AT&T’s 4th qtr earnings were $47.99 billion, versus the expected $48.5 billion projected by analysts. Though they may not have reached their projected numbers, they were pretty close. And arguments can be made that they are still trying to transition to a changing market, and investing in building out their 5G service.
It is no secret that AT&T have been seeing wireless customers leave for “Pink” pastures. And while they have attempted to slow the migration, negative publicity for their latest “5Ge” commercials are not helping. But they still lead T-Mobile in customer confidence when it come to providing reliable service in rural areas (when compared to T-Mobile). But as much as I would like to point to this article to help my confidence in switching to T-Mobile, the reality is that AT&T is more than just their wireless sector. Their purchase of DirecTV may be hurting them more than the number of wireless customers walking out (of) their doors.
With more and more cutting the cord, customers are not wanting to spend $100+ for cable bills. And NFL Sunday Ticket is no long able to entice customers to stick around long term. In the 4th qtr alone AT&T lost almost 2 million (television) subscribers. On the flip side, they brought in over 130,000 new wireless customers. Those numbers are still below Verizon’s 650,000 and T-Mobile’s 1 million 4 qtr subscribers (Forbes).
AT&T, a company that is more than just wireless, have their hands in a number of industries. They compete in the high speed internet market, TV market (DirecTV), cellular market, and being part of Time Warner, network television. And every one of those industries are going through changes as a result of technological advancements. In some ways the lines are starting to blur, as wireless speeds are catching up with broadband speeds, and cord cutters are ditching big cable for streaming apps. This is why we are seeing the quarterly numbers we are seeing with AT&T.
Though Verizon and T-Mobile are posting better numbers than AT&T (in the wireless sector), AT&T remains the largest of the 3, nearly doubling the number of assets than Verizon. Making AT&T still the top dog in the Telecom sector.
