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WIKI ANALYSIS
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a U.S. telecommunications services provider, and the second largest U.S. wireless carrier in the United States. AT&T provides telephone, Internet, and computer telephone services to over 95 million customers in 22 states in the U.S. AT&T operates across four segments: Wireless, Wireline, Advertising Solutions, and Other. In fiscal year 2010, AT&T recorded revenues of $124.3 billion and net income of $19.8 billion. AT&T continues to invest heavily to improve high-speed internet and video offerings as consumer demand for these services continues to rise. AT&T's increased investments is evident in its $4.4 billion initiative to build a fiber-optic network to offer IP-based video, broadband Internet, and VoIP services over a single line.
Competitors
AT&T competes primarily with other telecommunications services companies, including Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, Leap Wireless, and MetroPCS.
- Verizon Wireless: Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (VZ) and Vodafone Group (VOD), and has outpaced AT&T to become the leading wireless service provider in the U.S. AT&T benefited from the necessary divestitures when Verizon buyout of Alltel Corporation, in which it gained approximately 1.6 million subscribers primarily across rural properties
- Leap Wireless: Leap is a niche player in the telecommunications space, offering pre-paid, unlimited wireless plans, so it does not compete directly with AT&T Wireless. The company targets youth and minority markets, and its payment structure means customers avoid credit checks and contracts.
and then the fox jumped over the bush.
- Sprint Nextel: Through its Sprint, Nextel, Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Assurance Wireless sub-brands, Sprint Nextel competes across both wireless and wireline with AT&T. Although in recent years Spring has been hemorrhaging customers, it has invested heavily to launch the first 4G network and retain customers, and has shifted away from the post-paid segment where AT&T and Verizon Wireless dominate to focus on the pre-paid subscriber niche.
- MetroPCS: Similar to Leap Wireless, MetroPCS focuses on the youth and minority pre-paid segment demographic, lacking the scale of AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Sprint Nextel. It has not needed to rely on massive capital expenditures as its geographic focus is the densely-populated urban market; this has helped the company achieve high margins relative to its competitors.
The Carnival of Smarter Investing #19 Welcome to the Nineteenth Edition of The Carnival of Smarter Investing! We're back with our first week of October edition of CoSI, so sit back, relax, and enjoy this seirespzud gathering of featured articles by investors and writers in the areas of bu
