Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

I’ve been here long enough to remember when we were in the CPE biz. The fact is; it’s just not s-xy enough for our super duper management team. We should have been pushing fiber and IRADS to every business and neighborhood in our footprint. That 5G indicator on your phone doesn’t mean a damned thing unless your in a large metro. Our FTTN and FTTP are sticky products. Randall and his out of touch team threw in with 5G way too early.

Legacy SBC also had profitable cpe business. When the merger with AT&T occurred, it was really a reverse acquisition. SBC bought AT&T for their brand, managed data services and LD/IP network. Which meant that we had use legacy AT&T people, processes and tools. Legacy AT&T got out of the cpe business when they spun-off Lucent. The cpe business didn’t work with AT&T tooling or billing.... and yeah, that was a Randy decision.....

Bellsouth long ago proved that the CPE market can be very profitable on recurring revenue from maintenance contracts. At&t is just too incompetent and short sighted to figure it out.

CPE as a business line is not very profitable... Margins are razor thin, and AT&T has to bear the expense of CPE procurement on it's balance sheet before pass through to our customers. When you look at this at scale, the margins are so thin AT&T probably has determined there are easier ways to make a dollar that as aren't burdensome on the balance sheet.

Hi all, I'm a tech and I can tell you from field experience that the customers hate the cloud for their phone systems and inevitably go back to their own on premise solution. Especially small business. The cloud makes sense for some customers but there are plenty of businesses where it does not. At&t should be presenting BOTH options to the customer and let them make the decision but instead what is happening is the customer is only being presented with the cloud service. Collaborate service s—s and ring central is the same garbage with fresh paint. This is a perfect example of at&t forcing a product customers don't really want down their throat.

Its not a growth line. People are moving to cloud. Inventory is also a balance sheet item. It costs too much and there is no real return on investment. Its cheaper to partner with a vendor to provide it.

WRV, you must be in sales. Yes, the initial sale may be small on margins but the maintenance contracts are worth a lot over the years. This is another example of short sightedness by att. Always looking for the fast quick buck and ignoring long term growth and revenue.

In Bellsouth , the group was BCS or Bellsouth Communications Systems. They made money year in and year out. First thing at&t did when they bought bellsouth , they fired all those sales people who had the experience and know how selling PBX and key systems. For the first time , BCS was losing money and at&t had the gall to ask why.

For those of you that remember, this was called the Embedded Base, and for decades was the cash cow to the Legecy-T. Of course the brain trust eventually sold it off...

@wrv, For the install, I would agree but we make easy money on the maintenance plans and it's recurring revenue. We still have customers who have been paying their maintenance contracts on their 40 year old norstar systems from the bellsouth days.

CPE business is a loser for us. The manufacturers take lions share of the revenue. We get a sliver. We add margin to the sale and get beat on price by smaller outfits and the manufacturers directly.