Key keywords: AT&T Q2 2026 earnings, postpaid subscriber growth, telecom revenue beat, 5G adoption rate, AT&T wireless ARPU, broadband subscriber gains, AT&T adjusted EPS AT&T on July 23, 2026 released its second quarter fiscal 2026 financial results, outperforming analyst consensus estimates across core revenue, earnings, and subscriber growth metrics to deliver the telecom giant’s strongest quarterly performance in nearly three years. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.72, 7.5% above the average Wall Street estimate of $0.67, while total quarterly revenue hit $32.1 billion, beating projections of $31.4 billion and marking a 3.2% year-over-year increase. The top-line growth was driven almost entirely by record subscriber additions across both wireless and fixed-line broadband segments, a result that defied earlier analyst predictions that macroeconomic pressure would lead to slower subscriber acquisition and increased plan downgrades. Postpaid phone subscribers, the highest-margin customer segment for AT&T’s wireless division, saw net additions of 491,000 in the quarter, 38% higher than the projected 355,000, with total postpaid net additions across phones, wearables, and IoT devices hitting 782,000 for the quarter. Churn for postpaid phone customers dropped to 0.82%, the lowest quarterly rate AT&T has recorded in its wireless business history, which the company attributed to higher customer satisfaction with its 5G network performance and bundled service offerings. Meanwhile, AT&T’s fiber broadband segment added 315,000 net new subscribers, 22% above consensus estimates, bringing the company’s total fiber customer base to 8.7 million as of the end of Q2. The fiber expansion drive, which has cost AT&T more than $18 billion over the past four years, now reaches 33 million U.S. households, with the company on track to hit its 2026 target of 34 million covered households by the end of the fourth quarter. Additional positive metrics included a 78% 5G adoption rate among AT&T’s postpaid phone subscribers, up 6 percentage points year-over-year, and wireless average revenue per user (ARPU) of $55.12, a 2.1% year-over-year increase driven by higher uptake of premium unlimited plans that include bundled access to HBO Max, MLS Season Pass, and other streaming content. AT&T CEO John Stankey noted in the earnings call that the company’s ongoing cost optimization efforts have also delivered better-than-expected results, with $1.2 billion in operational cost cuts realized in the first half of 2026, pushing adjusted EBITDA margin up 1.2 percentage points year-over-year to 35.8%. Following the earnings release, AT&T’s share price rose 4.2% in pre-market trading, erasing nearly all of its 3.8% month-to-date loss as of July 22.