According to the recent reports revealed, US regulator, FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has requested AT&T (2nd biggest cellular provider of the country) to describe their stance on why they’ll be stalling the rollout of the expansion plan of fiber-optic for high-speed Internet.
Randall Stephenson, the chief executive of AT&T stated earlier this week that his company is holding several investment plans countrywide, mainly the fiber upgrade plan, until the issues concerning internet neutrality aren’t resolved by the government at its earliest.
While talking over the problem in an investor conference on Wednesday, Stephenson stated, “It’s cautious to pause. We want to make certain we’ve line of sight about this process where these rules could land, and then re-evaluate.”
The Stephenson’s remarks showed up on Wednesday, i.e. just 2 days, after American President Obama supported the proposal of getting broadband service companies under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. This could have enforced the FCC with increased control to manage internet service providers because it would do with the general public utility firms.
The remarks of the Stephenson’s also signify the very first business move taken by internet service provider in reaction to the Obama’s unpredicted proposal towards the Federal Communications Commission.
Obama’s proposal towards the FCC fetched a wave of response from the broadband companies, for example AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, who cautioned the more stringent regulation may restrain their investment plans. The customer advocacy groups welcomed the proposal by Obama, saying this could only be sure that the reason for Internet neutrality is served, i.e. all internet traffic is treated uniformly.
The Federal Communications Commission has sent instructions, that was signed by Jamillia Ferris, to AT&T as a result of the thought of their intends to halt the fiber optic expansion.
Within the instructions letter, the government regulator has searched for the particulars and documentation on which projects are going to be stopped.
Additionally, the FCC has requested whether AT&T’s investment model implies that the fiber network deployment is unprofitable or maybe the firm is planning it to turn unprofitable after purchasing DirecTV.
