AT&T announced on Tuesday its plan to merge wireless and business units into a single division as part of the company's move to further compete in the telecommunications industry.
A spokesperson for AT&T told Reuters that the new division will be led by former wireless unit chief executive Ralph de la Vega. The current chief executive of the wireless division, Glenn Lurie, will be in direct report of de la Vega.
The second leading carrier in the United States made this decision after recent statistics showed that more than half of the company's revenues were generated from business customers who mostly use the mobile services.
"They are simply making the case that the cornerstone of the enterprise sale is now wireless rather than wireline. It makes a ton of sense with the cable industry focusing more and more on the commercial segment," Craig Moffett, analyst from MoffettNathanson, told Reuters.
The announcement arrived during a time when most telecommunications companies were trying to develop new strategies to entice business customers to invest in their new services. Aside from merging its wireless and business divisions, AT&T also announced that it will merge their network and customer care operations.
"We've been integrating various functions of our wireline and wireless operations for several years now, including our network, technology and customer care operations," AT&T said to Re/code. "Now, we're taking the next natural step by integrating our marketing and distribution for Business Solutions into our Mobility group."
AT&T is not the only company undergoing organizational changes as part of its strategic market plan. Earlier this month, Sprint replaced its long-time chief executive Dan Hesse with Brightstar founder Marcelo Claure. A week after taking the position, Claure started turning the company around by announcing a new set of family data plans that offer more data with lower costs than its other carriers.
