Telecom — Happy Days Are Here Again?
Yesterday’s Telecom Hub meeting, a monthly conclave of Washington, DC-area communications industry folk, may have convened under the gray skies of a chilly Spring day, but most speakers seemed almost sunny about the sector’s future.
Joe Harar, Principal, Telecommunications Development Fund, said his group has already funded one start-up this year. In all, he foresees up to 25 IPOs across the telecom industry in 2010, not too shabby a showing considering what he termed the “dry spell” of the last decade. “Telecom’s due,” he said.
Tom Cohen, Partner at the Kelley Drye law firm, sees opportunities blooming as a result of the Broadband Stimulus initiative, at least for large, established carriers with lots of long green. Don’t expect to see any explosion of choice and competition. Fundees for the most part — and certainly those that bid on the FCC’s promised 500 Mhz in new spectrum — will be the usual cast of Big Boys.
Almost on cue, Verizon, Qwest and Comcast today verified Tom’s characteristic perspicacity by filing for stimulus bucks.
Moderator Tom Finkenbinder of Merrill Lynch/BOA asked for a show of hands on the number of VCs noshing chicken with us there in the Tower Club. A few mitts went up. Did they have money to fund new ventures? Everyone nodded. And were they funding anyone? More nods.
New market entrants put in an appearance, among them, Alphons Mulders of The Netherlands’ Expereo International, a hybrid network operator offering connectivity solutions to carriers, SIs and enterprises. Expereo opened its first U.S. office this week. Always good news when offshore businesses decide to land here.
So is it time to party like it’s 1999? Some would argue that those days may never come again. But who knows? Things are certainly buzzing.
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