross margin for IP Optical was within our normal range at 35.9%, up 760 basis points sequentially, but down approximately 300 basis points from the prior year, reflecting the hardware and geographical mix between those quarters. Notably, we had another excellent quarter in both India and North America.

IP Optical第二季非公認會計準則毛利率為35.9%，在正常範圍內，季增760個基點，但年減約300個基點，這反映了季度間硬體和地理分佈的差異。值得注意的是，我們在印度和北美地區再次取得了優異的表現。

IP Optical Networks adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $5 million versus a $4 million loss in the prior year. Moving on to cash and capital expenditure. Cash from operations was a usage of $1 million in the quarter with a closing cash balance of $62 million, down $12 million from the first quarter.

IP 光網路調整後息稅折舊攤銷前利潤 (EBITDA) 虧損 500 萬美元，而去年同期虧損 400 萬美元。接下來是現金和資本支出。本季營運現金使用量為 100 萬美元，期末現金餘額為 6,200 萬美元，較第一季減少 1,200 萬美元。

This was principally driven by higher working capital resulting from the sequential increase in sales and the capital expenditure and share repurchases, which I will cover momentarily. We closed the quarter with a net debt leverage ratio of 2.3 times.

這主要得益於銷售額環比成長帶來的營運資本增加，以及資本支出和股票回購（稍後我會詳細介紹）。本季末，我們的淨負債槓桿率為2.3倍。

Whilst we still need to complete our evaluation, we expect a near-term cash benefit from recent tax bill passed by Congress. The bill enables companies to return to expensing US R&D tax costs as they are incurred rather than depreciating them over time, and it also permits catch-up on deferred deductions from prior periods. This will result in an estimated cash tax savings of approximately $15 million to $20 million for 2025 compared to our projections coming into the year.

雖然我們仍需完成評估，但我們預期國會近期通過的稅收法案將帶來短期現金收益。該法案允許企業將美國研發稅成本在發生時計入費用，而不是隨著時間的推移進行折舊，並且允許補繳前期遞延扣除。與我們今年年初的預測相比，這將在2025年帶來約1500萬至2000萬美元的現金稅節省。

Total CapEx in the quarter was $6 million, including a final $2 million expenditure in relation to the new R&D facility in Israel that we mentioned last quarter. We expect normal capital expenditure for the year to be approximately $12 million to $15 million in addition to the $8 million relating to our new Israel facility.

本季總資本支出為600萬美元，其中包括我們上季度提到的與以色列新研發中心相關的200萬美元最終支出。除了以色列新研發中心相關的800萬美元支出外，我們預計全年正常資本支出約為1,200萬至1,500萬美元。

In the second quarter, we announced a new stock repurchase program to use a portion of the company's free cash flow over the next several years to repurchase up to $50 million of the company's common stock. During the quarter, we repurchased 573,000 shares under the program for a total consideration of $2.3 million. The underlying trends in our business continuing to improve, and we continue to look at ways to accelerate shareholder value creation.

我們在第二季宣布了一項新的股票回購計劃，計劃在未來幾年內動用公司部分自由現金流，回購最多價值5,000萬美元的公司普通股。本季度，我們根據該計劃回購了57.3萬股，總對價為230萬美元。我們業務的基本趨勢持續改善，我們將繼續探索加速股東價值創造的方法。

With that, I'll turn the call back to Bruce.

說完這些，我就把電話轉回給布魯斯。

Great. Thanks, John. As we look forward to the second half of the year, the demand picture remains robust. We anticipate a seasonally stronger second half with revenue increasing 15% to 20% as compared to our first half results, similar to FY24. We continue to project revenue in line with our full year guidance of $870 million to $890 million.

太好了。謝謝，約翰。展望下半年，需求前景依然強勁。我們預計下半年將迎來季節性強勁成長，營收將較上半年成長 15% 至 20%，與 2024 財年持平。我們繼續預測營收將與全年 8.7 億至 8.9 億美元的預期保持一致。

Visibility to this target remains good following a first half year-to-date revenue growth of 8% and higher backlog for the rest of the year as compared to the same point last year. Similar to last year, we expect the fourth quarter to be the strongest quarter of the year given the timing of enterprise deals and service provider projects. Longer term, we're in an up cycle and gaining momentum.

鑑於上半年迄今的營收成長了8%，且今年剩餘時間的訂單量較去年同期有所增加，實現這一目標的前景依然看好。與去年類似，考慮到企業交易和服務提供者專案的時機，我們預計第四季將成為今年表現最強勁的季度。從長遠來看，我們正處於上升週期，並且正在累積動力。

We're in a multiyear investment period to modernize communication networks across service providers and enterprise verticals and are in a great position to win a large share of this opportunity as we continue to innovate to leverage our entire voice and IP networking portfolio to differentiate our offering against larger entrenched competitors.

我們正處於多年的投資期，致力於實現服務提供者和企業垂直領域的通訊網路現代化，並且我們處於有利地位，可以贏得這一機會的大部分份額，因為我們將繼續創新，利用我們的整個語音和 IP 網路產品組合，使我們的產品與更大的根深蒂固的競爭對手區分開來。

And as our first half performance highlights, we continue to secure new wins with our IP optical portfolio as customers invest aggressively to keep up with the growth in traffic driven by mobile broadband, fiber network expansion and explosive data center growth.

正如我們上半年業績亮點所示，隨著客戶積極投資以跟上行動寬頻、光纖網路擴展和資料中心爆炸式增長所推動的流量成長，我們繼續憑藉 IP 光纖產品組合取得新的勝利。

From a profitability perspective, the higher year-over-year sales support continued growth in the bottom line, although there is some potential pressure on OpEx and gross margin in the second half of the year due to the weakening US dollar.

從獲利能力角度來看，儘管美元疲軟可能會對下半年的營運支出和毛利率造成一些潛在壓力，但同比銷售額的增加支撐了盈利的持續增長。

On a full-year basis, both gross margin and EBITDA are trending towards the lower end of our guidance range. Focusing specifically on the third quarter, we're projecting the business to look very similar to our exceptionally strong second quarter.

