The carrier is counting on AI offerings, such as its fixed wireless AT&T Internet Air for Business service, as a way to help it return to growth within its business services segment, AT&T’s top executives said during the fourth-quarter 2024 and full-year earnings call.
Desroches pointed to AT&T Internet Air for Business, a fixed wireless service that was launched nationwide in 2024 for small, midsize and large business customers as an initial offering that will give the carrier “plenty of room to run” with AI for business during the carrier’s fourth-quarter 2024 and full-year earnings call Monday morning.
Business wireline services, which includes advanced Ethernet-based fiber services, fixed wireless services, IP voice and managed professional services for business customers, decreased 10.2 percent during the quarter and business wireline equipment fell 5.6 percent during the fourth quarter. Business wireline services fell 10.9 percent, and equipment rose 24 percent for the full 2024 year.
AT&T said that the business wireline financial results reflect the continued transition away from legacy wireline services.
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“The good news is we had a lot of share and we did really well in that space. The bad news is some of those products are in a secular repositioning right now and they’re repositioning to fiber and high- bandwidth connectivity-based products and services, which we’ll also do well in, but dollar for dollar, there is a little bit of a trade down when you make those transitions,” said AT&T CEO John Stankey.
Stankey during Monday’s earnings call said that the company can be “a little more effective” at middle mile infrastructure as AI becomes more critical in places.
To that end, the carrier wants to scale its distribution to this market segment and plans to work with partners that can help it expand its footprint. AT&T said that strong enterprise relationships are key to future business connectivity growth.
One bright spot for the business portfolio was AT&T business solutions wireless revenue, which increased 3.5 percent during the quarter and 4.1 percent for the full year. AT&T said that the business solutions segment is poised to capture incremental growth opportunities in fiber and 5G in 2025.
Dallas-based AT&T Business today provides services to nearly all Fortune 1000 companies.
Fourth-Quarter And Full-Year 2024 Results
AT&T’s mobility segment revenue totaled $23.13 billion during the quarter, a 3.3 percent increase compared with $22.39 billion in the same quarter a year ago. The overall communications business, which includes high-speed internet, video and legacy voice services, totaled $31.14 billion during the quarter compared with $30.80 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, a modest 1.1 percent increase. The mobility segment grew 1.5 percent during the full 2024 year, and the overall communications business was down slightly by 0.3 percent.
Mobility services revenue continued to climb, rising 3.3 percent to $16.56 billion, up from $16.04 billion a year ago. Mobility equipment revenue also rose 3.3 percent to $6.57 billion during the quarter compared with $6.35 billion a year ago. For the full year, mobility services revenue climbed 3.5 percent, and equipment fell 4.4 percent overall.
The company had 482,000 postpaid phone adds during the fourth quarter of the year.
Total operating revenue for the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31 was $32.30 billion, a modest increase of 0.9 percent from $32.02 billion in the same quarter one year earlier . Diluted earnings per share during AT&T’s fourth quarter was 56 cents, compared with $1.49 a year ago.
The company’s full 2024-year revenue totaled $122.33 billion, down a slight 0.1 percent from $122.43 billion, which the company said was driven by lower revenue from business wireline service revenue and mobility equipment revenue.
AT&T’s fourth-quarter 2024 results beat Wall Street’s expectations for the quarter as the number of new customers topped estimates.
