AT&T profits up in fourth quarter

US carrier AT&T managed to generate a 7.7 per cent increase in net income for 2008, racking up $12.87bn. But the operator had as rough a fourth quarter as the rest of the industry with profits sinking 23.3 per cent year on year to $2.4bn.

Revenues for both the fourth quarter and full year were up however by 2.4 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively, topping $124bn at the end of 2008.

During the fourth quarter AT&T added 2.1 million net wireless subscribers, bringing its total user base to 77 million. The company counted 1.9 million Apple iPhone activations, of which approximately 40 per cent were customers who were new to AT&T. The company said its iPhone users continues to deliver high-value revenues with ARPU approximately 1.6 times higher and churn rates significantly lower than the company’s overall postpaid subscriber base.

iPhone users also helped the company boost its wireless data revenues by 51.2 per cent year on year during the quarter to reach $3.1bn.

AT&T’s total broadband connections, which include wireline subscribers and wireless customers with 3G cards, increased by 357,000 in the fourth quarter to reach 16.3 million in service, up 1.5 million over the past year. The number of 3G cards in service nearly doubled over the past year.