AT&T Finances Buoyed By Strong iPhone & Connected-Devices Sales

AT&T have announced their Q1 2010 financial results, and while the carrier's revenues rose 0.3-percent over the same period twelve months ago, the real takeaway is that it's the iPhone that is particularly keeping the network successful.  A full 2.7m new iPhone activations were recorded in the three month period – Apple sold 8.75m handsets worldwide – making them the bulk of the new smartphones on the network (which AT&T describes as "integrated devices" i.e. with QWERTY keyboards or touchscreens); however net gain (i.e. taking into account those subscribers who have cancelled their service) was up 1.9m.

While that's a record for the carrier, it does imply that without holding the exclusivity on the iPhone in the US, AT&T would have seen a drop in subscribers.  Wireless data revenues have also contributed, up 29.8-percent from the last equivalent quarter to $4.1bn.  Average monthly revenues per subscriber (ARPU) are up both for contract and post-pay subscribers.

Meanwhile it's connected devices that are the surprise grower in AT&T's line-up.  1.1m of the carrier's new sign-ups in the three month period were connected devices such as 3G-enabled ereaders, with a total of 5.8m devices in service.