Wireless, Data Pace AT&T Earnings, Fixed Network Voice Drops 10 Percent

By

AT&T second quarter earnings were, as expected, led and highlighted by wireless performance. In fact, all revenue growth, on both the fixed network and mobile network, was arguably driven by data revenue, which wouldn’t surprise anyone.

Total revenue was $31.3 billion, with growth driven by wireless ($14.8 billion) and fixed network data services ($7.9 billion). By most indications, that will continue to be the case for AT&T and Verizon Wireless for the foreseeable future.

As has been the pattern for some years, wireless alone contributes 52 percent of total revenue. Fixed network data and managed services (consumer, mass market and enterprise) represents 28 percent of revenue.

Fixed network voice contributes 18 percent of revenue, down from 20 percent a year ago. Fixed network voice revenues dropped 10.1 percent, year over year, from to $6.3 billion to $5.7 billion.

In the wireline segment, revenue from residential customers totaled $5.5 billion. U-verse revenue represented $2.3 billion of quarterly revenue. Without U-verse, revenue would have been far worse. Instead, largely on the strength of U-verse, AT&T saw a 1.7-percent revenue growth for wireline segment products.

U-verse revenue was up 38 percent. That was, according to AT&T, the “strongest growth” in the consumer segment in more than four years.

“Continued strong growth in consumer IP data services in the second quarter more than offset lower revenue from voice and legacy products,” AT&T said.

On the other hand, AT&T lost 649,000 DSL subscribers, for a net loss of 96,000 broadband customers, after adding in new accounts gained during the quarter.  U-verse broadband access customers saw a net gain of 553,000 subscribers, to reach a total of 6.5 million. Total wireline broadband connections dropped 0.2 percent, year over year, to 16.43 million.

On both fixed and mobile networks, it is data revenues that are driving revenue growth. In fact, data revenue will grow to 65 percent of total U.S. wireless service revenue as voice declines to 35 percent in 2016, according to Hugues de la Vergne, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Gartner believes multi-device rate plans will be a key driving factor in the expansion of U.S. data revenue from $81.4 billion in 2011 to $151.9 billion in 2016.




Edited by Braden Becker
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]

Contributing Editor

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Related Articles

Your Post-Quantum Readiness Starts at Y2Q Summit

By: TMCnet News    5/27/2026

Y2Q Summit is an executive conference focused on helping enterprises prepare for the coming era of quantum computing disruption, cybersecurity transfo…

Read More

Why Award Marketing Should Be Part of Every B2B Tech Company's Growth Strategy

By: Erik Linask    5/20/2026

Award marketing matters for B2B tech companies because industry recognition can strengthen trust, support sales and partner relationships, improve con…

Read More

Why Email Is Still the Most Underrated Layer of Modern Software Infrastructure

By: Contributing Writer    5/15/2026

Take, for example, the following scenario. A user requests a password reset, waits a few seconds, refreshes their inbox and nothing arrives. They try …

Read More

Jitterbit's Visionary Status Signals a Shift in the iPaaS Market

By: Contributing Writer    4/7/2026

As enterprise ecosystems grow more complex, integration has become less of a backend IT function and more of a strategic driver of business performanc…

Read More

Cyber Extortion over hoax Breach: Lessons from a Fabricated story about IDMERIT

By: Contributing Writer    3/3/2026

Cybercriminals are increasingly staging fake data breaches to launch extortion attempts against KYC-AML companies. Recently, hackers devised a new met…

Read More