AT&T lost $3.9 billion in Q4 2012, earned $7.3 billion profit for the year
American telecommunications giant AT&T announced its Q4 2012 financial results this afternoon, which reflect $3.9 billion in losses for Ma Bell's final fiscal quarter of last year. However, the company's also posting "record smartphone sales" of 10.2 million last quarter -- "the most by any US carrier," it claims. As it's Q4, the results for the full year are also in; AT&T revealed $7.3 billion in net income across the entirety of 2012. That's what we'd call a marked change from last year's losses.
In terms of phones, AT&T activated 8.6 million new iPhone customers (16 percent of which were totally new to the company), up 1 million over 2011's Q4 and nearly double that of Q3 2012. No specific number is given on Android sign-ups, but AT&T's calling it the "best-ever sales quarter for Android smartphones" -- when those 8.6 million iPhones are subtracted from the overall Q4 2012 sales of phones (10 million), it's not looking so good for non-Apple built devices. On the U-verse front, the latest lifetime subscriber numbers reflect 8 million TV and high-speed internet users, with 192K joining in Q4 2012.
Operating revenues just barely exceeded those of 2011, reaching $127.4 billion, offset by $114.4 billion in expenses (down $3 billion over 2011). Customer numbers also grew in 2012, by a healthy 1.086 million people, the vast majority of which are contract customers (approximately 70 percent). Needless to say, things seem to have gone pretty okay for AT&T in 2012, despite a rocky final quarter. Not too bad for the least loved mobile carrier in the US.
Update: This post originally reflected $3.9 billion in profit for Q4 2012, when it should've reflected losses. Please excuse our error!
