AT&T Wireless reports $1.2 billion loss for fourth quarter, misses expectations

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Posted 8:05AM on Tuesday, January 29, 2002

NEW YORK - Cellular carrier AT&T Wireless reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.23 billion on Tuesday, blaming much of the loss on a $1.3 billion writedown related to the phasing out of its fixed wireless business. The results were worse than analysts expected. The Redmond, Wash.-based company, which was spun off from AT&T Corp. in July 2001, said its loss of 48 cents per share for the October-December period compared to a profit of $411 million, or 15 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding one-time items, AT&T Wireless said its operating loss was $355 million, or 14 cents per share. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call had expected the company to lose about 6 cents per share before special items. The carrier's fourth quarter revenue was $3.53 billion, 18.7 percent higher than $2.97 billion a year ago. For 2002, the company said it expects revenue from its services to grow in the "low teens" while predicting an outlay of $5 billion on capital expenditures, similar to 2001 levels. AT&T Wireless said it anticipates 2002 growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in the low 30 percent range, with subscriber growth in the low teens. The results were released early Tuesday before a scheduled meeting with analysts in New York and before the stock market opened. Shares of AT&T Wireless closed at $11.75 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. For all of 2001, AT&T Wireless lost $887 million, or 38 cents per share, compared with a profit of $658 million, or 21 cents a share, a year ago. Full-year revenue was $13.61 billion versus $10.45 billion in 2000. On Monday, AT&T Wireless and Cingular Wireless jointly announced they would build a wireless network using the Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard along interstate highways in Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. The joint venture, which aims to have the networks in place by early 2003, will allow both companies to offer higher-speed service months earlier than if they had tried to install networks separately, they said.