We needed to get focused on our customers and ensure that we were delivering products that they embraced, loved, and wanted to have, and that was going to be absolutely essential. And we needed to make sure that while we were doing that, we were re-engineering our cost structure, frankly, getting rid of technology products capability that served us well for many decades, figuring out how to shut those down so that when we arrived at this new place, we had a sustainable and effective business. And we spent a better part of four years doing that, and I think we’ve done it, to the team’s credit, quite well.
– John Stakey, AT&T chairman and chief executive, March 2025
Talking about numbers, AT&T expects the new multi-year strategic plan it just announced to provide more than $50 bullion of financial capacity over the next three years, mostly via organic growth.When it comes to customer growth, AT&T expects full-year wireless service increase in the higher end of the 2% to 3% range. The carrier says that customers who reached the end of their device promotions returned “to a more normalized level on a seasonal basis in Q4 2024.”
AT&T‘s Q4 2024 highlights | Screenshot by PhoneArena
Also, AT&T confirmed that it’s pleased with the customer response to the recent launch of AT&T Guarantee and offers released over the past several weeks. It expects the positive trend to continue for the remainder of the quarter.
Stakey went on to say that AT&T will manage its customers base more effectively and expects to have improvements in yield from existing customers either through ARPU increase and moving people up to higher value plans.
Besides focusing on customers, which seem to matter a lot more than they did several years ago, AT&T multi-year growth plan includes continued network investments.
It remains to be seen how things are unfolding for AT&T these next few years, but it appears that customers have suddenly become more valuable for the carrier, probably because of the very competitive environment.
