AT&T faces off the T-Mobile threat with 800,000 customer additions

T-Mobile may be a thorn in AT&T’s side lately, but the “Un-carrier” isn’t making that big an impact on its business -- at least not in the fourth quarter.

AT&T added 809,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, which is 300,000 fewer than it added in Q4 of 2012, but its other numbers were strong — certainly not indicative of a struggling carrier. Most notably, AT&T’s contract churn rate fell from 1.19 percent to 1.11 percent year-over-year, a record low. Churn represents the percentage of customers that leave an operator every quarter, so the lower the churn the more of its existing subscriber base a carrier retains each quarter. AT&T added 529,000 net new smartphone subscribers in Q4, but it also saw big growth in tablets, adding a net total of 440,000 new slate connections to its networks. Wireless revenues grew 4.8 percent year-over-year to $15.7 billion, and data revenues jumped 16.8 percent to $5.7 billion. Its total revenue per postpaid subscriber increased 2.1 percent. As always, AT&T’s biggest threat in the mobile industry is Verizon Wireless. Though both carriers are close to the same size, Verizon is growing at a much faster pace.