AT&T expects its mobile business to record 400,000 postpaid net custome r additions in the current quarter, fewer than in previous quarters and driven primarily by growth in the tablet space.
The U.S. telco made the announcement in an SEC filing on Tuesday, in which it also disclosed that it will record a $130 million staff-related charge in Q1 and said it expects its DirecTV deal to close before the end of June.
AT&T said it sees continued growth of its high-value smartphone customer base in the three months to the end of March, but noted that its projected postpaid net adds will be "driven by tablets".
Further, the operator has changed the way it accounts for tablet users; as of this quarter it will categorise session-based tablet users – that is, users who buy a certain amount of data for their tablet as a one-off purchase – as postpaid customers, not prepaid.
AT&T reported 854,000 postpaid net adds in the fourth quarter of last year and 625,000 in Q1 2014. It will restate its figures to account for the change in tablet definitions.
Strong adoption of Mobile Share Value plans, which enable customers to share their data across multiple devices, and ongoing operational results from its Cricket prepaid brand, will pressure AT&T’s margins in the current quarter, but it expects the impact of both to ease later in the year. As a result, it expects mobile margins for full-year 2015 to expand compared with last year.
AT&T’s wireless business will be one of three reporting units going forward, the other two being its wireline arm and, following its acquisition of Iusacell in Mexico, an international segment.
"Costs associated with the acquisition and integration of this property are expected to have a negative impact on reported earnings in the first quarter," AT&T said.
Q1 will also be hit by a one-off charge of around $130 million as a result of a voluntary retirement deal with staff. 3,000 employees will retire by 31 March.
AT&T also reiterated t hat it expects its $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV to close in the first half of this year.
