8/4/10 AT&T Research Report as Buy Issued by Intellivest Securities Research, Inc.

www.DowJonesMonitor.com

The following is not intended as advertising by a broker-dealer and is not a research report. Any comments by third-parties do not reflect the views of Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. and have not been reviewed by us for completeness or accuracy.

Post No. 568. The following is brought to you by Intellivest Securities Research, Inc.

On August 2, 2010 Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. published a 66 page research report on AT&T saying it was a buy. For information as to how to obtain a copy of the Report please contact Dan Kolber at email: dkolber@intellivestsecurities.com or call him at 678-595-9756.

Following are excerpts from that report:


AT&T Inc. NYSE: T


Buy
Current Price (8/1/10) $26.51
Market Cap $156,659,408,000 P/E ratio: 8.93
Shares Outstanding 5,909,000,000 Earnings per Share: $2.97
Revenue: $123.018 bil 52 Week High: $28.73
Operating Income: $21.492 bil 52 Week Low: $23.78
Net Income: $12.535 bil
Total Assets: $268.752 bil
Employees: 272,450
CEO, Chairman, Pres: Randall L. Stephenson

Headquarters: 208 S. Akard St., Dallas Texas, 75202
telephone number 210-821-4105
AT&T website: ATT.COM

AT&T has the following class of publicly traded securities, all of which are listed on the New York Stock Exchange: Common Shares (par Value $1.00 per share); 6.125% AT&T Inc.; Global Notes, Due April 2, 2015; 5.87% AT&T Inc. Global Notes due April 28, 2018; 7.00% AT&T Global Notes due April 30, 2040; 6.35% Forty-Nine Year AT&T Senior Notes, Due February 15, 2056. AT&T is engaged in the following industries: telecommunications, internet service provider, and digital television. It is headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas and serves a worldwide market. AT&T’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The number of stockholders of record as of December 31, 2009 and 2008 was 1,454,030 and 1,541,767. The number of stockholders of record as of February 20, 2010, was 1,448,975. AT&T declared dividends, on a quarterly basis, totaling $1.65 per share in 2009 and $1.61 per share in 2008.

SUMMARY/OPINION

AT&T’s share price is cheap, and although not a target, we believe it should be around $34. The weak price share has already reflected the loss of iPhone exclusivity, which, even if does happen, may not have the consequences many believe since the iPhone is heavily subsidized by AT&T and it drain s AT&T’s network which has resulted in significant negative publicity for AT&T. AT&T has several positives. It enjoys strong cash flow. Since 1984 it has consistently enriched its quarterly dividend which is currently at a dividend yield of 6.3%. It has a broad product line of excellent smartphones other than the iPhone. In addition, the increase of its line of non-telephone wireless devices will increase significantly in the future. AT&T’s management team has a proven record of reducing debt, cutting costs and integrating acquisitions. There is significant opportunity to expand into emerging foreign markets. AT&T is a buy.

METHODOLOGY

Since June 1, 2001 to the present, each morning before the New York Stock Exchange opened for trading, I aggregated articles that mentioned AT&T (or the other 29 Dow Jones components) from the following daily publications: Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, USA Today, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Daily Report (Ga), and on an intermittent basis Investors Business Daily. On a weekly basis I researched Barron’s, Businessweek (now Bloomberg Businessweek), Forbes, Institutional Investor, Beasley Report, Corporate Counsel, Newsweek, Time, Atlanta Business Chronicle and other publications and aggregated articles found. The results were posted each morning (with a few exceptions) at a blog at www.DowJonesMonitor.com. After the market closed, closing data about AT&T (and the other 29 Dow components) were also posted there. In addition, SEC filings for AT&T were researched on a weekly basis, analyst telephone conferences were monitored, and traditional analyst research methods were utilized. At the end of this report are synopsis of most of these articles in chronological order with the most recent articles first, along with the name of the publication, author(s) and page number. Most of the data contained herein is from those sources. To the extent there is a similarity of any ideas contained in my analysis and analysis contained in any of the referenced articles, I give full credit to the author of the corresponding articles so that the authors may have the benefit of the doubt. Of course, I take full credit for any inaccuracies contained herein. The web site www.DowJonesMonitor.com and www.IntellivestSecurities.com are owned by Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. and this author. All rights are reserved. You may reproduce content herein and therein so long as proper credit is given to the author, Daniel H. Kolber and Intellivest Securities Research, Inc.

Certification

By issuing this research report, Daniel H. Kolber as author of this research report, certifies that the recommendations and opinions expressed accurately reflect his personal views about any and all of the subject securities discussed herein and no part of the author’s compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this report. Daniel H. Kolber has not received any compensation directly or indirectly from AT&T, Inc.. Daniel H. Kolber is the owner and President of Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. and Intellivest Securities, Inc.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES

As a matter of policy, Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. and Intellivest Securities, Inc. prohibit the offering of favorable research, a specific research rating or a specific target price as consideration or inducement for the receipt of business or compensation. Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. and Intellivest Securities, Inc. and/or their employees, officers, affiliates or members of their families may have long or short positions in the securities in research reports they author or distribute (and/or options or warrants relating thereto) and may purchase and/or sell the securities or options/warrants from time to time in the open market or otherwise.

Intellivest Securities Research, Inc., Intellivest Securities, Inc., or Daniel Kolber or their affiliates may seek to do business with companies covered in research reports in which they participate as authors or distributors. As a result, investors should be aware that certain conflicts of interest could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single factor in making their investment decisions.

Information contained herein has been derived from sources believed to be reliable but is not guaranteed as to accuracy and does not purport to be a complete analysis of the security, company or industry involved. This report is not to be construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. The information herein is for persons residing in the United States only and is not intended for any person in any other jurisdiction.

DEFINITION OF RATINGS

Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. and Intellivest Securities, Inc. assign one of five ratings to stocks covered in our research reports: Outperform, Neutral, Underperform, Speculative Buy or Buy.

Outperform: The value of the stock should outperform the projected returns of the benchmark index in the coming year on a risk-adjusted basis. The most common benchmark used in our analysis is the Russell 2000 small cap index but for large cap companies it is the S&P 500 Index or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Our research concludes the stock is under priced.

Neutral: This stock should achieve risk-adjusted results similar to that of the benchmark index. Our research concludes the stock is fairly priced at current levels.

Underperform: This stock should achieve risk-adjusted results below that of the benchmark index. Our research concludes the stock is overpriced.

Speculative Buy: The stock should outperform the benchmark index on a risk-adjusted basis in the future, but there is too much uncertainty regarding the assumptions we make in our analysis. This rating suggests the stock has the potential for significant gains in the future, but may have considerable financial risks in the immediate term.

Buy: The stock should outperform the benchmark index on a risk-adjusted basis in the future.

This is the sixth research report distributed by either Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. or Intellivest Securities, Inc. Therefore, the ratings distribution for Intellivest Securities, Inc. as of August 2, 2010 is: For coverage unierse there have been zero ratings and therefore zero percentage fo the following ratings: Outperform, Neutral, and Underperofrm. There have been four reports witha rating of "Speculative Buy" representing 80% of all reports and there have been two reports with the rating of "Buy" representing 20% of all reports. There have been zero reports issued on any investment banking clients; therefore there have been zerio reports representing 0% of all reports for investment banking clients during the past 12 months in the following ratings: Outperfor, Neutral, Underperform, Speculative Buy, Buy.

©Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. 2010. All rights reserved. Reproduction or quotation in whole or part is permitted so long as credit is given to Daniel Kolber and Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. as author or Intellivest Securities, Inc. as distributor. Additional information regarding the author and distributor of this research is available at www.intellivestsecurities.com, or by writing to:
Dan Kolber at Intellivest Securities, Inc., office of supervisory jurisdiction, 1540 Chase Court, Riverdale, Ga. 303296-2610 or by calling at: 678-595-9746 or emailing: dkolber@intellivestsecurities.com.

Dan Kolber holds the Series 24, 27, 87, 4, 53, 54, 7, 79, 63, and 65 licenses. He has a BA from Boston University, JD from University of Virginia Law School, and Ll.M. from New York University School of Law. He is a member of the Georgia, New York, Florida and Virginia Bars.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS


On July 22, 2010 AT&T reported that its earnings rose 26% in the second quarter, helped by its iPhone-fueled wireless division. AT&T’s profits surged 26% to $4 billion, driven by its wireless arm. AT&T, which has exclusive rights to Apple’s iPhone in the US, added 1.6 million net wireless subscribers. AT&T also raised its forecast for the year. It said it expected a strong increase in earnings over last year, compared to its previous forecast of “stable to improved” results. However, it also posted its first decline ever in wired broadband subscribers, capping a decade of growth. Its net income rose to $4.02 billion, or 68 cents a share, in the April to June period, from $3.2 billion, or 54 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding a gain from the sale of stock in Sterling Commerce, earnings were 61 cents a share. Revenue was $30.8 billion, compared with $30.6 billion a year ago. AT& T signed up a net 496,000 new wireless contract customers, down slightly from the 512,000 it singed in the first quarter. That is only about half of what it has signed up in recent years, However, it is still better than the rest of the industry, where contract signups have collapsed this year. AT&T activated 3.2 million iPhones, which was introduced in the lst few days of the quarter. Obviously contract signing customers are preferred, but AT&T also added 300,000 no-contract prepaying customers, more than it has had in any quarter since 2007. With signups of new phone subscribers declining significantly, AT&T is hoping to continue to grow by providing wireless services to nonphone devices, like Apple’s iPad table and Amazon’s Kinde e-reader. AT&T added 896,000 such devices in the second quarter, less than the 1.05 million it added in the first quarter. On a conference call, July 23, CFO Rick Lindner said he expects postpaid customer growth to bounce back in the third quarter as more new customers purchase the iPhone.

During the second quarter, AT&T% changed its data service plans and placed limits on how much a customer could browse the Internet, stream music or videos, and send and receive email using a smartphone. To attract new customers, it cut the price of each plan. While growth may have slowed, its rate of turnover or “churn” fell to 1.29% from 1.48% a year earlier.

On the wire-line side, AT&T continued to lose customers. It added 255,000 U-Verse (AT&T’s fiber optic-based video service) Internet customers, but lost 92,000 total broadband customers, implying a loss of 347,000 traditional DSL customers. Lindner blamed the decline on seasonal weakness, partially because college students cancel their Internet lines and head back home for the summer.

In the second quarter, wireless service revenue grew 10% from a year earlier, as average monthly fees rose 3.4%, bucking the industry trend. Data plans for iPhones and other smartphones helped AT&T offset declining prices for voice calls.

AT&T continues laying off workers, mainly from the declining landline business. It has cut more than 10.000 jobs this year, ending the quarter with 272,450 employees. The layoffs helped AT&T cut costs faster than the 3.7% year over year revenue decline in landline; letting it post a tiny increase in operating income for the segment. The revenue decline was the smallest since the first quarter of 2008. AT&T stemmed revenue declines despite losing 92,000 wired broad band connections during the quarter, to end at 16 million.

Wireless results were buoyed by a strong 27.2% increase in wireless data. AT&T’s future depends on wireless average revenue per subscriber growth fueled by the revolution in wireless data. While mobile remains AT&T’s main growth area, AT&T also improved its performance in t its fixed line business. Overall, revenues from AT&T’s consumer and business fixed-line business fell by 3.7%, the smallest decline in five quarters.

Verizon Communications Inc. added more wireless contract customers in the second quarter than AT&T. Verizon’s wireless arm added a net 665,000 contract customers in the quarter, boosted by a steady rollout of Droid smartphones that run on Google Inc.’s Android software. That represented a 40% decline from a year earlier but outpaced AT&T’s net 496,000 contract customers. AT&T still holds a significant lead, with more than 53% of its contract subscribers carrying either a smartphone or messaging device, compared with 35% for Verizon Wireless, which is owned by Verizon Communications, Inc. and Vodafone. The iPhone also remains a top revenue drive among devices, increasing the average monthly phone bill for AT&T customers 3.4% to $62.63, versus $51.56 for Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon Wireless released the Droid Incredible by HTC Corp. during the second quarter and introduced the Droid X by Motorola Inc. which didn’t go on sale until July. It is likely that Verizon took market share in the quarter from AT&T despite the boost to AT&T from the launch of a new iPhone. Verizon benefitted from the timing of the iPhone 4 launch, which hit the market with only a week left in the quarter. AT&T and Apple primarily sold the device to existing subscribers in the quarter, limiting how many new customers could buy it. The customer shift could reverse in the third quarter as AT&T and Apple make more iPhone 4s available in the market, attracting new customers who previously were unable to buy the device. Including prepaid and wholesale customers, Verizon added a total of 1.4 million wireless subscribers during the quarter, fewer than the 1.6 million additions at AT&T. Verizon’s total customer base stands at 92.1 million, up 5% from a year earlier. Despite the iPhone’s attractiveness, Verizon is attracting more new customers.

AT&T leads the world in mobile broadband, supporting two times more traffic than any other company . AT&T invested more than any other US telecom or cable company in 2009. As a result, AT&T’s 3G network can support twice as many smartphone users as any competitor.

AT&T is bashed incessantly for service that rarely lives up to the elegant promise of Apple’s sleek iPhone. There’s no question tht AT&T has made mistakes in managing its network. It has relied heavily on cost savings from acquisitions to boost profits. AT&T also clearly underestimated the demand for iPhones and the amount of data customers would use. In a Dec. 2009 survey by Consumer Reports about wireless operators, AT&T came in last.

12/21/09 WSJ pR4 “The World’s Top 25 Companies” says AT&T was only one of 8 companies to remain on the list in 2009 that was also on the list in 1999. AT&T in 1999 had a market cap of $166.3 billion compared to $160.6 billion at the end of 2009.

INVESTMENT FACTORS

INVESTMENT POSITIVES

Strong earnings for 2Q as AT&T’s profits surged 26% to $4 bil. AT&T reported a 26% increase in 2Q earnings amid an investment gain, lower costs and fewer customer defections (beating analysts’ expectations.) AT&T added 496,000 psotpaid subscribers, about a third of the customers signed up a year earlier. CFO Rick Lindner said he expects continued year-to-year declines in the number of new postpaid customers added each quarter, but “that doesn’t mean there isn’t significant opportunity for growth.” The iPhone continued to be the largest driver of AT&T’s growth. It activated 3.2 million iPhones in 2Q. It added 1.6 million wireless connections in 2Q mainly for nontraditional devices such as electronic radars and dog collars. AT&T reported a profit of $4.02 billion, or 68 cents a share, up from $3.2 billion, or 54 cents a year earlier. The most recent quarter included an investment gain of seven cents a share. Revenue rose 0.6% to $30.81 billion. AT&T was able to post margin growth through a stronger mix of high-quality subscribers and fewer defections. The slowdown in new customers also meant lower acquisition costs. During 2Q, AT&T changed its data-service plans and placed limits on how much a customer could browse the Internet, stream music or videos, and send and receive email using a smartphone. In exchange, it cut the price of each plan. While growth may have slowed, customers stuck to AT&T. Its rate of turnover fell to 1.29% from 1.48% a year earlier. In the high-speed Internet business, it added 255,000 U-Verse Internet customers, but lost 92,000 total broadband customers, implying a loss of 347,000 traditional DSL customers. Mr. Lindner blamed the decline on seasonal weakness, partially because college students cancel their Internet lines and head back home for the summer. Contract signing customers are the most lucrative, but AT&T also added 300,000 no contract prepaying customers, more than it has had in any quarter since ’07. For the past two years, there has been wide spread concern about AT&T’s growth prospects. 2Q results show its growth is improving. Wireless growth is AT&T’s future. AT&T enjoyed acquisition-fuelled growth over much of the past decade, but revenue fell last year as the economic downturn took its toll.

Mobile remains AT&T’s main growth engine, its fixed-line business is improving: By reducing costs, the margins for 2Q in its fixed-line business were better than expected. AT&T has cut 3,860 people or 1.3% of its workforce, in the wireline side of the business. AT&T has cut more than 10,000 jobs this year, ending the quarter with 272,450 employees. Revenues from its consumer and business fixed-line business fell by 3.7%, the smallest decline in five quarters.

As a telecom company, AT&T generates large amounts of cash and offers healthy dividend yields: and is growing again as it comes out of the recession. With 90% of the U.S. population already owning a cell phone, wireless subscriber gains are slowing. Rick Lindner, AT&T’s fiancé chief says AT&T will be able to expand its business by shifting more customers to smartphones, as well as selling cellular service for devices like e-readers. AT&T will also look for acquisitions in fields that would support its focus on mobile data. AT&T is emphasizing wireless gadgets such as e-readers and netbooks. Since 1Q of 2010 AT&T now breaks out “connected devices”. These new devices bring in less monthly revenue than cellphone customers but they are highly profitable, because they don’t incur costs like marketing or customer service that come with adding a phone customer. Telecoms pay among the highest dividends of any industry, with market leaders AT&T and Verizon both shelling out close to 7% of total investment.

Abolishing “all you can eat” data plans for smartphone customers should increase average revenue per user: ALT&T in June became the first to switch to a plan that requires consumers to pay based on how much data they consume. Verizon and others are bound to follow otherwise they will attract all the bandwidth hogs. After years of mounting customer outrage over its clogged network, AT&T has finally scrapped its unlimited data plan and raised the price on heavy data users. AT&T’s network has been crippled by the iPhone as a few users hogged bandwidth: 3% of AT&T’s smartphone customers use 40% of its data. Generating more revenue per bit of data will help AT&T keep profits healthy even as it spends to retool around data networks and away from voice services. The switch to a metered data-pricing is a more profitable pricing plan.

Consistent negative media reports about poor cell phone reception artificially depresses stock price: AT&T suffers constants negative media coverage regarding dropped calls in its reception area, especially in the New York and San Francisco areas. This is a problem that AT&T is working on and will eventually resolve. The negative publicity has pressured the stock price and is unprecedented in American business. Late night comedians frequently joke about AT&T’s poor reception with the most recent example being Jay Leno as reported in 7/25/10 New York Times. The iPhone has swamped AT&T’s data network and sparked a consumer rebellion. On Dec. 18, 2009, Operation Chokehold was an attempted consumer uprising that tried to have every iPhone user turn on a data-intensive app and run the app for one solid hour to protest AT&T’s substandard network. The FCC stepped in and said disrupting a network would pose a significant public safety concern. A12/31/09 New York Times article referred to AT&T as “the network it seems everyone loves to hate.” Verizon Wireless mocks AT&T’s network quality in an ad campaign resulting in a lawsuit from AT&T. This negative publicity is not limited to the consuming publication but spills over to money managers as well. In 2/15/10 Barron’s p25 “The World’s Most Respected Companies for 2010” by Vito J. Racanelli, money managers were surveyed and AT&T I ranked at number 84 falling from 58th in 2009, falling greater than almost any other company except those in the financial sector. Among money managers surveyed 4% highly respect AT&T, 26% respect it, 51% somewhat respect it and 16% don’t respect it. AT&T will come through this just fine. You must remember that until a few months ago, the word smartphone wasn’t even in our vocabulary. In fact, a review of the articles shows it first appeared towards the end of 2009 and it was spelled using two words. For those of us old enough to remember the Old Ma Bell, it is amazing to think how quickly things change in the telecommunications industry and how quickly AT&T has responded to these challenges. AT&T has successfully battled customer complaints about its network and had dedicated an extra $2 billion to upgrade it this year. Most of the problems are caused by the increased demands of the iPhone. In fact, losing the iPhone could be a blessing for AT&T and a curse for Verizon if it obtains exclusive rights. In big cities, AT&T’s network has buckled under the data-heavy demands for the iPhone. Before the original iPhone’s debut, AT&T and Apple signed a five year exclusive deal that is due to expire in 2012, according to court documents that emerged in a class action lawsuit against Apple. It has not been made public whether that agreement has been a mended. Steve Jobs defended AT&T involving a security breach on one of AT&T’s website that exposed the e-mail addresses of some owners of iPads. Steve Jobs said if another carrier starts to provide service for iPhones, that carrier might find its network capacity isn’t much better equipped than AT&T’s to handle the data traffic. It remains to be seen whether AT&T’s competitors, such as Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile, won’t suffer from some of the same deficiencies. AT&T is ahead of its competitors when it comes to the wireless-data learning curve. By virtue of tackling these issues during the early days of iPhone adoption, AT&T is building itself a very capable infrastructure, despite customer sentiment to the contrary. As explained in the next paragraph, AT&T ‘s network is being fixed.

AT&T is on track in upgrading its wireless network: AT&T is making improvements that will double the speed of its wireless network in six cities, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Charlotte, NC, using a technology called High Speed Packet Access 7.2. It will be installed in 25 cities by the end of 2010 and will reach about 90% of its existing 3G network by the end of 2011. The improvements are part of AT&T’s investment of $17 billion to $18 billion in improving the speed and reliability of its wireless network. The H.S.P.A. 7.2 network can reach peak speeds of 7.2 megabits per second. The peak speed of the current network is 3.6 mgabits per second. The H.S.P.A. 7.2 technology is not as advanced at AT&T’s 4G L.T.E. network technology which transfers data as quickly as 100 megabits per second and will roll out in 2011..

Despite the fact that Verizon Wireless added more wireless contract customers in 2Q than AT&T, AT&T still holds a significant lead: In 2Q Verizon’s wireless arm added a net 665,000 contract customers boosted by a steady rollout of Droid smartphones. That represented a 40% decline from a year earlier but outpaced AT&T, which added a net 496,000 contract customers in 2Q despite the launch of the iPhone 4 at the end of the period. AT&T still holds a significant lead, with more than 53% of its contract subscribers carrying either a smartphone or messaging device, compared with 35% for Verizon Wireless. The iPhone remains a top revenue driver among devices, increasing the average monthly phone bill for AT&T customers 3.4% to $62.63, versus $51.56 for Verizon Wireless customers. The customer shift could reverse in 3Q as AT&T and Apple make more iPhone 4s available in the market. AT&T CFO Rick Lindner said he expects subscriber growth to rebound in 3Q. Including prepaid and wholesale customers, Verizon added a total of 1.4 million wireless subscribers during 2Q, fewer than the 1.6 million additions at AT&T. Verizon’s total customer base stands at 92.1 million, up 5% from a year earlier.

Fears over the negative impact of net-neutrality rules are overblown: In any event, they would affect Verizon and AT&T equally, it will be years before there are final rules, and AT&T has strong lobbying power and may get their way regarding the final rules. Regulators are reconsidering rules governing high-speed Internet connections, wading into a policy dispute that could be tied up in Congress and the courts for years. The FCC voted to begin taking public comments in three different paths for regulating broadband. That includes a proposal by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to define broadband access as a telecommunications service subject to “common carrier” obligations to treat all traffic equally. Genachowski’s proposal is a response to a federal appeals court ruling in April, 2010 that cast doubt on the agency’s authority over broadband under its existing regulatory framework. The chairman’s plan has the backing of many big Internet companies which say it would ensure the FCC can prevent phone and cable companies from using their control over broadband connections to determine what subscribers can do online. Genachowski’s plan faces resistance from broadband providers, including AT&T and Verizon. They say it opens the door to onerous and outdated regulations that would discourage them from upgrading their networks. The FCC currently defines broadband as a lightly regulated information services. Bu the appeals court ruled that this approach does not give the FCC the authority it needs to proceed with Genachowski’s plan to adopt “network neutrality” mandates, which would bar broadband providers from favoring or discriminating against traffic traveling over their networks. Supporters of network neutrality, including many big Web companies, say such rules are necessary to prevent phone and cable companies from blocking or degrading online calling services, internet video and other applications that compete with their core businesses. But Comcast and other broadband providers insist they need flexibility to manage their networks and ensure that certain applications don’t hog too much bandwidth. They also fear that net neutrality mandates would prevent them from offering profitable premium services on their networks. The FCC’s recent effort to ensure it can police Internet providers has prompted new interest in Congress toward rewriting the nation’s aging telecommunications laws for the Internet era. It won’t happen right away, and could stretch on for years, but AT&T and other phone and cable companies are gearing up for an expensive lobbing battle. The FCC said in May, 2010 that it will open deliberations on its proposal to change how the agency regulates Internet lines. The proposal would reverse a previous decision to deregulate Internet lines and begin to apply rules that were written for traditional phone networks. A recent federal appeals court decision cast doubt on the FCC’s ability under existing law to be a Web traffic cop and enforce “net neutrality” rules, which would require Internet providers to treat all legal traffic equally. It took Congress over a decade to complete the last major rewrite of the nation’s telecommunications law in 1996. Because the phone and cable industries are among the most heavily regulated, they tend to spend heavily on political contributions and lobbying. In 2009, the telecom industry spent a combined $43 million lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. According to the Wall Street Journal 5/28/10, AT&T spend almost $15 million in 2009. AT&T was the top corporate PAC in 2009 giving $1.7 million. Aside from lobbying, AT&T has a very strong voice. According to a 4/22/10 AP article Verizon was the world’s second-biggest advertiser last year with $2.24 billion in spending, while AT7T was fourth at $1.9 billion, according to Kantar Media. AT&T spends tens of millions of dollars on lobbing and charitable and campaign donations, and has developed deep relations in Washington over many years. AT&T ahs employees in every congressional district. From 1998 to 2010 AT&T spent $152,130,528 on lobbyists. According to Barron’s 5/31/10 the Center for Responsive Politics produces the Greased-Palm Index of all publicly-traded companies among the top 100 overall campaign donors at the end of April of an election year. AT&T staff gave the most to this year’s congressional candidates at $2.6 million. In 2008, they gave $6.7 million to presidential and congressional candidates, and were ranked No. 5 on the GPI.

