AT&T (NYSE: T) has made another concession to get regulatory approval of its $48.5 million proposal to acquire DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) by promising that it would extend fiber to the home (FTTH) services to more locations.
In a regulatory filing, AT&T said that completing the DirecTV deal would enable it to upgrade 2 million homes to the fiber-based Gigapower broadband service, while expanding broadband coverage overall to 13 million locations.
The telco announced an initiative in April to expand its fiber network to up to 100 of what it calls candidate cities and municipalities nationwide, including 21 new major metropolitan areas.
Much of the FTTH expansion depends on its ability to get permitting approval from local communities and getting access to necessary rights of way (ROWs) to lay fiber and install related network electronics.
While it has not revealed how many homes and businesses would actually get the service, it's possible the first locations could be high-end housing developments that reside in areas where it has already deployed fiber.
Earlier, it also entered advanced discussions with the North Carolina Next Generation Network (NCNGN), a regional initiative focused on stimulating the deployment of next generation networks to North Carolina, to deliver its U-verse GigaPower offering to six communities, including Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh and Winston-Salem.
Interestingly, AT&T's FTTH pledge comes amidst a report by financial analyst George Notter that it has reduced "spending on its wireline business."
For more:
- Associated Press has this article
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