While BEAD is critical to serving the most difficult-to-reach 5.5 million homes in the U.S., the money available through the program pales in comparison to what providers are spending to bolster broadband connectivity, Fiber Broadband Association CEO Gary Bolton said in an interview. The slow pace in making changes to the BEAD program has been “a colossal failure” on NTIA’s part, he added. FBA will hold its Fiber Connect conference next week in Nashville.
MoffettNathanson analysts said AT&T’s proposed buy of substantially all of Lumen’s mass-market fiber business for $5.75 billion in cash was a smaller deal than expected (see 2505210078). A deal "was widely expected," but AT&T “proposed a relatively small transaction,” the firm said Thursday: “Lumen is still left with the bulk of its [incumbent local exchange carrier] assets (all its enterprise business, both copper and fiber; all its copper residential plant and subscribers; and all the related infrastructure, like central offices). And AT&T will have a fiber footprint that today reaches only about a quarter of U.S. households, and which, even after eventually meeting all of AT&T’s expansion goals, will be available to less than a third of the country.”
Smartphone prices may increase for wireless customers, but AT&T otherwise faces no major challenges from higher U.S. tariffs (see 2505120050), COO Jeff McElfresh told a JPMorgan financial conference Tuesday. Handset prices are “a moving target” and are likely "going to rise,” he said. Customers “will bear the brunt” of rising costs “as they have over the last many cycles in the industry.”
What will come out of the FCC’s “Delete” proceeding is hard to say at this point, since it builds on other FCC efforts to cut regulations, experts said during a webinar Wednesday by the Center for Business and Public Policy at Georgetown University. The FCC has logged more than 1,100 comments so far in docket 25-133, with replies due this week (see 2504290054 and 2504290038).
AT&T CEO John Stankey warned Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could hurt the carrier, echoing Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg on Tuesday (see 2504220033). Unlike Verizon, which lost postpaid phone subscribers in Q1, AT&T reported 324,000 postpaid phone net adds in the quarter, buoyed by FirstNet.
Danielle Thumann, senior counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, indicated on Tuesday that the commission is looking closely at changing its rules for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a step sought by CTIA (see 2503270059), as well as cutting regulations approved during the last administration. NEPA was the first issue Thumann raised while speaking at a Federalist Society 5G webinar.
Letting ISPs retire copper lines and move to next-generation technologies is critical to broadband deployment, industry experts said during a USTelecom forum Thursday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has said repeatedly that the agency wants to make it easier for ISPs to modernize their networks (see 2504030011). Other executives warned that uncertainty in the BEAD program could be slowing broadband deployment.
New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors that some details don’t add up in a Bloomberg report saying AT&T is in talks to buy Lumen's consumer fiber business. The $5.5 billion price tag "looks too low," Chaplin said in a late Tuesday note to investors. That could mean Lumen wants to sell assets "from the central office to the home … but not the central office itself and not the fiber into the central office,” he said. Discussion of the deal comes as AT&T seeks to expand its fiber network, while it closes down some of its legacy copper lines (see 2502250066). Rival T-Mobile announced joint ventures last year to buy fiber providers Metronet (see 2407240020) and Lumos (see 2404250047).
The FCC’s Wireline Bureau released a series of orders on delegated authority Thursday with the goal of making it easier for carriers to move away from legacy copper networks, said a news release and a number of filings. Outdated agency rules “have forced providers to pour resources into maintaining aging and expensive copper line networks instead of investing in the modern, high-speed infrastructure that Americans want and deserve," said Chairman Brendan Carr in the release.
The current FCC is likely to support calls by USTelecom and its members for policies that allow carriers to more easily retire copper facilities in their networks (see 2501270047), New Street’s Blair Levin said Wednesday. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr “has always been in favor of assisting [incumbent local exchange carriers] in this transition,” he said in a note to investors.