FCC Requests More Information from AT&T After CEO Announces Fiber Deployment Pause

The FCC requested more information from AT&T about its proposed takeover of DirecTV. The FCC wants data about AT&T’s current plans for fiber deployment, specifically the current number of households to which fiber is deployed, “and the breakdown by technology and geographic area of deployment,” the commission said Friday in a letter to Bob Quinn, senior vice president-federal regulatory. It requested a description of whether the AT&T fiber-to-the-premises investment model demonstrates that fiber deployment is now unprofitable, and asked for all documents concerning the company’s decision to limit its deployment of fiber to 2 million homes following the acquisition. “We are happy to respond to the questions posed by the FCC,” an AT&T spokesman said in a statement. “As we made clear earlier this week, we remain committed to our DirecTV merger-related build-out plans,” he said, referring to comments by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson that it would pause fiber deployment efforts not knowing under what rules that investment would be governed.