AT&T delays 500, 000 fiber-to-the-home builds due to severe fiber shortage

Enlarge / An AT& T technician working on a fiber project. (credit: AT& T )

AT& T says that supply-chain shortages will delay fiber construction to about 500, 000 homes that it originally planned to wire up this year and warned that shortages are likely in order to impact other companies that purchase fiber even more.

“Up through the second quarter, we hadn’t really experienced any impact from the supply-chain disruptions that are happening across the industry. But since the start of the third quarter, we are seeing dislocation across the board including in fiber supply, ” AT& T Senior Executive VP and CFO Pascal Desroches said yesterday at a virtual conference hosted by Oppenheimer.

AT& T previously told investors to expect “3 million homes passed [with fiber] this year, ” Desroches said. “We’re probably going to come in a little bit light, probably around 2. 5 [million]. ”