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The year-long U.S. recession has started to take its toll on the telecomm sector. AT&T and Verizon shares were hit hard Monday after being downgraded by Bernstein Research. The firm downgraded Verizon from market perform to underperform and AT&T from outperform to market perform. Verizon stock was down 7.16 percent to $32.15 per share and AT&T stock was down 4.35 percent to $28.15 in late-day trading on Monday.
Even when his cell phone offered no bars on Sunday and he had no other way to get a dial tone, Carlton Smith did not second-guess his 21st Century decision to cancel traditional landline phone service in his house. Smith was one of the many victims of a service outage that affected AT&T Wireless customers across the Midwest all day Sunday.
Google is either a major supporter of net neutrality — the concept that all Web traffic from all companies should be treated the same — or is quietly working behind the scenes to set up its own Internet express lane with ISPs. The incoming Obama administration is either a big fan of net neutrality, or its technology advisers are backing off their stances that no company’s traffic should get preferential treatment.
China will issue third-generation mobile phone licenses as early as this month and expects companies to spend about $30 billion on installing equipment, the industry minister said Friday. China has the world’s biggest population of mobile phone users, and adoption of 3G was eagerly anticipated.
A move by AT&T to eliminate 4 percent of its workforce may only be the beginning of a torrent of staff reductions and spending cutbacks in the $1 trillion telecom industry. AT&T, the largest U.S. telecom services provider, said on Dec. 4 that it will slash 12,000 jobs, citing a shrinking economy and consumer spending reductions.