Ribbon Communications Inc (RBBN) 2025 Q3 法說會逐字稿

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

各位好，歡迎參加 Ribbon Communications 2025 年第三季財務業績電話會議。（操作說明）提醒各位，本次會議正在錄音。

And it is now my pleasure to introduce to you, Fahad Najam with Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

現在，我很高興向大家介紹投資者關係部門的法哈德·納賈姆。謝謝您，先生。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon, and welcome to Ribbon's third-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 Chief Executive Officer; and John Townsend, Ribbon's Chief Financial Officer.

下午好，歡迎參加 Ribbon 2025 年第三季財務業績電話會議。我是Fahad Najam，Ribbon Communications公司企業策略與投資人關係資深副總裁。今天參加電話會議的還有 Ribbon 的執行長 Bruce McClelland 和 Ribbon 的財務長 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 fourth 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幻燈片目前都可以在該版塊找到。我們今天將討論的一些事項，包括 2025 年第四季及以後的業務展望和財務預測，都是前瞻性陳述。

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 statements included in the supplemental financial information posted on our website.

此類聲明存在風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性聲明中包含的結果有重大差異。這些風險和不確定性已在提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中進行了討論，包括我們最新的 10-K 表格。請您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 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 conference call, which again, are both available on the Investor Relations section of our website.

此外，我們將在本次電話會議上提供非GAAP財務資訊。與適用 GAAP 指標的調節表已包含在我們今天早些時候發布的盈利新聞稿以及我們為本次電話會議準備的補充財務信息中，這兩份文件均可在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到。

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

現在我想把電話交給布魯斯。布魯斯？

Great. Thanks, Fahad. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today to discuss our Q3 results and the outlook for the fourth quarter and full year.

偉大的。謝謝你，法哈德。各位下午好，感謝各位今天蒞臨，與我們共同探討第三季業績以及第四季和全年展望。

I'd like to start by highlighting our recent new product announcement that's getting considerable interest from customers. Acumen is our new powerful AIOps automation platform designed to help service providers and enterprises navigate the complexity of today's challenging operational environment and accelerate their transition to autonomous networks.

首先，我想重點介紹我們最近發布的新產品，該產品受到了客戶的極大關注。Acumen 是我們全新強大的 AIOps 自動化平台，旨在幫助服務供應商和企業應對當今充滿挑戰的營運環境的複雜性，並加速其向自主網路的轉型。

Our recent announcement included the endorsement from Altice-owned Optimum who are integrating the platform into their operation to enhance network reliability and performance. The Acumen platform is built to reduce deployment time lines and deliver customizable automation across the entire network life cycle. It ingests data from all layers of network, providing end-to-end network observability across multi-vendor and multiple networks.

我們最近發布的公告包含了 Altice 旗下 Optimum 的支持，他們正在將該平台整合到他們的營運中，以提高網路可靠性和效能。Acumen 平台旨在縮短部署時間，並在整個網路生命週期內提供可自訂的自動化功能。它從網路的各個層面攝取數據，提供跨多廠商和多個網路的端到端網路可觀測性。

Moreover, it combines out-of-the-box applications built on our Analytics and Muse products with a powerful agent builder capability. that enables our customers to develop their own AI agents with various LLM integrations. Our deep protocol and networking experience uniquely positions us to help our customers build fully autonomous AI-driven networks.

此外，它還結合了基於我們的 Analytics 和 Muse 產品構建的開箱即用應用程式以及強大的代理構建器功能，使我們的客戶能夠開發自己的 AI 代理，並整合各種 LLM。我們深厚的協定和網路經驗使我們能夠以獨特的優勢幫助客戶建立完全自主的人工智慧驅動網路。

Beyond AIOps, our Cloud & Edge portfolio is becoming increasingly strategic to our customers' agentic AI platforms and road map. We had several very important awards in the third quarter, where we've been selected by leading technology providers, including one of the largest SaaS companies in the world, which is leveraging our cloud-native SBCs and WebRTC APIs deployed in AWS to enhance their customer service agentic AI operations.

除了 AIOps 之外，我們的雲端和邊緣產品組合對客戶的智慧 AI 平台和發展路線圖也越來越具有戰略意義。我們在第三季度獲得了幾個非常重要的獎項，我們被領先的技術供應商選中，其中包括全球最大的 SaaS 公司之一，該公司正在利用我們部署在 AWS 中的雲端原生 SBC 和 WebRTC API 來增強其客戶服務代理 AI 操作。

Another notable win in the quarter was with IBM, which is embedding our virtual SBC solutions within its Watson AI platform to enable support for multiple different formats, including voice to interact with users.

本季另一個值得關注的勝利是與 IBM 的合作，IBM 將我們的虛擬 SBC 解決方案嵌入到其 Watson AI 平台中，以支援多種不同的格式，包括語音，從而與用戶互動。

These are just some of the examples of the new innovations our team is working on, with more to come. And I'm extremely excited about the convergence of AI and voice technologies and the significant opportunity ahead for Ribbon.

以上僅是我們團隊正在研發的一些創新成果，未來還會推出更多成果。我對人工智慧和語音技術的融合以及 Ribbon 未來面臨的巨大機會感到無比興奮。

Okay. Now on to our quarterly results. I'm pleased to report a solid third quarter with sales increasing 2% year over year even as we navigate short-term disruption related to the US federal government shutdown. Year-to-date, revenue has increased 6% this year and EBITDA has increased 5% versus the same period in 2024. Excluding the impact of sales to Eastern Europe, revenue has increased more than 10% so far this year.

好的。接下來公佈我們的季度業績。我很高興地報告，儘管我們受到了美國聯邦政府停擺帶來的短期影響，但第三季業績依然穩健，銷售額年增 2%。今年迄今為止，營收成長了 6%，EBITDA 與 2024 年同期相比成長了 5%。剔除東歐地區的銷售額影響，今年迄今，公司營收已成長超過 10%。

Sales to service providers in the quarter increased 5% year over year with growth across multiple accounts, including Verizon, Bharti, and several other operators in North America.

本季面向服務提供商的銷售額年增 5%，多個客戶實現了成長，其中包括 Verizon、Bharti 和北美其他幾家營運商。

Sales to enterprise customers in the quarter were down approximately 3% year-over-year and were impacted by lower sales to US government agencies. Excluding this segment, enterprise sales to all other customers were up almost 7% year over year.

本季面向企業客戶的銷售額年減約 3%，主要原因是面向美國政府機構的銷售額下降。剔除這一部分，面向其他所有客戶的企業銷售額年增近 7%。

While the U.S. government shutdown officially started October 1, it became a growing distraction in the last few weeks of the third quarter and delayed the procurement process on several projects that would have easily put us above the midpoint of our guidance for the quarter. The ongoing shutdown is obviously affecting many government activities with significant noncritical staff furloughed. This has become an important segment for us, contributing mid- to high single-digit percentages of our Cloud & Edge revenue in 2024.

雖然美國政府停擺正式始於 10 月 1 日，但在第三季度的最後幾週，它逐漸分散了我們的注意力，並延遲了幾個項目的採購流程，而這些項目原本可以輕鬆地使我們本季度業績超過預期的中點。目前的政府停擺顯然影響了許多政府活動，大量非關鍵崗位員工被迫休假。這已成為我們的一個重要業務板塊，預計到 2024 年，它將為我們雲端和邊緣運算收入貢獻中高個位數百分比。

In any event, these projects remain a high priority for US federal agencies and purchases are simply delayed, not lost. But given the uncertainty over when a resolution will be reached, we have removed the majority of US government-related sales from our projection for the fourth quarter and now assume these purchases will occur in 2026.

無論如何，這些項目仍然是美國聯邦機構的優先事項，採購只是被推遲，而不是取消。但鑑於何時能夠達成解決方案尚不明朗，我們已將大部分與美國政府相關的銷售額從第四季度的預測中剔除，並假設這些採購將在 2026 年進行。

To be clear, no business has been lost, deployments and services are continuing, and we're supporting our customers' mission-critical needs. Notwithstanding this near-term impact, the fundamentals across our Cloud & Edge and IP Optical businesses remain strong.

需要明確的是，我們沒有損失任何業務，部署和服務仍在繼續，我們正在支援客戶的關鍵任務需求。儘管短期內會受到影響，但我們雲端與邊緣運算和 IP 光網路業務的基本面依然強勁。

Continuing on the momentum built over the last several quarters, we're benefiting from very good demand across both service provider and enterprise customers as they continue to invest in modernizing their voice and data networks, and we're tracking well against our growth objectives.

延續過去幾季累積的良好勢頭，我們受益於服務供應商和企業客戶對語音和數據網路現代化改造的持續投資，市場需求非常旺盛，我們正朝著既定的成長目標穩步邁進。

From a regional perspective, sales to Europe, Middle East and Africa were very strong this quarter, growing 26% year over year. Sales to Asia Pacific countries were also strong, growing 13% with India really leading the way. Sales in North America were impacted by the lower US federal sales and declined approximately 10% year over year in the quarter.

