Nyquist Capital

Who would have ever thought a staid industry like telecom could produce mudslinging antics worthy of two Hollywood studios? Seidenberg shot back at comments made by Comcast CEO Roberts, covered in a CNN/Money article as well as a clarification of where Verizon stands on Net Neutrality in Forbes.
Here’s what Seidenberg had to say about Comcast:

“Customers […]

I like Fred Wilson’s blog. It’s eclectic and good reading for both business and pleasure. He wrote something on Net Neutrality today, and how carriers are discussing charging for incremental tiered services.

I have blogged about this issue before and I will reiterate that this is about jealousy and greed plain and simple.
It’s about business Fred, […]

Comcast (CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts answered the question I asked Monday. In a presentation at a New York conference today, he clearly indicated that Comcast has no plans for a lower priced broadband offering and exhibited hubris worthy of Greek literature.

I’d suggest he read Homer’s Odyssey, an outstanding example of hubris as a theme […]

The Stalwart follows up on the news that Dell (DELL) is abandoning the MP3 player market and makes a case for the mobile phone being the ‘next threat’ to Apple (AAPL). They make the observation that the fight for market share in dedicated MP3 players could be pyrrhic, and that the real battle is moving […]

DSLreports links to an article from CNET on AT&T’s (T”) and Verizon’s (VZ) $14.95/month DSL service first offered last summer. It offers some color behind the Verizon subscription numbers, namely that they couldn’t keep up with subscriber demand.
These pricing levels are converting the last users of dial-up technically savvy enough to make the transition, […]

The London Times covers the Google Darknet rumor that surfaced last summer when informed sources indicated Google was buying up dark fiber. More recently, Robert X. Cringley started a really good rumor before CES that Google was going to get into the hardware business. Even Bear Stearns put this in a daily report…. blowing further […]

There has been an awe inspiring amount of uninformed chatter with regards to Vinton Cerf (works for Google now, don’t forget) pointing a finger at Verizon for reserving 80% of their network bandwidth for themselves. It all started with this Businessweek Article. I really need to stop writing about Verizon, Net Neutrality, etc but the […]

The Washington Post had an engaging interview with Verizon CEO Seidenberg on Tuesday. One item stood out in the extended excerpts made available by the Post. It sounds like symmetric access is on Seidenberg’s mind.

First of all, when you have 50 to 100 megabits, and you have symmetry of upstream and downstream speeds, now you […]

Microsoft (MSFT) has been taking flak for their several hundred million dollar investment in Xbox Live, a service that for $12 a month allows users of the console to gain access to sophisticated online gaming capabilities. There is also continued criticism of the building losses within the home entertainment division.
People seem to underestimate the level […]

Those of you interested in AT&T should check out this monster 169 page presentation (warning, .pdf link) made yesterday at their analyst conference.
The specifics on Project Lightspeed can be found on pages 86 - 113.
Highlights:

Homes Passed in 2006, 2007, 2008 - 3M, 9M, 18M
$4.4B in capex to reach all 18M customers
$700M in annual Opex savings […]

Good but short interview in the Financial Times this morning with Ed Whitacre, CEO of AT&T (prior CEO of SBC).
Some choice quotes:
If someone wants to transmit a high quality service with no interruptions and ‘guaranteed this, guaranteed that’, they should be willing to pay for that,” the AT&T chief said.
“Now they might pass it on […]

Verizon (VZ) filed an 8-K with the SEC on Friday with some interesting information on FiOS.
Verizon also provided an update on its fiber-to-the-premises deployment strategy, known as FiOS, and indicated that the earnings dilution from FiOS is expected to be approximately 10–15 cents per share higher in 2006 than in 2005, or 25–30 cents […]

Reed Hastings, The CEO of Netflix (NFLX), had some of the most sensible and level headed words I’ve heard on the highly polarizing issue of Net Neutrality. I wrote about the subject in “More Government != Better Broadband“.

Bottom line, some may not like the concept and others may agitate for FCC intervention, but letting the […]

Ever wonder what the ROI would have looked like if you held onto all the post-1983-breakup components of AT&T? Birinyi Associates ran through the numbers, but only after plotting the taxonomy of mergers, divestitures, and acquisitions.

They say it best:
What was once a dominant American long distance telephone company now spans a panoply of wireline, […]

NTT has partnered with SKY Perfect communications to create a new company called OptiCast (.pdf link) that will focus on delivering Video over the fiber NTT is rapidly installing throughout Japan. OptiCast will be a joint venture between NTT East/NTT West and SKY Perfect, a CATV company with about 4MM subscribers.
The public objective is to […]

Two recent announcements of IPTV ‘networks’ in Japan present a possible model for the unbundling of content from traditional networks and the emergence of true IPTV. While the press and media here in the US are chattering about, and trying to predict whether Apple, Google, Microsoft, Tivo, Comcast etc. will enable this model - there […]

I’m getting ribbed by a few folks about my lack of enthusiasm for satelite radio. It looks like I am not alone.
I think it’s pretty simple for music. MP3 player plus subscription music = no satellite radio music. Satellite radio covers you only when you are in the car, the MP3 works everywhere and offers […]

Verizon’s debt rating was cut today by Moody’s. They cited cash flow pressures from upgrading local wireline networks.
I’m interpreting this to mean FiOS. Information on subscriber penetration has been light, other than an article done by thestreet.com. My informal survey (i.e. walking around […]

Its nuts. People are talking about whether we have too much bandwidth to the home?
The blogosphere is in a titter over a recent post from Om Malik where he makes the argument that recent upgrades in last mile bandwidth are currently all for naught.
He’s overlooking elasticity and the classic evolution cycle of technology, particularly […]

Jeff Matthews has a quick and dirty analysis of XM (XMSR) vs. Sirius (SIRI)valuation and makes a very simple but surprising observation - Sirius subscribers are valued 3x more than XM subscribers. Satelite radio gets him excited but I think the iPod/subscription music approach will kill it off. However, his analysis does create a classic […]