---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <ov04rl$u83$1@dont-email.me> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:00:09 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: America's Rural-Phone Industry Is Facing a $48 Billion Debt Crisis By Emma Orr and Scott Moritz Some of the biggest landline phone providers in the U.S., from Connecticut to Arizona, are running headlong into a debt crisis after borrowing heavily to add more territory and then failing to escape the industry's decline. CenturyLink Inc., Frontier Communications Corp. and Windstream Holdings Inc. -- the three largest rural phone carriers -- have lost 8 percent of their lines in the past year alone as people abandon home-phone service for more convenient wireless plans. The companies have merged with equally weak peers and drained dwindling cash reserves in an effort to pay dividends. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-20/rural-phone-crisis-48-billion-of-junk-debt-hangs-over-industry -- Bill Horne Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ov0544$vmf$1@dont-email.me> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:04:40 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: News of Note: CenturyLink, FTTH, Verizon and more A survey conducted by CenturyLink and Spiceworks of 250 information technology decision-makers found hosting of voice over internet protocol is becoming more of an integral part of business. * According to sources speaking to Reuters, the FCC will vote next month to overturn net neutrality guidelines. * The global FTTH market will nearly quadruple - from $9.5 billion to $37 billion, an annual compounded growth rate of 14.4% - over the next decade, a report from research firm Future Markets Insights found. https://www.fiercetelecom.com/installer/news-note-centurylink-metro-net-verizon-and-more -- Bill Horne Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ov05qk$33u$2@dont-email.me> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:16:43 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: AT&T, Viacom And Media Giants Revising New OTT Playbook By Howard Homonoff A flurry of news from the over-the-top (OTT) video world in the last 10 days has presented a mixed message of what OTT will mean for traditional media powers, for marketers and for content creators. The only sure thing in this brave new world looks like ... there's no sure thing. For some helpful OTT market context, I'd strongly recommend "The State of Video" report released last week by WPP's GroupM. The good news for traditional media companies is that there is still a ton of television watching, despite the mind boggling set of consumer video choices. On the other hand, those 45 billion person-viewing hours per month of TV viewing in the U.S. alone are increasingly dominated by live sports, which accounted for 88 of the top 100 rated TV programs in the U.S. in 2016. Great for the sports leagues and teams that hold these broadcast rights, not quite as fabulous for the television networks themselves (even ESPN forks over massive dollars to those rights holders) and the ecosystem of studios, producers and other creative talent living off scripted programming. https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardhomonoff/2017/11/20/att-viacom-and-media-giants-revising-new-ott-playbook/#77f237bb782f -- Bill Horne Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ov05g3$27o$1@dont-email.me> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:11:05 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: AT&T's run-ins with the government By Kevin Granville and Tiffany Hsu AT&T, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, figures prominently in the annals of antitrust law. Since the late 19th century, under various names and configurations, the entity once known as Ma Bell has often been targeted by regulators trying to rein in its size and keep it from amassing monopoly power. Now, AT&T is facing off against the Justice Department again, this time over its proposed $85.4 billion takeover of Time Warner. And although the details are different, the current situation is a reminder of the complicated balancing act the government must strike in regulating ever-changing companies. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/business/atts-run-ins-with-the-government.html -- Bill Horne Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ov0627$58m$1@dont-email.me> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:20:45 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Verizon outage affects Tampa Bay customers Monday morning By Mary Stringini TAMPA BAY, Fla. -- Verizon Wireless has confirmed a massive data outage that is affecting thousands across the state. The outage appears centered in the Tampa Bay area. The outage has barred many customers from being able to access their email or the Internet without WiFi. http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/verizon-outage-affecting-tampa-bay-customers -- Bill Horne Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly ------------------------------ Message-ID: <E0565398-A7C4-4C87-BFC3-7ABD7D1F078E@roscom.com> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:21:41 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Chinese Phone Maker Bets Big With a Premium Price Huawei Technologies wants to banish from consumers' minds the idea that Chinese brands can produce only cheap knockoffs. By Raymond Zhong SHENZHEN, China - The phone takes dazzling photos and sports advanced artificial intelligence. Its display stretches gloriously from edge to edge. And at nearly $1,000, it pushes into eye-watering territory on price. But the Mate 10 Pro isn't the latest high-end offering from Samsung or Apple. It comes from China - a country that, for all its growing sophistication in technology, has yet to produce a name like Lexus, Canon or Samsung that consumers around the globe associate with premium quality at premium prices. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/technology/huawei-mate-10-smartphone.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <ov05lu$33u$1@dont-email.me> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 22:14:11 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: In this plot of Game of Thrones, AT&T should know better By Janet Guyon Long, long ago, when the internet was but a gleam in some futurist's eye, people got all their phone service, and their telephones, from one company. It was called AT&T and as long as anyone could remember it had operated as a regulated monopoly with total control over communications service and technology in the U.S. It was a dull business, but it was a cash cow. It employed one million people. But the lords at AT&T were restless. They wanted freedom from a 1956 consent decree that kept them out of a shiny new business called computers. It was the 1980s, and they could see the future: One day people would send data, video, photos, and text over a distributed computer network. To get into this business, the AT&T lords needed to sell people not just telephones, but computers. https://qz.com/1134427/the-department-of-justice-is-blocking-atts-108-billion-merger-with-time-warner/ -- Bill Horne Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly ***** Moderator's Note ***** I understand that journalists must sometimes oversimplify, but forgetting that the "AT&T" of the bad old days is not the "AT&T" of today is a bit over the top. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Tue, 21 Nov 2017