2020s
John Stankey says AT&T ran its existing business well during the pandemic but did not innovate and change it enough.
“What I don't think we did particularly well during that time is really innovate and change the business.”
Topic
John Stankey
38 facts from 3 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2026
Stankey expects real end-user satellite connectivity services to begin appearing in 2026.
“I think you're going to see a lot in 2026, next year, I think you're going to start seeing real end user services coming about.”
2026
John Stankey says AT&T is running seven very large initiatives that account for most of its annual capital and reinvestment, about $24 billion.
“we are, uh, effectively running seven very, very large initiatives in this business that basically constitute the bulk of our capital and reinvestment in our company each year right now, to the tune of about 24 billion of investment and change.”
2026
John Stankey says AT&T is 30% more productive at writing code with AI and spends about $2 billion a year on development.
“We're 30% more productive in writing code for our software development right now, and we do about $2 billion of development a year.”
2026
John Stankey says AT&T and its competitors now run the US communications network with about 120,000 domestic employees.
“the reality is is we're down to about 120,000 domestic employees today largely running a nationwide communications infrastructure”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T is approaching its 150th anniversary the following year.
“Just about on year one fifty s next year, so it's a big deal.”
Undated
Stankey says AT&T divested its content business so it could focus on its core connectivity business.
“It was it was necessary, it was, uh, in order for us to be really good at our core business, which was connectivity.”
Undated
Stankey says he waited about five hours in line to get a Princess phone for his college dorm room, his first telephone.
“I had my very first telephone when I went to college, and I stood in line for about five hours to get a Princess phone to put in my dorm room.”
Undated
Stankey says his first wireless phone was an Oki car-mounted device with the unit in the trunk and the handset on the console.
“It's my first wireless phone, uh, was a, uh, it was an Oki car-mounted device that, uh, went in the trunk of the car and and sat on the console of the car.”
Undated
Stankey says that over the past couple of years countries have become more sensitive about foreign ownership of critical assets, which discouraged AT&T from expanding beyond North America.
“I see more of a balkanization going on, where many countries are becoming much more sensitive around foreign ownership of critical assets.”
Undated
Stankey says parts of Europe have communications infrastructure he compares to the third world, though he says Norway may not be one of them.
“I think you have a developed, uh, set of economies that are basically on third world communications infrastructure in many instances.”
Undated
Stankey says he views all networks as fiber networks with different access technologies, such as cell towers or wall jacks, attached at the end.
“My belief is everything's a fiber network with different access technology hanging on the end of it.”
Undated
Stankey says the low-band TDD spectrum AT&T bought lets the company engineer more upstream capacity on its wireless network.
“the TDD spectrum that, uh, that low-band spectrum has allows you to engineer the upstream more aggressively.”
Undated
Stankey says AT&T often defends its networks against nation-state attackers who face no profit-and-loss constraints, so it collaborates with government and industry partners.
“We're a particular for-profit company that's oftentimes fighting nation-state actors that have no budget and they don't have a P&L they have to report on or a balance sheet they have to worry about.”
Undated
Stankey says video accounts for over 80% of total traffic on AT&T's network, both downstream and upstream.
“Today, video in total, both downstream and upstream, drives over 80% of the total traffic on the network today.”
Undated
Stankey predicts 6G will be oriented toward enterprises rather than consumers, with better latency, security and device scalability.
“six G is going to be very enterprise-oriented as opposed to consumer-oriented.”
Undated
Stankey says AT&T uses AI to retune cell sites dynamically in real time to follow crowd demand, such as during a marathon.
“If a marathon is underway and and traffic, uh, people are snaking through a city with different, uh, demands at different parts of the city, we can tune the network to follow that demand”
Undated
Stankey says only a handful of companies, perhaps three or four, will build data centers at scale using their own chip designs, which is why AT&T does not invest in them.
