AT&T swings to profit, but is feeling the heat from T-Mobile
AT&T’s head of mobility, Ralph de la Vega, on stage at the developer conference as CES kicks off.
(Credit: Roger Cheng/CNET)
AT&T swung to a profit in the fourth quarter as it deals with pressure from rival T-Mobile.
The Dallas telecommunications company posted a fourth-quarter profit of $6.9 billion, or $1.31 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $3.9 billion, or 68 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, including gains from its benefit plans, per-share earnings were 53 cents.
Revenue rose 1.8 percent to $33.2 billion.
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Analysts, on average, projected earnings of 50 cents a share and revenue of $33.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
AT&T has notably faced stiffer competition, particularly from T-Mobile, which has gleefully skewered the company over the last year. Earlier this month, AT&T said it would pay T-Mobile customers $200 to switch over, coupling that with a credit of up to $250 for phones that were traded in. […]