74-650: The Internet backbone is the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected computer networks and core routers of the Internet . These data routes are hosted by commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity network centers as well as the Internet exchange points and network access points , which exchange Internet traffic internationally. Internet service providers (ISPs) participate in Internet backbone traffic through privately negotiated interconnection agreements , primarily governed by
148-492: A $ 39 billion stock and cash offer. The bid was withdrawn after the takeover company was faced with significant regulatory and legal hurdles, along with heavy resistance from the U.S. government. As per the original acquisition agreement, T-Mobile received $ 3 billion in cash as well as access to $ 1 billion worth of AT&T-held wireless spectrum. In September 2013, AT&T announced it would expand into Latin America through
222-493: A backbone of routers called Interface Message Processors . Other packet-switched computer networks proliferated starting in the 1970s, eventually adopting TCP/IP protocols or being replaced by newer networks. The National Science Foundation created the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) in 1986 by funding six networking sites using 56 kbit/s interconnecting links, with peering to
296-514: A cluster or a single switch or router. The topology and architecture of a collapsed backbone is a star or a rooted tree . The main advantages of the collapsed backbone approach are However, the drawback of the collapsed backbone is that if the box housing the backbone is down or there are reachability problem to the central location, the entire network will crash. These problems can be minimized by having redundant backbone boxes as well as having secondary/backup backbone locations. There are
370-594: A collaboration with América Móvil . In December 2013, AT&T announced plans to sell its Connecticut wireline operations to Stamford-based Frontier Communications . AT&T acquired BellSouth Corporation on December 29, 2006, following FCC approval. The transaction consolidated ownership and management of Cingular Wireless. AT&T rebranded its wireless retail stores from Cingular to AT&T in January 2007. In late 2014, AT&T purchased Mexican cellular carrier Iusacell , and two months later, it purchased
444-639: A failure. The data rates of backbone lines have increased over time. In 1998, all of the United States' backbone networks had utilized the slowest data rate of 45 Mbit/s. However, technological improvements allowed for 41 percent of backbones to have data rates of 2,488 Mbit/s or faster by the mid 2000s. The first packet-switched computer networks, the NPL network and the ARPANET were interconnected in 1973 via University College London . The ARPANET used
518-575: A few different types of backbones that are used for an enterprise-wide network. When organizations are looking for a very strong and trustworthy backbone they should choose a parallel backbone. This backbone is a variation of a collapsed backbone in that it uses a central node (connection point). Although, with a parallel backbone, it allows for duplicate connections when there is more than one router or switch . Each switch and router are connected by two cables. By having more than one cable connecting each device, it ensures network connectivity to any area of
592-513: A hierarchy. This kind of topology allows for simple expansion and limited capital outlay for growth, because more layers of devices can be added to existing layers. In a distributed backbone network, all of the devices that access the backbone share the transmission media, as every device connected to this network is sent all transmissions placed on that network. Distributed backbones, in all practicality, are in use by all large-scale networks. Applications in enterprise-wide scenarios confined to
666-503: A lawsuit for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division to block the merger with Time Warner, saying it "will harm competition, result in higher bills for consumers and less innovation." On June 12, 2018, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled that the merger could go forward. The merger closed two days afterwards, with Time Warner becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. A day later,
740-478: A separate entity, selling a 30% stake to TPG Capital (owners of Astound Broadband cable), while retaining a 70% stake in the new standalone company. The deal was closed on August 2, 2021. On May 17, 2021, AT&T announced plans to relinquish its equity interest in WarnerMedia , and have it merge with Discovery, Inc. in a US$ 43 billion deal to establish a new media company. Electronic Arts , which
814-494: A series of mergers, it became Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1920, which was then a subsidiary of the original American Telephone & Telegraph Company . The latter was a successor of the original Bell Telephone Company founded by Alexander Graham Bell in 1877. The American Bell Telephone Company formed the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) subsidiary in 1885. In 1899, AT&T became
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#1732787115778888-434: A single building are also practical, as certain connectivity devices can be assigned to certain floors or departments. Each floor or department possesses a LAN and a wiring closet with that workgroup's main hub or router connected to a bus-style network using backbone cabling. Another advantage of using a distributed backbone is the ability for network administrator to segregate workgroups for ease of management. There
