AT&T †An Overview Of The Existing Organization Essay

AT&T is one of the top leaders of the telecommunications industry. It is one of the largest fixed telephony providers in the US and the company also provides broadband and television services to its customers. AT&T is also the second largest mobile telephony service in US, with somewhere around 85.2 million wireless customers and 210 million overall total customers. The headquarters of the company are situated in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, USA. Randall L. Stephenson is the CEO, President and the Chairman of the company. History of AT&T The history of AT&T goes a long way in the past; it goes back to the times when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. The invention of the first telephone was considered to be the foundation of the company which would later be known as AT&T Inc.   AT&T had been the only company providing the telecommunication services in the US, it can be said that it had the monopoly over the industry. (AT&T, 2010) In the year 1984 there was an agreement held between former AT&T and the US Department of Justice that the company (i.e. AT&T) would divest its local telephone operations but they will remain in control of their long distance services, R&D and manufacturing arms. The result of the agreement was the creation of SBC Communications Inc. (formerly also known as Southwestern Bell Corp). The Telecommunications Act of 1996 created drastic changes in the competitive telecommunication industry. After operating for 12 years, SBC Communications Inc. decided to go global. And it did it by acquiring Pacific Telesis Group in 1997, Southern New England Telecommunication in 1998 and then in 1999 it acquired Ameritech Corp. And finally in the 2005 SBC Communications Inc. purchased AT&T Corp. and thus the new AT&T was formed. (AT&T, 2010) In 2006 a merger was conducted between AT&T and Bellsouth. The acquisition of Bellsouth also bought in Cingular Wireless and Yellowpages.com which were actually the joint venture between these two companies. Now all these services (including the wireless ones) come under the name of AT&T. Now it has become the leaders in the telecommunication industry. The Values of AT&T AT&T values it employees, customers and suppliers a great deal, because they understand the significance of the relationship between them. The company strongly believes in working together as a team so that they are able to achieve excellence. AT&T believes that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is very important; therefore CSR is integrated within the culture of the company. In 2009 the company contributed somewhere around $155 million to the community. The company strongly believes in honesty, integrity, openness and respect, due to these values the company works hard to deliver on its promise and it always does the right thing. (AT&T, 2010)