AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told CNN that the communications infrastructure is holding up given the new coronavirus-driven reality of "face-to-face" interactions moving to the phone and computer.  

He said there were signs of "stress" and the need to do some "augmentation of networks." But he said the network was performing "quite well"--then upgraded that to "very well"-- and that it was a demonstration of the U.S. investment in communications infrastructure, and not just AT&T but T-Mobile and Verizon. 

He said that investment of billions upon billions of dollars is now paying off in a time of national crisis. 

He was saying this from a home web cam in a split-screen interview with CNN's Brian Stelter (Reliable Sources) in studio. CNN is owned by AT&T. 

Related: COVID-19: The Story of a Lifetime

Asked if the new work-from-home culture will effect long-term changes, Stephenson said AT&T had been thinking about that "a lot." 

He said he thought it was going to cause businesses to reevaluate how they do that business. He said he thought that one takeaway would be that technology can prove to be "a great enabler of communication and allowing people to do work from home, child care and work at the same time. [I] think when we come out of this, this is exactly what we're going to see." 

He said that was one reason AT&T was trying to make sure it shored up its balance sheet and continued to invest in that process because, "when we come out of this, and the United States will come out of this, we should come out maintaining leadership in communications technology," which means continuing to invest in 5G and new tech.  

Asked what he thought of the $2 trillion stimulus package Congress is working on passing early next week and whether that was enough, Stephenson said he didn't know. 

Related: AT&T Waiving Wireless Overage Charges for Voice, Data & Text

Stephenson is a member of a business roundtable that counsels the President. They met (virtually) with the President and they advised him the stimulus needs to be big and bold. He said they know it won't be as precisely targeted as it should be, "but we need to step up and help first the consumer [and] we need to help small business," he told Stelter.  

He said AT&T is also advocating for helping some of the "more stressed" businesses, like airlines, "that are really critical for a functioning society." 

He said, "directionally, the bill is in the right place, but it is hard to say if it is exactly what is needed.  

Stelter asked what it was like to own a news division during a story like this.  

Stephenson said he and other business leaders were looking at it as a time of war, "and everybody needs to step up and do their part." He said the press has a vital part, "to make sure that our people are informed, to make sure that our politicians have a means of communicating, to hold people accountable, people in power, whether it be CEOs like me or politicians, to hold people accountable during these times, and getting information to the public." 

He saluted CNN for what he called its "terrific" work. "[I] take my hat off to CNN. We've talked about the health care professionals, we've talked about the communications [infrastructure] people who are out risking themselves. CNN journalists are doing the same thing. I think of you as first responders, yourselves. So, just thank everyone at CNN for what you are doing." 

AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson continued to hammer home that he would not sell key assets to facilitate regulatory approval of his pending deal to buy Time Warner, adding that if the agency rejects the merger, he’s ready to go to court.

“We would have to ask ourselves, is a negotiated settlement a better or worse outcome than if we litigate,” Stephenson said at the New York Times Dealbook conference Thursday. “If we feel like litigation is a better outcome, then we would litigate. If we can get a negotiated settlement, for time, and energy and money you would obviously go with a negotiated settlement.”

But he added that if the government wants to go to court, he hopes it will be soon.

“If we’re going to go to litigation, our preference would be sooner is better,” Stephenson said. “We’re prepared to litigate now.”

Stephenson seemed to chafe most at reports he had offered to sell news network CNN, the object of President Donald Trump’s unwavering consternation, to get the deal done. He added that he has not personally received any pressure from the government to sell the cable news network.

But while the emphasis has been on CNN, early reports on problems with approvals centered on DOJ requesting AT&T sell Turner Broadcasting, CNN’s parent, not just the network.

“Selling CNN makes no sense in the context of what we are trying accomplish,” Stephenson said. But when asked if he would sell DirecTV instead, he hedged a bit, adding that conversations with the DOJ are highly confidential.

“What gets discussed inside that room is highly privileged. I cannot go there,” he said. It’s so important that when you’re in these kind of negotiations with Justice, that they remain confidential because you can’t have open and candid conversations about a negotiated settlement if everything is leaking. What happens inside that room needs to stay inside that room.”

But later, he reiterated that he has no intention of selling any large assets to appease the DOJ.

“You shouldn’t expect us to sell something larger [than CNN],” Stephenson said, adding that pairing Time Warner's content with DirecTV's distribution is a key component of the deal. “It’s illogical. It’s why you did the deal. To suggest selling some of the key franchises makes no sense.”

Reports have suggested that President Trump is pressuring the DOJ to force a sale or spin-off of CNN, a network that he has repeatedly called “fake news.” At the Dealbook conference, CNN’s Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter asked Stephenson from the audience if he had any reason to believe that the problems the deal is facing at the DOJ are being caused by the President’s interference.

“I have no reason to believe that,” Stephenson said. “My only interaction with anybody in the federal government on this deal, has been with the Department of Justice.”  

AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson said Friday (Feb. 10), that the Time Warner deal will definitely not be filed with the FCC and said suggestions he had pitched the deal personally to Donald Trump were flat out wrong.

Appearing on CNBC's Squawk Box Friday (Feb. 10), he said "the latest" on the proposed $85 billion Time Warner merger was that the deal had been filed with the Department of Justice and the review was ongoing. He confirmed what AT&T had signaled in an SEC filing--there will be no filing at the FCC because no licenses are changing hands. 

"It will be a one-track review," he said, adding that it was proceeding as expected at Justice and he still thought it would be closed by the end of the year. Justice reviews deals for antitrust issues, the FCC's is a wider review that includes the impact on the public interest. But Justice usually reaches out to the FCC for input during its review, given that the FCC is the expert agency on communications.

Stephenson also talked about the company's spectrum holdings. He said AT&T had been amassing a lot of spectrum licenses In the past eight years and that, in the spectrum "arms race," it has a large and fallow block of spectrum real estate and will start lighting up 500 meg wireless service in Austin, Tex., and Indianapolis this year.

President Donald Trump had threatened to block the merger while on the campaign trail, but MSNBC pointed out that new Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said there would be no politics involved in the review.

Stephenson said that was good news since the deal should be reviewed on the legal merits, which he emphasized was a vertical merger.

Stephenson said reports he had personally pitched the deal to Trump were wrong. "I have had two conversations with President Trump (http://www.multichannel.com/news/finance/att-s-stephenson-trump-focused/410429) or his administration and in neither one of those conversations was there any discussion about this deal. We have to be very, very cautious."

He also said there was not truth to a suggestion that CNN "would take care" of the Trump Administration.

Trump has been highly critical of CNN, calling it fake news after it reported on a security briefing Trump got on claims of Russian election interference and the President's personal conduct.

Stephenson said that as "big and juicy" as the story seems, it is "a pretty straightforward transaction.

"It is a telecom company buying a media and entertainment company. We compete nowhere. The day after we close this the telecom industry is going to look exactly as it does today. The media and entertainment industry is going to look exactly as it does today, so it is a clean transaction and we feel good about it."

Stephenson praised FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's scrapping of the Wireless Bureau's zero rating advisory against AT&T's DirecTV Now, saying it was among a half dozen things that would have been bad for the industry that had gone away under new FCC management.