In this article T Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Pedestrians walk by a logo in front of an AT&T store on June 20, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images AT&T exceeded market expectations for wireless subscriber additions in the second quarter on Wednesday, as the telecom operator's higher-tier unlimited plans attracted customers. The company added 419,000 monthly bill-paying wireless phone subscribers, compared with expectations of 284,800 additions, according to five analysts polled by FactSet.
AT&T's unlimited plans that are usually priced lower than those of rivals have helped the company add budget-conscious customers amid tough competition from T-Mobile and Verizon . That has also helped AT&T retain customers better than rivals, with its postpaid phone churn- the number of people disconnecting from a company's service - coming at 0.70%, the second lowest reported for a second quarter.
Free cash flow, a metric that helps determine dividend payouts, rose more than 9% to $4.6 billion, beating LSEG estimates of $4.22 billion.
However, slower phone upgrades in the U.S. weighed on AT&T's revenue, mirroring comments from Verizon.
Mobility equipment revenue was down 8% in the April-June period. Total revenue of $29.8 billion missed estimates of $29.
92 billion, according to LSEG data. AT&T, one of the largest telecom operators in the U.S.
, was troubled by data breaches and hours-long outages this year. The U.S.
Federal Communications Co.