Do we like them?

Do we like AT&T?

US telecom giant selling mobile, fiber and home internet; based in Dallas, Texas

Our score: 4 out of 10. A huge, solid utility-style carrier, but with repeated privacy and data-security failures and a lead-cable cleanup row. We'd hold back and keep an eye on it.

AT&T is the Dallas telecom giant that sells mobile, fiber and home internet. John Stankey has been CEO since July 2020. He moved the company away from media and back to its connectivity roots. In 2026 it closed the purchase of Lumen's consumer fiber business.

Data security is the big blot. The FCC settled with AT&T for $13 million over a 2023 breach at a cloud vendor that exposed about 8.9 million customers' data. The FCC said the vendor still held data that should have been deleted years earlier, and that AT&T was ultimately responsible.

There's more. A $177 million class-action settlement over two breaches won court approval, though AT&T denies responsibility. The FCC also fined it $57 million in 2024 for sharing customers' location data without consent.

Then there are the lead cables. A Wall Street Journal investigation accused AT&T and others of leaving toxic lead-sheathed cables in soil and water. AT&T disputes the findings. After a settlement in Lake Tahoe, it began removing cables there. A judge later dismissed an investor suit over the issue.

We'd give it a middling-to-low score. It has an essential network and is investing in it. But it keeps getting caught on how it guards customer data, and the lead issue is still unresolved.