AT&T said today that its second-quarter profit was up 30 percent, thanks largely to the addition of wireless subscribers, but that it continued to lose landline customers.
For the quarter, AT&T earned $3.77 billion, or 63 cents per share, which was up 30 percent from $2.9 billion, or 47 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago. AT&T’s revenue increased by 4.7 percent, to $30.9 billion, while Thomson analysts had forecast $31.1 billion in revenue.
AT&T finished the quarter with 58.9 million phone lines, which was down 2.6 percent from the 60.4 million it had three months earlier.
AT&T brought 1.3 million wireless customers into the fold, while its wireless revenue increased 15.8 percent. By contrast, Verizon Wireless said it added 1.5 new subscribers in the same quarter (story here).
Wireless data revenues from Internet access, messaging and e-mail increased by 52 percent.
AT&T added 170,000 new U-verse customers in the second quarter for a total of 549,000, but some industry experts have predicted that the U-verse rollout will be slowed this year by the decline in new homes being built.
AT&T said sales for the second-generation iPhone, which went on sale July 11, were almost double from the first iPhone in the first 12 days that the second-generation was available. While AT&T is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone, the sales of the second-generation weren’t included in the second quarter that ended June 30.
More Broadband Direct:
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• Verizon bulks up in-home routers for FiOS service
• Cisco plunks down $120M to buy Pure Networks
• Amazon, TiVo team on interactive TV shopping
• Goldman Sachs leads funding round for Verimatrix
• Convergys abides during challenging Q2
• Broadcom ups net revenue, income in Q2
