Tag Archives: AT&T

AT&T

AT&T Modifies Data Throttling Policy for Customers Using Unlimited Data Plans

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AT&T Mobility recently tweaked its data throttling policy for those using the unlimited data plans. In a recent development, the company has shared that it will now throttle data speeds only when consumers are linked to congested cell sites, irrespective of the type of smartphone they are using.

The renowned network carrier patiently changed its policy yesterday. Prior to this, customers who had been using 3G or HSPA+ phones as well as legacy unlimited data plans were restrained for their remaining billing period after having exceeded a total of 3 GB of data in a month; however, this was done only when certain areas and times faced network congestion. On the contrary, while LTE customers with unlimited plans did not experience their speeds getting throttled until they reached 5 GB of data usage in a month, their speeds were indeed geared down for their remaining billing cycle at all times, irrespective of whether their network faced any sort of congestion during that time.

That discrepancy has now been rectified. According to the new policy, as a result of AT&T’s network management process, consumers on a 3G or 4G smartphone or on a 4G LTE smartphone accessing an unlimited data plan who have exceeded 3 gigabytes or 5 gigabytes of data in a certain billing period may experience contracted speeds when using data services at times and in areas that are experiencing any kind of network congestion. All those customers can still go ahead and use unlimited data without incurring any sort of overage charges, and their speeds will return to normal when their next billing cycle starts.

Not many customers exist who still use the legacy unlimited data plans provided by AT&T. The carrier said that at the end of the first quarter, approximately 87 percent of its postpaid smartphone subscribers were set on usage-based data plans (tiered data plans, Mobile Share and other plans).

Sprint

Top Management Changes in AT&T, Sprint and Verizon

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The telecom giant AT&T is reported to have made some big shifts in its top management recently. It recently promoted Lori Lee to the position of CMO. Lee is soon to replace Cathy Couglin, a 35-year old AT&T veteran who had been handling the top marketing position for the past eight years.

As reported by Ad Age, Lee, who previously served as the company’s EVP working in its Home Solutions Division, is anticipated to boost the company with the required motivation and fire while the company prepares to push itself into new markets through its latest acquisition of Nextel Mexico and as it readies itself to close on its DirecTV acquisition.

Ad Age’s Data Center said in 2012 that AT&T spent the most on ads, totaling $1.56 billion in measured media–more than Verizon, Chevrolet, McDonald’s and Toyota.

While Lee will take over the current role of Coughlin, Coughlin herself will continue to be associated with AT&T serving as a consultant for Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson. In 2013, FierceWireless named Coughlin one of the industry’s most influential women owing to her role as an advocate for attracting women increasingly into careers related to engineering, science, technology, and math.

David Christopher will remain CMO of AT&T Mobility. Christopher recently shared his views with FierceWireless about competition in the U.S. wireless industry as well as the company’s focus on the connected car, the connected home and growing its M2M business.

AT&T isn’t the only telecom company reorganizing its top marketing job. Sprint was also reported to announce last November that CMO Jeff Hallock was leaving the company at the end of the first quarter in 2015, although the company has not yet announced as to who will be replacing him in that role. Even Verizon, for that matter, named Diego Scotti last October as the one who would be taking over a newly created position of EVP and CMO for Verizon Communications.

At&t and T-mobile

AT&T and T-Mobile to retain More Customers in Q1 than Sprint, Verizon

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The two big telecom companies that are likely to be the victors in the first-quarter race to rack up new subscribers and retain the existing ones are T-Mobile US and AT&T Mobility. The forecast appears so as churn has shaped up as a key area of focus in the industry, confirms a research report from analysts at investment bank Jefferies.

The Jefferies analysts have also added in a research note that these carriers are ting subscribers at rates that aren’t very different from their historical averages. However, they do seem to believe that churn will be a crucial metric to be observed in this quarter as T-Mobile and AT&T have been showcasing better-than-expected trends recently and Sprint and Verizon Wireless are likely to report slightly higher churn.

