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CenturyLink Might Buy Verizon, AT&T Assets

Verizon is interested in selling more DSL and FiOS assets, and CenturyLink appears receptive to buying them. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, CenturyLink CFO Stewart Ewing said the company is on the prowl for acquisitions if they make sense for the company's broader strategy.

Both AT&T and Verizon are fleeing the DSL market as fast as they can without raising regulatory alarm bells, and CenturyLink may be the latest suitor if a decent opportunity comes along:

quote:
"We're comfortable with the asset base we have to turn the top line around and turn EBITDA around," Ewing said. "We'll continue to look at opportunities as we have in the past. We obviously get an opportunity to look at things quite a bit each year, but have not pulled the trigger yet."
Verizon and AT&T collectively just got done selling the entire states of Connecticut, Florida, Texas and California to Frontier, and both have a number of other markets they'd be happy to offload. Both have repeatedly stated they'll be cutting back on fixed-line network investment to focus on wireless opportunities.

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Atom90
join:2014-12-05

1 edit

Atom90

Member

The fiefdom grows

Like a kid who keeps asking his mom to buy him a new toy, only to quickly get tired of it. CL stopping buying new territory and reinvest in the territory you already have.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin

Member

Re: The fiefdom grows

said by Atom90:

Like a kid who keeps asking his mom to buy him a new toy, only to quickly get tired of it. CL stopping buying new territory and reinvest in the territory you already have.

It actually reminds me of how the Bush and Clinton families are passing the presidency back and forth like it's a bong.

VzPissed
@comcast.net

VzPissed to Atom90

Anon

to Atom90
They'll end up like Verizon in the end!!

TIGERON
join:2008-03-11
Boston, MA

TIGERON

Member

Does CenturyLink want to enter into California?

So does that mean that AT&T's entire fixed line California network is next?
en103
join:2011-05-02

en103

Member

Re: Does CenturyLink want to enter into California?

Doubt it. That was Verizon's fixed line.
AT&T has waaay too much money/power coming in from California.

cralt
join:2011-01-07
CT

cralt

Member

Re: Does CenturyLink want to enter into California?

said by en103:

AT&T has waaay too much money/power coming in from California.

I think ATT and VZN want out of all fixed line. If they could find a buyer I think they would off it.

Upgrading/maintaining fixed line takes away money that could be pumped in to the cashcow that is wireless.

TIGERON
join:2008-03-11
Boston, MA

TIGERON

Member

Re: Does CenturyLink want to enter into California?

AT&T and Verizon want out of the fixed wireline business. I'm all for either CenturyLink or Frontier to come into California.
WhatNow
Premium Member
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC

WhatNow to cralt

Premium Member

to cralt
AT&T has already announced they are getting out of the switched POTS world and going to VoIP. Don't know how they are going to a lot of the areas outside of the big cities because they don't offer any internet except wireless to some neighborhoods. In the rural areas they are even worse. Maybe they plan to sell off any area that does not have enough customers.

VzPissed
@comcast.net

VzPissed to TIGERON

Anon

to TIGERON
Yup. Vz owned and operated!

tigerpaw509
join:2011-01-19

tigerpaw509

Member

Doesnt sound right

I know Att did sell off Connecticut but I think the information is wrong about California,Florida and Texas being Att's home state.

ilikeme
Premium Member
join:2002-08-27
Stafford, TX

ilikeme

Premium Member

Re: Doesnt sound right

Verizon is the only one that sold off their fixed line network in Texas. AT&T is still here and does not appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
en103
join:2011-05-02

en103

Member

Re: Doesnt sound right

Verizon sold off California and Florida as well. For AT&T in CT, its a little island surrounded by VZ/VZW and CableCo's. For Calfornia at least, AT&T has a LOT of Uverse and a lot of POTS/Wireless...I don't see it going anywhere.

Redawn69
@myfairpoint.net

Redawn69 to tigerpaw509

Anon

to tigerpaw509
Sold by Verizon to frontier...

Apophis
Jaffa Kree
Premium Member
join:2001-12-27
Holmen, WI

Apophis

Premium Member

More dead assets?

CenturyLink can't even upgrade 10+ year old DSL networks and they want to buy more dead assets?

This company is run by a special kind of stupid.
en103
join:2011-05-02

en103

Member

Re: More dead assets?

Actually... I suspect that its whole purpose is something like 'spinco'.
Sell off the assets to a company who's whole purpose is to let it rot.
xthepeoplesx
join:2013-10-21

xthepeoplesx

Member

Re: More dead assets?

