AT&T had another good quarter, as the nation’s second-largest mobile operator reported net revenues of $3.6 billion and added a net gain of 1.1 million subscribers.
The company now has 98.6 million customers and it had gains in every category, including 331,000 postpaid users. AT&T is riding the smartphone wave and it had its second-best quarter with these devices as it sold 5.6 million smartphones and 70 percent of these were on postpaid contracts.
The Apple iPhone made up the bulk of these smartphone purchases, as the company activated 3.6 million devices in the quarter and 24 percent of those were new customers. The company said iPhone churn was down slightly, so it doesn’t appear like the Verizon iPhone is really hurting AT&T. In fact, judging by Apple’s earnings announcement, the iPhone coming to other carriers only appears to hurt Apple competitors.
The “branded computing device” category is one that you may start hearing a lot about, as this category includes hotspots, USB sticks, tethering plans and tablets. The company added 545,000 devices in the quarter – the strongest quarter yet – and look for that number to continue to rise as AT&T pushes tablets hard.
Despite some high-profile opposition, the carrier still expects its $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile to go through. The company made a brief mention of this deal in its results but honestly, these are pretty darn good numbers, so I can understand why it would want to focus on that.
“Our planned acquisition of T-Mobile USA will accelerate development of next-generation capabilities, and it will lay the groundwork for continued high-tech innovation for years to come,” said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, in a prepared statement.
[Via AT&T, photo credit]