962-439: A single cable in a daisy-chain fashion. A daisy chain is a group of connectivity devices linked together in a serial fashion. Hubs are often connected in this way to extend a network. However, hubs are not the only device that can be connected in a serial backbone. Gateways , routers , switches and bridges more commonly form part of the backbone. The serial backbone topology could be used for enterprise-wide networks, though it
1036-442: A specialty option. On April 24, 2020, AT&T announced that effective July 1, 2020, company COO John Stankey would replace Randall L. Stephenson as CEO of AT&T. It was also acknowledged that AT&T's acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner had by this point resulted in a massive debt burden of $ 200 billion for the company. As a result of planned cost cutting programs, the sale of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
1110-623: A wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. Cingular was then rebranded as AT&T Mobility . AT&T Inc. also acquired Time Warner in 2016, with the proposed merger confirmed on June 12, 2018 and the aim of making AT&T Inc. the largest and controlling shareholder of Time Warner, which it then rebranded as WarnerMedia in 2018. The company later withdrew its equity stake in WarnerMedia in 2022 and merged it with Discovery, Inc. to create Warner Bros. Discovery , divesting itself of its media arm. The current AT&T reconstitutes most of
1184-408: Is a major contributor to the growth of the international backbone as well as a contributor to the growth of Internet bandwidth. In 2003, Europe was credited with 82 percent of the world's international cross-border bandwidth. The company Level 3 Communications began to launch a line of dedicated Internet access and virtual private network services in 2011, giving large companies direct access to
1258-479: Is often mentioned as network backbone. Network congestion is often taken into consideration while designing backbones. One example of a backbone network is the Internet backbone . The theory, design principles, and first instantiation of the backbone network came from the telephone core network when traffic was purely voice. The core network was the central part of a telecommunications network that provided various services to customers who were connected by
1332-553: Is rarely implemented for that purpose. AT%26T AT&T Inc. , an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company , is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas , Texas . It is the world's third largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest wireless carrier in
1406-429: Is the possibility of single points of failure, referring to connectivity devices high in the series hierarchy. The distributed backbone must be designed to separate network traffic circulating on each individual LAN from the backbone network traffic by using access devices such as routers and bridges. A conventional backbone network spans distance to provide interconnectivity across multiple locations. In most cases,
1480-556: The Washington Post on May 10 confirmed the figure of 12 payments, which had begun three days after the President was sworn into office . AT&T confirmed the report the same day. The report from The Washington Post , as well as additional reporting from Bloomberg , revealed the payments had been made for Cohen to "provide guidance" relating to the attempted $ 85 billion merger with Time Warner , to gain information on
1554-709: The Asia Pacific ; its regional headquarters is located in Hong Kong. The company is also active in Mexico, and on November 7, 2014, it was announced that Mexican carrier Iusacell would be acquired by AT&T. The acquisition was approved in January 2015. On April 30, 2015, AT&T acquired wireless operations Nextel Mexico from NII Holdings (now AT&T Mexico). AT&T's current board of directors as of March 2024: The current management as of March 2024 includes: According to OpenSecrets , AT&T
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#17327871157781628-531: The Baby Bells , Ameritech sold some of its Wisconsin landlines to CenturyTel , in 1998; BellSouth sold some of its lines to MebTel, during the 2000s; US West sold many historically Bell landlines to Lynch Communications and Pacific Telecom , in the 1990s; Verizon sold many of its New England lines to FairPoint in 2008, and its West Virginia operations to Frontier Communications in 2010. On October 25, 2014, Frontier Communications took over control of
1702-826: The Kingsbury Commitment , throughout most of the twentieth century. This monopoly was known as the Bell System , and during this period, AT&T was also known by the nickname Ma Bell . In 1982, U.S. regulators broke up the AT&;T monopoly , requiring AT&T to divest its local subsidiaries, which it did by grouping them into seven individual companies. These new companies were known as Regional Bell Operating Companies, or more informally, Baby Bells. AT&T continued to operate long-distance services but faced increasing competition from competitors such as MCI and Sprint . Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC)
1776-400: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) follows in its rulemaking processes. The FCC would have to act in a more transparent way as a result of this bill, forced to accept public input about regulations. AT&T's Executive Vice President of Federal Relations, Tim McKone, said that the bill's "much needed institutional reforms will help arm the agency with the tools to keep pace with
