AT & T

Introduction to the company

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered

at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. 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. Since June 14, 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 2018, AT&T is ranked #9
on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
AT&T began its history as Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, a subsidiary of the Bell
Telephone Company, founded by Alexander Graham Bell in 1877. The Bell Telephone
Company became the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885 and was later
rebranded as AT&T Corporation. The 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 1995. In 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 iconic logo
and stock-trading symbol. In 2006, AT&T Inc. acquired BellSouth, the last independent Baby
Bell company, making their formerly joint venture Cingular Wireless (which had acquired
AT&T Wireless in 2004) wholly owned and rebranding it as AT&T Mobility.

History

Origin and growth (1885–1981)

AT&T traces its origins to the Bell Telephone Company, founded by Alexander Graham
Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, and Thomas Sanders after Bell's patenting of the telephone. One
of that company's subsidiaries was the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T),
established in 1885, which acquired the Bell Company on December 31, 1899, for legal reasons,
leaving AT&T as the main company. AT&T established a network of subsidiaries in the United
States and Canada that held a phone service monopoly, authorized by government authorities
with the Kingsbury Commitment, throughout most of the twentieth century. This monopoly was
known as the Bell System, and during this period, AT&T was also known by the nickname Ma
Bell. For periods of time, the former AT&T was the world's largest phone company.

Breakup and reformation (1982–2004)

In 1982, U.S. regulators broke up the AT&T monopoly, requiring AT&T to divest its regional
subsidiaries and turning them each into individual companies. These new companies were
known as Regional Bell Operating Companies, or more informally, Baby Bells. AT&T
continued to operate long distance services, but as a result of this breakup, faced competition
from new competitors such as MCI and Sprint.
Southwestern Bell was one of the companies created by the breakup of AT&T Corp. The
architect of divestiture for Southwestern Bell was Robert G. Pope. The company soon started a
series of acquisitions. This includes the 1987 acquisition of Metromedia mobile business and the
acquisition of several cable companies in the early 1990s. In the latter half of the 1990s, the
company acquired several other telecommunications companies, including some Baby Bells,
while selling its cable business. During this time, the company changed its name to SBC
Communications. By 1998, the company was in the top 15 of the Fortune 500, and by 1999 the
company was part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (lasting through 2015).

Purchase of former parent and acquisitions (2005–2014)

In 2005, SBC purchased AT&T for $16 billion. After this purchase, SBC adopted the better-
known AT&T name and brand, with the original AT&T Corp. still existing as the long-distance
landline subsidiary of the merged company. The current AT&T claims the original AT&T
Corp.'s history (dating to 1885) as its own. However, it retains SBC's 1983-2005 corporate
structure.[14] It also retains SBC's pre-2005 stock price history, and all regulatory filings prior to
2005 are for Southwestern Bell/SBC, not AT&T Corp.
In September 2013, AT&T Inc. announced it would expand into Latin America through a
collaboration with América Móvil. In December 2013, AT&T announced plans to sell its
Connecticut wireline operations to Stamford-based Frontier Communications.

Corporate Structure

Facilities and regions

The company is headquartered at Whitacre Tower in downtown Dallas, Texas. On June 27,

2008, AT&T announced that it would move its corporate headquarters from downtown San
Antonio to One AT&T Plaza in downtown Dallas. The company said that it moved to gain better
access to its customers and operations throughout the world, and to the key technology partners,
suppliers, innovation and human resources needed as it continues to grow, domestically and
internationally. AT&T Inc. previously relocated its corporate headquarters to San Antonio from
St. Louis, Missouri, in 1992, when it was then named Southwestern Bell Corporation. The
company's Telecom Operations group, which serves residential and regional business customers
in 22 U.S. states, remains in San Antonio. Atlanta, Georgia, continues to be the headquarters
for AT&T Mobility, with significant offices in Redmond, Washington, the former home
of AT&T Wireless. Bedminster, New Jersey, is the headquarters for the company's Global
Business Services group and AT&T Labs, and is where the original AT&T Corp. remains
located. St. Louis continues as home to the company's Directory operations, AT&T Advertising
Solutions.
AT&T offers also services in many locations throughout the Asia Pacific; its regional
headquarters is located in Hong Kong. The company is also active in Mexico, and on November
7, 2014, it was announced that Mexican carrier Iusacell would be acquired by AT&T. The
acquisition was approved in January 2015. On April 30, 2015, AT&T acquired wireless
operations Nextel Mexico from NII Holdings (now AT&T Mexico).

