Equipment drags on A.T.&T.; the phone giant's manufacturing woes cause dismay on Wall Street

Article Abstract:

AT&T still makes phone equipment, remaining the world's largest producer of switchboards and central-office equipment. Equipment sales and rentals made up two-fifths of AT&T's $36 billion in revenues in 1989, but AT&T's products are in markets that are stagnant and vulnerable to competition. On Wed, Jun 27, 1990, AT&T announced that weak equipment sales, together with high credit-card costs, will depress profits in the 2nd qtr of 1990. AT&T's stock responded, falling $2.125 a share, to $39.125, in a trading avalanche that constituted 8 percent of trading on the New York Stock Exchange that day, and by Friday, AT&T stock was selling at $38.50. Some analysts say AT&T should get out of manufacturing and focus on long-distance services: the sheer size of what once was Western Electric, together with a lumbering reputation, make AT&T's manufacturing operations a natural target for other companies.

Telephone communications, exc. radio, Analysis, Product information, T, Telecommunications equipment industry, Telecommunications equipment, Regional Bell Operating Companies, American Telephone and Telegraph Co., Communications Equipment, Industry Analysis, Stock, Bell Regional Holding Companies

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The pileup of communications bills

Article Abstract:

The US Congress puts several communications bills on hold including important proposals such as constructing a national fiber-optic cable network for high-speed computer communications and the redistribution of some of the government's radio and microwave frequencies. The US Department of Defense expresses strong opposition to the legislation that would transfer radio frequencies from the federal government to private companies and state and local governments. A bill to spend $1.75 billion on the construction of a fiber-optics-based network to link universities and supercomputer centers across the nation stalled in a House subcommittee after some Democrats complained that the network would be elitist.

COMMUNICATION, Legislative bodies, Science and technology policy, Fiber optics, United States. Congress, Telecommunications Industry, Government

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'Baby Bell' expansion is backed; Senate panel clears equipment sale bill

Article Abstract:

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation has overturned a decision by Federal District Judge Harold Greene and approved a bill that will allow regional Bell telephone companies to manufacture and sell telephone equipment. Local telephone companies have been barred from the highly competitive and lucrative $50 billion market since the breakup of AT and T on Jan 1, 1984. A controversial provision in the bill requires the telephone companies to use products made in the United States but it may be subject to changes by several other Congressional committees before it reaches the Senate floor where it is likely to raise antitrust issues.

Equipment and supplies, Antitrust law, Economic policy, Telephone, Telephony, Commercial law, Legislative process, Legislation, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Greene, Harold

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