AT&T targets 50M fiber locations by end of 2029

　　AT&T is looking to expand its fiber reach in both its legacy wireline footprint as well as in new markets being targeted by Gigapower, its fiber-focused joint venture with BlackRock.

　　AT&T said it plans to reach 50 million-plus total locations with fiber by the end of 2029. About 45 million will come from "organic deployments" alongside more than 5 million through Gigapower and other agreements with open-access providers. AT&T recently forged deals with four open access partners: Boldyn Networks, Digital Infrastructure Group, Prime Fiber and Ubiquity.

　　AT&T's big goodbye to copper is also on tap. The company now expects to retire its legacy copper network operations across the "large majority of its wireline footprint by the end of 2029."

　　At the end of Q3 2024, AT&T's fiber network passed more than 28 million locations, putting the company on track to hit an earlier goal of 30 million locations by the end of 2025. The revised Gigapower target is well above an original target of about 1.5 million locations that fall outside of AT&T's legacy wireline footprint. From the start, the JV has said it would eventually look to go beyond 1.5 million locations, but it previously had not provided a specific target.

　　AT&T's fiber buildout feeds into a broader convergence strategy focused on pairing home broadband and mobile services, a strategy that competitors such as Comcast and charter Communications are now playing to the hilt.

　　AT&T shared its updated goals ahead of its analyst and investor day, which is set to start today at 2 p.m. ET. Light Reading will provide coverage from the event throughout the day. AT&T's pre-event announcement did not reveal any updated plans for Internet Air, the company's new fixed wireless access (FWA) platform.

　　AT&T's target of 45 million fiber locations in its legacy footprint is less ambitious than what some analysts were expecting. AT&T could build to 50 million locations with "good returns," New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin explained in a research note issued today.

　　But the rate of AT&T's build is faster than Chaplin expected – a cause for concern for cable operators.

　　"They [AT&T] are targeting 45MM at the end of 2029, vs the 41MM we expected. This may be viewed as a modest negative for broadband companies, and Cable in particular," Chaplin wrote.

　　Among other targets, AT&T expects consumer fiber broadband revenues to grow in the mid-teens annually from 2025 to 2027, and for capital investment to be in the neighborhood of $22 billion annually during that same period.

　　AT&T said it has earmarked about $10 billion in "incremental financial flexibility" for potential strategic growth investments, debt repayment or additional dividends or share repurchases.

　　New Street's Chaplin said that figure is close to expectations – about what AT&T might reserve for spectrum.

　　However, that $10 billion "may leave less than we had expected available for fiber acquisitions through Gigapower," he added. "This makes a large acquisition like Lumen's Mass Markets business, or the fiber asset within Mass Markets, slightly less likely (though by no means rules it out)."

　　But the analyst also believes AT&T would still have the resources to go after other possible fiber-focused acquisitions or assets, including Brightspeed, Windstream, Consolidated Communications, Google Fiber, TDS, Altafiber, Shentel, Allo Communications and Ziply Fiber, which is in the process of being acquired by Canada's BCE.