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AT&T: Wireless Grows, Broadband Blows
In its second-quarter earnings call this morning, AT&T highlighted the awesome growth of its wireless business, which surged 14.8 percent to $11 billion and accounted for roughly a third of its $30.9 billion in revenue for the period. The company also said that the 3G iPhone was selling twice as fast as the first one, which given the price cut, isn’t too surprising.
Equally unsurprising was the 10 percent rise in the number of smartphone subscribers over the second quarter of 2007 (AT&T is the sole carrier of the iPhone in the U.S.). And those users are surfing the web, pushing AT&T’s data revenue up 52 percent from the same period a year ago, to $2.5 billion. After adding 1.3 million wireless subscribers during the quarter, AT&T is still the largest cell phone carrier with 72.9 million subscribers. However, Verizon said yesterday it had added 1.5 million subscribers, so the iPhone exclusivity can only do so much.
The tethered world was a little less rosy, however. AT&T did add 170,000 new U-verse subscribers, bringing that total to 549,000; it also reiterated its goal of having a million subscribers by year-end. But triple-play services were down and broadband growth is slowing. Subscribers to voice, data and TV fell to 48.4 million from 49.5 million at the end of the second quarter of 2007. And AT&T’s total broadband connections now number 14.7 million, up 1.4 million over the same quarter last year but a mere 46,000 higher than the first quarter of the year.
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I Requested That Verizon Drop Their Deal With 1938media | SheGeeks
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1938 Media Loses Verizon Deal Over Racism Charges
1938 Media’s distribution deal with Verizon, announced just a week ago, is history.
Yesterday a group of “civil rights activists” protested the deal and threatened to boycott Verizon. The reason? A 2007 video that Feldman created called “TechNigga” that the groups say is racist.
The video was not included on Verizon, and television reports that Verizon financed the video are incorrect. But Feldman confirmed to me that all 1938 Media videos were removed by Verizon yesterday and that they terminated the relationship today.
There is almost certainly a back story to this that may unwind over the coming days. Feldman has been in the spotlight recently for a set of puppet videos that originally mocked new media consultant Shel Israel (and later others including me, Loic LeMeur and Dave Winer). A lot of people were angry with Feldman over the parodies (and I drew criticism for covering the story) - and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone helped organize the early stages of this protest.
So what’s your opinion? Is the video racist? Should Verizon have stood by Feldman? Tell us in the comments.
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Verizon Helps Turn Consumers Into Geeks
As the average consumer embraces ever more complex technology, Verizon is offering a series of classes beginning in New York City to show consumers what their PDAs and smartphones can do for them. I’m sure many of our readers aren’t in need of such a class — which will teach users all about texting, syncing music and emails — but it’s a great idea.
I hated my BlackBerry Pearl when I first got it; it took what felt like forever to figure out how it was supposed to work. If done well, teaching people like me to use their phones should increase data revenue and overall ARPU for Verizon. If done well, it will also make committed smartphone users out of most participants. And luring people into the store and to teach them the “Verizon way,” means consumers are likely to pick up a few high-margin accessories to bolster their education.
People in the technology field know that poor usability and device complexity hurts customer satisfaction, but keep cramming more features into them. As consumers, rather than enterprises, buy more devices and drive technology adoption, usability needs to improve, or else vendors such as Best Buy with their Geek Squad or Verizon with its classes will take up the slack. At that point, consumers are more likely to heed the advice of their favorite Geek rather than the glossy ads of an OEM when looking for their next purchase.
Use your music (MP3's), photos, pictures, and animations to create ringtones and graphics for free: online, without needing software for your computer. Supports most popular cellphones, including the new Apple iPhone! (Mobile17 is a ringtone maker).
1938 Media Inks Verizon Deal, CNET Gets Cold Feet
1938 Media, the controversial (and hilarious) video blogging site founded by Loren Feldman, has been the center of attention over the last few days. Now big partners are starting to take notice, and Feldman is inking some interesting distribution deals.
The site grew in popularity after Feldman began mixing puppet parody shows into his usual punditry, specifically targeting hyper-sensitive tech industry insiders who were sure to fire back. But those parodies have drawn significant criticism from those targeted as well as a few sympathetic bloggers. In response Feldman agreed to stop some of the harder hitting stuff aimed at social media consultant Shel Israel.
The puppet videos are definitely a hit, however, drawing sponsors and, earlier this month, a distribution deal with CNET.
The CNET deal has yet to go live, and chances are it never will. The recent controversy may have given CNET cold feet. Feldman says the deal is “on hiatus” for now.
But starting today Verizon Wireless’ 3 million mobile VCast users will have access to Feldman’s video content on their phone, as well as 1 million Fios broadband cable subscribers via video on demand. The deal, which will pay Feldman an undisclosed license fee, puts the 1938Media brand next to YouTube, Break.com and other high profile partners.
