Talk:AT&T/Archive 2

Edit Request: History and Corporate Governance
NOTE: I’m proposing the following edits for FleishmanHillard on behalf of AT&T. I am a paid editor and aware of the COI guidelines. I’m submitting these edits to correct some historical inaccuracies/omissions in the History subsections and provide the most up to date information for corporate governance. Please let me know of any questions or comments as you review. Thanks for your time and consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 03:57, 23 April 2021 (UTC)

History – Origin and growth (1885-1981)


 * In first sentence, suggest adding Thomas Watson in list of founders’ names as he was among the original founders of Bell Telephone Company.


 * Suggest adding the following as a (new) second sentence in this section to establish the Bell Telephone Company’s name change to the American Bell Telephone Company in 1880/1881. Suggested new verbiage in bold below:

By 1881, Bell Telephone Company had become the American Bell Telephone Company. '''


 * Second and third sentences: Suggest revising what are currently the second and third sentences to read as follows, which will correct an inaccuracy on acquisition date of American Bell Telephone, correctly describe the nature of the acquisition and break up the copy. Revised, new content in this sentence would read as follows (in bold):

One of its subsidiaries was the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), established in 1885. On December 30, 1899, AT&T acquired the assets of its parent American Bell Telephone, becoming the new parent company. AT&T established a network of local telephone subsidiaries in the United States.


 * Suggest breaking the second half of the third sentence into its own new sentence to break up copy and add year of authorization for the Kingsbury Commitment. Updated this sentence would read as follows (updated verbiage in bold):

AT&T and its subsidiaries held a phone service monopoly, authorized in 1913 by government authorities with the Kingsbury Commitment, throughout most of the twentieth century.

History – Breakup and reformation (1982-2004)


 * First sentence: Subsidiaries were local, not regional ; suggest changing word “regional” to “local.”
 * Also suggest updating first sentence to provide the number of individual companies (seven). Revised, the updated first sentence would read (changes in bold):

In 1982, U.S. regulators broke up the AT&T monopoly, requiring AT&T to divest its local subsidiaries, which it did by grouping them into seven individual companies.


 * Third sentence: Suggest revising as follows to correctly describe the nature of competition for long distance services – currently the sentence suggests the breakup as causation for competition, which isn’t necessarily the case. Suggested revision in bold, with sourcing:

AT&T continued to operate long-distance services which faced increasing competition from new competitors such as MCI and Sprint.


 * Fourth sentence: Propose updating mention of Southwestern Bell to “Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC)” to differentiate between the new parent in 1984, Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC), and its inherited child Southwestern Bell Telephone Company (SWBT), which was formed in 1917 as a subsidiary of American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T Co.)


 * Sixth sentence: Propose specifying number (two) and name (Pacific Telesis Group and Ameritech Corporation) of Baby Bells acquired by Southwestern Bell Corporation. Updated, the proposed revisions would read as follows (updates in bold, w/sourcing):

In the latter half of the 1990s, the company acquired several other telecommunications companies, including two Baby Bells (Pacific Telesis Group and Ameritech Corporation), while selling its cable business.


 * Seventh sentence: Propose updating SBC Communications to SBC Communications, Inc. to accurately reflect the new company name following the name change.


 * Final sentence – providing two citations for this claim to address “Citation needed”:

History – Purchase of former parent and acquisitions (2005–2014)


 * First sentence: Propose adding specific date of SBC Communications Inc. purchase of AT&T Corp., as well as correcting company names. Updated, proposed sentence would read as follows (edits in bold):

On November 18, 2005, SBC Communications, Inc. purchased AT&T Corp. for $16 billion.


 * Third sentence: PRopose updating company name (to reflect AT&T Inc.) and correcting year of earliest history (1877). Updated, this sentence would read as follows (updates in bold, w/sourcing):

The current AT&T Inc. claims the original AT&T Corp.’s history (dating to 1877) as its own, but retains SBC’s 1983-2005 corporate structure and pre-2005 stock price history.


 * Suggest adding the following to account for AT&T’s acquisition of BellSouth Corporation and management of Cingular Wireless. Proposed additions in bold w/sourcing:

'''AT&T acquired BellSouth Corporation on December 29, 2006 following FCC approval. The transaction consolidated ownership and management of Cingular Wireless. AT&T rebranded its wireless retail stores from Cingular to AT&T in January 2007.'''

