Wireless ARPU of AT&T 2016-2019

In the fourth quarter of 2019, AT&T’s ARPU stood at 50.49 U.S. dollars for its postpaid services. ARPU stands for Average Revenue Per Unit and it is the measure used to calculate how much revenue a company generates per unit (or user) during a specific period.

AT&T’s key wireless metrics

In AT&T’s quarterly report, ARPU is defined as wireless subscriber revenues during a specific period divided by average wireless subscribers during that period. Such data can be used by businesses and investors for analysis and comparisons with other companies, giving them a better grasp of what the future holds for a specific company in terms of growth.

In 2018, AT&T had just over 150 million wireless subscribers worldwide. In the third quarter of the same year, the company’s churn rate, which refers to the average percentage of subscribers who stop paying for a service, for these wireless subscribers was about 1.7 percent. This is a relatively low number compared to some of AT&T’s competitors. This is a good indicator of a healthy and loyal relationship between the customer and the company.

AT&T’s competitive environment

Many of the wireless carriers’ ARPU are relatively similar. In the second quarter of 2018, the four largest wireless service providers in the United States (AT&T, Verizon, Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile) had an average revenue between 40 and 50 U.S. dollars per user. Conversely, the total revenues of these four major wireless providers were not similar in 2018: AT&T had a total revenue of about 170 billion U.S. dollars, which is roughly 40 billion higher than the revenue of top competitor Verizon. However, Verizon has been the top wireless carrier in the United States in terms of subscriber count over the past five years.