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From: lfd@lcuxlq.att.com (Leland F Derbenwick)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Divestiture -- Keep on Truckin
Message-ID: <12227@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 17 Sep 90 01:12:52 GMT
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In article <12125@accuvax.nwu.edu>, eli@pws.bull.com (Steve Elias)
writes:

(In reply to and quoting some email I sent him.  Since he's made it
public, I feel I should reply in public.  These are my own personal
comments, as I am in no position to speak for AT&T on this -- I'm
not even involved with the long-distance side of the business.)

> lfd@lcuxlq.att.com (Leland F Derbenwick) writes:

> > Would you mind posting a description of those "monopolistic advantages"
> > that AT&T "still enjoys"?

> The large inventory of switching equipment that ATT has and their
> practice of giving it away in order to win contracts.  Isn't some of
> this inventory leftover from the monopoly days?

I most sincerely hope not.  It costs big bucks to store and pay the
interest on investments in non-productive inventory.  And end-user
equipment from the days when the IBM XT was a _really good_ PC is
hardly going to be worth much these days, anyhow.

> ATT's enormous cash and capital reserve is a leftover from the
> monopoly days and allows them to outspend their competition when it
> comes to advertising and shmoozing cusomters, as well as allowing them
> to give away equipment in order to win bids.  Note that the FCC and
> Judgefolk decided that these things are not in violation of
> divestiture.  My opinion obviously doesn't carry much weight on this
> legal issue!  (Not the first time!)

Our capital reserve is essentially all invested in our network, our
factories, and our offices, and I don't know of any huge cash reserve.
(If we had one, I doubt if we'd have cut our workforce from about
400,000 employees at divestiture to somewhere around 270,000 today.)

And I may just not have kept up with the news, but I haven't heard
about any great giveaways.  Sorry.

How about a fact or two, rather than unsubstantiated accusations about
huge hoards left over from more than six years ago?

Speaking strictly for myself,

Lee Derbenwick, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Warren, NJ
lfd@cbnewsm.ATT.COM  or  <wherever>!att!cbnewsm!lfd