AT&T beats estimates for subscriber additions on demand for higher-priced plans

　　AT&T (T) exceeded market expectations for wireless subscriber additions in the second quarter on Wednesday, as the telecom operator's higher-tier unlimited plans attracted customers.

　　Shares of the company rose 4% in premarket trading.

　　The company added 419,000 monthly bill-paying wireless phone subscribers, compared with expectations of 284,800 additions, according to five analysts polled by FactSet.

　　AT&T's unlimited plans that are usually priced lower than those of rivals have helped the company add budget-conscious customers amid tough competition from T-Mobile (TMUS) and Verizon (VZ).

　　That has also helped AT&T retain customers better than rivals, with its postpaid phone churn- the number of people disconnecting from a company's service - coming at 0.70%, the second lowest reported for a second quarter.

　　Free cash flow, a metric that helps determine dividend payouts, rose more than 9% to $4.6 billion, beating LSEG estimates of $4.22 billion.

　　However, slower phone upgrades in the U.S. weighed on AT&T's revenue, mirroring comments from Verizon.

　　Mobility equipment revenue was down 8% in April-June period. Total revenue of $29.8 billion missed estimates of $29.92 billion, according to LSEG data.

　　AT&T, one of the largest telecom operators in US, was troubled by data breaches and hours long outages this year.

　　The US Federal Communications Commission said in a report on Monday the nationwide outage in February that lasted over 12 hours blocked more than 92 million voice calls and prevented more than 25,000 attempts to reach 911.