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AT&T surpasses Verizon as largest carrier in the U.S. – for now

By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 8:14 AM
att-office

Verizon became the nation’s largest carrier when it rocketed past AT&T two years ago after its Alltel acquisition. Since then, it had been enjoying a relatively comfortable lead against AT&T even though the latter was picking up hoards of subscribers thanks to the iPhone. However, AT&T has taken its place as number one in terms of subscribers again by adding 2.8 million new customers in the fourth quarter. How long will this lead last?

AT&T has 95.5 million subscribers now, which is a very small lead over Verizon’s 94.1 million. AT&T also activated 4.1 million iPhones during the fourth quarter, so that leaves us asking – how quickly will Verizon surpass AT&T once it picks up the iPhone 4 in just two weeks? The Apple smartphone is undoubtedly carrying AT&T right now, but many frustrated users are looking to jump ship – some already have in anticipation – for the Verizon iPhone.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, AT&T did have an impressive quarter over the holidays. Here are a few key details of its growth:

  • Consolidated revenues of $31.4 billion in the fourth quarter, up $653 million, or 2.1 percent, versus the year-earlier period
  • 9.9 percent growth in wireless revenues, with a 9.6 percent increase in wireless service revenues
  • Best-ever wireless net adds, with a more than 2.8 million increase in total wireless subscribers to reach 95.5 million subscribers in service; full-year wireless net adds totaled 8.9 million, the company’s best-ever annual total
  • Continued expansion in new wireless growth areas; connected devices up a record 1.5 million; iPad- and Android-based tablets up 442,000
  • 27.4 percent growth in wireless data revenues, up $1.1 billion versus the year-earlier quarter

    • For more details on AT&T’s growth and earnings, see the following page.

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    About The Author

    Marc Flores

    Marc has been a mobile fanatic for the better part of a decade and has had more devices pass through his hands than he would care to count. Originally from Los Angeles and briefly in San Francisco, Marc now lives in Brooklyn where, unlike Will Park, he longs for simpler times and simpler technology. All the while, he writes about gadgets and wireless technology as he tinkers, hacks and ultimately breaks most of his gadgets in the process. Marc has written about the mobile industry for Boy Genius Report, MobileCrunch, Laptop Magazine and has had his work appear in the Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, CrunchGear and more.

    • Anonymous

      Wow, that sure is one cool looking building. Wow.

      http://www.privacy-tools.tk

    • Rambo

      That building is a brick! Just like the iphone the at&t network.

    • Hedsic

      I see that building and all I can think is “Banksy could do a lot with all that open canvas”

    • Daveb7y

      No, Verizon has 102.2 million total connections, much more than AT&T.

      You need to compare apples to apples, ie phones to phones.

    • Leom760

      I love AT&T number one yeah fk verizon the comment on the botton verizon 94.1 counts everything like the data from laptop etc sorry ur number 2 Now verizon

    • AT&T biggest telecom

      even if att go back to number 2 on wireless subscriber AT&T will always be the the number one telecom company in the USA they are bigger that verizon they make more Money than verizon ok cleared att #1 company

    • AT&T biggest telecom

      even if att go back to number 2 on wireless subscriber AT&T will always be the the number one telecom company in the USA they are bigger that verizon they make more Money than verizon ok cleared att #1 company

    • http://twitter.com/PureFX Peter Lavelle

      Looks to me like the monolith from Space Odyssey 2001. Plus logo.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/A-Lloyd-Flanagan/100001044678820 A Lloyd Flanagan

      Unless AT&T is gathering their customers up and stashing them away somewhere, that should be “hordes” of customers. Come to think of it, that may be a necessary strategy for them now…