Not to knight for AT&T, but I worked for them prior to my current employer, so I have a little insight. First, I was super pissed along with the rest of you. And I was not nearly high enough up even to begin to guess as to what caused the outage or how it could have been prevented. Maybe they could have been more proactive--that's what I'd lean towards, a risk reward gamble that failed miserably--or perhaps it truly could not have been avoided.

But AT&T is far from being a poor planning company. They saw well in advance that the cell-phone industry was about to plateau with saturation of the market. At least in the U.S. So, they have greatly expanded their services. They have invested billions in things like U-Verse, Cricket Wireless, Mexican wireless services, and most recently, DirecTV and their digital security/smart home system Digital Life. They are very much planning for the future.

I'm not sure who Jeff Kagan is, but he wrote an article calling AT&T and Google 2 of the few American "transformative companies."

quote:
There are three kinds of companies: transformative, innovative and stuck in the mud...and the differences between each are astounding. Innovative companies improve every year, but transformative companies create and expand new business segments. AT&T Inc. (T) and Google, Inc. (GOOG) are two transformative companies, and they are becoming competitors, which should turn up the heat on the entire industry.

AT&T considers Google to be its chief competition going forward, not Verizon or Cox or whomever. I think the ambition is remarkably foresighted, however so many monetary and human resources have been invested in their new technologies, that I think they may be spreading themselves a little too thin and have someone neglected the wireless arm of the company by upgrading the network like they should(until 5G starts rolling out in the next couple,of years). The part of the company that actually affects millions of more customers on a real life daily basis. And if that was the reason for the outages yesterday, they need to rethink their strategy. They really dropped the ball and will likely lose customers. And rightfully so. Who is gonna want to buy digital security--which relies on 3G if WiFi goes out--from a company who can't secure their cellular service?

AT&T and Google are Transformative Companies

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Posted by MightyYat

New Orleans

Member since Jan 2009

24389 posts

Posted on 8/15/16 at 1:18 pm to Hot Carl

quote:
AT&T considers Google to be its chief competition going forward, not Verizon or Cox or whomever. I think the ambition is remarkably foresighted, however so many monetary and human resources have been invested in their new technologies, that I think they may be spreading themselves a little too thin and have someone neglected the wireless arm of the company by upgrading the network like they should(until 5G starts rolling out in the next couple,of years). The part of the company that actually affects millions of more customers on a real life daily basis. And if that was the reason for the outages yesterday, they need to rethink their strategy. They really dropped the ball and will likely lose customers. And rightfully so. Who is gonna want to buy digital security--which relies on 3G if WiFi goes out--from a company who can't secure their cellular service?

It's classic "Jack of all trades, master of none" syndrome.

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Posted by Korkstand

Member since Nov 2003

28707 posts

Posted on 8/15/16 at 1:25 pm to Hot Carl

quote:
Not to knight for AT&T, but I worked for them prior to my current employer, so I have a little insight. First, I was super pissed along with the rest of you. And I was not nearly high enough up even to begin to guess as to what caused the outage or how it could have been prevented. Maybe they could have been more proactive--that's what I'd lean towards, a risk reward gamble that failed miserably--or perhaps it truly could not have been avoided.

But AT&T is far from being a poor planning company. They saw well in advance that the cell-phone industry was about to plateau with saturation of the market. At least in the U.S. So, they have greatly expanded their services. They have invested billions in things like U-Verse, Cricket Wireless, Mexican wireless services, and most recently, DirecTV and their digital security/smart home system Digital Life. They are very much planning for the future.

Considering you feared we would think you were knighting for AT&T, you didn't do a very good job of defending them.

You just confirmed that VetteGuy is right... AT&T is more concerned with planning for future profits than they are with planning for various scenarios and equipment upgrades.

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Posted by Hot Carl

Prayers up for 3

Member since Dec 2005

59072 posts

Posted on 8/15/16 at 2:46 pm to Korkstand

quote:
Considering you feared we would think you were knighting for AT&T, you didn't do a very good job of defending them.

I wasn't trying to defend them at all. I said as much. I just had a little insight that could potentially explain--not justify--what happened yesterday. I have no idea what caused it, but it would make sense if they have somewhat neglected the network to put their resources into future technologies.

quote:

You just confirmed that VetteGuy is right...

I think he is right, but not in the way he thinks. They are planning tremendously for the future of their business. However, if they gambled that something like this wouldn't happen in order to put money elsewhere and neglected the cellular side--the side with the most customers who they want to bring along with them and sell them their new services--then that planned gamble bit them right square in the arse. Though I'm not sure how many folks outside of SLA even know about it, and there will be people right here that in 6 months just won't care.

quote:
AT&T is more concerned with planning for future profits.

Well, no shite.

They provide a service, but it ain't for free. They aren't a non-profit. Got to appease the shareholders.

To summarize my feelings. Having worked for AT&T, it is a really good company to work for. I think they're as "moral" as a gigantic business like that can be. But as a customer, I was pretty fricking furious yesterday myself. I totally understand everybody's frustration and expect some people will rightfully switch carriers. But I don't think it'll be enough to affect their bottom line.

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