Showing posts with label Verizon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Verizon. Show all posts

Saturday, September 16, 2023

More patient capital meets burgeoning demand for fiber

A shift is underway in capital investment in fiber to the premises (FTTP) advanced telecommunications infrastructure. In the United States, FTTP investment has lagged for decades due to the capital investment limitations of investor owned telephone companies. They are constrained by overleveraged balance sheets and investor expectations of traditionally high shareholder dividends that necessitate rapid returns on any capital investment. Those limitations became apparent in the late 2000s when Verizon faced a shareholder revolt, forcing it to scale back plans to modernize its legacy copper outside plant to FTTP. It later moved into fixed wireless that offered lower capital costs. Infrastructure investment is a long term proposition that requires patient capital not found in these companies.

Now AT&T is attempting a workaround to access more patient capital with its Gigapower joint venture with investment firm BlackRock to invest in open access FTTP delivery infrastructure outside of its service area. That patient capital includes state and local pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and family endowments, Adam Walz, told a panel presentation this week by Broadband Breakfast. Walz is managing director of BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Fund focused on investments in digital infrastructure opportunities across fiber networks, data centers, and wireless infrastructure.

Notably, other builders of open access FTTP also rely on patient capital including UTOPIA Fiber, owned and financially backed by a 20 Utah municipalities and privately owned SiFi Networks, funded by European pension fund APG. However, Gigapower CEO and retired AT&T executive Bill Hogg, said these players have “nowhere near the scale we will have,” claiming Gigapower will be “much larger than any other provider in the space. The scale at which we are going to operate will be a differentiator in the U.S. marketplace.”

But patient capital doesn’t mean it isn’t concerned about maximizing returns. All these players are targeting more densely developed areas most likely to produce strong ROI and ARPU, capitalizing on the strong demand for FTTP delivered services. Had U.S. telecom policymakers made more erudite decisions decades ago, fiber would have reached nearly all American doorsteps by 2010 at the latest instead of the estimated 40 percent currently. That gives Gigapower lots of runway as well as first mover advantage: first with fiber owns the location for the long term. “We’ve found plenty of attractive locations to build fiber where there’s no fiber today,” Hogg said, pointing to Las Vegas (Google Fiber is looking at that metro as it enters Nevada) and locales in Florida and Arizona. 

The concentration on densely developed areas will require patient capital investment by governments and consumer utility cooperatives to serve less developed areas, particularly those at the exurban edges of metro areas that have seen in migration by knowledge workers as knowledge work decentralizes out of urban cores.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Verizon, AT&T look to wireless, C-band spectrum as cheaper alternative to building fiber to the home

That expanded opportunity is thanks to adding 4G fixed wireless access to the equation, as well as the addition of C-band spectrum to Verizon’s spectrum portfolio. C-band spectrum provides a broader reach. Initial 5G Home service was based on short range mmWave spectrum.

Verizon has suggested it will go on the offense with fixed wireless, hoping to take on cable company dominance in residential broadband access in major markets. Outside of its fiber footprint in the Northeast, Verizon has little wireline broadband assets to take on cable.

AT&T CEO John Stankey also shared some views on fixed wireless at the J.P Morgan conference yesterday. AT&T has not been a recent advocate of broad use of fixed wireless, but the company has a very limited fixed wireless offering for rural markets funded through the CAF program. It appears the company may try to build on that.

Stankey now says fixed wireless will play a larger role in the company’s future, although the strategy looks to be very different than Verizon’s take. AT&T appears to be looking to fixed wireless as a way to retire DSL in its non-fiber markets, rather than go on the offense in urban areas. The company has already stopped taking new orders for DSL.

 Verizon CEO: Verizon Fixed Wireless is Key to Monetizing 5G

Verizon sues Philipstown for permits to build new cell tower 

Both big telcos are apparently hoping to utilize C-band radio spectrum -- Verizon over its mobile wireless infrastructure -- to provide advanced telecommunications services to homes as a cheaper alternative to building fiber connections to them. For AT&T, it's a replacement strategy for its obsolete DSL over copper technology being discontinued.

