Half of AT&T 3Q subs bought iPhone

It wasn’t just Apple’s own spirits being lifted by the success of the iPhone this week. Exclusive US carrier AT&T probably had a lot to thank Steve Jobs and co for as its wireless subscriber base topped 65.7 million at the end of the third quarter.

AT&T added 2 million net subscribers during the quarter and even though it wasn’t saying how many bought iPhones, the figures speak for themselves.

Apple has shifted a total of 1.4 million units in total and even if 250,000 of these have been hacked, that still means almost half of AT&T’s net additions over the past three months were on the iPhone.

Along with the consolidation of BellSouth’s financials, iPhone subscriptions helped push AT&T’s revenues up to $30.1bn, compared with $15.6bn in the year ago quarter. Net income for the third quarter totalled $3.1bn compared with $2.2bn a year ago.

The carrier said it no has 126,000 U-verse IPTV subscribers in service, up from 51,000 three months earlier. Total video subscribers, including satellite and AT&T U-verse, increased 215,000 in the third quarter to reach 2.1 million.