AT&T Sales Miss Estimates on Slowing IPhone, Pay-TV Demand

AT&T had $31.5 billion in sales in the third quarter of 2011; net income was $3.62 billion. AT&T added 319,000 wireless subscribers on monthly contracts (almost half of the smartphones AT&T sold weren’t iPhones), 3,000 broadband subscribers, and 176,000 subscribers to its U-verse video service. AT&T activated 2.7 million iPhones in the quarter ended Sept. 30, down from the second quarter’s 3.6 million. As of Oct. 18, the company had activated more than 1 million of the new iPhone 4S devices since it went on sale Oct. 14. The initial iPhone 4S sales will be accounted for in the fourth quarter.

Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge, said. "This morning, top AT&T officials announced their third quarter financials, which included resurgent wired service results to go along with their wireless results. The company also reported 13 percent increase in earnings per share. For the record, AT&T reports 256,210 employees, down from 267,720 a year ago. And this is the company that says it will create 96,000 jobs by buying out its competitor T-Mobile? That's not likely."