1850-465: The access network . One of the main functions was to route telephone calls across the PSTN . Typically the term referred to the high capacity communication facilities that connect primary nodes. A core network provided paths for the exchange of information between different sub-networks . In the United States, local exchange core networks were linked by several competing interexchange networks ; in
1924-519: The ARPANET. In 1987, this new network was upgraded to 1.5 Mbit/s T1 links for thirteen sites. These sites included regional networks that in turn connected over 170 other networks. IBM , MCI and Merit upgraded the backbone to 45 Mbit/s bandwidth ( T3 ) in 1991. The combination of the ARPANET and NSFNET became known as the Internet. Within a few years, the dominance of the NSFNet backbone led to
1998-625: The AT&T landline network in Connecticut after being approved by state utility regulators. The deal was worth about $ 2 billion, and included Frontier inheriting about 2,500 of AT&T's employees and many of AT&T's buildings. The company is headquartered at Whitacre Tower in downtown Dallas, Texas. On June 27, 2008, AT&T announced that it would move its corporate headquarters from downtown San Antonio to One AT&T Plaza in downtown Dallas. The company said that it moved to gain better access to its customers and operations throughout
2072-580: The Caribbean under the Vrio brand; and Advertising and Analytics, since renamed Xandr . On July 13, 2017, it was reported that AT&T would introduce a cloud-based DVR streaming service. It hoped to create a unified platform across DirecTV and its DirecTV Now streaming service, with U-verse to be added shortly afterward. The service, named HBO Max , launched in May 2020. On September 12, 2017, it
2146-487: The IPO due to market conditions. As of 2019, AT&T is the world's largest telecommunications company. AT&T is also the largest provider of mobile telephone services and the largest provider of fixed telephone (landline) services in the United States. In September 2019, activist investor Elliott Management revealed that it had purchased $ 3.2 billion of AT&T stock (a 1.2% equity interest), and had pushed for
2220-476: The Internet backbone interconnection relationships as long as the market continues to function well. Backbone providers of unequal market share usually create agreements called transit agreements , and usually contain some type of monetary agreement. During the 2011 Egyptian revolution , the government of Egypt shut down the four major ISPs on January 27, 2011 at approximately 5:20 p.m. EST. The networks had not been physically interrupted, as
2294-516: The Internet speed of today's marketplace. It will also ensure that outmoded regulatory practices for today's competitive marketplace are properly placed in the dustbin of history." In May 2018, reports emerged that AT&T made 12 monthly payments between January and December 2017 to Essential Consultants, a company set up by President Donald Trump 's lawyer Michael Cohen , totaling $ 600,000. Although initial reports on May 8 mentioned only four monthly payments totaling $ 200,000, documents obtained by
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2368-556: The Internet transit traffic through Egypt was unaffected. Instead, the government shut down the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) sessions announcing local routes. BGP is responsible for routing traffic between ISPs. Only one of Egypt's ISPs was allowed to continue operations. The ISP Noor Group provided connectivity only to Egypt's stock exchange as well as some government ministries. Other ISPs started to offer free dial-up Internet access in other countries. Europe
2442-595: The Mexican wireless business of NII Holdings . AT&T merged the two companies to create AT&T Mexico . In July 2015, AT&T purchased DirecTV for $ 48.5 billion. AT&T then announced plans to converge its existing U-verse home internet and IPTV brands with DirecTV , to create AT&T Entertainment . On October 22, 2016, AT&T announced a deal to buy Time Warner for $ 108.7 billion in an effort to increase its media holdings. On November 20, 2017, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim filed
2516-578: The Private Enterprise Board of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives that drafts and shares model state-level legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States. During the period of 1998 to 2019, the company expended US$ 380.1 million on lobbying in
2590-587: The Trump administration's planned tax reforms, as well as about potential changes to net neutrality policies under the new FCC. Chairman of the FCC Ajit Pai denied Cohen ever inquired about net neutrality on AT&T's behalf. A spokesperson for AT&T said that the company had been contacted by the Special Counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller regarding the payments, and had provided all
2664-612: The United States behind Verizon and T-Mobile . As of 2023, AT&T was ranked 13th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations, with revenues of $ 122.4 billion. The modern company to bear the AT&T name began its history as the American District Telegraph Company, formed in St. Louis in 1878. After expanding services to Arkansas , Kansas , Oklahoma and Texas through
2738-539: The United States. A key political issue for AT&T has been the question of which businesses win the right to profit by providing broadband internet access in the United States. The company has also lobbied in support of several federal bills. AT&T supported the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act of 2013 (H.R. 3675; 113th Congress) , a bill that would make a number of changes to procedures that
