By Harshita Mary Varghese
Oct 21 (Reuters) - AT&T expects average revenue per fiber customer to extend its third-quarter decline into the fourth, as more customers sign up for discounted bundles, suggesting its subscriber-growth strategy is coming at the cost of lower spending per user.
The company's shares fell 6.5% on Wednesday, while rivals T-Mobile and Verizon dropped about 3%.
Bundling broadband plans with wireless services and heavy discounts is seen as a critical move by US telecom carriers as a way
to attract and retain customers in a competitive market.
About 43% of households signing up for AT&T's internet services also opted for its wireless plans.
CEO John Stankey said AT&T had "every reason to believe that a converged customer that's sitting on fiber is going to be a sticky and high lifetime value customer."
The broader telecom industry is banking on customer loyalty amid concerns that SpaceX's plans to build a terrestrial wireless network could intensify competition.
AT&T has made significant investments in expanding its fiber network, including through its $5.75 billion acquisition of Lumen's consumer fiber business in 2025.
MoffettNathanson analysts said AT&T's recent price increases for fiber internet suggest the company may have concluded that "discounting doesn't drive enough incremental volume to be worthwhile."
Average revenue per user across AT&T's fiber base fell 4% in the third quarter, reflecting discounts, introductory pricing in new markets and the addition of lower-priced Lumen customers.
During the quarter, AT&T added 379,000 net monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers, compared with 379,300 additions estimated by FactSet.
AT&T beat quarterly revenue and profit estimates and lifted its annual adjusted profit forecast to about $2.40 per share, up from a prior range of $2.25 to $2.35.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Ananda and Vijay Kishore)
