AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

And as a result of that, fixed wireless can be a really effective way of meeting their needs and doing so at a value proposition, price and performance that makes sense for them, especially when you start to think about those companies that have a convergence of both fixed and mobility needs. It’s a natural in those cases. And I’d like to participate in that market aggressively and I will go after it as aggressively as my competitors and picking up any of those business customers that I can on a national basis. And I think that’s a margin accretive decision within the context of how we’re allocating capital between spectrum investments and fiber investments. I’ve also said that in the consumer space there are places, where I would apply the technology.

I gave a couple of specific examples. We have some places, where we have a good copper DSL base that we’re in the process of deploying fiber and in some cases, fixed wireless can give better performance than what our copper network can deliver and we know that we’ll be 12 months, 18 months from fiber deployment and we may want to hold some customers, offering them a better service, and we’ll use it as a bridging or hold strategy for those customers that are high value to us. And we’ll continue to use that technique, where we can. I’ve indicated that we will use it as an opportunity for us to turn down footprint. So where I’ve got small numbers of data customers in place, I need to get them off of fixed infrastructure that I ultimately want to shutter because that allows me to turn down a geography that is a low utilization geography and a low profitable geography on the fixed side.

And I can turn out the lights, walk away, take cost out of business, I will do that. And I’ve also said we have some select markets, where our penetration levels in mobility are low and our spectrum position is high and we may choose in those markets to do some incremental marketing to do, as you indicated, to buy some incremental growth that we believe has a longer runway. So that’s how the team is operationalizing around this. But in the end, when all those plays are put together, no, I don’t think you’re going to see us have the same posture that two of our competitors do because our posture is different. We’re investing in fiber and I don’t see myself moving into the market just to buy spectrum, so that I can change the operating posture I just described to you.

Brett Feldman: All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us. Operator, you can go ahead and close out the call.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen that does conclude our conference call for today. On behalf of today’s panel, we’d like to thank you for your participation in today’s earnings call and thank you for using our service. Have a wonderful day. You may now disconnect.