AT&T booked net additions of 403,000 post-paid phone customers and 226,000 fibre internet subscribers in Q3 despite weathering the impact of two hurricanes and an employee strike in part of its footprint.

CFO Pascal Desroches told analysts the 30-day strike and hurricanes resulted in an estimated 50,000 fewer net additions for its fibre service and a slowdown in deployment.

CEO John Stankey (pictured) said the results marked the 19th consecutive quarter when fibre net additions exceeded 200,000, showing “the strong underlying customer demand” for the service.

AT&T stated said 40 per cent of its fibre customers also opt for its mobile plans.

“While our 5G and fibre businesses are performing well on their own, it’s increasingly clear that customers prefer to purchase mobility and broadband together as a converged service,” Stankey said.

“Additionally, our share of post-paid phone subscribers within the AT&T fibre footprint is about 500 basis points higher than our national average.”

Metrics
Post-paid churn fell from 0.79 per cent in Q3 2023 to 0.78 per cent, which the operator expects will lead the US industry.

Customer post-paid phone upgrades of 3.5 per cent were down from 3.9 per cent. Executives predict a seasonal rise in the current quarter, though Stankey said it is hard to assess if Apple will be a driver after analysts questioned the potential of a recent AI push.

Mobility service revenue increased 4 per cent to $16.5 billion, due in part to a mid-quarter tariff increase.

Prepaid phone customers declined by 49,000 to 19,200, but Stankey noted the company’s Cricket Wireless division added subscribers for the 40th consecutive quarter.

AT&T added 135,000 customers to its Internet Air fixed wireless access service for a total of almost 500,000, with Stankey reiterating the service is primarily for moving subscribers off its legacy copper infrastructure before it reaches them with fibre.

“You shouldn’t expect that AT&T is going to look like some of our competitors in the industry on volume,” he said.

Revenue of $30.2 billion was flat and net income fell from $3.8 billion to $100 million due to a $4.4 billion non-cash goodwill impairment associated with its fixed line business unit.