AT&T reports 22% Mexico revenue growth in Q4

AT&T reported fourth quarter year-on-year revenue growth of 22.3% in Mexico to US$861mn. Annual billing rose 14.5% to US$3.1bn.

However, the company reported a Q4 operating loss of US$79mn in Mexico, although down from US$117mn a year earlier.

"2022 was the best year in our history in Mexico thanks to the quality of our network and the preference of our customers, despite the fact that structural and regulatory conditions persist that do not favor competition in the telecommunications sector," said Mónica Aspe, CEO of AT&T Mexico, in a release.

The US operator has complained on several occasions about the dominance of Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim’s América Móvil, which had 70.5% of the mobile market at the end of 2021, according to latest figures from regulator IFT.

AT&T was second with 17.6% of mobile lines. Spain’s Telefónica, which has completed its divestment of its mobile network to operate on AT&T, had 9.6% of the market.

The Dallas-based operator said it added 605,000 lines in Mexico in Q4.

The company registered 515,000 net additions of prepaid services, 71,000 of postpaid and 19,000 of its reseller services. It ended 2022 with 21.6mn subscribers.

The company ended December with 31 cities covered with 5G mobile technology, six more than initially planned for the first year of the rollout.

AT&T did not provide investment figures for Mexico or plans for this year. In June, Jerónimo Diez de Sollano, AT&T Mexico's director of information systems, told BNamericas that, in addition to 5G, the company was investing in virtual reality, analytics, data and automation.