AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson today made two announcements relating to its investment plans in fiber and Mexico.
AT&T, which will slash its Capex plans in 2015, said it will pause fiber investment till it gets clarity on internet neutrality law from FCC. AT&T is also not considering the telecom assets of America Movil – owned by Carlos Slim – to be successful in Mexico. AT&T is already acquiring Mexico’s third-largest wireless carrier, Grupo Iusacell.
ALSO READ: AT&T to slash Capex for 2015 to nearly $18 billion
This is the first important observation from the CEO of a telecom major after U.S. President Barack Obama joined the debate to open up the Internet. Industry analysts say the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be under pressure.
ALSO READ: Obama wants FCC to follow open and free Internet policy
Obama said that there should be no gatekeepers between online sites and telecom services. He said that there should be no blocking and throttling by Internet Service Providers. Some sites should not get better treatment from wireless and broadband service providers.
Internet search engine major Google is yet to make its official response on net neutrality guidelines. Google fiber is competing with AT&T in several markets in the U.S.
Reuters reported that AT&T will pause investments to bring fiber connections to 100 cities until U.S. regulators finalize rules to regulate how Internet service providers manage their Web traffic.
AT&T CEO told investors at a conference on Wednesday: “We can’t go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed.”
Bloomberg reported that AT&T doesn’t need to buy assets from America Movil SAB to be successful in Mexico after agreeing to acquire a rival mobile-phone operator in the country.
While the assets that America Movil is planning to sell aren’t crucial, Stephenson said Nextel’s assets in Mexico are interesting and attractive. NII Holdings, which offers Nextel telecom service in Latin America, filed for bankruptcy protection in September.
The U.S. wireless major, which competes with Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, is awaiting regulatory approval to complete its takeover of DirecTV, the U.S. satellite-TV operator with assets across Latin America, including Sky Mexico.
The statement from AT&T CEO indicates that America Movil needs another suitor to buy its telecom assets. Earlier, AT&T was considered as one of the best suitors to buy part of America Movil telecom business in Mexico.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