從全年來看，毛利率和EBITDA均趨向於我們預期範圍的低階。具體到第三季度，我們預計業務表現將與異常強勁的第二季度非常相似。

In our Cloud & Edge segment, we're projecting revenue consistent with last year and in a similar range to the second quarter of this year. We expect higher sales to a variety of enterprise and US federal customers, offsetting lower shipments this quarter to US Tier 1 service providers. Verizon deployments are expected to continue at a very strong pace with strong professional service revenue, but lower equipment and software revenue this quarter.

在雲端與邊緣運算業務領域，我們預期營收與去年持平，與今年第二季的區間相近。我們預計面向各類企業和美國聯邦客戶的銷售額將有所成長，從而抵消本季面向美國一級服務提供者的出貨量下降的影響。 Verizon 的部署預計將繼續保持強勁成長勢頭，專業服務收入也將保持強勁，但本季設備和軟體收入將有所下降。

We're still early in the initial phase of this multiyear program with significant opportunity for multiple years beyond this as well as a large potential opportunity as Verizon completes their acquisition of Frontier. In the IP Optical segment, we're projecting 5% to 10% year-over-year growth in the third quarter. The key trends in this business include the following areas.

我們仍處於這項多年計畫的初始階段，未來數年仍存在巨大的機遇，隨著Verizon完成對Frontier的收購，也存在著巨大的潛在機會。在IP光纖網路領域，我們預計第三季將年增5%至10%。業務的主要趨勢包括以下幾個方面。

In North America, we're continuing to build momentum with both critical infrastructure and regional service providers tied to the growth in fiber networks. We're also effectively leveraging our IP routing portfolio to further differentiate our voice core platform, creating opportunities to land and expand inside major service provider networks.

在北美，我們正與關鍵基礎設施和區域服務供應商攜手，持續推動光纖網路的成長。我們也正在有效運用我們的 IP 路由產品組合，進一步提升語音核心平台的差異化優勢，創造在主要服務供應商網路中落地和擴展的機會。

The latest product in our innovation pipeline is our new modular Neptune 2714 router that was recently introduced. We expect to achieve general availability this quarter and have a healthy sales funnel and trials underway and have secured our first win.

我們創新產品線的最新產品是近期推出的全新模組化 Neptune 2714 路由器。我們預計本季將全面上市，目前市場銷售管道良好，測試工作正在進行中，並已獲得首單訂單。

We expect continued momentum in Asia Pac with strong sales in India and Southeast Asia, similar to the last several quarters. Bharti, Vodafone Idea, Tata and others continue to expand network capacity, and we see additional opportunities related to expansion of rural Internet access and data center interconnect in India.

我們預計亞太地區將繼續保持強勁成長勢頭，印度和東南亞地區的銷售將保持強勁，與過去幾季類似。 Bharti、Vodafone Idea、Tata 等公司將繼續擴大網路容量，我們也看到了與印度農村網路存取和資料中心互連擴展相關的更多機會。

And we have a lot of activity in Europe and the Middle East with both critical infrastructure and defense agency projects expanding secure command and control networks, which should contribute higher gross margins.

我們在歐洲和中東地區有很多活動，包括關鍵基礎設施和國防機構項目，擴大安全指揮和控制網絡，這應該會帶來更高的毛利率。

We continue to make solid progress towards our goal of achieving a profitable contribution from our IP Optical segment, overcoming the loss of revenue from Eastern Europe, and we remain committed to achieving profitability in the near term. Overall, for the company, we expect continued improvement in gross margin in the third quarter.

我們正穩定地推動IP光網路業務的獲利貢獻目標，克服東歐地區的收入損失，並致力於短期內獲利。總體而言，我們預計公司第三季的毛利率將繼續改善。

While there remains a lot of uncertainty over where US tariffs will settle and any reciprocal trade barriers that may be implemented, at the current time, we're not projecting a material impact on our business. So based on the foregoing, for the third quarter, we're projecting revenue in a range of $213 million to $227 million and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA in a range of $28 million to $34 million.

儘管美國關稅最終結果如何以及可能實施的任何互惠貿易壁壘仍存在許多不確定性，但目前我們預計這不會對我們的業務產生重大影響。因此，基於上述情況，我們預計第三季營收將在2.13億美元至2.27億美元之間，非公認會計準則調整後息稅折舊攤銷前利潤（EBITDA）將在2,800萬美元至3,400萬美元之間。

As I mentioned earlier, the overall demand picture remains robust. And similar to last year, we expect the fourth quarter to be the strongest quarter of the year given the timing of enterprise deals and service provider projects. We are well positioned to benefit from the growing investment in fiber networks to meet the exponential increase in data consumption. And we expect the growth in our voice communications business to continue with investment across a wide range of service provider and enterprise customers.

正如我之前提到的，整體需求依然強勁。與去年類似，考慮到企業交易和服務提供者專案的時機，我們預計第四季將成為今年表現最強勁的季度。我們已做好準備，從光纖網路投資的不斷增長中獲益，以滿足數據消費的指數級增長。我們預計，隨著對廣泛服務提供者和企業客戶的投資，語音通訊業務將繼續成長。

Operator, that concludes our prepared remarks, and we can now take a few questions.

接線員，我們的準備好的發言到此結束，現在我們可以回答幾個問題。

(Operator Instructions) Michael Genovese, Rosenblatt Securities.

（操作員指示） Michael Genovese，Rosenblatt Securities。

Great. Thanks very much. Good afternoon, guys. I guess I really liked everything I heard on the conference call that you just said. So I just need a couple of things explained to me, which are, first of all, the gross margins being a little bit below expectations for the second quarter. What happened there?

太好了，非常感謝。各位，下午好。我很喜歡你們剛才在電話會議上說的所有內容。所以我需要你們解釋一下幾點。首先，第二季的毛利率略低於預期。這是怎麼回事？

Yeah. Hey, Mike. So that was primarily just a shift towards a little more hardware in the Cloud & Edge segment, the shipments there. It was part of the reason we ended up at the higher end of the guidance range or above the guidance range. And so that just -- obviously just has a bit of an effect on the overall gross margin. That was the primary reason.