It is not certain Apple will switch the iPhone from AT&Tto Verizon: Verizon could decide that it does not need the iPhone thanks to its deepening ties with Google. In big cities, AT&T’s network has buckled under the data-heavy demands for the iPhone. Verizon has managed to avoid similar problems while working woith Google, Apple’s latest nemesis, to offer several strong rivals to the iPhone that use the Android operating system form Google. Before the original iPhone’s debut, AT&T and Apple signed a five year exclusive deal that is due to expire in 2012, according to court documents that emerged in a class action lawsuit against Apple. It has not been made public whether that agreement has been mended. A Verizon-Apple coupling faces some obstacles. In particular, Verizon maintains an ironclad grip over the phones on its network, steering marketing campaigns, stamping each device with a prominent logo and often installing its own applications, like its VZ navigator mapping program. AT&T secured the iPhone in part because it offered the most favorable terms. Apple brings in an average of more than $650 for each iPhone sold. Consumers pay upward of $200, and AT&T subsidizes the rest. Verizon pays roughly $200 to $300 for Android, BlackBerry and Palm phones. Also, Verizon and Google are said to have agreed to share the revenue generated by sales of Android applications, something Apple does not do. Instead of lauding AT&T’s participation in Apple’s success, many investors are preoccupied with the day that AT&T loses its monopoly with Apple’s iPhone. A growing number of AT&T wireless customers aren’t locking into lucrative long-term contracts, but instead are buying “prepaid” phones. Investors are overlooking AT&T’s ability to sell data, broadband, voice and other services to home and wireless customers. In April, CEO Randall Stephenson told analysts that revenue per user from data and other services continues to rise, and that it will help compensate for slower contract growth. iPhone users are disproportionately large data users. AT&T can prosper without them, as explained in the following paragraph.

Losing the iPhone will not hurt AT&T as much as commonly believed: If Verizon were to land the iPhone, the industry’s pricing model would improve, along with returns from AT&T’s existing iPhone customers. A mass customer exodus is unlikely. Some users in big cities complain about AT&T’s coverage and dropped calls. But the percentage switching to a rival carrier would probably be low, based on the iPhone experience in France and Britain. Switching incurs a termination penalty, and would require the purchase of a new iPhone. It may seem paradoxical, but losing iPhone exclusivity could be addition by subtraction for AT&T. The industry has priced data plans poorly. AT&T trades at about 10 times its forecast 2011 earnings, a 15% discount to Verizon. This suggests investors are overly worried about just what losing the iPhone means to AT&T’s bottom line. Apple plans to begin producing this year a new iPhone that could allow U.S. phone carriers other than AT&T to sell the gadget. The new iPhone would work on a type of wireless network called CDMA, which is used by Verizon Wireless as well as Sprint Nextel and a handful of cellular operators in countries including S. Korea and Japan. The vast majority of carriers world-wide, including AT&T, use another technology called GSM. Analysts estimate AT&T pays Apple more than $600 per phone, but sells most of them for $199 or less. Heavy iPhone users have also put an enormous load on AT&T’s wireless network, pushing the carrier to a breaking point in some markets such as New York and San Francisco.

Its small business marketing overtures should pay off: Sellers of mobile devices and other high tech communications products see small business as the hot new frontier. But so far, demand has been muted. AT&T and Verizon are going head to head in this market, known as unified communications, as are smaller service provides and equipment makers. AT&T is selling to small businesses a limited form of its corporate-level service, AT&T Connect. AT&T believes its push to link everything to mobile handsets will give it an edge over smaller competitors. AT&T charges from $85 to $200 a month for Internet and phone service for small businesses with roughly 100 or fewer employees, depending on DSL speed and wireless add ons. Charges for the smartphones themselves are separate. Customers get access to some collaboration tools, but pay per-minute fees for things like hosting conference calls or Web meetings. AT&T plans to add messaging and other tools to better enable collaboration and social networking by year end. AT&T has a large stake in the small-business world – 22% of total revenue comes from the segment.


AT&T may expand into emerging markets. AT&T does not have much activity outside the 50 states. AT&T holds an 8% stake in Mexico-based America Movil. It also offers some service in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. India’s Reliance Communications Ltd. and AT&T have sounded out each other’s interest about a potential transaction in which AT&T would take a significant minority stake in the Indian cellphone company. Reliance is backed by billionaire Anil Ambani. Its board has approved the sale of up to a 26% equity stake to raise cash for debt reduction and network upgrades. Reliance is India’s second largest wireless carrier with 105 million subscribers and a market cap of $7.4 billion. AT&T is looking at international expansion as the market at home becomes saturated. India is particularly attractive, with over 600 million wireless customers already and carriers adding 17 million new ones per month. Mobile-data services are expected to grow rapidly in India in coming years. Internet penetration is low, with only about 52 million Web users out of a population of nearly 1.2 billion. In the past, AT&T has been scared off by high stock market valuations in India. But the price of a deal with Reliance has gotten more attractive lately, with Reliance’s shares down significantly. A deal with an Indian carrier would mean a return to the country for AT&T, which in 2005 sold its 33% stake in Idea Cellular, an Indian wireless operator.

Utilities switch to smart-meters will drive revenue: Texas New Mexico Power Co. is using “smart meters” that will transfer data over AT&T’s wireless network, potentially driving a burgeoning smart-grid market to use common carriers. The proposed plan would be the largest rollout by a major US utility to rely on a wireless network. Until now, smart-meter projects have relied on proprietary communications networks built by utilities or their contractors that use radio frequency equipment mounted on power poles. Those systems collect and transfer meter readings proficiently but add to capital costs that are borne by ratepayers. Common carriers could gain an edge as they reduce their wireless network charges. AT&T is charging about $1 a meter a month for its services to TNMP, versus a quoted price of several dollars as recently as a year ago. TNMP intends to deploy 231,000 meters for all its business and residential customers in Texas over the next five years. Texas, Georgia, California and other states are pushing utilities to install smart meters as a way to help control utility costs and cut energy use. The use of wireless networks makes it easier for consumers to monitor and control their home energy use through their cellphones. The use of big wireless networks also could help control the upfront cost to utilities of switching from electromechanical meters to smart, digital meters.

Closing retail stores will save money: With growth shifting from new subscribes to extracting more revenue from existing customers, there is less justification for carriers to operate vast nationwide networks of stores. Between AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel, they operate 7,600 US stores, in addition to selling through outlets owned by others. Growth in valuable “postpaid” customers, those with contracts, has slowed sharply. Half of AT&T’s postpaid customers use integrated services, requiring some kind of data plan. Stores will become cost centers rather than revenue generators. Major carriers’ retail stores cost about $500,000 a year to operate. For AT&T and Verizon Wireless, that adds up to about $1.1 billion annually.

Non-phone wireless devices will increase and drive revenue. The latest BlackBerry released in August will sport AT&T Logo, the 3rd generation Kindle also launches in August, and the new Windows Mobile operating system will be ready by ’10 Holiday Season: In August Research in Motion will launch the newest BlackBerry touchscreen phone. It sports the logo for AT&T, the network that will be running the new BlackBerry phone. Amazon starts shipping on Aug. 27, 2010 its answer to Apple’s iPad and other devices seeking to replace its Kindle as the premiere digital book reader. The third-generation Kindle is lighter, smaller and faster than the current model and has a sharper display, longer battery life and twice the storage. It has Wi-Fi reception and will keep the service that uses AT&T’s wireless network to download a book in less than a minute. It will be priced at $189, the same as the current Kindle. Amazon will also offer a version that just uses Wi-Fi for wireless connections and will sell for $139. 33 months ago, Kindle was $399. Amazon has sold 4 million Kindles in the US and is expected to sell over 6 million by year’s end. In February, 2010, Microsoft introduced the promising Windows Phone 7 Series. Devices based on this latest Windows Mobile operating system are slated to appear by the 2010 holiday shopping season. Microsoft’s global partners include AT&T, Deutsche Telecom, Orange, Sprint, SFR, Telefonia, Telstra, Telecom Italia, T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone and Qualcomm. AT&T is betting that wireless services for new gadgets could substantially increase its $124 billion a year business. A number of these devices, such as e-readers and notebooks, wireless photo frames, are already on store shelves. AT&T has jumped into the nascent market and taken an early lead by supporting more devices than competitors. Its line up of electronic-book readers includes devices from British start-up Interead Ltd, Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook. Although an electronic book reader may generate to AT&T as little as $1 each month, the head of AT&T’s emerging devices unit, Glenn Lurie believes his unit can generate $1 billion of revenue for AT&T in the next few years. AT&T has been fist mover in wireless network services for advanced car-entertainment systems, home appliances, such as smart refrigerators, and handheld game consoles. Cellular operators could collect $90 billion a year by 2013 from servicing these devices. In 2009 fewer than 13 million non-handset wireless devices, mostly netbooks, were sold in the US. AT&T is betting consumers and businesses will want to use wireless networks to connect a host of gadgets to the Internet. Some examples are: digital cameras, electronic book readers, navigation devices, gaming consoles and parking meters which will allow cities to check meters from the office. Also, wireless devices can alert businesses when they need to replace candy or soda in vending machines.

Increased online banking will drive revenue: By the end of the decade, the smartphone will not only be the channel of choice for transferring funds, opening accounts and applying for loans, it’ll also replace plastic cards as the primary payments vehicle. Today 35% of bank transactions take place at teller stations and this number will drop to 15% by the end of the decade and a mere 5% by 2020. The Internet will take over as the primary banking channel, with the bulk of the activity being initiated through web-enabled cell phones. By the end of this decade, 55% of transactions, 50% of service requests and 45% of sales will be initiated online. Twenty years from now 80% of all transactions will be Web-based.

Increased remote-health-care services will drive revenue: In partnership with Barcelona’s Hospital de la Esperanza, Telefonica has developed a knee brace embedded with motion sensors that enable physicians to monitor patients’ rehabilitation remotely after they’ve been discharged from the hospital. As they exercise, patients watch their movements simulated via a 3D avatar on a computer, which wirelessly sends the data to the doctor for view on a PC or cell phone. Cellular operators are trying to become providers of wireless-health care products and services. The market, known as mobile or m-health, spans everything from text messaging services to remind people to take medication to implants that monitor heart patients. There are even pills with edible computer chips; the chips send signals to a skin patch, which in turn transmits data to a doctor’s cell phone or computer. Mobile has the potential to revolutionize the health care system by increasing efficiency, lowering costs, expanding access to care, and improving patient outcomes. Telecom operators view m-health as one of three future revenue streams, along with content and advertising. France Telecom’s Orange, AT&T Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Verizon, Vodafone, and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and KDDI all are investing in m-health.the number of wireless health devices is expected to increase from 300,000 in 2009 to 5.2 million by 2014. In the US, the m-health industry is expected to grow from $304 million today to $4.4 billion by 2013.

Carriers are working together to develop uniform apps that will drive revenue: A group of two dozen carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile owner deutsche Telekom want to create a way for developers to make applications that can run without modification on all the phones they offer. Apple’s iPhone has managed in just three years to become the industry’s most influential phone in part because users can download over 100,00 applications from Apple’s App Store. A similar library for Google’s Android system hosts over 20,000 programs.

Technology is becoming available that will allow cellular traffic to offload to Wi-Fi: Companies such as Silicon Valley start-up, SpiderCloud Wireless Inc., are introducing technology to take over the job of delivering either cellular or Wi-Fi signals to the smartphones or laptops of workers in the office. They claim that some customers might choose to dispense with desk phones, letting employees rely on cellphones alone. AT&T is trying to offload some of its cellular traffic by encouraging the use of Wi-Fi, the alternative wireless technology that is built into many laptops and some smartphones. Technologies that take over wireless coverage inside buildings is a good way to move traffic from overburdened cell sites. The technology works by installing access points near the ceiling in an office that communicates with laptops or smartphones.

Mobile ads will increase driving revenue: despite antitrust and privacy concerns expressed by consumer groups, the FTC approved Google’s $750 million acquisition of mobile ad company AdMob. Mobile ads are advertising’s hottest segment. Spending on mobile ads should nearly double in 2010 to $433 million. Advertisers can run adds on mobile devices, including cell phones.

Sprint Nextel’s much publicized lead in the 4G smartphone space is eroding: Sprint’s faster 4G network hasn’t been able to prevent customers from switching to AT&T for the new iPhone 4. Sprint doesn’t control how its 4G network is built. AT&T is on track to launch its next-generation network next year using LTE or Long Term Evolution technology.

AT&T may have the inside track to be the official US wireless carrier for the Dell Streak: The Dell Streak is a tablet that has received good comparison with the iPAd although the phone portion is only mediocre. The Dell Streak has a five inch touch screen.

INVESTMENT CHALLENGES/RISKS

Increased government regulation could hurt AT&T: Regulatory scrutiny of the wireless industry is increasing, as federal agencies question whether there is too much consolidation. Some rural cellular providers have asked the FCC to mandate roaming agreements from AT&T and Verizon so that their customers can use voice, email and wireless Internet services when roaming. In May 2010, the FCC reversed years of finding that the wireless market is “effectively competitive” and concluded that it is instead becoming more concentrated. Big carriers fear it could lead to new regulations or restrictions on their ability to bid in future spectrum auction. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has been quoted as saying he spends an unnatural portion of time dealing with regulatory issues. Big telecom companies object to the FCC’s move to bring wireless and wireline broadband service under tougher regulations reserved to this point for voice calls. AT&T says the move could deter investment; the FCC argues it’s needed to make sure Internet content providers aren’t discriminated against. In May 2010, Federal regulators described the wireless telecommunications market in a 237 page report as more concentrated, possibly laying the groundwork for new regulations that could aid smaller cell phone carriers such as Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA. It said the nation’s two largest providers, AT&T and Verizon have 60% of subscribers and revenue, and continue to gain share from rivals. The two smallest providers, Sprint and T-Mobile, lost a combined 1.7 million subscribers in 2008 and added just 827,000 last year. The FCC’s report says industry concentration has increased by nearly a third since 2003. The FCC is focusing on wireless industry practices, such as early termination fees, and is pushing to free up airwaves that can be auctioned off to wireless carriers in the next few years. Wireless carriers are sensitive about whether the FCC thinks national or local markets are competitive because the agency will soon free up more airwaves for wireless broadband services. If the FCC doesn’t think a local market is competitive, it could put restrictions on which wireless companies are allowed to bid at auction. The FCC proposed in May to require wireless companies to send a text message or other real-time alert to subscribers on the verge of racking up expensive charges for exceeding their plan’s data or text-messaging in order to reduce “bill shock.” The FCC’s proposal is part of a broader inquiry into how to overhaul “truth in billing” rules to provide consumers with more information about the services they’re receiving, such as data speeds, and what all those line charges on phone bills actually mean. Such regulations are already successfully in place in the European Union. AT&T say sit already offers a variety of ways to keep track of and manage usage. In May the head of the FCC outlined a proposal for regulating the Internet that he described as a third way or middle ground between heavy-handed regulation and a do-nothing approach that could hurt competition and leave consumers unprotected. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is proposing to promote competition and preserve the free flow of Web traffic by applying to broadband Internet service certain provisions of rules designed to regulate traffic on copper-wire telephone networks. Under the proposal the FCC would only apply six sections of Title II of the Communications Act to broadband while not enforcing others. The six section are: Section 101 – Requires Internet providers to interconnection and charge reasonable rates. Section 202 prevents price or service discrimination. Section 208 sets up FCC complaint process. Section 222 protects customer privacy and proprietary commercial information. Section 254 allows use of Universal Service Fund for broadband. Section 255 ensures disability access.

The Department of Justice could bring antitrust action against AT&T: The Department of Justice recently started an informal review of the exclusive arrangements that limit handsets such as Apple’s iPhone to particular wireless communications companies. The inquiry follows consolidation in the US wireless industry that has left four operators accounting for more than 90% of the country’s wireless subscribers. This has left them with the market power to carve out exclusive deals with makers of the most popular handsets, making it hard for smaller rivals to compete and leading to higher prices for mobile services. The French Competition Council in late 2008 overturned Apple’s exclusive deal to sell the iPhone through a single carrier there, and Apple has given up its early attempt to use exclusive arrangements to promote the device in most countries, submitting instead to local competitive dynamics. The Justice Dept. is looking into whether AT&T and Verizon are abusing their market power to compete unfairly against smaller rivals by locking up exclusive deals to provide service to popular handsets such as Apple’s iPhone. Entities such as rural cellular companies are complaining about anticompetitive practices. Consumer groups are complaining about abuses, about practices by large wireless carriers in text messaging pricing. There are concerns on the wireline front as well. AT&T and Verizon have clearly become dominant players with a significant amount of market dominance in wireless.

The wireless industry’s carrier-centered model is being further eroded: Just a half-decade ago, the big U.S. wireless companies fully controlled the way subscribers used their service, setting specifications for the phones they offered and locking subscribers into contacts. Apple wrested away control over handsets with the new iPhone. The iPad further diminishes carriers’ control even further. AT&T offers two cellular service plans for the iPad, neither of which requires the contracts that typically accompany its data plans for cell phones and laptops. Carriers are being pushed into the realm of being a conduit for devices and content produced elsewhere. Apple will get more of the value, while carriers will get more of the cost. Companies such as Apple and Google have their sights set on the mobile market and want the freedom to control the design of their devices and they way they’re used. Carriers are increasingly relying on data services for growth.

If AT&T can’t protect its customers’ private data, its earnings could suffer: The recent exposure of prominent iPad users’ email addresses and device IDs has underscored how security is becoming a bigger concern for mobile devices. In 2009, security experts identified 30 security flaws in the software and operating systems of smartphones. June, 2010’s incident in which a group of computer programmers exploited a flaw in AT&T’s website to publicize a vulnerability shows the hacker subculture is starting to sniff around mobile devices. Apple fans who were already unhappy with AT&T got another reason to complain about it when Apple and its partners began taking orders for the new iPhone 4 as people going to AT&T website were met with error messages. AT&T’s website, unable to handle the demand for Apple Inc.’s new iPhone, had difficulty processing orders and in certain cases appeared to reveal subscribers’ personal information to strangers.

Clearwire could be a formidable competitor: Craig McCaw founded Clearwire in 2003. It now controls airwaves worth $20 billion or more. McCaw sold McCaw Cellular communications to AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1994 and later helped build Nextel. Clearwire is now competing against AT&T and Verizon in a mobile data market that could reach $93 billion in revenue by 2013. Clearwire’s wireless broadband standard is called WiMAX while AT&T’s 4G service which it will launch next year will use LTE or Long Term Evolution. Clearwire will probably eventually switch to LTE. Clearwire has two key advanatages: its relatively cheap broadband spectrum, which dwarfs the airwaves of AT&T, and a one-year head start. Clearwire already offers 4G service under the Clear band in 32 US cities and plans to add up to 50 more by the end of 2010. Clear is in the midst of a high-speed buildout. Last year it put up 5,000 cell sites at a cost of $130,000 to $150,000 each. In 2010, Clearwire will spend up to $3.2 billion, mostly on capital expenditures. AT&T, which bought its spectrum at government auction in 2008, contend its lower frequency, 700 megahertz, lets radio signals travel farther on less power and does a better job of penetrating buildings and other objects.

AT&T may be blocked from acquiring additional spectrum at government auction: The Obama administration aims to deliver broadband to the one third of Americans who don’t have access to high speed Internet services. Phone and cable companies dominate fixed line Internet to homes. The FCC aims to bring about more broadband competition through wireless services. The FCC plan calls for freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over the next decade for mobile broadband use. AT&T and Verizon have said they’re in dire need of more spectrum because of booming smartphone use. The FCC may try to exclude AT&T and Verizon Wireless from some future auctions. Or the FCC may propose that caps be put on how much spectrum a wireless firm can own in a given market.

**********************************

The following are synopsis of articles used in this Report that appeared in August 11, 2010 to June 1, 2009 with the most recent articles first, from the following publications: Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Financial Times (Fin. Times), New York Times (NYT), Barron’s, Investors Business Daily (Inv. Bus. Daily), USA Today, Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), Institutional Investor (Inst. Inv.), Atlanta Business Chronicle (Atl Bus. Chron) Daily Report, Ga (Daily Rpt), Forbes, Beasley Report, Corporate Counsel Magazine, US Banker Magazine, Time, Newsweek, Boston Globe, AARP Magazine, CFO Magazine.

8/10 US Banker Magazine p10 “Banking 2020: Smartphones Rules by Alan Kline says the Lafferty Group, a London-based financial services consulting firm has issued “Retail Bank 2020: a roadmap for the Future,” that says that by the end of the decade, the smartphone will not only be the channel of choice for transferring funds, opening accounts and applying for loans, it’ll also replace plastic cards as the primary payments vehicle. Today 35% for bank transactions take place at teller stations and this number will drop to 15% by the end of the decade and a mere 5% by 2020. The Internet will take over as the primary banking channel, with the bulk of the activity being initiated through web-enabled cell phones. By the end of this decade, 55% of transactions, 50% of service requests and 45% of sales will be initiated online. Twenty years from now 80% of all transactions will be Web-based.

7/30/10 WSJ pB5 “BlackBerry Ripens” by Niraj Sheth says in the first week of August Research in Motion launches the newest BlackBerry touchscreen phone. It sports the logo for AT&T, the network that will be running the new BlackBerry phone.

7/29/10 WSJ p.D7 “How Apple’s new IPhone Stacks Up In Real Life” by Walter S. Mossberg, reviews Apple’s new IPhone 4 and concludes that it is the best of the super-smartphones. However, Mossberg says that its performance in making voice calls on AT&T’s network in the US was mixed.

7/29/10 WSJ p.B3 “Sprint Scrabmles as 4G Race Tightens” by Niraj Sheth & Anu8preeta Das. Discusses sprint Nextel’s quarterly increase in wireless customers for the first time in three years, helped in part by the release of the first 4G smartphone in the US. Shortages in 4G phones is preventing it from winning new subscribers from AT&T and Verizon.

7/28/10 USA Today p1B “3rd-Generation Kindle unveiled” by Edward C. Baig says Amazon starts shipping on Aug. 27, 2010 its answer to Apple’s iPad and other devices seeking to replace its Kindle as the premiere digital book reader. The third-generation Kindle is lighter, smaller and faster than the current model and has a sharper display, longer battery life and twice the storage. It has Wi-Fi reception and will keep the free service that uses AT&T’s wireless network to download a book in less than a minute. It will be priced at $189, the same as the current Kindle. Amazon will also offer a version that just uses Wi-Fi for wireless connections and will sell for $139. 33 months ago, Kindle was $399. Amazon has sold 4 million Kindles in the US and is expected to sell over 6 million by year’s end.

7/28/10 WSJ pB5 “Mobile-TV Push Gets Fuzzy Reception” by Don Clark says chip maker Qualcomm Inc. signaled it may give up a costly six-year quest to bring broadcast TV to mobile phones and other devices in the US. Growth has been disappointing for FLO TV, which powers mobile-TV services marketed by AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

7/28/10 WSJ pB1 “Earning Streak Defies consumer Fears” by Paul Vigna, John Sipman says 2Q earnings are headed toward a three quarter streak of strong gains. Double-digit increases from companies such as AT&T, coca-cola and Lockheed Martin are in sharp contrast to consumer worries.

7/26/10 Barron’s pM2 “Charts” says Verizon lost money in 2Q, but its wireless unit continued to sign up new long-term customers as its Droid phone gains.

7/25/10 NYT “Week in Review p2” “Laugh Lines” Jay Leno: “AT&T announced today that they are working on a new app for the iPhone. This one will allow you to make call.”

