AT&T wants to take a similar approach to midband deployment with its FirstNet build: touching a tower once to launch multiple spectrum bands.
CEO John Stankey told analysts in the company’s quarterly call today that AT&T expects to be able to place its 40 MHz A-block C-band spectrum alongside the newly acquired 40 MHz block at 110 to 3.45-3.55 GHz. Radios for that new spectrum should be available in late spring or early summer, Stankey said, adding that AT&T will increase work during this time so that it can launch all 80 MHz midband spectrum on its towers simultaneously.
The carrier expects to cover 200 million potential customers by holding its midband spectrum by the end of next year.
Stankey says that based on past changes to the Air interface, costs have been running at around $ 8 billion capex for several years, and he expects to see similar costs for AT&T over the next three years as it expands to midband.
AT&T also expects to pass 30 million fiber locations by the end of 2025. At the moment, Stankey says, the company believes it has worked through delayed supply chain problems with fiber build-out by 2021, bringing AT&T to 2.6 million positions, up from the 3 million it planned.
In financial terms for the fourth quarter and full-year 2021, AT&T reports that it is seeing growth across Wireless, Fiber and HBO Max – its three primary areas of focus as it downsizes the company and sells assets outside that core business.
“A year and a half ago, we started simplifying our business to reinvent AT&T for growth, and we’re very pleased with how we’ve delivered on that promise,” Stankey said in a statement, adding that AT&T continues to sharpen its focus. “Ours
The momentum is strong and we are confident that we have more opportunities to expand our customer base and drive costs from the business. ”
Among the highlights reported from the company’s financial results are:
- Combined revenue of $ 41.0 billion for the fourth quarter and $ 168.9 billion for the full year. It lost about 10% due to broader business, the company said.
- 884,000 postpaid phone net added in the fourth quarter, postpaid phone churn 0.85%; Added prepaid phone net was 24,000. Service revenue for wireless increased by 4.6%, compared to equipment revenue of 6.2% over the same period last year. AT&T had 31,000 tablet / computing device net additions and 370,000 net additions that fall under “other” types of devices.
- AT&T added 271,000 fiber nets to its fourth quarter, with revenue growing 1.4%, although it said overall broadband revenue for the company grew 5.4% year on year.
- AT&T expects wireless service revenue to grow by at least three percent by 2022.
