Technologies

AT&T Says It Continued to Grow Despite Giving Promotions the Boot

A second carrier warns that there will be fewer wireless deals in the future.

AT&T ended the year with more phone and internet subscribers, according to results from the last fiscal quarter.

The Dallas telecom company reported its earnings on Wednesday, noting 656,000 postpaid net phone additions in the fourth quarter, a metric used by the industry as shorthand for success and dependable revenue. AT&T said it gained customers even though it had less generous phone promotions and deals than its competitors.

Despite inflation and worries surrounding a recession, AT&T CEO John Stankey was cautiously optimistic about the company’s forecast for the year.

«The good news is, I think we’re through the worst of it,» Stankey said on a conference call, though he noted that geopolitical disruption could be a swing factor changing the carrier’s 2023 outlook.

The results come at a time when wireless carriers are tightening their belts through layoffs and pulling back on the kind of promotions and freebies they once offered to lure in new customers. On Tuesday, Verizon also said it was moving away from aggressive promotions even if meant short-term losses. Consumers can expect to see fewer wireless deals going forward.

AT&T also ended the year by surpassing its goal of covering 130 million people with its midband 5G, with the telecom company hitting the 150 million mark. Midband spectrum runs on a frequency of 5G that brings wider coverage and higher speeds to more places. The spectrum was mostly in its C-band frequency range, which AT&T paid $27 billion to acquire in 2021 and started rolling out last year. AT&T wasn’t clear about whether this number includes the 3.45 GHz frequencies of 5G midband that the carrier paid $9.1 billion to acquire a year ago. The carrier set a new target to cover 200 million people with midband 5G by the end of 2023.

AT&T lost 13,000 net prepaid phone subscribers in the last quarter, including customers for AT&T’s Cricket brand that rivals T-Mobile’s Metro and Verizon’s new Total affordable prepaid offerings.

The carrier posted 280,000 broadband fiber net additions, noting that its fiber customers now outnumber customers with older DSL and other internet services. AT&T touched on its Gigapower fiber joint venture with private equity company BlackRock Alternatives, announced just before the end of 2022, which Stankey likened to an opportunity in the early race for wireless phone service. The venture aims to harness government subsidies to deploy multi-gig fiber in new areas to reach 1.5 million customers.

«The possibility to help close the digital divide and focus on access to affordable high-speed internet is a top priority of AT&T,» Stankey said.

The carrier acknowledged that it will have a new offering this year for fixed wireless, an internet frontier that AT&T effectively ceded to Verizon and T-Mobile in the early days of 5G. In the past, AT&T has confirmed it won’t expand into fixed wireless except on rare occasions to meet specific business needs. So long as fixed wireless delivers less bandwidth than fiber, AT&T isn’t excited about it as an alternative to wired broadband, Stankey said, noting any deployment would have a narrow niche where fiber can’t easily reach.

«I don’t see [fixed wireless] place long-term in dense metropolitan areas, and I don’t see it in reasonably well-populated suburban areas,» Stankey said.

AT&T reported revenues of $31.3 billion, which is around the revenue for the same period last year and slightly under the $31.39 billion expected. The carrier reported 61 cents of adjusted earnings per share, which was better than the 57 cents earned per share expected by analysts polled by Yahoo Finance.

At the start of the new year, AT&T expects wireless revenue growth of 4% and broadband revenue growth of 5% through 2023. The carrier noted it expects to spend around the same for capital expenditures this year, which hit a record $24 billion in 2022 due to expanding midband 5G and fiber rollouts.

AT&T’s stock was up a tenth of a percent to $19.18 in after-hours trading.

Technologies

Tim Cook Riffs on Retirement Rumors, AI, Phone Addiction and Trump

The Apple CEO discussed a range of topics on Good Morning America.

Tim Cook isn’t going anywhere just yet — not during Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations, not with the company preparing to introduce its first foldable phone, not while the tech giant is trying to figure out how to beat the AI race.

In a sit-down interview with Good Morning America host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan this week, Cook, who turned 65 in November, said there was no truth to the rumors that he is considering retiring from Apple. He became CEO of the company in 2011, 13 years after joining from Compaq.

«I love what I do deeply. Twenty-eight years ago, I walked into Apple, and I’ve loved every day of it since,» Cook told Strahan. «We’ve had ups and downs, but the people I work with are so amazing. They bring out the best in me, and hopefully I can bring out the best in them.»

