The Telecom Digest

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Message-ID: <n6c5b8$hia$1@dont-email.me>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 16:57:26 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
Subject: Verizon's greatest phase in 2015

Nothing can stop Verizon. At least, that's how it appears. The company
has three main business segments: wireless, broadband, and pay
television. All three faced significant challenges in 2015, and while
broadband didn't grow as fast as some rivals, pay TV and wireless
weathered the storm surprisingly well.

Still, while it's impressive that Verizon maintained its wireless
market share in the face of increased pricing pressure from T-Mobile
and Sprint , that area of the business did not perform as well as the
company's FIOS pay television service. Both segments were successful,
but in wireless, the company merely leveraged its network - which
outranks its lower-cost rivals - to get people to stay on board.
That's easier ground to defend than keeping people shelling out
big bucks for FIOS when dropping it would save them much more than
switching to T-Mobile or Sprint would on the wireless side.

http://www.westfieldtimes.com/business/verizon-communications-inc-s-greatest-phase-in-2015/116370/

--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)


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Message-ID: <n6c1vc$4m8$1@dont-email.me>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 15:59:55 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
Subject: Verizon is poaching AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint customers

It's a great time to be looking for a new cell phone contract as the
major U.S. carriers continue to jockey for customers.

Verizon unveiled its latest promotion on Monday, offering customers who
switch away from AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint up to $650 to cover early
termination fees. Of course, as with any wireless service promotion,
there's a bit of fine print.

http://fortune.com/2015/12/29/verizon-offers-650-credit/

--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)


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Message-ID: <2D4BDF1E-DAA3-4883-AEF8-3F25EE8C9092@roscom.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 12:42:16 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Uber's No-Holds-Barred Expansion Strategy Fizzles in
 Germany

Uber's No-Holds-Barred Expansion Strategy Fizzles in Germany

The ride-hailing company has retreated from several German cities. Its
withdrawal from Frankfurt offers a case study of what went wrong.

FRANKFURT - Uber is rapidly expanding its ride-hailing
operations across the globe. But here in this city of 690,000 -
slightly less than the population of San Francisco, Uber's
hometown - the company recently did something unusual: It
retreated.

In early November, Uber shut its small office in Frankfurt's
centuries-old city center after just 18 months of operation,
mothballing the online platform that had let people in the city hail
rides through a smartphone app. The pullback was spurred in part by
drivers like Hasan Kurt, the owner of a local licensed taxi business,
who had refused to work with the American service.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/technology/ubers-no-holds-barred-expansion-strategy-fizzles-in-germany.html



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Message-ID: <n6c29p$69p$1@dont-email.me>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 16:05:28 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
Subject: Comcast tops FCC complaint list in 2015

Complaint factory: Angry Internet subscribers tee off against Comcast,
Verizon, AT&T

People are really mad about Comcast data caps.

by Jon Brodkin

Comcast, the nation's largest cable company and home Internet service
provider, has a lot of angry customers. And instead of just privately
fuming, thousands of them have complained to the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC).

The deluge of angry customers is so big that the FCC gets more Internet
service complaints about Comcast than it does for AT&T, Verizon, and
Time Warner Cable (TWC) combined.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/12/comcast-gets-more-complaints-to-fcc-than-att-verizon-and-twc-combined/

--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)


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Message-ID: <n6c922$uda$1@dont-email.me>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 18:00:48 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
Subject: New FCC rules could hang up phones in prisons, jails

By KERY MURAKAMI

WASHINGTON - Advocates for prisoners are hailing a move by the Federal
Communications Commission to lower the cost of jailhouse calls. But
sheriffs and phone service providers say the ruling could inadvertently
hurt inmates and taxpayers, and even lead to some jails doing away with
phone service altogether.

In an attempt to rein in rates, the FCC in October capped how much
prisoners and their families are charged for phone calls, cutting some
fees in half.

http://www.bdtonline.com/news/new-fcc-rules-could-hang-up-phones-in-prisons-jails/article_35f2a128-b1c0-11e5-9b40-3b71e01b72a9.html

--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)


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Message-ID: <n6cev1$jhl$1@dont-email.me>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 19:41:35 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
Subject: Companies ask permission to deliver fewer telephone books

PIERRE | Dex Media, the publisher of telephone directories for
CenturyLink customers in South Dakota, wants state regulators to answer
whether the directories have to be the traditional printed copies on paper.

The company doesn't want to eliminate the pulpy directories, but would
prefer to get away from what it calls "saturation delivery" to all
customers.

Dex Media instead would provide paper directories only to people who
request them and instead offer online guides over the Internet for
people with computer access. Dex-CenturyLink directories already have an
opt-out policy, that is, a recipient of a directory can ask that it no
longer be delivered.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/companies-ask-permission-to-deliver-fewer-telephone-books/article_2761f46b-5e77-5665-9f17-8eae8ea012b9.html


--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)


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End of telecom Digest Mon, 04 Jan 2016

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