The Rise and Fall of Telecoms

The telecoms industry is once under attack from falling stocks with Verizon Communications and AT&T Inc both seeing drops of 1.5 percent. Is this a true reflection of how the industry is progressing?

Despite low figures the latest Intel acquirement of McAfee adds a new dimension to the telecoms industry and smart phone security. It is also just the tip of what has been an investment iceberg for the month of August. The acquisition by Intel is a defining step in their quest to be the chip supplier for nearly every electronic device which connects with the internet. The deal finally went through with Intel agreeing to pay $7.68 billion in cash for McAffee, and is the largest acquisition for the company in their 42-year history.

But what does this mean for the telecoms industry and how will it affect both competition and telecom security and which companies will be affected? AT&T who have just announced their attendance to the NGT NA summit (hosted by GDS International) know that, while mobile security is not yet at the top of the list of consumer concerns, as more people turn to mobile banking and technology reliant smart phones increase in popularity they will need to protect from external threats and the data bills that customers will receive from outside ‘hack jobs’.

So the future of telecoms will continue to track the growth of technology innovation. The NGT NA summit understands that there is more to telecoms than phones and contracts. It is an industry comprised of components and it is those closed-door acquisitions, which in part include that of Intel and McAfee, that fund the advancements of technology within the sector. Companies such as CenturyLink - Matt Beal, CTO and FiberNet - Jack Belcher, VP of IT, both of whom are part of the NGT NA committee, have been dominating the M&A frontier; CenturyLink Inc. have just acquired Qwest Communications International for $22.2 billion while Fibernet have had interest from NTELOS.

This month alone has seen over $175 billion announced in takeover plans, the most so far this year according to Bloomberg, with telecoms companies being among the most cash rich. So despite the drop in shares registered by some companies the recent surge in mergers and acquisitions show an industry that is far from dead. Rather, it demonstrates and how cross industries such as IT security and Telecoms are now coming together to provide the ultimate consumer experience.