Three steps put AT&T stock in a portfolio: open an account with a broker that offers New York Stock Exchange shares, fund it, and order the single-letter ticker T. The company behind that letter has been narrowing itself to a US network business: it spun off WarnerMedia in 2022, sold its last DirecTV stake in 2025 and in October 2026 agreed to sell its Mexican wireless unit. What remains is mostly mobile, with wireless service alone bringing in about 54% of 2025 revenue. This guide covers how AT&T earns that money, how to buy the share without landing on one of its 33 other listed securities, and what its own risk disclosures stress.
What Does AT&T Do?
AT&T sells connectivity, mostly in the United States: mobile plans, home internet and business networks. The listed parent, AT&T Inc., is a holding company incorporated in Delaware in 1983 with its head office in Dallas, Texas.
The name is older than the company that now carries it. AT&T Inc. began as SBC Communications, "one of several regional holding companies created to hold AT&T Corp.'s (ATTC) local telephone companies," and became independent on 1 January 1984 under an antitrust consent decree. In 2005 it merged with AT&T Corp. itself and took the AT&T Inc. name; buying BellSouth in 2006 gave it full ownership of AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular Wireless.
A detour into television and film, DirecTV in 2015 and Time Warner in 2018, has since been unwound: WarnerMedia was separated in April 2022 and combined with Discovery as Warner Bros. Discovery, and in July 2025 AT&T sold its remaining DirecTV interest to TPG.
Through 2025 the company reported two segments. Communications held three business units. Mobility served 120 million subscribers at the end of 2025: 91 million postpaid, 74 million of them phones, 18 million prepaid under the Cricket and AT&T PREPAID brands, and 11 million through resellers. It also runs FirstNet, "a nationwide wireless broadband network dedicated to public safety." Consumer Wireline sells home broadband: 10.4 million fiber connections at year end, 1.1 million of them added in 2025, plus 1.5 million AT&T Internet Air connections, a fixed wireless service carried over 5G where fiber does not reach. Business Wireline sells fiber, fixed wireless and older copper services to companies, government and wholesale buyers.
Latin America is the wireless business in Mexico, with about 24.7 million subscribers under the AT&T and Unefon brands; the largest share of that market belongs to América Móvil. At home, the 10-K lists the competition as "two national wireless providers," regional providers and resellers, and cable companies.
How AT&T Earns Its Revenue
Total operating revenue grew 2.7% in 2025. By the lines AT&T reports for each business unit:
| Revenue line | Business unit | Share of 2025 revenue | Change from 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wireless service | Mobility | 53.6% | +3.1% |
| Wireless equipment | Mobility | 17.6% | +11.1% |
| Broadband: fiber, Internet Air and copper | Consumer Wireline | 9.7% | +8.7% |
| Legacy voice, data and other consumer services | Consumer Wireline | 1.6% | −15.6% |
| Legacy and other transitional services | Business Wireline | 7.3% | −17.4% |
| Fiber and advanced connectivity | Business Wireline | 5.8% | +5.2% |
| Business equipment | Business Wireline | 0.6% | −3.6% |
| Wireless service and equipment in Mexico | Latin America | 3.5% | +3.5% |
Shares are our arithmetic on the 10-K's dollar figures, rounded to one decimal; corporate revenue is the remaining 0.3%.
Mobility is the engine: service revenue rose mainly on subscriber gains, while equipment revenue climbed on higher device sales and swings with upgrade cycles.
Wireline is in the middle of a handover from copper to fiber. In the 10-K's own service classes, which combine consumer and business lines, legacy and other transitional services brought in 13% of revenue in 2023 and fiber and advanced connectivity 11%; by 2025 the order had flipped, at 8% against 13%. Consumer fiber revenue rose 17.0% in 2025 on more customers and higher revenue per user.
Business Wireline shows the cost of that handover: its revenue fell again as legacy and VPN services lost demand, and it reported an operating loss in both 2024 and 2025.
T Stock: Key Facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exchange | New York Stock Exchange; the 2025 annual report also lists NYSE Texas |
| Ticker | T |
| Security | Common shares, the only common class on the 10-K cover |
| Other listed securities | Two preferred depositary shares (T PRA, T PRC) and 31 series of notes, such as TBB |
| Sector | Telecommunications: wireless, fiber broadband and business networks |
| Head office | Dallas, Texas |
| Index membership | S&P 500; not held by the Dow Jones Industrial Average fund DIA |
| Fiscal year | Calendar year, ending 31 December |
| Dividend policy | Declared quarterly; the per-share total has been unchanged since 2022 |
| SEC identifier | CIK 732717 |
Nothing here moves with the share price; for the live quote, market value and yield, open the AT&T stock page on Bitbase. The 10-K's structured cover tags the shares with the NYSE alone, while its printed cover also names NYSE Texas; either way it is the same share.
