Dallas-based AT&T added more wireless customers than expected and reported first-quarter profits that beat analyst estimates.
The nation’s third-largest wireless carrier said it earned 55 cents a share on an adjusted basis, compared with the 53 cents that analysts had expected on average. The company said in a statement Wednesday that revenue for the quarter ended March 31 was $30 billion, falling short of the $30.5 billion Wall Street had expected.
Under Chief Executive Officer John Stankey, AT&T has divested its media assets and narrowed its focus to its longtime core business of providing communications services, which now include broadband delivered over airwaves and fiber optics.
AT&T added phone and broadband customers in a quarter in which rival Verizon Communications Inc. lost phone subscribers. Cable rivals Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. are due to report soon and likely lost broadband customers, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
AT&T added 349,000 wireless subscribers in the first quarter, beating analysts’ average estimate of 303,539. About 252,000 new customers signed up for AT&T’s fiber-optic service, well above the 260,000 expected.
AT&T said it now has 110,000 customers for its Internet Air service, which it introduced in August. The wireless technology transmits signals to devices in homes and businesses over radio waves rather than landlines.
This technology, often referred to as fixed wireless, has accounted for nearly all of the recent broadband subscriber growth across the industry.
Since AT&T last reported earnings in January, it has been hit by two notable incidents: a widespread outage of its wireless network in February and a security breach discovered on March 30 that exposed the data of approximately 73 million current and former customers on the dark web.
The stock was down 1.7% this year as of Tuesday’s close. Verizon Communications Inc. was up 5.3% in the same period, and T-Mobile US Inc. was up 1.8%.
Todd Shields (Bloomberg)
