Windstream Quietly Keeps Growing Acquires Iowa Telecom in latest move Earlier this year we noted how companies like Verizon are very clearly turning away from rural America, creating a new niche for smaller "rural super telcos" to thrive. The merger of CenturyTel and Embarq creates one such company, but Windstream Communications is also picking up speed in this sector as well. Windstream recently acquired NuVox Communications, and was also rumored to be sniffing around the assets of bankrupt Fairpoint Communications. Windstream continues the trend today by announcing they're acquiring Iowa Telecom (and its 256,000 access lines, 95,000 broadband and 26,000 digital TV customers) for about $1.1 billion. Interestingly, the company has had money for acquisitions, but not for employees: the erosion of landline revenues recently resulted in a 3% workforce reduction.
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 Reviews:
 ·WOW Internet and..
·Time Warner Cable
| Workforce They law off the old employees so they can keep the new ones they buy. Especially if those employees were union or it was part of the deal.
3% is also better than VZ or ATT's reduction. Interestingly enough though you never see the Cable Co's laying off the employees.
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www.two-pugs.com www.2pugs.etsy.com | |
|  | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:1 | Re: Workforce said by hottboiinnc:They law off the old employees so they can keep the new ones they buy. Especially if those employees were union or it was part of the deal. Or employees that are no longer required due to landline losses, mergers, and various technological efficiencies.said by hottboiinnc:Interestingly enough though you never see the Cable Co's laying off the employees. Because they're new entrants into voice service and are growing their customers base at the detriment to the telcos that are laying off no longer needed employees. | |
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| | | | Re: Curious? CenturyTel gained more fiber that Sprint sold off with Embarq, and Embarq gained the KMC Telecom Fiber network that CenturyTel bought back in the early 2000s when they went bankrupt.
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www.two-pugs.com www.2pugs.etsy.com | |
| | | | Well, they got Las Vegas and it's 2 million people. That's probably a good start. | |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| Seems like a decent enough idea While WS isn't laying fiber everywhere, they're one of the better rural telcos out there. 3/768 broadband is available across most of their footprint for $35 or so dry-line. ADSL2+ gets them speeds up to 12/768 for residential, 12/1 for commercial. They have even launched 24/1.5 fiber in an area or two to compete with cable, though it would be nice if they did that in more places.
This is a far cry from companies like Frontier who can't seem to figure out how to give their customers decent speeds or pricing, downgrading folks from 10M speeds because they won't upgrade their backbone links to support the load and increasing prices as they go.
On the CenturyLink side, they don't seem to be all that bad either. They've got 700MHz spectrum that they'll either use to backhaul remote DSLAMs or provide direct customer service on (I've heard that the former is more likely). They're looking into pair-bonded DSL (20-30 Mbps speeds over copper) and have competitive packages in fiber areas.
Granted, neither Windstream not CenLink currently have packages that are as fast as 15/2 cable, at least in most markets. However when you're big you can buy in bulk and get lower pricing on everything from bandwidth to modems. The result: higher speeds and a company that won't go bankrupt because it bit off more than it could chew.
Yes, FiOS beats pair-bonded CenLink DSL and WS fiber combined, but WS and CenLink aren't selling anyone off; I'd rather have 3/768 DSL for $35 than 1.5/256 satellite for $80 or 3G for $70. | |
|  IowaManPremium
join:2008-08-21
Grinnell, IA
·Iowa Telecom
·Mediacom
| With this announcement it will be interesting watching this unfold as in many markets Mediacom will be battling it out with Windstream communications.
I looked over their website and at the moment $29.95 gives me 3Mb/256 from Mediacom and 6 Mb/768 DSL from Windstream is $39.95
This is very good news especially if it's dry line. | |
| | | | Re: With this announcement So, does anyone have any experience of being served by an ISP which was then bought by Windstream? What happens? I am an Iowa Telecom subscriber and am wondering what will happen. | |
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ricep5Premium
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL | Nuvox Nuvox has little local access outside the SE (Since they used to be NuSouth). They got local access in Florida when they purchased FDN (Florida Digital).
Nuvox NetPlus lines are usually a resell of the local RBOC.
Nuvox mostly sells bulk bandwidth and voice services to small to mid size companies. Use Cisco routers for their pop's. Convert everything to run across their IP network. Which is great for pricing, but not so great when they have a problem in their backbone, which has happened from time to time.
Windstream came around due to the spinoff of Alltel copper which merged with Valor. If you are in their service area, they will sell basic copper to you very inexpensively.
Lots of overlap between Windstream and Nuvox.
They won't bite on Fairpoint until they either finish bankruptcy or negotiate a purchase to get them to exit. Fairpoint assumed way too much debt relative to their revenue. | |
| Core0000Premium
join:2008-05-04
Somerset, KY | Windstream Expansion I wonder what there game plan is, what there vision is for there network in the future.... | |
| | IowaManPremium
join:2008-08-21
Grinnell, IA | Re: Windstream Expansion I know for me that they'll have to battle DOCSIS 3 from Mediacom in my area soon | |
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I wonder what advantage the CenturyTel and Embarq merger gave the new company. The companies service areas were not adjacent, the only factors that I could see were that CenturyTel bought Embarq at a low cost.