Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

Union mo–ns concentrating on the hardware again. All AT&T cares about is the OTT service and you would be smart to recognize that. Does a AT&T care about what vessel it’s delivered over....NOPE!!! and neither would I. As long as the service is reliable and content wide and engaging, I could care less what the stupid box looks like. The stupidity on this forum man.....Goodness.

I work on the ATT TV app. Honestly, I like the Osprey. It still has some kinks here and there but we're working those out.

Netflix can be added as an app Osprey; Prime Video cannot. That's a problem since most of USA households have an Amazon Prime subscription which entitles them to free Prime Video. AT&T needs to allow the Prime Video app to be available for loading onto Osprey for the multitudes out there that will demand it. Until it does, the AppleTV box is perhaps a better option as you can load Many apps on it including AT&T TVNow, Netfix, and Amazon Prime.

Rural areas? Lol, so streaming on that 10,000 foot loop? Or here customer you can buy satellite internet, so your streaming doesn't work also. 5G in rural areas? Not for years! We don't even have Manhattan covered how do you expect someone in Bushnell IL to use this device rurally.

It’s an awesome product. It’s going to replace Uverse and Satellite. Cheaper due to software based. Plug and play. No technician cost. Will be able to cover rural and out of footprint too.

This "new" technology that T wants to start using isn't going to affect too many jobs. Thousands of T customers are dropping their services because of p!ss poor customer service. And these same customers aren't going to change their minds to come back when they know they'll have to deal with some "over the phone tech" from Brazil. A lot of T retirees are dropping T service because it's cheaper to go with a competitor than the "discount" T offers.

“Randall said”

That’s all you need to know. It’s an Android box like the millions already out there, you know the same ones that already run DTV Now that no one is subscribing too. Don’t believe anything Randall says the only thing he knows how to do is spend T money that T doesn’t even have.

we already had an iptv product, premium quality & premium priced that people paid for and preferred.

If you are talking Uverse it is a pretty good product. However it is a quirky expensive product to build and maintain. Heard that the margins are basically nonexistent. Wonder what they might be now for existing customers without all of the capital, advertising, etc. costs included. That is not counting all of the Prem techs we lost. Donovan’s charge this year was to stabilize the financials of his organization.

Doubt if this rollout means shutting down the satellite business. Still a huge customer base in the rural areas.

"will be a true replacement for linear satellite TV and its associated truck rolls"

Only for those with decent Internet speeds and no cap. Most of us in rural areas will likely have to switch to Dish Network for TV. We don't have good Internet (slow DSL at best), and there is absolutely zero chance for fiber or 5G. Cellular signal is minimal as well, and highly unlikely towers will be placed frequently enough to improve that. Maybe Elon Musk and Starlink will be our saviour. You can bet if that plays out, it'll be the one and only pipe people use in certain areas. We should know by the end of this year/early next year, as services are planned to go live in northern tier states. Image if they decide to setup their own TV service as well, and phones, and everything else. Might put a dent in a lot of pockets....

Quite a few years put into landline copper voice also.

I just YouTubed somen of the beta testers and it looks so stupid & a knock off. It's just another streaming device with Chromecast, not to different from Roku. Why would the company not just pay licensing to streaming device companies and beef up a device & call it a solution. Is the company preying on stupidity? I don't believe ANYONE should worry about loosing their job to this device. It's so cheesy and i sure do hope investors don't fall for this. It's very sad how the company is sc-aping to save conning their way out of a money pit. There is no way this product comes close to replacing YEARS of sweat & tears.. AKA Fails & Hardwood. It's also an insult, it's going to piss a lot of customers off by forcing this nonsense concept.

Ran the gamut over the years. From cable to Dish to DirecTV to U-Verse to DirecTV Now to YouTube Live to now HULU Live via Apple TV. Unless you can't get a decent internet connection, streaming is the way to go. Do you want to sell people hardware that has essentially become a commodity (Amazon, Apple, ROKU) or do you want to see them services and content. We've been talking about the later for years. Just very very late to the party.

we already had an iptv product, premium quality & premium priced that people paid for and preferred.

Reduced truck rolls doesn’t necessarily mean increased revenue. Yes we have the opportunity to sell to those people who either don’t want or can’t have antennas. The pricing will probably come down for the services. This is all about trying to maintain profit margins against all the competition we are seeing on every front of the business. To those who remember the old custom calling features. I was told that after the initial provisioning expenses, it cost us 5 cents to sell and we were changing 5 dollars. Not many things we are getting into these days allow us to print money on that scale.

So while we're enthusiastically cheering Randall and his Johns for their fabulous new technology, don't forget that eliminating truck rolls eliminates jobs. When all of Corporate America's jobs have been replaced with self service or outsourced to third world sweatshops or contractors, who do they think is going to have any money to buy their sh#t?

"Less Truck Rolls" = More Layoffs

Big boys have a lot of things that have to fall into place the next couple of years. 5G buildout, First Net buildout, getting all the fiber turned up, hitting the mark on SDN, even having a successful launch of this service. Toss in Big Data and AI. Issue is that it seems like all these projects are going to negatively affect jobs if all the dots are connected.

I've been testing Osprey since last year. It is an AT&T version of Android TV. It works well, but ~5 years too late. I wondered why not just have DirecTV Now app on all existing steaming platforms and smart TVs. That would eliminate the Osprey hardware cost, too.

It already has Netflix.

The idea of the Osprey is genius using an existing connection to the customer to deliver our bleeding edge service and brilliant content! Reduced truck rolls mean increased revenue! That’s great for the company!

I couldn't agree more with the comments about "wasn't this was direct tv now" was supposed to be. There are people that "expect" a box on their TV from the company that sold them a service but I can't see why that "box" shouldn't just be anything more than a rebranded streaming box. If they remove netflix and any "standard" other streaming service on it, then they are just plain stupid (am guessing this is why someone said that it doesn't support netflix).

My experience with direct tv now was anything but enjoyable. And can't see why this box will make any difference. Just maybe more channels that buffer.

Why is everybody talking about the osprey (IPTV) like it’s a new thing or new technology??? Open spectrum website they had this option for almost a year.

Have you ever seen android IPTV?? Or amazon stick....it’s the same thing.

That’s me talking stupid now a real question: why did we buy a satellite company for about 50 billions to end up selling tv over internet ?? DTV is a satellite company so just shutdown the satellites...

Was this not what Direct TV now was supposed to be? An OTT streaming product. Now it's Osprey????

Directv Now Streaming Box Beta - Page 3 - AT&T Community

forums.att.com/t5/DIRECTV-NOW-Installation/

The problem with all streaming services is that most providers cap your internet usage (there’s some that don’t) and there’s some that do but don’t enforce it (yet). It remains to be seen how that all plays out. For me I have an Apple TV that works more than fine for DirecTV Now and with all my Apple devices. I’m not going to buy a standalone product that’s essentially a one trick pony. When my test is over so is my use of the service.

There are limited options so far. No Netflix, and you have to step thru some hoops to install other apps.

Yes. It actually works well. Given time it will get f’d up🤦🏼‍♂️

Yes, easy setup and works great.