AT&T executives advocate shifting from copper landlines to fiber

AT&T (NYSE:T) executives made the case for giving up on copper landlines and investing in fiber-optic cable on Bloomberg TV’s Chief Future Officer.

“It has the fastest speed,” Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches said in the interview. “It has the lowest cost to maintain relative to your traditional copper, which is what we were upgrading.”

AT&T believes the fiber-optic investment will also boost its share of the wireless phone market, where it currently trails Verizon (VZ) and T-Mobile (TMUS).

The US telecom giant is heavily investing in expanding its fiber optic network, with plans to reach 60 million total fiber locations by the end of 2030

Earlier this year, AT&T (NYSE:T) clinched a deal to acquire Lumen Technologies’ (LUMN) consumer fiber operations for $5.75 billion in cash.