AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced during an investor meeting Wednesday that his company might delay on their plans to build fiber internet connections in several U.S. cities, along with other capital investments, depending on how the government decides on the net neutrality issue, reports CNET.
"It's prudent to pause. We want to make sure we have line of sight on this process and where these rules could land, and then re-evaluate," said Stephenson during the Wells Fargo & Co. investor conference.
Stephenson was referring to the net neutrality issue where U.S. Pres. Obama supported the idea of broadband service providers being regulated.
If the proposal comes to fruition, internet service providers would be classified as utilities, which would allow the government more leeway to regulate the rates and fees they would charge customers.
"We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas. That is why today, I am asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to answer the call of almost 4 million public comments, and implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality," said the official statement coming from the White House.
AT&T, together with Verizon and Comcast, has protested that government regulation will present problems that would put a chokehold on the industry's growth, according to Reuters.
Stephenson said his company "can't go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed."
AT&T had disclosed plans to build high-speed fiber connections in 100 cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Cleveland, according to Bloomberg. The telecom company had said it would be fighting the government in court if necessary as it officially protested Pres. Obama's statements last Monday.
"We are now starting infrastructure projects that we don't have any clarity or line of sight, in terms of what rules those will be governed under," said Stephenson.