AT&T reported Q3 consolidated revenues of $32.2 billion, up 2.2 percent versus the year-earlier quarter.
Third-quarter 2013 net income attributable to AT&T totaled $3.8 billion compared to $3.6 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Earnings per share was $0.72 per diluted share versus $0.63 per diluted share in the year-earlier quarter, a 14.3 percent increase. Adjusted for gains of 3 cents from a previously disclosed transfer of spectrum and 3 cents from income tax items, earnings per diluted share was $0.66 compared to $0.62 in the year-ago quarter, up 6.5 percent.
“Our fiber and U-verse expansion projects are ahead of schedule bringing high-speed broadband to millions more customers,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “With these initiatives, we’re seeing excellent growth across our major platforms — mobility, U-verse and strategic business services.”
SOME Q3 WIRELESS HIGHLIGHTS
- Added 989,000 subscribers, including postpaid net adds of 363,000. Postpaid net adds include 178,000 smartphones and 388,000 tablets. This gives the company a total of 109.5 million wireless subscribers.
- AT&T added 1.2 million postpaid smartphone subscribers in the third quarter. At the end of the quarter, 75 percent, or 50.6 million, of AT&T’s postpaid phone subscribers had smartphones, up from 66 percent, or 44.5 million, a year earlier. The company sold a third-quarter record 6.7 million smartphones.
- Smartphones accounted for a record 89 percent of postpaid phone sales in the quarter. AT&T’s ARPU for smartphones is more than twice that of non-smartphone subscribers. About 42 percent of AT&T’s postpaid smartphone customers now use an LTE device and 70 percent use a 4G-capable device (LTE/HSPA+).
- About 72 percent, or 36.4 million, of postpaid smartphone subscribers are on usage-based data plans. This compares to 64 percent, or 28.5 million, a year ago.
- Total wireless revenues, which include equipment sales, were up 5.1 percent year over year to $17.5 billion.
- Wireless service revenues increased 3.7 percent in the third quarter to $15.5 billion.
- Wireless data revenues increased 17.6 percent from the year-earlier quarter to $5.5 billion.
- Third-quarter wireless operating expenses totaled $12.9 billion, up 5.7 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, and wireless operating income was $4.6 billion, up 3.4 percent year over year.
- Postpaid phone-only ARPU increased 3.1 percent versus the year-earlier quarter.
SOME Q3 WIRELINE OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
- U-verse reached 10 million total subscribers (TV and high speed Internet). U-verse TV had its second-highest net adds ever and best net adds in almost five years, adding 265,000 subscribers to reach 5.3 million in service. AT&T now has more pay TV subscribers than any other telecommunications company. U-verse high speed Internet had a net gain of 655,000 subscribers to reach a total of 9.7 million, an increase of 37 percent from the year-ago quarter.
- U-verse had its first billion-dollar revenue month.
- Q3 wireline revenues were $14.7 billion, down 1.0 percent versus the year-earlier quarter and down 0.7 percent sequentially.
- Q3 wireline operating income margin was 10.6 percent, compared to 12.1 percent in the year-earlier quarter, down primarily due to customer growth-related costs and costs incurred as part of Project VIP.
- Revenues from residential customers totaled $5.6 billion, an increase of 2.4 percent versus the third quarter a year ago and stable sequentially.
- Consumer U-verse revenues grew 27.2 percent year over year and were up 4.7 percent versus the second quarter of 2013.
- Overall, the company had a net loss of 26,000 wireline broadband subscribers in the quarter; these increased slightly year over year. Total wireline broadband ARPU was up more than 8 percent year over year. Total U-verse high speed Internet subscribers now represent 59 percent of all wireline broadband subscribers compared with 43 percent in the year-earlier quarter.
- About 60 percent of U-verse broadband subscribers have a plan delivering speeds up to 12 Mbps or higher.
- Total revenues from business customers were $8.8 billion, down 2.6 percent versus the year-earlier quarter and down 0.9 percent compared with the second quarter of 2013.
- Business service revenues declined 2.0 percent year over year. Overall, declines in legacy products were partially offset by continued double-digit growth in strategic business services. Revenues from these services, the next-generation capabilities that lead AT&T’s most advanced business solutions — including VPN, Ethernet, hosting and other advanced IP services — grew 15.7 percent versus the year-earlier quarter. These services represent an $8.6 billion annualized revenue stream and represents more than 24 percent of wireline business revenues. During the third quarter, the company also added a record 97,000 business U-verse high speed broadband subscribers.