FWA product is improving, but AT&T still 'fiber first'

AT&T has beefed up the performance of its Internet Air fixed wireless access product with 3.45GHz spectrum it's acquiring from EchoStar, but fiber remains the lead product in the company's broadband portfolio. "We're a fiber-first company," AT&T CEO John Stankey said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. Fiber, he added later, "is fundamental and foundational to this business."  That position will expand in the years to come. AT&T's current plan is to deploy fiber to 60 million locations by 2030 through a combo of deployments in its legacy wireline footprint, locations built by the Gigapower joint venture with BlackRock, and the fiber assets that AT&T is acquiring from Lumen (on track for an early 2026 close). Stankey noted that the Lumen fiber deal opens up opportunities since that footprint is underpenetrated at just 25 percent (AT&T is typically focused on driving penetration to 40 percent and more in its fiber markets). Stankey again talked up the convergence potential in areas where it offers both fiber and mobile, noting that mobile take-up is 500 basis points higher in areas where AT&T can bundle them. Convergence, he said, is the "bet we're making."