從區域角度來看，本季對歐洲、中東和非洲的銷售額非常強勁，較去年同期成長 26%。對亞太地區的銷售也十分強勁，成長了 13%，其中印度市場表現尤為突出。受美國聯邦政府銷售額下降的影響，北美地區的銷售額在本季同比下降了約 10%。

From a consolidated bookings perspective, product and professional services booking in the quarter were below 1 times for the first time in almost two years. To some extent, this reflects the impact from the US government shutdown. Bookings momentum so far in the fourth quarter has been good with more than $30 million of new enterprise and service provider orders received over the last few weeks.

從綜合預訂量來看，本季產品和專業服務預訂量近兩年來首次低於 1 倍。在某種程度上，這反映了美國政府停擺的影響。第四季至今，預訂勢頭良好，過去幾週已收到超過 3000 萬美元的新企業和服務提供者訂單。

Now a little more detail on each of our operating segments. Sales in our IP Optical Networks business continued to grow, increasing 11% year over year, one of our strongest quarters in the last five years and compensating for lost sales to Eastern Europe. The higher sales, favorable regional, and customer mix and expense management resulted in a positive earnings contribution on an EBITDA basis, an important milestone for the business.

現在讓我們更詳細地了解我們各個營運部門的情況。我們的 IP 光網路業務銷售額持續成長，年增 11%，這是我們近五年來表現最好的季度之一，彌補了東歐市場銷售額的損失。更高的銷售額、有利的區域和客戶組合以及費用控制，使得 EBITDA 實現了正收益貢獻，這是公司發展的一個重要里程碑。

Business in Europe and the Middle East increased almost 50% year over year with a variety of critical infrastructure and defense agency projects. This included several notable new data center interconnect projects in Central Europe.

歐洲和中東地區的業務年增近 50%，涉及各種關鍵基礎設施和國防機構項目。這其中包括中歐幾個值得關注的新資料中心互連專案。

The first was in support of a large regional insurance provider to provide secure high-speed connectivity between its data centers with a key focus on low latency and traffic encryption. The second was with a regional telecom operator building a new 400-gig Internet peering network connecting over 200 cities. I'm pleased with the growing pipeline of DCI opportunities that have opened up with our expanded portfolio of IP over DWDM solutions.

第一個項目是為一家大型區域保險公司提供支持，旨在為其資料中心之間提供安全的高速連接，重點是低延遲和流量加密。第二個項目是與一家區域電信業者合作，建造一個新的 400G 互聯網對等網絡，連接 200 多個城市。隨著我們擴展了基於 DWDM 的 IP 解決方案組合，DCI 的機會管道也日益增多，我對此感到非常高興。

We also had a very nice optical transport award with a new customer in the Ukraine and are seeing several additional opportunities as this region continues to rebuild and modernize their infrastructure. In the Asia Pacific region, we saw IP Optical growth across multiple areas, including Japan, India, and Southeast Asia.

我們還與烏克蘭的一位新客戶簽訂了一份非常好的光傳輸合同，隨著該地區繼續重建和現代化其基礎設施，我們看到了幾個額外的機會。在亞太地區，我們看到 IP 光纖在多個地區實現了成長，包括日本、印度和東南亞。

Sales to India continued to grow, increasing 31% year over year this quarter, and are up 50% year to date. We had several new projects in Japan, including a new 400-gig long-haul transport win with a regional electric power company that provides Internet, mobile and data center services throughout the region.

對印度的銷售額持續成長，本季年增 31%，今年迄今成長了 50%。我們在日本獲得了幾個新項目，其中包括與一家區域電力公司簽訂的 400G 長途傳輸合同，該公司為整個地區提供互聯網、移動和數據中心服務。

While IP Optical sales in North America were lower this quarter, we were pleased to see our first rural broadband project award tied to a provisional BEAD award expected to be ratified shortly. With growing clarity around the new BEAD rules and process, I expect momentum to quickly increase over the next several months.

雖然本季北美地區的 IP 光纖銷售額有所下降，但我們很高興地看到，我們的第一個農村寬頻專案與一項預計很快就會獲得批准的臨時 BEAD 獎項相關聯。隨著新的 BEAD 規則和流程越來越清晰，我預計未來幾個月內勢頭將迅速增強。

To further underscore the progress, we've made over the last several quarters in diversifying our IP Optical revenue, I'm pleased to highlight that revenue from IP Routing Solutions has grown by more than 20% year to date and represents approximately 50% of new product sales for this segment so far this year.

為了進一步強調我們在過去幾個季度中在實現 IP 光纖收入多元化方面取得的進展，我很高興地指出，IP 路由解決方案的收入今年迄今為止增長超過 20%，約佔該部門今年迄今為止新產品銷售額的 50%。

Optical sales are down year to date, but entirely due to the suspension of shipments to Russia mid-last year. In our Cloud & Edge segment, despite the lower sales this quarter due to reduced US federal sales, we generated solid revenue growth year-to-date with revenue up almost 9% year over year, primarily on the strength of voice network modernization projects. Excluding low-growth maintenance revenue, Cloud & Edge product and professional service revenue has grown almost 18% so far this year as compared to last year.

今年迄今為止，光學產品銷售額有所下降，但這完全是由於去年年中暫停向俄羅斯發貨所致。在我們的雲端和邊緣業務部門，儘管由於美國聯邦政府銷售額減少，本季度銷售額有所下降，但我們今年迄今為止的收入實現了穩健增長，同比增長近 9%，這主要得益於語音網絡現代化項目的強勁表現。剔除成長緩慢的維護收入，今年迄今，雲端和邊緣產品及專業服務收入與去年相比成長了近 18%。

We had another strong quarter with service provider customers, growing 5% year over year. In addition to another strong quarter with Verizon, where revenue grew approximately 20% year over year, we're seeing an increasing number of service providers beginning to invest in voice network modernization with eight new projects initiated this last quarter.

本季我們在服務供應商客戶方面又取得了強勁成長，年成長 5%。除了 Verizon 又一個強勁的季度（收入同比增長約 20%）之外，我們還看到越來越多的服務提供商開始投資語音網路現代化，上個季度啟動了八個新項目。

Cloud & Edge sales to enterprise customers, excluding US government agencies, were up slightly from the second quarter, but down approximately 10% year over year. As we've moved more customers towards annual enterprise software license agreements, we see a larger concentration of revenue in the fourth quarter when we renew these recurring license agreements. As a result, the amount of our Cloud & Edge revenue, which is reoccurring in nature, including high-margin support and maintenance contracts, continues to increase.

除美國政府機構外，面向企業客戶的雲端和邊緣運算銷售額較第二季略有成長，但較去年同期下降約 10%。隨著越來越多的客戶轉向年度企業軟體授權協議，我們發現，在續簽這些經常性授權協議的第四季度，收入會更加集中。因此，我們的雲端和邊緣業務收入（具有經常性，包括高利潤的支援和維護合約）持續成長。

As mentioned earlier, Cloud & Edge sales to US federal customers in the quarter were impacted by the impending government shutdown and were down approximately 60% year over year from our first half '25 run rate. However, in the third quarter, we did receive a significant first order from a new US federal DoD agency that has started a major voice modernization project, and we continue to see the scope of opportunity growing within our US federal customer segment.

如前所述，本季面向美國聯邦客戶的雲端和邊緣銷售額受到即將到來的政府停擺的影響，與 2025 年上半年的年化成長率相比下降了約 60%。然而，在第三季度，我們確實收到了來自美國國防部一家新成立的聯邦機構的首筆重要訂單，該機構已啟動一項重大的語音現代化項目，我們繼續看到我們在美國聯邦客戶群體中的機會範圍不斷擴大。

As I highlighted earlier, we're uncovering multiple new opportunities tied to our customers' agentic and generative AI road map, which is very exciting. I already mentioned two very notable wins in the quarter and our pipeline of opportunities related to agentic and generative AI platforms is growing.

正如我之前強調的那樣，我們正在發掘與客戶的智慧體和生成式人工智慧路線圖相關的多個新機遇，這非常令人興奮。我已經提到了本季度取得的兩項非常值得關注的勝利，而且我們與智能體和生成式人工智慧平台相關的機會也在不斷增加。

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

接下來，我將把發言權交給約翰，讓他提供我們第三季業績的更多財務細節，然後我們再回來討論第四季度的展望。約翰？

Thanks, Bruce, and good afternoon, everyone. Let's begin with Q3 financial results at the consolidated level. We generated revenues of $215 million in the quarter, an increase of 2% from the prior year, within the guidance range we discussed during our Q2 earnings.

謝謝你，布魯斯，大家下午好。讓我們先來看看第三季合併層面的財務表現。本季我們實現了 2.15 億美元的收入，比去年同期成長了 2%，符合我們在第二季財報中討論的預期範圍。

Third-quarter non-GAAP gross margin was 52.6%, lower than we guided due to lower software sales to US government customers, offset by stronger margins in our IP Optical segment. Overall, gross margin was up sequentially by 50 basis points, driven by higher margins in both segments.

