BARBARA ORTUTAY, AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T’s third-quarter profit and revenue increased as the nation’s largest telecommunications company added more smartphone and broadband subscribers.
AT&T Inc. said Wednesday that its net income was $3.81 billion, or 72 cents per share, in the July-September quarter, up 5 percent from $3.64 billion, or 63 cents per share, in the same period a year ago.
Adjusted earnings were 66 cents per share in the latest quarter.
AT&T says its revenue grew 2 percent to $32.16 billion from $31.46 billion.
Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 65 cents per share on revenue of $32.18 billion according to FactSet.
Wireless revenue, which includes equipment sales, grew 5 percent to $17.5 billion. AT&T said it added nearly 1 million net wireless subscribers in the third quarter. It added 566,000 wireless devices to its contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. Of these 178,000 were smartphones and the rest tablets, which carry lower monthly fees than phones. AT&T is the second-largest cellphone company in the U.S. after Verizon Wireless.
Churn, or the turnover rate for contract-based subscribers, was 1.07 percent during the quarter, down slightly from 1.08 percent a year ago but up from 1.02 percent in the second quarter of this year.
AT&T reported a 2 percent increase in operating expenses, to $26 billion from $25.4 billion. The company has been investing in technology to increase home broadband speeds.
Shares of the Dallas-based company slid 3 cents to $35.25 in after-hours trading. The stock had closed up 5 cents at $35.28.