I feel so bad for these people who will be "taken in" by CL . I have them and can attest to how poor everything that revolves around that company is! I have tried for 4 months to lower my bill and it still isnt fixed. I am just waiting till next week when a new option comes in then I am dropping them like a bad habit. And if they try to come at me for their screwed up bill, Ill just have to see them in court.
Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL

Mr Matt

Member

Might be in the best interest of Verizon/AT&T Customers.

CenturyLink does not have wireless holdings therefore the company has an incentive to upgrade their networks. When I moved to Central Florida the highest speed "Sprint land line broadband service" offered was 1.5 Mbps down. After Embarq was spun off from Sprint, Embarq offered 3 Mbps down. Shortly after CenturyLink merged with Embarq, CenturyLink began offering Prism TV service. At the same time CenturyLink offered 10 Mbps down in my neighborhood. CenturyLink now offers 20+ Mbps down using bonded pairs. At least CenturyLink must be committed to their land line network since they do not have wireless holdings as a cash cow.

OpTiC
Premium Member
join:2014-03-08
West Covina, CA

1 edit

OpTiC

Premium Member

Re: Might be in the best interest of Verizon/AT&T Customers.

said by Mr Matt:

CenturyLink does not have wireless holdings therefore the company has an incentive to upgrade their networks. When I moved to Central Florida the highest speed "Sprint land line broadband service" offered was 1.5 Mbps down. After Embarq was spun off from Sprint, Embarq offered 3 Mbps down. Shortly after CenturyLink merged with Embarq, CenturyLink began offering Prism TV service. At the same time CenturyLink offered 10 Mbps down in my neighborhood. CenturyLink now offers 20+ Mbps down using bonded pairs. At least CenturyLink must be committed to their land line network since they do not have wireless holdings as a cash cow.

Hey Verizon you should have sold CA,FL, and TX to CL. Wht not CL buy out those markets when the merger is finished. Atleast CL is upgrading BB tiers unlike Frontier saying 6 mbps is enough for your need.
xthepeoplesx
join:2013-10-21

xthepeoplesx

Member

Re: Might be in the best interest of Verizon/AT&T Customers.

I am still at 8mbps with CL, thats when we actually get that.

OpTiC
Premium Member
join:2014-03-08
West Covina, CA

OpTiC

Premium Member

Re: Might be in the best interest of Verizon/AT&T Customers.

If you have Frontier the max they will give you is 6 mbps.
xthepeoplesx
join:2013-10-21

xthepeoplesx

Member

Re: Might be in the best interest of Verizon/AT&T Customers.

Wow that is sad. Yea we wont have any options for cable and will have one more option for internet net week. That said, right now its CenturyLink or bust.

OpTiC
Premium Member
join:2014-03-08
West Covina, CA

OpTiC

Premium Member

Re: Might be in the best interest of Verizon/AT&T Customers.

Here is where I got the source they said 6mbps is fast enough.
»stopthecap.com/2013/06/2 ··· ng-them/
96964493 (banned)
join:2015-01-09
USA

96964493 (banned) to Mr Matt

Member

to Mr Matt
CLink held and might still hold a good chunk of spectrum. They just didn't use it. Although if they did use it, it could have helped them expand their HSI network into more rural areas without laying fiber and using complete wireless.

Would actually give them more $$$$ in USF and make more customers happy.
quisp65
join:2003-05-03
San Diego, CA

quisp65

Member

Coax has too much of an advantage

If we don't want broadband in America just being a monopoly run by cable companies using Docsis 3.1 or whatever, America needs to provide more incentives for pushing Fiber. I prefer tax incentives, other people prefer electric company run municipal broadband. Pros and cons to each. Lets do both. Some business and myself included should be able to deduct from their taxes the installation costs of fiber. We would create these benefits so we don't end up with one provider in the future.
96964493 (banned)
join:2015-01-09
USA

96964493 (banned)

Member

Re: Coax has too much of an advantage

Frontier is upgrading but they're moving away from PPPoE and to a similar system like AT&T. Basically a knock off of U-Verse technology but its only in certain areas. Resell customers of Frontier's is already gaining access to the network so they can be the ISP of choices.
quisp65
join:2003-05-03
San Diego, CA

3 edits

quisp65

Member

Re: Coax has too much of an advantage

yea.... It's nice they are doing that, but are they just going with VDSL 2.0? VDSL is just too far behind, especially considering we are going to start seeing Doscis 3.1 trials this year and the Cable Companies are very eager to deploy 3.1 because it also gives them the ability to serve more customers, unlike telco advancements that don't have that advantage and is more of a hindrance to deploy because the only benefit goes to the customer.

Is Frontier going with something greater than VDSL 2.0? I haven't been paying attention to them.


