AT&T CEO John Stankey has sparked renewed investor optimism, as the company’s stock has surged approximately 60% over the past year—far outpacing the broader market. This rally is fueled by Stankey’s sharp strategic pivot: a focus on core communications infrastructure, significant divestitures of non-core media assets like DirecTV and Warner Bros., and an assertive expansion of fiber and wireless services. Enhanced by supportive government infrastructure and spectrum policies, these moves have lifted margins, stabilized the balance sheet, and energized shareholder sentiment.
Since taking leadership, Stankey has stripped away distractions from legacy media to reorient AT&T as a pure-play connectivity provider. By selling off DirecTV and spinning off WarnerMedia, the company has freed up substantial capital, reduced debt, and sharpened its operational focus. With an improved balance sheet, AT&T has been able to channel resources into high-growth areas: fiber broadband and 5G wireless.
A linchpin of Stankey’s agenda is the company’s bold fiber rollout. AT&T’s network now reaches nearly 30 million homes and business locations—positioning it as America’s leading fiber provider. This marks over 9.6 million fiber customers, reflecting consistent quarterly additions. In Q1 2025 alone, the company passed 29.5 million locations and signed up an additional 261,000 fiber subscribers.
Stankey has stated that fiber forms the backbone of AT&T’s future: it offers durable, energy-efficient technology with better reliability and customer satisfaction. “Where we have fiber, we win,” he said, explaining that fiber households have 40% higher wireless subscriber attachment and lower churn. Indeed, Q4 2024 saw AT&T exceed its expectations, with fiber passings nearing 29 million, laying the groundwork for aggressive expansion.
To propel growth beyond organic deployment, AT&T has forged key partnerships. In 2024, it signed a $1 billion, multi-year fiber supply deal with Corning and rolled out at least four open-access network agreements—including a joint venture with BlackRock through Gigapower—an initiative that surpassed its initial targets. These collaborations enable faster, capital-efficient fiber expansion into new regions and underserved areas.
Building on this momentum, AT&T announced in June 2025 that it had officially surpassed 30 million fiber-passed locations—hitting a midyear target four to six months ahead of schedule. CEO Stankey emphasized that the company is halfway to its long-term goal of 60 million homes and businesses connected by 2030, underlining its leadership in broadband infrastructure.
Investor confidence has been further buoyed by AT&T’s $5.75 billion acquisition of Lumen’s Mass Markets fiber business, which adds roughly one million customers and expands fiber reach into four million new locations across 11 states. With this deal, AT&T reaffirms its ambition to nearly double its fiber footprint, targeting 60 million locations by decade’s end.
At the Morgan Stanley conference in March, Stankey detailed that fiber and 5G are central to the company’s expansion, forecasting mid-teen growth in consumer fiber revenue and upper single-digit to low-double-digit EBITDA gains in wireless. He also highlighted the simplification of operations—streamlining the business to improve capital allocation and focus—and preparing to phase out legacy copper networks, phasing them down as fiber reaches more areas.
Regulatory backdrop and government incentives have bolstered these efforts. Stankey cited favorable spectrum policy and infrastructure investment as critical catalysts enabling AT&T to pursue aggressive network expansion, reach new markets, and enhance capacity ahead of competitors.
These strategic moves have delivered compelling results for investors. AT&T’s 60% stock climb over the past year has dwarfed the S&P 500’s 17% rise, as markets reward disciplined capital deployment, de-leveraging, and infrastructure growth. The company has also announced plans to return over $40 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, signaling strong free cash flow and confidence in earnings stability.
Under Stankey’s leadership, AT&T is transforming into a streamlined, infrastructure-first communications leader. By combining disciplined capital allocation, strategic partnerships, and agile operational focus, AT&T aims to win the national “race to convergence”—bundling high-speed fiber with advanced wireless services to capture market share, reinforce margins, and return value to investors.
