Equipment vendor Copper Mountain Networks announced late Friday it would cut most of its work force by March 22, as the company continues to pursue "strategic alternatives," including the sale of the company.

Copper Mountain's current headcount is unknown, and the company did not immediately respond to requests for more information.

A vendor of broadband remote access servers (BRAS), Copper Mountain has restructured three times since 2001, re-sizing its workforce in March and August 2001 and again in July 2002. The company relied heavily on competitive local exchange carriers as customers. Historically its biggest customers were DSL providers Northpoint Communications and Rhythms NetConnections, both of which declared bankruptcy years ago. In the quarter ended September 30, 2004, three customers--Mpower, Florida Digital Networks and LMDI--together accounted for 62% of the $1.8 million in net revenue Copper Mountain reported, which was about half the amount of revenue it reported a year earlier.

At the end of August 2004, the company announced it had retained Raymond James & Associates to advise it with regard to strategic alternatives including the sale of the company. That quarter, Copper Mountain burned nearly $5 million in cash and investments, leaving it with slightly more than $17 million.

In October 2004, Japan's NTT-ME, a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, agreed to distribute Copper Mountain's VantEdge 3300 Access BRAS throughout Japan.