Telecom lawyers rake it in

One way to get rich in telecom is to represent one carrier acquiring another. Law firms that represent telecom carriers are racking up huge billable hours as a number of major telecom mergers churn through the system. As Senior Editor Carolyn Duffy Marsan reports, dozens of law firms representing carriers involved in the SBC/AT&T, Sprint/Nextel and Verizon/MCI mergers are handling the enormous amount of corporate and regulatory legal work involved with getting these mergers approved by shareholders, as well as state, federal and foreign regulators. (Read the story)

SBC, by itself, is doing OK as well, thank you. Though the RBOC's second-quarter net income of $1 billion was down 14.4% from a year ago, SBC posted operating revenue of $10.3 billion, up 1.3% from the same quarter in 2004. This is the company's fifth straight quarter of revenue growth. The profit drop was due to cost associated with Cingular's adsorption of AT&T Wireless - SBC owns 60% of Cingular. Without those charges, SBC posted earnings per share of 43 cents, well above analyst expectations of 37 cents per share. (Read the story)

Even before your kids fight for the IPTV remote, you can tune in to a row in Congress. Two giant industries - cable TV companies vs. telecom carriers - are pitted against each other over rules that will govern competition for traditional television and advanced video and broadband services offered to U.S. residents.  As IDG News Service Correspondent Grant Gross reports, two bills now before Congress would exempt cable TV competitors - like the RBOCs - from local franchise requirements, although allowing local governments to continue receiving franchise fees. In essence, companies such as SBC and Verizon would need to negotiate one national franchise, with the fees filtering back to local governments. (Read the story)

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One way to get rich in telecom is to represent one carrier acquiring another. Law firms that represent telecom carriers are racking up huge billable hours as a number of major telecom mergers churn through the system. As Senior Editor Carolyn Duffy Marsan reports, dozens of law firms representing carriers involved in the SBC/AT&T, Sprint/Nextel and Verizon/MCI mergers are handling the enormous amount of corporate and regulatory legal work involved with getting these mergers approved by shareholders, as well as state, federal and foreign regulators. (Read the story)

SBC, by itself, is doing OK as well, thank you. Though the RBOC's second-quarter net income of $1 billion was down 14.4% from a year ago, SBC posted operating revenue of $10.3 billion, up 1.3% from the same quarter in 2004. This is the company's fifth straight quarter of revenue growth. The profit drop was due to cost associated with Cingular's adsorption of AT&T Wireless - SBC owns 60% of Cingular. Without those charges, SBC posted earnings per share of 43 cents, well above analyst expectations of 37 cents per share. (Read the story)

Even before your kids fight for the IPTV remote, you can tune in to a row in Congress. Two giant industries - cable TV companies vs. telecom carriers - are pitted against each other over rules that will govern competition for traditional television and advanced video and broadband services offered to U.S. residents.  As IDG News Service Correspondent Grant Gross reports, two bills now before Congress would exempt cable TV competitors - like the RBOCs - from local franchise requirements, although allowing local governments to continue receiving franchise fees. In essence, companies such as SBC and Verizon would need to negotiate one national franchise, with the fees filtering back to local governments. (Read the story)

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