By Rachel Frazin; The Hill ~ Aug 30, 2019

AT&T and a union representing its workers in the southeastern United States have reached a five-year tentative agreement after a four-day strike, according to the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

The agreement includes wage increases of 13.25 percent, pension and 401(k) plan enhancements, better job security and the creation of additional customer service positions, CWA said in a statement. Employees will also have the ability to contribute to a Health Savings Account through payroll deductions.

“This agreement provides substantial improvements for working people at AT&T Southeast,” said Richard Honeycutt, the vice president of CWA’s District 3, which covers workers in the Southeast region.

“The strike showed AT&T that our members were united. Once the company returned to the table with negotiators with decision-making authority, we were able to resolve the outstanding issues quickly,” he added.

AT&T confirmed in a statement to The Hill that it had reached an agreement with the workers.

By Mike Dano; Light Reading ~ Aug 26, 2019

John Donovan, the top telecom exec at AT&T, said he will retire October 1. The carrier said it will name a replacement for Donovan “soon.”

For the past two years, Donovan has been the CEO of “AT&T Communications,” one of the four divisions within AT&T. The operator’s other divisions are its Latin American business under Lori Lee; the advertising and analytics business called Xandr under Brian Lesser; and WarnerMedia under John Stankey that houses AT&T’s new entertainment businesses that stretch from HBO to DirecTV. All those divisions report to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

Donovan’s responsibilities at “AT&T Communications” range across the operator’s fiber, wireless and TV networks and cover 100 million mobile, broadband and pay-TV customers.

Both Donovan and Stephenson offered upbeat statements on Donovan’s departure.

“It’s been my honor to lead AT&T Communications during a period of unprecedented innovation and investment in new technology that is revolutionizing how people connect with their worlds,” Donovan said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to the future — spending more time with my family and watching with pride as the AT&T team continues to set the pace for the industry.”

From “Quad 7 Capital”; Seeking Alpha ~  Aug 19, 2019

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By Jeff Baumgartner; Light Reading ~ Aug 19, 2019

AT&T TV, a new streaming service that features an Android TV box, a cloud DVR and a handful of service tiers, debuted Monday in ten US test markets in California, Kansas, Florida, Missouri and Texas.

Prior to a later national launch expected by the end of the year, AT&T’s new OTT-TV offering, paired with the tagline of “It’s Televisionary,” is initially available in the following cities: Orange County and Riverside, Calif.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Topeka and Wichita, Kan.; St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.; and in Corpus Christi, El Paso, and Odessa, Texas.

As reported by Cord Cutters News, a website for AT&T TV appeared temporarily on Sunday (August 18) that listed those initial launch markets. The site also reiterated some other service details about AT&T TV that appeared earlier, including a VoD library with 55,000 titles, 500 hours of DVR storage (recordings expire after 90 days), and a 4K-capable Android TV box that integrates thousands of third-party apps such as Netflix and Pandora, and a voice remote powered by the Google Assistant platform.

By Rob Kozlowski; Pensions & Investments ~ Aug 15, 2019

AT&T Inc., Dallas, and Warner Media LLC, New York, on Wednesday opened lump-sum offer windows for 59,000 former employees who are participants in the companies’ U.S. defined benefit plans, AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said.

The window, which opened Aug. 14 and closes Oct. 2, provides vested former employees who have yet to retire the opportunity to receive an early pension distribution in the form of a lump sum, Mr. Richter said.

Via “News Wire Feed”; Light Reading ~ Aug 14, 2019

BELLEVUE and DALLAS — T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) and AT&T (NYSE: T) today began rollout of cross-network call authentication based on SHAKEN/STIR standards – another big step toward protecting consumers from unwanted robocalls.

SHAKEN/STIR technology lets consumers know that an incoming call is really coming from the number listed on the caller ID display – not a spoofed robocall or scammer. While authentication won’t solve the problem of unwanted robocalls by itself, it is a key step toward giving customers greater confidence and control over the calls they answer.

For example, a call that is illegally “spoofed” – or shows a faked number – will fail the SHAKEN/STIR Caller ID verification and will not be marked as verified. By contrast, verification will confirm that a call is really coming from the identified number or entity. More calls will be verified over time as more device providers participate, and as more network providers implement the standards.

The FCC has recommended SHAKEN/STIR standards to digitally validate phone calls.

No longer just your phone company, AT&T is investing in the next wave of connectivity and media.

From Billy Duberstein; The Motley Fool ~ Jul 29, 2019

AT&T (NYSE:T), short for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, has its roots in Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone itself in 1876, and the subsequent founding of the Bell Telephone Company in 1880.

Yet the AT&T of today is innovating to be a leader in not only the future of communications, but also the future of media. Both businesses have been somewhat disrupted by the internet and wireless communications, but through both a slew of acquisitions and heavy capital expenditures on fiber and wireless technologies, AT&T is once again trying to reclaim the throne as a technological leader, not a relic of a bygone era.

Can the old Ma Bell do it? Here are all the moves AT&T is making, and what the company could look like five years out.

The carrier will modernize the DOJ’s tech systems.

By Corinne Reichert; CNET ~  Jul 29, 2019

AT&T has won a $984 million, 15-year contract to help upgrade the US Department of Justice’s technology systems. The deal will see AT&T move more than 120,000 DOJ employees in 2,100 offices to a new communications platform for mobile voice and data, cybersecurity and cloud services. While it doesn’t cover 5G for now, the next-generation networking service could be added on later.

The DOJ and 43 attached organizations will also get access to FirstNet, a dedicated public safety network with better security, speed and priority.

Stacy Schwartz, AT&T’s vice president of public safety and FirstNet, said it will help support the Justice Department’s “hard work of protecting the freedoms, rights and safety of all Americans.”

From Roger Conrad; Forbes ~ Jul 26, 2019

“AT&T Stock Is Falling After Its Earnings Show Subscribers Leaving DirecTV”: That was the headline from Barrons.com the morning of July 24, shortly following the nation’s largest communications company’s announcement of second quarter results.

The article piled on to a recent Barron’s cover story critiquing AT&T T +0% Inc’s (T) acquisition of Time Warner last year. Investors, however, saw the situation quite differently, pushing the stock to solid gains on earnings day, despite media mono-focus on the pay television unit.

Dismal pre-announcement investor expectations definitely helped the performance. And even after bouncing, AT&T still trades for just nine times expected 2019 profits. That’s half the forward P/E of the S&P 500 and compares to a multiple of over 20 times for sector favorite T-Mobile USA (TMUS).

The narrow-moat firm delivered solid wireless results during the second quarter.

Via Michael Hodel, CFA; Morningstar ~  Jul 24, 2019

We continue to believe AT&T (T) is moving in the right direction. The firm delivered solid wireless results during the second quarter, while Game of Thrones provided a lift at WarnerMedia’s HBO unit, which has struggled to grow amid a carriage dispute with Dish Network. The troubled entertainment segment again outperformed our expectations, balancing pricing and expenses better than we thought possible, contributing to profit growth. Consolidated cash flow was also again strong, enabling another quarter of significant debt reduction. Management increased its 2019 free cash flow projection to $28 billion from $26 billion. This increase was based primarily on the sale of WarnerMedia receivables, rather than any major change in the business, which appears to reflect management’s desire to begin repurchasing shares as soon as possible. We agree that repurchases would add value for shareholders given the current stock price.