Fiber Investment: Future Growth and Infrastructure Challenges

Fiber investment drives AT&T's growth, meeting increasing data demands with innovative partnerships and efficient infrastructure.

### Fiber Focus: Driving Future Growth and Investment Strategies
* 🌐 John anticipates **over 50 million fiber locations** by 2029, highlighting the **growing customer satisfaction and longer retention** associated with fiber products.
* 📈 The demand for data is projected to **increase by 80% in the next five years**, making fiber's symmetrical bandwidth essential for future technology, particularly in supporting **AI and data-heavy applications**.
* 🤝 Innovative partnerships, such as with BlackRock, are crucial for funding fiber infrastructure, allowing for a **balanced investment portfolio** that includes both **owned and operated assets**.
* ⚡ Transitioning from power-hungry copper infrastructure to **energy-efficient fiber** is critical to meet **increasing data demands** while also addressing **energy consumption challenges**.
* 💰 The company plans to return **significant value to shareholders**, with over **$40 billion in anticipated returns** and a strong debt position that supports **ongoing investments**.
* 📊 Even without DirecTV, the company expects to **grow cash flow by approximately $1 billion annually**, focusing on building a **world-class connectivity business**.
* 📅 With a new administration on the horizon, potential policy changes could **positively impact investment strategies**, fostering a **favorable environment for growth and innovation**.
* 📊 The company remains optimistic about sustaining growth, supported by **increasing consumer demand for high-performance internet services** and a strong focus on **operational efficiency**.

John, let's talk a little bit about 2029. You're expecting to have 50 million plus total locations with fiber. Why this big fiber focus?

And we see customers, first of all, love the product. They stay with us longer. They drive better value into the business. We're having great success at selling multiple products into fiber households for four out of every ten of our fiber

subscribers. Also, subscribers to our wireless service today, and that's getting higher. And when you think about where technology is going in the future, workloads are only going to go up. We expect data consumption is going to increase about 80% over the next five

years. And fiber is the one that can do that. It's the one that has the symmetrical bandwidth characteristics that will facilitate A.I. and sending more data up into a network than what comes down, which is traditionally how broadband networks are

built today. And we think that's a great investment for the long haul.

John, just as you speak, we've got some breaking international news. We just got to bring our viewers up to speed on South Korean lawmakers voting to request lifting martial law.

We will bring you up-to-the-moment news. But it's the South Korean National Assembly. Speaker Woo is saying they will protect democracy. John, we return to you and a US focus in a business that you are currently wanting to see really the bandwidth and the broadband and that and the...

infrastructure play that you're offering. What's interesting is the way that you're fueling investment in fiber, in particular, by doing innovative partnerships like the one with BlackRock. Do you need outside investment to commit to this sort of infrastructure rollout? Look, we have a great portfolio of

options. Our primary portfolio play is owned and operated where we take 100% of the economics; we fund it, build it, and operate it ourselves. But we also realize we're in kind of a constrained window right now. Fiber is needed now.

There isn't going to be a window that's open for a long period of time to do this work. Capital markets, of course, private capital markets sometimes provide a little bit of insulation that public markets won't, in order to make sure we keep our lead. We will balance that

portfolio out. Our relationship with BlackRock and our Giga Power work has been really effective. What we've proven in the market is that we can operate outside of our traditional operating territory just as effectively as we have in our home territory.

I think BlackRock, as a partner, has viewed it as being a really successful investment. They've been willing to put more into it, and we expect we're going to continue to use that as one of the tools to grow our footprint over time to get past that 50 million we're talking about.

And it's really interesting, you brought up, of course, the demands that, in many ways, everyone's been wringing their hands over—the energy infrastructure needs—and BlackRock sort of funding that infrastructure build-out. But how significant is the demand and the strain on what you provide?

It's an interesting issue. I think actually power consumption is going to be really important moving forward. That's one of the things we're talking about today with our analysts and investors; how do we shut down our century-old copper infrastructure

and all the electronics and equipment that support it that are really power hungry. And that's one of the ways, in getting more of this traffic over to fiber, which is passive and uses a lot less power, that we can actually help to offset some of the increase in data

demand we will drive moving forward with. That's a really important policy dynamic on this work. I think there's going to be a lot of issues that the country has to work through on getting the power grid to support the growth, and I think it's

going to happen. Maybe it gets slowed down a little bit. Maybe there are a few bumps in the road. But all we do know is that demand is going to continue to go up. We're also talking to analysts and investors about today how you're giving money back in big returns to

investors, whether you're doing it through dividends, but also through buybacks as well. Why have you chosen that angle now? You've paid down debt. It's a good day when you're giving more back to shareholders. Look, we feel very comfortable with our

debt position that we're going to arrive at in the middle of next year. And that's why we're making this announcement today. First of all, we did a really nice job of structuring our balance sheet properly. So we've got really attractive interest

rates on our portfolio of debt. We've got a term loan. That's a really, frankly, a strategic asset in the way it's set up right now. And given that we're largely investing organically in the business, reinvesting

in our business like this and getting our leverage structure the way it is, feels very comfortable to us because every year we're reinvesting in capital, reinvesting in the assets that we hold. And frankly, when you kind of look at

some of the M&A work we've done, is we've restructured the business; we spun out certain non-strategic assets. We haven't really gone back after the equity structure and reducing the share count outstanding. And when the dividend yield is still over 5%, we've got fantastic dividend

coverage. This is an opportunity for us to maybe balance that out a little bit and bring a little bit of equity back in-house. Okay. Let's talk about that changing of your own portfolio of the assets you hold. DirecTV moving away.