第三季非GAAP毛利率為52.6%，低於我們預期，原因是面向美國政府客戶的軟體銷售額下降，但IP光纖業務部門利潤率的提高抵消了這一影響。總體而言，毛利率環比上升 50 個基點，這主要得益於兩個業務部門毛利率的提高。

Non-GAAP operating expenses were $89 million in the quarter, up $1 million sequentially, principally due to increased employee expenses, but down marginally year over year, reflecting our continued focus on driving efficiencies within the business. This reduction was achieved despite the weaker US dollar and foreign exchange headwinds of approximately $3 million year over year. 4Q expenses are expected to trend upwards marginally based on seasonally higher employee compensation costs.

本季非GAAP營運費用為8,900萬美元，季增100萬美元，主因是員工費用增加，但年比略有下降，反映出我們持續致力於提高業務效率。儘管美元走軟，外匯匯率年減約 300 萬美元，但仍實現了這項減幅。由於季節性員工薪資成本較高，預計第四季支出將略有上升。

Third-quarter adjusted EBITDA was $29 million, again, within our guidance range, a $1 million decrease from the prior year, driven principally by the lower gross margin I just noted. The non-GAAP tax rate for the quarter was 40%, higher than the 35% we had projected because of changes included in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

第三季調整後 EBITDA 為 2,900 萬美元，再次符合我們的預期範圍，比去年同期減少了 100 萬美元，主要原因是毛利率下降，正如我剛才提到的。由於《一項偉大的法案》中包含的變更，本季的非GAAP稅率為40%，高於我們先前預測的35%。

From a cash tax perspective, as expected and indicated during our 2Q earnings call, we did not pay US federal income tax in Q3 and expect no further payments for the rest of the year due to the ability to accelerate the deduction of R&D expenses.

從現金稅的角度來看，正如我們在第二季度收益電話會議上所預期和指出的那樣，我們在第三季度沒有繳納美國聯邦所得稅，並且由於研發費用可以加速扣除，預計今年剩餘時間也不會再繳納任何稅款。

Interest expense in the quarter was $12 million, including amortization of debt issuance costs. Quarterly non-GAAP net income was $7 million compared to $8 million in the prior year. This generated a non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.04, down from $0.01 in the prior year. Our basic share count was 177 million shares and our fully diluted share count was 181 million shares in the quarter.

本季利息支出為 1,200 萬美元，其中包括債務發行成本的攤銷。本季非GAAP淨收入為700萬美元，而上年同期為800萬美元。這導致非GAAP稀釋後每股收益為0.04美元，低於去年的0.01美元。本季我們的基本股數為 1.77 億股，完全稀釋後的股數為 1.81 億股。

Now let's look at the results of our two business segments. In our IP Optical Networks results, we recorded third-quarter revenue of $91 million, an 11% increase versus the prior year and up $7 million sequentially. This was driven by strong sales to India and EMEA.

現在讓我們來看看我們兩個業務部門的業績。在我們的 IP 光網路業務業績中，第三季營收為 9,100 萬美元，較上年同期成長 11%，比上一季成長 700 萬美元。這主要得益於印度和歐洲、中東及非洲地區的強勁銷售。

Third-quarter non-GAAP gross margin for IP Optical was 39.4%, up 350 basis points sequentially, and up 330 basis points from the prior year, reflecting better product and geographical mix as well as fixed cost absorption on higher revenues. The combination of higher sales and margin resulted in a positive EBITDA contribution of $1 million in the quarter, which was particularly pleasing. Year-to-date, IP Optical revenues have grown 2%, but excluding Russia, revenues are up 13%.

IP Optical 第三季非 GAAP 毛利率為 39.4%，較上季成長 350 個基點，較上年同期成長 330 個基點，反映出產品和地理組合的改善以及固定成本在更高收入下的吸收。銷售額和利潤率的提高使得本季 EBITDA 貢獻為 100 萬美元，這尤其令人欣喜。今年迄今，IP光纖業務收入成長了2%，但如果不包括俄羅斯，營收則成長了13%。

We now move on to our Cloud & Edge business. We generated third quarter revenue of $124 million, a decrease of 3% year over year and down 9% sequentially. Non-GAAP gross profit was $77 million, producing a non-GAAP gross margin of 62.2%, an improvement of 27 basis points from the prior quarter. This improvement was achieved by tight commercial discipline and despite some higher-margin software-based deals pushing out from the quarter as noted by Bruce.

接下來，我們將討論我們的雲端和邊緣業務。第三季營收為 1.24 億美元，年減 3%，季減 9%。非GAAP毛利為7,700萬美元，非GAAP毛利率為62.2%，較上一季提高了27個基點。這一改善是透過嚴格的商業紀律實現的，儘管正如布魯斯所指出的，一些利潤較高的軟體交易推遲到本季結束。

Margins were approximately 500 basis points lower year over year due to the mix of the revenues in the prior year as the Verizon network transformation commenced with larger product shipments versus higher service revenues in the quarter just closed.

由於前一年 Verizon 網路轉型開始，產品出貨量較大，而上一季服務收入較高，導致利潤率較去年同期下降約 500 個基點。

Adjusted EBITDA for the segment was $28 million or 22% of revenue in the quarter, down $10 million year over year, driven by the margin dynamics just discussed.

該業務部門的調整後 EBITDA 為 2,800 萬美元，佔本季營收的 22%，年減 1,000 萬美元，主要受剛才討論的利潤率動態影響。

Moving on to cash and capital expenditure. We remain disciplined and focused on managing our operating expenses and working capital and generated cash from operations of $26 million in the quarter, with a closing cash balance of $77 million, up $14 million from the end of the second quarter. We closed the quarter with a net debt leverage ratio of 2.2 times. Total CapEx spend in the quarter was $5.5 million, including final payments associated with our new facility in Israel.

接下來討論現金和資本支出。我們保持嚴謹的作風，專注於管理營運費用和營運資金，本季經營活動產生的現金流為 2,600 萬美元，期末現金餘額為 7,700 萬美元，比第二季末增加了 1,400 萬美元。本季末，我們的淨負債槓桿率為 2.2 倍。本季資本支出總額為 550 萬美元，其中包括與我們在以色列的新工廠相關的最終付款。

During the third quarter, we repurchased approximately 900,000 shares under our previously announced stock buyback program for a total cost of $3.5 million. In summary, we produced a robust set of results in the quarter and continue to strengthen the company's balance sheet.

第三季度，我們根據先前宣布的股票回購計劃，回購了約 90 萬股股票，總成本為 350 萬美元。總而言之，我們本季取得了穩健的業績，並繼續加強公司的資產負債表。

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

這樣，我就把電話轉回布魯斯了。

Great. Thanks, John. Looking at the final quarter of the year, we have solid momentum across the majority of our business other than the timing uncertainty related to the US government shutdown. Despite this, we continue to expect Q4 to be the strongest quarter of the year with both our enterprise and service provider customers.

偉大的。謝謝你，約翰。展望今年最後一個季度，除了與美國政府停擺相關的時效不確定性之外，我們的大部分業務都保持著穩健的發展勢頭。儘管如此，我們仍預期第四季將是今年以來企業客戶和服務供應商客戶業績最好的一個季度。

In our Cloud & Edge segment, out of an abundance of caution, we're assuming the US government shutdown will impact new purchases associated with our ongoing voice modernization projects this quarter. This may prove to be a conservative approach, but it will take time for the government to fully restart once the new spending bill is passed by Congress. The outlook for the rest of our Cloud & Edge business remains consistent with our previous guidance.

出於謹慎考慮，我們預計本季美國政府停擺將影響與我們正在進行的語音現代化專案相關的新採購。這或許是一種保守的做法，但一旦國會通過新的支出法案，政府需要一段時間才能完全恢復運作。我們其餘雲端和邊緣業務的前景與我們先前的預期保持一致。

In North America, we expect continued excellent execution with our Verizon projects and similar revenue to the recently completed third quarter. 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.

在北美，我們預計與 Verizon 的專案將繼續取得優異的執行效果，營收將與最近結束的第三季類似。我們仍處於這項多年計畫的初期階段，未來幾年將有很大的發展機會，而且隨著 Verizon 完成對 Frontier 的收購，未來將有巨大的發展潛力。

As I mentioned earlier, across the rest of North American service providers, we have an increased number of voice modernization projects that will begin to contribute in the fourth quarter. And we expect a seasonally strong quarter with enterprise customers as we renew several annual enterprise license agreements with multiple additional projects across financial, healthcare, and industrial verticals.

正如我之前提到的，在北美其他服務提供者中，語音現代化專案的數量增加，這些專案將在第四季度開始產生效益。我們預計本季度企業客戶業務將呈現季節性強勁成長，因為我們將續簽多項年度企業授權協議，並在金融、醫療保健和工業等垂直領域開展多個新專案。

We expect the increased mix of software and services to contribute to significantly higher Cloud & Edge gross margins in the high 60s in Q4, similar to the previous year. In the IP Optical segment, the solid third-quarter results demonstrate that we're on the right path. In the fourth quarter, we're projecting sales to be at similar levels to the third quarter and increasing mid-single digit year over year.

