Oh no he didn't: AT&T’s CEO calls DSL obsolete

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson spoke at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners summer meeting in Los Angeles, where he called his company’s copper-based DSL broadband technology “obsolete.”

This is a stunning admission from one of the nation’s largest DSL providers. As AT&T focuses more and more on wireless and continues pushing its fiber-to-the-node services instead of faster fiber-to-the-home or even cable, it’s leaving millions of Americans in the dust. And today its CEO just admitted as much. For many in rural areas DSL is the only option, and as of the end of AT&T’s first quarter it still has roughly 10.2 million DSL subscribers. And it’s not as if AT&T plans to continue upgrading all of its customers over to U-verse. Earlier this year, AT&T executive John Stankey told an investor conference that the company would likely halt its building plans after it brings the technology to about 55 percent to 60 percent of the homes it serves. Stankey also admitted that about 20 percent of the homes in AT&T’s service area are “not a heavy emphasis for investment.” But if DSL is “obsolete” as Stephenson says, then what about the Americans who are forced to rely on that as their only method of broadband access?