AT&T to accelerate fiber build after signing of Trump's big Bill

　　AT&T said it will pick up the pace of its fiber network buildout following the signing of President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."

　　The service provider said the Bill's tax provisions and "pro-investment policies" put the company in position to accelerate its fiber deployment to an additional 1 million locations annually starting in 2026.

　　AT&T didn't go into much additional detail, but noted that the company will provide an update on the expected impact of the Bill in its 2025 and long-term financial outlook and capital allocation plans when it releases Q2 2025 results on July 23.

　　Heading into the Bill's signing, AT&T's plan is to reach 60 million locations with fiber by the end of 2030. That revised goal includes a mix of deployment approaches, including builds within the legacy AT&T wireline footprint, the Gigapower joint venture with BlackRock, open access deals with a handful of partners and AT&T's proposed acquisition of Lumen's Mass Markets fiber business. AT&T recently surpassed 30 million fiber locations.

　　Of note, AT&T views Lumen as a 10 million fiber location opportunity when combining the 4.4 million locations it will acquire, plus another 5.6 million locations that AT&T intends to build to in the years after the deal closes in the first half of 2026. The acquired Lumen fiber assets will be placed under a fully owned subsidiary currently referred to as "NetworkCo." AT&T expects to sell partial ownership of NetworkCo to a partner, possibly setting up a structure that's similar to the Gigapower JV.

　　AT&T's revision also follows Carr's 'Build America Agenda'

　　AT&T's updated annual fiber buildout cadence also follows the introduction of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's "Build America Agenda." Announced last week in South Dakota, Carr's agenda, in part, aims to spur network builds by eliminating rules and regulations deemed "unlawful, outdated or no longer necessary."

　　Permitting reform "must be a top priority for the FCC," Carr said. He also noted that the FCC intends to vote later this month to initiate a rulemaking aimed at transitioning away from aging copper lines. "We are aiming to free up billions of dollars for new networks, instead of forcing providers to keep investing in old ones," Carr noted.

　　Such a rulemaking fits with AT&T's plan to retire the bulk of its copper networks (save for California) by the end of 2029. To aid the transition, AT&T has developed a new POTS (plain old phone service) called AT&T Phone-Advanced that can run on fiber and wireless networks.

　　Carr is also urging the agency to vote on an item designed to revise and update the FCC's pole attachment rules. "For too long…this process has been slow, cumbersome, and plagued with delays when it comes to the large-scale deployments needed to end the digital divide," he said.