Earlier this month, AT&T said that it hopes to add around 400,000 postpaid customers in the first quarter, which would show up as weaker performance than what they had a year ago. Yet, the carrier also expects to see improvements in its postpaid churn. AT&T said that its postpaid churn is moving lower on both a year-over-year as well as a sequential basis. The carrier’s postpaid churn in the first quarter of 2014 was 1.07 percent and 1.22 percent in the fourth quarter of the same year.

To the Jefferies analysts, AT&T appears to have gone ahead with a less aggressive stance in 1Q, seemingly preferring profitability and free cash flow to incremental market share.

As far as Sprint is concerned, the analysts seem to forecast the company to lose 355,000 subscribers during the first quarter “as the initial shock of last quarter’s promotions wears off.” Ever since Sprint launched the aggressive “Cut Your Bill in Half!” program in December targeting Verizon and AT&T, the analysts noted, both Verizon and T-Mobile have introduced competing offers. Verizon now offers two lines and 6 GB of data for $100, while T-Mobile offers two lines and unlimited data for the same amount.

The analysts also expect Verizon will go ahead adding only 711,000 postpaid customers within the first quarter, below the consensus forecast of 752,000. As per theses analysts, Verizon’s average revenue per account will fall 0.9 percent, which is worse than Wall Street’s expected 0.4 percent decline.

Net neutrality

AT&T Halts Fiber Rollout over New Net Neutrality Push

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AT&T

After the recent statements made by President Obama and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler regarding the possibility of reclassifying broadband providers under the Title II regulations of the Communications Act for utilities, AT&T has settled to pause its planned rollout of its new U-Verse GigaPower fiber service until the expected argument regarding the issue is settled once and for all. CEO Randall Stephenson said that it is not feasible to make the move investing the amount of money it would take to deploy fiber to 100 cities while being still unaware of the rules under which those investments will be governed. Therefore, it is wiser to simply pause and take time to develop the insights and understanding about how those rules will be implemented and what their impact would be.

Reacting to the statements made by Obama and Wheeler on the Net neutrality push, AT&T threatened legal action if any attempt was made at Title II classification for broadband providers along with other carriers. Although this latest move by AT&T seems logical in the turn of events, it also throws some light on the psychology of the major carrier. AT&T is indeed feeling threatened by the statements made by Obama and Wheeler regarding the new push because being reclassified as a utility would mean that the company would no longer enjoy the advantages it currently does as a broadband provider.

Without the advantages in infrastructure control and local monopoly power that AT&T has been benefiting from all these years, it would be forced to compete against local competitors and resellers, much like its namesake predecessor did when the Bell System was broken up during the 1980’s, which lead to competition and growth in the telephone sector that drove down prices for local and long-distance calling.

Home Phone

Post DirecTV Acquisition, AT&T Continues Hunt for More

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Post DirecTV

Even after the acquisition of DirecTV as well as its 18 million subscribers in Latin America, the hunt by AT&T Inc. (T) continues as it eyes more acquisitions in the region. The primary base for this rigorous quest by AT&T springs from the lucrative opportunities in the region because it is growing 10 times faster than the U.S. The $48.5 billion takeover of DirecTV by AT&T will hand over numerous satellite-TV subscribers to the American multinational telecommunications corporation, most of which are spread across Latin America, particularly in Mexico and Brazil. The deal with DirecTV will be the first of AT&T’s attempts to extend its reach outside the U.S. in more than 10 years. Such an expansion by the company is crucial to driving growth as the wireless industry becomes more saturated in the domestic sector.

The key to competing in the new markets lies in providing customers not only with satellite TV, but also mobile phone service and broadband access in countries like Mexico. These are places where less than half of the homes in the region pay for TV or Internet. In this regard, Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst with New Street Research commented that AT&T needs to acquire more assets south of the border if it is targeting growth outside the U.S. The move by the U.S. telephone giant is geared by the fact that DirecTV has a great competitive product in Latin America, but it will also need broadband capabilities. The company has been testing wireless Internet access where it may make more sense to buy large landline networks that already have broadband subscribers.

Continuing with options in the U.S. that are limited to expanding its phone and TV services, AT&T is still trying its hand at making new offerings such as home security and selling wireless service to connect cars to the Internet. However, these opportunities are still in the early stages.