7/24-25/10 WSJ “Droid Phones Help Verizon Outrun AT&T” by Roger Cheng says Verizon Communications Inc. added more wireless contract customers in the 2Q than AT&T. Verizon’s wirelss arm added a net 665,000 contract customers in the quarter, boosted by a steady rollout of Droid smartphones that run on Google Inc’s Android software. That represented a 40% decline from a year earlier but outpaced AT&T, which added a net 496,000 contract customers in 2Q despite the launch fo the iPhone 4 at the end of the period. AT&T still holds a significant lead, with more than 53% of its contract subscribers carrying either a smartphone or messaging device, compared with 35% for Verizon Wireless. The iPhone remains a top revenue driver among devices, increasing the average monthly phone bill for AT&T customers 3.4% to $62.63, versus $51.56 for Verizon Wireless customers. The customer shift could reverse in 3Q as AT&T and Apple make more iPhone 4s available in the market. AT&T CFO Rick Lindner said he expects subscriber growth to rebound in 3Q. Including prepaid and wholesale customers, Verizon added a total of 1.4 million wireless subscribers during 2Q, fewer than the 1.6 million additions at AT&T. Verizon’s total customer base stands at 92.1 million, up 5% from a year earlier.

7/24/10 NYT pB2 “Verizon Retains its lead in Wireless in latest Quarter” by Jenna Wrotham says despite the iPhone’s strong pull, Verizon attracted more new customers than AT&T.

7/24/10 Fin Times p10 “Verizon swings to loss after $2.3 bil charge over job losses” by Alan Rappeport says Verizon swung to a quarterly loss after it took a $2.3 bil charge for shedding 11,000 workers.

7/24/10 WSJ pB16 “Verizon’s Big FIOS challenge” by Martin Peers says Verizon added 174,000 subscribers for FiOS TV compared to 300,000 net additions a year earlier.

7/24/10 WSJ pA13 “Buyouts give Verizon loss of $198 mil” says Verizon lost $198 mil in 2Q due to a buyout for 11,000 workers.

7/23/10 WSJ pB4 “AT&T Says a Growth Signal Is Ebbing” by Roger Cheng says AT&T reported a 26% increase in 2Q earnings amid an investment gain, lower costs and fewer customer defections. AT&T reported a 26% increase in 2Q earnings amid an investment gain, lower costs and fewer customer defections. AT&T added 496,000 postpaid subscribers, about a third of the customers signed up a year earlier. CFO Rick Lindner said he expects continued year-to-year declines in the number of new postpaid customers added each quarter, but “that doesn’t mean there isn’t significant opportunity for growth” The iPhone continued to be the largest driver of AT&T’s growth. It activiated 3.2 million iPhones in 2Q. It added 1.6 million wireless connections in 2Q mainly for nontraditional devices such as electronic raders and dog collars. AT&T reported a profit of $4.02 billion, or 68 cents a share, up from $3.2 billion, or 54 cents a year earlier. The most recent quarter included an investment gain of seven cents a share. Revenue rose 0.6% to $30.81 billion. AT&T was able to post margin growth through a stronger mix of high-quality subscribers and fewer defections. The slowdown in new customers also meant lower acquisition costs. During 2Q, AT&T changed its data-service plans and placed limits on how much a customer could brose the Internet, stream music or videos, and send and receive email using a smartphone. In exchange, it cut the price of each paln. While growth may have slowed, customers tuck to AT&T. its rate of turnover fell to 1.29% from 1.48% a year earlier. On the wire-line side, AT&T continued to lsoe customers. In the high-speed Internet business, it added 255,000 U-Verse Internet customers, but lost 92,000 total broadband customers, implying a loss fo 347,000 traditional DSL customers. Mr. Lindner blamed the decline on seasonal weakness, partially because college students cancel their Internet lines and head back home for the summer.

7/23/10 Fin times p10 “wirelss unit helps AT&T beat quarterly forecasts” by Paul Taylor says AT&T soothed investor concerns about the impact of slowing industry growth on profits with strong 2Q earnings that beat analyst expectations.

7/23/10 NYT pB5 “AT&T Raises its Forecast After Profit Rises 26%” by Reuters says AT&T said its expected a strong increase in earnings over last year, compared to its previous forecast of “stable to improved” results.

7/23/10 WSJ pC5 charts AT&T under “Good News”.

7/22/10 WSJ pD1 “Galaxy Phones From Samsung Are Worth iPhone Rivals” by Walter S. Mossberg says the war of the super-smartphones continues to heat up with most of the combat between Apple’s iPhone and the multiplying array of competitors running Google’s Android operating system.

7/22/10 USA Today p2B “Dell Streak: a smaller tablet and a big phone” by Edward C. Baig says the IPad has emerged the market for tablet computers, paving the way for an expected onslaught of slate-type devices.

7/21/10 WSJ pB5 “Upstart Awards Deal for 4G Network” by Roger Cheng, Gustav Sandstrom says private equity firm Harbinger Capital Partners has moved ahead with its plan to build a nationwide broadband wireless network in the US, awarding Nokia Siemens Networks a $7 billion contract to supply equipment. This effort will compete with Clearwire, Verizon Wireless and the future efforts of AT&T with respect to 4G networks.

7/19/10 Daily Report (Georgia) p6 “Unhappy with your iPhone? There’s a suit for that” by Ann Wollner says a federal judge in California ruled that iPhone owners could join a class action law suit against Apple Inc. and AT&t Mobility LLC. The class action suit claims unfair, monopolistic practices tied customers to the phone service.

7/19/10 Fin Times p18 “Tough calls are queuing up for AT&T’s chief executive” by Andrew Parker, Paul Taylor says investors are worried about the impact of AT&T losing its privileged position as the exclusive US mobile network for Apple’s iPhone. Although an electronic book reader may generate to AT&T as little as $1 each month, the head of AT&T’s emerging devices unit, Glenn Lurie believes his unit can generate $1 billion of revenue for AT&T in the next few years. AT&T enjoyed acquisition-fuelled growth over much of the past decade, but revenue fell last year as the economic downturn took its toll. CEO Randall Stephenson blames the stock decline of 12% from Jan 1, 2010 to July 19, 2010 partly on US regulators. The Federal Communications Commission is moving forward with wide-ranging new rules for providers of broadband services, which might result in regulated pricing of broadband services. He said the FCC could try to block AT&T from buying DirecTV, the US satellite television operator, which has a market cap of $32.5 billion. AT&T could use it to shore up its internet-based TV service, U-verse, which should reach about one-third of US homes by 2011. AT&T may buy a consumer-focused mobile phone business outside the US, most likely in emerging markets. Abolishing “all you can eat” data plans for smartphone customers should increase average revenue per user. AT&T in June became the first to switch to a plan that requires consumers to pay based on how much data they consumer. AT&T has been using its fiber based network to supply television services for more than four years, but its U-verse TV unit only has 2.3 million customers while Comcast, the cable TV operator, has 24 million. AT&T is trying to fix that by targeting enterprise customers, about half of their sales are with companies rather than consumers.

7/17/10 WSJ pB5 “Steve Jobs Defends iPhone’s Antenna” says an AT&T spokesman said the company supports Apple’s move to provide a free bumper to fix the iPhone 4’s reception problem and that AT&T would waive the restocking fees for returned iPhone 4s.

7/15/10 NYT pB1 “Even Without iPhone, Verizon is Gaining” by Brad Stone, Jenna Wortham says Verizon could decide that it does not need the iPhone thanks to its deepening ties with Google. In big cities, AT&T’s network has buckled under the data-heavy demands fo the iPhone. Verizon has managed to avoid similar problems while working with Google, Apple’s latest nemesis, to offer several strong rivals to the iPhone that use the android operating system form Google. Before the original iPhone’s debut, AT&T and Apple signed a five year exclusive deal that is due to expire in 2012, according to court documents that emerged in a class action lawsuit against Apple. It has not been made public whether that agreement has been amended. A Verizon-Apple coupling faces some obstacles. In particular, Verizon maintains an ironclad grip over the phones on its network, steering marketing campaigns, stamping each device with a prominent logo and often installing its own applications, like its VZ navigator mapping program. AT&T secured the iPhone in part because it offered the most favorable terms. Apple brings in an average of more than $650 for each iPhone sold. Consumers pay upward of $200, and AT&T subsidizes the rest. Verizon pays roughly $200 to $300 for Android, BlackBerry and Palm phones. Also, Verizon and Google are said to have agreed to share the revenue generated by sales of Android applications, something Apple does not do.

7/13/10 Fin times p13 “Sprint’s 4G move opens way to merger” by Andrew Parker, Paul Taylor says Sprint Nextel, the troubled US mobile phone operator, is examining a technology shift that could pave the way to a merger with T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom’s struggling US unit.

7/12/10 WSJ pB1 “Shortages Of Phone Hidnering Sprint 4G” by Niraj Sheth says Sprint Nextel Corp.’s bet on its 4G network is running into stronger than expected head winder. So far, Sprint has sold 300,000 of its Evo 4G phones.

7/12/10 NYT pB2 “IPhone Exclusivity And AT&T Future” by Reuters says AT&T shouldn’t fear losing its iPhone exclusivity. If Verizon were to land the iPhone, the industry’s pricing model would improve, along with returns from AT&T’s existing iPhone customers. A mass customer exodus is unlikely. Some users in big cities complain about AT&T’s coverage and dropped calls. But the percentage switching to a rival carrier would probably be low, based on the iPhone experience in France and Britain. Switching incurs a termination penalty, and would require the purchase of a new iPhone. It may seem paradoxical, but losing iPhone exclusivity could be addition by subtraction for AT&T. The industry has priced data plans poorly. AT&T trades at about 10 times its forecast 2011 earnings, a 15% discount to Verizon. This suggests investors are overly worried about just what losing the iPhone means to AT&T’s bottom line.

7/8/10 WSJ pB2 “Glitch Slowing AT&T Network” by Roger Cheng says AT&T is trying to fix a software defect that is slowing down the wireless connection for more than one million customers looking to send data from smartphones like the iPhone 4 or from laptop modems.

7/5/10 Barron’s p22 “Tempting 10s” by Andrew Bary says as of 7/5/10 13 of the top 25 companies in the S&P index trade at or below 10 times estimated 2011 profits.

7/3-4/10 “The Cellular Money Pit” by Karen Blumenthal says cellphone plans are fast becoming the collateralized debt obligations of the consumer world, complex and chock full of unpleasant surprises.

WSJ pB14 “Overhead” by says both Verizon and AT&T have underperformed the market last year. Sentiment toward stocks such as Verizon and AT&T is bearish and can only get better.

7/1/10 WSJ pD1 “Carriers go to Battle Over Faster networks” by Walter s. Mossberg says most of the industry is moving away from networks dubbed “3G” or third generation, to faster networks called “4G” or fourth generation. In the meantime, T-Mobile and AT&T, will be deploying a souped up interim 3G system, called HSPA, formally known as High Speed Packet Access.

7/1/10 NYT pB11 “This Year at AT&T national, Woods has a Different Role” by Larry Dorman says Tiger Woods is no longer the host but he is the defending champion.

7/1/10 NYT pB7 “That’s a Nice Phone, but How’s the Network? “ by Roy Furchgott says the 4G networks are the fastest but they may not be as reliable as they will not fully cover major cities fo several years to come.

6/30/10 USA Today “Verizon iPhone set to arrive in Jan” by Bloomberg News says Verizon Wireless will start selling Apple’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T’s US exclusive on the phone, say people familiar with the plans. The article mentions the quality issues of AT&T’s network. AT&T has battled customer complaints about its network and had dedicated an extra $2 billion to upgrade it this year.

6/28/10 Newsweek “Dialing For Dollars” by Mathew Philips says after years of mounting customer outrage over its clogged network, AT&T has finally scrapped its unlimited data plan and raised the price on heavy data users. AT&T’s network has been crippled by the iPhone as a few users hogged bandwidth: 3% of AT&T’s smartphone customers use 40% of its data. Telecoms pay among the highest dividends of any industry, with market leaders AT&T and Verizon both shelling out close to 7% of total investment. Generating more revenue per bit of data will help them keep profits healthy even as they spend to retool around data networks and away from voice services. The switch to a metered data-pricing is a more profitable pricing plan.

6/24/10 Fin. Times p13 “Smartphone battle enters next stage as Droid takes on iPhone 4” by Chris Nuttall says the next round in the smartphone battle between Apple and Google is under way, with the iPHone 4 on sale today and a next generation of Android-based phones being unveiled.

6/23/10 WSJ pB6 “FCC Clears License Deal With Verizon Wireless” by Amy Schatz says the Federal Communications commission approved AT&T’s $2.3 billion purchase of wireless licenses from Verizon Wireless.

6/22/10 WSJ pB1 “FCC in Talks on Web Rules” by Amy Schatz says US regulators are holding talks with phone and cable companies about a compromise that would give the government authority over Internet lines without adopting controversial new rules the industry opposes.

6/21 – 27/10 Bloomberg Businessweek p93 “A Phone Too Smart For Its Own Good” by Rich Jaroslovsky says Sprint’s new EVO smartphone is the first ever to run over a 4G wireless data network named WiMax.

6/21/10 WSJ pR5 “A Tough Call” by Roger Cheng says sellers of mobile devices and other high tech communications products see small business as the hot new frontier. But so far, demand has been muted. AT&T and Verizon are going head to head in this market, known as unified communications, as are smaller service provides and equipment makers. AT&T is selling to small businesses a limited form of its corporate-level service, AT&T Connect. AT&T believes its push to link everything to mobile handsets will give it an edge over smaller competitors. AT&T charges from $85 to $200 a month for Internet and phone service for small businesses with roughly 100 or fewer employees, depending on DSL speed and wireless addons. Charges for the smartphones themselves are separate. Customers get access to some collaboration tools, but pay per-minute fees for things like hosting conference calls or Web meetings. AT&T plans to add messaging and other tools to better enable collaboration and social networking by year end. AT&T has a large stake in the small-business world – 22% of total revenue comes from the segment.

6/21 -27/10 Bloomberg Businessweek “Technology” by David Welch says some large corporations, including Google, Intel, and AT&T, use venture capital to tap into outside innovation, although company-owned venture capital funds have been on the wane for a decade.

6/18/24/10 “Atlanta Business Chronicle” p13C “Ralph de la Vega” is the President & CEO of AT&T Mobility and consumer markets. He published a book.

6/18/10 USA Today p2B “FCC makes move to reconsider high-speed Internet regulations” by Joelle Tessler, AP says regulators are reconsidering rules governing high-speed Internet connections, wading into a policy dispute that could be tied up in Congress and the courts for years. The FCC voted to begin talking public comments in three different paths for regulating broadband. That includes a proposal by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to define broadband access as a telecommunications service subject to “common carrier” obligations to treat all traffic equally. Genachowski’s proposal is a response to a federal appeals court ruling in April that cast doubt on the agency’s authority over broadband under its existing regulatory framework. The chairman’s plan has the backing of of many big Internet companies which say it would ensure the FCC can prevent phone and cable companies from using their control over broadband connections to determine what subscribers can do online. Genachowski’s plan faces resistance from broadband providers, including AT&T and Verizon. They say it opens the door to onerous and outdated regulations that would discourage them from upgrading their networks. The FCC currently defines broadband as a lightly regulated information services. Bu the appeals court ruled that this approach does not give the FCC the authority it needs to proceed with Genachowski’s plan to adopt “network neutrality” mandates, which would bar broadband providers from favoring or discriminating against traffic traveling over their networks. Supporters of network neutrality, including many big Web companies, say such rules are necessary to prevent phone and cable companies from blocking or degrading online calling services, internet video and other applications that compete with their core businesses. But Comcast and other broadband providers insist they need flexibility to manage their networks and ensure that certain applications don’t hog too much bandwidth. They also fear that net neutrality mandates would prevent them from offering profitable premium services on their networks.

6/17/10 NYT pB3 “Orders for the iPhone 4 Top 600,000, Apple Says” by Jenna Wortham says Apple said on Wed hat it and its partners took more than 600,000 orders for the new iPhone 4 on Tues., the first day they were accepted, despite technical flaws that prevented many orders from going through.

6/17/10 WSJ pB4 “Apple, AT&T Trumpet Sales Of iPhone 4, Despite Snafu” by Niraj Sheth, Yukari Iwatani Kane says Apple said it took advance order for more than 600,000 new iPhones world-wide on the first day the device became available, a flood of demand that caused difficulty processing orders at US carrier AT&T.

6/17/10 WSJ pB4 “After Delay, AT&T deal Near Approval” by Niraj Sheth, Amy Schatz says after a prolonged review AT&T is close to securing regulatory approval for its $2.35 billion purchase of rural U.S. wireless licenses from rival Verizon Wireless. Regulatory scrutiny of the wireless industry is increasing, as federal agencies question whether there is too much consideration. Some rural cellular providers have asked the FCC to mandate roaming agreements from AT&T and Verizon so that their customers can use voice, email and wireless Internet services when roaming. In May, the FCC reversed years of finding that the wireless market is “effectively competitive” and concluded that it is instead becoming more concentrated. Big carriers fear it could lead to new regulations or restrictions on their ability to bid in future spectrum auction. AT&T CEO has been quoted as saying he spends an unnatural portion of time dealing with regulatory issues. Big telecom companies object to the FCC’s move to bring wireless and wireline broadband service under tougher regulations reserved to this pont for voice calls. AT&T says the move could deer investment; the FCC argues it’s needed to make sure Internet content providers aren’t discriminated against.

6/17/10 USA Today p1B “IPhone 4 frenzy swamps sellers” by Jefferson Graham says AT&T and Best Buy suspended early orders as hundreds of thousands seek the IPhone 4.

6/16/10 WSJ pB1 “AT&T Flooded By iPhone” by Niraj Sheth, Roer Cheng says AT&T’s website, unable to handle the demand for Apple Inc.’s new iPhone on Tues, had difficulty processing orders and in certain cases appeared to reveal subscribers’ personal information to strangers.

6/16/10 NYT pB1 “Errors Mar Initial Sales of iPhone 4” by Jenna Wortham says Apple fans who were already unhappy with AT&T got another reason to complain about it when Apple and its partners began taking orders for the new iPhone 4 as people going to AT&T website were met with error messages.

6/15/10 WSJ pB5 “Starbucks Plans to Offer Free Wi-Fi Service” by Paul Ziobro says Starbucks will make wireless Internet service free at all US stores starting July 1, 2010 eliminating a previous fee of $3.99 for two hours of service. It had offered Internet service at its stores through AT&T.

6/15/10 WSJ pB1 “Get Smart: Targeting Phone Security Flaws” by Spencer E. Ante says the exposure of prominent iPad users’ email addresses and device IDs has underscored how security is becoming a bigger concern for mobile devices. In 2009, security experts identified 30 security flaws in the software and operating systems of smartphones. June’s incident in which a group of computer programmers exploited a flaw in AT&T’s website to publicize a vulnerability shows the hacker subculture is starting to sniff around mobile devices.

6/14/10 Barron’s p38 “A Test of Apple’s Loyalty” by Mark Veverka says Steve Jobs defended AT&T involving a security breach on one of AT&T’s website that exposed the e-mail addresses of some owners of iPads. Steve Jobs said if another carrier starts to provide service for iPhones, that carrier might find its network capacity isn’t much better equipped than AT&T’s to handle the data traffic. It remains to be seen whether AT&T’s competitors, such as Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile, won’t suffer from some of the same deficiencies. AT&T is ahead of its competitors when it comes to the wireless-data learning curve. By virtue of tackling these issues during the early days of iPhone adoption, AT&T is building itself a very capable infrastructure, despite customer sentiment to the contrary.

6/14/10 WSJ pB6 “Computer Experts Face Backlash” by Ben Worthen, Spencer E. Ante says when a group of computer experts last week disclosed a flaw in AT&T’s website that made iPad owners’ email addresses public, some security researchers accused the group of criminal behavior and the FBI opened an investigation into the incident.

6/11/10 NYT pB4 “FBI Investigates Breach of AT&T” says the FBI was investigating a breach on AT&T’s Web site that allowed a private security group to obtain the e-ail addresses of 114,000 iPad 3G owners.

6/11/10 WSJ pA19 “The iPhone, net neutrality and the FCC” by Kessler says on May 6, 2010 the FCC announced its intention to reclassify portions of broadband as a common carrier telecommunications service and start regulating, imposing net neutrality, setting rates and data speeds, etc.

6/11/10 WSJ pB1 “FBI to Probe iPad Breach” by Spencer E. Ante, Ben Wrothen says the FBI is investigating a possible security breach of AT&T’s website that exposed the email addresses of some owners of Apple iPad devices.

6/10/10 WSJ pB1 “AT&T Says IPad Owners’ email Data Was Breached” by Spencer E. Ante says AT&T acknowledged that a security hole in its website had exposed iPad user’s email addresses.

6/10/10 WSJ pB7 “Sprint CEO Blames Shortages of Evo 4G on Demand” by Roger Cheng says HTC Corp. which makes the Evo 4G and Verizon Wireless’s Droid Incredible, has encountered supply issues.

6/10/10 Jere Beasley Report p13 “An Update On Lobbyist Spending in Washington” says from 1998 to 2010 AT&T spent $152,130,528 on lobbyists.

6/10/10 NYT pB2 “AT&T Said to Expose iPad users’ Addresses” by M iguel Helft says a group of hackers said it had obtained the e-mail addresses of 114,000 owners of 3G Apple iPads, including those of military personnel, business executives and public figures, by exploiting a security hole on AT&T’s Web site.

6/8/10 WSJ pB1 “Jobs Tries to Keep iPhone Momentum Going” by Yukari Iwatani Kane, Ian Sherr says when Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPhone, it was long on new features but short on surprises. In the US the IPHone, available June 24 in the US,, will cost $199 with a two year AT&T contract, an iPhone 4 model with additional storage costs $299. The current iPhone 3GS price was cut to $99.

6/7/10 WSJ pB1 “AT&T, Reliance in Early Talks” by Amol Sharma, Anupreeta Das, Spencer Ante says India’s Relaince Ccommunications Ltd. And U.S. telecom giant AT&T have sounded out each other’s interest about a potential transaction in which AT&T would take a significant minority stake in the Indian cellphone company. No deal is imminent. Reliance is backed by billionaire Anil Ambani. Its board has approved the sale of up to a 26% equity stake to raise cash for debt reduction and network upgrades. Reliance is India’s second largest wireless carrier with 105 million subscribers and a market cap of $7.4 billion. AT&T is looking at international expansion as the market at home becomes saturated. India is particularly attractive, with over 600 million wireless customers already and carriers adding 17 million new ones per month. Mobile-data services are expected to grow rapidly in India in coming years. Internet penetration is low, with only about 52 million Web users out of a population of nearly 1.2 billion. In the past, AT&T has been scared off by high stock market valuations in India. But the price of a deal with Reliance has gotten more attractive lately, with Reliance’s shares down significantly. A deal with an Indian carrier would mean a return to the country for AT&T, which in 2005 sold its 33% stake in Idea cellular, an Indian wireless operator. Having missed out on some of India’s break-neck wireless industry growth in recent years, AT&T has been looking to get back into the country.

6/7/10 NYT pB1 “As Unlimited Data Plans Are challenged, App Developers Worry” by by Claire Cain Miller, Brad Stone says for the past two years, unlimited data plans have given app-hungry smartphone users an all-you-can-eat buffet. But will customers react to AT&T’s new, limited menu by simply eating less? Some software developers fear they will, and if that happens, the caps on data use that AT&T has imposed could also make consumers lose their appetite for the latest innovations. Some developers worry that customers will be reluctant to download and use the most band-width-intensive aps and that developers will cut back on innovative new features that would push customers over the new limits.

6/7/10 WSJ pB5 “AT&T Wireless Shift Promises boon to Cable” by Nat Worden says AT&T’s decision to shift its wireless-data pricing to a usage-based model may have upset lovers of mobile media, but its music to the ears of cable executives. The move away from unlimited Internet-data plans could push more customers to watch videos and stream music through their wireline-broad-band connection at home, an area dominated by cable operators, rather than through wireless cellular networks .In place of a $30 unlimited monthly plan, AT&T subscribers will be able to choose between paying $15 a month for 200 megabytes of usage. Consumers who exceed their monthly limit must pay an additional $15 or $10, respectively.

6/7/10 NYT pB6 “Reliance of India Approves Plan to Sell a 26% Stake” by Heather Timmons says AT&T is said to be in talks to buy into an Indian behemoth.

