Speaking of Cash Cows ... Absolutely Nothing To Do With The Bakken

NOTE: The IPs for wells coming off the confidential list have been posted. Scroll down or go to the link at the sidebar at the right: new wells reporting are at the very top.

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For newbies: in addition to the Bakken, I enjoy following one telecom company and one mobile entertainment device company.

Google start-up skirts cellphone data plans: Skype founder launches Freedom-Pop which will provide users half a gigabyte of high-speed wireless data per month free and sell more at cheaper rates than what the big carriers charge.

But that's not why I posted the story. I posted it simply because of the great writing:

ATT and Verizon Wireless have become a bit like the Hotel California (in that, like the song says, you can never leave). 

But for the business minded and investors (disclaimer: remember, this is not an investment site):

The two companies (ATT and Verizon) are grabbing the bulk of the industry's new contract customers, and the rate at which people are dropping those plans is at the lowest level in at least eight years.

By the way, that's why investors support the idea of "ObamaPhones": those 250 free minutes are not free. Someone is paying for them. And in this case, it's the US government transferring tax dollars (actually user fees, I guess) from anyone who uses a phone, to the big carriers. At least I assume that is what is happening. It's a huge regressive tax, but goes right to the bottom line of the carriers, I suppose. I could be wrong, but I assume that's how it works. But I digress.

[Note: I talk more about the telecom industry below the videos.]

The purpose of posting this story:
Hotel California, The Eagles

By the way, this is the story of my investing life: stumbling in --
Stumblin' In, Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman
An interesting story about that Suzi Quatro duet. Most folks who end up at MDW do so via bookmarks. "In the beginning," that was not true. Most folks found the site by googling "something." It is hard to believe, but the most googled phrase that brought folks to my blog(s) were "Stumblin' In" and "Storms Never Last." The latter is still one of my most visited sites (on another blog).

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Now, back to the telecoms

Recent data has shown that while consumers have cut back spending on amenities coming out of the recession their spending on their phone bills has increased. According to data released from the Labor Department earlier this week in 2011 spending on phone services in the U.S increased by 4 percent, which was the fastest rate in nearly 7 years. Wireless carriers such as -- Verizon and AT&T -- had mobile services revenues of 22 billion in 2007, which then soared to 59 billion by 2011, according to UBS AG analysts. UBS expects that number to rise to $109 billion by 2017.

ATT and Verizon are the two largest telecoms in the US. Can you name the third?