AT&T tipped to seek fibre JV

Bloomberg reported AT&T entered talks with infrastructure investors to create a joint venture to pump billions of dollars into expanding its fibre network, a move which would benefit its 5G plans alongside its fixed connectivity.

The news site reported AT&T hired Morgan Stanley to find a partner for the JV, which could be valued at $10 billion to $15 billion.

In addition to bolstering AT&T’s fixed broadband services, the fibre expansion could also contribute to the operator’s FirstNet and 5G services.

AT&T CEO John Stankey has been bullish on the company’s fibre deployment since taking over the top position in July 2020.

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The operator is typically adding more than 350 customer locations per hour across the US as part of a plan to cover more than 30 million locations with fibre by the end of 2025.

In August, AT&T teamed with Corning to construct a cable manufacturing plant.

While AT&T and rival Verizon have stated building out their own fibre networks, T-Mobile US has largely relied on leases.