Randall Stephenson, chair and CEO of AT&T, took on the FCC in very blunt language during a presentation at a JPMorgan technology conference on Monday.
AT&T (NYSE: T) has already sued against Internet regulation as imposed by the FCCand is also seeking a “stay” of some rules in another case.
But Stephenson sees change on the horizon and thus AT&T will continue to invest in broadband as it has in the Triangle and in North Carolina through its gigabit Internet network and in the building of the North Carolina Next Generation Network.
Phil Cusick of JPMorgan asked Stephenson about what impact the FCC’s “net neutrality” rules are having.
“If I believed the rules that were passed by the FCC on Title II [Internet regulation as a utility] were going to be the rules of the land for the next 5 to 10 years it would have a dramatic impact on how we thought about investment. As we have evaluated the FCC’s order on Title II, we actually are – we actually have a certain degree of conviction that these will not be the rules of the land in the long-term,” Stephenson replied, according to a transcript of the conference from financial news website SeekingAlpha.
“There are three avenues that this may change. One, we think the court challenge is pretty strong. As you know we have filed a request for a stay of the order, we and everybody in the industry has filed a request for a stay of the order. We think there is a lot of merit in that.
“And to answer your question, does it have capital investment implications, if you read the stay and [FCC Commissioner] Ajit Pai’s comments at the FCC you will see within the stay that there are several companies who had broadband deployment plans, and when Title II became the rule – the law of the land their banks pulled down the funding, and so they are not deploying. …
“But we actually believe that the court challenge to this is quite strong. There is a reasonable probability that these rules get modified in some level in the courts. If not though, there is a strong move in Congress to do what I would consider truly permanent net neutrality reform that is through legislation. And that there are a lot of people who understand that if you really want some kind of sustainable net neutrality protection it needs to be done legislatively, not by 3, 2 votes in the commission. …
“And irrespective, administrations change and FCC’s change and we’re 18 months away from a different FCC and you’re a 3, 2 vote away from these rules being modified and improved.
“And so, we just look at this, we don’t think the rules as written are good for the industry, we don’t think they are sustainable for the industry. And through one of these three avenues we think those rules change.”
(Note: The full transcript can be read at: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3192546-at-and-ts-t-ceo-randall-l-stephenson-presents-at-jpmorgan-global-technology-media-and-telecom-conference-transcript?all=true&find=AT%26T)
