I’m sorry. I wasn’t clear. I meant AT&T is pulling out and removing service from people who already have it. They aren’t just pulling out of new projects, they are pulling out of existing service areas.

I thought it was clear in the article but I guess I shouldn’t have assumed. That’s on me.

They aren’t laying lines though. It’s the Internet Air program which provides it through 5g.

I don’t know if this AT&T service covered all of NY but for sake of my point I’m going to assume it covers most to all of NY. Obviously, not everyone would subscribe to AT&T either. I’m generalizing a bit to make a point.

There are approx 8.5 mil households in NY and 1.7 mil qualified for the previous affordable broadband law (couldn’t find an exact number for this current law).

If they charge $60 for the service that’s a potential total of $512,000,000 for NY.

If 1.7 mil get broadband for $15 that’s $25,500,000.

So AT&T is willing to give up a potential $487,000,00 from all other NY customers just to spite low income families.

Note: this is income before any AT&T expenses, just to be clear and fair.

Edit I was clear or the article wasn’t clear.

1. ATT is pulling 5G service from existing customers. They were given a 45 day window to find a new provider. I’m not talking about new construction.

2. they are not obligated to provide fiber at $15. Only broadband. I know there are still expenses with that, but there is much more broadband already available than fiber.

If you like this, you’d like the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series. I highly recommend it.

I work in commercial real estate. That was a real example. They continue to pay rent so they don’t have to pay termination fees.

And yes, personally I agree they should fail or relocate but that’s not what investors in the property think.

It’s called going dark. Most businesses don’t own their property. So if they stop operating at a location, even if they still pay rent, there are consequences.

Say you own a strip mall with a grocery store. A selling point to getting restaurants and retail on around it is that the grocery is there. If the grocery store stops doing business there, all the other stores lose business.

I don’t agree with it, but that’s how it is.