AT&T confirmed plans to launch its first five LTE markets this Sunday, September 18.
While AT&T believes the pending T-Mobile acquisition will be approved and implemented, AT&T is not standing still but pushing forward in a number of areas, said John Stephens, CFO at AT&T, speaking at the Bank Of America Merrill Lynch Conference. The company is not discussing any Plan B regarding the acquisition. Among the hottest areas of growth, Stephens cited Uverse, which is now the nation’s fastest growing paid TV service with 3.4 million subscribers. ARPU for Uverse is currently $170 and the Uverse business now represents a $6.5 billion annual revenue stream.
Another note from the conference, Stephens said the tiered pricing model for mobile data services has worked out well for AT&T. The company now has 15 million customers on these plans and there was no spike in churn when plans were introduced. In addition, 50% of post-paid customers are now using smartphones.
A webcast of the Bank Of America Merrill Lynch Conference session is on the company’s Investor relations page. http://www.att.com http://www.veracast.com/webcasts/baml/media2011/id44929300.cfm
AT&T announced that its first LTE devices will be the AT&T USBConnect Momentum 4G and the AT&T Mobile Hotspot Elevate 4G, both of which support fallback to the HSPA+ network. AT&T will offer same $50 plan for 5 GB of data as is currently available for USBConnect or Mobile Hotspot customers on the HSPA+ network.
AT&T has previously announced plans to roll out 4G LTE in five markets – Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio – this summer. By the end of 2011, AT&T plans to offer 4G LTE to customers in at least 15 markets, covering 70 million Americans.
