Customers interested in using mobile e-mail, web surfing, and other applications are clamoring for smartphones—and when it comes to carriers, AT&T is the leading choice among U.S. providers. AT&T today announced that, based on independent market research, twice as many smartphone users have chosen AT&T over any other U.S. carrier. The combination of the nation’s fastest 3G network and nearly 20,000 U.S. Wi-Fi hotspots offers Internet access across the U.S. for AT&T’s industry-leading lineup of iconic devices, including BlackBerry Bold and Nokia E71x.
AT&T will soon launch an advertising campaign that highlights its smartphone leadership and illustrates the many ways AT&T customers stay productive using smartphones connected to the nation’s fastest 3G network.
“AT&T made a big push to be the mobile broadband and smartphone leader many years ago and it’s clearly paying off in a big way for us and our customers,” said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, in the press release. “We’ve taken integrated devices mainstream and nearly a third of our postpaid customers use one. Our industry-leading 3G and Wi-Fi networks make mobile data accessible to everyone—from road warriors with advanced smartphones to texting teens with quick messaging phones. We offer something for everyone.”
In addition to smartphones, which are devices that use open operating systems like Apple’s OS X in the case of the revolutionary iPhone, AT&T is at the forefront of a new category of full-QWERTY consumer devices known as ‘quick messaging phones’ that bring text and picture messaging, IM, and mobile data applications to the masses. Together, smartphones and quick messaging phones comprise AT&T’s integrated device portfolio, which has more than doubled in subscribers over the past year.
As the popularity of text messaging and other mobile data applications continues to soar, customers are upgrading to integrated devices in record numbers. During the first quarter of this year, more new and existing customers activated integrated devices than AT&T added in new postpaid customers. Nearly 32 percent of AT&T’s postpaid subscribers now use an integrated device.
Because the smartphone experience depends on the quality of the network supporting it, AT&T has continuously invested in its networks, including more than $20 billion in 2008 — more than three quarters of it for mobility and data. AT&T invested more than any other publicly traded company in the U.S. and more than any other publicly traded global telecommunications company last year (source: Bloomberg). And AT&T expects total capital expenditures to be $17 to $18 billion in 2009, with more than three quarters of it again supporting mobility and data. This investment will ensure that AT&T can deliver the next generation of smartphones and the advanced capabilities these devices will bring to wireless customers.
AT&T currently provides customers with smartphones across five different open operating systems and the portfolio includes nine Wi-Fi-capable devices, and five touch screen phones. All AT&T smartphones are world phones because they operate on the GSM standard, which is used by more than 89 percent of global subscribers. Only AT&T offers international calling in more than 215 countries and data service in more than 170.
Source: AT&T Inc.
