AT&T Promises Huge Broadband Investment...If it Gets a Tax Break

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson this week made the media rounds after spending some time with the President. Speaking on CNBC, the CEO proclaimed that AT&T would invest $22 billion this year on broadband infrastructure -- but only if the President engaged in "tax reform" (read: lower AT&T's taxes). AT&T's no stranger to fiddling with its investment numbers to get government to do what it wants, with billions in what are often phantom numbers ebbing and flowing based on how willing government is to do AT&T's bidding.

Stephenson was one of several major telecom CEOs that met with the Trump administration yesterday to demonstrate the potential wonders of fifth generation (5G) wireless.

Wonders, Stephenson hints, that won't fully materialize unless Trump reduces the company's overall tax burden (some of the money for AT&T's tax break will likely come from making cuts to Medicaid and other programs).

Trump lavished praise upon AT&T, insisting the company was "like two companies" -- "you started, then it was made different by government and now here you are again," adding that was "not easy to do."

Stephenson likewise heaped praise upon Trump for his regulatory policies in telecom, which so far have included gutting consumer privacy protections, starting to roll back net neutrality protections for consumers and small businesses, scuttling attempts to bring competition to the cable box, making it easier for prison telco monopolies to rip off inmate families, and gutting programs intended to bring broadband to the poor.

"It's been dizzying the pace that the regulatory playing field has been cleared and been made more clear for companies that invest like ours," proclaimed the CEO.

It's not a coincidence that Stephenson and an army of 100 lobbyists are busy trying to sell the Trump administration on its $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner -- a deal Trump promised to block on the campaign trail because of "too much concentration of power in the hands of too few" -- but now shows every indication of approving.