AT&T Mobility adds 2 million customers

AT&T Mobility easily bested rival Verizon Wireless in adding fourth-quarter subscribers, showing there is still wireless growth to be had.
The industry’s No. 2 operator said it added 2.1 million new customers during the final three months of last year, easily outpacing the 1.4 million net adds posted by Verizon Wireless, which had its slowest customer growth in five years. Verizon Wireless reported fourth-quarter financials yesterday.
For the year, AT&T Mobility said it added 7 million customers, ending the year with 77 million subscribers. (Verizon Wireless’ recent acquisition of Alltel Communications L.L.C. pushed the carrier’s customer base past 80 million.)
As has become customary, Apple Inc.’s iPhone fueled much of the new growth at AT&T Mobility, with the carrier claiming more than 1.9 million new customers signing onto its network were using the device. While the results were down sequentially from the 2.4 million new iPhone customers in the third quarter, the results towered over the industry.
The slower iPhone growth slowed the amount of subsidies AT&T Mobility is paying to sell the phone. The carrier reported $450 million in subsidies during the fourth quarter, down from the $900 million in subsidies posted in the third quarter. Continued increased data revenues generated by iPhone subscribers also benefited the wireless provider; iPhone data ARPU was 1.6 times higher than its average subscriber. AT&T Mobility posted $13.50 in average data revenue per user during the quarter, just short of the $13.99 posted by Verizon Wireless. Total ARPU for AT&T Mobility stood at $59.59
But while AT&T Mobility may have saved some money with Apple, its profit was still down to $2.4 billion during the fourth quarter, a significant decrease from the $3.14 billion it brought in during 2007’s final quarter.