Friday, April 12, 2019

As progressive the term "Fourth Industrial Revolution" sounds, it's really regressive

Powering the Fourth Industrial Revolution with 5G | About Verizon: The arrival of 5G – the next generation of wireless networks – unleashes an opportunity for smart cities to take full advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where everything that can be connected will be and the full force of transformative technologies like artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles will permeate where we live, work and play. What 5G delivers that 4G and earlier networks cannot are the blazing speeds and ultra-low latencies (data transfer delays) that allow massive amounts of data to be relayed between connected devices, systems, and infrastructure in near real time. In other words, 5G enables the super-fast response and data analysis that can allow driverless cars, cloud-connected traffic control, and other sensor-laden smart city applications to truly thrive.
As progressive as Verizon's use of the term "Fourth Industrial Revolution" might sound, it's really regressive. In the 20th century, the Industrial Revolution represented a major phase in settlement patterns, bringing masses of people to cities to work in centralized offices and factories. In the latter half the century, automobiles, cheap motor fuel and telephones sparked a second migration to the suburbs -- and with it daily commuting that now in 21st century is overloading 20th century era transportation systems and creating choking traffic congestion encompassing urban centers and suburbs.

Verizon and other telecom companies are talking up the potential of information and communications technology (ICT) and specifically a developmental 5G wireless technology to reinforce the metro commute pattern. Instead of a more progressive use: to replace it by more widely distributing knowledge work and other economic activity beyond costly and congested metro areas. That's truly a revolutionary use of ICT with far greater potential to improve people's lives.

The short term business models of Verizon and other investor owned telcos can't fully support that large scale deployment of advanced telecommunications infrastructure (ATI) because it would require significant long term investment in fiber optic cable serving homes and businesses in less densely populated areas of the United States. Lower population density means slower return on infrastructure investment that isn't tolerable to their shareholders. That's why a publicly funded and owned model of ATI is needed.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Verizon’s FiOS Deployment In Boston Is Fiber-To-The-B.S. | HuffPost

Verizon’s FiOS Deployment In Boston Is Fiber-To-The-B.S. | HuffPost

This development shows it's far easier to talk about and even promise to deploy fiber to the premise (FTTP) telecommunications infrastructure than it is to fund and construct it. It also shows even large very well capitalized companies like Verizon, AT&T and more recently Alphabet's Google Fiber unit aren't up to the task. They lack the will (investment incentive driven by strong capital returns) and the means (patient capital than can wait many years for a return on capital investment) to do the job.

As Bruce Kushnick and other observers have shown, the talk typically falls far short of real world results. It's time to face the reality that the urgency needed large scale FTTP deployment the United States should have completed a decade ago requires a well funded federal initiative to accomplish the job. As the saying goes, money talks and bullshit walks.

Monday, August 15, 2016

Dismal state of U.S. telecom modernization enters new dilatory phase, prolonging infrastructure deficiencies

The dreary state of the modernization of America’s deficient telecommunications infrastructure -- already more than two decades tardy when it comes to the task of replacing metallic legacy telephone and cable systems with fiber optic to the premise infrastructure (FTTP) – is entering a new dilatory phase. Inspired by fellow blogger Steve Blum of Tellus Venture Associates, I’m dubbing it the “magic radio” phase. The goal: forestall FTTP infrastructure investment and instead experiment with various wireless technologies. As Blum correctly nails it, it’s based on “eternal hope that magic radios will appear one day and render wireline technology obsolete.”

It’s wishful thinking driven by the continued misguided reliance on undercapitalized investor-owned players like Verizon, AT&T and Google Fiber. All are looking into fixed premise wireless technologies, with Google Fiber the most recent, putting its FTTP builds on hold last week while it searches for the right radio magic. They all like the idea of employing wireless technologies for premise delivery because no one player has the many billions of dollars necessary to build out FTTP, spawning a search for lower cost alternatives.

The problem is the physics of radio spectrum are even more constrained than their finances. There’s only so much data than it can carry. Higher frequencies can carry significantly greater amounts. But only over such short distances that their use would require fiber to be brought so close to customer premises that the hoped for savings by avoiding FTTP deployment would be severely diminished. Not to mention the fact that higher frequencies are easily blocked and subject to interference without an unobstructed line of sight.

