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AT&T

AT&T

Tagline

Mobilizing Your World

Net Worth

$266,000,000,000

Started in (City)

Dallas

Started in (Country)

Texas

Incorporation Date

05th December, 1983

Bankruptcy Date

-

Founders

  • Thomas Sanders

About

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company which is registered at Delaware but headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. On June 14, 2018, it also became the parent company of mass media conglomerate WarnerMedia, making it one of the world's largest media and entertainment company in terms of revenue. As of 2020, AT&T was ranked 9th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations, with revenues of $181 billion.

Beginning

AT&T began its history as Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, a subsidiary of the Bell Telephone Company which was founded by Alexander Graham Bell in the year 1877. The Bell Telephone Company became the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885 and was later rebranded as AT&T Corporation. In the year of 1982 United States v. AT&T antitrust lawsuit resulted in the divestiture of AT&T Corporation’s "Ma Bell" subsidiaries or Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), commonly referred to as "Baby Bells", resulting in several independent companies, including Southwestern Bell Corporation; the latter changed its name to SBC Communications Inc. in the year 1995. In the year 2005, SBC purchased its former parent AT&T Corporation and took on its branding, with the merged entity naming itself AT&T Inc. and using its history, iconic logo and stock-trading symbol. AT&T Inc. acquired BellSouth in the year 2006, the last independent Baby Bell Company, making its formerly joint venture Cingular Wireless wholly owned and rebranding it as AT&T Mobility.

Road to Success

It is the world’s largest telecommunications company, the largest provider of mobile telephone services, and the largest provider of fixed telephone services in the United States through AT&T Communications. After expanding services to Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, through a series of mergers, it became Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1920, which was then a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Since June 14 of the year 2018, it is also the parent company of mass media conglomerate Warner Media, making it the world’s largest media and Entertainment Company in terms of revenue. As of the year 2018, AT&T was ranked 9 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. During most of the 20th century, AT&T had a monopoly on phone service in the United States. Every cellular network has its problems with voice quality, occasional dropped calls and imperfect data coverage. And AT&T has some things other networks don’t: It has even been ranked the fastest 3G network in some wireless surveys, such as the 12-city bandwidth test that was performed by Gizmodo. The company is also clearly responding to the problems, rigorously pumping out upgrades for networks in major cities all over the united nation, according to its 2009 press archive.

Challenges

The network’s notoriety incited widespread complaints included an ad war with its biggest rival and a consumer protest. Even Saturday Night Live mocked the big A. AT&T has taken some serious heat. A Consumer Reports survey, which polled 50,000 readers spanning 26 cities, ranked AT&T as the worst cell phone service in the United States. Meanwhile, youGov\’s Brand Index survey showed a steady decline in AT&T\’s brand perception. AT&T has a perception problem, to say the least, and most of that can be tied to its performance as the sole carrier of the most popular phone in the united nation, Apple’s iPhone. In the month of September of the year 2007, AT&T changed its 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 ... (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries." By month of October 10 year 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 June 2010, a hacker group known as Goatse Security discovered a vulnerability within AT&T that could allow anyone to uncover email addresses belonging to customers of AT&T 3G service for the Apple iPad. These email addresses could be accessed without a protective password. Using a script, Goatse Security collected thousands of email addresses from AT&T. Goatse Security informed AT&T about the security flaw through a third party.

Failures

AT & T is also known as the communication company that failed to communicate in the year 2009. 2009 was a hell of a year for AT&T. Goatse Security then disclosed around 114,000 of these emails to Gawker Media, which published an article about the security flaw and disclosure in Valley wag. Praetorian Security Group criticized the web application that Goatse Security exploited as "poorly designed". In April 2015, AT&T was fined $25 million over data security breaches, marking the largest ever fine issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for breaking data privacy laws. The investigation revealed the theft of details of approximately 280,000 people from call centres in Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines.

Achievements

  • One of the world's largest media and entertainment company in terms of revenue.
  • As of 2020, AT&T was ranked 9th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations
  • It is the world’s largest telecommunications company, the largest provider of mobile telephone services, and the largest provider of fixed telephone services in the United States through AT&T Communications

CEOs

  • John T. Stankey
  • Randall Lynn Stephenson