Things may be tough overseas but Tellabs is not retreating from Europe, the company's managers said on the vendor's conference call with investors Friday. (See Tellabs Loses $5M in Q2.)

The telecom equipment maker predicted that its third quarter revenues will be in the range of $260 million to $290 million, which was below analysts expectations of $292 million. "There are no plans on retreating from where we are in Europe today," said Dan Kelly, Tellabs acting CEO and president. (See Tellabs Joins the Party.)

As ever, analysts and investors on the call were poking around with questions to find growth areas and regions where Tellabs might need to pull back because of economic uncertainty. But Tellabs managers were firm and stated that even with the weakness in the European economies, the company was sticking it out, noting that Europe was the second largest market in which it participates.

Tellabs says it had two customers, one in North America and one international, that made up at least 10 percent of its quarterly revenues. The company's managers also noted that there were a couple of customers "in the high single-digits."

Now if you're looking for an easy way to size up Tellabs' business, well, that's tough, too. The company won't break down how much of its optical business is in Europe; it won't say how much of its business comes from wireline vs. wireless carrier capital expenditures; and it didn't really break down any regional activity or revenue projections.

That lack of granularity brought up another point of pain on the call -- the fact that some investors feel Tellabs isn't buying back its own stock, which has been below $4 since April and spent much of this week below $3. With almost $1 billion in cash, why isn't Tellabs convinced its own shares are worth a small risk?

"We didn't buy back stock last quarter given the uncertainties of the economy and so on," Tellabs Chairman Michael Birck said on the call. Birck says the company discusses share buybacks frequently but has many other things to do with its cash to run the business besides buying back shares.

— Phil Harvey, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading