AT&T announced today stronger-than-expected wireless growth in the fourth quarter. Investors were concerned that a slowdown in the U.S. economy would hurt the company’s
subscriber growth. But AT&T added 2.7 net new wireless subscribers in the quarter. This is higher than the 1.92 million subscribers that some analysts had predicted.
AT&T’s fourth-quarter profit was $3.1 billion, or 51 cents per share, as compared to last year’s fourth quarter that posted a $1.9 billion profit.
“It was a solid quarter certainly,” said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Chris King. “It’s certainly a positive and they reiterated guidance for 2008. … In this type of market, any reiteration of guidance has to be viewed positively.”
“We had an excellent fourth quarter, which affirms our outlook for 2008,” Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said in a statement.
It’s good to see that some of the carriers are still moving forward. AT&T is definitely benefitting from the support that Apple provides them with the iPhone. They’ve now got an entire company on their side that pays attention to what the end-user wants.