Page 29 - SAMENA Trends - September-October 2020

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AT&T Reports 3Q20 Revenues of USD42.3Bn

US telecoms giant AT&T Inc has reported consolidated operating billion. Meanwhile, net income attributable to AT&T dropped from
revenues of USD42.34 billion for the three months ended 30 USD3.70 billion to USD2.82 billion in Q3. In operational terms,
September 2020, down from USD44.59 billion on an annualized AT&T reported a total of 176.744 million wireless subscribers in its
basis. EBITDA for the period under review dipped to USD13.16 domestic market as of 30 September 2020, which includes 6.708
billion, from USD14.85 billion year-on-year, while third quarter million reseller accounts and 75.967 million connected devices.
operating income decreased from USD7.90 billion to USD6.13 In terms of fixed broadband connections, AT&T claimed 14.102
million ‘entertainment’ users, of which 4.678 million are fiber-
to-the-home (FTTH) accesses. Elsewhere, AT&T’s ‘International’
segment reported 18.414 million mobile users in Mexico as of
end-September, alongside 10.893 million Latin American pay-TV
customers. AT&T CEO John Stankey commented: ‘We delivered
a solid quarter with good subscriber momentum in our market
focus areas of connectivity and software-based entertainment.
Wireless post-paid growth was the strongest that it has been in
years with one million net additions, including 645,000 phones.
We added more than 350,000 fiber broadband customers and are
on track to grow our fiber base by more than 25% this year.’

AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and CFO John Stephens Updates
Shareholders

John Stephens, senior executive vice president and chief financial
officer of AT&T Inc., spoke recently at the Bank of America Securities
2020 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference where
he provided an update to shareholders. Confident in the ability
to generate strong cash flows. Stephens said that the company
continues to have limited visibility into the extent and duration
of the impact of COVID and resulting government actions on
the economy. In addition, while WarnerMedia continues to be
impacted in areas such as the timing of theatrical releases
as well its production schedule, the resumption of sports is
expected to shift the timing of advertising revenues and costs
into the third quarter from the second quarter. Despite these
fluid dynamics, Stephens reiterated that AT&T remains confident
in its ability to generate strong cash flows given the resiliency and continues to look for opportunities to leverage the platform
of wireless and broadband services and continued demand for to identify both new content distribution opportunities as well
business connectivity. Network quality underscores wireless as new audiences for the company’s expansive library to further
value proposition. Stephens said the wireless market remains drive customer acquisition and engagement. Capital allocation.
very competitive but that AT&T continues to see benefits from its Stephens reiterated that AT&T continues to invest to support
investment in significantly improving network capacity over the growth in its areas of market focus — broadband connectivity
past few years. AT&T has nationwide 5G service and was recently (fiber, 5G) and software-based entertainment (HBO Max, AT&T
named “Best Wireless Network” for the third consecutive year TV). Also, the company is investing in its transformation and
based on overall national wireless performance. This high level efficiency efforts. Stephens said AT&T continues to expect a
of service quality and network resiliency during the challenging dividend payout ratio at year-end 2020 in the 60s% range and that
economic backdrop is helping the company differentiate its the company is targeting the low end of that range.2 The company
wireless offerings. Additionally, AT&T continues to benefit in both plans to use excess cash after dividends to further reduce net
customer acquisition and retention from its ability to bundle HBO debt. Since the close of the Time Warner transaction, AT&T has
Max with its high-quality wireless services. HBO Max traction reduced net debt by about $30 billion and, since the first quarter
continues. AT&T is pleased with the initial success of HBO of 2020, the company has taken advantage of historically low
Max, including its activation growth and solid levels of viewer interest rates to push out near-term debt obligations by about $30
engagement. The company continues to see weekly viewing billion.3 The company continues to explore monetizing non-core
hours for HBO Max that are significantly higher than for HBO Now. assets in its portfolio to drive incremental shareholder value.
AT&T plans to launch an advertising-based version of HBO Max

29 SEP-OCT 2020