The US mobile carrier AT&T has just posted its Q1 2012 earnings. The carrier’s total consolidated revenue of $31.8 billion represented a two percent increase year-over-year, while the wireless side added 726,000 new wireless subscribers, of which 187,000 were postpaid wireless subscribers. Total wireless revenues were up 5.4 percent year-over-year to $16.1 billion; AT&T now has 103.9 million subscribers, up from 97.5 million in Q1 2011. Data revenues increased nearly 20 percent, reaching $6.1 billion. AT&T sold 5.5 million smartphones; 59.3 percent of AT&T subscribers now use a smartphone, up from 46.2 percent a year ago. AT&T also said that it “activated” 4.3 million iPhones in the quarter. AT&T is claiming that the 5.5 million smartphones exceeds the previous Q1 record, but last year the company reported the same 5.5 million smartphones sold.
“We continue to capitalize on our terrific momentum in mobile Internet,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive officer. “Smartphone and branded computing device sales continue to set a record pace, mobile data revenues were up nearly 20 percent, and we achieved this growth with expanding margins. These results add confidence in our outlook for the year.” For AT&T’s wireline side, first-quarter revenues of $14.9 billion were down about one percent compared to a year ago. U-verse subscribers reached 6.2 million, with 200,000 new TV customers and 103,000 net new wireline broadband connections. U-verse residential customer sales accounted for $5.4 billion of AT&T’s wireline revenue, up one percent over a year ago.
Q1 2012 Results:
- $0.60 diluted EPS compared to $0.57 diluted EPS in the first quarter of 2011
- Consolidated revenues of $31.8 billion, up $575 million, or 1.8 percent, versus the year-earlier period
- Wireless operating income margin up to 27.2 percent; wireless EBITDA service margin up significantly to 41.6 percent even with strong smartphone sales
- More than $2 billion in stock buybacks; 67.7 million shares repurchased
- AT&T’s growth engines — wireless, wireline data and managed services — represented 78 percent of total revenues and grew 6.2 percent versus the same quarter a year ago, led by:
- 19.9 percent growth in wireless data revenues, up more than $1 billion versus the year-earlier quarter
- 19.0 percent growth in strategic business services revenues
- 38.2 percent growth in consumer U-verse revenues
- Smartphone sales of 5.5 million, exceeding the previous first-quarter record, with about 30 percent of all postpaid smartphone subscribers on 4G-capable devices
- 726,000 total wireless net adds, with gains in every customer category
- Postpaid wireless churn of 1.1 percent, lowest level in seven quarters
- Record first-quarter branded computing (tablets, tethering plans, etc.) net adds of 460,000 to reach a total of 5.8 million, up almost 70 percent versus a year ago
- Postpaid wireless subscriber ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber), up 1.7 percent to $64.46
- Wireline business year-over-year revenue comparisons continue to improve
- Wireline consumer revenues up 1.0 percent versus the year-earlier period; seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth
- AT&T U-verse® subscribers (TV and high speed Internet) top 6 million; U-verse TV subscribers reach 4 million in service
