- AT&T's accepted $428M per year of Connect America Funding (Phase II) over six years, with an option on a seventh -- meaning almost $3B in subsidies it could receive to provide rural broadband in underserved areas.
- As with the other recipients of the second tranche of funds, the company's committing to provide 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps up -- in its case, for more than 2.2M people across 18 states.
- AT&T (T +2.2%) declined to take eligible money for Missouri, Nevada and Oklahoma.
- Earlier, CenturyLink accepted about $3B in CAF monies, meaning it and AT&T make up the bulk of the $9B made available.
- Meanwhile, AT&T fired back at a Sprint promotion designed to blunt the impact of the DirecTV acquisition and convince DTV subscribers to go yellow with a year's free service: "This ranks right up there with a desperate Hail Mary pass to a petite defensive lineman," said an AT&T spokesperson. "With Sprint's network and the many asterisks on this deal, we're feeling good about our offers."