While AT&T went and reported some mixed Q1 earnings, sending its stock in a tailspin, the stellar performance of its mobile division was undeniable. AT&T’s mobility unit clocked its best ever profitability for the first quarter, with 8% rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA).
In short, AT&T’s cellular business did great last quarter, but the rest of its portfolio – not so much. Out of its $30.22B in revenue, a grand total of $20.6B came from the mobility unit which added no less than 424,000 of the coveted postpaid phone subscribers in Q1.
Furthermore, AT&T’s churn rate – the number of people leaving the network for greener pastures – was also very low, at just 0.81% for postpaid subscribers, and 2.73% for prepaid. All in all, AT&T netted $6 billion in operating income this past quarter, about $500 million more than Q1 of last year.
As for the 5G network coverage expansion, AT&T is no T-Mobile just yet, but it now blankets 160 million people with its 5G network, way ahead of what was thought possible last year at that time. Hopefully, AT&T will keep its good promotions going strong in the current quarter as well.
