AT&T said capital expenditures were $4.9 billion in the second quarter of 2022, up $1.2 billion year over year.
AT&T said it has already achieved its end-of-year target of covering 70 million people with mid-band 5G spectrum and is on track to approach 100 million people with mid-band 5G spectrum by the end of the year.
“We’ve already added nearly 2 million AT&T Fiber locations this year and reached our target of covering 70 million people with mid-band 5G spectrum two quarters early, with expectations to now approach the 100 million mark by the end of year,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said.
AT&T has added 813,000 new monthly bill paying wireless phone subscribers in the second quarter, benefiting from the expansion of its 5G network, compared with 691,000 additions in the first quarter of 2022.
AT&T delivered subscriber growth near second-quarter record levels with 316,000 AT&T Fiber net adds. This brings total net additions over the past two years to nearly 2.3 million, including 10 straight quarters of more than 200,000 net adds. AT&T said AT&T Fiber has the ability to serve 18 million customer locations in more than 100 U.S. metro areas.
“As a result of our higher-than-forecasted customer growth, we’re increasing our mobility service revenue guidance to 4.5-5 percent growth for the full year,” John Stankey said. AT&T had earlier forecast wireless service revenue growth of 3 percent or more.
AT&T said revenues from continuing operations for the second quarter totaled $29.6 billion versus $35.7 billion in the year-ago quarter, down 17.1 percent reflecting the impact of the U.S. Video separation in the third quarter of 2021 and certain other divested businesses.
Excluding the impact of these divestitures, operating revenues for standalone AT&T were up 2.2 percent, from $29.0 billion in the year-ago quarter. This increase reflects higher Mobility revenues and, to a lesser extent, higher Mexico and Consumer Wireline revenues, partially offset by lower Business Wireline revenues.
AT&T’s operating expenses from continuing operations were $24.7 billion versus $28.2 billion in the year-ago quarter. Expenses declined due to the separation of the U.S. Video operations and impacts of other divested businesses. These declines were partially offset by increased Mobility costs, including wireless equipment, as well as the impact of non-cash restructuring and impairment charges and higher bad debt expense.
