I've owned AT&T stock since I was in my 20's. It's was split up by antitrust laws into separate companies called Baby Bells (Bellsouth, Pacific Telesis and others), which I got shares from in the split, and it was funny to see when AT&T started buying them back after the BB's split the cellular businesses from them. At the time, AT&T was rated lower than the BB's, but somehow they happened to avoid the antitrust issues and bought them all back. Then some genius corporate guy decided to get AT&T into TV and video, (Direct TV), and when that didn't work out they dumped them. Now they're back into TV again, with them buying Discovery (I now own shares). Since the 90's this company has been run into the ground and hasn't been the blue chip it was since. Believe it or not, this used to be a $60+ stock. When my son got married, I gave them both a good sized chunk of the stock I had, paid for through dividend reinvesting I might add. Immediately after they saw their financial advisor, he recommended selling them and investing in something else, which they (luckily) did. Looking back now I wish I had done the same. I now see this stock as pretty close to junk, and the only reason I'm holding it now is so I can sell it all at the end of the year, and take the loss on my taxes. I read one of the comments that said to buy now, for the dividend, and the price. Good luck with that, that was my strategy over the years, I have some good stocks that not only are up in price, but pay a better dividend also. One I'll mention is Southern Company, and I doubt you'll hear anything bad from the guys on here that own shares. I happened to go to this years annual meeting at Callaway. Not only did the CEO shed good light on the company, he didn't blame or hide behind the economy as John Stinky has done for years while he's mismanaged AT&T (my opinion) into a second rate company with all his genius moves. If it was anyone but John Stinky putting this out there, I'd be worried. Unlike AT&T, the economy will rebound, when is anyones guess, so prepare for the worst just in case.