Katie MarsalAT&T said Thursday that fourth-quarter earnings rose over 61 percent, helped largely by its acquisition of BellSouth and the addition of a record 2.7 million wireless customers, many of which are believed to have switched to the provider as a result of Apple's iPhone.
Sales were up some 91 percent to $30.35 billion from $15.9 billion during the year-ago quarter, boosted largely by the provider's December 2006 acquisition of BellSouth.
During the quarter, AT&T said it added 2.7 million new wireless customers to end at a nation's best 70.1 million mobile subscribers. The surge, thanks largely to Apple's iPhone, helped boost wireless revenues by 16.3 percent to $11.4 billion.
Apple said earlier this week that it sold over 2.3 million iPhones during the same three-month period. The net additions to AT&T's mobile subscriber base are believed to have come largely at the expense of Sprint/Nextel, which warned last week that it had incurred a considerable loss of high-value customers during the December quarter.
AT&T's ability to maintain strength in its wireless business came as some reassurance to investors, after the company said earlier this month that had been forced to disconnect a number of landline subscribers who were finding it difficult to pay more than one telephone bill.
Still, fears of a growing economic downturn continued to weigh on shares of the telecommunications giant, which were trading down $0.93, or 2.5 percent, to $35.76 in early afternoon trading.
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19 Comments
The net additions to AT&T's mobile subscriber base are believed to have come largely at the expense of Sprint/Nextel, which warned last week that it had incurred a considerable loss of high-value customers during the December quarter.
Can't wait to see what Verizon says....
I would love an iPhone, I really would. Not because they're trendy or hip, but because it is actually the one phone on the market that has the functionality I want and has it in a nice, easy-to-use Mac-compatible package.
Unfortunately I move around a lot, and can't control where I go. So I asked my local AT&T rep what would happen if I was moved to a place where AT&T doesn't have great coverage (and let's face it, there's a lot of area like that). He said I'd be able to use the phone via partner coverage. Until I'd used over half my minutes that way in a month, then they'd just terminate my contract.
So I guess I either wait for Apple to open up the market to other carriers (doesn't seem likely), AT&T to dramatically increase coverage (by which time there will be a 1TB iPhone that works by subspace), or just skip the iPhone altogether. 'Cause I can't afford to buy a phone that might become useless 30 days after a move.
With AT&T increasing in subscribers it seems less likely Apple will seek out other carriers. Oh well, the dream was fun for a while! :-)
Thats confirmed it then, the 3G phone is a comin.
OR
This report is completely full of shit.
Thats confirmed it then, the 3G phone is a comin.
OR
This report is completely full of shit.
Assuming the former, does that help my cause at all?
The net additions to AT&T's mobile subscriber base are believed to have come largely at the expense of Sprint/Nextel
Ok, I admit it. I'm partly to blame.