This article is about the corporate division that was created in 2017 to house all of AT&T Inc.'s Telecommunications and Technology Businesses. For the now-defunct long-distance division of AT&T Corp. with the same name see AT&T Communications. For other uses, see AT&T (disambiguation).
AT&T Communications is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T that focuses on wireline, wireless, digital television, satellite television, fixed line telephone, mobile phone, broadband, home security, IPTV, OTT services, network security, and pay television offerings, as well as business solutions. This is the corporate division that was created in 2017 to house all of AT&T's Telecommunications and Technology Businesses, which include AT&T Mobility, DIRECTV, U-Verse, AT&T Business, AT&T Intellectual Property, AT&T Labs, Cricket Wireless, AT&T Digital Life, Vyatta, AT&T Adworks, AT&T Business Solutions, AT&T Consumer Mobility, AT&T Entertainment Group, AT&T Technology & Operations Group, and Technology and Operations Group. As of June 2018, it is AT&T's largest division by revenue.
Video AT&T Communications (2017)
History and information
AT&T Communications (1984-2010)
The American Telephone & Telegraph Long Lines wire, cable, and microwave radio relay network provided long-distance services to AT&T and its customers. The connection to other countries from the United States began here. By the 1970s, 95% of distance and 70% of intercity telephone calls in the US were carried by AT&T.
Formal opening of the United States coast-to-coast connection was on August 17, 1951. A presidential address from Harry Truman at the San Francisco Peace Conference on September 4, 1951 opened the network, demonstrating coast-to-coast television service. The first regularly scheduled show to use this was Edward R. Murrow's See It Now on November 18, 1951. Later the network allowed events such as American Bandstand and ABC's Monday Night Football to be broadcast live nationally and permitted distribution of regional sports events, such as Saturday football games prior to the adoption of satellite communications in the 1970s.
Long Lines briefly published a periodical, TWX, targeted to companies that used AT&T's equipment and services, particularly TeletypeWriter eXchange, from which it took its name. The periodical was discontinued in 1952.
AT&T Communications became one of the three core sales units of AT&T after reorganization of assets. AT&T divided AT&T Communications into 22 operating companies, serving the regions of each Bell Operating Company that was spun off.Following the Telecommunications Act of 1996, AT&T Communications began reselling Bell Operating Company-provided telephone service at lower prices to compete with the Baby Bells. Their names were: Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell, and US West.
In 2005, SBC purchased AT&T Corp.. SBC had already been offering its own long distance services in its own territory in competition with other long distance companies. As a result, AT&T Communications was refocused to seek new customers outside of the AT&T 13-state region served by its Bell Operating Companies.In 2010, AT&T Communications (and subsidiary AT&T Communications of New England) was merged into AT&T Corporation. In 2012, 17 more of the AT&T Communications companies were dissolved into AT&T Corporation, leaving only the companies in Indiana, New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. as the last remnants of the 1984-created structure.
AT&T Communications (2017-present)
On July 28, 2017, AT&T announced a new AT&T Communications corporate division, which will house AT&T Mobility, DIRECTV, U-Verse, AT&T Business, AT&T Intellectual Property, AT&T Labs, Cricket Wireless, AT&T Digital Life, Vyatta, AT&T Adworks, and Technology and Operations Group.
In October 2016, AT&T announced a deal to acquire Time Warner worth $85.4 billion (including assumed Time Warner debt). The proposed deal would give AT&T significant holdings in the media industry; AT&T's competitor Comcast had previously acquired NBC Universal in a similar bid to increase its media holdings, in concert with its ownership of television and internet providers. If approved by federal regulators, the merger would bring Time Warner's properties under the same umbrella as AT&T's telecommunication holdings, including satellite provider DirecTV.
By the end of July, the company announced that, effective August 1, a new structure was created before the acquisition would close. This structure has John Donovan take the title of CEO of AT&T Communications. AT&T names John Stankey to run Time Warner media businesses. John Donovan officially named CEO of AT&T Communications ahead of Time Warner acquisition. In November 2017, the U.S. Justice Department said it was moving to sue to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger. On November 20, 2017, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit over the acquisition; Makan Delrahim stated that the deal would "greatly harm American consumers". AT&T asserts that this suit is a "radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent". On December 22, 2017, the merger agreement deadline was extended to June 21, 2018. On June 12, 2018, the AT&T-Time Warner merger was approved by a federal judge. Two days later, AT&T completed the acquisition of Time Warner, and a day later the that company was renamed WarnerMedia.
On July 10, 2018, AT&T announced that it would acquire cybersecurity startup AlienVault for an undisclosed amount.
Maps AT&T Communications (2017)
See also
- Long line (telecommunications)
References
External links
- The Microwave Radio and Coaxial Cable Networks of the Bell System
- Origins of ATT Microwave network
Source of article : Wikipedia
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