AT&T activates 3.2 million iPhones in quarter

AT&T's bet on the iPhone continues to work well. The company reported Thursday a better-than-expected third quarter with 3.2 million iPhone activations--the largest quarterly activation total to date.

The telecom giant had net income of $3.2 billion, or 54 cents a share. Revenue came in at $30.9 billion, down from $31.3 billion a year ago. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 50 cents a share.

If you're an AT&T customer, you may be more interested in the update on its infrastructure improvements. The company said dropped calls in September declined by 12 percent, compared with a year ago.

Total churn for the quarter was 1.43 percent, down from 1.69 percent a year ago.

As usual, AT&T was powered by its wireless unit, which represents 44 percent of total sales. Wireless data revenue was $3.6 billion, up 33.6 percent from a year ago.

Read more of "AT&T cuts churn rate; Activates 3.2 million iPhones; Touts network upgrades" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

[mpitogo]

They need to start spending those billions in more network improvements. The iPhone can only do so much on its own, the rest of it depends on the network. Verizon and their droids may pose a thread with 4G.

[ibeetle]

Believe it or not AT&T really is. While I have no problem with their service in my area; a friend of mine does (did; sort of). Where he lives, a year ago he used to routinely see zero to 2 bars; now he rarely sees anything less than one bar, and usually, he tells me it is 3 bars. So, it is getting better.

Personally, I would love to see Apple offer the iPhone on another carrier. Even though I am happy with AT&T it would give more people choose. It would also alleviate pressure off of AT&T's network for those users like myself.

[chabig83]

AT&T spent $20 billion on network upgrades in 2008 and $18 billion in 2009.

[Michichael]

Activates 3.2 million iPhones. And yet they complain that the users are eating up too much bandwidth...

[Nael]

These obviously are all existing customers who upgraded to the iPhone otherwise the bottom line would not be flat. This morning I was trying to use my iPhone in San Jose and the 3G like it always has failed to display content. Please AT&T upgrade your network capacity to scale. I pay 175 a month for two lines, the least you can do is give me my moneys worth. (Hint: my contract expires in December) And Verizon or Sprint Androids are starting to look more and more compelling.

[frozenjello]

The ZDNet article says "iPhone activations were 3.2 million, the largest quarterly activation total to date. Of those activations, 40 percent of them were new to AT&T." Amazingly, the percentage of "switchers" to AT&T has been around 40 percent for several quarters now, showing the iPhone's incredible mass appeal. Will Verizon's Droid get a similar percentage of "switchers"? Doubtful. Most who buy it will be existing Verizon customers with iPhone envy. While the upcoming Android phones certainly have some desirable features not found on the iPhone (multitasking, etc), I don't see that they are compelling enough for the general public to switch providers.

[dbagpiper]

I think that is the most common thread of all every time the names "AT&T" and "iPhone" are used in the same sentance... AT&T on an iPhone = dropped calls. I love my iTouch and having a T-Mobile G1; I would LOVE to get into an iPhone (if that tells you anything about the T-Mobile/G1 combination), but not at the price of the monumentally poor plan that AT&T offers for the iPhone.

I will hold out for the iPhone to be picked up by another carrier. It will be interesting to see what happens to AT&T WHEN that does happen... I'd bet the bank that AT&T ends up back where they were in the late 90's!

[dbagpiper]

Mark my words: AT&T will be the next big corporation begging the government for taxpayer money if Verizon ever gets ahold of the iPhone!

Verizon: Learn from their mistake... keep the level of network access you currently have (or improve it), offer a better replacement plan and keep the calling plan AT LEAST as affordable as the Blackberry and you will take the market right out from under AT&T!

[filipiak]

@ dbagpiper: The iTouch is a medical device - what does that have to do with AT&T or T-Mobile?

[dbagpiper]

OMG... ok... the "iPod Touch"... happy?

[AppleSuxLeo]

Too bad they run on that little ATT map LOL
Droid on Verizon FTW !
Verizon`s 4G LTE network will be finished before ATT gets their 3G up to par...and iPhone won`t be invited to Verizon`s 4G party.
I am the party-pooper !

[AppleSuxLeo]

And now Apple has to pay Nokia for all the patent infringements (10)

[DHSmd]

Great that they are investing... they just are not doing it enough, fast enough. There is really no excuse for Verizon to be out-performing them nationally to this degree. With their built-in iPhone advantage, they should have made it close a long time ago.