Strahan interviewed Cook during the Apple CEO’s visit to Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Harlem, where students use Apple technology through the company’s partnership with the nonprofit Save the Music.

Speculation about Cook stepping down has been circulating since last November, when the Financial Times cited unnamed sources saying that Apple was preparing to usher in a new CEO «as soon as next year.» Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman threw water on that report, saying he «would be shocked if Cook steps down in the time frame outlined by the FT.»

During Cook’s tenure as CEO, Apple’s revenue has nearly quadrupled, with the tech giant adding dozens of new iPhone models, several more iPads, and updated Apple Watches and AirPods. This year, Apple has launched several new products, including the MacBook Neo, which at $599 has disrupted the budget laptop market. The company’s first foldable phone could come later this year.

Touch some grass

The GMA interview was short but wide-ranging, including Cook’s thoughts on how much people use their iPhones. Many studies estimate that people across most generations spend at least 4 hours a day on their phones, with millennials and Gen Z spending 5 to 6 hours.

When asked what he worries about most regarding Apple products’ impact on society, Cook weighed in, telling Strahan he doesn’t want people using iPhones «too much.»

«I don’t want people looking at the smartphone more than they’re looking in someone’s eyes,» Cook said, «because if they’re just scrolling endlessly, this is not the way you want to spend your day. Go out and spend it in nature.»

More on Apple from CNET:

AI and privacy

Cook told Strahan that AI «can be so positive,» but his response when asked whether he was «worried» about it was fairly flat.

«Technology doesn’t want to be good, and it doesn’t want to be bad,» Cook said. «It’s in the hands of the user and the hands of the inventor.»

Strahan questioned how much of iPhone users’ private lives are feeding Apple’s AI learning machine. Cook told him that because the smartphone is encrypted, Apple doesn’t have access to it. He went on to say: «When we can’t answer a question on your device, we send it to something called private cloud compute, which is essentially a big device in the sky that has the same kind of security and architecture as your phone.»

On its website, Apple says that it «does not use our users’ private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models.»

To date, Apple has been cautious in diving into the AI scrum. While Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are spending nearly $700 billion combined on AI tech this year, Apple is «only» investing $14 billion.

Trump and tariffs

Cook has been criticized for being too cozy with the Trump administration: donating $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration; giving him a 24-karat gold plaque; and attending a White House screening of Melania, a film about the First Lady.

The Apple CEO told Strahan that he’s «not a political person» on either side.

«I’m kind of straight down the middle, and I focus on policy,» Cook said. «So, I’m very pleased that the president and the administration is accessible to talk about policy.»

One of those policies has been tariffs, which Trump has imposed on many nations to varying degrees during his second term in office, purportedly to pressure companies to shift their manufacturing to the US. The president has largely spared Apple, which promised to invest $600 billion over four years to make more products in the US.

Cook told Strahan that the glass for the front and back of an iPhone will come out of Kentucky by the end of the year, and that 100 million chip engines will be manufactured in Arizona this year. He also noted that 20 billion semiconductors will be made in the US. «We’re a very proud American company, and we want to do as much here as we can,» Cook said.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 19, #1012

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 19 #1012.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features another tricky purple category, where words hide inside the clues and you have to dig them out. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Children’s stories.

Green group hint: Lucky charms.

Blue group hint: One color, then the next.

Purple group hint: Hidden words relating to music.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Folk tale characters.

Green group: Good luck symbols.

Blue group: Things that change color.

Purple group: Ending in music genres.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is folk tale characters. The four answers are Chicken Little, Frog Prince, Gingerbread Man and Goldilocks.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is good luck symbols. The four answers are evil eye, four-leaf clover, horseshoe and rabbit’s foot.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is things that change color. The four answers are chameleon, mood ring, sunset and traffic light.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ending in music genres. The four answers are baby blues, pet rock, scrap metal and soda pop.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 19, #542

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 542 for Thursday, March 19.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is tricky. Remember that many athletes’ surnames look like common words, so if you’re having trouble sorting the answers, think about whether a particular word could be someone’s last name. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Football division.

Green group hint: They catch the pigskin.

Blue group hint: College hoopsters.

Purple group hint: Where’s the glass slipper?