Embarq Keeps an Eye Out for Rural Telecom Acquisition Targets

No Author (6.12.2007)

http://www.teleclick.ca/2007/06/embarq-keeps-an-eye-out-for-rural-telecom-acquisition-targets/

Embarq looking to advance their competitive position

Regional telephone provider, Embarq Corp., is positioning itself to acquire smaller competitors in the months and years to come, as the telecommunications sector continues to consolidate.

Buying up small rural phone carriers would help Embarq to slash costs and increase efficiency, said the company’s CEO, Daniel Hesse, in an interview late last week.

“Today you have roughly 800 local exchange carriers in the U.S., and we’re competing with much larger competitors — the wireless companies, the cable companies,” Hesse said. He acknowledging, however, that Embarq had yet to find any specific deals where cost benefits outweighed the likely premiums.

“We’re very well positioned to be an acquirer,” he explained, “but in today’s market, a lot of the prices are too high. And we have a very disciplined approach to looking at acquisitions.”

Embarq — which was spun off by wireless giant, Sprint Nextel in May 2006 — has experienced significant growth in the past year, with its stock price rising over 20% since debuting on the market. Hesse believes that a further increase in value could help his company put together an attractive acquisition proposal.

“The stock has moved up a lot in the past year, not only in absolute terms but relative to the industry. If we continue to perform that well, then all of a sudden our equity can become a currency,” the CEO said, referring to the possibility of an all-stock deal.

Embarq offers local, long distance, and broadband internet services in 18 states, primarily in rural areas, and faces strong competition from major cable and wireless providers.

Broadband Subscriber Base to Double by 2011

Ed Gubbins (5.30.07)
http://telephonyonline.com/home/news/broadband_subscribers_instat_053007/

Broadband subscribers to double over the next 5 years.

The number of broadband subscribers worldwide will nearly double over the next five years to more than half a billion, according to research analysis firm In-Stat.

About 65 million new subscribers signed up in the past 12 months, bringing the total to 285 million, In-Stat said. By 2011, the total will be 567 million.

By that time, 58% of all broadband connections will be delivered via DSL, In-Stat said. Nearly 10% will be delivered via fiber-to-the-home.

Today, however, about 92% of broadband connections come through either DSL or cable.

Don’t Don't Apply 1968 Telecom Rule to Wireless, Says AT&T

Drew Clark (2.26.07)
http://www.drewclark.com/2007/02/dont-go-back-to-1968-telecom-rules-says.shtml

AT&T and Verizon talk about national broadband and wireless regulation while speaking at the Technology Policy Summit.

This is the beginning of a potential push toward national broadband, which if instituted would force changes in legislation, and shift the focus of municipal wireless projects.

AT&T’s Senior Vice President Jim Ciconni has acknowledged a need for national broadband. “We don’t have a national broadband policy, we have never had a broadband policy, and, given the importance of competitiveness, we should have one,” said Ciconni.

However, Tom Tauke, Verizon Communications Executive Vice President countered by saying “a national broadband policy would do more harm than good." But he encouraged government-private sector collaboration to obtain more data about broadband deployment.

Tauke referred positively to KetuckyConnect, an effort to compile statistics about regional broadband deployment. The government could provide subsidies and loans for deploying broadband in rural areas that enjoy a lesser degree of broadband deployment, he said.

They also discussed wireless regulation, with Ciconni claiming that things have changed since the carterphone, saying “there are a plethora of carriers and a wide variety of devices that are available” on wireless networks, thus any rule that hearkens back to 1968 will be rejected.

Comcast To Launch Upstream Powerboost

broadbandreports.com (1.9.9)
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/80834


"A company insider informs us that Comcast is expected to announce plans for deployment of PowerBoost upstream speed enhancement sometime in the first half of 2007 for all 6Mbps/384kbps and 8Mbps/768kbps residential subscribers. Users will see upstream bursts up to 1Mbps and 2Mbps, respectively, for the 384kbps and 768kbps upstream speeds. While scheduled launch is expected to begin in February, as with downstream Powerboost deployment, specific dates will vary by market. "

Qwest to view video options

By Andy Vuong (1.7.07)
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_4968128

Qwest is looking into upgrading copper lines to fiber to be able to provide its own IPTV service.

