AT&T Leaving San Antonio

[GopherSA]

ATT announces move from SA to Dallas...cites airport as one of the reasons for the move.


With customers and operations in all 50 U.S. states and 160 countries, air travel to and from Dallas will be more convenient, time efficient and cost effective. The DFW airport is the third largest in the U.S. and one of the top six in the world, offering daily nonstop service to 35 international and 133 U.S. destinations. Additionally, Dallas enjoys a second major airport; Love Field — the 50th largest U.S. airport — offers more than 160 nonstop flights daily.

ATT press release (http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=25882)

Air travel to/from SA is awful...and here's an example it costing the city jobs.

[anakha]

Does this mean that the Spurs' arena gets renamed again?

[GopherSA]

Not until the current deal runs out - and even then, who's going to have enough cash to do that? The economy here is starting to tank in the same way the rest of the country has already tanked.

[FromWayDowntown]

Not until the current deal runs out - and even then, who's going to have enough cash to do that? The economy here is starting to tank in the same way the rest of the country has already tanked.

http://sp1.yt-thm-a01.yimg.com/image/25/m6/3593947401

[clambake]

http://sp1.yt-thm-a01.yimg.com/image/25/m6/3593947401

:lmao that would be a laugh riot in the political forum

[braeden0613]

http://sp1.yt-thm-a01.yimg.com/image/25/m6/3593947401
Well that's better than energy solutions.

[ChumpDumper]

Seriously?

The airport?

AT&T can't do business over the phone?

[GopherSA]

Seriously?

The airport?

AT&T can't do business over the phone?

Sure...not all business can be done over the phone. The SA airport is a terrible airport for a town that believes itself to be a major city. It shouldn't even be where it is - it would be better located on the south or west sides of town in either a greenfield site or a former military base (Kelly? Brooks?).

But nope, we're pumping cash into an airport that has already become too small. Add to that the fact that, although you can go anywhere from the SA airport, that "anywhere" will include a connecting flight and layover.

Time is money...and layovers are a waste of time.

[Nbadan]

Realistically, It was only a matter of time before San Antonio started feeling the effects of the weakened economy anyway...all those people from California, Florida and other coastal cities can't sell their homes and walk away with a tidy profit like they used too and dump that cash into cheaper, larger homes in San Antonio...also, the engine that once drove San Antonio's economy has stalled.....health care rates have remained relatively flat for the last 2 years while costs keep rising...

[ChumpDumper]

Sure...not all business can be done over the phone.It's the phone company.

[DMX7]

It's the phone company.

It's a communications company. They offer TV, broadband internet, etc.

[boutons_]

700 jobs are 700 not cubicle bots. That's lot of top salaries leaving town.

How many private corporate jets does ATT fly out of SA? Execs are often "forced" to fly private jet "for their own security".

[GopherSA]

700 jobs are 700 not cubicle bots. That's lot of top salaries leaving town.

How many private corporate jets does ATT fly out of SA? Execs are often "forced" to fly private jet "for their own security".


It's not about security, it's about time consumed...and there are not that many private jets departing SA carrying ATT management staff. A few, yes, but not that many. Regardless of that, it's not just about the time burned by the "senior executive vp of yadayada" - it's also about the time burned by anyone in the organization. You can fly from SA to just about anywhere in five hours if it's direct. But most of the time you can't do that. You have to fly three hours from SA to somewhere, do a 90+ minute layover (at a minimum) and then fly three more hours to get to the next stop.

Delays impact your travel time dramatically with connecting flights - the more connections, the higher the risk of delay. It's all about cost - and until we have a real airport with decent flight selections, we're going to keep seeing this thing happening.

[xrayzebra]

I have to wonder too, if ATT doesn't get tired of the same old politicians coming to them with their hands out for this and that cause. I saw where Hardberger and the movers and shakers said they had met with them last Tuesday and no inkling of the move was mentioned. I would bet that the subject of money for term limits came up. Might have been the straw that broke the camels back.

But the Air connections here in San Antonio do suck. And to top it off try getting into and out the blasted airport for all the construction. It reminds me of 410, I have travelled 410 since the 60's and the North side has been torn up almost continually in all that time. No wonder we have traffice congestion, they never get the blasted thing open completely.

Anyhow, there will be no hope for better air connections in the near future. Airlines are cutting back not ramping up flights. SA ought to just get one of the majors to put a hub in. Austin is going to outdo San Antonio soon in that departments. Have any of you been up there lately to their airport. Makes ours look sick.

