The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: Great. I've tried to learn a lot from Simon Flannery over the years, but it was very helpful to come down to your Investor Day back in December and
spend time with you and the team. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the work, the foundational work, that has been done at AT&T that sort
of put you in a position to kind of guide to what you guided to and and deliver the kind of growth that you've now set for expectations for us.
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: It's always interesting when a company gives long-term guidance. Obviously then, every quarter we have to sort of mark the market, and when
you give segment guidance, I always wonder what the response is internally because now your business leaders have publicly committed estimates
that they've got to work towards. What has been the response inside of AT&T? And are you seeing kind of broad buy in to this?
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: Yeah. Talking about sharing the joy, it has been joyful so far. Stock is acting well. But there are obviously risks, and you're operating in a very
competitive environment. And I mean, the macro backdrop, we talked about this a bit last night, is quite volatile.
So what do you worry about? What are the big risks in your mind that you have to make sure you guys navigate and get right to deliver on the
three-year guide?
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: Yeah. And all those things are obviously going to impact the wireless history. Why don't we talk about 2025 a bit? So you guided to mobility service
revenue growth at the upper end of 2% to 3% and EBITDA 3% to 4% higher end of 3% to 4%, which assumes a healthy wireless industry but also
further normalization of net adds. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the industry backdrop that you see today in the marketplace, and
how we should think about kind of promotional intensity here in '25 versus what you operated in last year?
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: Got it. So this sort of Q1, so after January back in February, so fits within the full year outlook?
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: Okay. That's great to hear. So we had Charter yesterday here, and Brian is coming up a little bit later this morning. We were chatting about this last
night. I mean, the cable operators have been a bit on the back foot to put it succinctly around the convergence.
Any concern as they react and sort of get more aggressive, particularly Comcast, I think has been a little bit more I don't know, measured in their
converged offers so far as they've been in the wireless space, but signaling that they're going to turn it up. Those on the webcast (inaudible)
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: Right. Now let's stay on the fiber theme, John. So you've been building fiber in AT&T for many years. Can you talk about the penetration curves
and returns you see today as you look at sort of new cohorts versus what you've built in the past? Are the economics of fiber changing at all inside
of AT&T over time?
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: And I would imagine all of this underpins the consumer wireline EBITDA guidance for this year, which I think it was high single to low double digits
and consumer fiber revenue growth in the mid-teens.
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: I would imagine -- I mean, I look at your consumer wireline margins, and it would seem like without a video business, that's actually an advantage
for you from a profitability point of view because you got out of video, can you talk a little bit more about the legacy costs that are in that segment
and the timeline to sort of extract those and get this business to where it could go from a margin perspective?
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: Got it. You just mentioned business wireline, I want to make sure we hit that. So that is still a segment in decline. You guys guided to mid-teens
declines in EBITDA this year. It's about $18 billion in service revenues last year.
You've said repeatedly, John, you're confident you can get this segment back to growth. So what can you do to kind of unpack that revenue base
and help us think about when the inflection comes?
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: Got it. In the time we have left, I want to make sure we talk about kind of capital priorities, including M&A. So I think the market -- my sense has
reacted quite positively to the decision to go into a share repurchase approach later this year. I mean, historically, AT&T has been a dividend-driven
stockholding for a lot of investors.
What led you and the Board to shift not away from dividend growth, I'm sure over the long term, that's something you guys will think about. But
what was behind the logic to focus on share repurchase versus growing the dividend now?
Question: Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley - Analyst
: That's great. Well, we're out of time. Anything you want to wrap up with as we close it out?
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