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"I love those who yearn for the impossible." -Goethe I wish other large companies showed such ambition. Telecoms like AT&T can't even be bothered to roll out t

"I love those who yearn for the impossible." -Goethe I wish other large companies showed such ambition. Telecoms like AT&T can't even be bothered to roll out the network upgrades they promised in the early 2000's.

pizza 13y ago
Minor nitpick: AT&T has done a shit-ton of research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs edit: apparently a different beast than today's AT&T
- hnriot 13y ago
  And little things like Unix
  - mehrzad 13y ago
    and C
    - jamesaguilar 13y ago
      How long does a 100k+ employee company get credit for something a small handful of their employees did almost half a century ago? Not that C wasn't an achievement but . . .
      - mehrzad 13y ago
        I take my point back as the AT&T of today is not the same as it was back then, but the fact that the company funded this research is what makes it admirable.
      - flomo 13y ago
        The old monopoly AT&T wasn't just a company but presented itself as an American institution. They heavily publicized their Bell Labs inventions to help keep the anti-trust regulators off their back. Unix/C certainly benefited from this.
- hacknat 13y ago
  I'm sorry. What have you done for me lately? C and Unix don't count.
- nuclear_eclipse 13y ago
  That's not quite the same AT&T that everyone knows of today...
- aidenn0 13y ago
  Minor nitpick: The company now known as AT&T is essentially Cingular wireless; they bought the remnants of AT&Ts cell network and the rights to the name.
  - pizza 13y ago
    Thanks, didn't know.
  - bdcravens 13y ago
    There's a lot more to it than the wireless piece. Today's AT&T was Southwestern Bell/SBC which as you said, acquired AT&T and switched names.
  - guiambros 13y ago
    This explains clearly what happened with AT&T, and its multiple acquisitions over the years: http://videosift.com/video/Colbert-regarding-the-new-ATT http://videosift.com/video/Colbert-regarding-the-new-ATT
  - wilfra 13y ago
    Actually that is the company now known as AT&T Wireless. The company now known as AT&T was one of the 24 'Baby Bells' that were created when antitrust regulators broke up AT&T (the one that created Bell Labs) in 1984. The company used to be known as SBC Communications but changed it's name to AT&T after acquiring what was left of AT&T (mostly long-distance phone services) in 2005. Through a long series of acquisitions AT&T now owns 11/24 Baby Bells. Sources: [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T#History [2]My grandfather worked for AT&T for his entire career and I've involuntarily listened to a minimum of 100 hours of company history throughout my life.
    - pasbesoin 13y ago
      And the now AT&T carried over SBC's senior management, with all their -- in my opinion -- bad attitude and practices. Today's AT&T is not the AT&T of yore. Neither in its technical research, nor in its management.
- nhebb 13y ago
  AT&T spun off Bell Labs in the 90's as part of Lucent. Lucent was acquired by Alcatel. Alcatel shut down Bell labs in 2008.
  - aray 13y ago
    And of the computer science and other researchers that were at Bell Labs at the time, many now work at Google.
  - wetmore 13y ago
    And then they started patent trolling with the trove of patents they acquired.
  - tomphoolery 13y ago
    Doesn't say that on Wikipedia, did I miss something? Looks to me like they're just shifting Bell Labs' focus from basic scientific research and focusing all research into computer science aspects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs#2000s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs#2000s
  - parasubvert 13y ago
    AT&T also started and continued "AT&T labs" in 1996, which still exists, and was populated by many ex-Bell Labs folks.
- kiba 13y ago
  If any technology that was formed in AT&T labs that threaten AT&T's very survival or business model, they will certainly or did squash it.
- mathattack 13y ago
  Bell Labs is long gone, and existed to appease the government about a monopoly. This is about BIG thinking enabled by the unique org structure. Everything about corporate governance says this is a bad structure. But they still might pull this greatness off!
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
throwaway10001 13y ago