[DMX7]

I have to wonder too, if ATT doesn't get tired of the same old politicians coming to them with their hands out for this and that cause. I saw where Hardberger and the movers and shakers said they had met with them last Tuesday and no inkling of the move was mentioned. I would bet that the subject of money for term limits came up. Might have been the straw that broke the camels back.

But the Air connections here in San Antonio do suck. And to top it off try getting into and out the blasted airport for all the construction. It reminds me of 410, I have travelled 410 since the 60's and the North side has been torn up almost continually in all that time. No wonder we have traffice congestion, they never get the blasted thing open completely.

Anyhow, there will be no hope for better air connections in the near future. Airlines are cutting back not ramping up flights. SA ought to just get one of the majors to put a hub in. Austin is going to outdo San Antonio soon in that departments. Have any of you been up there lately to their airport. Makes ours look sick.

We're expanding our airport big time. It'll be very competitive. Everything else you said is dead on though.

[boutons_]

"real airport"

won't change much.

As a direct result of airline deregulation, the airlines did what is best for them, fuck the customers, which is strategic hub-spoke routing, while killing off service to smaller aiports. Deregulation of the airlines has been a huge success story for the airlines and for their customers. :lol

A bigger SA airport will not turn SA into a major hub in comparison with DFW or HOU, so most SA travellers will still be faced with travelling first to DFW or HOU. This will probably get worse as the airlines kill more flights and cities served in response to high priced oil this year and next.

ATT is moving to DFW area simply because it's an AA and Southwest hub, eliminating their SA-DFW hop. From DFW, only one hop to Chicago or New York.

Plus, as the top 700 ATT run ATT primarily for their own benefit and enrichment, they probably figure Dallas metro offers them much more personally than SA.

[ChumpDumper]

It's a communications company. They offer TV, broadband internet, etc.Exactly.

[xrayzebra]

"real airport"

won't change much.

As a direct result of airline deregulation, the airlines did what is best for them, fuck the customers, which is strategic hub-spoke routing, while killing off service to smaller aiports. Deregulation of the airlines has been a huge success story for the airlines and for their customers. :lol

A bigger SA airport will not turn SA into a major hub in comparison with DFW or HOU, so most SA travellers will still be faced with travelling first to DFW or HOU. This will probably get worse as the airlines kill more flights and cities served in response to high priced oil this year and next.

ATT is moving to DFW area simply because it's an AA and Southwest hub, eliminating their SA-DFW hop. One hop to Chicago or New York.

Plus, as the top 700 ATT run ATT primarily for their own benefit and enrichment, they probably figure Dallas metro offers them much more personally than SA.

You know boutons, sometimes, you really do make such stupid statements. "F@@@ the customer". Now that really makes sense. Who pays the freight? Sure isn't anyone but the customer that I know of. Of course you live in the world of the European. Subsidies! You know where the employers subsidize their employees by giving them a transportation allowance. You are such a dumbass.

[JoeChalupa]

It was a bad call for SA to say the least.

[boutons_]

Castillo with other bad points:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA062908.1B.Castillo.EN.3fecb00.html

No way to spin it, when a city loses a Fortune 10 HQ, it hurts.

I wonder if Valero or Clear Channel will follow suit?

[Anti.Hero]

Not until the current deal runs out - and even then, who's going to have enough cash to do that? The economy here is starting to tank in the same way the rest of the country has already tanked.

It is?

[Crookshanks]

Plus, as the top 700 ATT run ATT primarily for their own benefit and enrichment, they probably figure Dallas metro offers them much more personally than SA.

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! I moved to Arlington earlier this year, and when I saw the story in the Dallas newspaper, I was shocked. My first thought was, wow, that's gonna suck for San Antonio! So, while people here are happy and excited, I was saddened because I lived in San Antonio for almost 16 years. But the leaders of San Antonio have got to wake up. With the high school drop out rate being so high, and the ever increasing numbers of people who speak little or no english, major employers like AT&T are having trouble finding skilled workers to fill the needed positions.

[exstatic]

Seriously?

The airport?

AT&T can't do business over the phone?

Think who runs the phones.

[exstatic]

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! I moved to Arlington earlier this year, and when I saw the story in the Dallas newspaper, I was shocked. My first thought was, wow, that's gonna suck for San Antonio! So, while people here are happy and excited, I was saddened because I lived in San Antonio for almost 16 years. But the leaders of San Antonio have got to wake up. With the high school drop out rate being so high, and the ever increasing numbers of people who speak little or no english, major employers like AT&T are having trouble finding skilled workers to fill the needed positions.

The workers aren't moving, just the suits. Fail.

