Nyquist Capital

Broadband Issues points to a great article on local video franchising and the impact of eliminating them in favor of a national franchise. Here’s a key passage the article (emphasis mine):
Reclassifying Asset: Cable companies currently listing their local cable franchises as assets will need to figure out a new way to capitalize on this local […]

I’ve questioned in the past whether the US really wants broadband, and I think that the lack of a killer app, not availability, is what prevents widespread adoption. A comment made by a reader a keynote speech by Sony(SNE), and an article in the WSJ helped crystallize some thoughts I have had.
China is regulating the […]

From the WSJ today($$$ link)….
Verizon (VZ), making clear its view on some implications of a confusing move by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this week, said regulators’ decision to deregulate broadband data services it provides to large business customers won’t free it from conditions imposed when it acquired MCI Inc. Verizon also said the decision […]

Check out this very slick graphic that logicaly maps 300k+ routers in the internet and color codes them by ownership. I want one for the office.

This is about 1/8th of the entire graphic…
On it’s origin-
In order to build this map fired off 300,000 messages to various points on the Internet and mapped how they […]

The Telecom Act of 1996 is rapidly being dismantled. Verizon asked for, and received, regulatory relief on business leased lines provided to businesses.
Covad and Earthlink were shattered by rulings ending their right to lease back physical connections into residences. This was first challenged and won by the cable industry in the Supreme Court Brand X […]

The WSJ reports on the sale of Vodafone’s (VOD) Japanese wireless network to Softbank (SFTBF).
It was expected that Vodafone would shed their assets in Japan, just as it is expected they will shed their portion of Verizon Wireless to the one and only buyer in the USA - Verizon (VZ). It was expected that […]

I will continue to rage against the Net Neutrality machine and the Digital Elite who feed it.
Doc Searls of the Linux Journal writes on Net Neutrality:

How about framing the Net as rivers and oceans, which nobody owns and which float everybody’s boat? Or how about framing the Net as public land? How about framing the […]

In January ‘06 Tickersense offered an analysis of what 500 shares of AT&T (T”) purchased before the 1983 breakup would be worth today.
The author of The Stalwart pointed out the analysis failed to account for dividends paid over the last 20+ years. Considering these companies were heavy dividend payers it diluted the analysis significantly. Regardless, […]

An article appeared in ZDNet yesterday that provides a clear explanation about the modifications Verizon (VZ) is making to its FiOS FTTH rollout. It’s big news for MoCA and Entropic Communications, a private chip firm that I believe has this key FTTH design win.
I wrote previously that Verizon planned to use of MoCA only as […]

WSJ has an article today indicating Verizon (VZ) is scaling back it’s deployment of FiOS. The article is short on technical details and any public information about exactly how and why this is taking place. Here’s a key quote from the article:
To save time and money, Verizon has scaled back its “fiber to the home” […]

I’m on the road, in CA. Heard the big merger news yesterday - AT&T (T”) acquiring Bellsouth (BLS). It’s funny to watch the various media groups go through the customary “Shock and Awe” of a big merger, which in my mind, was as logical as a merger between Oreo Cookies and Milk. The question was […]

Tivo (TIVO) announced their new partnership today. It’s called KidZone, essentially a TV Nanny. My previous prediction is looking a little silly though I wouldn’t rule out seeing more carrier partnership announcements. Thomas Hawke is excited because of the moral implications and I would agree the features make a great political statement. I’m not interested […]

We’ve been following Tivo (TIVO) closely. We think the company is a value play on broadband distrubution of content to the home. The current financial trajectory is frightening, but investors have been holding out hope for either an acquisition or partnership that will spur the deployment of more Tivo’s. Tivo just announced a press conference […]

The Optical Keyhole posted the full text of an interview with Mark Wegleitner, SVP - Technology and CTO at Verizon.
I was hoping for a little more, perhaps something that elaborated on exactly how Verizon is driving down the deployment cost of FiOS to a residence from $2600 to $1605 a user (Figures include cost to […]

Brightcove has buzz. It’s run by Jeremey Allaire, who seems like a solid get-it-done entrepreneur. And today, they have managed to land themselves on the front page of the WSJ. They have been profiled by Don Dodge, as well.
Brightcove is a middleman, providing a mechanism for video content owners like NBC, Reuters, etc. to syndicate […]

The conversation continues over at Techdirt, I’m glad I bowed out. It seems that the majority of people who read blogs and write comments (note this is not a representative sample of the country) are convinced that the Telcos are out to dominate the world.
Tell me - what is more likely:
1. The telcos are launching […]

The New York Times writes an editorial on Net Neutrality, thereby launching the issue into the mainstream. In typical Left leaning fashion, the NYT comes out for government regulation of ISPs, and argues that consumers should be guaranteed service regardless of application.
Net neutrality is about big media against big telecom, not big telecom against the […]

I wrote last December about the large gap in valuation per subscriber between XM (XMSR) and Sirius (SIRI), two satellite radio providers with stratospheric valuations, but with Sirius selling for 3x more than XM on a per subscriber basis. I proposed a simple hedging trade - short SIRI and go long XMSR. This morning, XM […]

AT&T (T”) CEO Ed Whitacre and Verizon (VZ) CEO Seidenberg appeared before congress today appealing for relief from local cable TV franchising requirements. The WSJ published an article today summarizing the current situation, but also included a graphic worth sharing. As a background, from the WSJ article:
The phone companies want to avoid what cable companies […]

Plenty of digital ink has been spilled covering the Vonage IPO. If this interests you I strongly suggest reviewing the articles summarized in a recent Seeking Alpha Post.
My take:
Verizon, AT&T, old-school telco is supposed to be killed off by ‘free voice’ from VoIP providers or ‘bundled voice’ from cable providers. This never made sense to […]