AT&T activated 3.1 million iPhones last quarter, 1 million non-phones
By Paul Miller 
posted January 28th 2010 11:44AM
posted January 28th 2010 11:44AM
While Verizon suffers a bit on paper, primarily thanks to a spendy Alltel merger, AT&T has some pretty good news to report on the "money" front. AT&T's $3 billion in earnings are up 26% over the year ago quarter, and particularly hot on the wireless front with 3.1 million iPhone activations, 2.7 million new wireless customers, and 1 million non-phone devices like e-book readers. While the 2.7 million bests the 2.2 million newbies at Verizon Wireless, AT&T gained less customers on contract thanks to its any-device-goes ways, so it's hard to say who's really in the best position here. Still, with devices like the Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and now iPad in its fold, AT&T is clearly the go-to for getting your not-a-phone onto the internet. Now if only it could do it, um, well.
@logic thinker
Good for AT&T. I'll stick with my rock solid Verizon network. The only dropped calls I have had since '04 where in elevators...
Wow outsold the droid. Even with it's 100 millin advertisement campaign?????
So is iPhone desirable?
Guess those , there's a map for that ads didn't make a dent in AT&T sales agree?
AT&T is number one smartphone carrier on the planet.
Verizon is number one dumbphone carrier in USA agree?just look at the numbers.
@logic thinker
Verizon and AT&T are both the MOST overpriced Networks. Sprint has damn good phones and very reasonable rates. Not only that but their network is superb.
Test
The Kindle uses Sprint, not AT&T.
@outunderstars
nevermind, I just found out that they changed carriers. :)
@outunderstars
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/sprint-kindle-att/
I have never experienced more dropped called or failed data connections on any cell network than AT&T with my iPhone. I frequent Manhattan and its damn near impossible to complete a call without drop out or straight up disconnect. Accessing data is just a big an issue. With the insertion of the iPad into the ATT network there is little / no chance I will be reupping with ATT. I am hoping for a verizon iPhone by OCT when my contract expires.
I live in southern CT and its nearly reliable for the most part, except that I live in a bad spot for the ATT network.
@bobalampos Iphone or ipad will never be on verizon. Different radio technology stop dreaming. Especially those iPhone bashing commercials. Trust mme Steve jobs will not allow that. He doesn't need vzw. Remember $50 billion company.
@logic thinker I don't know that I agree that different waveforms and modulation / coding schemes will stop the iPhone from being carried on the verizon network. There's no technological reason why Apple couldn't produce a CDMA version of the iPhone. There's also technological no reason why Apple wouldn't take their current GSM iPhone and allow you to connect to t-mobile.
btw I love it when people say *trust me* without backing it up with any rationale. You should do more of that, because it won't make you sound foolish to anyone else. Trust me.
@bobalampos
Apple isn't very keen on making their device universal
They would also rather have the phone be one spectrum and not have to manage different iPhones on different frequencies.
I wonder if they realize that if it wasn't for the I-Phone they would have went under already... Who needs roll over minutes, that you hardly ever use? Who needs costly data packages, that you're lucky if you're in a area that gets fast connection rates? And... Who needs a carrier that piggybacks their service on other carrier's lines just to maintain their coverage map? I-Phone users.
Droid doesn't sell 3 million in 3 months!!!!!!!!
This is random but I needed to say this somewhere. I think the FCC should force cell maker to have their GSM phones compatible with BOTH frequencies used for GSM 3G used in the US. (Aka AT&T and T-Mobile's 3G). It's not that hard to do multiband phones.
@mebaby
Ummm they are, they are just carrier code restricted, here where I live AT&T is on T-Mobile's Network 3G carrier towers, its not the frequency creating the restrictions, its the carrier device IDs.
Wait- 2.7 MILLION PEOPLE are on AT&T when they don't HAVE to be?
@emjay730
Stop commenting and come back when your balls drop
I think Verizon's marketing people are genius. They have everyone believing that ALL of AT&T's network is bad. Its simply not true. I have AT&T AND an iPhone 3GS in Pennsylvania, and I have absolutely no dropped calls or 3G problems. I bring my phone all over MD, WV, VA, and DC. Still, no problems. The fact is, the problems are concentrated in 3 or 4 areas, not the whole country. Think about this before you jump on the bash AT&T's network bandwagon.