“There aren't going to be eighteen people building data centers, there's going to be a handful, three, four, and they're all doing it on native hardware”
Undated
Stankey says available electrical power in the US will limit how many announced AI data center projects can be built.
“I think there's going to be a limiting factor, at least in the US, around how much power is available to turn it all up.”
Undated
Stankey says AT&T has about 130,000 employees and that getting them aligned is what makes culture change hard.
“somehow, you gotta get 130,000 people viewing something in a common fashion.”
Undated
Stankey says AT&T built an AI center of excellence whose experts act as internal consultants rather than spreading AI expertise thinly across the company.
“We've built a center of excellence where they're available, the expertise in AI is available to anybody in the company, and they work out as consultants in the company”
Undated
Stankey describes his transformation of AT&T, covering focus, cost cuts, fiber investment and customer-centric culture, as a five-year journey with a few years still to go.
“it's really been a bit of a five-year journey that has a few more years left to go before we get to where we need to be.”
Undated
Stankey says the internet took about 25 years to change business models and that AI will probably do the same in half the time.
“if we took us twenty five years to get to where we are on the dawn of the Internet and how it's changed our business models”
Undated
Alison Beard says the next installment of the IdeaCast series will feature AT&T CEO John Stankey on technology and talent in the AI era.
“I'll be talking to ATT's CEO John Stankey about technology and talent in the AI era.”
Undated
After John Stankey became CEO of AT&T, the company sold media assets and refocused on connectivity, according to host Alison Beard.
“you made a quick strategic pivot, you sold off media assets, and I said, refocused the company on its connectivity routes.”
Undated
John Stankey describes AT&T as having a 150-year history.
“There's a very proud 150 year history of things that we've done very well.”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T has changed from delivering long-distance telephone calls to being largely a data company with both fixed and wireless infrastructure.
“And now we're largely a a data company, and we're a data company that not only does things with fixed infrastructure, but wireless.”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T is very different from the company he joined forty years ago.
“company's very different than the one I joined forty years ago”
Undated
John Stankey attributes AT&T's need for a customer-driven culture to the internet, software-based business models and low switching costs.
“What brought that about is the dawn of the internet and the dawn of software based models and the customer being able to dictate how they want to do business with, uh, another company and low switching costs.”
Undated
John Stankey describes AT&T's workforce as a barbell of long-tenured veterans and newer, less seasoned hires.
“I have a bit of a barbell workforce. I have a group of individuals that are very seasoned, they've been here a very long time.”
Undated
John Stankey says most mass-market communications infrastructure is asymmetrical, with much more download than upload bandwidth.
“Most of communications infrastructure, especially those that have been built for the mass market, have been asymmetrical in nature, meaning there's a tremendous amount of bandwidth down and not as much bandwidth up.”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T is building fiber because it provides symmetrical bandwidth for AI uses.
“that's why we're putting so much fiber in place, because the technology's fantastic, it's symmetrical in nature, it facilitates that.”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T has been growing its customer base at roughly 5% a year while the staff supporting customer queries has dropped sharply.
“We've been growing customers at a rate of probably in the 5% range a year.”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T uses AI on proprietary and public data to set competitive prices for business customers.
“And we do that through proprietary data that we have married with public data and information that we can be collect through our relationships with customers.”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T's legal department uses AI to handle research, document review and email analysis.
“We're using it in our legal department to take away administrative work and the grunt work of research and plowing through documents and analyzing emails”
Undated
John Stankey says that without technology efficiencies, broadband would cost about $850 a month, as a business once paid for a 1.5 megabit circuit.
“You'd be paying 850 a month for what a business used to pay for 1.5 megabit circuit to the business.”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T's law-school hires are more adept with AI tools than people who did not grow up with them.
“out of law school that are coming in guess what they're a lot more adept and comfortable with the tools”
Undated
John Stankey says AT&T moved AI from a central technology organization to centers of excellence within each department.
“we've now done steps to decentralize AI, where we used to run it a little bit in the early days in a more central technology organization.”
Episodes