是的。嘿，麥克。所以這主要是因為雲端和邊緣運算領域的硬體出貨量有所增加。這也是我們最終業績達到或超過預期範圍的原因之一。所以這顯然對整體毛利率有一定影響。這是主要原因。

Second, we had a little more professional services in the quarter as well associated with some of the modernization programs. So both of those have a little less overall gross margin relative to selling software, obviously.

其次，本季我們增加了一些與現代化專案相關的專業服務。因此，與軟體銷售相比，這兩項服務的整體毛利率顯然略低。

Okay. That makes sense. And similarly, I mean, understanding you beat the second quarter on revenues and the third quarter guided a little bit below consensus, but the year basically doesn't change. But just -- I mean, I know you went through all this, but there was so much information. The idea that revenues could be sequentially down in the third quarter before obviously coming back strongly in the fourth, what's going on in the third quarter?

好的。這很有道理。同樣，我的意思是，我知道你們第二季的收入超過了預期，而第三季的預期略低於市場普遍預期，但全年基本上沒有變化。但只是——我知道你已經經歷了這一切，但資訊量太大了。有人認為第三季營收可能會季減，然後在第四季明顯強勁回升，那麼第三季的情況如何呢？

Yeah. So if I just compare it year over year first, so second quarter is up 15% versus second quarter last year. And then I think if you look at the midpoint of our guidance for third quarter, we'd be up about 5% relative to third quarter last year. So if you look at our full year guidance, up about 5.5% versus 2024, we're off to a good start. First half of the year is up 8%.

是的。如果我先按年比較，第二季比去年同期成長了15%。然後，我認為，如果看一下我們第三季的預期中位數，我們會比去年同期成長約5%。所以，如果看一下我們全年的預期，比2024年成長約5.5%，我們開局不錯。今年上半年成長了8%。

We got Q3 guided up about 5% -- and then if we have obviously a solid Q4 like we did last year, I think we're in really good shape. So that sequential flatness Q2 to Q3, primarily because Q3 ended up ahead of the curve really.

我們預計第三季的業績將上漲約5%——如果第四季的業績能像去年一樣穩健，我認為我們的業績狀況會非常好。所以第三季的業績與第二季持平，主要是因為第三季的業績確實領先整體水準。

Got it. And then finally, I'll just ask, obviously, the Cloud & Edge business outlook has gotten much better the last several quarters than it was previously. And it also seems like optical is doing pretty well. I just want to take your temperature on the idea that Ribbon has these two separate businesses and how you're feeling about that?

明白了。最後，我想問一下，顯然，過去幾個季度，雲端和邊緣業務的前景比以前好得多。而且光學業務似乎也表現不錯。我想了解一下您對Ribbon擁有這兩個獨立業務的想法，以及您對此有何看法？

Or if you would prefer to focus more on one business, if you could get rid of the other one. Any comments on that would be helpful.

或者，如果您更願意專注於一項業務，是否可以放棄另一項業務？任何對此的評論都將有所幫助。

Yeah. Thanks, Mike. Well, obviously, I think we're feeling pretty good about the different elements. And you -- I know we covered a lot of material, but we mentioned that at Verizon, the voice core upgrades that we're doing, the modernization there moving to a virtual platform now includes our IP router to do the IP traffic aggregation as part of that upgrade.

是的。謝謝，麥克。嗯，顯然，我認為我們對不同的元素感覺很好。我知道我們討論了很多內容，但我們提到在Verizon，我們正在進行的語音核心升級，以及向虛擬平台的現代化升級，現在包括我們的IP路由器，用於進行IP流量聚合，這是升級的一部分。

So it's a perfect example of how we're able to leverage the technologies between the two different businesses and really differentiate us. I don't think anybody else is doing that today. So yes, I think all things move in the right direction there.

所以，這是一個完美的例子，展現了我們如何利用兩家不同公司之間的技術，並真正實現差異化。我認為目前還沒有其他人能做到這一點。所以，是的，我認為一切都在朝著正確的方向發展。

Okay. Perfect. I'll pass it on.

好的。太好了。我會傳達的。

Thanks, Mike.

謝謝，麥克。

Ryan Koontz, Needham & Company.

瑞安·孔茨（Ryan Koontz），Needham & Company。

Hey. Great. Thanks for the question. Bruce, can you give us any more color on this Class 5 replacement opportunity as it applies to other large wins in the pipeline? Do you think there's international opportunities? And then what do you correlate these opportunities with? Is it -- do you directly correlate it with fiber deployments and they're looking to just radically reduce OpEx in a particular region? That would be helpful. Thank you.

嘿，太好了。謝謝你的提問。 Bruce，你能否詳細介紹這個5類光纖替換項目，以及它與其他正在醞釀中的大型項目有何關聯？你認為是否存在國際市場機會？你認為這些機會與什麼有關？你是否將其與光纖部署直接關聯？他們是否希望大幅降低特定地區的營運成本？這將會很有幫助。謝謝。

Yeah. Thanks, Ryan. Yeah, there's definitely a correlation between the fiber upgrade and the Class 5 upgrade, not so much because the technologies plug into each other. But typically, what we'll see is a telco continuing to push fiber deeper and deeper, moving traditional copper lines to a voice over IP, voice over fiber capability. And then for the long tail, if you will, of remaining lines, it makes a lot of sense to modernize that Class 5 switch.

是的，謝謝，Ryan。光纖升級和5類網路升級之間確實存在關聯，這與其說是因為這兩種技術相互融合，不如說是因為兩者之間是相互補充的。通常情況下，我們會看到電信公司不斷將光纖鋪設得越來越深，將傳統的銅線路轉換為IP語音（光纖語音）功能。而對於剩餘線路的長尾部分，對5類交換器進行現代化升級是非常有意義的。

So they don't have to wait until the entire fiber penetration is at 100%. They're able to capture some pretty significant cost savings by basically doing the switch modernization in parallel with the fiber deployment. And as you mentioned, right, that approach applies really to any wireline operator, particularly in North America, where there's a traditional Class 4, Class 5 switch architecture that's been put in place 35 years ago.

