Time Warner

Cox trimming jobs, predicting results for TWC

Doug Mohney — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:50:38 -0500

As Cox Communications plans to cut 460 jobs out of its work force, analysts gear up to predict Time Warner Cable's third quarter earnings, which will be announced on Wednesday.

Cox plans to use a mix of early retirement, attrition and possibly layoffs to trim about 2 percent of the company's jobs out of a work force currently numbering around 23,000. Cox isn't sure what the mix will be, but there could be "a small number of involuntary actions."

Meanwhile, analysts believe Time Warner Cable will post revenues of $4.36 billion and earnings of 28 cents per share. Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig "I hate phone companies" Moffett believes TWC's earnings will be better than Comcast's. The slowing economy's effect on business and TWC's status in the Clearwire WiMAX joint venture are also expected to be discussed during the earnings call.

For more:
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Cox cutting jobs
- AP Earnings Preview: Time Warner Cable to report 3Q

Should telcos fear DOCSIS 3.0?

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:31:04 -0400

Cable TV operator support for DOCSIS 3.0 trials and commercial roll-outs has been building for months. Nearly all the major cable players have their plans together, and though some are being aggressive and others conservative, it seems like DOCSIS 3.0-based broadband will soon become a big competitive factor.

Still, at the Fiber-to-the-Home Conference in Nashville this week, Jim Farmer, chief network architect for Enablence's Wave7 FTTx networks division and a noted cable industry technologist, questioned the potential impact of DOCSIS 3.0. He said that putting much more bandwidth downstream also limits the ability to provide more TV channels. He also said that many cable TV companies will not be able to take advantage of the standard's greatest potential benefits when paired with MPEG-4 because they still have such a large base of MPEG 2 gear in the market.

For more:
- see this coverage at Telephony

TW Telecom's Tuesday bruising

Doug Mohney — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:58:47 -0400

The company formerly known as Time Warner Telecom is not having a good day on Wall Street.

Last night, tw telecom's latest SEC filing said it was going to warn of slower revenue trends at an investor's conference. The company also said it has "revenue pressure" from an exodus of very small and mortgage customers, weakness in the Midwest that could extend to the Southeast and markets in other regions AND potential small business customer churn as it disconnects non-paying customers.

A couple of Wall Street firms downgraded the stock from "buy" to lower ratings, and the stock price opened at a new 52-week low, $11.57 a share; yesterday, the stock closed at $14.87 and the previous low was $13.61.

For more:
- 24/7 Wall Street reports on TW Telecom taking a hit. Article

Related articles
tw telecom sees 1st quarterly profit since 2001
Time Warner Telecom was one of our Top 10 Service Providers on the Cutting Edge last year

Verizon to conduct FiOS safety checks in NY

Dan O'Shea — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:53:16 -0400

Verizon Communications will conduct safety inspections of all FiOS installations completed in New York before Aug. 1, after the New York Public Service Commission uncovered electrical code violations during routine inspections of some deployments. The carrier said its installations are safe and that there have been no known incidents of safety hazards, but after the issue was discussed by the NY PSC for two months running, the telco submitted a plan to review all of its installations during the next 60 days.

The PSC has not officially approved that proposal and will seek comment on it at a Sept. 22 meeting, but Verizon is moving ahead anyway. The safety issue is cropping up at a time when Verizon is starting to increase its deployments in New York City, particularly in multi-dwelling unit buildings there.

For more:
- read this story at The Albany Times Union

Related articles:
Verizon is set to go head-to-head with Time Warner Cable in New York City. Verizon report
Verizon saw its NYC video plan approved by the NY PSC last month. Verizon report

Cable companies run fiber fib ad blitz in fight with Verizon’s FiOS

Jim O'Neill — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:11:38 -0400

Comcast and its cable allies have lined up a series of broadcast ads belittling Verizon's vaunted FiOS network, claiming to have a larger fiber-optic network. What the ads don't point out is that while fiber is used in the network, it doesn't go to the home as is the case in most FiOS applications.

Cox, Charter Communications, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable all have thrown in with Comcast in running the misleading ads. Comcast also is starting to run the ads in some newspapers. It recently ran one in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer saying, "We already have a fiber-optic network serving ALL our homes."

Verizon and cable companies have locked horns in the courts over ads in the past. Could this be the next ad campaign to get lost in the courts?

For more:
- See this AP story

Related articles:
Verizon sues Time Warner Cable over ads Verizon lawsuit report
Verizon recently began its analog-to-digital transition for FiOS. Verizon report

Verizon & New York: A perfect match? Maybe so

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:38:36 -0400

by Jim O'Neill

Verizon’s push into New York City has been creating a buzz on the street for months, but just how bad the telco wants to lay down its FiOS network and do battle with incumbent cable heavyweights Time Warner and Cablevision becomes clear if you take a look at the deal NYC’s Franchise and Concession Review Commission signed off on this week (the state Public Service Commission has to do the final OK).

The agreement was crafted over the past 18 months in quiet negotiations and sailed though the FCRC in just four days after a pretty uneventful public hearing. The speed with which New York agreed to the plan shouldn’t be surprising, either. Here’s why:

Verizon has promised the city it would have 100 percent of the five boroughs connected by June 30, 2014. (By the way, if you’re a Staten Islander, you can expect to hooked up, like, NOW. Verizon says SI will have 100 percent connectivity by the end of 2009.) As expected, Manhattan will get the most attention. Verizon says it already reaches 57 percent of the Big Apple and says it will have FiOS to about three-quarters of homes, MDUs and businesses by the end of 2011. The downside? No real performance penalties to keep Verizon in check. Miss a deadline, ah, well. And, despite promises to not discriminate against poorer neighborhoods, Verizon basically gets to lay down fiber where it decides to. Park Place, anyone?

But, Verizon isn’t skimping on its estimated $6 billion build out—FTTP will be deployed throughout the city (OK, I’m really waiting to see how they do that in some rougher neighborhoods; Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens deploy a lot slower than Manhattan and SI). But in the end, New York should have a true 21st Century network.

The company isn’t asking for—and the city isn’t offering—a dime in subsidies. That’s a change from other municipalities looking to attract broadband build out and it flies in the face of FCC chief Kevin Martin’s pronouncements yesterday that he backs subsidies for network construction. Subsidies? We don’t need no stinkin’ subsidies. Verizon says it will recoup its investment through fees to subscribers (and, yes, that sounds a bit ominous if you’re looking forward to using FiOS, perhaps, but scale and existing competition should serve to contain prices a bit). For Verizon, it’s an opportunity to build a network it won’t ever have to share or bid on ever again—a potential bottomless ATM machine. Once there, it’s done: Full access to the largest cable market in the nation.

Despite some potential inequities, it’s a great deal for New York. The city is picking up its full-boat franchise fee: 5 percent of gross revenue, and—once Verizon completes its citywide networks--residents actually get a choice. Granted a duopoly doesn’t offer a huge choice, but it is better than a monopoly. --Jim

P.S. Have you heard? FierceVoIP and FierceTelecom are hosting a party at NXTcomm on June 17 in Las Vegas, and we want you to be there.