How to Buy AT&T Stock, From Account to Order
AT&T's common shares list directly in New York, so no depositary receipt is involved. The order runs through a broker:
1. Pick a broker that reaches the NYSE, and check which legal entity you would be a client of and which regulator oversees it.
2. Declare your tax status. Non-US individuals are normally asked for IRS Form W-8BEN, the "Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding."
3. Add money. The share is priced in dollars, so the currency conversion matters as much as the commission.
4. Confirm the security, not only the symbol. The 10-K registers 34 securities on the NYSE and only one is the common stock; the others are two preferred depositary shares, quoted as T PRA and T PRC (T-PA and T-PC in the SEC's ticker file), and 31 series of notes such as TBB. A crypto token can also be labelled T by whoever issues it, so a matching letter on a crypto app says nothing about AT&T; this explainer on how stock symbols are allocated while crypto tickers are not covers why. The line you want reads AT&T Inc. common shares, NYSE.
5. Choose an order type. With a market order, FINRA warns, "you might not get the price you saw or were originally quoted, especially in fast-moving markets"; a limit order trades "at or better than a specified price."
6. Settle the size. Fractional shares are offered by some brokers; ask how those orders are filled.
7. Keep the records of cost basis and any tax withheld.
From outside the United States, start from the IRS rule: "Most types of U.S. source income received by a foreign person are subject to U.S. tax of 30%." A treaty can lower or remove that rate, which is what the W-8BEN is for; with quarterly dividends the withholding recurs, and your own country may tax the income again.
Through a fund, AT&T comes bundled with other companies: on 16 October 2026 it was among the holdings of State Street's SPY, which tracks the S&P 500, and of XLC, its communication services fund, but not of DIA, the Dow fund. This guide to an S&P 500 index ETF explains how such a fund decides what it owns.
Forces Behind AT&T's Share Price
Wireless pricing and churn. In 2025 postpaid phone churn, the monthly share of subscribers who leave, rose to 0.90% from 0.76%, which AT&T tied partly to "an increase in our customer base that reached the end of device financing periods, which normalized in the second half of 2025." Postpaid phone net additions slipped to about 1.55 million from 1.65 million, and for 2026 the 10-K expects "ongoing pressure on pricing," especially in wireless.
Fiber, organic and bought. In February 2026 AT&T closed the purchase of Lumen's mass-markets fiber business, which at signing covered about one million fiber customers and a network reaching more than four million locations. It keeps the customers but plans to sell control of the network subsidiary, Forged Fiber 37, to an equity partner.
The copper exit. The company is "actively working to exit our legacy copper network operations across the large majority of our wireline footprint." Switched access lines fell to 2.1 million at the end of 2025 from 2.7 million. From 2026 copper services form their own Legacy segment, whose second-quarter revenue was about 26% below a year earlier.
Spectrum and debt. On 28 July 2026 AT&T closed its purchase of EchoStar licences, about 30 MHz of nationwide 3.45 GHz mid-band and 20 MHz of 600 MHz low-band spectrum, drawing two term loans that day to pay for part of it. Even before that, total debt at the end of June 2026 was about 6% above its end-2025 level.
A smaller map. On 13 October 2026 AT&T announced an agreement to sell its Mexican wireless business to a consortium owned equally by Grupo Televisa and Fintech Holdings; the buyers expect to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.
Buybacks. Share repurchase authorizations approved in December 2024 and January 2026 have, in the 10-K's words, "no expiration date."
Risks AT&T Itself Flags
Of the 10-K's risk factors, these touch a T holder most closely:
A saturated wireless market. "We expect market saturation to continue, which may cause the wireless industry's customer growth rate to moderate in comparison with historical growth rates, leading to increased competition for customers."
The copper network itself. Retiring it needs approvals: "If we do not obtain regulatory approvals for our network transition or obtain approvals with onerous conditions, we could experience significant cost and competitive disadvantages." The old cables also carry legal risk: after press reports in 2023 that lead-clad cables may be a health or environmental hazard, AT&T says "We are currently subject to litigation and have received inquiries from government authorities as a result of these assertions."
Debt and credit ratings. Spectrum and acquisitions have been funded partly with borrowing, and the 10-K acknowledges that "we did experience credit rating downgrades from historical levels."
Cyberattacks. "As a critical infrastructure service provider, we believe that we are a particularly attractive target for such cyberattacks." In July 2024 AT&T disclosed an incident involving the copying of mobile customer call data.
Workforce and retirees. About 43% of employees were union-represented at the end of 2025, and about 477,000 retirees and dependents were eligible for retiree benefits. Market falls, higher rates, inflation and medical costs "could materially increase our benefit plan costs and future funding requirements," and because AT&T books the yearly remeasurement of those plans in its income statement, reported earnings can swing with markets.
Two more apply to any single stock: one company's results decide your outcome, and if you count your wealth in another currency, the exchange rate moves both the share value and each dividend.
Where to Check AT&T's Numbers
AT&T's filings sit on EDGAR under CIK 732717: a 10-K each year, 10-Q reports each quarter and 8-K reports for events such as the EchoStar closing. Its investor site is investors.att.com.
