AlaskaComm Delays LTE Launch to Year-End; Verizon Now Breathing Down its Neck
Alaska 4G Wireless
AlaskaComm Delays LTE Launch to Year-End; Verizon Now Breathing Down its Neck
AlaskaComm has postponed the launch of its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network from May to the end of this year. The delay corresponds with reports saying that the carrier has started selling Apple’s iPhone from April which can only connect to a 3G network at present. Earlier in Jun 2011 AlaskaComm had said that it would be spending around $20 million in deploying LTE in the state making it the first carrier in Alaska to offer 4G services. Verizon, the largest Internet service provider in the US had meanwhile applied to acquiring 700MHz C Block spectrum license from Triad covering Alaska in August 2011 with the FCC. Triad had purchased this spectrum in an FCC sponsored spectrum auction in August 2010 for $1.8 million. At that time Verizon didn’t have any agenda for FTE deployment in Alaska and it did not want to dispute AlsakaComm’s claims of being the first LTE provider in the state.
With AlalskaComm’s LTE launch now delayed the situation has changed and in Mar 2012, Alaska’s Matanuska Telephone Association (MTA) announced that it has entered into an agreement with Verizon Wireless to participate in Verizon’s ‘LTE in Rural America’ program. As part of the agreement, Verizon will lease 700MHz upper C block wireless spectrum to MTA in Denali and Matanuska – Sustina Boroughs covering almost 34,000 square miles. With MTA’s participation in this scheme, its customers can access LTE in more than 230 cities in the US.
The story might still have a twist in the tale as last week Verizon revealed that it is in a process to start its own independent operations in Alaska and has started laying groundwork for it by leasing acreage for cell towers covering the south central and interior regions. Irrespective of its alliance with MTA, Verizon has indicated that it would like to enter the Alaskan market in 2013.
Categories: 3G, 4G, Alaska, Internet News, Verizon, Wireless Tags: Alaska, AlaskaComm, LTE, Verizon
AT&T, Verizon Still behind Cable Rivals in Broadband Growth
Cable Internet
AT&T, Verizon Still behind Cable Rivals in Broadband Growth
Figures show that the biggest telephone companies in the US are growing their broadband subscriber bases but their growth rate is slower than their cable rivals as indicated by the figures of the first quarter. In broadband Internet wars, Verizon and AT&T are way behind Time Warner Cable and Comcast.
The two major telcos have suffered losses in their ADSL Internet operations however these losses have been partially offset by the gains made by their respective FiOS and U-Verse businesses.
AT&T U-Verse gained 718,000 customers in the last quarter to reach an overall subscriber base of 5.9 million. However the net subscriber gain was only 103,000 as the company lost subscribers in the wire-line broadband sector. AT&T provides satellite and DSL line broadband under its wire-line broadband services.
Verizon too suffered DSL losses which hampered its broadband growth although it posted its highest quarterly net increase since the second quarter in 2009. Verizon lost 89,000 DSL subscribers in the first quarter of 2012. In the corresponding period last year Verizon had lost 109,000 DSL subscribers. It also gained 193,000 new FiOS subscribers.
Verizon’s and AT&T’s cable rivals continued to show good performance in adding a greater number of subscribers. Time Warner added 214,000 domestic broadband subscribers whereas Comcast added another 439,000.
The numbers are indicative of an industry trend where telephone companies have lagged behind the cable companies in broadband growth. Leichtman Research Group, earlier this year reported that phone companies served about 34.3 million subscribers whereas cable companies supported 44.3 million subscribers.
However the pay TV market hasn’t been so kind to the cable industry. In the last quarter Comcast, the largest cable TV provider lost 37,000 video customers in what is believed to be its 20th consecutive quarterly loss in video customers. Time Warner too lost 94,000 subscribers in the last quarter.
Categories: At&t, Broadband, Cable Internet, Comcast, Internet News, Time Warner Cable, Verizon Tags: At&t, Broadband, Comcast, time warner cable, Verizon
Verizon Fires Back at Critics of Deal
Verizon Fires Back at Critics of Deal
Verizon Fires Back at Critics of Deal
Last week Verizon hit out against critics of the proposed deal between Verizon and a coalition of cable companies in a representation made by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The deal will clear the path for Verizon to buy spectrum from Bright House, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Comcast . These companies have also agreed to cross selling of each other’s products and services.
Consumer rights groups like Free, Press and Public Knowledge as well as communications companies like T-Mobile have objected to the deal saying it will allow Verizon to become the dominant player in the market and it is against the practice of fair competition. These groups have requested the FCC to block the deal.
In its reply to the FCC, Verizon has said that on one hand these companies were not using their spectrum and on the other hand Verizon was finding it difficult to meet the growing frequency demands of its customers.
