Dorman Outlines Strategies for AT&T Shareholders

The telecom industry is in the final stages of a ten year transition period, said David Dorman, AT&T Chairman and CEO, speaking at the company's 118th annual meeting of shareowners. Dorman emphasized AT&T's financial stability and balance sheet strength as key competitive differentiators during an upcoming consolidation of the industry. He believes AT&T has solid strategies in place to benefit from a revitalized telecom sector. These include a $500 million spending plan to improve customer-facing operations, such as service contracts, provisioning, access, billing and customer care. For businesses, AT&T is looking to simplify the operating environment of the services it delivers by evolving to a single, global IP network from five separate physical networks today. For consumers, AT&T will look to increased service bundling, which it now provides to more than 3 million customers in 11 markets. AT&T expects to offer bundled services to consumers in as many as 22 markets by year end. As for its financial condition, AT&T expects to end the year with net debt under $10 billion, compared to net debt of $12 billion at the end of this year's Q1. A webcast of Dorman's presentation is available online.
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