Q: Looking a few yrs down the road , do you feel companies such as this will kill the business of companies like BCE, Telus and all the others with towers .
5i Research Answer:
It is a long term threat, but less so in the short term and 'probably' less so to Canadian telcos. Canada continues to have a somewhat protected market and an oligopolistic industry. But, there ultimately should be pressure on prices, and competition will be good for customers and ultimately bad for incumbants. Any traveler knows that Canadian telco services are way more expensive, and more competition is needed. But ATST for now has minimal revenue. It only just completed its very first satellite call in Canada four weeks ago. Bell (BCE) was part of the technology used for this call.