T · Earnings call · 2026Q3T · Full report

AI-Ready Network Expansion

AT&T INC. · 2026-10-21 · Importance 26 · Surprise 24

AT&T said more than 90% of mapped U.S. data centers are within 10 miles of its fiber, and more than 80% are within one mile. AWS is using AT&T high-capacity fiber to connect locations, and AT&T is working with Microsoft on capacity needs as AI workloads grow. Management described enterprise demand for more capacity and managed performance across fixed and mobile networks and multiple cloud environments, particularly for latency-sensitive AI inference. The company is developing metro-to-cloud ingress and egress connectivity with hyperscalers to provide end-to-end network visibility and performance.

Key facts

• AT&T said enterprise customers are seeing increased workloads, mostly in the cloud, and need more capacity.
• AT&T said over 90% of mapped U.S. data centers are within 10 miles of its fiber and over 80% are within 1 mile.
• AWS is using AT&T to connect AWS locations with high-capacity fiber.
• AT&T is working with Microsoft to support Microsoft's high-capacity needs as AI growth drives demand.
• AT&T expects to operate the most advanced and technologically open communications network in the U.S. by the end of this decade.
• AT&T said AI inference applications can have more stringent latency and round-trip performance requirements, and customers need more capacity as they use more of them.
• AT&T said future robotics and warehouse autonomy applications may create additional performance requirements and require another level of investment in managed networks.