Google deserves a lot fo credit but let's give something to Jerry Knoblach and his team: "His plan: Beam it down from balloons hovering at the edge of space. This isn't just hot air. His company, Space Data Corp., already launches 10 balloons a day across the Southern U.S., providing specialized telecom services to truckers and oil companies. His balloons soar 20 miles into the stratosphere, each carrying a shoebox-size payload of electronics that acts like a mini cellphone "tower" covering thousands of square miles below. His idea has caught the eye of Google Inc., GOOG -0.22% according to people familiar with the matter. The Internet giant -- which is now pushing into wireless services -- has considered contracting with Space Data or even buying the firm, according to one person." http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120347353988378955.html?mod=blog http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120347353988378955.ht...
- jonmrodriguez 13y ago
  Awesome.
- Anm 13y ago
  Thanks for the history. For those only reading the excerpt, this article is from 2008.
throwaway10001 13y ago
"I love those who yearn for the impossible." -Goethe Google is taking this global, but I believe they bought the company behind this. They have been working on this for over 10 years! " But Space Data says its plan to create America's first floating wireless network -- by putting disposable transmitters on government weather balloons -- has already undergone successful testing and is economically viable. A trial run with text-messaging service in the Phoenix area is slated for this summer. The official launch of the messaging service would begin next spring in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, extending nationwide by the end of 2003. Cellular phone service could be added a year later if the company secures more funding. " http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/LIS/archive/wireless-tech/index%5Bballoon.wireless.ap%5D.html http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/LIS/archive/wireless-tech/in... At&T has no incentive, this probably would help new incumbents and they'll hate that. Google is not going to do something that helps a search competitor, so why should AT&T helps theirs?
rayiner 13y ago
Most large companies don't have the financial flexibility that Google's near-monopoly on search offers. Lots of ten-billion per year in revenue companies are eking out 5% margins in extremely competitive fields and can't afford to be distracted by ambitious projects. AT&T is locked in tight competition with Verizon in a very capital-intensive market, and can't afford to divert capital to blue-sky projects. Back when AT&T was a monopoly, we did see innovative projects like this come out of them. At the turn of the century, linking everyone in the U.S. with phone lines was a pretty blue-sky project. The AT&T phone network was a marvel of engineering of the time. And of course Bell Labs gave us tons of innovations. That's the beautiful thing about being in a market where you're not scraping around in the dirt trying to claw out the eyes of your competitors.
- sytelus 13y ago
  That's pretty weak defense of AT&T. They have 250,000+ employees. They spent half a billion dollors in alternative fuel vehicles investments in 2011 alone. They have 20B of total capital investment a year. Blue sky projects such as Loon typically takes couple of dozen employees and may be few million dollars to kick off - small enough to be rounding errors in AT&T's budgets. If I have to imagine, the reason AT&T doesn't do this is probably because (1) their leadership has lost habits of innovative/creative envisioning (2) their leadership probably laughed this off because potential for revenue from people in Sahara was not very tempting (3) Their middle management is not empowered or willing enough to paddle such ideas to top in the first place (4) They simply doesn't have setup where bottom-up vision is possible anymore so unless leadership envisions it and executes, it doesn't get done. The lack of money and employees is probably the last thing that would prevent AT&T to do these kind of projects.
- jkn 13y ago
  This financial flexibility certainly helps, but Google is hardly the only tech company with loads of cash. Consider Apple. They have famously high margins and insane cash reserves, projected to grow beyond $170 billion in 2013[1]. And to caricature a bit, they are dead focused on creating the most comfortable sofa browsing experience for rich people. This focus is good, it yields amazing products, but I do give Google credit for investing in such a crazy project as Loon, with the potential to benefit the poorest regions of the world. [1] http://paritynews.com/business/item/847-moody-apples-cash-reserve-to-cross-$170-billion-by-2013 http://paritynews.com/business/item/847-moody-apples-cash-re...
spinlock 13y ago
AT&T was planning to connect every home in America with fiber by the year 2000. Then they were broken up and the project was impossible to complete. The current AT&T is nothing like the old one. It's not even fair to compare them

