AT&T said Wednesday it added more than 2 million wireless and high-speed Internet subscribers in Q3, and reported $32.2 billion revenue, up 2.2 percent over the year-earlier quarter. Net income was up 4.9 percent over last year to $3.8 billion. AT&T now has more than 10 million U-verse subscribers and U-verse revenue was up 28.1 percent year-over-year. AT&T reported 655,000 high-speed Internet and 265,000 U-verse TV net subscriber adds. Wireless data revenue was up 17.6 percent over last year and wireless subscribers increased by nearly 1 million. Smartphones now make up 89 percent of the company’s postpaid phone sales. Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said on a call with investors AT&T is building a “strong runway” for its LTE expansion and continues to add spectrum, with most of the 700 MHz B-block spectrum the carrier recently acquired already in service. In Q3 AT&T increased U-verse speeds up to 45 Mbps, Stephens said. “We're moving forward plans for speeds of 75 Mbps and faster,” he said. A 100 percent fiber broadband network AT&T is installing in Austin, Texas, will deliver speeds up to 1 Gbps, he said.
The FCC International Bureau dismissed applications involving earth stations from GCI Communication Corp. and X2nSat for being incomplete. GCI filed an application to modify its earth station authorization to add a 3.8-meter antenna to operate in the 3700-4200 MHz and 5925-6425 MHz bands, the bureau’s Satellite Division said in a letter (http://bit.ly/19znpuW). GCI didn’t identify the intended points of communication on its Form 312, it said. The division calculated that EIRP density should be 46.4 dBW/4kHz and 84.2 dBW/4kHz for emission designators, which is different from the EIRP density listed by GCI, it said. X2nSat didn’t provide radiation hazard studies for all types of earth stations that it requested in its application for a new very small aperture terminal network, the division said in a separate letter (http://bit.ly/15tf6yE). X2nSat also must provide a demonstration that the Newtec .75-meter antenna, model MDM2200, is compliant, it said.
AT&T added 551,000 postpaid subscribers during Q2 -- its best data for the quarter in four years, said the carrier Tuesday. The carrier said net income totaled $3.8 billion on $32.1 billion in consolidated revenue. The carrier’s 4G LTE network covers more than 225 million potential customers in the U.S., and AT&T expects to expand to an area covering almost 270 million potential customers in 400 markets by the end of the year. The carrier expects its LTE network will be “substantially complete” by summer 2014, it said (http://soc.att.com/1aH5qUW).
The Wireless Bureau still hopes to issue an NPRM touching on various wireless infrastructure concerns this summer for FCC commissioners to vote on, which would have implications for state and local municipalities, said Spectrum Policy Division Deputy Chief Jeff Steinberg: “That is still our plan.” The earliest timeframe would be August, he said. The NPRM will likely “work off of” the Jan. 25 public notice offering staff guidance. How the NPRM proceeds will also depend on acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, he said.
Harris Corp. requested authority to build and operate a 3.8 meter C-band earth station “to be used in connection with a critical project for the Federal Aviation Administration,” it said in its application to the FCC International Bureau (http://bit.ly/12fT3yb). The earth station will provide air traffic radar services to the FAA, it said. Intelsat requested an extension of an existing special temporary authority for 60 days to drift Intelsat 702 from 47.5 degrees east to 33 degrees east, it said in an application (http://bit.ly/16Xp54U). Intelsat also plans to operate the satellite at that location in inclined orbit in the C and Ku bands, it said.
More Americans are adopting broadband, NTIA said in a Thursday blog post (http://1.usa.gov/13est4I). “As of October 2012, 72.4 percent of American households (88 million households) have high-speed Internet at home -- a 3.8 percentage point (5.5 percent) increase over the July 2011 figure.” NTIA emphasized the priority of broadband adoption and referred to its $4 billion broadband stimulus efforts and $250 million in grants for digital literacy and to provide discounted computers. It also highlighted its Broadband Adoption Toolkit. The data come jointly from NTIA and the Economics and Statistics Administration. “We will soon release the newest edition of the Digital Nation series of reports on broadband adoption and Internet use in America,” NTIA said. “The new report -- Exploring the Digital Nation: America’s Emerging Online Experience -- presents results based on a July 2011 data collection that, for the first time in eight years, gathered extensive information on what Americans actually do online. Later this year, we plan to publish more detailed results of the October 2012 data collection."
"There is no business plan -- there is research,” said FirstNet board member Jeff Johnson, CEO of the Western Fire Chiefs Association and FirstNet’s head of outreach, referring to more than 400 pages of FirstNet material cited at a recent board meeting. “But there is no plan until we've listened to you.”
