New CWA Report Finds AT&T-BlackRock Joint Venture Gigapower Plagued by Deployment Delays, Missed Targets, and Litigation

Washington, D.C. — A new report released today by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) has revealed that Gigapower—the joint venture launched by AT&T and private equity investment giant BlackRock to build fiber broadband networks—appears to be failing to meet its on-time buildout targets, withholding key performance metrics from investors, and facing legal challenges in a $200 million dispute that calls the business model into question more than three years after its launch.

The report, "Gigapower's Flimsy Phase One: Deployment Delays, Missed Targets, and Litigation," analyzes Gigapower's deployments in Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, and New Mexico through corporate disclosures, municipal public records, litigation documents, and field investigations. It builds on two prior CWA reports that exposed widespread workforce fragmentation and substandard work in the company’s early deployments in Arizona.

The report examines court filings in a lawsuit between Gigapower and its former prime contractor, Tilson Technology Management, in which Gigapower alleged that in Arizona, Tilson failed to deploy broadband to even a single living unit in 2023 against a target of 11,000. This mirrors slow progress across the markets CWA investigated. In Minnesota, the City of Bloomington issued ten separate stop-work orders to Gigapower and its contractors between April and October 2024. In Nevada, the City of Las Vegas issued a notice of default in January 2025, triggering what Gigapower itself described as an "extended pause" that "imperiled Gigapower's entire Las Vegas network." In New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque issued a two-week stop-work order to Gigapower in December 2024, and by November 2025, the company had reached only approximately one-fifth (20%) of its forecasted buildout target in the city.

The report also finds that Gigapower's "lowest bidder" contractor model may be putting workers and communities at risk. Across three different markets, approximately 20% of contractors CWA identified working on Gigapower projects appear to have been unlicensed or unregistered in their respective states. In Bloomington, that figure exceeded 40%. In one especially egregious case, the New Mexico Department of Justice found that Boreworxx Construction LLC—a Gigapower subcontractor that was unlicensed when it began work—illegally filed liens on nearly 200 residential properties in Albuquerque "in an attempt to frighten and manipulate homeowners" and pressure Gigapower’s general contractor, Circet USA, into paying for Boreworxx’s fiber work that allegedly was not completed satisfactorily.

"After more than three years and billions of dollars in commitments, AT&T and BlackRock have not proven their Gigapower thesis. Highly trained, union broadband technicians have been sounding the alarm about this race-to-the-bottom workforce model from the beginning. Now city officials, residents, and contractors are up in arms, too. Investors deserve transparency, communities deserve safe and reliable deployment, and workers deserve good union jobs. Gigapower is delivering none of the above," said Fernando Roman, CWA District 7 Campaign Lead and a broadband technician of 25 years.

The report further documents that, despite repeated assurances from AT&T CEO John Stankey that the company would disclose Gigapower-specific penetration rates, revenue figures, and connection numbers to investors, AT&T continues to report Gigapower's metrics only on a combined basis with its multiple other fiber ventures. New Street Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin recently noted that Gigapower's locations "are still too small to matter after over two years of being in business."

Gigapower's legal entanglements add another layer of potential risk. Former prime contractor Tilson filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2025 and then sued Gigapower for more than $200 million in July 2025 for breach of contract. In October 2025, the bankruptcy court approved the sale of Tilson's claims to Winston I LLC, a litigation finance vehicle whose objective, according to industry analysts, is solely to maximize recovery.

Beyond delays and litigation, the report finds Gigapower's overall strategy is showing signs of flimsiness. The company failed to win any funding under the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program; walked away from discussions with cities including Omaha and Phoenix; and took more than two years to announce its first non-AT&T tenant on its supposed open-access network.

CWA is calling on investors and public officials to demand transparency and accountability from AT&T and BlackRock and to rethink Gigapower's race-to-the-bottom workforce approach.

Read the full report here.

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About CWA

The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

cwa-union.org @cwaunion