Given that there are still 7 figures homes that don't have 50/5 or any published schedule for it and more with no date for 100/10 perhaps we should not get too excited over bonding 32 downstreams.
Always good to grab headlines though.
EDIT:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/...st_1_5_Gig.php
http://www.lightreading.com/blog.asp...&site=lr_cable
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Financial nerd as I am the really cool part of the results from the VM POV is this one:
Quote:
During the quarter, all three major credit rating agencies upgraded the ratings on our Senior Secured Debt to "Investment Grade". This is the first time such a rating has been achieved in the UK cable industry. Following this, we issued approximately £957m equivalent aggregate principal amount of senior secured notes due 2021 in $500m and £650m tranches bearing interest at a rate of 5.25% and 5.5% respectively. £900m of the net proceeds were used to repay a portion of our existing senior credit facility. As a result we have no debt repayments due before 2015.
We intend to retire our $550m 9.125% 2016 notes by the first call date of August 15, 2011 using cash on our balance sheet, further reducing both total debt and future interest expense.
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Investment grade dramatically lowers interest rates as it makes the company able to tap the mainstream bond market rather than relying on specialist higher risk investors as can be seen by the reduction in interest rate.