AT&T

For other companies with similar names, see AT&T (disambiguation).

AT&T Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: T)
Founded	1983[1]
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Randall L. Stephenson (Chairman), (CEO) & (President)
Industry	Telecommunications
Products	Wireless Telephone Internet Television
Market cap	USD $278.199 Billion (2007)
Revenue	▲ USD 118.928 Billion (2007)[2]
Operating income	▲ USD 20.404 Billion (2007)[2]
Net income	▲ USD $11.951 Billion (2007)[2]
Total assets	▲ USD $275.644 Billion (2007)
Total equity	▲ USD $115.367 Billion (2007)
Employees	310,070 (2008)
Website	www.att.com

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is the largest provider of both local and long distance telephone services, DSL Internet access and wireless service in the United States with 71.4 million wireless customers and more than 150 million total customers.[1] In 2005, "Baby Bell" SBC Communications Inc. purchased former "Ma Bell" AT&T Corporation and then changed the name of the company after the merger to the more iconic AT&T moniker and the T stock-trading symbol (for "telephone").

The current AT&T includes eleven of the original Bell Operating Companies, and the original long distance division.^[3] While it reconstitutes much of the former Bell System, AT&T Inc. lacks the vertical integration of the historic AT&T Corp. which prompted the antitrust suit and breakup in 1984.

The company was honored at the 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for development of coaxial cable technology.

History

Founding, expansion

AT&T Inc. was founded in 1983 as Southwestern Bell Corporation, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. It was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies, or "Baby Bells". The company — a holding company for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was incorporated by AT&T Corporation as a result of U.S. antitrust action against their company in 1983. It took full control of Southwestern Bell Telephone on January 1, 1984.^[4]

In 1993, Southwestern Bell Corp. moved its headquarters to San Antonio, Texas, and, during its annual meeting of stockholders in 1995, the company announced that its name would be changed to SBC Communications, Inc. The name change was an effort to reinforce the company's national and global reach and the company stated not only that "SBC" was not an acronym for Southwestern Bell Corporation but also that it did not stand for anything at all.

SBC then proceeded (as permitted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996) to acquire fellow Baby Bell Pacific Telesis, the Regional Bell operating company serving Nevada and California, in 1997 and the former independent Bell System franchise SNET (Southern New England Telephone).

SBC then announced plans to acquire Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, and told the FCC that it would allow competitors access to local markets where it had had a monopoly if the FCC would allow them to acquire Ameritech. The FCC agreed and in May 1998, SBC and Ameritech announced the merger would move forward. After making several organizational changes (such as the sale of Ameritech Wireless to GTE) to satisfy state and Federal regulators, the two merged on October 8, 1999. The FCC later fined SBC Communications $6 million for failure to comply with agreements made in order to secure approval of the merger.

On November 1, 1999, SBC became a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

In 2002, SBC ended marketing its operating companies under different names, and simply opted to give its companies different doing business as names based on the state (a practice already in use by Ameritech since 1993), and it gave the holding companies it had purchased d/b/a names based on their general region.

On June 27, 2008, AT&T announced plans to relocate its corporate headquarters to Dallas, Texas.

On December 4, 2008, AT&T announced they would be cutting 12,000 jobs due to "economic pressures, a changing business mix and a more streamlined organizational structure" ^[5].

AT&T Corporation acquisition

On January 31, 2005, SBC announced that it would purchase AT&T Corp. for more than $16 billion. The announcement came almost 8 years after SBC and AT&T called off their first merger talks and nearly a year after initial merger talks between AT&T and BellSouth fell apart. AT&T stockholders, meeting in Denver, approved the merger on June 30, 2005. The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the merger on October 27, 2005, and the Federal Communications Commission approved it on October 31, 2005. The merger was finalized on November 18, 2005.^[6] SBC changed its corporate name to AT&T Inc., and updated the former AT&T's graphic logo, however the existing AT&T Sound trademark (voiced by Pat Fleet) continues to be used.

