Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Let's be honest, the less copper work, the less techs we need. Fiber either works or doesn't. AFO has techs that don't have work to do, sitting around. They are rip right now for a surplus, sad to say. The writing is on the wall.

they are already too late for residential fiber in district 3. spectrum and 1000 other isp's recieved the money and have finished a lot of the cable installs. once again they are late to the party but they never really wanted retail business it seems.

Cwa district 6 I am crossing the line and feeding my family. I dont care what you think .

One should read the actual FCC filing by the union, which can be accessed by selecting the hyperlink in the article to get the facts. The union is asking for a measured approach to retire the copper network while at the same time installing fiber to the customers. As stated in the filing, AT&T wants to abandon over 50% of their territory coverage without viable IP alternatives, voice isn’t the big issue. Fixed wireless, cellular and satellites aren’t the answer for various reasons as stated in the filing. The union understands that the copper transport network is transitioning to fiber and don’t have an issue with it, technology moves on.

While asking to eliminate regulation and abandoning customers in rural areas AT&T is going to give stock holders 40 billion dividends over the next three years. The losers are customers and employees while the elite and stock funds become more enriched, don’t fool yourself it’s all about the transfer of $$ while eliminating regulations.

Stankey and the Stock fund elites want to abandon any areas that aren’t highly profitable, not just rural areas. I agree that AT&T shouldn’t be held to an antiquated regulated standard without being fairly compensated because all their competitors aren’t. It’s an unfair advantage and has hollowed out revenue and profits, it’s time to put everyone on a level playing field.

AT&T only has fiber installed in approximately 30-32% of their coverage area so they are way short of providing a comparable product to it or the existing copper DSL/Uverse network. Cellular and satellite coverage isn’t everywhere either so those in a lot of rural areas will be left without service. The govt. needs to continue to subsidize areas with the universal tax and require which ever carrier to continue service that meets the minimum broadband speeds needed to keep up with school and business demands.

This is all half-baked, baboonery jive talk. Copper is dead. We don't have switchboard operators or pay phones anymore. Get with the time or get left behind.

Im crossing the line too

"They are asking for fairness"... I don't think so. They are making this noise to keep the jobs associated with tip and ring going. And the way I see it, a relic of the 20th century, tip and ring needs to be going, going, gone. There is no way tip and ring is going to be profitable going forward because next to no one is using it. Time to make it "no one is using it".

Oh, come on. This whole argument from CWA is absolute nonsense. AT&T retiring its copper network isn’t some evil corporate scheme to abandon rural customers; it’s literally part of modernizing telecommunications. Copper is outdated, expensive to maintain, and completely inefficient compared to fiber. Anyone who’s had to deal with crackly landlines and slow DSL knows this.

CWA is acting like AT&T is just pulling the plug and leaving people in the dark, but that’s not what’s happening. The company is actively rolling out fiber, which is objectively better in every way: faster speeds, more reliability, and way less maintenance. The idea that AT&T should waste money keeping decaying infrastructure alive instead of investing in future-proof technology is just ridiculous.

And let’s be real, a lot of people have already ditched landlines for mobile phones or VoIP services. CWA is pretending like entire rural communities are still relying on copper-based landlines as their primary connection, but that’s just not true for the majority of people. AT&T isn’t the government; it’s a business, and businesses don’t operate on nostalgia. They operate on practical upgrades that serve the most customers efficiently.

The funniest part? CWA is out here saying fiber is the best technology, which it is, but then they turn around and criticize AT&T for moving toward it. What exactly do they want? Keep the copper just for the sake of keeping it? That’s like demanding companies still manufacture VHS tapes because some people never upgraded to DVDs.

Also, let’s not ignore the real reason CWA is mad: job security. Maintaining old copper networks requires more labor-intensive work than fiber, which is way more durable. So yeah, of course the union doesn’t like it, because fewer maintenance jobs mean fewer dues-paying members. That’s what this is really about.

Bottom line: This isn’t about rural communities being left behind. It’s about AT&T making the right call for long-term connectivity, while CWA throws a tantrum because change is inconvenient for them.

They are asking for fairness, those in rural areas pay taxes too. If it can be done with other products that meets their needs then that is good. Just because technology is changing doesn’t mean there should be winners and losers in the national communication grid based on location. Our food security depends on those rural farmers also, energy, lumber, mining, ranching, etc.. A lot of people give no thought for the food and many other products that just magically appears in their local stores.

Im crossing the line the union cant hold me down. Only in america.

Way I see it, if CWA likes benefits and high wages for its workers, it better call for business strategies that make money. Fixed wireless can do rural. Other than people on Lifeline, most people see that paying for a copper line is throwing away money.

CWA’s arguments are a steaming pile of horse sh-t. While true that AT&T doesn’t have the best interest of the rural customer in mind, it’s laughable to suggest that CWA does. The facts are the facts. Rural customers are operating on technology over 60 yeasts old. It is prohibitively expense to place and maintain physical cable for long sparsely populated distances. Radio based networks (mobile, satellite) make much more sense. You can’t have it all. If you want multi gig speeds, you have to live closer to the hive. If you want seclusion, you have to accept the things that come with that: dirt roads, slower networks, fewer services, no upscale restaurants. That’s life.