AT&T Revenue, Net Income up on Smartphone Sales
AT&T Revenue, Net Income up on Smartphone Sales
AT&T Revenue, Net Income up on Smartphone Sales
Gains in mobile services especially in Smartphones sales helped AT&T revenue up 1.8 percent which is an increase of 5.2 percent in revenue compared to the same quarter last year.
The company reported revenue of $31.8 billion for the quarter ending March 2012 up from $31.2 billion for the corresponding quarter in 2011. Net income increased from $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion.
AT&T pointed out that the main reason for the company’s growth is the growth in its mobile services. The company sold 5.5 million Smartphones in the first quarter of 2012. Seventy eight percent of the company’s sales were postpaid device sales. More than 59 percent AT&T subscribers now own Smartphones. IN the same quarter the company added 726,000 new mobile customers to bring its total mobile subscriber base to 103.9 million.
The company’s mobile revenue increased by 5.4 percent to $16.1 billion. Revenue from mobile data went up to $6.1 billion which is an increase of 19.9 percent.
Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO said that the company expects to leverage its momentum in mobile Internet. The earnings for each share stood at $0.60 beating expectations from analysts who predicted $0.57.
On the wire-line side, AT&T reported revenue of $14.9 billion which is down 0.8 percent from the previous year. Net income gained 2.4 percent and stood at $1.8 billion. In a press release, the company noted that the revenue from AT&T DSL business is $9.2 billion which is also down by 0.8 percent however this has been the slowest decline in past three years.
Growth in the broadband sector had offset declines in other areas. Domestic broadband revenue stood at $5.4 billion signifying an increase of 1 percent. The company added 200,000 customers to its U-Verse television service and 718,000 U-Verse broadband service in the last quarter.
AT&T Hikes U-verse TV To 4 Million Subscribers as DSL Woes Persist
AT&T U-verse TV Gains
AT&T Hikes U-verse TV To 4 Million Subscribers as DSL Woes Persist
The total subscriber base of AT&T U-Verse TV at the end of last quarter stood at 3.99 million users which represents a healthy gain of 200,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of 2012. The company also managed to enroll 718,000 new AT&T U-Verse Internet subscribers during the same period while the numbers in its AT&T DSL and voice customers continued to show a decline.
While the revenues and number of subscribers continued to climb, the company has completed a major portion of its fiber to the node U-Verse network by 2011 having a capacity to connect 30 million units which signals that the growth rate would be difficult to sustain. AT&T lost 615,000 DSL subscribers in the first quarter this year and its total wire-line broadband subscriber base stood at 16.53 million. The reports also show an increase in data usage trends amongst AT&T subscribers. Around 45% of its broadband customers have subscribed to plans delivering 6 Mbps or higher as compared to 35% in the first quarter of 2011. Meanwhile voice connections continued to show a decline and the company lost nearly 3.5 million voice connection subscribers representing a decline of 12.5% year on year standing at 20.5 million. AT&T still managed to recover some of the losses suffered in voice business by growth in the IP data services.
Sanford Bernstein a senior analyst from Craig Moffett noted that wire-line results were neither a cause for celebration nor a cause for concern.
Revenue from domestic customers in Q1 was $5.4 billion indicating an increase of 1% over Q1 of 2011. Over 55% of the company’s revenue is now associated with U-Verse broadband, voice over IP and video revenue. The corresponding figure was 47% in Q1 of 2011. The total Q1 wire-line revenue was $14.9 billion which is down 0.8% as compared to the same quarter in 2011.
Categories: At&t, DSL, Fiber Optic, Internet News, TV, U-Verse Tags: At&t, DSL, tv, u-verse
Verizon Stops Selling DSL in Fiber Markets, Eyes More FiOS Price Hikes
Verizon Stops Selling DSL in Fiber FiOS Markets
Verizon Stops Selling DSL in Fiber Markets, Eyes More FiOS Price Hikes
According to Verizon Communications CFO, Fran Shammo, Verizon will be aiming to improve its wire-line unit’s profitability by no longer selling Verizon DSL over copper in areas where FiOS is available and hiking the price of FiOS bundles in the next two quarters.