On December 1, 2005 the combined company began trading under the historic "T" stock ticker symbol on the NYSE. To differentiate from the preceding company, AT&T is formally known as "AT&T Inc.", while the preceding company was "AT&T Corp."

BellSouth acquisition

On Friday December 29, 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the acquisition of BellSouth valued at approximately $86 billion (or 1.325 shares of AT&T for each share of BellSouth at the close of trading December 29, 2006).^[7] The new combined company retained the name AT&T.^[8] The deal consolidated ownership of both Cingular Wireless and Yellowpages.com, once joint ventures between BellSouth and AT&T. All services, including wireless, are currently offered under the AT&T name.^[9]

Transition to new media

New Chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson, discussed how wireless services are the core of "The New AT&T".^[10] With declining sales of traditional home phone lines, AT&T plans to roll out various new media such as VideoShare, U-verse, and to extend its reach in High Speed Internet into rural areas across the country. He also has stated that AT&T will not make any more acquisitions for the time being. AT&T announced on June 29, 2007, however, that it was acquiring Dobson Communications. It was then reported on October 2, 2007 that AT&T would purchase Interwise for $121 million, which it completed on November 2, 2007. On October 9, 2007, AT&T purchased 12 MHz of spectrum in the prime 700 MHz spectrum band from privately-held Aloha Partners for nearly $2.5 billion. Later, on December 4, 2007 AT&T announced plans to acquire Edge Wireless, a regional GSM carrier in the Pacific Northwest.^[11] The acquisition by AT&T was completed in April 2008.^[12]

Bell Operating Companies

AT&T payphone signage.

Of the twenty-two Bell Operating Companies which AT&T owned prior to the 1984 agreement to divest, eleven (BellSouth Telecommunications combines two former BOCs) have become a part of the new AT&T Inc. with the completion of their acquisition of BellSouth Corporation on December 29, 2006:^[13]

• BellSouth Telecommunications (formerly known as Southern Bell and South Central Bell)
• Illinois Bell
• Indiana Bell
• Michigan Bell
• Nevada Bell (formerly known as Bell Telephone Company of Nevada)
• Ohio Bell
• Pacific Bell (formerly Pacific Telephone & Telegraph)
• Southwestern Bell
• Wisconsin Bell (formerly Wisconsin Telephone)

AT&T owns the following operating companies not considered a Bell Operating Company:

• Southern New England Telephone — Now wholly owned, the original AT&T held 16.8% interest prior to 1984.

Former operating companies

The following companies have gone to defunct status under SBC/AT&T ownership:

• Southwestern Bell Texas - a separate operating company created by SBC and merged back into SWBT on December 30, 2001.
• Woodbury Telephone - merged into Southern New England Telephone on June 1, 2007.

Corporate structure

AT&T office with new logo and orange highlight from the former Cingular.

AT&T Inc. has retained the holding companies it has acquired over the years resulting in the following corporate structure:

• AT&T Inc., publicly-traded holding company
  • Southwestern Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Arkansas/Kansas/Missouri/Oklahoma/Southwest/Texas
  • Pacific Telesis Group, Inc. d/b/a AT&T West, acquired in 1997
    • Pacific Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T California
      • Nevada Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Nevada
  • Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation d/b/a AT&T East, acquired in 1998
    • Southern New England Telephone Company (includes former Woodbury Telephone)
  • AT&T Teleholdings, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Midwest, formerly Ameritech, acquired in 1999
    • Illinois Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Illinois
    • Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Indiana
    • Michigan Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Michigan
    • The Ohio Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Ohio
    • Wisconsin Bell, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Wisconsin
  • AT&T Corporation, acquired 2005
    • AT&T Communications, Inc.
  • BellSouth Corporation d/b/a AT&T South, acquired 2006
    • BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Alabama/Florida/Georgia/Kentucky/Louisiana/Mississippi/North Carolina/South Carolina/Southeast/Tennessee

Corporate governance

Stephenson at the 2008 World Economic Forum.