我們預計，軟體和服務組合的增加將使第四季雲端和邊緣毛利率顯著提高至 60% 以上，與去年同期類似。在IP光纖領域，第三季穩健的業績顯示我們走在正確的道路上。我們預計第四季銷售額將與第三季持平，並實現個位數中段的年成長。

We expect India to remain one of our strongest markets, with sales increasing yet again both quarter over quarter and year over year. In addition to continued momentum with key customers such as Bharti and Tata Teleservices, we expect first revenue associated with the new rural India broadband project.

我們預計印度仍將是我們最強勁的市場之一，銷售額將再次實現環比和同比增長。除了與 Bharti 和 Tata Teleservices 等主要客戶的持續合作勢頭外，我們還預計將獲得與印度農村寬頻新項目相關的首筆收入。

In North America and Europe, we expect sales to be fairly consistent with last quarter and with fourth quarter 2024. And starting this quarter, we expect our IP Optical maintenance revenue to be lower due to the completion of a maintenance contract with a European service provider associated with legacy access equipment. As a result of all these mix changes, we anticipate IP Optical margins to be in the mid-30s in the fourth quarter.

在北美和歐洲，我們預計銷售額將與上一季和 2024 年第四季基本持平。從本季開始，由於與歐洲服務供應商（該公司負責傳統接取設備）的維護合約已完成，我們預計 IP 光纖維護收入將會下降。由於所有這些組合變化，我們預計第四季度 IP 光纖的利潤率將在 30% 左右。

So based on these expectations for the fourth quarter, we're projecting revenue in a range of $230 million to $250 million and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA in a range of $42 million to $48 million.

因此，根據對第四季度的這些預期，我們預計營收將在 2.3 億美元至 2.5 億美元之間，非 GAAP 調整後的 EBITDA 將在 4,200 萬美元至 4,800 萬美元之間。

As I mentioned earlier, while the US government shutdown creates near-term timing uncertainty this quarter, the fundamentals have not changed. We are well positioned to benefit from the growing investment in data centers, critical infrastructure and fiber networks to meet the exponential increase in data consumption.

正如我之前提到的，雖然美國政府停擺為本季短期內的時間安排帶來了不確定性，但基本面並沒有改變。我們已做好充分準備，從資料中心、關鍵基礎設施和光纖網路領域不斷增長的投資中獲益，以滿足​​資料消費的指數級增長。

We expect the growth in our voice communications business to continue, with investment across a wide range of service providers, enterprise customers and government agencies. And we've identified several new growth vectors for the company with the real-world adoption and application of AI technology to help our customers achieve autonomous network operation and the convergence of voice and agentic AI within the enterprise.

我們預計語音通訊業務將持續成長，投資範圍涵蓋眾多服務供應商、企業客戶和政府機構。我們已經確定了公司幾個新的成長方向，即在現實世界中採用和應用人工智慧技術，幫助我們的客戶實現自主網路營運以及企業內部語音和代理人工智慧的整合。

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

操作員，我們的發言到此結束，現在可以回答幾個問題了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作說明）

Michael Genovese, Rosenblatt Securities.

Michael Genovese，Rosenblatt Securities。

Bruce, at start of the call, you were talking about software and AI. So my question is, is this -- do we think about this as a driver of Cloud & Edge growth rate in the future? Or do we think -- are we going to have automation in AI software as a category we talk about that will become significant? And if so, when?

Bruce，通話開始時，你談到了軟體和人工智慧。所以我的問題是，我們是否認為這是未來雲端和邊緣運算成長率的驅動因素？或者我們認為－人工智慧軟體中的自動化功能是否會成為我們討論的一個重要類別？如果真是如此，那又是什麼時候呢？

Yes. Great question, Mike. We're actually thinking of it as a new category in a lot of ways. And there's really two elements kind of as I described in the comments. One is around AIOps, basically an AI engine that allows our customers to build their own smart agents to help them manage and operate the network.

是的。問得好，麥克。實際上，我們在許多方面都將其視為一個新的類別。正如我在評論中所描述的那樣，這其中實際上包含兩個要素。其中之一是 AIOps，它本質上是一個 AI 引擎，讓我們的客戶可以建立自己的智慧代理來幫助他們管理和營運網路。

It builds on top of some of the other platforms we already have invested in and developed around large analytic engines and management systems, et cetera. So that's part of it, but it really spans both product categories. So you could really think of it as a new category on its own.

它建立在我們已經投資和開發的其他一些平台之上，這些平台圍繞著大型分析引擎和管理系統等。這是其中的一部分，但實際上它涵蓋了這兩個產品類別。所以你可以把它看作是一個全新的類別。

The other part that we're really seeing some more momentum around, and I've mentioned this a couple of times on earnings calls is, as the convergence between voice and AI starts to increase in the enterprise, our products kind of sit in the middle here, and they provide a bridge between the traditional voice network and these new AI environments. And there's a lot of different use cases there. So we -- for now, we're reporting that revenue within the Cloud & Edge segment, but in some ways, I'm thinking of it really as a new category.

我們看到另一個方面發展勢頭越來越強勁，我在幾次財報電話會議上也提到過這一點，那就是隨著企業中語音和人工智慧的融合日益加深，我們的產品恰好處於中間位置，它們在傳統的語音網路和這些新的人工智慧環境之間架起了一座橋樑。而且它有很多不同的應用場景。所以——目前，我們將這部分收入計入雲端和邊緣運算領域，但在某種程度上，我認為它實際上是一個新的類別。

Okay. Great. And then can you touch upon both for the quarter as well as the guide, just sort of characterize the Verizon Cloud and Edge business and the US IP Optical business? Like just kind of summarize the third and fourth quarters, how those were in each of those two areas?

好的。偉大的。那麼，您能否就本季和指南分別談談 Verizon 的雲端和邊緣業務以及美國 IP 光纖業務，並簡要介紹一下？請簡要總結一下第三季度和第四季度，這兩個領域的情況如何？

So in the case of Verizon, they're a 10%-plus customers. So we break out their information in our Q when you see that come out. If I recall correctly, Verizon grew about 20% year over year in the third quarter and was down from the second quarter.

所以以 Verizon 為例，他們的客戶佔比超過 10%。所以，當這些資訊公佈時，我們會在問答環節中單獨列出它們。如果我沒記錯的話，Verizon 第三季年增約 20%，但較第二季有所下降。

As I mentioned, second quarter is the best quarter we ever had with them. So we knew this quarter was going to be more around services than products. So again, just a really healthy quarter with Verizon and up year over year. If you recall, last year, in the third quarter, we were just really kind of getting started with our modernization program. And as John had mentioned, we shipped quite a bit of the infrastructure, the products and then started the service deployment.

正如我之前提到的，第二季是我們和他們合作以來表現最好的一個季度。所以我們知道，本季業務的重點將更多放在服務而非產品上。所以，Verizon 的這個季度業績依然非常健康，比去年同期成長。如果你還記得的話，去年第三季度，我們才剛開始實施現代化計畫。正如約翰所提到的那樣，我們交付了相當多的基礎設施和產品，然後開始部署服務。

This quarter is a little bit different. It's more around services than products. So hopefully, that helps a little bit on Verizon.

本季的情況略有不同。它更側重於服務而非產品。希望這能對Verizon有所幫助。

On the US IP Optical business, it does tend to be a little lumpy as we do different types of programs. As you know, a lot of the business there is with Tier 2 or Tier 3 regional operators or around some critical infrastructure customers. And so we do see the revenue kind of go up and down quarter-to-quarter. What we're looking at is really the longer-term trend and the growth rate there.

在美國的IP光纖業務方面，由於我們開展不同類型的項目，所以情況往往會有些起伏不定。如您所知，那裡的許多業務都與二級或三級區域運營商或一些關鍵基礎設施客戶有關。因此，我們看到收入每季都會出現波動。我們真正關注的是長期趨勢和成長率。

One of the things I mentioned was the -- obviously, the BEAD funding that you can kind of start to see come into the market. Many of the states now have provisional awards, and there's a review process to ratify that, and it was good to see the first project we can clearly identify that's directly attached to the BEAD funding coming in. So that was nice to see.

我提到的其中一件事是——很明顯，BEAD 資金，你可以開始看到它進入市場。許多州現在都有臨時撥款，並且有一個審查程序來批准這些撥款，很高興看到第一個我們可以明確確定的、與 BEAD 資金直接相關的項目已經到位。看到這一幕真令人欣慰。

Great. Great. And I'll just sneak one more in. Obviously, the reported numbers are reported numbers, we see them and they're affected by the shutdown. So I have to take your word on this next question.

偉大的。偉大的。我再偷偷加一個進去。顯然，公佈的數字就是公佈的數字，我們看到了這些數字，它們也受到了停工的影響。所以，對於下一個問題，我只能相信你的話了。

But would you describe sort of ex shutdown, do you think that you would have been in line? Or do you think you would have beat nicely, like how much -- what would have happened if there was not a shutdown?

