AT&T has been rapidly revamping its wireless offerings as it struggles to prevent customers from switching to growing competitors. After months of facing high turnover in its wireless business, the operator is betting big on its new offerings to reverse this trend.
In the first quarter of 2026, AT&T’s postpaid phone churn, the percentage of customers who canceled their service, reached 0.89%, up from 0.83% in the same quarter of 2025, according to the company’s most recent earnings report.
The operator also saw an increase in attrition in its prepaid phone business to 2.62%, up from 2.55%.
The rise in churn comes as more consumers across the country abandon traditional carriers in search of cheaper alternatives to avoid rising wireless bills. Some of these options include wireless services from mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and cable companies, which offer bundled phone, Internet, and cable TV plans.
Mobile satellite service is also becoming a growing option for consumers, as services like Starlink expand their offerings and the launch of Amazon Leo looms.
A WhistleOut survey conducted in December of last year found that 42% of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon customers faced increases in their wireless service bills over the past year.
While 58% of these customers said they are considering switching to a different provider, AT&T risks losing 64.9 million customers due to the prices of its wireless plans.
Last year, AT&T restricted its autopay discount and faced backlash for allegedly using a bait-and-switch tactic to lure customers from its competitors. In March, it announced price increases for legacy wireless plans, threatening to drive out more price-conscious customers.
AT&T CEO says new strategy is designed to reduce churn
During an earnings call on April 23, AT&T CEO John Stankey said that despite high churn, the company received 294,000 net postpaid phone additions in the first quarter of this year.
He said that the company is betting big on its strategy of offering converged telephone and Internet services to attract and retain customers.
“The best way for us to manage churn is to converge customers,” Stankey said. “Once we get through the repositioning and the shift that’s happening in the industry right now, which is aligning customers with the asset base, I think we’ll naturally see churn dynamics improve.”
Over the past year, AT&T has increased its convergent offerings, a move that rivals that of its cable competitors. The operator’s efforts also come as it plans to expand its fiber Internet footprint by 5 million locations each year until the end of this decade.
To help achieve this goal, in February it completed a $5.75 billion acquisition of Lumen’s Mass Markets fiber business, making AT&T fiber Internet service available in 32 states.
Related: AT&T quietly tests new service that rivals T-Mobile
Shortly after this move, AT&T introduced its OneConnect subscription in March, offering customers a bundled wireless and fiber Internet service at a starting price of $90 per month.
Stankey said this plan is specifically aimed at customers who are not very interested in upgrading their devices.
“One of the things we’re seeing is, first of all, the BYOD (bring your own device) segment is increasing more broadly,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons we started this. We see that customers are more willing to stay on their devices a little longer, and they’re certainly getting more accustomed to transferring them from one provider to another.”
“And so we want to adapt this plan to make sure that we can welcome those customers and then connect them to a network structure that drives customer churn,” he continued.
Stankey also said that throughout the year, AT&T will begin offering “more variants” of the OneConnect plan.
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He highlighted that customer convergence has so far been successful for the company, primarily attracting customers who add only one or two phone lines per account. Those are the accounts AT&T is targeting because it believes those customers will stay longer and make more purchases in the future.
“We are achieving account growth,” he said. “And if you look at the average line size, for example, in our wireless account base, the accounts that come in tend to be below the average of what we might have in the integrated base. And that’s an indicator that we’re getting better.”
“One- and two-line accounts that are new to us,” he continued. “They’re new fiber, they’re new wireless services. And that’s really good because ultimately those one- and two-line accounts become the three- and four-line accounts of the future.”
As AT&T doubles down on offering converged Internet and wireless services to its customers, Stankey believes churn in the company’s wireless business will reach an “inflection point.”
“I think there will be a little bit of the accelerated churn dynamic that we’ve been seeing in recent quarters as that shakes out,” Stankey said. “But like any mathematical equation, you get to that tipping point where you start to realize the benefits of the strategy. And I think we’ll eventually see it come back in line.”
AT&T CEO John Stankey believes combining wireless and Internet services is the key to combating growing churn.AT&T/Daniel J. Macy
Analyst Warns About AT&T Strategy Amid Changing Consumer Demand
In response to AT&T’s increasing reliance on leveraging converged offerings to combat churn, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said in a report to investors, obtained by Fierce Network, that “the narrative is already relatively familiar.”
“AT&T will compete against a cable operator with a cost (and consumer price) advantage by offering a similar convergent package, and against standalone offerings based on FWA and, increasingly, LEO satellite pricing,” Moffett said.
“As we have warned many times, ‘convergence’ is a lofty name for ‘discounts,’” he added. “The product doesn’t work any differently. The costs of providing the two services are no lower together than they are separately. The only things that are lower are the prices and the margins.”
AT&T’s big push into converged offerings comes as more American consumers prefer to bundle their wireless and Internet services to save money, according to an Optimum survey from last year.
Americans’ position on combining mobile and Internet services:
About 70% of Americans are open to combining mobile services, while about 62% Say the same for internet plans.
Barely 80% view mobile and internet service packages as a more profitable option to pay for each one separately.
About 1 in 4 Americans are likely to enroll in a bundled plan in 2026. Source: Optima
Gabriel Torres, vice president of mobile product management at Optimum, said in a statement to CableTV.com that as more consumers rely on digital technology for remote work, social media and other uses, demand for “comprehensive connectivity solutions” increases.
“In addition, the desire for cost-effective options that simplify billing and provide added value is an important motivator for consumers when choosing bundled services,” he said.
Related: AT&T launches 3 new phone plans to prevent customers from switching
This story was originally published by TheStreet on April 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
