In the fourth quarter, AT&T posted a net gain in total wireless subscribers of 2.7 million, the second highest quarterly net add total in the company’s history, reflecting rapid adoption of smartphones and emerging devices such as eReaders, netbooks and navigation devices.
AT&T’s consolidated revenues totaled $30.9 billion in Q4 2009, compared with $31.1 billion in the year-earlier quarter and up slightly from the third quarter of 2009. Net income was $3.0 billion, diluted earnings per share totaled $0.51 and cash from operating activities totaled $9.0 billion.
For the full year 2009, compared with 2008 results, AT&T’s consolidated revenues totaled $123.0 billion versus $124.0 billion; operating expenses were $101.5 billion, compared with $101.0 billion; net income attributable to AT&T was $12.5 billion versus $12.9 billion; and earnings per diluted share totaled $2.12, compared with $2.16.
“We had a solid 2009 and led the industry in the biggest growth driver — mobile broadband,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive officer.
Total 2010 capital expenditures are expected to be in the $18 billion to $19 billion range.
Wireless
- Full-year wireless net adds totaled 7.3 million, equaling the company’s best-ever annual total, to reach 85.1 million subscribers in service.
- Postpaid churn was 1.19 percent, down from 1.20 percent in the year-earlier quarter; total churn was 1.44 percent versus 1.64 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008.
- Wireless data revenues — from messaging, access to applications and related services — increased $805 million, or 26.3 percent, from the year-earlier quarter to $3.9 billion. Versus the year-earlier quarter, total text messages carried on the AT&T network increased 70 percent to 135 billion and multimedia messages more than doubled to more than 2 billion.
- Driven by strong data growth, postpaid subscriber ARPU increased 2.6 percent versus the year-earlier quarter to $61.13. This marks the eighth consecutive quarter AT&T has posted a year-over-year increase in postpaid ARPU. Postpaid data ARPU reached $19.16, up 17.5 percent versus the year-earlier quarter.
- The number of postpaid 3G integrated devices on AT&T’s network increased by more than 4 million in the fourth quarter and nearly tripled over the past year.
- At the end of the year, 46.4 percent of AT&T’s 65.1 million postpaid subscribers had integrated devices, up from 27.0 percent a year earlier.
- AT&T’s fourth-quarter integrated-device growth included 3.1 million iPhone activations, the second highest quarterly total to date, with more than a third of the activations for customers who were new to AT&T. The average ARPU for integrated devices on AT&T’s network continues to be 1.8 times that of the company’s nonintegrated-device base.
- Total emerging devices, including eReaders such as the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader Daily Edition and the Barnes & Noble nook, increased by more than 1 million in the fourth quarter, its strongest quarter in this category to date, predominantly reflected in reseller subscriber totals.
- AT&T U-verse TV subscribers increased by 248,000 in the quarter to reach 2.1 million, up more than 1 million over the past year.
- Companywide penetration of eligible living units now approaches 13 percent, and across areas marketed to for 24 months or more, overall penetration exceeds 20 percent.
- AT&T’s total video subscribers, which combine the company’s U-verse and bundled satellite customers, reached 4.2 million at the end of the year, representing 16.0 percent of households served.
- AT&T U-verse broadband had a net gain of 267,000 wireline consumer subscribers in the fourth quarter. This growth, combined with continued solid gains in standalone broadband, more than offset declines in traditional DSL connections for a 167,000 net gain in consumer wireline broadband connections. Total broadband connections, which include business and consumer wireline subscribers and wireless customers with 3G LaptopConnect cards, increased by 171,000 in the quarter to reach 17.3 million.
- AT&T U-verse penetration drove 31.8 percent year-over-year growth in consumer IP revenues (broadband, U-verse TV and U-verse Voice) and a 3.7 percent increase in revenues per household served. Consumer IP revenues now represent 34.7 percent of AT&T’s consumer wireline revenues, up from 25.3 percent in the year-earlier quarter.
- AT&T’s combined wireline consumer TV and broadband connections increased by 394,000 in the quarter and 1.8 million over the full year 2009. AT&T U-verse Voice connections increased by 219,000 in the quarter and 730,000 for the full year 2009. AT&T’s total consumer revenue connections at the end of the year were 45.3 million, compared with 45.7 million at the end of the third quarter of 2009 and 47.0 million at the end of 2008, reflecting declines in traditional voice access lines partially offset by increases in broadband, TV and VoIP connections.
- Revenues from new-generation capabilities that lead AT&T’s most advanced solutions — including Ethernet, VPNs, hosting, IP conferencing and application services — grew 17.0 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, continuing trends of recent quarters.
- Total business revenues declined 5.5 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, reflecting economic weakness in voice and legacy data products, and were down just 0.4 percent versus the third quarter of 2009 — their best sequential comparison in five quarters.
- Business IP data revenues grew 7.3 percent versus the year-earlier fourth quarter, led by better than 20 percent growth in VPN revenues. Approximately two-thirds of AT&T’s frame customers have made the transition to IP-based solutions, which allow them to easily add managed services such as network security, hosting and IP conferencing on top of their infrastructures.
- Fourth-quarter total wireline revenues were $16.2 billion, down 5.3 percent versus the year-earlier quarter and down 0.9 percent sequentially — the company’s smallest declines in four quarters.
Wireline Operational Highlights
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