AT&T's current board of directors:

• Randall L. Stephenson — Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
• James A. Henderson
• Gilbert F. Amelio
• William F. Aldinger III
• August A. Busch III
• Martin K. Eby, Jr.
• Charles F. Knight
• Jon C. Madonna
• Lynn M. Martin
• Ronald M. Crump
• John B. McCoy
• Mary S. Metz
• Toni Rembe
• S. Donley Ritchey
• Joyce M. Roche
• Laura D'Andrea Tyson
• Patricia P. Upton

Contributions to political campaigns

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, AT&T is the United States' second largest donor to political campaigns, having contributed more than US$ 36 million since 1990, 56% and 44% of which went to Republican and Democratic recipients, respectively. A key political issue for AT&T is the question of which businesses win the right to profit by providing broadband internet access in the United States.^[14]

In 2005, AT&T was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.^{[15] [16] [17]}

Censorship controversy

In August 2007, the band Pearl Jam performed in Chicago at Lollapalooza which was being web-broadcast by AT&T. The band, while playing the song "Daughter", started playing a version of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but with altered lyrics critical of president George Bush. These lyrics included "George Bush, leave this world alone!" and, "George Bush, find yourself another home!". Listeners to AT&T's web broadcast heard only the first line because the rest was censored^[18] although, AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said that the silencing was "a mistake."^[19]

In September 2007, AT&T changed^[20] their legal policy to state that "AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice for conduct that AT&T believes"..."(c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries."^[21] By October 10, 2007 AT&T had altered the terms and conditions for its Internet service to explicitly support freedom of expression by its subscribers, after an outcry claiming the company had given itself the right to censor its subscribers' transmissions.^[22]

Section 5.1 of AT&T's new terms of service now reads "AT&T respects freedom of expression and believes it is a foundation of our free society to express differing points of view. AT&T will not terminate, disconnect or suspend service because of the views you or we express on public policy matters, political issues or political campaigns."^[23]

Privacy controversy

Further information: NSA call database, Mark Klein, NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, Hepting v. AT&T

In 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation lodged a class action lawsuit, Hepting v. AT&T, which alleged that AT&T had allowed agents of the National Security Agency (NSA) to monitor phone and Internet communications of AT&T customers without warrants. If true, this would violate the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. AT&T has yet to confirm or deny that monitoring by the NSA is occurring. In April 2006, a retired former AT&T technician, Mark Klein, lodged an affidavit supporting this allegation.^[24][25] The Department of Justice has stated they will intervene in this lawsuit by means of State Secrets Privilege.^[26]

In May 2006, USA Today reported that all international and domestic calling records had been handed over to the National Security Agency by AT&T, Verizon, SBC, and BellSouth for the purpose of creating a massive calling database.^[27] The portions of the new AT&T that had been part of SBC Communications before November 18, 2005 were not mentioned.

On June 21, 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that AT&T had rewritten rules on their privacy policy. The policy, which took effect June 23, 2006, says that "AT&T — not customers — owns customers' confidential info and can use it 'to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.' "^[28]

On August 22, 2007, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell confirmed that AT&T was one of the telecommunications companies that assisted with the government's warrantless wire-tapping program on calls between foreign and domestic sources.^[29]

On November 8, 2007, Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician, told Keith Olbermann of MSNBC that all Internet traffic passing over AT&T lines was copied into a locked room at the company's San Francisco office — to which only employees with National Security Agency clearance had access.^[30]

Payphone removal

Empty AT&T payphone booths in Kansas City, KS.

On December 3, 2007, AT&T announced it would remove all of its 65,000 remaining payphones by the end of 2008.^[31] BellSouth already had removed its payphones years before being acquired by AT&T, and Qwest sold its pay telephone services in 2004. Verizon Communications will be the only Baby Bell that will continue to operate pay telephones following the removal of AT&T pay telephones,^[32] and currently has no interest in leaving the business.^[33]

Intellectual property filtering

In January 2008, the company reported plans to begin filtering all Internet traffic which passes through its network for intellectual property violations.^[34]

Commentators in the media have speculated that if this plan is implemented, it would lead to a mass exodus of subscribers leaving AT&T,^[35] although this is misleading as internet traffic may go through the company's network anyway.^[34] Internet freedom proponents used these developments as justification for government-mandated network neutrality.

