AT&T's wireless division posts solid gains in Q1

By on Apr 21, 2010 at 11:23 AM
News April 21, 2010

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For all that’s been said in the past year about the poor performance of AT&T’s network, it seems the average person simply doesn’t care, as AT&T just announced its Q1 2010 results and — surprise! — the wireless division fared very well. Here are the key takeaways. AT&T gained 1.9 million subscribers (a Q1 record) and now has 87 million souls subscribers. Wireless service revenue was up 10.3% from the same time last year at $12.8 billion while wireless data revenue, which totalled $4.1 billion, was up 29.8% from Q1 2009. Post-paid ARPU increased to $61.89 while data ARPU moved up $20.13. Post-paid churn fell to a record low of 1.07% while the overall churn rate decreased to 1.30%. All in all, 2.7 million iPhones were activated (1/3 of them to new AT&T customers) alongside 3.3 million “3G integrated devices” (ie. touchscreen or QWERTY). Integrated devices are now in the hands of roughly half of AT&T’s 65.1 million post-paid customers and have an ARPU 1.7 times higher than other customers.

Think AT&T will be able to keep up the pace?

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  • tim-n-ar

    @lucifer: not once in that article does it claim that LTE is GSM. Find me something that says it is. Oh, and let us not forget that Sprint & Verizon will still use the current CDMA networks for voice…most efficient and reliable…by far.

  • tim-n-ar

    Thank You T. You are correct. Just because GSM groups addopted it for their upgrade path, does not mean it is GSM.

  • Lucifer5669

    so the fact that it was designed to be backwards compatable with gsm/hspa and not cdma means nothing. anyone in the industry consideres LTE to be a gsm tech, the switch that verizon is making to lte is similar to the tdma sunset.

    • T

      LTE is not considered a GSM technology by anyone. It’s GSMs upgrade path. Just as w-CDMA, and everything that came from it, is a GSM upgrade path. Whatever the 2G GSM Association companies had to do to make it compatible with their cellular networks has nothing to do with the CDMA radio interface technnology. W-CDMA is CDMA is CDMA is CDMA. It’s employed for cellular use by the GSM Association. Co-existance with existing standards has no bearing on what family tree owns the technology. LTE, for example, is neither GSM or CDMA. It’s LTE. And it’s the upgrade path for both legacy GSM and CDMA cellular companies.

    • T

      And it’s also funny that you mention the TDMA sunset… because GSM *is* a TDMA air interface, just as iDEN. GSMs original 3G plan, using TDMA, is named EDGE. Ever hear of it? They call it 2.5G now. Check out the 3GPP Releases….

  • Carmen

    So, I would just like to let everyone know that here in Pittsburgh, AT&T’s coverage just a bit better than Verizon’s. Specifically in the area of the county where I am from. Also, the 3G services are not clogged and I can consistantly get over 1Gbps on my downlink to my device.

    It’s all about what works best for you.

    P.S. AT&T’s plans beat VZW’s in value.

  • Sinatra

    What are you talking about? AT&T’s post-pay results are poor at best. They had less than 600,000 post-pay net adds with all those iPhone sales? Strip out the 900,000 new iPhones and they run net-negative.

  • Mercurial1

    Why are you all assuming that everyone who purchased the iPhone only have AT&T because of this phone? Of course some of them have done just this, but how many customers were undecided on their device to have a salesperson pitch and sell them on the phone? How many of these customers would still have activated with AT&T even if they did not have the iPhone? Too many people are assuming to know the answers to these very subjective questions.

  • Mercurial1

    Also, we could claim the reverse is true for Verizon with regards to the Droid or Incredible. Both of which are great phones but this does not mean everyone who buys one is only going to Verizon for these devices.

  • Dogfather

    Wow chocotaco because people like you the Japanese and Europeans thinks Americans are so ignorants, first of all HSPA is not CDMA in any form, they share some same core in the early stages of CDMA2000 but that doesn’t mean is the same, second try to find any HSPA handset backward compatible with EV-DO….( IMPOSIBLE ) and third dude before making such of nonsense statements please read more and do your research even on google you can find the answers for free……BTW LTE was registered as an GSM evolution take a look on http://www.gsmworld.com

    • T

      You are retarded. HSPA is a modulation scheme for W-CDMA. W-CDMA is a CDMA technology. CDMA is, again, a radio interface technology. CDMA is not a cellular phone technology. When people say “Verizon uses CDMA” what they really mean is “Verizon uses cdmaOne and CDMA2000.” When people say “AT&T uses GSM” they either are referring to the 2G technology of GSM, based on TDMA… or they mean they followed the GSM Association upgrade paths through the agreements in the 3GPP. HSPA uses CDMA. It’s simple fact.

