NEW YORK, June 19, 2026, 13:06 EDT
- AT&T ended Thursday at $22.01, posting losses for a fourth day in a row. The NYSE is closed Friday for Juneteenth.
- California regulators pushed back on AT&T’s effort to decommission some of its copper phone network.
- FCC deadlines are coming this week, and markets are watching for CFO succession news, along with signs that fiber growth may be enough to balance out pressure from regulators.
AT&T shares fell 1.92% to $22.01 on Thursday, ending the week lower as traders looked at new regulatory heat in California and an incoming finance chief. The stock is down around 6.7% since closing at $23.58 on June 12. That’s a notable drop for a stock that’s long been favored for dividends and safety.
The timing is key here. U.S. stock markets shut on Friday for Juneteenth, so the AT&T headlines that landed late Thursday won’t trade until after the three-day break. New York Stock Exchange calendars list Friday, June 19, as a market holiday in 2026.
AT&T shares underperformed on a day when the S&P 500 gained 1.08% and the Dow rose 0.14%. Verizon dropped 1.03% and T-Mobile was up 0.20%. AT&T shares didn’t just move with the sector. They trailed.
California regulators are pushing back on AT&T again. The California Public Utilities Commission told a court and the Federal Communications Commission to deny AT&T’s bid to stop selling copper-wire phone service to new customers, according to Reuters. State “carrier of last resort” rules require providers to keep basic service in place for customers who might not have other options. The CPUC argued AT&T “does not adequately demonstrate” that everyone dropped would actually have another replacement. AT&T says it spends about $1 billion a year running the old network, which now covers just 3% of the homes in its California region. Reuters
AT&T has a commercial clock and a regulatory one. The company wants to move users onto fiber and wireless bundles. But it also needs approval to turn off old networks. That isn’t fast. AT&T can’t push ahead before regulators sign off, especially when critics say the shutdowns leave some users behind.
AT&T flagged a change at the top of its finance team in an SEC filing. Pascal Desroches will step down as CFO at the end of the year. Jennifer Biry is set to become deputy CFO on July 6, then move into the CFO seat on Jan. 1, 2027. Biry, 52, has served as CFO and COO at McAfee and held senior posts at AT&T and WarnerMedia.
Biry called her return to AT&T both personal and strategic, saying the company shaped her career and describing it as a “full-circle moment.” That kind of story may help with the transition, but investors will look at debt, buybacks, capital costs and the dividend—not at how tidy the succession looks. CFO Dive
AT&T brought some positive news to investors this week, saying its AT&T Fiber service came out on top in 107 categories in an Opensignal home internet performance report—about double the next closest provider. The company said it also swept all five measured categories in over 60% of the 26 metro areas Opensignal looked at. “We’re leading by a meaningful margin,” said Jenifer Robertson, executive vice president and general manager for AT&T Consumer. AT&T Newsroom
Desroches told investors in June the network is being built “not simply for today” and will be “AI ready.” He called fiber “our lead offer” but said fixed wireless is still a “tool in the toolkit” for AT&T’s home internet. The company also kept its outlook for second-quarter free cash flow at $4.0 billion to $4.5 billion, cash left after operating and capital spending.
But the stock’s cleaner story isn’t a given. If regulators ask for more evidence that replacement service fits the bill, or if fiber wins don’t turn up in subscriber numbers and cash, AT&T may keep trading like a high-yield telecom name that carries legal risk, rather than getting valued as a network-growth play.
The FCC set a July 1 deadline for comments on a different AT&T application that would phase out domestic legacy voice service. That filing could get automatic approval by July 17 if the agency doesn’t step in. AT&T’s second-quarter earnings call comes up July 22. That’s when investors will get another look at the fiber-and-wireless plan and if it’s moving the needle on results.
