Saturday, April 23, 2022

AT&T posts growth in postpaid mobility and fiber

AT&T reported Q1 2022 revenue of $38.1 billion versus $43.9 billion in the year-ago quarter, down 13.3% reflecting the impact of divested businesses, mainly U.S. video in the third quarter of 2021 and Vrio in the fourth quarter of 2021, as well as lower Business Wireline revenues. The decreases were partially offset by higher Mobility revenues and, to a lesser extent, higher WarnerMedia, Consumer Wireline and Mexico revenues. Excluding impacts of the U.S. Video business and Vrio from the prior-year quarter, revenues were $38.1 billion, up 1.6%. First-quarter net income attributable to common stock was $4.8 billion, or $0.65 per diluted common share, versus $7.5 billion, or $1.02 per diluted common share, in the year-ago quarter. 

First-quarter Communications revenues were $28.9 billion, up 2.5% year over year due to increases in Mobility and Consumer Wireline more than offsetting a decline in Business Wireline. Operating contribution was $7.0 billion, down 5.4% year over year, with operating income margin of 24.3%, compared to 26.4% in the year-ago quarter.

“Our momentum in growing customer relationships is reaching historical levels,” said John Stankey, AT&T CEO. “We had our best first quarter for postpaid phone net adds in more than a decade and our fiber broadband net adds remain consistently strong. Our results, including free cash flow, are in line with our expectations toward delivering on the full-year guidance provided at our recent Analyst Day.”

“AT&T has entered a new era, meeting this opportunistic moment from a position of flexibility and strength thanks to our evolving networks, enhanced customer experience, growing 5G and fiber customer base and a much stronger balance sheet. And we continue to make good consistent progress on our journey to becoming America’s best broadband provider.”

Some highlights

Mobility

  • Revenues were up 5.5% year over year to $20.1 billion due to higher service and equipment revenues. Service revenues were $14.7 billion, up 4.8% year over year, driven by subscriber growth. Equipment revenues were $5.4 billion, up 7.3% year over year, driven by increased sales of higher priced smartphones. Total net adds were 5.5 million including:
  • 965,000 postpaid net adds, which excludes impacts of the 3G network shutdown of 900,000 that were reflected as adjustments to the subscriber base consistent with historical practice, with:
  • 691,000 postpaid phone net adds
  • 62,000 postpaid tablet and other branded computing device net adds
  • 212,000 other net adds
  • 113,000 prepaid phone net adds
  • Postpaid churn was 0.94% versus 0.93% in the year-ago quarter.
  • Postpaid phone churn was 0.79% versus 0.76% in the year-ago quarter.
  • Prepaid churn was less than 3%, with Cricket substantially lower.
  • Postpaid phone-only ARPU was $54.00, down 0.2% versus the year-ago quarter, due to the impacts of promotional discount amortization.

Business Wireline

  • Revenues were $5.6 billion, down 6.7% year over year due to lower demand for legacy voice and data services and a strategic decision to deemphasize non-core services. 
  • AT&T Business serves nearly 2.5 million customers, from the largest global companies and government agencies to small businesses. More than 675,000 U.S. business buildings are lit with fiber from AT&T, enabling high-speed fiber connections to approximately 3 million U.S. business customer locations. Nationwide, more than 9.5 million business customer locations are on or within 1,000 feet of AT&T fiber.

Consumer Wireline

  • Revenues were $3.2 billion, up 2.0% year over year due to gains in broadband more than offsetting declines in legacy voice and data services and other services. Broadband revenues increased 6.8% due to fiber growth of 24.7%, partially offset by non-fiber revenue declines of 5.3%.
  • Total broadband gains, excluding DSL, were 5,000, reflecting AT&T Fiber net adds of 289,000, mostly offset by losses in non-fiber services. 
  • AT&T Fiber now has the ability to serve 17 million customer locations.

https://about.att.com/story/2022/q1-earnings.html