AT&T income growth spurred by iPhone, mobile revenue

AT&T reported growth in both its net income and revenue for the second quarter of 2008, with interest in Apple's iPhone spurring strong mobile and mobile data numbers.

AT&T on Wednesday reported net income of  $3.8 billion for the second quarter, up 31% from the $2.9 billion it reported in the second quarter of 2007. Adjusted net income was up slightly, from $4.3 billion to $4.5 billion, with the adjusted numbers excluding expenses related to AT&T's recent mergers.

Revenue for the second quarter was $30.9 billion, up 4.7% from the second quarter of 2007 or up 3.6% using adjusted numbers. Adjusted earnings per share was $0.76, meeting expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

AT&T has an exclusive agreement to provide mobile service for the iPhone in the U.S., and company officials said their deal with Apple has helped drive the growth. Apple released a new version of the iPhone, called iPhone 3G, on July 11, but strong sales of the new device didn't count on AT&T's second-quarter numbers, as the quarter ended June 30.

"AT&T is all about deploying and enhancing premier networks and products to deliver this world to both business and consumers," Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "The Apple iPhone 3G is a dramatic example of this transformation."

Sales of the iPhone 3G have been "everything we had anticipated and more," he added.

Even without the iPhone 3G to boost the quarter's numbers, AT&T reported that mobile revenue increased by 15.8% to $12 billion, with mobile service revenue up 14.8%.

Wireless data revenue was up 52% to $2.5 billion, AT&T said. Text messaging volumes on AT&T's mobile network tripled from the second quarter of 2007.

Wireline voice revenue was down 8.3% to $9.5 billion, but wireline data revenue was up 5.4% to $6.1 billion.

AT&T also reported that 170,000 new customers signed up for its U-verse TV service, which delivers television service over Internet Protocol networks. AT&T now has 549,000 U-verse TV subscribers, the company said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.