FCC strong-arms AT&T to drop DEI in exchange for spectrum purchase

It looks like Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is continuing his crusade to demolish all diversity, equity, and inclusion in the telecommunications space. AT&T recently announced it was dropping all its DEI policies. It wasn’t clear why AT&T would do this out of the blue. Until, of course, the FCC approved AT&T’s deal to buy about $1.02 billion in spectrum from the former USCellular. The other two main U.S. wireless operators have already capitulated to Carr’s hatred of DEI. In April, T-Mobile ditched its DEI policies in order to get its purchase of fiber provider Lumos approved. In May, Verizon followed suit and eliminated its DEI policies in order to get approval for its purchase of Frontier Communications. Now, the third domino has fallen in order for AT&T to get possession of valuable spectrum.