Via “News Wire Feed”; Light Reading ~ Mar 20, 2019

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. & DALLAS, Texas — Nobody likes fraudulent robocalls. That’s why we’re excited to announce that AT&T and Comcast have taken an important step forward to address the problem – an exchange of authenticated calls between two separate providers’ voice networks that is believed to be the nation’s first.

This milestone helps pave the way for AT&T and Comcast to begin offering authentication on calls between networks to customers later this year. Customers could soon start to see verified calls not only from callers using the same provider, but more importantly, from other participating providers.

The test used phones on the companies’ consumer networks – not in a lab or restricted to special equipment. It was conducted March 5, between AT&T Phone digital home service and Comcast’s Xfinity Voice home phone service.

By Tom Benning, ; The Dallas Morning News ~  Mar 20, 2019

WASHINGTON — AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson said Wednesday that the “most frustrating part of what I do” is spending “way too much time” in the nation’s capital.

And it’s more than just the opportunity cost of not being able to devote that time toward “putting together new products,” “hiring great executives and great people,” “taking care of employees” and “getting stuff out to market,” he said.

“Too much of our success and failure is dependent upon what the people in this town decide to do on a day-to-day basis,” he said at luncheon hosted by the Economic Club of Washington.

By Tali Arbel; The Associated Press ~ Mar 13, 2019

NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T is raising prices for its DirecTV Now streaming TV service, while removing some networks from the cable-like television package.

The changes come just weeks after a U.S. appeals court upheld the company’s Time Warner takeover. The Justice Department fought it, arguing it would lead to higher prices.

DirecTV Now used to start at $40 a month. The cheapest for new customers will now be $50. Packages will now include the AT&T-owned HBO, but the service is dropping some popular lifestyle and entertainment networks not owned by AT&T, including HGTV, Discovery, Food Network and MTV.

By Michael Burke ; The Hill ~ Mar 10, 2019

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said Sunday that the Trump administration’s handling of the AT&T-Time Warner merger is “very disturbing.”

“[The administration] ought not in any way be attempting to influence this merger review in the antitrust division at the Department of the Justice,” he said during an interview on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

Cicilline’s remark came after he and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, last week sent letters to administration officials expressing concern about a report in The New Yorker alleging that President Trump pushed for DOJ lawyers block the merger.

Nadler and Cicilline also requested records detailing how the administration handled the merger.

Cicilline said Sunday that Congress has “a responsibility to call in witnesses, to make document requests, to get at the truth.”

From Nicholas Ward; Seeking Alpha ~  Mar 13, 2019

Summary

• AT&T’s dividend appears to be safe with a ~60% free cash flow payout ratio.

• AT&T is reducing its debt dramatically and expects to pay off another ~$20b in 2019.

• This will bring AT&T’s debt ratio down to 2.5x by year’s end.

• This company is very undervalued, at just 8.5x earnings (this price tag is lower than it traded at during the 08/09 trough).

• This idea was discussed in more depth with members of my private investing community, The Dividend Growth Club . Start your free trial today

By Emily Birnbaum; The Hill ~ Mar 08, 2019

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Friday asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate possible attempts by the White House to block the recent $85 billion AT&T-Time Warner merger.

Van Hollen’s letter comes after The New Yorker this week reported that President Trump asked DOJ lawyers to sue to block the deal.

Multiple lawmakers and Democratic figures have suggested that Trump sought to block the deal because of his longtime feud with CNN, a channel owned by Time Warner and acquired by AT&T during the merger.

“I request that you open an investigation into whether White House aides and officials have improperly tried to influence DOJ regulators in order to meet the objectives of President Trump,” Van Hollen wrote in his letter to Attorney General William Barr.

The New Yorker reported that Trump ordered Gary Cohn, then the director of the National Economic Council, to pressure the DOJ to intervene against the merger.

Trump reportedly told his former chief of staff John Kelly in 2017 that he had asked then-White House chief economic adviser Cohn to “get this lawsuit filed,” lamenting that “nothing” had happened.

