BELDEN INC. 2003 maintain their valuable networks. However, we have witnessed continued declines in the number of active access lines, partly due to the growing reliance on cellular phones as a primary communications choice for some. Furthermore, newer technologies allow telephone lines to be used more efficiently. We now believe that the spending recovery will be extended out further into the future as system-wide capacity needs  are reassessed by the service providers. Also, industry requirements are trending away from  high pair-count cables, our optimal product group, to lower pair-count cable, exacerbating the negative impact of falling demand.  There is still significant excess capacity industry-wide for communications cable. Despite four years of relentless cost reduction achievement, we have found it uneconomic to operate at half the historic level of demand. Therefore, we have concluded that it is in the best interest of our shareholders to pursue strategic alternatives for our North American communications cable business. In our Electronics Segment, our North American markets were stable and improving slightly toward year’s end. Through concerted focus on cost reduction, that business generated operating margins of greater than ten percent of sales in the fourth quarter. The European electronics business, however, continued to see depressed market conditions that, when combined with the aggressive but protracted restructuring activities and the work of refocusing our marketing effort, took a toll on profitability.  Actions continued in 2003 to rationalize product lines, streamline capacity, increase efficiency  and eliminate some nonstrategic legacy products that were not expected to contribute to future profitability targets. We sold our deflection coil wire business, and we exited the plant in Germany by moving most of its production to Venlo in the Netherlands and spinning-off the remaining custom-fabricated cable business to  a management-led buyout group. We also closed our manufacturing capacity in Australia, maintaining a  distribution and marketing presence there. We implemented numerous smaller projects designed to improve our costs and better serve our customers. With these production moves completed as of the end of 2003, we believe that our costs and capacities are now better aligned with demand, helping us to progress toward our  profitability goals in 2004. Even though market conditions were challenging, we scored several notable successes in 2003. We extended major multi-year supply arrangements with two important customers, British Telecom and Bell Canada. We broadened our Data-Tuff industrial product line and the HomeChoice home automation product line. And our easy-to-install Banana Peel ® composite cable won the Consumer Electronics Association award for best new product. 3