因此，他們不必等到光纖普及率達到100%。透過與光纖部署同步進行交換器現代化改造，他們能夠節省相當可觀的成本。正如您所說，這種方法實際上適用於任何有線運營商，尤其是在北美，那裡傳統的4類、5類交換機架構早在35年前就已存在。

As you go to Europe, the network architectures look a little bit different. You see more convergence between mobile and fixed lines through an IMS architecture, and we participate in some of those programs as well, more focused on a cloud-native implementation of our voice core, our SBC, our policy server, et cetera. So similar idea, just probably a little different architecture and implementation.

在歐洲，網路架構看起來略有不同。你會看到透過IMS架構，行動和固定線路之間實現了更多融合，我們也參與了其中一些項目，更專注於語音核心、SBC、策略伺服器等的雲端原生實現。所以，理念類似，只是架構和實作可能略有不同。

Helpful. Thanks. And what's the general tone on CapEx these days, Bruce? I mean we've been hearing some relatively positive commentary around accelerated depreciation maybe starts to open up a little more CapEx in the coming quarters. Any commentary there you've heard from customers in the US.

很有幫助。謝謝。布魯斯，最近資本支出的整體基調是什麼？我的意思是，我們聽到一些關於加速折舊相對正面的評論，這可能會在未來幾季開始增加一些資本支出。您從美國客戶那裡聽到了什麼評論？

Yeah. It's so fresh right now, a few weeks old, and I'm not sure how many people have read the 1,000 pages of the bill yet. But clearly, that's a tailwind for the industry. As John mentioned, it benefits us being able to normally expense the R&D investments that we're making and other capital investments but even more significantly for our customers where they're able to fully expense the capital investments that they're making in the US. That's a huge deal.

是的。法案才推出幾週，時間還很短，我不知道有多少人已經讀過這1000頁的法案。但顯然，這對產業來說是一股利好。正如約翰所說，這讓我們能夠正常地報銷研發投資和其他資本投資，更重要的是，我們的客戶能夠完全報銷他們在美國的資本投資。這意義重大。

I think across the industry, billions of dollars of additional cash flow. But again, as I say, it's early, I'm not sure I've heard a lot of direct dialogue on it other than, obviously, Mr. Stankey was pretty vocal on that on his call today.

我認為整個產業將新增數十億美元的現金流。但正如我所說，現在還為時過早，我不確定我是否聽到太多關於此事的直接對話，除了斯坦基先生在今天的電話會議上明確表示了這一點之外。

Yeah, exactly. Great. And then on the -- maybe last question, and I'll pass it on. But commentary on private networks. I know you guys are pretty strong in Europe and some US government projects. Any broad commentary on what's the spending environment like around voice and even optical and routing in the enterprise?

是的，沒錯。太好了。然後——也許是最後一個問題，我會繼續問問題。關於私人網路的評論。我知道你們在歐洲和一些美國政府計畫中表現相當強大。請問您能大致評論一下企業在語音、光纖和路由方面的支出環境嗎？

Yeah, great question. So we -- in North America, have two different initiatives, one focused on voice modernization with many of the large DoD agencies and have a really great pipeline and a series of programs going there. And we are fairly early, but now starting to see a number of key wins in the US for critical infrastructure, energy companies, transportation, those sorts of areas. And we think that's a big opportunity for us because we haven't done a lot in that space historically.

是的，這個問題問得好。我們在北美有兩個不同的項目，一個專注於與國防部許多大型機構合作進行語音現代化，並且擁有非常完善的管道和一系列項目。我們目前處於起步階段，但現在開始在美國關鍵基礎設施、能源公司、交通運輸等領域取得一些關鍵成果。我們認為這對我們來說是一個巨大的機遇，因為我們過去在該領域做得併不多。

In Europe --

在歐洲——

By channel, Bruce? Sorry to interrupt.

布魯斯，透過什麼頻道？抱歉打擾了。

Yeah. No, good question. Certainly, the -- any of the government-related programs are through channels. Typically, you're going through a series of large system integrators and specialty providers. There has been obviously a renewed focus in that space around making sure every dollar that's spent is being very efficiently used and trying to reduce the amount of overhead and getting technology into the hands of the agencies and streamlining that whole sales process.

是的。不，問得好。當然，任何與政府相關的項目都是透過管道進行的。通常，你會通過一系列大型系統整合商和專業供應商。顯然，該領域現在重新聚焦於確保每一分錢都得到高效利用，努力減少管理費用，將技術交到機構手中，並簡化整個銷售流程。

In the short term, that kind of, I think, delays decisions a little bit. But in the longer term, I think it really plays to the strength of the technology OEMs and makes our products more cost effective and achieves the goals that the government is trying to focus on here. So I think in Europe, obviously, there's a large step-up in spending around defense spending across Europe today.

短期來看，我認為這會稍微推遲決策。但從長遠來看，我認為這確實能充分發揮技術原始設備製造商的優勢，提高我們的產品成本效益，並實現政府目前努力關注的目標。因此，我認為在歐洲，顯然，目前歐洲各地的國防開支正在大幅增加。

Countries like Germany and several others are going to spend and invest a lot more around defense than they have in the past. We've got a series of customers in that region that are really strong businesses for us in Israel and Switzerland and Finland.

德國等國家將在國防領域投入比過去更多的資金。我們在該地區擁有一系列客戶，他們在以色列、瑞士和芬蘭的業務非常強勁。

And we're really looking to expand our presence there in both data transport as well as in voice modernization. So I think we'll invest more there and try and replicate some of the success we've had here in the US.

我們非常希望擴大我們在數據傳輸和語音現代化方面的影響力。所以我認為我們會在那裡加大投資，試著複製我們在美國取得的一些成功。

That's great. Thanks so much. That's all I've got.

太好了。非常感謝。我就這些了。

Great. Thanks, Ryan.

太好了！謝謝，Ryan。

Dave Kang, B. Riley Securities.