Verizon also argued that the FCC should not consider other alternatives to the deal like the companies selling their spectrum to T-Mobile.
T-Mobile in its filing with the FCC has stated that Verizon already has the majority of spectrum owned by any carrier and the deal will allow Verizon to block other carriers from accessing this valuable resource. But Verizon has firmly denied the accusation saying that it is not interested in warehousing and the accusation against it is absolutely false. The company thinks itself as a good steward of the spectrum and it needed more spectrum to fulfill customers’ demands for 4G LTE service and cable Internet subscribers.
Consumer groups feel that the deal will push the market towards duopoly with AT&T Verizon sharing the pie amongst them. The company argued that the market is very competitive and that neither AT&T nor Verizon owned the most spectrum’s but that distinction went to Clearwire, another wireless Internet provider.
Categories: At&t, Bright House, Comcast, Cox, FCC, Internet News, T-Mobile, Time Warner Cable, Wireless Tags: FCC, Verizon
Verizon Q1: Wire-line Revenue Impacted by Wholesale Losses: Gains in FiOS, Enterprise Services
Verizon Q1 Revenue Gains in FiOS, Enterprise Services
Verizon Q1: Wire-line Revenue Impacted by Wholesale Losses: Gains in FiOS, Enterprise Services
Verizon declared its Q1 2012 earnings last week and as expected it saw gains in next-gen services like Verizon FiOS data and TV and business services like Ethernet and cloud. However the picture was clouded by a decline in wholesale revenue.
The company’s consumer revenues rose 1.7 percent to $3.4 billion. Its enterprise revenues also rose by 0.9 percent to $3.9 billion majorly due to its acquisition of cloud and data center provider Terremark.
However a decline of 8.9 percent in wholesale revenue drove the company’s overall wire-line revenue 2 percent to $9.9 billion while EBITDA margin decreased to 22,6 percent from 23.6 percent in 2011.
The Telco’s key wire-line metrics are as below:
- Landline losses: Verizon continued to lose POTS voice subscriptions as expected. In Q1 the Telco lost 437,000 voice line subscribers to end the quarter with total 23.7 million subscribers.
- Video and broadband: While DSL subscribers declined, in the consumer segment FiOS TV and FiOS broadband data continued to be Verizon’s shining stars. Total 104,000 broadband subscribers were added, taking its subscriber base to 8.8 million. Verizon added 108,000 new FiOS TV subscribers, taking the number of subscribers to 4.35 million. FiOS share in the company’s wire-line revenues was 63 percent.
- Business and wholesale services: Verizon’s global enterprise earnings saw an increase of 0.9 percent to $3.9 billion. The major contributors in this growth were robust sales of strategic services including security and IT solutions and Terremark cloud services. Strategic revenues grew by 11.6 percent and represented 51 percent of its global enterprise revenues although wholesale revenue declined by 8.9 percent to $1.86 billion.
Despite the losses, Verizon said it expects improvement in wire-line margins over the year because of repositioning its enterprise offers. Overall in Q1 2012 the company’s revenues rose 4.6 percent to $28.2 billion and its operating profits improved to $5.2 billion from last year’s $4.5 billion.
Verizon Offers Asset Sale for Approval on Cable Airwave Buy
Verizon Offers Asset Sale for Approval on Cable Airwave Buy
Verizon Offers Asset Sale for Approval on Cable Airwave Buy
Last week Verizon Wireless offered to sell off a few of its assets in exchange for a regulatory approval its $3.9 billion purchase of wireless spectrum from a group of cable television companies.
The carrier, which is the largest internet service and solutions provider in the U.S said that it is willing to sell some of its 700 megahertz spectrum or airwaves if the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission approve the cable deal.
The company has encountered stiff resistance to its cable deal from rivals like Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile USA and consumer watchdog groups who believe that Verizon would capture too much market power. Last year AT&T was also willing to sell some assets in its $39 billion to acquire T-mobile but was prevented as it raised concerns over reduced competition.
Verizon’s 700 megahertz spectrum was brought in the FCC sponsored auction in 2008. A spokeswoman for the carrier said that Verizon hadn’t used its spectrum and it would prefer using the cable spectrum to build its high speed Verizon mobile broadband network also known as 4G LTE. Robin Nicol, the spokeswoman also said that if the cable deal was opposed by regulators, Verizon would need to supplement its existing spectrum with another spectrum. She also added that the offer of selling 700 megahertz spectrum wasn’t made after its negotiations with FCC regulators. FCC has declined to comment on this.
Verizon Wireless added that the 700 megahertz spectrum offer also depended on regulatory approval for a spectrum swap deal with Leap Wireless. Through this deal Leap would provide Verizon a spectrum license covering 18.7 million Americans and in return Verizon would give Leap some Chicago area licenses covering around 11 million users.
