Cable Has the Edge Over Telcos - Barron's (at Seeking Alpha)

by: SA Editor Eli Hoffmann posted on: August 03, 2008 | about stocks: Barron's Tech Trader Eric Savitz says recent Q2 earnings results give him every reason to believe telcos are being owned (or pwned) by the cable industry. Verizon lost 1.7M access lines last quarter, and 171K DSL lines - the first time ever a U.S. telco has lost net DSL customers. It did add 176K FiOS video subs and 187K FiOS broadband lines, but Bernstein's Craig Moffett is startled by the fact that growth in both slowed from Q1 - and that the 6% gain in FiOS broadband customers was despite a 33% increase in coverage. AT&T lost almost 1M residential primary access lines, and added 170K U-verse video customers. Contrast that with Comcast and Cablevision . CMCSA added 0.5M new phone customers, 278K broadband accounts, and 320K digital cable lines, while... [read full story]