McElfresh: AT&T has a laser like focus on expanding fiber offerings

AT&T Communications CEO Jeff McElfresh told investors how fiber underpins the company's wireless, broadband and streaming video services, saying it takes a lot of fiber and physical site locations with high densification in order to realize the full potential of the wireless spectrum the company owns. "I can tell you, densification of our wireless network and an increased footprint expansion of our fiber offerings is in the making for AT&T over the next several years." McElfresh said AT&T now has multiple fiber networks that serve and connect its wireless services, enterprise customers, and residential broadband subscribers. "As we drive deeper fiber penetration in our wireless expansion and as we string out more C-RAN or small cells to densify our signal throughout our key markets, we passed a ton of small businesses," he said. "We passed a ton of houses. And what might have been thought about in the past as a consumer-based residential broadband offering and a business case and investment plan, now today is viewed as one integrated network. One set of fiber strands that serve enterprise—dedicated and shared—residential shared, backhaul, front haul for our cellular network and even up to wholesale offerings. And it's with this integrated planning approach that we have put in place since last October that gives us a really good efficient spend on an ability to expand further our fiber footprint."