Carriers are fighting for spectrum licenses as demand for downloading videos, pictures and music from users could leave them with a crippling spectrum shortage.
Verizon Reports Q1 Earnings: Revenues up 4.6%, 3.2 Million iPhones Sold
3.2 Million Verizon iPhones Sold
Verizon Reports Q1 Earnings: Revenues up 4.6%, 3.2 Million iPhones Sold
Last week Verizon Communications reported its first quarter earnings. The revenues were up 4.6 % to $28.2 billion for the same quarter last year. The company had added 193,000 Verizon Internet FiOS connections and 180,000 FiOS TV connections. It now has a customer base of over 5 million FiOS Internet subscribers.
Verizon Chairman and CEO, Lowell McAdam said that the company delivered double digit earnings growth and strong cash flow in this quarter. The momentum was built in 2011 and the company continued to perform well in key growth areas of business. Verizon wireless showed great growth and margins and the company produced another great quarter of FiOS growth. The company expects to concentrate more on FiOS growth in the next two quarters and gradually withdraw DSL services in markets where FiOS is well established.
He was confident that the company will improve the wire-line margins in the full year. Verizon’s repositioning of its enterprise solutions had leveraged its strengths in high growth markets and the company expects its enterprise business to become an even bigger contributor in overall wireline profitability and growth in the long run he added.
Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Vodafone and Verizon Communications. It saw an increase of 7.7% year on year increase in service revenue in the quarter. Verizon said that it sold 3.2 million iPhones in the quarter. There was also an 8.9% increase in retail service revenues which according to the company is the highest growth it has seen in past three years. The data revenues increased by 21.1%. The company also saw net additions of 734,000 retail customers for the quarter which also include an addition of 501,000 retail postpaid customers. The company’s customer churn remained low at 0.96%. The company’s total customer base stands at 88 million retails postpaid customers and 93 million retail customers.
AT&T Wins 4G Crown: WiMAX Worse Than 3G
AT&T Wins 4G Crown: WiMAX Worse Than 3G
AT&T Wins 4G Crown: WiMAX Worse Than 3G
In the latest survey published by PCWorld magazine last week, AT&T was then named as the best 4G carrier and T-Mobile USA the best 4G carrier beating rivals like Verizon and CenturyLink. The survey also highlighted that WiMAX was falling way behind its LTE rivals.
The survey found that amongst all wireless carriers AT&T had the best download speeds although Verizon’s LTE service did score better for upload speeds. In the 3G category, T- Mobile USA’s HSPA + 21 Mbps which in fact the carrier markets as 4G staved off stiff competition from its rivals.
T- Mobile USA’s HSPA + 42 Mbps fared surprisingly well against established 4G providers. The survey found out that the carrier’s plans were more transparent, cheaper and flexible as compared to other carriers surveyed.
Verizon was the first to offer LTE services but due to this download speeds with Verizon’s LTE are slower than AT&T which started its LTE service much later. 3G speeds aren’t showing any improvement compared to previous years with Verizon’s focus being primarily on increasing next gen coverage. That has helped the carrier in terms of service accessibility. Its 4G service is more accessible than its competitors.
WiMAX has started showing its age. It was the first to announce the 4G label but it fared even worse than its 3G service providing rivals in most cities covered under the survey.
PCWorld drew its conclusions from the survey with a suggestion for users who frequently download to check for coverage maps for Verizon and AT&T and opt for AT&T if they have coverage in their area as it has better download speeds than any internet service provider in the U.S. Uploaders can use Verizon’s service for its fast upload speed. In terms of cheap billing Internet subscribers can switch to T-Mobile USA which has more convenient billing plans.
Internet Service and TV Service Providers Earn Poor Customer Experience Ratings, According to New Temkin Group Research
Internet Service
Internet Service and TV Service Providers Earn Poor Customer Experience Ratings, According to New Temkin Group Research
Temkin Group has published its latest report and Temkin Experience Ratings covering 206 big companies from 18 diverse industries. This is the second consecutive year when Temkin has come out with the ratings.
The research was based on a survey covering 10,000 consumers in the US in January 2012. The survey covered 11 Internet service providers including Verizon, Road Runner Internet, Qwest, MSN, EarthLink, Cox Communications, Comcast, Charter Communications, Cablevision, AT&T and AOL and 10 Television service providers including Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Optimum/ Cablevision, Dish TV, DirecTV, Cox Communications, Comcast, Charter Communications, Bright House Networks and AT&T
The study compared 21 organizations from both Internet and cable space only three of them received OK rating. Cablevision (Internet), Dish Network (TV) and Bright House Networks (TV). Fifteen received poor and three were rated very poor.
