AT&T Q4 operating earnings fall

NEW YORK: Long-distance telephone and cable-television leader AT&T Corp.

on Wednesday posted lower fourth-quarter profits from continuing operations amid

weaker revenues, and said it expects sales of long-distance service to business

and consumers to shrink further in 2002.

AT&T, which in December agreed to sell its cable television business to

Comcast Corp., said profits excluding one-time items dropped to 5 cents a share

from 24 cents a share in the year-earlier quarter.

Wall Street analysts had expected New York-based AT&T to earn 1 cent a

share to 6 cents a share, with a mean forecast of 4 cents a share, according to

research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.

Including a previously announced charge to cut 10,000 jobs and other items,

AT&T had a net loss of $1.39 billion, or 39 cents a share, compared with a

loss of $1.64 billion, or 45 cents a share, a year before. Revenues fell 9.5 per

cent to $12.59 billion from $13.91 billion.

As expected, declining long-distance voice revenue eroded improvements in its

AT&T Broadband cable-TV unit and higher sales of data and Internet services

to businesses.

AT&T, the No. 1 US long-distance telephone and cable television company,

said it expects first-quarter earnings from continuing operations, excluding

one-time items, to be in the range of 2 cents a share to 5 cents a share. Total

first-quarter revenues should decline at a slightly accelerated pace, compared

with the fourth quarter of 2001, it said.

For the full year 2002, sales to business customers will decline by about

three per centage points more than the 2001 rate, while sales to residential

customers will decline in the mid-20 per cent range, AT&T said.

In 2002, AT&T Broadband, the cable television business, expects to offer

new services to subscribers, increase revenue, and aggressively manage

profitability. For the full year, the unit expects revenue growth to improve

from the restated pro forma 2001 level of $9.16 billion, with per centage growth

in the low to mid teens.

(C) Reuters Limited.