Corporate Headquarters Move

In June 2008, AT&T announced that it will move its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas to gain better access to its customers and operations throughout the world, and to the key technology partners, suppliers, innovation and human resources needed as it continues to grow, domestically and internationally.

It is expected to involve about 700 of the company's nearly 6,000 San Antonio-based employees.

AT&T Inc. previously relocated its corporate headquarters to San Antonio from St. Louis in 1992, when it was then named Southwestern Bell Corporation. The company's Telecom Operations group, which serves residential and regional business customers in 22 U.S. states, will remain in San Antonio.

Atlanta will continue to be the headquarters for AT&T Mobility. New Jersey will continue to be the headquarters for the company's Global Business Services group and AT&T Labs. St. Louis will continue as home to the company's Directory operations, AT&T Advertising & Publishing.^[36]

Places/events/partners with the AT&T name

One of AT&T's towers in San Antonio, Texas

• AT&T Bricktown Ballpark — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (formerly Southwestern Bell Bricktown Ballpark, SBC Bricktown Ballpark)
• AT&T Building - Currently the tallest skyscraper in Nashville, Tennessee, (Formerly BellSouth Building and South Central Bell Building), nicknamed the Batman Building
• AT&T Center — San Antonio, Texas (formerly SBC Center)
• AT&T Champions Classic — Valencia, California
• AT&T Classic — Atlanta, Georgia (formerly BellSouth Classic)
• AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic (formerly Mobil Cotton Bowl Classic, Southwestern Bell Cotton Bowl Classic, SBC Cotton Bowl Classic) — played in Dallas, Texas, at the Cotton Bowl stadium.
• AT&T Field — Chattanooga, Tennessee (formerly BellSouth Park)
• AT&T Midtown Center — Atlanta, Georgia
• AT&T National — Washington, D.C.
• AT&T Plaza — Dallas, Texas (the new plaza in front of the American Airlines Center at Victory Plaza)
• AT&T Park — San Francisco, California (formerly Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park)
• AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
• AT&T Red River Rivalry — Dallas, Texas (formerly Red River Shootout, SBC Red River Rivalry)
• Jones AT&T Stadium — Lubbock, Texas (formerly Clifford B. and Audrey Jones Stadium, Jones SBC Stadium)
• Sponsorship of the #31 car driven by Jeff Burton — Richard Childress Racing — Sprint Cup
• Associate sponsorship of the #29 car driven by Jeff Burton and Scott Wimmer - Richard Childress Racing - Nationwide Series
• AT&T 250 — NASCAR Nationwide Series race — Milwaukee Mile
• AT&T WilliamsF1 Team — based in Grove, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

See also

• AT&T Mobility
• AT&T Connect
• Bell System
• Bell System Divestiture
• Regional Bell Operating Company
• Telecommunication
• Lists of public utilities

References

External links

Corporate information

• AT&T corporate website
• AT&T History and science resources at The Franklin Institute's Case Files online exhibit
• Brand evolution of AT&T companies
• Press Release announcing FCC Approval of SBC-Ameritech merger (1999-10-06)
• Bell System Memorial
• ATT's most recent conference call transcripts

Articles

• Unnatural Monopoly: Critical Moments in the Development of the Bell System Monopoly by Adam D. Thierer
• "AT&T buys IBM's Global Network", BBC News, December 8, 1998
• "SBC closes AT&T acquisition", CNet News, November 18, 2005
• "AT&T to buy BellSouth for $67 billion", CNet News, March 5, 2006
• AT&T Whistleblower to Urge Senate to Reject Blanket Immunity for Telecoms Electronic Frontier Foundation

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