但如果你描述一下類似前封鎖的情況，你認為你會排隊等候嗎？還是你認為如果沒有停擺，你會取得多大的勝利？比如會取得多大的勝利？

Yes. No, I think -- in fact, I think I mentioned it in the call that we would have been comfortably in the midpoint or above the midpoint with the opportunities. And really, it was in the last week -- and as you know, we transact and close a fair amount of business in the last month of each quarter. And it was just clearly a distraction on anything going on. I spent several days in Washington that last week, and it was just obvious that things were getting impacted.

是的。不，我認為——事實上，我認為我在電話會議中提到過，以這些機會來看，我們本可以輕鬆地達到或超過中點。事實上，這件事發生在最後一周——正如您所知，我們在每個季度的最後一個月都會完成相當多的交易。很明顯，這只會分散人們對其他事情的注意力。我上週在華盛頓待了幾天，很明顯，那裡的情況受到了影響。

Prior to that, I think everybody thought it wasn't going to happen. So it really started to scramble things in the last 10 days or so over the quarter. I think you know, right, the amount of business that we're doing with these federal agencies now it's pretty significant for us. In 2024, I think it was high single digits of our Cloud & Edge business is all voice infrastructure. So it's a pretty substantial amount of business. And Q4 last year was a really good quarter for us in that space.

在此之前，我想大家都認為這件事不會發生。所以，在本季的最後十天左右，事情開始變得非常混亂。我想你應該明白，我們現在與這些聯邦機構的業務往來對我們來說意義重大。我認為到 2024 年，我們雲端和邊緣業務中語音基礎設施的佔比將達到個位數以上。所以這是一筆相當大的業務量。去年第四季度，我們在該領域的表現非常出色。

So I just feel like given the situation with the government still shutdown at this point, the prudent thing to do is to take that out of our view for the rest of the year. Hopefully, that's a conservative view, but, I think that's the right thing to do at this stage.

鑑於目前政府仍停擺的情況，我覺得明智的做法是在今年餘下的時間裡暫時把這件事從我們的視野中移除。希望這是一種保守的看法，但我認為在現階段這樣做是正確的。

Dave Kang, B. Riley.

戴夫·康，B·萊利。

First of all, just wondering if you can quantify the impact of FX and tariffs. I think I missed that?

首先，我想知道您能否量化外匯和關稅的影響。我好像錯過了什麼？

Yes. So in the case of FX, John, I think in the quarter, we're about $3 million, I think, on OpEx. Is that right?

是的。所以就外匯業務而言，約翰，我認為本季我們的營運支出大約是 300 萬美元。是這樣嗎？

Yes. It's just under $3 million year on year from an FX impact there, Dave. The biggest component of that is the shekel. So we've seen pretty stable shekel through the -- over the last couple of years and then sort of with what happened in April, we said at the end of Q2 that we've seen a weakening of the US dollar.

是的。戴夫，外匯波動對那裡的影響比去年同期減少了近300萬美元。其中最大的組成部分是謝克爾。所以，在過去幾年裡，我們看到謝克爾匯率相當穩定，但隨著4月份發生的事情，我們在第二季末說過，我們看到美元走弱。

And through the quarter, we've seen some stability on that. And then with the war in Iran, we saw another weakening as well. So the shekel has been the major factor behind our FX issues -- headwinds.

本季以來，我們看到這方面出現了一些穩定。隨後，隨著伊朗戰爭的爆發，我們也看到了另一種削弱。因此，謝克爾匯率一直是造成我們外匯問題的主要因素—逆風。

And right now, nothing changes. I think it's kind of similar. And really, we're trying to compare year over year to give you a comparison here on if we had stable FX relative to a year ago, what's the impact? That's what we're trying to quantify here.

而現在，一切都沒有改變。我覺得有點類似。實際上，我們正​​在嘗試進行同比比較，以便向您展示，如果與一年前相比，外匯保持穩定，會產生什麼影響？這就是我們試圖量化的內容。

So on the tariff question, yes, so it's still relatively small at this stage. We benefit from the US MCA free trade agreement with anything we're manufacturing in Mexico, and there's some other provisions that we have for products that we're bringing in internationally. There is some additional costs associated more with cables and shelving equipment and things like that, steel, et cetera, that have tariffs attached to them. It's probably a $0.5 million a quarter headwind, something in that ballpark, Dave, at this point.

所以關於關稅問題，是的，目前來看規模仍然相對較小。我們受惠於美國與墨西哥簽訂的《多邊貿易協定》(MCA)自由貿易協定，該協定適用於我們在墨西哥生產的任何產品；此外，對於我們從國際進口的產品，我們還有一些其他規定。電纜、貨架設備、鋼材等物品還有一些額外的成本，這些都附帶關稅。戴夫，目前來看，這大概會造成每季 50 萬美元的損失，大概就是這個範圍。

Okay. And then I just wanted to clarify, I think you said regarding federal mid- to high-single digits. I thought you said the mid-single -- MSD to high single-digit of C&E. Is that correct? Or is it overall revenue?

好的。然後我想確認一下，我想您之前說過，聯邦層級的利率是中高個位數。我以為你說的是中個位數——MSD到C&E的高個位數。是這樣嗎？還是指總收入？

Yes. I would -- given what we're selling there today in the US, it's all C&E. So I'm just trying to base it off the C&E numbers. So last year, we did $504 million, $505 million of revenue in C&E high single digits portion of that has now diversified into US federal.

是的。我會——鑑於我們今天在美國銷售的產品，全是C&E。所以我只是想根據C&E的數據來估算。所以去年，我們在 C&E 領域的收入達到了 5.04 億美元到 5.05 億美元，其中一部分已經多角化發展到美國聯邦政府領域。

So it's a very good business, diversifies us from traditional enterprise as well as service provider. So it's an important element of the work we're doing.

所以這是一項非常好的業務，它使我們從傳統的企業和服務提供者轉型為多元化企業。所以，這是我們工作中一個重要的部分。

Got it. And then lastly on North America IP Optical, it was down -- just wondering if you can provide more color. Was it IP? Or was it Optical that was down, or were both down?

知道了。最後，北美 IP 光纖網路也宕機了—請問您能否提供更多相關資訊？是IP位址嗎？或者說是 Optical 公司宕機了，還是兩家公司都宕機了？

Yes. So the majority of what we're selling is either IP or IP over DWDM who are bundling basically routers with pluggables, with line systems, et cetera. So most of the projects look like that today.

是的。因此，我們銷售的大部分產品要么是 IP，要么是 IP over DWDM，它們基本上是將路由器與可插拔設備、線路系統等捆綁在一起。所以現在大多數項目看起來都差不多。

And as I mentioned earlier, it does tend to be a little lumpy. As an example, last quarter, we had a nice big project with a critical infrastructure provider here in the US. This quarter was more focused around rural broadband customers. We expect this quarter looks pretty good with the pipeline and the backlog we already have there.

正如我之前提到的，它的確有點凹凸不平。例如，上個季度，我們與美國一家關鍵基礎設施供應商合作進行了一個很棒的大專案。本季度業務重點更多地放在了農村寬頻用戶身上。我們預計本季業績會相當不錯，這得益於我們現有的項目儲備和積壓訂單。

And as I mentioned, the BEAD program. We think, with that customer, we'll start to ship into that deployment. So it just moves around a little bit quarter to quarter. I did highlight, obviously, how strong EMEA was in the third quarter.

正如我之前提到的，還有 BEAD 專案。我們認為，有了這位客戶，我們就可以開始向該部署環境出貨了。所以它只是每季略有變動。當然，我重點強調了歐洲、中東和非洲地區在第三季的強勁表現。

It was up, I think, 50% year over year. And so that was really nice to see, and it really helps with the margins, which tend to be better than what we see in the Asia Pacific region.

我認為，年增了50%。所以看到這種情況真的很好，而且這確實有助於提高利潤率，而我們的利潤率往往比亞太地區的利潤率要好。

And lastly, on India, it was fairly strong. How long -- I mean is that sustainable since India can get a little lumpy at times?

最後，關於印度，情況相當樂觀。能持續多久？我的意思是，考慮到印度有時局勢不太穩定，這種情況是否可持續？

It's been, I don't know, I think, five quarters in a row now where we've seen nice, sustained momentum in India, and we have been diversifying to a little broader set of customers.

我想，大概已經連續五個季度我們在印度市場都保持了良好的持續成長勢頭，而且我們也一直在向更廣泛的客戶群拓展業務。

I always love talking about India. We have such a great partnership with Bharti in the region. The service and deployment team that we have that partners with them closely out in the market helping deploy the products is so strategic.