pizza 13y ago

Minor nitpick: AT&T has done a shit-ton of research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs edit: apparently a different beast than today's AT&T

hnriot 13y ago
And little things like Unix
- mehrzad 13y ago
  and C
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    How long does a 100k+ employee company get credit for something a small handful of their employees did almost half a century ago? Not that C wasn't an achievement but . . .
    - mehrzad 13y ago
      I take my point back as the AT&T of today is not the same as it was back then, but the fact that the company funded this research is what makes it admirable.
    - flomo 13y ago
      The old monopoly AT&T wasn't just a company but presented itself as an American institution. They heavily publicized their Bell Labs inventions to help keep the anti-trust regulators off their back. Unix/C certainly benefited from this.
hacknat 13y ago
I'm sorry. What have you done for me lately? C and Unix don't count.
nuclear_eclipse 13y ago
That's not quite the same AT&T that everyone knows of today...
aidenn0 13y ago
Minor nitpick: The company now known as AT&T is essentially Cingular wireless; they bought the remnants of AT&Ts cell network and the rights to the name.
- pizza 13y ago
  Thanks, didn't know.
- bdcravens 13y ago
  There's a lot more to it than the wireless piece. Today's AT&T was Southwestern Bell/SBC which as you said, acquired AT&T and switched names.
- guiambros 13y ago
  This explains clearly what happened with AT&T, and its multiple acquisitions over the years: http://videosift.com/video/Colbert-regarding-the-new-ATT http://videosift.com/video/Colbert-regarding-the-new-ATT
- wilfra 13y ago
  Actually that is the company now known as AT&T Wireless. The company now known as AT&T was one of the 24 'Baby Bells' that were created when antitrust regulators broke up AT&T (the one that created Bell Labs) in 1984. The company used to be known as SBC Communications but changed it's name to AT&T after acquiring what was left of AT&T (mostly long-distance phone services) in 2005. Through a long series of acquisitions AT&T now owns 11/24 Baby Bells. Sources: [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T#History [2]My grandfather worked for AT&T for his entire career and I've involuntarily listened to a minimum of 100 hours of company history throughout my life.
  - pasbesoin 13y ago
    And the now AT&T carried over SBC's senior management, with all their -- in my opinion -- bad attitude and practices. Today's AT&T is not the AT&T of yore. Neither in its technical research, nor in its management.
nhebb 13y ago
AT&T spun off Bell Labs in the 90's as part of Lucent. Lucent was acquired by Alcatel. Alcatel shut down Bell labs in 2008.
- aray 13y ago
  And of the computer science and other researchers that were at Bell Labs at the time, many now work at Google.
- wetmore 13y ago
  And then they started patent trolling with the trove of patents they acquired.
- tomphoolery 13y ago
  Doesn't say that on Wikipedia, did I miss something? Looks to me like they're just shifting Bell Labs' focus from basic scientific research and focusing all research into computer science aspects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs#2000s https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs#2000s
- parasubvert 13y ago
  AT&T also started and continued "AT&T labs" in 1996, which still exists, and was populated by many ex-Bell Labs folks.
kiba 13y ago
If any technology that was formed in AT&T labs that threaten AT&T's very survival or business model, they will certainly or did squash it.
mathattack 13y ago
Bell Labs is long gone, and existed to appease the government about a monopoly. This is about BIG thinking enabled by the unique org structure. Everything about corporate governance says this is a bad structure. But they still might pull this greatness off!

