Rick
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-06
Waterbury, CT
clubs: 
| It's not hard to see where landline customers are
going to. The cable co's.
From Comcast's earnings report just out today...
" Meanwhile, Comcast has added 3.1 million customers with voice, Internet and cable television service over the last 12 months. Verizon and AT&T lost a combined 2.9 million of such customers over the same period. "
What a monumental shift that is occurring in the core business of these telco's with their core landlines literally fleeing by the millions.
And, it's not stopping there either...dsl customers are fleeing the telco's as well.
Also from the comcast news out today..
"Comcast added 382,000 broadband customers. For their part, Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and AT&T Inc. (T) combined added only 277,000 high-speed Internet customers. Comcast said 66% of its new broadband customers for the quarter switched from DSL."
I think the big question will be..what happens next with docsis 3.0?
If these companies such as Qwest and AT&T aren't ftth capable ..they just can't keep up.
Verizon at least..has a fighting chance with their FTTH rollout.
Interesting times for sure.
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic! |
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aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Comcast
| The telcos are at a disadvantage because of taxes. Taxes on my landline from Verizon are almost $12. If I switched to Comcast taxes would be under $2.
This is one of the reasons I'm in the process of dropping my landline and just using my cell number. |
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Rothan Tik
Destroyer of worlds
Premium
join:2000-11-07
Danvers, MA
·Verizon FIOS
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| said by aaronwt  :The telcos are at a disadvantage because of taxes. Taxes on my landline from Verizon are almost $12. If I switched to Comcast taxes would be under $2. This is one of the reasons I'm in the process of dropping my landline and just using my cell number. Yeah, I think we'd save roughly $40/mo if we dropped the landline and bumped our wireless minutes up a little bit. |
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Rick
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-06
Waterbury, CT
clubs:
| reply to aaronwt
said by aaronwt :The telcos are at a disadvantage because of taxes. Taxes on my landline from Verizon are almost $12. If I switched to Comcast taxes would be under $2. This is one of the reasons I'm in the process of dropping my landline and just using my cell number. I'd venture a guess that bundle pricing is the bigger incentive luring people away. With the triple play products offered it many times allows people to drop their phone costs to about zero for the bundle term.
That and less taxes is a big thing these days.
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The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic! |
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roozy
join:2004-09-30
Casper, WY
| reply to aaronwt
said by aaronwt :The telcos are at a disadvantage because of taxes. Taxes on my landline from Verizon are almost $12. If I switched to Comcast taxes would be under $2. This is one of the reasons I'm in the process of dropping my landline and just using my cell number. Exactly! The playing field is not level. The telcos are severly regulated and the cable companies are not... If cable and other VOIP providers had to play by the same rules as Qwest, Verizon, AT&T and other telcos, this mass movement of services would not be happening. Some of them would not be able to stay in business if they had to compete fairly.
Either tax and regulate it all, or don't!!! |
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dnoyeB
Ferrous Phallus
join:2000-10-09
Southfield, MI
| reply to Rick
Most internet users will choose for price not speed. The majority of users dont need the bandwidth. Fiber will only matter if it becomes competitive and one company offers really fast speeds for cheaper than the other company. As it stands, companies are only offering more bandwidth, but not more value.
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dnoyeB
"Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. " Ecclesiastes 9:16
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viperlmw
Premium
join:2005-01-25
·Qwest.net
| reply to roozy
said by roozy :said by aaronwt :The telcos are at a disadvantage because of taxes. Taxes on my landline from Verizon are almost $12. If I switched to Comcast taxes would be under $2. This is one of the reasons I'm in the process of dropping my landline and just using my cell number. Exactly! The playing field is not level. The telcos are severly regulated and the cable companies are not... If cable and other VOIP providers had to play by the same rules as Qwest, Verizon, AT&T and other telcos, this mass movement of services would not be happening. Some of them would not be able to stay in business if they had to compete fairly. Either tax and regulate it all, or don't!!! QFT! |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| reply to Rick
For me (and I suspect many others), it all depends on the bottom line.
TWC gives a good deal at $89 triple play.
AT&T attempts to offer triple play at $90, but then then haven't deployed VoIP, so its null and void.
Taxes/fees aren't that far off between Telco and CableCo. One has lots of taxes/unfees, the other has franchise fees.
Personally, if I had a decent unlimited cellphone plan, I'd drop cable altogether, and use OTA HD.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT
| reply to roozy
That isn't an either or.
The taxes will come to the VOIP and cable phone. It's inevitable. Most of those phone taxes are local and go directly to the state or municipality you live in. As a result for those taxes to go down or away the system would have to reallocate the tax burden and your property or sales tax or both will have to go up. I doubt that will happen so expect those local phone taxes to show up the cable and VOIP bills. Either that or fire half your police force or DOT. |
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Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA
| reply to aaronwt
said by aaronwt :The telcos are at a disadvantage because of taxes. Taxes on my landline from Verizon are almost $12. If I switched to Comcast taxes would be under $2. It's not all taxes, they're called tariffs and a large portion of that $12 goes right back to Verizon. The archaic tariff system for landline phone service should finally be called what it really is, false advertising, and meet its well deserved demise. |
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