From an investor standpoint, I would be more concerned about the 173 billion debt load in light of the Federal Reserves intention to continue a 4 times per year increase in the basis point interest index. The cost of Randall's shopping spree will only increase in cost over time.
In the end, what this company has is an one hundred year old technology called landline, a pitiful DSL network that dates back to 1997 with throughput speeds that are frankly comical in terms of modern usage and demand. Cellular - great if you live in some Metro hellhole, but live in the densely populated and popular estate country side of millionaire vineyard owners and your half a bar of signal doesn't win many converts.
You bought DirecTV and promptly began dismantling it's previously award winning GUI in favor of some 12 year-olds first attempt of using Excel. You offer streaming that daily has issues - yes, I read the Cadie files every morning. If we were Netflix in 2002 I could buy the clunky ineptitude, but 2018 - surely we can hire talent better than what we currently have.
My other issue is Stankey's recent pep talk to HBO where he all but demands a shift from quality niche programming that traditionally sets the industry bar for creativity in favor of a quantity dump of daily garbage so he can record eyeballs per hour versus eyeballs per season. No different than Donovan's predictable last two weeks of the quarter push to cram as many bogus upgrades and BS new installs onto the Field as they can to pump the numbers for that quarter.
Gimme the numbers so I can hoodwink the Investors.
Only to be followed a week later at the SEC disclosure with the usual announcement that we lost another 100,000 wireline, 100,000 DSL and 300,000 TV viewers that same quarter.
But trust us guys, 5G gonna be HUDGE!