Dave Kang，B. Riley 證券。

Thank you. Good afternoon. First question is, did you guys have any FX impact?

謝謝。午安.第一個問題是，你們受到了外匯方面的影響嗎？

Yeah. Hey, Dave, John can probably comment a little more. Yeah, we definitely see the weakening US dollar as a headwind from an OpEx perspective. And, John, what was the impact in second quarter?

是的。嘿，戴夫，約翰或許可以再多說幾句。是的，從營運支出的角度來看，我們確實認為美元走弱是個不利因素。約翰，這對第二季有什麼影響？

So in the second quarter, David, it wasn't huge. Most of the weakening of the dollar occurred during the second quarter. So probably on OpEx, it was about $1 million in the second quarter. But clearly, as you look forward for the rest of the year, then if everything stays as it is, and all of this is relative to the -- our expectations at the start of the year and the guidance we set there. We do see headwinds roughly around $2 million a quarter.

所以，大衛，第二季的損失並不大。美元的疲軟主要發生在第二季。所以，第二季的營運支出大概是100萬美元左右。但顯然，展望今年剩餘時間，如果一切保持現狀，所有這些都與我們年初的預期和當時設定的指引有關。我們確實看到了每季大約200萬美元的逆風。

And that really depends if the current exchange rates hold. And the current we're seeing the pressure from the shekel, the euro and the Canadian dollar in particular. So obviously, the one thing I can say is the exchange rates won't stay where they are, but it's just -- but if they do, then that's the likely impact.

這實際上取決於當前匯率是否維持不變。目前我們看到謝克爾、歐元和加幣尤其面臨壓力。所以，顯然，我可以說的是，匯率不會維持現狀，但如果真的維持不變，那麼影響可能就在於此。

Got it. And then regarding gross margins, it sounds like you're guiding third quarter gross margin to increase 150 to maybe 200 bps sequentially. Just if you can go over the dynamics behind that?

明白了。然後關於毛利率，聽起來您預計第三季毛利率將環比增長150到200個基點。您能不能解釋一下背後的原因？

Yeah, that's about right. I think it's really across both of the businesses, the mix that we're seeing in the third quarter in our IP optical business should result in quarter-over-quarter improvement in that segment. And then in Cloud & Edge, as I commented, we expect less hardware shipments in the quarter and less media gateways and more of a software mix in the third quarter, which moves us back to more maybe more a traditional gross margin mix is for the business.

是的，差不多是這樣。我認為這實際上涵蓋了兩個業務，我們在第三季度看到的IP光纖業務組合應該會導致該部門的環比改善。然後，正如我之前所說，在雲端運算和邊緣運算方面，我們預計本季硬體出貨量會減少，媒體閘道出貨量也會減少，而軟體組合會增多，這將使我們的業務回到更傳統的毛利率組合。

As you know, when we were awarded the Verizon contract last year, we did expect that the overall gross margin would come down as a result. Obviously, super accretive on the bottom line, but the additional services and hardware just carry a lower gross margin than software.

如你所知，去年我們獲得Verizon合約時，確實預料到整體毛利率會因此下降。這顯然會大幅提升獲利，但附加服務和硬體的毛利率確實低於軟體。

Got it. And my last question is, I'm just wondering if you had any order pull-ins during the quarter.

明白了。我的最後一個問題是，我想知道您在本季是否有訂單成長。

No, I think it was a pretty middle of the road, I guess, I would say, quarter for second quarter. As we look into the second half of the year, we've got obviously a strong funnel and projecting got really strong growth versus the first half. Getting the exact timing between Q3 and Q4 is always tricky, but we're pretty optimistic about the second half here, obviously.

不，我認為第二季的業績表現相當中等。展望下半年，我們顯然看到了強勁的成長勢頭，預計與上半年相比，我們的成長將非常強勁。確定第三季和第四季之間的確切時間總是很困難，但我們顯然對下半年的業績非常樂觀。

All right. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Thank you, Dave.

謝謝你，戴夫。

Tim Savageaux, Northland Capital Markets.

北國資本市場 (Northland Capital Markets) 的 Tim Savageaux 說道。

Hey. Good afternoon. I want to -- I think you mentioned a record quarter at Verizon. I wonder if you can be a bit more specific on that. It looks like that might take them up around 20% of revenue. I just wonder if you could talk to us in more detail on where Verizon ended up and also what the dynamics were across the rest of the service provider space, which is to say if they grew as much as it appears they did, it looks like you might have seen some growth in the rest of the service provider world. But anyway, I'll follow up from there. Thanks.

嘿，下午好。我想——我記得您提到過Verizon創紀錄的季度業績。您能否更具體一點。這看起來可能會佔到他們總收入的20%左右。您能否更詳細地談談Verizon的最終表現，以及其他服務提供者領域的動態？也就是說，如果Verizon的成長速度像看起來那麼快，那麼其他服務提供者領域似乎也會出現一些成長。總之，我會繼續跟進。謝謝。

Yeah. Thanks, Tim. Yeah, so your number is almost bang on, and you'll see it in the Q as we publish our 10% plus customers. So Verizon was, I think, a little over 20% of total sales in the second quarter. The last time we had a quarter that strong was not that long ago.

是的。謝謝，蒂姆。是的，所以你的數字幾乎完全正確，你會在Q財報中看到，屆時我們將公佈10%以上的客戶數量。所以，我認為Verizon在第二季的銷售額佔總銷售額的20%多一點。我們上一次取得如此強勁的季度業績還不久前。

Our fourth quarter was obviously very strong with them as well, but this was a little bit above that level.

我們的第四節顯然也表現得非常強勁，但這比那個水平略高一些。

If you go back to my commentary last quarter, we projected that. We knew we had a lot of activity, a lot of work to do in the second quarter with Verizon. And I'd say we're extremely pleased, and I think they're very pleased with how the upgrade and the modernization programs are progressing and the velocity at which we're getting after capturing the cost savings for them across their network.

