AT&T increases forecast for full-year revenue growth

By Marina Lopes NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc on Tuesday raised its forecast for full-year revenue growth to reflect its acquisition of LEAP wireless in March and the popularity of a new handset pricing model that charges customers for devices separately from their wireless plans. Like other carriers, AT&T is seeking growth in a nearly saturated environment, making differentiated strategies such as alternate pricing plans more crucial to attract customers. The company raised its forecast for full-year revenue growth to at least 4 percent from 3 percent. A higher-than-expected 35 percent of wireless customers transferred to NEXT, its new pricing plan, boosting quarterly revenue 3.6 percent from the year-earlier quarter. "We are very pleased with the take rates," John Stephens, AT&T's chief financial officer, said of NEXT in a conference call following the earnings release. "I believe the 35 percent will become a new standard," he said. AT&T added 625,000 postpaid net wireless subscribers in the quarter, the company's strongest post-paid growth in the first quarter in five years, blowing past Jefferies Equity Research expectations of 173,000. In response to growing competition from smaller rivals such as fourth-ranked T-Mobile US , AT&T introduced its NEXT pricing plan in July 2013, which eliminates down payments for devices and instead allows customers to pay in instalments. The company previously paid heavy upfront subsidies to phone makers in order to offer customers device discounts and tie them into two-year contracts. It then recouped the cost of the phone over the span of the contract through its service fees. Under NEXT, AT&T unbundles the cost of the device from customer's wireless plan. The company can then achieve a limited-term boost to revenue by booking device purchases upfront as immediate revenue, despite the fact that customers continue paying for the device in instalments over the duration of their contract period. The results eased analysts' worries that NEXT could tie up capital in financing instalment plans. "The uptake of the NEXT program should have a positive impact on the profitability of the company. They came in fine on cash flow this quarter, with a bit of a working capital swing, but they are maintaining their full-year guidance and I find that to be pretty constructive," Jefferies analyst Michael McCormack said. Earnings were also boosted by AT&T's acquisition of Cricket Communications Inc's LEAP wireless, which brought in $3 billion (1 billion pounds) in new spectrum, key to supporting increasing demand for wireless data services, Stephens said. AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, earned $3.65 billion, or 70 cents a share, in the first quarter, compared with $3.70 billion, or 67 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding items, earnings totalled 71 cents a share, beating Wall Street's expectations by 1 cent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose to $32.48 billion, compared with Wall Street expectations of $32.47 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. (This story was refiled to fix typo in headline) (Reporting By Marina Lopes; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Nick Zieminski)