Five Questions With: Patricia Jacobs

Patricia Jacobs, AT&T New England president, talked with Providence Business News about the industry, as well as the nearly $50 million in network enhancements that AT&T has made in Rhode Island over the last three years, as and the company’s plans going forward. She said the $50 million investment will drive upgrades to reliability, coverage, speed and performance to residents and business customers. She also said the upgrades are critical to supporting the next wave of innovation in communications technology.

PBN: What are AT&T’s plans going forward for enhancements – for 2015 and beyond?
JACOBS:
With a growing range of connected home appliances, cars and wearable devices, we know that demand for mobile services is going to continue to grow. So our continued commitment to Rhode Island is made with an eye toward a host of new, innovative opportunities for residents and businesses to connect with each other and their customers.

PBN: Tell me how the AT&T/DirecTV merger could benefit Rhode Islanders?
JACOBS:
If the AT&T-DirecTV merger is approved by regulators, we will have an opportunity to redefine the video entertainment industry by delivering content to consumers across multiple screens – mobile devices, TVs, laptops, the backseat displays of connected cars and even airplanes. And here in Rhode Island, it will result in an additional 30,000 customer locations gaining access to high-speed Internet coverage.

PBN: This is a competitive industry – how does AT&T differentiate itself from the competition?
JACOBS:
It starts with having the nation’s most reliable 4G LTE network today, covering more than 300 million Americans with 4G LTE service, and having the nation’s strongest LTE signal. But where AT&T stands out from our competition is in the customer experience. The DirecTV merger is a perfect example of our focus on providing our customers with access to a video experience that the competition won’t be able to match. We’re also proud of our deep commitment to diversity and corporate citizenship, and that we are the largest union employer in the country.

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PBN: AT&T, along with the three other major carriers, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, were recently ranked in the Rootmetrics’ National RootScore Report – AT&T was close to the top in most of the categories (it was No. 1 in text performance in a tie with Sprint and T-Mobile) – what do you think of the results? Is there room for improvement?
JACOBS:
We’re incredibly proud of our network performance here in Rhode Island and we’re constantly working to make it even better for our customers. At the same time, we are also grateful for the working relationship we enjoy with local officials across the Ocean State as it is critical to improving our network performance. Whenever we build or upgrade a site, we work with local officials on permitting to make sure that we’re sensitive to the needs of the local community. The partnership and support of local officials is critical.

PBN: How long have you been in this position and what attracted you to this constantly changing and growing industry?
JACOBS:
I’ve been at AT&T for eighteen years, and in my current position for three years. What attracted me to the communications industry is the rapid pace of technological change and competitive nature of the industry. When I started at AT&T, the Internet was in its early stages and wireless technology was just starting to take hold. Now, we live in a world where smartphones are vital to the way we live and do business, and speed of innovation is just incredible. As a result, competition has grown more intense so that we wake up every day, energized and focused on how we can be even more innovative, more nimble, and more empathetic to our customer needs.
I’ve had the great fortune of working with so many committed and compassionate people over the years. Our focus on contributing to the communities where we live and work, delighting our customers, and making AT&T the “go-to” communications provider for the Ocean State is what continues to rev me each and every day.

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