AT&T lays off thousands after getting billions in tax breaks, regulatory favors

Back in November of 2017 AT&T promised that if it received a tax break from the Trump administration, it would invest an additional $1 billion back into its network and employees. This week, the word came down that AT&T would be laying off thousands more as it wraps up fiber deployment:

While AT&T had been deploying fiber as per a 2015 DirecTV merger condition (something the Trump FCC tried to credit to killing net neutrality), the company recently finished up those obligations, and now has returned to the default state of most US telcos: skimping on fiber upgrade investment thanks to limited competition. AT&T will promise a universe of jobs and network investment if it gets “X” (X=killing net neutrality, a tax break, eliminating consumer protections, approving a new merger, passing a law AT&T wrote), but then bails on following through.

Source: www.techdirt.com