Telstra values its NBN deal at $16 billion (Australia)
Telstra Ltd has valued its proposed deal with NBN Co at $16 billion.
According to Telstra, the $11 billion figure reflects the post-tax cost of the deal, which would see the telco paid $9 billion to decommission its copper network and customers can migrate to the national broadband network and another $2 billion in benefits from policy reforms.
According to Chief executive David Thodey, it would be tremendous for talks with the NBN Co to wrap up by Christmas, enabling shareholders to vote on the proposal by mid-2011.
As per the NBN Co’s annual report should these agreements be finalized, NBN Co expects they would be put to Telstra shareholders in the first half of the 2011 calendar year.Telstra chairman Catherine Livingstone has told fund managers concerned about the telco’s performance that the company was doing all it could to push the deal towards finalization, but that some aspect of the agreement remained out of its hands.
According to sources, she pointed to the patience of Thodey in negotiating the original deal and said that the market would have to show similar patience with the company seeing it through to a binding agreement.
According to reports, the comments came amid shareholder concern that Telstra might have to cut its 28 cent-per-share dividend, and worries around the telco’s shareholder plan.
Verizon sees FiOS profitable in 2009
US operator Verizon expects its fibre-to-the-home service FiOS to post its first operating profit in 2009, about five years after starting work on the project. The company expects to book a return on all its FiOS investments, excluding associated interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 2008. The profitability estimates are based on attracting 7 million FiOS internet customers and 4 million FiOS TV customers by the end of 2010. Verizon had around 500,000 internet customers at the end of the second quarter and this is expected to reach 750,000 by the end of this year. The FiOS TV service is expected to reach 175,000 subscribers by the end of 2006.
Verizon said its on track for the FiOS network to pass 6 million homes by the end of this year, rising to 18 million by 2010, or 50 percent of Verizon’s wireline footprint. The company is investing in total USD 18 billion in the period 2004-10 in the fibre network, a figure net of the estimated USD 4.9 billion it would have cost to maintain the copper network during that period. The company expects by 2010 a penetration of 20-25 percent for TV and 30-35 percent for internet services among homes passed by the network.
Source- http://www.telecompaper.com
Technorati : Mobile, U.S, Verizon Wireless
Ice Rocket : Mobile, U.S, Verizon Wireless
