AT&T hailed a record quarter for churn-busting as subscribers migrated to its no-device-subsidy plans, although the same phenomenon knocked its Q1 ARPU performance.

The company said Q1 2015 saw a “best-ever” first-quarter wireless postpaid churn rate of 1.02 per cent as its wireless base shifted to no-subsidy plans.

Postpaid churn was down from 1.07 per cent in the year-ago quarter as about 95 per cent of AT&T’s total postpaid base is on Mobile Share, AT&T Family Talk or business plans. Churn for these plans is significantly lower than for other postpaid subscribers, the company said.

Also, the company had 6.2 million postpaid smartphone gross additions and upgrades in the quarter. Sales on no-subsidy plan AT&T Next also increased during the quarter as nearly two-thirds, or 65 per cent, of all postpaid smartphone gross adds and upgrades chose the package.

The company also had 313,000 bring-your-own-device gross adds. That means 70 per cent of smartphone transactions in the quarter were non-subsidy.

However, the continued adoption of Next and Mobile Share Value plans knocked postpaid service ARPU. The quarter marked the one-year anniversary of the introduction of Mobile Share Value plans.

Phone-only postpaid ARPU decreased 9.6 per cent versus the 2014 quarter. Phone-only postpaid ARPU with AT&T Next monthly billings decreased 1.9 per cent year over the year but increased 0.4 per cent sequentially.

Elsewhere the company still expects the acquisition of US satellite broadcaster DIRECTV to close in the second quarter of this year. The company now expects cost synergies from the deal to reach at least $2.5 billion by the third year after closing. This is an increase from $1.6 billion that was expected at the time the deal was announced last year.

Overall, consolidated Q1 2015 revenue for AT&T (including wireless and fixed units) was $32.6 billion, up 0.3 per cent. Net income totaled $3.2 billion compared to $3.7 billion in the year-ago quarter.