An interesting article on CNet...
news.com
And a clip...
US West claims it has the ability to act as quickly as its smaller competitors--if only its stockholders would allow it. But like with other Baby Bells, US West's shareholders have demanded stable, consistent growth, and have frowned on riskier investment strategies, executives say.
With 35,000 DSL subscribers, the company has been ahead of the curve in rolling out high-speed Internet services, Zell noted, although SBC Communications and Bell Atlantic are now beginning to catch up.
The company also has been investing in trials of other experimental services such as VDSL, which can bring cable TV-like service over phone lines, as well as high-speed wireless data and mobile Internet services.
But with the exception of the DSL rollouts, the company's advanced service projects have been stuck in trial markets. By merging with Global Crossing and creating a new tracking stock dedicated to these riskier investments, the company will finally be able to realize its ambitions with data and video, Zell said.
"One of the reasons we need to do a tracking stock is because investors want us to stick to our knitting instead of going into this new $4 billion [video] market," Zell said. "What we're really doing is unlocking the ability for us to go and do this as if we were a start-up."
The first sign of this new US West could be a joint venture with Frontier to roll out DSL Internet access to big markets around the country. Zell said that this could be structured so that it wouldn't violate any regulatory barriers, and could take advantage of Frontier's backbone and Web hosting centers.
The executive stopped short of saying the company definitely planned this tack, but said it would be "illogical" not to do this as soon as US West and Frontier sat down to work out the details. "For us this would be nothing other than a geographic expansion," he said. |
