Business Revenues Have Turned a Corner – AT&T CFO

Like Verizon, AT&T saw declining business revenue in the first quarter, as increased wireless sales to businesses and improved strategic service revenues failed to offset the decline in legacy services. However, its chief financial officer pointed to an improving trend in business revenues, with slower declines, and said the move to a software-defined network is beginning to pay off. (See AT&T on Track With 5G, Starts FirstNet Build and Verizon Biz Bucks Continue to Slide.)

Total business wireline revenues were $6.8 billion, down 7.9% year over year, or down 3.3% on a comparable accounting basis, according to AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). Wireless business revenues were up nearly 4%, but wireline revenues were down 3% year over year, for an overall decline of 1.6% on a comparable basis.

This decline is "an improvement over recent quarters and similar to what we saw in the fourth quarter," John Stephens, AT&T CFO, told analysts in the earnings conference call. "This improving trend in wireline is encouraging, and this comes before any expected bump from business activity we might see as the result of tax reform."

Also, AT&T saw a "significant improvement in business wireline margins where EBITDA grew year over year and margins were up 190 basis points on a comparative basis," he noted, crediting the AT&T Business Solutions team with doing "a great job in driving cost management initiatives."

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading

This is an edited version of a story that was originally published on Telco Transformation's sister site, Light Reading. To see the full story, click here.