Key Takeaways:
- AT&T continues to make progress on its sustainable, long-term growth strategy and remains on track to meet all of its financial guidance
- The company continues to see healthy demand for world-class 5G and fiber connectivity
- As one of the largest investors in the United States, the company remains focused on building vital, high-performance network infrastructure for both mobile and fiber networks. To support these efforts, the company continues to expect 2024 capital investment in the $21-22 billion range
Pascal Desroches, chief financial officer, AT&T* (NYSE:T) Inc., will speak today at the 32nd Annual Deutsche Bank Media, Internet and Telecom Conference where he will provide an update to shareholders. Here are the key topics Desroches is expected to cover:
The company’s focus on leading with world-class connectivity is working.
- AT&T continues to benefit from the connectivity-focused, investment-led strategy it laid out more than 3 years ago. By executing a simple and proven playbook, the company is powering customer growth, improving returns and enabling additional investments that are benefiting the business.
- AT&T’s simple and consistent go-to-market approach continues to resonate with customers and has created a sustainable model for healthy growth and strong cash conversion.
AT&T remains focused on growing durable relationships with high-quality 5G & fiber customers.
- The company continues to see healthy, but normalizing, wireless industry trends and is pleased with how the Mobility business is performing in the first quarter.
- AT&T’s fiber build remains on pace to pass 30M+ customer and business locations by the end of 2025, and the company expects first-quarter AT&T Fiber net adds in the Consumer Wireline segment in the 250,000 range. AT&T Fiber penetration rates continue to exceed initial business case assumptions with net adds varying from quarter to quarter based on seasonality, market dynamics and the pace of new fiber locations served.
- AT&T is uniquely positioned to take advantage of its owned and operated scaled wireless and fiber networks. Unlike others in the industry, the company realizes economic benefit from both wireless and fiber when it adds converged subscribers.
- AT&T’s connectivity toolkit continues to expand and includes multiple technologies, including 5G, fiber and the company’s fixed wireless access product – AT&T Internet Air – which is now available in parts of 95 locations.
AT&T remains on track to achieve its financial guidance.
- The company remains confident in its ability to deliver on all of the financial guidance provided with its earnings report in January 2024.
- AT&T also remains focused on driving incremental efficiencies with an additional $2 billion+ in run-rate cost savings by mid-2026.
- The company is on track to reduce net debt and to achieve net-debt to adjusted EBITDA in the 2.5x range in the first half of 2025. It also plans to continue addressing short-term financing obligations as it shapes an even more sustainable and ratable free cash flow cadence.
AT&T continues to invest in the future of America’s connectivity.
- AT&T is focused on becoming America’s best high-performance network provider. AT&T now has the largest wireless network in North America1, with mid-band 5G spectrum covering 210 million+ people. Additionally, AT&T is the nation’s largest fiber provider passing 26 million+ consumer and business locations.
- AT&T is making critical investments in its wireless and fiber future. This includes accelerating the transition to Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN), which will enable a more robust supplier ecosystem, and drive efficiencies and longer-term cost savings.
- Additionally, based on fiber returns better than initial assumptions, AT&T sees an opportunity to potentially pass an incremental 10 to 15 million consumer and business fiber locations within its existing footprint – assuming similar build parameters and a regulatory environment that incentivizes investing in America’s robust connectivity needs.
- Over the past five years, from 2019 to 2023, AT&T invested $145 billion+ in its wireless and wireline networks, including capital investments and acquisitions of wireless spectrum2.
Following the event, the webcast of Desroches’ conversation will be available for replay at AT&T Investor Relations.
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