Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

OpenRAN lol!
Interesting commentary at LightReading.

https://www.lightreading.com/5g/at-t-s-single-ran-move-may-cost-ericsson-up-to-10b?_mc=NL_DR_EDT__20231206&cid=NL_DR_EDT__20231206&utm_source=eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SP_News_LightReading_Daily_NL_20231206&sp_cid=5041&utm_content=SP_News_LightReading_Daily_NL_20231206&sp_rid=6935894&sp_aid=6993&sp_eh=f1fc91bfe9cc9a697059730b6db50817020b48c13d35d4d9da76ce03381bace2

Ericsson, Mastec, Jacobs ..... Outsourcing of jobs, firings, organizational changes, and so much more.

MCAC/NFSD, RAN, C&E.... Many more

Yes, but first you must relocate to Dallas. Then they'll let you go from there.

In order to sell the wireless a buyer would want to have to deal with one equipment manufacturer. ATT said it needed to show Wall Street what its core company is in order to correctly value its stock. They sold away television. They sold away content creation. They want to be infrastructure. They do not need wireless anymore. Sell it while it still is a money maker. The future is infrastructure and low orbiting satellites.

Stanky needs remaining national HQ RAN at Dallas, all local RAN contracted to Ericsson. Hard to believe, but….

Do you know anything about Albuquerque New Mexico towers for 5G Standalone services will change with new panel???

Stankey is out to teach the internal RAN Support Teams a lesson they won't soon forget. He believes the RAN Support Teams are sabotaging the network, mostly by quiet quitting. He has dictated that all RAN functions will be contracted out, saving an absolute ton of money. Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, it's Stankey's way or the hiway. In this case, it's the hiway anyway!

"... The Local RAN Design function will become nationalized ..."

While theoretically this may seem like a good idea, in practice it will be fraught with issues. The local RAN design people have the knowledge of the local markets and their coverage requirements. Variables unique to those local markets. That goes away once you "nationalize" the role. And the network, and then hence the customer, suffer. Another strategic business decision brought to you by the "...I know television better than anyone ..." crowd. Well done. Bufoons.

This is true, and everyone should know. More groups will be impacted.

Thats a lot of severance package for T to cover if they decide to rid of local RAN :)

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/what-is-open-ran.html

Is this true ? Am I going to be laid off? So sad corporate American can just fu-k up and solve their issues with layoffs ruining peoples lives

The name of the game is OPEN RAN.
What is Open RAN? Open Radio Access Networks (RAN) is a new approach to building the mobile networks that are needed to connect smartphones and devices to the internet and other users. Traditional RAN solutions generally require telecommunications operators to work with single suppliers across an entire mobile site.

This happened for Sprint 2009, and we all know how it ended

Crawling under the covers with Ericsson (more than they already are) is a horrible idea.

Ericsson will sc--w ATT every chance they can. Fox will be guarding the hen-house. Stankey doesn't care. I'm sure there's dough in it for him somehow.

My understanding matches what another posted here. Nokia markets will transition to Ericsson by mid to late 2026. It will take that time to touch every Nokia site in the network. During this time all RAN Design responsibility will role up the HQ RAN, market RAN Design teams will be dissolved with some number being offered National Roles. This serves as a significant headcount reduction.

RAN Performance and Optimization functionality will remain with the local markets until the migration of network elements to Ericsson has been completed. At that time AT&T will contract with Ericsson to handle RAN services. It’s a multi step process that allows T to consolidate to one Infrastructure vendor, save labor expenses in the short and long term.

Only question remains is how will this negatively impact cash flow and will the board actually sign off on what would be a multibillion dollar expense to migrate half the network to another vendor.

This is good strategy.

Bump... stay tuned

Wait, are we told to move to Microsoft two years ago?

I am from HQ ran team for Ericsson markets
I work from the office in Dallas
We knew about this for few weeks already
The leaders of this company unfortunately lost all confidence, and now want to blame us for their failure, and they think outsource the operations and optimization of the network to the vendor will solve the problem
Very sad indeed

This is what I have heard from a friend in Dallas. AT&T will start moving to a one vendor platform solution (Ericsson). Nokia markets will over an extended period of time 24-36 months migrate to Ericsson. The Local RAN Design function will become nationalized however RAN Performance and Optimization which is close to the customer and real world performance will stay in market.

Some Local RAN Design engineers may have opportunities made available in Dallas/Atlanta but the bulk of Market Design specific engineers and teams will be dissolved and layed off. This is a significant headcount reduction but still allows for RAN perf/optimization to remain focused and market based where it benefits the customer.

This will happen. Announcement the first week of December.

Ericsson will be the OEM for many things. RF Design to be nationalized. Big changes coming to the company, organizations and markets.

Odd since they just sent out a RAN engineer training program to all network employees. Seems to me like they probably need more.

Considering that we have been slashing our capital budgets, our Bill plans have been reduced dramatically for the next 2 to 3 years and there’s an intense focus on increasing and improving. Cash flow, a move like this makes no sense whatsoever. The capital expenditure involved to replace 50% of your network infrastructure would completely destroy their cash flow, and make Wall Street extremely unhappy, by the time they got done, there would be very little cash low. The stock price would be even worse. This sounds like one of those wild rumors that came out of somebody’s rear end that’s not to say they couldn’t outsource some functions and roles within the ran organization, more likely at the national level at the local level market engineers are involved every day with customer related issues there’s no one else to deal with those

This has been the best kept secret..... NOT

Who didn't see this coming?

It's called Quid Pro Quo, AT&T gives Ericsson exclusive right to provide hardware for our wireless network. Ericsson turns around and takes over all RAN functions! Stankey is a genius.

This is disgusting
We know nothing what JS is doing and bad it will impact our jobs

A PM from Ericsson confirmed the news to me, no word on when this will be effective and if we still will have a job or not

Not all the ran teams will go, what I heard from some colleagues, I work in San Ramon office as well, what I was told from my manager, we will know more soon
It is disturbing that my director refused to deny what we heard, like he knows something we don’t know yet

I iWork in the HQ ran team from San Ramon office, I didn’t hear anything about this
What is your sources?

“ Under Ericsson all local market engineers will be gone in 2024.” perhaps but on the Nokia side it would take 24-30 months to convert all those sites to Ericsson..required thousands of tower climbs, all RRH’s and related equipment be replaced using capital expense. The availability of tower crews alone will be a prolonged effort. It would be 2-3 years as noted to convert Nokia to Ericsson and ATT would still need all market RAN in the Nokia markets during that time.

Under Ericsson all local market engineers will be gone in 2024.

“ Yes, all national RAN people will be asked to report to Dallas in 2024” I was referring to Local Market RAN, entirely different scope and function from National.

Yes, all national RAN people will be asked to report to Dallas in 2024

Yep! May the odds be ever in your favor!