Q1 media company results: CBS revenue rose 6 percent from the year-ago quarter to $4.04 billion, the broadcaster said in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/12nMK6u). CEO Les Moonves said it was the company’s strongest quarter ever in revenue, operating income and other financial measures, and cited the broadcaster’s “big-event” content for its success. Along with events, the revenue rise included a 14 percent increase in affiliate and subscription fee revenue, which the release said was “driven” by a 62 percent increase in retransmission revenue. Cable networks sales rose 6 percent to $478 million, also driven by higher affiliate revenue, the release said. CBS said local broadcasting revenue increased 3 percent to $638 million on showing the Super Bowl and higher retrans sales. “What a Difference a Quarter Makes -- Nice Q1 results,” was the subject line of an email to investors from Wachovia analyst Marci Ryvicker. CBS executives said that Aereo, which the broadcaster has sued to block from streaming stations online without paying retrans (CD April 16 p7), isn’t a concern, said Ryvicker. “While a straight-to-cable model would be ‘easy to do,’ CBS doesn’t think it will amount to that since 1) Aereo is not a compelling product, 2) the legality remains questionable, and 3) we do not believe that Aereo has been a topic in any retrans negotiations to date.” CBS like other broadcasters has said it might move the over-the-air network to pay-TV if Aereo prevails in litigation and no changes were made to copyright law. Subscription VOD (SVOD) revenue will rise this year “even WITHOUT a new Netflix deal,” Ryvicker wrote. CBS stock closed up 2.1 percent to $47.35 Thursday. ... Scripps Networks Interactive sales rose 11 percent to $594 million from the year-ago quarter. Profit fell 6.2 percent to $107.8 million, SNI said (http://bit.ly/105b2Av). Ad revenue exceeded the expectations of Nomura Securities’ Michael Nathanson, but an 8.5 percent increase in affiliate fees was below his forecast, he wrote investors Thursday. SNI shares closed up 2.9 percent at $68.73. ... WWE revenue rose less than 1 percent from Q1 2012, to $124 million, as operating income fell 62 percent to $6.1 million. Results were hurt by “investments in our content production and talent, lower profits from home entertainment and weakness in international licensing sales,” the cable programmer said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/ZXZi73). ... Journal Communications sales rose 15 percent to $94.7 million from the year-ago quarter as TV revenue rose 43 percent partly because of an acquired station, the company said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/163cOdJ). “On a same-station basis, television revenue increased almost 8 percent, driven, in part, by increased retransmission revenue.” Companywide profit rose 30 percent to $3.8 million. ... Crown Media sales rose 2 percent to $85.6 million as ad revenue and subscriber fees increased by that percentage, the cable programmer said in a news release (http://bit.ly/XQU6g6). It said “programming costs decreased 7 percent due to the expiration of a number of programming license agreements and the end of ‘The Martha Stewart Show’ agreement,” and such expenses likely will rise. Profit rose 18 percent to $14.5 million. ... Gray Television sales fell 3 percent to $78.2 million “due to the expected decrease in political advertising revenue,” the company said in a news release (http://bit.ly/16uA9oE). Retrans sales rose on “increased subscriber counts and rates,” Gray said. Profit fell 74 percent to $870,000. “Q1 came in stronger than expected across the board and core Q2 guidance indicates acceleration in the core business,” Ryvicker wrote. Gray shares closed up 2.4 percent at $6.53 Thursday.
Deutsche Telekom made its “best and final offer” late Wednesday in its bid to merge its T-Mobile USA wireless carrier with MetroPCS. Deutsche Telekom’s new offer would still give MetroPCS shareholders $1.5 billion in cash and 26 percent ownership of the combined carrier, but it does address concerns about debt. Deutsche Telekom is now proposing to transfer $11.2 billion in debt to the combined carrier -- $3.8 billion less than in the original offer -- and has cut the interest rate on the debt by half a percentage point (bit.ly/14eCSCX). MetroPCS said it has moved a full vote on the merger to April 24; it had previously been set to occur Friday. The original merger proposal faced increased opposition in recent weeks, with two major MetroPCS investors saying they would vote against the deal, after several proxy advisory firms found Deutsche Telekom’s original offer did not reflect the true value of MetroPCS’s assets and involved too much debt (CD April 2 p9). Hedge fund Paulson & Co., one of the two MetroPCS shareholders leading opposition to the merger with T-Mobile, said in a statement it “intends to vote for the” revised deal, which it said was an improvement. P. Schoenfeld Asset Management, the other leading opponent of the original deal, said in a statement it’s reviewing the new offer.
Like its larger industry peers before it, Charter is taking its cable systems “all digital” so it can reclaim bandwidth currently devoted to analog video and offer customers a more modern product, CEO Tom Rutledge said Friday on an earnings call. Unlike operators that made the transition by providing low-cost digital converters, or DTAs, to analog subscribers, Charter is planning to deploy as many full-featured set-top boxes as possible to analog homes, Rutledge said. The company has sought a waiver from some FCC CableCARD requirements while it develops a downloadable security feature (CD Nov 5 p5).