AT&T, Verizon Vow to Boost Sales Before 5G-Fueled Debt Comes Due

Cellphone carriers that spent years promoting their blueprints for new fifth-generation wireless networks devoted the past week to explaining how they plan to pay for them. AT&T and Verizon said they would spend billions of dollars more in the coming years on cellular-tower equipment, fiber-optic lines, and other infrastructure to use new wireless spectrum licenses they acquired through a federal government auction. T-Mobile said it would put the new licenses to use without increasing its capital budget.

AT&T reassured investors March 12 that it wouldn’t need to slash its $15 billion annual dividend this year to pay its tab. Verizon, meanwhile, launched a $25 billion bond sale to spread the costs over several years. The plans, detailed in a series of online investor events this week, will add more obligations to an already debt-laden wireless sector.