How many employees does it take to run at&t? 75K? Maybe much less.
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Just need someone to administer the life saving boosters and hand out the UBI & CBDC to the true believers.
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The only time Stephenson comes anywhere near an at&t facility is when Stankey invites him out to lunch. What is at&t getting in return for his $1M annual salary? I would venture to say nothing. Think about it, would you ever seriously consider taking any consultant advice from Stephenson?
Wireline isn’t dead.
But the company will only need 30% of the current workforce. They are also looking to contract much of that out. Another reason the blackrock venture is taking place.
Verizon wireline techs said the same thing. Now they work for a different company.
For those that keep saying wireline is dead and wireless will be the only jobs, how do you think the wireless network works? The entire backbone from the switch to the cell tower works through the wireline network. Without legacy wireline, there is no cellular network. I agree copper is dead, but fiber is not.
Most of the following was stated in two recent separate interviews with CFO Pascal and SVP McElfresh:
Based on those interviews I have to correct your statement; They stated the goal is a reduction of the copper facilities and associated equipment to 50% coverage in 2025, there won’t be an increase from approximately 30% to 50% fiber coverage to make up the difference. They are mutually exclusive of each other.
After all these years of placing the fiber plant only covers a little over 30% of all AT&T territory . Their current stated goal is for fiber facilities to pass 30 million locations (res & bus) in 2 years, it’s currently around 24 + million. Think of the potential for future growth to reach the other 70% of their territory. Most people still want a hardwired connection in addition to wireless for multiple reasons including security, speed, reliability, capacity, multiple streams, latency for gamers, etc….
Customers in areas that will no longer be served by cooper nor have access to fiber will have a temporary fix with “fixed wireless” until the company is able to place fiber. For rural areas they are also looking at satellite coverage in partnership with another company, not Elon. They don’t think based on the technology that fixed wireless is a long term play because it won’t meet future broadband capacity needs as the market matures.
Really don’t have a big problem with Stephenson being a high paid consultant as long as he isn’t making decisions. Has a pretty varied background in a lot of important positions in the company and did well at most of them. His ego on trying to out Whitacre Whitacre is undoubtedly the reason we are in the financial straits we are in. However he grew up in the traditional business we seem to be moving back towards.
Stephenson working to insure his great, great, great, great grandkids growup in luxury and never need to work for a living!
Not many employees know that Stephenson is still working for AT&T as a consultant at $1M per year. How bad will things get before they let him go to live off his mega million dollar pension? He may be classified as a full-time telecommuters, not sure if he will be required to rto!
Yes wireline is also fiber. Copper wireline is a dinosaur. Most people now have 1 wire (fiber or coax) coming into their homes which goes to a router and some use wireless exclusively. If your job supports anything else that position is on it’s way out. Without the d-mb acquisitions, and the subsequent tightening of the capital budget, it would be moving faster. The stated goal is 50% of the network to be fiber by 25. With automation, AI, etc we very well could see force levels decrease by that much or more.
Even biden was smart enough to figure out the president of SVB bank should be fired. A smart professional sports general manager will fire a head coach because he knows the players deserve better. How the Board still can't figure out Randall and Stankey should be let go shows their incompetence and lack of respect for AT&T's employees.
Wireline has multiple revenue streams and not all are declining so stop with the "Wireless is carrying everyone" bs. Wireline is not just copper, don't be dense.
So essentially AT&T has 2 streams of revenue coming into the business (Wireline & Wireless). One has been in a state of decline for years, being carried by Wireless. Now that both are in a state of decline, the lever to pull to increase cash flow, is the layoff lever. This will continue until T learns how to control expenses. Not a good position for a company they needs growth to survive.
The Stephenson / Stankey regime have destroyed so much of the value in ATT.
How anyone on the board could have confidence in Stankey right now is beyond me.
Moving forward it doesn’t matter how many employees are left because the company will be in bad shape for years to come. Pension eligible employees are fortunate they can leave soon. The employees just starting out are in for a very rough future.
Best of luck to everyone regardless of your tenure.
The Stephenson / Stankey regime have destroyed so much of the value, Randy said we are a WIRELESS company. Also Randell said we will be "MANAGEGING" decline. Randel gets paid for complete failure. Understand that.
Send a message, layoff the top 5 and net income per employee would rise dramatically. The company could also start thriving again with some new outside management that ru s it like a real business, not a socialist organization.
The Stephenson / Stankey regime have destroyed so much of the value in ATT.
How anyone on the board could have confidence in Stankey right now is beyond me.
Moving forward it doesn’t matter how many employees are left because the company will be in bad shape for years to come. Pension eligible employees are fortunate they can leave soon. The employees just starting out are in for a very rough future.
Best of luck to everyone regardless of your tenure.
They have been talking about our net income per employee compared to our peers for the past 10-15 years. Seems the pi-s poor acquisitions have forced their hand. Remember when Stephenson took over from Whitacre and said “We are a wireless company”. Then he went on to saddle us with crushing debt by getting into industries we knew nothing about. Stankey isn’t writing a new playbook. Just dug up a old one that, in hindsight, should have been used years ago.
Give it 5 years. Solid estimate.