如果你回顧我上個季度的評論，我們確實預測到了這一點。我們知道第二季我們與Verizon有很多合作，還有很多工作要做。我想說，我們非常高興，而且我認為他們對升級和現代化專案的進展情況，以及我們在整個網路中為他們節省成本後取得的進展速度也非常滿意。

So going very well. As I think you've already backed into the math accurately, the other parts of our service provider business also increased in the quarter.

一切進展順利。我想你已經準確地計算過了，我們服務提供者業務的其他部分在本季也實現了成長。

I don't have the exact number, obviously, not as large as Verizon, but all of the other service providers increased as well in the quarter year over year. The one I did comment on was obviously India. We had a very strong quarter in India with the Tier 1 service providers there as well.

我沒有確切的數字，顯然沒有Verizon那麼大，但其他所有服務提供者在本季度的同比增長也都很好。我提到過的一個顯然是印度。我們在印度的季度表現非常強勁，那裡的一級服務提供者也表現良好。

Right. And if I could maybe extend that commentary into Q3. I mean it sounds like high level, a little bit of the flattish guide might be a little stronger Verizon in Q2 and a little weaker in Q3. Is that a reasonable way to look at it? Is that pullback material for Verizon?

好的。請問能否將我的評論延伸到第三季？聽起來像是高層的觀點，Verizon 的業績可能在第二季略強一些，在第三季略弱一些。這樣看待這個問題合理嗎？這對 Verizon 來說是否是一個回呼的信號？

And then I would anticipate, given your expectations for the year that you would expect a new record with them in Q4, maybe not percentage-wise, but maybe absolute dollar-wise. Just interested in your thoughts on that.

然後，根據您對今年的預期，我預計第四季度的銷售額會創下新高，可能不是百分比方面的，但可能是絕對金額方面的。我只是想問您對此的看法。

Yes. I think the Q3 commentary is accurate. I mean we have a ton of projects obviously going with them. And so we'll have a strong Q3, but we're not anticipating shipping the same amount of product that we did as we did in the second quarter. We're spending time now getting it all deployed, obviously.

是的。我認為關於第三季的評論是準確的。我的意思是，我們顯然有大量項目正在進行中。因此，我們的第三季業績會很強勁，但我們預計產品出貨量不會像第二季那樣。顯然，我們現在正在花時間部署所有產品。

But we do see the diversification we have in the business, the strong enterprise set of customers, whether it's financial institutions, transportation or defense, all of those, we expect more growth in the third quarter. So we see part of the business increasing, part of it coming down. The net-net is a fairly consistent Q3 to what we just did in Q2, but up obviously, year over year from last year.

但我們確實看到了業務的多元化，以及強大的企業客戶群，無論是金融機構、交通運輸還是國防領域，所有這些領域，我們預計第三季都會有更多成長。因此，我們看到部分業務正在成長，部分業務正在下降。第三季的淨利潤與第二季基本持平，但與去年相比，年比明顯有所成長。

Great. And I think you mentioned you've got a router in there in that deployment. I think you've at least talking about the same situation at AT&T last year or maybe even prior to that, inserting your routing solution into the overall IP voice solution. I mean, I guess, can you give us an update there? And is that indeed the case?

太好了。我記得您提到過，在那個部署中您有一個路由器。我想您至少在去年，甚至更早之前就討論過 AT&T 的類似情況，將路由解決方案插入到整體 IP 語音解決方案中。您能不能跟我們講講這方面的進展？情況確實如此嗎？

And I think it brings to mind the question, can you extend that into the other elements of the routing product line or the transport product line, on the optical side proper as you think about those two big US carriers?

我認為這讓人想到一個問題，當您考慮這兩家美國大型營運商時，您能否將其擴展到路由產品線或傳輸產品線的其他元素，在光纖方面？

Yes. So we have, I'd say, two primary use cases where we're using the routing platform as part of our voice modernization. One is that router becomes an aggregation router basically to aggregate all of the voice core traffic, and that's a key part of that system upgrade and the reliability, the performance and everything are really crucial to make sure that 911 carrier-grade traffic continues to flow properly. So that's the first use case.

是的。因此，我認為我們主要有兩個用例，我們將路由平台作為語音現代化的一部分。一個是路由器變成聚合路由器，基本上聚合所有語音核心流量，這是系統升級的關鍵部分，可靠性、效能等等都至關重要，以確保 911 運營商級流量能夠持續正常傳輸。所以這是第一個用例。

The second use case is using it as an edge aggregation device, in particular, around doing circuit emulation for traditional TDM networks, TDM links. And we're seeing really a broad set of telecom customers looking at that use case or using our platform basically to help them eliminate TDM infrastructure across their metro network, move everything to an IP backbone, if you will, and where they have to continue to provide TDM interfaces, just do it at the edge. So we see really good interest or uptake around that.

第二個用例是將其用作邊緣聚合設備，特別是用於對傳統TDM網路和TDM鏈路進行電路模擬。我們看到，許多電信客戶正在關注這個用例，或使用我們的平台來幫助他們消除城域網路中的TDM基礎設施，將所有內容遷移到IP骨幹網路（如果您願意的話），而對於需要繼續提供TDM介面的地方，只需在邊緣進行即可。因此，我們看到了人們對這方面的濃厚興趣或積極應用。

And as I said in the commentary, I think of that as a land-and-expand strategy. And once we're deployed in a couple of different use cases, we really want to get deployed much more broadly into a broader set of edge aggregation use cases. And it's just part of the longer-term strategy here to expand our market share in that space.

正如我在評論中所說，我認為這是一種「落地並擴張」的策略。一旦我們部署到幾個不同的用例中，我們真的希望更廣泛地部署到更廣泛的邊緣聚合用例。這只是我們在該領域擴大市場份額的長期策略的一部分。

Okay. Thanks very much.

好的。非常感謝。

Christian Schwab, Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

克雷格-哈勒姆資本集團 (Craig-Hallum Capital Group) 的克里斯蒂安·施瓦布 (Christian Schwab)。

Thanks for taking my question. Bruce, this is a meaning of clarity. We talked about currency headwinds on OpEx, but I thought I heard in your prepared comments that you expected to be at the lower end of your gross margin and EBITDA range for calendar 2025 due to currency. Did I hear that correct?