      Keep posting that link as your comeback though… because the irony of it all is that right there, on that very page, it very clearly says “gsm world: home of the gsm ASSOCIATION” you blind bastard. The Association has *nothing* to do with the technology of GSM, they’re merely the original group of companies that agreed upon the 2G technology and agreed upon upgrade paths thru the 3GPP. Worse for you, if you took the time to actually do that difficult thing called “reading” you’d see right there, under “3G/WCDMA” this little excerpt ” WCDMA is the air interface for one of the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU’s) family of third-generation mobile communications systems. 3G/WCDMA (Third Generation / Wideband Code Division Multiple Access)”… then if you traveled to their LTE page, you’d see this gem, “LTE incorporates Multiple In Multiple Out (MIMO) in combination with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) in the downlink and Single Carrier FDMA in the uplink”… in other words, dipshit, exactly what myself and Choco have been saying, ad naseum.

  • Dogfather

    Dangggg T u calling GSM dying…..LOL……tell me how many carriers worldwide dumped CDMA for GSM….??? If that is a dying for you dude Cmon…!!!!! The perfect and most recent example are north of your neighborhood…..( Canada )

    • T

      Again, you’re retarded. Canadian carriers implemented W-CDMA… the most advanced version of CDMA. It *is not* an upgrade of GSM. It was engineered by the GSMA to use the same core network to make it backward compatible to TDMA.

    • T

      Oh, and no carriers have dumped CDMA for GSM… GSM is a 2G technology that’s being sunset by all carriers. CDMA carriers have left 3GPP2 and joined the 3GPP though… which has the goal of making a globally standardized 3G technology, as well as the steps to take in the ‘long term evolution’ of reaching 4G technology… because, ya know… LTE isn’t 4G, it’s an evolution to get to IMT Advanced requirements..

  • BrainJuice

    Souls.

    Classic.

  • http://(null) nick9283

    yes I do think Att will keep it up simply because of the iPhone. managers tell us to sell features but in the end your customer is a stupid one. one that is attracted by commercials and shiny trendy things. because the “new” iPhone has been spotted rocking a micro sim like the ipad that leads me to believe the ne iPhone will stay on ATT network and not go to verizon. so on goes the profits and add ons that follow the iPhone.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • tim-n-ar

    Nick….that particular iphone may go to att. But, do not forget that a CDMA iphone is coming later this year. Can you even wrap your mind around the number of people that will dump att and hop over to verizon, or Sprint at that point? However, Android is doing very well, and is selling hotter than ever. The incredible and EVO will drop soon and be hot as hell. Att’s days of gains are numbered (pun intended) they had only about 500k post paid subs added. Just wait….there will be net losses again for att by year’s end, and their churn rate will return to pre-iphone levels.

    • Giorgio

      Next year for the VZW iPhone, not later this year.

      • Giorgio

        You’re forgetting about the largest CDMA carrier in the world… China Telecom. I’d bet they get it before an American CDMA provider would.

  • tim-n-ar

    It has been reported that Verizon will get it in sept. Do ww know that for sure? No. Neither do you. So, don’t state who is or isn’t getting it as fact.

  • Dogfather

    Telefonica, Telstra, Movistar, Colcel, Telus, Movilnet, bell Canada, thise are just a few carriers that select HSPA over EV-DO better……your stupid fanboyism is taking you nowhere……those are facts…….!!!!!

    • T

      Your stupid fanboyism is taking you nowhere. I’m providing you with the facts. I haven’t made any carrier allegiances known, while you have. HSPA is, once again, a modulation scheme used on the W-CDMA technology. W-CDMA is CDMA. CDMA is code division multiple access, it is a radio interface technology. If you are unable to comprehend that, then please never post on a tech blog again. Maybe Sesame Street blogs would be more your speed.

  • tim-n-ar

    Dogfather, how could they choose EVDO? But while you brag like an idiot…HSPA is CDMA based : )

  • Dogfather

    On the early stages you retarded premature born redneck, keep defending your american brand CDMA crap….!!!!

  • Lucifer5669

    @tim-n-ar

    seriously?
    you really want to argue your point, sue att for misrepresentation.
    http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/technology/gsm-gprs.jsp
    wcdma is not considered to be CDMA tech in the same sense that sprint and vzw use cdma while tmobile and att use gsm.

