Lets be patient and wait for the 3rd quarter results to come out. If we see another deep dive in core business (landline and choke, choke - broadband DSL) coupled with the usual 350K quarterly falloff of DTV subscribers, then yes, the likelihood of reductions are assured, tho not necessarily this year.
More typical, since we are following the Standard Telecom Force Reduction Model used since the 1980s by the Bell systems, GTE and Verizon; then the first half of 2019 will be the year us pigs are led to slaughter in great numbers.
This company has impressive debt in a time when the Federal Reserve is raising rates every 3 months and will do so through 2019 at the minimum which only adds to T's debt load.
This company is 100 percent driven by what it thinks Wall Street wants to see us do.
We chase, we do not lead.
It is an industry given that 150 year old landline and 30 year old DSL technologies have basically a zero percent adoption rate by Influencers. Directv for all the snap and snazzy of Genie 2 is still a technology from the 1990's that loses an average million and a half customers per year. We are on the second version of the so-called killer streaming app with a third turd due any day now. Wireless has been stagnant for the past 5 to 6 years focused no longer on growth but on retention.
T has become to tech world as Sears or JC Penney's were to retail. Once great, now mostly irrelevant.
My hope is that if Stankey & Co. can keep from micromamaging HBO, CNN and Time Warner to the tedious death like Donovan has done to Directv then at least T has the chance to hold onto properties that consumers may wish to own.
In the meantime, I shift all my 401K matching stock to other companies the second that I can. Look for a boat that floats is what my Broker advises.
Good point from @VGlTWAA-2ani.