6/4/10 WSJ pB6 “AT&T Pricing Shift Will Test behavior” by Spencer E. Ante says AT&T’s shift toward charging wireless subscribers based on the amount of data they use is expected to ban an important test of consumer behavior in the tech industry’s fastest-growing arena. The new policy could lower prices for most users of mobile devices and encourage them to make wider use of mobile Internet services. AT&T says 98% of its smartphone customers consume less than 2 gigabytes a month.

6/3/10 Fin times p12 “AT&T v iHogs says the ensuing data explosion – 5,000 percent in just three eyars, has forced AT&T to be the first to ration bandwidth.

6/3/10 NYT pB2 “charging by the Byte” by Rob Cox, Rolfe Winkler says AT&T’s decision to switch to tiered pricing for Internet access may cut into sales at first, but could improve long-run profitability if it conditions its customers to pay for use. For most, bills are likely to decline. Those who consume less than 200 megabytes a month, 65% of users, could pay $15 instead of the current $30 for the unlimited plans. The company expects little impact on 2010 sales, but service revenue could fall as much as 5% annually. Any hit to short-term revenue will be a price worth paying if customers can be persuaded to pay for consumptions. Prices should rise over time, especially as bandwidth use continues to swell. Rivals will have to follow suit or else the heavy users will go to their network.

6/3/10 WSJ pC12 “Now AT&T Weights the Price on Data” by Martin Peers says AT&T brough common sense to wireless with the introduction of usage-based pricing for data. By cutting the price for most people, ti could prompt more to use smartphones, providing an extra growth spark.

6/3/10 NYT p1A “heaviest users Of Phone Data Will Pay More” by Matt Richtel says AT&T will no longer offer an unlimited data plan to new users of iPhones and other smartphones.

6/3/10 Boston Globe “AT&T alters data plans” by Peter Svensson, AP says in a bid to end congestion, new users for AT&T’s smartphones and iPad will be charged more if they use more wireless bandwidth.

6/3/10 WSJ pA1 “AT&T Dials Up Limits On Web Data” by Andrew Dowell, Roger Cheng says in a significant shift in how phone carriers bill customers, AT&T will stop selling unlimited Internet data plans to new customers that buy smartphones and iPads, and will instead begin charging more for heavy bandwidth users.

6/10 Institutional Investor p44 “Inside the Machine of High Frequency Traders” by Michael Peltz says that for March 1, 2010 through May 31, 2010 AT&T was the 14th favorite stock for high frequency traders with an average daily trading volume of 30.9 million shares.

6/10 CFO Magazine p18 “Google Shakes Up Investor Relations” by Alix Stuart says Google is not the only company to have its finance chief leading quarterly earnings calls without a CEO present. Apple, AT&T, and Costco, among others, take that tack. Still, the practice is far from the norm.

May/June/10 AARP magazine p26 “Well, I’ll Be Crammed” by Ron Burley says the term for bogus charges on a phone bill is cramming. Mandated in the 1984 breakup of Ma Bell, third-party billing ws intended to minimize the number of phone bills. AT&T outsources their billing to enhanced Services Billing, Inc. The FTC is considering policy changes that could eliminate cramming.

5/31/10 Barron’s p22 “Obama Will Need a Gusher of Money From BP” by Jim McTague says the Center for Responsive Politics produces the Greased-Palm Index of all publicly-traded companies among the top 100 overall campaign donors at the end of April of an election year. Usually there are about 40 companies in the GPL but this cycle, owing to mergers and the Great Recession, there are just 29. AT&T staff gave the most to this year’s congressional candidates at $2.6 million. In 2008, they gave $6.7 million to presidential and congressional candidates, and were ranked No. 5 on the GPI.

5/28/10 WSJ pB7 “Telecom Firms gird for Lobbying War” by Amy Schatz says the FCC’s recent effort to ensure it can police Internet providers has prompted new interest in Congress toward rewriting the nation’s aging telecommunications laws for the Internet era. It won’t happen right away, and could stretch on for more than a year, but phone and cable companies are gearing up for an expensive lobbing battle. The FCC said in may that it will open deliberations in June on its proposal to change how the agency regulates Internet lines. The proposal would reverse a previous decision to deregulate Internet lines and begin to apply rules that were written for traditional phone networks. A recent federal appeals-court decision cast doubt on the FCC’s ability under existing law to be a Web traffic cop and enforce “net neutrality” rules, which would require Internet providers to treat all legal traffic equally. It took Congress over a decade to complete the last major rewrite of the nation’s telecommunications law in 1996. Because the phone and cable industries are among the most heavily regulated, they tend to spend heavily on political contributions and lobbying. In 2009, the telecom industry spends a combined $43 million lobbying, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. According to the Wall Street Journal 5/28/10, AT&T spend almost $15 million in 2009.

5/2710 WSJ pB5 “Utility’s Smart-Meter Uses AT&T Network” by Rebecca Smith says theT exas New Mexico Power Co. is using “smart meters” that will transfer data over AT&T’s wireless network, potentially driving a burgeoning smart-grid market to use common carriers. The proposed plan would be the largest rollout by a major US utility to rely on a wireless network. Until now, smart-meter projects have relied on proprietary communications networks built by utilities or their contractors that use radio frequency equipment mounted on power poles. Those systems collect and transfer meter readings proficiently but add to capital costs that are borne by ratepayers. Common carriers could gain an edge as they reduce their wireless network charges. AT&T is charging about $1 a meter a month for its services to TNMP, versus a quoted price of several dollars as recently as a year ago. TNMP intends to deploy 231,000 meters for all its business and residential customers in Texas over the next five years. Texas, Georgia, California and other states are pushing utilities to install smart meters as a way to help control utility costs and cut energy use. The use of wireless networks make it easier for consumers to monitor and control their home energy use through their cellphones. The use of big wireless networks also could help control the upfront cost to utilities of switching from electromechanical meters to smart, digital meters.

5/25/10 WSJ pB2 “IBM buys Software Unit From AT&T” by Spencer E. Ante says in a move aimed at beefing up its e-commerce software business, IBM agreed to purchase software make Sterling commerce from AT&T for $1.4 billion. At the height of the dot-com boom, AT&T predecessor SBC Communications bought Sterling Commerce for $3.9 billion. AT&T says it is no longer central to AT&T’s long-term strategy.

5/25/10 “Overheard: says AT&T will book a $750 million gain on the $1.4 billion sale of Sterling commerce to IBM.

5/24/10 WSJ pB1 “T-Mobile USA Taps Successor to Veteran CEO” by Archibald Preuschat, Roger Cheng says T-Mobile USA, which has struggled with customer growth and heightened competition over the past year, plans to replace its chief executive next year with the person who helped to turn around its German operations. T-Mobile has been lagging behind AT&T and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC.

5/24/10 WSJ pC8 “Cellphone Companies Should Hang Up on Their Stores” by Martin Peers says with growth shifting from new subscribes to extracting more revenue from existing customers, there is less and less justification for carriers to operate vast nationwide networks of stores. Between Verizon Wireless, AT&t, T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel, they operate 7,600 US stores, in addition to selling through outlets owned by others. Growth in valuable “postpaid” customers, those with contracts, has slowed sharply. Half of AT&T’s postpaid customers use integrated devices, requiring some kind of data plan. Stores will become cost centers rather than revenue generators. Major carriers’ retail stores cost about $500,000 a year to operate. For AT&T and Verizon Wireless, that adds up to about $1.1 billion annually.

5/24/10 USA Today p1B “Tech giants scramble for foothold in mobile ads” by Byron Acoido says despite antitrust and privacy concerns expressed by consumer groups, the FTC approved Google’s $750 million acquisition of mobile ad company AdMob. Mobile ads are advertising’s hottest segment. Spending on mobile ads should nearly double in 2010 to $433 million. Advertisers can run adds on mobile devices, included cell phones.

5/24/10 Barron’s p29 “Sprint Nextel: Ready for Relaunch” by Alexander Eule says Sprint in June introduces the Evo 4G, which will be the first to operate on a 4G network.

5/24/-30/10 Bloomberg BusinessWeek p35 “How Craig McCaw built a 4G Network on the Cheap” says Craig McCaw founded Clearwire in 2003. It now controls airwaves worth $20 billion or more. McCaw sold McCaw Cellular communications to AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1994 and later helped build Nextel. Clearwire is competing against Verizon and AT&T in a mobile data market that could reach $93 billion in revenue by 2013. Clearwire’s wireless broadband standard is called WiMAX while AT&T’s 4G service which it will launch next year using LTE. Clearwire will probably eventually switch to LTE. Clearwire has two key advantages: its relatively cheap broadband spectrum, which dwarfs the airwaves of AT&T, and a one-year head start. Clearwire already offers 4G services under the Clear band in 32 US cities and plans to add up to 50 more by the end of 2010. Clear is in the midst of a high-speed buildout. Last year it put up 5,000 cell sites at a cost of $130,000 to $150,000 each. In 2010, Clearwire will spend up to $3.2 billion, mostly on capital expenditures. AT&T, which bought its spectrum at government auction in 2008, contend its lower frequency, 700 megahertz, lets radio signals travel farther on less power and does a better job of penetrating buildings and other objects.

5/22/10 WSJ pB6 “AT&T Raises Smartphone, Netbook Termination Fees” by Roger Cheng says in June AT&T will raise the termination fee it charges customers to void smartphone wireless contracts early, a move that comes amid expectations that the carrier will lose exclusivity on the Apple Inc. iPhone over the next year. AT&T will raise early termination fees to $325 from $175 on contracts signed for smartphones and cellular connected netbook computers. But for contracts on phones other than smartphones, AT&T will drop the fee by $25 to $150. The changes come amid increased regulatory scrutiny and class-action lawsuits over the issue. The FCC has expressed concern that onerous fees make it difficult for consumers to switch their service.

5/21/10 WSJ pB2 “FCC: less rivalry in Wireless” by Amy Schatz says Federal regulators described the wireless telecommunications market in a 237 page report as more concentrated, possibly laying the groundwork for new regulations that could aid smaller cell phone carriers such as Sprint Nextel corp. and T-Mobile USA. It said the nation’s two largest providers, AT&T and Verizon have 60% of subscribers and revenue, and continue to gain share from rivals. The two smallest providers, Sprint and T-Mobile, lost a combined 1.7 million subscribers in 2008 and added just 827,000 last year. The FCC’s report says industry concentration has increased by nearly a third since 2003. The FCC is focusing on wireless industry practices, such as early termination fees, and is pushing to free up airwaves that can be auctioned off to wireless carriers in the next few years.. Wireless carriers are sensitive about whether the FCC thinks national or local markets are competitive because the agency will soon free up more airwaves for wireless broadband services. If the FCC doesn’t think a local market is competitive, it could put restrictions on which wireless companies are allowed to bid at auction.

5/20/10 WSJ pD1 “Sprint 4G Phone Hits new Speeds, But Battery lags” by Walter S. Mossberg gives a favorable review to the HTC EVO 4G, used on Sprint’s 4g network, as offering the highest consistent downstream data speeds on any cellular network. He said it was much fast then an iPhone using AT7T’s network.

5/12/10 WSJ pD3 “A Plan to Ease the Shock of Cellphone Bills” by Amy Schatz, Sara Silver says FCC proposed in May to require wireless companies to send a text message or other real-time alert to subscribers on the verge of racking up expensive charges for exceeding their plan’s data or text-messaging in order to reduce “bill shock.” The FCC’s proposal is part of a broader inquiry into how to overhaul “truth in billing” rules to provide consumers with more information about the services they’re receiving, such as data speeds, and what all those line charges on phone bills actually mean. Such regulations are already successfully in place in the European Union. AT&T says it already offers a variety of ways to keep track of and manage usage.

5/11/10 WSJ pB3 “Sprint Nextel Drops Plan to Sell Google’s Nexus One Phone” says Sprint confirmed it was backing away from making Google’s Nexus One handset available on its network in another blow to Google’s ambitions to sell its own smartphone. Sprint is the second US carrier to drop its commitment to sell the device. T-Mobile is the only US carrier to offer a wireless plan with the device and those who want to run it on AT&T would have to pay the full $529 price tag.

5/10-11/10 Bloomberg BusinessWeek p70 “How Much is a CEO Worth” by Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Alexis Leondis ranked the ten executives paid the most in the US in 2009 and AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson was ranked 7 with a compensation of $29,230,506.

5/10/10 Forbes p92 “The Top 100” lists the world’s largest companies and lists AT&T 13th with $123 billion in sales, $12.5 billion in profits, $268.8 billion in assets and $147.6 billion in market value.

5/7/10 WSJ pB1 “FCC Web Rules Create Pushback” by Amy Schatz, Spencer E. Ante says the head of the FCC outlined a proposal for regulating the Internet that he described as a third way or middle ground between heavy-handed regulation and a do-nothing approach that could hurt competition and leave consumers unprotected. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski is proposing to promote competition and preserve the free flow of Web traffic by applying to broadband Internet service certain provisions of rules designed to regulate traffic on copper-wire telephone networks. Under the proposal the FCC would only apply six sections of Title II of the Communications Act to broadband while not enforcing others. The six section are: Section 101 – Requires Internet providers to interconnection and charge reasonable rates. Section 202 prevents price or service discrimination. Section 208 sets up FCC complaint process. Section 222 protects customer privacy and proprietary commercial information. Section 254 allows use of Universal Service Fund for broadband. Section 255 ensures disability access.

5/5/10 WSJ pB8 “Recalculating the Cost of Layoffs” lists the top US companies with the most work-force cuts since 2007 and lists AT&T ninth with 282,720 employees in 2009 down 26,330 from 2007.

4/29/10 USA Today p3B “Toktumi’s Line2 has an answer for your AT&T iPhone hang-ups” by Edward C. Baig says the San Francisco start-up, Toktumi sells a 99 cent iPhone app called Line2 that turns the iPhone into a dual-mode handset which allows the customer to make and receive calls over the Internet through Wi-Fi or cellular, using your Line2-issued phone number. Result” if AT&T’s reception is spotty or unavailable, there is still reception so long as there is a wireless hot spot.

4/29/10 NYT pB8 “Dead Zone Doldrums Test Skills Of iPhone Customers” by Paul Boutin says the iPhone’s cellular coverage, provided exclusively by AT&T Wireless, is notoriously spotty and “in some parts of new York and San Francisco, it’s impossible to connect.

4/26/10 Barron’s p46 “AT&T’s Overlooked Allure” by Mark Veverka says instead of lauding AT&T’s participation I Apple’s success, analysts are preoccupied with the day that AT&T loses its monopoly with Apple’s iPhone. A growing number of AT&T wireless customers aren’t locking into lucrative long-term contracts, but instead are buying “prepaid” phones. The Street is overlooking AT&T’s ability to sell data, broadband, voice and other services to home and wireless customers. In April, CEO Randall Stephenson told analysts that revenue per user from data and other services continues to rise, and that it will help compensate for slower contract growth. iPhone users are disproportionately large data users.

4/26/10 Bloomberg BusinessWeek p36 “Why Companies are Holding Fire” says AT&T was the top corporate PAC in 2009 giving $1.7 million.

4/24/10 AJC pA10 “Phone books near extinction” by Margaret Newkirk says the Georgia Public Service vote to let AT&T stop delivering residential phone books automatically in communities with populations in excess of 50,000 and will be available only to those who ask for them.

4.22.10 Fin Times “AT&T boosted by popularity of Apple iPhone” by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson says the surge in smartphone sales that powered Apple’s 90% jump in quarterly profits also drove better-than-expected 1Q earnings at AT&T.

4/22/10 NYT pB5 “Earnings Fall 21% at AT&T” by AP says AT&T added fewer wireless customers with contacts in 1Q than it has since 2004, an indication that the saturation of the market is even starting to catch up with AT&T. AT&T added a net 512,000 wireless customers under contracts, down 43% from a year ago. AT&T activated 900,000 iPhones for new customers. However, it lost some iPHone subscribers to other carriers as well so it was not clear how much the iPhone contributed to the net gain of 512,000. Another 1.8 million people who were already AT&T customers also got iPHones. AT&T earned $2.48 billion, or 42 cents a share, in 1Q, down 21% from a year ago. Excluding items, AT&T earned 59 cents a share, beating the average forecast of 54 cents a share by analysts. The items included a previously announced charge of $995 million, or 17 cents a share, to reflect a change in the health care reform package regarding the tax treatment of benefits. Revenue was $30.6 billion, flat with a year ago and slightly below analyst expectations for 30.7 billion.

4/22/10 WSJ pB1 “AT&T Looks Beyond the iPhone” by Niraj Sheth says with a cellphone in nearly every American pocket and purse, wireless giant AT&T cold be staring at a brick wall. The point was hammered home by AT&T’s 1Q report Wed, when it added the fewest number of subscribers under contracts in more than two years. Plus, AT&T continues to rely heavily on the iPhone for those customers that it does sing up. The question hanging over the No. 2 U.S. carrier is where it will turn for growth. That same issues looms for Verizon and Sprint Nextel. Rick Lindner, AT&T’s fiancé chief, acknowledges that wireless subscriber gains are slowing. But he argues AT7T will be able to expand its business by shifting more customers to smartphones, as well as selling cellular service for devices like e-readers. AT&T will also look for acquisitions in fields that would support its focus on mobile data. AT&T is emphasizing wireless gadgets such as e-readers and netbooks. For the first time, in 1Q AT&T broke out “connected devices”. These new devices bring in less monthly revenue than cellphone customers but they are highly profitable e, because they don’t incur costs like marketing or customer service that come with adding a phone customer. In April, Apple started selling a version of Apple’s iPad tablet that connects to AT&T’s network that will earn between $15 and $30 per month.

4/21/10 FinTtimes p28 “Strong corporate earnings bolster flagging sentiment” by Masa Serdarevic says AT&T said 1Q sales came in slightly below average analyst expectations. AT&T’s exclusive contract with Apple to offer the iPhone helped drive earnings but a number of analysts raised concerns over its dependency on the contract.

4/21/10 WSJ pC1 “Little to Call Home About at AT&T, Verizon” by Martin Peers says investors buy phone stocks not for their growth potential but for their rich dividends. Both AT&T and Verizon yield moe than 6%, attractive at a time when interest rates are low. This article is typical in arguing that AT&T’s network reception problems in New York and California, the risk of AT&T losing its iPhone exclusivity and the intense competition in the wireless and wired business concluding that it will take time for investors to reconnect with phone stocks.

4/19/10 Bloomberg Businessweek” p 6 “Net Neutrality Setback” says in a legal victory for broadband service providers, a federal appeals court ruled on April 6, 2010 that federal regulators didn’t have the authority to intervene in the Internet management practices of Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company. The FCC censured Comcast in 2008 for blocking subscribers from using peer-to-peer software to view videos. The FCC said the court decision does not close the door to other methods of preserving a free and open Internet.

4/14/10 USA Today p2B “AT&T drops ads that took shots at rival” by AP says AT&T has hung up on the ad wars, dumping its ad campaign responding to rival Verizon’s slams on its wireless coverage. Verizon was the world’s second-biggest advertiser last year with $2.24 billion in spending, while AT7T was fourth at $1.9 billion, according to Kantar Media.

4/12/10 Bloomberg BusinessWeek p10 “Unlocking the iPhone” says shares of Apple and Verizon jumped on a 3/29 Wall Street Journal story saying Apple is working on a version of its iPhone that will run on Verizon Wireless’ network.

4/12/10 Bloomberg Businessweek” p54 “When Body Parts Call the Doctor” by Kerry Capell says in partnership with Barcelona’s Hospital de la Esperanza, Telefonica has developed a knee brace embedded with motion sensors that enable physicians to monitor patients’ rehabilitation remotely after they’ve been discharged from the hospital. As they exercise, patients watch their movements simulated via a 3D avatar on a computer, which wirelessly sends the data to the doctor for view on a PC or cell phone. Cellular operators are trying to become providers of wireless-health care products and services. The market, known as mobile or m-health, spans everything from text messaging services to remind people to take medication to implants that monitor heart patients. There are even pills with edible computer chips; the chips send signals to a skin patch, which in turn transmits data to a doctor’s cell phone or computer. Mobile has the potential to revolutionize the health care system by increasing efficiency, lowering costs, expanding access to care, and improving patient outcomes. Telecom operators view m-health as one of three future revenue streams, along with content and advertising. France Telecom’s Orange, AT&T Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Verizon, Vodafone, and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and KDDI all are investing in m-health.the number of wireless health devices is expected to increase from 300,000 in 2009 to 5.2 million by 2014. In the US, the m-health industry is expected to grow from $304 million today to $4.4 billion by 2013.

4/12/10 Barron’s p31 “Payouts Revive” by Shirley A. Lazo says dividends are making a dramatic comeback. For the 65 stocks in the dow Jones Average, the dividend news was good in 1Q. AT&T was among those disbursing higher dividends.

4/10-11/10 WSJ pB16 “Beauty of Tax Assets Can Prove Fleeting” by David Reilly says AT&T, 3M, Caterpillar and Deere announced care-related charges resulting from the health-care overhaul.

4/10/10 Bloomberg Businessweek” p49 “CEO Pay Drops, but … Cash is King by Jessica Silver-Greenberg, Tara Kalwarski, and Alexis Leondix lists AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson’s 2009 compensation as a total compensation of $29.9 million up 85% from 2008 and AT&T shareholder return in 2008 of 5%. It says in 2008 he received a lower salary and was not awarded a bonus.

4/8/10 WSJ pB1 “FCC Seeks new Plan For Web” by Amy Schatz, Niraj Sheth says CC members began the work of relaunching their broadband strategy after a court threw out their earlier effort to police broadband traffic and even as Internet providers said no action at all would be best.

4/8/10 NYT pB6 “AT&T Image Campaign Accentuates the Positive, Not Products” by Stuart Elliott says AT&T, one of the five largest American advertisers is starting a new ad campaign with the sunny theme of “rethink possible” The spirit of the campaign is that AT&T is moving out of the gloom and that AT&T is a forward-thinking, optimistic company.

4/7/10 WSJ pB1 “Court Backs Comcast in Blow to Net Neutrality” by Brent Kendall says AT&T said the FCC’s current net-neutrality principles work and it will continue to abide by them.

4/7/10 USA Today p1B “AT&T to spend $1 billion on upgrades” says it would invest this sum to upgrade its business network, services and products for large companies worldwide and small US firms as network traffic in global economies migrates from voice to video and data.

4/7/10 NYT pB1 “From AT&T, at Home Cellular Towers” by Matt Richtel says faced with criticism for its spotty iPhone service, AT&T blames in aprt a shortage of cellphone towers near homes and business. It has a solution: put a miniature cell tower in your living room.

4/7/10 WSJ pB1 “AT&T Fights Pension Sui” by Ellen Schulz says AT&T is seeking to dismiss a long running pension case alleging age discrimination that seeks $2.3 billion in damages alleging a 1998 pension change froze the pensions of 40,000 older management employees at AT&T but not those of younger employees.

4/5/10 Barron’s p32 “How the iPad Will Weigh on Other Businesses” by Eric J. Savitz says the iPad is a good way to watch video. AT7T has unveiled plans for U-verse Mobile, an application for the iPhone and other smartphones allowing customers of its TV service to watch content recorded on DVRs anywhere there is Web access.

4/4/10 NYT p10 “Executive Pay” lists AT&T CEO Randall L. Stephenson’s 2009 compensation and says the total value of his equity holdings in AT&T is $17,331,222.

4/2/10 USA Today p2B “2009 compensation for 25 of the most highly paid CEO’s” lists AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson receiving base pay of $1,450,000, bonus other than stock or optins of $5,850,000, other compensation such as perks, tax reimbursements and payment of life insurance of $864,632, stock and option awards of $12,075,825, for total compensation in 2009 of $20,240,457 up 34.8% from 2008. He also realize stock gains of $6,883,650 from exercise of options and vested stock for a realized total of $15,048,282. Shareholder return for AT&T was 4.8%.

4/1/10 WSJ pB4 “Perks Are Cut Amid Pushback on Pay” by Dana Mattiolo lists the top CEO earners in 2009 and lists AT&T CEO Randall L. Stephenson as 6th.

3/31/10 NYT pB1 “A Wide Call To Improve Web Privacy” by Miguel Helft says a broad coalition of technology companies, including AT&T, Google and Microsoft, and advocacy groups from across the political spectrum said it would push Congress to strengthen online privacy laws to protect private digital information from government access. The group is called the Digital due Process coalition.

