France Telecom: Wired Shrinking, Others Growing
Yesterday, I discussed Verizon’s quarterly results which indicated shrinking prospects for the wired division, buoyed by rising revenues from the wireless division. Today, France Telecom has issued a similar report. The trend is emerging where wired telcos are increasingly losing business to VoIP and mobile solutions. FT and Verizon are two of the lucky (or smart) companies who own both mobile and fixed assets, and thus have a hedge against erosion in their core business. Other telcos, like AT&T, made the mistake of selling off their hedges (AT&T Wireless, cable operations), and thus have less resilience. The CEOs of telcos that divested wireless arms probably gave themselves huge bonuses in the years they divested…is there some way we can make them give that back? Addendum: Don’t forget that BellSouth is in discussions with AT&T regarding a buying/merging with the oldest US telco.
