AT&T becomes latest company to announce end to DEI programs

After several corporations announced they were ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs, U.S. wireless carrier AT&T is the latest corporation to enact such a move.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr said AT&T’s letter on Tuesday confirmed its previously announced commitment to ending its DEI-related policies, writing that the company “does not and will not have any roles focused on DEI.”

“The legal landscape governing diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) policies and programs has changed,” the company wrote in its letter. “We have closely followed the recent Executive Orders, Supreme Court rulings, and guidance issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission1 and have adjusted our employment and business practices to ensure that they comply with all applicable laws and related requirements, including ending DEI-related policies as described below, not just in name but in substance.”

The FCC, under President Donald Trump, has required all telecommunications firms to end DEI programs as a condition of approving transactions and mergers after Trump issued several executive orders to end DEI programs in the U.S. government and demanded that private businesses do the same.

Since those announcements, several wireless carriers have announced transactions or potential mergers, all while ending their DEI policies.

In May, the FCC approved Verizon’s $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications. In July, T-Mobile announced it was discontinuing its DEI programs as it sought approval for two deals, including the acquisition of nearly all of US Cellular’s wireless operations, along with its customers, stores, and 30 percent of its assets. The deal is valued at $4.4 billion.

AT&T last November agreed to purchase wireless spectrum licenses from US Cellular in a $1.02 billion deal that hinged on the ending of DEI programs.

The move has some detractors within the FCC. Anna Gomez, the FCC’s lone Democratic commissioner, said the company’s decision was a strategic move to be on the good side of the administration.

“AT&T’s reversal isn’t a sudden transformation of values, but a strategic financial play to curry favor with this FCC/Administration,” Gomez said. “Companies should remember that abandoning fairness and inclusion for short-term gain will be a stain to their reputation long into the future.”