To: Jason Cogan who wrote (5403 ) 4/23/1998 9:28:00 PM From: Bernard Levy Respond to of 12468
Hi Jason: To use a simple analogy, the economics of CLECs are similar to bridge building: first you build the bridge and it costs a lot of money. When the bridge is built you collect tolls in perpetuity. Of course, you have to do some upkeep, but you have a large and stable source of cash flow. The models which assign a $100 value to WCII rely on giving a present value to the future cash flow stream. The discount factor used by Vogel (Montgomery Securities) in his discounted cash flow analysis is 20%, meaning that $100 in 2005 is worth $80 in 2004, $64 in 2003, $$51 in 2002, $41 in 2001, $33 in 2000, $26 in 1999, and $21 in 1998. This discount factor is rather steep because of all the residual uncertainty about WCII's future competitive posture (competition from TGNT, broadband satellite, fiber-based CLECs, etc...). However, it does not take into account the possibility that WCII will use its dominant position to make some strategic moves (such as moving into the European market) or to discourage future competition (my guess is that recent LMDS auction winners may find it more difficult than they might expect to raise the capital needed for a nationwide rollout; the same comment applies to the broadband satellite constellations). The key feature here is strategic positioning: WCII has lots of bandwidth in all key markets, was the first to rollout services, and has therefore established a dominant position in the fixed broadband wireless sector. Note that the above analysis focuses on the long term. Certainly, WCII could be down to $30 in 2 weeks, or it could be up to $45. Who knows? However, if it is still around 3 years from now, it will be worth significantly more than today. Best wishes, Bernard Levy