Sustainable Strategies

Environmental Responsibility
AT&T has implemented for the last 6 years an environmental program that has contributed to
tangible and measurable results. However, because of the fast pace of technology and
consumer’s demand, this established parameters change constantly and the need to adapt is
crucial. Summarizing those points in regards of how AT&T faces its environmental
responsibility is operating in a way to increase efficiency and minimize the impact to the
environment. As of 2010, 14.4 million customers use paperless billing; 3.7 million cell phones
collected for recycling; 56.9 million pounds of network scrap materials kept out of landfills
through reusing, selling and recycling materials; and 3,487 alternative-fuel vehicles deployed in
538 cities as part of our commitment to deploy approximately 15,000 alternative-fuel vehicles
through 2018. (Environment, 2011). Furthermore, besides the mentioned positive steps toward a
concise environmental program, AT&T has implemented the Environment, Health and Safety
Management System, that incorporates elements of ISO 14001 EMS standard and applies to its
Environment, Health and Safety Programs (environment, health, 2011). AT&T consumes large
amounts of energy and it can gain benefits by emphasizing the use of ISO 50001 that is designed
to help organizations make improve their energy-consuming assets, appraise and prioritize the
execution of energy-efficient technology, considering that AT&T is a major player in the world,
and encourage competence all the way through the supply chain. It can be integrated with other
management standards, especially ISO 14001 on environmental management and ISO 9001 on
quality management (Iso 50001 energy, 2011). Because AT&T carries a large socio-economic
and environmental impact beyond its frontiers of operations (as any global corporation) that
leads to depleting resources and incrementing the issues related to climate change, ISO 50001
can improve energy performance and lessen the deteriorating effects of energy consumption.

Social Responsibility
AT&T materializes its social responsibility seriously with tangible actions. The company has
formed the AT&T Business Sustainability Advisory Council dedicated to advising AT&T on the
powerful linkage between information and communications technology (ICT) and helping
customers minimize the environmental impact of their operations. The council will work to
further the cause of measurement, methodologies and technology use cases to help business
customers better quantify the impact of ICT-enabled solutions for greenhouse gas reduction
(Environmental sustainability,2011). Although these efforts are highly valuable, social
responsibility has a global context that needs to be implemented without borders and AT&T can
definitely benefit from implementing those great ideas into action from a leadership stand point.
The company has operations worldwide and interexchange business in developed and developing
countries, providing a great opportunity to become a pioneer in that respect and ISO 2600 can
provide the necessary framework to accomplish that. “ISO implemented the principle of
twinning (twin leadership between a developed and developing country) in the ISO Working
Group on Social Responsibility (ISO/WG SR) to a greater extent than had yet been carried out in
a any ISO standards development group. This meant that not only the WG, but also each
subworking group and any other group that was established was headed by representatives of
developing countries and developed countries on an equitable basis” ("How developing
countries," 2011). This provides the open doors to get involved internationally with a framework
that is highly effective in a global context and leads to a meaningful participation among the
parties involved. ISO 2600 help to identify relevant issues and to set its priorities. The following
core subjects should be addressed: a) Organizational governance. b) Human rights c) Labour
practices. d) The environment e) Fair operating practices f) Consumer issues g) Community
involvement and development (Guidance on social, 2011)

Economic Responsibility
“Economic responsibility relates to an organization’s impact on the economic wellbeing of its
stakeholders. The direct impacts of economic responsibility are measured as monetary flows
between the organization and its stakeholder groups” (“Pojasek R. & Farver S.,” 2011). AT&T
economic responsibility is addressed by their financial report filed with the US Securities and
Exchange Commission. It also identifies resources, materials and safety regulation with the
actions taken by the Executive Environmental Council (EEC). This council receives updates on
compliance to minimize risk to the corporation. Moreover, the EH&S Leadership team in
collaboration with the Legal Department evaluates EH&S programs (based on data collected
from reviews, audits, new regulatory requirements, etc.) and develops strategies and plans to
improve the management system and compliance programs as part of the organizational goals
and EH&S plans; reducing risk and minimizing operation deficiency ( "A t &t en vi r onm e nt ,
h e a lth , " 2 01 0 ). The company has been experience a decade long profitability with estimated
revenue o f $31.48 billion for Q3 2011. The company also added 319,000 subscribers in that
quarter, compared with the median expectation for 311,000 from nine analysts contacted by
Reuters (At&t inc's (t.n), 2011). The organization used to be the only US carrier to sell the most
popular mobile device in recent memory: the iPhone. “AT&T today announced it activated more
than 1 million iPhone 4S’ as of Tuesday (Oct 18, 2011), making it the most successful iPhone
launch in the company’s history” ("At&t activates one," 2011). This device alone made the
company millions of dollars in revenue by far and even though the phone is carried by other
competitors now, the iPhone still is a mega player among the company’s smart phones.
Nevertheless, risk plays an important role in economic responsibility strategy. “Reduction of risk
is a key part of an organization’s economic responsibility” (Pojasek R. & Farver S., 2011). There
are several improvements in this area that AT&T can aggressively focus:
Corporate Sustainability Strategy
The corporation’s sustainability strategy shows a consistent direction and currently highlights
three elements: Fleet Investments, Business Solution to e-Waste, and Measuring Electricity
Consumption but the strategy does not stop there. Even AT&T’s community outreach efforts
focus on causes such as technology training in schools with high dropout rates; which has social
connotations ("At&t: aligning business," 2011). While AT&T is currently taking in hand the
ever-changing business challenges with a strategic approach, the company is not addressing the
environmental, social and economic impacts of all its activities, products and services to
determine the organization’s impact. “Management system planning efforts involve identifying
ALL of the activities and determining their impacts on the environmental, social and economic
elements of the sustainability program” ("Operations are the," 2011). Although, the company’s
sustainability strategy is walking a positive path, the following suggestions will enhance the
already implemented plan for the long term: