After it sheds WarnerMedia, AT&T plans to enhance services for wireless and internet customers and shrink its copper network

AT&T offered more concrete plans for its telecommunications operations after it abandons the entertainment business, detailing goals to drop old copper telephone networks and build new fiber-optic lines. AT&T said it would focus its investments on fifth-generation wireless network connections and fiber-optic lines. To that end, the company said it would cut its network of copper lines—a legacy of its landline telephone network—in half by 2025, allowing the company to serve 75 percent of its network footprint using 5G and fiber. The company said it would double the number of locations it serves through fiber lines to more than 30 million. That implies AT&T will add another 3.5 million to 4 million fiber locations to its subscriber base each year. AT&T and Verizon have both refocused their attention on broadband and mobile-phone service in recent years after scrapping big bets on digital media and entertainment. Verizon last week offered investors an overview of its plans for coming years and said its “ultra wideband” 5G network will cover 175 million people by the end of 2022, a year ahead of schedule. AT&T executives have said they would expand their 5G network more slowly to take advantage of wireless spectrum licenses as they become available. The company said it would expand its portfolio of 5G airwaves with more C-band spectrum that will cover 200 million people by the end of 2023.