AT&T's Stephenson: Google Fiber 'changed the game' for broadband buildout, but Title II rules could stall efforts

While AT&T's deployment of 1 Gbps fiber in Austin (TX) is going well, Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of the carrier, credits Google with making the rollout a commercial success. "When Google went into Kansas City and Austin, it changed the game for the industry … in a very peculiar way," he said. "In the past if we wanted to go into a city environment, the requirement was you build out the entire city," Stephenson explained in a keynote at the JP Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference. Doing that requires a huge capital investment, one that AT&T felt it couldn't make, he noted. Google's entry into Austin, in particular, enabled AT&T to ask the city for the same terms as Google Fiber received. "Google came in and was very targeted in where they wanted to deploy fiber, and they got municipal endorsement (on that). …We said we'll take the same deal that Google got. And we got the same deal that Google got," Stephenson said.

However, he warned, new network neutrality regulations could put a stop to the cornucopia of fiber investment. "I believe if the rules as passed were the rules of the land for next 10 years it would have a dramatic effect on investment," Stephenson said, adding that the rules as written and approved by the FCC are neither good for the industry nor sustainable. In the recent request to halt implementation of Title II-based rules, filed by several communications companies, Stephenson said that some broadband providers are already being affected. "If you read the stay you will see that several companies have broadband deployment plans and when Title II (was approved), the banks pulled down funding. So it does have an impact on investment."