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The Telecom Digest for December 24, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 298 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 10:53:26 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Vodafone Debt Ratings Increasingly Dependent on Verizon Wireless Payouts
Message-ID: <kb79dn$6nv$1@dont-email.me>
Published on: 28th Nov 2012
Fitch Ratings says that it has affirmed Vodafone Group's Long-term
Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'A-', but warned that this is
increasingly dependent on dividends from its Verizon Wireless joint
venture. The ratings outlook is currently stable.
The ratings agency said that Vodafone benefits from global scale,
diverse operations, sound liquidity, and stable cash flow generation.
However, slowing growth, partly due to continued underperformance of its
Southern European operations is a growing concern. Vodafone is well
positioned to benefit from increasing mobile data usage, but the
inflection point in revenue growth remains uncertain. The receipt of
substantial and regular dividends from Verizon Wireless is increasingly
more important to maintain Vodafone's 'A-' rating.
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/57564.php
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 10:48:36 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Verizon Wireless Loses Appeal Against Mobile Data Roaming Regulations
Message-ID: <kb794k$4nh$1@dont-email.me>
Verizon Wireless has lost an attempt to block a regulatory rule
requiring it to offer wholesale mobile data roaming rates to other
mobile networks.
The regulator, the FCC already required such facilities for voice
services, but last year expanded that to include mobile data services as
well. Verizon Wireless sued to block the change.
A US Appeals Court upheld the regulators change, rejecting the mobile
networks claim that it amounted to "an unfair government seizure".
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/57668.php
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 10:59:21 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Could Verizon nix unlimited data for everyone?
Message-ID: <kb79or$8k0$1@dont-email.me>
Verizon Wireless isn't making it easy for loyal, longtime smartphone
customers to keep their existing unlimited data plans. And now some
subscribers, who are willing to pony up the full price for a new
smartphone, worry that Verizon may change its policy again and get rid
of the plan for everyone.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57558501-94/could-verizon-nix-unlimited-data-for-everyone/
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 11:22:21 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Sprint Nextel Reaches a Deal to Buy Rest of Clearwire
Message-ID: <kb7b3u$g72$1@dont-email.me>
BY MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
Sprint Nextel agreed Monday to buy all of the wireless network
operator Clearwire, an important step for the cellphone service
provider as it continues its big turnaround campaign.
Under the terms of the bid, Sprint will pay $2.97 a share for the
nearly 50 percent stake in Clearwire that it did not already own for a
total of about $2.2 billion.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/sprint-reaches-deal-to-buy-out-clearwire/?ref=sprintnextelcorporation
-or-
http://goo.gl/eIHsK
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 11:14:04 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Sprint, Clearwire, Softbank, Dish: Who's Playing Whom?
Message-ID: <kb7ake$dr5$1@dont-email.me>
If Sprint really wants to buy Clearwire, why did it low-ball its
offer, and why is Softbank reportedly choking off Sprint's bargaining
power? Analyst Tim Farrar thinks there is more to this deal, and many
other related ones, than meet the eye.
[The] big revelation that Sprint was seeking to buy out Clearwire sent
shockwaves throughout the industry. Taking over Clearwire would return
a vast trove of airwaves to Sprint's direct control, which would leave
its sitting pretty on top of the U.S. spectrum heap. But it didn't
take long before the grumbling started.
Investors aren't very happy with Sprint's low-ball offer. And now
Reuters is reporting that Sprint's would-be owner Softbank won't go
along with any acquisition that valued Clearwire at more than $2.97 a
share, which is just seven cents more than what Sprint has offered. If
Reuters' sources are correct then Softbank doesn't see the value in
Clearwire that everyone else seems to see.
http://gigaom.com/2012/12/14/sprint-clearwire-softbank-dish-whos-playing-whom/
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2012 13:36:56 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: E-book restrictions leave 'buyers' with few rights
Message-ID: <p06240825ccfcfda31d0c@[10.0.1.10]>
E-book restrictions leave 'buyers' with few rights
Unlike the owners of a physical tome, buyers of e-books are licensees
with lots of limitations. It's time to change the rules.
By Michael Hiltzik
December 22, 2012
There's a crass old joke about how you can never buy beer, just rent
it. Who would think that the same joke applies to book buying in the
digital age?
But that's the case. Many people who'll be unwrapping iPads, Amazon
Kindles or Barnes & Noble Nooks on Tuesday morning and loading them
with bestsellers or classics won't have any idea how limited their
rights are as their books' "owners."
In fact, they won't be owners at all. They'll be licensees. Unlike the
owners of a physical tome, they won't have the unlimited right to lend
an e-book, give it away, resell it or leave it to their heirs. If
it's bought for their iPad, they won't be able to read it on their
Kindle. And if Amazon or the other sellers don't like what they've
done with it, they can take it back, without warning.
...
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20121223,0,1032270.column
***** Moderator's Note *****
I bought my wife an ebook sold by Barnes & Noble last year, and wound
up returning it the day after Christmas. It worked as advertised, but
the titles that were listed on the B&N website cost almost exactly as
much as a hardcover "dead tree" version. My wife, to her credit, was
incensed that Barnes & Noble would even attempt to charge that much.
Bill Horne
Moderator
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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