Thursday, January 07, 2016

Cable and telco lobbyists block broadband infrastructure subsidies in California

Cable and telco lobbyists block broadband infrastructure subsidies in California: Frontier is the only major incumbent that’s been willing to play with the CASF program, and now that it’s taking over Verizon’s wireline systems it should be even more enthusiastic. But it’s clear that most would prefer to have CASF die a quick and quiet death. Cable companies won’t touch anything that might entangle them with state regulators. AT&T and Verizon are all about mobile, and aren’t interested in investing in wireline service. Most of all, cable companies and mobile carriers are upset that independent competitors are getting CASF subsidies.

This is the death knell for California's failed -- as measured by its goal to bring advanced telecommunications services to 98 percent of households by last year -- California Advanced Services Fund infrastructure subsidy program operated by the state's Public Utilities Commission.

The proposed legislative hill on which the seven-year-old CASF died would have pushed that goal to 2020 and retained a circa 2001 legacy DSL level Internet service standard to define eligible projects as those falling below that standard. In that regard, the CASF was already slowly dying relative to bringing modern telecommunications services to Golden State residents. The legacy incumbents anxious to preserve their de facto market monopolies from the threat of interlopers were only too happy to thrust in the dagger after years of challenging projects proposed for CASF subsidization.

The likely final straw was the PUC's approval last month of subsidies for a relatively large fiber to the premise build proposed to serve nearly 2,000 southern Nevada County premises. That would put FTTP infrastructure built by someone other than themselves squarely in their nominal service territories. Which from the perspective of the incumbent telco and cable companies, posed a dangerous precedent that could have opened the door to even larger builds.

State level telecom state-level infrastructure programs like the CASF are underfunded and technically substandard. They are also very vulnerable to incumbents efforts to hamstring or kill them outright. That circumstance makes the case for a robust federal telecommunications infrastructure initiative to bring fiber optic connections to every American home, business and school. The job is too big and too important to the nation's future to be left to the states.

Friday, October 09, 2015

Title II universal service obligation could bolster cities' case in Verizon FiOS buildouts

Like NYC, Pittsburgh Claims Verizon Didn't Meet FiOS Promises | DSLReports, ISP Information: While Verizon long-ago froze further FiOS deployments, the company did strike sweetheart deals with numerous east coast cities that gave the city a citywide franchise and numerous tax benefits, in exchange for the promise of full city FiOS coverage. But as we noted at the time, most of those agreements came with fine print that allowed Verizon lawyers to wiggle over, under, and around any uniform fiber deployment obligations. Shockingly, cities like New York City are now thinking about suing the telco for missing deployment promises.

You can add Pittsburgh to the list of cities who believe they were swindled by Verizon. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto has, several years later, started noting huge coverage gaps in the city's FiOS coverage. Peduto was one of 14 Mayors that recently wrote a letter to Verizon begging the company to upgrade its lagging DSL networks.

The U.S Federal Communication's Commission recently promulgated regulations classifying Internet as a common carrier telecommunications service and subject to universal service obligations under Title II of the Communications Act could strengthen the cities' case against Verizon. Local governments have successfully asked the FCC to intervene on their behalf when legacy incumbent providers used state laws to bar municipalities from building their own fiber telecom infrastructure. They could do so in this instance as well in a major test of the FCC's willingness to hold big incumbents accountable under its new rules.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Back to the future: How Title II litigation could spark antitrust actions against AT&T and Verizon




In 1984, AT&T was split into seven regional companies under a consent decree to settle a 1974 antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. federal government, United States v. AT&T, aimed at busting Ma Bell’s monopoly over local and long distance telephone service. Three decades later, AT&T has through a series of mergers and acquisitions reassembled itself into a telecommunications behemoth, rivaled in size only by Verizon, which was formed out of NYNEX and Bell Atlantic, two of the AT&T regional operating companies.

Now as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission considers classifying Internet-based telecommunications as a common carrier utility service under Title II of the Communications Act, the stage is being set for another potential massive antitrust court case.

Here’s how it might play out. Both AT&T and Verizon vow they will litigate to block the FCC if it opts to put in place common carrier regulation as recently urged by President Barack Obama. If that happens, it could spark complaints to Obama’s Justice Department from core content providers like Netflix and transport layer providers like Level 3 Communications that the monopolies that AT&T and Verizon enjoy over residential Internet service in their respective service territories violate the Sherman Antitrust Act and restrain interstate commerce. The Justice Department could then opt to initiate antitrust lawsuits as logical counter actions to the telcos' lawsuits against the FCC.

