AT&T this week detailed plans to eliminate copper phone and DSL lines from its network while leaving many customers in rural areas with only wireless or satellite as an alternative.
In a presentation for analysts and investors on Tuesday, AT&T said it has a “wireless first” plan for 50 percent of its 500,000-square-mile wireline territory and a “fiber first” plan for the rest. The more sparsely populated half accounts for 10 percent of the potential customer base, and AT&T does not plan to build fiber home Internet for those users.
AT&T said it expects to be able to ditch copper because of state-level deregulation and the impending shift in power at the Federal Communications Commission, where Trump pick Brendan Carr is set to become the chairman. California is the only state out of 21 in AT&T’s wireline territory that hasn’t yet granted AT&T’s request for deregulation of old networks.