Corporate governance

Recommend the following updates to bring the board of directors list current as of April 2021:


 * Remove Randall Stephenson as executive chairman due to his retirement as executive chairman on December 31, 2020.


 * Please update William E. Kennard’s title to read “Chairman” (due to his election of November 9, 2020) and move up toward beginning of order.


 * Please remove Richard W. Fisher as he will be retiring from the board effective April 30, 2021.

Recommend the following updates to bring the management list current as of April 2021:


 * Please remove John J. Stephens (as he retired on April 1, 2021) and replace with Pascal Desroches, the new chief financial officer (CFO).


 * Thanks, I've done all these pretty much as requested except for the board changes - I suggest redoing that as a separate request once they actually happen and there's a source (company web page is fine for that) saying so. I'm watching the article now so I can implement that little update reasonably quickly.


 * If you want to make it easier for me to complete your edit requests, you could include the whole section as you imagine it at the end of your (great) detailed list of changes. (ie. like you often do for individual sentences, but do the whole section). The mechanics of editing each particular sentence then putting that all back together often take me longer than checking your references for each of the changes. A potential problem with that is subsequent edits made by other editors after you grabbed the section to work on would get lost. To address that, just leave a link to the revision you started from. That can be done by going into the article history and clicking on the date/time of the revison you worked from then adding that as a link, like [|like this]. Then I can dif out their changes and ensure they are not lost in the process.


 * Cheers, AntiVan (talk) 13:00, 25 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Thanks very much! And noted re: the board changes - I'll submit a separate request once that's official. Also, appreciate the tip re: including the whole section toward the end to make things easier to follow, will do. Thanks again! Jon Gray (talk) 02:09, 29 April 2021 (UTC)

Edit Request: Corporate Governance (Updated)
NOTE: I’m proposing the following edits for FleishmanHillard on behalf of AT&T. I am a paid editor and aware of the COI guidelines. As requested, I’m submitting an updated version of our Corporate Governance edit request now that one of the changes to the board is official. Please let me know of any questions or comments as you review. Thanks for your time and consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 02:10, 5 May 2021 (UTC)

Corporate governance

Recommend the following updates to bring the board of directors list current as of May 2021:


 * Remove Randall Stephenson as executive chairman due to his retirement as executive chairman on December 31, 2020.


 * Please update William E. Kennard’s title to read “Chairman” (due to his election of November 9, 2020) and move up to beginning of order.


 * Please remove Richard W. Fisher due to his retirement from the board.


 * Recommend updating the header of the current board of directors section to reflect that it is current as of May 2021.


 * Also recommend updating the header of the current management section to reflect that it is current as of April 2021, given the most recent round of edits on April 25, 2021.


 * Done mate. AntiVan (talk) 10:02, 15 May 2021 (UTC)


 * Many thanks! Jon Gray (talk) 15:27, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Edit Request: AT&T Latin America and Political Involvement
NOTE: I’m proposing the following edits for FleishmanHillard on behalf of AT&T. I am a paid editor and aware of the COI guidelines. Below, I’ve outlined requested edits to the AT&T Latin America and Political Involvement sections to account for corrections and updates. Please let me know of any questions or comments as you review. Thanks for your time and consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 21:24, 21 June 2021 (UTC)

AT&T Latin America – Infobox


 * Recommend changing “Type” of business from “Division” to “Business Segment” to align with how the company is federally reported.


 * Recommend updating Revenue to read US$5.7 billion (2020) to reflect most recent figure available.


 * Total assets: Total assets currently listed ($403 billion) are for all of AT&T, not just AT&T Latin America. Recommend updating this figure to read $15.8 billion USD to accurately reflect AT&T Latin America’s most recent total assets figure.


 * Recommend updating Number of Employees to 32,500. The number currently on page reflects all of AT&T’s employees, not just those from the AT&T Latin America business segment.

--

AT&T Latin America


 * In first sentence, recommend replacing “division” with “business segment” to align with how the company is federally reported.


 * Toward the end of first sentence, recommend updating number of other countries in which AT&T Latin America operates from 11 to 10 to accurately reflect current scope of operations after sale of the Venezuela operation.


 * Recommend adding the following sentence after the current second sentence (In 2017, AT&T announced a new…) to add appointment of CEO Lori Lee into narrative (proposed addition in bold):

Lori Lee was appointed CEO of AT&T International in July 2017.
 * First and second full paragraphs (In October 2016, AT&T announced a deal to acquire Time Warner…Two days later, AT&T completed the acquisition of Time Warner, and a day later, the company was renamed WarnerMedia.). Recommend moving these two paragraphs to “Recent Developments (2014 – present)” section, as the content has no specific relevance to AT&T Latin America.


