AT&T Broadband’s Somers: ‘I’ve Got A Great Job’

AT&T Broadband president and CEO Dan Somers says he has “a great job” and isn’t planning to leave it any time soon.

Somers, the luncheon speaker at a CableLabs-sponsored press gathering outside Denver yesterday, was asked about reports that AT&T chairman C. Michael Armstrong is interested in taking over AT&T Broadband when the telephone giant divests.

“I’m thrilled that a lot of folks want my job and that you all write about it, because I have one helluva job," he said. "I’m very happy doing it. I’m still here in Denver, and I’ll be here as long as they want me to be here, and everything else is bullshit. There’s my answer.”

Somers then somewhat testily added that Armstrong’s reported interest in his position is “great.”

“I’m glad he wants my job. So do 400 other people,” Somers said. “I’ve got a great job. I run the largest broadband company in the world. I have the AT&T brand, I have trucks rolling like mad, our revenues are growing, our cash flow is going to get better this year. I have a great management team. So I’m sure a lot of people want my job.”

Somers spent the better part of his talk defending AT&T Broadband’s performance. The company has been castigated for overspending and underproducing last year.

“I think some thought that last year was not a good year for us,” he said. “No doubt, our cash flow was down year over year. I don’t know why people were surprised. All we did was add 2.4 million products and in one year created the largest telephony company not on copper ever in the history of mankind.”

That telephony company doesn’t use voice-over-IP [VoIP] technology, as many had expected it might. That’s because “telephone is a hard business--but boy, it’s one helluva good business,” Somers said.

AT&T Broadband will “end this year much stronger, much healthier financially," he predicted.

The company continues to pursue telephony customers via constant-bit-rate technologies but plans to migrate to a hybrid format that utilizes its data-based cable modem technologies before it moves to pure IP.

“Why would I walk away from a customer who spends over $50 a month with us?” Somers wondered. “Why? Because it’s hard? Why wouldn’t we do telephony?”

That doesn’t mean IP telephony is anywhere in the near future, even though AT&T Broadband has been testing it for two-and-a-half years, Somers cautioned.

“Are we interested in doing that? Yes. Is the technology developed to deliver that in a way that our customers would be satisfied? No,” he said.

Somers declined to predict when IP telephony might be ready for roll out on AT&T Broadband systems.

“I don’t think anybody can say when it will be ready in a form and substance that we’d like it to be ready,” he said. “Some say we’ve missed the boat. We think the boat’s still in the shipyard being built. And in the meantime, we’re building a base of phone customers that’s significant.”