Re: I may be old fashioned but...
"I disagree that their prime market is shrinking. There has never been so much data transmission required."
At an ever decreasing price. Revenue per user since the 80's has been on a steady decline, even adding broadband into the mix. Unless telcos find new, profitable things to sell people they end up in trouble - as can be seen with Telefonica, France Telecom and KPN in recent history.
Shifting bits sits nearly at the bottom of the value chain, one step above owning physical plant in the ground. Making money comes from making those bits valuable - Netflix and the like for consumers and managed WAN services and applications for businesses.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
