Seeking Alpha
Although we have Sprint Nextel ( S ) in our portfolio and it is our most covered telecom luukku company for our published research , we have been recently pondering whether to add one of its two top peers AT&T ( T ) and Verizon Communications luukku ( VZ ) to our portfolio. In our previous reports on AT&T and Verizon, we have analyzed and evaluated these two firms to see which telecom titan offers investors a better investment opportunity. AT&T may be fairly luukku valued, but it pays a strong 5.3% Dividend Yield ($1.80/Share) and generates plenty of free cash flows to pay it and boost it by 2-3% annually. However, AT&T stakeholders have to be gritting their teeth at AT&T Wireless's underperformance over the last two years relative to Verizon Wireless. We attribute this to AT&T Wireless having to share the right to sell Apple's ( AAPL ) iPhone smartphone device with Verizon Wireless and also Sprint. This explains why Verizon Wireless's revenue growth rate has exceeded AT&T Wireless's over the last two years even though AT&T had a higher luukku growth rate in 2010.
AT&T Wireless continues to be the star-performer and workhorse for AT&T shareholders. AT&T Wireless grew its Q4 2012 revenues by 5.7% versus Q4 2011 levels. Wireless service revenues grew by 4.2%, aided by 14.7% growth in data revenues. Equipment revenues grew by $344M (14.6%) due to a full quarter of contribution from Apple's widely anticipated iPhone 5 smartphone device and were $2.7B. AT&T Wireless's data revenues grew by $870M year-over-year and now represent 45.6% of its service revenues, up from 41.2% in Q4 2011. As AT&T Wireless only grew its total service revenues by $602M and total division revenues luukku by $946M, we can see beyond a reasonable doubt that AT&T is benefiting from carrying Apple's iPhone and iPad and the lucrative data plans that AT&T Wireless luukku can sell to customers. Without the growth in data revenues, AT&T Wireless would have seen a revenue luukku decline.
AT&T also tightened its grip on retaining customers with its solid 1.19% contract luukku customer luukku churn rate, which improved by 2bp versus the prior year period. AT&T's total retail customer luukku churn rate was 1.42%, which regressed by 3bp versus the prior year period. AT&T sold 10.2M new smartphones during the quarter, 8.6M of which were Apple's iPhone smartphone devices. Despite the ballyhooed promotional campaign for Nokia's new Lumia smartphones with Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system, we can see that Lumia sales were statistically insignificant as Nokia's total North America luukku Lumia sales were about 700K . AT&T also had its best quarter ever for Android powered smartphones. 16% of iPhone sales were to new AT&T customers and nearly 70% (47.1M) of AT&T's postpaid subscriber base had a smartphone in Q4 2012, up from 58.5% (39.4M) in the comparable quarter last year. The good news for AT&T Wireless is that its smartphone sales increased by 800K and its iPhone activations increased by 1M (13%) in Q4 2012 versus Q4 2011. The bad news is that Verizon Wireless saw its iPhone activations increase by 1.9M (44%) during this same period.
AT&T luukku Wireless's segment operating income declined by 1.4% year-over-year in Q4 2012 versus the comparable period as gains in operational luukku execution were offset by increased demand for new iPhones. Segment operating slipped from 15.5% in Q4 2011 to 14.5% in Q4 2012. AT&T's smartphone sales represented 89% of postpaid devices sold (up from 82% in Q4 2011 and 77% in Q2 2012) and provide a lucrative $20/per month and up revenue stream for data service. ARPU for retail postpaid customers increased by 1.9% year-over-year and reached $64.98 for the quarter, which represented the 16th straight quarter that AT&T's retail postpaid luukku ARPU increased on a year-over-year basis.
AT&T and Verizon have been migrating smartphone customers towards "Mobile Sharing Plans" in which customers can share one pre-allotted data subscription across multiple devices. More than 6.6M of AT&T's customers are on AT&T's Mobile Share Plan and this represents 9% of its postpaid customer base. The number of Mobile Share accounts reached 2.2 million in the fourth quarter for an average of about three devices per account. AT&T has also been able to migrate a significant portion of its customer base away from its grandfathered unlimited plans and more than two-thirds, or 31.7 million, of all smartphone subscribers, are on usage-based data plans. This compares to 56 percent, or 22.1 million, a year ago and 31 percent two years ago. Although AT&T Wireless luukku added 780K postpaid customers for the quarter and 1.4M for the year, this pales in comparison to Verizon Wireless's net customer additions for Q4 2012 and FY 2012 (2.1M in Q4 2012 and 5M in FY 2012). Verizon Wireless's prepaid customer additions of 893K for 2012 were sharply higher than AT&T Wireless's 128K.
