AT&T takes defensive stance in digital redlining comments

On February 23, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Notice of Inquiry related to digital redlining and how to prevent it in the future. Digital redlining is a practice in which some service providers have historically avoided providing broadband connections to certain areas, resulting in digital discrimination of some races and economic classes. Many large wireline providers have already filed comments with the FCC, including Verizon, AT&T and Lumen Technologies. Verizon expressed its support for measures to prevent digital redlining. And it touted its support for programs such as the FCC’s 2018 Connect America Fund (CAF), its 5G Fund for Rural America and the new Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). But AT&T takes a more defensive stance in its comments. It repeatedly notes that private enterprise has invested approximately $2 trillion in risk capital over the past 25 years to build the country’s “massive broadband infrastructure.” It wants the FCC to “maintain the investment-friendly, light-touch regulatory policy that has governed broadband service for most of the past quarter century.” One segment of its comments is entitled “Allegations of Systemic Demographic Disparities in Broadband Availability Lack Any Factual Basis.”