I mean, will we see that being integral to these financial forecasts? No. We've actually, today, as we sit down and talk with the investment community, will be providing restated constructs under ex-DirecTV, assuming that we're

going to close that by the middle of next year. We still see great improvements in our cash flow. We'll expect that we'll probably grow cash flow by about $1,000,000,000 a year, even without DirecTV.

As we move through this planning process, we see acceleration in our EPS. Our revenue is going to continue to grow. So, you know, DirecTV has been really good. It's provided us a lot of cash flow. We did a really nice job of managing the asset down to this point.

It's time to focus on what we're going to do moving forward, which is build a world-class connectivity business. And it's the right decision to make at this point. A lot of analysts are echoing that. And we are, of course, aligned with John Stankey, the AT&T CEO, to our worldwide

radio and TV audiences. Many believe that you're getting back to what you do best, which is telecoms. Within that, though, is some really clear clarity being given on the numbers. You're getting $40 billion plus of anticipated shareholder

returns, $50 billion plus of financial capacity over the next three years. What are the risks we face at this time of a new administration coming in? There are macro headwinds, global headwinds. Are there risks to these numbers? Well, I think every time there's an

administration change, there's usually a discussion about could changes negatively impact the business? I mean, of course, four years ago there was a little bit of that narrative going on and I think we've done just fine for the last four years. And frankly, some of the things that I

hear right now, tax policy, possibly reinstituting accelerated depreciation, those things could be very, very good for our business. And in fact, when they were in place and they weren't lapsing, we were investing at a higher level. And so I think if this administration,

The incoming administration, following through on their plans to implement pro-investment policies for one of the nation's largest capital investors, will be a good thing for us.

So we're watching it carefully. Certainly, like everyone else, there are other policies up in the air regarding tariffs and other issues. We're all wondering what might happen. I think common sense will prevail. I think some of what we're hearing now

is aimed at ensuring that we negotiate from a position of strength and that we respect the U.S. market's strength and significance. People should compete on a fair and level playing field when accessing

it. I'm hopeful that we'll see good policies that drive good investment and good economic returns as a result. Well, returns are up on your shares. You're currently trading at the highest since 2021. More broadly, do you think that you can sustain the kind of growth we've seen?

Otherwise, we wouldn't be providing three-year guidance. We feel strong in the fundamentals. Consumers need to use more internet. They need higher-performance networks to support that. That's the business we're in.

And we'll talk a little bit this afternoon with our investors about our ability to manage the cost structure in dealing with accelerating and increasing growth so that as customers use more, we can ultimately draw more cash to the bottom line. And that growth dynamic of us getting

more efficient, people using more of the product; we think that's going to sustain itself over the next three years. And that's why we gave the guidance that we gave.

AT&T CEO Sees Return to Profitability

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Bloomberg Technology

Company aims for 50+ million fiber locations by 2029.

Customers value fiber, leading to longer subscriptions and increased sales of multiple products.

Anticipated 80% data consumption increase in the next five years necessitates fiber's symmetrical bandwidth.

Fiber's capacity supports future technological advancements like AI.

Innovative partnerships, like with BlackRock, supplement the company's investment in fiber infrastructure.

Addressing Infrastructure Challenges and Energy Consumption

Discussion on the strain of energy infrastructure needs on the company's services.

Focus on reducing power consumption by transitioning from copper infrastructure to fiber.

Fiber's passive nature reduces power usage, offsetting increased data demand.

Acknowledges potential challenges in upgrading the power grid to support growth.

Shareholder Returns and Financial Strategy

Company discusses returning money to investors through dividends and buybacks.

Comfortable debt position allows for increased shareholder returns.

Details on the company's attractive interest rates and strategic asset structure.

Discussion of business restructuring and spin-off of non-strategic assets.

High dividend yield and coverage provide an opportunity to balance equity.

Impact of DirecTV divestment on financial forecasts.

Projected continued cash flow growth even after DirecTV sale.

Expected acceleration in EPS and revenue growth.

Rationale for focusing on building a world-class connectivity business.

Alignment with AT&T CEO on the strategic direction.

Anticipated shareholder returns and financial capacity over the next three years.

Assessment of potential risks associated with a new administration.

Potential benefits from pro-investment policies, such as tax policy changes.

Positive outlook on the impact of pro-investment policies from the incoming administration.

Acknowledges uncertainties regarding tariffs and other policies.

Discussion on the sustainability of growth and high share prices.

Growth Sustainability and Cost Management

Confidence in sustained growth based on increasing internet usage and demand for high-performance networks.

Focus on managing cost structure to improve efficiency and increase cash flow.

Three-year guidance reflects confidence in sustained growth dynamics.