My grandparents met at T and were some of the first employees of the company, as such, they were given shares of T with every paycheck until they retired.
T lost their way around 2000. My father inherited all that T (and tons of spinoffs from the breakup), I told him to dump T when it was in the high 60s then but he didn't.
When I inherited it, it had recovered to almost 40 after collapsing. I started unloading but had hoards of it so had to space it out. As I was, T continued to disappoint. I celebrated when I finally unloaded my last share at $31.
Here we are now in the low 20s. I'm telling you, T has a unique way of continuously disappointing year after year after year.....
They have lost their focus and want to grow but don't know how. They tried media, cable, satellite etc. It's like they throw darts at a board to see which way they'll go next.
I'm not very bullish on telecom as I see it as a bottomless pit of technology upgrades. Pre-cellphones, they built their infrastructure and then sat back and collected a steady income stream. Now however, they build but the technology advances and they have to start all over again. Customers have more choices so they can jump to the competition easier. Gone are the days of low debt, steady income and predictable margins.
All that said, I have held on to my VZ. They have stayed just a phone company and at least locally, they are the only service that consistently works. T is hit and miss, T-Mobile barely works at all.
I will add, I despise It's deceptive practices. I had them for cable broadband, direcTV and cellphone service in the past and they have more hidden fees, rate increases until you threaten to leave than anyone else I have ever dealt with.
Between their past issues, high debt, no focus and lousy customer service, T is just an investment in future disappointment. |
