October 23rd, 2007
AT&T talks up wireless, TV subscribers
AT&T said Tuesday that it added 2 million wireless subscribers and more than doubled its U-verse TV customer base in a quarter.
The telecom giant reported third quarter adjusted earnings of $4.3 billion, or 71 cents a share, on revenue of $30.1 billion. Including charges, AT&T reported third quarter earnings of 50 cents a share. The results, which were beefed up by AT&T’s acquisition of BellSouth, were in line with Wall Street estimates. To wit: AT&T reported revenue of $15.6 billion in the third quarter a year ago.
The company in its statement also said its merger integration plans are on track. So far in 2007, AT&T has saved $2.8 billion from the BellSouth merger. It expects to save $3 billion in 2007 with savings of $5 billion in 2008 and $6 billion in 2009.
While the grand total is what Wall Street watches, AT&T’s business breakdown is more interesting. By the numbers:
- AT&T ended the third quarter with 65.7 million wireless subscribers. In the quarter it had a net gain of 2 million wireless subscribers, a tally that was AT&T’s best quarterly gain. Wireless churn was 1.7 percent, down 10 basis points from a year ago. However, third quarter churn was up “slightly” due to “seasonality” from the second quarter. Total wireless revenue was $10.9 billion. Of that sum, $9.9 billion was related to services. The remainder, which would include iPhone revenue, was handsets and accessory sales. Apple on Monday said it shipped 1,119,000 iPhones in the September quarter.
- At the end of the third quarter, AT&T had 126,000 U-verse TV subscribers. This service is an Internet Protocol-based service similar to Verizon’s FiOS. At the end of the second quarter, AT&T had 51,000 U-verse TV subscribers. The company said weekly installations approach 10,000 a week.
- AT&T’s high speed Internet connections–DSL, U-verse and satellite broadband service–totaled 13.8 million at the end of the quarter, up 18.6 percent from a year ago.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Smart Planet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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