 * Recommend adding the following information in advance of the sentence that begins with (On September 21, 2018…) for additional historical developments of the business segment in 2018 (requested addition in bold):

'''In August 2018, Melissa Arnoldi was named CEO of AT&T’s Vrio subsidiary in Latin America, replacing Jeff McElfresh who assumed the leadership of AT&T’s Technology and Operations division.


 * Final sentence (In October 2019, AT&T Latin America announced its intention…): Recommend changing “AT&T Latin America” to “AT&T” to accurately reflect which business segment made the announcement.


 * Recommend adding the following information at the end of the existing article to provide more information on the aforementioned sale and the appointment of Monica Bernal as CEO of AT&T Mexico (proposed additions in bold):

The sale of Puerto Rico and Virgin Island operations to Liberty Latin America for $2 billion in cash closed on November 2, 2020. On April 1, 2020, Monica Aspe Bernal assumed the role of interim CEO of AT&T Mexico after serving for more than a year as Vice President of External Affairs and Corporate Communications. Bernal was named CEO in March 2021.'''

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Political Involvement


 * To bring the first sentence of this section current, recommend revising to the following (requested revisions in bold)”

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, AT&T was the forty seventh largest donor to United States federal political campaigns and committees in 2020.


 * Recommend adding the following lines to the first paragraph (following the sentence regarding AT&T’s donations to President George W. Bush). Suggested addition in bold:

'''AT&T was among 250 organizations and individuals that contributed more than $100,000 to the Trump inaugural, giving $2 million in cash contributions, as well as an $82,483 in-kind donation. This contribution was less than the $3 million it donated for President Obama’s inauguration in 2013.'''


 * Suggest removing the third and fourth sentences from first paragraph as Leahy retired from AT&T in 2018 and no longer on the ALEC board.


 * Propose revising the second sentence of the second paragraph to read as follows and more accurately represent the company’s position on broadband access. Suggested revision in bold:

A key '''focus area for AT&T has been reform of policies that make broadband more accessible and affordable. '''


 * Propose revising the third sentence of the second paragraph to read as follows and add additional example of the kind of broadband legislation supported by the company. Suggested revision in bold:

'''The company has supported several federal bills related to broadband policy reform, including the FCC’s implementation of the Broadband Data Act to create more accurate maps. '''


 * Propose adding the following lines as a new paragraph after the existing third paragraph. Suggested additions in bold:

Following AT&T’s $85 billion merger with Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) in June 2018, then-President Donald Trump called for a boycott of AT&T, citing CNN’s coverage of him, calling the network “fake news.” The Department of Justice sued to block the deal, but a federal judge ruled the merger was legal.


 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: The edits are way too bulky to implement.  Quetstar (talk) 17:36, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

Edit Request: Political Involvement
NOTE: I’m proposing the following edits for FleishmanHillard on behalf of AT&T. I am a paid editor and aware of the COI guidelines. Below, I’ve outlined requested edits to the AT&T Political Involvement section to account for corrections and updates. (I am resubmitting this section’s requested edits by themselves, as opposed to paired with the Latin America section per the previous editor’s response that both together were too numerous.) Please let me know of any questions or comments as you review. Thanks for your time and consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 17:04, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Political Involvement


 * To bring the first sentence of this section current, recommend revising to the following (requested revisions in bold)”

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, AT&T was the forty seventh largest donor to United States federal political campaigns and committees in 2020.


 * Recommend adding the following lines to the first paragraph (following the sentence regarding AT&T’s donations to President George W. Bush). Suggested addition in bold:

'''AT&T was among 250 organizations and individuals that contributed more than $100,000 to the Trump inaugural, giving $2 million in cash contributions, as well as an $82,483 in-kind donation. This contribution was less than the $3 million it donated for President Obama’s inauguration in 2013.'''


 * Suggest removing the third and fourth sentences from first paragraph as Leahy retired from AT&T in 2018 and no longer on the ALEC board.