In the first quarter of 2012, Verizon added 193,000 FiOS Internet and 180,000 TV subscribers but it also lost 89,000 DSL subscribers and 440,000 voice connections. Shammo supported Verizon’s plans to migrate from copper to fiber in FiOS markets as a way of providing long term benefits in operating costs. He said that in the long term it is better to take most of these customers from Verizon’s copper network to FiOS network. The benefit would be a decrease in the repairs and maintenance over time and an increase in the upselling capacity as these customers are included in the FiOS network and then in the linear TV product offered by Verizon. In the trials conducted by Verizon last year where it had migrated customers from copper to fiber, the company is beginning to see a 30% sale upgrade on those customers.
Bill Kula, Verizon’s spokesman said that for customers who are price sensitive and want to manage their monthly broadband expenses in FiOS only areas, the company offers a 3 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up FiOS Internet for $39.99 per month on a one year contract standalone basis.
On the other hand Verizon is raising the lease fees for FiOS TV DVRs by 6% in the New York metro area from $15.99 to $16.99 per month and the set top box rates by 17% to $6.99 monthly.
Shammo added that during the next two quarters Verizon would hike prices of several FiOS packages and rebundle certain packages to make them more profitable depending on the tier consumers pick.
At&t recently also started switching all of their At&t DSL customers to their fiber optic U-Verse product. We wrote about this in a earlier ISP 1 blog post. At&t Forcing DSL Customers To U-Verse – http://isp1.us/blog/att-forcing-dsl-customers-to-u-verse/
The very active At&t post has dozens of comments from former At&t DSL customers.
Categories: At&t, DSL, Fiber Optic, FiOS, U-Verse, Verizon Tags: AT&T U-Verse, DSL, fiber optic Internet, Verizon FiOS
Optical Delusion? Fiber Booms Again, Despite Bust
Optical Fiber Booms Again
Optical Delusion? Fiber Booms Again, Despite Bust
According to the research firm CRU group around 19 million miles of optical fiber were installed last year in the US, the most since the Internet bubble burst in 2000. Corning Inc, a leading maker of optical fiber has sold record volumes in the past year and has told customers it cannot guarantee that their orders would be filled.
These are still early days but some experts are calling this as a new boom for the fiber optics industry which has been through a rough patch till late. The demand has risen primarily due to exploding Internet video traffic, requests from the finance sector for faster trading connections and increasing mobile phone use which needs to be tied to land line networks. The 2009 economic stimulus package had set aside $7.2 billion for telecom projects also helped.
Some skeptics have cautioned whether there is enough demand to build more. On one hand trading firms are ready to pay more for faster connections and on the other hand some worry that new government regulations regarding high frequency trading could shrink the market. Skeptics also query how high mobile traffic would materialize given the huge cost involved in delivering wireless data.
Cisco systems predict that mobile data traffic will almost double by the year 2015. But Andrew Odlyzko, a math professor at the University of Minnesota who had warned almost a decade ago about slower Internet growth than expected, says the predictions about skyrocketing mobile traffic are overly optimistic. He is of the opinion that mobile bandwidth is expensive to increase. Each cell phone data connection runs through a phone company’s cell phone tower into a landline telecom network.
Although there is a buzz in the fiber Internet industry, some companies are not overly excited as they are wary of the 2001 collapse which wiped out millions of dollars in stock value.
At&t U-Verse Fiber Internet
Verizon FiOS Fiber Internet
Categories: At&t, Fiber Optic, FiOS, Internet News, U-Verse, Verizon Tags: AT&T U-Verse, fiber optic Internet, Verizon FiOS
Cox – Still No Plans for Usage-Based Internet Fees
Cox - No Usage-Based Internet Fees
Cox – Still No Plans for Usage-Based Internet Fees
Cox Communications has accepted that the message posted on its website for its broadband customers about billing overage use was a mistake.
Cox maintained that at the moment Cox Internet has no intention of introducing usage based plans or charging overage fees for exceeding monthly broadband usage limits. Depending on the customer’s plan Cox sets limits on data used by its high speed broadband subscribers.
According to Cox spokesman Todd Smith the message was posted in error and Cox Communications has made no changes to its existing policy. However he also mentioned that Cox will continue to assess service delivery along with billing options as the industry and customer needs evolve.
As per the current billing plans the monthly limit for its Essential service of 3 Mbps is 50 GB, Preferred service (up to 15 Mbps) is 200 GB, Premier service (up to 25 Mbps) is 250 GB and for the ultimate service (up to 55 Mbps) it is 400 GB. Around 3% of its subscribers exceed the monthly data usage limit. Smith added that Cox would continue to work with their customers to get the plan most suited to them. Comcast and Charter Communications are other Internet service providers who have set monthly usage cap of 250 GB ceiling for all their broadband users.
