There may be a good reason for the recent lack of those "You Will" TV commercials from our friends at AT&T. As it turns out, it might be that "You Won't" - at least not any time soon. AT&T announced Thursday that it's bagging a once-ambitious plan to deploy 12 geostationary satellites that were to marry multimedia and voice features to create a whiz-bang global network of cutting-edge wireless services.
AT&T has been gradually moving away from its fancy satellite ambitions since last fall, when it sold off its "Skynet" system of domestic satellites for US$712.5 million. And just last month, it sold off its AT&T Tridom satellite system for an undisclosed amount.
Nevertheless, "We're not getting out of the satellite business," spokeswoman Kelly Stratmore said Friday.
What they are getting out of is the VoiceSpan Satellite System, which the company says has been pushed out of the way by more pressing concerns. For one thing, the 1996 Telecommunications Act blew open the barriers that used to keep the big, rich Bell companies out of long-distance markets. Now they're at the starting gates, salivating to get into the game, and AT&T - its stock already throbbing from the endless pounding of MCI, Sprint, and scores of scrappy upstarts - isn't happy about it.
AT&T says the decision to scrap VoiceSpan is part of an "aggressive plan" to concentrate on "core communications services." The company also notes that the scrapped satellite plan "would be a capital-intensive initiative that doesn't align with AT&T's strategy."
Still, AT&T hasn't tried to dump its 2.5 percent stake in DirecTV, which it purchased a little over a year ago for $137.5 million. But DirecTV officials have been shaking their heads in recent months over AT&T's apparent inability to market DirecTV effectively to its long-distance subscribers. DirecTV has said that AT&T is nowhere near meeting sales targets that would trigger options for it to increase its stake in DirecTV up to 30 percent.
Stratmore said AT&T will limit its satellite endeavors to DirecTV for now, but that doesn't mean you won't see more AT&T satellite activity in the future. AT&T hopes "You Will."
