For the period, AT&T’s consolidated revenues totaled $30.7 billion, compared with $30.9 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Net income attributable to AT&T totaled $3.2 billion versus $3.8 billion in the year-earlier quarter, and earnings per diluted share totaled $0.54, compared with $0.63 in the second quarter of 2008. The firm said increased operating expenses in the second quarter of 2009, in part, reflect volume-based acquisition costs associated with the success of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone 3GS launch.
In the company’s wireless business, retail postpaid net adds totaled 1.2 million, up 29% versus results in the year-earlier second quarter and up 31.8% versus the first quarter of 2009. AT&T’s relationship with Apple is bearing fruit. AT&T iPhone activations totaled more than 2.4 million, with more than a third of those activations for customers who were new to AT&T. The firm’s wireless revenues from messaging, Internet access, access to applications and related services increased $934 million, or 37.2%. Wireless service revenue was up almost 10% to $11.96 billion.
U-verse TV subscribers in service increased by 248,000 in the second quarter to reach 1.6 million, up more than 1 million over the past year. That figure is still modest compared to the subscriber bases of major cable companies, but at the rate AT&T is adding new business, that could change within a few short years.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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