2812-439: The backbones are the links while the switching or routing functions are done by the equipment at each location. It is a distributed architecture. A collapsed backbone (also known as inverted backbone or backbone-in-a-box) is a type of backbone network architecture. In the case of a collapsed backbone, each location features a link back to a central location to be connected to the collapsed backbone. The collapsed backbone can be
2886-469: The better-known AT&T name and brand, with the original AT&T Corporation still existing as the long-distance landline subsidiary of the merged company. The current AT&T Inc. claims the original AT&T Corporation's history (dating to 1877) as its own, but retains SBC's pre-2005 corporate structure and stock price history. As well, all SEC filings before 2005 are under SBC, not AT&T. AT&T made an attempt in 2011 to purchase T-Mobile for
2960-680: The breach. AT&T was also reported to have been affected by a 2024 attack from the Salt Typhoon advanced persistent threat linked to the Chinese government . Of the eight companies that were part of the Breakup of the Bell System, these five are a part of the current AT&T: AT&T's wireline business provides services in 22 states. The following companies have become defunct or were sold under SBC/AT&T ownership: Of
3034-817: The company changed its name to SBC Communications Inc. In early 1997 C. Michael Armstrong was named CEO, and Armstrong appointed John Zeglis as president later in that same year. By 1998, the company was in the top 15 of the Fortune 500, and by 1999, when Zeglis assumed the positions of chairman and CEO of AT&T Wireless , AT&T was part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (lasting through 2015). Zeglis ended his service as president of AT&T in 2001 and resigned from his positions in AT&T Wireless in 2004. On November 18, 2005, SBC Communications purchased its former parent, AT&T Corporation for $ 16 billion. After this purchase, SBC adopted
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3108-402: The company is reported to shareholders on an annual basis and a matter of public record. Where performance has been restated, the most recent statement of performance from an annual report is used. AT&T reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 5,788 Kt (-737 /-11.3% y-o-y) and plans to reduce emissions by 63% by 2030 from
3182-421: The company to divest assets to improve its share value. On March 4, 2020, AT&T announced its intent to perform major cost-cutting moves, including cuts to capital investment, and plans to promote AT&T TV (which officially launched nationally on March 2) as its primary pay television service offering. AT&T stated it would still primarily promote DirecTV "where cable broadband is not prevalent", and as
3256-534: The company was renamed WarnerMedia. Three months after completing the acquisition, AT&T reorganized into four main units: Communications, including consumer and business wireline telephony, AT&T Mobility, and consumer entertainment video services; WarnerMedia, including Turner cable television networks, Warner Bros. film and television production, and HBO ; AT&T Latin America, consisting of wireless service in Mexico and video in Latin America and
3330-451: The decommissioning of the redundant ARPANET infrastructure in 1990. In the early days of the Internet, backbone providers exchanged their traffic at government-sponsored network access points (NAPs), until the government privatized the Internet and transferred the NAPs to commercial providers. Because of the overlap and synergy between long-distance telephone networks and backbone networks,
3404-602: The endpoints of communication to handle most of the processing to ensure data integrity, reliability, and authentication. In addition, the high degree of redundancy of today's network links and sophisticated real-time routing protocols provide alternate paths of communications for load balancing and congestion avoidance. The largest providers, known as Tier 1 networks , have such comprehensive networks that they do not purchase transit agreements from other providers. The Internet backbone consists of many networks owned by numerous companies. Fiber-optic communication remains
3478-447: The enterprise-wide network. Parallel backbones are more expensive than other backbone networks because they require more cabling than the other network topologies . Although this can be a major factor when deciding which enterprise-wide topology to use, the expense of it makes up for the efficiency it creates by adding increased performance and fault tolerance . Most organizations use parallel backbones when there are critical devices on
3552-399: The fiber backbone infrastructure, but progress is slow due to lack of government funding. Japan 's internet backbone requires a high degree of efficiency to support high demand for the Internet and technology in general. Japan had over 86 million Internet users in 2009, and was projected to climb to nearly 91 million Internet users by 2015. Since Japan has a demand for fiber to
3626-449: The following functionality: Physically, one or more of these logical functionalities may simultaneously exist in a given core network node. Besides the above-mentioned functionalities, the following also formed part of a telecommunications core network: A distributed backbone is a backbone network that consists of a number of connectivity devices connected to a series of central connectivity devices, such as hubs, switches, or routers, in
3700-514: The former Bell System , and includes four of the seven "Baby Bells" along with the original AT&T Corp., including the long-distance division . AT&T was founded as Bell Telephone Company by Alexander Graham Bell , Thomas Watson and Gardiner Greene Hubbard after Bell's patenting of the telephone in 1875. By 1881, Bell Telephone Company had become the American Bell Telephone Company. One of its subsidiaries
