Pascal Desroches on spectrum auctions
From Cutting the Cord: AT&T’s Push Beyond Landlines and Legacy Tech with CFO Pascal Desroches · · After Earnings
“The government had a big auction back in 2021. Since then it has an auction. Any new spectrum. We've been, we and others have been vocal about the need to add more spectrum, to the pipeline to really allow a cost effective expansion of delivering mobility services.”
On , Pascal Desroches, Senior EVP & CFO at AT&T Inc., spoke about spectrum auctions during Cutting the Cord: AT&T’s Push Beyond Landlines and Legacy Tech with CFO Pascal Desroches on After Earnings.
About Pascal Desroches
Pascal Desroches, AT&T's CFO, has discussed the company's ongoing transition away from legacy copper infrastructure toward fiber and wireless services. In a March 2025 interview, he stated that AT&T expects to "largely get out of the copper business" over the next five years and projected $3 billion-plus in savings over three years from that shift. He described the company's strategy as growing its core mobile and fiber businesses while legacy revenues decline, and said AT&T aims to return value to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Desroches also noted that over 70% of consumers want to buy connectivity services from a single provider, and he expressed admiration for Apple's customer loyalty. In a July 2022 interview, Desroches addressed recession risks and free cash flow guidance. He said that even in a recession, AT&T expects customers to pay their bills due to the "mission-critical nature" of its services, though he acknowledged delinquency trends were slightly worse than pre-pandemic levels. Desroches described price increases for some customers on older plans as a "painful step" that had shown early positive results. He also stated that AT&T had taken "hard steps" including dispositions and a dividend reduction to position the company for long-term investment and growth.