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NSR Policy: LEAD Story Again Hits Telco Stocks. But is that the Right Reaction?

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) yesterday published a follow up article to several articles last summer that investigated the presence of lead in telephone networks. Yesterday’s article had a negative impact on telco stocks, with VZ down 3.02%, T down 3.79%, FYBR down 6.43% and LUMN down 7.06%. In this note, we provide links to our previous thinking on the subject, summarize the key elements of the new WSJ article, provide a summary of the state of play and then offer our views on the key investor question (who potentially pays for what) and what are facts that if disclosed would cause us to adjust our views on the risks to the telephone companies.
Underlyings
AT&T Inc.

AT&T is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a provider of telecommunications, media and technology services. The company's Communications segment provides wireless and wireline telecom, video and broadband services. The company's WarnerMedia segment includes media and entertainment businesses that principally develop, produce and distribute feature films, television content, and other content globally; and operate digital media properties. The company's Latin America segment provides entertainment services in Latin America and wireless services in Mexico. The company's XANDR segment relies on using data from its customer relationships, to develop digital and video advertising that is relevant to consumers.

Frontier Communications Corporation Class B

Frontier Communications is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company is a provider of communications services. The company conducts business with both consumer and commercial customers. For consumer customers, the company provides broadband, video, voice and other services and products. The company delivers these services over a combination of fiber and copper-based networks. The company's commercial customers consist of: small, medium and larger enterprise customers, whereby the company provides services including broadband service, Ethernet service, circuit-based services, SD-WAN, and managed Wi-Fi; and wholesale customers, which buy both voice and data services to supplement their own network infrastructure.

Verizon Communications Inc.

Verizon Communications is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides communications, information and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses and governmental agencies. The company has two reportable segments, Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business). The company's Consumer segment provides consumer-focused wireless and wireline communications services and products under the Verizon brand and through wholesale and other arrangements. The company's Business segment provides, among others, wireless and wireline communications services and products, video and data services, corporate networking solutions, security and managed network services.

Provider
New Street Research
New Street Research

Provided by our team of experienced analysts, our work is idea driven, based on independence of thought, sector expertise, and firmly focussed on fundamentals and valuation.

New Street Research is an independent, partner-owned, research firm specialising in equity and debt research. Our equity research embraces the following sectors:

  • Pan European Telecom Services and Cable
  • US Telecoms, Cable, Satellite and Towers
  • Global Emerging Market Telecoms
  • Japan Telecoms
  • Asian Internet
  • Pan European Healthcare
  • Global healthcare thematic research

We provide debt research on:

  • Pan European Telecom Services and Cable


Analysts
Blair Levin

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