Level 3 Communications will acquire WilTel Communications Group for 115 million shares of Level 3 common stock and $370 million cash, Level 3 and Leucadia National announced today. The acquisition combines two major U.S. backbone network providers and will include WilTel’s master services agreement with SBC Communications and its Vyvx video service business but not its outstanding debt or mortgage obligations. Article TELEPHONYonline
The Dem's were all but shown the door in August if they didn't give in to Martin's elimination of mandated linesharing. FCC order. Related article from Network Life
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators failed to reach agreement Friday on whether to approve SBC Communications' takeover of AT&T, and Verizon Communications' purchase of MCI.
The Federal Communications Commission met through the day but could not agree on what conditions, if any, should be attached to the deals. Another meeting was set for Monday.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who supports the mergers, has pressed for no conditions at all.
He needs backing by at least one of the two Democratic commissioners on the four-member panel to get a majority. Article
Business Week - SBC CEO Whitacre to content providers - "get off my lines!"
When the conversation turns to the state of the telecom industry, his mood
darkens. Cable companies and Internet upstarts are swiping millions of
customers from SBC and other old-line phone companies. Just a few days
earlier online auctioneer eBay Inc. (EBAY ) had agreed to pay $2.6 billion
for Skype Technologies, a Luxembourg startup that lets people make free
phone calls over the Net.
Pressed on the threat from these Web upstarts, Whitacre leans forward in his
chair and raises his voice. "They don't have any fiber out there. They don't
have any wires. They don't have anything," he argues. "They use my lines for
free -- and that's bull. For a Google (GOOG ) or a Yahoo! (YHOO ) or a
Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes for free is nuts!"
Storm Warnings For Kevin Martin - Telecoms Harry Potter
The new FCC chairman is about to confront issues that divide business.
Just on the horizon are hot issues -- from charges of indecent broadcasts to media consolidation to next year's rewrite of the telecom laws -- that could be contentious. "Will he avoid a policy shipwreck on his watch?" says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer advocate. "I'm not so sure."
Six competing service providers and a group of business customers have come together to ask the Federal Communications Commission to impose conditions, including price cuts, on the proposed SBC-AT&T and Verizon-MCI mergers.
In an ex parte filing, BT Americas, Broadwing Communications, Level 3 Communications, Qwest Communications International, SAVVIS, Inc., and XO Communications joined the Ad Hoc Telecommunications Users Committee in asking the FCC to protect competition by making sure that SBC and Verizon will not be able to restrict access or raise prices once the mergers remove AT&T and MCI from the competitive mix. TelephonyOnline
Reporting in this weeks Crains Chicago Business Magazine, Verizon is hitting on the top businesses in Chicago. Qwest who already had a presence in the Chicago area for a few years now, is already beefing up its own existing sales force. Article
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