我一直很喜歡談論印度。我們在該地區與 Bharti 建立了非常好的合作關係。我們擁有一支服務和部署團隊，他們與客戶緊密合作，在市場上幫助他們部署產品，這具有非常重要的戰略意義。

Unlike what you see with the investment around mobile infrastructure, which tends to be some big ebbs and flows, ups and downs as they activate new spectrum and then consume capacity. Most of what we're deploying there today is access and aggregation IP routing and if they're continuing to add more capacity to keep up with the growth in data. So it tends to be a more linear deployment. It's a little early to nail down next year yet, but it feels like we've got some good sustainable momentum there.

與行動基礎設施投資不同，行動基礎設施投資往往會經歷巨大的起伏，隨著新頻譜的活化和容量的消耗，會大幅波動。我們目前在那裡部署的大部分是存取和聚合 IP 路由，如果他們繼續增加更多容量以跟上資料成長的步伐。因此，它的部署方式往往更加線性。現在就確定明年的計劃還為時過早，但感覺我們已經取得了一些良好的可持續發展勢頭。

Tim Savageaux, Northland Capital Markets.

Tim Savageaux，北地資本市場。

Just a couple of questions. I'll start with a focus on IP Optical. I think you had kind of a surprise positive EBITDA results. And given your guidance, it sounds like maybe you don't expect that to necessarily maintain in Q4, maybe a modest negative.

幾個問題。我將首先重點介紹IP光纖技術。我認為你們的 EBITDA 業績出乎意料地為正。根據你的指導，聽起來你似乎不認為這種情況會在第四季度持續下去，可能會略有下降。

But given the double-digit growth rate, which I think is finally apples-to-apples, and it looks like you're guiding to something mid-singles next quarter. As you look forward for IP Optical, I mean, can that business be a positive contributor or breakeven in '26? And what type of growth rate do you think you can see here and what appears to be a pretty strong end market environment?

但考慮到兩位數的成長率，我認為這才是真正意義上的比較，而且看起來你們預計下個季度將達到兩位數中段。展望 IP 光纖業務，我的意思是，這項業務在 2026 年能否成為盈利貢獻者或實現盈虧平衡？您認為這裡可以看到什麼樣的成長率，以及看起來相當強勁的終端市場環境？

Yes. Thanks, Tim. Well, so first of all, obviously, it was John said -- as John said, very pleasing to see a positive EBITDA contribution in the third quarter. I think the mix was a large portion of that with the European market being very strong in the quarter. We know we can be positive on EBITDA at the right level of revenue and margin, like, obviously, that's a no-brainer, but we got to get there.

是的。謝謝你，提姆。首先，很顯然，正如約翰所說——正如約翰所說，看到第三季 EBITDA 為正值，非常令人高興。我認為這很大程度上是由於市場組合變化造成的，因為歐洲市場在本季表現非常強勁。我們知道，只要收入和利潤率達到合適的水平，EBITDA 就能為正，這顯然是顯而易見的，但我們必須達到這個目標。

So at a $90 million-plus with margins in that 40% range were there, but as I mentioned in the mix in the next quarter, we're not seeing quite the same favorable mix. We have more India, less Europe. And so that just drives the equation. Look, our objective is clearly that this business is a positive contributor for the company. Otherwise, we wouldn't be investing in it.

因此，原本可以實現 9,000 萬美元以上的收入，利潤率在 40% 左右，但正如我在下一季的產品組合中所提到的，我們並沒有看到同樣有利的產品組合。印度元素增多，歐洲元素減少。所以這就決定了整個等式。很明顯，我們的目標是讓這項業務為公司做出積極貢獻。否則，我們就不會投資它了。

So that's absolutely the objective the growth this year now at the end of the third quarter is higher than the revenue level we had last year, even though we don't have the revenue going into Eastern Europe.

所以，這絕對是我們的目標，今年第三季末的成長已經高於去年的收入水平，儘管我們沒有來自東歐的收入。

So we've kind of replace that now with new growth, and that's what we needed to do. It's taken us a year or so to get there, but it's great to see getting to that milestone. The next one is sustainable positive contribution for the business.

所以我們現在用新的成長取代了它，而這正是我們需要做的。我們花了大約一年的時間才達到這個目標，但很高興看到我們取得了這個里程碑式的成就。下一個是為企業做出可持續的正面貢獻。

Okay. Great. And before we leave that, I'd like to get an update on what you're seeing in terms of impact from mergers among your competitors or any other trends that are standing out? It sounds like a little more going on in the data center interconnect side in Europe. If you got anything additional to call out in terms of what's happening fundamentally across that segment?

好的。偉大的。在我們結束之前，我想了解您觀察到的競爭對手併購的影響，或其他任何突出的趨勢？聽起來歐洲資料中心互連方面似乎有更多事情正在發生。關於該領域目前的基本情況，您還有什麼需要補充說明的嗎？

Yes, it was a relatively quiet quarter from big shifts because of changes in the competitive environment and things like that. So I didn't have a lot of kind of notable examples to point to this last quarter.

是的，由於競爭環境的變化等等原因，本季相對平靜，沒有出現重大變化。所以上個季度我並沒有很多值得一提的典型例子。

As you know, we brought to market a couple of new products focused on the data center market -- not focused on selling pluggable optics into hyperscale data centers, not that type of focus, really around systems selling transport systems and IP aggregation into data center.

如您所知，我們推出了幾款專注於資料中心市場的新產品——並非專注於向超大規模資料中心銷售可插拔光模組，而是專注於向資料中心銷售傳輸系統和 IP 聚合系統。

So I pointed out a couple of good examples in Europe that we had. We had nice 400-gig Optical transport win in Japan, which included picking up data center traffic. And so where we're really focused is working often through our telco partners to attack the data center and aggregate traffic out of the growing investment in data center.

所以我指出了我們在歐洲看到的幾個很好的例子。我們在日本贏得了一筆不錯的 400G 光傳輸訂單，其中包括資料中心流量。因此，我們真正關注的重點是經常透過我們的電信合作夥伴來攻擊資料中心，並聚合來自資料中心不斷增長的投資所產生的流量。

Clearly, as these data centers get more sophisticated, more diversified, spread into other regions, there's a need for more and more fiber transport going into the data centers. And so I think the timing on some of the new systems products that we brought to market is good, and we're seeing some good wins here and starting to build momentum.

顯然，隨著這些資料中心變得越來越複雜、越來越多樣化，並擴展到其他地區，對進入資料中心的光纖傳輸的需求也越來越大。所以我認為我們推出的一些新系統產品的時機很好，我們已經取得了一些不錯的成績，並開始累積勢頭。

And in many cases, it looks a lot like our specialty around critical infrastructure where low latency really matters the ability to encrypt individual data streams really matters, and that's where we've really specialized.

在很多情況下，這看起來很像我們在關鍵基礎設施方面的專長，低延遲非常重要，加密單一資料流的能力也非常重要，而這正是我們真正擅長的領域。

Great. Just maybe a couple of more quick ones. We saw very strong outlook plans for Q4 capital spending from AT&T this morning. And I know they're not reading the 10% list, but maybe not too far away. Whether it's just run rate business or new projects, which you did refer to starting up in Q4, any comments on expectations there with -- and could they join Verizon on the 10% list sometime next year?

偉大的。或許再快速拍幾張吧。今天早上我們看到了AT&T發布的第四季度資本支出計劃，前景非常樂觀。我知道他們不會去看那10%的名單，但也許也不會看得太遠。無論是日常業務還是您提到的在第四季度啟動的新項目，您對這些項目有什麼預期？他們明年能否像 Verizon 一樣躋身前 10% 的行列？

Yes. So I know and I listening to their call this morning, John was pretty vocal and passionate around their plans to reduce operating costs and really drive efficiency across the network. Talked about their copper network plans multiple times.

是的。我知道，我今天早上聽了他們的電話會議，約翰非常熱情地闡述了他們降低營運成本、真正提高整個網路效率的計畫。他們多次談到了銅纜網路計劃。

As you point out, they're a very important customer for us, one of our largest customers. And I think, again, where we're focused is helping reduce operating costs across the network. So it was good to see healthy returns for them and how they're operating. And hopefully, that translates into more growth for us as well.

正如您所指出的，他們是我們非常重要的客戶，也是我們最大的客戶之一。而且我認為，我們目前的重點仍然是幫助降低整個網路的營運成本。很高興看到他們獲得了健康的收益，並且營運狀況良好。希望這也能轉化為我們自身的更大發展。

Okay. Great. And finally, we're trying -- this is pretty complicated, but I want to try and take a quick swing at the shutdown impact, both in Q3 and Q4 from what you said, that looks like kind of a mid-teens million type situation, then you would probably be around your original guidance range without that. So in Q3, I want to understand a little bit more, it looks like US revenues were down something on the order of $20 million sequentially.

好的。偉大的。最後，我們正在嘗試——這相當複雜，但我想快速估算一下停工的影響，根據你所說的，無論是在第三季度還是第四季度，看起來都會達到幾百萬英鎊左右，那麼如果沒有停工的影響，你的業績可能就會和你最初的預期範圍差不多。所以，我想更深入地了解第三季的情況，看起來美國的營收季減了約 2,000 萬美元。

Verizon a little but hung in there pretty well. Are we seeing some of the Q3 impact of the shutdown there in that number? Are there other dynamics driving that? And overall, in terms of the effect in Q3 and Q4, am I in the ballpark if you kind of $10 million one quarter, $15 million in next year or something like that?

