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October 2016

AT&T Strategy Aims to Disrupt Itself, Part I

At an industry analyst meeting held recently in Dallas (TX), an AT&T strategy of disruption of its own business was a key theme throughout. “We are setting out to disrupt ourselves,” said AT&T vice chairman Ralph de la Vega. That disruptive tone highlights an AT&T strategy of leveraging its vast network assets and global scale to enable and monetize emerging business models.

Some of the more promising lines of business AT&T hopes to disrupt themselves with include Internet of Things, network virtualization, entertainment/over-the-top, and network security among others. This disruption strategy is no trivial task, considering AT&T also has a vast ‘legacy’ culture to contend with, which offers a deep portfolio of legacy products that still generate a lot of revenue and profits. From a C-level executive standpoint though, AT&T does appear to have significant focus and understands that disruption of the traditional telecom and broadband business is already well underway. They aim to steer the technology conglomerate in the right ‘disruptive’ direction. In this Telecompetitor series, I’ll offer insight into this evolving AT&T strategy, gained from this recent AT&T analyst event. Part I focuses on entertainment and OTT.

Free Broadband Initiatives for Poor and Rural Areas, With Eye on Future

There is an axiom in technology: New products typically go to wealthy customers first, before prices eventually fall to reach the masses. With broadband now classified as a utility, telecommunication and tech companies including Sprint, Comcast and Facebook are increasingly working to make high-speed Internet accessible to every American, not just a luxury. The companies are among those that have set their sights on bringing free or cheap high-speed Internet service to low-income and rural populations in the United States, spurred by philanthropy and, for some, the hope of turning Americans who are not online today into full-paying customers in the future.

Those goals were on display, when Sprint announced that it plans to give one million low-income high school students a free device and a free high-speed data plan until graduation. Facebook is also working to bring to the United States a service known as Free Basics, which gives people free access to certain websites, including Facebook. Comcast recently loosened requirements for its low-cost broadband service, expanding it to anyone in public housing. These moves go toward closing what has been an intractable divide between broadband haves and have-nots. Low-income broadband programs have been vital to closing the digital divide, where half of all low-income Americans lack broadband, said Mignon Clyburn, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. “Lowering the price for service has been instrumental in bringing millions online,” Commissioner Clyburn said.

AT&T Pulls More Fiber

AT&T said it is expanding the availability of fiber-fed 1 Gbps service to portions of at least ten additional major metro areas in Oct. AT&T, which recently dropped the “GigaPower” moniker in favor of a new umbrella brand, AT&T Fiber, said it has launched 1-Gig this month in Columbus (OH); Detroit (MI); and Huntsville (AL); and will add the following markets later this month: Augusta (GA); Bakersfield (CA); Ft. Smith/Northwest Arkansas (AR); Louisville (KY); Lubbock (TX); Memphis (TN); and Mobile (AL). The company said it has introduced 1-Gig in parts of 32 major metro areas, and is on track to reach at least 45 metros by the end of 2016, and 67 overall. AT&T claims to be marketing gigabit broadband to more 3 million “locations,” a number that it plans to expand to 12.5 million by mid-2019.

Telehealth may help fill mental, behavioral health needs in rural Nebraska

Telehealth — offering medical services via remote technology — might be one solution for rural Nebraskans with little access to mental health and substance abuse resources, according to a look at the state’s needs by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The Comprehensive Behavioral Health Needs Assessment is the most complete report HHS has compiled on the topic, said Linda Wittmuss, deputy director with the department. The data — much of it pulled from census statistics, past studies and focus groups and surveys — will inform HHS’s 2017-2020 strategic plan. That plan will have to include innovative ways to use technology to reach Nebraskans who may be hours away from behavioral health care, Wittmuss said. Through a webcam, a patient in a rural area could use telehealth solutions to talk to a doctor on a screen for medication management consultations or follow-up therapy sessions, for example. Using technology for those kinds of consultations has become a national movement, said Dr. Joseph Evans, assistant clinical director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska.

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