3774-515: The headquarters for AT&T Mobility, with significant offices in Redmond, Washington, the former home of AT&T Wireless . Bedminster, New Jersey, is the headquarters for the company's Global Business Services group and AT&T Labs and is where the original AT&T Corp. remains located. St. Louis continues as home to the company's Directory operations, AT&T Advertising Solutions . AT&T also offers services in many locations throughout
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#17327871157783848-533: The home, Japan is looking into tapping a fiber-optic backbone line of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), a domestic backbone carrier, in order to deliver this service at cheaper prices. In some instances, the companies that own certain sections of the Internet backbone's physical infrastructure depend on competition in order to keep the Internet market profitable. This can be seen most prominently in China . Since China Telecom and China Unicom have acted as
3922-688: The information requested in November and December 2017. In early 2019, the Democratic House Judiciary requested records related to the AT&T-Time Warner merger from the White House . While it has expressed support for LGBTQ causes, AT&T has also donated to sponsors of anti-transgender legislation in several US states, especially those predominantly Republican -governed, including Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas and Florida. The financial performance of
3996-513: The largest long-distance voice carriers such as AT&T Inc. , Verizon , Sprint , and Lumen also own some of the largest Internet backbone networks. These backbone providers sell their services to Internet service providers. Each ISP has its own contingency network and is equipped with an outsourced backup. These networks are intertwined and crisscrossed to create a redundant network. Many companies operate their own backbones which are all interconnected at various Internet exchange points around
4070-411: The latter's branding, history, and stock trading symbol, as well as a version of its iconic logo. The merged entity, naming itself AT&T Inc., launched on December 30, 2005. The newly merged and renamed AT&T Inc. acquired BellSouth Corporation in 2006, the last independent Baby Bell, making the two companies' joint venture Cingular Wireless (which had itself acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004)
4144-434: The medium of choice for Internet backbone providers for several reasons. Fiber-optics allow for fast data speeds and large bandwidth , suffer relatively little attenuation — allowing them to cover long distances with few repeaters — and are immune to crosstalk and other forms of electromagnetic interference. The real-time routing protocols and redundancy built into the backbone is also able to reroute traffic in case of
4218-413: The nation. Backbone network A backbone or core network is a part of a computer network which interconnects networks, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks . A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same building, in different buildings in a campus environment, or over wide areas. Normally, the backbone's capacity is greater than
4292-411: The network. For example, if there is important data, such as payroll , that should be accessed at all times by multiple departments, then your organization should choose to implement a parallel backbone to make sure that the connectivity is never lost. A serial backbone is the simplest kind of backbone network. Serial backbones consist of two or more internet working devices connected to each other by
4366-401: The networks connected to it. A large corporation that has many locations may have a backbone network that ties all of the locations together, for example, if a server cluster needs to be accessed by different departments of a company that are located at different geographical locations. The pieces of the network connections (for example: Ethernet, wireless) that bring these departments together
4440-752: The parent company after the American Bell Telephone Company sold its assets to its subsidiary. During most of the 20th century, AT&T had a monopoly on phone service in the United States. The company was formally rebranded as AT&T Corporation in 1994. The 1982 United States v. AT&T antitrust lawsuit resulted in the divestiture of AT&T's ("Ma Bell") local operating subsidiaries which were grouped into seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), commonly referred to as "Baby Bells", resulting in seven independent companies, including Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC). The latter changed its name to SBC Communications Inc. in 1995. In 2005, SBC purchased its former parent AT&T Corp. and took on
4514-422: The principle of settlement-free peering . The Internet, and consequently its backbone networks, do not rely on central control or coordinating facilities, nor do they implement any global network policies. The resilience of the Internet results from its principal architectural features, such as the idea of placing as few network state and control functions as possible in the network elements, instead relying on
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#17327871157784588-720: The rest of the world, the core network has been extended to national boundaries. Core networks usually had a mesh topology that provided any-to-any connections among devices on the network. Many main service providers would have their own core/backbone networks that are interconnected. Some large enterprises have their own core/backbone network, which are typically connected to the public networks. Backbone networks create links that allow long-distance transmission, usually 10 to 100 miles, and in certain cases - up to 150 miles. This makes backbone network essential to providing long-haul wireless solutions to provide internet service , especially to remote areas. Core networks typically provided
