 N3OGHYo Soy Col. "Bat" GuanoPremium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
kudos:1 | reply to moonpuppy
Re: Unfair Comparison Exactly.
Or, another way of looking at it. Verizon has been making good money on an infrastructure that was paid off decades ago. They can milk that cash cow in order to build their new network.
I don't see either in a genuine position of superiority at this point. Verizon still has their copper infrastructure in place, and are building what is IMHO a superior technology to cable's infrastructure. Coax is much more costly to maintain than FTTH (once actually installed), and is much easier to upgrade for future use.
Besides, when Verizon finishes their fiber roll out, they can sell off the old copper plant, and make a quick buck at the end of it all.
With VoIP and wireless phones having pretty much universal coverage in most areas, Verizon is smart to push on with Fios. Someone with vision at that company realizes that to make it in the future, they're gonna alive to offer more than just a phone line and some DSL coverage.
Fios is Verizon's future. Without it, they will too far behind to compete..
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Never ask what sort of a computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him? -Tom Clancy |
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DonLibesPremium,ExMod 2001
join:2003-01-19 | There are some good points to your analysis but ....
1) Verizon's so-called cash cow is getting stripped by the likes of Vonage as well as Verizon's own VoiceWing.
2) How does Verizon "sell off the old copper plant"? I can't imagine anyone buying it, in the ground anyway. For scrap, I have no idea if it's worth the effort. Do you? |
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fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | Verizon is being stipped by the likes of vonage because they didn't wake up and smell the coffee years ago.
They, and all of ma bell, hid behind their own cockyness and sat back and said things like "cable is not a threat to us" and "vonage is no threat"... well? It's a threat.. now they are scrambling.
Funny too.. the very thing that the bells did by thumbing their noses at impending competition is the very thing Brian Roberts of Comcast just recently did, only I never heard anyone here give the telco company crap over it like they are Brian.
(don, this post is not meant to be a direct dig at you.. just adding to your post and adding another thought) |
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N3OGHYo Soy Col. "Bat" GuanoPremium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
kudos:1 | reply to DonLibes
said by DonLibes:There are some good points to your analysis but .... 1) Verizon's so-called cash cow is getting stripped by the likes of Vonage as well as Verizon's own VoiceWing. 2) How does Verizon "sell off the old copper plant"? I can't imagine anyone buying it, in the ground anyway. For scrap, I have no idea if it's worth the effort. Do you? Point 1: Very valid point. But, even though VoIP is taking a decent amount of money away from Verizon, they're still making good money off the system they have in place. Of course, Verizon is also making money off their own VoIP offering.
2: I can't offer specifics as to who would want to buy Verizon's copper plant. Some of the 3rd party companies that market phone service over the current copper may have some interest. Either that, or tear the copper down and scrap it. Copper is worth a lot of money on the recycled metals market....
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Never ask what sort of a computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him? -Tom Clancy |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | reply to fiberguy
With regard to Vonage, not only are they scrambling but one of the AT&T head honchos said he's tired of Vonage "using his lines for free." He's trying to convince our legislators that somehow Vonage is getting a free ride and that they should not vote for net neutrality. If the backbone providers have their way, Vonage will be paying $10/month per customer to the backbone providers and then their prices will be "competitive" with regular telcos.
If net neutrality becomes law, I would look for voice and possibly even video communications to become essentially free. Right now Vonage's big play is that they connect VOIP users to the traditional POTS system. Once VOIP is in the majority, look for that interconnect to become increasingly less valuable. Once almost everyone is VOIP, you won't need Vonage in the middle and voice will be free just like Skype is today between all VOIP customers. If this happens, the ILECs will no longer have voice business.
The next industry to suffer will be wireless cell carriers. If WiFi becomes pervasive and continues to advance both speed and the reliability, VOIP wins again. The cellular carriers will also become "dumb" pipes as folks use it for mobile Internet access over which they use VOIP to make their calls.
What we have now is a panic and everyone is trying to figure out how to get their meat hooks into regulation or lack thereof so they can leverage their monopolies to stay in the game. |
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said by fiberguy:Funny too.. the very thing that the bells did by thumbing their noses at impending competition is the very thing Brian Roberts of Comcast just recently did, only I never heard anyone here give the telco company crap over it like they are Brian. I have given grief to Ma Bell on more than a few occasions.
I have repeatedly said that if the phone company had done ISDN (and later DSL) right, that there would be no other competition. Much like Microsoft, Ma Bell mis-judged what the internet has become.
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wev567
join:2006-02-25
Pittsburgh, PA | reply to N3OGH
Copper is about $3.30-3.50 a pound on the commotities market right now. what scrap sells for? BTW, the phone company abandons direct buried cables, since it's not worth the manpower to dig up.
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Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | That's several times what it was worth a year ago. If the commodities rally continues (as many think it will do to the rapid emergence of India, China, etc.) it may very well be worth it to sell it off. I know there is a company making piles of money doing this with scrap silver. They buy it all from manufacturing companies that were spending money disposing of it, and sell it all on the commodities markets. They're generating piles and piles of cash (believe they just IPO'd a few months ago) and they essentially just sell contracts, and run trucks.  |
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