AT&T cites financial impact of hurricanes, video subscriber losses

AT&T said damage caused by recent hurricanes and the earthquake in Mexico will decrease its Q3 2017 consolidated revenues nearly $90 million and its reported pre-tax earnings about $210 million, or $0.02 per diluted share. In an SEC filing, AT&T said it continues to assess damage to its network and that further charges in Q4 are likely.

It should be noted that AT&T’s network in Puerto Rico completely collapsed following Hurricane Maria on September 20 (as did the mobile networks of four other carriers serving the island), and that as of October 14 only partial services have been restored and that many cell towers and backhaul links remain offline.

In its SEC filing, AT&T also noted that it lost about 90,000 video subscribers in Q3 due to heightened competition in traditional pay TV markets and over-the-top services, hurricanes and stricter credit standards. AT&T’s own over-the-top DIRECTV NOW service added 300,000 users.

On the positive side, AT&T continued to expand its postpaid smartphone base even as it had nearly 900,000 fewer handset equipment upgrades than in the year-ago third quarter.