AT&T increased second-quarter capital investment by nearly 20% as it continued shifting its network and customer base toward fiber, fixed wireless, and mobile services. Capital investment reached $6.1 billion, compared with $5.1 billion a year earlier, comprising $5.7 billion in capital expenditures and $400 million in vendor-financing payments. AT&T reiterated plans to invest $23 billion to $24 billion annually from 2026 through 2028.
The spending supported more than 1 million Advanced Connectivity net additions during the quarter. AT&T recorded 367,000 fiber net adds, 279,000 fixed-wireless net adds, and 432,000 postpaid phone net adds. Advanced Connectivity service revenue rose 5.1% to $23.5 billion, while segment EBITDA increased 8% to $12 billion. AT&T said 42.5% of households using its fiber or Internet Air services also subscribed to AT&T wireless.
AT&T extended fiber to more than 1 million additional consumer and business locations, bringing its total footprint to 38.6 million locations. The company expects to pass more than 40 million locations by the end of 2026 and more than 60 million by the end of 2030. Meanwhile, legacy revenue fell 25.9% as AT&T continued migrating customers from copper infrastructure, underscoring the operational challenge of funding new networks while removing the fixed costs of older facilities.
• Revenue: $31.6 billion, up 2.3% year over year
• Adjusted EBITDA: $12.3 billion, up 5.2%
• Capital expenditures: $5.7 billion, up from $4.9 billion
• Total capital investment: $6.1 billion, up from $5.1 billion
• Free cash flow: $4.7 billion, up from $4.4 billion
• Advanced Connectivity internet net adds: 646,000
• Postpaid phone net adds: 432,000, with churn of 0.86%
• Legacy revenue: down 25.9%
• Net debt: $126.4 billion, against total debt of $144 billion
• Planned 2026–2028 capital investment: $69 billion to $72 billion
• Planned 2026 share repurchases: approximately $10 billion
• Planned shareholder returns for 2026–2028: more than $45 billion
“The accelerated growth we delivered this quarter shows our structural advantages to lead the next era of connectivity,” said John Stankey, AT&T Chairman and CEO. “We are accelerating the pace of our planned share repurchases this year to approximately $10 billion, reflecting our confidence in our market position.”
🌐 Analysis: AT&T’s investment program increasingly treats fiber, fixed wireless, and mobile as a coordinated access portfolio, with convergence helping the company spread customer acquisition and retention across multiple services. The central execution test will be whether Advanced Connectivity growth can simultaneously support $23 billion to $24 billion in annual investment, the copper-network shutdown, accelerated shareholder returns, and progress toward AT&T’s leverage target.
