AT&T said in its first-quarter earnings report today that it gained about 148,000 U-verse TV subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total IPTV service tally to about 379,000. Though Verizon Communications continues to set the high mark for U.S. telcos, with more than 1 million FiOS TV customers, AT&T is posting strong growth quarter by quarter as it puts some early growing pains in the past. The telco said it is on track to obtain 1 million U-verse TV customers by the end of this year. If you add satellite TV customers into the mix, AT&T now serves about 2.6 million TV customers total.
Yet, success in this new business arena and in wireless are not allowing AT&T to skate through the otherwise unstable landline telecom sector. The company last week said it would lay off more than 4,600 employees, though it still intends to keep hiring for jobs specific to growth areas such as TV and wireless. Many industry watchers are predicting other telcos will make similar cuts this year as they try to focus on what will be the core telco businesses of the future.
For more:
- see this AT&T press release