(Reuters) - AT&T Inc spent billions of dollars over the last few years buying media assets, including Time Warner and DirecTV as it looked for growth beyond an increasingly competitive cellular market.

With a spin off of its media assets to Discovery Inc on Monday and the sale of it stake in DirecTV to buyout firm TPG Capital earlier this year, AT&T is now working on streamlining its business, paying down its debt and focusing on expanding its 5G network.