AT&T on Tuesday reported first quarter revenues of $40.5 billion, a healthy increase of 24 percent year-over-year which the telecom says is primarily due to its acquisition of DirecTV. All said and done, the company recorded profits of $3.8 billion, or $0.61 per share.
As Re/Code notes, AT&T added 1.8 million wireless customers in the US although many of them were through its prepaid brand Cricket, connected vehicles and other non-smartphone devices. The nation’s second largest wireless provider also added 500,000 new customers in Mexico courtesy of its two acquisitions south of the border last year.
AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson described it as a good start to the year, noting that they had solid financial results and executed well on their strategy to be the premier integrated communications provider for businesses and consumers.
It wasn’t all good news for AT&T, however, as the telecom’s number of video subscribers fell by 54,000 during the quarter. While it added 328,000 satellite subscribers during the three month period, it lost 382,000 U-Verse TV subscribers.
As DSL Reports reminds us, AT&T lost 240,000 U-Verse TV subscribers in the fourth quarter and 92,000 in the third, indicating its purging subscribers at a growing rate. It’s not something to be overly concerned about, the publication says, as AT&T has been actively pushing customers towards its satellite service.
Still, a loss is a loss and it’s probably a combination of cord-cutters and customers switching to competing cable operators that offer faster Internet speeds that's to blame.
https://www.techspot.com/news/64591-att-starts-year-solid-quarter-but-continues-lose.html
