Mobility Now does the Heavy Lifting at AT&T

As AT&T’s first quarter 2023 report shows, mobility services now account for fully 68 percent of company revenues. Over the last three decades, that shift of industry revenue sources explains the death of so many “fixed network” telecom shows and conferences and the rise of GSMA in Barcelona as the dominant “connectivity” industry meeting, in terms of attendance. 

source: Business Quant 

Almost paradoxically, as the industry’s revenue has shifted, led by mobility, the seeming number of specialized fixed network meetings has increased, as the big generalized industry meetings have shrunk. A better match of marketing spend with intended customers and prospects explains why that has happened. 

But the same sort of issue arises with prospects for home broadband as well. Paradoxically, given the amount of attention devoted to home broadband and fiber-to-the-home, consumer broadband represents a small percent of AT&T revenue. 

The consumer wireline segment includes all other sources such as consumer voice connections, which in recent quarters has generated about six percent of total revenue. In 2022 fixed network consumer voice generated about four percent of total AT&T revenue, at less than $4 billion. 

If total fixed network consumer services generate about 10 percent to 11 percent of total AT&T revenues, while fixed network consumer voice represents about four percent, then home broadband could not represent more than six percent to seven percent of total AT&T revenues.

Granted, that might grow, as consumer fixed network revenue has been growing since the start of 2022, while business fixed network revenue keeps shrinking, as has been the case for many years. 

To be sure, business fixed network services, which includes a mix of all sorts of services (local and long distance; voice and data; domestic and international), still generates about 18 percent of total revenue. But, that segment is shrinking, on a long term basis. The point is that that investment in optical fiber access arguably helps to slow the rate of revenue decline. 

But it remains unclear how much, or whether, such investment in optical access networks  will reverse the main trend, which is decline. At least so far, consumer fixed network revenue seems to be trending upwards, even if representing a smallish part of total revenue. 

The point is that fiber to the customer investments might not pay dividends as large as some might expect, or hope for. All fixed network services together are driving a smaller portion of total AT&T revenues.