Cost cutting and strong mobile sales more than offset continuing declines in fixed-line revenue for Greek incumbent telco OTE, which reported a 17 percent increase in second quarter revenues over the same period a year ago.The company, which sold a 25 percent stake to Deutsche Telekom earlier this year, met analyst expectations; [...]

China Telecom, the largest telco in China, announced first-half earnings, including an 8 percent slide in profit to $1.85 billion. The profit drop was driven in part by a 2.5 percent decline in landline customers and an 11.8 percent fall in voice revenue. these results come just a few days after China Netcom, [...]

On Aug. 21 Verizon Communications committed to conduct safety checks of all FiOS installations in New York state that had occurred before Aug. 1, in order to satisfy concerns about possible incorrect electrical grounding. But now, Light Reading is reporting that the telco could ending up forking over millions of [...]

China Netcom, the second-largest landline (or fixed-line) network operator in China, reported first-half financial metrics that included a 5.7 percent decline in its fixed-line customer base from the first six months of 2007. Its profit was down 5.2 percent, though average revenue from broadband users was 1.6 percent higher, and that's where [...]

Verizon Communications is not the only North American telco that wants to bring its fiber broadband network to the multi-dwelling unit market. Bell Canada has started targeted its ongoing fiber build-out to MDU buildings in its Quebec-Windsor corridor. The apartment dwellers in many of those MDUs may help the Canadian telco [...]

Alcatel-Lucent's stock value still was jumping Wednesday after a report circulated Tuesday that the Paris company was close to hiring former Alcatel executive Mike Quigley as CEO. The report came from a French newspaper, Le Canard Enchaine (The Chained-up Duck), that refers to itself as a "weekly satirical newspaper" that also [...]

The mainstream media has discovered that cable companies are making a move into the home telephone market. That can only be good news for an industry segment that’s looking for income in every nook and cranny it can find (will it follow AT&T’s lead from last week and start offering [...]

Consumer watchdog Common Cause and three other advocacy groups want New York's Public Service Commission to temporarily freeze Verizon's much ballyhooed fiber optic rollout in New York City until safety concerns about the network's installation are resolved. A week ago Verizon agreed to conduct safety inspections of other FiOS installations in the state [...]

One of the most interesting aspects of Verizon Communications' marketing approach for its FiOS broadband service has a been a referral program that gives customer's $50 for each friend they refer who then becomes a Verizon customer. It seemed like an especially good idea as Verizon has begun to enter [...]

Following up on a news announcement from Friday's edition of FierceTelecom, two small gigabit passive optical networking companies--TXP and Cambridge Industries Group (CIG)--are merging into a new entity top be called TXP, apparently with an eye toward consolidating costs to produce GPON optical network terminals. Less expensive GPON for the [...]

Just how deep have telcos had to dig to replace revenues lost as their fixed-line services join dial-up Internet as failing income generators? AT&T, the nation’s largest phone company, today announced it would start installing and servicing computers and home theaters to offset some of the losses. In fact, the [...]

by Carl Ford I am a BellHead by nature. But even I can find irony in the poor business decisions made at AT&T regarding its WiFi network and Apple. While four million iPhone users complain in the blogosphere about AT&T not automatically enabling them to use the WiFi roaming agreements, its insanity [...]

New submarine cables, scheduled for completion over the course of the next several years, could take Africa from a severe shortage of international bandwidth to a more-than-comfortable excess. In fact, the abundance of bandwidth could drive prices for data transmission into the bargain basement range, potentially prompting some companies to [...]

DPI and targeted advertising have been big stories for telcos, cable companies and ISPs this summer from Congressional inquiries on NebuAd, to FCC panels, to plenty of stories in the trade media. It's even started to move onto the general public's radar. This Washington Post story is a good read [...]

Deutsche Telekom has had a tough summer. First, it was caught in a scandal involving spying on its own executives and board members. Now the German telecom is embroiled in a scandal involving the sale of its customer data to third parties.The worst part - aside from the obvious privacy issues - [...]

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, [...]

Zayo Group, the Colorado fiber network operator that has acquired eight regional fiber networks within the last year or so, still sees the telecom industry M&A window as open and wouldn't be surprised if bigger telcos get back in the game. Zayo, headed by former executives from Level 3 Communications [...]

Cable TV company Cox Communications already has committed $300 million at auction to acquire 700 Mhz wireless spectrum, and company president Patrick Esser said at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit that Cox will spend a total of $500 million to roll out mobile content offerings and other wireless services [...]

What's the next PON? It may be GPON to network operators who have not even deployed gigabit passive optical network yet (and we're talking about most network operators). However, for technology speculators, it is never too early to start placing bets on the next, next big thing. For many companies, wavelength [...]

Who: Alaska Communications Systems Vitals: This service provider is based in Anchorage, has about 214,000 local access lines and 148,000 wireless customers, and provides multiple services over about 75 percent of Alaska. Why you should care: The company is aggressively upgrading its wireless network, expanding its enterprise capabilities and also [...]

After recently naming a new chief operating officer, Qwest Communications International has initiated a handful of further executive changes under new COO Tom Richards. As part of the shuffle, Dan Yost will take charge of the telco's mass markets business operation, Teresa Taylor will assume the role of executive vice president for [...]

Just as AT&T prepares to move its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas, the telco giant has sold its 37-story One AT&T Plaza office tower in downtown Dallas. However, the company is having the space renovated and actually will lease it back from the buyer, a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises [...]

The economy may be stuck in low gear, but telecom and IT spending will continue to be strong for at least the next three years, says research firm Gartner Inc. The firm expects 2008 spending to increase 8 percent to $3.4 trillion. "The U.S.-led economic downturn shows no sign of causing a recession in [...]

When industry insiders are asked about the next company likely to enter the U.S. telecom industry's recent M&A fray, Arkansas-based Windstream Corp. seems to be the tip-of-the-tongue response. The 2006 progeny of Alltel was restricted in the amount of stock it was allowed to issue following the spin off, but that restriction [...]

Eastern and Central Europe should continue to be busy merger and acquisition territory for telcos, as the industry looks for growth in these mature markets through consolidation, says a new report from global management consultancy Arthur D. Little.The new report, "Mergers & Acquisitions: Bust or Boom in CEE Telecoms?," argues [...]