4662-462: The sole Internet service providers to China for some time, smaller companies cannot compete with them in negotiating the interconnection settlement prices that keep the Internet market profitable in China. This imposition of discriminatory pricing by the large companies then results in market inefficiencies and stagnation, and ultimately affects the efficiency of the Internet backbone networks that service
4736-563: The tier 3 backbone. Connecting companies directly to the backbone will provide enterprises faster Internet service which meets a large market demand. Certain countries around the Caucasus have very simple backbone networks. In 2011, a 70-year-old woman in Georgia pierced a fiber backbone line with a shovel and left the neighboring country of Armenia without Internet access for 12 hours. The country has since made major developments to
4810-501: The use of another's network to hand off traffic where it is ultimately delivered. Usually they do not charge each other for this, as the companies get revenue from their customers. Antitrust authorities have acted to ensure that no provider grows large enough to dominate the backbone market. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission has decided not to monitor the competitive aspects of
4884-557: The world, and to the key technology partners, suppliers, innovation and human resources needed as it continues to grow, domestically and internationally. AT&T Inc. previously relocated its corporate headquarters to San Antonio from St. Louis, Missouri, in 1992, when it was then named Southwestern Bell Corporation. The company's Telecom Operations group, which serves residential and regional business customers in 22 U.S. states, remains in San Antonio. Atlanta, Georgia, continues to be
4958-428: The world. In order for data to navigate this web, it is necessary to have backbone routers— routers powerful enough to handle information—on the Internet backbone that are capable of directing data to other routers in order to send it to its final destination. Without them, information would be lost. Backbone providers of roughly equivalent market share regularly create agreements called peering agreements , which allow
5032-600: Was a bidder in the proposed sale of Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, purchased the mobile gaming studio Playdemic from WBIE for US$ 1.4 billion in June 2021. In September 2021, Fox Corporation acquired TMZ from WarnerMedia in a deal worth about $ 50 million with TMZ being operated under the Fox Entertainment division. On December 21, 2021, AT&T announced that they had agreed to sell Xandr (and AppNexus ) to Microsoft for an undisclosed price. The deal
5106-501: Was completed in June 2022. On April 8, 2022, the spinoff of WarnerMedia and its subsequent merger with Discovery, Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery was completed. As a result of this merger, HBO Max and other video services were dropped from AT&T's unlimited plan offering. AT&T was one of several clients of Snowflake Inc. that had data stolen in a 2024 breach. Phone and text logs from May 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022 of "nearly all" AT&T customers were exposed as part of
5180-479: Was one of the companies created by the breakup of AT&T Corp. The company soon started a series of acquisitions, including the 1987 acquisition of Metromedia mobile business and the acquisition of several cable companies in the early 1990s. In the latter half of the 1990s, the company acquired several other telecommunications companies, including two Baby Bells ( Pacific Telesis Group and Ameritech Corporation ), while selling its cable business. During this time,
5254-599: Was proposed, but ultimately abandoned due to COVID-19 pandemic -related growth in the video gaming industry, as well as a positive reception to upcoming DC Comics , Lego Star Wars , and Harry Potter titles from fans and critics. Crunchyroll was sold to Sony 's Funimation for US$ 1.175 billion in December 2020, with the acquisition closing in August 2021. On February 25, 2021, AT&T announced that it would spin-off DirecTV, U-Verse TV, and DirecTV Stream into
5328-428: Was reported that AT&T planned to launch a new cable TV-like service for delivery over-the-top over its own or a competitor's broadband network sometime the following year. On March 7, 2018, the company prepared to sell a minority stake of DirecTV Latin America through an IPO , creating a new holding company for those assets named Vrio Corp. On April 18, just a day before the public debut of Vrio, AT&T canceled
5402-406: Was the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), established in 1885. On December 30, 1899, AT&T acquired the assets of its parent American Bell Telephone, becoming the new parent company. AT&T established a network of local telephone subsidiaries in the United States. AT&T and its subsidiaries held a phone service monopoly , authorized in 1913 by government authorities with
5476-418: Was the fourteenth-largest donor to United States federal political campaigns and committees from 1989 to 2019, having contributed more than US$ 84.1 million , 42% of which went to Republicans and 58% of which went to Democrats . In 2005, AT&T was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $ 250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush . Bill Leahy, representing AT&T, sits on
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