感謝您回答我的問題。布魯斯，這是為了澄清一下。我們談到了貨幣對營運支出的影響，但我好像在您準備好的評論中聽過，由於貨幣因素，您預計2025年的毛利率和EBITDA將處於較低水平。我理解得對嗎？

Yes, exactly, Christian. So we -- as John said, there's -- if things continue at the level they're at today, and of course, they'll change, we just don't know which way. But if they continue where they are today, it's about a $5 million headwind on overall earnings relative to the original guidance that we set at the beginning of the year. That's in, I'll call it, in OpEx. Obviously, we have some fixed costs also in the COGS line that goes into gross margin.

是的，克里斯蒂安，沒錯。所以，正如約翰所說，如果情況繼續保持目前的水平，當然，情況會發生變化，只是我們不知道會如何變化。但如果情況繼續維持目前的水平，相對於我們年初設定的原始預期，整體獲利將面臨約500萬美元的逆風。我稱之為營運支出。顯然，我們的銷售成本（COGS）中也有一些固定成本，這些成本計入毛利率。

So it's put some pressure on the gross margin line. That's not as significant as the OpEx impact, but definitely contributes a little bit.

所以這給毛利率帶來了一些壓力。雖然這不像營運支出的影響那麼顯著，但肯定也有一定的影響。

So overall, as we look at the rest of the year and try and project where we end, I think on earnings, we're thinking we're lower in that range than where we would normally be without that headwind.

因此，總體而言，當我們展望今年剩餘時間並嘗試預測最終結果時，我認為就盈利而言，我們認為該範圍低於沒有逆風時的正常水平。

Great. And then as it relates to Verizon strength this year, I mean, can you elaborate on your visibility or bookings or backlog outlook, however you'd like to do that with that customer for calendar 2026? Or is that too early?

太好了。那麼，關於Verizon今年的實力，您能否詳細說明一下Verizon的可見度、預訂量或積壓訂單的前景？對於2026年，您希望如何與這位客戶合作？還是說現在還太早？

Yeah. No, we think next year looks like a strong year. As we had indicated last year, the original -- the initial phase of this program is a three-year program. So we're one year into implementation. And I know we got a ton of work to do just on what was part of the original defined program. That only does a partial portion of their network.

是的。不，我們認為明年會是強勁的一年。正如我們去年所說，這個計畫的初始階段是一個三年計畫。所以我們已經實施了一年。我知道，光是最初確定的計劃部分，我們就有大量工作要做。這部分只覆蓋了他們網路的一部分。

And assuming everything is going well and no other macro changes, we would certainly expect to see that continue well beyond that. You then layer in the opportunity around Frontier as that business gets integrated into the Verizon processes, we would expect very likely that they would want to implement something similar there to go after the cost infrastructure in that business. So we feel really good about the outlook going into next year with Verizon.

假設一切進展順利，且沒有其他宏觀因素變化，我們當然預期這種情況會持續下去。然後，隨著Frontier業務融入Verizon的流程，我們預計他們很可能會想在那裡實施類似的舉措，以應對該業務的成本基礎設施問題。因此，我們對Verizon明年的前景非常樂觀。

Great. Fantastic. No other questions. Thank you.

太好了。太棒了。沒有其他問題了。謝謝。

Greg Mesniaeff, Kingswood Capital Partners.

Kingswood Capital Partners 的 Greg Mesniaeff。

Yes. Thank you. Can you hear me?

是的。謝謝。你聽得到我說話嗎？

We got you, Greg.

我們抓到你了，格雷格。

Good. Hey, Bruce, you mentioned when you talked about book-to-bill in the second quarter, you gave us a general statement of greater than 1. When you look at your deferred revenues, it's a pretty interesting bump up from -- at the end of Q1 to end of this current quarter.

很好。嘿，布魯斯，當你提到第二季的訂單出貨比時，你給我們的整體數據是大於1。當你查看遞延收入時，你會發現從第一季末到本季末，這是一個相當有趣的成長。

You went from basically $23.5 million at the end of Q1 to $31.7 million at the end of this quarter, which is a much bigger pickup than from Q4 of last year, year-end of last year, $20.9 million up to $23.5 at the end of the first quarter. So obviously, deferred revenue is starting to accelerate, I guess, you could say.

你們的遞延收入從第一季末的2,350萬美元成長到了本季末的3,170萬美元，比去年第四季（去年年底的2,350萬美元）成長了不少，到第一季末成長到2,350萬美元。所以，很明顯，你可以說遞延收入正在加速成長。

Is that really the setup for the fourth quarter or some of that beyond? Can you just give us some color on that trend?

這真的是第四季或之後一段時間的趨勢嗎？能具體解釋一下這個趨勢嗎？

Yeah. Thanks, Greg. I think there's two key aspects to our deferred revenue pipeline, if you want to think of it that way. The largest portion is associated with our maintenance and support contracts. And a large portion of those bookings tend to happen in Q4, so you see a big buildup and then that bleeds off as the year progresses.

是的。謝謝，格雷格。如果你願意這樣想的話，我認為我們的遞延收入管道有兩個關鍵面向。最大的一部分與我們的維護和支援合約有關。這些訂單很大一部分通常發生在第四季度，所以你會看到收入大幅增長，然後隨著時間的推移逐漸減少。

But that can change depending on the timing of when we -- when those contracts get renewed or implemented. The other part is associated with product and services deferred revenue. And particularly in the Cloud & Edge business, we can have larger programs that are implemented over multiple quarters, and that can definitely influence our deferred revenue number. And yes, it's definitely an indicator of obviously future revenue. So an important element to look at.

但這可能會根據我們續約或執行這些合約的時間而改變。另一部分則與產品和服務遞延收入有關。特別是在雲端運算和邊緣運算業務中，我們可能會有跨多個季度實施的大型項目，這肯定會影響我們的遞延收入數字。是的，它無疑是未來收入的指標。因此，這是一個需要關注的重要因素。

And as you commented on book-to-bill, again, above 1 times again in the quarter. I think that's the third or fourth quarter in a row we've had that, and it's particularly good to have that when we have a quarter where we beat the revenue number. So both the numerator and the denominator increased in that case.

