AT&T Announces 4.7 Million iPhones Activated Last Quarter

AT&T has announced its third quarter results, reporting 4.7 million iPhones sold despite supply constraints on the iPhone 5.

AT&T posted a net increase in total wireless subscribers of 678,000 in the third quarter to reach 105.9 million in service. This included gains in every customer category. Subscriber additions for the quarter included postpaid net adds of 151,000. Postpaid results were impacted by iPhone 5 inventory constraints which resulted in the vast majority of third-quarter iPhone sales going to existing customers, where there was considerable pent-up demand. Prepaid net adds were 77,000, connected device net adds were 313,000 and reseller net adds were 137,000.

Branded computing subscribers, which are included in the previous categories, reached a total of 6.4 million, up more than 40 percent from a year ago. Branded computing devices includes tablets, tethering plans and other data-only devices. AT&T added 139,000 branded computing subscribers in the quarter, including 114,000 tablets.


Strong Wireless Performance; Smartphones 81 percent of Postpaid Sales
● Wireless revenues up 6.6 percent; wireless service revenues up 4.5 percent
● Strongest postpaid wireless subscriber ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber) growth in six quarters, up 2.4 percent to $65.20; phone-only ARPU up almost 3 percent
● Strong smartphone sales of 6.1 million; postpaid smartphone customer base now 44.5 million, up 1.4 million from second quarter 2012
● 4.7 million iPhones activated; record sales quarter for Android and Windows smartphones
● Best-ever third-quarter postpaid churn
● 678,000 net increase in total wireless subscribers, including gains in every customer category
● Wireless operating income margin of 26.2 percent; EBITDA service margin of 40.8 percent with strong smartphone sales

For the quarter ended September 30, 2012, AT&T's consolidated revenues totaled $31.5 billion, flat versus the year-earlier quarter.