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AT&T's new CEO, Randall Stephenson

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AT&T's top lieutenant, Randall Stephenson, 47, assumed the company's CEO responsibilities yesterday, following the announcement of his promotion last month. Analysts say Stephenson will be judged by how well he makes the merger of the three companies (BellSouth, AT&T, SBC) work. The biggest challenge may be making money from AT&T's U-Verse service.

AT&T plans to make its U-Verse service available to 18 million homes by the end of 2008 and is spending as much as $6.5 billion over five years to install fiber optic lines that can carry the service. Originally, the service provider expected to spend about $5.1 billion.

Unlike his predecessor, Ed Whitacre, who didn't use email or have a computer in his office, Stephenson embraces telecom services and even has a 100-inch flat panel TV at home. He has both DISH TV and AT&T's U-Verse installed in his home. Whitacre offered Stephenson three words of advice via text message when the executive change was announced: "Give 'em hell."

While the service provider's recent deal with Apple for the iPhone will certainly be top of mind for Stephenson in the weeks ahead, the two companies' relationship may expand into the IPTV realm as well. See today's number two story for more.

To read more about Stephenson:
- see this AP article


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hi ! i have had u-vesr since july 3 07. after 17 techs it still does not work .what is mr stevens e-mailor phone number.cell#832.683.0606
Randall Stephens # 210.351.5401
I have AT&T U-verse my advice is to PLEASE DO NOT GET THIS SERVICE IT IS TERRIBLE, IT FREEZES CONSTANTLY THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY, THE SERVICE IS POOR, AND WHEN YOU CONTACT AT&T FOR SERVICE THAT ALSO IS A WASTE OF TIME, HERE IS THE RESPONSE FROM AT&T "YOU will have to reboot all of your boxes if this does not work call us back and we will send someone out, yeah right!!!" I have contacted AT&T several times regarding the freezing of my cable. PLEASE TAKE THIS PRODUCT OFF OF THE MARKET IT DOES NOT WORK, TAKE SOME MORE TIME WITH IT AND PERHAPS COME BACK WITH A BETTER PRODUCT!!!! VERY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER!!!!!!!!!
For the second time, AT&T tried to hook me up with DSL high speed internet service. Apparently my house falls into a black hole where service is not available due to the fact that they don't seem to care about completing the phone line in my neighborhood. I first ordered the DSL package in January 2008, and was told to expect the modem by UPS within a couple days. I called to check on it after two weeks and was told I wouldn't be getting the modem because my residence was approx. 300 feet from the DSL line. No one can tell me when that DSL line will be completed - if ever. And, of course, no one was considerate enough to call and let me know what was going on. At the end of June 2009, I decided to check to see if it was now available because AT&T was leaving me messages that it was now available to me. I explained to "Heidi" what happened the first time I placed an order for DSL. She assured me that problem had been taken care of and that service was now avaialble. And lo and behold I received a modem via UPS 2 days later. Then came the nightmare of actually trying to get the DSL service going, which never happened. But this time I got to suffer through hours on hold with various tech and customer service personnel. Finally, yesterday morning I had a message on my voice mail stating that AT&T had isolated the problem, and that I would have DSL service by 8:00 pm on Friday, 7/10/09. Then at 8:30 last night I received a call from another AT&T rep telling me that they were sorry, but service was not available after all and that I needed to return the modem. And let me clarify that every time I talked to a representative, I explained about the problem I had when placing my order in January 2008, and asked if that could possibly be the same situation now. They assured me repeatedly that was not the case. All I can say is THANKS FOR NOTHING - EXCEPT A BIG HEADACHE, and for getting me to cut off the internet service I already had because they promised me DSL service.
Same story here, over and over... The biggest waste of time. Ilive an apartmetn and att is my only option. My wife works from home (internet is a necessity) and we are both full-time students (internet also a necessity there). I have spent HOURS on the phone with them, most of that hung up in their queue, no one can help me. Every time I call I have to start over and explain everything again. They have no idea what all I've been through. The worst customer service I've ever experienced... EVER. I've set up tecj service to come out four times and they've never even shown up. Can you believe that?! They just won't even show up. What a joke!! I don't what to do. I've told our property manager that we will have to move out because of this. Ridiculous! Stay away from U-verse/ broadband / DSL. None of it works, there is ZERO accountability with their customer service.

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