7 days ago
AT&T's bundled plans spur subscriber surge, tax savings to fund fiber expansion
An AT&T retail location is shown in Willow Grove, Pa., Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. A number of Americans are dealing with cellular outages on AT&T, Cricket Wireless, Verizon, T-Mobile and other service providers, according to data from Downdetector, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. AT&T, who was the hardest hit, is actively working to restore service to all of its customers. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
AT&T beat quarterly profit estimates and added more wireless subscribers than expected as customers flocked to its discounted bundles combining 5G mobile and high-speed fiber plans.
The U.S. telecom giant added 401,000 net monthly bill-paying wireless phone subscribers in the second quarter, it said on Wednesday, flying past FactSet estimates of 295,700. Rival Verizon lost 9,000 customers during the same period.
AT&T also disclosed plans to invest about $3.5 billion from savings unlocked by the Trump administration's new tax law to accelerate its fiber network build-out, a critical growth area as the wireless market saturates and internet usage surges.
The tax law allows companies to immediately write off the full cost of certain new equipment and boosted annual forecast at Verizon on Tuesday.
Savings from the law could help wireless carriers better challenge broadband giant Comcast CMCSA.O, which has also been making inroads into wireless.
AT&T expects to save $6.5 billion to $8 billion in cash taxes through 2027 under the new tax reforms, and now projects free cash flow to be about $1 billion higher than previously forecast for both 2026 and 2027.
The company added 243,000 fiber customers.
AT&T said it expects the acquisition of Lumen's mass markets fiber business, set to close in the first half of 2026, to propel it to more than 60 million fiber locations by the end of 2030.
It reported revenue of $30.8 billion, beating estimates of $30.50 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share of 54 cents also surpassed expectations of 51 cents.
Mobility revenue grew 6.7%, driven by subscriber gains and higher wireless device sales volumes.
AT&T shares were down 1.5% in premarket trading. The stock is up more than 20% so far this year, outpacing its telecom rivals Verizon and T-Mobile.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
