Telecom Stock Roundup: Comcast To Enter Wireless Market, AT&T's AirGig In Focus
Zacks Investment Research | Sep 22, 2016 08:59AM ET
Last week has been pretty eventful for the telecom industry. Among the slew of developments, leading cable MSO (multi service operator) Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) plans to venture into the U.S. wireless market by mid-2017. The company will offer mobile services either through its WiFi network or via the wireless link of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) with whom it has a MVNO (mobile virtual private network) agreement.
Additionally, Comcast will launch the beta version of its X1 platform using Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) services within the next few days. Instead of merely introducing the app, Comcast plans to integrate Netflix into the X1 system, featuring voice controls and search results among other things.
U.S. telecom behemoth AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) also stayed in the headlines for various reasons. The company has announced ‘AirGig’ – a project which aims at extending 4G LTE and the upcoming 5G wireless network coverage through the existing power grid lines. Although the project is at its nascent stage, if successful, AT&T can deliver high-speed Internet services to underserved parts of the country at a low cost.
Moreover, AT&T has decided to systematically phase out its long-standing U-verse brand, which consists of fiber-based triple-play video (TV), voice (telephony) and high-speed broadband (Internet) offerings.Recently, AT&T announced that the company will terminate its U-verse broadband and voice brands.In the future, even the DIRECTV satellite TV brand likely to be renamed, symbolizing the company’s transition to a single entertainment portfolio.
In a separate development, AT&T and French telecom Orange S.A. (NYSE:ORAN) have teamed up on open source initiatives in order to accelerate the standardization of software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). AT&T currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see Zacks Investment Research
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