3/30/10 WSJ pB7 “Interest Builds in Apple Ahead of iPad’s Launch” by Dan Gallagher says Apple shares set an all time high Mon. as investors look ahead to the launch of the iPad tablet computer.

3/30/10 WSJ pB1 “New iPhone Could end AT&T’s U.S. Monopoly” by Yukari Iwatani Kane, Ting-I Tsai, Niraj Sheth says Apple plans to begin producing this year a new iPhone that could allow U.S. phone carriers other than AT&T to sell the gadget. The new iPhone would work on a type of wireless network called CDMA, which is used by Verizon Wireless as well as Sprint Nextel and a handful of cellular operators in countries including S. Korea and Japan. The vast majority of carriers world-wide, including AT&T, use another technology called GSM. Analysts estimate AT&T pays Apple more than $600 per phone, but sells most of them for $199 or less. Heavy iPhone users have also put an enormous load on AT&T’s wireless network, pushing the carrier to a breaking point in some markets such as New York and San Francisco.

3/29/10 Barron’s p14 “Health-Care Reform is Born” says AT&T said the new healthcare law would result in a $1 billion 1Q non-cash charge.

3/29/10 Barron’s “Safety Net for Dividends” by Andrew Bary says Goldman Sachs screened companies for those with dividend yields exceeding those on their five-year debt. It focused only on the companies that are expected to maintain or increase their payouts in 2010 and eleven companies matched these criteria including Verizon communications and AT&T. At a share price of $6.15, its dividend yield was 6.45, its bond yield was 3.2%, its payout ratio was 77%, its annual dividend rate was $1.68 and its 2010 estimated earnings per share is $2.19.

3/27/10 NYT pB6 “AT&T to Take Big charge Under new Health Care law” by AP says AP wold take a $1 billion noncash accounting charge in 1Q because of the health care overhaul and might cut benefits it offers.

3/26/10 USA Today p6B “Cellphone provides look for opportunities in wireless Net” by David Lieberman says wireless phone providers are about to broaden the reach of heir broadband services and gie them a big bump in speed as hey salivate over opportunities to connect everything from multimedia smartphones to dog collars. For example, AT&T will provide wireless connections for pet collars that let people locate their animals when they stray.

3/25/10 NYT pB1 “IPhone App To Sidestep AT&T” by David Pogue says for a little $1 iPhone ap, line2 can turn an iPod Touch into a full blown Cellphone. Line2 gives your iPhone a second phone number and is sold by Toktumi.

3/18/10 WSJ pB1 “Sprint Wages on 4G Phone” by Roger Cheng says Sprint Nextel will soon roll out the first US phone that works on a faster wireless network, an important step in the struggling carrier’s effort to stem subscriber defections.

3/17/10 WSJ pA4 “FCC Aim to Boost Web Still Remote” by Amy Schatz, Shira Ovide says the FCC’s 360 page report just released contains a number of proposals for expanding Internet service and removing the barriers to competition that surround existing broadband providers franchises. Among them: a free national wireless broadband network and a “National Digital Literacy Corps” whose members will teach digital literacy skills. The FCC reports says that 100 million US homes of a total 112 million, shold have affordable access to 50 megabit per second Internet service in five years. That’s about 10 times faster than most homes get today.

3/17/10 WSJ pB7 “Move to 4G Wireless Standard May change Pricing Model” by Roger Cheng says the next generation of wireless communications technology won’t just change how quickly you can download music, it will also affect your wallet. The latest in the technology is in the form of Long Term Evolution, or LTE, a fourth generation, or 4G, wireless standard supported by many major telecommunications companies around the world. AT&T says 3% of its subscriber base make up 40% of its data traffic.

3/15/10 USA Today pB3 “AT&T smartens up cheaper phones” by David Lieberman says AT&T is selling a suite of mostly Web-based services that will make it possible or consumers to use inexpensive new cellphones to handle tasks mostly associated with higher-price smartphones. The suite includes an address book t hat will store information remotely. There’s a messaging service that enables users to reply to a single person or as many as 10 contacts. AT&T also will make it easy for subscribers to transfer photos and videos from their phones to a home PC, other people’s phones and social-networking sites such as Facebook. AT&T calls the new category of phone the Quick messaging Device.

3/10/10 Investors Business Daily pA4 “Big Broadband Plan Just the Start” by Reinhardt Krause says FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has set a goal of boosting broadband penetration to 90$ with Internet speeds of 100 megabits per second to be available to 100 million US households within a decade.

3/10/10 Beasley Report p4 “AT&T Faces $1 Billion Overtime Lawsuit” says 5,000 former BellSouth employees filed two class action lawsuits against AT&T seeking $1 billion in unpaid overtime compensation.

3/4/10 Investors Business Daily pA4 “Big Telecom Carriers Add Different Voice To The Conversation” by Brian Deagon says the number 1 handset maker Nokia announced Skype was now available as a free download from its Ovi online store. Nokia, AT&T and Verizon are fast moving VoIP into the mainstream.

3/3/10 Investors Business Daily” pA1 “FCC Broadband Plan Cold Spark Big Fight” by Reinhardt Krause says the Obama administration aims to deliver broadband to the one third of Americans who don’t have access to high speed Internet services. Phone and cable companies dominate fixed line Internet to homes. The FCC aims to bring about more broadband competition through wireless services. The FCC plan calls for freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over the next decade for mobile broadband use. Verizon and AT&T have said they’re in dire need of more spectrum because of booming smartphone use. The FCC may gtry to exclude AT&T and Verizon Wireless from some future auctions. Or the FCC may propose that caps be put on how much spectrum a wireless firm can own in a given market.

3/3/10 WSJ p4 “AT&T Says iPhone Isn’t Going Away” by Roger Cheng says CEO Randall Stephenson said he didn’t expect a lot of network usage for the coming Apple iPad, saying that consumers will opt for Wi-Fi rather than cellular connections.

3//10 WSJ pB5 “Qwest Sets Plan for Return to Growth” by Roger Cheng says Qwest has shunned the notion of building its own tv service, such as Verizon’s FiOS or AT&T’s U-Verse.

3/10 Corporate Counsel p3 “Who’s in the Lobby” says AT&T uses the Crane Group, Inc. and Lucie Gokovich to lobby on general telecommunications issues.

2/22/10 Bloomberg Businessweek” p81 “Rating AT&T, From Inside and Out” by Cathy Couglin, Sr. Exec. VP and Global Marketing Officer for AT&T says AT&T leads the world in mobile broadband, supporting two times more traffic than any other company around. She says 18 financial analysts have a buy rating on AT&T. AT&T invested more than any other US telecom or cable company in 2009. As a result, AT&T’s 3G network can support twice as many smartphone users as any competitor.

2/18/10 Investors Bus. Daily pA5 “Sezmi Enters The Picture As Video Services Provider” by Brian Deagon says Sezmi, backed by $100 million in financing since its 2006 founding, launches its first video service in the Los Angeles area and plans to roll out its TV and Internet video service soon completing the rollout in 2011. Getting people to drop their current TV services is hard. Cable and telecom firms sell a bundle of TV, Internet, phone and sometimes wireless services. The two largest telecom carriers, AT&T and Verizon, offer TV through their U-verse and FiOS services, respectively.

2/16/10 USA Today p4B “Microsoft unveils new Windows Mobile system” by Edward C. Baig says in February, Microsoft introduced the wraps off the promising Windows Phone 7 Series. Devices based on this latest Windows Mobile operating system are slated to appear by the 2010 holiday shopping season. Microsoft’s global partners include wireless carriers and phonemakers such as AT&t, Deutsche Telecom, Orange, Sprint, SFR, Telefonia, Telstra, Telecom Italia, T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone and Qualcomm.

2/16/10 WSJ pB7 “Software Directs Mobile Industry” by Niraj Sheth says a group of two dozen carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile owner deutsche Telekom want to create a way for developers to make applications that can run without modification on all the phones they offer. Apple’s iPhone has managed in just three years to become the industry’s most influential phone in part because users can download over 100,00 applications from Apple’s App Store. A similar library for Google’s Android system hosts over 20,000 programs.

2/16/10 Fin Times p4 “Google prepares for a high-speed battle” by Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Richard Waters says Google is taking on AT&T, Comcast and other internet service providers, by building its own ultra high speed internet network. AT&T spends tens of millions of dollars on lobbing and charitable and campaign donations, and have developed deep relations in Washington over many years. AT&T ahs employees in every congressional district according to Andrew Schwatzman, president of Media Access Project.

2/15/10 Bloomberg Businessweek” p34 “AT&T’s iMess” by Roben Farzard says the iPhone has swamped AT&T’s data network and sparked a consumer rebellion. On Dec. 18, 2009, Operation Chokehold was an attempted consumer uprising that tried to have every iPhone user turn on a data-intensive app and run the app for one solid hour to protest AT&T’s substandard network. The FCC stepped in and said disrupting a network would pose a significant public safety concern. On the Dec. 20 broadcast of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, a joke was that Google’s new phone would pose a threat to the iPhone because it could make phone calls.

2/15/10 Bllomberg Businessweek p80 “Turning an iPad into An iMust-Have” by Rich Jaroslovsky says Apple’s iPad is lovely and loaded with potential, but it won’t fly unless there’s cool content to go with it. There are six model including one that connects to AT&T’s 3G network priced at $829.

2/15/10 Newsweek p24 “Buh-Bye, Wireless Guys” by Daniel Lyons says news devices from Google and Apple spell the beginning of the end of two-year service agreements.

2/15/10 Barron’s p25 “The World’s Most Respected Companies” by Vito J. Racanelli lists AT&T for 2010 at number 84 falling greater than almost any other company except those in the financial sector from 58th in 2009. Among money managers surveyed 4% highly respect AT&T, 26% respect it, 51% somewhat respect it and 16% don’t respect it.

2/12-18/10 Atlanta Bus. Chron. “State Senate fast-tracks telecom reform” by Dave Williams says Georgia legislature has a proposed bill overhauled its telecom industry, which hasn’t been overhauled since 1995.

2/11/10 WSJ pB4 “Sprint Slowing Defections” by Roger Cheng says Sprint Nextel posted a narrower 4Q loss and slowed down the rate of subscriber defections but still lost a net 148,000 customers as it continued to get squeezed by Verizon and AT&T.

2/11/10 Fin. Times p18 “AT&T confirms 4G network plan” by Paul Taylor says AT&T confirmed plans to roll out a wireless 4G network based on the latest long term evolution technology next year. It selected Ericsson of Sweden and Alcatel-Lucent of France to supply the LTE network equipment.

2/10/10NYT pA12 “In Black Caucus, a Fund-Raising Powerhouse” by Eric Lipton, Eric Lichtblau says it is a consistent sponsor of the Congressional Black Caucus.

2/10/10 Beasley Report p29 “AT&T to Pay $18 Million To Settle Early Termination Foes Lasuit” says AT&T agreed to pay $18 million to settle claims that imposed unfairly high early termination fees on subscribers who wanted to end their contracts. The case covers customers who were charged a termination fee from as far back as 1998.

2/8/10 NYT pB4 “AT&T to Allow TV Over 3G” by Brad Stone says AT&T said it would allow the SlingPlayer iPhone app allowing tv signal to be viewed from their handsets to stream over its 3G network. Sling and various consumer groups complained to the FCC that AT&T’s policy was discriminatory since other apps, like major League Baseball also streamed live video over AT&t’s 3G network.

2/5/10 WSJ pB1 “T-Mobile’s German Owner Weighs U.S. Spinoff” by Jeffrey McCracken, Dana Cimilluca says T-Mobile’s parent, German giant Deutsche Telekom AG is exploring an ipo or spinoff of T-Mobile USA, the 4th largest U.S. wireless provider. T-Mobile USA has only about 14% market share, leaving it far behind AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp.

2/4/10 Inv. Bus. Daily pA4 “Comcast’s Q4 Exceeds Views: broadband Up” by Reinhardt Krause says Comcast reported 4Q results that beat views, but the U.S. cable TV leader lost 200,000 in the period. Phone companies AT&T and Verizon have ramped up pay-TV services, providing more competition for cable firms, while satellite broadcasters DirecTV Group and dish Network remain tough rivals.

2/2/10 WSJ pB2 “leap Wireless Seeks Suitor” by Jeffrey McCracken, Niraj Sheth says cellular provider leap Wireless International Inc. is considering selling the company or merging with rivals. Leap sells its service under the Cricket band and has 4.7 million customers. Leap provides prepaid service aimed at the lower end of the market and is being squeezed as major carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel encroach on its prepaid turf and slash their contract rates.

2/1/10 NYT pB5 “AT&T Gears Up For a heavy Load” by Jenna Wortham says AT&T planned to sspend an additional $2 billion this year on infrastructure, bringing its total expenditure on its network into the range of $18 billion to $19 billion.

1/29/10 Fin Times p14 “iPhone helps boost AT&T performance” by Alan Rappeport says AT&T said it had been boosted by is second best quarter of subscriber growth, fuelled by the popularity of the iPhone and reported a surge in 4Q profits. Its net profit rose by 25.6% to $3 billion or 51 cents a share, from $2.4 billion or 41 cents. The results slightly beat analysts’ expectations. AT&T’s mobile division added 2.7 million net subscribers in the quarter, nearly 1 million more than analysts had predicted. Data services jumped by 26.3% in the quarter to $3.9 billion. Overall revenues fell slightly, dipping to $30.9 billion from $31.1 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Integrated devices which have a virtual or physical keyboard represent 46.4% of AT&T’s post-paid subscribers, up from 27% a year ago. AT&T activated 3.1 million new iPhones in the quarter. AT&T’s landline business continued to struggle, with revenues down by 5.3% to $16.2 billion. AT&T’s overall landline performance was better than Verizon’s which earlier in the week said landline revenues dropped by 3.9% to $11.5 billion.

1/29/10 WSJ pB5 “AT&T Details Plans for Upgrading Network” by Niraj Sheth says AT&T has detailed its plans for beefing up its often maligned network. AT&T has put in new radio boxes in New York and San Francisco and plans to build more cell towers in high density areas like transportation hubs. AT&T plans to spend $18 to $19 billion on its networks this year, including $2 billion more on the wireless network than in 2009.

1/28/10 WSJ pC16 “Apple’s iPad revolution: Radical Price” by Martin Peers says given congestion on AT&T’s network largely caused by heavy use of the iPhone, some consumers may choose the iPad model built for Wi-Fi use only.

1/28/10 WSJ pB6 “Apple’s Big Push” by Niraj Sheth says the wireless industry’s carrier-centered model is being further eroded. Just a half-decade ago, the big U.S. wireless companies fully controlled the way subscribers used their service, setting specifications for the phones they offered and locking subscribers into contacts. Apple wrested away control over handsets with the new iPhone. The iPad further diminishes carriers’ control even further. AT&T offers two cellular service plans for the iPad, neither of which reqire the contracts that typically accompany its data plans for cell phones and laptops. Carriers are being pushed into the realm of being a conduit for devices and content produced elsewhere. Apple will get more of the value, while carriers will get more of the cost. Companies such as Apple and Google have their sights set on the mobile market and want the freedom to control the design of their devices and they way they’re used. Carriers are increasingly relying on data services for growth.

1/21/10 WSJ pB2 “FCC Rebuffs Cable Firms on Sports” by Amy Schatz says the FCC voted to stop cable operators from withholding local sports channels from rivals. By a 4-1 margin, the FCC backed closing the so-called “terrestrial loophole” that cable operators, including Comcast and Cablevision have used to keep local sports programming off TV services run by competitors such as Verizon and AT&T. In 2008 AT&T filed a complaint against cox communications for denying it permission to air San diego Padres baseball games.

1/18/10 Forbes “Vonage’s Second Calling” by Elizabeth Woyke profiles Vonage and its CEO, Marc lefar, a former chief marketing officer at Cingular (now AT&T Mobility).

1/18/10 Bloomberg Businessweek p57 “Netbooks: The New Generation” by Douglas MacMillan says netbooks are being pushed aside this year at the 2009 Consumer Electronic Show for even smaller mobile computers, dubbed smartbooks, which can be hooked up to wireless networks such as AT&T’s.

1/18/10 Bloomberg Businessweek p6 “Google comes Calling” says on Jan. 5, 2010 Google unveiled the Nexus One cell phone with a powerful chip, camera, and availability on Verizon’s network. AT&T will sell five phones using Google’s Android software.

1/16-17/10 WSJ pB5 “Verizon, AT&T Escalate Pricing War” by Niraj Sheth says AT&T and Verizon cut prices on their calling plans. Verizon cut the cost of its unlimited calling plan from $100 a month to $70 and AT&T did the same the next day. Verizon also streamlined its phone lineup cutting back from the 0 phones it has on shelves to 50.

1/15/10 WSJ pC10 “Telecom stocks Stuck in Dead zone” by Martin Peers says stocks of both AT&T and Verizon communications have missed the past year’s rally completely, even as smartphones and mobile apps make mobile devices more important to consumers. Discounting from small carriers is pressuring the majors’ pricing and clouding their revenue growth prospects.

1/14/10 WSJ pD2 “Q&A” has a question about who has the wider area of coverage between AT&T and Verizon and the answer is that Verizon has a larger geographic footprint when it comes to 3G network but AT&T’s is faster.

1/11/10 Barron’s p23 “The Picture’s Improving at Time Warner Cable” by Christopher C. Williams say Time Warner Cable is one of the best investment bets in the industry, given its desirable markets, copious cash flow and cheap stock. It competes for consumers’ eyeballs with AT&T and Verizon Communications.

1/9/10 WSJ pB5 “Court Skeptical of FCC’s Net-Neutrality Push” by Fawn Johnson says Federal judges questioned whether the FCC has the authority to enforce rules that require Internet providers to give equal treatment to all traffic on their networks in a hearing between the FCC and Comcast. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is proposing net-neutrality rules to prevent companies like AT&T and Verizon communications from selectively blocking or slowing certain Web content.

1/8/10 WSJ pB1 “Palm Faces Uphill Battle to Grow In Crowded Smart-Phone market” by Yukari Iwatani Kane, Roger Cheng says Palm unveiled new versions of its phones to be carried on Verizon and AT&T. Palm is in tough financial straits having posted an $85.4 million loss in its most recently reported quarter.

1/7/10 WSJ pB1 “AT&T Adds Android, Palm to Its Lineup” by Roger Cheng, Niraj Sheth says AT&T will sell mobile phones that run on technology backed by Google and Palm hedging its bets as is exclusive contract to host the iPhone in the US ticks to an end. AT&T will sell five Andorid phones developed by Motorola Inc., HTC corp. and Dell Inc. AT&T will be the exclusive US carrier for a Dell phone called the Mini 3.

1/7/10 NYT pB10 “AT&T to Sell Smartphones Using the Android System” by Jena Wortham says AT&T will sell smartphones running the Android mobile operating system ,including Dell’s first smartphone. AT&T is the last major wireless carrier in the US to add an Android powered smartphone to its lineup.

1/4/10 WSJ pB5 “Broadcast Coalition Pushes Live TV for Viewers on the Go” says Qualcomm Inc. the San Diego cellphone chip maker, has lined up programming for a mobile service called FLO TV that is sold in the US by AT&T and Verizon Wireless. AT&T’s service starts at $9.99 a month.

1/ 2- 3/10 WSJ pB5 “AT&T Severs Ties With Woods” by Suzanne Vranica says AT&T is severing its ties with Tiger Woods, joining a growing list of marketers distancing themselves from the golfer amid the public furor surrounding allegations of his infidelities. AT&T’s relationship with Mr. Woods began more than five years ago when it started sponsoring Tiger Jam, an annual star studded concert that is the biggest fundraiser for the Tiger Woods Foundation.

1/1/10 NYT pB9 “AT&T ends Sponsorship Of Woods” by Ken Belson says AT&T joins Accenture in severing its sponsorship deals with Woods.

12/31/09 USA Today p3B “U.S. credit fees bug world” by Kathy Chu gives a time line of bank practices and says in 1990 AT&T rolled out a no-annual fee credit card. Other banks, including Citigroup, adopted this model in subsequent years.

12/31/09 NYT pB8 “AT&T Wins a Test of 3G efficiency (Surprising Some) by Roy Furchgoti says AT&T, the network it seems everyone loves to hate, has unseated Sprint as the fastest 3G data service in a test by the tech Web site Gizmodo, which also tested Verizon and T-Mobile.

12/29/09 WSJ pB1 “IPhone Snafu Stirs Network Concerns” BY Niraj Shethsays AT&T resumed online sales of the iPHone after they were earlier unable to buy Apple Inc.’s popular phone on AT&T’s Web site. Verizon Wireless mocks AT&T’s network quality in an ad campaign.

12/29/09 USA Today pB1 “AT&T’s online sales of iPhones restart in New York” by Jon Swartz says the suspension of sales of the iPhone in new York City by AT&T could have been an attempt to tamp down fraudsters who buy iPhone models at the AT&T subsidized prices of $99 to $299 and then resell them online, while reneging on the accompanying two year service contracts.

12/28/09 Fin times p14 “A giddy ride on the M&A carousel” by Lina Saigol looks at deals over the prior ten years and ranks AT&T’s acquisition of BellSouth as the third biggest acquisition of the decade. It happened on March 6, 2006 at a deal value of $101.9 billion.

12/28/09 Bloomberg Businessweek” p21 “Can AT&T Tame the iHogs?” by Peter Burrow, Olga Kharif says AT&T is bashed incessantly for service that rarely lives up to the elegant promise of Apple’s sleek iPhone, for which AT&T is the exclusive carrier. There’s no question tht AT&T has made mistakes in managing its network. Consumer advocates point out it has relied heavily on cost savings from acquisitions to boost profits rather than innovations or reliable customer service. AT&T also clearly underestimated the demand for iPhones and the amount of data customers would use. In a Dec. 2009 survey by consumer Reports about wireless operators, AT&T came in last.

12/21/09 WSJ pR4 “The World’s Top 25 Companies” says AT&T was only one of 8 companies to remain on the list in 2009 that was also on the list in 1999. AT&T in 1999 had a market cap of $166.3 billion compared to $160.6 billion at the end of 2009.

12/16/09 WSJ pB5 “Insider Pushes ma Bell Beyond Just Phones” by Niraj Sheth says AT&T is betting that wireless services for new gadgets could substantially increase its $124 billion a year business. A number of these devices, such as e-readers and notebooks, wireless photo frames, are already on store shelves. AT&T has jumped into the nascent market and taken an early lead by supporting more devices than competitors. Its line up of electronic-book readers includes devices from British start-up Interead Ltd, amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook. AT&T has been fist mover in wireless network services for advanced car-entertainment systems, home appliances, such as smart refrigerators, and handheld game consoles. Cellular operators could collect $90 billion a year by 2013 from servicing these devices. In 2009 fewer than 13 million non-handset wireless devices, mostly netbooks, were sold in the US.

12/14/09 NYT pB2 “Digital Gridlock Ahead” by Richard Beals, Robert Cyran says mobile data traffic on AT&T’s network has risen more than fiftyfold over the last three year with the majority of the increase from the iPhone. AT&T’s revenue from mobile data is growing at annual rate of 30%. Btu when you add back the cost of the capital investment AT&T needs to make to serve up all that data, the iPhone subscribers might be worth nothing at all to AT&T. AT&T disagrees saying it has gained large numbers of customers because of the iPhone, while keeping capital expenditure at a lower level than the prior year.

12/14/09 WSJ pA1 “Google Set To Market Own Phone next year” by Jessica E. Vascellaro, Niraj Sheth says Google will sell a cellphone directly to consumers called Nexus One.

12/13/09 NYT pB4 “AT&T Takes the Blame, Even for the iPhone’s Faults” by Randall Stross says Consumer Reports released its annual survey of cellphone service and AT&T is at the bottom and Verizon is at the top. AT&T said the problem was with the iPhone and not its network and it does better than Verizon using phones other than the iPhone.

12/12/09 AJC pA15 “AT&T expects next year to complete Alltel deal” says AT&T will complete the acquisition of 1.5 million Alltel subscribers in 18 states that Verizon Wireless had to divest to win regulatory approval for its purchase of Alltel.

12/10/09 NYT p6 “AT&T to Urge customers To use Less Wireless Data” by Jenna Wortham says AT&T is considering ways to encourage customers to use less wireless data as its network struggles to keep up with demand.

12/10/09 WSJ pB10 “AT&T Faces Data Dilma” by Roger Cheng says AT&T plans to take steps toward curtailing excessive data usage by some iPhone customers as it battles growth in both wireless traffic and perceptions of network problems.