In the antitrust actions, the complainants could conceivably point to disputes with the two big telcos over interconnection arrangements and allege the telcos are engaging in anti-competitive behavior by deliberately degrading services delivered to their end user consumers while wholly denying other consumers services by redlining landline-delivered Internet services in selected neighborhoods and streets. They could demand the courts order the FCC to require the telcos to open their last mile networks to competitors pursuant to the 1996 amendment of the Communications Act. Or sell them off to smaller regional providers or local governments or telecom cooperatives.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Verizon exec: We'll continue to invest in FiOS and mobile wireless under Title II common carrier regulation

Verizon: Actually, strong net neutrality rules won’t affect our network investment - The Washington Post: Francis J. Shammo - EVP and CFO I mean to be real clear, I mean this does not influence the way we invest. I mean we're going to continue to invest in our networks and our platforms, both in Wireless and Wireline FiOS and where we need to. So nothing will influence that. I mean if you think about it, look, I mean we were born out of a highly regulated company, so we know how this operates. But related to this discussion around Net Neutrality, the FCC has the right to regulate under 765, they do not need to go to Title II, and why would you go to a 1930 piece of literature to try to regulate something that is a 21st-century technology.

This is newsworthly insofar as it signals that Verizon intends to end its 3-year-old moratorium on new fiber to the premise infrastructure CAPEX, even if the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) subjects Internet service providers to common carrier regulation under Title II of the Communications Act.

A common carrier mandate that providers serve all customers without discrimination would bar Verizon and other Internet service providers from their current practice of redlining neighborhoods and streets within their service territories. Under Title II, they'd have to invest in upgrading and building out their infrastructures to serve these areas, but on a faster schedule than they would like. That's why Verizon and other legacy incumbents plan to attempt to delay the mandate by taking the FCC to court if it adopts a Title II common carrier regulatory regime.

As to Shammo's reference to the 1930s when the Communications Act was first enacted, the law's common carrier requirements brought all Americans telephone service in the 20th century. There's nothing outdated about the principle of universal telecommunications service. It only needs updating to encompass IP-enabled telecommunications services in the 21st century.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Rural America: Welcome to Verizon LTE Broadband - $120/Mo for 5-12Mbps With 30GB Cap • Stop the Cap!

Rural America: Welcome to Verizon LTE Broadband - $120/Mo for 5-12Mbps With 30GB Cap • Stop the Cap!: “Definitely stay away [...] unless you like to see your data charges skyrocket (in my case more than doubling) when your use doesn’t,” reported Richard Thompson. “I’ve pulled the plug on it — literally.”
Time to dump the "bandwidth by the bucket" pricing model that bears no economic relationship to the marginal cost of providing it. It's a gouge, pure and simple, enabled by a natural monopoly market. Verizon has these consumers over a barrel in areas where its landline marketing partner, Comcast, doesn't offer service.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

LTE Reinvigorates the Broadband Wireless Access Marketplace, According to ABI Research - Yahoo Finance

LTE Reinvigorates the Broadband Wireless Access Marketplace, According to ABI Research - Yahoo Finance: LTE has turbocharged the mobile Internet experience for end-users, which has reflected in rapid adoption of LTE-capable smartphones along with other mobile devices, but it has also reinvigorated the broadband wireless marketplace. According to ABI Research, 1.26 billion households do not have DSL, cable, or fiber-optic broadband. Fixed and mobile telcos are looking to LTE to make the connection.
This is more an aspirational than realistic scenario. Radio spectrum lacks the bandwidth necessary to serve premise demand where there are typically multiple devices and heavy use of video streaming. In addition, the business and pricing models of the mobile space players like Verizon and AT&T are not designed to serve premises with "bandwidth by the bucket" pricing tiers and consumption caps.

Saturday, June 07, 2014

Verizon threatens to sue Netflix in war of words over video quality | PCWorld

Verizon threatens to sue Netflix in war of words over video quality | PCWorld

Netflix has cut deals with Comcast and Verizon to get priority treatment for its video streams. But Netflix isn't at all happy about having done so, characterizing it as highway robbery and extortion. And Netflix is making it clear it expects these edge providers to ensure a congestion free experience for Netflix customers under the agreements.

