Originally Posted by Horizon
It all depends on who owns what and when.
If BT changes hands and becomes a predominately foreign owned company (whether the government will allow that, is another matter entirely) but if that happens, that entity will push from day one to be rid of all other operators off its network.
And the new BT may have a good case to make, because with other networks out there, BT is not the monopoly provider anymore, so it could argue that why does it have to allow access to its poles and ducts when others don't.
Comcast is and always will be a cableco, first and foremost. Yes, the bosses (like AT&Ts) are enjoying hobnobbing with Hollywood stars, but I reckon that will come to a end, especially when the tech giants make all their moves on Hollywood, as I expect they will do. So, I'm jumping ahead, but I'm asssuming that once Comcast has offloaded its media assets, it may go on the hunt for more cablecos and Virgin Media's network seems an obvious target.
With the altnets, I am 99% sure they will not stay as independent companies, for exactly the same reason why dozens of cable tv companies couldn't remain independent in the end. It's just too expensive. And as Vodafone has no landline network, it seems the obvious way to go for them. But perhaps VM might pick some of them off, who knows. Or/and perhaps Vodafone and Verizon might come back together again.
Specifically on VM, Liberty Global has already disposed of most of its assets and was always nothing more than a holding company for John Malone. He's busy with Warner and all things American and I see LG selling the remainder of its assets off to the highest bidder in the not too distant future. Doesn't have to be Comcast, it could be Charter or a Euro telecom, but I reckon our telcos, as we currently know them to be, will change hands..
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