AT&T today said it will put on hold a plan to bring fiber-based broadband to 100 cities. It is hitting “pause” said CEO Randall Stephenson thanks to the recently heated up debate over net neutrality.
“We can’t go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed,” he said. “We think it is prudent to just pause and make sure we have line of sight and understanding as to what those rules would look like.”
AT&T has not yet said if it plans to pause any investments in its wireless network. For example, AT&T still plans to participate in this week’s AWS-3 spectrum auction, which kicks off Thursday.
The debate over net neutrality was sparked anew this week when President Obama weighed in and asked the FCC to create a free and open internet.