Although we have Sprint Nextel ( S ) in our portfolio and it is our most covered telecom luukku company for our published research , we have been recently pondering whether to add one of its two top peers AT&T ( T ) and Verizon Communications luukku ( VZ ) to our portfolio. In our previous reports on AT&T and Verizon, we have analyzed and evaluated these two firms to see which telecom titan offers investors a better investment opportunity. AT&T may be fairly luukku valued, but it pays a strong 5.3% Dividend Yield ($1.80/Share) and generates plenty of free cash flows to pay it and boost it by 2-3% annually. However, AT&T stakeholders have to be gritting their teeth at AT&T Wireless's underperformance over the last two years relative to Verizon Wireless. We attribute this to AT&T Wireless having to share the right to sell Apple's ( AAPL ) iPhone smartphone device with Verizon Wireless and also Sprint. This explains why Verizon Wireless's revenue growth rate has exceeded AT&T Wireless's over the last two years even though AT&T had a higher luukku growth rate in 2010.
AT&T Wireless continues to be the star-performer and workhorse for AT&T shareholders. AT&T Wireless grew its Q4 2012 revenues by 5.7% versus Q4 2011 levels. Wireless service revenues grew by 4.2%, aided by 14.7% growth in data revenues. Equipment revenues grew by $344M (14.6%) due to a full quarter of contribution from Apple's widely anticipated iPhone 5 smartphone device and were $2.7B. AT&T Wireless's data revenues grew by $870M year-over-year and now represent 45.6% of its service revenues, up from 41.2% in Q4 2011. As AT&T Wireless only grew its total service revenues by $602M and total division revenues luukku by $946M, we can see beyond a reasonable doubt that AT&T is benefiting from carrying Apple's iPhone and iPad and the lucrative data plans that AT&T Wireless luukku can sell to customers. Without the growth in data revenues, AT&T Wireless would have seen a revenue luukku decline.
AT&T also tightened its grip on retaining customers with its solid 1.19% contract luukku customer luukku churn rate, which improved by 2bp versus the prior year period. AT&T's total retail customer luukku churn rate was 1.42%, which regressed by 3bp versus the prior year period. AT&T sold 10.2M new smartphones during the quarter, 8.6M of which were Apple's iPhone smartphone devices. Despite the ballyhooed promotional campaign for Nokia's new Lumia smartphones with Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system, we can see that Lumia sales were statistically insignificant as Nokia's total North America luukku Lumia sales were about 700K . AT&T also had its best quarter ever for Android powered smartphones. 16% of iPhone sales were to new AT&T customers and nearly 70% (47.1M) of AT&T's postpaid subscriber base had a smartphone in Q4 2012, up from 58.5% (39.4M) in the comparable quarter last year. The good news for AT&T Wireless is that its smartphone sales increased by 800K and its iPhone activations increased by 1M (13%) in Q4 2012 versus Q4 2011. The bad news is that Verizon Wireless saw its iPhone activations increase by 1.9M (44%) during this same period.
AT&T luukku Wireless's segment operating income declined by 1.4% year-over-year in Q4 2012 versus the comparable period as gains in operational luukku execution were offset by increased demand for new iPhones. Segment operating slipped from 15.5% in Q4 2011 to 14.5% in Q4 2012. AT&T's smartphone sales represented 89% of postpaid devices sold (up from 82% in Q4 2011 and 77% in Q2 2012) and provide a lucrative $20/per month and up revenue stream for data service. ARPU for retail postpaid customers increased by 1.9% year-over-year and reached $64.98 for the quarter, which represented the 16th straight quarter that AT&T's retail postpaid luukku ARPU increased on a year-over-year basis.
AT&T and Verizon have been migrating smartphone customers towards "Mobile Sharing Plans" in which customers can share one pre-allotted data subscription across multiple devices. More than 6.6M of AT&T's customers are on AT&T's Mobile Share Plan and this represents 9% of its postpaid customer base. The number of Mobile Share accounts reached 2.2 million in the fourth quarter for an average of about three devices per account. AT&T has also been able to migrate a significant portion of its customer base away from its grandfathered unlimited plans and more than two-thirds, or 31.7 million, of all smartphone subscribers, are on usage-based data plans. This compares to 56 percent, or 22.1 million, a year ago and 31 percent two years ago. Although AT&T Wireless luukku added 780K postpaid customers for the quarter and 1.4M for the year, this pales in comparison to Verizon Wireless's net customer additions for Q4 2012 and FY 2012 (2.1M in Q4 2012 and 5M in FY 2012). Verizon Wireless's prepaid customer additions of 893K for 2012 were sharply higher than AT&T Wireless's 128K.
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