AT&T Earnings: $3.8 Billion Net Loss, $32.6 Billion in Revenue, 1.1 Million New Wireless Customers

AT&T reported a big fourth quarter loss, though it was narrower than the one posted a year earlier as the company saw a significant jump in wireless subscribers.

The company posted a net loss of $3.8 billion, or 68 cents per share, on revenue of $32.6 billion. That compares to a net loss of $6.7 billion, or $1.12 per share, on revenue of $32.5 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding various pension, storm and other charges, the company said its adjusted per-share earnings would have been 44 cents per share, up 10 percent from a year ago but a penny below what some analysts were expecting. On the wireless front, AT&T said it added 1.1 million total wireless subscribers, including 780,000 new contract customers. It also added 246,000 non-phone “connected devices” in the quarter. The company added that 6.6 million subscribers, or 9 percent of contract customers, are on one of its new shared data plans. AT&T also saw gains for its U-verse high-speed Internet TV service. The company added 192,000 TV subscribers, reaching 4.5 million in total and added 609,000 U-verse Internet customers. That gives it 7.7 million total U-verse Internet subscribers and allowed the company for the first time to have more U-verse Internet subscribers than it did DSL.