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posted by chromas on Thursday October 31 2019, @03:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the starlink-bait dept.

AT&T will slash $3 billion off its capital investments next year

AT&T is planning to spend just $20 billion on capital investment in 2020, down from $23 billion this year. [...] The company is on pace to exceed its 2019 goal as it averaged more than $6 billion per quarter in the first three quarters. But with a forecast of $20 billion across all of 2020, AT&T expects to spend about $5 billion per quarter on capital investments going forward. The company is under pressure from investors to control spending, in part because its TV business is tanking and because of AT&T's giant debt load stemming from the purchases of DirecTV and Time Warner.

[...] AT&T's capital spending will decline next year despite the company's plan to roll 5G mobile service out nationwide. AT&T already got much of the 5G spending out of the way by purchasing spectrum licenses, and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told investors that the company's "strong spectrum position will allow for lower capital intensity" over the next three years.

AT&T has also mostly stopped its fiber-to-the-home broadband construction even though large portions of its 21-state territory still have only copper-based DSL service. Fiber deployment isn't stopping completely, as Stephenson said that "5G requires us to continue deploying fiber." But AT&T customers who can't get modern broadband speeds or reliable wireline service in their homes would welcome more capital investment in their neighborhoods.

Related: AT&T Lays Off Thousands After Nabbing Billions In Tax Breaks And Regulatory Favors
AT&T Will Give Poor People 1.5 Mbps DSL for $10 if US Allows DirecTV Merger
AT&T Employees Took Bribes to Plant Malware on the Company's Network
AT&T Turns On 5G In New York, But It Still Isn't Available To Consumers
Lawsuit: AT&T Signed Customers Up for DirecTV Now Without Their Knowledge
AT&T Considers Getting Rid of DirecTV as TV Business Tanks, WSJ Reports


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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 31 2019, @08:14PM (5 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 31 2019, @08:14PM (#914309) Journal

    Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe things have changed.

    Once upon a time, doing something the best, better than your competitors, was a way to get ahead. Win loyal customers. Those customers are your best and free salespeople.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 31 2019, @11:21PM (4 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday October 31 2019, @11:21PM (#914378)

    Once upon a time, doing something the best, better than your competitors, was a way to get ahead. Win loyal customers. Those customers are your best and free salespeople.

    Wish in one hand, defecate in the other - see which fills up first...

    I'm not sure that straight up competition for commodity services ever really existed except in our rose colored filtered memories. There have been some accidental competitive markets that worked quite well, and we tend to remember those, but forget the landscape of corruption that has always surrounded them.

    Nobody sets out to run a business to obtain the lowest profits possible, and that's what open, simple, straightforward competition does.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 01 2019, @05:37PM (3 children)

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 01 2019, @05:37PM (#914698) Journal

      The goal isn't the lowest profits possible.

      The goal is the best service at a reasonable price. This tends to ensure long term profits.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday November 01 2019, @07:59PM (2 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday November 01 2019, @07:59PM (#914786)

        The goal is the best service at a reasonable price.

        Whose goal? Consumers? I don't often see consumers setting rules or rates for services.

        This tends to ensure long term profits.

        In fantasyland, sure. In the publicly traded world, growth is expected along with ROI, at least 5% CAGR between them and more if you can manage it. How do you get that growth? Well, this quarter marketing has come up with a new way to trick people into paying more for services that cost less to provide than the services they are currently using: AT&T charging more for touchtone vs rotary dialing comes to mind immediately, but there are millions of examples, every year.

        Exceeding CAGR targets means big upswings in stock prices, which mean even bigger swings in instruments like the stock options that corporate leadership are, almost universally, compensated with. Once a CEO has achieved several consecutive years of exceeding expectations on the street, it's time for him to step down and let some other sucker take the fall for his hyperinflated fee structures and other schemes that netted him hundreds of millions in compensation. Maybe move to another company whose executives are hopeful he can repeat the process for them.

        Mom and pop's hardware store down the street? sure... consistent quality and service at reasonable prices kept them in comfortable business for decades, at least until players like the Wal family came to town.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 01 2019, @08:17PM (1 child)

          by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 01 2019, @08:17PM (#914797) Journal

          Consumers? I don't often see consumers setting rules or rates for services.

          Public Utilities Commission setting rates to protect consumers so that levels of abuse are limited.

          --
          People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 02 2019, @12:04AM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday November 02 2019, @12:04AM (#914871)

            Commission setting rates

            You mean regulation - oh the horror, the pure unadulterated eeeeeeeevil. /s

            Yeah, I actually liked flying when it was a regulated industry, but the prices were quite steep. The phone company surely did suck when it was regulated though, and as I recall they were charging us $20 per hour to transmit voice 30 miles or more.

            What's really needed are regulators with the balls, and teeth, to get up in the regulated's business and force them to do the right thing, and in our society it seems that the so-called free market is a little better at that than publicly elected and/or politically appointed oversight. Neither is perfect, and I don't think we've found a magick cocktail of the two that works any better.

            I like the notion of radical transparency, particularly for industries so essential to the public interest like communication, transportation, and government. Open the books, 100%, independently audited - deeply, and publish the findings timely - let the public see, and comment, and draw up their own rates plans that ensure a fair wage to workers who provide excellent service, and screw the shareholders - government buyout and takeover as soon as the independent management analysis knows what they are dealing with.

            --
            🌻🌻 [google.com]