updraftplus domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131hustle domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131wpforms-lite domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/aonyeani76/cryptocurrencypanther/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6131In response to a request for comment, AT&T Inc did not provide an immediate response to debunk the hanging fears from investors and users.
AT&T Inc (NYSE: T), one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies has witnessed a significant drop in its stock value, reaching its lowest point in three decades. Shares of the company reportedly tumbled by nearly 7% on Monday, as news of its involvement in the distribution of toxic lead cables spread like wildfire.
A recent report published by The Wall Street Journal on July 9 has brought to light a disturbing revelation involving major telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ). The report names these corporations, among others, as having abandoned an enormous network of underground wires containing hazardous lead.
AT&T now faces the challenge of restoring investor confidence amidst the ongoing toxic lead cable scandal. The stock has lost a quarter of its value this year, plummeting more than 12% since the Wall Street Journal report. The stock touched a low of $13.68 on Monday, the lowest since March 1993.
AT&T’s forward Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio of 5.95, as reported by Eikon data, stands below the industry median of 8.78. This suggests that AT&T’s stock is trading at a lower valuation than its peers in the industry.
Notably, Verizon has also experienced a decline in its stock price, falling 5.5% to $32.14, reaching a nearly 13-year low. Since The Wall Street Journal report, Verizon’s stock has lost over 10% of its value.
Citi analysts, led by Michael Rollins highlighted in a recent investor note that AT&T’s potential significant exposure to toxic lead cables poses unquantifiable financial risks for the company, creating a long-term overhang on its stock. With its extensive network reaching about 40% of US homes, the financial implications related to environmental cleanup, remediation efforts, and legal liabilities are causes for concern.
In response to a request for comment, AT&T Inc did not provide an immediate response to debunk the hanging fears from investors and users. However, US Telecom, a lobby group representing AT&T, Verizon, and other telecoms firms, issued a statement shedding light on the considerations involved in the decision to remove or leave buried cables.
The group emphasized that there is currently no evidence indicating that “legacy lead-sheathed telecom cables” are the leading cause of lead exposure or public health issues.
Analyst Michael Rollins from Citigroup has downgraded his rating on the company’s stock and significantly reduced the price target. Rollins downgraded the stock from “buy” to “neutral” and slashed the price target from $22 to $16. Similarly, JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) analysts, led by Philip Cusick, have joined the list of analysts downgrading their rating on AT&T Inc’s stock. The analysts lowered their rating from “overweight” to “neutral” in response to the series of concerns.
The downgraded rating by JPMorgan further underscores the growing apprehension among analysts regarding AT&T’s financial outlook and potential challenges the company may face in its core business areas.
On the other hand, Morningstar analyst Michael Hodel has commented that while the situation warrants attention, he does not expect the telecom industry to bear substantial legal liability.
Hodel’s statement reflects the belief that the potential legal consequences and financial liabilities associated with the toxic lead cables may not have a significant impact on the overall telecom industry. However, constant monitoring and assessment of the situation will be required to properly grasp the scope of any legal or financial consequences.
Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalists who relish writing about the real life applications of blockchain technology and innovations to drive general acceptance and worldwide integration of the emerging technology. His desires to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain based media and sites. Benjamin Godfrey is a lover of sports and agriculture.
Per an official post by Input-Output Global (IOG), a major cable provider in the U.S. DISH Network will launch a decentralized identification and loyalty program on the Cardano blockchain. The publicly-traded company gave its “first step” into the deployment of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
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This product will leverage IOG’s Atala PRISM identity solution and Cardano’s native asset features to deploy its own token. As IOG claimed, the company aims to “create a robust and fully digital and decentralized identification and loyalty framework”.
DISH is one of the largest cable providers in the United States. Data from Statista records over 11 million active DISH users in 2020. The cooperation with IOG could see all of these people adopting and benefiting from Cardano’s blockchain capabilities in the coming years.
This partnership was first announced by IOG’s CEO Charles Hoskinson. In 2021, Hoskinson said the Colorado-based company and IOG were going to work together and build a “novel blockchain” solution to boost the adoption of this technology and digital assets.
The cooperation is part of a long-term project called CRONUS which was created to integrate Cardano into the DISH infrastructure and its ecosystem. The blockchain-based company said the following on the MVP and their objectives:
(…) creating a backend token-based loyalty system supported by blockchain technology. The first step in that journey is enabling the minting of loyalty tokens on the Cardano blockchain that duplicate the loyalty coins balance in DISH’s BoostOne loyalty program.
The Cardano blockchain will be used to track the token that will form DISH’s loyalty program. These tokens will be called Boostcoin and will be automatically accrued to users, minted, or burned depending on the situation.
This operation will be supported by Cardano but will remain independent of IOG. In other words, this company will be unable to view user data or to interfere with these processes.
Per the IOG report, the MVP will have the capacity to manage the loyalty program and the token’s supply. The product will have an API that will control the mint/burn mechanism on the blockchain, and a native wallet to hold these assets.
Perhaps, the most interesting feature is DISH’s capacity to generate a decentralized identifier (DID) for each of its customers. In order to produce this data, the MVP will use IOG’s Atala SDK library. None of this information will be publicly available on the Cardano blockchain.
Furthermore, DISH is not only actively working to release this product on this network and to integrate it with its infrastructure, but it will contribute to its ecosystem. IOG said the following on DISH’s future role as a member of the Cardano ecosystem:
DISH will become a participant in the Cardano Ecosystem by running various nodes, issuing DIDs, minting and burning native assets. The next stage will involve blockchain adoption where DISH users will be slowly introduced to the different aspects of the blockchain ecosystems. Including but not limited to having a wallet.
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At the time of writing, ADA’s price trades at $0.64 with a 4% profit in the last 24-hours.