“I’ve mentioned it fifty times,” Trump told Kelly, according to The New Yorker. “And nothing’s happened. I want to make sure it’s filed. I want that deal blocked!”

By Mike Dano; Light Reading ~ Mar 08, 2019

AT&T and Verizon are locked in a heated battle over which carrier should sell wireless services to public safety users like police, firefighters and other first responders. And that battle is now spilling into a new front: 5G.

“As we build out 5G, it will be made available to public safety, just at the same time it will be made available to any other customer in terms of the network capability,” said Tami Erwin, chief of Verizon’s new Business unit and the executive in charge of selling Verizon services to public safety.

However, Erwin cautioned that Verizon would have to tailor its 5G pricing plans specifically for public safety users, and that might not happen immediately. “But the intent is to have that same capability available at the same time as the general public,” she said.

So will AT&T make its own 5G service immediately available to its public safety customers? Well, not exactly, according to an AT&T spokesperson, who declined to provide a specific timeline or launch date for AT&T 5G for public safety.

That’s because “it’s essential to ensure the standards, testing and critical capabilities are properly in place before advocating for the widespread use of this technology within public safety. Impressing the use of 5G upon public safety before this is complete and deemed ready for the public safety environment would show a lack of understanding for the public safety mission,” said AT&T’s spokesperson.

Specifically, technologies including Quality of Service, Priority and Preemption (QPP), Multimedia Priority Service (MPS), interoperability with Land Mobile Radio (LMR), mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT), mission-critical data (MCData) and mission-critical video (MCVideo) have not yet been written into the 3GPP’s 5G standard.

AT&T and FirstNet (the federal authority working with AT&T to build a nationwide wireless network for public safety) are certainly working on getting those standards in place — FirstNet even has a senior director of standards who is attending 3GPP meetings. But, as AT&T’s spokesperson said, “more information will be provided about 5G and FirstNet as this effort evolves.”

By Tali Arbel, AP; The Dallas Morning News ~  Mar 04, 2019

Now that AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner is a done deal , the company is reorganizing its TV and movie businesses to emphasize streaming rather than cable TV networks.

Dallas-based AT&T is bringing in a new executive as longtime HBO and Turner chiefs leave. It’s also consolidating operations for different brands to help generate more video for a new streaming service launching this year. Layoffs are expected in the business now known as WarnerMedia, although the company tried to assuage fears that there will be substantial job cuts.

By Jennifer Saba; Breakingviews ~  Mar 01, 2019

Companies merge, executives leave – it happens all the time. But HBO Chief Executive Richard Plepler’s resignation from AT&T on Thursday is worth scrutinizing a little more closely. The network he ran is one of the main reasons the telecom firm paid $85 billion for parent Time Warner. People can be replaced, but this just makes an expensive deal even more so.

Plepler is highly respected in the entertainment business. He spent almost 28 years at HBO and helped usher in a wide range of critically acclaimed smash series including “Sex and the City,” “The Sopranos” and mega-hit “Game of Thrones.” That makes him a magnet for talent. Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman cast their lot with HBO.

By Kevin Kelleher; Fortune ~ Feb 27, 2019

Disney is in talks with AT&T to acquire the 10% stake that the telecom giant owns in the streaming-media company through its WarnerMedia subsidiary, Variety reported Wednesday.

Hulu was formed in 2007 by a group of media giants to compete in the emerging market for streaming video. While Hulu has struggled to compete against Netflix, its recent shift to original programming helped it bring in 8 million new subscribers last year to more than 25 million total subscribers.

Disney currently holds a 30% stake in Hulu and, through its planned purchase of 20th Century Fox, may soon control Fox’s 30% stake in the company. Comcast’s NBCUniversal subsidiary also owns a 30% stake, with AT&T owning the final 10%. Comcast has no interest in parting with its stake in Hulu, Variety said.