AT&T, the largest broadband service provider in the US had introduced similar caps on At&t Internet data usage for its customers. It had also introduced fees in case the data limits were exceeded. AT&T restricts data usage to 250 GB for its At&t U-Verse subscribers and 150 GB for its traditional At&t DSL subscribers. After this there is a fee of $10 for every 50 GB.
Recently Time Warner Cable had introduced a new optional billing usage plan in Southern Texas with a capping of 5 GB per month. It also offered a $5 discount if their subscribers remained under 5 GB for a month however in case they exceed the 5 GB limit they could end up paying around $25 per month.
Categories: At&t, Cost, Cox, Internet Caps, Internet News, Texas, U-Verse Tags: cox, internet caps, usage fees
AT&T to Introduce Data Caps on DSL
AT&T DSL Data Caps
AT&T to Introduce Data Caps on DSL
Unlimited data download plans will soon be history for all AT&T DSL and U-verse customers as the company is planning to introduce a data cap on its broadband Internet services. AT&T plans to introduce the data cap over the weekend.
According to the new plan Internet customers exceeding monthly limit of 150 GB data in three different months will have to pay $10 extra for every additional 50 GB data they use. U-Verse customers have a limit of 250 GB. The company said that the policy will come into effect from May2 onwards.
The new policy is expected to rein heavy data users. Users who exceed the usage cap in three different months will be charged overage fees. The company will alert customers multiple times as soon as they near the usage limits or exceed the usage limits. These notifications will come when users use 65, 90 and 100 percent of their total usage. AT&T also plans to introduce online tools to help customers in tracking their usage. The company claims that this will affect only about 2 percent of its total subscribers. Last year AT&T had already capped the data usage for its wireless service. It revised the Smartphone data pricing, removing the unlimited plan and in its place offering consumers a choice of 250 MB service for $15 per month or 2 GB service for $25 per month. Customers exceeding these limits were charged additionally.
AT&T’s strategy of deciding caps on its broadband wired service is in line with similar action taken by other broadband providers. Comcast had imposed caps on data usage on its broadband service in the past. The company restricts residential customers to 250 GB data per month. Comcast claims that average data usage by residential customers is about 2 GB to 3 GB per month.
Analysts predict that other companies like Time Warner Cable, Charter and Cox communications might follow suit.
Categories: At&t, Charter, Comcast, Internet Caps, Time Warner Cable, U-Verse Tags: AT&T DSL Cap, AT&T U-Verse Cap
AT&T Implementing Home Internet Caps Starting May 2nd
ATT Internet Caps
AT&T Implementing Home Internet Caps Starting May 2nd
AT&T isn’t just modifying their data plan for mobiles but also changing home Internet plans. The company announced last week that it will introduce capping on data usage by its home Internet users.
AT&T Internet currently covers many homes across America. The company’s DSL and U-Verse services provide high speed broadband service. But soon the company will follow Comcast’s example of Internet data capping. According to DSL reports and The Wall Street Journal, AT&T plans to introduce data capping on its broadband services on May 2nd.
AT&Ts DSL customers will face a monthly data usage cap of 150 GB. Every 50 GB data consumed beyond this will be charged a $10 fee. For its AT&T U-Verse users the free data usage limit is 250 GB. By restricting usage the company is likely to deter users from consuming bandwidth which they necessarily do not need.
The company has said that it will proactively alert users with multiple notifications as soon as their usage nears its maximum capacity. The notifications would hit the user during 65, 90 and 100 percent thresholds of their free data usage. The company plans to provide online tracking tools for users to track their usage. AT&T claims that capping data usage on its broadband service will affect only 2 percent of its customers and that the move is aimed to provide better service to the larger population of its users. But no doubt the move will not go down well with a certain section of AT&T subscribers.
AT&T has said that it will go ahead with its plan of introducing data usage capping and that there will be no looking back once rolled. What will be interesting to see is whether other broadband companies like Time Warner Cable, Cox and Charter Communications follow AT&Ts example and introduce data capping or will they follow Sprint’s example and continue with their unlimited plans.