TIGERON
join:2008-03-11
Boston, MA

TIGERON

Member

Re: Coax has too much of an advantage

look into G.Fast. That's the newest technology for DSL that is being tested to be deployed later this year.
ohreally
join:2014-11-21

ohreally

Member

Re: Coax has too much of an advantage

G.fast needs the telco to put DSLAMs extremely close to homes in order to realise the speed benefits - so you'll be stringing or burying a lot of new fibre. At that point you might as well just do full FTTP for the final few metres into the home, rather than putting lots of expensive electronics all over the place, all needing their own battery backup/maintenance/replacement.
quisp65
join:2003-05-03
San Diego, CA

quisp65

Member

Re: Coax has too much of an advantage

yea... there are a lot of predictions that G.fast isn't going to take off real fast or hardly at all. I live in an MDU in a MDU heavy city, so maybe I'll see it. Considering the G.fast equipment manufacturers know the telcos are less likely to deploy, maybe they'll reduce costs to encourage them. However I don't think it's in a telcos best interest to announce ahead of time deployment of G.fast because it hurts their negotiating power when they negotiate for G.fast DSLAMs.

The Engineer
@scansafe.net

1 recommendation

The Engineer to 96964493

Anon

to 96964493
"A system similar to AT&T Uverse" is exactly what they need to provide. Push fiber into the neighborhoods, but keep the "last mile" copper. VDSL2+, bonded pairs, 17a profile, vectoring, and phantom mode.

That's the future of DSL, only some of which Uverse has implemented so far.
Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL

Mr Matt to quisp65

Member

to quisp65
said by quisp65:

America needs to provide more incentives for pushing Fiber.

One forgets cable systems today are Hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) systems as described here:
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hy ··· -coaxial

That allowed cable service providers to consolidate head ends and deploy up to 1 GHz RF bandwidth through their systems. One RF over fiber technology used Pulse Frequency Modulation rather than a digital technology. You should note that RF over fiber was the only technology that allowed the cable television industry to deploy services in competition with the direct broadcast satellite industry. The telephone companies should deploy more remote terminals closer to subscribers in order to offer higher speeds to subscribers and TV service.

Gilitar
join:2012-02-01
Mobile, AL

Gilitar

Member

Buy my area

I'm in an at&t area that has fiber to the curb. At this point I honestly feel like we'd be better off with Century Link. At&t has done nothing for us.

•••
AdmiralGump
Premium Member
join:2007-12-15
Angier, NC

AdmiralGump

Premium Member

Contradicting story?

»www.fiercetelecom.com/st ··· 15-03-09

This article seems to contradict Karl's story.
dynodb
Premium Member
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

dynodb

Premium Member

Re: Contradicting story?

That article says that CL has no plans to sell assets, not that they aren't open to buying more.

Shadow01
Premium Member
join:2003-10-24
Wasteland

Shadow01

Premium Member

need to read the link

CL is considering buying call and data centers. Not one word about buying service exchanges. WOW
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

craigs list

when you use the abbreviation CL I think of craig's list.. where the shady deals go down..
how apt for Centruy Link to offload Verizon customers.. it should raise regulatory red flags when Veizon is trying to get rid of FIOS assets/customers though. it's time to make new players who wiill invest in FTTP services the new mandate. no FTTP, no sale and the zone loses its incumbency status and state franchise.

mikesterr
join:2008-04-18
Sanford, FL

mikesterr

Member

What Tech is CenturyLink using?

My Dad has CL down in Ft Myers FL and he tells me that his Cable goes out if too many devices connect to his Router or if someone tries to download or upload pictures. He has to go reboot his router to get his Video service back on. so What are they using is it some type of Hybrid Video over IP set up? I have yet to get down there to check out what is going on in his house.

bockbock
@hcs.net

bockbock

Anon

Re: What Tech is CenturyLink using?

I believe you are referring to CenturyLink's Prism IPTV service? It is a similar technology to AT&T's U-Verse IPTV platform. But that is rather odd, as I have never heard of the TV service going out with "too many" connected devices to the router.

TipRing
@direcway.com

TipRing

Anon

The big picture. The long term

I think Verizon and AT&T both are worried about the ticker on wall street 'right now'. They don't care about the long term or that radio spectrum is a finite resource they will quickly be fighting over as demand continues to grow. Companies like CenturyLink will be positioned down the road to provide what cellular cannot. It's a slow process, but wise of them to have as large of a footprint as possible that will be theirs to deploy fiber later on. The end game for services to the home will be fiber. I know Verizon and AT&T dream of this world where it will be provided via cell, but when we reach this point, the spectrum will be full, they will constantly be battling it out in court over rights to the spectrum claiming the other has some unfair advantage, people's services will be throttled back to try and compensate and this is when fiber will truly begin to come into it's own providing all those services people want. If you want a good stock price and products for the 'now'... cellular. Long term... fiber. Unless the laws of physics change.