Verizon's position outlined in this story is other network factors not within its control can degrade connectivity and it thus can't be held responsible. That's likely tick off Netflix even more and escalate tensions into a scorched earth court battle. And perhaps into a deal with Google Fiber to go around the incumbent telephone and cable providers?

The growing tensions and threat of litigation makes it clear a holistic, universal pricing and settlement scheme is urgently needed to ensure providers at the core, transport and edge of the network are fairly compensated and share responsibility for stewardship of the Internet ecosystem and ensuring all -- and not just some -- premises at the edge can obtain landline connectivity. If the private players cannot accomplish this, it becomes more likely the government will intervene and do it for them.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Net neutrality controversy based on chimera of limited bandwidth

Netflix Reaches Interconnection Deal With Verizon - WSJ.com: Netflix had been at odds with broadband providers such as Verizon and Comcast for months in a debate over who would pay for the huge volumes of traffic Netflix sends over their networks. Netflix has offered to pay for the cost of deploying equipment that will help deliver its videos more efficiently, but the biggest broadband companies have resisted, citing the heavy load Netflix traffic puts on the "last mile" of network infrastructure to their customers' homes.

This claim is utter hogwash and goes to the heart of the net neutrality controversy, which is based on this chimera. Internet providers have created the myth that the Internet is like the electrical grid and its capacity strained on warm days when people crank up their air conditioners. Too many Netflix-powered "air conditioners" are running and taxing our distribution system, ISPs maintain. Therefore we need demand-based pricing to finance upgrades to our last mile infrastructure to handle the additional demand being generated by Netflix and other core network providers that generate substantial bandwidth demand. And it's only fair as a big bandwidth user, Netflix pay a surcharge.

Baloney. Bandwidth is not megawatts or kilowatts and the Internet is not a consumption-based utility like electricity or natural gas. It's no skin off the noses of the ISPs to deliver big bandwidth. If it doesn't transport well over an outmoded and inadequate last mile landline plant to homes and small businesses, consumers and not ISPs pay the price in terms of a poor online experience. And those customers in most cases have no better alternative if they don't like that experience and their ISP chooses to pocket any extra revenues paid by core providers like Netflix to finance fat shareholder dividends instead of last mile infrastructure.

Monday, April 28, 2014

N.J., Verizon deal could leave Hopewell without broadband Internet | NJ.com

N.J., Verizon deal could leave Hopewell without broadband Internet | NJ.com

Apparently this New Jersey township will have to explore alternative business models to build premises telecommunications infrastructure given that Verizon will only offer it metered mobile wireless service.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Holy fiber, Batman! The Rainbow Rabbit may be leaping into Greater Gotham

Possibly sensing weakening commitment on the part of the dominant telco, Verizon, to construct fiber to the premise Internet infrastructure to serve the greater New York City area, a Multichannel News report this week suggests Google Fiber may have greater Gotham in its sights for expansion.

According to Multichannel News, Google Fiber is recruiting a sales manager for the region but isn't confirming -- for now at least -- that it plans a fiber to the premise build in the area.

Google Fiber could also see potential opportunity next door in New Jersey, where Ars Technica reports Verizon mounted an astroturf email campaign to get the blessing of Garden State regulators to wimp out of a premises infrastructure service commitment made more than two decades ago in 1993.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Verizon CEO wrongly compares Internet usage to basic utility consumption

Internet Service Cost: Verizon CEO says heavy broadband users pay more | BGR: Are you constantly streaming high-definition video, downloading tons of Xbox One games and sending massive files to friends and family? You should pay more for Internet access than your neighbor, who only uses a 10-year-old PC in his living room to read email and occasionally browse the Internet for cat GIFs. This is the position of Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who said this week that heavy broadband users should have to pay more for home Internet access than those who don’t take full advantage of the service for which they already pay top dollar.



McAdam's logic would make sense if an Internet service was like that of other utilities such as electric power, water or natural gas. These are limited commodities that require some incentive to conserve their use so that they may be available to all who need them. That's why these utility providers use tiered billing schemes that tap into price elasticity -- the tendency to use less of a commodity as its price increases -- and create incentive to conserve via penalties for excessive consumption. There is no similar need to conserve Internet bandwidth. Someone who uses more of it does not impose higher marginal costs on Verizon or any other Internet provider to deliver that higher level of usage.