正如您所評論的，訂單出貨比在本季度再次超過1倍。我想這已經是連續第三或第四季度實現這一目標了。尤其當我們某個季度的營收超過預期時，實現這一目標就顯得尤為重要。所以在這種情況下，分子和分母都增加了。

Thank you. And just a quick follow-up. You had guided to a fairly conservative gross margin trend for the third quarter, all things considered. But you also did say that the percentage of hardware sales in the second quarter was up significantly. Shouldn't we assume that at some point, you get the whole razorblade effect versus the razor, and that should give us a delayed pickup in margins?

謝謝。我只是想快速跟進一下。綜合考慮所有因素，您先前預測的第三季毛利率趨勢相當保守。但您也提到第二季硬體銷售額佔比大幅上升。我們是否應該假設，在某個時候，刀片效應會完全抵消刮鬍刀的影響，導致利潤率延遲回升？

Yeah. We certainly saw a little bit of that in Q2 in the IP Optical business, where our gross margins were up almost 800 basis points sequentially in Q2 with a much improved mix, particularly in Asia Pac and part of it is the razor-razorblade analogy that you've used.

是的。我們在第二季的IP光纖業務中確實看到了一些這樣的情況，我們的毛利率環比增長了近800個基點，產品組合也得到了顯著改善，尤其是在亞太地區，這部分原因就在於您之前提到的「剃刀刀片」的比喻。

So if I think about the third quarter and your comment on that, there's two comparisons to think about. One is the sequential gross margin, and we expect that to improve Q2 to Q3, continued improvement in gross margin given the higher mix of software and less hardware.

所以，如果我考慮第三季以及你對此的評論，有兩個比較需要考慮。一是環比毛利率，我們預計第二季到第三季的毛利率會有所提高，鑑於軟體組合比例增加、硬體組合減少，毛利率將持續改善。

But if you compare it year over year, we're still lower from a gross margin perspective year over year, primarily due to the increased professional services that we're doing in the business with some of these modernization programs. So a couple of different factors to think about there.

但如果與去年同期相比，我們的毛利率仍然低於去年同期，這主要是因為我們透過一些現代化項目增加了專業服務。所以，需要考慮幾個不同的因素。

Got it. Thank you for that. Nice job on the quarter.

明白了。謝謝你。這個季度你做得很好。

Thanks, Greg.

謝謝，格雷格。

Rustam Kanga, Citizens.

魯斯塔姆·坎加，公民。

Good afternoon, John. Thanks for taking my questions. One point of clarification on the comment regarding the FX headwinds in relation to the EBITDA and gross margins. The assumption there is that those rates would hold, and that's the reason for the call out. Is that fair?

下午好，約翰。感謝您回答我的問題。關於外匯不利因素對EBITDA和毛利率的影響，我想澄清一點。我們假設這些匯率會維持不變，這也是我們提出質疑的原因。這樣說公平嗎？

Yeah, that's right. Clearly, what we've seen is, as I referenced, the exchange rates moved fairly substantially during the second quarter. But so just trying to predict the rest of the year is clearly quite challenging. But they do hold, those are the rates.

是的，沒錯。顯然，正如我所提到的，我們看到匯率在第二季波動相當大。但要預測今年剩餘時間的走勢顯然相當困難。但它們確實保持不變，這就是匯率。

Rustam, we have three or four foreign currencies where we have OpEx exposure, as John mentioned. India is probably the largest, Israel, India, those types -- of Canada, and the euro. So as we look today, what that current exchange rate is relative to when we set guidance earlier in the year, there's been a fairly material shift. It could all shift back. We just don't know.

Rustam，正如John所提到的，我們有三、四種外幣的營運支出曝險。印度可能是最大的外幣，還有以色列、印度、加拿大和歐元。因此，就我們今天的情況來看，目前的匯率相對於我們今年稍早設定的指導值而言，已經發生了相當大的變化。一切都可能逆轉。我們只是不知道。

Very clear. I appreciate it. And then secondarily, in regards to the call out or the optimism around the European defense opportunity, to what extent is that largely driven by the recently increased NATO defense budget?

非常清楚。我很感激。其次，關於對歐洲防務機會的呼籲或樂觀情緒，這在多大程度上主要受到最近北約國防預算增加的推動？

So today, I would say almost none. We're exposed to other investments that are being made there that really haven't been affected by the increased NATO investment. The area that I think I'm most interested in trying to capture is really around their voice modernization, the similar programs that we're doing here with the different defense agencies.

所以今天，我想說幾乎沒有。我們接觸到的其他投資其實並沒有受到北約投資增加的影響。我認為我最感興趣的領域實際上是語音現代化，我們正在與不同的國防機構合作進行類似的計畫。

There's a similar need for those types of upgrades in Europe, and I don't think they've really started with earnest yet. I don't know what the timing is yet, but we've certainly increased our focus there.

歐洲也同樣需要類似的升級，但我認為他們還沒有真正開始認真前進。我還不知道具體時間，但我們確實增加了對那裡的關注。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thank you. We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Bruce for any further or closing comments.

謝謝。我們的問答環節已經結束。接下來，我想把發言權交還給布魯斯，請他發表進一步的評論或結束演講。

Yeah. Well, thanks, operator, and thanks again for being on the call and your interest in Ribbon. We really look forward to speaking with many of you at the upcoming investor conferences that we're at and updating you on our progress. So with that, operator, thanks, and that concludes our call.

是的。好的，謝謝接線員，再次感謝您的來電以及您對Ribbon的關注。我們非常期待在即將舉行的投資者會議上與各位交流，並向大家報告我們的進展。接線員，謝謝，我們的通話到此結束。

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

謝謝大家。今天的電話會議和網路直播到此結束。您可以掛斷電話了，祝大家有個美好的一天。感謝您今天的參與。