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Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) added 1.4 million net new retail connections in the quarter and now claims a total of 104.6 million connections.
The short version of the story is that even though Verizon has fewer subscribers, each one of them is worth more to the company than are AT&T’s subscribers. AT&T’s average revenue per user (ARPU) dropped 7.7% year-over-year for phone-only postpaid subscribers. The decline is due to a shift in contracts from the once-ubiquitous device subsidy plans to a cheaper, no-subsidy plan that has customers paying full price for the phone as part of a financing plan. As a result, monthly revenue per postpaid customer slipped to about $62, down $5 a month from a year ago and $4 a month sequentially.
Verizon has taken some steps to move down the same path as AT&T and that was first laid out by T-Mobile USA Inc. (NYSE: TMUS). Verizon’s edge is in data usage. Customers with limited shared data plans represent 77% of Verizon’s customers, compared with just 55% of AT&T’s customer base. Those unlimited data plans bleed revenues. More than half of Verizon’s customers pay more than $100 a month, compared with 46% of AT&T’s. Some 14% of Verizon’s customers pay more than $200 a month, compared with just 5% of AT&T’s.
AT&T believes that once its customers migrate to the company’s new plans, equipment upgrades and data usage revenues will rise. That belief will be tested over the next several quarters.
Shares of AT&T traded down about 0.8% in the noon hour on Thursday, at $35.58 in a 52-week range of $31.74 to $36.86.
Verizon shares traded up about 0.7%, at $51.25 in a 52-week range of $45.08 to $51.94.
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