AT&T is lobbying against proposals to subsidize fiber-to-the-home deployment across the US, arguing that rural people don’t need fiber and should be satisfied with Internet service that provides only 10Mbps upload speeds.
AT&T Executive VP Joan Marsh detailed the company’s stance Friday in a blog post titled “Defining Broadband For the 21st Century.” AT&T’s preferred definition of 21st-century broadband could be met with wireless technology or AT&T’s VDSL, a 14-year-old system that brings fiber to neighborhoods but uses copper telephone wires for the final connections into each home.