Alright, so let’s talk about AT&T, because apparently, they’re doing pretty freakin’ well as they walk this tightrope called the first quarter of 2025. I mean, they raked in a juicy $4.7 billion in net income! That’s like, 19% more than the same time last year. Crazy! What’s wild though, is they’re managing to add more phone and Fiber internet customers—like 324,000 more phone peeps and 261,000 for internet—even after they yanked this autopay discount rug from under folks, cutting it from $10 to $5 if you paid with a debit card. People weren’t thrilled. No sir!
Switch gears: there’s Trump—never not making waves—slapping on a 10% tariff across the board for stuff coming into the U.S. (some countries even got hit harder, yikes). So, you could imagine consumers feeling that pinch ’cause companies love to pass those extra costs down to the everyday Joe. But wait, he backpedaled a bit, made those tariffs 10% for everyone except the folks in China, who got a whopping 145%. Like, what?!
AT&T’s big cheese, John Stankey, couldn’t keep quiet about that. He threw some words around during an earnings call, basically saying tariffs could bump up the costs for smartphones and so forth. And if suppliers pass those tariff costs to AT&T, guess who gets the short end of the stick? Yep, us, the consumers. He said they might have to hike prices too. More bad news just what we needed, right?
And oh, more chaos! There’s some buzz ’round people rushing to upgrade their phones ’cause they’re freaking out about prices going sky high soon. But trust me, it’s not just AT&T; Verizon is also chiming in with a similar tune about bumping up costs thanks to those pesky tariffs. Yet, fewer of their customers are even upgrading. Probably hanging onto their ancient phones because, honestly, who doesn’t love a good ol’ throaty phone with endless charm?
To top it off, CNET said about a third of adults in the U.S. feel that nagging pressure—ya know, ’cause tech price hikes are lurking—or they’ve already splurged, trying to outpace the damage. Ah, the tangled web of economics and consumerism. What a ride.
