Wireless price wars are good for consumers but not-so-great for carriers’ bottom lines. AT&T on Wednesday reported earnings of $0.63 per share on revenues of $32.96 billion, which slightly missed the consensus estimate of $0.64 per share on revenues of $33.22 billion. But while AT&T’s earnings only just missed expectations, Bloomberg reports that the company also cut its estimates for revenue growth on the year amid fierce competition with smaller rivals T-Mobile and Sprint.
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“The company lowered its 2014 revenue growth forecast to 3% to 4% partly because of fewer-than-expected installment plan sign-ups, down from a previous projection of about 5% growth,” writes Bloomberg, which also notes that the carrier has been implementing more aggressive pricing plans in recent months to combat rival carriers.
Things aren’t exactly going poorly for AT&T, of course — despite the revenue and earnings misses, the company did manage to add 785,000 postpaid subscribers on the quarter, which is more than twice the number of postpaid subscribers it added in Q3 2013, and it also lowered its wireless churn rate down to a very impressive 0.99%, which is the carrier’s best ever Q3 churn rate. So AT&T is still adding and keeping customers at a very healthy rate, even if it has to work a bit harder to fight back its rivals.