Verizon稍微有點下滑，但整體來說還不錯。該數字是否反映了第三季停工的影響？有其他因素在驅動這種情況嗎？總的來說，就第三季和第四季的影響而言，如果一個季度達到 1000 萬美元，明年達到 1500 萬美元左右，我的估計是否準確？

Yes. So you're in the ballpark, and I do want to make sure, I'm as clear as I can on it. So there was an impact in the third quarter, again, in the last -- essentially, the last week or so.

是的。所以你的理解大致正確，但我確實想確保我盡可能清楚地理解這一點。所以第三季再次受到了影響，尤其是在最後——基本上是最後一周左右的時間。

If not for that, we would have been comfortably midpoint plus in Q3. So I think you can drive kind of a pretty good estimate from that. We're not projecting that revenue to catch up in Q4. At this point, we've effectively removed essentially the majority of new business, new orders that we might receive in the quarter from any of the US federal agencies.

如果不是因為這個原因，我們第三季本來可以輕鬆達到中位數以上。所以我覺得你可以據此做出一個相當準確的估算。我們預計第四季的收入不會趕上。至此，我們實際上已經失去了本季可能從任何美國聯邦機構獲得的大部分新業務和新訂單。

Again, that may prove conservative. But at this stage, really nothing is getting through the process. There's a lot of the civilian employees furloughed and that just slows everything down or freezes everything.

同樣，這可能過於保守。但就目前而言，實際上沒有任何東西能夠通過審批流程。很多文職員工都被暫時解雇了，這導致所有工作進展緩慢甚至停滯。

As I mentioned last year, the business US DoD was a significant part of our business. The first half of this year was on a similar run rate. So it definitely has an impact in the fourth quarter and as the majority, say, the vast majority of why the numbers are lower. But as I mentioned, the rest of our projections are basically in line with what we expected in the last earnings call.

正如我去年提到的，美國國防部業務是我們業務的重要組成部分。今年上半年也維持了類似的運行速度。所以這肯定會對第四季度產生影響，而且可以說，絕大多數情況下，這就是數字下降的原因。但正如我之前提到的，我們其餘的預測基本上與我們在上次財報電話會議上的預期一致。

Christian Schwab, Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Christian Schwab，Craig-Hallum Capital Group。

Great. Most of my questions have been answered, but just a follow-up on the government business. Eventually the government will reopen, we'll have that catch up next calendar year. Excluding that catch-up, when do you expect your government program business growth rates to be in calendar '26 versus '25?

偉大的。我的大部分問題都已得到解答，但還有關於政府事務的後續問題。政府最終會重新開放，我們將在明年趕上進度。撇開追趕因素不談，您預期貴公司政府專案業務成長率在 2026 年與 2025 年相比會是多少？

Yes. It's obviously the right question, and it's a little early to be able to clearly answer that, particularly when the government doesn't even have a budget at this point.

是的。這顯然是個正確的問題，但現在要給出明確的答案還為時過早，尤其是在政府目前甚至還沒有預算的情況下。

Trying to answer it in a slightly different way. I mentioned that we did have a new win on a brand-new project basically with another top three US government agency in the third quarter that is starting their own voice modernization program that's additive to the business that we've been having so far.

我試著換個方式來回答這個問題。我提到，我們在第三季度與美國排名前三的政府機構合作，贏得了一個全新的項目，該機構正在啟動他們自己的語音現代化計劃，這為我們迄今為止的業務增添了新的內容。

So what we're obviously doing is expanding the deployments with current customers that are modernizing and then hunting for new ones, right, that will do similar programs. And that's what I think drives the growth next year. If we can bring on even one more new major agency, it moves the needle pretty well for us. So my obviously, my aspiration here for next year as this business grows at a really a solid rate going into next year as we build on the programs that we already have.

所以，我們顯然正在做的是擴大現有客戶的部署規模，幫助他們進行現代化改造，然後尋找新的客戶，對吧，讓他們也進行類似的專案。我認為這正是明年推動成長的因素。如果我們能再爭取到一家新的大型代理商，對我們來說將是一個巨大的進步。所以很顯然，我對明年的期望是，隨著公司業務穩步成長，我們將在現有專案的基礎上繼續發展。

Great. And then just a follow-up on that. What is the typical -- can you help us with the typical yearly run rate that a new win for voice modernization of the government agency means is like a broad range?

偉大的。然後，我想就此追問一下。政府機構語音現代化計畫新計畫每年的典型運作率是多少？您能否幫我們估算一下，一個大範圍的專案通常能帶來多大的效益？

Yes, yes, sure. So there tends to be a combination of hardware systems. In a lot of cases, if you're going into an existing base, let's say, they're looking for survivability so they want capabilities both on-premise as well as running in their cloud data centers. And so there's elements of hardware we'll deploy. There's clearly a lot of software systems that will run inside their data centers.

是的，好的，當然可以。因此，通常會採用多種硬體系統的組合。很多情況下，如果你要進入一個現有的基地，比如說，他們追求的是生存能力，所以他們希望既能在本地運行，也能在雲端資料中心運行。因此，我們將部署一些硬體組件。顯然，他們的資料中心裡會運作很多軟體系統。

And then there's quite a bit of service support that goes into standing these up and deploying them. So those three elements. And of course, we'll recognize revenue on hardware shipment, we'll recognize some software, some ratably, some upfront, but some ratably and then the service is all ratably over the program.

此外，還需要大量的服務支援來搭建和部署這些系統。所以就是這三個要素。當然，我們會確認硬體出貨的收入，我們會確認一些軟體收入，有些是按比例確認的，有些是預收的，有些是按比例確認的，然後服務收入則完全是按計劃按比例確認的。

So kind of getting to the answer to your question, a project will be multiple years in the making and on the larger ones, we're talking tens of millions of dollars over that period of time to go and modernize the infrastructure. Next question.

所以，回到你的問題，一個項目需要數年時間才能完成，而對於較大的項目，我們說的是在此期間投入數千萬美元來對基礎設施進行現代化改造。下一個問題。

Rustam Kanga, Citizens.

魯斯塔姆·坎加，市民。

Great to see the provisional BEAD awards. And Bruce, you kind of mentioned expecting to see momentum in the coming months. Just wondering, are you factoring any of that into your outlook? Or is that still a little bit too presumptuous and more on a wait-and-see basis?

很高興看到BEAD獎的暫定名單。布魯斯，你剛才也提到預計未來幾個月將會出現成長動能。我只是好奇，你在考慮這些因素時有考慮到這些嗎？或者這種說法還是有點過於武斷，更該採取觀望態度？

Rustam, yes, good question. So I've talked a few times, I've really, in some ways, discounted BEAD from a timing perspective, at least anyway for us. A lot of the investment initially goes into construction, into optics, into driving fiber, et cetera. And the portion that we do kind of the middle mile aggregation and transport tends to be later in the program. So it was great to see kind of the first win and opportunity kind of come through here probably a little sooner than I expected.

魯斯塔姆，是的，問得好。所以我已經談過幾次了，從時間安排的角度來看，我確實在某種程度上排除了 BEAD 的可能性，至少對我們來說是這樣。初期很多投資都投入了建設、光學、光纖驅動等方面。而我們所做的中間環節──集散和運輸──往往是在計畫的後期。所以很高興看到第一次勝利和機會比我預期的來得更快一些。

As you review all of the awards to each of the states now, there's a lot of money that's been provisionally granted and it will be interesting to see just how this process unfolds over the next few months on approving these and seeing programs go into execution.

現在，當你審查分配給各州的全部資金時，你會發現有很多資金已被臨時授予，接下來幾個月，這些資金的批准和項目的執行過程將會如何展開，這將非常有趣。

At this stage, I haven't figured out how to size this for us next year. I probably wouldn't have put much on it initially, but maybe I've been too conservative in my thinking there. So I have to learn a lot more over the next few months.

目前，我還沒有想好明年該如何決定我們的尺寸。我一開始可能不會投入太多精力，但也許我在這方面的想法太保守了。所以接下來幾個月我需要學習更多東西。

In fact, we have a customer event coming up next month called Insights and one of the panels we're focused on bringing in some experts that focus all their time around BEAD and BEAD funding programs. So it will be interesting to get their perspective on how they see it rolling out.

事實上，我們下個月將舉辦一場名為「洞察」的客戶活動，其中一個小組討論環節，我們將重點邀請一些專注於 BEAD 和 BEAD 資助計劃的專家。所以，了解他們對這項計劃如何實施的看法將會很有趣。

Great. Appreciate that. Just wanted to also -- just saw in the supplemental slides that there was a historically large tick-up in the direct versus indirect mix there. Anything interesting to call out there? Or is that more just a function of maybe some of the shutdown dynamics?

