RSSAT&T: 1 million U-verse subscribers by end of '08
By Tim Conneally | Published December 11, 2007, 6:29 PM
This morning, the head of AT&T said his company expects to have attained one million U-Verse subscribers by the end of 2008, and coverage for 30 million by 2010.
At a meeting of financial analysts in New York City this morning, where he touted continued double-digit revenue growth for his company going into next year, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson made some bold predictions for his U-verse triple/quadruple-play media service. He reported AT&T was on target to attain one million U-verse subscribers by the end of this year.
But according to a company statement this morning, Stephenson also predicted the service would be available to as many as 30 million "living units" (households) by the end of 2010. He attributed this rapid rise to "significant progress" in the U-verse deployment.
Last month, BetaNews reported that AT&T's grand plans for a high speed IP-based Television/Telephone/Internet package had actually been pared down, from the original 19 million, to a more modest -- though costlier -- 17 million customers by the end of '08.
At the end of Q3 2007, availability of AT&T's fiber optic/copper phone line (FTTN) system was reported to be around 5.5 million households, with 126,000 subscribers. AT&T plans availability to be in the neighborhood of 8 million households by the end of the year.
Availability is also called "reach," which is the watch-word to look for when the company mixes subscriber projections with availability projections. With U-verse's reach expanding by 2.5 million households per quarter, U-verse's availability projections seem more reasonable.
This means that in order to reach Stephenson's forecasted goal, 874,000 subscribers must be added in this fiscal quarter and the next four, or roughly 1,900 new subscribers per day. This is just under triple the uptake rate the company was reported to be showing in June 2007.
AT&T's goals are not to be called impossible, however, as the increased budget for U-Verse's rollout may be used to facilitate such growth.
That U-Verse service ain't worth jack-- speeds slow to a crawl the more successful they are in attracting users... & it's riddled with ancient equipment.
AT&T just needs to bite the bullet & spend kazillions upgrading to new equipment + laying fiber to the curb-- just like Verizon did, in order to even begin to be competitive. And, as if that weren't tough, they'll then have to beat the myriad $19-29 competitor pricing...in other words, bleed kazillions of dollars + endure years of red ink before the ship rights itself.
Barring that, they'd need to convince local cellular, gas / oil & electricity suppliers to partner with them(read share some of the costs-- good luck with that spiel) in broadband over the air / power lines / pipes... & it better be bleeding edge / comparitively fast to Fios(let's actually say twice as fast: 100mb at least, as by the time it rolls out, we'll be close to gb speeds).
I'd say short AT&T stock.
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|Good for AT&T, but doubtful... Unlike most on here, I see a financial collapse in 2008. The US Dollar is going to sh*t and the dirrivative markets are collapsing daily. meaning hundreds of billions are vanishing.. The Fed cut the rate again and the markets are spiraling downward..
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|I agree... major tanking. When the sh*t hits the fan, the first thing companies do is cut back on advertizing - then watch all those who rely on advertizing to tank big time. Oops, there goes Googles stock!!!
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