Effectively Verizon has created a 1938Media channel and has given Feldman the ability to bring in third party video content as well. To start, Mahalo Daily, Revision3, Ze Frank and Jay Grandin content will be included.
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Verizon’s Crazy Broadband Strigl Theory
Verizon President and Chief Operating Officer Dennis Strigl made a big splash at NXTcomm 08 yesterday when he announced that the entire Verizon FiOS footprint could now get speeds of 50 megabits per second. Typically such bandwidth news wouldn’t cause that much of a furor, but there wasn’t much to write home about from the show, which was held in Las Vegas this week.
In his speech, Strigl pointed out that the U.S. has the highest number of broadband users when compared with other countries, in particular that broadband is available in every U.S. zip code. Good point — and one that I’ve made in the past myself — except that it’s no longer true. By that metric, China now leads. Yes, the FCC used to defined broadband as a service that offered, at a minimum, 200 kbps downloads, but it’s since changed that requirement to 768 kbps.
But where Strigl went too far was when he suggested that three-quarters of American households have two providers to choose from — aka a duopoly, which is not my idea of a competitive marketplace. If you factor in wireless and satellite, he said, there are actually six or seven competitors. Talk about twisting the facts to fit one version of the truth! This part of his speech, however, had me choking on my breakfast cereal.
“Massachusetts and New Jersey have similar population density to Korea and Japan and similar broadband penetration. Unlike other countries, what we have accomplished has come not through [government] policy but through private investment.
How telling. So subverting government policy via lobbyists and highly biased friends at the FCC to ensure a future monopoly is all part of good, capitalistic, private investment theory? Maybe Harvard can include that in its future MBA curriculum.
Regardless, I thought it would be fun to see how Massachusetts and New Jersey really square up against South Korea and Japan when it comes to the price of a broadband connection:
Average broadband speeds in South Korea and Japan are 49.5 megabits per second and 63.6 megabits per second, respectively. The average U.S. speed is about 4.9 megabits per second, making it the 14th-fastest country in the world. The average price in South Korea and Japan is about 83 cents per megabit. In the U.S, it’s about $2.83.
But since it would be unfair to use average U.S. stats, I went with Verizon’s prices, the ones it’s going to offer in Massachusetts and New Jersey. On Verizon’s FiOS network, a 50 Mbps connection costs $140 a month — or about $2.80 a megabit. In fact, if you went with Verizon’s 20 Mbps service, you would be paying $3.25 per megabit. (To be fair, Verizon’s price-per-megabit is still cheaper than the $5.25 Qwest charges for its 20 Mbps connection, which costs $105 a month.)
In other words, not until Verizon starts selling a 50 Mbps connection for $41.50 a month and 20 Mbps fiber connection for $16.60 a month can Strigl get away with comparing U.S. broadband with that of the rest of the world.
Updated: Confirmed: Verizon Wants Alltel
A statement released today by Vodafone has confirmed that Verizon Wireless is in advanced talks to buy Alltel for about $27 billion. Vodafone and Verizon jointly own Verizon Wireless.
Update: The deal has been confirmed: $28.1 billion — of which $5.9 billion will be for Alltel’s equity and the rest for Alltel’s projected net debt of $22.2 billion. The deal will be concluded by the end of 2008. Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon’s chairman and CEO, was quoted as saying:
“This is a perfect fit, with Alltel’s high-value post-paid customer base, its solid financials, our common network technology, and significant, readily attainable synergies.”
AllTel went private in the fall of 2007, when private equity investors TPG and Goldman Sachs bought the company for $27.5 billion. The rumors of Verizon and Alltel merging have done the rounds for a while. Some notable things about this deal:
If concluded, it would makeThis makes Verizon the largest mobile company in the U.S., with about 80 million subscribers.- Stifel Nicolaus Telecom Equity Research’s Christopher C. King estimates that the annual cost savings between the two companies will be around $1 billion, with a majority coming from the elimination of roaming charges.
- In comparison with AT&T ($51.10) and Verizon ($52.40), Alltel has an ARPU of $53.64 a month.
- Analysts believe that Verizon can afford the deal, despite having to spend a lot of money on buying the 700 MHz spectrum. Vodafone’s two-line statement doesn’t indicate if Vodafone, which owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless, will kick in something.
- The deal is part of a wave of consolidation being brought on by a slowing wireless market. UBS Research estimates that wireless subscriber growth in the U.S. decelerated to 8.6 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from 9.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. Wireless penetration is over 84 percent. Wireless has been a big driver of earnings for the likes of Verizon and AT&T.
- Verizon would have to divest about 20 percent to 30 percent of Alltel’s points of presence in order to get the regulatory go-ahead. UBS Research thinks AT&T and T-Mobile might be interested.
- This deal doubles Verizon’s debt to about $42 billion
