From CNET: AT&T is banking that its video, and not its traditional wireless service, will get you to take a second look at the nation's second-largest phone company.
Let's face it, growth in the wireless market, AT&T's bread and butter, isn't what it used to be. That's especially true for the Dallas-based telecom giant, which for the past year has seen lackluster growth in phone customers as many of you have jumped ship to cheaper offers from the likes of T-Mobile and Sprint. AT&T has chosen to not chase after these customers, and has instead focused on serving you in different ways.
A big part of this new push is the company's foray into video. Thanks to the $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T is now the largest pay-TV provider in the US. But AT&T isn't just interested in offering a satellite TV experience in your home. It plans to marry this TV programming with its wireless offer to allow consumers to watch what they want, anywhere they are. There will even be a standalone video service for cord-cutters -- folks who have canceled their pay-TV subscription and get their video streamed online.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who hinted at the service back in December, said the company has been working on deals that will allow it to distribute video content from its DirecTV business to its wireless customers over its speedy 4G LTE network. And with a national network and a stash of spectrum -- the airwaves critical to delivering e-mails and cat videos to your phone -- yet to be deployed, he believes that AT&T is the only company that can deliver a true TV anywhere experience.
"We now have a unique set of capabilities that positions us for growth and also gives us a strategic advantage," he said in a press release.
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