It’s been a curious quarter for AT&T because it’s actually had to respond to competitive pressure from T-Mobile, the underdog carrier whose “UNcarrier” initiative at first elicited response of “whatever” from Ma Bell. But after T-Mobile unveiled its new JUMP early upgrade program for smartphone buyers, AT&T quickly responded with its own similar program known as AT&T Next. What’s more, questions have been raised about AT&T’s subscriber growth over the past quarter because both Verizon and T-Mobile have added subscribers, which implies that AT&T may post stagnant or even declining subscriber numbers in its second-quarter earnings report.
AT&T put all that speculation to rest today, however, when it released its Q2 earnings report showing that the carrier posted earnings per share of $0.68 on revenues of $32.1 billion, thus matching Wall Street consensus projections of $0.68 EPS on revenues of $31.82 billion. In terms of subscribers, AT&T added 551,000 new postpaid subscribers while selling a company record 6.8 million smartphones. The carrier also activated 3.7 million iPhones on the quarter, which was less than rival Verizon, which activated 3.9 million iPhones last quarter. AT&T also claimed that it activated a company record number of Android smartphones on the quarter.
AT&T shares were mostly flat in after-hours trading after the new earnings report, increasing by $0.10.
