AT&T's Revenue Lowers, iPhone Sales Still Strong

AT&T has recently announced its financial results for the first quarter of the ongoing year, and it seems that the time frame wasn't too great, given both the financial recession and the expenses related to its retirement plan, which drove the company’s profits down by about 9 percent, yet it seems that hefty subsidies associated with the popular iPhone haven't influenced the results.

According to the mobile phone carrier, it managed to earn $3.1 billion during the first quarter of 2009, translated into 53 cents per share, lower than the $3.5 billion, or 57 cents per share, it accounted for in the same quarter of 2008. Its revenue also went down about 0.6 percent to a total of $30.6 billion.

Even if it saw some loss, the company's results were higher than Wall Street's expectations. AT&T's wireless business performed quite well during the three-month period, which saw great sales of the Apple's iPhone 3G. The operator managed to add 1.2 million new subscribers, reaching a total number of 78.2 million customers.

In addition, the company also announced that it had managed to activate more than 1.6 million iPhone 3G devices during the first quarter, and that its overall wireless data revenue had grown 38.6 percent to a total of $3.2 billion. The increase was based on messaging, Internet access, e-mail and access to applications, as well as on related services.

“I think the 1.6 million sales of the iPhone in this environment was very strong,” Randall Stephenson, AT&T's CEO, said during a conference call. “Despite economic pressures, we had a solid first quarter.”

As many of you might already know, AT&T is the carrier that has exclusivity on Apple's iPhone in the US, and it seems that 40 percent of the 1.6 million new iPhone subscribers activated in the Q1 were new to the company. According to the carrier, new customers tend to spend more than other users on wireless data services. In addition, the churn rate is much lower for iPhone owners.