[exstatic]

This company never had roots here. They moved from StL because Whitacre had a tiff with his country club membership. Apparently, they're all about capricious CEOs. Dallas had better not get too comfy having them there. I think calling them techno-carpetbaggers is probably too kind.

[Extra Stout]

The workers aren't moving, just the suits. Fail.
Yet.

[JoeChalupa]

There are plenty of skilled workers here in SA to fill those jobs. BS excuse.

[Extra Stout]

This company never had roots here. They moved from StL because Whitacre had a tiff with his country club membership. Apparently, they're all about capricious CEOs. Dallas had better not get too comfy having them there. I think calling them techno-carpetbaggers is probably too kind.
This is a textbook example of sour grapes.

[xrayzebra]

This is a textbook example of sour grapes.

Yep. San Antonio is what it is. San Antonio.

[exstatic]

This is a textbook example of sour grapes.

Sour grapes? More like "the truth hurts". They do seem to move whenever the mood strikes their current CEO. I'd say that qualifies them for a carpetbagger tag.

As for the other jobs, I think that even if they don't move, they're in jeopardy. True old school landline phones are going the way of the dodo. If people have a home phone at all, chances are it's VoIP. Many are doing away with it altogether. Their premium TV packages are rolling out slowly, and they are like 30 years behind cable in infrastructure penetration. Almost every home and apartment is already wired for cable.

They'd better hope their wireless keeps them afloat. Fortunately for SA, we have a nice homegrown outfit called Rackspace rolling out about 5000 tech jobs @ $56,000 apiece to absorb the AT&T slack. Give me the growing company over the dinosaur, anyday.

[GopherSA]

Rackspace is a fantastic company.

After seeing how well they ran things at the old mall on I35 during the Katrina relief efforts (I was a volunteer there), they're certainly equipped with good leaders at the mid -manager level.

[xrayzebra]

Sour grapes? More like "the truth hurts". They do seem to move whenever the mood strikes their current CEO. I'd say that qualifies them for a carpetbagger tag.

As for the other jobs, I think that even if they don't move, they're in jeopardy. True old school landline phones are going the way of the dodo. If people have a home phone at all, chances are it's VoIP. Many are doing away with it altogether. Their premium TV packages are rolling out slowly, and they are like 30 years behind cable in infrastructure penetration. Almost every home and apartment is already wired for cable.

They'd better hope their wireless keeps them afloat. Fortunately for SA, we have a nice homegrown outfit called Rackspace rolling out about 5000 tech jobs @ $56,000 apiece to absorb the AT&T slack. Give me the growing company over the dinosaur, anyday.

Ahhhhhh, hate to break it to you, but landline, whether copper or fiber optic is still landline. And without it, you don't got that internet for VOIP.
ATT is a long, long way from being extinct.
ATT will make the transition to fiber over time or some other technology. Dinosaurs they aren't.
In my lifetime I have seen communications technology going from the almost nothing to something out of star wars. And we aint seen anything yet.

[exstatic]

Ahhhhhh, hate to break it to you, but landline, whether copper or fiber optic is still landline. And without it, you don't got that internet for VOIP.
ATT is a long, long way from being extinct.
ATT will make the transition to fiber over time or some other technology. Dinosaurs they aren't.
In my lifetime I have seen communications technology going from the almost nothing to something out of star wars. And we aint seen anything yet.

The fact is, with the typical household, you have two things wired into or up to your house: a land phone line and RF cable line or lines. You can push phone and internet and TV over a land phone line, you just can't push as much. To take the next step will require a WHOLE new level of bandwidth, and on that infrastructure, they are way behind cable. I never said AT&T was extinct, but I do think they're in for stormy weather. When a company is huge, like an AT&T or a Microsoft, they tend to be inertia bound, and not react well to changes in their environment or market. Microsoft has a ton of cash, but they're losing the internet battle because they still think the fight is on the desktop. If they don't pull off the Y! aquistion, I think they're going to be in real trouble in 5-10 years. You may even see PC manufacturers start laying down systems with Lindows or other GUI Linux platform on it, maybe with Open Office loaded for the oldtimers to edit documents with. The kids today just want a browser to hit the internet. Everything they need is there, on their cell phone, or on their gaming platform of choice.

[GopherSA]

In my opinion, it's more about market saturation. When you're the biggest dog on the block and are essentially "THE" brand or company in your category...then it's tough to grow the business.

What stockholder wants to buy a share of XYZ Company for $35 and sell it for $35 three years later?

Only a fool would want that.

Stockholders want to see growth. How do you grow the business when you own the marketplace? It's pretty darned tough.