Jeff Kagan Quotations

With this merger, AT&T is going to be the biggest phone company and the biggest wireless company. That means they're also going to be the biggest competitor to the cable companies.

Wow. That's a better start than anyone thought.

What we're facing right now is the beginnings of a brand new marketplace.

We've seen the telecommunications industry change dramatically in the last 20 years. And we'll see it change again in the next 10 years. And eventually, the end result should be better services and lower costs for consumers.

No carrier wants to roll out a service only to have it not live up to customers' high expectations. Carriers want the fastest route to having a robust and reliable service on the market.

People who want traditional phone service will pay what they are paying now.

People won't just buy bundles for the sake of convenience. They will favor the brands they trust, but they will also want to know they're getting the best services available.

On Monday, the floodgates will open and consumers will be bombarded through their mailboxes, their televisions and newspapers. It will be confusing at first until they realize they can get all of their services from one company. Then it should be easier for customers.

He was the loudest voice back in the 1990s. We all looked at that and thought it was too much but apparently it was the right thing because he won.

He's a Texan, and he's winning. He does what he has to do to make the deals and grow the company. He doesn't take no for an answer. And everybody wins. The companies he acquires, the stockholders.

Parents will love this feature. Kids will find it a mixed bag. They like the protection it provides just in case they get in trouble and need help, but some kids may not like their parents knowing where they are every minute.

Some of the carriers will not be able to develop their own services, especially when it comes to delivering video content. Partnerships will be important for those who want to have a full bundle to offer but can't develop the services on their own.

Mike Armstrong jumped in when we all thought we knew where the industry was heading. Before he knew it, the changes that he had made were not helping AT&T, and he had to sell his way out of it.

What's happening there in New York is an early curve of what's going to be happening around the country in the next few years. This is a new wave of competition. Basically the telephone and cable television companies are both rushing to offer the same bundle of services: television, phone, Internet and wireless. The sooner they do, the sooner prices will come down for all the customers.

They all are in a mad rush to roll out services that the other ones don't have. It could be a small lead because eventually everyone will have the same services.

The wireless phones will be used to manage more and more of our lives. If we are going to use these phones for all they can offer, we have to be smart about it. Either that or there will have to be new laws passed making it illegal to drive and talk at the same time.

The rules of the telecom business are changing.

Telecommunications companies always worry about cannibalizing their own revenue streams with lower priced alternatives. Consumers will decide on more than just price, however.

They're struggling. It doesn't look like they're going out of business, but the industry is reinventing itself and the company is trying to figure out where it fits in.

AT&T actually exited the cell phone business in its early days and had to buy its way back into wireless later. If it hadn't been broken apart, you'd never have gotten the creative juices of competition that pushed all this new technology we have today.

Everyone is jockeying for position in a rapidly changing world and industry.

It was not unexpected, but the timing was a lot sooner than anyone thought.

Their focus on bundling and broadband seems to be working since they are growing, not losing business, so far. They are losing some customers to the cable TV industry, but the numbers are still strong.

In recent years the show has outlined the coming competition with the Bells. This year is the year the competition begins.

Investing is a game with an eye on the future. People lost track of that in telecom during the last several years when the finish line might have been tomorrow or next week. This might get everyone else thinking that telecom is not doomed.

Cable companies have decided to wait until there's a threat, but when there's a threat, they're going to act. For them to not raise rates is historical.

The carriers are finding all sorts of new ways to make money.

The long-term winners will be the big companies we all know by name now. In the shorter term, the smaller firms are doing a good job of building customer bases and rolling up the technology they'll need to compete.