12/7/09 Barron’s p38 “Phone Giant Beset by iHogs” by Mark Veverka says the high cost of iPhone subscribers isn’t likely to stop AT&T from renewing is Apple contract, if it can.

12/7/09 Barron’s p28 “Other Choices” says AT&T with a dividend yield of 6% and Verizon Comm. With a dividend yield of 5.8% are examples of investments that can provide income like bonds, but are not likely to be hurt as much when interest rates climb.

12/3/09 WSJ pB8 “AT&T, Verizon Drop Suits” by Roger Cheng says AT&T and Verizon Wireless agreed to drop lawsuits accusing each other of misleading marketing campaigns.

12/3/09 USA Today p1B “AT&T, Verizon end advertising spat” says AT&T and Verizon agreed to end lawsuits accusing each other of lying in TV ads.

12/09 Corporate Counsel Magazine p47 “Companies Are People Too” says AT&T won a court battle with the FCC that turned on the issue of whether corporations are entitled to asset claims of personal privacy. AT&T argued that the Freedom of Information Act defines person to include corporations. Some of AT&T’s documents may be protected from disclosure by the FC according the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

11/25/09 Inv. Bus. Daily pA5 “Plenty Of Smart Options In The Smart Phone Field” by Ted Needleman says smart phones are reviewed as holiday gifts. It defines a smart phone as a device that has one or more features that go beyond a cell phone that provides just voice services. In general, a smart phone can connect to the Internet and provide many data services, and it can play music, stream video and often take photos and even video.

11/24/09 Inv. Bus. Daily pA4 “AT&T Must Plan For War If It Enters India” by Reinhardt Krause says India’s fierce price war in wireless phone services gives AT&T plenty to think about as India nears a long-delayed auction of 3G wireless spectrum. AT&T holds an 8% stake in Mexico-based America Movil. It also offers some service in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. But that’s it for the carrier outside the 50 states.

11/23/09 Barron’s p24 “Don’t Hang Up on AT&T” by Tom Sullivan says with its successful exclusive deal to sell Apple’s iPhone apparently ending, AT&T has lost investors’ favor. This article concludes investors are missing the point. AT&T’s weak share price overlooks a number of positives- including robust cash flow, a 6.3% dividend yield, a broad line of other smartphones and a management team, head by CEO Randall Stephenson, that has proved it can cut costs, reduce debt and integrate acquisitions. The loss of exclusivity in 2010 is already priced into the stock. There’ll be some headline risk when the actual even occurs. The stock is worth 34. AT&T is the leading service provider for BlackBerry and offers a variety of smartphones including HTC Pure, Samsung Impression and LG Vu. AT&T has increased its dividend for the last 25 years.

11/23/09 Barron’s p 27 “10 for the Money” by Vito J. Racanelli describes stock that pay good dividends that can ease one of retirees’ biggest fears – that they’ll outlive their investments. AT&T is listed as one of the ten companies on the second team that pays a dividend and has the highest yield at 6.3% of all the stocks on the list.

11/19/09 NYT pB7 “Dell is Ready to Jump Into the Smartphone Market” by Azadeh Ensha says Dell said it would begin selling its first handset, the Mini 3, in China through China Mobile.

11/13/09 USA Today pA8 “AT&T demands that Verizon pull its ads comparing coverage” by leslie Cauley says AT&T amended its complaint suing AT&T for false advertising and asked the court to force Verizon to pull the ads immediately.

11/5/09 WSJ pD1 “Motorola’s Droid is Smart Success for Verizon users” by Walter S. Mossberg says some Verizon customers have switched to AT&T simply to get an iPhone. In response Verizon is rolling out a 200 phone, the Motorola Droid which is the first Verizon model to run Google’s Android smartphone operating system. The Droid is favorably reviewed.

11/4/09 WSJ pB4 “AT&T Sues Verizon” by Roger Cheng says AT&T sued Verizon Wireless, seeking to stop it from using what it called misleading wireless coverage maps in advertisements.

11/2/09 Businessweek p76 “RIM’s More Perfect Storm” by Stephen H. Wildstrom says touch screens will soon be the way we control phones and that the days of miniature keyboards are numbered which may be bad news for Research In Motion.

10/30/09 WSJ pB5 “Unraveling In-Building Wireless Networks” by Don Clark says a Silicon Valley start-up, SpiderCloud Wireless Inc. introduced technology to take over the job of delivering either cellular or Wi-Fi signals to the smart phones or laptops of workers in the office. They claim that some customers might choose to dispense with desk phones, letting employees rely on cellphones alone. AT&T is trying to offload some of its cellular traffic by encouraging the use of Wi-Fi, the alternative wireless technology that is built into many laptops and some smartphones. Technologies that take over wireless coverage inside buildings is a good way to move traffic from overburdened cell sites. The technology works by installing access points near the ceiling in an office that communicates with laptops or smartphones.

10/29/09 WSJ pB9 “Motorola’s Droid makes its Debut” by Roger Cheng, Niraj Sheth says Motorola and Verizon unveiled the Droid smart phone as a challenger to Apple’s iPhone.

10/29/09 WSJ pB6 “Google Says it will Limit Call Blocking” by Amy Schatz says Google said it will limit the number of phone numbers its Internet phone service blocks, in a partial bow to federal regulators’ concerns that it was skirting rules designed to ensure that consumers phone calls are connected seamlessly. The FCC began in inquiry into Google’s call blocking after AT&T complained that Google wasn’t abiding by rules that prohibit phone companies from blocking calls. The FCC stopped AT&T and other phone companies from trying to block calls to rural high cost areas a few years ago. Google favors net neutrality rules while AT&T is against them.

10/23/09 Inv. Bus. Daily pA6 “IPhone Sparks AT&T To A Quarterly Profit Above Analyst Views” by Reinhardt Krause says AT&T added a record 3.2 million iPhone users in the third quarter and earned 54 cents a share, beating estimates by four cents, though profit slipped 1.8%. Service revenue rose 10% to $12.4 billion as data sales jumped 33% from the year earlier period, overshadowed continued weakness in its consumer landline and business units. Total revenue slipped 1.6% to $30.86 billion, in line with analyst estimates. AT&T added 2 million new subscribers, well above estimates of 1.5 million. About 40% of the 3.2 million iPhone users activated were new customers of AT&T. AT&T ended the third quarter with 81.6 million wireless customers, offsetting a steep decline in its landline business, where many customers are switching to phone services offered by cable TV companies or going all wireless. Wireless profit margin improved to 38.5% from 33.5% in the year earlier period. IPhone subsidies cost AT&T a couple hundred dollars per customer but it recoups the money in service fees. The 3.2 million iPhone users AT&T activated beat the 2.4 million added in third quarter 2008. AT&T’s average monthly subscribe revenue rose nearly 1% from a year earlier to $15.21. Overall postpaid ARPU (average revenue per user) rose 3.8% to $61.23. 3G dropped calls were down 12% and 3G blocked calls were down 30%.

10/23/09 Inv. Bus. Daily pA6 “FCC Votes To Begin Preparing net neutrality Regulations” by AP says the FCC voted to begin writing network neutrality regulations to prevent phone and cable companies from abusing their control over the market for broadband access.

10/23/09 WSJ pB4 “AT&T net Slips, but iPhone Adds customers” by Roger Cheng, Niraj Sheth says AT&T’s quarterly earnings slipped 1.2% as revenue from traditional land lines fell faster than the company could cut costs, but its wireless business added a record number of iPhones to its network. Fro the third quarter, AT&T posted earnings of $3.2 billion, or 54 cents a share, down from $3.23 billion, or 55 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue dropped 1.6% to $30.66 billion. AT&T reduced its work force by 18,000 in 2009, including 4,000 jobs in the third quarter. Iit employed 302,660 people at the end of 2008.

10/23/09 WSJ pB1 “AT&T, Google Spar Over Web Rules” by Amy Schatz says Google and AT&T are in opposite corners on the net neutrality battle. Google wants regulations that would prevent AT&T from hampering their efforts to compete online.

10/23/09 NYT pB5 “Helped by iPhone, AT&T Beats Estimates” by Reuters says AT&T reported stronger thane expected third quarter profit as the iPhone and the low-budget Tracfone service attracted a record number of wireless customers.

10/14/09 WSJ pA21 “The Coming Mobile Meltdown” by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. says AT&T announced it would no longer block its exclusive Apple iPhone customers from using Internet voice services offered by the likes of Skype. A single YouTube viewing consumes nearly 100 times as much cellular bandwidth as a voice call.

10/14/09 WSJ pA4 “FCC Chief Seeks Broad Open-Internet Rules” by Amy Schatz says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is proposing that the FCC apply tougher open Internet rules broadly.

10/10-11/09 WSJ pB5 “FCC Probes Google’s Voice Service” by Fawn Johnson says the FCC opened an inquiry into whether Google’s phone management service, Google Voice, is restricting calls, such as adult chat lines and conference call centers which charge higher access fees to carriers.

10/8/09 NYT pB1 “As a Smartphone, It Makes a Good GPS” by David Pogue Garmin and AT&T unveiled the Garmin Nuvifone G60, it costs $300 with a two year contract at $70 a month. It’s a strong GPS unit.

10/8/09 NYT pB10 “In Choosing a New Phone, Online Research Goes Only So Far” by Bob Tedeschi says the retail outlets operated by the carriers offer a wider choice than do the mass merchants such as Best Buy or Walmart.

10/8/09 WSJ pC10 “AT&T Risks Losing voice To Skype” by Martin Peers AT&T chaned its policy to allow Skype on AT&T’s cell network instead of just on its Wi-Fi network.

10/8/09 WSJ pB9 “Dell to Build Phone for AT&T” by Jessica E. Vascellaro, Justin Scheck says in a big win for Google, Dell plans to introduce a smartphone using Google software on the AT&T cellular network.

10/7/09 NYT pB8 “AT&T to Let iPhone users Make Calls on the Internet” by Saul Hansell says until now, AT&T would not let users of voice services like Skype connect over its wireless data network but could make calls on the iPhone when connected to a Wi-Fi network.

9/30/09 Fin Times p8 “Neutrality rules” says heavy handed moves such as AT&T’s barring of Google Voice could encourage more restrictions as the FCC develops rules. If that happens, the network operators will have only themselves to blame.

9/28/09 Newsweek “The Greenest Big Companies in America” p34 lists AT&T at 126 of 235.

9/26/09 WSJ pA5 “AT&T Asks For Curbs On Google” by Amy Schatz says AT&T alleged that Google’s Google Voice service is improperly preventing consumers from calling certain phone numbers, in violation of federal call-blocking rules in a letter to the FCC. Google responded by saying the FCC’s net neutrality rules apply only to broadband carriers, not Web based software applications and that the FCC has no jurisdiction over software applications.

9/22/09 Inv. Bus. Daily pA4 “AT&T Issues Rebuke to FCC’s Proposals On Wireless Internet” by Reinhardt Krause says AT&T said federal regulators are wrong to propose that rules governing Web traffic on broadband networks should be extended to include wireless services.

9/22/09 WSJ pB5 “Google’s Phone Service Likely to Draw Scrutiny” by Fawn Johnson says Google’s new phone management service will draw scrutiny from the FCC as the FCC struggles to reconcile rotary phone era rules for iPhones and BlackBerrys.

9/20/09 WSJ pC10 “Paying a High Price for Web Freedom” by Martin Peers says if net neutrality advocates get their way, carriers will simply raise the cost of data plans to offset lost voice revenue.

9/19/09 Barron’s p5 “Five Modern Myths” by Michael Santoli says the securities of telecom companies such as AT&T, Verizon and CenturyTel illustrate that their stocks are a better deal than the bonds since their stock dividend yields are between 6.4% and 8.3% higher than their bond yields by one to three percentage points.

9/14/09 BusinessWeek p17 “Mobile App Makers hear Washington Calling” by Olga Kharif says the FCC hinted at increased regulation of the $32 billion mobile data services market in which app makers offer everything from games and video to free or cheap over the Web calling services. The FCC asked app creators such as Google, Skype and Vonage to submit comments about the state of innovation and competition in the mobile market. Usually the FCC just asks the wireless carrier like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

9/14/09 BusinessWeek” p40 “The Top 50 Employers” ranks AT&T at 38 for 2009 unchanged from 2008. Comments are that half of AT&T’s employees get free health insurance; 25% pay no premiums for dental and vision coverage.

9/10/09 NYT pB11 “Faster AT&T In 6 Cities by year-End” by Roy Furghott says AT&T said it would make improvements that would double the speed of its wireless network in six cities, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Charlotte, NC, by the end of 2009 using a technology called High Speed Packet Access 7.2. It will be installed in 25 cities by the end of 2010 and would reach about 90% of its existing 3G network by the end of 2011. The improvements are part of AT&T’s investment of $17 billion to $18 billion in improving the speed and reliability of its wireless network. The H.S.P.A. 7.2 network can reach peak speeds of 7.2 megabits per second. The peak speed of the current network is 3.6 mgabits per second. The H.S.P.A. 7.2 technology is not as advanced at AT&T’s 4G L.T.E. network technology which transfers data as quickly as 100 megabits per second.

9/7/09 Barron’s p29 “Verizon Boosts Payout” by Shirley A. Lazo says Verizon boosted its dividends. AT&T is expected to continue its history of enriching its quarterly common payout every year since 1984.

9/3/09 NYT pB1 “IPhone Overload” by Jenna Wortham says the iPhone can use 10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user resulting in dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as A7T’s cellular network strains to meet the demand. The average iPhone owner pays AT&T $2,000 during his two year contract, roughly twice the amount of the average mobile phone customer.

9/09 Corporate Counsel magazine says Verizon offloaded almost $11 billion in assets in the Spring of 2009 including $2.35 billion in wireless assets to AT&T as a requirement in order to get approval for Verizon to buy Alltel.

8/31/09 WsJ pC10 “AT&T Gets a Fuzzy Signal on Apple’s iPhone” by Martin Peers says while At&T has obtained at least 10 million activations of iPhones since I became available in mid-2007, only about 40% of those were new customers. Hat number dropped to 35% in the mos recent quarter when the 3GS phone became available. That means only four million new customers signed up , bout 5% of At&T’s total, or6% of postpaid customers on costly monthly contracts. The iPhone likely kept some AT&T customers from defecting. The iPhone subsidy of $400 a phone has depressed AT&T profit margins.

8/28/09 Fin Times p8 “Sony tries to turn the e-reader page with Kindle killers” by Paul Taylor says Sony is fighting back against its Amazon rivals with three new devices. Sony’s top of the range wireless Daily Edition has a 7 inch touchscreen that can be viewed in portrait or landscape ode and uses AT&T’s 3G mobile network.

8/29/09 WSJ pA12 “Letters to the Editor – Don’t Blame AT&T for the Google Voice Decision” by Ralph De la Vega, President and CEO, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets says Andy Kessler’s op ed piece in the 8/19 issue of the WSJ creates an inaccurate picture of the communications industry and AT&T. De la Vega defends exclusive arrangements on the basis that they encourage innovation and differentiation. Google wants to use the wireless networks of AT&T, Verizon and other carries without having to pay a market price for doing so.

8/27/09 WSJ pB5 “TiVo Goes to Battle With Verizon, AT&T” by Roger Cheng, Jay Miller says TiVo launched legal battles with Verizon communications and AT&T alleging infringement of its patented TV “time-warping” technology. Verizon and AT&T offer tv service with digital video recorders.

8/27/09 AJC pA16 “TiVO Inc. sues Verizon, AT&T over DVR patents says the suit is for patent infringement, including one covering the ability to pause and rewind live TV.

8/26/09 WSJ pB5 “Firms Racing to End Texting and driving” by Andrew LaVallee says AT&T and Verizon supports banning texting while driving.

8/26/09 Fin times p11 “Sony opens new chapter in fight for dominance of electronic books” by Paul Taylor, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson says Sony’s new Reader Daily Edition costs $100 more than Amazon’s basic wireless Kindle, will offer a seven inch touch screen, larger than the Kindle’s six inches and will run on AT&T’s 3G wireless network.

8/26/09 WSJ pD3 Walter Mossberg’s Column reviews the BlackBerry and says the iPhone’s huge selection of apps is better than the BlackBerry.

8/25/09 Inv. Bus. Daily “Nokia will Attack Converging market With First netbook” by Brian Deagon says Nokia’s first product to emerge from partnership with Intel is the Nokia Booklet 3G that will run on Microsoft Windows on Intel’s Atom processor and has a 10 inch screen. It will compete with netbooks already being sold by AT&T and Verizon that also offer service plans.

8/22/09 NYT pB3 “Apple Tells FCC It Is Still Pondering Google Voice Application for the iPhone” by Saul Hansell says Apple told the FCC it did not reject an iPhone application submitted by Google. Apple told the FCC that Apple would not sell its Google Voice service, which offers users free domestic telephone calls, deeply discounted international calls and SMs messages. Apple said its contract with AT&T gave it the sole authority o decide whether to accept applications. AT&T filed a letter with the FCC saying it did not want to offer voice over Internet protocol or VoIP in order to preserve the revenue it needed to offset the subsidized price of the iPhone. Other wireless carriers, including Verizon Wireless and SperintNextel do not have restrictions on apps that make calls using their smartphones. The FCC is examining Internet calling in response to a complaint by Skype that wireless companies are blocking its service from some handsets. AT&T and Verizon together control 60% of the wireless business in the US.

8/21/09 AJC pA20 “Age discrimination suit filed against AT&T” says the EEOC filed an age discrimination lawsuit against AT&T saying it discriminated against older employees by denying them the chance to be rehired solely because they retired under early retirement plans.

8/21/09 NYT pB7 “US Files Age Bias Suit Against AT&T” by AP says the lawsuit was filed in US District Court in Manhattan.

8/19/09 WSJ pA15 “Op Ed: Why AT&T Killed Google Voice” by Andy Kessler says Apple rejected an application for the iPhone called Google Voice that calls can use using one phone number that you can pick up whichever phone, office, home, or cellular rings. It’s a real unified voice system. Kessler says AT&T is dying and dragging down the rest of us by overcharging us for voice calls and stifling innovation in a mobile data market critical to the US economy. Kessler says there is no such thing as voice or text or music or TV shows or video. They are all just data.

8/17/09 NYT pB6 “AT&T and 8,900 Electrical Workers in a Tentative Deal” by Ap said AT&T reached a deal with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on core wireline contracts. About 50,000 employees in core wireline contracts have ratified or reached tentative agreements.

8/17/09 Barron’s p18 “AT&T” says AT&T is a classic defensive stock that has lagged in the market rally along with Verizon communications. They have both seen growth in wireless revenue and profits which has offset erosion in their formerly core wire-line phone operations. AT&T’s dividend looks secure.

8/17/09 NYT pB6 “cost matters Most For Phone Buyers” by Saul Hansell says every month Nielsen asks 25,000 wireless customers why they chose their current carrier. Price has long been the top factor cited. The second factor is network quality.

8/17/09 Barron’s p1 “Go For Quality” by Andrew Bary says this year’s rally has left behind some solid, high-quality blue-cip stocks, many of them with plump dividends. Among Barron’s favorites: Microsoft, Novartis, ExxonMobil, AT&T, Nestle, Comcast and Procter & Gamble.

8/11/09 AJC pA7 “AT&T, union still in talks” by Jeffry Scott says 32,000 workers in the Southeast who are members of the Communications Workers of America expired but they stayed on the job. AT&T are asking them to shoulder a greater percentage of medical expenses.

8/10/09 BusinessWeek p44 “Antitrust For The Digital Age” by spencer E. ante says US Justice ept. Lawyers are looking at AT&T and Verizon on several issues, including exclusive handset deals.

8/9/09 AJC pA17 “AT&T files complaint against Cablevision” says AT&T charged that Cablevision Systems Corp. is violating federal law by denying access to its New York area sports programming in high definition format for AT&T customers in Connecticut. AT&T’s U-verse wants access to the high definition format of Cablevision’s Madison Square Garden Networks in order to broadcast the New York Knicks, New York ranger, New York islanders and New Jersey Devils. U-verse is a competing video service.

7/24/09 Daily Reportt p3 “AT&T pushes netbooks to beat phone squeeze” by Amy Thomson, Bloomberg news says AT&T, Verizon and sprint Nextel are betting on netbooks to spur growth by subswidizing them in stores alongside mobile phones. AT&T is selling netbooks from PC makers such as Acer and Dell.

7/24/09 Fin times “AT&T and the iPhone” says losing exclusivity on the iPhone would hurt it.

7/24/09 WSJ pB5 “AT&T Gets Another iPhone Boost” by Roger Cheng says AT&T’s 2Q profit fell 15% as more customers decided to cut their phone cords, with many of them opting to go solelywith a cellphone such as the iPhone. 3.3 million landlines were disconnected but AT&T added 1.4 million wireless subscribers, 2/3 of whom signed up for an iPhone. AT&T’s subsidy to iPhone of $720 million in the quarter hurt profit. AT&T had income of $3.2 billion or 54 cents a share for 2Q, down from $3.77 billion or 63 cents a share, a year earlier. This included five cents a share in increased pension expenses. Revenue slipped 0.4% to $30.73 billion. A lower tax rate helped it to top profit expectations. Profit in the wireline business fell 28% as revenue slipped 6.1%. AT&T’s wireless business posted a 2.7% profit increase on a 10% gain in revenue. AT&T posted strong subscriber additions in the high speed Internet business, with 112,000 new lines, more than double a year ago. The period is typically weaker since students disconnect their lines before going home for the summer. AT7T added 248,000 U-Verse TV subscribers in the quarter. This is an effort to stave off competition from cable providers, who can offer a similar “triple play” of phone, Internet and video services.

7/24/09 Inv. Bus. Daily “AT&T Profit Falls, Still Beats Views” by Reinhardt Krause say AT&T 2Q earnings fell 14% to 54 cents per share, with iPhone subsidies cutting into profit, but shares rose on views that AT&T continues to grab higher spending customers in a maturing, more competitive wireless market.

7/24/09 AJC pA16 “AT&T subsidy of iPhone takes toll on is earnings” says AT7T activated more than 2.4 million iPhones in the quarter. It tries to recoup the subsidy for each phone over a two year contract.

7/23/09 Inv. Bus. Daily pA4 “AT&T Will Partner With E-Book Reader That Rivals Kindle” by AP says AT&T said it will support an electronic book reading device from start-up Plastic Logic. Like the Kindle, Plastic Logic Plastic Logic uses an “electronic ink” display which looks similar to regular paper and consumes very little power but navigation is slow.

7/22/09 USA Today “new e-book reader to use AT&T” says Plastic Logic, like Amazon.com’s Kindle, lets the reader access books anywhere there’s a signal.

7/16/09 Inv. Bus. Daily pA2 “AT&T” says AT&T has reached a tentative labor agreement with the communications Workers of America, covering 18,500 workers in AT&T’s Midwest region.

7/15/09 WSJ pC5 “Bad News” charts AT&T saying investors got increasingly concerned that the telecommunications company’s plans to acquire Centennial Communications would not obtain approval so the shares dropped 1.35% to $23.45 the prior day.

7/13/09 Fin times p13 “Department of Justice launches review of handset arrangements” by Richard Waters, Tom Braithwaite says the Dept. of Justice started an informal review of the exclusive arrangements that limit handsets such as Apple’s iPhone to particular wireless communications companies. The inquiry follows consolidation in the US wireless industry that has left four operators accounting for more than 90% of the country’s wireless subscribers. This has left them with the market power to carve out exclusive deals with makers of the most popular handsets, making it hard for smaller rivals to compete and leading to higher prices for mobile services. The French Competition Council in late 2008 overturned Apple’s exclusive deal to sell the iPhone through a single carrier there, and Apple has given up its early attempt to use exclusive arrangements to promote the device in most countries, submitting instead to local competitive dynamics.

7/13/-20/09 Businessweek p64 “AT&T’s Wireless Ambitions” by Roger O. Crockett says AT&T is betting consumers and businesses will want to use wireless networks to connect a host of gadgets to the Internet. Some examples are digital cameras. AT&T plans to sell cameras with wireless technology so users can post photos to the net. Electronic books readers, navigation devices, gaming consoles and parking meters which will allow cities to check meters from the office. Also, wireless devices can alert businesses when they need to replace candy or soda in vending machines.

7/9/09 Inv. Bus. Daily pA2 “Antitrust Elevated In Obama Era” by Reinhardt Krause says the Justice Dept. is looking into whether AT&T and Verizon are abusing their market power to compete unfairly against smaller rivals by locking up exclusive deals to provide service to popular handsets such as Apple’s iPhone. Entities such as rural cellular companies are complaining about anticompetitive practices. Consumer groups are complaining about abuses, about practices by large wireless carriers in text messaging pricing. There are concerns on the wireline front as well. AT&T and Verizon have clearly become dominant players with a significant amount of market dominance in wireless.

