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Good Job? AT&T Losing Wireless Phone, Broadband & TV Users

AT&T's second quarter earnings indicate that the company's broadband growth has slowed, and in some instances, sharply reversed. While on the surface AT&T's addition of 2.1 million users to its wireless network looks great, AT&T's now including "connected" cars (1 million, which may not ultimately stay "connected") and 552,000 tablets. The company actually saw a net loss of around 200,000 phone customers.

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These phone reductions are thanks to T-Mobile, or more accurately thanks to AT&T's refusal to more seriously compete with T-Mobile on price.

It's on the often ignored fixed-line side of the coin where things get more interesting (read: worse).

According to AT&T, the company saw a 652,000 user reduction in traditional phone service for the quarter, and net reduction in total broadband users of 136,000 for the quarter thanks to DSL losses. That's not surprising; the company has been looking to axe unwanted DSL customers in markets it doesn't want to upgrade.

But it also saw a drop in U-Verse video subscribers of 22,000 thanks to cord cutting.

So basically AT&T is losing wireless phone, fixed-line broadband, and U-Verse TV users. Meanwhile, it's about to spend $68 billion (including debt) to buy a satellite TV provider on the eve of the Internet video revolution. That's cash that could have gone a long way in helping AT&T's fixed-line network keep pace with faster (DOCSIS 3.1) cable speeds.

Most recommended from 38 comments


ConstantineM
join:2011-09-02
San Jose, CA

14 recommendations

ConstantineM

Member

AT&T is again confirmed to be the "Dumber"!

»twitter.com/JohnLegere/s ··· 57151232


»twitter.com/Mcnst/status ··· 83274241


»twitter.com/JohnLegere/s ··· 25592320

TIGERON
join:2008-03-11
Boston, MA

10 recommendations

TIGERON

Member

Randall Stephenson is a fucking moron

AT&T : sell off your fixed wireline markets to CenturyLink and Frontier and here in California to Sonic.net-you know-companies that actually WANT them.

cork1958
Cork
Premium Member
join:2000-02-26

9 recommendations

cork1958

Premium Member

Any bad news about AT&T....

Any bad news about AT&T is good news to me! Absolutely despise them and Verizon and frankly, wish both would simply cease to exist!
Whoozits
join:2014-01-15

4 recommendations

Whoozits

Member

Did they keep Uverse Digital Voice, business IP phone gains/losses a secret?

One of the cute things they do with wireline phone service is make traditional service really, really hard to order - especially if you're in Uverse territory. Then turn around and use converted Uverse customers/their hard sell tactics to show bigger customer decreases to the FCC, who of course like DSL customers, it's currently looking to get rid of.

So I know it's no secret that wireline phone is doing way worse than it should be in general, but counting total fixed broadband losses, and then only traditional fixed phone losses makes for kind of a lopsided stat.

That being said though, like everyone else in AT&T territory, I really wish they'd just sell it off to a carrier who actually gives a shit about us.