AT&T’s rate of fiber penetration is twice as good as expected

AT&T CEO John Stankey specified the main factors that AT&T considers for a fiber build. For about three years, AT&T has been clearly communicating its two main focuses—5G and fiber. In terms of fiber, it set a goal to pass 30 million locations with fiber by 2025. It closed 2022 with a total of 24 million passings. Stankey said the fiber build and the consumer response to it have been going well. “If it was not performing well we wouldn't have had the conviction to start the Gigapower venture with BlackRock.” Stankey said that AT&T was so impressed by the response to its fiber build within its wired footprint that it decided to extend fiber outside of its footprint with the joint venture with BlackRock. He said that AT&T’s rate of penetration in the first year after a fiber build “is twice as much as what we expected when we did the original business case on this stuff to get to the 30 million customer passes….twice is a lot. He also said that average revenue per user (ARPU) was better than expected. “We're operating right now at what we assumed to be the terminal ARPU. Where we stand in the business right now, we're actually at what would have been the terminal ARPU out at year 10.”