Jeff Kagan Quotes (109 Quotes)

Customers love what competition does for their phone bills, but it often comes at the cost of workers. Real people lose real jobs to keep the companies cost-competitive. ... We can't have it all competition, lower prices and expect the companies to keep their employee counts the same.

This should give Sprint a competitive advantage.

The weakest link for SBC is offering international service to business customers. This deal should make SBC stronger,

The US carriers have all shied away form anything that would cause trouble or hurt their image,

Atlanta Telecom Professionals is an important organization and through the years has continued to raise awareness of the importance of the telecom industry to the city of Atlanta. The addition of and continued support from high-profile executives on the Executive Advisory Board positions the organization for strong and continued growth.

Of all the names in telecom, only one has the history of ATT. ATT was the name of the phone company since we were kids, and in fact since our parents and our grandparents were kids. It would have been sad and a waste of all that historic brand value.

When they have these accounting issues it makes it very difficult to develop the kind of trust they need from investors and customers and workers. They shot themselves in the foot again.

ATT is reinventing itself as a voice over IP player,

This problem has been festering for way too long. Now BlackBerry can get on with the business instead of concentrating on this possible shutdown.

I'm looking for a light touch. You don't want to throw ice water on it.

For a long time we watched the long-distance companies take it on the chin but the Baby Bells held their own. All of a sudden we're seeing the Baby Bells touched by the same pressures.

The television services that we will be using in coming years will look much different than the service we used over the last 30 years. Phone companies like ATT are rushing to offer a competitive television service to allow them to compete with the cable television companies.

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

But better would be to find another solution and within the 30 days. While we do need to address the E911 issues, and while users need to understand the problems, cutting off their phone service is no longer an option. This is 2005, for crying out loud.

It's about damn time. ... The marketplace has to hope that this is finally the end.

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.

Ed wanted to take over BellSouth for a long time. He started with the smallest Baby Bell and merged it into the biggest. He'd always been very obvious about what he's doing.

The purpose is really twofold. To update the thinking of investors and customers on the changing company and the changing industry.

There's an explosion of wireless services that are available and a screaming need for spectrum. This is going to be a big boost for the industry.

They have got to change the world's view of the company. It's something that goes way beyond what they've done in the past.

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

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

I have not seen any slowing reported by the major ISPs. Eventually it will slow down because there are only a certain number of users in the country, but I don't see it happening yet.

The market for mobile search is small now, but that makes it the right time for those with designs on being major players in the future to get a foothold in the market.

If they are successful, I expect to see the idea spread. But it will be harder than 10 years ago to be successful as the (competitive) offerings in the industry are maturing.

It's the next natural wave of industry consolidation.

The news is actually good for the industry as we hope multiple companies will compete. This will keep pricing low and innovation high. We are moving into a customer-focused time as both sides compete for the entire, big bundle of services. The whole customer. That's the big challenge.

We thought we might have been seeing the beginnings of some good news. As it turns out that may have been a little bit premature.

For a long time, convergence and all-in-one services were ideas that many people believed in even though they couldn't see it in the marketplace. Now we see a lot of carriers coming to the same point of being able to actually offer it.

The big shifts that are occurring in the industry are not having a positive impact on their sales. As the years pass, and as the industry moves toward IP and wireless-based technology, they face more competition.

Wireless is too dependent on the external power supply. And since wireless phones are becoming the main phone line for many people, the industry has to make sure that customers have the same kind of reliability as with landlines.

This ad campaign is ATT's chance to explain what the industry is going to look like going forward and what its role will be. By taking the ATT name, the company got a chance to reinvent itself in the marketplace.

AOL has tried many things over the years to solve this problem and none of them have worked. This plan sounds good. It's a branding solution that helps AOL remain important to the customer. AOL has to prove it works, but it could be what AOL is looking for.

It makes sense for companies to merge. They have higher income and lower expenses as the competitive threat grows.

Is SBC buying at the right price That's the key. It could cost less to do a deal in a year.

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.

We have to come up with a solution that addresses both problems. I don't have an answer, but we see the two sides coming at this from their own corners, and we don't see any middle ground yet.

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.

If the FCC takes a hands-off approach, it'll be like flipping a switch, and the lights will all come on for every Internet executive. Any company that has a huge Internet customer base, it's a natural.

This is the year that we are going to see the phone companies and cable operators offering the same bundle of services. As consumers, we've always done business with both. But now we will choose one or the other. And that is a major market shift.

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

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 ATT, and he had to sell his way out of it.

Nortel has been saddled with accounting issues for years. Last year we thought it was done and the company was going to start recovery. This news bothers everyone -- investors, customers and workers. Getting back on track is enough of a challenge as the industry continues to change.

Customers love and hate their cable television service. They love all the channels, but they hate the high prices they have to pay. Families wonder why they have to pay more for channels they never watch. The cable television industry has hurt itself.

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.

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

We started out with seven 'baby Bells' and AT and T back in 1984 with the divestiture. Prior to that there was basically one company, AT and T. Today there are many companies offering telephone, television, wireless and Internet.

Nextel is going to need a couple of buffers, and the lack of interoperability is one. If they didn't have these buffers, they'd be in serious trouble.

It doesn't get any easier for RIM because more companies want that mobile-messaging business. The market they had to themselves is now something everyone wants a piece of.

This is unprecedented, ... that a player of this size could change its position so quickly -- going in with crushing debt and coming out debt-free.