AT&T's Donovan says company will take a more incremental approach to fiber builds

As part of its 2015 merger with DirecTV, the Federal Communications Commission required that AT&T expand its deployment of high-speed, fiber-optic broadband internet service to 12.5 million customer locations, as well as to E-rate eligible schools and libraries, by July 2019. Consider that done, said AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan; AT&T now has a large inventory of fiber-based assets that it can sell to, and that the build-out actually reached 14.5 million customer locations.

"That's behind us now," Donovan said of the merger commitment. "We'll continue to invest in fiber but we'll do it based on the incremental, economic case. We're not running to any household target."