 * Propose revising the second sentence of the second paragraph to read as follows and more accurately represent the company’s position on broadband access. Suggested revision in bold:

A key '''focus area for AT&T has been reform of policies that make broadband more accessible and affordable. '''


 * Propose revising the third sentence of the second paragraph to read as follows and add additional example of the kind of broadband legislation supported by the company. Suggested revision in bold:

'''The company has supported several federal bills related to broadband policy reform, including the FCC’s implementation of the Broadband Data Act to create more accurate maps. '''


 * Propose adding the following lines as a new paragraph after the existing third paragraph. Suggested additions in bold:

Following AT&T’s $85 billion merger with Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) in June 2018, then-President Donald Trump called for a boycott of AT&T, citing CNN’s coverage of him, calling the network “fake news.” The Department of Justice sued to block the deal, but a federal judge ruled the merger was legal.


 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: These edits read like they are from PR playbook of AT&T. Muddling relevant facts, trying to reduce perceived impact of conservative donations, statements like "A key focus area for AT&T has been reform of policies that make broadband more accessible and affordable" that could never fly. Please read: WP:NPOV, WP:DUE, WP:ORIGINALSYNTHESIS and WP:BALANCE.   Mel ma nn   19:54, 24 June 2021 (UTC)

Edit Request: AT&T Latin America
NOTE: I’m proposing the following edits for FleishmanHillard on behalf of AT&T. I am a paid editor and aware of the COI guidelines. Below, I’ve outlined requested edits to the AT&T Latin America and Political Involvement sections to account for corrections and updates. (I am resubmitting this section’s requested edits by themselves, as opposed to paired with the Political Involvement section per the previous editor’s response that both together were too numerous.) Please let me know of any questions or comments as you review. Thanks for your time and consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 13:30, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

AT&T Latin America – Infobox


 * Recommend changing “Type” of business from “Division” to “Business Segment” to align with how the company is federally reported.


 * Recommend updating Revenue to read US$5.7 billion (2020) to reflect most recent figure available.


 * Total assets: Total assets currently listed ($403 billion) are for all of AT&T, not just AT&T Latin America. Recommend updating this figure to read $15.8 billion USD to accurately reflect AT&T Latin America’s most recent total assets figure.


 * Recommend updating Number of Employees to 32,500. The number currently on page reflects all of AT&T’s employees, not just those from the AT&T Latin America business segment.

--

AT&T Latin America


 * In first sentence, recommend replacing “division” with “business segment” to align with how the company is federally reported.


 * Toward the end of first sentence, recommend updating number of other countries in which AT&T Latin America operates from 11 to 10 to accurately reflect current scope of operations after sale of the Venezuela operation.


 * Recommend adding the following sentence after the current second sentence (In 2017, AT&T announced a new…) to add appointment of CEO Lori Lee into narrative (proposed addition in bold):

Lori Lee was appointed CEO of AT&T International in July 2017.
 * First and second full paragraphs (In October 2016, AT&T announced a deal to acquire Time Warner…Two days later, AT&T completed the acquisition of Time Warner, and a day later, the company was renamed WarnerMedia.). Recommend moving these two paragraphs to “Recent Developments (2014 – present)” section, as the content has no specific relevance to AT&T Latin America.


 * Recommend adding the following information in advance of the sentence that begins with (On September 21, 2018…) for additional historical developments of the business segment in 2018 (requested addition in bold):

'''In August 2018, Melissa Arnoldi was named CEO of AT&T’s Vrio subsidiary in Latin America, replacing Jeff McElfresh who assumed the leadership of AT&T’s Technology and Operations division.


 * Final sentence (In October 2019, AT&T Latin America announced its intention…): Recommend changing “AT&T Latin America” to “AT&T” to accurately reflect which business segment made the announcement.


 * Recommend adding the following information at the end of the existing article to provide more information on the aforementioned sale and the appointment of Monica Bernal as CEO of AT&T Mexico (proposed additions in bold):

The sale of Puerto Rico and Virgin Island operations to Liberty Latin America for $2 billion in cash closed on November 2, 2020. On April 1, 2020, Monica Aspe Bernal assumed the role of interim CEO of AT&T Mexico after serving for more than a year as Vice President of External Affairs and Corporate Communications. Bernal was named CEO in March 2021.'''

