How much better off would we be if we actually focused on what we are - a telecommunications company - and not try and become something we're not - a media conglomerate.
How much have we had to pay so far for the failings in parts of the company that had nothing to do with us?
That c-ap of just doing what we do was fine in the 50s and 60s before there was competition. We didn’t have to worry about short time to market windows, price pressures from competition and competitors innovation. We could take our time rolling out a new product and freakin’ gold plate it. But many of you still think we can. You can have the best product in the world but if you’re late to the party it means nothing...you missed the boat. We could just be a telecom company, but we’d have to focus a lot more on R&D like we did with Bell Labs. We’d have to become nimbler, more innovative and quicker. So what a lot of you think is that we should concentrate on the “pipes” and the network, our business customers, residential connectivity and wireless. We can. But we’d be doing it with a hell of a lot less people.
"If the business is a money maker, nothing to worry about. If not, then you shouldn't be surprised if there are headcount reduction. "
There you go again thinking that something logical is going to happen. Expect reductions based on what they want to do next not based on whether something is profitable or not. They want to use AT&Ts 100 plus years of image but not actually have to be AT&T. They throw tons of money at machine learning and AI that quite frankly has been a dud in an industry that already knows how to use data in meaningful ways. Embedded in partnerships with vendors that overcharge us and whose IT or product delivery is delayed or needs constant fixes. Basic systems that should be rock solid plagued with outages. But hey what do we know, we only do this for a living.
downvote because i tell you that both uverse and pots are still moneymakers? the truth hurts i guess, and they have you convinced - but the numbers say otherwise.
T being in the shape it's in, it's all my fault. I spent 5 hours clearing a cable pair instead of cutting a change like has been done on this one line the last 3 times in a few weeks. I'ma try to do better.
If the business is a money maker, nothing to worry about. If not, then you shouldn't be surprised if there are headcount reduction.
landline? do you mean dsl or pots? both still moneymakers
landline? do you mean dsl or pots? both still moneymakers
I say we split communications and media. Spin media off into its own company. They can even have Stinky, I hear he knows TV and what customers want better than anyone, even the customer!
Let's put someone COMPETENT (wouldn't that be an awesome change?) in charge of communications, someone who wants to grow our communications services into a leading, world class company instead of gutting it to make a bunch of r—ded acquisitions.
Should have gotten rid of home phone a while ago.
Agreed, we are out of our core competency which is wireless, home phone and internet. Wireless is our cash cow and these execs saw loads of cash sitting around to then come up with these terrible ideas. Buy DirecTV to then sell 7 other services that’s basically the same thing just packaged in a different way. It’s insanity. Imagine telling a customer we are ending UVerse so we need to switch out your box and it’s now called ATT Tv. It’s the same thing to the customer just with a remote that can be voice controlled.
May be we can top Google? ...Hey..HEY!!
"We shall beat IBM"... Haha ... Speaking of computing, does anyone remember when we bought NCR in the 90's, when T had rosy visions of the 'convergence' of computing and communications? After many money-losing years, we spun it off. Now T has rosy visions of the convergence of content and communications...
No, we shall beat IBM and be a computer company
Why? The compensation for those at the top earning multi million salaries and bonuses get paid no matter what! Each Director on the Board will get at least $400k to rubber stamp management’s decisions. Given that why should you expect anything to change. The stock is now at $29 with a falling subscriber base and a streaming product delivered by way of a box!!!
@rhc+14QXhqwy well said. randy and stank had it in their mind owning content was good. what they didn't realize is you can't marginalize creative people both in content creation and IT. that was why I left. stank doesn't even realize it now and you know he never makes a mistake. just like george w bush and d–k cheney you know they never made mistakes either.
@rhc+14QXhqwy - well said. randy and stank had it in their mind that owning content is good. what they didn't understand is you can't marginalize creative people making the content. you can't even marginalize IT folks who are creating the automation which why I left. stank still doesn't get it and probably never will because he never makes a mistake. you know just like george w bush he and d–k cheney never made any mistakes either.
We're going to kick butt big time in all our markets, and you'll be sad. End of story. Goodnight.
Frankly, we aren't even very good at the telecommunications thing. Probably why they are always looking for something new to do.
They can test the network in big cities all they want, but wireless has too many holes even in mid sized cities that I know where our main competitor doesn't. The network plan for most of the country seems to be to run with just enough signal, and always chasing the capacity issue but always lagging behind the problem. Landline is dead, and aside from the few areas where fiber has been deployed, our internet blows if people that I know, and the stories of people I don't online are to be believed. Even the hailed Uverse was only good if you were close enough to one of those junction boxes to get a good signal. Otherwise it was constant reboots and limited HD streams. Revolutionary at first, but not impressive in today's world.
So yeah, I'd look for something else too. Maybe not what has been done, but something.
Welcome to America, T is a institutional investor gold mine sort of a hybryd conglomerate designed to pay dividends on exchange for a short time risk, just as all others companies bloated with incompetence, and borderline illegal business practices.