The problem with telecom is not only that it's going through the same economic issues as the rest of the market, but that it's also an industry in transition. Five years ago, AT&T's primary competitors were MCI and Sprint, and now it's the Bells and cable companies. Investors aren't sure what the industry is going to look like and which horse to put their $2 bet on. |
The purpose is really twofold. To update the thinking of investors and customers on the changing company and the changing industry. |
The rules of the telecom business are changing, |
The rules of the telecom business are changing. |
The technology is getting better, but we haven't seen a truly meaningful product yet. |
The television industry is reinventing itself, the same way the telephone industry is reinventing itself and they are all blending, |
The television services that we will be using in coming years will look much different than the service we used over the last 30 years. Phone companies like AT&T are rushing to offer a competitive television service to allow them to compete with the cable television companies. |
The US carriers have all shied away form anything that would cause trouble or hurt their image, |
The weakest link for SBC is offering international service to business customers. This deal should make SBC stronger, |
The wireless phones will be used to manage more and more of our lives. If we are going to use these phones for all they can offer, we have to be smart about it. Either that or there will have to be new laws passed making it illegal to drive and talk at the same time. |
The world has changed. It's like 'The Time Machine.' They fell asleep and woke up and the world moved past them. |
Their focus on bundling and broadband seems to be working since they are growing, not losing business, so far. They are losing some customers to the cable TV industry, but the numbers are still strong. |
There are just too many separate companies competing. They are all smaller than ever before and the number of customers they market to are also shrinking due to mergers. |
There are too many VOIP users who have cut their traditional phone service or turning off VOIP service to be a valid solution. |
There is a river of fiber optic networks, local loops that are going right through the sidewalk. We have seen the construction, we see the wire and cables being buried. The problem is only four or five or six percent of the nation's buildings, office buildings, are actually connected to those high-speed fiber networks. |