That said, McAdam is correct to expect that customers of its FiOS fiber to the premise service to help offset the capital and operating costs of the service. But treating bandwidth as a limited commodity when in fact it is not isn't the way to go about it. Instead of creating a false paradigm of bandwidth scarcity, McAdam and other industry leaders should endeavor to foster a mindset of bandwidth plentitude. Big bandwidth promotes more uses and applications of it, making it more valuable to households and businesses. And as those users realize that value, demand for fiber connections will grow, in turn increasing the value of the network under Metcalfe's Law and Verizon's investment in it. When it comes to the Internet, more is better -- not less.  What Verizon and other telecommunications companies should remember is they are not in the business of bundling and selling bandwidth. They are in the communications business.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The rainbow rabbit leaps over incumbents: Google Fiber in diligence for expansion in 9 metro areas of U.S.


Google Fiber's announcement today that it is in diligence with local governments in nine metro areas of the United States for possible expansion of its proprietary fiber to the premise (FTTP) telecommunications infrastructure illustrates how a company that has been in the Internet business from the beginning can nimbly hop over legacy incumbent telephone and cable companies. The incumbents are weighed down by large investments in metal wire-based infrastructure and outmoded pricing structures that rely on creating artificial bandwidth scarcity and unit-based consumption. They must also satisfy shareholders who favor big dividends over capital investment in FTTP networks -- which explains why Verizon halted its FiOS FTTP product expansion in 2012. Finally, incumbents have sowed sour relationships with local governments that have asked for better service for their residents for years, making them likely to heartily welcome the Googlers.

What's also evident from today's announcement is Google Fiber's colorful hare won't likely be running to areas of the U.S. where it's needed most -- locales where homes and businesses lack wireline premises Internet service due to redlining by the incumbent providers.

Those areas will likely have to rely on municipal and cooperative fiber builds, although some investor-owned players could potentially offer them FTTP as in this rather counterintuitive circumstance in Mississippi. They can, however, benefit from Google Fiber's experience, adopting principles and techniques that lower costs and improve the economics of FTTP. These include prioritizing construction based on interest from potential subscribers and differential pricing models that include an option for basic, flat rate service at low cost for a limited period of time.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Verizon CEO hints at fiber partnerships with local providers

Verizon, which halted build out of its FiOS fiber to the premise (FTTP) infrastructure last year, will stay that course Verizon CEO and Chairman Lowell McAdam said at last week's UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.  McAdam said some "fringe" deployment may occur, but that "deploying fiber in a lot of new markets isn't in the cards."

However, "I think there are more opportunities to partner out of market with companies that are there versus us going in and deploying FiOS," McAdam added.

McAdam's remarks were reported by Fierce Telecom

Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni declined to elaborate on McAdam's comments when asked specifically with whom Verizon might partner to build FTTP infrastructure beyond its current footprint.

Monday, July 01, 2013

Fiber to the Home Council : Blogs : Telcos Saving Serious Money by Upgrading to FTTH, Survey Finds

Fiber to the Home Council : Blogs : Telcos Saving Serious Money by Upgrading to FTTH, Survey Finds: (WASHINGTON) – Small and medium-sized telephone companies that have upgraded their networks to all-fiber are reporting operational cost savings averaging 20 percent annually, according to a study commissioned by the Fiber to the Home Council Americas, a non-profit group of nearly 300 companies and organizations dedicated to expanding the availability of ultra high speed, all-fiber broadband.

The survey of more than 350 telecommunications providers across North America, conducted by the market analyst firm RVA LLC, also pointed to a steady drumbeat of FTTH deployment activity, with the number of homes that can access FTTH networks increasing by 17.6 percent over a year ago to 22.7 million.
While consumers served by these smaller telcos will benefit (as will the telcos with lower OPex costs), there are many more served by large telcos like AT&T and Verizon who won't.  Neither company is upgrading its copper plant to fiber to the premise.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Verizon Hopes to Nudge Some From Wired to Wireless - NYTimes.com

Verizon Hopes to Nudge Some From Wired to Wireless - NYTimes.com

This story illustrates why communities must build their own fiber networks.  The incumbents like Verizon aren't going to do the job.  As the story notes, that leaves residents and business owners with lousy options:  poor voice quality over garbled wireless premises phone service that can go out in a prolonged power failure and data capped satellite Internet service.