AT&T's (NYSE: T) U-verse subscribers, for both TV and broadband, topped 10.7 million in the fourth quarter, the carrier said, making the U-verse platform a $13 billion annualized business for the company, growing at a rate of 28 percent per year.
Speaking during the company's fourth quarter earnings conference with investors, AT&T CFO John Stephens said the company's U-verse TV subscribers alone reached 5.5 million, and the company's TV service reported the lowest churn in its history. AT&T added nearly 194,000 U-verse TV subscribers in the quarter and 924,000 subscribers in the year. "They want U-verse and they stay with us once they get it," Stephens said on the call.
In addition, U-verse added 630,000 broadband subscribers in the fourth quarter, bringing AT&T's total broadband subscriber additions to 2.7 million for 2013. In total, the company said it has 10.4 million U-Verse broadband subscribers.
AT&T's residential customers generated $5.6 billion in revenues, an increase of 2.9 percent over the fourth quarter of 2012. U-verse subscribers now represent 57 percent of AT&T's wireline consumer revenues, but the company believes there is room to grow in 2014 as AT&T continues to deploy its Project VIP network upgrades.
Interestingly, about 59 percent of AT&T's U-verse broadband customers are getting speeds of up to 12 Mbps or higher. And in the fourth quarter more than 90 percent of new U-Verse TV customers also signed up for U-verse broadband service. Approximately two-thirds of AT&T's U-verse TV subscribers are bundled customers, meaning they subscribe to three or four services from the company. Average revenue per user, or ARPU, for AT&T's triple-play customers tops $170 per month.
In other company metrics, AT&T reported consolidated revenues of $33.2 billion in the fourth quarter, up 1.8 percent vs the year-earlier quarter. For the full year AT&T reported consolidated revenues of $128.8 billion vs. $127.4 billion in 2012.
AT&T's wireline revenues were $14.7 billion in the quarter, down 1.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012. The carrier's U-verse revenues grew 27.9 percent year over year and were up 7 percent vs. the third quarter of 2012.
For more:
- see this release
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