偉大的。謝謝。另外，我剛剛在補充投影片中看到，直接投資與間接投資的比例出現了歷史性的大幅成長。有什麼值得一提的嗎？或者這更多是某些停工動態的函數？

Yes, I'll have to go look just to double check, but I'm certain it's tied to the federal business. All of those sales flow through a fairly complex set of partners to get to the end customer. So they'll be all in our indirect number.

是的，我得去查一下再確認一下，但我確信這與聯邦政府有關。所有這些銷售都要經過相當複雜的合作夥伴網路才能到達最終客戶手中。所以它們都將包含在我們的間接數量中。

Makes total sense. Last one for me, just talking about the new product with Acumen and the potential emergence of a new category. I understand it's currently falling into C&E, but is that an area that you continue to expect to announce new product innovation? And is it overly presumptuous to think that you might be telegraphing that down the road, you would view Ribbon as having sort of three segments to the business rather than two?

完全有道理。最後，我想談談與 Acumen 合作的新產品以及新品類的潛在出現。我知道它目前屬於C&E領域，但您是否仍計劃在該領域發布新產品創新？如果認為你可能是在暗示，將來你會把 Ribbon 的業務看作是三個部分而不是兩個部分，這種想法是否過於狂妄？

Yes, it's probably much too early for me to predict that yet from an actual financial reporting perspective. But it is interesting, this product really spans both business units, if you will. It doesn't necessarily fit neatly into one or the other.

是的，從實際的財務報告角度來看，現在做出預測可能還為時過早。但有趣的是，這款產品其實跨越了這兩個業務部門。它未必能完全歸入其中任何一類。

And so we'll just have to think about how do we manage that. It has been really interesting since we announced this project -- this product and announced the project with Optimum as our first lead customer. We've gotten just a ton of interest and I've been to a few industry events and actually been able to do live demonstrations of this product that, again, allows our customers to literally build their own genetic agents.

所以，我們得想想該如何面對這種情況。自從我們宣布這個項目——這款產品，以及宣布 Optimum 作為我們的第一個主要客戶——以來，一切都變得非常有趣。我們已經獲得了大量的關注，我參加了一些行業活動，並且能夠對這款產品進行現場演示，該產品再次讓我們的客戶能夠真正構建他們自己的基因製劑。

And take their information that's being collected off the network and feed it into an LLM of their choice, basically. It's pretty -- it's really a pretty phenomenal capability that's put in the hands of people that can build their own things here.

基本上，他們將從網路上收集到的信息輸入到他們選擇的LLM中。這很棒——這確實是一項非常了不起的能力，它賦予了那些能夠在這裡創造自己事物的人。

So we'll see just how transformational is, but it's been pretty -- a lot of energy around it the first couple of months. And these from an economics perspective, just to kind of stand up the solution and the network, get it running we're talking several million dollars, so there's the ability here for this to really scale as we can get it out to more customers.

所以我們將拭目以待，看看它究竟能帶來多大的變革，但在最初的幾個月裡，它確實引起了巨大的轟動。從經濟角度來看，僅僅是建立解決方案和網絡，使其運行起來，就需要數百萬美元，因此，隨著我們能夠將其推廣到更多客戶，它具有真正的擴展能力。

Ryan Koontz, Needham & Company.

Ryan Koontz，Needham & Company。

Just a couple of clarifications, if I could, Bruce. On the BEAD win, I assume that's for middle mile optical and aggregation. So you're selling into kind of the backhaul from these remote nodes?

布魯斯，如果可以的話，我想澄清幾點。關於 BEAD 的勝利，我假設它是用於中間距離的光學和聚合。所以你們是在向這些遠端節點的回程連結銷售資料？

Yes, exactly, Ryan. So I'll call it middle mile, right, IP over DWDM type infrastructure or network design.

是的，沒錯，瑞恩。所以我就稱之為中間環節，對吧，基於 DWDM 的 IP 基礎架構或網路設計。

Is that typically handled by the local incumbent telco or some kind -- or a third party that's maybe a consortium or such?

這通常是由當地現有的電信公司或其他類似公司處理，還是由第三方機構（例如財團）處理？

Yes. In this case, it's not a consortium, but it is a number of operators kind of working together on the infrastructure, so, yes.

是的。在這種情況下，它不是一個聯盟，而是由一些運營商共同合作開發基礎設施，所以，是的。

Yes, makes sense. And then on Verizon going forward, how should we think about that kind of mix of product and service going forward? Is it going to always be kind of seasonal? Or how should we frame that up over the next 18 months into next year?

是的，有道理。那麼，展望 Verizon 的未來，我們該如何看待這個產品和服務組合的未來發展呢？它總是會帶有季節性嗎？或者，我們該如何規劃未來18個月到明年這段時間的工作？

Yes. We'll try and give as good a visibility as we can. In addition to the modernization program with them, we obviously have a number of other pieces of business. And a lot of what we're transacting or selling these days is very software-oriented. So they will move the needle.

是的。我們會盡力提供盡可能好的曝光度。除了與他們開展的現代化項目之外，我們顯然還有其他一些業務往來。如今我們進行的交易或銷售的許多東西都非常依賴軟體。所以他們會有所作為。

An extra $5 million here or there or less makes -- does make an impact on the overall numbers. So I think the way to think of it is, we have this background set of activity focused on modernization and then you'll see a few additional things kind of come in and out a few times a year. And so it will create a little bit of variability that way.

即使只是額外增加 500 萬美元或更少，也會對整體數字產生影響。所以我覺得可以這樣理解：我們有一套以現代化為重點的背景活動，然後你會看到一些額外的項目一年幾次地出現和消失。這樣一來，就會產生一些變數。

A little more lumpy. Yes. All right. Great. And then lastly, just kind of a big question. You talked about agentic AI. And I assume you sell mostly session border controllers into these agentic AI applications. And how do you think about that TAM right now, obviously, very early in the market development?

表面略微凹凸不平。是的。好的。偉大的。最後，還有一個比較重要的問題。你談到了智能體人工智慧。我猜你們主要向這些智能體人工智慧應用銷售會話邊界控制器。那麼，您如何看待目前這個潛在市場規模（TAM）呢？顯然，現在還處於市場發展的早期階段。

Yes. So with some -- certainly, I think the core of the solution is going to be a session border controller. What we're seeing the most interested in is the cloud-native versions of the products. So these are kind of SaaS environments being stood up in the cloud. The first couple that we've done have been AWS-based.

是的。所以，對某些人來說——當然，我認為解決方案的核心將是會話邊界控制器。我們發現，使用者最感興趣的是產品的雲端原生版本。所以這些都是在雲端搭建的SaaS環境。我們做的前幾個專案都是基於 AWS 的。

So we've -- I think we're out in front on the cloud-native implementation of not just the SBC, but then all the things that goes around it, the policy routing, the analytics, the management system and then pair that with a kind of a WebRTC set of APIs that allow basically programmatic access to the network functions -- the telecom network functions. So it's a pretty sophisticated set of solutions that then made up into the customer's agentic platform that they're developing.

所以，我認為我們在雲端原生實現方面處於領先地位，不僅是 SBC，還有圍繞它的所有東西，策略路由、分析、管理系統，然後將其與 WebRTC 一組 API 相結合，從而基本上可以對網路功能（電信網路功能）進行程式存取。因此，這是一套相當複雜的解決方案，最終構成了客戶正在開發的代理平台。

And of course, that's all the buzz, right, is how do you leverage agentic AI to really transform all these different types of services, whether it's contact center or SaaS applications, those sorts of things. So I think the interface into those more and more will be voice. So I think that really puts us in a good spot.

當然，大家熱議的話題就是如何利用智能體人工智慧來真正改變所有這些不同類型的服務，無論是聯絡中心還是 SaaS 應用等等。所以我認為，未來這些設備的互動方式將會越來越依賴語音。所以我認為這確實讓我們處於非常有利的地位。

And the bulk of that, Bruce, that technology stack was built for enterprise virtually, just traditional enterprise voice?

布魯斯，那大部分技術堆疊其實都是為企業建構的，基本上就是傳統的企業語音？

It's really -- the great thing about the technology is that we can deploy it inside a telecom network or inside an enterprise. Now we position and sell it and package it is different, but the core technology is very similar.

這項技術的優點在於，我們可以將其部署在電信網路內部或企業內部。現在我們的定位、銷售和包裝方式有所不同，但核心技術非常相似。

And there are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Bruce McClelland for any closing remarks.

目前沒有其他問題了。我謹將發言權交還給布魯斯·麥克萊蘭，請他作總結發言。

Great. Thank you. Well, thanks again for being on the call and your interest in Ribbon. We look forward to speaking with many of you at upcoming investor conferences and updating you on our progress. Operator, thank you, and that concludes our call.

偉大的。謝謝。再次感謝您參加電話會議以及您對 Ribbon 的關注。我們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最新進展。接線員，謝謝，通話到此結束。

Thank you, sir. This does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

謝謝您，先生。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您可以在此時斷開線路。