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AT&T weathers loss of iPhone exclusivity
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AT&T weathers loss of iPhone exclusivity
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By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc survived the loss of its exclusive U.S. rights to sell the Apple Inc iPhone.
The No. 2 U.S. mobile service provider, which is planning to buy T-Mobile USA, eked out a slight increase in subscribers...
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The at&t logo is seen at their store in Times Square in New York April 21, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK |
Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:46pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc survived the loss of its exclusive U.S. rights to sell the Apple Inc iPhone.
The No. 2 U.S. mobile service provider, which is planning to buy T-Mobile USA, eked out a slight increase in subscribers in the first quarter, surprising Wall Street, though some analysts said the growth came at too high a cost.
Its net addition of 62,000 contract customers in the quarter was much weaker than its fourth-quarter growth of 400,000 but better than the loss of 83,000 customers expected, on average, by seven analysts polled by Reuters.
The decline reflected the February 10 launch of the iPhone by Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc.
AT&T, which reported results on Tuesday, also attributed some defections to changes in network technologies for some customers that resulted from its acquisition of Alltel assets and Centennial.
But Wall Street analysts were impressed that it managed to keep customer defections in check as many feared the Verizon iPhone would send hordes of customers fleeing AT&T, which has been criticized for poor network performance.
"It doesn't look like (Verizon Wireless) decimated AT&T as many people thought they might," said Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Larsen.
AT&T, which reduced the price of one iPhone model to $50 in the quarter, also noted that it still added 3.6 million new iPhones to its network in the quarter and that 23 percent of those customers switched from rival services.
Anticipation of the Verizon Wireless iPhone appeared to cause a lull in January sales, Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner said, but the February launch caused much less of a ripple among AT&T customers than the company had expected.
"In February strangely we actually saw activity pick up and March was our strongest month in the quarter. We had good momentum leaving the quarter and going into the second quarter," Lindner told Reuters in a telephone interview.
As a result Lindner said he expects an improvement in subscriber growth for the rest of the year.
WEAK MARGINS
But AT&T's efforts to retain subscribers appeared to come at a heavy cost to profitability.
Its wireless service profit margin based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization dropped to 39 percent from 44.5 percent a year earlier. It also fell short of an estimate of 41.3 percent from Pacific Crest analyst Steve Clement.
"This should put concerns on iPhone (subscribers) to rest for the time being, but the margins are still a concern," Clement said.
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We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language, all capital letters or appear to be spam, and we review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters.
Comments (4)
ahawkins629 wrote:
so glad AT&T can make a profit in the billions while our country goes deeper into debt and our people suffer daily from wage cuts, job losses, home foreclosures and offshoring of jobs. Maybe AT&T should lower their rates and quit worrying about Wall St. and start worrying about the state of it’s customers.
Apr 20, 2011 11:23am EDT -- Report as abuse
madampolo wrote:
I wouldn’t celebrate too soon. I just bought a Verizon iPhone. I was waiting a bit before I did to see if they had any problems, and when they didn’t, I bought one. I love it. Let’s see what AT&T does in a year.
Apr 20, 2011 1:29pm EDT -- Report as abuse
Shikari wrote:
Verizon’s CDMA USA only network (with no SIM-card) and limitation of voice OR data stream makes their iphone offering a severe handicap. Moreover, their data plan costs are about as prohibitive as AT&T’s.
I knew Verizon wasn’t going to change that landscape any time soon. All that speculation of “Wait till Verizon comes and scoops us away” were lame duck threats made by frustrated AT&T customers. Verizon wasn’t really going to be really any better, nor worth the change.
Apr 20, 2011 1:56pm EDT -- Report as abuse
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