CenturyTel – Fighting the Good Fight

Implications: Back during the early 2000s meltdown, CenturyTel had been sucking up rural telcos across the country.  I was frankly doubtful the company could sustain itself unless everyone else in their territory rolled over and disappear.

Analysis: CenturyTel has weathered the meltdown of the early 2000s and appears to be surviving the current recession.  The company does not really have any competition of note in its markets.  Bear in mind there is nothing wrong in that situation.

The company has made some smart moves; one of them is its relationship with DISH.  I am a believer in the wireline segment.  Wireless carriers can only provide users a limited amount of bandwidth.  The landline companies can provide more bandwidth to users via fiber optic systems.  Of course the limiting factor for landline carriers is time and money.  It takes more time to deploy a physical piece of transmission plant to every home than it does to drop a cell tower.  Then again there is also the question of whether or not landline carriers are providing users more bandwidth than they can even use.

Then there is that killer of any technically superior product or service – CONVENIENCE.  Convenience of use is a powerful inducement for a consumer to buy wireless.  Wireless technology offers users convenience on so many different levels.

The challenge for CenturyTel is staying in the game as a viable carrier in a day and age when more and more younger people are moving towards wireless followed by more and more older people moving towards wireless.

CenturyTel and other rural telcos need to think about viewing themselves as not only a telecom carrier but also as a full service communications and media company – this might be the only way for the rural telcos to survive.