AT&T ends '07 with about 2 million iPhone customers
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AT&T Inc , the exclusive U.S.  carrier for Apple Inc's  iPhone said on Thursday it  ended 2007 with "just at or slightly under 2 million iPhone  customers."
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AT&amp;T&#39;s revenue was up 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, largely driven by increases in mobile phone and broadband customers, the company said Thursday.AT&amp;T&#39;s pro forma revenue was $30.4 billion for the quarter, up 2.9 percent from a year earlier, when comparing combined revenue from AT&amp;T, BellSouth and the former Cingular Wireless.&#160;AT&amp;T acquired BellSouth&#160;and&#160;Cingular&#160;on Dec. 29, 2006.A net gain of 2.7 million mobile subscribers helped drive up the year-over-year pro forma numbers, AT&amp;T said in a news release. Most of those subscribers&#160;came to AT&amp;T through its exclusive contract to provide service for Apple&#39;s iPhone; Apple said Tuesday it sold 2.3 million iPhones during the quarter.AT&amp;T&#39;s official reported revenue for the fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31, was $30.3 billion, up from stand-alone revenue of $15.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006. Those numbers were up slightly from the third quarter of 2007. Some merger-related costs account for the difference in revenue figures.AT&amp;T reported a net income of $3.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2007, up from $1.9 billion, mostly due to its acquisition of BellSouth and Cingular.By comparison, AT&amp;T also had net income of $3.1 billion for the third quarter of 2007, with both quarter&#39;s numbers including income from BellSouth and Cingular, which was co-owned by AT&amp;T and BellSouth.The company&#39;s reported earnings per share were $0.51, up from $0.50 in the fourth quarter of 2006. Excluding one-time charges, earnings per share was $0.71, matching consensus earnings expectations by analysts polled by Thomson Financial. However, AT&amp;T missed on the revenue side: analysts had expected it to post $30.55 billion.AT&amp;T had an &quot;excellent&quot; fourth quarter, Randall Stephenson, AT&amp;T&#39;s chairman, president and CEO, said in the statement. AT&amp;T&#39;s mobile customer increase was the largest quarterly gain ever by a U.S. provider, he said. The company had 70.1 million mobile customers at the end of the year.Stephenson also pointed to growth in AT&amp;T&#39;s enterprise and broadband businesses. &quot;These growth trends, combined with the significant opportunities we have for continuous cost improvements, reinforce the positive outlook we have for our business,&quot; Stephenson said. &quot;AT&amp;T has a terrific set of assets and an impressive record in terms of executing and delivering on targets, and I am very confident in our ability to drive strong results in 2008.&quot;AT&amp;T&#39;s mobile revenues were $11.4 billion, up 16.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006. Mobile data revenue was up 57.5 percent.In AT&amp;T&#39;s wireline business, the company had 231,000 subscribers to its U-verse IP-based video service at year&#39;s end, up from 126,000 at the end of the third quarter.AT&amp;T&#39;s broadband revenues grew 13.7 percent in the fourth quarter to $1.4 billion. Total high speed Internet connections, which include DSL, AT&amp;T U-verse high speed Internet and satellite broadband services, increased by 396,000 in the quarter to reach 14.2 million, up by 2 million from the end of 2006.
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One per cent is aiming too high Comment Steve Jobs sounds modest with his 2008 sales prediction: "10 million iPhones is one per cent of the mobile phone market". This is indeed true, but it's not a useful benchmark.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - The number of iPhones manufactured by Apple may not be enough to meet customer demand when the smart phone goes on sale later Friday, CEO Steve Jobs said in an interview published the same day. "We had to make our best guess as to what the demand was going to be and what supply we were going to put in place many, many months ago. We built factories to build these things and everything. We've taken our best guess but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it ain't enough," Jobs told the Wall Street Journal in an interview. The iPhone, which combines the functions of an iPod with a smart phone, goes on sale in the U.S. at 6 p.m. and is one of the most anticipated gadgets in recent years. Two models will offered, the 4GB model costs $499 and the 8GB model is priced at $599. Users also have toÂ sign a two-year contractÂ with carrier AT&T. The cost of those plans range from $59.99 per month to $99.99 per month. Some prospective buyers have beenÂ camping outside storesÂ in hope of being among the first to own one of the new smart phones. A surge in demand for the iPhones could mean the devices are hard to come by at first, depending on the number that Apple and AT&T have in stock. A shortage of iPhones would not be unusual. Vendors often have a limited number of units to sell when a new product hits the market. In the case of products where demand is particularly high, such as for new game consoles, limited product availability -- whether intentional or not -- andÂ long lines outside storesÂ help build buzz and generate media coverage. Jobs also downplayed concerns over the iPhone's dependence on AT&T's EDGE network, which is slower than 3G (third-generation) networks. "You know every (AT&T) Blackberry gets its mail over EDGE. It turns out EDGE is great for mail, and it works well for maps and a whole bunch of other stuff. Where you wish you had faster speed isâ¦on a Web browser. It's good enough, but you wish it was a little faster. That's where sandwiching EDGE with Wi-Fi really makes sense because Wi-Fi is much faster than any 3G network," Jobs told the Wall Street Journal. He said the iPhone had been designed to switch to Wi-Fi when such networks are detected. Â
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Only one per buyer at AT&amp;T stores When Apple's iPhone goes on sale tomorrow evening, buyers will only be allowed to take home two of the "revolutionary" mobile telephones, the Mac maker said today. That's twice as many as AT&amp;T, the only carrier offering the iPhone for the immediate future, will allow.â¦
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Blog: Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster estimates that AT&T is paying Apple about $3 out of each iPhone user's monthly data plan, and more per month for new subscribers.
