US telecoms giant AT&T has reported operating revenues of USD181.2 billion for the twelve months ended 31 December 2019, up from USD170.8 billion. Operating income for the year under review reached USD28.0 billion, up from USD26.1 billion in 2018, while annual net income attributable to AT&T shrank to USD13.9 billion (2018: USD19.4 billion).
In operational terms, AT&T reported a total of 165.889 million wireless accounts in its domestic market as of 31 December 2019, broken down as 75.207 million post-paid subscribers, 17.803 million pre-paid users, 6.893 million reseller customers and 65.986 million connected devices. In terms of fixed broadband connections meanwhile, AT&T claimed 14.119 million residential users at end-2019, of which 3.887 million were fibre-optic connections. Elsewhere, AT&T’s ‘International’ segment reported 19.159 million mobile users in Mexico as of end-December, alongside 13.331 million Latin American pay-TV customers.
In other news, AT&T has confirmed that its low band 850MHz 5G network now covers 50 million people and is expected to support nationwide coverage – around 200 million – by mid-2020. The rollout progress was announced by COO John Stankey on the telco’s fourth quarter earnings call. TeleGeography notes that the low band service went live in ten markets on 13 December 2019 and utilises former 3G spectrum. AT&T’s 39GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) – which was launched in December 2018 – continues to serve parts of 35 US cities.