PHILADELPHIA - Comcast Corp. said Monday it expects to complete its merger with AT&T Broadband and become the nation's largest cable television provider next month.

Comcast and AT&T previously said they hoped to complete the deal - valued at $72 billion in stock and debt assumption when first announced and revalued by the companies at $47.5 billion as share prices declined - by the end of the year.

With federal regulators nearing completion of their reviews, Brian L. Roberts, Comcast president, said in a quarterly earnings conference call, "We hope to get to closing in November."

Comcast announced third-quarter net income of $75.6 million, or 8 cents per share, a sharp turnaround from a net loss of $106.8 million or 11 cents per share for the same period last year, but short of the 15 cents a share predicted by analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call.

Roberts said gains including double-digit growth in revenues and cash flow, however, showed "we are building from a position of strength."

Operating cash flow, a key measure of strength in the telecommunications industry, increased 17.8 percent to $825.8 million from $700.6 million in the third quarter 2001.

Comcast, the third-largest cable television company with 8.5 million subscribers, had consolidated revenues of $2.7 billion, up 12.7 percent from $2.4 billion in the period last year.

While strong on its own, Comcast faces large costs to upgrade AT&T cable systems to be able to offer sophisticated video-on-demand, high-definition-television and other services that Comcast hopes will become big revenue contributors, said Alan Bezoza, an analyst with CIBC World Markets.

"We expect it to be in the $6 billion range," Bezoza said. "If anyone could do it I think Comcast could do it. I'm just a little worried about the near term; I think they have a lot to do, let's put it that way."

Roberts said the company expects to be able to absorb the costs and return to generating positive cash flow by 2004.

"They think they can get AT&T on track to start contributing by the end of (2003)," said Mike A. Kupinsky, an analyst for A.G. Edwards & Sons. "I think the merger is going to offer them some substantial growth prospects going forward."

Stephen B. Burke, president of Comcast Cable, said the company would cut 1,700 jobs at AT&T Broadband's headquarters in Englewood, Colo., that had been identified as redundant after the merger. The cuts were previously announced in October. AT&T Broadband has about 40,000 employees and Comcast Cable about 20,000.

John R. Alchin, treasurer, said merger planning had become intensive.

"At any point during the quarter we had 200 to 300 employees on the road preparing post merger plans," he said.

Roberts said Comcast's businesses remained strong.

"Comcast Cable's strong momentum in delivering new digital and high-speed Internet products contributed to revenue and cash flow growth of over 12 percent, even as we incur the additional costs of preparing to integrate AT&T Broadband's 13.1 million cable subscribers," he said.

The new AT&T-Comcast would have 22.3 million subscribers, nearly twice as many as the largest current cable company, AOL Time Warner.

Comcast said its cable subscribers increased by 0.7 percent to 8.5 million for the period ending Sept. 30, and cable division revenues grew 12.3 percent to $1.55 billion.

High-speed Internet revenues more than doubled to $155.5 million from the third quarter of 2001, as the company added 169,800 new customers in the period.

Comcast also reported 13-percent revenue growth at QVC, its shopping network, to $1.012 billion. "QVC is not affected as much as other retailers by the soft economy," Alchin said.

For the first nine months of the year, Comcast said it had a net loss of $222.9 million, or 23 cents a share, on revenue of $8.08 billion, compared with net income of $929.6 million, or 96 cents a share, on revenue of $6.97 billion in the first nine months of 2001.

Comcast stock closed at $24.15 a share, up 31 cents a share, on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

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