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The recent debate over the number of iPhones sold in the U.S. by Apple Inc. -- which differs from the number of phones activated by AT&T -- misses the point, according to analysts. Apple is still making money, whichever number is correct.
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Brace yourself for a $2,000 phone bill AT&amp;T and Apple have announced what the iPhone will cost customers over the two-year contract they'll be obliged to sign - and it's pretty-much what AT&amp;T charges customers already.â¦
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AT&T, which is the sole supplier of cellphone service on the Apple iPhone, is clearly benefiting from the deviceâs strong sales.
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(InfoWorld) - iPhone users across the U.S. were complaining Monday that AT&T's wireless data network was down. The network was down primarily in the West and Midwest, but by 7 p.m. on the East Coast, service was restored, according to Warner May, an AT&T spokesman. He said he didn't know when the problems started. AT&T had isolated the problem and was still working on it, he said. Voice and text messaging services remained fully functional but EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) and 3G services were down, he said. While BlackBerry users had full service, users of other phones in addition to the iPhone were also affected, he said. "The iPhone was not the cause," he said. Several different online forums are full of iPhone users complaining of having trouble using the EDGE network. Posters claiming to be from Dallas, Cincinnati, Tuscon, Oahu, Hawaii, Seattle, and Portland were among the West coast users who say they couldn't connect to the network. Users in Pittsburgh and Indiana also said they couldn't use the EDGE network. A thread on Macrumors also describes users across the country having trouble.
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AT&T Corp.  will cut about 7,000 jobs and reduce the value of its assets by &#36;11.4 billion due to its retreat from traditional consumer telephone services, the company said on Thursday.
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InfoWorld - Even after being on the market for less than half a year, more iPhones sold in the fourth quarter than Windows Mobile phones in the U.S., according to research from Canalys.
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Cingular Wireless on Tuesday closed  its $41 billion cash purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc.  AWE.N, creating the biggest U.S. mobile service with more  than 46 million customers.
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About 18 percent of all iPhones sold can use cellular networks other than the approved AT&T service.
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(InfoWorld) - Apple and AT&T on Tuesday released details of the service plans forÂ the iPhone,Â which will be released later this week. The iPhone will have three available plans that will start at $59.99. Individual plans are priced at $59.99 for 450 minutes, $79.99 for 900 minutes and $99.99 for 1,350 minutes. iPhone customers can also choose from any of AT&TÂ¹s standard service plans, according to AT&T. All three iPhone plans include unlimited data, Visual Voice mail, 200 SMS text messages, roll-over minutes, and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. The companies also offered details for the activation of the iPhone. As expected, the activation process will be handled through AppleÂ¹s iTunes application â¹ the process, according to Apple will only take a few minutes as iTunes guides users to choose a service plan, authorize a credit and activate the iPhone. iPhone activation requires an Internet connection; an iTunes Store account or a major credit card; a valid Social Security number (as required by AT&T); the latest version of iTunes and a PC or Mac with a USB 2.0 port and one of the following operating systems: Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later; Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later; or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Enterprise or Ultimate Edition. The iPhone requires a new two-year AT&T service plan. Customers with existing AT&T accounts will have the option of keeping their existing phone number and upgrading their account to work with iPhone. The iPhone will go on sale on Friday, June 29, 2007 and will cost $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB model.
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AT&T Inc.  said on Thursday it has hired 2,000 temporary store workers to handle its much-hyped introduction of the iPhone, the first cell phone from iPod music player maker Apple Inc. .
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Unlocked and loaded Efforts to open up the functionality of Apple's iPhone to users disinclined to sign up to expensive two year contracts with AT&amp;T are growing.â¦