AT&T Posts Better-Than-Expected Earnings

AT&T on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings that were ahead of analysts’ estimates, as it added 1.2 million smartphones to its network.

The company posted adjusted net earnings of 53 cents per share — up from 44 cents a year earlier and above the analyst consensus estimate of 50 cents per share — on revenue of $33.2 billion, a 1.8 percent year-over-year increase.

AT&T’s smartphone gains include about 900,000 customers who upgraded from feature phones and 299,000 new customers who joined with a smartphone.

AT&T said that 1.5 million customers have signed up so far for AT&T Next, the company’s zero-money-down unsubsidized phone plan, in which users pay for their device in installments and can choose to upgrade their phone more frequently. AT&T Next accounted for 15 percent of the new smartphones and upgrades in the fourth quarter.

Rival T-Mobile, meanwhile, is launching its latest assault on AT&T on Tuesday, calling that company’s bounty for T-Mobile customers an opportunity for customers to test T-Mobile’s network for free. If for some reason they don’t like it, AT&T will pay the costs of switching to them, T-Mobile reckons.

Here’s T-Mobile’s cheeky press release “celebrating as AT&T dismantles [the] Death Star.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via