AT&T hits 30M fiber areas, as broadband race heats up

AT&T touts its momentum, however rivals are transferring aggressively into fiber as effectively, elevating the stakes within the U.S. broadband market

AT&T has reached a key milestone in its nationwide fiber enlargement, surpassing 30 million areas handed with fiber broadband. The achievement comes forward of schedule and alerts the corporate’s intent to double down on a converged fiber-and-wireless development technique. In line with CEO John Stankey, the telco is now midway to its aim of reaching roughly 60 million fiber areas by 2030.

However whereas AT&T touts its momentum, rivals T-Cell and Verizon are transferring aggressively into fiber as effectively — elevating the stakes within the U.S. broadband market.

Lumen purchase and PRIME FiBER partnership

In Could, AT&T introduced a $5.75 billion all-cash deal to purchase Lumen’s Mass Markets fiber enterprise, including about 1 million prospects and 4 million areas throughout 11 states. The transaction is predicted to shut within the first half of 2026.

Particularly, AT&T will purchase Lumen’s last-mile mass market fiber belongings and “related community components in central workplaces”, plus “considerably all” of Lumen’s non-enterprise fiber prospects, which will probably be transitioned over time to change into AT&T Fiber prospects.

Alongside acquisitions, AT&T continues to construct fiber organically and thru open-access partnerships. Its collaboration with PRIME FiBER, introduced earlier this 12 months, just lately expanded into Arizona, focusing on suburbs of Phoenix like Peoria and Solar Metropolis. These partnerships permit AT&T to increase its community to underserved areas with out bearing the complete price of development, whereas reinforcing its converged service strategy.

In line with AT&T’s Erin Scarborough, the corporate’s technique is constructed round convergence — providing fiber and wi-fi companies collectively to spice up buyer satisfaction and retention.

In a latest press assertion, AT&T stated it has made capital investments of greater than $145 billion from 2020 to 2024 — targeted largely on increasing fiber and 5G infrastructure.

Rivals step up

Whereas AT&T is extending its fiber lead, it not stands alone in that pursuit. Verizon is making ready to massively increase its footprint via a $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications, introduced in late 2024. The deal provides Verizon 2.2 million fiber prospects and entry to 25 million premises throughout 31 states and D.C. — a transformative leap for its broadband ambitions. Frontier’s sturdy Q1 displaying, together with 107,000 fiber provides, underscores the worth Verizon is inheriting.

In the meantime, T-Cell is aggressively constructing a hybrid fiber-and-fixed-wireless broadband technique. By means of its three way partnership with Lumos, the corporate now controls a 7,500-mile fiber community within the Mid-Atlantic and plans to succeed in 3.5 million houses by 2028, scaling to 12–15 million houses by 2030.

The aggressive panorama makes one factor clear: The fiber and broadband race is accelerating. AT&T is betting on scale, acquisition and bundled choices to steer. Verizon is shopping for its approach into fiber dominance. T-Cell is mixing cellular and fiber to redefine entry.