SBC, the second largest telco company in the US announced it will cut 7000 jobs in 2005. Actually this is just an extension of its announcement in 2004 that it will eliminate 10,000 jobs. What's more interesting to me is that it lost 266,000 phone lines in the last quarter of 2004, a trend that started in 2001. I suspect many of those lines have been lost to VOIP (Voice over IP). VOIP is phone service over the Internet. I have been using it for about a year and its great. My cost is 50% of what SBC was charging. I am switching to a new VOIP vendor and my bill for unlimited calling will be $199.00 per year!
SBC's monopoly is on the telephone wire coming to your house. They are losing that monopoly because you don't need their wire any more. Now they must compete on the quality of their service. They are going to have a tough time. Just call for service sometime!
If you are an SBC stock holder consider this. I predict that within 10 years wireless high speed Internet will be widely available. Guess what? No wires. Think cable companies are immune? TVoIP (TV over IP) will enable television over high speed Internet and is being tested as you read this. What if you don't need the cable company's wire for your TV?
The next few years will be interesting to watch. This Internet thing just might be something!
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