AT&T Wireless

The case of AT&T is a classic one in things gone wrong. Once a major name in the industry, AT&T that was also known as American Telephone and Telegraph is today gone. In its life, AT&T has been the world's largest telephone company, the largest cable television operator and in cases even a monopoly. However in early 2005, SBC Communications and AT&T began the legal process to merge and become one company. Many of its 31,000 workers are in the process of being laid off.

But how did it happen? It started with a new federal rule, which enabled wireless companies to switch subscribers among them while keeping their phone numbers. The purpose was to increase competition by letting customers choose the best service without penalty. However this led to a financial and public relations disaster for AT&T wireless. In the first 3 months itself, millions of subscribers fled the company. But this does not happen overnight, they must have been unhappy for a while. Where AT&T wireless failed is that, they had no idea about this ground reality and fell flat. Years of substandard customer care, bad coverage and dropped calls lead to worst nightmare coming true.

And then the worst that could have happened became a reality. Their rival Verizon wireless welcomed the customers of AT&T. So their loss was Verizon?s gain.

But the company has been making mistakes for years. Even when AT&T wireless had a technological edge, it failed to capitalize on that advantage. This happened due to several marketing mistakes due to poor management vision.

In the mid-1990s, the company was the only cellular carrier with almost a nationwide network. Though it was partly analog and partly digital, handsets were available to accommodate this. However, the company failed to market its industry leading coverage. Another mistake was when they branded their e-mail and web access services ?mMode?. This confused many. Then the company launched ?mLife? to advertise its data services. However, this meant nothing to many consumers.

The story of AT&T is a cautionary tale to other corporate giants. What is today may not remain forever. We sometimes tend to forget this simple truth.