AT&T, Verizon Under Pressure as Competition Intensifies, UBS Says

AT&T and Verizon are seeing pressure on earnings and average revenue per user as competition intensifies, UBS wrote investors Wednesday. The firm raised its target price for T-Mobile from $63 to $80 per share, saying it's the best positioned of the major wireless carriers as the TV incentive auction reaches its end stage. “After a highly competitive end to 2016, 1Q shows no signs of relief as T-Mobile launched new all-in pricing, Sprint introduced its most aggressive unlimited family plan to date, and Verizon brought back unlimited data, causing AT&T to drop the DTV bundling requirement,” UBS said: “These moves are expected to impact flow share while weighing on service revenue and margin trends for the group. While the move to unlimited could eventually be neutral to ARPU [average revenue per user], it will initially provide a headwind due to lower overage and the optimization of plans. This, combined with greater promotional activity, will likely weigh on margins as well.”