BellSouth’s estimate that it may be forced to spend between $400 million and $600 million to repair the damage done by Hurricane Katrina may be too low, according to Tim Wiggins, Tellabs’ chief financial officer.

Wiggins made the comment in answer to an analyst’s question while speaking at CitiGroup’s 12th Annual Global Technology Conference in New York city today. Tellabs’ CEO and president, Krish Prabhu, was originally scheduled to speak there but asked Wiggins to replace him so he could help address the needs of customers affected by the hurricane.

“[BellSouth’s] numbers may turn out to be too low in terms of the cost of equipment damage,” Wiggins said.

Tellabs’ own assessment of the damage, which it performed in Katrina’s wake as it did in the wake of September 11, 2001, suggests that at least 30 central offices (COs) are likely to be damaged or underwater as a result of the hurricane that hammered the Gulf Coast last week, Wiggins added.

BellSouth estimated on Tuesday that 810,000 of its lines were still out of service as of Monday and that 19 of its 131 COs required restoration. Those damaged COs serve about 187,000 access lines, the company said, 166,000 of which are in the New Orleans area.

However, Tellabs’ Wiggins stressed that the precise impact to carriers and vendors is not yet knowable.

“It’s very complex today,” he said. “I could run scenarios that say [the impact to Tellabs] is great immediately, [that] it’s kind of neutral, [that] some orders get delayed. It’s too early to tell.”

“People are in a state of shock,” he added. “We’re here to say, ‘We can do whatever you need us to do to get those systems back up.’”