AT&T Likely the ‘Fifth-Largest Copper Mine in the U.S.,’ CEO Stankey Says
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference, Stankey says, ‘That copper needs to come out, it needs to be monetized’
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Copper: John Stankey is starting to sound as if he’s the top executive at Freeport-McMoRan, Rio Tinto, or Grupo México. The AT&T CEO told a Goldman Sachs conference in San Francisco on Sept. 9 about the company’s effort to become an all-fiber network owner with a hugely valuable wireless network to boot. “We need to get rid of all the leases that are associated with those offices that we don’t need anymore. And oh, by the way, there’s a bunch of copper out there. It probably makes AT&T the fifth-largest copper mine in the United States right now. Seriously,” Stankey said. And AT&T plans to extract that copper and make money off it. Copper prices are up about 21% year to date, reaching record levels, according to a report by Yahoo Finance. “That copper needs to come out, it needs to be monetized. And that monetization allows us to pay for the work, to shut down all that infrastructure, rip out the main frames, and do all the things we need to do, to wind up leading this decade as a fantastic metropolitan fiber company with a kick ass wireless network,” Stankey said. (More after paywall)
