Subject: [NEXTEL-1] AT&T CEO shares pain of fellow wireless users

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 10:24:47 -0400

AT&T CEO shares pain of fellow wireless users

 WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The next time you can't get a signal
on your wireless phone, you may find some solace in knowing the head
of the No. 1 U.S. long-distance company has to go to his own driveway
when he wants to make a call from home.

AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - News) Chief Executive Officer Dave Dorman says
his neighborhood won't let his provider, AT&T Wireless Services
(NYSE:AWE - News), put up more antennas in the posh Atlanta suburb
where he lives and that prevents him from making calls in his home.

"I can't use AT&T Wireless at home without going and standing on the
driveway, which at times can be inconvenient," Dorman said in a speech
to the American Enterprise Institute. He offered apologies to John
Zeglis, chief executive of the wireless carrier that was once a unit
of AT&T,

Roughly 5 percent of Americans have abandoned their plain old
telephone service for wireless phones, the industry estimates. But
dissatisfaction with the quality of service and the inability to
receive calls due to the lack of local antennae has sent some back to
traditional land-line service.

"It's the same problem that a lot of residential communities have ...
You can't get the antennas close enough to the customers just yet,
even with the advent of metal trees," he told reporters.

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the industry,
logged 365 complaints about wireless service quality between April and
June of this year, down a bit from the 450 complaints received in the
prior three months.

Asked if he would be willing to stash an antenna in his attic like
churches and other buildings are doing, Dorman replied with a wink,
"That'd be cool if you'd want to do that ... I could probably make
some money on it." 

http://reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=governmentFilingsNews&storyID=3448527

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