Categories: At&t, DSL, Internet Caps, Internet News, U-Verse Tags: AT&T DSL Cap, AT&T U-Verse Cap
ATT U-Verse TV Hits 300,000 Subscribers In Houston
At&t U-Verse
AT&T U-Verse TV Hits 300,000 Subscribers In Houston
AT&T U-Verse TV has recently reached the 300,000 customer mark in the Houston Internet market. With this achievement AT&T has added one more major city to its repertoire where it has expanded its penetration in the IPTV and related Fiber to the Node (FTTN) based data service.
Houston follows a similar achievement by AT&T in Kansas City where the company has reached 400,000 U-Verse subscribers and in Atlanta where it has over one million U-Verse subscribers. U-Verse, wherever available, tends to shield AT&T from losses that it is currently incurring due to the traditional POTS users. U-Verse has managed to keep the company competitive.
AT&T reported that in the last quarter of 2011 it had added new 208,000 U-Verse TV and 587,000 U-Verse internet customers. As it was expected the internet service provider reported a net loss of 49,000 broadband users in markets where U-Verse was not available and where users switched to the faster cable modem connections.
In spite of making losses in the traditional DSL data subscribers, the company continues to remain profitable and make gains primarily due to U-Verse which has already crossed the 30 million marks nationwide. AT&T, at the end of 2011 Q4 had a total video subscriber base of 5.6 million. This figure consists of both bundled satellite and U-Verse customers.
AT&T U-Verse services are delivered over AT&Ts advanced IP (Internet Protocol) network offers users a better alternative to cable with better features, better DVR, better apps and a better television experience. With U-Verse, AT&T customers are able to bring broadband, TV, home phone, and wireless services all under one bill with additional features that allow a new level of control, convenience and integration. According to JD Power and associates AT&T U-Verse ranked number one amongst all residential TV service providers for four consecutive years from 2008 to 2011.
Check U-Verse Availability
Categories: At&t, Fiber Optic, Internet News, U-Verse Tags: AT&T U-Verse, fiber optic Internet, fiber tv
At&t Forcing DSL Customers To U-Verse
At&t U-Verse or Cable
ISP 1 received this disturbing feedback from one of our users:
From: Cheryl
FYI… I live in St Augustine, FL and have had AT&T DSL for years.
I’ve just received an email with a link that said as soon as U-Verse is available in your area (it now is in mine), at some point you will be forced to take it (higher cost and rented equipment) or leave AT&T.
A phone call to a customer service rep 1-800-288-2020 verified that they are phasing out DSL service and switching people to the new system as it’s implemented.
It would be nice if your customers didn’t sign up for it without knowing they’ll lose it soon. The sales people did NOT know about this, they are still selling it – and both sales people I spoke with denied that AT&T would discontinue DSL! They have not yet been told (well, one has!).
My rate would more than double, not counting the equipment rental.
I found your site because I’m looking for a replacement- they’ll only give me 30 days to switch once I’m notified.
Here is a link to this info from the email (which I wish I could attach), their ‘terms of service’ for 2011: http://www.att.net/tos2011 see #2.e.
{END OF LETTER}
Here is an excerpt from that At&t TOS section:
- Conversion from DSL to U-verse High Speed Internet. When AT&T is able to provision Service to you via our U-verse High Speed Internet at your location, we may, in our discretion, discontinue your DSL service and make available to you AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet at the then applicable rates, terms and conditions, which may differ from your previous DSL Service rates, terms and conditions (including bundle discounts). If you are on a term plan and your price will increase as a result of this conversion, you will not have to pay any applicable ETF if you elect to cancel service.Your new AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet will require different customer premises equipment (“CPE”). When you are selected for conversion, we will provide at least thirty days’ notice of the discontinuation of your service via e-mail. Thirty days after such notice, we may at our sole discretion, either disconnect your service or temporarily suspend your service for up to fifteen days before we permanently discontinue service.
It is apparent to ISP 1 that At&t is phasing out their older DSL service in favor of the newer, faster and more expensive fiber optic ATT UVerse service which also supports HD television programming.
This is most likely an attempt to get existing DSL customers who use cable or satellite TV services to bundle with At&t once U-Verse is available in their area. However cable Internet services in many areas are cheaper than fiber for the same Internet speed ranges, so this may not produce the result that At&t is anticipating if existing At&t customers decide to switch such as Cheryl did.
What do you think?
