AT&T CEO says Biden's municipal broadband plan is “a bit misguided” and is confident that Congress will steer legislation in the more “pragmatic” direction
CEO thinks US will keep giving billions to private ISPs instead of public networks.
Context & Ripple Effects
This lands mid-fight over how the US builds out broadband. A month earlier, the cable industry had already framed Biden's broadband plan as a 'grave threat' for favoring fiber and locally owned networks; AT&T's CEO is now the most prominent voice putting that objection on the record — while predicting Congress will redirect the money to private ISPs anyway.
It also extends a familiar AT&T playbook: in 2016 its regulatory VP publicly celebrated Google Fiber's troubles for seeking government favors, and in 2018 the same CEO bought full-page newspaper ads pushing an 'Internet Bill of Rights'. The through-line is a carrier arguing government should fund infrastructure through incumbents rather than compete with them.
First-order effects
- Municipal broadband proposals competing for federal dollars now face an organized, named adversary in AT&T, whose confidence signals incumbents expect the legislative language on locally owned networks to be softened.
Second-order effects
- The cable industry's earlier alarm eases if funding shifts to private ISPs — preserving the incumbent pricing structure that experts later flagged when they said the $65B broadband bill wouldn't fix monopoly-driven prices.
Third-order effects
- The pattern holds into 2023, when reporting showed Big Telecom lobbied lawmakers to squeeze out new municipal networks so much of the $41.6B in federal broadband funding flowed to large companies — suggesting public-network alternatives get structurally crowded out of subsidy programs.
The trend: Federal broadband money is being steered from publicly owned networks toward incumbent ISPs, with telecom lobbying shaping legislation faster than municipal advocates can.