I've seen some comments on this site recently about coming plans to spin off fiber. I don't believe it. Several years ago when RS was "wireless everything" in a town hall a few weeks later Stankey had a town hall and said something to the effect of "you may hear some folks saying 'wireless everything' but there's a whole lot wire / fiber infrastructure supporting those towers", so basically JS publicly contradicted RS. I tend to believe what current leadership is saying, Fiber and Wireless are the future of ATT.
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Aside from the massive debt, I think the employees are more worried about the state of the company than the executives that actually run it! With that said, I would have to think they know more about the nuances of running a company than just collecting accounts receivables every month! There are many advisors in finance that have more of a say-so in the big picture than just Stankey and McFresheven, though they might have the ultimate last word! At this point, I don't think I would worry too much about the business! I've been with T for almost 4 decades and have seen A LOT of things happen, some good, some not so much! This company isn't going anywhere in terms of spin-offs! It will rebound like it has many times before, but it will require some change, some of which might be painful, but for the good of the long term! Hang in there, people! Turbulent times could be ahead, but not for long!
@9jmb, “Spinning off fiber would include all the copper also.” Not exactly. All of the copper is regulated but not all of the fiber is. Only the fiber that is used as SONET transport for legacy services(pots, T1, DDS) is regulated. The fiber that that works ASE & PON services are not regulated. T could sell off the regulated plant(who in the h€ll would want it is beyond me), keep the deregulated plant , and lease back portions where both services are in the same sheath.
Copper plant has become a real boat anchor around T's neck.
Spinning off fiber would include all the copper also. In reality - it would be a cellular spin off. Look at TM and V - TM is mobile only and V dumped all its copper to CenturyLink. I would assume T has to do the same. So I see the deal looking like the DTV spin off - where T still owns part of the copper/fiber company.
Just 15 years ago the company had capital money to invest in FTTH. They cried and said It was too expensive, so they settled for FTTC. Looking back, it was cheap to run FTTH, given the cost today. These are the bone headed decisions leadership at T is responsible for. Now they have no investment capital to install FTTH, and it's too late, other companies already have FTTH. Why not sell it off?
With the staggering debt load AT&T has no ability to invest the capital needed to make fiber a success. So a spin off with a deep pockets investor with a minority stake for T is in the works. This will provide some more cash to retire debt. Next is the spin off of the Business wireline it’s a deep debt ho-e to dig out of
spin-off management
I believe this is a false believe since the fiber entity has so many moving parts that T couldn't possibly spin it off without screwing it up! It's too complex and too important for T to get rid of it! It makes more sense to keep it, maintain it and just build on it.
Fiber will be spun off if for no other reason than giving Stankey and BOD a bonus for completing the transaction. It's all about the money folks.
Randy didn’t understand the business he must have thought wireless was transmitted by satellite. Thus he bought DTV.
Randell didn't understand cellular data and hotspots according to a Dallas Morning news article some time ago. Some of you will remember what I'm referencing.
I worked for the Company, when it was considered a utility. Everyone in our footprint had telephone service, or access to it. Then, deregulation reared it’s ugly head, and suddenly, providing everyone with affordable, reliable service in your footprint, just wasn’t se-y enough. If Ed, Randy, and Janky would have done their homework, they would have plowed the money they wasted, into firing up every customer in their area, with fiber or some sort of mesh network.
They would have had services that were sticky as glue. Anyone care to total up the losses due to the T-Mobile, DirectTV, and Time Warner debacles?
Randy didn’t understand the business he must have thought wireless was transmitted by satellite. Thus he bought DTV
The company only supplies infrastructure to a small amount of the overall towers utilized by the wireless side. The majority of towers are located outside of the franchise areas and served by providers of the area they are located in.
The company has enough cash flow to both easily pay the dividend and pay down debt over the coming years. That’s the stated plan. The commodity is wireless , not fiber internet.
What do companies do when they find themselves in debt to the tune of $150B? They sell everything that's not bolted down. With rising interest rates, T has little choice in the matter. If Stankey can get $50B for fiber, that money could reduce the debt to $100B, much more manageable.
They are hyping the new sub adds on Fiber, what they are not telling you are the losses in DSL subs and offsetting net adds. To spin off fiber, it will be a boardband business, it isn't as rosy as one would think, just like tagging on universe to DTV.
Believe it, T has got to retire debt and fast. If Stankey could fetch 50B for the sale of the fiber division, T could lease back what they need for backhaul and other internal needs. It could also provide Stankey with a nice bonus.
You over estimate the Stink. You see, he wants to stay and fill his bank account as much as possible.
But with rising interest rates, he will eventually be forced to pay down the debt that he and Ratty caused as the debt needs to be rolled over. You think that the DTV and TW spin off eliminated T's debt? Wrong - T still carries most of that debt due to the Stinks lousy deals.
So Stink will sell off ANY asset for a shiny nickle so that he can get another $8million bonus for brokering the wonderful deal. The proceeds will be used to pay the rising debt so the Stink can stay and further drain T coffers. And as an added bonus he gets to torture employees some more!
Yeah, fiber's not going anywhere.