AT&T – Company Overview, History, Products

AT&T is one of the most popular American multinational companies famous for its telecommunication services. It is the largest revenue-generating telecom company in the world and it is currently the third largest mobile service operator in the United States. AT&T employs more than 200,000 employees and it is currently headquartered in downtown Dallas, Texas. The CEO of AT&T is John Stankey and the Chairman is William Kennard. AT&T is currently listed on the New York stock exchange market. It has a market capitalization of more than 140 billion dollars and its generated revenue of more than 170 billion dollars in the financial year 2021.

The various products and services of AT&T include mobile telecom services, internet broadband services, satellite television services, and fixed-line telephones. The multiple subsidiaries working under AT&T include AT&T communications, AT&T Mexico, Directv, and AT&T Corporation. AT&T currently ranks as the 13th company in the Fortune 500 companies list in the United States as per revenue. 

AT&T has been famous for its mobile telecom services in the United States since the beginning of the 20th century. AT&T was formerly known as Southwestern Bell Corporation and SBC Communications Inc. AT&T has also been famous for acquiring the Time Warner group and then re-branding it to Warner Media in 2018, which later became Warner Bros’ Discovery in 2022.

AT&T – History & Overview

AT&T was initially founded as a Bell Telephone Company by the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Watson, and Gardiner Greene Hubbard in 1875. By 1881, Bell Telephone Company was renamed American Bell Telephone Company which was later divided into its subsidiary called American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1885. By 1900, AT&T established its own local telephone companies in the United States which later on became a telephone service monopoly by 1913 known as the Bell system.

Due to strict actions taken by the US regulators in the 1982 Act, AT&T had to break itself into smaller subsidiary companies which were known as the Regional Bell Operating Companies or Baby Bells. One of the smaller subsidiary companies of AT&T was Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC), which made several acquisitions of its sibling companies to compete with the original AT&T.

Later in 2005, SBC Communications Inc. acquired AT&T Corporation for more than 16 billion dollars and the merger of these companies was named AT&T Inc. AT&T acquired the famous BellSouth Corporation telecom company in 2006. AT&T tried to acquire the famous telecom company T-Mobile in 2011 for an offer of more than 40 billion dollars, which is currently the largest telecom company in the United States. But unfortunately, the acquisition failed due to regulatory and legal charges.

In 2014, AT&T purchased Mexican telecom companies Iusacell and NII Holdings to form AT&T Mexico. A significant acquisition made by AT&T was to acquire Directv for more than 49 billion dollars to provide broadband-based TV broadcasts to the users, by forming AT&T Entertainment. Later on, in 2016, the biggest acquisition in the world was made by AT&T to acquire Time Warner Inc. for more than 110 billion dollars for its media rights purchases. The merger of these two companies was branded as Warner Media by AT&T which included popular TV channels like HBO, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, CNN, TNT, TBS, etc.

By 2019, AT&T became the world’s largest telecommunications company. In May 2021, AT&T officially announced the merger of its subsidiary Warner Media with Discovery Inc for more than 45 billion dollars to form Warner Bros’ Discovery.

AT&T – Products and Services:

The various products and services of AT&T are as follows :

Mobile Telecom – AT&T generates its largest amount of revenue from its mobile telecom services to its customers. AT&T also provides the high-speed millimeter wave 5G network to its customers in the United States.

Broadband – The broadband services by AT&T allow its customers to purchase specific internet plans according to their usage and speed for Wifi or Ethernet.

Satellite TV – AT&T also provides satellite television services to its customers where the TV is operated by the signals received by the satellite of AT&T Inc.

Entertainment – AT&T has also purchased Warner Media Group which is famous for its comic books and star movies like DC comics, Lego Star wars, and Harry Potter series titles. Some TV channels included by AT&T in their telecom plans include HBO, CNN, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim.

Wrapping Up:

Hence, AT&T is one of the largest telecom companies in the United States. It is the third largest provider of telecom services in the United States and currently, it is the largest revenue maker in the entire telecom industry. It provides various services to its customers like mobile telecom services, internet broadband services, satellite television, and fixed-line telephone services.