7/7/09 USA Today pB1 “Some iPhone owners chafing at links to AT&T” by Leslie Cauley says moe than 300,000 iPhone users left AT&T to use a rival carrier.

7/09 Miller-McCune p17 “Partisan Portfolios” says the 1978 ethics in Government act requires the disclosure of certain information by some members of the federal government. A graph shows the total amount owned by US senators and representatives in the top 50 most widely held companies as of 2007. More reporting Republicans hold investments in AT&T than reporting Democrats.

6/30/09 WSJ “Hopes Are High fro Sprint, Pre” by Roger Cheng says Sprint Nextel will be lanching Palm Inc’s Pre smartphone.

6/29/09 Barron’s p13 “Bonds vs. Stocks by Michael Santoli says AT&T’s 6.7% stock dividend yield is comparable to the rate on some of its longer term debt.

6/25/09 WSJ pD2 “Mossberg’s Mailbox” says all cellphones in the US are subsidized by the carriers to bring down prices.

6/22/09 Businessweek” p62 “Nokia: “Bring On The Employee Rants” by Ben Levisohn says AT&T tends to trade at a discount to Verizon but AT&T owns 100% of its wireless unit and lower capital needs, so it could be a bargain.

6/18/09 WSJ pB5 “AT&T Alters IPhone Policy” says AT&T will allow some current iPhone owners to upgrade to a new model at the same price as new buyers .

6/17/09 WSJ pB5 “RIM to Sell New tour on Two Carriers” by Roger Cheng says Research in Motion unveiled the BlackBerry Tour smartphone for Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, breaking its pattern of releasing devices with an exclusive wireless carrier partner. The device, which is able to tap faster 3G networks in the US and around the world, will give Verizon Wireless and Sprint a high end business phone comparable to the BlackBerry Bold that RIM sells through AT&T.

6/17/09 USA Today p1B IPhone gulps AT&T network capacity” by Leslie Cauley says AT&T’s wireless network is having a hard time keeping up with the Apple iPhone.

6/16/09 USA Today p2B “Desperate for iPhone 3GS?” says the new 3GS model, with improved battery life, a video camera and voice-activated calling went on sale but may not be available to those who didn’t pre-order.

6/10/09 USA Today p3B “AT&T’s fixer-upper joins GM” by Sharon Carty, Leslie Cauley says GM announced that retired AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. will become chairman of the new GM.

6/8/09 AJC pA14 “AT&T gives customers deal on iPhone upgrade” says AT&T will allow some current iPhone owners to upgrade to a new model at the same price as new buyers.

6/8/09 Barron’s p39 “The DVR Business is Poised for a Sudden Fast-Forward” by Eric J. Savitz says TiVo having won a patent infringement case may seek royalties from other companies that provide customers with digital video records such as Time Warner, Cablevision, Mediacom, Verizon and AT&T.

6/8/09 NYT “Palm Pre Draws Crowds, but Less Hubbub Than iPhone” by Reuters Sprint, the No. 3 mobile carrier, is depending on Pre to help stem defections and win back subscribers from rivals, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

6/4/09 WSJ pD1 “Palm’s new Pre Takes On iPhone” by Walter S. Mossberg says Pre is a smart, sophisticated product.

6/1/09 Businessweek p30 “AT&T and Verizon Bet On Netbooks” by Roger O. Crockett, Olga Kharif says cellphone penetration in the US is approaching 90% of the population so AT&T and Verizon are getting into mini-laptops for future growth.

Below are Summary of AT&T’s Most Recent Form 8Ks
[1] 7/22/10: This 8-K announced attached a press release announcing that AT&T delivered double digit earnings growth in the second quarter and that it raised its full-year outlook, that consolidated revenues incrased, margins expanded and cash flows remained strong. It included the following points:

 $0.68 diluted EPS compares with $0.54 diluted EPS in the second quarter of 2009, up 25.9 percent; up 13.0 percent excluding a $0.07 one-time gain from a Telmex Internacional stock transaction

 $30.8 billion second-quarter consolidated revenues from continuing operations, up $194 million, or 0.6 percent, versus the year-earlier period and up $278 million, or 0.9 percent, sequentially

 Consolidated operating margin expansion to 19.8 percent, up from 18.0 percent in the year-earlier quarter

 1.6 million organic net adds in total wireless subscribers, best-ever second quarter, to reach 90.1 million in service

 3.2 million iPhone activations in second quarter, a company record

 Best-ever wireless churn levels, with 1.01 percent postpaid churn and 1.29 percent total churn

 10.3 percent increase in wireless service revenues, with postpaid subscriber ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber) up 3.4 percent; sixth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase in postpaid ARPU

 27.2 percent growth in wireless data revenues, up $936 million versus the year-earlier quarter

 2.9 million net increase in 3G postpaid integrated devices on AT&T’s wireless network to reach 29.7 million

 32.0 percent growth in wireline consumer IP data revenues driven by AT&T U-verse® expansion; first-ever billion-dollar revenue quarter for AT&T U-verse services

 209,000 net gain in AT&T U-verse TV subscribers to reach 2.5 million in service, with continued high broadband and voice attach rates

 15.8 percent growth in revenues from strategic business services such as Ethernet, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), hosting and application services


Second-Quarter Financial Results

During the second quarter, AT&T announced it had entered into a definitive agreement with IBM to sell Sterling Commerce for approximately $1.4 billion in cash. AT&T expects the sale to close in the second half of 2010. Second-quarter comparisons are based on results from continuing operations, which exclude results from Sterling Commerce in all periods.)

For the quarter ended June 30, 2010, AT&T's consolidated revenues totaled $30.8 billion, up $194 million, or 0.6 percent, versus the year-earlier quarter, marking the company's second consecutive quarter with a year-over-year revenue increase. Versus the first quarter of this year, consolidated revenues were up $278 million, or 0.9 percent.

Compared with results for the second quarter of 2009, operating expenses were $24.7 billion versus $25.1 billion; operating income was $6.1 billion, up from $5.5 billion; and AT&T's operating income margin expanded to 19.8 percent, up from 18.0 percent. Total employee force is down by more than 10,000 since year-end 2009.

Second-quarter 2010 net income attributable to AT&T totaled $4.0 billion, or $0.68 per diluted share, up 25.9 percent, including a $0.07 one-time gain from the exchange of Telmex Internacional stock for shares of América Móvil. Excluding the gain from the Telmex Internacional transaction, earnings grew 13.0 percent to $0.61 per diluted share. These results compare with net income attributable to AT&T of $3.2 billion, or $0.54 per diluted share, in the year-earlier second quarter.

Second-quarter 2010 cash from operating activities totaled $8.6 billion; capital expenditures totaled $4.9 billion, including a nearly 60-percent increase in wireless-related capital investment versus the year-earlier quarter, as AT&T aggressively deploys next-generation wireless broadband networks. Free cash flow — cash from operating activities minus capital expenditures — totaled $3.7 billion.

Compared with results for the first half of 2009, year to date through the second quarter, cash from operating activities totaled $15.8 billion versus $15.8 billion; capital expenditures totaled $8.2 billion versus $7.4 billion; and free cash flow totaled $7.6 billion versus $8.4 billion.

Due to improved revenue trends and strong execution, AT&T updated its earnings outlook for full-year 2010. Previously the company expected stable-to-improved earnings per share, stable-to-improved consolidated operating income margins and free cash flow in line with 2008 results. The company now expects strong earnings per share growth for full-year 2010, improved consolidated operating income margins and free cash flow above 2008 levels.

Wireless Operational Highlights

AT&T delivered strong second-quarter growth in its wireless business, led by its premier data network, industry leadership in mobile broadband and a compelling array of devices and applications. Highlights included:

Strong Second-Quarter Subscriber Gain. AT&T posted an organic net gain in total wireless subscribers of 1.6 million, to reach 90.1 million in service. Second-quarter net add growth reflects rapid adoption of smartphones, increases in prepaid subscribers and growth in a host of connected devices such as eReaders, global positioning systems and alarm monitoring systems. Connected devices net adds were 896,000 in the quarter to reach 6.7 million, and retail postpaid net adds totaled 496,000 to reach 67.0 million.

Best-ever Subscriber Churn Levels. For the sixth consecutive quarter, AT&T had year-over-year improvement in both total and postpaid wireless churn. Postpaid churn was 1.01 percent, down from 1.07 percent in the year-earlier quarter, and total churn was 1.29 percent versus 1.48 percent in the second quarter of 2009 — both record lows for the company.

Robust Wireless Data Revenue Growth. Wireless data revenues — from messaging, Internet access, access to applications and related services — increased $936 million, or 27.2 percent, from the year-earlier quarter to $4.4 billion. AT&T wireless subscribers on data plans increased more than 24 percent over the past year. Versus the year-earlier quarter, total text messages carried on the AT&T network increased 41.7 percent to 154 billion and multimedia messages more than doubled to 2.6 billion.

Continued Postpaid ARPU Growth. Driven by strong data growth, postpaid subscriber ARPU increased 3.4 percent versus the year-earlier quarter to $62.63, despite including 1.6 million subscribers from the acquistion of properties from Verizon Wireless. This marked the sixth consecutive quarter AT&T has posted a year-over-year increase in postpaid ARPU. Postpaid data ARPU reached $21.07, up 18.6 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, and total postpaid subscriber revenues continued recent trends, with solid double-digit growth, reflecting increases in both voice and data.

Strong Integrated Device Growth. Key drivers of wireless data growth are increased penetration of integrated devices (handsets with QWERTY or virtual keyboards in addition to voice functionality) and greater usage of AT&T’s mobile broadband network, the nation’s fastest. The number of 3G postpaid integrated devices on AT&T's wireless network increased by 2.9 million to 29.7 million, an increase of 98.2 percent year over year and 10.8 percent sequentially. At the end of the quarter, 53.2 percent of AT&T's 67.0 million postpaid subscribers had integrated devices, up from 36.3 percent one year earlier. The average ARPU for integrated devices on AT&T's network is 1.7 times that of the company's nonintegrated-device base. More than 80 percent of integrated device subscribers are on FamilyTalk and/or business discount plans. Churn levels for these plans continue to run below the company's total and postpaid base.

3.2 Million iPhone Activations. On June 24, AT&T began offering iPhone 4. Preorder sales of iPhone 4 were 10 times higher than the first day of preordering for iPhone 3GS a year earlier. For the full second quarter, AT&T iPhone activations totaled 3.2 million, the most quarterly iPhone activations ever. Approximately 27 percent of those activations were for customers who were new to AT&T.

Wireless Margin Expansion. Even with the volumes associated with the June launch of iPhone 4, in the second quarter, AT&T delivered substantial year-over-year wireless margin expansion, driven by continued solid revenue growth, reduced churn, improved operating efficiencies and further growth in the company's base of high-quality subscribers. AT&T’s wireless operating income margin was 28.8 percent versus 24.9 percent in the year-earlier quarter, and AT&T’s wireless OIBDA service margin was 43.1 percent, up from 40.1 percent in the second quarter of 2009 (OIBDA service margin is operating income before depreciation and amortization, divided by total service revenues). Wireless service revenues increased 10.3 percent to $13.2 billion in the second quarter, and total wireless revenues, which include equipment sales, were up 7.7 percent to $14.2 billion. Second-quarter wireless operating expenses totaled $10.1 billion, up 2.1 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, and wireless operating income was $4.1 billion, up 24.7 percent year over year.

Wireline Operational Highlights

AT&T's second-quarter wireline results were highlighted by improving trends in revenues and margins, further expansion in AT&T U-verse services, sustained mid-teens growth in revenues from strategic business services and solid cost management, which helped support improving margins. Highlights included:

Second Consecutive Quarter of Sequential Growth in Wireline Consumer Revenues. Driven by strength in IP data services, in the second quarter, total revenue from residential customers totaled $5.4 billion, flat compared to the second quarter of 2009. Versus the first quarter of 2010, consumer wireline revenues increased 1.1 percent. This is the second consecutive quarter of sequential growth.

Gains in AT&T U-verse TV, with Growth in Integrated Broadband and Voice Services. AT&T U-verse TV subscribers increased by 209,000 in the quarter to reach 2.5 million, up almost 60 percent over the past year. In the second quarter, the AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet attach rate continued to run above 90 percent, and about two-thirds of subscribers took AT&T U-verse Voice. More than three-fourths of AT&T U-verse TV subscribers have a triple- or quad-play option from AT&T. ARPU for U-verse triple play customers was nearly $160, up 13.8 percent year over year and 6.8 percent from the first quarter of 2010.

AT&T's U-verse deployment now reaches 25 million living units. Companywide penetration of eligible living units is more than 13 percent, and across areas marketed to for 30 months or more, overall penetration is more than 22 percent. AT&T's total video subscribers, which combine the company's U-verse and bundled satellite customers, reached 4.6 million at the end of the quarter, representing 17.9 percent of households served.

U-verse Revenues Exceed $1 Billion for the Quarter. Increased AT&T U-verse penetration drove 32.0 percent year-over-year growth in consumer IP revenues (broadband, U-verse TV and U-verse Voice). U-verse continues to drive a transformation in AT&T’s consumer business, reflected by the fact that consumer IP revenues now represent 40.4 percent of AT&T's consumer wireline revenues, up from 30.6 percent in the year-earlier quarter. In the second quarter, AT&T U-verse revenues exceeded $1 billion for the first time, more than twice the U-verse revenues in the second quarter of 2009.

Consumer Connection Trends. In the second quarter, AT&T posted a decline in total consumer revenue connections due primarily to expected declines in traditional voice access lines consistent with broader industry trends, somewhat offset by increases in U-verse TV and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) connections. AT&T U-verse Voice connections increased by 183,000 in the quarter and 758,000 over the past four quarters. Total consumer revenue connections at the end of the first quarter were 44.3 million, compared with 46.3 million at the end of the second quarter of 2009 and 45.0 million at the end of the first quarter of 2010. At the end of the second quarter, AT&T had 16 million total wired broadband connections, up 404,000 over the past year and down 92,000 from first-quarter 2010 levels.

Further Signs of Stabilization in Business Markets. AT&T posted its best year-over-year business revenue comparisons in five quarters — reflecting continued solid sales performance and continued improvement in key economic metrics. Total business revenues were $9.6 billion, a decline of 4.7 percent versus the year-earlier quarter. Business service revenues, which exclude CPE, declined 4.0 percent, the third consecutive quarter of improvement, and decreased slightly sequentially, down 0.7 percent.

Business IP Revenues Drive Overall Business Data Growth. Business IP data revenues grew 9.1 percent overall, the largest year-over-year increase in four quarters, led by growth in VPN revenues. This generated total business data growth of 0.3 percent, the first growth in this category in five quarters. Global enterprise IP data revenues grew 10.8 percent. Approximately 70 percent of AT&T's frame customers have made the transition to IP-based solutions, which allow them to easily add managed services such as network security, hosting and IP conferencing on top of their infrastructures.

15.8 Percent Growth in Strategic Business Services Revenues. Revenues from new-generation capabilities that lead AT&T's most advanced business solutions — including Ethernet, VPNs, hosting, IP conferencing and application services — grew 15.8 percent versus the year-earlier quarter and were up 4.6 percent from the first quarter of 2010, continuing AT&T’s strong trends in this category.

Consolidated Wireline Revenues Flat Sequentially. Led by improved consumer and business customer trends, total wireline revenues posted their smallest year-over-year decline in five quarters, down 3.7 percent, and were essentially flat sequentially. Second-quarter wireline operating expenses were $13.5 billion, down 4.3 percent versus the second quarter of 2009 and down 1.5 percent sequentially. Wireline operating income totaled $1.9 billion, compared to $1.9 billion in the second quarter of 2009 and $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2010. AT&T’s second-quarter wireline operating income margin was 12.2 percent, compared with 11.7 percent in the year-earlier quarter and 11.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

***************************

[2] 6/25/10 8K: This 8K was with respect to Item 5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers. It announced the following:

On June 24, 2010, the Human Resources Committee (the “Committee”) of the Board of Directors of AT&T Inc. (“AT&T”) amended AT&T’s Change in Control Severance Plan (the “Plan”). Prior to the amendment, in the event a Plan participant received a severance payment that resulted in the imposition of excise taxes on the participant, AT&T paid the participant’s excise taxes and taxes thereon to the extent that the excise taxes were incurred because of prior deferrals of income by a participant. As a result of the amendment, AT&T will no longer pay excise taxes or taxes thereon under the Plan. Instead, benefits payable under the Plan will be reduced to avoid incurring excise taxes, or, if it is determined to be more beneficial to the participant, AT&T will pay the full amount of benefits, and the participant will be liable for payment of the excise taxes. The Committee also made other, minor changes to the Plan.

At the same meeting, the Committee also amended AT&T’s 2005 Supplemental Employee Retirement Plan (the “SERP”), in consultation with Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. The amendment applies only to Mr. Stephenson. As a result of the amendment, (1) Mr. Stephenson’s compensation for purposes of calculating his SERP benefit is frozen as of June 30, 2010, (2) Mr. Stephenson’s age and service for purposes of calculating his SERP benefit are frozen as of December 31, 2012 and (3) interest shall accrue on Mr. Stephenson’s frozen SERP benefit beginning January 1, 2013, at a rate to be determined by the Committee.

*********************************************
[3] 5/24/10 8K: This 8K was with respect to Item 8.01 Other Events. It announced the following:

On May 24, 2010, AT&T announced a definitive agreement to sell its Sterling Commerce subsidiary to IBM for approximately $1.4 billion in cash. Sterling Commerce provides business to business applications and integration solutions to more than 18,000 customers worldwide. AT&T expects the transaction to close in the second half of 2010, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary conditions. AT&T expects to record a one-time, pre-tax gain of approximately $750 million for the quarter in which the transaction closes.

**********************************************

[4] 5/4/10 8K: This 8K was with respect to Item 5.07 Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders. It announced the following:

The annual meeting of the stockholders of AT&T Inc. was held on April 30, 2010, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Stockholders representing 4,565,548,776 shares, or 77.26%, of the common shares outstanding as of the March 2, 2010 record date were present in person or were represented at the meeting by proxy.

******************************

Company Description

AT&T Inc. is a holding company incorporated in Delaware in 1983. AT&T Inc. is the largest provider of fixed telephone in the United States, and also provides broadband and subscription television services. AT&T is the second largest provider of mobile telephone service in the United States, with over 85.1 million wireless customers, and more than 210 million total customers.

History

AT&T, formerly known as SBC Communications Inc. was formed as one of several regional holding companies created to hold AT&T Corp.’s (ATTC) local telephone companies. On January 1, 1984, AT&T was spun-off from ATTC pursuant to an anti-trust consent decree, becoming an independent publicly traded telecommunications services provider. At formation, AT&T primarily operated in five southwestern states. Its subsidiaries merged with Pacific Telesis Group in 1997, Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation in 1998 and Ameritech Corporation in 1999, thereby expanding its wireline operations as the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) into a total of 13 states. In November 2005, one of its subsidiaries merged with ATTC, creating one of the world’s leading telecommunications providers. In connection with the merger, the company changed its name from “SBC Communications Inc.” to “AT&T Inc.” In December 2006, one of its subsidiaries merged with BellSouth Corporation (BellSouth) making AT&T the ILEC in an additional nine states. With the BellSouth acquisition, AT&T acquired BellSouth’s 40% economic interest in AT&T Mobility LLC (AT&T Mobility), formerly Cingular Wireless LLC, and BellSouth’s 34% economic interest in YELLOWPAGES.COM (YPC), resulting in 100% ownership of AT&T Mobility and YPC. AT&T’s services and products are marketed under the AT&T brand name, including alliances such as AT&T Yahoo! and AT&T | DIRECT TV.
The current AT&T reconstitutes much of the former Bell South system and includes eleven of the original Bell Operating Companies along with the original long distance division. The company is headquartered in downtown Dallas, Texas.
AT&T is the 7th largest company in the U.S. by total revenue, as well as the 3rd largest non-oil company in the US behind Walmart and Bank of America. In 2010, Forbes listed AT&T as the 13th largest company in the world and the 8th largest non-oil company in the world, the largest company in the world not associated with banking or oil, as well as the world's largest provider of telecommunication.
On December 29, 2006, the Federal Communications Commission approved the new AT&T's acquisition of a regional Bell Operating Company, BellSouth, valued at approximately $86 billion (or 1.325 shares of AT&T for each share of BellSouth at the close of trading December 29, 2006).) The new combined company retained the name AT&T. The deal consolidated ownership of both Cingular Wireless and Yellowpages.com, once joint ventures between BellSouth and AT&T. All services, including wireless, became offered under the AT&T name.
Since June 2007, wireless services have been the core of the AT&T. With declining sales of traditional home phone lines, AT&T is focusing on various new media such as Video Share, U-verse, and extending its reach in high speed Internet into rural areas across the country. In 2007 AT&T purchased Interwise for $121 million. In 2008, AT&T purchased 12 MHz of spectrum in the prime 700 MHz spectrum band from privately-held Aloha Partners for nearly $2.5 billion. Also in 2008, AT&T acquired Edge Wireless, a regional GSM carrier in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2008, AT&T removed its last 65,000 remaining payphones. BellSouth already had removed its payphones years before being acquired by AT&T, and Qwest sold its pay telephone services in 2004. Verizon Communications is the only Baby Bell that continues to operate pay telephones .
In 2009, AT&T moved its corporate headquarters from San Antonio Texas to One AT&T Plaza in Downtown. Over 6,000 employees work at headquarters. AT&T Inc. previously relocated its corporate headquarters to San Antonio from St. Louis in 1992, when it was then named Southwestern Bell Corporation. The company's Telecom Operations group, which serves residential and regional business customers in 22 U.S. states, remained in San Antonio.
Atlanta is the headquarters for AT&T Mobility, with significant offices in Redmond, Washington, the former home of AT&T Wireless. Bedminster, New Jersey is the headquarters for the company's Global Business Services group and AT&T Labs. St. Louis is home to the company's Directory operations, AT&T Advertising & Publishing. In 2008, AT&T cut 12,000 jobs due to "economic pressures, a changing business mix and a more streamlined organizational structure".
In 2007 AT&T purchased Dobson Cellular, which provided services in the US under the name Cellular One, in primarily rural areas for $2.8 billion, or $13 per share and the assumption of $2.3 billion in debt.
In 2009, AT&T purchased for $944 million Centennial Communications Corp.. In an attempt to quell regulators, AT&T sold to Verizon Wireless certain Centennial service areas in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi for $240 million.
In 2008, AT&T acquired Wayport, Inc., a major provider of Internet hotspots in the United States. With the acquisition, AT&T's public Wi-Fi deployment climbed to 20,000 hotspots in the United States, the most of any U.S. provider.
Of the twenty-two Bell Operating Companies which AT&T owned prior to the 1984 agreement to divest, eleven (BellSouth Telecommunications combines two former BOCs) have become a part of the new AT&T Inc. as follows: BellSouth Telecommunications (formerly known as Southern Bell and South Central Bell), Illinois Bell, Indiana Bell, Michigan Bell, Nevada Bell, Ohio Bell, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Wisconsin Bell, and Southern New England Telephone.
AT&T Inc. has retained the holding companies it has acquired over the years resulting in the following corporate structure:
AT&T Inc., publicly-traded holding company with the following subsidiaries:
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T
Arkansas/Kansas/Missouri/Oklahoma/Southwest/Texas
Pacific Telesis Group, Inc. d/b/a AT&T West, acquired in 1997
Pacific Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T California
Nevada Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Nevada
Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation d/b/a AT&T East, acquired in 1998
Southern New England Telephone Company (includes former Woodbury Telephone)
AT&T Teleholdings, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Midwest, formerly Ameritech, acquired in 1999
Illinois Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Illinois
Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Indiana
Michigan Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Michigan
The Ohio Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Ohio
Wisconsin Bell, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Wisconsin
AT&T Corporation, acquired 2005
AT&T Communications, Inc.
BellSouth Corporation d/b/a AT&T South, acquired 2006
BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. d/b/a AT&T (Alabama/Florida/Georgia/Kentucky/Louisiana/Mississippi/North Carolina/South Carolina/Southeast/Tennessee)
Services and Products
AT&T’s services and products vary by market, and include: wireless communications, local exchange services, long-distance services, data/broadband and Internet services, video services, telecommunications equipment, managed networking, wholesale services and directory advertising and publishing. AT&T groups their operating subsidiaries as follows, corresponding to their operating segments for financial reporting purposes:
*wireless subsidiaries provide both wireless voice and data communications services across the U.S. and, through roaming agreements, in a substantial number of foreign countries,

*wireline subsidiaries provide primarily landline voice and data communication services, AT&T U-Verse, SM TV, high-speed broadband and voice services (U-Verse) and managed networking to business customers,

*advertising solutions subsidiaries publish Yellow and White Pages directories and sell directory advertising and Internet-based advertising and local search.