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 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: Same reason as last time. Quetstar (talk) 21:09, 29 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Hello - I’m confused by your rationale as I’ve submitted other edit requests that were lengthier or similar in scope to this one, and they’ve been addressed. Completely understand if you’d prefer not to take this request on, but would you mind changing the response parameter so it can reappear in the queue in case another editor is willing to review based on the merits of the content and sourcing? Or, if there’s an ideal number of edits that should be requested at one time, please let me know. Thanks for your consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 16:24, 30 June 2021 (UTC)
 * By "last time", I meant the same reasons as Melmann's Quetstar (talk) 16:33, 30 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for clarifying. I'll give this another look, retain the elements that only deal in objective fact (such as current revenue figures, corrections, hires) and resubmit to the queue for consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 17:53, 30 June 2021 (UTC)

(Updated) Edit Request: AT&T Latin America
NOTE: I’m proposing the following edits for FleishmanHillard on behalf of AT&T. I am a paid editor and aware of the COI guidelines. I have revised our original edit request per feedback from the previous editor and seek updates to reflect correct/recent figures, two updates in the business’s history and the possible shift of some information to a different section in the article where it is more relevant. As always, appreciate your time and consideration. Jon Gray (talk) 14:02, 1 July 2021 (UTC)

AT&T Latin America – Infobox


 * Recommend updating Revenue to read US$5.7 billion (2020) to reflect most recent figure available.


 * Total assets: Total assets currently listed ($403 billion) are for all of AT&T, not just AT&T Latin America. Recommend updating this figure to read $15.8 billion USD to accurately reflect AT&T Latin America’s most recent total assets figure.


 * Recommend updating Number of Employees to 32,500. The number currently on page reflects all of AT&T’s employees, not just those from the AT&T Latin America business segment.

--

AT&T Latin America


 * Toward the end of first sentence, recommend updating number of other countries in which AT&T Latin America operates from 11 to 10 to accurately reflect current scope of operations after the company ended operations in Venezuela.


 * Recommend adding the following sentence after the current second sentence (In 2017, AT&T announced a new…) to add appointment of CEO Lori Lee (proposed addition in bold):

Lori Lee was appointed CEO of AT&T International in July 2017.
 * First and second full paragraphs (In October 2016, AT&T announced a deal to acquire Time Warner…Two days later, AT&T completed the acquisition of Time Warner, and a day later, the company was renamed WarnerMedia.). Recommend moving these two paragraphs to “Recent Developments (2014 – present)” section, as the content has no specific relevance to AT&T Latin America.


 * Recommend adding the following information in advance of the sentence that begins with (On September 21, 2018…) for additional information regarding company’s history in 2018 (requested addition in bold):

'''In August 2018, Melissa Arnoldi was named CEO of AT&T’s Vrio subsidiary in Latin America.


 * Final sentence (In October 2019, AT&T Latin America announced its intention…): Recommend changing “AT&T Latin America” to “AT&T” to accurately reflect which company made the announcement.

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 * I implemented the edit request with respect to the infobox and requested change to the first sentence only; apologies, the other changes are a bit more involved than I have time for at the moment. Note that I looked through someone of the proposed changes and I'm not sure how WP:DUE the news items are per WP:NOTNEWS, but I'll let another editor examine those. (Actually, a lot of this article should probably be cleaned up with WP:NOTNEWS in mind.)
 * Note that I added the number of employees to override information being imported from Wikidata, but a citation for this figure would be nice.
 * I'm leaving this edit request open for other editors to look at. Aoi (青い) (talk) 22:28, 1 July 2021 (UTC)


 * I oppose much of this on WP:DIRECTORY grounds (except infobox changes already implemented). If the CEO is in the infobox, why do we need to re-state it in prose? Things such as CEO of yet another subsidiary is not notable. If anything we need to trim some of the WP:RECENTISM, not add more. I'm not gonna close this request, but I do feel implementing further COI requests without a good cleanup would harm the article.  Mel ma nn   17:12, 4 July 2021 (UTC)


 * I deleted about 9,500 characters of material from the history and AT&T Latin America portions of the article per WP:RECENTISM, but there's definitely other parts of the prose that could be pared back and cleaned up. As for the remaining parts of the edit request, I added the requested sentence about the AT&T Latin America CEO and edited the final sentence of the AT&T Latin America section per the request, but declined to implement the remaining portions of the edit request. I agree with Melmann that it's not necessary (and not desirable) to list the appointment date of every single executive; in this case, this isn't just an AT&T subsidiary but a subsidiary of a subsidiary. That information could probably be added to Vrio Corp., if anywhere. The stuff about the Time Warner acquisition was largely redundant with material already in the history section so I just deleted the material instead of moving it. Aoi (青い) (talk) 00:37, 9 July 2021 (UTC)