Compare like with like. The 2026 quarterly reports use new segments, Advanced Connectivity, Legacy and Latin America, and restate 2025 to match, so a 2026 figure does not belong beside one from the old Mobility or Business Wireline tables. Read the Mexico deal from both sides: Grupo Televisa's own SEC report of 13 October 2026 gives the buyer structure and expected timing. And when a symbol puzzles you, the structured cover, R1.htm, lists every AT&T security registered on the exchange.
For other companies, browse Bitbase's US stock pages.
Questions About T Stock
How has AT&T's dividend changed since 2022?
It has been flat since a reset. On 1 February 2022 AT&T announced the expected annual dividend for the period after the WarnerMedia separation, and dividends declared per share in 2022 were about 47% lower than in 2021. The per-share total has been the same every year since, including the first half of 2026. The company says its policy "considers the expectations and requirements of stockholders, capital funding requirements of AT&T and long-term growth opportunities."
Can I buy AT&T stock with crypto?
Not directly. AT&T shares are bought through a brokerage account and settle in US dollars, so the crypto must first be converted into dollars and transferred to the broker; in some tax systems that conversion is itself taxable. The two are different in kind: a share and a coin differ in who issued them, what they pay and who is repaid first if things fail.
What did AT&T shareholders receive in the WarnerMedia spin-off?
Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery. When the separation closed on 8 April 2022, each AT&T share held on the record date brought 0.241917 WBD shares, about 71% of the new company in total. That was a one-off distribution; buying T today does not come with WBD shares.
Does AT&T still own DirecTV?
No. AT&T bought DirecTV in 2015, moved its US video business into a joint venture with TPG in July 2021 and sold its remaining interest to TPG in July 2025, ending its ownership of the pay-TV business.
Is AT&T selling its business in Mexico?
Yes. AT&T announced the agreement on 13 October 2026; the buyer is a consortium owned in equal parts by Grupo Televisa and Fintech Holdings, and Televisa expects closing in the first quarter of 2027 once regulators approve.
Conclusion
The purchase is simple: a broker with NYSE access, the AT&T Inc. common shares rather than a preferred or note line, and a market or limit order for T. The business behind it has left media and pay TV and agreed to sell Mexico to concentrate on US wireless, fiber and the exit from copper. Read the latest 10-K and 10-Q, especially churn, fiber additions, the Legacy segment and debt, before sizing a position in a single telecom stock.
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Disclaimer: This article is educational content from Bitbase Academy, provided for information only. It explains what a company or fund does and how the instruments referenced here differ from one another; it does not constitute investment, trading, tax, or financial advice, and it is neither a recommendation nor an endorsement of any security, token, or trading strategy. A tokenized stock is issued by a third party and is designed to give economic exposure to an underlying asset: it is not a share, it carries no shareholder rights, and it depends on the issuer's structure, eligibility rules, and redemption terms, which the issuer can change. Perpetual futures are leveraged derivatives that hold no underlying asset and can be liquidated, and trading hours, product availability, and eligibility differ by instrument and by jurisdiction and can change at any time. Written as of October 2026; verify everything yourself through company filings, the issuer's own documentation, and the product pages of the venue you trade on.
References
[1] AT&T Form 10-K for 2025: business, revenue, risk factors and market for the stock (SEC EDGAR) www.sec.gov
[2] AT&T 10-K for 2025, structured cover page (R1): registered securities, symbols and exchange www.sec.gov
[3] AT&T Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026: new segments, Lumen fiber deal, debt and dividends (SEC EDGAR) www.sec.gov
[4] AT&T Form 10-K for 2022: WarnerMedia separation and dividends declared in 2021 and 2022 (SEC EDGAR) www.sec.gov
[5] AT&T Form 10-K for 2024: dividends declared in 2023 and 2024 and stock listing (SEC EDGAR) www.sec.gov
[6] AT&T Form 8-K, 28 July 2026: closing of the EchoStar spectrum purchase and term loan draws (SEC EDGAR) www.sec.gov
[7] AT&T press release, 28 July 2026: AT&T closes acquisition of spectrum licenses from EchoStar (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1) www.sec.gov
[8] AT&T Form 8-K, 16 October 2026: agreement to sell the wireless business in Mexico (SEC EDGAR) www.sec.gov
[9] Grupo Televisa Form 6-K, 13 October 2026: Grupo Televisa and Fintech agree to acquire AT&T Mexico (SEC EDGAR) www.sec.gov
[10] SEC company tickers and exchanges file www.sec.gov
[11] State Street: SPY daily holdings, 16 October 2026 www.ssga.com
[12] State Street: XLC daily holdings, 16 October 2026 www.ssga.com
[13] State Street: DIA daily holdings, 16 October 2026 www.ssga.com
[14] FINRA: Order Types www.finra.org
[15] IRS: NRA Withholding www.irs.gov
