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AT&T hits 4G LTE deployment finish line; Q2 mixed bag

On the wireless front, AT&T performed well with 1 million net postpaid additions and a postpaid churn of 0.86. Wireless revenue was up 3.7 percent from a year ago.

Written by Larry Dignan, Contributor July 23, 2014 at 1:44 p.m. PT

AT&T said its 4G LTE deployment will be "substantially complete" this summer amid a mixed second quarter where sales fell short of expectations, but churn hit a record low.

The company reported second quarter earnings of $3.5 billion, or 68 cents a share, on revenue of $32.6 billion, up 1.6 percent from a year ago. Net earnings included 2 cents a share in Leap Wireless integration costs and a 8 cents a share gain on its América Móvil equity investment. Excluding those items, AT&T's earnings were 62 cents a share.

Wall Street was looking for non-GAAP earnings of 63 cents a share on revenue of $33.22 billion.

As for the outlook, AT&T projected 2014 revenue growth of about 5 percent.

On the wireless front, AT&T performed well with 1 million net postpaid additions and a postpaid churn of 0.86. Wireless revenue was up 3.7 percent from a year ago.

The company added 700,000 postpaid smartphone customers to end the quarter with 61 million total subscribers. Including upgrades and new subscribers, AT&T said it moved 1.6 million new postpaid smartphones.

AT&T also added 488,000 U-verse high-speed Internet subscribers and 190,000 TV customers.

Enterprise revenue for the second quarter was $8.7 billion, down 2.9 percent from a year ago.