AT&T may delay some N.C. fiber deployment plans

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Tim Boyle | Bloomberg News

Randall Stephenson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of AT&T

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Lauren K. Ohnesorge

Staff Writer- Triangle Business Journal

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Could AT&T fiber deployment be delayed in the Triangle?

Probably – at least in Garner, Apex and Morrisville.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson made some comments that imply as much at the Wells Fargo Technology, Media & Telecom Conference Wednesday.

The delay seems to be prompted about recent conversations about consumer broadband service. Stephenson told investors that President Barack Obama's recent statements on broadband provided "clarity."

Obama called for extending utility regulation to Internet service, pulling cable and wireless Internet into federal regulation for the first time.

"The President's proposed path has one of two courses to get there," he says. "One is through Congress. ... I don't envision that happening in the current environment."

The other path? The FCC.

"There's been an extensive rule-making process, a record established for 20 years now, that says what the president wants, the rules don't accommodate," he says, adding that he anticipates two or three years to address what the president wants in terms of reclassification.

"When we initiate projects – fiber projects, building new cellular infrastructure – these are two- to three-year efforts. And while the rules are probably not going to change in the two- to three-year time frame, we are now starting infrastructure projects that we don't' have any clarity or line of sight in terms of what rules those will be governed under."

An example he uses is a pledge that AT&T made to deploy fiber to 100 cities, including Garner, Apex, Morrisville, Charlotte and Greensboro.

"And so, we have to pause, and we have to just put a stop on those kind of investments that we're doing today," he says.

Lauren Ohnesorge covers information technology and entrepreneurship.