    • T

      W-CDMA is considered a CDMA technology, it is not, by any stretch of the imagination, considered a GSM technology. It is a technology that the GSMA has deployed… but if it were a GSM technology, it wouldn’t require those strange new antennas they’re putting up all over the world… instead it’d be a simple software upgrade just as it was from GSM to GRPS to EDGE…

      http://www.cdg.org/technology/cdmatechnology.asp

      I’m not arguing a point, I’m stating a fact. W-CDMA is CDMA. If you can’t surmise that from the very name, then you’re dumber than a box of rocks. W-CDMA is from the exact same CDMA technology that Sprint and Verizon use. Just instead of using W-CDMA, they both use CDMA2000, and cdmaOne. You continue to confuse a radio interface technology, with a cellular technology. CDMA is the radio interface… TDMA is a radio interface… cdmaOne is the cellular technology Verizon and Sprint deployed, based on the CDMA radio interface. GSM is the name given to the TDMA cellular technology service other carriers, like AT&T and T-Mobile deployed. Radio interface technology does not equal cellular technology.

      Think of it this way… the local cable company around here put fiber optics up and took down all coaxial cable. They are still a “cable” company, they aren’t FiOS… they aren’t U-Verse… they’re cable. They’ll always be called cable. They have a “cable” franchise with the local government. Deploying fiber optics did not change that. Just as deploying a CDMA technology does not mean all these cellular companies lost their GSMA membership cards… the move to CDMA is very well documented in the 3GPP…. the 3GPP is available for anyone to read.

  • Dogfather

    Hey lucifer those fanboys will never understand no matter how u explain then, if that make their boat float fine.

  • tim-n-ar

    Nobody said it is the same. It is CDMA BASED. Anybody that argues that wCDMFUCKINA IS not CDMA is just plain stupid. Calling someone you don’t know a premature born redneck just because you don’t agree with them…well, that speaks for itself.

  • Lucifer5669

    @T and tim-n-r
    the miscommunication here is that whil atts current 3g network is based off of CDMA, people in the industry do not refer to Att or tmobile as CDMA. That’s because wcdma was deleveloped as an evolution of the gsm technologies. It’s considered to be a global standard, verizons and sprints networks are not. So while in the technical sense they are all CDMA, only Att and tmobile are gsm. Furthermore, lte is being developed to be backwards compatible with current gsm tech and will also be considered a gsm tech.

    • T

      Nobody here has said that. We’re talking about technologies being used. AT&T has upgraded to use a CDMA technology. Belonging to the GSMA, and the GSMA choosing W-CDMA as the upgrade path with the 3GPP, has nothing to do with the “global” choice, as I’m sure you’re trying to drive at. GSMs upgrade path stopped at EDGE, and GSM was only chosen because of how cheap it was to deploy. It goes no further, there’s no development being done on GSM. It’s done. CDMA stops at the children of W-CDMA… Qualcomm is not pursuing UMB, which is the next step of CDMA. LTE is not GSM or CDMA… it’s a MIMO technology, like a Wireless N home router, that utilizes OFDMA.

      W-CDMA, was developed by DoCoMo as an upgrade path for CDMA. Japan, is at its heart, CDMA in the same sense that Verizon and Sprint are, and they still use CDMA2000 as well. W-CDMA was released there, as FOMA, in 2001. The GSM Association did not adopt W-CDMA as a standard until 2006. See that 5 year gap? Hmmm……..

      • Carmen

        Oh my God, T, stop. Just because W-CDMA uses code division multiple access doesn’t mean it’s technically compatible with the CDMA that Verizon and Sprint use. YOU KNOW that you are making it sound like AT&T is ditching it’s network and “upgrading” to the same network that Verizon and Sprint has, which isn’t true!

        In a couple of years, both Verizon and AT&T will be using a new network that is based on code division multiple access, and they both will have to make UPGRADES, for this to happen. “Upgrades” happen all the time in the wireless industry. You are trying to make AT&T look bad because you just want them to look bad.

        When it comes down to it, Verizon’s current network is getting ditched, just like AT&T’s GSM network is getting ditched. Don’t make it seem like Verizon was right all along and that AT&T realized it and is jumping on the bandwagon, because that just isn’t true.

        And stop calling people names. This is such a stupid arguement! Both sides are splitting hairs to try to prove the other to not know what they are talking about.