The TV and Internet services were rated 16th and 17th respectively from amongst 18 industries covered in the study on customer experience. Only health plans scored lower than these two. EarthLink and Charter communications were the lowest rated companies out of the 206 surveyed by Temkin. Eight out of the lowest 19 were from these two industries.
Bruce Temkin, the report’s author and Temkin group’s managing partner said that terrible customer service is an epidemic with cable and internet service providers. As per the analysis of the Temkin group, TV services had a modest increase in customer service experience while Internet services scored slightly less as compared to 2011.
Seven companies had an increase of more than five percentage points over the last year. They are Comcast (TV and Internet), DirecTV, Bright House Networks, Dish TV, AOL, Comcast and Cablevision. Cox Communications was the only one showing more than five percentage points decline.
The Temkin Experience rating taps three dimensions of customer satisfaction- functional, accessible and emotional.
Categories: CenturyLink, Comcast, Cox, EarthLink, Internet News, Internet Providers, Qwest, Time Warner Cable, Verizon Tags: AOL, AT&T, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, EarthLink, MSN, Qwest, Road Runner Internet, Verizon
Verizon, Time Warner Offering Internet, Cable Bundles Despite Concerns
Internet Bundles
Verizon, Time Warner Offering Internet, Cable Bundles Despite Concerns
Time Warner Cable and Verizon Wireless announced last week that users in some parts of North Carolina, Kansas and Ohio can now sign up for their bundled offerings including Time Warner Internet, video and voice services and Verizon tablets and Smartphones. This announcement from the two companies comes even as federal regulators are deciding whether deals like this or even such partnerships are ethical or legal.
In December 2011, Verizon had announced that it has signed a deal with SpectrumCo a combination of BrightHouse Networks, Comcast and Time Warner. As part of the deal Verizon would purchase wireless spectrum from these companies and sell some SpectrumCo products and in return the other companies would market Verizon’s mobile products and services. The marketing aspect of the deal had raised issues in the industry with U.S. Senator Al Franken expressing concern that consumers would suffer if major competitors became allies. On March 21, members of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights questioned officials from Comcast and Verizon as well as officials from their rival companies opposing the deal.
Senator Amy Klobuchar though that such Internet bundles would bind consumers to pay more or result in less competition ultimately giving very few options for the consumers to choose from. On the contrary, Randall Milch, Verizon’s Executive Vice President and general counsel told her that nobody is constrained to buying in bundles. The consumers will not lose on anything except choose from a sort of discount which they might or might not choose.
Rural Telecommunications Group (RTG), Sprint and T-Mobile are more upset regarding the spectrum trading aspect of the deal. Carri Bennet, RTG’s general counsel said that Verizon Wireless is trying to capture the market of the commercial wireless spectrum and stripping existing competitors of their spectrum holdings. This practice in against competition and in violation of anti- trust laws and it should be denied by the FCC.
Categories: Cable Internet, Comcast, Internet News, Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio, Time Warner Cable, Verizon Tags: Cable Bundles, FCC, Internet, Time Warner, Verizon
New Jersey Presses Verizon About Wireline Voice Service Issues, Broadband Commitment
New Jersey Presses Verizon About Wireline Voice Service Issues
New Jersey Presses Verizon About Wireline Voice Service Issues, Broadband Commitment
Verizon like its counterpart DSL providers AT&T and CenturyLink continues to see the revenue from its core voice service decline but New Jersey’s board of Public Utilities are questioning the quality of their PSTN service provided by Verizon.
There is a spurt in complaints against the states PSTN service although there has been a decline in the number of subscribers from 6.7 million in 2000 to below 2.5 million in 2012. The board wants to know the reasons for high volume in complaints. Also the board wants to know why Verizon has not delivered its promise of providing Verizon DSL service to 50,000 residential Internet users in the state of New Jersey.
Stefanie brand, Director of Division of Rate Counsel said, “The reasons for a high number of complaints against Verizon’s copper network is because the carrier is distracted by its expanding FiOS network and wireless service and paying less attention to its other services. Keeping their copper network is an expense for Verizon as they now want to focus fully on their FiOS network and wireless systems,” she added.
Lowell McAdam, Chairman and CEO of Verizon and the former Verizon president said last week that the company would be launching a new streaming video service which can be used by its FiOS network, wireless systems and cable partner customers on their smart phones and tablets. However the launch of this new service depends on whether Verizon manages to get government approvals for its $3.6 million spectrum purchase and marketing deal with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright Communications.
Verizon’s deal however has met with strong opposition from users, other service providers and community groups especially those from the northeast as they feel that if the deal goes through then they will never get the benefits of Verizon’s FiOS service.
Categories: DSL, FiOS, Internet Access Article, Internet News, New Jersey, Verizon Tags: DSL, fios, new jersey, Verizon
