Sonus beats Street, lands BellSouth deal

Sonus Networks, a maker of hardware and software for packet-switched phone networks, reported a second-quarter profit that topped Wall Street expectations and announced local phone giant BellSouth as a customer. Excluding stock compensation and other items, Sonus posted quarterly net income of $1.2 million, or 1 cent per share, on revenue of $52.6 million, compared with a loss of $9 million, or 7 cents a share, on revenue of $6.5 million for the same quarter a year ago. Financial analysts expected Sonus to break even at zero cents per share this quarter, according to a survey by First Call. Sonus said BellSouth will use the company's products to separate Internet traffic from its voice networks. BellSouth will install Sonus equipment in at least eight markets in the Southeast this year.