Telecom Daily
Welcome to Faulkner's Telecom Daily. We publish Monday through Friday, updating top stories as events warrant.
Friday, February 26...
FCC Reveals Results of C-Band Spectrum Auction
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
revealed the
results of its recently-completed C-Band spectrum auction. In total, the
airspace sale brought in $81 billion in gross bids from a total of 21 bidders.
The big winner of this latest spectrum distribution was
Verizon Communications. Bidding under the
name "Cellco Partnership," the telecom company spend a total of $45.45 billion
on 3,511 licenses. Verizon's direct competitor
AT&T came in a distant second place with $23.4 billion spent on 1,621
licenses, while T-Mobile spent just a
fraction in third place at $9.34 billion paid for 254 licenses. US Cellular also
acquired 142 licenses for $1.28 billion. All participants are expected to use
their purchased spectrum to expand their mid-band 5G services across the US. A
total of 5,684 licenses were distributed during the sale.
Target to Open Mini Apple Stores Inside Retail Locations
Apple shoppers will soon have the option of
visiting a new chain of "mini" Apple Stores inside
Target brick-and-mortar locations. The shops will be staffed by Target
personnel that have received additional training from Apple itself, and will
sell a range of the company's familiar iPhone, iPad, and other device lines. The
first of these locations are expected to open by the end of February, with a
total of 17 stores being included in the initial rollout. Over half of the new
store-within-a-store outlets will be located within Florida and Texas, with the
rest spread across Minnesota, California, Oklahoma, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
Target has promised that additional locations will open "in 2021 and beyond."
Cogent Reports Growing Revenue, Shrinking Profits on Foreign Exchange and
Interest Losses
Cogent Communications posted its financial
results for the fourth quarter and 2020 fiscal year. For the period, the
company's revenue reached $143.9 million, a modest bump from the last quarter of
2019, when Cogent reported revenues of $140.2 million. Despite the growth,
increased interest and foreign exchange expenses resulted in a quarterly net
loss of $6.6 million, or $0.14 per share, compared to a net income of $7.4
million, or $0.16 reported one year ago. On these results, Cogent declared a
quarterly dividend for the final quarter of $0.73 per share of its common stock.
For the fiscal year, Cogent's revenue was $568.1 million, a rise over 2019's
$546.16 million. Net income here was $6.2 million, or $0.14 per share, a steep
drop off from the previous year's total of $37.5 million, or $0.82 per share,
largely due to the same growing interest and foreign exchange expenses.
...Michael Gariffo, Faulkner Information Services
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