AT&T’s traditional wireline local exchange subsidiaries operate in 22 states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin (22-state area). Its wireline local exchange services are provided through regulated subsidiaries which operate within authorized regions subject to regulation by each state in which they operate and by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Wireless service providers are regulated by the FCC.
With the expansion of AT&T through acquisitions and the resulting ownership consolidation of AT&T Mobility, and with continuing advances in technology, AT&T has announced their desire to expand their services that combine their traditional wireline and wireless services.

Wireless

AT&T Mobility began operations in October 2000 as a joint venture with BellSouth and, in 2004, AT&T acquired AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. at which time, AT&T Mobility became a wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T.
AT&T’s Universal Mobile Telecommunications System/ High-Speed Downlink Packet Access third generation (3G) network technology covers most major metropolitan areas of the U.S. This technology provides transmission for data and video services, using the same spectrum and infrastructure for voice and data on an IP-based platform. AT&T’s wireless network also relies on digital transmission technologies known as Global System for Mobile Communication, General Packet Radio Services and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution for data communications. AT&T has announced plans to transition its network to more advanced Long Term Evolution technology in 2011 as network equipment and handsets are expected to become widely available. AT&T has continued to expand the number of locations, including airports and cafes, where customers can access broadband internet connections using wireless fidelity (local radio frequency commonly referred as Wi-Fi) wireless technology.
As of December 31, 2009, AT&T served 85.1 million customers and was a leading provider of mobile wireless voice and data communications services in the U.S. As the wireless industry continues to mature, AT&T’s future wireless growth will become increasingly dependent on its ability to offer integrated handsets and other innovative devices such as netbooks and eReaders and services that will encourage their existing customers to upgrade their services and attract customers from other providers as well as its ability to minimize turnover of their existing customer base (customer churn). AT&T will have to expand its network coverage, improve its network quality and offer a broad array of products and services, including exclusive devices such as Apple iPhone, Wi-Fi enabled devices and free mobile-to-mobile calling among its wireless customers. The effective management of customer churn is critical to its ability to maximize revenue growth and to maintain and improve AT&T’s operating margins.

Business Customers

AT&T plans to continue to strengthen the reach and sophistication of its network facilities and its ability to offer a variety of communications services, both wireless and wireline, to large businesses and wholesale customers worldwide. AT&T intends to offer similar services to small- and medium-businesses and to governmental customers. It intends to extend its wholesale business offerings to other service products and systems integration services.

Data/Broadband

As the communications industry continues to move toward internet-based technologies that are capable of blending traditional wireline and wireless services, AT&T intends to offer services that take advantage of these new and more sophisticated technologies. In particular, it will continue to focus on deploying its AT&T U-verse sm high-speed broadband and video services and on developing internet protocol-based services that allow customers to unite their home or business wireline services with their wireless service.

AT&T intends to expand its deployment of its U-verse services. In December 2009, it added its two millionth U-verse video customer, ending the year with approximately 2,065,000 customers. As of December 31, 2009, AT&T passed 22.8 million living units (constructed housing units as well as platted housing lots) and is marketing the services to almost 72 percent of those units. Its deployment strategy is to enter each new area on a limited basis in order to ensure that all operating and back-office systems are functioning successfully and then expand within each area as it continues to monitor these systems. AT&T’s rate of expansion will be slowed if it cannot obtain all required local building permits in a timely fashion. AT&T also continues to work with AT&T’s vendors on improving, in a timely manner, the requisite hardware and software technology. AT&T’s deployment plans could be delayed if AT&T do not receive required equipment and software on schedule.
AT&T takes the position that its U-verse TV service is subject to federal oversight as a “video service” under the Federal Communications Act. However, some cable providers and municipalities have claimed that certain IP services should be treated as a traditional cable service and therefore subject to the applicable state and local cable regulation. Some municipalities have delayed AT&T’s request or have refused it permission to use its existing right-of-ways to deploy or activate its U-verse-related services and products, resulting in litigation. Pending negotiations and current or threatened litigation involving municipalities have delayed its deployment plans in some areas. In July 2008, the U.S. District Court for Connecticut affirmed its October 2007 ruling that AT&T’s U-verse TV service is a cable service in Connecticut. AT&T appealed that decision on the basis that state legislation rendered the case moot. Petitions have been filed at the FCC alleging that the manner in which AT&T provisions “public, educational, and governmental” (PEG) programming over its U-verse TV service conflicts with federal law, and a lawsuit has been filed in a California state superior court raising similar allegations under California law. If the courts having jurisdiction where AT&T has significant deployments of its U-verse services were to decide that federal, state and/or local cable regulation were applicable to its U-verse services, or if the FCC, state agencies or the courts were to rule that AT&T must deliver PEG programming in a manner substantially different from the way it does today or in ways that are inconsistent with AT&T’s current network architecture, it could have a material adverse effect on the cost, timing and extent of its deployment plans.
Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP is generally used to describe the transmission of voice using Internet-Protocol-based technology rather than a traditional wire and switch-based telephone network. A company using this technology often can provide voice services at a lower cost because this technology uses bandwidth more efficiently than a traditional network and because this technology has not been subject to traditional telephone industry regulation. While the development of VoIP has resulted in increased competition for AT&T’s wireless and wireline voice services, it also presents growth opportunities for AT&T to develop new products for AT&T’s customers.

BUSINESS OPERATIONS
OPERATING SEGMENTS
AT&T’s segments are strategic business units that offer different products and services over various technology platforms. AT&T analyzes its various operating segments based on segment income before income taxes, reviewing operating revenues, operating expenses (depreciation and non-depreciation) and equity income for each segment. It makes its capital allocations decisions primarily based on the network (wireless or wireline) providing services. Interest expense and other income (expense) – net, are managed only on a total company basis and are, accordingly, reflected only in consolidated results. Therefore, these items are not included in the calculation of each segment’s percentage of its total segment income. It has four reportable segments: (1) Wireless; (2) Wireline; (3) Advertising Solutions; and (4) Other.

WIRELESS

Wireless consists of AT&T’s AT&T Mobility, which operates as a wireless provider to both business and consumer customers. Its Wireless segment provided approximately 43% of 2009 total segment operating revenues and 60% of its 2009 total segment income. At December 31, 2009, AT&T had more than 85 million wireless subscribers.
Services and Products

AT&T offers a comprehensive range of high-quality nationwide wireless voice communications services in a variety of pricing plans, including postpaid and prepaid service plans. Its voice offerings are tailored to meet the communications needs of targeted customer segments, including youth, family, active professionals, small businesses, government and major national corporate accounts.
Service – AT&T‘s voice service is generally offered on a contract basis for one- or two-year periods, referred to as postpaid. Under the terms of these contracts, service is billed and provided on a monthly basis according to the applicable rate plan chosen. AT&T‘s wireless services include basic local wireless communications service, long-distance service and roaming services. Roaming services enable AT&T subscribers to utilize other carriers’ networks when they are “roaming” outside AT&T’s network footprint. AT&T also charges fees to other carriers for providing roaming services to their customers when their customers utilize AT&T ‘s network. Additionally, AT&T offers prepaid service to meet the demands of distinct consumer segments, such as the youth market, families and small business customers, who prefer to control usage or pay in advance.
Wireless data revenues continue to be a growing area of AT&T’s business, representing an increasing share of its overall subscriber revenue. AT&T is experiencing solid growth from both consumer and enterprise wireless data services, as an increasing number of its subscribers have upgraded their handsets to more advanced integrated devices, including Apple iPhone. AT&T is are also seeing rapid growth in demand for new wireless devices such as notebooks, eReaders, direction and navigation aids and monitoring devices. AT&T continues to upgrade its network and coordinate with equipment manufacturers and applications developers in order to further capitalize on the continued growth in the demand for wireless data services. At December 31, 2009, AT&T was a leading provider of wireless data in the U.S. wireless industry based on subscribers.

Equipment – AT&T sells a wide variety of handsets, wirelessly enabled computers (i.e., notebooks and netbooks) and personal computer wireless data cards manufactured by various suppliers for use with its voice and data services. AT&T sells through its own company-owned stores or through agents or third-party retail stores. AT&T also sells accessories, such as carrying cases, hands-free devices, batteries, battery chargers and other items, to consumers, as well as to agents and other third-party distributors for resale. Like other wireless service providers, AT&T often provides postpaid contract subscribers substantial equipment subsidies to initiate or upgrade service. Its subscriber base also includes emerging devices (e.g., eReaders and mobile navigation devices) purchased by consumers from third-party suppliers which buy data access supported by AT&T’s network; purchasers of these devices are included in its reseller base.

WIRELINE

AT&T ‘s subsidiaries provide both retail and wholesale communication services domestically and internationally. AT&T’s Wireline segment provided approximately 52% of 2009 segment operating revenues and 36% of its 2009 total segment income. AT&T divides its wireline services into three product-based categories: voice, data and other. Revenues from its traditional voice services have been declining as customers have been switching to wireless, cable and other internet-based providers. In addition, the continuing economic recession has caused wireline customers to terminate their residential or business phone service as individuals have lost jobs or otherwise combined households and businesses have closed or reduced operations. AT&T has responded by offering packages of combined voice and data services, including broadband and video, and it intends to continue this strategy during 2010.
Services and Products
Voice – Voice includes traditional local and long-distance service provided to retail customers and wholesale access to AT&T’s network and individual network elements provided to competitors. At December 31, 2009, AT&T’s wireline subsidiaries served approximately 26 million retail consumer access lines, 20 million retail business access lines and 3 million wholesale access lines. AT&T also has a number of integrated voice and data services, such as integrated network connections, that provide customers the ability to integrate access for their voice and data services, the data component of which is included in the data category. Additionally, voice revenues do not include any of AT&T’s VoIP revenues, which are included in data revenues.
Long distance consists of traditional long distance and international long distance for customers that select AT&T as their primary long-distance carrier. Long distance also includes services provided by calling card, 1-800 services and conference calling. These services are used in a wide variety of business applications, including sales, reservation centers or customer service centers. AT&T also provides wholesale switched access service to other service providers.
Voice also includes calling features, fees to maintain wire located inside customer premises and other miscellaneous voice products. Calling features are enhanced telephone services available to retail customers such as Caller ID, Call Waiting and voice mail. These calling features services are generally more profitable than basic local phone service.
Data - Data includes traditional products, such as switched and dedicated transport, Internet access and network integration, and data equipment sales, and U-verse services. Additionally, data products include high-speed connections such as private lines, packet, dedicated Internet and enterprise networking services, as AT&T products such as DSL/broadband, dial-up Internet access and Wi-Fi (local radio frequency commonly known as wireless fidelity). AT&T also provides businesses voice applications over IP-based networks (i.e., Enhanced Virtual Private Networks or “EVPN”). Over the past several years, AT&T has built out AT&T’s new multi-protocol label switching/asynchronous transfer mode, or MPLS/ATM network, to supplement, and eventually replace, AT&T’s other extensive global data networks. These products allow AT&T to provide highly complex global data networks.
Private Line uses high-capacity digital circuits to transmit from point-to-point in multiple configurations and allows customers to create internal data networks and to access external data networks.
Switched Transport services transmit data using switching equipment to transfer the data between multiple lines before reaching its destination. Dedicated Transport services use a single direct line to transmit data between destinations. DSL is a digital modem technology that converts existing twisted-pair telephone lines into access paths for multimedia and high-speed data communications to the Internet or private networks. DSL allows customers to simultaneously make a phone call and access information via the Internet or an office local area network. Digital Services use dedicated digital circuits to transmit digital data at various high rates of speed.
Network integration services include installation of business data systems, local area networking and other data networking offerings. Internet access services include a wide range of products for residences and businesses, Internet services offered include basic dial-up access service, dedicated access, web hosting, e-mail and high-speed access services. AT&T’s managed web-hosting services for businesses provide network, server and security infrastructure as well as built-in data storage and include application performance management, database management, hardware and operating system management. AT&T’s hosting services also provide customers with secure access to detailed reporting information about their infrastructure and applications.
Packet services consist of data networks using packet switching and transmission technologies, including traditional circuit-based, and IP connectivity services. Packet services enable customers to transmit large volumes of data economically and securely and are used for local area network interconnection, remote site, point of sale and branch office communications. High-speed packet services are used extensively by enterprise (large business) customers.
Dedicated Internet services are marketed to all types of commercial and governmental enterprises, including small and medium sized businesses. AT&T’s managed Internet services provide customers with dedicated access to the Internet.
Enterprise networking services provide comprehensive support from network design, implementation and installation to ongoing network operations and management for networks of varying scales, including local area networks, wide area networks, and virtual private networks. These services include applications such as e-mail, order entry systems, employee directories, human resource transactions and other database applications.
AT&T also provides local, interstate and international wholesale networking capacity to other service providers. AT&T offers a combination of high-volume transmission capacity and conventional dedicated line services on a regional, national and international basis to wireless carriers, interexchange carriers, Internet service providers (ISPs) and facility-based and switchless resellers. AT&T’s wholesale customers are primarily large ISPs, wireless carriers, competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), regional phone companies, interexchange carriers, cable companies and systems integrators. AT&T also has sold dedicated network capacity through indefeasible rights-of-use agreements under which capacity is furnished for contract terms as long as 25 years.
Other - Other includes application management, security service, integration services, customer premises equipment, outsourcing, government-related services, and satellite video services. Security services include business continuity and disaster recovery services as well as premise and network based security products.
Customer premises equipment and other equipment sales range from single-line and cordless telephones to sophisticated digital PBX systems. PBX is a private telephone switching system, typically used by businesses and usually located on a customer’s premises, which provides intra-premise telephone services as well as access to AT&T’s network.

ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS

Advertising Solutions includes AT&T’s directory operations, which publish Yellow and White Pages directories and sell directory advertising and Internet-based advertising and local search. The Advertising Solutions segment provided approximately 4% of total segment operating revenues and 6% of AT&T’s 2009 total segment income. This segment sells advertising services throughout the United States, with AT&T’s print directory operations primarily covering AT&T’s 22-state area.

OTHER

AT&T’s Other segment includes operations from Sterling, (which was recently sold), AT&T’s business integration software and services subsidiary, operator services, corporate and other operations. The Other segment provided approximately 1% of total segment operating revenues and less than 1% of AT&T’s 2009 total segment income. AT&T also includes in this segment the equity income (loss) from AT&T’s investments in Telmex, America Movil and Telmex Internacional. Sterling provided “multi-enterprise collaboration” services to businesses in various industries, including retail, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare and telecom.
MAJOR CLASSES OF SERVICE
The following table sets forth the percentage of total consolidated reported operating revenues by any class of service that accounted for 10% or more of AT&T’s consolidated total operating revenues in any of the last three fiscal years:
Percentage of Total
Consolidated Operating Revenues
2009 2008 2007
Wireless Segment
Wireless service 40 % 36 % 33 %
Wireline Segment
Voice 27 % 31 % 35 %
Data 22 % 20 % 20 %
AT&T Alascom
Additionally, AT&T continues to host customer email addresses that weree originally born from these companies. AT&T uses Yahoo! Mail hosting for its customers including those with these domain names:
• @ameritech.net
• @att.net
• @bellsouth.net
• @flash.net
• @nvbell.net
• @pacbell.net
• @prodigy.net
• @sbcglobal.net
• @snet.net
• @swbell.net
• @wans.net
• @attglobal.net
AT&T's current board of directors:
• Randall L. Stephenson — Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
• James A. Henderson
• Gilbert F. Amelio
• William F. Aldinger III
• August A. Busch III
• Martin K. Eby, Jr.
• Charles F. Knight
• Jon C. Madonna
• Lynn M. Martin
• Ronald M. Crump
• John B. McCoy
• Mary S. Metz
• Toni Rembe
• S. Donley Ritchey

GOVERNMENT REGULATION

Wireless communications providers must be licensed by the FCC to provide communications services at specified spectrum frequencies within specified geographic areas and must comply with the rules and policies governing the use of the spectrum as adopted by the FCC. Wireless licenses are issued for a fixed time period, typically ten years, and AT&T must seek renewal of these licenses. While the FCC has generally renewed licenses given to operating companies such as AT&T, the FCC has authority to both revoke a license for cause and to deny a license renewal if a renewal is not in the public interest. Additionally, while wireless communications providers’ prices and service offerings are generally not subject to regulation, the federal government and an increasing number of states are considering new regulations and legislation relating to various aspects of wireless services.
AT&T’s wireline subsidiaries are subject to regulation by state commissions which have the power to regulate intrastate rates and services, including local, long-distance and network access services. These subsidiaries are also subject to the jurisdiction of the FCC with respect to interstate and international rates and services, including interstate access charges. Access charges are designed to compensate AT&T’s wireline subsidiaries for the use of their networks by other carriers.
AT&T’s subsidiaries operating outside the U.S. are subject to the jurisdiction of national and supranational regulatory authorities in the market where service is provided. Regulation is generally limited to operational licensing authority for the provision of enterprise services.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, AT&T is the United States' second largest donor to political campaigns, having contributed more than US$ 36 million since 1990, 56% and 44% of which went to Republican and Democratic recipients, respectively. A key political issue for AT&T is the question of which businesses will win the right to profit by providing broadband internet access in the United States. In 2005, AT&T was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.
In early 2007, AT&T changed their legal policy to state that "AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice for conduct that AT&T believes"... tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries." By the end of 2007 AT&T had altered the terms and conditions for its Internet service to explicitly support freedom of expression by its subscribers, after an outcry claiming the company had given itself the right to censor its subscribers' transmissions.
In 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation lodged a class action lawsuit, Hepting v. AT&T, which alleged that AT&T had allowed agents of the National Security Agency to monitor phone and Internet communications of AT&T customers without warrants.
In 2008, the company reported plans to begin filtering all Internet traffic which passes through its network for intellectual property violations. Internet freedom proponents used these developments as justification for government-mandated network neutrality.
AT&T has been accused by community media groups of discriminating against local public-access television, also known as PEG ("public, education, government") channels, by "imposing unfair restrictions that will severely restrict the audience". According to Barbara Popovic, Executive Director of the Chicago public-access service CAN-TV, the new AT&T U-verse system forces all public access television into a special menu system, denying normal functionality such as channel numbers, access to the standard program guide, and DVR recording. The Ratepayer Advocates division of the California Public Utilities Commission reported: "Instead of putting the stations on individual channels, AT&T has bundled community stations into a generic channel that can only be navigated through a complex and lengthy process."

IMPORTANCE, DURATION AND EFFECT OF LICENSES

Certain of AT&T’s subsidiaries own or have licenses to various patents, copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property necessary to conduct business. Many of AT&T’s subsidiaries also hold government-issued licenses or franchises to provide wireline or wireless services and are also subject regulation. AT&T actively pursues patents, trademarks and service marks to protect AT&T’s intellectual property within the U.S. and abroad. AT&T maintains a global portfolio of more than 5,000 trademark and service mark registrations. AT&T has also entered into agreements that permit other companies, in exchange for fees and subject to appropriate safeguards and restrictions, to utilize certain of AT&T’s trademarks and service marks. AT&T periodically receives offers from third parties to obtain licenses for patent and other intellectual rights in exchange for royalties or other payments. AT&T also receives notices asserting that AT&T’s products or services infringe on their patents and other intellectual property rights. These claims, whether against AT&T directly or against third-party suppliers of products or services that AT&T, in turn, sell to AT&T’s customers, such as wireless handsets, could require AT&T to pay damages, royalties, stop offering the relevant products or services and/or cease other activities.

MAJOR CUSTOMER

No customer accounted for 10% or more of AT&T’s consolidated revenues in 2009, 2008 or 2007.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The majority of AT&T’s research activities are related to AT&T’s wireline segment, performed at AT&T’s subsidiary AT&T Labs. AT&T Labs’ scientists and engineers conduct research in a variety of areas, including IP; advanced network design and architecture; network operations support systems; data mining technologies and advanced speech technologies. The majority of the development activities are performed by AT&T Services. AT&T also has a research agreement with Telcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, Inc. Research and development expenses were $986 in 2009, $832 in 2008 and $985 million in 2007.

EMPLOYEES

As of January 31, 2010, AT&T employed approximately 281,000 persons. Approximately 58 percent of AT&T’s employees are represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) or other unions. Contracts covering approximately 120,000 collectively-bargained wireline employees expired during 2009. As of January 31, 2010, the Company and approximately 86,000 employees, covered by these expired collectively-bargained wireline contracts have ratified new labor agreements. In the absence of an effective contract, the union is entitled to call a work stoppage.
For approximately 60,000 employees covered by these ratified agreements, the agreements provide for a three-year term and, for the vast majority of those covered employees, a 3 percent wage increase in years one and two, a wage increase in year three of 2.75 percent, and pension band increases of 2 percent for each year of the agreement. For both wage and pension band increases, there is potential cost-of-living increase based on the consumer price index for the third year. These agreements also provide for continued health care coverage with reasonable cost sharing.
For the remaining approximately 26,000 employees covered by these ratified agreements, the agreement provides for a four-year term. The provisions of the tentative agreement are substantially similar to the provisions of the ratified agreements discussed above, with a wage increase in year four of 2.75 percent and a potential cost-of-living increase in year four instead of in year three.
On February 8, 2010, the Company and the CWA announced a tentative agreement covering approximately 30,000 core wireline employees in the nine-state former BellSouth region, subject to ratification by those covered employees. The tentative agreement provides for a three-year term and, for the vast majority of those covered employees, a 3 percent wage increase in years one and two, a wage increase in year three of 2.75 percent, and pension band increases of 2 percent for each year of the agreement. These agreements also provide for continued health care coverage with reasonable cost sharing.
At December 31, 2009, approximately 84% of AT&T’s property, plant and equipment was owned by AT&T’s wireline subsidiaries and approximately 15% was owned by AT&T’s wireless subsidiaries. Central office equipment represented 34%; network access lines represented approximately 32% of AT&T’s telephone plant; other equipment, comprised principally of furniture and office equipment and vehicles and other work equipment, represented 18%; land and buildings represented 11%; and other miscellaneous property represented 5%.
Substantially all of the installations of central office equipment are located in buildings and on land AT&T own. Many garages, administrative and business offices, and telephone centers and retail stores are in leased quarters.
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
AT&T did not report in their most recent 10-K any pending legal proceedings to which AT&T or AT&T’s subsidiaries are subject as being required to be disclosed as material legal proceedings.
(a) The City of Philadelphia notified AT&T Corp. in December 2008 that it would seek civil penalties for alleged violations of state and local air emissions control requirements and permit terms applicable to back-up power generators at an AT&T Corp. facility. In July 2009, AT&T Corp. and the City settled this matter on terms that included civil penalties of less than one hundred thousand dollars.
(b) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking civil penalties from AT&T Mobility in connection with alleged violations of federal environmental statutes in connection with management of back-up power systems at AT&T Mobility facilities. The EPA’s allegations include noncompliance with requirements to obtain air emission permits for generators and to prepare spill prevention plans for fuel storage tanks. AT&T expect sto settle those allegations on terms that would include civil penalties in the range of $1 to $3 million dollars.
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF AT&T
(As of January 20 , 2010)

Name Age Position Held Since

Randall L. Stephenson 49 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President
6/2007
William A. Blase Jr. 54 Senior Executive Vice President – Human Resources 6/2007

James W. Callaway 63 Senior Executive Vice President – Executive Operations 5/2007

James W. Cicconi 57 Senior Executive Vice President – External and Legislative Affairs, AT&T Services, Inc.
11/2008
Catherine M. Coughlin 52 Senior Executive Vice President and Global Marketing Officer 6/2007

Ralph de la Vega 58 President and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets
10/2008
Richard G. Lindner 55 Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
5/2004
Forrest E. Miller 57 Group President – Corporate Strategy and Development
6/2007
Ronald E. Spears 61 President and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T Business Solutions
11/2008
John T. Stankey 47 President and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T Operations, Inc.
10/2008
Wayne Watts 56 Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel 6/2007

Rayford Wilkins, Jr. 58 Chief Executive Officer – AT&T Diversified Businesses 10/2008