AT&T revenues climb as subscribers continue to pile on

By Aemon Malone October 21, 2010

Image used with permission by copyright holder

There was plenty of positive news for AT&T today after releasing its financial figures from this year’s third quarter. The company announced its revenues are up $847 million, or 2.8 percent from the same period a year ago, and total net revenue reached $12.3 billion.

The boost in cash flow was in no small part fueled by a big increase in wireless subscribers; AT&T managed to sign up 2.6 million net new wireless subscribers during the quarter and can now boast having almost 93 million wireless subscribers total. The subscriber increase was a third-quarter record for the company. AT&T also managed to make more money off of those subscribers, increasing its average per-subscriber revenue to $62.84 – up to two percent.

Some of AT&T’s success in the wireless market can be attributed to the launch of Apple’s iPhone 4 over the summer. It reported 5.2 million iPhone activations, another quarterly record and a 62 percent increase over the second quarter of 2010. The third quarter was the first full quarter to include iPhone 4 sales data. The new iPhone customers along with the accompanying data plans no doubt helped to fuel earnings, although its uncertain how much longer AT&T will be able to exclusively enjoy the effects of the iPhone’s popularity in the US.

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