      • T

        No… really I’m not trying to make it sound like AT&T is ditching anything. No, I haven’t said anything that would make anyone believe that it’s compatible with Verizon or Sprint. If the “new network” you speak of that AT&T and Verizon will be using is LTE, then no, it won’t be based on CDMA. No, I don’t have any dog in the race of making AT&T look bad, I’ve not once said what carrier I use or prefer. No, Verizons current network isn’t getting ditched, and AT&Ts GSM network isn’t getting ditched. They will still be there for quite a long time yet. No, neither carrier has been “right” all along, the choices made when going from analog to digital have no bearing on their success.

        No, I’m not calling people names, I’m identifying their IQ based on the scientific names given to IQ ranges… and it’s spelled argument. And no, I’m not arguing. Other people are arguing with me, like you. I’ve presented simple, undeniable facts. There’s no need to defend a fact. W-CDMA uses CDMA to interface with the air. It’s just that simple. Other people DO NOT know what they are talking about if they say otherwise. Again, it’s that simple. There’s no splittng of hairs. When you get down to the facts, there are major differences between GSM and GSM. Yes, I just intentionally said “GSM and GSM”… they sure do look like the same thing, but one is a cellular technology, the other refers to the original group of companies that agreed to use that technology and have stuck together since. It’s kind of like Nintendo. Back in the 80s, everyone played Nintendo, but not everyone owned a Nintendo. That’s because “Nintendo” became synonomous with playing video games, not the actual name of what the video game was; or worse, what the system was. As people actually got EDUCATED on what the differences in video games were… suddenly people were playing Genesis, and the games actually had names.

  • Lucifer5669

    @t
    you just made my point for me. Gsm as in global standard. It’s simply a way of saying that your following the same path as the rest of the world. So when I say that wcdma is a gsm tech, I’m saying that it is what was chiding as the next step, as is lte….and…since your so knowledgable in this why don’t you explain why verizon will have to spend a lot more money in their switch to lte than Att.

    • T

      Uhh… estimated costs for both buildouts are 8 billion dollars… there’s no discrepancy… GSM, the 2G technology, is not a global standard either… 3GPP became the set of global standards long after GSM was around, that the GSMA followed. GSM was adopted by 3rd world countries because it was cheap. The EU mandated that GSM be the only technology used, no choice in the matter. The GSMA followed the goals of 3GPP with the goals of creating a global standard, something not yet achieved… unless WiMax ceased development and I haven’t been told yet. What the GSM 2G technology is has no bearing on the goals of 3GPP… any company can join at any phase.

  • Lucifer5669

    Better yet, tell everyone here why verizon is in such a rush to jump to lte.

    • T

      A few reasons… one is called “staying ahead of the curve.” Since Sprint is busy cashing in on dipshits that think WiMax and LTE are “4G”… when they’re far, far away from 4G… they also see a market to tap.

      Then, there’s the money aspect… Verizon, just as AT&T, are hurrying along their LTE deployment because they just spent BILLIONS of dollars on airwaves in the 700 mhz range, bought exclusively for LTE, that are sitting idle… 9.3 billion for Verizon, 6.64 for AT&T, with AT&T buying Aloha Partners too for their 700 mhz territory, at a price of 2.5 billion…

      A years back, they each bought huge chunks of AWS spectrum that is going to be used for LTE as well, also costing billions of dollars, sitting idle… Verizon spent 1.3 billion dollars just on the 20 mhz chunk AWS F-Block in the northeast alone, which is the same amount Cingular (at the time) spent on their ENTIRE AWS auction, and they got the whole west of the country… and it’s idle. So… gee, I can’t imagine why they may want to get LTE out… T-Mobile is currently deploying HSPA across their AWS winnings… AT&T and Verizon are sitting on theirs. Who is getting an ROI?

  • Dogfather

    @T

    WOW this fanboy won’t give up, he knows more than anybody in cell tech. Hey cell guru try surf and talk on your slow-rizon or sprintcrap since u say both are the same base……..!!!!!!

  • T

    No dog… I don’t know everything. I just know more than you. Hey dog… since you’re making your fanboy allegiances known… go try to talk and surf while actually on GSM. Turn off 3G on your iPhone and give it a whirl, and let me know how that works for ya.

  • latinjersey

    let me end this endless thread of network terminology nonsense. att has the fastest 3g network period. att once again beat verizon in total customers gained. now let’s move on.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

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