Verizon $114 Billion in debt, Lays Off 44,000 + 2500 IT Jobs

[Pat Goss]

 Verizon confirmed that it offered a voluntary severance package (VSP) to about 44,000 employees and that it will transfer over 2,500 IT staff - some rumors suggest the figure to be closer to 5,000 employees - to India-based Infosys as part of a $700 million outsourcing deal.

The layoffs and transfers will impact more than 30% of Verizon's 153,100-employee workforce - as of the end of June - and are part of a 4-year plan to save the largest U.S. wireless carrier $10 billion by 2021.

With a total debt of more than $114 billion, more than half its market cap, the carrier has limited flexibility to reach a healthy balance sheet while investing billions in capital expenditures (CapEx) to deploy its next-generation 5G Ultra Wideband network and 5G broadband Internet service, and pay higher dividends to shareholders: The 3 pillars (debt reduction, CapEx, dividends) of the company's strategy under new CEO Hans Vestberg.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/10/05/verizon-lays-off-44000-transfers-2500-more-it-jobs-to-indian-outsourcer-infosys/

[ricepig]

You mean their customer service wasn't already outsourced to India?

[onebadrubi]

haven't a lot of people really liked having Verizon in their portfolio's?  I want to say I've read some articles saying it's a really good stock to have for dividends?  Wonder what the will do to it.

There was another article just last week outing some other large companies astronomical debt, GM and Ge were two of the ones I remember being mentioned.

[Pat Goss]

CenturyLink is trimming its workforce by approximately 175 jobs in locations across the 16 states that it serves, a spokesman confirmed this morning. The same spokesman said that CenturyLink decided to discontinue holiday bonuses for its employees. Executives and board members will receive their bonuses.

[ricepig]

CenturyLink is trimming its workforce by approximately 175 jobs in locations across the 16 states that it serves, a spokesman confirmed this morning. The same spokesman said that CenturyLink decided to discontinue holiday bonuses for its employees. Executives and board members will receive their bonuses.

That is one stock I dumped back last winter. I bought it for the dividend, but it went up the day after I bought it about $3/share, and then tanked. Some times you do take the tax loss.

[berryhog]

That is one stock I dumped back last winter. I bought it for the dividend, but it went up the day after I bought it about $3/share, and then tanked. Some times you do take the tax loss.

Well, if their service is as poor in all areas as it is ours, I can see why they are tanking.  We will drop CenturyLink the second that CECC has their service available.

[ricepig]

Well, if their service is as poor in all areas as it is ours, I can see why they are tanking.  We will drop CenturyLink the second that CECC has their service available.

Yeah, I figure since they had their name on the Seahawks stadium they were profitable, lol. Hopefully CECC's internet is more reliable than their electricity, or at least priced reasonable.

[Pat Goss]

Windstream Sells Off EarthLink Consumer Internet Unit for $330M

EarthLink is an IT services, network and communications provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company serves more than 150,000 businesses and 1 million U.S. consumers. On November 7, 2016, Windstream Holdings announced a merger with Earthlink for about $1.1 billion in stock.

Well sometimes you take the tax loss

[Pulled(PP)pork]

so, is my bill going up or not?

[Pat Goss]

As a supplier of services to rural Americans, Windstream collects hundreds of millions of dollars a year in tax subsidies which it uses to boost its stock price, so your bill may go up

[Pat Goss]

Did you get your free speed upgrade yet?

As part of receiving the tax dollars they are supposed to provide a mandated level of internet speed to a certain percentage of its customers
I read a couple of days ago they claimed to have 27% of their customers at 25Mbps or faster with plans to have 37% at that level by EOY 2019

[Pat Goss]

The Connect America Fund – also known as the Universal Service High-Cost program – is the FCC's program to expand access to voice and broadband services for areas where they are unavailable. Through CAF Phase II, the FCC provides funding to local telephone companies to subsidize the cost of building new network infrastructure or performing network upgrades to provide voice and broadband service in areas where it is lacking.

