In short: Q2 revenue +2% Y/Y to $31.6B ($250M miss) while adj EPS surged 20% to $0.65 ($0.06 beat) — the shortfall didn't matter because the subscriber numbers landed. After months of SpaceX-entering-wireless fear, AT&T posted 432,000 postpaid phone net adds against ~325,000 expected, with churn at 0.86%. Over 1 million Advanced Connectivity customers added, including 646,000 internet net adds (367K fiber, 279K fixed wireless); Advanced Connectivity service revenue +5% to $23.5B (accelerating 150 bps from Q1) and segment operating income +20% to $7.3B. FCF of $4.7B cleared the high end of the $4.0–4.5B guide. The cost of winning on volume shows elsewhere: fiber ARPU fell 1% Y/Y on a full quarter of Lumen and CFO Pascal Desroches warned convergence discounts will keep pressuring it, while legacy service revenue dropped 26% and legacy EBITDA fell 46% as the copper shutdown accelerates. Guidance held across the board (adj EPS $2.25–$2.35, FCF >$18B, EBITDA growth 3%–4%); what moved was capital return — the 2026 buyback raised to ~$10B from $8B, which CEO John Stankey tied directly to the stock being undervalued. Q3 FCF guided roughly flat Y/Y with growth backloaded into Q4. Fiber ARPU is the Q3 item to watch: if it's still falling after Lumen laps, AT&T is buying subscribers with price cuts. (Recap, not a stance call.)
For months investors worried that SpaceX's satellite service would start stealing mobile customers. AT&T's answer was 432,000 new phone lines against roughly 325,000 expected, plus over a million new internet customers — a decisive volume quarter that made a small revenue miss irrelevant. Profit per share jumped 20%, cash flow beat its own guidance, and management raised the amount of stock it plans to buy back this year to about $10 billion from $8 billion, with the CEO saying plainly that he thinks the shares are undervalued.
The number the article flags as the real test is fibre ARPU — the average monthly revenue per fibre-internet customer — which fell 1%. AT&T has been bundling mobile and internet together at a discount to win households, and the finance chief admitted those bundle discounts will keep pressuring it. If that figure is still falling next quarter, once the acquired Lumen business stops distorting the comparison, it means AT&T is essentially buying its subscriber growth with price cuts rather than winning it. Meanwhile the old copper-phone business keeps shrinking fast, which is planned. A recap, not a call.
In short: Bill — reference. A telecom-bust survivor (with Verizon) that made only ~5% compounded for 20 years — the cautionary template for the hyperscaler "winners."
18:15But here's the catch. — No, no, no. I'm saying that's this generation's Nortell. — Well, here's why I say it. Because if you look at the forward returns of say the survivors AT&T, Verizon, they made 5% compounded for 20 years. So, those are phone companies. I just I'm going to push back on this because um you know, people who who have been scared out of those stocks, you've been scared out of making money.
In short: Reference — one of the big survivors of the telecom capex bust (with Verizon), yet it compounded only ~5% for 25 years since 2000. The cautionary template even for the eventual AI "winners."
2:29AND THEN WE KNOW WHO SURVIVED, RIGHT? IN MANY WAYS, WE HAVE THE CABLE COMPANIES. BUT AT&T AND VERIZON WERE BIG SURVIVORS OUT OF THAT ERA. AND I THINK THE ONLY PROBLEM WE DRAW OUT OF IT IS AT&T AND VERIZON SINCE 2000, HAS PRODUCED 5% COMPOUNDED FOR 25 YEARS. SO ONE OF THE ARGUMENTS BEING MADE TO YOUR POINT IS THAT, OH, NO, THERE'S GOING TO BE 1 OR 2 THAT KIND OF TAKE UP ALL THE DEMAND, WINNER TAKES ALL FORMAT, ETC.
Nothing matches this filter.
Verbatim excerpts from the public transcripts (auto-pulled at each mention's timestamp, lightly cleaned). Timestamps link into the video; "source page" opens that commentator's full analysis at this row. Click a mention's header line to expand it (one open at a time). For personal study — not investment advice.