Is AT&T preparing to ditch the fixed line business?

There are rumblings that AT&T is attempting to redefine itself as a wireless company. Fixed line telephone service has been on a steady decline for years. During this time AT&T has been extremely reluctant to upgrade it’s physical plant for next generation broadband, only doing so when it made pay TV possible. Now that build is slowing to a near halt for a business that was supposed to provide explosive growth. So, while it’s sibling Verizon ditches copper in favor of fiber is AT&T preparing to leave fixed line completely? There are signs it could be so:

AT&T executives have been shouting from the top of the rooftops that they are a wireless company, touting mobile as key to the carrier’s future. And while they have been making those pronouncements, Ma Bell has been quietly slowing down its U-verse deployments. Earlier today, in a note to his clients, John Hodulik, an analyst with UBS Research, wrote:

AT&T has slowed the pace of its U-verse build. We initially 
expected AT&T to pass 11M incremental homes in 2009 but scaled back our 
expectations to 7M after the company pushed out its build-out plans. We now 
expect the company to pass just 4-5M new U-verse homes in 2009, down from 
9M in 2008. (Gigaom)

If AT&T does decide to spin off or sell it’s treasured right of ways, it could actually spur competition in broadband. For AT&T it could be disastrous. The margins the company has come to expect from wireless are unsustainable over time. So far, AT&T’s current management team has exhibited extreme shortsightedness in making capital investments and forecasting markets. There is nothing new that would indicate they have become any wiser.