@gettysburg11s
Even though I love AT&T and use them, I have done my research on each company that I have the option to go to.
There is a reason I stayed with AT&T
Another has to do with me noticing that people who have Verizon seem like real assholes, at least in my local area.
@gettysburg11s I stay in Greensboro, NC, and I have been all over NC(except the higher elevations) and my iPhone works fine everywhere...even out in the country, where there are tobacco fields....sure I have dropped down to EDGE in certain places but my phone still worked, no dropped signal....
The reason I chose AT&T and will continue to do so? GSM...the rest of the world uses it...
Let me ask you experts:
Why does at&t have the nook, Sony reader, Kindle AND ipad INSPITE of its "poor" service? Don't tell me that Amazon, Sony and Apple are all naive 'cos their money is all the line with all those commitments to at&t...so why?
the last sentence of the article sums it up beautifully...
AT&T doesn't need to improve their network. Once Verizon gets the iPhone, you'll see a mass exodus and that will reduce the strain on AT&T's network. Problem solved. No money spent.
@Dorf
Except why would Apple do that?
They have a deal with one carrier for a reason.
They control the prices
They control who gets it.
They asked Verizon before AT&T because they had a large subscriber base. Why would they go back to a company who denied them.
If someone said to f*** off when you asked them to use this cool thingy. And it turns out your thingy is so popular everyone wants it. And they come back and are like SORRY man we didn't know blah blah.
Would you forgive them? Hell no.
Probably because it's GSM so they don't need to make multile versions for CDMA.
@Dorf
Damn, that was @JacobsDream
AWESOME NEWS! Imagine these numbers after the iPad hits! I can't wait for those articles!
I love the iPad.
From a business standpoint, it doesn't make any sense to create a CDMA version of the iPhone when the rest of the world uses GSM/UMTS technology. It's so late in the game to create one out of the blue when LTE is emminent. You mentioned t-mobile, well lets just say their 3G coverage just sucks and besides they dunn operate on the same frequency as at&t.. same reason why the Nexus One can't do 3G on the at&t network.
Have you seen any Verizon HotSpots? maybe that's why they choose at&t because they have over 10K wifi Hotspots say at Starbucks, Barnes & Noble....
@ 3dpenguin: You have to look at the rate plans because ALL DATA plans for every single carrier for smartphones are ALL the same. If anything Verizon charges consumers more for DATA when it comes to "dumbphones".
Yea, nice for AT&T, but they are not going to tell you how many customers they lost this year including me? Sorry but if my phone has a failure to keep signal for me to use the net and make phone calls at my job and at my home then there is a problem. There is an AT&T tower located on the same avenue as me at home and one few blocks from my job and it still gets slow net and dropped calls and I didn't even have an iPhone. I purchased the DROID from Verizon and this phone has done everything without issue and I have full coverage everywhere I've been so far. Those Luke Wilson commericals about speed are complete garbage, my Driod has run circles around my old phone and 3 iphones (all 3GS's) I tested it against. The iPhone is a gimmick, and AT&T's service is crap, and there is no amount of rollover minutes, amount of so called cutting edge phones, talk and net surfing, international coverage (Mind you most major countries have at least one CDMA carrier with same bands as verizon so techically your phone will work over there too, sorry GSM but the world is starting to realize there is something else besides you) to ever convince me to go back.
As much as I'm not an AT&T fan, I gotta admit that them using GSM from the get go has enabled them smartly make all these deals with third parties to use AT&T's service. As much as their service sucks, they're making money here, so props to them.
There are alot of people bashing AT&T. I live in a rural area in WI and get very good reception, I can't remember the last time I have had a dropped call. Oh yea, forgot to mention that I have an Iphone. I get Internet anywhere I go. I don't have 3G in my area, but when I am in an area with 3G it is not that big of a difference so I don't understand what all the complaints are about.