AT&T's profits are down, but the carrier is still smiling

There's good news and bad news in AT&T's third quarter report. The carrier's profit dropped to $3.6 billion for the quarter -- that's down from $12.32 billion from this time last year. That drop could be due in part to the loss of iPhone exclusivity (a matter recently compounded with the addition of Sprint as a carrier for the 4S) and the fact that the company pulled in profits from the sale of assets in 2010. AT&T activated 2.7 million iPhones during Q3, a marked drop over previous quarters. (Though, admittedly, last Q3 saw the launch of the iPhone 4 -- this Q3 saw people waiting for an iPhone 5.). On the up side of things, the sale of Android devices has more than doubled, year over year. AT&T added 2.1 million wireless subscribers, passing 100 million, which the carrier seems quite pleased with, as evidenced by the exceedingly chipper video below.

Update: AT&T dropped us a line to point out that the gains from a one-time tax settlement also significantly contributed to the company's 2010 profit and by extension the drop in profits year-over-year. According to an AT&T spokesperson, "If you take those one-time items out of the mix, profit was actually up 13-percent year-over-year. In addition, wireless margins were up significantly, which means wireless profits increased."

Update 2: AT&T also announced this morning that it had activated one million units of the iPhone 4S as of Tuesday. Press release is included underneath the video below.

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AT&T's profits are down, but the carrier is still smiling originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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