New York, June 3, 2026, 17:05 (EDT)
AT&T Inc. stock fell 4.4% to $23.55 late Wednesday after Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan downgraded the shares to Perform from Outperform. Horan also dropped his $32 price target, putting more investor focus on competition from satellite internet. Horan said longer-term broadband subscriber gains, and eventually its mobile business, could be at risk from new low-Earth-orbit satellite networks offering faster, lower-latency internet than older satellites.
Starlink may shake up $1.6 trillion U.S. telecoms, Oppenheimer says as SpaceX eyes IPO
The setup comes as SpaceX gets ready for an IPO, with Oppenheimer telling Reuters that the company’s Starlink satellite internet unit could disrupt the $1.6 trillion U.S. communications sector as it scales. The brokerage also warned that AT&T, Verizon Communications, and T-Mobile US risk losing subscribers and revenue faster as a result.
AT&T’s warning goes right to its pitch to investors. The company has tried to get the market to see it as more than a legacy phone business, pushing the idea of a combined wireless and fiber operator. Fiber broadband sends data through glass lines, while fixed wireless uses mobile signals for home internet. For the first quarter, AT&T reported 584,000 net adds for Advanced Connectivity internet, about half for fiber and half for fixed wireless. The company said it’s still on track to get to more than 60 million fiber locations by 2030.
AT&T shares fell despite the company trying to sharpen its message Wednesday. AT&T earlier said it will let customers pick from four AT&T Fiber speed options starting June 7, and bundled wireless and home-internet users could save up to $420 a year. Jenifer Robertson, executive vice president and general manager of AT&T Consumer, said the plans are aimed to be “straightforward” and “packed with value.” AT&T Newsroom
Verizon lost roughly 2.5% to $46.65 in the session. T-Mobile dropped around 3.9% to $181.45. The Oppenheimer note landed across the sector, not just on AT&T, judging by how peers traded.
AT&T lagged even as the broader market sold off. The Dow lost 1.21%, the S&P 500 dropped 0.74% and the Nasdaq shed 0.89% Wednesday. Investors cited jitters over rising oil prices and Middle East tensions for the declines.
AT&T has responded by ramping up spending. In March, the company announced it would put more than $250 billion over five years into U.S. connectivity, targeting fiber and wireless network expansion. The capex-heavy push gives AT&T more scale, but it also means the company will need higher returns if broadband prices soften.
The risk goes both ways. If Starlink falls short on capacity, pricing, or customer sign-ups, AT&T’s fiber base might hold up better than the downgrade suggests. Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens has also said Starlink faces real tech obstacles and said SpaceX looked way overvalued compared to its IPO target. For AT&T, the downside looks like slower broadband gains, heavier discounting to keep users, and less space for buybacks if defending market share eats up cash.
AT&T’s next test comes with its second-quarter report. The company plans to post results before the New York Stock Exchange opens on July 22, then hold a conference call that morning. Investors will get new figures on fiber demand, wireless churn and free cash flow—cash left after capital spending.
AT&T has a plan, but the problem for the stock right now is that Wall Street has started the countdown.