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/connect-america-fund-phase-ii-faqs

Windstream takes $175M in Connect America Funds, sets ...
Windstream has accepted $175 million annually for 7 years of Phase II Connect America Funds (CAF-II), a move that will enable it to extend broadband services to nearly 400,000 rural households across 17 states.

[Pat Goss]

AT&T completes sale of data center business to Brookfield

AT&T announced that all of its customer contracts, employees supporting the co-location operations, fixed assets, leases and the related facilities have been transferred over to Brookfield.
With the deal in hand, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners now has 18 data centers in the U.S. and 13 globally. Brookfield has formed a wholly owned company, Evoque Data Center Solutions, to own and operate the assets.

AT&T will use the $1.1 billion to pay down the debt it has accumulated from buying Time Warner, some of Yahoo's internet assets and DirecTV over the past several years.  AT&T said the deal would help it reduce its net-debt-to-EBITDA-ratio to the 2.5x range by the end of 2019.

Trend-wise, the Brookfield transaction is notable on two fronts. Similar to service providers exiting the cloud business, AT&T has become the latest carrier to sell off data center assets. Instead of competing against large co-location and cloud service providers, telcos have decided to get out of the data center and co-location business in order to invest in more media assets and other areas of technology.

In 2016, Verizon sold its 24 data center sites and operations to Equinix for $3.6 billion. A year later, CenturyLink sold its data center and co-location business for $2.3 billion to a consortium that included Medina Capital Advisors and Longview Asset Management. Those assets were used to form Cyxtera Technologies.

Going back four years, Windstream parted ways with its data center division by selling it to TierPoint for $575 million in cash.

[Pat Goss]

https://www.windstream.com/free-upgrade

[Pat Goss]

T-Mobile posts 'best Q4 ever' in preliminary results
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
T-Mobile says it broke multiple records during the fourth quarter of 2018, posting its "best quarter ever in total net customer additions," according to preliminary results. The carrier added 2.4 million total net customers during the quarter, bringing its total customer base to 79.7 million at the end of 2018.

[Pat Goss]

Windstream CEO Eyes Gigabit Fixed Wireless, Sees Copper Becoming "Irrelevant"

Windstream is deploying 5G fixed wireless broadband, "probably at a larger scale than a lot of the larger wireless companies," said Windstream President and CEO Tony Thomas today. Windstream fixed wireless broadband has seen particularly strong performance in states such as Nebraska and Iowa that have a "fairly flat topology" and where signals go "a long way," Thomas said.

Windstream gets speeds of 100 Mbps using fixed wireless technology in the 3.5 GHz spectrum band, but expects to also use the technology in the millimeter wave band to deliver gigabit speeds, Thomas told attendees at an investor conference today.

Windstream Fixed Wireless
Windstream initially began deploying fixed wireless several years ago to serve business customers but more recently has begun to use the technology to serve residential customers, including those in areas where the company obtained funding for broadband buildouts through the Connect America Fund (CAF) program.

In CAF areas of states such as Nebraska and Iowa, he said, "you can get 100 meg out there very cost-effectively," adding that "you're really blowing away copper infrastructure and making it irrelevant because you're embracing this 100 meg technology."

https://www.telecompetitor.com/windstream-ceo-eyes-gigabit-fixed-wireless-sees-copper-becoming-irrelevant/

[Pat Goss]

Windstream Review 2019: Internet & TV
https://www.wirefly.com/guides/windstream-review

The Bottom Line: Windstream has two DLA options and their limited fiber-optic can hinder the choices a customer has. Also, Windstream's prices aren't competitive when comparing them to other providers. But, the company is committed to the improvement of its equipment. It is also one of the few service providers that doesn't have a data cap.

Windstream is an ideal option for families who live in rural areas who want to upgrade their internet service from dial-up but don't want to use satellite internet.

Windstream's Standard and Enhanced DSL plans are viable everywhere that Windstream operates. Unfortunately, the Premium Speed plan is the company's newest fiber-optic service. It's limited to about 26% of Windstream customers.

Windstream doesn't make their customers sign a contract, at least with their internet-only plans. The no-contract plan is consistent with what is offered by other providers. However, Windstream's advertised prices are higher than the regular prices offered by other providers.