AT&T Hints That iPhone Exclusivity is Coming to an End

AT&T may be preparing investors for its iPhone exclusivity to come to an end, according to CLSA’s Steven Fox.

In the company's disclosure from their 10Q filing late Friday (6 August), AT&T did not reference the iPhone specifically, but added significant new language about exclusivity, citing the end of exclusivity agreements related to a “number of attractive handsets”. Importantly, such language was not found in AT&T’s prior 10Q filings (see Figure 1 for the full quote). We continue to think Apple is likely to add Verizon by early 2011, which is not fully contemplated in our model.

AT&T’s SEC filing reads:


Although exclusivity arrangements are important to us, such arrangements may not provide a competitive advantage over time, as the industry continues to introduce new devices and services. Also, while the expiration of any of our current exclusivity arrangements could increase churn and reduce postpaid customer additions, we do not expect any such terminations to have a material negative impact on our Wireless segment income, consolidated operating margin or our cash from operations.

TechCrunch recently predicted a Verizon iPhone in January and Digitimes added to this saying that the new device will have a metal antenna back.

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