AT&T (News - Alert) first quarter 2013 earnings were at levels that most telcos, given current global conditions, would have been happy to report. To wit, earnings per share were up, even if consolidated revenues were down, year over year.
AT&T earned $0.67 per share compared to $0.60 earned in the first quarter of 2012, up 8.5 percent after adjustments. But some analysts had expected slightly higher earnings.
Other major telcos are facing headwinds stronger than AT&T. France Telecom revenues might actually drop in 2013. Telefonica had earnings issues most of 2012, as well, for example. But even AT&T’s consolidated revenues of $31.4 billion were down 1.5 percent compared to the same quarter of 2012.
Wireless drove overall gains, as has been the pattern for AT&T for a few years. Total wireless revenues, which include equipment sales, were up 3.4 percent year over year to $16.7 billion.
Wireless service revenues increased 3.4 percent in the first quarter, to $15.1 billion. Wireless data revenues also increased 21 percent from the year-earlier quarter to $5.1 billion.
As you might expect, total first-quarter wireline revenues were $14.7 billion, down 1.8 percent versus the year-earlier quarter and down 1.8 percent sequentially.
AT&T reported wireline consumer revenue growth of two percent compared to the same period of 2012, with total U-verse revenues (including business revenue) up 31.5 percent year over year.
AT&T reported 8.7 million total U-verse subscribers (TV and high speed Internet) in service, adding 731,000 high speed Internet subscribers, the best-ever quarterly gain.
AT&T also gained 232,000 U-verse TV subscribers, the strongest growth in nine quarters.
Total wireline broadband data average revenue per user was up more than nine percent year over year.
Total business revenues were $8.9 billion, down 3.4 percent versus the year-earlier quarter, and business service revenues declined 3.5 percent year over year. That softness in the business segment likewise is consistent with trends of the past several years.