AT&T recorded Q3 revenues of $39.7 billion, down from $40.9 billion in the year-ago quarter, primarily due to declines in legacy wireline services and consumer mobility. Net income totaled $3.0 billion, or $0.49 per diluted share, compared with $3.3 billion, or $0.54 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
AT&T estimates it lost $100 million in sales due to hurricanes and earthquakes in the third quarter.
“We continued to operate our business efficiently in the quarter. At a time of transformation in our wireless and video businesses, as well as investment in growth opportunities, we’re able to maintain our full-year guidance. Wireless margins and phone churn continue to run at record levels, our fiber deployment is helping drive broadband growth and DIRECTV NOW had another strong quarter. We’re also pleased with our FirstNet progress. Already 27 states and territories have opted in, and we’re working closely with them as we prepare to deploy the FirstNet network,” stated Randall Stephenson, AT&T Inc. chairman and CEO.
Some Q3 highlights:
- Expanding operating income margin of 30.5% with best-ever EBITDA margins of 42.0% and wireless service margin of 50.4%
- Best-ever third-quarter postpaid phone churn of 0.84%, showing the success of video and wireless bundling strategy
- Continued growth of postpaid smartphone base -3.0 million total wireless net adds
- Nearly 700,000 Mexico net adds
- 125,000 IP broadband net adds; 29,000 total broadband net adds
- More than 6 million customer locations passed with fiber
- Nearly 300,000 DIRECTV NOW net adds helped offset traditional TV subscriber decline. There are now 800,00 DIRECTV NOW subscribers
- There are now 25 million total TV subscribers, down by 90,000 for the quarter
- International revenues up 11.7% with continued strong revenue growth in Mexico
- the Time Warner deal is expected to close by year end
- in SDN, 45% of networking functions are now virtualized.
