AT&T Mobility posts company record 2M net adds: Strong growth propelled by integrated devices

AT&T Mobility set the bar high for third quarter results posting just over 2 million net customer additions for the quarter, which was a record for the carrier and a 2.5% increase over the third quarter of 2008. AT&T Mobility attributed the strong growth to sales of smartphones and other integrated devices as well as the launch of Apple Inc.’s newest iPhone 3GS during the quarter.
During the quarter AT&T Mobility said it added 4.3 million postpaid 3G integrated devices to its network including a record 3.2 million iPhones. Apple reported earlier this week higher than expected sales of its iPhone device. At the end of the quarter the carrier said nearly 42% of if 63.4 million postpaid customers were using integrated devices.
Showing an increased reliance on prepaid customers, AT&T Mobility noted that postpaid growth dropped more than 18% from nearly 1.7 million during the third quarter of 2008 to just under 1.4 million in 2009.
Also helping to push the strong customer growth was a reported 1.43% customer churn rate that the carrier said was a record low for the third quarter.
Wireless service revenues increased more than 10% year-over-year to $12.4 billion during the third quarter and accounted for 40% of AT&T Inc.’s total revenues for the quarter, an increase from the 35.8% during the third quarter of 2008. Total wireless revenues, including equipment sales, increased 8.2% year-over-year to nearly $13.7 billion. Wireless data revenues totaled $3.6 billion during the quarter or nearly 30% of total wireless revenues.
AT&T’s capital expenditures during the quarter dropped more than 20% from the previous year from $5.1 billion to $4 billion.
AT&T’s stock was trading up more than 2% early Thursday at $26.52 per share.