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

throwaway10001 13y ago

Google deserves a lot fo credit but let's give something to Jerry Knoblach and his team: "His plan: Beam it down from balloons hovering at the edge of space. This isn't just hot air. His company, Space Data Corp., already launches 10 balloons a day across the Southern U.S., providing specialized telecom services to truckers and oil companies. His balloons soar 20 miles into the stratosphere, each carrying a shoebox-size payload of electronics that acts like a mini cellphone "tower" covering thousands of square miles below. His idea has caught the eye of Google Inc., GOOG -0.22% according to people familiar with the matter. The Internet giant -- which is now pushing into wireless services -- has considered contracting with Space Data or even buying the firm, according to one person." http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120347353988378955.html?mod=blog http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120347353988378955.ht...

jonmrodriguez 13y ago
Awesome.
Anm 13y ago
Thanks for the history. For those only reading the excerpt, this article is from 2008.

throwaway10001 13y ago

"I love those who yearn for the impossible." -Goethe Google is taking this global, but I believe they bought the company behind this. They have been working on this for over 10 years! " But Space Data says its plan to create America's first floating wireless network -- by putting disposable transmitters on government weather balloons -- has already undergone successful testing and is economically viable. A trial run with text-messaging service in the Phoenix area is slated for this summer. The official launch of the messaging service would begin next spring in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma, extending nationwide by the end of 2003. Cellular phone service could be added a year later if the company secures more funding. " http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/LIS/archive/wireless-tech/index%5Bballoon.wireless.ap%5D.html http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/LIS/archive/wireless-tech/in... At&T has no incentive, this probably would help new incumbents and they'll hate that. Google is not going to do something that helps a search competitor, so why should AT&T helps theirs?

rayiner 13y ago

Most large companies don't have the financial flexibility that Google's near-monopoly on search offers. Lots of ten-billion per year in revenue companies are eking out 5% margins in extremely competitive fields and can't afford to be distracted by ambitious projects. AT&T is locked in tight competition with Verizon in a very capital-intensive market, and can't afford to divert capital to blue-sky projects. Back when AT&T was a monopoly, we did see innovative projects like this come out of them. At the turn of the century, linking everyone in the U.S. with phone lines was a pretty blue-sky project. The AT&T phone network was a marvel of engineering of the time. And of course Bell Labs gave us tons of innovations. That's the beautiful thing about being in a market where you're not scraping around in the dirt trying to claw out the eyes of your competitors.

sytelus 13y ago
That's pretty weak defense of AT&T. They have 250,000+ employees. They spent half a billion dollors in alternative fuel vehicles investments in 2011 alone. They have 20B of total capital investment a year. Blue sky projects such as Loon typically takes couple of dozen employees and may be few million dollars to kick off - small enough to be rounding errors in AT&T's budgets. If I have to imagine, the reason AT&T doesn't do this is probably because (1) their leadership has lost habits of innovative/creative envisioning (2) their leadership probably laughed this off because potential for revenue from people in Sahara was not very tempting (3) Their middle management is not empowered or willing enough to paddle such ideas to top in the first place (4) They simply doesn't have setup where bottom-up vision is possible anymore so unless leadership envisions it and executes, it doesn't get done. The lack of money and employees is probably the last thing that would prevent AT&T to do these kind of projects.
jkn 13y ago
This financial flexibility certainly helps, but Google is hardly the only tech company with loads of cash. Consider Apple. They have famously high margins and insane cash reserves, projected to grow beyond $170 billion in 2013[1]. And to caricature a bit, they are dead focused on creating the most comfortable sofa browsing experience for rich people. This focus is good, it yields amazing products, but I do give Google credit for investing in such a crazy project as Loon, with the potential to benefit the poorest regions of the world. [1] http://paritynews.com/business/item/847-moody-apples-cash-reserve-to-cross-$170-billion-by-2013 http://paritynews.com/business/item/847-moody-apples-cash-re...

spinlock 13y ago

AT&T was planning to connect every home in America with fiber by the year 2000. Then they were broken up and the project was impossible to complete. The current AT&T is nothing like the old one. It's not even fair to compare them