Piper Jaffray On Telecom Sector (VZ, T, AMT)

Piper Jaffray has its weekly telecom sector industry report out and writes about such companies as American Tower AMT, Verizon VZ, AT&T T and Research in Motion RIMM. In a note to investors, Piper Jaffray states, "During the second quarter of 2010, we saw a significant slowdown in prepaid net adds compared to last year, causing investors to wonder if prepaid growth is drying up. While we do believe the pool of potential prepaid subscribers may have shrunk modestly, we think we could be seeing one side of a pendulum effect occurring in prepaid - meaning over the next 12 months there could be a swing back to stronger growth." With regards to the aforementioned companies, Piper Jaffray writes, "American Tower announced that it has closed its acquisition of Essar for approximately $430M in cash. The deal provides AMT with over 4,600 wireless tower sites in India." "Verizon is also adding to wireless competition by testing new postpaid plans in Texas and Louisiana that include unlimited calling to mobile phones. The plans are similar to Sprint’s Any Mobile plans, but do not include unlimited data." "AT&T and RIM announced the new BlackBerry Torch, which runs the new BlackBerry 6 OS and is exclusive to AT&T. The device will be available August 12 for $199 with a 2-year contract."