AT&T: First quarter earnings shine; 1.6 million iPhones activated

AT&T on Wednesday delivered first quarter net income of $3.1 billion, or 53 cents a share, on revenue of $30.6 billion. That tally handily topped Wall Street estimates. Meanwhile, AT&T said it activated 1.6 million iPhones in the quarter. 

Wall Street was expecting earnings of 48 cents a share on revenue of $31 billion. Revenue was a bit light, but close enough. In the first quarter a year ago, AT&T earned $3.1 billion, or 57 cents a share. 

In a statement, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said the company continues to play through a tough economy and invest in growth areas. Once again, AT&T is primarily a wireless story. 

• AT&T added 875,000 net post-paid subscribers, up 9.2 percent from a year ago. Churn was 1.2 percent. Of those additions, all of the subscribers were using integrated devices. 
• AT&T ended the quarter with 78.2 million total wireless subscribers. More than 40 percent of subscribers had a 3G device, up from 19.5 percent a year ago. 
• Wireless data revenue was up 38.6 percent from a year ago and AT&T delivered more than 94 billion text messages, double from a year ago. 
• The company said it activated 1.6 million iPhones in the first quarter with 40 percent of that tally new to AT&T. That's down from 1.9 million in the fourth quarter and 2.4 million in the third quarter. 

By the numbers:

• AT&T said it added 284,000 U-verse TV subscribers to hit a total of 1.3 million TV subs. 

• Total broadband subscribers---including 3G wireless cards and wireline customers (DSL and U-verse)---increased 471,000 in the first quarter to hit 16.7 million. 
• AT&T's enterprise unit took a hit. Revenue was $10.7 billion in the first quarter, down from $11.2 billion a year ago.