“AT&T Inc.’s first-quarter earnings rose 5.2% as fewer people canceled telecom services, though revenue grew more slowly than expected,” Melodie Warner reports for The Wall Street Journal. “San Antonio-based AT&T on Tuesday reported a profit of $3.58 billion, or 60 cents a share, up from $3.41 billion, or 57 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 1.8% to $31.82 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 57 cents on revenue of $31.86 billion.”
“AT&T added 187,000 customers who signed long-term service contracts. The company also added 726,000 total wireless subscribers, raising its base to 103.9 million,” Warner reports. “Total postpaid churn, or customers who canceled services, was 1.1%, down from 1.18% a year earlier and 1.21% in the prior quarter.”
Warner reports, “The company sold 5.5 million smartphones, including 4.3 million iPhone activations. Of those activating iPhones, 21% were new to AT&T. AT&T’s subscribership gains had outpaced its rivals on the success of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, but it lost iPhone exclusivity last year, which has pressured its customer-turnover and growth rates of late.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Over 78% of the smartphones sold by AT&T last quarter were Apple iPhones. No wonder AT&T is constantly trying to push pretend iPhones in order to lessen their dependence on Apple.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
