The ink was barely dry on the Biden Administration’s infrastructure legislation, which promises $65 billion for broadband, when Pascal Desroches, AT&T Senior EVP/CFO, said the carrier will be the best choice to build out the fiber portion at the Morgan Stanley European Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, held virtually last week.
“We are well positioned to do it,” he said. “We’re the largest player in fiber deployment. We can do it at scale and more efficiently than others. So hopefully, we get our fair share of that.”
Desroches went on to applaud the impact on the underserved of Congress’ bipartisan action. “This bill will help bring this vital service to parts of the country that are underserved, but, importantly, we can’t build in areas that already have fiber or adequate broadband. We have to target the underserved and unserved portion of the population.”
AT&T announced earlier this year that it would fall short of its target to pass three million homes with fiber by year end because of supply chain issues. The carrier maintains its goal of passing 30 million homes by 2025. “This year, we’re adding — we expect to add 2.5 million homes passed. We expect that to accelerate in the coming next year and beyond,” Desroches said. “Once we reach a certain scale of rollout, it’s much easier to get to the next level. But until we are able to deliver three million homes on a consistent basis, we will step up our efforts to go beyond that.”
The supply chain still has points where it is “disrupted and dislocated,” according to Desroches, but he claimed AT&T is in the best position to manage the problems because of its size. “[The supply chain issues] fundamentally don’t change the trajectory of our overall business. No material impact on our business going forward.”
For all the talk about fiber, AT&T has provided fixed wireless access (FWA) using LTE and CBRS spectrum, and, in May, it announced its foray into 5G FWA. The carrier approach to choosing fiber versus FWA is purely based on economics.
“In certain cases, fixed wireless makes a lot of sense,” Desroches said. “But when you have an urban or suburban area that is well populated, fiber is a better solution and it’s more economical. And that’s why we think that is the better course to go to. But clearly, we’re not dismissing fixed wireless and in certain instances, it may make sense. But fiber is the superior technology and more cost-effective.”
By J. Sharpe Smith Inside Tower Technology Editor
Reader Interactions