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AT&T added 209,000 U-verse TV subscribers in Q2 '10 results released today, its lowest quarterly net additions in two years.
The 209,000 gain compares to 248,000 additions a year ago and 231,000 additions in Q1 '10. Although Q2 is typically the slowest quarter for multichannel platform providers, AT&T's 15% drop in growth in year four of its U-verse rollout roughly coincides with the drop in growth Verizon saw with its FiOS TV product in its fourth year of operation.
AT&T said it's attach rate for U-verse data continues to run above 90%, suggesting at least 188,000 U-verse DSL additions in the quarter, but that is also lower than last year's 223,000 additions and Q1's 208,000 additions.
AT&T lost 64,000 wireline broadband customers in total, suggesting a net loss of 252,000 traditional DSL customers. That would the first posted loss of data customers in AT&T history.
U-verse Voice is helping AT&T's wireline phone business, with 183,000 VoIP additions up from 176,000 a year ago. The company lost 853,000 residential phone subscribers in total, suggesting a traditional circuit-switched loss of 1,036,000 lines.
The company said more than 75% of U-verse TV subscribers take three or four AT&T services. ARPU for U-verse triple play customers was nearly $160, up 13.8 % year over year and up 6.8% from the first quarter of 2010.
U-verse now passes 25 million living units, with penetration remaining stable at 13%. The company said in markets where U-verse has been active for at least 30 months, penetration is 22%. U-verse revenue exceeded $1 billion in the quarter.
The company lost 74,000 DBS subscribers in the quarter.
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