AT&T Promises Gigabit Service to 11.7M Homes If Merger Approved -

AT&T is promising federal regulators that the company's gigabit "U-Verse with Gigapower" broadband service will reach 11.7 million customer locations should their attempted merger of DirecTV be approved. According to a highly-redacted filing with the FCC (pdf), AT&T is promising to then provide the FCC updates on the plan's progress in ninety day increments.

AT&T had originally promised to deploy gigabit service to an additional 2 million subscribers should the deal be approved.

"With approval of the transaction, AT&T will deploy FTTP so that its FTTP footprint will include a total of 11.7 million customer locations," notes AT&T. "This Build Plan will be completed within four years after the merger s closing."

Before AT&T customers get too excited, AT&T has a long history of making promises to get deals approved that may or may not make sense under closer inspection. The company has also consistently waffled on and toyed with its gigabit build out projections, making determining truly "new" deployment promises very difficult.

The FCC also doesn't exactly have the best history when it terms to holding companies accountable for adhering to merger conditions, and while this latest FCC appears to be a little tougher in this regard, there's nothing guaranteeing the agency's future staff members will continue this trend.

In this case, AT&T's promising that its finished fiber to the home build will reach 11.7 million homes. But there's nothing in the document to suggest how much further beyond AT&T's already-planned deployment this total goes, and most of the filing is redacted. AT&T has primarily focused its Gigapower service on higher-end housing developments where fiber is already in the ground.
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