Together Again: $86 billion Later, Chairman & CEO Ed Whitacre Launches AT&T into a Brave New World of Converged Communications.
In late December, 2006, the FCC approved AT&T’s purchase of Bellsouth and, in the process, its taking control of Cingular Wireless. The deal made AT&T the largest communications company in the world, and recently Wireless Wave talked with Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre about his new company, the role wireless will play in its future, and the evolving state of the communications industry.
Wave: You’ve said that wireless is going to be at the heart of the new AT&T. I’d like you to share your thoughts on that and on what part wireless is going to play in your strategy going forward.
Mr. Whitacre: Well, wireless is about one third percent of our revenue stream, and that’s a lot. That’s why wireless is so important to us. It’s also the one segment that’s growing the most and it certainly has the potential to keep growing. So just based on the growth and the importance to us and our strategy to grow our earnings, wireless just has to be at the center of our plans.
Wave: Do you see it at the core or as another of your transmission mediums?
Mr. Whitacre: It’s another transmission medium, certainly, but the other transmission mediums are not growing as fast or haven’t reached their potential yet. Wireless is growing, and it’s an important transmission medium to us because it’s changing from being just voice-to-voice to video and all kinds of data. So, it’s more than just pretty important. It is very important.
Wave: How would you rate the relative importance of your communications components? Wireless, wireline, video, and Internet?
Mr. Whitacre: I couldn’t rank them, I really couldn’t. But wireless is certainly near the top, if not at the top. You know, the last time I looked, 98 percent of the people in this country had a wireline phone. We’re not quite that high yet in wireless, so we have to get it on up there too.
AT&T Chairman & CEO Ed Whitacre
Now that AT&T has completed its deal to buy Bellsouth, wireless is at the heart of the new company's plans for the future. Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre talks about the new AT&T and shares his thoughts about net neutrality, convergence, rebranding, and much more!
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