Via “News Wire Feed”; Light Reading ~  Jul 23, 2020

DALLAS – AT&T’s 5G network is live for consumers and businesses across the country as of today, built on the nation’s best and also fastest wireless network.

“Just as our lives have shifted in the past few months, so has our expectation of wireless technology,” said Jeff McElfresh, CEO of AT&T Communications. “With AT&T 5G reaching nationwide, our network is beginning the journey to transform connectivity as we know it by setting a new bar of breathtaking experiences and improved efficiency. Businesses, developers and consumers are already tapping into 5G’s potential and we’re thrilled for customers across the U.S. to experience it for themselves. It’s an exciting time in technology.”

We’ve built AT&T 5G with our customers in mind, because they are more connected today than ever before. 5G will make the things we do today better and ultimately improve those experiences overall. And now that our 5G signal reaches customers nationwide, there are immediate benefits they can enjoy right away, including:

Via “News Wire Feed”; Light Reading ~  Jul 23, 2020

DALLAS – AT&T reported second-quarter results that continue to underscore the financial strength and ample liquidity of the business even with current economic conditions.

Highlights:

Mobility:

• Service revenues down 1.1% due to decline in international roaming; equipment revenues up year over year.

• Postpaid phone churn of 0.84%, a 2-basis point improvement year over year and postpaid phone net losses of 151,000 (Note: these include 338,000 accrued disconnects for which the company continues to provide service for Keep America Connected programs)

• Total phones stable (both postpaid and prepaid)

Via “Analysts; Investors Observer ~ Jul 14, 2020

AT&T Inc. (T) is around the middle of the Telecom Services industry according to Investors Observer. T received an overall rating of 40, which means that it scores higher than 40 percent of all stocks. AT&T Inc. also achieved a score of 51 in the Telecom Services industry, putting it above 51 percent of Telecom Services stocks. Telecom Services is ranked 81 out of the 148 industries.

industries.

By Andy Peters & Rodney Ho; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ~ Jun 29, 2020

The landmark CNN Center building in downtown Atlanta may soon have a new owner, though CNN employees will remain there for at least a few more years.

AT&T, which owns CNN as a result of its 2018 acquisition of Time Warner, has either already agreed to sell or plans to sell the CNN Center, according to an internal company memo sent on Monday. WarnerMedia, the subsidiary of AT&T that operates CNN, will lease back the building from its new owners for at least five years.

CNN employees won’t be affected immediately. But long-range plans call for many if not most CNN employees to move from downtown to recently renovated buildings near Georgia Tech that already house TNT, Cartoon Network and other WarnerMedia networks. WarnerMedia has a total of about 6,000 employees in Atlanta.

By Dom DiFurio; Dallas Morning News ~ Jun 19, 2020

AT&T’s cost-cutting measures revealed earlier this week may just be the tip of the iceberg as an increasing number of forces pressure the company to accelerate transformation, analysts say.

The Dallas-based telecom giant will cut 3,400 clerical and technician jobs over the next several weeks and close 250 company-branded and Cricket Wireless stores affecting an additional 1,300 retail jobs, according to the Communication Workers of America union that represents about 100,000 AT&T employees.

The technician layoffs and retail jobs are all CWA-represented positions, according to the union.

AT&T executives described the company’s plan to pare down stores and cleave $6 billion from its operations in meetings this week with investors. The company won’t have “as many stores as we did before COVID,” AT&T Communications CEO Jeff McElfresh told investors Tuesday. Two days later, CFO John Stephens reiterated AT&T’s commitment to reduce spending.

By Iain Morris; Light Reading ~  Jun 17, 2020

AT&T is to cut more than 3,400 technical and administrative jobs and permanently close about 250 shops employing 1,300 people, according to a trade union, piling further misery onto a US telecom workforce that has already witnessed thousands of job cuts in the last few years.

The US operator’s plans were apparently disclosed to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), which slammed the move in a public statement and said the layoffs would add to the “pain of the recession already underway.”

AT&T subsequently confirmed to Light Reading there would “targeted but sizeable reductions” across the workforce as part of cost-cutting activities.

By Chris Lange; 24/7 Wall St. ~ Jun 08, 2020

Although not back to full strength yet, AT&T (NYSE: T) has been making solid gains since the HBO Max launch. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed AT&T stock to lows not seen for more than half a decade. As AT&T continues to recover and build out its new streaming service, the picture looks very bright.

AT&T has always ranked high on Wall Street’s list of dividend aristocrats, and the dip in price only seemed to give more credence to the dividend. Further, AT&T’s restructuring of its debt has given the company ample growth opportunities and an added cash padding should anything go wrong.

By Mike Dano; Light Reading ~  May 28, 2020

AT&T’s Igal Elbaz, SVP of the company’s wireless technology operations, said that the operator today covers roughly 880,000 customer locations with its LTE fixed wireless technology. And he said AT&T expects to reach its previously announced goal of 1.1 million locations by the end of this year.

“We know that fixed wireless works,” Elbaz said Thursday at an investor conference.

AT&T first disclosed its fixed wireless plans in 2017. The effort stems from AT&T’s participation in the FCC’s Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF-II) program. AT&T, Verizon and eight other telecom operators accepted a total of $1.5 billion in funding in 2015 with promises to build out Internet services in rural areas. AT&T is using LTE fixed wireless technology to meet its CAF II obligations.

Importantly, Frontier and CenturyLink warned earlier this year that they will not be able to meet all of their CAF II deployment targets.

By Jeff Baumgartner; Light Reading ~  May 23, 2020

John Stankey, AT&T’s incoming CEO, has said that the struggling DirecTV business isn’t for sale. However, it appears that bankers are preparing to change his mind and recommend AT&T blast DirecTV from its balance sheet, posthaste.

Fox Business’s Charlie Gasparino reports that bankers are set to approach AT&T with a strong suggestion to offload the underperforming DirecTV “soon” as AT&T continues to grapple with rising debt loads following the acquisition of Time Warner, the need to slash costs and push ahead with ambitious (and expensive) 5G commitments.

“This is coming from bankers. This is a deal they’re going to pitch,” Gasparino said. While he couldn’t say whether AT&T will go for the idea, “they might not have much choice. At least that’s what the banks are telling us,” he added.

By Tali Arbel; The Associated Press ~ May 20, 2020

AT&T says it will stop advertising its wireless network as “5G Evolution” after a division of the Better Business Bureau determined that its language was misleading. The network AT&T branded this way is not, in fact, 5G — a new technology for fast wireless data.

While AT&T and other wireless carriers in the U.S. have now begun rolling true 5G wireless networks, AT&T in December 2018 began talking about a “5G Evolution” service that was already available in hundreds of markets, and placed a “5G E” icon on phones when they connected to the network. But it was not 5G. It was merely the existing 4G network with minor speed boosts, at least compared to the fastest type of 5G networks.