Some Pennsylvania residents are complaining about the deployment of unsightly, above-ground cable TV pedestal boxes near their homes by Comcast. The say the company should deploy its network electronics in underground vaults instead, as telco competitor Verizon Communications does with its FiOS gear. If Verizon hasn't been using this difference in approaches in [...]

Hawaiian Telecom is one of the oldest ILECs in the United States and the largest telco in Hawaii. It's also more accustomed to losing money than Bear Stearns. The company, which Verizon sold to Carlyle Group in 2005, this week reported another lackluster quarter (if you can call losing $30.5 million [...]

The clock is ticking, and both Qwest and its unions are getting ready for a strike if negotiators don’t bring home a contract this weekend. The 20,000 members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who work for Qwest in 13 Western states are [...]

After a summer which saw cable companies gang up on telcos and their service offerings in broadcast ads, Verizon has responded in kind, telling northern New Jersey residents that it is time to “pull the plug on their disco-era cable TV company” and try out its new FTTH FiOS network.Verizon is targeting Comcast [...]

As expected, Communications Workers of America members employed by Denver-based Qwest Communications International voted Sunday to authorize union leadership to call a strike if ongoing negotiations fail to produce a new contract by 12:01 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 17. The CWA said about 93 percent of voting members approved the move [...]

Sure they’ve stopped the clock, and both sides were back at the bargaining table yesterday until 10:30 p.m. last night, and they plan to go back to talks this morning, but the big question, after a week of stop-and-go neotiations, is: How long will the Communications Workers of America and [...]

With negotiations ongoing—and rocky--between Verizon, the CWA and IBEW, another big contract deadline with major issues is about to come due on the other side of the country. And, like their union members on the East Coast, Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers employed by Qwest [...]

Independent telco SureWest Communications reported its second quarter earnings, highlighted by net income increase from $1.5 million in the same quarter last year to $20.9 million this year. However, the telco saw a $19 million benefit from the sale of its wireless operation to Verizon at the beginning of this year. Revenue rose 36%, sparked [...]

Verizon Communications, a telco whose approach to providing TV services is often compared to cable TV companies, is urging the Federal Communications Commission not to standardize interactive connectivity based on the cable TV industry's tru2way (formerly OpenCable) specification. Verizon says in a letter to the FCC that tru2way is not a [...]

Verizon Communications and the Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers unions agreed to extend negotiations just after midnight Saturday, and the unions agreed to postpone a strike. The CWA, which represents about 50,000 of the 65,000 workers affected, issued a statement saying that progress has been made on issues [...]

AT&T has joined the worldwide Green Grid consortium working on ways to improve energy efficiency in data centers and corporate computing systems. Telcos such at BT and Verizon Business already are part of the group, and with increasing implementation of green strategies across many industries, AT&T certainly will not be the [...]

Verizon Communications may be moving its TV service rapaidly into Cablevision's markets, but the cable TV company is taking an eye for an eye: It managed 26 percent growth in subscribers to its voice service during the second quarter, an additional 81,000 subscribers. Cablevision also said in its second quarter [...]

> The Federal Communications Commission will likely vote today to reprimand cable giant Comcast Corp. for slowing some Internet traffic, despite last-minute protests from Bush administration officials and the top House Republican. Report> Thus shares investors' discontent over C&W offer. Report> Under threat of a lawsuit from the State on [...]

With just over 24 hours to go before the current contract between Verizon and its unions--representing 65,000 members of the CWA and IBEW at the telco--expires at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, both sides are preparing for a possible strike.Communications Workers of America and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers leadership already have [...]

The telecommunications revolution of the 1990s and the rise of the Internet was akin to the California Gold Rush for the wired-phone industry, as access lines provided by incumbent local exchange carriers rose at nearly 24 percent from 142.4 million in 1992 to 186.6 million in 1999. Oh, how times [...]

Has DSL heard its last hurrah in the United States? Second quarter earnings reports from AT&T and Verizon would indicate something’s amiss after the two telcos reported a combined 100,000 new broadband subscribers in the quarter compared to 688,000 a year ago.Part of the issue may simply be saturation of [...]

Talks aimed at averting a strike by 80,000 CWA and IBEW union workers at Verizon are continuing, but prospects for a deal before the Aug. 2 contract expiration look increasingly slim.Unity@Verizon reports that Verizon Mid-Atlantic district union negotiators feel the company and union are “still far apart on all critical [...]

With AT&T and Verizon delivering strong second quarters and Embarq poised to release its results after market close today, you knew there had to be some bad news for telcos on the horizon.It arrived in the form of a demand from Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight [...]

Maybe Verizon Communications President Denny Strigl was right when he suggested during a keynote speech at NXTcomm last month that the critics of U.S. broadband penetration should hush up. Market research firm Gartner reports that about 77% of U.S. households will have a broadband subscription 2012. According to gartner's projections, that will [...]

The Federal Communications Commission denied Qwest Communications' highly controversial petition for forbearance from wholesale pricing regulation in four of its major markets. Yes, forbearance petitions are always controversial, but Qwest's bid for network access charge freedom in Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle and Phoenix drew intense debate, accusations and media coverage over several [...]

CWA and IBEW members overwhelmingly voted to approve a walkout if negotiations with Verizon don’t produce a deal by Aug. 2, reports Crain’s New York Business. Union leaders said 91 percent of the 65,000 East Coast Communications Workers of America union members were on board for a work action or [...]

Verizon Communications has talked about boosting in-home bandwidth capabilities and pushing gigabit passive optical network technology into its FiOS deployments. The company's move to deploy residential gateways from Actiontec Electronics and Westell Technologies will help it reach higher speeds and get a step closer to broad GPON availability. The gateways conform to the Multimedia [...]

> Telco D&E Communications will offer Jamcracker's software-as-a-service solution for a monthly subscription. Story > Asian countries still dominate worldwide fiber-to-the-home penetration rankings. Article > Verizon has won its second municipal TV franchise in the state of Washington. Article[...]

Tellabs CEO Rob Pullen said earlier this spring when he took charge of the company that Tellabs would be looking to plow more business out of international markets. In reporting second quarter earnings for Tellabs Tuesday, he reiterated this pledge, along with noting how the North America market was showing weaker spending. The [...]

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps told an audience at Carnegie Mellon University yesterday that access to high-speed broadband should be made available to all Americans as a “civil right.” "No matter who you are, or where you live, or how much money you make ... you will need, and you are [...]