Qwest is quietly taking steps toward a major upgrade of its network that would ultimately allow the company to offer its own video service on a broader scale.

Kermit Ross said the deadline for responding to Qwest's RFP was late last month. He said Qwest will probably spend two to three months reviewing proposals before selecting a vendor.

Qwest's capital expenditures have hovered around $1.6 billion annually in recent years and are expected to remain at that level for the foreseeable future, Jon Lentz said. Much of the company's spending has gone toward improving the reach and speed of its high-speed Internet Digital Subscriber Line offering.

J:COM to bond with 160 Mbps Internet service

By Jeff Baumgartner (1.5.07)
http://www.cedmagazine.com/article/CA6404675.html

J:COM, the largest cable MSO in Japan, will use pre-DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding techniques to deliver a super-fast Internet service that caps downstream speeds at 160 Mbps, and upstream speeds at 10 Mbps.

The service, which carries the provisional brand of "J:COM.NET 160 Mbps," will be offered to individual homes and customers beginning in April 2007.

Fiber-Wired City Attracts Managed Services Businesses

By Geoff Daily (12.27.06)
http://www.killerapp.com/content/publish/article_275.shtml

Does municipal broadband really make a difference to local business? And do higher network speeds have proportionally higher impacts? The evidence is still anecdotal, but it’s mounting. This is one of those anecdotes.


The Jackson Energy Authority, a publicly owned utility, recently built a fiber-to-the-premises system in its home town of Jackson, Tennessee and surrounding areas, and opened the system to service providers who sell telephone, Internet access and cable television to local residents and businesses.

And the dynamic bandwidth allocation on the fiber network gives companies the tools they need to support continued growth.

With the capacious bandwidth of fiber, companies like Xpert Systems Integration are free to dream up new ways to build their businesses. Beck says he’s considering several possible new services: “We’re looking at … moving further into the Microsoft direction with applications like Exchange 2007, as well as exploring some VOIP add-ons. We’re also considering offering document management services where companies can save images to the network from copy machines. And we’re investigating things like video for surveillance.”

YouTube generation needs more broadband

Robert Mullins, IDG News Service (12.27.06)

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;727534747

The increasing popularity of high bandwidth sites means a larger push for higher quality high speed broadband access.


Technology industry experts meeting in Silicon Valley recently said broadband Internet access in the U.S. needs to improve for the "YouTube generation" to really flourish.

An improved broadband network will better serve users of sites such as YouTube.com, at which millions of videos from the general public are shared online. YouTube was acquired earlier this year by Google, and Verizon Wireless announced in November plans to offer YouTube videos over its wireless phone network.

Although the U.S. broadband penetration rate topped 75 percent of households in September and is expected to reach 80 percent by the end of 2006, according to WebSiteOptimization.com, China is expected to surpass the U.S. as its broadband base grows rapidly. But more importantly, says Mossberg, U.S. broadband networks are generally slower than those in other countries. Faster connections will be needed to deliver full-motion video to portable devices. Services that deliver as little as 768 kilobits per second (Kbps) are considered broadband in the U.S., while services in Europe and elsewhere are much faster.

Panelists said 2007 will see more growth of on-demand content, such as music videos, television shows and movies, and more demand for easier connectivity between devices.

The growth of sites like YouTube is creating "massive amounts of content and there is going to be a continuing need to take and distribute that content. That will spur innovation of more consumer devices," said Chad Hurley, cofounder of YouTube.

The Internet accelerates while U.S. trails behind

Charles H. Giancarlo (12.14.06)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/14/EDGOULJ5TB1.DTL

US internet speeds continue to fall behind the rest of the world.

Household bandwidth demand continues to increase and is expected to reach approximately 1.1 terabits per month per household by 2010 in the United States. For comparison, 20 of these homes would generate more traffic than the entire Internet of 1995. However, the demand is not being met by increasing supply.

The United States now ranks 12th in the world in the total percentage of citizens that subscribe to broadband access, lagging behind such countries as Iceland, Korea, Sweden, Belgium and Canada. The trend line is even worse. The United States ranks 17th for the growth of these high-speed connections, outpaced by nearly all of our economic peers. Our broadband speeds don't measure up either. Korea's citizens, for example, have access to 50 megabits per second connections, making Internet services at typical U.S. speeds "broadband lite," at best.