- AT&T beat Wall Street expectations with 432,000 postpaid phone net adds in Q2, helping lift its stock nearly 3%
- Its $23 billion EchoStar spectrum transaction is expected to close by the end of July
- AT&T CEO John Stankey framed satellite direct-to-device as a “corner case” solution for the 2% of traffic AT&T can’t reach with its terrestrial network
AT&T added 432,000 postpaid phone customers in the second quarter of 2026, beating consensus analyst estimates of 341,000. Shares in AT&T were trading up almost 3% this morning, to $22.92.
The uptick in AT&T’s share price comes as good news for the wireless sector overall as investors fear SpaceX will disrupt the market in a big way, through some means or another. Whether that’s by finagling an MVNO, buying a mobile network operator or building its own network – those are all part of ongoing speculation.
During today’s earnings call, AT&T CEO John Stankey reiterated his position that striking an MVNO deal with SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile would not be in his company’s best interest.
“It's not rocket science for what we need to do to be successful in the market,” he said. “When we think about a wholesale arrangement, as I've said before, the motivation for a wholesale arrangement is always to get at a part of the market that you can't get at yourself.”
He said AT&T’s existing technology and distribution is enough to match what customers need. “We have the infrastructure in place to put a really robust product in front of them that has been built up over years, and we can do that just fine on our own,” he said.
AT&T is able to serve 98+% of traffic through its converged fiber and wireless offerings, but for those “corner cases,” or 2% of the time they can’t get online, the satellite direct-to-device joint venture with Verizon and T-Mobile and its deal with AST SpaceMobile will address that.
“Occasionally they walk off the network. They get in their boat and they maybe go … beyond the coast or they go to a national park where we don't have coverage,” he said. That’s the corner cases where something like a satellite constellation would be good for.
AT&T’s spectrum deal with EchoStar
AT&T expects its $23 billion purchase of 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz spectrum licenses from EchoStar to close by the end of July.
The operator is already using a lot of the 3.45 GHz it bought from EchoStar through a lease arrangement. Stankey said the 600 MHz spectrum will serve it well to reach deep into buildings to meet the future demand for robust upstream connectivity driven by agentic AI traffic.
One of the reasons AT&T did the EchoStar transaction is the spectrum acquired via the next C-band auction won’t be available to use until 2031, which is a long time out but that wasn’t a surprise to anybody. Stankey said there might be opportunities to buy more spectrum via secondary market transactions as well.
The timing of the closure with EchoStar is especially of interest because when Dish DBS and Dish Wireless filed for bankruptcy, EchoStar cited the failure of the AT&T deal to close on time as the reason why it filed when it did.
AT&T prefers fiber over FWA
As for fixed wireless access (FWA), Stankey still doesn’t think it’s the optimal technology to serve fixed traffic over the long haul; that’s why it invests so much in fiber. FWA is an important tool in the portfolio and he’s fine using it to test markets and fill in where copper is being retired.
However, “I'm never going to sit here and tell you that the way I want to serve fixed traffic is by buying more spectrum and build more wireless infrastructure is the primary means to do that,” he said.
Overall, AT&T’s FWA net additions of 279,000 were up from a year ago and just 3,000 short of consensus estimates. AT&T’s Internet Air FWA product significantly over-indexes to business – 25.5% of subscribers as of the end of Q2 were businesses, according to analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson.
Consumer-only FWA net additions were up a scant 4.9% versus a year ago when the service was still in its early growth phase, Moffett said.
Changes to quarterly reporting
AT&T is no longer reporting wireline and mobility results separately. For the second consecutive quarter, it’s reporting in segments: advanced connectivity and legacy.
In his report for investors, Moffett said it’s no surprise that the advanced connectivity segment is growing – “after all, that’s the point of the segmentation scheme.” The “legacy” segment – think copper – is also, as expected, shrinking rapidly, he said.
By and large, analysts viewed the quarter positively on strong wireless results.
“On balance … the picture, at least for a quarter, is a brighter one,” Moffett said. “The good here clearly outweighs the bad.”
By the numbers
- AT&T lost 432,000 prepaid phone customers in Q2.
- Postpaid phone churn was 0.86%; postpaid phone ARPU was $58.01.
- Consolidated revenues for Q2 totaled $31.6 billion compared to $30.8 billion in the year-ago quarter. Wireless service revenue was $17.41 billion.
- AT&T reiterated its guidance for 2026 and longer term. The company expects to spend $23 billion to $24 billion on capital investments annually during 2026-2028.
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